Chapter 2.

It took me a while to realise where I was.

And when I did, I really wished I hadn't.

I would've been 6 months old when the Kyuubi attack happened. I'd only said my first words a week before it happened.

I wasn't asleep when it happened, somehow I just knew something was going to happen. I'd had a bad feeling all day, something twisting in my stomach and causing me great irritation.

Then it happened. A great pressure appeared and pressed down on me. I was terrified. I couldn't scream, couldn't breathe, couldn't move a muscle. Everything around me was a white blur and everything was too much and, at the same time, not enough.

Silent tears trailed down my cheeks and for the first time I desperately wanted my mother to come find me, to usher my tears away, gentle fingers soothing my fear away.

It seemed like an eternity had passed before the presence disappeared. Even after it was gone, I couldn't bring myself to move, or scream, or do anything a baby would do, should do after something like that. And that was how I remained until finally, thankfully I passed out.

Waking up again was a chore.

Blearily opening my eyes I was so thankful that my mother was alive. Her normally calm and collected visage was ruined, hair in disarray and her eyes were filled with tears as she cradled me to her chest.

"Oh, my darling child, my only daughter," Pulling me closer she sobbed, voice cracking and sorrow evident in every motion, "Thank Kami-sama that you survived."

I soaked up the comfort she offered like a sponge, unashamedly trying to snuggle closer. Never before had I been so glad that someone was there, there to hold me and protect me. I swore to myself that I'd never treat my new-mother, and that's what she was, my mother, with anything less than respect and love from now on.

That new promise, yeah it didn't last. I was never any good at keeping my word in my last life either.

However, I had succeeded in being a more, calm child, more open with my affection at least.

My mother seemed relieved at this, I think she was happy at my change, surprised, certainly but happy nonetheless.

Thankfully our apartment was relatively unharmed during the Kyuubi attack, and it was while the reparations were being done to our house that I finally met my new father.

Admittedly our first meeting was not…substantial. I was only a few months old, and he was run ragged by the missions he'd had to run non stop in order to prove Konoha was not weakened by the Kyuubi attack.

I awoke to someone holding me, gently rocking me in the darkness. It was startlingly clear that it was not my mother who was holding me. For one the face looking down at me was nothing like my mother's lean and gentle face.

His eyes were a startling amber that almost seemed to glow in the darkness of the room, he startled when he saw that I'd awoken.

"Hello my little flower… I know we haven't met before, but I'm your Tou-san." Deciding to play up the cute child card, I gurgled, waving my arms in front of me.

A gentle smile spread across his features and his eyes softened, "I'm sorry that I haven't been here for you…"

I hadn't been aware that my mother had entered the room until her voice had rung out, filled with authority that I'd never heard from her before, "Haruto. What are you doing here?"

"Can I not visit my child, Himari?" He still held me to his chest, even as his shoulders tensed, I had no idea what was going on, but the air was tense, pressing down on the occupants of the small room.

"You. Left." She sounded hurt, as though she were barely holding herself together, but there was rage there too. Betrayal by the sound of things.

"You know I didn't want to, but the Clan…!"

The argument sounded old, like it'd been had a thousand times before.

"You promised me." The words were broken,

"The Clan will want to have her,"

"They can't. I won't let them." A sigh left his lips and he placed me back into my crib. "Himari. They won't take no for an answer. You know how they are. Even if you have separated from the clan, they will still take any children you bear."

A wounded noise left my mother as she approached, gently caressing my face, dainty hands running up and down my cheeks. "I can't…. Please… I can't lose her… she's all I have left."

"I'm sorry Himari….If there were another way, I would-"

"Don't! Just. Don't."

Tears rose, unbidden, in my eyes. What was going on?

I finally understood when the man, Haruto, lifted me up again and started walking out of the apartment.

I screamed. I wailed. I cried as I was taken away from my mother, the person who'd put up with all my tantrums and had loved me, relentlessly through it all. I didn't want to go.

But I didn't have a choice.

Word Count: 867

And that's a wrap on Chapter 2, I'm taking suggestions for which clan it should be on my profile, so please go ahead and vote on it, be aware I might not take into account the polls when I make my final decision on the matter, See you later!