Chapter 6

Promises Made and Fate Revealed

Jiraiya leaned across the current Hokage's desk, resting on his fists until he was nearly nose to nose with the blond-haired woman. The vein on the side of his head was throbbing as he felt his anger building to dangerous levels.

"You did what!?! Are you out of your freaking mind, Tsunade?"

"Watch yourself, Old Man." Tsunade's words were hissed through her teeth, and it was quite clear she was not pleased with his sudden outburst.

The woman who had been the object of Jiraiya's obsessive thoughts for the better part of the last half a century was glaring at him over her folded hands. The late afternoon sun reflected in her perfectly manicured nails. Her ample chest rose and fell in rapid succession as she tried to reign in her own obvious anger. A bead of glistening sweat found its own path down the long stretch of her pale neck, heading toward the valley between those perfectly formed mountains of flesh...

Jiraiya shook his head to push back thoughts that would likely lead to another round of late night writing, and yet another best selling edition of his Icha Icha series. His focus needed to be on what Tsunade had just informed him...that was what mattered now!

Jiraiya let out a huge sigh and pushed himself back to standing. He crossed his arms in front of him and glared down at the woman. "Fine. Then explain yourself."

Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "I don't have to explain myself to the likes of you, Jiraiya. I'm the Hokage, dammit!"

He closed his eyes and shook his head in disappointment. "Is that really how you want to play this, Tsunade?"

He heard the air pushed through Tsunade's teeth and he opened his eyes just in time to see her wipe what looked like a tear from her eye before she spoke in a whisper. "You know it's not, Jiraiya."

He sighed once more and sat on the edge of the desk...a bit less threateningly than his previous approach. "Tsunade, I'm sorry I yelled...but you know I have a soft spot where that kid is concerned."

She looked up at him with a sad smile on her lips. "I know, Jiraiya. I feel the same way about the brat. But I didn't have a choice."

He frowned at her and tried to keep the brunt of his growing anger out of his voice. "That's a load of crap and you know it. What in the world could possibly make you send Kakashi back to that place? Didn't you bother reading any of his mission reports about the last two times he went there?"

"None of his suspicions were ever confirmed, Jiraiya. You know that!" She turned her head away. "And he was the only one available who actually knows the area in Snow Country that needed to be checked out."

Jiraiya frowned at the flawless logic she had used. The problem, of course, was that Kakashi and his ANBU squad were due back a week ago...and no one in Snow Country, or here in Konoha, had seen or heard from them yet. And worse than that...the rogue band of shinobi that were the reason behind the mission in the first place were no less active now than they had been this time last month.

"Dammit, Tsunade...why couldn't you have waited until I got back?"

She scowled at him. "News flash, Old Man...the world doesn't wait for you to show up before it revolves! Besides, I couldn't ignore a direct request from one of our allies...and if you think I would, based on some vague descriptions from Kakashi about an odd feeling he had when he was seventeen, then you are as dumb as Orochimaru always said you were."

He glared at her. "That's a low blow, Tsunade."

"Maybe so, Jiraiya, but I stand behind the mission assignment."

Jiraiya ran his hands through his hair. "Great. I'll make sure to tell that to Team Seven at Kakashi's funeral."

Tsunade growled at him. "That's enough! It's bad enough I have to listen to that kind of garbage from the Council...do I really have to take it from you too?"

"Sorry Tsunade, but I can't forget the promise we both made to Sakumo when his wife died." Jiraiya pushed himself off the desk and moved toward the door.

"Where the hell do you think you're going, Old Man?"

He paused with his hand on the knob and glanced back over his shoulder to see her frowning at him. "Home...to pack my winter clothes."

"What about Naruto? You can't tell me you've finished training the kid yet."

Jiraiya smiled. "Naruto thinks I'm doing 'research' right now, and he's in the middle of a lesson that will keep him busy for at least another six weeks. I don't intend to take more than two and half to do what I need to do." The smile faded slightly. "Besides...that kid'll be useless if he loses someone like Kakashi. As much as both of them want to deny it, they need each other."

Tsunade's frown deepened, but she made no move to argue with him. Jiraiya opened the door and stepped into the hall just as Tsunade's softly spoken words reached his ears. "Bring the brat home safely, Old Man."

Jiraiya sighed and hoped her gentle words wouldn't prove an impossibility.

-- --

Raido hadn't been sure exactly what to expect from Soul Binding, but he certainly didn't imagine having thin cords of sharp black chakra wire wrapped painfully tight around various parts of his anatomy. He was starting to appreciate that this process would have been better tolerated if he had been unconscious...after all, it hurt...a lot. It was especially painful on the area of his left arm where the sadistic bastards scraped his ANBU tattoo off of him the previous day. Still, he couldn't feel this process had done anything more than make him exceptionally uncomfortable. His soul...or what he had of one, anyhow...was still his.

Of course they may not have meant for him to take the title of his ordeal literally...and the way the wire encased his feet, perhaps they had been referring to that sole instead. Raido chuckled. The way he was analyzing this, he could pass for a Nara...or maybe even a Hatake.

That thought brought a frown to his lips. He couldn't help wondering how Kakashi was doing. If his Squad Captain was even still alive. If, perhaps, he was being held on another one of these cold steel tables as well. He could just imagine the inappropriate comments the Copy-nin would make about some of the more tender areas being wrapped in wire. After all, if there was one constant with Kakashi Hatake, it had to be his ability to come up with just the right things to say that would piss off his captors.

Raido could still remember when he had first met Kakashi. He'd been sitting in Gaman-sensei's class on the first day of his final year at the Academy...in the back row with his best friends. They were talking about their plans to impress the gathering of future kunoichi that were clustered together in the front row. The door to the classroom opened and Sensei walked in with a small silver-haired boy following close to his heels. The boy was dressed in baggy black shorts with a crossed holster-belt over his dark t-shirt. A mask covered the lower half of the kid's face and his dark gray eyes seemed to take in everything in the room in a single glance.

The entire group of girls cooed over the young boy, making it quite clear that the older boys would have their work cut out for them to regain any of their attention today.

His friend Misshuu chuckled and elbowed Raido to get his attention. "Must be bring your brat to work day."

All the others joined in the laughter, but something in the kid's eyes made it clear to Raido that there was definitely more to him than the others thought. That suspicion was confirmed when Gaman-sensei cleared his throat.

"Okay class, I want you all to meet our newest student." The teacher placed a palm to the back of the young boy and gently pushed him forward a step or two.

One of the girls in the front row...Nodoka...held up her hand to get the teacher's attention before asking the question on all their minds. "Gaman-sensei, isn't he a bit young to be in our class? I mean, really, what is he...three?"

Raido noticed the kid's shoulders tense as he leveled a glare at the brown-haired girl. Gaman-sensei placed one hand on top of the boy's unruly silver mop of hair and grinned at Nodoka.

"Actually, he's four."

A chorus of disbelief echoed through the room until Gaman-sensei had to clap his hands together several times to regain their attention. "As I was saying, I expect each and every one of you to welcome this bright star of Konoha with an open mind!"

Raido's friend, Aseru, stood up and pointed toward the much younger kid. "So does he have a name? Or do we have to call him 'Bright Star' for the rest of the year?"

Gaman-sensei blushed slightly and rubbed at the back of his head. "Ah, yes...of course. I knew I forgot something! Class...this is Kakashi Hatake."

Dead silence settled over the room for a handful of breaths before everyone started talking at once. The noise got so loud that even Sensei covered his ears. "Enough! Settle down now!"

Gaman-sensei rarely raised his voice in the classroom, so when he did, everyone listened at once. Part of it was that they respected him that much, but mostly it was because when Gaman-sensei raised his voice, the windows and walls in the classroom would rattle from his volume.

"I know you all have questions for your newest classmate. And I'm certain Kakashi will be glad to answer a few of them right now."

Raido smirked when he saw Kakashi's eyes roll at that comment. Kyoushi Uchiha was the first one on his feet, and Raido noticed the dark-haired boy's hands were clenched into tight fists.

"Do you think that just because you're a Hatake that you should get special treatment!?!"

Raido stared up at his best friend as though he'd never seen him before. Normally Kyoushi was one of the most level-headed in his group of friends. This...whatever this was...made him wonder just what the hell was going on. He shifted his attention back toward where Kakashi stood...curious about what the boy's reaction would be.

Kakashi tipped his head slightly to one side and sighed. "Unlike some clans, we don't expect anything based on anything but our abilities."

Kyoushi growled...actually growled. "What are you implying?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I simply stated a fact."

Kyoushi's face turned bright red, and if two of his other friends hadn't held the Uchiha back, Raido figured he'd have jumped Kakashi right then and there. Raido swallowed back his growing uneasiness and was glad when another of the kunoichi-in-training changed the subject.

"Isn't your mother afraid you'll get hurt?"

A dark shadow seemed to cross the young boy's face at that question. "My mother is dead."

The words were said so quietly and unemotionally that they brought a frown to Raido's face. But all they did for the girl who asked the question was pique her curiosity farther. "Well then, what about your father?"

Kakashi looked confused. "What about him?"

She crossed her arms and shook her head at the boy. "There's no way he'd be okay with you being in this class!"

"Why not?"

"You're too little! You're going to get hurt! What kind of father lets his kid do something like this?"

Kakashi crossed his own arms in a copy of the girl's stance. "My dad does. And he knows I'm not gonna get hurt cause he trained me up to now."

That made some of the other kids chuckle while Kyoushi growled once more. The girl just snorted at Kakashi. "What makes your father training you any different than any of the training we all got from our fathers, hmm? It's not like he's one of the Sannin or something, right?"

Kakashi shrugged once more. "No, he isn't."

The girl just refused to let it drop. "So then what makes his opinion count, hmm?"

Kakashi seemed to stand up a bit straighter before he answered in a voice that was full of pride. "He's the White Fang of Konoha."

Again the room fell silent and Gaman-sensei took the opportunity to usher Kakashi into a free seat at the front of the classroom. Once the shock of Kakashi's comment wore off, the class was already deep into that day's topic of advanced chakra control. And by the time the first break came, Kakashi was already able to show the others more than a few reasons why he was placed in their class. Hell, his understanding of chakra pathways was probably better than Gaman-sensei's was.

Raido couldn't help noticing how Kyoushi continued to glare at the boy throughout the day though, and it was that reaction alone that kept him from approaching the youngest member of their class on that first day.

Looking back at it now, he wished he'd had the courage to ignore the Uchiha's influence and befriended the prodigy a bit sooner. He probably would have learned a lot more from Kakashi than he ever did from the overly stubborn Kyoushi.

"I'm sure you could have, Little Bird." Raido tensed as he felt Akuen's thin bony fingers run through his hair. "After all, the son of the White Fang surely knows things even the Uchiha Clan wouldn't know."

Raido felt dread sink into his mind. He'd done it again. He'd given the bitch more information about Kakashi without ever realizing it. He heard a contented hum from next to his ear and he shifted his eyes in that direction. Akuen's smile sickened him more.

"I knew you'd be worth the time and energy of the Soul Binding, Little Bird. Your thoughts alone will provide me with more entertainment than I've had in decades." Her lips spread to expose those pointed teeth. "And, of course, the more I can learn about the child, the better your position will be in our fold."

Raido frowned. "Get out of my head, you bitch!"

She laughed at him. "Oh my...I'm not in your head, Little Bird. This goes so much farther than that. But we'll have time to discuss this process later." She stood up and pulled her gloves back onto her hands. "I'll be back later to explain what you can expect now that I've found you worthy. Meanwhile...rest. We have much to talk about before the next stage begins."

Raido watched Akuen walk away and tried his hardest to keep his mind away from thoughts of Kakashi, but it was growing increasingly difficult – especially when he knew that Akuen's ultimate goal was to force Kakashi into her sick little family. He closed his eyes against his growing fear for his friend and knew he'd be powerless against whatever came next.

-- --

Omoikiru watched his daughter tease her latest project and he chuckled at how far she'd come in her lifetime. There had been a time when she would have refused to use such measures to gain the needed information. Still, it wasn't enough to erase his displeasure with her over failing to prepare Kakashi properly before she attempted the Initiation ritual.

Because of her negligence, the boy was able to resist what should have sealed him completely to the family. Now Omoikiru would need to waste precious time removing that resistance before he could move on to the training the boy would require for the role fate had prepared for him.

He watched from the shadows until Akuen was finished with her taunting and left the room. Omoikiru glanced over at where the dark-haired shinobi shivered on his table and considered introducing himself. But he really couldn't afford the extra time right now...not if he was to actually get Kakashi up to speed before he'd need to be presented to the Conclave. Which, of course, brought him back to his displeasure with Akuen's slipshod preparations.

Omoikiru faded from the room and reappeared directly in front of where his daughter was walking through the hallway. Akuen stopped short and blinked in obvious surprise at his appearance before lowering her head in a respectful bow and awaiting his words.

"You disappointed me, Akuen. You don't normally make such amateur mistakes."

He noticed her tense at his words and at that moment he knew she was fully aware of her error already. "Forgive me, Father. It wasn't until I worked with the Raven that I saw the potential problem the emblems posed."

Omoikiru frowned at her blatant lie and stepped closer. He used the tips of his fingers to guide her face up until their eyes met. "You should have been able to sense its purpose easily enough Akuen. What was it about the child that kept such basic knowledge from your view?"

He watched something close to jealousy slide across Akuen's gray eyes and he knew what was at the core of her actions. She had wanted the ceremony to fail. That infuriated him more than if she'd truly missed such a basic connection. Omoikiru's fingers left her chin, and he used that hand to backhand her with enough force that she sailed across the hallway until she met up with the wall. He watched her slide down to the floor and stay in a seated position instead of trying to regain her feet.

"You devious child!" His words hissed through the silent hallway as he moved closer to where his daughter cowered on the floor. "You have no say in who I choose to serve my purposes! Did you hope that I would reject the child if he wasn't prepared properly?"

She tipped her head up to meet his gaze and watched as she wiped at the stream of blood flowing from the corner of her mouth. There was a hardness in her eyes that answered his question more than words ever would have.

He shook his head at her stubbornness. "You are removed from his care, Akuen. And if you are found anywhere near the child, I will make sure to remind you of your proper place. Am I clear enough for you?"

After a moment more of defiance, Akuen bowed her head. "Yes, Father...you are very clear."

He waited for her to pull herself back up to standing before speaking to her again. "Why must you always make things so difficult, Akuen? Is it not enough that you are flesh of my flesh? Why must you envy this child?"

She slowly lifted her head until they were face to face once more. She stuck her bottom lip out just enough to remind him of the petulant child she'd been so long ago. "Because I know that this child will be allowed to learn all of your secrets, where I never can."

Omoikiru sighed and placed his hands on either side of Akuen's face, tipping her head back until their eyes met. "You cannot hold your own shortcomings against this child, Akuen. If you had been meant to become my heir, it would have been foretold...like it was for this child."

She closed her eyes and frowned. Omoikiru let go of her and ran one hand through his hair. "Don't disappoint me again, Akuen...or I may forget you are my daughter."

He let the threat hang in the air between them before fading away once more. He needed to rest until it was time to face the boy once more. After all, there was much to do to make up for the mistakes Akuen had already made with his preparation. And he only had a month before the others would arrive. He found his way back to his chambers and settled in for a much needed rest.