Hey there, I'm sorry for the delay but I had some problems regarding this part. I just couldn't jump directly to the wave arc but couldn't find a good idea to fill this gap ether. Dunno how good this one actually is, it's more or less a kind of filler, but it shows a bit how I want some Characters to be seen.
Sorry again, I'll try not to be late again.
Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto/Bleach...
Defenition of Peace...
Umino Iruka was a man who lived a rather peaceful life. Considered he was a teacher at the ninja academy, his sense of peace may seem a little different compared to the general view. He was happy when he could mark good tests till deep into the night, to see the happy faces of his students, once he told them that they did good in what ever practice that had led to aforementioned grading. This was his peace, his kind of meditation. Would you give him a day of he would be bored to death and probably start doing training or asking weaker students for extra lessons. Irukas sense of peace changed the night he met two young girls cowering in fear on his doorstep, about to be attacked by a mob of angry villagers. This was one of the few situations were one Umino Iruka went for 'shoot first, ask later'. In this case, shooting meant screaming his head off and questioning the sanity of some of the fools that were currently threatening two perfectly innocent girls. Of course once he learned who these perfectly innocent girls were, his attention shortly narrowed down on them. Two terrified, young members of Konohagakura. Again he started to question the sanity of certain fools. Then he began to beat the hell out of certain fools who seemingly were to stupid to read danger signs.
From this day onward Iruka would learn to love the two kitsune and grow rather fond of them. That was until Natsukis second tail awoke. In which process she nearly killed him and her sister and destroyed a good portion of his house before she had her control back, only to crumble in pain. It would be a week before she would, perfectly healed, open her eyes again. Only to close them a moment later, repressing tears and shouting soundless apologys while being comforted by one Umino Iruka, who's definition of peace had changed serverly already. Peace now meant, for his two little girls to be happy, to be around him laughing at little jokes and jests.
It was for that reason that Iruka was visible distressed as Hatake Kakashi knocked at his door, carrying the unconsious form of one Yuki no Natsuki. Obviously battered and broken. So the fuzzing began.
An hour later medical bandages covered Natsukis arms and legs, providing a healing balm that would help her chakra enhanced healing and worked as a pain killer. While Kakashi still tried to digest all the information he had gathered in this rather short amount of time, Naru was watching with pained eyes, softly caressing her sisters pale face. She knew she would wake up eventually, but it disturbed her nonetheless to see her strong sister in such a weakened state.
She was always there to protect her, sure both of them were stronger then most of the villagers, and thanks to their shapeshifting powers, they were able to fool most of the ANBU. And those they couldn't fool were on friendly terms with them. But still, she was there for her. Protecting her, helping here when she would break from the emotional strain. She would always be there, a soothing presence in her dark world. Never complaining, never... To see her in so much pain and agony was something that disturbed what little peace Naru had greatly.
Kakashi never considered his life being easy, first his father committed seppuku, scorned by the village for helping his comrades rather than to let them die and fulfill the mission. He became cold hearted back then. He was a brat, and an annoying one at that. He lost most of his childhood and grew up faster then one would consider safe. He became genin, then chunin and at the end jounin at an incredible pace. But... what for? He had asked himself this question a lot of times. Why go so far for a village that drove his father to death... Or was the village right and his father wrong? Was a human life worth the success of a mission? He asked himself several times, over and over again. For years he couldn't find a conclusion. Then he was assigned a team. And a got a sensei. The Yondaime Hokage was a man like no other. He was kind, determinded and above all radiating happieness. An Orphan who had to work for everything himself, barely recognised by his village, rose above all others, above Hyuuga Hiashi and Uchiha Fugaku. He became Hokage, with pure determination. But before all that, he showed Kakashi what the world was like. He slowly but surely helped Kakashi to answer his questions regarding his father, his loyality and his morals. But at that moment, it was already to late. Or so he thought.
It was when he saw his friend, dying in his arms, offering him the most valued present to ever be made, that Kakashi knew what he would stand for. His questions were answered that fateful night. The mission may be important. But there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that has more value than a human life. He learned something important from his friend then: "Those who abandon the rules are trash, that's true, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash."
Then the Kyuubi attacked. He lost his last teammate and his teacher that night. Shortly after that he left the ANBU, never to be seen wearing the mask of death. He had lost what little peace he had found with his remaining teammate and teacher. Even thought the Yondaime rarely had time as a Hokage, he always found a way for the three of them to have some fun.
After these two died he withdrew himself from other people. He donned a mask of indifference, lazyness and pervesness. He became the Copy cat Kakashi we all know. Yet, it was all but a mask, hidding a man who lost much in his life. Kakashi reflected on his past. Then, he looked at the present. He looked at the two girls infront of him. These two had seen more in their short lifes then Kakashi knew, and even thought he knew that Natsuki was probably older then him, he still saw her as a young girl. Both of them had seen pain, lots of pain. Most of it their own. How could he compare to those two, who still seemed somewhat normal? Well as normal as demons can get by human standards that is... They laughed, they were happy at least so it seemed to him. Now he wasn't sure anymore. He had seen behind the facade the two of them had build up over the years. He saw something that disturbed him. The normally vibrant Naru looked sadder then he had seen her ever before. And the bluehaired one was whimpering in obious pain, even while unconcious. This was just plain wrong!
Without knowing it, Kakashis definition of peace changed a little that day again. He would help those two, no matter what. He would help those two to accomplimish their goals. And if it was the last he'd do. He would support them till his last breath was exhaled.
Kasei stared blankly into space, his thoughts in no appearant order, just swirling around in his head hidding for a while, only to pop up even more stupid then before. He had lived a simple life, even thought he was one of the guardians. He would have guard duty for a few years, then head back and annoy his sister again, or play stupid games with Doshu one of the Shukkaku and rather fond of sand... which he found amusing. Especially since he found it fun to heat the sand and encase Doshu in a cover of glass. He loved to annoy the Tanuki. And even thought they were arguing like mad nearly everytime they were let near each other, often going so far as to fight rather violently, they were friends. Rather good ones at that.
One example may be the time when Doshu was first sealed. The Nine beasts weren't meant to interfere with the Humans meddling unless it was absolutely neccesary. Why Kami decided that this wasn't the case there, was beyond Kasei. He went nearly so far as to ignore Kamis orders and just plain ripp suna apart. Along with every living soul that dared to interfere with his plans on freeing Doshu. Alas, Kami didn't let him and as punishment prolonged his duty. That would be a mistake as Kami himself would admit later. It was an entire decade later, that Orochimaru would decide it was in due time to have a little test. A test that would prove fatal for Konoha as it involved a rather big sealing pattern, a string of over fivethousand handseals the chakra and blood of one hundred sacrifices and the Kyuubi no Kitsune. That night, Konoha lost a great portion of his population, military force, and above all, their strongest leader.
Kasei always loved the peaceful days in the dimensional space they jokingly called, Kamis Playground. It was just a little dimension, big enough for the 45 guardians to have enough space. Thought most of the time, only 36 were present as the other nine would be doing guard duty. He never thought that his peaceful if rather dull routine would ever be broken.
Now here he was, gone was most of his power except a few drops that he had developed to the power of a threetail. Guardian of two girls that were to right the order he was denied to bring back. It didn't make sense to him. At least he had his sister by his side. And even thought he annoyed her most of the time, he valued her presence above all else. She may hit him for his perverted remarks, even going so far as to try and castrate him, even succeeding sometimes, thought it would heal anyway, yet he knew somethings were still in order everytime he felt her soft tails hit him over the head.
That was his peace, a little restoration of what he once had. A little bit of what he thought he had forever lost as Orochimarus experiment failed, leaving him trapped in an illusion of death, pain and sorrow.
Yuki was watching Natsuki intensely. She wouldn't budge even a bit from her spot near her charge. When ever the young woman would whimper in pain, she would flinch. She had done this. She knew she had. And it made her feel terrible and most of all guilty. Yet it filled her with rage at the same time. How could Kami go so far as to try and merge her forcefully with a fragil human being?! She had watched through most of Natsukis old memorys. Memorys of her days in another world. Far of in the past, or maybe the future, she wasn't sure. Even then she had shown signs of MPD, was unstable, depressive at times. Why choose her? Why take someone already at the brink of shattering and do the finishing blow. She just couldn't understand...
What was it with this human that made her feel this way? The need to protect her? It was as if some maternal streak inside her was awakened that night she was merged with her. She didn't understand at first and tried to ingore it, simply carrying out her duty as a teacher. She just wanted to finish it so she maybe could go back and enjoy the rest of eternity as some lesser demon. She would have been content with that. But fate decided otherwise. Over the years of teaching she grow fond of the two girls. Both of them showed great potential, and Naru with her nearly unbreakable spirit was wonderful to have around. Natsuki on the other hand... she was silent most of the time. Sure she was mute, but she had her ways of communicating with her. But she didn't. Sometimes she would babble like a waterfall, othertimes she would just stare out of the window, seemingly searching for something. She never figured out what her charges was looking for. She never pressed her to tell her. She knew that wouldn't help, as she demonstrated how stupporn she can be at times. Even more so then her sister.
With the years passed her duty. It faded into the background and was replaced with a mother caring for her children. She wanted them to grow into strong, respectable women. She wanted them to find the peace that she was denied after being forced into the human world again. She wouldn't be able to go back anymore. Therefore would never be able to bear kits and shake of the guard duty on her younglings. Never... this word repeated itself inside her head day after day. But with the years, that, too, passed away. She had chidlren now. Maybe not her own flesh and blood, but her kits nontheless. And she was content with that. It was her kind of peace, to see them grow, to watch them train. To be by their side while they grow up...
Days passed as the five people inside Irukas house waited for Natsuki to wake up. Team seven met, one member short, and did their first few missions. Nothing fancy, just the normal, annoy the hell out of genin kind of missions. Thought they never had to catch that cat a second time... maybe due to the fact that it was nearly burned alive and was missing some bits of its fur. Well it certainly didn't run away for a while...
It was the sixth day of team sevens existance that Natsukis conciousness returned. The first thing she did was panic and staring in horror at the face of Kakashi, nearly going so far as to freeze him over. Her panic subsided as the grayhaired man explained everything to her. It was then that the first true alliance inside of team seven formed completly. Sakura and Sasuke being strangely distant.
The morning they went to meet again, this time with Natsuki and Yuki draped around her neck. Sasuke showed indifference, while Sakura was openly hostile. Thought she deemed it wise to shut her mouth once an icy glare hit her. Yes, team seven worked just fine...
"Team seven reporting back from catching Tora the iceblock... er cat." Kakashi said with quite a bit of amusement. The Hokage just stared. The Daimyos wife looked thrilled thought. "Finally mommys baby won't run anymore. Right my wittle pwecious?" She cooed as she pressed the block of ice against her bosom. Pointedly ignoring the cold and the fact that the ice was already melting, while the cat, it's head being the only free spot, was screeching like a banshee in training.
The Hokage continued to stare, than he remember that today, was a special day. He started reading the mission assignments "You can now, paint the fences of Takuna's, run some errands for the villagers in general-" "NO, TORA STOP RIGHT THERE!" "- and go for Tora again." All the while he was giving Natsuki a pointed look, which was unnoticed by everyone else. She began to grin and gave her Sister the signal.
"Oh come ON, this can't be real! I thought we were ninjas. Not some helper organisation! Those are cores for kamis sake!" The blond yelled sounding rather annoyed, partly because... well she was annoyed as hell and had waited desperately for her sister to give her the permission to voice said annoyance.
Even Sasuke and Sakura were once agreeing with the blonde and nodding. Iruka sighed. "You four don't get it do you? You are genin fresh out of the academy! We can't give you a higher ranked mission yet. You have no experience whatsoever!" He was just about to start explaining the mission rankings when the Hokage decided that the act was sufficient.
"Alright, team seven may be granted a C-rank mission. I think I have just the right one for you." He shuffled a bit and withdrew a scroll from under a small stack of papers.
"Iruka, would you be so kind as to call in the client?" he asked the Chunin beside him kindly, giving him the sign that it was enough. The brownhaired Chunin sighed. He really thought they couldn't handle a C-rank mission yet. But the Hokage seemed to trust the abillitys of team seven and so would he. He left the room only to return shortly with an old man.
'Ragged clothes, slightly red face, strawhat, glasses and sake bottle. Yep that's him.' Natsuki thought as she watched the infamous bridge builder Tazuna lean against the door frame. 'Here he goes...'
"Names Tazuna! I'm a super bridge builder and want super protection for my trip home!" he seized up the five ninja in front of him. "What's that supposed to be? Two chicks, and two children? I want a real team, not some brats or teens..." He would later wonder way he suddenly felt nervous, or were the cold feeling near his crotch came from. But he would know for certain that to agree with this team was one of his best decisions... at least he hoped it was, as he nervously left through the gates of Konoha. Back on his way to the country of wave, were evil tyrannts were making business this time around the year...
Hope ya liked it. See ya next time, when Haku meets Naru and Natsuki gets to play with a really big sword xD!
Leave a review if ya like. And thanks for the Reviews so far :3!
