Out of the Ashes

Chapter 10

Kakashi's First Interlude

Kakashi honestly wasn't a fan of the Uchiha twins in the slightest. Upon first watching the female twin, a snarly girl by the name of Fushicho, he wanted nothing to do with them. All the Uchihas had egos and this little brat was nothing different. When he watched her goad that Hyuuga boy the day he officially became her shishou (The first time anyway), he had hoped that it was just from the shock of the massacre. Soon though it became very apparent the girl was a horrible person.

He watched her interact with her peers many more times in hopes that she was just a grumpy person in the morning or when she was working. But no, she insulted many of the other children and had no interest in interacting with them. There were only two children she actually talked to, a boy with unsightly bright pink hair and a misfit adopted Aburame. Neither were in her class.

Kakashi really didn't want to deal with Fushicho. He really, really didn't. But he knew that he had no choice in the matter because of the presence of one old war hawk that pulled strings in the dark. Kakashi supposed he was the best mentor for the last Uchihas due to being the only one left who had some kind of idea on how a sharingan works (His wasn't a natural sharingan but of course no one would listen to that). He would have eventually been forced with one of them, but this little girl was probably the worse of the two. Chakra just didn't come naturally to her, while he could never get her in any kind of Genjutsu her Ninjutsu was atrocious, and she was entirely average with her physical qualities.

Kakashi was pretty sure something was wrong with Fushicho. Oh he knew about her hypersensitivity and there was no doubt about the fact that she was hypersensitive. It was difficult to catch her off guard even as a Jounin suppressing his chakra. Normally chakra control came to people like that fabulously. Fushicho's control should be something beyond Genin. Yet she was a bit below Genin in regards to her chakra.

Not to mention the aura Fushicho gave off. The kids her age weren't aware of it yet but Kakashi knew eventually they would catch on. Fushicho gave off an eerie feeling of death. Civilians wouldn't completely pick up on the sense but they would certainly feel uncomfortable looking Fushicho in the eye. For a seasoned Jounin however Kakashi could feel the sense of death coming off her. It was baffling.

Sensing death was similar to sensing killing intent. It filled the air and could make your muscles tense and your mind go blank. It was something people got over after their first kill but whatever that aura was that Fushicho gave off unsettled even him.

In general, Fushicho was actually unsettling.

She didn't act her age and she never did, as Kakashi could recall. Ever since meeting her she had sarcastic quips and references that someone her age shouldn't know about yet. You got used to her sardonic personality after awhile and Kakashi wasn't unsettled by Fushicho quite as much anymore but the feeling was still there. There was something so horribly off about her that Kakashi really just wanted to label her as another Uchiha Itachi and set her in Torture and Investigation and maybe have them evaluate her.

Speaking of Uchiha Itachi, that was another thing about her that was completely wrong. Itachi's betrayal and the murder of her entire clan didn't seem to bother Fushicho in the slightest. Sure her personality was already a bit cold and aloof but even she should have some kind of feeling about it. Yet anytime it was brought up and Kakashi looked into her eyes all he could see was a calculating gleam and not a single hint of actual emotion.

Fushicho's eyes were another topic Kakashi would be able to rant about. First of all, he had some good fun teasing her when she had been unable to turn off her sharingan. Honestly that was one of the few bonding moments they actually had. Sure they bickered together but Fushicho never seemed to do anything with actual effort behind it. She half-assed every social situation. But more on his evaluation on her social skills later. Fushicho's eyes were odd. She and her brother were almost a matching pair now, but her eyes were far more off than Sasuke's. The pupils were light and the iris seemed to darken and lighten depending on her mood and more often than not there was a flash of blue in her eyes. Her sharingan was just as bad, light grey tomoe that flashed blue sometimes.

Not to mention the blue eyes that for some reason couldn't leave her henges. No matter who she tried to transform into Fushicho could never change the eyes from those pale blue eyes. The color was a bit of a grayish blue and wasn't too unsightly and they were certainly different from her eyes so he was allowing it for now. But why? Why were her eyes such a problem?

Honestly, Kakashi didn't remember signing up for such a big assignment.

The only times Kakashi didn't almost hate Fushicho was when he witnessed her with the pink haired boy and her other little friend. When she was with them her smiles were sometimes real and her eyes not so calculating and cold. They were obviously her closest friends but something else bothered Kakashi. Sure Fushicho certainly had a different look when she looked at her brother. Her eyes were warmer and her smiles nearly real. But again, something seemed to hold her back and keep that unsettling gleam that just screamed trouble.

Kakashi didn't hate Fushicho, but he was starting to truly hate being stuck with her as his student.

In fact, he hadn't realized he didn't hate her until his heart had nearly stopped when he realized she was in danger. He had saved her and brought her back to Konoha quickly because not only was she the last female Uchiha but he suddenly had the realization she was his student. He actually liked messing with her, bringing her mentally older self to a brothel and maintaining awkward eye contact with her all night as he realized she knew exactly what those moans and screams were.

But again, he was unsettled. She had reacted well after almost being killed, demanding he identify himself to her and being on guard. But the way she immediately relaxed when he was there and how the fact she almost died seemed to drift out of her mind was not right. She should have been crying and screaming like a normal ten year old. He had hardly showed her anything yet, biding his time for her to get shipped off to some unlucky sod that would have her on his Genin team. Sure he taught her chakra control as best as he could, refined her jutsu and even tried to ease her fear of jutsu (That fire thing that she had going on was actually the weirdest thing he had ever seen. Another odd thing that Fushicho did that just couldn't be explained.). But no matter what he did he just couldn't explain Fushicho's personality.

The day of her Genin exam, Kakashi was settled in the Hokage's office. Hiruzen Sarutobi was smoking his pipe while the two waited for Uchiha Fushicho's turn. So far she had aced the written test and was able to complete the required physical tests with minimal effort. Now they just had to worry about her henge and clones. Kakashi knew she could complete them well enough for the Genin exam with the exception of her eyes.

Finally, Fushicho was called in.

"Who's her sensei going to be?" Kakashi asked as Fushicho, with a fake look of effort, completed a replacement followed by creating three clones and then henging herself into Iruka. Iruka's blue eyes bore into the real Iruka's dark ones and Fushicho received more points off for the eyes. Despite those points Iruka murmured words of congratulations and passed a hitai-ate over to her. Fushicho exited and Hiruzen smiled.

He hummed, "Curious for your student?"

"Maa, perhaps."

The Hokage exhaled some smoke and both men watched as it drifted up to the ceiling and slowly dispersed into the air. Hiruzen spoke with a gleam of humor in his eyes, "Uzumaki Kinoe."

"Uzumaki Kinoe?" Kakashi repeated slowly as if he didn't believe it. The Hokage nodded in confirmation and Kakashi felt like he had to sit down for a minute. He remained standing and murmured, "The Uzumaki Kinoe who hasn't completed a single mission out of the village?"

"Believe it or not, Kinoe-kun is more than prepared for this team." the Hokage replied, "He was ANBU Dog after all."

"That man, an ANBU?"

Hiruzen nodded and removed his pipe from between his lips. He placed it on its tray and wearily looked up at the ceiling where, behind a sealed Genjutsu that only a trained Sharingan could see through, an ANBU member sat with deep red hair and an odd canine mask. Kakashi, from his days in ANBU, knew exactly what was hidden there and could make a good assumption as to who was on guard today.

The Hokage drummed his fingers on the desk and with aged eyes stated, "Kinoe-kun is most peculiar. Typically, only Uzumaki women could call upon chakra chains. Kinoe-kun is the first man to be able to use them and he is nearly as proficient as Kushina-chan once was. He is well on his way to possibly surpassing her and with his chakra capacity and vitality he could almost rival Kushina-chan and her Jinchuuriki abilities."

"That's impossible." Kakashi demurred.

The Hokage shook his head, "You may have noticed if you looked at Fushicho-chan with your sharingan that she has an imbalance in her chakra. Kinoe-kun and she are very similar with the exception that Kinoe's chakra evened out after the fall of Whirlpool. The medics believe the trauma of losing the village caused the imbalance to be fixed but Fushicho, despite the trauma she faced, still have much more spiritual chakra than physical."

Kakashi looked as if he were about to ask something or perhaps try and argue so Hiruzen cut him off, "Before the massacre, Uchiha Itachi questioned me on what could cause it. He noticed his younger sister's chakra and saw her issues with it. Unfortunately it's rare and most of those who have had the same condition eventually had it fade. For Fushicho, this hasn't been the case yet."

The Hatake brooded for a moment, or at least that's what Hiruzen would label Kakashi as doing. Really he was thinking hard on what he'd seen from Fushicho as he had noticed she had odd chakra but he hadn't noticed the chakra was caused by more spiritual chakra than physical chakra.

Finally, the weary silver haired man questioned, "And her teammates?"

"Aburame Kyuketsu and Bakuhatsu Obu."

Kakashi was oddly pleased that she would have her only friends as teammates.

The following day when teams were assigned, Kakashi settled himself outside the window to watch. Fushicho, if she was paying attention, probably knew he was somewhere in the vicinity. If she really tried, she would know exactly where he was. But she seemed far more busy with the exuberant pink haired boy talking to him while wildly waving his arms. Beside them was Kyuketsu, looking very bored while he used his hitai-ate to reflect light into Bu's eyes and cause the pink haired boy to frantically move every few moments. Bu looked like he wasn't aware of who was doing it and Fushicho eyed Kyuketsu with an amused smirk while nodding her head to whatever Bu was saying.

When the door opened it was no surprise Uzumaki Kinoe was the first sensei to arrive. After many years of being a forced loner, Kinoe was no doubt beyond excited to have a Genin team. Kakashi had heard stories about the Uzumaki and his odd habits and sayings hat caused people to generally find him too much of a "rebellious bad boy" (Kinoe's words that Kakashi once recalled him saying to Kushina) to be around. He recalled seeing the man a few times when he had been invited to his own sensei's girlfriend's home for dinner. But as his heart lurched and fell at the memories Kakashi pushed them away and focused on the present.

The deep blue-violet eyes that Kinoe contained, the same eyes that a certain woman had shared with her brother (Kakashi swallowed down a noise), were shining with excitement. As soon as his eyes landed on his team his body language suddenly seemed to ooze happiness and he nearly bounced over to the fresh Genin. Fushicho, as soon as her eyes landed on their new sensei, suddenly expressed something Kakashi had never seen from her before.

There was an odd glint in her eyes. She seemed oddly relieved and joyful at seeing her sensei and Kakashi wondered why. What was so special about Kinoe that Fushicho suddenly looked much more like a normal girl over the brooding monster she usually was? Once again pushing away feelings that tried to bite at him Kakashi continued to observe. Kinoe ruffled Fushicho's already untamed mane of hair and gave the same treatment to Bu before Kyuketsu gave him the stink eye when his curly dark locks were caught by Kinoe's deft hands.

"Alright!" Kakashi could hear Kinoe from where he was, "Ready to move out, Team Four?"

Oh good, Kakashi thought, an unlucky number.

But the number suited his dark little princess quite well he supposed.

With a puff of smoke Kakashi was gone from where he was sitting. And Fushicho's all knowing eyes flickered to where her shishou had been sitting and a small, hardly noticeable smile briefly crossed her lips before it was gone and settled into her usual scowl.

AN

Fun Fact- Four is an unlucky number in Japanese because it can be said as "Yon" or "Shi" and "Shi" also means death.

So this kind of explains Kakashi's motives. Of course, Fushicho is an unreliable narrator because it is from her perspective so this interlude is just to kind of show she isn't all knowing and amazing. And apparently Yamato used the name Kinoe, so oops? Oh well, it'll probably never come up in this story and if it does, I have come up with something to cover it.

Anyway, to address some stuff. There's been small hints as to why Kinoe isn't involved with Naruto but it'll be outright said soon. And someone asked why Kakashi is training Fushicho over Naruto. As Fushicho had no choice in the training, neither did Kakashi. Danzo pushed for it and it made complete sense that the only man in the village with a sharingan mentor one or both of the Uchihas, especially if one already has their sharingan.

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