Chapter 11:

"Sorry I ran out." I muttered the next day.

"No, it's okay. I understand that, it was to be expected… I think." Yuri commented.

"I was just so shaken."

"Kizu, your real mother… she volunteered to have the demon sealed in you." She told me.

"What?"

"Yes, you see your father was killed while on a mission and she wanted to join him. Honoske, a rogue and sometimes-violent demon, was chosen to be sealed in you. Her wish was that you and your sister think of me as a mother and that you especially never become a main ninja like your father."

"So that's why I'm an alternative."

"Well… the one and only alternative. The hokage made a special ruling that you would not be able to achieve full ninja status, but that the term 'ninja' could be applied to you as a substitute."

"But why was Neji chosen?"

"I don't know. I don't know a lot of things, that's why you should ask the man who sealed Honoske in you." She said shrugging.

"Who's that?"

"Kakashi Hatake."

0o0

"Hello?" I called through a closed apartment door, "Is this the Hatake residence?"

"You have the right room, honey, but he's not here." An old lady informed me as I turned and slumped against the door.

"Where is he? I need to speak with him!"

"On the roof, like always." She said annoyed.

I thanked her despite her mood and found the stairwell leading up to the roof. I could hear Honoske's angry voice filling my head with loud noises and curses; so much that I tripped on the last two and sprawled out onto the roof at the feet of someone in a hammock.

I got to my feet and saw a man with silver hair sitting in the hammock with a derogatively named book perched on his chest. His face was calm and he didn't look up to acknowledge me when I dusted myself off. I glanced at the book again as he turned the page: Was he really reading that?

"Umm… are you Kakashi Hatake?" I asked cautiously.

"Yes?"

"It's not a question." I said, "Either you are or you're not."

"Okay then, I am."

"Good." I commented, "You probably don't remember me, but-"

"Kizumi, correct?" he asked getting up, sending more curses flashing through my mind.

"Y-yes." I stuttered.

He stretched, "You've probably just learned about the demon, huh?"

"Actually," I smiled, "I already know about Honoske. What I want to know is if you know anything about my mother."

"What's there to say? She made the best apple pie and she loved he husband very much." He shrugged.

"No on the night that you sealed Honoske in me, did she say anything?"

"Not much, just 'thank you' a lot. She told her final wishes to the hokage before she died. I was just in charge of sealing him in you."

"Oh…" I said, and turned to leave.

"You said you know about Honoske?"

"Yup."

"Well can he come out?" he asked.

Honoske muttered something to me like: 'This is going to be painful.'

I didn't realize what he meant until I was on the ground in convulsions. The pain cut right through me when he sent his chakra through me, creating a life-size image. I stared through my tears in shock and wonder as it moved around just like the real Honoske.

Kakashi didn't look phased by it.

"You've gotten old." He replied when Honoske finished growling.

"As have you." He snarled back.

The shaking was subsiding and I made it back onto my feet. I was dead center between the two of them, and Kakashi's hand was fingering his knife pouch. I suddenly felt like coming here had been a big mistake.

"How did the seal come to be so loose?" he asked.

"Ask her sister, Ishuzu did it. She was trying to perform a jitsu to contact their dead uncle, but she messed up on a hand sign this loosening the seal."

"So you knew I was adopted?" I exploded.

He looked down at me, "Of course I knew, I just decided to go along with your mother's ploy to keep your emotions in balance. Boys are so much more easy to be sealed in."

Tears were in my eyes again, "I thought you cared!"

"I cared, still do," he answered, "One because you're my host, and two because you eventually grew on me."

"A rather difficult task." Kakashi interrupted.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"To win the emotions of a demon requires talent." He answered.

"Or a knack for being such a blundering idiot as a child that I laughed until I cried." Honoske muttered.

"That too."

"But if you could leave at anytime, why didn't you?" I asked.

"Like I said," Honoske answered, "you grew on me; and I'll be damned if this human seals me away again."

Kakashi chuckled, "You seem to be getting along well in Kizu, but I will have to alert the hokage on the condition of the seal."

"The hokage is dying if you haven't noticed." I said, standing straighter.

"Never the less I will." He answered.

Kakashi nodded at me and exited from the roof to enter his apartment. I felt the wind pick up, and a chill went up my spine as I recalled what Honoske had told Kakashi: that my sister had loosened the seal.

"Can the ritual my sister did… can it be done again?" I asked shaking.

"Only by blood relatives, and I very much doubt that his brother and sister would be up to setting him free right now."

"Would Kakashi know how to do the other one? The release point one?" I asked hopeful.

"Possibly, if he's had enough experience with his sharingan he might know how… though it would kill him if he tried. That's why in order to perform it you have to have a demon inside of you."

"So how was my sister able to loosen the seal?"

"The seal was a small but effective one. I was put in you with a decent amount of chakra, but it eventually started to decay into an amount that your sister loosened even still. Now it's at an amount that I could break if I wanted, but that would kill you; and like I said: I like you."

"Okay, so how do I do the release jitsu?" I asked eager.

"Tomorrow, okay?"

"Please?"

"I swear that I'll show you tomorrow."

I nodded content, promises were things I knew Honoske made sparingly. He had never gone back on his word though, never.