Otogakure was a tiny village, almost exclusively composed of highly skilled shinobi and whatever family they might have. As such, chores that other villages might consider D-Rank missions were handed out on a rotating schedule to the academy students instead of the actual shinobi, and the small number of genin were generally assigned C-Rank missions soon after their graduation from the academy. The thought was that, with the academy students handling the small chores, they would be gaining valuable experience following orders and working with a team on top of freeing the responsibilities from shinobi whose skills were better suited for other tasks; two birds, one stone.
Tanuma could appreciate the thought. It was innovative and used every resource available to the village wisely, allowing for a practical learning experience while also benefitting Otogakure. In theory, it was a marvelous idea.
In practice, it was a mess and he wanted nothing more than to march right up to the Otokage and tell him exactly why it was a stupid idea to allow teams of rowdy, excitable, easily distractible children into a kitchen with only one teenage sensei to supervise. He feared and respected Orochimaru-sama far too much, though, so he help his tongue and opted instead to suffer in silence as he resigned himself to yet another day of stopping kids from sticking their hands into boiling water or crying when they had to slaughter their first animal.
Much to his surprise, though, he found himself with a little unexpected help in keeping at least a few of the groups in line this time around.
"What are you doing?" a small voice lisped, sounding more exasperated than even he felt. He watched, trying to keep himself from laughing, as Kaguya Hiroko ushered a boy four years older than her away from the oven. The other girl on their team laughed as the boy stared on incredulously as Hiroko chided him. "You can't just grab it! You need hotpads."
It was apparent how irritated the little girl was getting. Her face was bright red, sweat beading on her forehead from the heat that radiated from the oven she and her team were working at. She struggled with the weight of the dish as she pulled it out, then snapped at her teammates to grab mitts of their own and help her.
"You can't order us around!" the boy, Taro, snarled. "You're not the team leader."
"Well maybe if you stopped acting so useless I wouldn't have to order you around!"
Tanuma rolled his eyes and allowed himself a small, rueful smile. He knew that it would benefit the Kaguya twins and Kinuta Dosu to be split up in order to build relationships with their peers and learn how to better socialize with others. It was the right move to make, and a decision that would benefit them all in the long run. That conviction and planning for the future did nothing to stop the headache he was developing now, though.
Hiroko had started out the D-Rank reserved, gentle in her corrections, willing to stand in the background and allow her older teammates to do as they saw fit. However, it wasn't long before she grew tired of waiting for her teammates to get their assignments done. She took command with ease, transitioning power from Taro so smoothly that Tanuma was fairly certain the boy hadn't even noticed he wasn't in charge any longer. For a brief time, Tanuma theorized that she might make a good squad leader in the future.
It only took a few hours for him to revise the thought. When her teammates followed her instructions and were respectful, Hiroko was an extremely capable leader. While it was true that she handled the responsibility remarkably well for a child her age and had a certain charm that led to others listening to her without hesitation, as soon as she lost her temper, all of that flew out the window.
He watched as she snapped at her teammates, words like acid, eyes sparking. She was what his mother would have called a spitfire, with a sharp tongue and fiery temper to match. One day, when she learned to curb her temper, it was apparent that she would become a talented kunoichi and a capable leader. One day she would be able to lead a team, though the only way he could see that successfully happening was if it was a team that deferred to her without question. Seeing how quickly she was advancing in her lessons, along with her unspoken prodigy status, he had no doubt that it wouldn't be difficult to find shinobi that would follow her very willingly in the future.
As things were now, though, he knew that she would only be able to lead a team that was significantly younger than her. Considering that she and her sister were currently the youngest students in the academy, she likely wouldn't be officially leading any D-Ranks for a few years yet.
Even with how irritated she was, though, Hiroko still seemed to take her team's safety very seriously. Tanuma was more than a little grateful, though he would never say so out loud. It was one less thing he had to worry about, and despite her young age and flashbomb-like temper, he trusted Hiroko to handle the others. At least until she gave up and stormed out. He would enjoy the respite from responsibility while it lasted.
With a shake of his head, he turned his attention away. On the other side of the industrial-sized kitchen, Dosu was working easily with his own team. It was no surprise that he was commanding the others with ease; he had shown promise since his first day at the academy. With the private teachings of his mother and the easy way he handled the Kaguya twins and interacted with his classmates, he was already marked for future squad leader training. Once they got past his appearance, his peers seemed to get along with him just fine and had no problems deferring to him.
What did surprise Tanuma, though, was the fact that Mayuri had taken command of her own team. It had been nowhere near as smooth as Hiroko's transition of power, but Mayuri had more long-term success. The elder twin had always seemed content to stand in the background; to follow orders quickly, efficiently, and without argument—although if she had been riled up by her sister or Dosu, one could expect a dryly sarcastic remark or two, subtly insubordinate, but somehow always able to avoid getting in trouble for it. He had had her pegged for a support position; a remarkable but ultimately obedient and unobtrusive shadow.
Instead, as soon as she became visibly exasperated with how the two boys on her team were handling their assignments, she stepped up and took charge of the situation like she had been born to do it. She was attentive when listening to their complaints, and worked to resolve the issue either through gentle means or by snapping out orders and reprimands in a tone Tanuma had only ever heard mothers use. It was almost funny, watching the two boys cower from the tiny creature before them and scramble to obey each time her eyes flashed or her voice became sharp.
He made a mental note to add these newest observations to their files, then turned his attention towards another group. It was perfect timing, because it looked like they started a small fire and were too busy arguing over what to do about it to actually put it out. Tanuma let the frustration he felt bleed into his expression, and stormed over to put fear into the hearts of the three miscreants who apparently didn't care whether or not they burned the entire base down.
An hour later, after enough barely-edible food had been cooked for the shinobi forces of Otogakure to have their dinner, the class sat in a circle for their parting discussions. Unsurprisingly, Dosu and the Kaguya twins found their way to one another again and were sitting knee-to-knee, disregarding the children around them like they hadn't just spent a good five hours doing various difficult tasks with new people.
It would apparently take much more than that to get those three to branch out and form bonds with more of their classmates. Tanuma sighed, putting those thoughts on the backburner for the time being and turning his attention to the task at hand, instead.
"Now that you've had the experience of working with teams and completing missions, do any of you have any thoughts on what kind of shinobi you might like to be when you get older?"
There was soft murmuring amongst the older students, and he saw more than one roll their eyes. He asked the same question every time there were new students completing their first D-Ranks, and expected answers from everyone each time, no matter how many missions they had been on. They weren't pleased with it, but they could suck it up. It was good for them to seriously consider such things, after all.
Without prompting any further, a hand shot up high. Tanuma could always count on at least a couple of students to be excited to talk about their futures. It wasn't always a good thing.
"Oh, pick me sensei!"
He repressed a sigh, and instead plastered a smile on. "Yes, Kenichi-kun. Go ahead."
The boy grinned, and immediately launched into a long-winded monologue of how, when he grew up, he would become the captain of all the jounin through his skill and dedication to the village. It had been endearing the first time, but Kenichi gave the same speech each time it was his turn on the D-Rank rotation. It got a little longer every time he told it, and a lot more embellished.
Still, Tanuma forced himself to smile indulgently and nod along. He watched the other students' faces grow bored, their eyes distant or annoyed. At least he didn't have to feel too bad, since he wasn't the only one who regretted his policy of making sure everyone spoke.
His gaze zeroed in on the Kaguya twins, who had their heads together, whispering. He watched Mayuri as she quickly covered her mouth to stifle a giggle, and saw Dosu dig an elbow into Hiroko's ribs. It was impossible to tell what the boy was feeling, but Tanuma figured that he must have been at least a little annoyed with the girls.
As soon as Kenichi was finished speaking, Tanuma smiled.
"Thank you for that. It is a very inspiring aspiration. Now, Mayuri-chan, since you had no problem chatting during Kenichi-kun's turn, how about you go next?"
Mayuri's cheeks turned pink with shame, the color bright against the colorless backdrop of her hair. She stuttered out a quick apology, barely able to find the right words around the embarrassment of being called out in front of the class. He watched her panic and struggle until Hiroko leaned in to whisper something into her ear. It was almost funny to watch the micro expressions she made as she worked to come up with an answer.
"When I grow up, I'll be the next Otokage," she blurted at last, the words tumbling from her mouth in a rush. As soon as she said them, though, her eyes went wide and her face flushed an impossibly darker shade of red.
Silence met her words. Even Tanuma couldn't quite find anything to say. In all the times he'd held this particular discussion, he'd never had anyone make that declaration. It wasn't unusual to have a child want to become the strongest in the village, but Otogakure was so new, and Orochimaru cut such an imposing figure that most of the children of Otogakure never considered a future in which he might not be Otokage any longer.
Hiroko smacked her sister on the shoulder, hard enough that it made an audible slap. She looked resigned, but after a second, a playful smile lit her features.
"Well, if she's going to become Otokage some day, I guess I'll have to work hard to keep up! Who's the second in command, again? The head medic, right? I guess that means I'll just have to take Kabuto-san's position in the future!"
"Then I'll become the head of the Otokage's personal guard," Dosu announced before Tanuma could come up with anything to say. Though his tone was inordinately grave for such a young boy, Tanuma noted that he sounded quite fond and there was a twinkle in his eyes as he glanced at the sisters.
Tanuma smiled, made another mental note to record their answers in their personal files, and then resigned himself to listening to the rest of the children all announce their own intents to become Otokage as well for the rest of the discussion.
"I think you're getting better at this," Hiroko said, rubbing thoughtfully at her seal.
Kaito huffed out a soft laugh, smiling indulgently at the little girl as she twisted to look over her shoulder at him. The circular seal stood out in stark contrast against her shoulder, a red so dark it was nearly black against skin that hadn't seen sunshine in two years.
"Thank you. I have been at the practice for a handful of decades, so I would hope my work might improve with a bit of practice," he teased, and watched her face scrunch up as she giggled.
"It won't hurt this time?" Mayuri asked, her voice soft and nervous. Kaito turned towards where the girl was settled onto her own bed, legs pulled tight to her chest. She smiled when their eyes met, bright and cheerful, almost enough to draw attention away from the tension of her shoulders. He admired the ways she tried to be brave.
"I promise that I'll do my best, Mayuri-chan."
As Hiroko readjusted her shirt, Mayuri shuffled into a more comfortable position and turned so that Kaito had access to the seal. It was a deep blue color, twisting up her spine like a creeping vine, sigils and kanji bordering it. His goal for the night was to make it smaller and more contained, so eventually both girls could wear the seals instead of having them directly applied to their bodies. Their chakra systems would be permanently stunted if the current method of sealing continued for much longer and neither he nor Orochimaru wanted that, but there were also too many risks that went along with allowing such young children free reign of powerful kekkei genkai to allow them to go without seals altogether.
Kaito tried to be gentle as his fingers kneaded the third knob of her spine, finding the seal's matrix and tugging at it gently. It flared to life, a slight glow that became increasingly brighter as he drew it out, a shimmering cord of manipulated chakra that hung between his hands, connected by ephemeral threads to her back. It pulsed and moved like a living thing. Mayuri shuddered as he tweaked the seal, goosebumps rising along her flesh.
"I'm going to remove the seal entirely," he told her gently, watching the way her shoulders lost their tension. The removal of the seal was generally a painless process, after the initial rush of unsealed chakra settled down. "Are you ready?"
At Mayuri's nod, he overwhelmed the seal with his own chakra, severing her connection to it in a split second. She shivered as her chakra began circulating normally again, rubbing idly at her arms like one might do to warm themselves up. With that taken care of, Kaito sat back and examined the seal, suspended between his hands.
It wouldn't take much to contain it further, to make it smaller and less directly connected to her chakra system. In many ways, the sisters' seals were very similar. The differences in their innate natures and the effects those had on the composition of the seals were the only reason he couldn't apply the same seal to both of the girls.
"Kaito-san?"
"Just a moment, please, Mayuri-chan. I need to concentrate on this."
He felt, more than saw, as Hiroko moved to stand behind him. She peered curiously over his shoulder, tiny hands resting lightly on his back to help her keep her balance. As the glowing seal rapidly expanded and retracted with his careful manipulations, she giggled. He was reminded of when his own granddaughter had done the exact same thing, enthralled and delighted by the way a seal in its base state looked in the hands of a master. That had been just a matter of days before she had been killed, along with everyone else he had ever held dear.
He sighed and the seal wavered, flickering like a candle in the wind. He would need to reign in his thoughts and emotions, or else they would affect the composition of Mayuri's seal. He ignored Hiroko as she tugged lightly at his shirt, obviously wanting attention.
"Kaito-san?"
He frowned, wondering what had gotten into the girls. Usually, they were far more patient and mature than this, understanding after countless sessions that working with seals required his utmost attention. The tugging became more insistent. He heard Mayuri make a choked sound, like someone biting back a cry.
"Kaito! Something is wrong!"
Hiroko's words were almost lost beneath the sudden sound of Mayuri's screams. Kaito leapt to his feet immediately, letting the delicate seal collapse. He saw her convulse, watched the way her skin bulged and split, saw the white of bone beneath the red of blood and muscle. It exploded from her side, her arms, the back of her neck.
He had heard the tales of the other children, the ones who could not survive the Shikotsumyaku experiments. He had seen their bodies, after, skewered from the inside-out with their own bones. Kabuto had warned him about what had happened before, and the truth of how Emi had died. He already knew that there was nothing he could do to save Mayuri.
Without a second thought, he scooped Hiroko up as she tried to shove past him to get to Mayuri. She shrieked as he turned and left the room, tiny fists beating against his chest as she twisted and squirmed, screaming her sister's name. Kaito felt his heart clench, but ignored Hiroko's desperate cries and Mayuri's screaming as he shut the door firmly behind him.
"You don't need to see this," he said, holding onto her a little tighter.
From behind the door, Mayuri's screams became louder, more desperate. He could hear the fear in them just as clearly as he could the agony. Kaito felt tears spring to his eyes.
In the two years he had known them, he had come to love them. They were nearly as precious to him as his own grandchildren had been, once. In many ways, he even considered himself responsible for them; he had been the one to create the seal that brought them back into this world, after all. To hear Mayuri suffering, to know that he could do nothing to help her, and to know that she was going to die in such a horrific way, was horrible. He could hardly imagine how Hiroko must be feeling.
The minutes passed by, and eventually, the little girl stopped fighting against his hold. She hung limp in his arms, sobbing brokenly. It was apparent that she had figured out what was happening.
"I'm sorry," he said, "but there's nothing either of us could have done."
"I hate you," she whispered, so soft her words almost disappeared amongst the agonized echoes all around them. "I hate you."
Kaito didn't say anything back. The screaming stopped. Silence filled the hallways for a long moment, and it seemed as though the absence of sound echoed all around them just as the screams had.
"I need to get a medic to remove her body," he murmured, mostly to himself.
"No! You don't know that she's dead! We have to go in there!"
"Hiroko-chan, I've seen this before. Unsealing her chakra...it triggered something. You saw her. You know that she couldn't have survived that."
"SHUT UP! Just shut up! She's not dead. She's not! We have to help her!"
Hiroko squirmed, fighting against his hold again with twice as much force. He already knew he would have innumerable bruises in the shape of her tiny fists. Still, he did not release her and tried not to allow his heart to splinter further as she screamed for Mayuri, her voice breaking.
"Hiroko..." he tried again, only to pause as he felt a flare of chakra. He turned, brow furrowing as Kabuto rounded the corner. He inclined his head, half from respect, and half to hide the way that his eyes glistened with tears.
"I heard a commotion," the boy said as he came closer. There was something cold in his eyes that Kaito could see even half-hidden as they were behind his glasses. "What happened?"
"When Mayuri's seal was removed, I believe that the release of chakra triggered some kind of reaction. Her bones began to break through her skin. I know that you've seen it before. I don't know if she—"
"No! Kabuto, please! She's not dead. You have to help her!" Hiroko's voice was thick with tears, her eyes bright with her desperation.
Kabuto stared at her for a long second, his head cocked curiously to the side, his face perfectly blank. Then, without a word, he brushed past them and into the eerily silent room. The door slammed shut behind him.
Hiroko was limp in Kaito's arms, her tiny form trembling and her breaths coming in sharp little gasps. Not for the first time, the seal master didn't know what to say to soothe her. So he said nothing, and they waited in silence. After a few moments, the girl's shaking stopped. Kaito looked down at her, only to find her staring back. The expression on her features made his stomach twist.
Her eyes were narrowed and sharp, glinting in the low light with a kind of intense fury he had never seen on a child so young. Sometimes it was so easy to forget that these two girls had been marked as prodigies, and that they were being trained already to become shinobi; to become killers. Looking into Hiroko's eyes, Kaito was reminded.
"I'm sorry," he tried again. "There's nothing I could have done for her. If we had stayed, there is a good chance one of us could have been killed by those bones. Mayuri wouldn't have wanted that, right? She wouldn't have wanted you to be hurt."
Aside from the disdainful curl of her lips as she snarled, Hiroko made no indication that she had heard him. Her eyes were icy and sharp, glinting in the flickering torchlight.
"If she's dead, I will never forgive you."
There was a promise in her words and a threat in the glint of her eyes. Kaito nodded solemnly, accepting it. His shoulders bowed, and for the first time in years, he felt the weight of his age and the loss of so many he considered family settle firmly upon his shoulders.
They were silent until the door opened again. Kabuto stared at them for a long moment, blood on his hands and the knees of his pants. His face was perfectly blank, even when he spoke.
"Mayuri is still alive. I will be taking her to the medical wing for further examination."
There was a heartbeat of shocked silence. Then Hiroko began sobbing again, and Kaito released a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. He nodded.
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
Kabuto met his eyes purposefully, then slowly looked towards Hiroko. Kaito got the message easily enough. He nodded, maneuvering the little girl to rest on his hip. Despite her words just seconds ago, she immediately buried her face in his shoulder, nothing more than a terrified and hurting little girl in need of some comfort.
"Come on, Hiroko-chan," he murmured, trying to keep his tone light, his voice gentle. "I'll teach you something about seals, and when you're really good at them, you won't need me anymore. How does that sound?"
She ignored his words even as she clutched a handful of his shirt in her tiny fist even tighter. He sighed and petted her hair gently, wishing he could do more to comfort her. As he walked away, he didn't look back; if there was anything that could be done, Kabuto would do it. He could only hope that the boy's skills would be enough to save Mayuri.
"It's impressive that she's still alive, really."
The child bit back a sob, and the exposed bone of her legs clattered against the metal examination table as she convulsed. Kabuto glanced at her from over his clipboard, then turned away. Against the far wall, a glimmering figure watched with narrowed eyes.
"I presume you have discovered the reason for...this."
The figure gestured vaguely to indicate the writhing child and the bones that were poking through her skin. With each moment that passed, they seemed to shift and shrink, gradually moving closer to her small form, like they yearned to be back beneath the skin where they belonged. In a few places, they had already disappeared beneath it again, leaving gaping holes in her flesh that Kabuto had not yet bothered to heal.
"Yes, my lord. After consulting the notes that the girls' mother left behind on her own mother's abilities, I believe that by blocking Mayuri-chan's chakra, we inadvertently stunted a natural development of her kekkei genkai."
"Which is?" he snapped, voice unusually sharp. Apparently, Orochimaru was not in the mood for games. Kabuto wondered if something had happened with the other Akatsuki members to make him so irritable, or perhaps one of his many schemes wasn't going as well as he had hoped.
"Armor, Orochimaru-sama. Beneath her skin, covering any vulnerable areas, a thin layer of armor-like bone is forming. It would explain the shift in her pain receptors and nerve endings, as they've begun retreating beneath where the armor will likely form."
"How interesting."
Despite the fact that there was no visible mouth in the shadow of the hologram, it was easy to see the way Orochimaru was smiling by the dangerous glint in his golden eyes. Kabuto said nothing, turning his attention back to the charts he held, sharp eyes scanning the scattered bits of medical information and observations, theories and thoughts all intertwining to form a vague picture of what was happening beneath the little girl's skin.
Mayuri sobbed again but Kabuto did not spare her a glance. He turned away and began searching through the locked cabinets for the correct medication to allow the girl to sleep until her body stopped changing and her chakra network reoriented itself. Once she was asleep and still, it would be much easier to take x-rays and run any necessary tests.
"Do you expect her to live through this?" Orochimaru asked, his voice a low hiss.
Kabuto hummed a thoughtless affirmative as he stood, vial and syringe in hand. Orochimaru's gaze flickered to the medical equipment, and his eyes flashed with what Kabuto had learned to read as amusement. He did not try to stop the administration of the sedative and within moments, Mayuri was dead to the world, her chest rising and falling steadily as her bones continued their slow evolution.
"Ensure that she does. This could prove to be quite useful in the future."
Kabuto bowed his head, murmuring a soft, "Yes, my lord."
The hologram flickered out of existence with a soft buzz of static. The room felt a little brighter in its absence, like the jutsu had been absorbing the light to sustain itself. Kabuto watched the corner where Orochimaru's form had been flickering, and when it did not reform, he allowed himself to relax. Mayuri did not stir as he made the first incision.
Mayuri had been gone for three days when Hiroko opened her eyes to find a figure standing over her in the dead of night. It was only 20-some years of experience at being a big sister that stopped her from screaming or striking out at the person who had broken into her and Mayuri's bedroom. It was long after bedtime, but she hadn't been sleeping well since Mayuri had been taken to the medical ward, anyways. As she squinted into the darkness, she recognized the dark shadow easily.
Hiroko pushed herself up, shifting to sit on the edge of the bed. She rubbed at her sore eyes, trying to erase the last traces of restless sleep from them. The person standing over her didn't make a sound, just stood there, watching her in what little light the single torch offered.
"Dosu, what are you doing in here? Did you have a nightmare?"
The boy didn't respond. He just stood there gazing down at her with an empty expression, like he wasn't all there. His bandages were missing, and it felt wrong, somehow, to be able to see his face only for it to be void of anything at all. He was usually so expressive that it wasn't too hard to figure out what was going on in his head, even if his features and the expression he made were a little warped.
"You want to sleep with me tonight?" she asked gently, scooting back onto the bed and lifting the covers. After only a very brief hesitation, Dosu clambered in beside her, forcing her almost flush against the wall in the process. She sighed and wriggled herself into a more comfortable position, but did not complain.
She stroked his messy tufts of dark hair, humming a half-remembered tune. Which life it might have been from, she didn't know. That bothered her, but she pushed it swiftly aside in favor of focusing on comforting the boy who was as close to a best friend as she could hope to have in this world.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, after minutes had ticked by and he had not yet fallen asleep. His breathing hitched, and she quickly shushed him, soft and soothing. "You don't have to, if you don't want to. It's okay, I'm here."
For a long time, neither of them made a sound. Hiroko listened to Dosu's shallow breaths, waiting for them to even out, to show that he had at last drifted off to sleep once more. He was usually able to fall asleep after a nightmare when he came to sleep with Hiroko and Mayuri, soothed by the presence of other human beings instead of being left alone in the room he was supposed to share with his mom. Even if it was only Hiroko tonight, she was confident that it wouldn't be long until he was sound asleep.
It never happened. Instead, his breaths began to shake and wheeze, turning to whimpers, and then outright sobs. Hiroko went stiff with worry, automatically pulling him closer to her chest. He was shaking violently, and his broken sobs cut a path straight to her heart. She had never seen him cry like this.
"What's wrong, honey? Dosu, come on, talk to me."
She sat up, pulling him with her. He buried his face in his hands, hunched over like the entire weight of the world was resting solely upon his tiny shoulders. Hiroko pulled him close again, and he folded into her arms, burying his face in her chest. His tears soaked through her thin nightshirt in seconds.
"What's wrong?" she asked again, beginning to feel more desperate, more panicked. She wished that Mayuri was here.
"My mom," he whispered at last, his voice more rough than she had ever heard it before, soft and broken and maybe a little bit empty. Hiroko knew what he was going to say even before he managed to gasp out, "her mission. It...it didn't…." He took a deep, shuddering breath. "She's dead. My mom is dead."
Hiroko didn't say anything. She knew all too well what it felt like to lose family. First it was her sister, and then a mother she had only had three years but still loved desperately along with every single person she had ever known, all in one fell swoop. Even though she knew what Dosu was going through, any words she could find seemed empty and fake, so she didn't say anything at all. She just held him tighter, trying to offer him what little comfort she could even as she buried her face in his hair and felt her own tears slip down her cheeks.
Dosu's mother had always been so kind, so strong and beautiful. Whenever she was home, she was so devoted and loving, and always welcomed her son's best friends with open arms and a breathtaking smile. She had been one of the top kunoichis of Otogakure, a village that had been made of only the strongest of shinobi, and not even she survived past the age of thirty.
As Hiroko sang softly and rocked Dosu as he cried, she felt dread creep into her heart. She thought about Mayuri, all alone in some hospital bed, and of Dosu, now an orphan just like them. What would happen to her best friend, now that his mother wasn't around to protect him? If even the strongest could die so young, what did that mean for the three of them?
I'm so sorry this took so long to get out. I hope you enjoyed reading it, in spite of how late it is! Let me know what you think! Thanks!