21.
It was cold in Water Country and it always rained. Inari did not mind the rain though she desperately missed the touch of the Konoha sun against her skin. Hatsuto said that the best swordsmen were to be found in Water Country and for once Hikaru-sensei did not argue though he did point out that he was currently standing in Water Country so it must be true. Inari laughed and Hikaru-sensei smiled, it was the first time she had laughed in months.
…..
Hikaru-sensei loves seafood above all others. Inari detests the rubbery sensation of it in her throat and the oily smell more than anything else. They eat seafood every night. Inari does not say a word. She likes the way her sensei purrs and pats his belly when he's full and then he tells her all about the story where he and Hatsuto caught the biggest fish in Konoha (though he grossly downplays Hatsuto's role) when they were only children and even the second Hokage came to see it mounted on the Kota family's wall. Inari has heard it every night but she doesn't mind. She likes that story.
….
The first time Hikaru-sensei is angry with her and this means truly genuinely angry is when Inari refuses to kill one of the bandits that attacked them and he very nearly skewers her with a kunai. He did not speak to her for a week. Hatsuto states it was because the incident scared him.
….
Inari is thirteen when she begins to notice the changes. Her hips are larger; she has these strange lumps on her chest and sometimes she bleeds. She asks Hatsuto because she knows Hikaru-sensei will tease her mercilessly and never actually answer her question by the end of it, probably just cut that feline, cunning smile at her before strolling off. Hatsuto's stern expression flushes bright red and the man physically picks Inari up and holds her at arm's length like a contaminated doll at Hikaru-sensei.
"You sort her out," Hatsuto gruffly huffs before stomping off.
Hikaru-sensei looks as confused as he does whenever Asuma used to out manoeuvre him in a game of Shogi. Inari repeats her changes to Hikaru-sensei and he laughs for half an hour. He did tell Inari but he also managed to tease Hatsuto for months afterwards.
…
Inari wonders if Kakashi has forgotten and forgiven the argument. She wonders if her friends in Konoha think of her as she thinks about them. She wonders if they miss her so achingly much as she misses them.
….
The proudest moment in Inari's life is when she manages to complete the high level Fire Jutsus Hikaru-sensei instructed her on. Even Hatsuto smiles and nods his approval. Hikaru-sensei starts crowing about her as well as himself. She knows that boasting isn't honourable but Inari cannot help feeling herself warm as Hikaru tells every Konoha shinobi he passes about his pupil and his eyes light up.
…..
When Inari's fifteen they stop training and start taking missions in Grass Country Inari finds herself dreaming of home more. She used to dream of the battle fields, of blades in the shadowy places of the forests and her blood on the ground. Now she dreams of Emi leaning outside the wall of the academy, of the sun rising over Konoha, of her, Asuma and Shinji panting and smiling to each other in relief of surviving another of Hikaru-sensei's training exercises, of Kurenai and Asuma and her debating so fast over the buffet of a stand that Inari is swept in the rush of laughter, of her and Kakashi reading among the dust motes of the library with the sun spilling out across the floorboards. Inari watches the moon and wonders if the same shape hangs over the sleeping heads of her friends.
….
It's scorching and Inari pulls her cloak tighter about herself. It's too hot in Suna and Hikaru-sensei has disappeared in the fields of shifting sands as he searches for their contact. The sun here hurts Inari's bones as they still ache from the last mission against an Earth Style user. Hatsuto speaks suddenly.
"You're his favourite you know," he says.
Inari immediately knows who he's speaking of and although Hikaru-sensei often states the same thing Inari has heard him say the same of Asuma and even his previous now grown students. Inari is now sixteen she has bled and lived with Hikaru-sensei and his brother for so long she feels as if some part of them is tattooed into her soul as Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma and Shinji are.
"You remind him of how Kohaku used to be," Hatsuto continues. His voice is always so deep and gravelly that Inari can hear it rumbling in his barrel chest before he need say a word, "of how he used to be."
She does not know this Kohaku.
Hikaru strolls over the crest of a sand dune and Hatsuto falls back into scolding his brother.
Inari does not learn of this Kohaku.
….
There is a boy in Suna with hair the same colour as the sand and eyes as black as Kakashi's and Sakumo's. Inari likes his eyes; she likes the paintings he creates with ink and water when she meets him. His name is Ko. He teaches Inari how to kiss. She sleeps in his house some nights.
The mornings when Inari returns to the safe house she shares with Hikaru-sensei and Hatsuto while on this mission, Hikaru will not stop grinning at her. He pats her head and winks before asking her if she had a good night. Inari blushes as red as Hatsuto and Hikaru-sensei finds great enjoyment in this.
…..
In Lighting Country the wind rips the skin from your bones. Inari shivers inside her tent, she has never been this cold and the thought that she should die this way is not welcome when she has not finished with life yet. Unsure as to what she's doing and why, she makes her way into Hikaru's tent and he dismisses the woman from the village instantly. Inari curls beside him and Hikaru tucks her into the blankets. She imagines that Hikaru is her father; she believes she might have told him as much in that lucid sleep haze. Hikaru smiles to himself and kisses Inari's head. Inari feels the warmth of his life infuse her and dreams of home.
…
When it snows Hikaru-sensei packs Hatsuto's clothes full of snow. When Hatsuto's lips turn blue and he curses loudly Hikaru-sensei chuckles. He stops chuckling when Hatsuto and Inari hurl balls of snow at him. Hatsuto and Inari tease him over the campfire for weeks and Hikaru-sensei scowls like a sulky child.
…
Inari is used to the sight of dead shinobi by now. She isn't sure if she should be concerned about this or not, it's not right for someone to become so accustomed with death but the sight of pale, unblinking eyes no longer gives her pause so now she can keep moving.
….
Hikaru-sensei is sad in summer. He always loves spring. Hatsuto tells Inari that Kohaku left in the summer. Hatsuto tells Inari that Hikaru once had a family, a wife and a son and both have left. His son became a missing-nin and his wife blamed him. Hatsuto tells Inari that Hikaru no longer cares for anyone else beside himself but Inari secretly believes that Hikaru tries to care for everyone else and it is himself that he hates.
….
When she's seventeen Hikaru carries her on his back like he did when she was twelve and would collapse from training. Inari says she's too heavy and Hikaru chuckles and tells her she's too stupidly skinny and she has the chest of a little boy. Inari falls asleep with her head against Hikaru's shoulder. She dreams of her friends and her home. She dreams of the things that keep her raking in air through battered lungs when the missions go wrong and she can barely remember her name. When she wakes, Hikaru-sensei is still carrying her on his back and her head is still nestled against his shoulder. She tells him she loves him, she tells him that she thinks of him as a father through her silent language. Inari reaches down and holds Hikaru-sensei's hand. He chuckles. And Inari knows he understood.
...
Hikaru-sensei decides that it's time they stop referring to Inari's sword as 'Inari's sword'; Hatsuto for once agrees with his brother. He tells Inari that a shinobi's sword is part of a shinobi's heart and Inari instantly understands. They name it Kagami, it means mirror.
…
Inari learns she actually does have a sense of humour. This worries Hatsuto; he says his brother is rubbing off on her. Now it is Inari and Hikaru-sensei teasing Hatsuto. Inari is not worried, she is laughing. She, Hatsuto and Hikaru-sensei sit there laughing beneath the autumn leaves of an old oak as the sun spills its inks from under the crest of a hill. She is tired, tired of fighting and war but she won't stop. She wants to protect these precious things so she will never stop.
…
It rains in Water Country.
Inari stared down at the crumpled form of her sensei and felt nothing filling her as it had the day Emi stopped singing. The rain was heavy against her skin. Her entire back was still dripping wet with the blood carved by the Seven Swordsman's blade but she could not feel it. Blood pooling at her knees as she knelt beside him and felt it, him leave as Emi once had.
The Swordsman very nearly killed her; Hikaru-sensei took the blow. He could still live but what little wisps of life left he has buried in Kagami. Hikaru-sensei turned from Kagami to Inari and chuckled, the thick wet sound of blood bubbling up as he did so made Inari's heart squeeze in her chest.
"It was cruel of you to make me care Inari," Hikaru smiled.
His bloodied hand slid from the glass of Kagami and trailed away as it fell limp beside him.
Inari's head slumped between her shoulders.
Her warm tears mingled with the cold rain.
….
Inari has just turned eighteen and she travels alone. She made Jounin. She made Kagami. She made herself a mask. She thinks of that sun rising over Konoha she thinks of Hikaru-sensei's bloody hand on her blade, on her soul and she thinks of Emi singing those last words to her. Inari feels them seep into her skin and carry her home.
a/n:
Hikaru fans...don't kill me.
Inari's back in Konoha next chapter after 5 years of training and 3 years of high classed missions. She's not going to be reintroduced with everyone on the first day. In regards to Hikaru's death, I was going to have him die this way when I first created him so it's always been on my mind but I guess it seems unexpected considering he basically gave his life so Kagami (Inari's sword) would be more powerful in the end I think this shows how much he really did care about his little prodigy too since Hikaru by nature is selfish, I'm not coming up with excuses I just wanted you to know my reasoning behind the decision. Till tomorrow my lovelies~
Thank you for reading.