Present

Tsuki

Okami was alone when I got to the training grounds. He was sitting cross legged and appeared to be meditating.

He nodded towards me as I walked forward, but didn't otherwise greet me. I was surprised he wasn't bashing himself against a training dummy or a tree or something, but the bandages on his knuckles suggested he had already done that. Maybe someone had managed to talk him out of continuing with that sort of thing.

I sat down next to Okami, keeping a few inches between us. He was breathing deeply in through his nose and then out through his mouth. Maybe he was striving to keep calm and think of a plan to get Shikadai back. I didn't want to have to wait another six years before I got a teammate back. If I had been there, with how often I relied on the byakugan, I might have been able to prevent Shikadai from being taken at all. A selfish part of me pointed out that this could be a bonding opportunity for me and Okami, which I felt guilty for even thinking.

The girl that we'd saved, Fey, came running towards the field, and I wondered why she wasn't still in the hospital undergoing testing. She ran straight to Okami's sitting form, dropped to her knees, then latched onto him, prompting Okami to flinch and open his eyes, looking confused.

"I'm so sorry," Fey told him, "One of the medics told me about what happened to your friend. I hope they find him quickly." She sounded close to tears.

Okami said, "It's likely there will be some type of ransom demand soon. His family will be more than willing to supply whatever it is. Why are you here?"

"You just supported me so much when I first came here. I thought I'd return the favor," Fey admitted, even as she pulled away.

From what I'd seen, Okami hadn't enjoyed a single second he'd had to spend with Fey and had done whatever he could to avoid spending any time with her.

A medic ran into the field before Okami could say anything and scolded Fey while taking her back towards the hospital.

Okami said, "Civilians are confusing."

I nodded my agreement.

"Do you…" I started, somewhat unsure of myself, "Do you really think there will be a ransom demand?"

"I don't know. There had to be a reason why I was delivered to Danzo, and money would make the most sense," Okami replied. I could only hope he was right.

Flashback

Okami is a Baby

Hibana

I cradled Okami gently. He was going to sleep in another home that had much fewer children and much stricter rules soon. It would lighten my load, but the boy joining the Uchiha would doubtlessly make him turn out as snobby and overbearing as the rest of them.

There was little I could do though. He would have better opportunities with the Uchiha, and I had no right to deny a father of his son. All I could do was raise the children in my care to be the best people they could be and just hope.

There was a firm knock at the door, and I opened it to find Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Mikoto. I passed the baby over to Itachi, and he cradled Okami correctly at least.

Mikoto said, "Thank you."

"I was simply doing as I always do," I replied.

The pair of Uchiha were kind enough to dip their heads at me before leaving with the newest in the line of clan heirs. Okami would doubtlessly be a little brat.

Present

Okami

My hands flashed through the hand signs instantly, trusting my instincts that someone who should not have been there was, my eyes spinning into the red and black marks that proved I was a true Uchiha.

Gin was beside me, and I passed the information I had to him without a thought. I'd been training alone, and I was on my way home for a dinner Mikoto-sama had insisted on having with me. Well, not just with me. She wanted both her grandchildren and their parents apparently.

My pack and I spread out in a spiral, searching for whatever it was that had caused alarm bells to go off in my head. I was hoping more than I likely should have that the man in the snake mask had returned.

Without warning, he dropped down in front of me, and I had a kunai to his throat in an instant, although I didn't slit it yet. I needed Shikadai before I could do that.

"Where is my friend?" I demanded.

The man replied, "I am not the only one who wears this mask. If I do not return to the others, your friend is dead. We want the girl."

"No," I told him, "I will not trade one member of my pack for another."

"Not the Hyuuga. We want Fey," the man corrected.

I demanded, "What's to stop me from killing you now and following your trail back to these 'others' and getting Shikadai back myself?"

"We poisoned him," the man informed me, "If we do not administer the cure by the full moon, he will die. If you meet us in the Valley of End with the girl and no one else the night before the full moon, we will return him to you otherwise unharmed." That gave me a week.

"How do I even know he's still alive?" I all but growled.

The man said, "We have no reason to kill him. He is still trapped in our leader's genjutsu, believing all he sees to be real. When we have Fey, you will never see us again."

"Fine," I relented, pulling back and sheathing my kunai, "I will be there with Fey."

The man nodded and disappeared.

"Will you choose the Pack or the village?" Gin asked.

I replied, "You already know the answer to that."

Shikadai

We were on a reflective sea of water, with clouds drifting by through the air. We were sitting at a low, traditional table, and there was a huge go board set out before us. There was a box to the side of each of us filled with pieces. The man sitting across from me was unfamiliar, but that was to be expected. He had short black and grey hair and a dark green kimono on. The kimono I was wearing was the charcoal of my clan's formal wear and likely had the clan emblem on the back.

"My men think I have you imprisoned in some version of reality," the man informed me.

I asked, "Why don't you?"

"I was busy while forming this jutsu, and this is the one I use most often, as it's how I initiate my men," the man explained, "Your hands are bound either way, so you cannot escape from this place."

I picked up the black token in the box to my right, placed it on the board and asked, "Why did you take Okami?"

"Danzo had the money and resources to find my missing wife and child. He was willing to help me as long as I did a few tasks for him," the man informed me, placing his white piece.

"I assume he didn't follow through with that promise," I concluded, "which is why you took me." I slid a black piece into place, going for a rather laid-back approach.

The man said, "I heard the Nara clan was full of geniuses. Danzo had my wife killed and then caused my daughter to turn into the beast that hides within those of my heritage, using a jutsu to turn her violent in the hopes of ninja from your village executing her for him."

"But now he's dead, and we saved Fey, so why kidnap me?" I inquired.

"I am an enemy of your village," the man replied, "and Okami would do anything to protect you, so he will turn Fey over to me without complaint."

"Then I suppose I'm just waiting for you to inform him of the ransom and for an exchange to take place."

"Yes. I will return you to Okami, although I imagine he won't be able to return to Konoha after giving Fey back to me."

I just had to hope that Okami was smarter than that.

Flashback

Sasuke

Despite his sudden appearance, there was little difficulty integrating Okami into our daily lives. Itachi couldn't go on missions while Okami was growing up, but he'd had little need to spend his personal revenue, and there was no reason for him to move out of the main household.

The information percolated into the clan slowly, and well-wishers frequently left gifts for the new clan heir. There had been heirs of questionable heritage before, and it was obvious to anyone that looked at Okami that he was Itachi's son.

When the next clan meeting rolled around, it began with Father cradling Okami in his arms. He announced, "I am pleased to tell all of you that do not know that I am a grandfather. Uchiha Okami is the son of Uchiha Itachi, and the future heir to the Uchiha Clan."

"You are wrong," Sonkei corrected, "As a bastard, Uchiha Okami will not be considered a member of the main family or the heir to the clan unless he can display the sharingan."

Several faces looked shocked.

Chei, who was usually wise and kind, seemed to reluctantly agree, "Uchiha Okami should not be living in the main household either. If Itachi wishes to raise him, it must be without the support or aid of the main family."

"That law was not upheld even two generations after its creation, when it actually applied for the first time!" Mother objected.

There was silence in the room. It seemed the elders and the branch family heads were united in this. Father could not change clan law without at least two thirds of them agreeing with him, and while none of them would meet Mother's gaze, many of them were perfectly willing to glare at the infant in Father's arms.

They were forcing my brother and his new son out of their home, and there was nothing any of us could do to stop it.

Itachi stood gracefully, took Okami from Father's arms gently, and walked out of the room without glancing back at the elders or the branch family heads. They'd just made an enemy of the next man to serve as clan head, and likely the one after that as well.

Flashback

ANBU Under Tenzo

Obito

There were too many missing nin, well-more than there should have been, and this had to be some form of retaliation for something one of us had unknowingly or otherwise done to slight Danzo.

We all had minor injuries at least, and it seemed the twenty missing nin we were up against were more than prepared for a team of ANBU to go up against them. That in itself was enough to prove that something was wrong.

Everyone on the team was pulling out every stop. Even Bunny resorted to his little-used skill with genjutsu, just trying to give us a short reprieve, which seemed to work for the moment. It wasn't very strong, and any approach we made on the missing nin would likely break it.

Cat opened his mouth to issue whatever his last-ditch plan was while he could.

Bunny spoke before he could, "Mouse-senpai, go to kamui. Take the others with you."

"He can't do that!" Hawk objected, "You can't face these people alone."

"Senpai?" Bunny asked, and his tone of voice asked me to do what sane ninja would think impossible. All ANBU were insane though, so that part was easy, it was the potential that someone that was at least no doubt much too young to be an ANBU—and perhaps even a jonin or chuunin—to know their own skills well enough to recognize whether or not they could take on the nineteen-remaining missing nin on their own in territory that wasn't familiar to them.

I didn't hesitate.

Cat inquired, never having been phased by the strange dimension or the journey to it, "Are you certain he'll survive?"

"Mostly," I told him, "Bunny wants to live more than anything, and he likely has jutsu that he doesn't use because they're recognizable as his own. He's the least injured and the best rested of all of us right now, and whatever that genjutsu was, not one of those nin broke out of it immediately, and it seemed most would be stuck for a while." No one I knew in ANBU didn't have at least one improvement or personalization of a jutsu, which meant there was something that Bunny had up his sleeve, hopefully, besides just a shiruken or two.