A/N: Holy SH**T! I just blood-tied one of my two most favorite characters together! Who by the way didn't get enough screen time! Even though. . . ya know, they're dead and all! But still! Why does Kishimoto have to be so freaking awesome to give characters such beauty and life to them and then suddenly just kill them off! He's like George RR Martin. . .

:'(

Well, good thing I have fan fiction here to vent off my anger and my fantasies.

Whoa, that's kinky.


Chronicles of the White Fang

Chapter Two

-A Mother's Love-


"There is no greater warrior than a parent protecting their child."


'Don't wander off too far,' Sakumo's mother said before she left for the market just a few hours after the hawk had left.

Sakumo looked up to see the house still in view just a distance a ways. It wasn't as if he wandered too far. What mother didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

Sakumo threw three kunai.

He observed the way the metal glinted off the bits of light. They streamed through the thin spaces between the gathering clouds. It was almost mesmerizing.

A sense of satisfaction filled him at the sound of each kunai hitting their exact mark. He pushed off the soles of his feet to run down towards the tree at the bottom of the hill.

Grey eyes took in the bulls eye. He hit the center of each circle. He was never able to do that before, but now. . . He was almost like a real ninja!

Sakumo proceeded to pull out the kunai so that he could throw at a harder angle in order to challenge himself more. He looked up, to see the fading streams of light and sighed. It had been a good day out. It was why he had wandered so far from his house.

Sakumo brushed away the wet strands of hair. It was drizzling heavily with rain. Rain. He panicked. If his mom found out he was outside, she'd kill him.

He collected his scattered kunai littered across the ground, and he raced back to his window where he originally escaped from. Sakumo placed his kunai in his closet along with all of the other shinobi gear that his father had sent him and began to dry off his hair and put on new clothes before his mother came home.

He wanted to make sure to be presentable when she found out his surprise.

And surprised she was.

When she had barged into the house, calling out his name, Sakumo had raced out to see her reaction to the new seals he had placed within their little home. He crossed his arms in self satisfaction as he observed his mother stepping into the kitchen, activating the seal of light, before stepping out, having the light fade away without her presence.

It was a simple seal.

One that had been described in a step by step process within the book written by Senju Hashirama. He wondered why no one else used such seals within their small, civilian village, but maybe it was just exclusive to ninja villages. If that was so, perhaps, his father was pulling favors to deliver such knowledge to him.

"This is so cool! Now we don't have to use candles anymore!" This time she hopped into the kitchen doorway, igniting the room with light again. Her watery eyes gazed back to him, and she gave him a soft smile. "Do you have any more surprises for me?" She asked.

She picked up the grocery bags from the floor. Where she unceremoniously dropped them from the unexpected surprise.

Sakumo merely turned, ignoring the slight shaking of her hands and tense posture in his own eagerness to show her the second surprise.

He gestured for her to follow him down the hallway and towards her room. When he opened the door before stepping in, the room lit up, creating shadows. He pointed at a few seals he had weaved around the room.

"So what am I looking at?" She drawled.

"Air purifiers." When she gave him a questioning look, he elaborated. "I've noticed you coughing lately. I think it's because of the humidity that we breathe in every day. So I put these seals up to purify air." He pulled out a black mask and handed it to her. "This is for you when you leave the house. You have to make sure you wear one." He tugged up his own mask and let it rest on his nose and cheeks, hugging half of his face perfectly. "Look, I'll wear one with you so you don't feel lonely," he added, his voice sounded as clear as day despite the mask.

It was another seal included within the book. However, the seal was just limited to purifying the air of liquid, so that one wouldn't get pneumonia. When he was older, he hoped to create a seal that used elements to destroy bacterial agents and poisons.

She stayed silent for a moment before bringing him into a hug. "I love you so, so much."

He hugged her back. "I love you too, kachan."

Her grip tightened, but Sakumo didn't complain. It wasn't until she began to tremble that Sakumo put effort into breaking away. What was wrong? Why was she crying?

"What's wrong, mom?" His voice was low in the silent room, echoing along with her sudden muffled sobs.

He reached up to brush the tears away from her red-rimmed gaze. They shone grey and bright like his. Once when the full moon shined brightly in the night sky before the clouds had yet to gather to begin their wrath, Sakumo had managed to catch a glimpse of the moon; he couldn't help but to compare the light with her own eyes. They were beautiful. A contrast to his own dark grey.

"Sakumo. . . I wish that your father and I can protect you forever within this house. I wish that you will never be exposed to the outside. To the. . . To the war. . ." She brushed silver strands of hair away from his face and kissed his forehead.

That's when Sakumo heard it. The floor rumbled underneath his feet, and his head whirled to the side. His limited senses spread to check what was happening. However, his attention was forced away when her hands firmly moved his head so that he had no choice but to look into those two full moons.

"But I realized today. . . When I sensed that army coming. . . that I cannot protect you forever."

He grasped her wrists, confused. What did she mean by army? Who was coming? What was happening?

The questions paused on his tongue when he saw the turmoil within those eyes for the first time. It explained everything. Her rush to get back from the market, her yelling his name as she came home, and the anxiety within her steps as she quickly made her way to the kitchen, but that all faded when he surprised her.

She put aside the inevitability of war heading to their front steps in order to share this moment with him.

"Everyone has a weakness," she whispered. She caressed his cheeks with her thumbs, and she stood slowly, lithely. She had a grace to her, a deadly aura that was never there before. Her eyes narrowed, and suddenly, she didn't look like his mother.

She seemed. . . completely different.

"My weakness is you," his mother finished. She moved towards the wooden chest next to her bed, ignoring the rumbling of the ground and the piercing roar of an explosion at the foot of the hill where their house was.

He managed to stay on his feet, his heart quaking in his chest. He heard another explosion, right outside their house. An army? But that meant that the enemy were right on Konohagakure's doorstep.

That meant that Konohagakure was losing.

"Sakumo. . ." His attention once again was averted in favor of his mother's sharp tone. "Did you leave the house today?"

His eyes widened because he did leave the house. He defied her orders and left to the bottom of the hill. He gave one simple nod, unable to lie to her face.

She closed her eyes and sighed. What did he do wrong? Why was it important that he never left the house?

Something like glass shattered in the kitchen.

Sakumo sprang away from the closed door. "Mom!" He shouted in warning, but his mother was already moving in action.

She pulled out a sheathed katana from the chest. A weapon. Since when did her mother ever own a weapon?

"The genjutsu was broken then," her voice carried along with the rushing of footfalls down the hallway. Genjutsu? What did she mean by genjutsu?

Sakumo could barely react as he stared in awe when her katana glowed white, and she disappeared from his sight. Comprehension dawned on him when he heard the clashing of metal, and the grinding of friction that it brought. The only thing that startled him out of the surreal reality was the scream that died out by a gurgling sound.

He ran towards the open doorway to see his mother, covered in blood, glaring down at the dead body.

Her eyes snapped towards Sakumo. "Quick, seal all of the information your father sent you!" She ordered, holding her sword at the ready as she rushed the opposite way. "I'll hold them off."

"Mom!" He stepped forward, ready to follow, but she quickly commanded him to do as she said before disappearing from his view.

He ground his teeth together, torn between doing what she said and following his instincts to be close to her. Decision made, Sakumo pushed off his heel to race into his bedroom. His heart accelerated as he scoured his bedroom for an unused scroll.

He wasn't prepared. Wasn't prepared at all. His eyes landed on the brush and ink, and as he reached for it, he looked to the bare skin of his wrist.

"That's it," he breathed as he shoved his sleeve up, and although he was trembling inside, his hand steadily and perfectly began to weave together the elements to form the storage seal on his bare skin.

He had practiced the storage seal enough to do it repeatedly on paper without making a mistake. It was the same application on bare skin, right? There shouldn't be anything that would make it malfunction. Paper, skin? The difference in where it applied didn't matter, so long as the seal was perfect and working.

The ink was cool to the touch, and he quickly glanced to the books, scrolls, and loose papers. Books first on one seal that was labeled with books. Scrolls came second in a separate storage seal on his other wrist, and the loose paper were gathered and bound into a folder before he sealed it in a third seal. With a flare of his chakra, all the material was pulled into a separate dimension, like a vacuum.

Sakumo grit his teeth at the sudden loss of chakra, but he bared with it as he looked for any important material that he might have left out. There was none. He staggered as he gathered his toy wolf into his backpack. It was the only thing he managed to put in his pack before he was interrupted.

There was a crash, and Sakumo cried out as the roof caved in beside him. A dead body landed, mutilated with lacerations. Sakumo wiped at the blood that splattered over him with a heavy breath.

"Sakumo!" He heard his mother scream.

She fell in through the same hole, landing on top of the body. She quickly checked him over with worried eyes before picking him up in one fluid movement. Sakumo still gazed at the dead body.

"Get behind me," his mother ordered. She adjusted him so that he was on her back with his arms wrapped around her neck. She placed an arm under him to support his weight. She stood to her full 5 ft height. "Hold on," was her only warning before she sprang up.

Sakumo tried hard not to be surprised. He had seen the patrolling leaf shinobi and kunoichi do this all the time, but his mother was supposed to be a civilian. Harmless.

The only ninja in his family was supposed to be his father. . .

As she landed outside of the house, Sakumo was in for a greater shock. The entire village below them was in raging flames. Bodies of shinobi and kunoichi were scattered everywhere, but even though there were many dead, there was even more shinobi alive, and they fought with a raging blood thirst that made him flinch.

"Wh-What. . ." Sakumo couldn't believe that his village was struck by a battle.

He had heard of many villages scattered across Amegakure bearing the same fate, but never had he believed his own would too. Was it naivety? They were close to the Land of Fire's borders, under Konohagakure's protection. The war wouldn't reach the Land of Fire's borders, he had believed, but he was wrong.

The war reached them.

The reality of the situation bore down on him with an unbearable weight. Just a few hours ago they were enjoying a peaceful time, with her reading one of her cheesy romantic books, and him reading about fuinjutsu. How could such a serene day be destroyed in such a short amount of time?

"Iwagakure's managing to cut off the supplies Konohagakure received through this side," his mother explained as she shifted and began to form seals with just one hand. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu."

She sucked in a steady breath before blowing out wisps of chakra that converted to flames through the activation of her hand seals, and in a matter of moments, Sakumo eyed the destruction of his childhood with a wide, disbelieved gaze.

The house he had lived in his entire life was reduced to nothing but ashes and raging flames that reflected deep within his grey irises, but it wasn't the loss of the house he was so unbelievably sad about: it was the memories he cherished within it. The memories that now will only be lived through his heart and not through his eyes.

His mother turned and raced across the land without looking back. He wished he was as brave as her at the moment. He wished he could think through, straight ahead like her rather than be overwhelmed by emotions, but he was only four. This. . . This wasn't something anything or anyone could prepare for.

She was heading straight to the border of the Land of Fire's forest, avoiding the fight as best she could. It wasn't cowardly, however. Cowardly was him, holding on tightly and shutting his eyes to avoid the carnage. She was brave and determined. She was everything a kunoichi was.

She was a kunoichi.

All this time. . . She made him believe otherwise.

"Konoha will lose this battle, it's best if we do not stay," she whispered, but he figured it was more for his reassurance than for hers.

"Wh-Where are we going?" He opened his eyes then. His mother never failed in making him feel safe. She was his home.

"I have contacts in Uzushiogakure. We will go straight through the Land of Fire, and we will find them. They will lead us to our clan." Her gaze was pointed hard before them, and they narrowed, showing reluctance.

"Our clan?" He questioned. "A clan. . . of ninja?"

His eyes widened in realization. No matter what, he couldn't deny that his mother had all the skills of a ninja, and all ninja either carried a civilian surname or a surname that tied them to a clan: mercenary clans that were feared and revered during the Warring States Period. Could that mean, he had family out there? Family that tied them together through blood, chakra, and a surname?

"You're innocent. . ." His mother trailed off, almost as if she was speaking to herself. Reassuring herself. "No matter what happens to me, they will not hurt you."

It had to be true then. He couldn't deny it any longer. His mother was a kunoichi, and they had family: the Hatake Clan.

"Wh-Why would they hurt you?" He was terrified of the answer, so instead, he quickly began to give her alternatives. "Father lives in Konoha, we can go to him. If he still contacts us then that means he cares, yes? He won't hurt you-"

"You're wrong." She quickly silenced him with the anger in her words. "Your father is an important man, who does not allow the shinobi conduct rules to be broken," she scoffed. "I will sooner die by his hands then I would my own family."

Her eyes shifted to the side, and with a quick grace, she side jumped right as a great wall of mud flooded the earth they stood upon, entrapping the evergreen, and breaking apart the scattered trees around.

Sakumo barely caught on that they were being attacked.

His mother cursed, already in action. The friction of metal against metal ground against each other. He looked up to see his mother meeting each swipe of a blade with her own before summoning an electric current throughout her weapon, breaking the enemy's blade in half, and in the end pushing the sharp edge through his own flesh. Blood spurted everywhere, coating Sakumo. He lost his grip, and his mother cried out. She shifted, adjusting his weight back on her back while simultaneously meeting a kick to her stomach in order to protect him.

She had no choice but to land on the mud that began to harden around her feet, entrapping her. Both mother and son looked up to study the two ninja that advanced on either side of them.

Her head shifted from side to side, taking in her surroundings. She smiled

"Hold on," she ordered as her arm that supported him left. Sakumo did as he was told and tightened his grip over her shoulders, and he did the same with his legs by squeezing them around her waist.

She slammed her sword into the ground as Sakumo held on fast, and he watched, transfixed, as she flashed through hand seals. He observed the chakra that sparked and sizzled at her fingertips. Her fingers buried deep into the solid ground. Who knew that one simple electrified touch could break and shatter the earth around them.

Lightning currents coiled above and below the ground, rushing to the two opponents before it wrapped around them like electrified ropes.

"Learn Sakumo, it's not all about strength and power. It's about keeping a level head and advancing with a strategic mind. In this case," she flicked her blade to the side, splattering blood on the rubble. "lightning beats earth."

She moved her arm under him as they both stared down at the Iwagakure hitai-ate that had come loose and fallen on the rubble.

His mother knelt down slightly and sighed out. "It's been awhile since I fought," she mentioned as he pushed off her back to look at her with worried eyes.

He wasn't reassured by her words. How many people has she killed? How many chakra had she spent for his sake? His mind searched for answers, and he frowned when he realized that all those bodies that littered around their house was because of her.

She had also run for a good hour before they were attacked by the three Iwa-nin. His mother needed to rest. She chuckled, breaking him out of his thoughts with a gentle stroke of a hand through his silver hair.

"Don't worry Sakumo. I'm too amazing to be killed here." She gestured for him to climb back on before standing. "Alright, let's get out of here."

"That will not be happening," a new voice erupted around them. His mother turned back, eyes searching for the invisible foe.

Sakumo cowered behind her, holding on with a shaking grip as a sudden pressure began to descend on the both of them. It was suffocating, as if his insides were being dropped dramatically. This anger and hate. The intent behind it was enough to smother him to death. It was hard to breathe, hard to think.

"It is a pleasure to meet you again, Hatake Suzume."

Before them appeared a man, bandaged from head to toe. The only part visible, however, were his violet hued eyes. They narrowed slightly.

His mother began to tremble too, but she did a hell of a better job at standing against the killer intent that leaked from the bandaged man. Her voice was steady, showing no emotions: "Mu," she greeted rather indifferently. "What an ugly sight you are."


REVISED: 10/23/2017