Notes: Well, my screwy take on what happens, the timelines probably won't match incredibly well, but oh well.

Chapter Two: The first year

000

Haruno Icana clutched her precious baby girl close, quietly weeping for the joy.

Her little girl would have a normal life. She would gain friends, and she would lose friends. She'd have her first crush, her first kiss. She would bring home her first boyfriend. She would grow up in a family of people who loved her and cherished her.

Thanks the Gods, wherever they may be.

The fourth did not choose her.

000

The very tall and very gaudy house loomed ahead, and Icana was never happier to see the old pile of rotting wood she called home. She had missed it horribly. Her apartment was all well and good, but living alone had taught her an important lesson; nothing could ever compare to home.

Home was where she was never lonely. A place where she only had to take a two steps outside her room before running into one of her many cousins, aunts, or uncles. A place where every evening, she could literally smell the delicious food her grandparents had spent their night slaving over.

A place full of love and acceptance.

A place perfect for raising her precious new born daughter.

Well, almost perfect...

000

Haruno Prot, stared harshly at his father, his eyes narrowing to angry slits. "Pops, do you honestly understand what you're doing?"

"Yep yep, I got it, I got it," he said flippantly, as if the matter at hand was as trivial as picking out a pair of proper socks. "This has been what? The hundredth time we've talked about this now?"

"Stop exaggerating, fifth time."

"Four times too many if you ask me."

"Pops," Prot said seriously. "If you understand, then how could you allow that to come into our home?"

Pops, otherwise known as Haruno Yapa, patriarch of the Haruno Clan, was bored listening to his son blather on and on about dire consequences. So instead of listening, he lit his pipe and turned his attention to a tree.

It really was a beautiful tree. Long sender branches, deep green leaves.

Yes, tobacco and trees, infinitely times more interesting than his son.

"Damn it, pops, you even listening to me anymore?"

Oh look, a brown forest squirrel. How cute- "What? Oh yeah, go on, go on, I'm listening- the dire consequences."

And as his son pattered on and on, Yapa's eyes drifted from the little squirrel to the clouds flying high in the air. He remembered when he was a little kid, he always dreamed of what a cloud would taste like. Would it taste like a marshmallow? Or maybe like sweet cotton candy?

He laughed at himself, or rather, laughed at the thought of his younger self. He was incredibly stupid as a kid... and god's how he missed those times.

Suddenly, his precious smoking pipe, the pipe that was given to him for his wedding day, was suddenly yanked out of his mouth and thrown to the ground.

His gaze fell with deliberate slowness from the clouds to his very angry son standing not 2 inches from his face. That was perhaps the most disrespectful thing his son ever did- Yapa couldn't help but proudly smile. Maybe he and his son weren't so different after all.

Prot's eyes had widened to the size of saucers. He had never acted so disrespectfully in his entire life. He knew his father would punish him somehow, but he'd deal with his punishment later. There were important matters to discuss and he finally had his dad's attention; he was not going to waste it.

"Father, I've put up with your crap for so long because I love you and I respect you. But this is too much, bringing a demon into our home? How could you? Do you not remember the massacres? Junius, Kaitos-"

"Jachin, 2320 dead. Baiten, 5111 dead." Yapa said, his voice ever graver after naming each town. His gaze was cast down. "Tism, 285. Reze, 22,234. Ustoff, 15,610 Aning, 5,156. And Taile, 246,112. Leaf, 19,234."

Prot swallowed a lump forming in his throat, "Then you do understand. You know why we can't allow-"

"The Yamanka's eldest son, Gip." Yapa cut in, his voice no longer somber and sad. He lifted his gaze upward, revealing not the kind eyes of his lazy father, but instead the narrowed, grave eyes of a wearied ninja toeing the line between sanity and madness. His words carried an edge, sharp and cutting as he named the friends and loved one who had fallen. "The Uchiha's eldest. The Hyuuga's newest heiress, Hemni. The Nara's. The Inuzuka's. The Aburame's. The Rock's." His voice now seemed possessed, seething; almost like a volcano itching to erupt in a molten-white hot rage. He was screaming now. He was screaming at his own son. "The entire Uzumaki Clan! Our Hokage! Sakura's father! My wife!"

Yapa turned away from his son and took in a deep shuddering breath. But despite his best efforts, he could not calm himself. His heart thundered painfully against his chest, and he could feel the beginnings of tears threatening to spill down his cheeks.

Quickly, he bent down, and with shaky hands, he picked up his fallen pipe, stuffed it with tobacco, then lit it. He inhaled sharply, and soon, his mind cleared, and he was finally able to see through the white-haze that had very nearly taken a hold of him.

Yapa turned back around. His son was still here, but he looked almost frozen in place- no, not frozen, petrified.

Prot visibly swallowed a lump in this throat, and with a very shaky voice asked, "Father, a-are y-you-"

"Am I okay?" Yapa shook his head sadly. "No, not really. Don't think I ever will be, to tell you the truth."

Yapa stepped forward. Slow non-threatening steps. "Sorry kiddo, I didn't mean to scare you like that, but you have to give your old man a little credit. I know full well what the demon fox is capable of-"

"But pops, if you honestly do understand, then why-"

"I'm going to tell you something. You have to promise not to interrupt 'till the end. Can you do that for me?"

His son nodded. "Yeah, I can do that."

"You know, I miss your mom horribly sometimes. No, that's a lie. I miss her everyday. There is not a single day when the thought of your mother doesn't pass my mind," Yapa couldn't help but laugh a little, it was all he could do to keep himself sane. "When she died, I didn't feel- couldn't feel anything. It was like I was numb. There was no overwhelming sadness, no anything. Just one big fat nothing. It felt as if whatever part of your mom had within me was utterly ripped away. And even though I knew I loved her completely, I never knew how much she was a part of me until she was gone."

"Pops, why are you-"

"Shhh. Just let me finish, or else I don't think I ever will. The person who knew me completely, the person who I shared everything with, was gone. It's loneliness, but it's a loneliness infinitely times greater than I ever thought possible. On my bad days, you have no idea how lonely I feel without her.

"But that's on my bad days. Because sometimes, it doesn't hit me as badly. On these days I can actually live normally. I can go to the GO parlor and laugh with my buddies. I can spend time with the grandkids," he couldn't help but grin when he thought of the little tykes; especially Sakura. "I can actually- well, smile. For once, I can be happy again.

"Being with the family doesn't and probably will never make up for what I lost with your mom- but it helps. I'm much less lonely when I'm playing with little Sakura, than if I was by myself."

"Do you understand now, son? Do you understand why I want the boy to live with us?"

Prot looked at his father for a good long time, replaying the story in his mind- yet he could not understand what the story had to do with bring the nine-tails into the Haruno home.

"I don't understand, pops. Explain it to me?"

Yapa shook his head sadly, "If I have to explain, then you will never understand."