Wild-filly: Thanks for the response for the last chapter…This time my appreciation goes to Katzuki, kimpster, "take a random stab in the dark", JapanAnimeGirl, Tora Macaw, xl-black-tears-lx and Anime Lance!!! Much thanks for all your encouragement during this obnoxious time for me, but exams are now over!! On with the chapter!

Disclaimer: don't own don't sue

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Okumen Gokurakuchou: Chapter 13

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She clasped and unclasped her hands, fretfully rubbing them, shooting him an apologetic glance at the same time. "I'm sure you don't want to hear this… it is fairly uninteresting".

"Don't be stupid". He shook his head. "If it's giving you this much grief, then there's no way it's insignificant. Tell me. I want to know". Again with that strange feeling inside himself…This was getting most disconcerting.

Chewing on her lip, she neatened her position, tucking her short kimono between the fold her knee and calf muscle made, curled underneath her weight. Kakashi sat silent and motionless. The tension in the air from her was incredible. He didn't dare move lest he ruin her focus. This was something he understood all to well; the stress when one is teetering on the edge of a great secret, essential to be held, yet excruciating to bear. His own experiences of this had largely been in spying missions with the ANBU, but he was well aware of its relevance to everyday life… everyday life that wasn't his, that is.

"My mother came to Konoha eighteen years ago, from a village on the very outskirts of Fire Country. She wasn't exactly a native of this land, as her ancestors came from other towns around the borders, from different backgrounds, different countries all. However, the borders are always unstable these days, so she and the rest of our family lived in constant fear of invasion during one of these disputes. However, since they weren't full-blood citizens of Fire Country, any of them, they hadn't any right to come further into the heart of the country. Knowing this, our family split up, intending to meet up again in the very heart of Fire Country with different identities, so as to avoid being detected and deported back to the country border. One large family travelling together would be far too easy for patrols to spot. They could be arrested, even killed if an invasion had started after they left".

She paused, face sombre. Kakashi nodded gravely. It was a standard procedure for Fire Country to protect all of its citizens, but people who didn't fall into this category so easily were frequently treated as though they were invaders themselves. The Third Hokage had been voicing his disapproval of this treatment, but it still happened, thanks to police forces in more obscure towns dotted around the country. Refugees were viewed as costly drains on a village and therefore, tended to fall into the category of public nuisance more often than not.

"The trip was a dangerous one. My family lost several of its members in the process, but my mother managed to make it right into the nerve-centre of Fire Country; the one place where she could be protected from racist groups, or where she could be arrested on the spot for her heritage. She was anxious to make a good impression, willing to go to great lengths in order to ensure that she, and any family members who made their way here would be guaranteed their freedom and safety". Kurotaka's voice gave a shudder, teeth clenched in anger, her words filled with an unspeakable anguish yet laced with a powerful hate.

"And who better to appeal to for safety, than to the policing force of Konoha. How was she to know it was the last place she should have looked for aid?"

Surprise was dominating Kakashi's emotions, yet tendrils of ire wove their way through his conscious as well. The Uchiha; the elitists of Konoha. It was true when she said earlier that they were the most upstanding, respectable of clans. This move that Kurotaka was suggesting seemed incredibly uncharacteristic for such a noble family.

He gently cleared his throat, catching her attention from where it was determinedly fixed on a non-existent spot in the distance. "I find it most disturbing to believe, Kurotaka, that the Uchiha would have taken advantage of anyone, let alone a refugee".

"You find it disturbing?!" She snorted in disbelief. "Not I. All it has proven is that no family is without its little mistakes. When my mother came into the home grounds of the Uchiha, she was greeted by a striking young man, with the standard Uchiha dark hair and eyes and incredible fighting abilities. She introduced herself to him as one from the border seeking aid, at which point he took her aside and promised to ensure her safety. And it's true. He did that. He found a village far from Konoha that would be willing to take her in, but not only take her in; that would be willing to prevent her from ever needing to leave it again. He convinced her that he was doing her a great favour, making her a place in this haven, for both her and her family". She stopped and slid one eye onto Kakashi's, slightly embarrassed. "I daresay you can imagine what came about next".

"Ah…hai. But I'm trying not to".

"So my mother left Konoha, only to return from the village several months later to try to find that gallant young man who had so kindly secured her a home and also my being. Unfortunately, when she came to the home grounds of the Uchiha clan this time, asking to see him, he did not seem very happy to meet her again. She insisted on being able to speak to him, but he refused to meet her every time she came by. So, she went to see the woman who would be my grandmother and was met with a most disturbing revelation. A revelation, that he who had sired me was not only the youngest son of the head of the family, but in fact married, so a bastard Uchiha could not exist. She suggested that for my mother's own safety, she abort the pregnancy and leave Konoha before sunset".

"My mother refused and fled, unable to believe that the person who had sworn to protect her to the death would have simply used her and then thrown her aside. She was forced to believe my "father's" rejection though, after a group of Uchiha men came to meet her in her new village, requesting her attendance at a family meeting". She rolled one eye towards Kakashi. "As you can imagine, it wasn't exactly a request". Kakashi nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

"So she accompanied them back to the Uchiha household, entering a room that contained a handful of the Uchiha's most influential members, including the head of the family and her lover. As soon as she arrived, my father denied all relationship to me, but was disproved by his own clan thanks to a Chakra test performed by his mother. She confirmed that I had Uchiha blood; Uchiha Chakra and stood every chance of inheriting the clan's secrets. Unwilling to vouch for my mother still, it was decided that my mother should be forced to abort. Since she wasn't a ninja, nor was she a true citizen of Fire Country, the policing force of Konoha could do exactly what they wanted. It's wartime – no one will notice the sufferings that one woman wronged will go through and besides… who can arrest the police? Who can spy on an ANBU?". Her voice was shaking now, kimono clenched tightly in her fists, grinding the fabric into her thighs in anger. A vague thought of putting his arm around her shoulders crossed Kakashi's mind, but before he could exercise it, she regained enough composure to continue.

"She bolted, tearing right through one of the rice screens in her haste to escape. She still believed, even then, that my father would come to his senses". She shook her head. "My mother still refuses to see ill in him. She's too optimistic. I've learned otherwise". With a soft sigh she continued. "She managed to escape. The Uchiha hadn't really wanted to force her, it would seem, but they were convinced that she would take me far away to avoid their attentions. At least then they could pin the blame on some other clan, or a distant relative for my less-than-flattering coming to existence".

"Unfortunately, my abilities as a child… were exceptional. Mother had to leave the village where the rest of our family still lives, since I attracted too much attention and none of the neighbours viewed me with delight. A three year-old who punches through fences when in throwing a tantrum is seldom treasured, let alone a three year-old who can walk on water when she doesn't want to take a bath. She wanted to send me to the ninja academy in Konoha, since she recognised the skills I had inherited and wanted to hone them, since she couldn't suppress them. However she was nervous about entering Konoha again, despite her optimism that my father would accept me. She snuck into the village and sought out the Third Hokage, claiming that her child was "gifted", so could she please enrol me in the Academy?"

Kakashi grimaced. "He found out about you having Uchiha blood?"

She tilted her head to one side. "To this day I don't know. He tested my abilities, but didn't remark on them other than to say that I had his approval to learn the many Shinobi crafts. Possibly".

"Either way, the Uchiha were furious, about the fact that my mother had not only returned, but announced her presence to the Hokage; resulting in her being made an honorary citizen. They were reluctant to try harming a child, but now they felt that their nasty little secret was on the verge of being revealed. The assassination attempts started about a week after I started at the Academy. The drowning attempt, people coming around the house at night… of course the Uchiha themselves never did any of the deeds themselves. No, they let others dirty their hands for them".

"Eventually, my mother couldn't take any more. She went up to the Uchiha household and begged them to stop, or to at least bargain for my life". Kurotaka drew her knees up tight, hugging them to her chest as she stared blankly ahead of herself. "At last they agreed to stop trying to kill me, as long as I would never draw attention to myself. If I were to use any ability akin to the Sharingan or ever associate myself with or near the Uchiha, they would kill me. If I lived my life quietly, avoiding all glories and abilities, then they would permit my existence. Naturally, joining the ANBU would be out of the question. Running for Hokage or a position of power? The Jounin exam has proved too bold for them, as you've now seen".

She turned to face him, eyes half-closed, expression unreadable. "That little fight on the way home… that was the warning. Next time they'll mean business. I've reared my undesirable head too high for their likings, so a convenient "accident" will soon be arranged. All my life, I've been responsible for my mother's fear; fear for my life, fear for hers. Now she's in more danger than ever". The closed expression was fragmenting, coming under assault from the emotions forcefully withheld. Her eyes were becoming glassier, overbright with tears.

The uncertainty left him. Kakashi leant towards her and clasped his arms around her shoulders, drawing her shaking frame to him. She didn't even stiffen against his movement, relaxing and clutching him around the chest. As her shoulders shook in her effort to regain control, Kakashi let his arms drift around her, surrounding her even more with his warm weight; offering what comfort he could. Her dark locks tickled his arms, silky after having the shrubbery removed from them. Gently he moved one arm up to cradle the back of her head, smoothing her ruffled hair and steadying her miserable convulsions. The muffled sobs dissolved, but she didn't pull away, instead nestling deeper into the warmth of his hold. Her head shifted, moving to rest her temple on his collarbone and own arms tightening their hold on him. This time he was the one to stiffen, not so sure of what to do. She didn't say a word though, so he gradually relaxed, enjoying the sensation of closeness. This truly was a remarkable new feeling. The solid weight of her, the reality of her form in his arms brought him the most unusual feelings of peace and protectiveness.

How long they sat there like that, Kakashi didn't know, but finally she pulled away, eyes still overbright, but not with sorrow. She smiled almost nervously at him and stood up, watching him shyly. Then she was gone, leaving the clearing without a word. He sat there numbly, watching her walk away, stride proud, unhindered by her loose blue and white kimono. For ten minutes he remained in exactly that position after she left, looking for all the world like a drunk trying to remember which way up was again.

At last he regained enough of his senses to stand up and wander away to get some dinner. As he hunched over his second, deep bowl of miso ramen, it suddenly occurred to him how very stupid he must have looked staring after the path of a girl who only a couple of weeks ago would have willingly given him away for medical experiments. Well… maybe not given away. Sold at least.

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The battering started at some unholy hour before the waking of the sparrows.

"GET UP!!"

Grumbling, moaning and arising from the depth of his shuriken bedspread like a dinosaur from a tar-pit, Kakashi muzzily turned his head towards the source of the obnoxious noise. His brain vaguely reminded him that this was Masurao's voice just before Kakashi leant to grab the katana sprawled on the floor. Having come to this conclusion, he picked up the katana anyway and staggered over to the door, tripping over a selection of unidentifiable objects as he sought the normally prominent feature of his room in pitch darkness.

"I'm coming… I'm coming", he mumbled ineffectively as one hand fumbled across the wall for the illusive door handle; the battering, hammering on the door still persisting. He gripped the katana even tighter in his right hand. Each thud on the wretched door was like a nail in his skull. At last the cool metal handle bent under his hand and he swung the door open, glaring back at the chirpy ninja eye-smiling back at him.

"What's with the ungodly hour?" he growled, brandishing the sheathed katana threateningly.

Masurao grinned at him. "Oh my…it's only three am? I'm SO sorry to disturb you from your snoring and drooling, but we have a breakthrough".

Kakashi stared blankly back at him. "Breakthrough?"

Masurao nodded cheerfully, eyes still creased in a smile. "With the scrolls. I've been working all night on them".

Kakashi considered this. "If you've been working all night, then why did you decide to tell me this now, when it could easily have waited another few hours until at least the sun was up?"

"Aww… but where's the fun in that? I didn't disturb you from anything important did I? You haven't got someone in there with you, have you?" The grin took on a much eviller edge as Masurao craned his head to see over Kakashi's shoulder, into the gloom that was his friend's apartment. Kakashi glared at him irritably. "For your information, no. Now what the hell did you wake me up for?"

"Temper, temper", tutted Masurao. He would have tormented his friend a little longer, but the look on Kakashi's face reminded him that his ANBU acquaintance was not a morning person. "Right… I have discovered that the scrolls are in fact translatable only as handseals".

Kakashi blinked. "Meaning what?"

"Meaning they aren't actually a coded message; they're a coded scroll. A scroll of summoning, I might add".

"What can we do with them then?"

"We need Gai and Akirakas' pieces of the scrolls. Then we need to find out what triggers the summon".

"How long is that going to take?" He asked the dreaded question, even though he knew the answer already.

"A month, I'd reckon". The cheeriness didn't fade. "We're screwed, aren't we?"

"Quite. Couldn't you just have left me sleeping in blissful ignorance?"

"And begrudge you the privilege of sharing the feeling of complete uselessness as I am? You must be joking".

Gently, Kakashi leant his forehead against the wooden doorframe, proceeding to bash his head off the polished surface. He persisted in this for a minute or so until Masurao shoved his forehead away from the door.

"Cut that out. You're giving me a headache. Look, we can still do this. We just need to work quickly. The seal trigger is likely to be a combination of blood or Chakra. We can also make an entirely new version of the scrolls; fully translated. If this doesn't reveal whatever it is we're supposed to be doing, then I don't know what we can do".

"Fine". Kakashi turned two slightly unfocussed eyes to his pensive visitor. Perhaps bashing his head off the doorframe hadn't been that great an idea after all. "One more question".

"What?"

"Would you kindly get lost and let me go back to sleep?"

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It was now a more civilised hour. After managing to sleep in until the formidable hour of six am, Kakashi was making his sleep-deprived way towards another low block of apartments where most of the single Kunoichi of Konoha inhabited. He staggered through the main door into a considerably cleaner foyer than that of his own apartment block, only to be halted by an older woman who had the air of a door guard about her.

"And just what do you think you're doing here?" The arrogance in that voice was incredible. Kakashi was quite impressed.

"I'm here to see a team-mate of mine. Kurotaka?" Damn… what was her surname again? He knew he'd heard it once before, but had he been paying attention? Well yes, but only to how miserable his life was then.

"…Kurotaka?" She sneered at him, face bunching up like an old dishrag and leering at him in a most unpleasant fashion. He took one step backwards in order to get out of prime glaring position and to re-establish his confidence as a future Jounin and current ANBU member. The old bat simply followed him, sneering in triumph.

"No surname, eh? No matter; I know the girl you're talking about. Nice try at gaining entry I'll admit, but everyone knows that she doesn't speak to anyone, let alone her team-mates. I suggest you crawl back off under the bridge you were living under, if you want to maintain your health".

"I'm serious!" Kakashi froze, returning the glare with one of his own. "You can ask her, she knows who I am".

"Oh no you don't; there's no way you're getting in here. Now back off". She brandished a broomstick threateningly at him. Kakashi stared in disbelief at the woman's choice of apparently ineffective weapon.

"What're you going to do; fly off on that, you old witch?"

From then on, things didn't go so well.

Kurotaka came walking down the street, ambling over to the side restaurant where Kakashi was perched, mutinously sipping at a green tea and nursing a considerable bruise on his forehead. She moved to stand in front of him, having failed to catch his attention by waving and stared at him, perplexed.

"What happened to you?"

He rolled one painful eye at up her. "I'd rather not talk about it".

"You didn't insult miss Shiro, did you?"

"Not that I know of. Why ever do you think that I offended her?"

"Well for one thing, that's a broom twig caught in your hair".

Kakashi grimaced and gingerly probed his skull, which he was completely certain was now sporting a compound fracture at least, searching for that dratted twig. Curse the accuracy of the deranged old bat. He made a mental note; never underestimate underpaid, floor-sweeping old hags. He cursed as the wretched bit of dead tree eluded his bruised fingers, stopping only when Kurotaka sighed impatiently. "Hold still".

Obediently he froze as she leant over him, freed the snagged twig and handed it to him. He didn't even look at the twig, staring instead up at her in a kind of embarrassed amazement. One eye twitched. She glared at him. "What?"

He let his eyes trail down and then freeze at her kimono. The somewhat loosened wrapping of the modified kimono's lower neckline, to be specific. While the view he had just received wasn't at all disagreeable, he wasn't entirely certain that she had intended to give him said view at all. Kuro's eyes followed the path of his own, freezing as she realised the focus of his attention and the folly of her last action.

SMACK.

As if he hadn't suffered enough brain damage today.

"Now…" She smiled sweetly at him, daintily sipping from her deep mug of green tea. "What was it you left a message for me to meet up with you for?"

Slightly concussed and questioning his limited sanity and the strange feelings he persisted in having for this obnoxious life-form before him, Kakashi cleared his throat and replied, "Masurao has finished with the scrolls for now". Kurotaka nodded, "that's all?"

"I'm afraid there's a slight problem".

"And by slight you mean huge".

"Naturally".

She sighed and muttered under her breath, setting down her mug and affixing him with an accusing stare. "What does it involve?"

"We need to find Akiraka and Gai as quickly as possible and get their pieces of the scrolls to Masurao so he can translate them. They aren't actually coded instructions; they're a scroll of summoning, but we don't know how to activate the summon".

She expelled her breath in a low hiss. "Do we know anyone who's an expert about summoning scrolls?"

"Not as such. I'm afraid we wouldn't be allowed to ask them anyway. Either way, Masurao and I are pretty sure that a combination of blood and Chakra will work".

"Yes", she picked up her cup and took a long draught, "the only problem…" She replaced the mug. "…Is precisely how much, by whom and with what additional handseals?"

"Precisely".

"Well I don't know about you, but I'm not incredibly keen on losing a litre of blood to practise. Have Masurao decode the scrolls, set them together and I'll take a look at them". She grinned at Kakashi, "scrolls were one of my favourite sections at the academy". She raised her hands, "now, I'm not promising anything; in fact, now that I've admitted that I may be able to help has probably just sealed fate that I'll be nothing more than a hindrance, but what more can I do…"

"Trust me, I think you'll stand the best chance of any of us".

"What about you? You still have your dog-summoning scroll, haven't you?"

"It's a little damp from its swim at the hidden waterfall, but yes. However just because I use the scroll doesn't mean I understand how the hell it works".

"Point taken. Now where did Masurao say Akiraka had gone?"

"She was heading for Sand Country I believe, so it's not antisocially far from here, but we will have to make exceptionally good speed in order to fulfil our task".

Kurotaka yawned, staring at Kakashi with a miserable eye. "We have to leave now? After such a limited time enjoying civilisation…" She trailed off and poked at her tea mug with a lone chopstick that was stationed next to Kakashi's breakfast. He nodded, "and it looks like we'll be accompanied by Masurao this time as well. When we meet up, we have to get the scrolls done as soon as possible".

She raised one eyebrow. "You mean I'm going to be stuck with both of you?"

He eye-smiled at her, "how fortunate can one person be?"

"Not much less, I'd reckon".

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wild-filly: Holidays coming so very soon – will update when I can! Have been in a strong writing mood recently… Please review!