Disclaimer: Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto, not me. However, Kosu and Hiro are mine. Warning, possible themes of a dark, violent or suggestive nature and use of mature language as the story progresses… They're ninja after all.

Chapter 12

The seen and the unseeing

Tension threaded through her fingers as she gripped the spoon. The mouthful of food trembled over the bowl and shook within her grasp Distant cheerful chatter bled through the cracked window behind her. Hiro would be among them, happy and cared for… without her.

Shadowed eyes glared at the empty seat across from her. Weeks had passed and the vacant seat still seemed as jarring and painful to look at as it had on the first night. The entire apartment silently pressed in around her.

No footsteps, no flute, no humming… No Hiro.

Just silence and emptiness.

Kosu dropped the spoon into the bowl and shot to her feet. The already chipped bowl clattered against the sides of the sink as she breezed past. She snatched her bag from the side and sped from her apartment.

From the roof of her apartment building she gazed down at the shared orphanage below. Wind pulled at her unkept fringe as she waited, carefully scanning the happy children as they skipped through the courtyard. Her breath stilled in her chest as Hiro emerged from under a large tree. Everything but him froze as she watched his distant frame dart across the courtyard.

And in a moment, he'd disappeared into the building beneath her. A cold chill ran down her spine as he vanished.

Kosu tilted her head to the sky and tried to ignore the invisible weight that continued to press down onto her, suffocating and stifling.

With a deep breath she darted from the roof and began her walk back to the academy.

"We're not meant to leave the academy during the lunch break." Kakashi said casually as he slipped into step with her from the fence he'd been lurking behind. His gentle voice somehow managed to push back the stifling walls, if ever so slightly.

"So why have you?" She asked as the pair continued back to their afternoon lessons.

"… I wanted to see how you were doing."

Kosu turned to him, her jaw tight as an uncomfortable stone seemed to fall in her gut. He turned to her, his one eye that was visible from behind a mess of silvery hair watched her carefully. She sniffed dismissively and focussed her attention back on the dusty path.

"I'm fine."

Kakashi's warm hand grasped her wrist to stop her. The moment his hand made contact with her an instinctual reaction pulsed through her. Magnified by the mounting oppression that seemed to push in at her from all angles. In a flash she'd twisted towards Kakashi and hovered a drawn kunai by his neck, millimetres from his jugular vein.

Kosu's breath hitched, her eyes wide as she watched Kakashi trail his gaze from the glinting kunai, to the soft grasp he still had of her hand, and back to her face.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you're fine." He said.

Kosu's mouth opened and closed wordlessly. She lowered the kunai from his neck.

"Kosu, I can see that you're not."

"… My brother moved into the main orphanage." If her admission shocked them both, Kakashi hid his surprise better. "They can…" The words still tasted bitter and broken on her tongue. "I can't look after him like they can… Not anymore."

"You've done the right thing."

"I know that." She yanked her hand from him and stepped away, her calloused fingers tugged through her mess of hair.

"Well you need to hear it, and you've not got anyone else to say it to you."

"I don't care what they say." Kosu waved her hand in the general direction of the academy. "I don't care what they think. I just need them to come at me to hurt me and let me grow stronger." Kosu stopped her pacing and rounded on Kakashi. "I don't get how you can understand this, and they can't. It's not fucking complicated. It's just how life works. You hurt and you grow."

"It's not always like that, not in Konoha anyway." Kakashi said gently. "You and I aren't like that, and we're still getting stronger."

"What? Of course we're like that? We cut each other up every training session we have." She blinked at him with wide eyed confusion. Kakashi sighed and scratched the crown of his unruly hair, the only real tell of his growing frustration.

"But that's training. You don't cross the line."

"Obviously, I'm trying to hurt you, not kill you."

"And you think they know the difference? They've not killed, they've not seen death. To them 'to hurt' is almost the same as 'to kill'." Kakashi grasped her shoulders, imploring her to understand his words. Her brow creased as his words replayed in her mind over the top of her memory of slamming Ebisu to the ground in a training session.

"They think I could be trying to kill them. That's why they've shunned me?"

"They don't trust you to not kill them." He said.

Kosu frowned. She knew fear well. She was all too familiar with the hollowing emptiness that could paralyze a person… She'd never inspired that fear in someone though, only in her wildest fantasies was she able to part crowds of tough people for her and Hiro to walk through. She thought fear inspiring would feel better. All that it made was a hollowing pit that just dug away at her from the inside out.

"They're good people Kosu, if you just eased back a little, give them time to understand." Kakashi said. Kosu's lips pulled into a tight frown.

"Why should I change for them?" She asked. "Let them hate and fear me until they grow up." She grasped Kakashi's forearms and pulled his hands from her shoulders. As her fingers wrapped around his wrists her eyes narrowed in the miniscule wince – a slight tick as his teeth clamped together.

Kosu frowned and pulled back his long black sleeves. White bandages wrapped the length of his forearms, faint specks of red seeped through where her fingers had brushed. Sakumo hadn't healed him. Kosu met his gaze, finally noting the darkened shadow that lingered behind them. Sakumo hadn't returned yet.

"How long has he been gone?"

"Four weeks tomorrow."

"You should have said." She traced her finger gently over the bandage.

"Would you have eased up on me in our spars?" He asked, mirth glinting in the corner of his eyes. Kosu raised an unimpressed brow and tapped over the specked red patch. Kakashi's amusement quickly disappeared as he hissed an inhale between his clenched teeth.

"I'd have made sure you were healed." Kosu corrected and let go of his arm.

"I'm fine." Kakashi refused to meet her gaze and instead focussed on fixing his sleeve. "Pain is food for growth, right?"

Kosu's eyes narrowed. For some reason she couldn't explain her chest tightened at some hidden sad note in his tone. She studied his profile. He held his head high, but his brow had a distinct melancholic downward crease.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you're fine." She said with a gentle tone previously only heard by Hiro.

Kakashi's attention snapped to her, eyes wide in shock.

"The cuts aren't-" He tried to dodge the real question.

"I know." She tilted her head to make sure she kept him locked under her gaze. "I'm not asking about them."

She circled his face with her gaze. Whatever it was she couldn't put her finger on it. But there was something wrong. It used to be the same with Hiro, instinct would piece together the clues before her conscious mind could.

"I'm asking about you."

"You're the last person I expected this from." He laughed humourlessly. Kosu ignored the flash of ire that sparked in her chest at his comment and continued to watch him, waiting.

"… He's not been on a mission for this long in a while." Kakashi admitted. "I'm worried."

"Kakashi, your father's not the type to fall to the elements and he's not the type to be taken alive."

Kakashi groaned, his eyes widening.

"Any nation or group that kills the White Fang isn't going to sit quietly about it. Not at a time like this. They'll brag - make a power play about it. Has anyone been boasting his death?"

"… No."

"Then he's alive." She said. The tension that threaded Kakashi's shoulders slid away.

"…Thank you."

Kosu turned quickly to face down the path and focussed on ignoring that swell of heat that threatened to creep up her neck and decorate her cheeks.

"Come on." Even with her back to him, she failed to hide the smile from her voice.

X

Inoichi huffed in exhaustion as he all but collapsed into the booth next to Choza. His leant forwards onto the table, his forehead against the cold smooth wood. Choza's large warm clapped him in the centre of his back.

A low snigger came from across the table. Inoichi raised his head and glared up at the smirking Shikaku.

"You had a day off, what happened?" Choza asked.

"His wife owns a flower shop; he doesn't get days off." Shikaku teased. Inoichi frowned and slouched back into the booth.

"Yeah well that same wife is going to be gushing to yours about all of the lovely young men who came in today ordering big bouquets for their girlfriends." Inoichi said. The smile quickly faded from Shikaku's face.

"Is it too late in the day to place an order?" Choza asked.

"Piss off." Inoichi chuckled. His blue eyes scanned the booth. "I'm surprised I'm not the last one here."

"Sakumo's still away and…" Choza nodded towards the bar. Inoichi followed his line of sight and frowned at the broad-shouldered man hunched over the dark corner of the bar.

"What did the deerstalker do now?" Inoichi asked.

"Be himself." Shikaku sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "Not be the kid Daiki believes everyone should be at that age."

"You should talk to him." Choza nudged the blonde's shoulder.

"Someone should." Inoichi ran his hands over his face, his jaw bristled with unshaven stubble. "It would be better coming from Sakumo. I can tell you now he's not going to listen to me."

"Yeah well, you're the best stand in we have." Shikaku said. Inoichi inhaled in a vain attempt to gather some good fortune and joined Daiki in his brooding corner.

"I don't need my head analysed right now Inoichi." Daiki grumbled into his half empty drink.

"Great, I only came for a drink." The blonde shrugged. "What are you drinking? If it's helping to kill the mood you're in, I definitely want some." Daiki's darkened eyes glared at Inoichi. "Seriously, I was done by mid-morning when the third bloke came in looking for the most extravagant bespoke bouquet we could design."

"Please, Inoichi, your day was filled with happy people, doing happy normal things." Daiki frowned. Inoichi hid his internal cheer of success as his friend finally broke his silence.

"Was your day not normal or not happy?"

"Both… always fucking both," Daiki's knuckled whitened as he gripped his drink. "And he doesn't even realise. He's so young and so small, and he hasn't even had a chance of being a normal kid. And here I am doing nothing to stop it. I'm part of the problem."

"You're not part of the problem Daiki, the boy needs training."

"Not like this." Daiki pinned Inoichi with his haunted stare. "I've seen this before, in children from Kiri. It ruins them." Daiki shuddered and quickly downed the last of his drink.

"We're not Kiri, Daiki. And the boy isn't the child you saw years ago." Inoichi frowned as Daiki pushed from the bar and shrugged on his green flak jackets. "Where are you going?"

"You're right, we're not Kiri." Daiki brushed past the blonde and exited the bar. Inoichi ran his hand tiredly along his face and watched with a sinking feeling in his gut at the curtains swung closed behind Daiki.

"When's Sakumo back?" Inoichi turned to Shikaku and Choza.

X

Kosu delicately trailed the inked brush across the paper, one of many configurations she'd prepared for Mito. Firelight danced over the paper illuminating the clearing outside of the Uzumaki shrine. She'd taken to lighting the fire before Mito had even arrived as the nights grew longer and winter closer.

A deep voice carried on the light breeze whispered past her ear. Kosu looked towards the path that cut through the trees, her head tilted in curiosity. She strained her ears and caught the faint, familiar inclinations of Mito's voice and the tones of someone much more tenor.

Daiki-sensei?

Kosu stealthed towards the pair. Her suspicions confirmed as she spied Daiki's looming frame with Mito's from behind a thick tree trunk. Mito stood tall, the white blanching of her kunkcles was the only clue to her growing ire. Mito maintained her composure better than Daiki at least, his shoulders shook and Kosu could almost feel the heat from his anger as it rolled from his shoulders.

"What you're suggesting would do more harm than good. This life is a shock enough as it is." Mito said calmly.

"It's sure as hell better than what you're doing to him." Daiki hissed.

Mito's lips tightened into a thin line. She looked over Daiki's shoulder and met Kosu's gaze from her hiding place. Mito smiled gently. Daiki span on the spot, eyes wide as he spotted Kosu watching them.

"Kosu, could you give us a moment?" Daiki asked. Kosu narrowed her eyes as she stepped onto the path with them. She raised a questioning brow at Mito. It spoke a volume of voiceless questions that the elder woman seemed to understand instinctively.

"We're talking about you. Would you like to stay?" Mito asked, causing Daiki to choke on his own surprise. Kosu planted her feet and looked between the two adults, her two senseis.

Daiki's mouth opened and closed, no words escaping him.

"Daiki-san believes a break in your training will be good for you." Mito said. Kosu's head snapped in Daiki's direction, white hot anger flooded her veins as she glared up at the man. The very ground beneath her seemed to threaten to fall away. Everything she was building, and he wanted to take it?

"Kosu, you don't know what you've missed. What you are missing." Daiki dropped to a knee so he could look her in the eye. "You deserve the chance to be a normal, happy kid. What you experienced out there, what we're doing here."

He took her slight shoulders in his large hands. Kosu could see her own pale face reflected in his large, pleading eyes.

"Please stop, just for a little while. I can't bare to see it anymore."

Kosu frowned, the expression hardened by the bubbling anger than simmered deep within her.

"… So don't look."

Daiki's grip slackened on her shoulders as shock washed over him, widening his eyes. Kosu stepped back and his heavy arms slipped loosely to his side.

"… Kosu…" He whispered.

"I'm not going to stop. I'm not going to regress into some village child."

"It's not… that's not…" Daiki fumbled, the white around his dark eyes painfully clear as he looked at Kosu.

"He's made his decision Daiki-san." Mito said.

Daiki stood and glare at Mito over Kosu's shoulder. The veins in his neck bulged as he stalked up the path, away from the shrine.

"This is barbaric. It will ruin him." Daiki hissed.

Mito frowned. There is was. Even Kosu could see the dangerous woman that lurked within her, the Mito Uzumaki from the stories, evident only in the dark glint that flashed over her gaze.

Daiki wisely walked from the fight and the two women watched the raging bull of a man as he stalked up the path and disappeared behind the tree lined bend.

Kosu frowned, a creeping chill formed in her gut. He was meant to train her. He was meant to see that this was what she needed; what Hiro needed. In the end Kosu had been right, even the biggest men could be softened. A flock of Konoha-sheep. She was better without him. Like shedding a heavy load, she was meant to feel relief – so why did the empty pit just seem to deepen?

"Are you okay?" Mito asked.

"Of course." Kosu mumbled and finally let her gaze leave the point Daiki had disappeared around. She turned back to the clearing. "Would you like some tea?"

"Definitely." Mito fell into step with her.

The women settled into their usual places around the fire and Mito began setting the tea set. Kosu would normally dive right back to work until the tea was ready, yet she found her attention was pulled from the notes around her. Her unfocussed eyes looked towards the warm glow of the fire, but her inner mind churned over Daiki's words. And that damn look in his eyes.

"It's not his intention to hold you back or hinder your progress." Mito said. Kosu met the careful stare of her sensei. Of course it's as if she can read her thoughts. "Quite the opposite actually."

"His actions aren't saying that. Not anymore. How is stopping this going to help me grow?" Kosu said. Where was the sensei who would beat her into the ground to better strengthen her taijutsu? Where was the sensei who facilitated the spars she had with the other students? Was this who Daiki was? He'd just been a sheep in a wolf's clothing.

"Not everyone sees the world through the same lens Kosu. And one lens isn't necessarily worse or better than another – but they are different. So, his opinions and values will be different." Mito said.

"We're all on the same land, how can he see it so differently?" Kosu asked.

"Do you think you and Daiki-san have seen exactly the same things, done the same things?" Mito asked.

Kosu frowned and slowly shook her head. Sure, there had to be some similarities. But she and Daiki were oil and water. Even Kosu and Hiro, who'd been through almost identical events were two very different people. Hiro experienced the world so differently to her and yet so similar.

"Everything you've done, seen, heard, felt – it shapes how you see the world." Mito said. "The true skill is being able to imagine what the world looks like through someone else's lens, empathize with them."

"You make it sound easy." Kosu raised her brow.

"Some are more transparent than others." Mito smirked. "Like you for example. I can see through yours like it's air."

Kosu jaw slacked and the flood of warmth from Mito's aged eyes swept over the runt of a girl and did a little to fill the empty pit deep inside her. And whilst the words couldn't quite pass her lips Kosu was sure. She was glad to have met Mito Uzumaki.

"So…" Mito looked up from the tea she'd set to stoop. "Talk me through your work." She glanced at the numerous, intricate kanji filled pages that surround them. "Where should we start."

"It's all of it." Kosu crouch on the balls of her feet and shuffled the last few pages. In the centre lay the clearly recognisable Uzumaki swirl, branching from that a collage of papers with scattered kanji.

Mito stood and trailed her gaze over the web of ink strewn before her. Her lips pulled together in a tight, thoughtful smile.

"We can't test this on fūinjutsu paper whilst it's written like this." Mito said.

"I know. But I think that's part of the problem." Kosu said. "We're trying to test a flexible seal on a painfully rigid medium. They're never going to work."

"You want to test this on yourself." Mito didn't need to ask.

"Do you think it'll work?"

Mito inhaled slowly. Her eyes bore into each symbol with newfound significance. There was no practise run this time.

"I can't see a reason for it not to work." Mito finally turned to the short girl across from her. Kosu's grey eyes all but shone with determination as planted her feet and pulled her left sleeve up. The loose dark material gathered around her bony elbow to reveal a web of tiny dark kanji that crawled up her arm. She turned her arm over, the intricate pattern littered her forearm, stemming from her palm where a neat swirl lay, waiting to be activated.

"Me neither." She agreed.

Kosu could feel the rapid pound of her pulse as it thrummed through her body. Fight and flight warred within her as she meticulously read the kanji on her arm one last time. No room for error.

From her thigh pouch she pulled her old rusted Iwa kunai. The edges had long since blunted and cracked, and orange dusted the once gleaming surface.

With a deep breath she took the cold metal into her left palm. She felt more than visualised the kanji on her skin. Her very body thrummed, permanently flooded with chakra as it leaked from the faulty network and soaked her body. The kanji seemed to call back to her, reacting with her body - it's medium. Primed and ready.

Kosu and Mito trained their gaze on the kunai. In the faint puff of smoke of chakra discharge the kunai vanished.

Sealed!

Disbelief washed over her, pausing her hearth and breath in one quick wave.

"… Kosu…"

A second puff of smoke and the weight of the old kunai pressed into her palm.

Summoned!

The very weapon that had served her in her most desperate times, lay clenched in her fist – rebranded.

Kosu looked up at Mito, her cheeks aching as a large grin transformed her face. She acted on instinct and launched into Mito's arms. Kosu pressed her head against the soft material of Mito's clothes, still unable to fight away the grin from her face. Wave after wave of elation flooded her body and sang in her head.

"You are remarkable." Mito whispered.

The words tingled down Kosu's spine and she pulled from her sensei.

"Let me try another configuration." Kosu grasped the kunai in her palm.

In a moment the thrilling elation vanished from her body.

The thrum of chakra discharged in a flash of hot white, searing pain. A giant wave of agony consumed her and pulled her into the deep dark of unconsciousness.

X

Wow… like actually wow. I fully expected this fic to have drifted into obscurity since I hadn't updated in so long. But the response I received having posted chapter 11 was unbelievable! As in I literally couldn't quite believe the email notifications I was getting from reviews, PMs, follows and favs. It's humbling that so many of you took the time to read this. So thank you.

In the past I've had feedback that my author notes tend to ramble and distort the expected chapter length so… going forward – If you'd like to chat to me about the fic or Naruto my PM is open and I'm more than happy to chat. I'll still write a little author note but I'll try to address reviews as a whole rather than singling specific reviewers out.

So RE: reviews of chapter 11

Thank you so much for welcoming me back to fanfic! I know quite a few of you had to reread the previous chapters and to be honest I had to do the same! As for chapter 11 itself it was a hard chapter to come back to, lots of feels and tough emotions!

I'm loving the predictions you guys are making about what's going to happen to our little Kosu and Hiro. The pieces are almost all on the chess board!

I hope you enjoyed chapter 12 :D

XScouseLondonerX