Chapter 4: I have a brother?
A few minutes after Astier passed out from chakra exhaustion, Hospital
'Hold on Tier-kun, Naru-kun just a little longer.' Kakashi was running at full speed through the Konoha's General Med's front doors holding Astier while Neko was right behind him holding Naruto. The action of destroying the door completely had the hospital staff freeze in shock to the intrusion. It wasn't until Neko landed beside Kakashi did he shout at the Doctors.
"I need a doctor over here!" When no one moved did Kakashi realize that he was still releasing massive amounts of KI. He had to struggle to pull it all back in. When he did the doctors and nurse visibly unfroze from the wave of killing intent though none of them move a muscle towards the ANBU agents. "Did I stutter I need a doctor over here both of these boys are suffering from critical injures."
This finally had the desired effect of getting the staff to start moving towards the agents and the boys. As the staff got closer they saw just how hurt the children were. Astier with the massive injures all of his back, and Naruto with the bad stab wound in his chest along with the weapons still stuck in his legs acting as a stop gate for more bloodless.
"Oh god who would do this to children." One of the nurses exclaimed as they took the boys from the AMBU agents and placed the boys on gurneys. They started to take the boys immediately towards operating rooms while Kakashi and Neko just stood at the entrance a little out of it watching their otouto's with such grievous injuries. When the boys were almost out of sight is when Kakashi snapped out of it.
"Neko follow Naruto and make sure that he gets treated correctly we can't know how many civilians are in on this."
"Hai Teichō, what about Astier sir?"
"I will personally watch over Astier. There is bound to be retribution for his actions tonight." 'Even if I'm a little proud of how he handled himself.'
With parting words Neko and Kakashi separated to follow their charge. The Operation on Astier was taxing on the doctors due to when he summoned his chains he obviously didn't handle them with finesse because they torn up countless muscles, broke bones, ripped up tendons and ligaments all as if they were paper. Kakashi was sanding stoic in the corner of the room as if everyone around him was lower than an ant. Inside he was torn up listening to all of the medical jargon about how much damage done to his little brother, both by other hands and his own.
Neko was having a difficult time as well in the next room over but was not feeling as bad as he Teichō. Naruto's wounds were minor except for the stab wound in his chest. The Tanto that Kizashi thrust into his chest ended up missing his heart by a few millimeters. It caused his right lung to collapse. The staff in the room was having a difficult time trying to see through all the blood to repair the lung.
The next few hours for both agents had them seeing red at the actions of the civilians. Naruto's operation ended in a success and he was brought to a recovery room, with Neko practically stepping on a nurse's foot following closely behind. Astier's operation ended about an hour later with mixed news. He would survive and make a full recovery but due to complications it would take a while to fully heal. Kakashi did not even let a nurse push his bed into the recovery room. The moment he was closed up Kakashi himself pushed the bed into Naruto's room and put them side by side.
That was the scene Hiruzen walked into with two ANBU flanking him. Kakashi sitting on a chair between the two beds with his ANBU mask off. His lone visible eye never left Astier's face as he was barley breathing out in wheezes. Naruto on the other hand was doing much better, out of surgery and on his bed with his healing factor finally kicking in.
"What happened Kakashi?" Hiruzen asked in a voice of barley concealed rage. No matter how many years he's been in his position. Even with the countless deaths and injuries he has seen. When it comes to those he cares for the outcome of what happens to them hits him hard. Especially when he forbade anyone form doing anything to either boy. When he heard what was the end result of the ploy the civilian council cooked up he truly was a barely concealed bottle ready to blow his top.
"Sir in which topic are you referring?" Kakashi responded to his Hokage.
"Are there multiple?"
"Well there's the matter of the mob tonight. Or there is what we discovered while the boys were in surgery when the doctors were listing off all that they found on the boys." Hiruzen had to take a visible breath of air hearing there was more than just the mob that happened to the boys.
"Start with the mob incident then let's move on to the other information the doctors informed you of during the operations."
"Yes sir" Kakashi responded without take his eye off Astier. "Sir the situation I cam upon in the park was disturbing to say the least. There were easily well over two or even three hundred civilians in the park cornering the boys against a tree. With Naruto pinned against a tree with Astier using his body as a shield against the villagers. There was a group of shinobi, around, thirty forming a barrier of sorts blocking the boys from reaching your office. I'm going to assume that the shinobi's presence was how the villagers got their confidence to do what they did. I'll be honest when I saw the husband of council women Haruno throw Astier-kun to the ground I lost my cool. I knew that if I rushed straight to the boys the shinobi might interfere. So I launched an assault against the shinobi. It took me a few moments to eliminate the threat, I mainly maimed or disabled so most should be alive for interrogation.
By the time the threat was eliminated I turned my attention back to the boys. What I saw stopped me cold. Naruto was bleeding from a deep wound in his chest, from a tanto that civilian Haruno was holding the blood on the blade was my confirmation. Then there was the matter that the villagers were throwing all manor of weapons at the boys. Astier used his body as something of a shield and blocked a majority of the makeshift weapons. His back was littered with a countless amount of knives and pieces of broken glass.
I went to make my way closer to the boys when I was forced to stop. Astier seemed to generate a massive wave of chakra that knocked to majority of the villagers off their feet. Neko arrived at my side at that time. I didn't want us to make our way closer until I knew what he was going to do with that amount of chakra. I observed that it easily was around my level of chakra, I know that he has a kekkai genkai from his birth mother and in case he was just acting in rage I didn't want to be on the receiving end of it. What happened next made my blood run cold. Out of Astier's back and his arms chains shot out in a spray of blood. Obviously activating for the fist time they acting more instinctually than with any form of control. Unlike Kushina-san's chains his were silver and appeared to have fire running down them, that and he only had four of them.
After everything I had seen in the last dozen of minutes I didn't think I could be surprised again. Then little Astier-kun just had to surprise me again. His chains are obviously nothing like Kushina-sans because when he launched them at the villagers they didn't physically touch any of them." Hiruzen went to stop Kakashi for clarification, not understanding what he was saying. When Kakashi himself continued on completely stopping Hiruzen from being able to even make a sound. "Astier-kun's chains went through people, not like an illusion, but everything organic they touched just turned into ash. I say organic because I watched the chains swing into the ground and just pass through. Though they went harmlessly through trees as well one even went through me in my daze and just harmless passed through my body. I can only think that they way they work is they harm anyone that he views as an enemy but can't or won't harm any neutral party or ally. Back to what I was explaining about the villagers.
The entire body did not just turn to ash but specifically were the chain touched. I watched as the chain passed right though civilian Haruno and he was bisected right through the his chest. Once he fell down to the ground dead I observed the clear lack of blood so it must have cauterized the wound. Once he was dead the chains passed though him like the ground and trees just like an illusion. So once the target is dead and not considered a threat then chains just treat them like air. It was almost like the chains had it's own sentience. After Astier killed, in self-defense I might add." Hiruzen just waved the Jounin off trying to hear the last of his report of the incident.
"Right, after Astier-kun killed roughly a hundred or so villagers his chains vanished into a wave of chakra and he fell to his knees. The civilians now even more in a rage went to kill the boys. That's when myself and Neko rushed forward to stop their advance. A few more ANBU rushed out of the shadows once I placed myself in front of the boys. Once I saw the civilians stop in their tracks at the sight of over ten ANBU standing inf front of them I turned to look closer at the boys. Naruto was barely breathing from the wound in his chest, besides some knives sticking our of his legs he did not have any other kind of injury. Astier of the other hand had a few cuts on his chest, countless wounds covering his back and legs. There was so much blood I honestly have no idea how he is still alive at this point. I ordered Neko to grab Naruto and follow me, I grabbed Astier and went beelined here since it was the closest hospital. They went under an operation to save their lives when we heard to doctors listing off the numerous things that they found with their diagnostic jutsus. I'll let Neko take over to explain what they found on Naruto because I need a moment to compose myself to tell you what they found on Astier." Kakashi visibly was shacking from either rage or sadness Hiruzen couldn't tell but he knew whatever it was that they said about Astier upset his ANBU captain greatly.
Hiruzen turned his attention to the young ANBU agent to hear what she had to say. She responded to his look with a bent knee and a salute as she began to tell him what she heard. She told him rather clinically, but he realized that she was doing all she could to not break into tears at the information she was telling him.
"Hokage-sama, when the doctor in charge of Naruto's case began his diagnostic scan of Naruto they found many old fractures that have never healed properly. While they all were in fact healed they must have been done so by either his… burden or by his mother's bloodline. Otherwise with the amount they found it would not have been able for him to move properly. The wound inflicted by civilian Haruno was grievous sir. It barely missed his heart by a very small margin and it caused one of his lungs to collapse. A repair was done but they were not able to properly repair the damage all the way. The wounds on his legs were also bad though they weren't as deep as the wound on his chest. Since we didn't remove the knives in his legs they were able to stich them up with no problems. The doctors will perform another operation tomorrow to properly fix his lung and to rebreak some of his bones to allow them to set properly once the swelling from the injuries today calms down some. They said though that between his burden and bloodline that they may not have to fix his lung but they will have to rebreak some of his bones if he want to be able to be a ninja sir." Hiruzen digested this information with shock. He had no idea that this boy had gone through so much. He will be doing some major clean up of this village when they boys wake up to give him a full account of the actions caused by either or both the villagers and his shinobi. He went to motion Kakashi to speak of Astier's situation when Neko interrupted him. "Sir they also mention something else." Hiruzen waved his hand for her to continue speaking. "Sir they stated from the state of his body and from what the scan said that Naruto is being fed maybe once a day or maybe every other day." The growl that came out of Kakashi and Hiruzen scared Neko a little bit. Not because they did because when she heard the doctor say that she responded the same way. No what scared her was the killing intent that hit her because she was the one that spoke those words. It took many moments for the men to calm down from that bit of information.
"Kak- "Hiruzen started to say before he was once again interrupted but this time by Kakashi raising his hand. Hiruzen stopped but this time waiting for Kakashi to collect himself. Both men knowing that what was about to come out of Kakashi's mouth he was not ready to speak yet. It took ruffly ten minutes for Kakashi to find his voice the time in that time both Neko and Hiruzen grew worried about the information. Kakashi was the youngest elite Jounin in the village and the youngest ANBU captain in the history of Konoha. The amount of horrible things that the man has both done and witnessed was an uncountable number. What was it about what they found out in Astier's operation that has made the man mute?
"Hokage-sama excuse my reflection. I was remembering what I was told, truthfully, I am doing everything I can to stay rooted to this chair. I know that my little brothers need me at this moment, but I honestly am trying to not go and kill who ever decided to either cause Naruto his injures and who decided that Astier… Sorry let me get on with what I was told." Kakashi took a deep breath, when he breathed out, he visibly slouched in his seat. "When the doctor in charge of Astier's operation preformed the Iryonin diagnostic scan of Astier-kun he found something extremely shocking, but we will comeback to that. Thanks to the civilians Astier had suffered from over twenty knife wounds in his back, he had five wounds in the back of his legs, three wounds in his chest and a few scratches in his arms. In the wounds in his back they also found countless shards of glass some of which found their way into his bloodstream forcing the doctors to stop his heart and blood flow briefly so that way they could remove them. They stated that if any of the glass found their way to his heart that it would have been shredded beyond repair." That bit of information made both Hiruzen's and Neko's face pale at the thought. Kakashi him self took a second before continuing.
"With the emergence of his chains Astier broke several vertebrae in his spine, as well as snaping his ulna and radius bones in both his arms. They were clean breaks and were easily repaired. He is also currently suffering from chakra exhaustion, the doctor made sure to tell me that his coils are in no danger. He said that they have already gone through junior maturity, what normally happens around ten or eleven near the end of the academy. That is no surprise to me because he awakened his chakra at birth along with his kekkai genkai. A full seven of so years before clan children normally do so, nine if we are talking about civilian children. The flame that the doctors explained to me was separate from the chains is still in his body. When he was scanning he said that there was a silver flame running though his blood stream, it was unobstructed and not causing any damage to Astier in fact it was slowly stopping the wounds from bleeding but not in any way he has ever seen before. He could not really explain to me what he was seeing inside Astier so we may have to hire a Hyuuga at some point to take a look at Astier, but not now.
What has me raging is what he explained to me before I could bring Astier to this room. He may not have all the breaks that Naruto has but in my personal opinion it is just as bad. The doctor explained that Astier does not have the muscle mass of a child. In fact he has almost no muscle as if-" Kakashi's explanation was interrupted by Hiruzen talking.
"I can explain that one. AS of around two years ago when I could make my trips out to the orphanage the matron told me that Astier was on bedrest due to an illness that they could not diagnose. Every time I could make the trip once every two weeks or so I came to take Naruto for ramen or to buy a toy Astier was on bed res-"
"SHUT UP" Kakashi interrupted his Hokage in a rare fit of rage. It startled Neko and Hiruzen in which the later looked from Astier to Kakashi with a glare in his eyes. When he looked at the jounin he almost wanted to shrink into his robes. Kakashi was glaring at him with so much rage that it made Hiruzen feel that he was going to be attacked if he so much as opened his mouth. The ANBU at his sides moved their hands to the Tantos on their backs but stopped immediately at a glare from their superior. They may have been ANBU for a year or so but the look Kakashi gave them even without KI made them feel as if the Shinigami himself was looking at them. It took a moment from Kakashi to calm down. Once he did, he continued.
"Sorry sir, I know that as well. When ever I went to the orphanage off duty to check up on him, I was always stopped by the matron. She always told me that he was resting from his illness. I told the doctor that as well. The doctor said that he could find no sign of any illness in Astier either past or present. If he ever had any kind of serious illness, he would have been able to find it in his body somewhere but he couldn't. The doctor said that the lack of muscle mass looked as if Astier spent the majority of his time in a bed. Not as if he were asleep, he found evidence that his arms had been used, sort of like an librarian's arms but the rest… He found no evidence that he ever played like a child or even spent much time walking, the lack of muscles in certain areas just went to confirm his theory. Then he told… he said…" Kakashi let out yet another long sigh. This time everyone was wise enough to not interrupt him again.
"The doctor said that he could find truly little evidence of Astier eating. Not as if he had an eating disorder but as if he were not supplied regularly with food. The last time Astier had anything to eat was over four days ago. There was further evidence in the fact that he has an exceedingly small stomach. As if he regularly goes many days without eating at all. Furthermore with the size of his stomach any meals that he is given are extremely small, like a bowl of rice. He said that the symptoms between his muscles and stomach are what you would normally find in a POW that has been locked up for at minimum a year or more. Lack of muscles in his legs, arms moderately worked but not in the way of a workout, lack of eating and regularly starves. Sir, in both my opinion from the explanation and the opinion of the doctor it looks like Astier has been living the life of a prisoner since the last time you laid eyes on him. I am trying to restrain myself because this kind of evidence, sounds a lot like what we give to our worst prisoner. The ones locked up in the sub-levels of T&I. And someone did it to Astier, a five-year-old child. The child of our former Hokage, my sensei."
When Kakashi finished his explanation and rant everyone in the room fell into a deep silence. Neko walked over to Kakashi and sat beside him in the nearby chair. She laid a hand on his shoulder, that he grabbed for support. Hiruzen noticed that her shoulders were shaking from her quiet sobs. Hiruzen himself had to grab the shoulder of one of his nearby ANBU to stop himself from falling from shock, looking like he aged decades in a few seconds. The ANBU with Hiruzen could barely keep still, both of them had a hand on their Tanto. They both were restraining themselves from running immediately towards the orphanage and killing everyone there with extreme prejudice.
The entire room was stirred from their thoughts by the sounds of someone waking up. They all looked to Astier finding him still resting, then they turned their eyes towards Naruto. They watched as he woke up and looked around. He saw Hiruzen but ignored him still looking around. His eyes locked unto Astier and he sighed in relief. He then looked around the room towards the rest of the inhabitants. His eyes roamed over Hiruzen again but this time he locked onto the elderly man. He wheezed a few times before croaking out "Jiji… Jiji… wa-water?"
Hiruzen realizing that Naruto's throat was dry and he couldn't speak properly. The elderly man walked over to the young blonde child and reached towards his bedside table for a cup and the pitcher of water. He poured a cup and handed it over to the child. Naruto promptly dropped the cup onto the floor which shattered the glass. The eyes of pure fear that looked up at Hiruzen made him feel even worse than he already did. Hiruzen poured another cup for Naruto as he did he assured the boy with a smile that he wasn't in trouble. Hiruzen himself helped Naruto take a few sips of water before Naruto let out a sigh that he was good.
"Jiji is what he said true?" Naruto asked with a tone off voice that to everyone in the room felt like hope.
"What who said Naruto?" Hiruzen asked genially confused.
"Him." Naruto said while pointing at Astier.
"What did he say Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen said looking at the other in the room for help. They all shrugged and motioned towards Naruto.
"He said that he was my. Brother? But I do not ever remember seeing him before today. He just came up to me this afternoon and stopped me from walking away from the orphanage and pulled me into a hug. He said he was sorry. But I don't understand why he was apologizing. We were coming to the tower to talk with you Jiji. I was going to ask you for an explanation he said he had to talk to you about something else though." Naruto asked while looking at Astier in a hopeful but suspicions tone of voice. Everyone in the room just looked at Naruto with a gaze of sadness and pity for not knowing who your own brother was. Kakashi joined Neko in crying silently at that statement.
"Naruto-kun first off yes he is your brother. In fact he is your older brother. Secondly, what do you mean that you don't know who he is? I ask you every time that I came to see you how he is doing." Hiruzen asked while placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder.
"If your talking about that Tier-kun that your always talking about I never knew who that was but the amount of warmth you always said his name in I realized if I said something wrong you'd get sad. So I always said he was fine. When I asked the old witch about it later she said to always tell you he's fine. When I asked who he was she said it wasn't my business and if I wanted dinner I should never bring it up again. So I just assumed it was another child in the orphanage that you checked up on like me." Hiruzen and co. were all struggling to fight back the urge to find and kill the old crone. One to ANBU from the Hokage's protection detail was subbtaly making his way out of the room to do just that but was caught when he opened the door.
"And what are you doing Tora?" Kakashi asked with a surprisingly calm tone.
"What we are all thinking. I don't think I can hold myself back much longer. She kept two brothers the only blood family they have left in the world apart from each other long enough that a young child like Naruto could forget his own brother. I'm not blaming him, but her." The larger masked man responded.
"What makes you think you have more of a claim to take her out then me, Neko, or even the Hokage here?" Tora quickly realized that he was overstepping they may all be feeling the same way but there were others much closer to the boys that had more of a claim to her life than he did. Tora quickly shut the door and stepped back to his partner's side. Naruto watched all of this in confusion to his young mind. He did realize pretty quickly though that the unconscious boy in the bed next to him was truly his brother.
"Naruto." Hiruzen said getting the boys attention. "Before you were saying that you two were coming to see me. Do you know what Astier-kun wanted to talk to me about? Can you tell me what happened today?"
"He said something about how we were free now. I was kicked out of the orphanage this afternoon, I met him right after that. Then he said something about how he was locked in his room for two years or something like that before he broke free. When he said that I noticed that he had these really deep wounds on his leg and arm. When we started to head to your office Jiji and he couldn't really walk. He said that fell from a third story window. We barely moved and no matter how many times I asked him if he wanted to stop, because he never stopped bleeding, he kept looking back at the crowd that was following us. He said he was fine, but I knew he was lying. Then we got to the park that's right before the your office Jiji. Then well… I think you already know that…" Naruto cut him self of with a look of sadness and a yawn. Everyone in the room watched him as his eyelids fluttered with tiredness. He looked over at Astier and tried his hardest to stay awake. Surprisingly Kakashi was the one to speak up.
"Don't worry Naruto-kun he will be here when you wake up. I will stay here all night and watch over you two." The response Naruto gave surprised everyone even more than Kakashi speaking.
"Thanks, Inu see you in the morning then."
"How?" Kakashi sputtered out in response.
"Good… Nose." Then Naruto passed out.
"Kakashi, Neko please watch over them for me. Tora, Saru we're leaving, and we are going to track down every member of that mob. Before that though we are going to round up every adult of the orphanage and we are going to take everyone to T&I, Ibiki will determine who stays and who is not required. The matron though needs no investigation. We will be giving a public death tomorrow afternoon and we will remind the civilians that this is a Shinobi village and that them trying to rule over our citizens like they are in charge is over as of tonight. Even if that take the death of every member of that mob. Is that understood."
"Hai Hokage-sama!"
"Kakashi I will be leaving an ANBU outside the door. After you have had a chance to talk to the boys. Please send her to fetch me."
"Yes Hiruzen-sama.
AN: Alright this was all I had pre-written. When I find my Naruto muse again, I will come back to this story. Currently I am focusing on my Harry Potter Fanfiction. I do not abandon my works. If I have to I will put Harry on hold to work on this. I have the outline up until the forth Shinobi war already planned out. It's just the filler I would have to work on. The Potter Idea has just overwhelmed my thoughts and refused to leave.
