Kakashi's View:

Besides Gai and Lee getting seasick, the boat ride was uneventful. The hardest part had been keeping Aurora entertained and from playing hide and seek. She'd disappeared twice, one of those times Neji had to use his Byakugan. She was a little too good, her Hōzuki blood proving to be more of a pain than I thought.

Once on shore, we made sure to get our green clad men steady on their feet before we moved. Both of them praised the ground, which caught unwanted attention from some of the natives, but no one approached.

The guards that had been on the ship escorted us through the city to make sure we didn't get lost.

Kirigakure hadn't changed much since my last visit, other than there was snow on the ground. There we a few new buildings and it looked like the old ones we being fixed up, but most were still in near ruin. This area had been plagued by war and violence for so long, it was a wonder anything was left standing.

Aurora had her hood down and was looking at all of the buildings. Konoha didn't have anything quite like this, seeing as we never really had an internal war within our walls. The Uchiha clan massacre was the closest we had to it. As tragic as that had been, it didn't compare to the wrongful slaughter that happened for years here.

"Why are the buildings broken?" She asked, taking my hand to keep closer.

"There was a war here." There had actually been may internal wars here. "This village suffered a lot of civil disputes. The buildings were broken in the process." I explained it to her.

The Mizukage's office was within sight, or I guessed it was; it was the widest building in the village and the only one not in ruin.

The watch of the two Kiri ANBU near the Mizukage had me uneasy. Both of them were watching Aurora, ignoring the two Jonin and three genin with her. This is bad...The gut feeling of things about to head south was rising up again.

"Is that anyway to greet guests?" The woman at the desk broke the tension in the air. Her tone was accusing them of being rude. "Apologies, we're still getting used to the idea of visitors." She said as she stood, taking the Mizukage hat off of her head, revealing her face.

"Thank you for taking the time to see us, Lady Mizukage!" Gai put his hands on his waist, but he wasn't the one Mei had her eyes on. She was looking directly at me.

"Well, if I had known they were going to send the villages most eligible men, I might have prepared better." Maa...I see…

"My Lady, I doubt that's what they are here for." The man next to her commented, an angry look crossed her face.

"We came here for answers." I dispelled her rage. The Mizukage looked back to me then to the form tugging at my cloak. Aurora must have felt overwhelmed by the mix of feelings and chakras in the air, as a small spot of frost appeared where she was touching my cloak. Her bunny also had a growing spot of frost across its belly. That's why they were staring...

"Right." Mei knelt down in front of us, catching Aurora's questioning gaze. "I'm sure you have more questions than us grown ups, huh?" The auburn haired woman smiled warmly at her. I had to look away from Mei, the angle she was at, I could see straight down her shirt. I had a feeling it was intentional.

After shooing the ANBU away and posting Gai's team outside the door, she had Aurora and I sit in front of her desk.

"I want to thank you for coming, Kakashi-san." Lady Mei said as she sat on the edge of the desk, closest to me. "I know what you must be thinking, why bother coming here if we've seen the reports about everything. But I had to be sure she wasn't just a myth." Aurora stopped fidgeting with the bunny while she sat on my lap, listening intently to Mei.

"If you mean her Hōzuki bloodline, I'm aware." It shocked her to know that I knew about it already. "I...read some files." Not fully admitting I broke into our villages own classified record room. "She'd also shown her Yuki bloodline. That's the one she can't control." Mei's green eyes flashed with concern.

"I wasn't aware she was showing signs until you showed up. She must be cautious here, there's still some that hold on to Kiri's old ways." Aurora squirmed under her gaze, slipping slowly off of my lap. I let her, knowing she wouldn't leave my side. "Could you show me?" The Mizukage smiled softly, directing the question at her and earning a shy smile from Aurora.

"Ok." She had made the room cold before she even finished saying it, the frost creeping from under her feet as she formed tiny ice crystals around her. It was a new thing she had learned while on the boat, much to my dismay. She had no control over them yet, so they spun in lazy, wide circles around her. Lady Mei just looked stunned.

"Their bloodline is so rare...even I haven't seen it up close." She seemed frozen in place. Aurora looked at me, worried that she did something wrong. The ice turned an odd yellow-green, a color I hadn't seen before. "Colored ice? Hm, or is it more a reflection of her chakra?" she wondered out loud, pulled from her stunned wonderment.

"It seems to reflect her emotions." I confirmed, hoping she'd know something more.

"Hm...I wonder." She moved towards Aurora, who unknowingly made the ice into sharp needles. This spooked even her, making them fly around the room. Thankfully, Lady Mei was quick and deflected any aimed at her.

"Oops…" Aurora said shyly, not meaning for that to happen.

"Heh...I see. I will not harm you, little one. But I do think I know what's causing the colors." She knelt to her height again. "The water you're using isn't just pulled from the air, but a part of yourself. The Hōzuki clan can turn to water, but the Yuki clan jutsus pull water from the air around or the person's body. The water pulled from your body reacts more to your emotions, the ice refracting a color you associate with that feeling." Aurora and I hadn't been aware that she was pulling water from her own body.

"What does that mean?" Aurora tilted her head, looking like a puppy just then.

"For now, nothing. One day though, you might be able to make each color do something different." Lady Mei gently smoothed her hand over her braided hair in an almost motherly way. "For now, try to focus on pulling only water from around you." It was left unsaid that pulling from herself could be extremely dangerous. If she pulled too much, she'd dehydrate herself to the point she'd get severely ill, or worse, die.

After meeting Aurora, she asked to speak with me alone. I dearly hoped Lady Mei wouldn't flirt anymore, but she did and it wasn't like I could yell at her to stop it.

"So, how does a man like you end up raising a baby all alone?" She was perched on the edge of the desk again, leaning over with her arm on her knee. She held her head up with her hand, and I knew she knew I had a perfect view of her cleavage. It wasn't to say I didn't enjoy it, I just didn't have any interest. I had Iruka, he was all I needed.

"Well...I wasn't completely alone. It just so happened, I was at the right place at the right time." Or the wrong time, depending on how you looked at it. I considered it dumb luck at the time. "A rouge ninja had gotten from our grasp. I found her while after them." A soft smiled crossed her lips.

"No one else has raised her though?" She was asking if she'd been fostered first. I shook my head, which seemed to please her for some reason. "How responsible…" She was getting a strange pleasure from hearing I was a good father.

"Maa...Iruka was there to help so…" Her eagerness to hear more seemed to go down after that. "He and I kind of raised her together." She finally got the hint, and sat up a little straighter.

"How old was she when this started." She looked towards a puddle on the floor from Aurora's ice. She was now trying very hard to hide the fact it upset her to hear I was with someone.

"Hmm...after her third birthday. Is that early?" Judging by her face, it wasn't.

"Actually, it usually starts at age two. Maybe she's just a late bloomer." Mei waved it off as nothing more than that. "Did you find anything else with her parents?" I wasn't sure what she was alluding to.

"The man was nothing more than a torso when we found him. The woman had her throat cut from ear to ear. As far as I know, they were murdered and not looted." I hadn't read about items found on them, I was focused on other things at the time.

"I see." Was all she said.

"Do you know who they were?" This made Lady Mei go stock still.

"Yes…" She hesitated, knowing I knew about her possible father. "Mangetsu Hōzuki and Hanako. It wasn't known to us that she had been a Yuki until after…" She paused, referring to Aurora. "I'm unsure of all the details, but from fractured stories and rumors, we were able to pull together a basic timeline. They met after he had become one of the Seven Swordsmen. Something went horribly wrong and the war over kekkei genkai broke out. They must have fled to birth their child in secret. This resulted in them being tracked down and hunted. Obviously it hadn't been successful, but their child survived."

I took it all in, reeling at the fact a cold blooded killer like him had found love, begot a child and then died protecting her. It was tragic, but his death hadn't been unwarranted. It brought my thoughts back to Zabuza, only at death did he realize the love he had missed out on. It seemed even killers had hearts, too.

"So there's no link on to where Hanako came from?" I asked after a moment.

"The Yuki clan was scattered throughout the land, but very few survived. I can think of maybe two I have ever heard of." She had settled back again. "Now do you see why I called you here? I couldn't really send a bird about this, someone else might have gotten it."

True...if word got out of her parentage, she'd be hunted for a different reason. That wasn't going to stop people from trying to use her for her powers though. They would either kill her for the sins of her father's crimes, or use her for their own gain. I'm glad she wasn't found here…

The meeting had taken over an hour, and by then Lady Mizukage had answered everything she could. There were still some unknowns, but none of those questions could be answered. The ones who knew them were long dead.

Gai's team was already in the dining area when I came out of her office, happily enjoying some rest and warm food. Gai and Lee seemed to be competing about who could eat the most pork buns and Aurora was learning what crab legs were. TenTen was helping her open the shells and watched as delight lit up her face when she tried it. I'd never hear the end of it and knew she had a new favorite food.

"Maa, made yourselves at home?" I gave them an eye smile as I joined them. Aurora showed me a crab claw, demonstrating how it opened and closed for me. I cracked it, showing her the meat inside, but she was upset that I had broken the claw. I had clearly misread her intentions.

There were three bed rooms set up for us, which was rather odd considering the women on the team usually got a separate room. Privacy reasons and all that. Thankfully they each had two beds. Gai decided he and I would stay together in the far left room, the girls got the room in the middle and Lee and Neji would share the last room. Neji wasn't pleased to share a room with his very loud teammate, but it had been split up fairly. It was either that or Neji and I shared a room, and that held less appeal to him.

I was not surprised, however, when Aurora changed her mind last second and wanted to stay with me. TenTen was only slightly hurt, but understood that this was a new place and was very scary for her.

That's how I ended up with her in my bed, but it didn't explain why Gai had chosen to stay in the same bed with us. I was annoyed, but at least both of them were sound asleep. I just couldn't escape from their holds. Aurora was on my right, curled up against my side with my arm under her head. Gai had ahold of my left arm, spooning it in his sleep. Why did I get stuck with him again? I wondered if this was what Neji was putting up with too, and why we hadn't let the two idiots share a room.

I woke up to Gai letting Aurora jump on the other bed. She knew better, but then again if a grown up had said it was ok…

"Aurora…" I warned, which made her flop down on her butt immediately. She hadn't known I was awake.

"Gai said I could." She shifted the blame, but knew she was still in trouble.

"If Gai said to jump off a cliff, would you?" She shook her head, pouting a little. "Then don't do it if you know better." She threw herself face down onto the now messy bed. I had been unused until Gai let her do that.

"Kakashi, my rival, she's a child! Let her have a little fun." Gai said, coming out of the adjoining bathroom. "She won't hurt anything." Except it was undermining my teaching of manners.

"I'd appreciate it if you stayed out of it." I snapped, knowing he'd drop it now. Or at least he should have…

"Ah, come now, what harm is there in letting a child have a little fun?" I could think of a thousand ways jumping on the bed could hurt her, but I wasn't interested in arguing anymore.

"Go get ready for the day." My tone was a little harsher than I meant to, but Aurora quietly obeyed. Today was going to be a test against my patience.

As Lady Mei had told us, we were permitted into the Kirigakure library for research reasons. She hoped we could find more information on some old scroll there. So far, most of the Yuki scrolls had missing information, torn from them or the paper was too fragile and had crumbled away. Most you had to handle with special gloves. Aurora was told to keep from those and let us read them to her. Sadly, it was nothing new. The vital pieces were just gone, Kiri had been adamant about erasing the clans and their history. Even just keeping this much around had to have been difficult.

"Even this book doesn't hold anything…" TenTen sighed in frustration as she closed the giant leather book. It held the history of the ancient clans of the area, but nothing more than descriptions of each of their abilities. It also held names, but it was left to ruin when the clan slaughtering started. No new information had been written in it in years.

"I'm starting to think they know as much as we do." I was carefully rolling a scroll back together, this one at least had information on where she should be at by age seven. She should be able to perform the technique of Demonic Ice Mirrors by then, but it also described the brutal training the children of the past went through to achieve this. I wasn't going to make her train until she coughed up blood. No one in their right mind would.

"So this trip was pointless?" Neji asked, rereading a torn scroll, trying to fill in the missing pieces with another book nearby.

"Not at all." I assured him. I had actually learned much more about where she came from and the reasoning behind how she got to Konoha. A tragic love story and a harsh lesson on how the past can catch up to you. I was sure if Mangetsu had chosen a different path, he and Hanako would be raising Aurora together. How different would she be if she had them? Would she be the kind hearted little girl she is now? I wasn't even sure of the name her parents had given to her. Though Hōzuki tradition would have her name ending in Tsu. Or maybe starting with Tsu, as it was mostly boy names that ended with it.

"Kakashi, does this help?" Gai thrust a small, purple book in my face, the movement making me almost tear the scroll I was holding. The book was open on a page about Hōzuki clan techniques. The book was old looking, but the information was nothing new. I almost turned him away when I saw threw a tear, on the next page was a family tree.

I grabbed the book, turning the page to get a better look. The writing was newer towards the bottom and had the last two Hozuki brothers listed. Written in different handwriting was Hanako's name and a line connecting her name to Mangetsu's. Underneath their names was written Tsukiko.

My heart dropped, this had been on one of her parents. Did the Mizukage know of this book? What this what she meant on if I found anything? Now I knew her given name I guess…

"This is…" I started, Gai looking over my shoulder and realized what was on the page.

"A beautiful name." He said softly, so the others wouldn't hear. "You think this Hanako-chan wrote this?" The penmanship looked like a woman may have wrote it, but some men had similar writing.

"No idea." I carefully closed the book, mindful of the binding. It had water damage and looked like at one point was completely submerged. That was the reason it looked older than it was.

TenTen later found a bigger book that held more of the family tree than the small one in the book Gai found. It did not have Hanako or...Tsukiko's name. I had a hard time thinking of Aurora by that name. It didn't hold anything more than the names of different clans men, so it wasn't as useful as first thought. I did notice each clans men who had died had a line through their name.

That night I had been able to get out of the hold of Gai and Aurora to explore the book. I hadn't exactly asked to take it, so it was better they didn't know I had it. I snuck out to the balcony to read in the moonlight. It was cold, but this information proved to be worth it.

I found the margins full of notes on different ways this member had discovered each technique. Based on this, I concluded it had been Mangetsu's, but Hanako had written in the family tree extension. It differed from the writing in the margins. This book also appeared to have belong to their father before Mangetsu got a hold of it. It was also written all by hand, so it had to have been a direct relatives. This book is just a condensed, pocket sized version of the bigger ones in the library…With way more information packed into it as it held more personal information.

Second to last page was smeared, but it was a letter. It was hard to read, but if I wasn't mistaken it was directed to Tsukiko. I uncovered my Sharingan, seeing if I could use it to piece together any gaps. All I could decipher was a little less than half of it.

I know we may never meet, but know that we love you….

I hope your life….and you are well loved and cared for

Your father and I wished to be there, but we knew it wasn't meant to be. Forgive me for leaving you here.

We love you, Tsukiko.

-mom and dad

It wasn't a letter to her...it was to an adoption center, apologizing to her about having to do it.

Of course it was...they knew they'd be hunted down and killed, so their plan was to take her as far away from Kirigakure and put her up for adoption. The truth wasn't what I expected, but it showed how much they were willing to do to keep her alive. They'd given up everything to do so. I tucked the note into my pants pocket, keeping it for Aurora. It was meant for her and no one else. I reread the book with my eye uncovered, memorizing every word for later use. I still had to put this book back before someone noticed.

It took all night, but I had returned the book with only one person noticing. The librarian he been rather pissed, but I lied and told him I thought it was open all night. He scolded me, telling me I was lucky I was a guest of the Mizukage. I guessed I'd have been arrested otherwise.

I'd even managed to slip pass Neji, who was up after feeling me leave the room. I explained I was bored and needed some air and he left it at that.

I did not make it back to the bed in time to be there when Aurora awoke. She walked out of the bathroom as I came rolling back into the room, ducking from the guard on the other rooftop.

"Father?" She sounded sleepy still. "What're you doing?" It must have been odd for her to see me just coming in when she thought I had been in the other bed.

"Er...I was out for a walk." The look she gave me told me, she was onto my lies. She was used to some of them by now though. "Just keep it secret, ok?" She knew that a promise of sweets would come if she listened.

Since we were here to look for answers about her family, Aurora decided to ask everyone about theirs. TenTen and Lee's stories we similar, both were orphaned at a young age and came to find their own ways. Neji explained his family was complicated and left it at that. I understood that it was hard for him to talk about it all still.

Gai answered her as passionately as ever, telling her all about his father. Even going so far as to tell him of his sacrifice and crying all the way through. I really wished he hadn't, seeing as Maito Dai took out four of the original Legendary Seven Swordsmen and we were standing at the docks. We got lucky that Kiri-nin weren't nearby or within earshot of us. I couldn't deal with any more hateful looks from them this week. Thankfully we were leaving today, having exhausted all of the history books of anything new.

When his story ended, he and Lee were in tears and Aurora was left with a sense of what he went through. She might not have thought it was a possibility of me not coming back from a fight before, but now she did. The look she gave me made me sad, and I chose not to tell her about my family.

"Another time…" I promised, but I might never tell her. It still hurts me, even after all this time. I promise, I won't leave you like that.

I was exhausted by the time we got home. The way home hadn't gone as easy as on the way there. We were ambushed a day after we landed back in Fire Country, the ninja were ex-kiri. They wanted Aurora dead and had tried their hardest, but they were against me.

"She cannot be allowed to live!" One of them proclaimed as they attacked. TenTen was quick to cover Aurora while we dealt with them. One of them nearly trapped her in a water prison jutsu, despite TenTen being there. I got a little lost in my head after that, only thinking of protecting her and not thinking about killing in front of her.

It took her looking at me with those fear filled eyes to realize what had done. She wasn't looking at me, just the blood dripping from my kunai and hand. I may have made a huge mistake in doing that, and regretted that I had been the one to show her, sometimes the only choice was them or you.

I chose to take the lead in the team formation from then on, not wanting to see Aurora's face. The feeling of running away came back and it was very hard to stop myself. I wasn't grounded anymore. I need Iruka…

Gai had noticed I wasn't there since the attack and thankfully kept Aurora distracted. He'd set her in his lap when we rested and played with her and her bunny. I wished to be there, but my mind was stuck in ANBU mode.

The sight of the gates was a blessing, knowing I'd be home soon and Iruka could help me through this. When I had I become so dependant on him?

I hated myself and the fact that I let her see that side of me. Iruka had taken care of Aurora, making sure that she didn't go to bed hungry. I couldn't bring myself to be there, so I stayed on the rooftop. He came to get me after she went to sleep, scolding me gently about being out in the cold.

The moment we got to our room, I pinned him to the wall, kissing him hard, biting his lower lip, until he couldn't breathe. I needed to feel him, to feel that we were still alive. By the time I pushed him into the bed, I'd torn off most of his clothes. He looked a little miffed by the ripped shirt, but I couldn't help myself.

I was glad that he didn't ask about why I was like this and let me do whatever I wanted. I felt guilty for taking advantage of him, but he wasn't complaining. He seemed to be enjoying himself. I was kind of proud on how I could get him to beg like a whore.

We hadn't gone that hard since...well I wasn't sure now if we ever had. I had my head laid on his chest, his heartbeat the only thing soothing me right now. I felt more grounded, but my mind was still caught up in what happened.

"I'm sorry…" I didn't realize I had said it out loud.

"Hm?" He asked sleepily, just about to pass out. I didn't want to talk about the mission, so I let my mind drift back to how I felt during our love making.

"Did I...did I hurt you?" I looked over his bare chest, the bruises were starting to form from my kisses, at least the harsh bite mark I left on his shoulder wasn't bleeding any more. His brown eyes were still glazed over, but he wasn't completely gone.

"I think I'm fine….." He smiled down at me, wincing a little bit when he shifted to look at me better. "I'll heal, and…" he scratched his scar across his nose, blushing. "I really liked it." If he wasn't careful, I'd be giving it to him again.

"Maa...if I had known that, I would have done it sooner." Joking with him, but I didn't miss the blush darken. He really was more kinky than I thought.

Forgoing the offer to ravish his body again, I settled with tucking my head under his chin and holding him. I felt the air change a little around him. I had inadvertently alerted him to the turmoil in my mind by cuddling him this way. Damn it…

"What happened?" He asked, brushing his lips against my forehead as he ran his hand through my hair.

"Nothing…" I lied, but he knew this. He frowned, but didn't push it. Iruka knew better than to push someone after a hard mission. He pulled me closer, and I happily pressed into his chest. I could tell him more tomorrow.