Aurora's View:

Ever since that old man had attacked, I hadn't been allowed to go anywhere alone. Dad was with me most of the time, other times it was with the old woman next door. I tried to tell him that she was evil, but he didn't believe me. He thought I was being dramatic. I knew she hisses like a cat when she's mad though…

I was also forced to wear longer sleeve shirts, which meant I had to wear the orange yukata Ino had gotten me. The orange color was brighter than my hair, but in the sun light my hair looked like the same color. Even the white band around the neck and the white obi tie would reflect the color. The kids around town teased me for looking like a pumpkin. Dad assured me I was a cute pumpkin, but I didn't like the nickname.

Dad let me come to class today, saying that I had to try not to be a distraction. I couldn't help it, some of the kids just watched me instead of paying attention. I wasn't doing anything but reading and coloring in the corner near the window, to me it wasn't all that interesting. Some of the girls called me cute while others whispered about me.

"Class! I know we have a guest today, but please pay attention." Dad yelled, causing everyone to jump and quickly look towards the board. I watched dad pinch the bridge of his nose and sigh. "Alright, I know it's close to school getting out for the year. Let's go outside." Everyone cheered. "Meet out by the training targets!" He yelled over them as they filed outside.

"Can go too?" I asked after the class was cleared out. He gave me a sympathetic look.

"Well...alright, but stay right by me, ok?" He caught me as I gave him a flying hug. "Ok, ok, come on. Let's get down there before anyone has the chance to hurt themselves."

The kids in dad's class weren't that good at throwing kunai. I thought the older kids would be better than me. One kid kept missing completely, others got close but never hit the target. I knew it wasn't ok to judge, but even I could've hit these targets. It might not be dead center like father's kunai, but it was close. The kids feet weren't even in the right position. I looked towards dad, but he was helping a different kid. I bit my lip, deciding I could help a little bit and walked up behind him.

"Y-you should put your foot back." The kid turned, glaring at me.

"What would a little kid like you know?" He scoffed, turning and hitting the tree behind the target. He got really mad and turned back to me. "You made me miss!" That wasn't true at all.

"I was trying too…" I tried to tell him I was trying to help, but he wasn't listening.

"If you think you can do it better, than show us!" I knew he was trying to make me look stupid, but I took the kunai anyway. I looked over to see dad had overheard and was coming towards us. Before he could take it away, I threw the kunai, hitting the target in the blue circle. All the kids, and dad, looked stunned

"That had to be dumb luck!" A kid I recognized, Konohamaru, called over from the other side of the yard. The kid who had teased me gave me another kunai.

"Show us again!" He told me, trying to get me to take it before shoving it into my hand. "Come on!" I sighed, not liking everyone watching me, but threw the kunai again. This time it was just off center.

"No way!"

"How can she do that?! She's just a little kid."

"Alright, enough!" Dad finally called over the class. "Ten laps, now!" Everyone groaned, complaining it was too hot, but went to run around the track anyway.

"Aurora…" I looked up to see dad standing over me with his hands on his hips.

"I wanted to help…" I looked down, pushing dirt around with the toe of my left shoe.

"I know." He knelt down. "But you can't do my job for me." He ruffled my hair, making me pout. "Hm...you've given me something to think about here…"

"What?" I asked as he stood back up to watch the class.

He smiled but didn't explain himself.

Father finally came home after almost two months on a mission. Dad wanted me to clean my room and I wasn't allowed to come down until it was clean. I heard him downstairs talking with dad, but he sounded worried. He looked really concerned about something when he finally came up to my room.

"Father!" I called as I ran to him to hug him. He didn't kneel down like usual. "What's wrong?" I asked, tugging on his sleeve, thinking I'd done something wrong.

"Maa..." He ruffled my hair, knowing I hated that. "I hear you had quite the adventure while I was gone." He finally knelt down, allowing me to wrap my arms around his neck. "Care to tell me about it?"

Kakashi's View:

I picked her up as she told me all about the "old man" that caught her in the woods. She and I sat on her bed, her in my lap, as she told me what he did.

"I see. He hurt you?" I knew he had, Tenzō told me everything. Iruka had no idea who had done it, and it was to stay that way. Danzō's appearance since the Third's death was concerning. No one knew of his plans anymore, seeing as he wasn't supposed to be here anymore. His ROOT had been disbanded when Tsunade came to power, but it didn't seem to deter him.

Aurora nodded, pulling at her right sleeve. "I..I'm not supposed to show you…"

"It's ok to show me. Tsunade filled me in." It was a lie, but she would at least open up thinking the Hokage had said to. She pulled up her sleeve, showing me the binding seal. Leave it to Danzō to make one designed just for her. It was bound to her chakra, making it very difficult to remove. I couldn't without risking hurting her or possibly damaging her chakra network in the process.

"Maa...you're very brave to go through that." It had to have hurt, chakra sealing was known to burn like hell. I ran my hand over it, thinking on how to break it.

"Can you get it off?" Her eyes were full of hope, I didn't want to crush it.

"I can't say for sure, but I know we'll find something." Or make him pay, whichever happened to come first. I hoped it was the latter, the old bastard has had is coming for a long time.

Aurora and I found out the next day how badly the mark affected her. She had been told not to try using ninjutsu and had done the best she could. Today though, I wanted her to.

Outside, I had filled a bucket of water for her to practice some of her water jutsus, but she couldn't. That was very unlike her, seeing as she had been able to make it into ice crystals and water bubbles since she was two. Now...she couldn't even make it ripple. The chakra she had left to use after the seal filtered it out was too weak.

"Why can't I do it?" She was upset, rightfully so.

"It's that seal…" I was looking at the small ripples in the water, seeing they did react a little to her emotions still. "I might have a counter seal...but…" I looked up to her, hoping she understood there was a chance it would not work.

The seal was trapping her chakra inside of her body, preventing her from casting any jutsu. In theory, a release seal over it would allow it to open. That was the theory...it was convincing Tsunade to let me do it was the hard part. I knew she had heard about the attack, what I didn't know was that she had seen the seal already and didn't even want to risk trying the Gedo Seal Release on her. We still had to do something, it could later be used to control her and use her against us. It wasn't a thought I wanted to have.

"Lady Tsunade, I get you don't want to because it could hurt her, but we have to try." Aurora's ice powers were the only thing keeping her safe. Sure, they were also the reason she was hunted, but sealing it was the worst option for her.

"Kakashi, I've never seen or heard of a seal like that before. For all we know it could make her explode." Tsunade argued.

"Let me try…" I was begging her, but managed to keep my voice at its normal volume.

"Bring her in then…" She gave in, not wanting me to try on my own. "I won't risk her life." Aurora was brought in, having waited outside with the ANBU at the door. I'm sure they were annoyed by her questioning of what they did all day.

Of course Aurora protested. She didn't want to come down to the scary basement at the hospital. However it was were they did all of their sealing jutsus. I had to admit, Aurora had a point. It was dark, damp and only lit by sparsely placed candles.

I had to carry her inside, the entire time she hid her face in the crook of my neck. I felt her hold on me tighten the closer we got to the sealing room. I was thankful she wasn't really strong yet or she would have hurt me.

"Daddy, why are we here?" She really is scared.

"To try to get the mark on your arm off." I was trying to get her to let go just a little so I could breathe better. "I promise no one will hurt you." No while I'm here…

Tsunade led us into a room on the left, inside where two other ninja, the sealing experts. Shizune was the lead of this team and had been going over something when we came in.

"There you are! Shall we get started?" Shizune was trying to be positive but it came off a bit frantic. Aurora tried to bury closer, but she was as close as she could get. Shizune noticed she scared her and got a little self conscious for it.

"Kakashi." Tsunade looked to me and then to the center of the room. She needed Aurora to be set there, alone, while I helped break the seal.

I set her down, but she didn't want to let go. I knelt to her height again, making her stand on her feet.

"I know you're scared, but you need to be a big girl for me right now, ok?" I put her forehead against mine. "It's ok, I'll be right here if you need me." She bit her lip, a nervous habit she had picked up, before nodding and sitting down. "That's my girl." I gave her shoulders a soft squeeze before stepping back. "I need you to take off you kimono ok?" I had to write up her arm and around the seal still and couldn't do it with it on. She was shy about it, but she was still wearing the tank top with the mask and white shorts. I let her put her mask up, wondering why Iruka made her tuck it away every time he saw her.

"Ready?" I asked, pricking my finger with a kunai and started writing around the seal. She was a little freaked out about me having to use my blood, but I told her I was fine. This seal release had been modified as well, seeing as her seal was a modified binding curse seal. Tsunade needed the seal itself sealed in order to even attempting to remove it. This is where we all came in, in case it didn't work the experts were there to reverse what I did.

I stepped back, making sure she wasn't going to run to me before taking my place outside of the sealing circle. I made the hand signs, the words in my blood circling the mark and placing a different binding seal over it. She cried, but other than that she was ok. I knew the next part wasn't going to go the same way. She looked up at me, but I couldn't go to her just yet.

"Everyone be ready…"Tsunade said, stepping forward and placing her own marks on each point of the bigger square of the curse seal. She then touched the center, the marks and the seal turning red.

I stopped myself from running to Aurora when she screamed, knowing Tsunade was doing her best. I watched the seal rotate clockwise until it was more like a diamond than a square. The floor under them got a light frost over it, but Aurora jerked and made the seal go to far and back into a square formation. This caused the seal to reverse completely, releasing all of her chakra in one quick burst. The entire room froze, and I watched in horror as Aurora herself started to turn to ice.

"Shizune!" Tsunade yelled, making the burnette call her teammate forward to the edge of the circle. With their help, they got it to turn back to the diamond formation, but the damage was done. "Set the room for emergency surgery!" Before I could even offer to help, I was shoved out of the door, forced to just wait it out.

I sat in the waiting area, watching the scene play over and over in my head. I couldn't get the sight of my head. Aurora's skin turning icy blue, her hair turning white with chakra depletion... Tsunade had stopped it, but her hands and feet had been coated in solid ice. I shouldn't have done this. I should have just let things be until we had more information. I had my head propped in my hands, ignoring everyone who passed me. I was worried I'd gone too far, pushed too hard again.

"Kakashi." I was pulled from my thoughts by Lady Tsunade herself. "She's fine." She gave me a soft smile.

"What happened?" I demanded to know what had gone wrong.

"I didn't account for both of her bloodlines reacting to protect her. The moment the seal was reversed, both clan defences went off with terrible results. The Hozuki side tried to form her into water while the Yuki side released her ice…" She sighed. "Both acting at once backfired and nearly froze her instead."

I had a feeling it was meant to happen, to prevent anyone from trying to reverse the seal. "Thank you, Lady Tsunade." I closed my eyes as I stood, hoping to take Aurora home. The blonde stopped me before I could move.

"I can't release her just yet." Of course not… "I worry that it could happen again, even with us fixing it. I won't keep her for more than one night." She promised, knowing how I felt about hospitals.

Iruka was pretty pissed at me for not telling him about what we were doing. He found out about everything when he came to visit us. It was also really funny watching him try to not yell to loudly in her hospital room. I tried to tell him she was ok, Tsunade was the best medical ninja around and nothing bad could happen.

"Something bad already did happen!" He covered his mouth when Aurora moved. She was on a heavy pain killer so I knew she wasn't really waking up. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"At least she's not blue anymore…" I slipped while looking at her. She was almost back to normal, but she still looked very pale. I hoped the streak of white would fade, but it could be permanent. Iruka looked like he was about to wring my neck.

"What did you…"

"I...didn't want you to worry." I quickly tried to cover myself. It was true, but now he was even more worried. Maybe I should stop hiding things…

"Damn it Kakashi…" He was frustrated with me, but more so with the fact I had endangered Aurora. He didn't know how heavily that weight on me.

"I should have told you…" It was sort of an apology. "She couldn't use her chakra with the seal as it was. It needed to be broken." Hearing that made him forgive me a little, but I knew he wouldn't let me live his down for a long time. I wouldn't let myself live it down either.

After a couple days of rest, Aurora was more than ready to try again. Being forced to stay inside was driving her, and us, crazy. So far, she hadn't had any chakra outbursts and the new seal was holding. Now we just had to see if she could do any ninjutsu. We had to wait until Tsunade felt her levels were back to a normal level first.

Again, I had the bucket set outside and waited for her to try. She wasn't trying too hard, understandable seeing as the mark used to make it impossible, but I needed her to do it.

"Aurora, I promise it won't make you lose control." I tried to reason, but she just gave me a look. "Just once." I gave her an eye smile. Even a ripple in the water would be fine…

"I won't freeze?" I shook my head, tired of repeating myself. Finally after that, she did actually try, freezing the entire bucket. She was excited to do that, but I knew it still wasn't her full power. It was maybe half, but it was better than before.

That night, I laid in bed wondering what else I could try. My mind kept drifting back to the fact that this all happened because I wasn't here to protect her. I rolled over, nearly squishing Iruka. I forgot he had stayed over to watch Aurora tomorrow morning.

"Hey…" Iruka pushed me off, fully waking up when I had rolled on top of him. "Kakashi...what are you doing?" He was annoyed at being woken up like that.

"Can't sleep." I think he thought I was trying to wake him up for something a little more exciting than insomnia. "Do you think I should retire?" Iruka gave me a look like I really had completely lost my mind.

"What?" He sat up, hovering over me. I sat up with him, looking him in the eye to tell him, I wasn't joking.

"I could protect her that way…" He made me stop talking.

"I don't think retiring as a ninja will protect her. In fact, it could put her in more danger. You and I both know how important your missions are and how important you are to the village. Doing that...it could leave a hole in our defences." He was talking to me as another shinobi and not a father or lover. "I hate to say it, but the village needs you…"

"So does she." I ended his rant. "And I can't choose the village over her." I didn't think it was possible for those words to come from me, but there they were.

"Why do you think I'm here?" I looked back to him, not realizing I had looked away. "I'm here to take over when you can't be. I know...I've been busy with school, but I make sure she's safe too. We can't be there for everything…" It clicked that I had told him this with Naruto during the Chunin exams. So this is what he felt…

"You're right…" I pulled him close. He usually was. "I can't be there for every little thing…"

"But you can make sure she's prepared for the worst." He pulled back a bit to look at me. "I would know." He smirked, making me really want to teach him a lesson.

"You did what?" I looked at the chunin, dumbfounded that he had kept a secret from me. "And you called me a…"

"I know, I know...but I couldn't let Aurora over hear us."

"That doesn't excuse you from being a hypocrite." I smirked back at him. Behind my back, Iruka had looked into getting Aurora into the academy early. She wouldn't go everyday, not just yet, but she'd be in the gifted classes. It would consist of a small group of kids around her age that would be allowed in early. Sort of a pre-academy thing. He was only telling me now, just after waking up and the day before the test because he wasn't sure she'd be well enough.

"She's been bored and…"

"She'd be safe." That was the other reason. Having somewhere to go three times a week would mean we wouldn't have to find someone during the other two days. She could train there on these days, seeing as she'd be a student finally. "What's the test?"

"No, I'm not letting you cheat for her."

"Stubborn…" That got me a playful slap on my ass. He really shouldn't have been surprised when I pulled him back into bed and pinned him there. He knew better than to start something with me and not finish.

Aurora was thrilled when Iruka revealed she was going to be tested to enter the academy tomorrow. She had waited so long to finally be ready. She wanted to make sure she was ready and asked if I would spare with her. Of course I agreed. I took her out to the training grounds this time, needing more space than just my backyard anymore.

She was getting better, but I still didn't even need to stop reading my book. More than once she did get me to use my other hand, but more often I didn't need more than my legs.

"W-why is that book so interesting?" She panted, getting up again after getting tossed again. I wasn't going hard on her, never intending to actually kick her. I merely flipped her over, she just had yet to learn to always land on your feet.

"Hm...it just is." She glared, the look less menacing with her mask on and more cute.

"Why won't you let me read them then?" I blushed, never wanting her to read these.

"Not until you're older." I scolded her. "Now, are you going to come after me or not?" I think she pouted, but did it anyway. She had no killing intent still, which was fine for now. She was only four...she had a little while yet to learn

Aurora's View:

The test was nothing more than being able to preform all of the hand signs. All the training father and I did was useless for this test, but as least I passed. Dad drilled the signs into me since before I can remember.

I liked the classes so far, but I didn't like my classmates. Yuri had long, platinum blonde hair and green eyes. She usually wore a light green top, blue pants and a pink scarf tied into a bow around her neck. Midori was the pigtailed girl from the park and usually was wearing a brown and purple kimono style top. Her brown eyes always held some sort of hatred aimed at me. Yuri -chan and Midori-chan were quick to become friends, leaving me out of their circle.

Sora-kun...he was weird. He looked normal, short light brown hair and honey colored eyes. He usually wore a red top with tan shorts, but it was what he carried with him was what made him weird. He used puppets, but they were really creepy looking and he talked through them. One was always on his back, smiling weirdly at people behind him. He was also a little older than me, but was held back one year because he had transferred. He was nice though, but just...odd.

Ebisu-sensei was even weirder and more of what Sora called a pervert. It was true, he was easily distracted by pretty women and not in a very concealed way.

"Sensei, why do you stare at women's breasts?" Sora asked one day while we had class on the rooftop. There was a billboard in the distance with a lady in a tight pink dress, leaning forward do you could see a little into her shirt. Ebisu-sensei was distracted by it.

"What?! I would never disrespect a woman in that way."

"Then why is your nose bleeding?" Yuri-chan asked. I wasn't sitting with them and was sitting towards the edge of the building. Midori made it clear she hated me, so I kept my distance. I hated her too. I didn't listen to their weird conversation until I felt someone shock me in the arm.

"Oopsie…" Yuki-chan had come up and poked my shoulder. She couldn't control her lightning ability all the time and shocked people on occasion. "Come on! Sensei wants us to play tag!" She was always cheerful.

Sora was it, and the three of us were running around town to keep away. The goal was to be the only one not tagged. Yuri was quick to become the second one it. While running, I felt Midori come up behind me and before I could stop her, she shoved me. It was hard enough to trip me, knocking me off the roof and into a gross mud puddle. I didn't hit as hard as I could have, seeing as Sora was nearby and had caught me with a chakra string. It slowed my fall just enough to keep me from breaking my arm.

"Guess the freak is it." Midori smirked from above us.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Yuri landed next to her. "You pushed her! You're supposed to be a team…" Her big green eyes tearing up.

"Don't you get it? She'll only betray you." Midori tried to reason.

"You say that, but then you trip your teammate. What if...we were in a real mission." Sora shouted back, helping me up. I didn't know what to say, no one but my dad's had stood up for me before.

"I guess she'd be left behind." Midori glared at them. "You guys don't get what it means to be a real ninja! Sometimes you have to continue and leave your team behind."

"You're wrong…" I looked up to her, the stupid smirk was gone. "My father said that those who don't follow the rules are scum, but those that leave their team behind are worse than scum. No matter the mission, you should never leave your team behind!"

"Your father is stupid then…" The brown haired brat turned away and left us there. I knew she was wrong...but her words hurt. I thought everyone knew about never leaving a teammate behind, but there we still people who would selfishly leave them behind just to live

"Are you ok?" Sora asked, poking my cheek to get my attention. "That was a big fall…"

"Yeah…" My knee was scraped but I was fine. "Thanks for saving me." Yuri jumped down, accidentally landing in the same puddle.

"Eww...it stinks!"

Iruka's View:

The group of gifted kids was pretty small. It had Aurora, a girl with long, platinum blonde hair, a boy that had just transferred from Suna and the pigtailed brat from the park. They were not in my class, but I knew Ebisu well enough to trust him with them. I heard that the blonde and the brat were quick friends but Aurora was shy. She didn't talk much there but was performing quite well.

From her teachers account, she'd be able to join the next incoming class. Both Kakashi and I were proud, but I worried it was all too fast for her. I didn't want her to think all she could be was a tool for the village. I knew Kakashi didn't think of it that way, but I didn't want anything to get warped in her mind. The rules of a shinobi were confusing and I knew that some people took them far too seriously. Kakashi had at one time.

Today though, she came home covered in dirty water, mud and the worst smell was coming off of her.

"Eh...how was class today?" She kind of glared at me, as if how she looked and smelled wasn't any indication to how it went.

"I hate Midori…" Was all she said before going upstairs.

"Maa...hate is quite a strong word." Kakashi was holding his nose as he went to follow her to see if she was ok. "I take it she's the reason for…"

"Everything!" Aurora yelled, irritated with his roundabout questioning. She slammed the bathroom door, shutting us out for a while.

"Must you push?" I chided the confused silver haired man.

"Did I push?" He could be dense about feelings sometimes. "Eh...she'll be ok." We both knew she'd talk to us eventually.

I'm not sure if it was clear, so here's a break down. Aurora calls Kakashi Father and Iruka Dad. She only says daddy any more if she's super scared. Please R&R!