AFTERMATH OF A FOX

Never in Aoi's fifteen years had she ever witnessed such a horrible and terrifying sight; her ice-blue eyes washing over the tumbled buildings and dead bodies covered in white sheets on the roads. "Kakashi?! Kakashi, where are you?!" Aoi called out, as she stumbled through the rubble of a building that had been destroyed in the catastrophe. "Talk to me! KAKASHI!"

A hand covered her eyes, another holding her still as a voice whispered into her ear. "I'm right here, Aoi… calm down." Kakashi's familiar voice calmed the snow-haired woman, but her fear of the destruction around her did not lessen.

Only three days ago, on October tenth, a peaceful walk with Kakashi and the others she had come to know was suddenly interrupted as violent winds and flying debris surrounded her, the air filled with cried of surprise and anguish. In the distance, as Kakashi ushered her to a safe corner where the wind did not rip at her face and clothing, a gargantuan beast with nine looming tails blocked the soft light of the full moon; even with her limited knowledge of such monsters, Aoi knew this to be the Kyuubi no Kitsune. The Nine-tailed Fox.

"Kakashi…" Aoi whispered, turning in his arms to hug him, burying her face in his chest as she cried softly, "Why? Why did this happen?"

"I don't know, Aoi…. I don't know…"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

That evening was heavy with sorrow, everyone brought together to mourn for the lives lost in the attack and for the souls they had yet to find in the wreckage. Among the dead was their Fourth Hokage, who had given his life to seal away the Nine-tails since such beasts were impossible to actually kill, their bodies essentially being made of Chakra itself. The container, as Aoi had heard from hushed whispers, was the body of an infant recently born before the horror. However, unlike pretty much everyone else in the village, she did not hold any anger towards the child, knowing that he never asked for this burden.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The next few weeks were spent in earnest by the villagers to regain what sense of safety they had lost before, but before long a year had passed, marking a whole year Aoi had lived in the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Her friend, however, was still deep in his mourning, grieving over losing the last of his Genin team… the man who had taught him so much. "Kakashi…" Aoi said, hugging her close friend as he sat in his room, still mourning his Sensei, "I know it's hard for you… I didn't know him for very long, but I know he was a good person… He wouldn't want you to waste away like this…"

"He's gone…" he whispered hoarsely, trying to blink away his tears, "I… I'm the only one left…"

"But you're not alone…" Aoi said softly, rubbing soothing circles into his back as he shook from his silent crying, "You've got me…. and the others are worried about you as well… Please, Kakashi, don't let this destroy you… there are too many people who care about you…"

He didn't respond, still crying, and Aoi took in a deep breath, letting it out in a soft sigh as she tried to work up the courage to tell him something she'd been wanting to say for a few months now… She brought one hand up to gently pet his hair, smoothing it back from his face, as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Kakashi… I love you… and I don't want to lose you…" she told him, feeling him go suddenly very still in her embrace, and when she looked up, he was looking at her with tears in his visible eye. Then, he had his own arms wrapped around her, burying his face in her shoulder as he sobbed quietly, and she continued to gently pet his hair, as he seemed to cling to her like she was his lifeline.

"I… I love… you too… Aoi…" he said between his sobs, and she felt her heart swell with joy, pressing a kiss to the top of his head as she held him, letting him cry. "But… what if… I lose you… just like… the… the others…?"

"I won't let that happen, Kakashi…" she said, "I swear to you, Kakashi Hatake, that as long as the flame of Shinobi burns, I. Will. Never. Leave. You. And that's a promise of a lifetime, that even if I DO die, I will find you again in another life…"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Just a few days later, the two of them went on their first official date. Kakashi had arranged for the two of them to spend the night out by the lake, and he had brought along a tent for two and plenty of supplies. He had also gotten some chocolates, as well as a necklace that he wanted to give her… it had been custom-made for him, and he hoped she liked it.

"Kashi, this is simply beautiful…" Aoi said, looking around at the forest as they walked to the lake. She was wearing her white Shinobi outfit, the one with the black leggings and the short robe with the wide sleeves. She had personally embroidered her family crest on both of the sleeves, and she wore her new Leaf Village Shinobi headband to hold her hair back, her black family headband tied around her waist. "How much farther until we reach the lake?"

"Not much longer," he said, smiling behind his mask. For the first time in what felt like ages, he felt truly happy, just spending time alone with the one he loved most. Ever since they had admitted their love to each other just a few days ago, he'd been planning this night together so that they could just be together… Without anyone else interrupting them.

When they reached the lake, it was nearly sunset, the sky already turning a bit pink, and the two of them soon had their tent set up, now just sitting by the lake to watch the sun go down.

"This is so beautiful…" Aoi said softly in wonder, leaning close to Kakashi to rest her head on his shoulder while she watched the sun paint the sky in vivid colors. "Thank you for bringing me here, Okami…"

"Anything for you…" he told her, turning his head to kiss the top of hers. He had pulled down his mask, since nobody else was around, and he trusted her completely. "My Utsukushi Tori…"

As the sun slowly sank below the horizon, the stars beginning to come out, Kakashi pulled out the small box that contained his present for his girlfriend, who looked over at him when she sensed his movement.

"Aoi… I… I got this for you…" he said, opening the box and showing her the necklace, smiling at her gasp of surprise.

The necklace had a beautiful gold chain, with a pendant that Kakashi had asked the craftsman to make just for this. The pendant had a black metal swan that was exactly the same as Aoi's family symbol, and it was looking at a silver wolf that sat right in front of it, the wolf's tail wrapping around the two of them, and a ruby carved in the shape of a heart rested between them, glittering in the fading sunlight.

"Oh, Kashi…" the snow-haired teen whispered, reaching out and brushing her fingertips across the metal surface of the pendant gently in awe, "This is gorgeous… you… you got it for me?"

"Yes… I wanted you to have something to represent us…" he told her, bringing the necklace out of its box. He brushed her hair back, clasping the golden chain around her neck, and then cupped her cheek in one hand, staring lovingly into her eyes. "I love you… And there's nothing that will change that…"

They sat together in a comfortable silence then, looking up at the sky as the stars started to come out, Aoi leaning against Kakashi as the two of them smiled. Then, softly, Aoi started to sing, as her ice-blue eyes found familiar shapes in the stars that her father taught her.

"The Hakucho swan flies with the Washi eagle… the Tora tiger runs with the horse of Uma… the Hebi snake wraps around them all in healing… and the Okami wolf watches over them all…" she sang softly, remembering the song that her father had taught her in correspondence with the constellations that her clan had named over the generations. The swan and the eagle in the stars were flying above where the tiger and the horse were running, and the form of a serpent was coiled around the group… and at the center… A wolf was howling silently in the night, completing the picture. "This is our history, this is our way… our guardians watch over through the night to the day…"

Kakashi looked at Aoi curiously, a soft smile on his face, and asked, "What song is that?"

"It's my clan's Star Song," she told him, her eyes still watching the stars, "Long ago, when the five tribes first settled in the Hidden Valley of Mist, they named these constellations in the sky…" she pulled out a blank scroll and a pen and ink, starting to draw out the shapes she had been taught to recognize in the sky, "Each one was named after an animal that represented a part of our clan history… The tiger represents the Tora tribe and their connection to their summoning animal, the Tiger. Legend tells that the tribe first created their summoning contract when the first of the Tora Tribe was saved by a tiger in an ambush, and that tiger had the ability to talk to humans. They forged their contract, and ever since then, the descendants of that first Tora leader and the tiger who saved him had a contract that the Tora tribe could summon those tigers, and the tigers would assist them if needed."

Kakashi watched as she drew the first part of the group constellation, and saw that it was the tiger, and he looked up at the sky again to try to find it. After about a minute, he saw the tiger that Aoi had talked about, and smiled. "What's the next part of the constellation?"

"The Tora contract was the first," she said, now starting on another part of the constellation. "Next came the Uma Horse, a horse that could communicate with people that rescued a young woman who had been kidnapped by an enemy Shinobi," the snow-haired teen told him, the constellation she was drawing taking the form of a galloping horse. "The young woman was the first of the Uma Tribe, and when the horse brought her back to her family, the two forged their Summoning Contract, and just as with the Tora Tribe, the descendants of woman and horse alike keep that contract to this very day. The Uma Horse was the second of the Summoning Animals of our part of the clan."

Kakashi found the horse quicker, having the tiger to use as a reference point as he compared the drawing to the night sky above them.

"Then, there was the Hakucho Swan," Aoi said, drawing his attention back to her. She was drawing out a constellation that was flying above where the tiger was, as she said, "The Hakucho Swan was found by the first Hakucho, a young woman with hair like snow. The Hakucho Swan was injured, a wing broken, but he was able to communicate his pain to the young woman, who brought him back to her family camp and cared for him. Then, when the camp was ambushed, the Hakucho Swan defended his friend, and then the two of them forged their Summoning Contract. Their descendants have the same link as those of the Tora and the Uma."

"Huh… and here I made my contract with the dogs because I found the scroll on a shelf in Sensei's office… He asked me to help clean up anything Lord Third had left behind, so when I found it I was… curious."

Aoi smiled at this, already starting on the next part of the constellation. "That's a very… toned-down way to get a summoning contract… Are you telling me you basically stole it?"

"No, when Sensei saw what I had, he said that I could make a contract with the dogs if I wanted to… Did you know that he held a contract with the Toads? His sensei was the one before him to hold the contract."

"Anyway…" Aoi said, returning her attention to the constellations, "The next Summons was between a young man and and the Washi Eagle. The young man had been trapped in a cave in a storm, trying to find shelter from a particularly bad storm, and he heard the eagle crying out in pain just outside. He brought the Eagle in with him, and bound his injured wing, but when he was discovered by a group of hunters, the Eagle helped him fight them off, forging a friendship of shared pain and strife. When the young man returned to his clan camp with the Washi Eagle, he became the first Washi Tribe member, as they forged their Summoning Contract between the two of them…"

"The kind of relationship your clan has to those summons are a lot more than I could say some people have with their own summons; Lord Third holds a contract with the monkey's, and from what I've seen of that, they respect each other a lot."

"That's a good relationship," Aoi said, as she directed Kakashi to find the Washi Eagle in the sky where it flew above the Uma Horse. Then, she started on something that seemed to circle around them all, as she said, "Shortly after the four tribes arrived in the Hidden Valley of Mist, the place that became their sanctuary, and after the Wolf took up a role of the leader of the clan as a whole, a large, cursed snake attacked the clan, and the Wolf had to fight the serpent off so his family could be safe, soon using a special Chakra technique to purify the creature, which had been badly injured. Strangely enough, this purification turned the snake's poison into a healing compound, and a young boy from the Uma Tribe cared for it while it was recovering. The two of them respected each other for their healing abilities, and that soon turned into a friendship, the two of them forging their Summoning Contract and creating the Hebi Tribe. But a strange side effect of the contract, one that had been similarly seen in the other tribes, was that the young man took on a vaguely snake-like appearance, especially in his eyes."

"I was wondering about that… There was once a shinobi in our village that also looked like a snake by the name of Orochimaru, and he was brilliant. He was one of Lord Third's students before he became Hokage and was later a part of a trio called the Sannin with Tsunade the Slug Queen and Jiraiya the Toad Sage…" There was more he wanted to tell her of the monstrous man, but today was not worth spoiling with tales of him...

Aoi didn't comment on how he seemed to be keeping something from her, understanding that he didn't want to ruin the moment, and simply continued to tell the last part of the story of the constellation. "Finally, the Wolf, the one who brought the family together, is at the center. He was the pillar for our village, keeping us all in harmony, and brought stability to our clan. As it was when he lived, he is at the center of the clan, keeping us all together in life and in death. He howls a warning to us when in danger, and watches over us when the skies are dark and alit with stars…" She finished the drawing she had done on the formerly-blank scroll, and it showed the entire constellation that had been in her song. The snake was coiled around the four other tribes, and the wolf was at the center, head tilted up as it silently howled into the night.

As the two settled down for the night, preparing the tent, Kakashi looked briefly at Aoi until he looked down again at his work, thinking that when they returned he'd ask her if they could find a place in his apartment to hang the drawing of her clan's five-six tribal animals. After all… if it was going to be their home, it would make sense to have some sense of her there too….