Out of the Ashes

Chapter 8

The Gold Eyed Man

I was nearly ten years old when Kakashi decided that I was ready for an out of village excursion. I kind of looked at him like he was crazy when he decided out of the blue during one of my grocery shopping D ranks that he would take me on one of his missions.

"Fushicho-chan, I'm sure you'd like to run a courier mission with me." Kakashi casually stated as I balanced two baskets in one arm while trying to open the client's door.

I got the door open and split my focus to having this conversation, "I don't think your level of missions would be safe for me, Kakashi-shishou." At this point in time, at ten years old, I was just graduating from the basics and I could almost walk on water. We had, for the first two years, focused on my stamina and chakra reserves. I hadn't actually learned anything useful.

"It would be a B rank at the most. I'm fully capable of watching you and completing a B rank." Kakashi gave me an eye crinkle as I handed the groceries to our common client and she thanked me as I took my leg and blocked her fat cat from trying to make a run for it. She thanked me again and Kakashi and I started towards the Hokage tower.

"Think about it Fushicho-chan, you've never been outside the village before." Kakashi tried to persuade me, "Where's your sense of childish adventure?"

"With Ita." I retorted before I could stop myself, lamely adding as an afterthought and an attempt to fix the situation, "I don't have time to be a child."

Kakashi actually stopped at my answer and I turned to look at him. Kakashi concealed what he was thinking easily and asked, "Fushicho-chan. What are your thoughts on Itachi?"

"He's my brother and he killed everyone. What else is there to be expected?" I answered promptly. Kakashi narrowed an eye at me. Over the two years my personality still unsettled Kakashi from time to time because of my sardonic attitude. I suppose I was pretty unsettling if you looked at me expecting a child.

"Shouldn't you have more of an opinion on this?"

"Why should I?" I countered, "It happened. Big deal. Time to move on and live."

Kakashi sighed under his breath but allowed the conversation to shift, "You're a hard headed brat. I was promised a little princess and this is what I got."

"I'm going to accept the mission. If you can blink off the massacre like that you can handle a small mission like the one I'll choose." Kakashi told me with actual authority in his voice for once. I rolled my eyes but nodded and gave an affirmative "Yes, Shishou."

Our mission began the following day where I would be excused from the academy for as long as necessary for the mission. Kakashi made sure I wore appropriate attire for the mission, so my usual dark clothes, and I had a brand new set of real shuriken and kunai. We left the village early in the morning with Onna seeing me off. She had actually packed a scroll for me which contained some explosive tags that I kept secret from Kakashi, two lunch bentos for me and Kakashi today, and extra rations.

Because I couldn't fly through the trees like Kakashi could we had to walk to our destination. Kakashi chose a route that wouldn't require camping for my first trip and while our destination was a border outpost Kakashi constantly assured me the worst we'd deal with would be bandits and he could easily take those out blindfolded. Kakashi was acting a bit sketchy but he wouldn't lead one of the remaining Uchihas into danger so I trusted him for the most part.

"We'll be staying in an inn in this upcoming town for tonight." Kakashi informed me when the sun was setting and my legs were screaming at me. I grunted in response and Kakashi didn't even respond to that. We reached the town soon enough and it truly was a town over a village. It was a bit large for a rural area but it had its own red-light district so... oh, you want to know how I know that?

"Shishou..." I drawled slowly as Kakashi came to stop in front of our "inn", "Isn't this a brothel?"

"Such adult language." Kakashi demurred instead of actually answering my question.

"Shishou should you really be bringing my young adorable self into such a place?" I asked as he approached the door. He looked over his shoulder at me and the shadows hid most of his expression, not that there was much of an expression anyway. Fucking mask.

Kakashi crinkled an eye at me, "If you know it's a brothel then I can't save your innocence further."

I gaped at him and he continued, "I know you know more than you should, Fushicho-chan. So just pretend we're not in a brothel."

"But why are we staying here?" I demanded.

"It's run by a Leaf contact so we can stay here safely. I would never take a Genin team here but you're not a dumb little group of Genin, are you?" Kakashi simply turned and entered the brothel. I groaned but followed behind him and tried my best to stay in his shadow. That night spent in the brothel was incredibly awkward because those walls were not soundproof and while Kakashi gave me the bed he was in the chair and I made eye contact with him every single time there was a suspicious noise. We all know what those noises were and I'm sure Kakashi knew I knew. For such an aloof man, he picked up on what I was thinking way too quickly for my liking.

The next morning as we set off Kakashi chirped to me, "Wasn't that fun?"

"I slept for maybe an hour." I stated angrily.

"Well, a brothel isn't meant to be slept in." Kakashi said more so to himself. Then he blinked and looked down at me to see if I caught that little snippet.

I made a mind exploding gesture and snickered, "Good thing you aren't technically responsible for keeping my mind innocent."

"Why do I have a feeling I'm going to be in trouble for this?" Kakashi pondered to himself, gazing up at the cloudy sky.

I grinned, "Well, I'm sure the Hokage will love to hear about how you've corrupted me so young."

"You're a ninja. Suck it up." At this point we were already out of the village and heading towards the border.

I put a hand to my heart and gave him a wounded look but the look in my eyes absolutely gave me away, "Why, I'm an innocent young academy girl."

Kakashi snorted and from there we walked in silence. We reached the border outpost when the sun was just above the horizon two days later. We would be staying in the outpost for the night after delivering the message and then we would take the same route back. A border guard who looked quite familiar to me took one look at me and laughed at Kakashi when he handed over the mission scroll. We entered the outpost's barracks and I got a few odd looks from the Chunin staffing the outpost but Kakashi ignored them and we took a set of bunks for ourselves.

"We can get a little bit of training in while we're here." Kakashi decided, "How's your night vision?"

"It's nothing too spectacular." I replied. Kakashi crinkled his eye at me and I nearly glared at him because I knew he was about to tell me how wrong I was.

"For you perhaps, but your Dojutsu effects your eyes entirely even if your sharingan isn't activated. Look out this window and tell me what the furthest thing you can see is." Kakashi gestured to the window that looked out at the side of the border that wasn't ours. It wasn't a major country though, just the Land of Hot Water. So this was a pretty boring border considering the country was more for tourists and civilians than anything else.

I peered out the window and found I could see a building in the distance, "There's a building. It's made of bricks, kinda like this one."

"That building is an abandoned guard post from when Hot Water had a Hidden Village. It's supposed to be out of vision for the average eye." Kakashi said brightly, "Each side has its own ways of getting around the distance to spy of course."

"Alright, so I can see far and in the dark. So?"

Kakashi pat my head like I was a dog, "We're going to teach you how to find all the details in just a glance. To be a worthy opponent is to know your opponent. Anything from their appearance to their body posture can indicate something important that can give you an advantage over them. This could save your life in a battle that's evenly matched."

"And if they're more skilled than I am?" I questioned.

"To know your opponent is to predict their moves before they do. You'll hopefully live long enough for reinforcements in that case." Kakashi answered for once. He had one of the Chunin on break come over to assist in my training. Kakashi pointed to the bland Chunin who looked half asleep and like he wanted to be anywhere but with us at that moment.

"Can you tell me how he is feeling?" "What is he most likely to do next?" "Is he a threat?" Those were the gist of the questions Kakashi asked me about. We did this for every single Chunin staffed in the barracks... twice. We almost went a third time but dinner was prepared so instead we had rations. Over the bowl of broth and dried jerky rations Kakashi and I observed the camp. This was a small border post that was hidden among the larger ones so it was just a few watch towers connected to the wall that went until the next guard post. It didn't have a mess hall, just a small armory, a small room for the messenger hawks for emergencies and the barracks.

Nothing else exciting happened that night and in the morning Kakashi was more than ready for us to leave. We packed our things and Kakashi was briefly using the small outhouse washroom before we set off into the wilderness to head back to the brothel town. I was settled at the window I had looked out last night and I was practicing activating and deactivating my sharingan. I suppose that was what both condemned me and saved me.

I was able to catch the flash of a chakra system in the distance and I was able to throw myself to the floor while yelling as the window shattered and several kunai came into the barracks. I quickly dove out of the way of the window while the Chunin in the room with me acted immediately. One surged out the window while another grabbed me by my upper arm and hauled me outside the outpost to where Kakashi was waiting. The warning siren began to howl as I was pushed into Kakashi's care.

"Alright, best we leave, Fushicho-chan." Kakashi told me seriously as I felt my legs shuddering in actual fear. I had never faced battle before and I could feel the killing intent from the other side of the outpost surging at different intervals.

Not that I wanted to stay but, "Why?"

"It's probably just a few missing nin from Kumo trying to cross the border into safety. They won't be much more than Chunin-" Kakashi paused and held his tongue as there was suddenly palpable chakra in the air that nearly had me screaming. It felt like the chakra was living death, really. Sparking like a bad wire and electrifying anything close enough. For my hypersensitivity, it felt like even if I were a kilometer away this chakra would eat at my senses. That definitely wasn't the case as my range was nowhere near that far.

"On second thought... stay back and hide in the trees. Try your best to smother your chakra." Kakashi ordered. His voice was low and serious. I scurried off to the trees and when a second wave of that chakra hit it was far closer than I'd have liked it to be. I sunk behind the first tree I reached and looked over my shoulder to appraise the battle. Kakashi was facing off against two enemies, one shining brilliantly like they were a light bulb and the other setting off sparks here and there. It was the glowing one that was frying my senses.

Certainly Kumo ninja, but I was able to catch a line through their hitai-ate. Watching the battle wasn't as exciting as it should have been. The ninja were all most likely Jounin level and they moved faster than my brain could comprehend with the fizzling air. I nearly screamed when someone sunk next to me.

"Uchiha-hime," a Konoha Chunin said in a whisper, "Come with me. That fight will escalate quickly."

Shakily I stood and allowed the Chunin to lead me through the trees. As we walked through the trees, I could hear dark thoughts trying to enter my mind. Anxiety was eating away at me and one thought seductively cooed, "What if this man is an enemy?"

I nearly stopped at that but I had seen this Chunin in the barracks. When we were out of range of the air that was full of chakra, I was able to begin tasting the world again. My immediate response was to taste the chakra of the Chunin I was following. He tasted like... felt like...

Static.

My sharingan whirled to life in my eyes instinctively (At a later date I bragged to Kakashi about this because usually my sharingan likes to take its sweet-ass time.) and found myself staring at a chakra construct surrounding another unfamiliar figure. As soon as my sharingan was in my eyes the missing nin knew his cover was blown and he tried to grab me. I was already holding a kunai and tried to stab the hand that reached for me. Obviously, this guy was far above an academy student's level. With my sharingan I could see his every move but with my body I couldn't move as fast as I needed to.

His hands wrapped around my throat and he very easily disarmed me and tossed my kunai to the side. His henge wavered and then melted away, leaving me staring at a tan (And really handsome) man with golden (Beautiful) eyes and white (Majestic) hair. He wasn't too old, probably not even as old as Kakashi. Of course, I shouldn't be thinking about how hot the guy who was strangling me was (Not that I'm not going to praise this fine specimen of a man).

"Listen here, hime." he murmured in a way that one would try and soothe a child throwing a temper tantrum, "A cute little Uchiha like you will fetch a hefty price. It was a good thing we saw you, hm? Those pretty eyes."

He removed one hand from my neck but his other easily lifted me up and slammed me into a tree and held me there. I tried to jab forward with my fingers into his throat for a stun shot so I could do something about his choke but a grown man against a nine almost ten year old girl was a very unfair fight. My arms could maybe reach halfway through his bicep and that was being generous. He pulled out a kunai and pressed the cool metal to my temple.

"Those pretty eyes are dangerous... and valuable." he smiled, "You wouldn't mind if I took them?"

Immediately, my body tensed. I heard my heart beat clearly. Once. Twice.

Then, Fushicho screaming at me as if I was back in my mind standing in front of her, "DO SOMETHING!"

And suddenly I remembered our conversation about how I could become something strong. I tried to collapse his elbow with a hit but again, little girl against grown man means grown man wins by default.

My head was feeling a bit light at this point and he was starting to slide the kunai towards my right eye. I didn't feel like looking like a Kakashi mini me in the future so I panicked. And what did I do? Nothing short of a fucking miracle.

My chakra probably flared up like an actual flare because the man's pretty gold eyes widened and I did something I had been avoiding since I was younger. My hands gripped his arm and I gripped at the source of chakra I told myself I should never grasp at. There was a simple flash of heat and then the mans arm began to smoke and he tossed me violently to the side. I cracked into a tree back first and was nearly knocked out right then and there. I hit the ground after hitting the tree and I saw black spots rising in my vision. But the man didn't come after me because suddenly his arm was on fire. He was trying desperately to put it out but the fire only started to spread to his clothes. He ripped his shirt off (Mm, that was a fine sight) when it started to catch fire and he managed to put his arm out. Sure I hadn't killed him but he was extremely damaged with his arm resembling a piece of charcoal. It smelled a bit like burnt meat in the air actually, so that was pleasant.

"You little bitch!" the enemy snarled, "I'll kill you!"

And I thought I was going to die right then and there. But there was a flash of green and silver and suddenly the enemy was on his back with a kunai embedded into his chest. Kakashi landed beside me in a crouch and went to grab me-

"Identify yourself!" I ordered, backing up from Kakashi. Kakashi gave a relieved sigh but said, "Hatake Kakashi, Konohagakure Jounin."

I tasted his chakra and accepted the answer, after all Kakashi tasted as he usually did. He was basically a big dog, I could taste the smell of dog as odd as that sounds.

I allowed myself to fall into Kakashi's side as he checked me over like a worried mother. He touched my throat and his eye narrowed, "This is going to bruise badly."

"Well, I'm alive." I replied, falling into silence after Kakashi prodded at my neck. It didn't hurt to talk so Kakashi wasn't too concerned. However there was a sudden burst of chakra from beside us and we both jumped and found that my attacker was gone with only a pool of blood suggesting he had ever been there.

"Well, shit." I stated and Kakashi didn't comment on my language. He gathered my small form into his arms and Kakashi set off towards Konoha.

Now, you may be saying, good job! You saved yourself! Not really, I just succeeded in making an enemy that day. An enemy that the bingo book has named as Kumo's Golden God, no clan name but first name Raito. Remember him, because that godly looking man is gonna show up again. Believe me, that'll be fun (Absolutely not (Well, eye candy wise it'll be fun)).

But waiting back in Konoha for me was a nice hospital trip, a highly concerned brother, and a nasty surprise.

AN:

I remembered that I had basically the entire chapter typed up and was like "Hey, I should finish this" and boom. Here it is.

Fun Fact- I am the biggest hypochondriac you will ever meet. Ever. Ever.

Thank you to the following for reviewing:

RadioPoisoning
Thomas Drovin
lizy2000