Baby

Kana-san knew Kumi was going to run, even before he had taken his first step. The boy couldn't possibly have withstood the shame. Though Kumi was young, Kana could sense that the shame of killing kindred could tear his son to shreds. He stood immediately and rushed to the door calling for his son to return. Kana couldn't even see the boy anymore.

"Kumi-chan! Kumi, come back!" he screamed, "Help her! You can help her! Please, Kumi, save your brother!" Kumi's Jiji-san walked slowly over to Kana's side. He clung to the doorpost for support and let his head rest against its rough surface. "Please… please…" he wept through his clenched teeth. Jiji-san put his hand on Kana's shoulder.

"You said the baby died."

Kumi kept running. He didn't look back. He couldn't. He had shamed his family enough. He heard his father's cries, but he didn't listen to them, instead he focused all of his senses on escape; listening only to the swift patting of his own feet as they hit the hard icy ground. He had already left the road to avoid being seen. It was easy to escape from the village; there were no walls, and it was difficult to find anyone in white midst the snow, let alone a small Zuka. That was probably why his father chose not to go looking for him.

Kumi heard the calls of his father fading into nothingness while he ran. The village passed from his hindsight, but he didn't slow his pace. Kumi wasn't all together sure where he was going, but he knew where he wasn't going: home.

His legs carried him farther and farther until his lungs forced him to quit. When he finally did stop running, his steps became erratic and he fell onto his face. He must have ran for at least four hours straight, because he couldn't get up, and his lungs were iced over. What little breath that came into his lungs was bitter and frozen. He tried to pull himself up, but his body was shaking too much; it wasn't a wise idea for him to be running so far after such long and stressful days. All he could do was lie there, trying to heat his body against the cold. Freezing gusts blew snow into his mouth and eyes, he would have been covered with it by now had he not insisted on heating himself so much.

Now that he thought about it, he didn't even know how to get back home from where he lay. He could see nothing for miles and miles out past the thin incessant snow. He told himself that he couldn't go back anyway. He had shamed his family, maybe even his village, if she were to die. He hated shame he hated death, yet he faced both.

"Mama?" He whispered. "Mama!"

Inari trudged happily through the snow; it was the first time in a while that she was able to get out for a walk, and it was a well-needed walk indeed. The village wasn't too far off from where her footprints led, and since it was a clear day, she could easily follow them back later. She was accustomed to the cold, and ever since she had been pregnant the colder it was, the better. Some days she would be sweating so much she would have to ask her son, Kumi, to bring a good bowl of crushed ice to the house so she could relieve herself of the heat. True, she could use her Kekkei Genkai to cool off, but the doctor had told her specifically not to, and there was no way she was going to jepordize her baby's health.

A few birds called to one another overhead. It was quite possible that they knew she was pregnant; many animals did, even if the lady was only a few weeks into pregnancy. Inari herself was already six months pregnant, and she showed it well enough. Sometimes her husband and son would kid her about not all of it being a baby, especially when she got hungry; when she was hungry she could eat like a pig. Then again, they always poked fun at her; she was one of the only female Zuka that could withstand jokes about her appearance, she was perfectly content with how she looked.

Having been out for maybe an hour was a big feat for her, considering she only left the house to go to the bathhouse to cleanse herself. Even her sleepwalking couldn't get her out of the house anymore, the doors and windows were locked, and she had never opened a locked door in her sleep. She had been so desperate to leave the house that she had even entertained the idea of pretend sleepwalking, just so she'd have an excuse if she got caught. It was fun to go to the bathhouse, especially in the later stages of pregnancy, when her husband had to go with her to help her. He would have to walk with her, through the female wing until they reached her personal washroom, which happened to be the furthest one in and the highest one up in the building. She would laugh at his embarrassment, saying that the only female he would have to impress was his wife. Now though, as she walked through the snow, she felt like she wouldn't trade this stroll for three bathhouse days, maybe four, but not three.

The cool breeze blew her hair gently from side to side, and she took in a few good breaths of it. Soon she would have to return back to the house; people would be worried about her, of course. She had snuck out, too, so that would probably increase their anxiety.

"They can stand a few more minutes." She mumbled to herself.

It seemed that they really didn't know what was good for her. Being out here in the cool breezes was exactly what she needed. Of course, being sick and all, she listened to the doctor for his advice and tried to take it as best she could, but he couldn't deny her this walk; being sick during pregnancy was common anyway, this wouldn't hurt.

Another large flock of birds passed overhead, she could tell they didn't sound quite as cheery as before though. They almost seemed to be warning each other of something.

All at once the icy valley in the distance was infested with giant bones, they protruded from the snow twenty feet in the air! Inari's body seized up she watched in horror as the bones began to arise closer and closer until one suddenly appeared from the ground right near her feet. The massive bone curved sharply and struck her up against the head in its split-second journey into the sky. Her body collapsed on the ice and her eyes shut tight, and suddenly there was only black.

When she did awake, she could feel a tight pressure on her arm and a cloth around her mouth. She could hear voices, but their words, all blurred together, were impossible to decipher. Her eyes were open, but they saw nothing, there was no blindfold on her face, and she could hear the flames of a fire right in front of her face.

It had never occurred to her that she could get into such unexpected danger, on a small walk away from the village. She struggled to clear her senses, tried to listen for her husband's voice. Her nose smelt the choking scent of blood and smoke; on her arm she could feel the hand of some unknown man holding her tightly shoving her through a crowd probably with the torch in his hand. She could also feel that her hands were tightly knotted behind her back. She could taste the dry fabric in her mouth; with it there was no way she could talk. Yet what bothered her the most was that she could not hear any familiar voices, and her eyes, her eyes were not catching any of the torch's light.

With a newfound fear-provoked energy she burst into screaming, but just as soon as she did she was forced onto the ground headfirst. Her hair was pulled to bring her head up, and she could hear that they were separated from the crowds by some sort of wall or tent. For a moment she feared that she might be raped, but the man showed no intentions of doing so. The space quieted of voices, with the exceptions of the outdoor crowds.

"The doctor checked her, she's pregnant." The man holding her said.

"Where did you find her? You didn't blind her already did you?" questioned another man.

"She's nothing royal, I made sure of it. No armies will be coming to get us. I only blinded her when I discovered that." The man answered.

"Where did you find her?" the man in command seemed to be relieved.

"She found her in the valley, she was walking like a rat into a trap." He replied. "Should they begin the process?"

Almost before Inari heard the word 'Yes' the man holding her pulled her to her feet and forced her back into the crowds.

Two months after Inari's kidnapping, she was found at night on the streets of the village by the village Kage. He took her from the ground and rushed to the medical center to present her to the doctors and nurses. He ran along the ruined path dodging the bones that a few of the villagers had been trying to remove that morning. It was two days after the battle was declared Shimogakure's victory, but the only family that had experienced an unreturned family loss had visited him. The husband of Inari told him the she had been gone since the day of the attack and hadn't been found. He himself had sent out searchers but found nothing. Now, here she was, lying in the middle of the streets without a single way that she could have evaded the guards in her late stage of pregnancy.

He burst through the doors and the nurses and doctors rushed to his side with a stretcher. He immediately laid her upon it and explained the situation to the medics. She was rushed to an emergency room and the doctors examined her thoroughly. When they concluded that there was no sustained damage other than a substance induced blindness, the Kage was stunned and asked for them to awake Inari from her unconsciousness. One of the nurses took a tiny cloth, dampened with a pungent substance and lay it under Inari's nose. She rolled over in the hospital cot, away from the sharp odor and mumbled something upon awakening.

"The baby… they put it in the baby…" Her first words were weak and stressed.

"What? What, Inari, what did they put in the baby?"

"A… a monster. The five tails."