The Foreigner

A few months after the tragic death of Daisuke, another free bird hatched on a distant island in the Land of Water. There was once a wealthy woman who wanted a child to inherit her business without a man involved, and so she took a few shots by bedding that handsome, foreign ninja as she returned from her trip to finalize the establishment of a factory in Fire Country. Yes, first tricking him into showing off what she believed was some secret power and then bedding him while he was drunk was a low blow, but if there truly was more than met the exotic eyes of that foreign man, then there was no better candidate to father her heir.

She did not think much of things until months later, a few hours after she'd blacked out during her labor. The first light that she saw was from a pair of pale, pupilless eyes and ashen skin that she was quite certain did not come from anyone in her hometown. No, people in her family were all shades of bronze and brown. But the shock white blonde hair that completed his monochromatic appearance, that must have come from her father's genes. What an adorable, glowing angel! When she realized that this was her new little boy, she named him Kouichi.

Zzz

Six years had passed since little Kouichi was born. A woman in her early thirties was sitting in the spartan kitchen, doing some sort of paperwork when a little boy bounced in. He was a bright little one, with a pair of blue-tinted shining eyes between a beaming smile and short, golden hair. The only thing dark on the kid was a forest green shirt with a phoenix painted on the front.

"Mommy! Mommy! I wanna go to Ninja school!" he shouted, bouncing all over the small room as he did so.

"But Snow Academy is the best school in the country," replied the woman.

"But I still wanna go to Ninja school!" the boy whined.

"Everyone in our family went to Snow Academy. It's an excellent place."

"But Keiko's going to be a Ninja! She says it's real cool. Come on, Mom! She just had ta make a doll out of water and her dad told her to go there…"

Before he could say more, the mother cut him off, "Many people in Ninja school, like Keiko, don't have a choice. Their parents are making them go. Being a ninja's dangerous work. Why go there when you don't have to?"

"But I still wanna go!"

"Kouichi…"

"I can see things above me and behind me and through walls and things like that."

"Okay, so what do you see?" she gave the boy a big, teasing grin. It faded when he told her that her best friend had come in with a bag of his favorite cookies and a blue outfit and was right behind him.

"Okay, you win."

Zzz

The first time that Kouichi saw someone with his unique eyes was when this boy with the dark, brown hair showed up on his island for the Chunin exams. They were now both in the middle of the ocean, using only chakra to stay afloat as they tried to make their way towards some underwater landmark. The blonde wore his headband on his forehead, so his messy hair shout around wildly all around the headband, covering all but the bottom few threads of the headgear. The opponent wore his around the neck. Up until then, the fight had consisted only of chakra-charged punches and kicks from the dark-haired kid and various water based jutsus from Kouichi. It was a good thing the nature of the battleground favored the Water ninja's techniques, or else he would have fallen to the taijutsu from the other kid long ago.

Since Kouichi kept his distance from the other boy, they were evenly matched. He then took a bit of a gamble and charged at the other ninja with a fist full of chakra. He was not surprised when the kid from Konoha made some hand sign, but the other party seemed astonished when nothing happened. It was enough time for Kouichi to land a blow.

When the fight was over, the older boy with the long, chocolate mane asked as he handed over his artifact, "Who are you?"

"Kouichi of the Beaches." Somehow, the Konoha kid seemed even more stunned after the answer.

Zzz

It had been seven years since the Chunin exams and Kouichi was now twenty years old. Like that day in the arena all those years ago, this day, too, was a day of change. He forced a grin as the Mizukage handed him a scroll.

"Kouichi of the Beaches, for your excellent service in locating hundreds of missing people and scouting, I appoint you to the rank of…"

Even though this was his own promotion, Kouichi was not listening. Instead, he was focusing blood and chakra into his pale eyes, which saw past the Mizukage and the first stack of papers behind the man. Mission: Locate the missing… It was their feudal lord's name. No, it was that lord's oldest child. From: He widened his blue-tinted eyes. That guy was definitely not on good terms with this feudal lord. But there was more. This one was for his childhood friend and teammate, Keiko, who was standing next to him in the Kage's office, also being promoted. Kill the… wasn't that guy one of the most prominent leaders in the civilian government up north? Kill that guy and his ninja bodyguards, and make it look like an accident. Ninja bodyguards, as in... oh, hell, no! Fortunately, the papers also said that the Mizukage was planning on assigning those two missions several days from then.

Hours later, as he and Keiko rowed their boat to take them back to the island where their apartments were, he stopped in the middle of the shallow seas. "Keiko-chan, please, listen to me. I read the missions roster and… They're going to use you for your kekkei genkai, your Ice Release, and ask you to kill our old one-eye! You remember him, us three. Team Tsunami. We'd always prank people with our jutsus and you'd give us a good whack if we went too far."

She said nothing, but her tears spoke volumes as they dropped from her faces onto the cascade of beautiful, black tresses.

"Come with me, then," he took out the papers from the inside of his jacket. Each carried a photo and a stamp that granted them safe passage into every neighboring country.

"I-I can't," she choked out in between sobs.

"Why not?"

"My clan, we signed a pact with the First Mizukage long ago. We can't leave the Land of Water, ever," she lifted her raven hair to reveal a tattoo at the back of her neck. "They gave me this seal when I was born. It'll kill me if I try to cross over. Your papers are useless here. It's just like you Hyuugas doing anything your clan heads don't want ya to do. You're just lucky that you were born in this country and your dad never knew. Take that luck and go! I'll figure something out with our idiot brother."

"Alright," he smiled. He once again looked like an angel of light and happiness. "I'll get my aft outta here, but ya gotta promise, you and our brother, you'd both better be alive and fine and don't kill anyone when I come back!"

Zzz

"Kou-kou chan!" the businesswoman greeted her son as he walked into her house. "What good news do you have this time?"

"I've retired from being a ninja," replied the pearly-eyed shinobi as he warmly embraced his tan, strawberry blonde mother.

"My god, I'm so proud of you. Every time you took a mission, I was afraid that you'd come back dead. Then they promoted you to Jonin…" her voice cracked as the tears of joy rolled down her cheeks.

"Tokubetsu Jonin," he corrected her. "Biggest sham I've ever seen. I've come to see things the way you do, Mother. There's a war coming up. Right now, they're polite enough to pay me to use my special eyes, but I know it'll just be a matter of time before someone tries to kill me for them. We're leaving this country while we still can. We got a branch in the Fire country, right?"

"That's too close to the Hyuuga headquarters. We're going to set up some business in the Land of Waves for now," replied the mother.

"Let's pack, then," he grinned. He did not need for her to explain that the family he inherited his unique eyes from had no power to force him to serve their main house as long as he stayed out of their home country.

And so, on the day the bird realized the conditions under which he could remain free, he took flight.

Zzz

Well, if you haven't guessed it, there's guest appearances by Hiashi and Haku's mother.