Masked Koi: Chapter 25. "Second"
Sakuma nodded almost imperceptibly at her brother. Sakumo looked at his sister with confusion, but that was just because he was more comfortable with that look more than anything. He'd grown to understand that it was better to just not understand things rather than delve deeply and research. That might've been why Orochimaru no longer lived within Konoha.
"I'll be off now. Be a good boy and don't fuck anything up," Sakuma said, her eyes glinting with amusement. Sakumo looked hurt. She rolled her eyes. "Grow up, Sakumo-chan."
"H-hai," Sakumo said, feeling a little defeated.
"Hokage-sama," Sakuma bowed politely. Minato gave a shaky smile, barely masking the deep frown he wore. His kids pulled on his shirt hem and his hands and whined.
Sakumo watched as his sister walked away with Minato's son following behind and Kayo on Sakuma's shoulders. The boy looked terrible. It was as if he'd fought an internal war and lost along with anything else he had before, like the fire in his eyes. Naruto muttered something about wanting to see the ancient Hatake clan but Sakumo had no idea why. Koi had certainly never embraced her heritage, but then again Sakumo had never necessarily talked about it. It was simply because he didn't think they existed anymore, but he'd known his sister wasn't dead yet.
"N-Naruto," Minato said. Naruto stopped but didn't turn around. "Yes?"
"Be safe. I love you and remember your training and come back soon and…" Minato trailed off.
"Yes," Naruto said and after a while, became a speck in the distance and vanished. It took longer since the trees were still young and short and stubby and frailer than their predecessors but Minato did lose sight of them. He clutched his son's hitai-ate and had safely put away the Chuunin vest that had been taken away in the bureaucratic mess that had been ROOT from his son. Officially, Naruto's record stood something like this: Name: Uzumaki Naruto, born Namikaze Naruto. Birthdate: October 10. Mother: Uzumaki Kushina. Father: Namikaze Minato. Later in the document it mentioned good Academy marks and his Genin graduation and a few worrying remarks about mental stability and teamwork, but Kakashi assured him that the boy was fine. He passed his Chuunin Exams as a rookie and became a Chuunin, joined Danzo, and had his Chuunin title ripped away.
Somewhere in some scroll that the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokage had written stated that any shinobi involved in anything that may harm the village or is perceived to is to have one or two ranks taken away. The present Hokage and the severity of the action determine the amount of ranks taken away. Danzo had been brainwashing his operatives and in one case, drugged one of them. It was organized slavery for the 'good' of Konoha. Good was subjective and to Minato, Konoha was being deprived of good shinobi that had their human qualities taken away, something that every shinobi knew was necessary to be a shinobi and a strong one. Minato was very human: he was married twice and had three children and a sister and a niece. Having a family and knowing love was something that made a shinobi strong.
Naruto was a Chuunin, so he could only have one rank taken away.
"Why're you here?" Kayo made a face at her cousin. Naruto didn't look like he'd bring himself and his anger to match hers. He didn't.
"Because I want to be," Naruto said.
"What kind of answer is that? Sounds lame," Kayo decided to try to get his goat. She couldn't tease those brats cause they'd cry and then Yori would say something like 'be nice' or something else that civilians say because they're too nice or weak to really say anything else.
"It's the truthful one," Naruto said. He got bored of the two females quickly, due to the quiet nature of Sakuma and the annoying one of Kayo. Plus, Naruto had no interest in listening to Kayo babble on about her life.
Naruto took out a scroll that he'd found in his bag a few days ago. It was from Shisui, before he'd left. Naruto hadn't had time or courage to look at it; he still felt a debilitating amount of guilt from when Koi had scolded him for something he did not understand at all. But, her words hurt and that had been enough for him to feel guilty about something. He'd never seen her truly angry and for her to be angry at him…Naruto felt more than helplessness and despair. Her words were eerie, now that he thought about it. 'I don't give a damn about acknowledgement. They knew what I was.'
Did they know about her jinchuuriki status? It would explain her resent quite well.
Naruto opened the scroll and saw a vast amount of wind jutsu, trying not to think about her. It was perhaps the only thing the two Konoha shinobi had in common aside from being jinchuuriki. They were no longer D-Rank or C-Rank. They were B-Rank and there was one A-Rank. There was also a note about using wind chakra in weapons to enhance their cutting power, but he didn't necessarily understand. He knew from simple experience that kunai and shuriken were difficult to break, even from fire or being crushed or slammed against rock. They always had a tingling feeling whenever chakra was being expelled in any form, but Naruto had simply thought it was his imagination. By adding chakra, did the kunai get bigger or sharper?
"How much longer?" Naruto noticed the time ticking by into evening with fiery orange colors lightning up the slightly blue sky.
"It'll take until midnight or dawn for us to reach the compound," Sakuma said. She tensed ever so slightly, sensing two chakra signatures faintly. They weren't close and if she played her cards right, they wouldn't even notice the three of them.
"What the hell do you mean, dead?" Kushina demanded.
The orange cat with brown eyes flicked its tail, nervous but still able to stand its ground even in front of Uzumaki Kushina. "Kushina-sama, be careful. Your body isn't as strong as it used to be. Have you taken your medicine?"
Kushina sent the cat a withering glare before popping the pill into her mouth without water. She swallowed hard and crossed her arms. "Liar. She was my student. Plus, she had that kekkei genkai; she couldn't have died."
The cat shook its head. "I am sorry, Kushina-sama. I do not know the details of her death, but my superiors said she died bravely, worthy of the highest honor."
Kushina was hardly convinced. She struggled to contain her anger and settled on the least destructive thing she could do. With killer intent filling up the space between the two thickly, she ground out, "Get the hell out of my sight and don't come back. I'm going to look for her. I don't want to see any of your furry tails until I say so."
"Y-yes, Kush—"
"OUT!" Kushina's hair floated dangerously. The cat was gone before she could blink. Kushina's eyes burned with an emotion she hadn't shed since she heard about Minato remarrying. She dug her nails into her palm, threw on a black cloak with red clouds and set out into the night.
She went at speeds she shouldn't because of her weak body, weak from that night when she'd given birth to the second love of her life and then had the Kyuubi taken from her by a fellow Uzumaki and then nearly died sealing the Kyuubi into Naruto. Sandaime lay dead on the ground, having used the Shiki Fuuin and Naruto's cries from the altar just barely kept her from falling into unconsciousness. Kami knew where that girly Hokage of a man was. As her heartbeat slowed and slowed and her eyes began to close forever, a slippery strand of hope laughed and tsked at her in pity. Her grey eyes met yellow ones just barely. Orochimaru said something about her and her situation but she was only a hair's breadth away from seeing the Sandaime in another life. She woke up later not in Konoha, but in Orochimaru's home with wires and tubes and needles and bandages covering up pretty much her entire body. She felt as if all her muscles had been skinned away, leaving her with a weak feeling and pain shooting up and down everywhere. Breathing hurt. Blinking hurt. Her heartbeat in her head was like a sonic boom that shook her brain every time it weakly pulsed blood around.
Eventually, she was weaned off of staying in bed forever and being tube fed and could walk. At first, the attempts were pitiful: her legs refused to support her and she would've fallen if Orochimaru had not caught her. After more and more stubborn attempts that might've wound her back up to square one for being reckless, she managed to walk short distances by herself. Confined to mind-numbing painkillers and four dreary walls and scrolls piling up to the ceiling and some laying on the ground simply due to a lack of storage space (she supposed he didn't want to sort and organize into storage scrolls), she had barely noticed nearly four years had passed. It all felt like a blur with only one recurring emotion: anger. She was angry at herself, angry at Minato, angry at her fellow Uzumaki for betraying her, and angry that she couldn't return to Konoha to be with her son. She loved Naruto dearly, but Orochimaru wasn't willing to leave his shop and Kushina wasn't in any position to argue or bargain, seeing how she literally owed him her life. The little grey-haired stick didn't seem to willing either. It might've been the floating hair or the corpse-like sheen her once glowing complexion had.
More years passed and Kushina was busy picking herbs for her sensei in the forest to have seen Seiseki and the vile intent he had and how low he'd fall. Kushina eventually left. She didn't return to Konoha; she was already dead and had no desire to follow in her student's footsteps and wear a mask all day and not talk to her family. By the time Kushina found Konan and her group of Zabuza, Haku, Kakuzu, Hidan, and Sasori, she'd gotten very comfortable until she heard about Minato's remarriage. She smiled and said 'I'm fine' but no one was fooled. The guys, all hardened by some hardship or war or something, had nothing very helpful to say except their silent moral support. Konan was a bit more helpful by bringing sweets, but not to the extent that Kushina knew her dear Naruto or her team would've offered. It was because of that that Kushina decided never to return to Konoha. She knew her son was in good hands with Koi.
That orange cat was going to give Koi a message to keep an eye on Naruto, only for it to punch her in the gut with 'dead'. Kushina wasn't going to believe that crap. Her student wasn't weak. Clearly not, since she broke into the Hokage tower to rig the teams and save her teammates too many times and then saved her little brother and weathered through the villager's hateful remarks and glares. It just didn't make any sense.
Kushina pushed herself harder, not caring about the sprained ankle that was taking just a little too long to heal and broke a tree branch under her foot. Dammit, Koi. Don't you dare be dead. This better be some sick joke you got all the cats in on!
The branch fell with a nest of baby birds in it and fell hard, killing the newly hatched birds and angering the parents, who flew about and cawed to find their babies' killer. They didn't, of course, but the passersby' who were a few hundred feet away were nearly attacked by sharp beaks. Naruto had already weaved seals to blow the birds away and it worked well; they flew away.
"What was that?" Kayo mumbled.
Naruto shook his head. "Maybe a snake or cat found a nest and toppled it over."
Shisui leaned his chin on his palm, staring blankly at the passerby in the town he was staying the night in. He had no plans of where to go after being expelled from Konoha, but he supposed he could help out in a shop and die an old man with his candies he'd sell to children or become a teacher in some impoverished land. Of about what he'd teach, he had no idea.
Two people in cloaks with red clouds decorating a black background walked on the street below his inn room. Shisui saw a glint of silver hair when it caught the light coming from a vendor. He was very sure he was the only shinobi in the town and was almost perplexed when the other one, a shorter figure, turn to glance up at him. Shisui looked to his left and right and saw no one else staring. The figures were already walking away.
Shisui was suddenly possessed by the notion of other shinobi. He'd become hypersensitive to shinobi since he hadn't seen one in what felt like ages. Why were there shinobi? What were they doing? Where are they from? So many questions buzzed around in his head and he just had to ask and know and immerse himself in shinobi life. He didn't know that not being in a shinobi village was boring. He needed some kind of entertainment and fellow shinobi, especially strangely clothed ones, might have an interesting story.
Before he knew it, he was following them. He was using the utmost care in making sure they didn't sense him with skills worthy of a Kage. Only, it still didn't work.
Uchiha Shisui found himself staring into the soft dark eyes of Uchiha Itachi and the light guilt-filled ones of Hatake Seiseki. Shisui's eyes darted left to right, unsure of whom to address first. The answer was simple.
"Why are you here?" Itachi asked calmly.
Shisui's eyes turned blood red and instantly turned into the mangekyo. He lunged for Seiseki, whose green eyes widened in shock but did not make an attempt to dodge. Blood ran down his cheek as emaciated black flames began to eat up Seiseki's cloak. Itachi ripped it off of Seiseki and grabbed Shisui.
"Shisui, calm down," Itachi said seriously. "He's—"
"Itachi, what the fuck are you doing with this son of a bitch murderer?!" Shisui demanded, his glowing red eyes boring holes into Itachi. Itachi almost tripped over the next thing he was about to say, but caught himself.
"Seiseki is not a threat. I can easily kill him if the need arose, but he is a valuable asset," Itachi explained.
"To what?! He almost killed your brothers and you're just going to forgive him like that?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!?" Shisui's fingers dug painfully into Itachi's shoulders, which Itachi ignored.
"No," Itachi said. "I've read his memories. He was used by the Tsugi."
Shisui let go of Itachi harshly and grabbed Seiseki by the front of his shirt. "You took away the only person I loved and you've deceived my best friend and decimated my clan!" Shisui seethed and then punched Seiseki hard enough to break his jaw. He did. Seiseki flinched once in pain before kneeling on the ground and forced his words to be understandable despite his broken jaw. "You can read my memories," the Hatake looked up at him and into Shisui's hatred-filled sharingan.
Shisui found himself witnessing the burning of the Hatake home. He could feel the heat lick his limbs and saw the badly burned body of a girl whose eyes were golden for a moment. He could feel the fear coming from Seiseki's younger self when his younger sister blew up her opponent and the terror Seiseki felt towards her, a monster. He could hear the blame towards himself for not dying like Koi did under the rocks and the lack of regret for leaving Kakashi. He carried a drunk blonde woman home and left soon after. An older Seiseki met Jishin and Shinsai, bought sedatives, and made his way to Konoha. Anger and hate boiled in Shisui as he saw Koi's eyes open against the white sheets of the hospital for a moment, confusion and betrayal, before she succumbed to the sedative. A hazy fog lifted from Seiseki's eyes and then Seiseki's voice rang out against Shinsai. Shinsai continued torturing his niece for an agonizing time, making Shisui's inside nearly explode in fury as she could barely cough up any water. He was tempted to stop right then and there, but he didn't. He kept going and felt the nauseating feeling of having strings attached to his ankles and wrists. Itachi was right; Seiseki was truly at the mercy of the red hazy liquid that corrupted him and gave Shinsai control over him. Koi conversed with an Uzumaki for a short time. At first, she looked simply angry. Then, it morphed into something out of hell and took over her heart and her obsidian eyes hardened into irate spheres. Then was the Uchiha children and the terrified and screaming children's faces were burned into Shisui's memory. Then was the kunai that sunk into Koi's nearly bare back and the shudder that ran through her body as she pushed away the pain. The two fought as they had so long ago but on a different scale. Koi hesitated unconsciously, seeing him as family and hurt that he didn't and couldn't reciprocate; he was still terrified of the monster. He ran a lightning-encased kunai through her blind body and Shisui could feel her damaged organs from the torture and the blood the anger that came along with that. Shisui continued on for a little longer to see Kakashi choke Seiseki and then he whisked away as a slave for the clan he'd helped. He begged to a Kushina look-alike and here he was today.
Shisui keeled over, letting go of him, and vomited on the ground, sickened by what he felt. He wiped his mouth and glared. "You asshole! You, the genjutsu prodigy, fell for a trick like that!" Shisui laughed dryly for a moment. "You wanted me to see your suffering to forgive you? I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry you've fallen this far. I will never forgive you," Shisui leaned closer and lowered his voice to a hiss. "And neither will she."
"No," Seiseki said tiredly; his brain hurt from all the searches. He still had the strength to return with his own softer glare. "I don't need your pity. Your sensei already does that daily. I know that I've done something unforgiveable and I can't ever apologize to her, but at least I'm doing something right for once."
Shisui narrowed his eyes. "Right is a subjective word." But Shisui said nothing to the contrary. He couldn't; he'd seen Seiseki's memories and knew what Itachi knew and why Itachi wasn't setting him on fire.
"I understand," Seiseki said. Shisui slipped his hands into his pockets and his eyes faded to black, "I don't want to see you again." Seiseki donned the look he normally wore: a gloomy one with anguish scrawled all over it with anger stitched on here and there. Shisui frowned. Pathetic.
The older Uchiha turned to look at Itachi, who for once showed his true emotion. Gone was the poker face, replaced by a worried one that looked as if it were about to smile a little. Shisui mock glared. "What?"
"You're not angry that I never said anything to you or Obito?" Itachi asked, knitting his brows together. "Did you have a gut feeling that I didn't die?"
"No," Shisui said slowly. "I believed you died, to be honest. I felt bad for not coming with you that day, to avenge your brothers. But I couldn't go out of Konoha for a while and I didn't want to find birds picking at your flesh or some unmarked grave in the middle of nowhere. But, I'm not angry. You always had your reasons for doing whatever you did and I suppose you do now."
Itachi nodded slightly. "I see."
Seiseki looked at Shisui with a strange look all of a sudden. Shisui glanced at him, and tensed. His hands ached to just wrap around Seiseki's damned throat and end him right then and there but he didn't. It was as if Seiseki was looking through him. "What?"
Seiseki closed his damned Tsugi green eyes. "Thank you, Shisui."
Shisui widened his eyes, as if to ask for what. "Thank you for being my sister's friend. You…you were her only friend. If you hadn't come along, she would've agreed to Danzo's offer to join his organization and been turned into a terrifying weapon."
Shisui sighed and closed his eyes and turned around to walk back to the inn. "Itachi, make sure to kill him if he does anything stupid. Keep in touch, ne?"
"Yeah," Itachi said shifting a bit before turning towards the denser part of the forest, towards their destination. A crow in the distance cawed a few times. Itachi glanced back at Shisui and made eye contact before the two disappeared, leaving Shisui to scavenge around the vendors in the late-night streets for something cheap to eat. He eyed the batter and vegetable covered octopus balls and handed over a few coins in exchange for ten pieces.
"Be safe, Itachi."
His violet eyes swept over the masses of people. Right then, he issued the signal and chaos broke free and ran rampant through the streets, filling green eyes with panic and shock and grey ones (and the occasional violet one like himself) shone brightly with the taste of victory and freedom so close.
Naruto looked up to see a huge compound with the Hatake crest decorating the front wall in black paint against a dark brown, almost black in the darkness of night and unreadable if it weren't for the moon, wooden wall. He presumed it opened up like Konoha's gates did, and it opened up more or less the same, except for the guard that came out of a small door on the front.
"Sakuma-sama," the guard bowed. Then he looked at the children. "These children are not Hatake."
Sakuma acted as if he didn't say anything. "I have something important to do."
"Sakuma-sama," the guard said, holding his ground. "It will not do for our leader to disobey the very rules she had put in place, and especially not now."
Sakuma looked at him with a hard look. "This is Uzumaki Naruto, taught by my niece. And this…" Sakuma looked at Kayo, who stood by her with a confused face. "This is Hatake Kayo."
The guard looked at the girl with green eyes and blonde hair. "Sakuma-sama," the guard said slowly. "Whose child is she?" His words were cautious and Naruto finally remembered why Sakuma had said what she'd said. His eyes went wide and he looked at Kayo. It had been so long since that night, when Koi had mysteriously not appeared to protect him from the man with the same silver hair as she had and laughed, that Naruto had completely forgotten about the girl's connection to the man that he hated with every fiber of his being.
Sakuma laid a hand on his shoulder. "You are not to tell a soul. Do you understand? If you do, I promise you that you won't ever be able to tell anyone else again."
"H-hai, S-Sakuma-sama," the guard said and believed her.
She leaned into his ear and he flinched away. "You're sure?" He looked at Kayo, his eyes examining her features. He gasped. "Those eyes…" then he scowled. "Those damned eyes."
"What?" Kayo asked, slightly fearful. She looked at Naruto, whose face was frozen in horror. "Naruto-niichan, what're they talking about? What's wrong with my eyes?"
"Please enter, Sakuma-sama," the guard moved to let them pass.
Inside was a denser village than Konoha with houses and shops and markets pressed up against one another until they were nearly on top of one another. From the shops, lanterns glowed softly and advertised sake, ramen, and other popular food items. Most of the houses were a bit farther down and were able to breathe a little better. The few people that were outside at such a late hour bowed or looked at the two children with alarmed and confused looks. Sakuma kept walking until she reached a house and opened the door.
"Kaa-san, you're home already?" a female voice rang out.
"Did you bring back any food?" a male voice drawled from another part of the house. The female from earlier growled before the man hissed in pain. A faint what did I do?! was barely audible.
"Sakuma-obaachan!" a few children came running from around the corner. They stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Naruto and Kayo. They stared in wonder before the youngest child, perhaps four, began to cry and ran back to where he came from. The male walked over with urgency in his step and his mouth dropped when he saw Naruto and Kayo. The children moved behind him as if for protection.
"Kaa-san, what is this?" the man narrowed his eyes. "What're you trying to do? Outsiders are forbidden. I don't care who they are, but they have to leave."
"Naruto, Kayo, sit here," Sakuma gestured to the low table a few feet away. "I have to talk to my son. Do not touch anything and do not move from this spot."
Sakuma took her son's arm roughly and dragged him away as he sent a glare at the two Namikaze. The eldest of the Hatake children in the house, Sakuma's grandchildren, was a year younger than Naruto. She approached him without fear, unlike her siblings and cousins and sat at the table. Naruto stared at her.
"What?" she smirked. "Never seen silver hair before?" she ran a hand through her silver strands and her black eyes looked at Naruto seriously. "Who are you two anyway? Not some orphans that Sakuma-obaasan pitied, right?"
Naruto glared. "It's common courtesy to introduce yourself before asking the names of others."
She nodded and bit into a sesame candy bar from her pocket. Dried strawberries stood out brightly against the tan colored sesame seeds. "I'm Hatake Takami. Are you, like, half Hatake or something?"
"No," Naruto said. Her eyes seemed to become darker and less friendly, to which he quickly added, "But does knowing one count?"
"Depends," she said, crunching loudly on her sesame candy and sent a few seeds flying towards him. "There are only a few Hatake living outside. You're from Konoha then. Who'd you know?"
"Hatake Kakashi and Hatake Koi," Naruto said.
She suddenly grinned widely. "Koi-obasan must've been so cool! Sakuma-obaasan says that she liked candy bars, so I've been eating as many as I can find but I get the feeling that sesame candy isn't the one, yet. Did you know what she liked?" then her face fell. "You can't have possibly known her; she died during the war."
Naruto raised a brow. "What're you talking about? War?" Naruto took out a photo of Koi and himself as a small child and held it up. "This is her, isn't it?"
She snatched the photo from Naruto's hands and her eyes scanned the photo, as if looking for imperfections. A few seconds ticked by and Takami remained quiet either from shock or lack of any evident tampering. She shook her head slowly.
"You know, the Third Shinobi World War. She was one of the key players for Konoha and the Land of Fire. And she died," Takami said.
"Then how could she have possibly been in the photo?" Naruto demanded, his eyes ablaze with anger.
Takami stood. She didn't look at Naruto and strode over to the door. She opened it and moonlight poured in.
"Hey!" Naruto yelled in protest. "Where are you going?!" The Namikaze boy stood and looked at the girl who was about to run off with his only photo of his sensei. Without a word towards Naruto's questions, Takami went off and out. Naruto didn't give care about what the old hag had said; he was going to get that photo back. Kayo stared at the doorframe from which her cousin had just plunged into the huge compound in shock. She reached out weakly and then saw a scared look from the other smaller children. Fear etched its way onto her face and then she ran after Naruto, seeing him as a strong figure to protect her, even if he didn't really like her.
"Naruto!" Kayo screamed out and ran after the red blur that was so much faster than she. She eventually stopped after turning down so many roads and she ended up in front of the gates. A guard noticed her and it was the same guard from earlier. Kayo took a woozy step back. "I…"
Earlier, he'd glared at her and her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something else more intelligent than just 'I' but no words could come out. The guard's spiky silver hair was tied back and his black eyes hatefully dug into her. He simply emanated hate and killer intent and she choked back a terrified sob. The guard's hand blurred as if it were simply her imagination, but it was very real when the hand curled into a fist and sunk into her stomach. Air left her lungs and she couldn't breathe. She hit the ground and writhed in pain, gasping and gasping but unable to take in any air.
"Fucking Tsugi trash!" the guard yelled as he embedded his foot into the soft flesh of Seiseki's daughter. And again.
In another part of the compound, Naruto skidded to a halt when he found himself in the middle of a square all alone. Naruto's head swiveled around and around to try to find the girl. He jumped up on a house to get a better view of the area and saw a blur of silver hair. Found you! Naruto dashed towards the girl at full speed.
His vision became hazy all of a sudden. He tumbled down after tripping on an uneven roof tile and hit the ground with a loud thud. The boy was unconscious before he even hit the ground. The sun was a mass of fire at the horizon whose rosy fingers ripped away night and burned it up.
"Ya-chan!" Takami beat on the door. "Open up!"
A sleepy boy with his eyes glazed over in sleep wore blue pajamas and his hair resembled Kakashi's in the way it defied gravity blinked wearily at her after opening the door. "And why are you here?"
"Look!" Takami held up the photo, grinning wickedly.
Ya-chan took the photo from her with lightning speed, his eyes wide and his mind fully awake all of a sudden. "No way!" a smile made his face light up. He leapt out of his home and the two rounded up more of their friends all buzzing with excitement for the Hatake who had cheated death and was pretty and strong and protected her brother in the war, as a hero of her clan and the apple of the younger generation's eye should. A role model, just as the Shodaime is.
The Hatake clan saw Hatake Koi and Hatake Kakashi as two of the best Hatake. Seiseki was a bit foggier; the clan knew basic outlines of his defection from Konoha and that he wasn't one to be trusted and was allegedly involved with an enemy of the Hatake clan's. Sakumo was unaware of this fact, but like the Uchiha and Senju, the Hatake and Tsugi fought with just as much hate but unlike the two stronger clans, they never settled for peace. Every child in the huge Hatake compound of perhaps five hundred knew they trained to kill the Tsugi and aim to be as strong as Hatake Kakashi and Koi were.
The group of around fifty dropped to forty after little kids who didn't know how to hold kunai correctly or wield lightning were rudely told 'to go home' or 'leave or else' since they could be of no use and would only get in the way of finding the elusive Koi. The forty-odd children ranged from ages ten to twenty and Takami led it, seeing how she was the eldest of the Hatake leader's children. Her father was slated to become the next head and the clan had high hopes for him; he had a level head most of the time and his water affinity was strong and could do somewhat well under pressure.
The group that Takami led rushed past the boy whose insides were burning up and quaked with cold shivers. Out of the corner of her eyes that resembled circles of ash and soot, loose dark powder that rose above the obsidian rocks and then settled down after a while before it was carried somewhere far by the wind. She might've seen him. Takami didn't like the four confines of her claustrophobic and never-changing dull compound. She reached for the wind to carry her somewhere.
She was twelve and filled with excitement and her bag at her side was filled with her worldly possessions and a map and kunai and jutsu scrolls and clothes and other things she'd need on the journey, a journey everyone in her forty person group agreed would take a long time. Rather incorrect tales had been made up about Sakumo's children, including the thing about Kakashi's feverish love for rainy days and skill in making his own wire and Koi's dislike for any person with black hair and being good at traps and ambush. As a result, the group believed that Koi would be hiding in plain sight and would be hard to find.
The group made their way towards the gates and found a bloody little girl. Takami cradled the girl's head in her arms. The guard standing a few feet away looked at Takami strangely. Takami looked at him and asked, "What happened to her?"
The guard crossed his arms. "She's a damn Tsugi, that's what. Don't touch her, Takami-san. I don't want you to get hurt."
A very quick thought process flashed through her head, summed up with the fact that if Naruto knew Koi and the girl knew Naruto, then the girl couldn't possibly be that bad, even if she was a Tsugi. But still, "How do you know she's a Tsugi?"
The guard raised his brows before muttering something under his breath. "I just do. Where are you all going to at such an early hour?" The guard looked up to see dawn meandering through the skies and just touching the eastern wall.