EDIT: i hear some (all?) people didn't get a notification when I posted chapter 14 last week. It's the longest one yet, if you don't consider my notes, so treat yourself!

Disclaimer: You know, this owning Naruto thing... I'm not into that scene. I'll keep to Hinote, thanks.

Chapter 15

Rin-chan was the first to notice it. She flinched, then doubled over, pressing her hands to her chest. Kakashi was immediately at her side, looking very worried. A few moments later, however, we all felt it–that sickeningly violent energy, flooding through everything with such an intensity I could feel it against my skin. I know this chakra. It was the same as when Auntie channeled her chakra into me, but a thousand times more intense. What is happening?

"Get to Minato-taichō's house and grab some sealing supplies. We have to stabilize her seal."

Kakashi's voice startled me from my evil chakra-induced reverie. He'd picked Rin-chan up, and was directing me towards the door. Right. Sealing supplies. Kakashi could no doubt get them himself, but he needed to mind Rin-chan, and I knew best where they were located. There was also the fact that I had more sealing experience in sealing... And I'm rambling again. Focus.

I ran to the house, followed closely by Kakashi. When we got there, I heard a child screaming. It came from the fortified basement where Uncle tested his jutsu. Kakashi motioned to indicate he would take Rin-chan there. She screamed. No time to think about it. I rushed to Uncle and Auntie's bedroom, where she kept her fūinjutsu materials. A loud roar could be heard across the village, and the air seemed to tremble with chakra

When I got to the basement, I saw the source of the screams: a baby. A little blond thing, he was, crudely swaddled in cloth. He was still red from the birth, covered in mystery goop. What on earth? A blond newborn, in that place, could only be Auntie and Uncle's son… but why is he here? No. Focus. Need to stabilize Rin-chan's seal.

I froze. Wait, her seal? What in the…? Kakashi's pleading look snapped me out of it. Based on her behavior, the seal should be on her chest. Okay, so she has some sort of seal… on her chest? I grabbed a pair of scissors and cut open her blouse – she wouldn't relax her arms for long enough for me to remove it normally. Kakashi blushed a bit, but I ignored it. Not the time.

There it is. Atop her heart lay a complex, eight-pointed seal, the tattoo writhing on her skin, bulging rhythmically. I haven't ever seen a seal do that! What is happening!? I didn't know nearly enough about sealing to fix a seal like this, and I doubted anyone in the village but Auntie could. I haven't seen a seal this complex since… It all clicked. And that made the task even more urgent.

Auntie's seal is leaking, and this one is responding to the chakra of its… sibling? Cousin? Isolating her from the chakra was the best I could come up with. It will have to do, until Auntie can come and fix this. I hope she's okay. A leak like that couldn't be good. Where the hell did Rin-chan get a fucking bijū sealed into her, and why? I shook my head.

"We need to isolate her from this chakra. I think that's what's causing it", I told Kakashi. Almost before I finished, he'd grabbed a brush and drawn a seal around her contorting tattoo. I looked at him, and noticed he had his Sharingan open. He can copy fūinjutsu? I thought even the Sharingan wouldn't allow the wielder to follow all of the intricacies of a seal.

And then the chakra storm got worse. The howls became deafening, and the sound of an explosion could be heard. Terrified screams and howls of pain followed. A terrible wave of dread passed over us, what I would later identify as a terrifying amount of killing intent. I felt sweat drip from my pores. My heart accelerated like crazy, and I felt like I was suffocating. More than that, my head hurt horribly. Kakashi looked to the stairs, and almost got up. Then he turned back to Rin-chan and stayed where he was, pouring chakra into her seal.

And then Uncle was there, with Auntie limp in his arms.Auntie! No!

He laid her on the floor, barely giving us a look, and put the blond baby next to her.

"It's fine. You're with Naruto now", he told her.

Then he was gone.

Auntie looked terrible. She was pale, and had blood dripping from the corners of her mouth. I looked at her, and it my throat hitched. The floor was falling away from me, and the air transmuted into unbreathable molasses. My eyes burned, my head hurt, and my heart was in pieces.

"Shhhhh, Hinohino. Come here, let me see you." Her voice was terribly small. "Be strong, okay? You must be a good big sister for Naruto, dattebane!" She managed a smile. I sobbed.

She looked at Kakashi, who kept glancing at the stairs.

"We'll be okay. You can go." Kakashi got up and ran to the stairs. "Now, Hinohino, you need to listen carefully, okay? Do you remember the four-fold barrier seal I showed you once? The one with the elemental- elemental formation?" Her voice faltered, and so did my breathing.

"Do you remember it, Hinote?" She repeated, and I nodded, dredging the memory up. My head pounded, a flickering pain at the edge of my awareness. Focus. Auntie needs me!

"I need you to draw that around her seal."

I got up and grabbed the brush Kakashi had left, trying not to pay attention to Auntie's labored breathing, or how ragged she looked, or how much worse my headache had gotten.Focus.I drew the symbols, one by one, even as my sight began to distort. I'd had headaches before, but never one this bad. Focus. Auntie talked to me the whole time. I couldn't tell the words, but it was calming, and distracted me from the pain.

At last I was done, and my world was consumed by terrible burning. At some point, Uncle had come and picked Auntie and the baby up, leaving me alone with Rin-chan and my completed seal. She had told Kakashi she'd be okay, but I knew that look. I'd seen it too many times in the mirror. That face which told me Auntie was withering dying dwindling expiring perishing ending vanishing my head hurts so much make it stop

I clawed at my eyes, trying to reach the pain that came from my heart, but to no avail. I screamed and contorted, the image of Auntie burned into my retinas with a fire that refused to be extinguished. Like Auntie. Auntie is ebbing fading passing and I can't help and it hurts so much HELP

I passed out.

Sarutobi Hiruzen took stock of the damage. The Yondaime Hokage was dead, as was the Kyūbi's jinchūriki and foremost fūinjutsu expert in Konoha. All around the village, hundreds more had died, and twice that number had lost their homes. Luckily, most of the infrastructure was unharmed, and what had been damaged had been repaired within hours.

Luckily. As if anything having to do with this incident could be considered lucky. They had just come out of a world war; for one of the heroes of the war, and their kage, die so soon, did not bode well. Especially when the same incident had incapacitated quite a few of their elite forces.

He wished Tsunade were still in the village. His student was a gifted healer, and her presence during these times would have lent a relief to many. He shook his head. Wishing for the Slug Princess would not bring her back; he suspected nothing would. Hiruzen would just have to do with what he had. For now, that meant stabilizing their power, and choosing the village's course in the future.

The Council had decided to relocate the Uchiha. Many recalled the history of Uchiha Madara's attack with the Kyūbi; one or two, even, were children during the event itself. They had taken the attack to be, if not an actual offensive from the clan, a bad omen, and thus used the destruction of their compound as a reason to move them further from the village center.

Hiruzen was worried. Tensions among the clans were higher than any time since the founding, and growing fiercer every day. Moving the Uchiha was additional fuel to a fire he had already been unsure they could escape without nasty burns. Especially not with the village as it was. Still, Danzō had a point: isolating the Uchiha might yet shield them from accusations, and defuse the situation through mere spatial separation.

We lost so much that day. He thought of Naruto, deprived of his parents and saddled with a terrible burden, the terrible burden, in the very first minutes of his life. He thought of all the families whose fathers, mothers, children, would never return home again. He thought of those who may still die, if this upheaval lured the other hidden villages into sparking war anew. And he thought of one girl, unresponsive in her room, blinded as her own chakra attempted again and again to activate a kekkei genkai she was never destined to have.

A/N: I've only got one thing to say about this one: I had to reread a whole bunch of the manga until I felt I got this right - or, at least, close enough that I could post this. I hope you enjoyed it!

Okay, a couple more things: first, reviews are very very welcome, especially on this chapter, where I am unsure how clear the descriptions are. Hinote herself doesn't get what is going on, so it was hard to put it to paper. Well, screen. Second, since I forgot about it last week: Firebrand is one year old! Woo! I am saddened that something supposed to update once a week only has sixteen posts in more than twelve months, however.