Author's Note: I'm ending the 'Okita Mansion Mission' arc in this chapter which means I am NOT paying attention to the word count again. Funny enough, I wrote out this entire chapter and the following chapter outlines on pieces of paper while I was at work waiting for tables to come in so I could, you know, actually do my job and serve them. I'm usually several chapters ahead of the published chapter but due to the writer's block issue over the last two chapters, you guys are officially caught up to what's being planned and written by the week. I'll be forging ahead over the next few weeks again so things will be more cohesive again as we get into the Chunin Exams.

Warning: Brief mention of suicide, no details included.

Chapter Note: What's in the chest~ What's in the chest~

—

Avurin gulped as she opened the door to the hidden office, completely unprepared for going back into the room that almost killed her. What would it be this time? Fire? Kakashi was tense beside her, even more guarded than he had been the previous time she'd gone to that room. She took a deep breath as she cracked another of her glow sticks, walking over the threshold of the doorway. She looked back at Kakashi, knowing her kekkei genkai wasn't still activated from opening the door.

"I'll find a way to alert you if something else happens. I'm just going to get the chest and run back this way. If I'm in there for longer than a few minutes, you know the way to get into the room if it locks again." She knew the words weren't very reassuring since they didn't exactly have a backup plan, but it was the best she could offer. After he gave her a stiff nod, she started walking up the steps to get back to the room.

This time, she was quick to get to the office. The door was still shut so she used her kekkei genkai to open it, surprised when it opened the exact same way it had before. After what had happened last time, she made sure to wedge one of the loose boards that was against one of the walls into the space between the door and the frame. It shouldn't be able to shut on her this time.

She was careful as she crept into the office, still smelling the water that had soaked into the few pieces of furniture in the room. It brought back the memory of her near-drowning but she forced the thoughts back, focusing on her mission. The chest was in the exact same place it had been before. She didn't know if whatever was in it had been soaked through and she didn't care.

She laid down the large storage scroll she'd brought, biting her thumb and pressing it against the paper before touching the chest with it. The chest disappeared in a puff of smoke and she froze, waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, she let out a long breath that she'd been holding before bolting to the door. She got through the door without an issue, running through the narrow passage and nearly tripping as she jumped down the final flight of stairs, nearly bowling over Kakashi who was standing right at the door.

"Everything alright?" Kakashi asked quickly. She nodded and dusted herself off, suppressing a shiver.

"Yeah, I just have a very healthy fear of dark stone rooms that smell like water now…" she mumbled as the door slowly shut on its own with her exit. He pushed the bookshelf back to its original position.

"You got the chest?" She nodded, holding out the scroll.

"I didn't run into any trouble sealing it. It hadn't budged from the flooding." Avurin told him as she unsealed the scroll, letting the chest pop into existence in front of her and Kakashi. "Frankly, I want to just open it. I'll keep my Kekkei Genkai on in case it's trapped for anyone except my family but I really don't think there's anything else tied to it. I don't see any wards or seals on it." She held her hand in the usual sign to activate her kekkei genkai before Kakashi could protest.

"I guess we'll just do it then…" Kakashi muttered, resigned. Avurin snorted. She knew he was just as eager to know if they'd completed their mission. She pressed her hand to the chest and sure enough, it glowed with a series of seals on the wood before both clasps popped open on their own. She lifted the lid of the chest and let her kekkei genkai fade away, getting the feeling that it was safe to do so.

Inside the chest were several journals, books that looked as if they'd been printed and bound by hand, a dark brown fur mantle, and a stack of seal paper with pre-drawn seals. She glanced at Kakashi who had his Sharingan active, recording the event. Reaching into the chest, she pulled out the first few journals and one of the books. The chest was crammed with books, filling every inch of space. If this was what they were looking for, it would take a very long time to go through all of it. She would be taking this chest back to Konoha and it would be locked and sealed away to keep any prying eyes out of it. She opened the first journal.

I could not complete my research with Father dwelling in the house but with his passing finally allowing my status to shift to the Clan Head, I am taking it upon myself to investigate the bloody history of the Okita family. We have spent two generations hiding an unknown bloodline's kekkei genkai that has started to make itself more prevalent in my cousins. Great-Grandmother Kei and Grandfather Riku were insistent on 'culling' the bloodline after finding the new traits among them but Father had stopped them by begging for mercy. We barely avoided infanticide in our family.

After both of their passing, especially Grandfather's passing, my cousins were allowed to continue about their lives. Father insisted that he would not acknowledge the impending destruction of the Okita kekkei genkai and that meant not acknowledging my cousins. With his passing, I arranged a meeting with my cousins following the abuse that was suffered by those that presented the kekkei genkai and, in a fit, Hisaki committed suicide in the upstairs bathroom on the second night of the meetings and discussions regarding the future of the clan. He suffered the worst out of us, his hair was bright red and the kekkei genkai was hardly controllable. My uncle did not have the trait and had beat him into compliance for years until his own passing.

Those of us remaining have all come to an agreement that continuing to reproduce with the exception of the main line is not in our best interest.

I have spent my life dreading the possible appearance of this unknown bloodline trait in my own family, however, I believe Father was satisfied that I have shown no such traits. It is believed that the muddying of our bloodline was brought in by my Grandmother that I am not permitted to speak of, however we do not have any details. This bloodline trait has not been spoken of or investigated since it began presenting. All we know is that the Okita kekkei genkai is NOT present in any of our bloodline that present the new kekkei genkai. Something is preventing our trait from passing and my Father was resigned to the extinction of our kekkei genkai until I presented with it.

This chest will remain locked away from the family while I complete my research. We need answers if we have any hope of saving the family and cleansing our ancestry of so much blood.

Jiro Okita, son of Yuto Okita - previously Hiroto Okita, grandson of Riku Okita

Avurin let out a shuddering sigh. More journals and more traumatizing history, this time promising answers. Her great-grandfather, Jiro Okita, who previously resided in the home, had taken it upon himself to find the answers she needed so desperately. Yet, just in one page, she knew she was the last of her line. Her grand-uncles and aunts had taken an oath of celibacy for the sake of destroying the kekkei genkai that the unknown Sasaki that had married in had 'infected' the clan with. All driven by the actions of her own family and abuse. If this kekkei genkai was so uncontrollable in some, she could understand. Yet, why hadn't they taken the time to find a way to utilize it like every other family utilized their kekkei genkai?

"Let's move this to the living room. We have plenty of daylight to get through some of this today and you might find what you're looking for." Kakashi said softly as he put a hand on her shoulder. He had been reading the page over her shoulder. She nodded and closed the journal, putting it back in the chest. She closed the chest and stored it again, following Kakashi to the living room. It was a lot. There was so much information in one chest and it dwarfed everything else they had found in the house.

Settling into the living room, she pulled the chest from storage and opened it again, pulling the journal she'd been reading out. Kakashi stayed quiet as he picked up one of the books that looked like a formal records book. They both settled down on the couch, Kakashi laying down with his feet in her lap. Opening the journal again, she turned to the next page.

I have found a journal in a hidden room through the kitchen. Sasaki-san fills the gap in the family tree and I would have killed my grandfather if he weren't already deceased. I am horrified by the series of events that brought about my Father's birth as well as mine and my cousins. Regardless, she left her family name for me to investigate and I have found very few records of her family. From what we understand, the kekkei genkai that she possessed was a time jutsu, freezing time in localized areas that would not be undone unless the caster removed the jutsu. From the state of the room upstairs, I believe this jutsu continues after death and that she had cast it in her final days akin to a curse on the family. It is powerful.

I also have reason to believe my father had the trait. He never presented with the Okita kekkei genkai despite my own manifesting of the vocal jutsu. He was very withdrawn and had banned any questions regarding the Sasaki kekkei genkai. Yet, I find signs of its use throughout the home. We never seem to have expired goods despite how long they sit in the cabinets. I have checked for seals that could explain such a phenomenon and there were none. I don't know what constitutes the range of the 'frozen' areas in the home or how the borders are set, much less how the jutsu is initiated. I only know that now that I am aware of its nature, I am able to see the signs of its use.

When Hisaki would have his episodes as a child, he could freeze the blood in someone's veins, at least long enough to kill a person. It was after such incidents that he received his beatings and he was isolated from us for several years. It is not unbelievable to think that he had power that would be incredibly useful in battle, yet he was never permitted to take any missions sent to us by Konoha. I have only taken a couple since my standing in the clan has been updated, yet there have been questions regarding the health of the clan that are too specific for comfort. After reading Sasaki-san's journal, I have reason to believe that she was assigned to ruin the Okita bloodline from the inside. People have reason to fear us enough to conduct such a mission, however the matter of who would do such a thing is still in question.

Avurin nodded to herself, seeing the pieces start to come together. The Sasaki's involvement when it came to heirs for the Okita clan wouldn't be an unheard of method for diluting a prominent family's bloodline. It was part of why the Uchiha had always been so careful about who they had kids with prior to the massacre, not wanting any of the branches to be 'watered down' or 'infected'.' The fact that this had not only occurred to the Okita clan but was also kept so tightly under wraps despite the severity of it was shocking.

As she continued reading, she was disappointed to realize that her great-grandfather hadn't found much on the bloodline. From the theories to the drawn-out diagrams that he mentioned having crammed into the chest in front of her, even going as far as to take trips to the Land of Earth where the Sasaki clan was supposed to be from and stealing books from there, there just wasn't much to solidify the information he'd found. The chest would be full of theories and history, but nothing to explain everything. Some passages in his journal were even used like a normal diary, detailing the events of certain days and just barely mentioning anything about the family. About halfway through the journal, she noticed that the handwriting on one of the pages was more jagged, almost as if it were written in a panic.

My only son, Ryoichi, has manifested the Time-Freeze Jutsu. He is only seven years old, yet I witnessed him freezing one of his toys, a wooden sphere he likes to roll across the floor. As he let go of the toy, it froze on the floor and did not move until he released the jutsu. He spent quite some time playing with it, freezing it at certain points during its travels across the floor and then just as easily releasing it. We did not teach him how to do this and I had worried for him when he was born with red in his hair, however I now have to worry that he will use it to harm someone or something without knowing what he did. I do not wish to repeat what occurred with Hisaki. If anything, I believe I may be the best suited to help him. I will take notes regarding his progress. Hopefully this will provide some insight on this still-unknown kekkei genkai.

Avurin had hoped that the kekkei genkai had died out with Yuto Okita, Jiro's father. She didn't want to think that she would be carrying the gene herself. However, since Jiro had the Okita kekkei genkai and his son had manifested the Sasaki kekkei genkai, it was suddenly a very real possibility that any future kids Avurin had may manifest the Sasaki kekkei genkai. It had already skipped a generation, showing a pattern she really didn't like. For that alone, she wanted to learn as much as she could about it. She barely restrained herself from glancing at Kakashi at the thought. Maybe one day they would get that far. For now, she'd keep this information to herself.

The notes following that entry in the journal were all short and to-the-point. Jiro spent as much time as he could with Ryoichi to help him, yet he describes the Sasaki kekkei genkai as being almost instinctive. There were no hand signs that triggered it, simply touch. They had a couple of mishaps, one of the squirrels outside getting frozen in time and later released only to collapse as if it had been shot through with an arrow at the exact moment the jutsu was released. Jiro theorized that the jutsu could not be used to keep someone safe, it would only kill someone if their bodily functions were frozen. It wasn't like being frozen in a zone of time, the body just couldn't handle not breathing or functioning while it was 'frozen.'

From the tone of his writings, at the very least, he was patient with Ryoichi. She remembered meeting her grandfather one time when she was young. He had visited the village with his wife to visit her father and catch up, although she wasn't so sure that it wasn't an important visit with what she'd learned. It sounded like the Okitas didn't leave this house unless they had a mission. Now that she thought about it, it was actually incredibly odd that she was raised in Konoha by her father and mother. This was especially true if there were any concerns about her hair since the red tones in it had been more prominent when she was younger. As she grew older, the brown color had become more prominent and now, it only really had a red tint to it under certain lights.

From what she remembered, her grandfather was very quiet. He had a stern look on his face but he never spoke much above a whisper. The looks he gave her as a child were uncomfortable, as if he was carefully analyzing everything she did. Maybe it had been out of worry? She didn't know for certain.

By the end of Jiro's journal, there wasn't much that had been figured out or discovered. Jiro had prevented several incidents with Ryoichi's kekkei genkai by simply appealing to his morals and explaining why that jutsu couldn't be used for certain things. The squirrel had been a pivotal moment for the both of them and Ryoichi had promised not to use it on living things after that point. Jiro had lived a long time but had passed away from an injury he received on a mission, an agonizing and slow death. He knew his end was coming and had passed on the Clan Head title to Ryoichi with little fanfare, even entrusting the house to him. One passage near the bottom of the final page caught Avurin's attention just as she was about to close the journal.

Ryoichi tells me that he has an heir on the way. I have spoken with him at length regarding my research and our family history, I made him promise to pass along these secrets to each heir going forward. The Okita name is dwindling and it won't do us any favors to have any heirs pass on the name without knowing the blood that comes with it. I dearly hope one of the future heirs reads this journal and, if that is the case, I wish you luck.

I have included my own ancestors' work on the Okita bloodline in this chest in the event that you have manifested the Okita kekkei genkai. If you are reading this, I fear that the worst has come to pass and you may need this information. All that is contained in this chest are considered Okita clan secrets and should be treated with care.

- Jiro Okita

Avurin sighed and closed the journal. Her emotions had been so stretched thin throughout the entire mission that she couldn't bring herself to feel much about being directly addressed by an ancestor of hers. If anything, she felt pretty empty and was just taking the information for what it was, a warning. Given the notes from Jiro about the cousins meeting and refusing to pass down their name, she was the last Okita. Her choice in having heirs would decide the fate of the clan.

Glancing at Kakashi, she let a small smile grow on her face. They had more in common than she had expected. He was the last Hatake, she was the last Okita, their kids would be strong and a total middle finger to everything her clan would have wanted. The mixing of their genes would be interesting if they ever decided to have kids and it would have her ancestors rolling in their graves.

Kakashi looked up from the book he was reading and gave her a lopsided smile.

"Something on your mind?" he asked, setting the book down in his lap. She just shrugged.

"I have a lot of things on my mind. I just think I'm ready to go home." She hoped her smile conveyed the peace she'd found. They had what they needed and she was happy with the results. "Grandpa Jiro just confirmed that what I need is in the chest and, frankly, I think it can wait until we get home. I'm done with this for right now and I need a break." She put the journal back in the chest along with the book Kakashi handed her. After she shut the chest and put it back into the storage scroll, she felt a hand grab her own, turning her to face Kakashi who was now sitting on the couch with his feet on the floor.

He pulled her gently, adjusting her movements so she could settle in his lap, their faces only a couple of inches from each other. He wound his arms around the small of her back, pulling her closer. She leaned down to give him a small kiss. He smiled and brought one hand up to her face to push a stray hair behind her ear.

"Then let's go home."