Chapter 2
Kuro Harī, jōnin of Konohagakure, stepped onto the village for the first time in eight years. His companions looked around in curiosity, being the first time the youngest themselves saw it.
"Alright, we'll go straight to T&I to get you all cleared. Hopefully, we'll finish in time for me to make it to the meeting." He said.
"What do we do meanwhile?"
Harī looked down into the warm chocolate eyes of the thirteen year old boy as he thought about it.
"I'll take you to the Kuro Clan grounds. You can all choose a room and unpack. Maybe explore a bit until I'm finished."
The child nodded whilst the other two children exchanged a smile. Their older companion snorted at their giddiness, but didn't comment. He and Harī had heard enough of their talk the last years to know they were all too eager to see the place Harī called home.
"Come on, it's through- uh?"
"Hiko-sama." Greeted a masked man dropping down in front of him.
Harī's genin startled at the sudden arrival, whilst his partner's dark brown eyes only narrowed slightly.
"Anbu Neko." Returned the man. "Are you to be our escort?"
"Yes, Hiko-sama."
"Right, lead the way, please."
HPNHPNHPNHPN
When an ash-blond familiar shinobi greeted them in T&I, he really thought he shouldn't have been surprised. Inoichi's face was equally stupefied at the sight of the hiko, so he guessed the Yamanaka hadn't been notified of their identity by the Hokage.
The procedure finally came to an end and his companions were cleared. Harī watched with equal parts pride and sadness as they all received a hitai-ate each, Konoha's leaf symbol engraved in the metal plate. His three boys looked at him and, after receiving a warm smile and a nod, they fastened their new forehead protectors to their bodies.
On the way to the Hokage Tower, Harī could feel Inoichi looking at him several times, but as the Yamanaka didn't say anything, neither did he.
At least he could understand. Both of them had questions they wanted to ask, but neither was sure of how to ask them.
The hiko had to wonder, though: was this how it was going to go each time he met someone he'd been close ―or relatively close― to those eight years ago?
HPNHPNHPNHPN
With the meeting finally over, Harī made himself scarce. As nice as seeing Anko and the others again was, he wasn't used to crowds of shinobi anymore.
Instead of going straight home, though, he took a small detour first.
Walking along the long rows of tombstones brought back memories of a thousand other times doing the same, a deep melancholy setting over him. All too soon and yet not soon enough, he stopped in front of an old grave. Its only engravings held mostly the same information as all the others: a name, a date of birth and death and a loving message.
What truly set it apart from any others was that the characters in which it was all written weren't ones most would recognise or even understand.
It was in English.
Another little detail separated it from the mostly civilian graves surrounding it: a Clan marking with the kanji 'Kuro'.
Harī knelt before it and reached out to dislodge the few leaves that covered the inscription, tracing the name with loving if shaking fingers.
"Hello, dad." He muttered, throat clogged with emotion. "I'm back. It's been eight years since I last visited. Sorry for taking so long, but…"
The black-haired man sighed, thinking over everything that had happened in his time away from Konoha. And before.
"I needed it." He concluded.
Silence fell around him as his mind conjured up the memories of what it had been like back then, when he'd felt so lonely and hurt as the whispers and stares of the villagers followed him wherever he went. At the time it had felt like too much and he had felt like a coward for leaving, but he now knew it had been the right thing to do. For if he hadn't…
"I've got three kids now. And a brother; kinda." He chuckled. "You'd have loved them. Spoiled them rotten, too, I'm sure. I'll ask them if they want to come with me on my next visit." He promised. "They're all shinobi and I'm not thrilled about it, but it's not like I can actually talk, right? It was their decision and that's what really matters. It doesn't make me worry any less, even if I know they're good. What was that you used to say? That worrying was half a parent's job? I didn't understand what you meant, back then, but I've got it down to an art by now."
His chuckles trailed off into silence as a strange sense of calm came over him, like the burden he'd been carrying for so long was lifting.
"They're going to take part in the Chūnin Exams soon. It's their next step in their shinobi careers and I know they're going to do great. Haku and Kimimaro are going to pass for sure. I have some doubts about Sora, though. He has the ability, but still hasn't got a hang of his temper. He reminds me of… well, me, before you brought us here."
Harī remembered it all perfectly, how his anger controlled him and made him act without thinking, throwing himself at every danger that crossed his path without any regard to his own self. Until someone appeared in his life, someone who cared. His dad taught him what being loved meant. His dad, who had abandoned everything for a chance to give Harī a place to call home.
"I know I haven't said it before, so… thank you, dad, for bringing me to Konoha. For… for all this. I'm really glad that I get to call this place home."
His breathing came easier after getting that off his chest and he smiled.
"Right, I better get going. Who knows if the house will still be standing if I leave those four alone another minute? Bye, dad."
As the green-eyed man's footsteps vanished, a lonely name stood out amongst thousands of others, written in an elegant but strange script.
Sirius Orion Black