Chapter 9: Fresh Genin

9 a.m., 2 March 53; Hokage Tower

The Sandaime looked over at the assembled council. Danzo, Homura and Koharu were, of course, present. Because it was also a time of war, Hiruzen had called in his second and third in field command, Orochimaru and Minato, as well as the jounin commander, Shikaku. Smoke from his pipe rose into the air and filled the room. The list of recent genin graduates lay on his desk.

"I understand that you have a petition, Danzo?" he asked. His friend had been acting oddly for the last two weeks, and he wasn't quite sure why. A memory niggled on the edge of his brain, but when he tried to chase it, all he received were phantom visions. Hiruzen would have liked to chalk his feelings up to the grief of losing Kagami, but he knew that wasn't quite right.

"Yes. After reviewing the list of graduates and discussing the list with the academy teachers, I would like to request that Katya Senju be moved to the genin corps. She has an extensive history of pacifistic action, flauts authority when told to fight, and I believe she would be a liability to a genin team. Her current scores place her as twelfth in the class. The student below her, Itsuki, would be a more suitable genin teammate. There is no reason to invest resources and jounin leadership on a genin that refuses to fight."

"Do we have a counterargument before we put this to a vote?"

"Yes. Katya Senju earned the twelfth place in class based on pure academic ability alone. Not every shinobi has to be a frontline fighter-" Minato started.

Homura interrupted, "Certainly. But why is my great-nephew fighting on the frontline in the genin corps when your presumed ward refuses to? Why should he be forced to spill blood in Iwa while your child fills sacks of rice at the warehouse? Especially when that child has no potential to be a chuunin, let alone a jounin."

"I wasn't finished. Katya Senju is able to fight. She spars regularly at home as well as with my own former genin - now chuunin - team. She is on par with Rin Nohara, my team's chuunin medic, for combat skills. She is also an equal to Shisui Uchiha, who graduated top of the class in combined scores."

"And you have proof of this?" Koharu asked, adjusting his spectacles.

"I, no. I never deemed it necessary when the Academy should have been the ones testing her. Regardless, just by being mine and my wife's daughter, she's a target. As the Senju heiress and one of two left in that lineage, that target grows even further. It would only be a matter of time before whatever squad she'd be temporarily assigned to is tracked down and killed."

"That is the plight of every genin corps member, Minato-kun. Not just your own child," Hiruzen responded. "A child that, I feel I must remind you, you do not have legal custody of and never had. Her custody lies with the Hatake clan. What is the girl's current cumulative score, Orochimaru?"

"Twenty-two, sensei," Orochimaru put down the paper.

"And Itsuki-kun's?"

"Twenty-one point five."

"And Itsuki shows the proper amount of aggression as befits a shinobi?" Homura asked.

"That is what his notes indicate."

"If I may, Hokage-sama," Shikaku interrupted. This argument was starting to become troublesome. Minato was becoming visibly upset. There had only been one other time in his life that Shikaku had seen him without his smiling mask. "Katya Senju combined with Shisui Uchiha would be a politically advantageous team. It could help bring the Uchiha further back into Konoha and help remedy the divide that recent strife has caused."

"What nonsense. Shisui Uchiha would best be served apart from Katya Senju. Kagami told me himself that the boy would make a good ROOT candidate if it weren't for his friend. The girl is holding him back from his true potential as a shinobi." Danzo tapped his cane on the floor in emphasis.

"He's just a child!" Minato shouted over Danzo.

"No. They're shinobi. Shinobi that will either live or die in the field. They don't get the option of being called 'child.' Such a word does not exist in a ninja village," Orochimaru stated firmly.

Hiruzen held up a hand. "Enough arguments. We'll hold the vote. All in favor of moving Itsuki-kun ahead of Katya-chan for the genin team, raise your hand."

Orochimaru felt something move inside him that he never had before. It had him lowering his hand and opening his voice before he could control himself. "Hiruzen-sensei, if I may, to verify her combat capabilities, it would be possible to conduct a spar with the council present. Provided that we receive permission from her legal guardian, of course."

"For a single spar to replace such a low taijutsu score, she would need to spar with a chuunin or higher," Koharu refuted.

"Her legal guardian is capable of adequately testing her, as he is being considered for a jounin promotion in the next week. Of course, another chuunin may be acceptable. I would be willing to volunteer myself, as well," Orochimaru answered smoothly.

"Interesting. Alright, we will bring Kakashi-kun in here to give written permission. If he disagrees, Minato-kun, then there is nothing further we can do. She will be placed in the genin corps, whether you like it or not. Konoha simply cannot afford to waste resources on a genin who cannot serve, regardless of her parentage."

"By your word, Hokage-sama," Minato replied in a deadened voice.

It wasn't more than ten minutes later that Kakashi arrived at the Hokage's office. The tension from the right side of the room was thick. His sensei practically reeked of anxiety, though he did his best to hide it.

"Hokage-sama, honorable council," Kakashi addressed with a slight bow.

"Hello, Kakashi-kun," the Hokage greeted with a smile. "We've gathered to discuss the recent genin graduates, your ward included."

Kakashi straightened at the word 'ward.' It was only ever used in lieu of 'sister' when the village wanted something.

Orochimaru broke the disquiet of the room, "To put it plainly, you have the option of allowing your sister to retest in taijutsu among other things. She must prove that she is capable of defending herself in combat and will not be a liability to a genin team. To supplement her score, she would need to prove herself against someone of chuunin rank or higher. I, myself, have also offered to test her. The council simply needs your written permission as it will replace her current test score."

"And if I don't give my permission?" Kakashi asked Minato quietly. The smell of anxiety increased slightly, making his nose twitch. He could feel his stomach sinking to the floor. The answer was not going to be a good one.

"Then she will be assigned to the genin corps," Minato breathed. Kakashi heard it.

"Would it be possible to allow her to become a civilian and simply repay the debt of her education, Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked, his brain frantically trying to find a way out of this situation. "The Hatake estate as well as the Senju holdings could surely cover the amount."

"No. We have reached a point in the war where that is no longer an option. All Academy students must become shinobi."

"I understand." Kakashi inhaled sharply before continuing, "I will test her myself. Where do I sign?" The Hokage handed him the drafted permission slip that the secretary had written. Kakashi felt his heart break a little as he signed away his sister's life. There would be no getting out of this one.

3 p.m., 2 March 53; ANBU Headquarters, R&D Department

The room echoed with the squeak of the rolling chair as Katya hopped on it and took off across the sterilized tile floor of Orochimaru's lab. She spun the chair in circles, faster and faster until it suddenly stopped. She giggled as her head continued to spin. The metal on her forehead was pushed back against her by a long white finger when she looked up into her uncle's face. He looked tired and had his back against a nearby lab table before he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Are you okay, oji-chan?"

"I am fine, child. What does concern me, however, is this." Orochimaru slapped a piece of paper on the cold stone and raised an eyebrow towards the new genin. Katya blushed when she saw her taijutsu score. "I am very disappointed in you."

"I'm sorry oji-chan. I don't like hurting people…"

"You're a kunoichi, Katya-chan. You do not have a choice in this matter. To not fight back is a weakness. Your enemies would take advantage of this."

"I don't want any enemies, though! I don't want to hurt anybody… I don't want to make anyone my enemy…"

"The Senju clan has made many enemies throughout the centuries… blood feuds last lifetimes. To survive, you must fight."

"No! Oji-chan, have you heard the story about the man and the wolves?"

Orochimaru sighed, it wasn't the first time that Katya had tried to change topics with an anecdotal story. He gave a small indulgent tilt of his head for her to continue.

"A traveling monk once entered a town and was sieged-besieged-by the sound of wails. He looked at the guardsmen at the entrance and asked who grieves. The guardsman returned his look with a distraught one of his own before replying that there was a lone wolf about. The wolf had recently slain three villagers, a child, a man, and one woman. The monk was saddened by this as he was a great lover of all creatures; he firmly believed that every creature was valued by God." The story sounded well-rehearsed, likely something that had been retold frequently. Orochimaru wondered just who would be telling a child of a shinobi clan such a tale.

"Not gods?"

"No, just one God, as I heard the story told."

"I see. Pray, continue."

"The monk decided to search for the wolf and eventually came upon the wolf's den. After knocking at the entrance, he hailed the wolf. He lavished him with genuine praise, stating that the wolf was cunning indeed for having snuck into the village. He then asked the wolf to tell him his motives. The wolf then simply replied that he and his four cubs were starving. He was angry that the villagers had killed the she-wolf, the mother of his cubs.

"The villagers, upon growing as a village and inviting others from the large towns to join them, had scared off all of the local prey or eaten them. The wolf was leved-no, livid-that some of the prey they had killed they had not even eaten and simply slain for their coats. He had been attacking the villagers both out of hunger and his own sense of justice. The child he killed out of retribution, to make up for the cub that died from hunger. The man was killed to feed his own cubs. The woman, because she had tried to burn down his den.

"Upon listening to the wolf's tale of woo-woe-, he came to the conclusion that the wolf's problems might be solved with timely intervention and negotiation. After all, he could not bear for one of God's creatures to be destroyed. So, instead of simply killing the wolf and ending his miseries and that of his cubs', he asked the wolf to simply wait one day before taking another life. The wolf nodded and the monk quickly returned to the village.

He asked the villagers if they would be willing to give the wolf food, in exchange for his protection of the villagers and their village. The monk prayed to his god, who agreed that should the wolf not uphold his end of the bargain, he would die on the spot. If the villagers did not uphold their end, the wolf was then free to ravage and lay waste to the small village. The villagers readily agreed, and the monk took this offering to the wolf. The wolf raised his brows, but agreed as well. He did not believe that the villagers would honor the contract, but felt as though he had nothing to lose.

Thus, began an age of peace between the wolf and the villagers. The wolf protected the villagers from many foes, bears, enemy soldiers, etc… He even went so far as to protect their chickens from the occasional opportunistic fox. After his death, his cubs continued his work protecting the village. All the while, the villagers honored the contract and left daily offerings of salted pork, chicken, game, and wild fowl on the outskirts of their settlement.

"So, you see, Oji-chan, violence does not solve violence. Steadfast negotiation, empathy and a mutual laying down of arms does. That will bring peace."

"It sounds like a marvelous dream. However, we do not live in that reality. Who told you such a nonsense story?"

Katya bounced her fingers off of the others and looked at her hands. Her foot shuffled on the tiles as Orochimaru repeated his question. "I call him papa… He feels like 'papa' in any case… His eyes look like mine. I've seen pictures of him before, at Sakumo-oji's house. He was in the Hatake family album. He has white-blue hair too."

"Interesting. I believe you are dreaming of your father, Dan Kato. Though, why, in your dreams, he would tell you such a thing, I don't know." Orochimaru frowned as he suddenly recalled a memory. The odd summons that he had stationed outside of the Senju compound before Tsunade had given birth had told him a fantastical tale. The summons was new to him, and he had dismissed the report as nervousness from being in the human world. Of course, after that incident, he had not thought to summon the snake again.

"Tssunade-hime requiresss your immediate assisstanccce. There wassss a phantom hovering just outssside the housse, Orochimaru-sama. It sssat in the shadowsss. Itsss sssorrow was palpable, even to one sssuch asss I. It wasss able to communicate with me."

The snake-sannin rubbed his forefinger and thumb along his chin in thought, 'Perhaps I should not have dismissed the report off-hand…' He shook his head and turned his attention once more to Katya, who was shuffling her toes along a crack in the tile floor. Her normal bedazzled overall shorts had already been traded out for a more practical shinobi cargo capri in a forest green color. The genin had wrapped bandages around the bottom and tucked the ends into her high-top sandals. He inwardly smiled at the improvement.

"Katya, if you do not wish to harm others, then you must try to be assigned a genin team. If you are not assigned to a genin team, you will be reassigned to the genin corps. It would be wasteful. With your current taijutsu score, however, that is exactly where you have been assigned. Therefore, I have petitioned Hokage-sama to retest you. Your guardian will spar with you as though it were real no-holds barred combat."

"Tou-chan… agreed to that?"

"No, your legal guardian did."

"Kakashi?!"

"Yes."

"But he's all about the rules! He's going to kill me! You can't let him do this, Oji-chan! You just can't!" Katya wailed.

"The other option is to face myself in open combat. And believe me, Katya, I will not hold back." Orochimaru gave her a hard stare as the girl dropped her eyes to the floor.

"I understand. Thank you for warning me, oji-chan. When?"

"Tomorrow morning. Oh, and your counterpart may not attend. Your instructor has reported that he interferes with your fights more often than not."

Katya's shoulders drooped as she shuffled out of the room before stopping in the doorway. "Ne, oji-chan, thank you for the chance. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow, Katya-chan. I expect that the Hokage and his advisors will be there. You will perform well."

4:30 a.m., 3 March 53; Namikaze residence

Minato shuffled into Katya's room before shaking the girl awake. She woke up and took stock of her surroundings before nodding her head and giving him a resigned look. Kakashi had not once looked her in the eye the night before. Instead, he casually quoted the shinobi rules outside of her bedroom door as she changed into her pajamas. He kept reiterating, "A shinobi does not stop fighting until they are dead." Katya thought that it was a rather foreboding thing to say the night before a simple spar.

In the last six years, Kakashi had, of course, sparred with her under Kushina's supervision. But he always held back. Today would be different, and Katya shivered in apprehension. Her brother was too focused on rules to even consider holding back.

She slipped on her pants and carefully wrapped the bandages around her legs. Her armoured mesh went over her camisole, and she tucked her black t-shirt into her waistband. The sleeves fluttered delicately on top of a longer armored top. It was a feminine touch that she was grateful her mother had been able to find. The early morning felt off. Normally, she would wake up slightly and hear her father preparing for his morning workout. She'd smell coffee two hours later when he returned. That was what woke her up, though she never knew why. It wasn't like she was allowed to drink it.

"Come on, Kit-Kat. It's going to be a long morning," Minato whispered when she walked into the dimly lit kitchen. The digital clock said that it was only 4:30 a.m. His hair was tousled, as though he had run his hand through it a thousand times in the last eight hours. Deep circles were carved underneath his eyes from lack of sleep.

"You look tired, tou-chan. Did you not get any sleep last night?" Katya sat down at the table across from him and dug into a bowl of rice topped with leftover salmon teriyaki that he had slid across to her.

"Ah, I'm fine, lovebug. Don't worry so much about me. Think about what you need to do during your spar." He gave her an unconvincing smile. In truth, he had been up most of the night. The Hokage had assigned Kushina a three day long mission on the border in preparation for this fight. It wouldn't do to have Konoha's jinchuuriki lose her cool in the middle of the village, after all.

While jinchuurikis were unpredictable, men who were third in line to become Hokage were not. Minato had sent far too many genin to their own deaths to allow this spar to not happen. Still, she was his child: the one who had cooed at him as a baby and gave him sloppy kisses on his cheek as a toddler, the one who danced on his feet over the Nakano river, the one who cried for him when his summons died because he was too emotionally repressed to do it himself, the one he read volume upon volume of fairy tales to. He could never allow his child to die a horrific and gruesome death in the genin corps. He couldn't allow her to become like her late uncle, Nawaki Senju, who was struck down at the tender age of eleven because of his clan name and a genin corps mission gone wrong. Katya was his baby, and if he had to let her be hurt to be spared such a death, he would have to allow it.

"You feel sad, ya know."

Minato cracked a genuine smile, it was cute when she looked and sounded like Kushina. His wife had raised a mini-red-habanero. "When you feel sad, your chakra feels like watered down orange juice." That earned a sharp bark of a laugh.

"Watered-down orange juice, huh? Can't say I've heard that one before."

"Oh yeah." Katya was pleased that he had laughed even a little bit. "When you're happy, it's just normal oranges. When you're at work, it's like orange peels, ya know? Like super acidic and a little bitter. When you're alone with mama it's like salted oranges. It's kinda weird." Minato's face turned bright red. He didn't realize that she could sense the changes in his chakra while he and Kushina were intimate. Her room was down the hall for heaven's sake, and he had double privacy seals!

"Okay, that's all very interesting, Katya-chan. Let's uh, talk about something else."

The six-year-old gave him an unnerving grin and capitalized on the one thing that could embarrass him further-her mother, "Ya know, when you feel like salted oranges, mama feels like a purring fox. Why is that?"

Minato spit out his rice and coughed heavily. Katya whacked on his back until he raised his hand.

"I uh, I think it's time to head out," he wheezed.

"It'll be okay, tou-chan. It's just a spar. Mama watches Kakashi and I spar all the time. You'll see." Katya embraced Minato and rinsed her bowl in the sink. She was putting her shoes on by the time Minato caught up with her, and they walked out together into the morning fog.

4:30 a.m., 3 March 53; Konoha Cemetery, Kakashi Hatake

Tendrils of fog covered the soft grass and wrapped around the tombstones in the cemetery. The morning chill made Kakashi shiver as dew settled around him. He breathed in the clean morning air and exhaled in a large puff that sailed into the sky. A thin layer of ice broke when he dipped a brush into the bucket and began to clean the grave in front of him.

'Sakumo Hatake, DOB 3 September 10, DOD 1 December 49; Beloved Father, Mentor and Field Commander.'

Kakashi took another shuddering breath when his task was completed. He placed a small stick of incense on top of the grave and lit it.

"It's been a long time… tou-chan," he started. "I uh, I made chuunin. They're testing me for jounin next week. I can't be like you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for ever wanting to. I have to follow the rules. I just…" Tears began to fall freely down his face and collected on top of his mask.

"I know it's wrong. But I came to beg for the strength to do what needs to be done. I know you wouldn't agree. But I have to fight Kit-Kat. I have to force her to use that jutsu. It's the only way. It's the only way she won't be forced into the genin corps. And… I can't let her die an early death. The honor of our clan depends on it! I gave my word as a shinobi before the Hokage and his council that I would be her guardian!" Kakashi didn't realize that his own voice had risen in the still morning until it echoed in return.

"Please, give me the strength to do what needs to be done. Because I don't think I have it in me. I don't think that I can push her to the edge of death without wanting to die too."

The nine-year-old chuunin dried his eyes and stood up, bucket in hand. He had another grave to attend. This one was older. Moss had begun to overtake the corners as he set to work cleaning it.

Dan Kato, DOB 4 December 17, DOD 23 May 46

Or when the lawn

Is pressed by unseen feet, and ghosts return

Gently at twilight, gently go at dawn,

The sad intangible who grieve and yearn...

Kakashi's hands struggled to light the incense this time. The poem was about sound, moreover the sounds of the world, yet the quote itself was unnerving. Who would pick such a thing to be put on their tombstone?

"Kato-san, I'm Kakashi Hatake. I'm your daughter-Katya's-legal guardian. I ask for your protection, on her behalf." Every hair on the back of his neck was at attention. He gave a quick bow before retreating out of the graveyard. His instincts wouldn't allow him to turn his back until he was several feet from the eerie place.

6 a.m., 3 March 53, Uchiha Compound

Shisui opened his eyes to the dream world. It was a hospital room this time. The smell of antiseptic was strong and reminded him too much of his grandmother's last days. A door to the room opened and a tall man with shoulder-length brown hair walked in. He placed a large thermos on the bedside table before taking a seat on the opposite side of the room.

Whoosh. Inhale. Silence. Whoosh. Inhale. Silence. Beep.

"Drink... It's a chamomile blend with honey. ...made it for chakra recovery." The words became fuzzy as Shisui continued to dream.

"I don't need a drink."

"Look man, you just ran straight from Suna to the Land of Grass to Konoha in less than 12 hours. I don't have to be a genius to figure out that you shunshinned most of the way here. I don't need a doujutsu to see that you're exhausted and chakra-depleted. Drink. I also brought snacks."

"I don't need a snack."

"They're from the cookie jar in your apartment. Your wife made them." The man from Shisui's visions stiffened minutely when the other said 'wife'. The six-year-old felt an overwhelming sense of fear and grief watching the scene unfold. His heart felt like it was breaking in half whenever he looked at the woman underneath the hospital blanket. Who was she? Probably the blonde woman he had seen before. 'Yes,' came an unearthly echo from the back of his mind. 'Creepy…' he thought.

"Did he send you here?" The curly-haired man spat.

Whoosh. Inhale. Silence. Whoosh. Inhale. Silence. Beep.

"No. ...did. You're scaring the nurses... You need to loosen up on all that killing intent you have going, ...ee. How are they going to give your wife the best care possible if they can't even enter the room?"

"You entered."

"I'm a jounin who specializes in bodyguarding and assasination. I'm used to killing intent. If I wasn't, I'd be a dead man." A jounin? So then, the curly-haired man must be at least that, if not ANBU, Shisui reasoned.

"Sakura and Tsunade can take care of her." Tsunade? Senju? She came back? Or was there? He always figured that Katya's birth mother was as good as gone. Nobody had heard from her in years. Shisui had even broken into the records hall to double-check.

"You're not thinking rationally...! Sakura depleted her chakra and fainted after the surgery, and Tsunade-sama is busy with the two half-dead squads of ANBU that just showed up." Sakura… what an odd name for a medic-nin. Probably civilian born then, the fresh genin concluded.

"Shiz... then," the curly-haired man said concisely, staring lidlessly at the ventilator's motions.

Whoosh. Inhale. Silence. Whoosh. Inhale. Silence. Beep.

Every time the machines whirred, Shisui felt like he too couldn't breathe. It didn't make any sense! He had no idea who this woman was! 'Everything. She's everything,' the voice whispered again in his mind.

The second man sighed and extended his legs. "No, man. I'm not letting ...ne anywhere near you right now."

"I don't attack women."

"Normally you don't attack anyone without giving them the chance to surrender. Right now though, 'sui, you'll attack anything that moves." Sooey? Swee? Ugh! He almost heard the man's name that time! A chuckle echoed back in his mind and chilled him to the core.

"Then how are you still alive and sitting there?"

The older man shrugged. "Probably because your subconscious knows that I was the one to save your woman's life." The curly-haired man stiffened in response but otherwise continued to stare at the machines and rub slow circles on his unconscious wife's hand.

"Who are you?" Shisui yelled into the void as the dream faded. "Who ARE YOU?!" he screamed again. His own shout woke him. His heart was racing uncontrollable in his chest and his mind spun in circles.

"Honey, are you okay?" his mother asked from the other side of the door.

"Uh, yeah, kaa-san. Just a bad dream."

"Okay. Don't forget to practice with your kunai today. Shujin-sama will want to test you when he returns."

"I won't. I'll get Obito-nii to help."

His mother hesitated a moment. "You know shujin-sama doesn't like him."

"Father won't find out. I promise, kaa-san."

"I love you, Shisui. Please, try to remember that." He listened as her footsteps receded down the hallway. The floor was cold when he rolled out of his futon. He stretched languidly for a moment before getting dressed. It had been a while since he and Obito had sparred, but the chuunin always treated him to dango after thoroughly wiping the training field with him. Shisui swore that Obito never showed his true talents to his team. For some reason, he kept his ungodly speed a secret. Except for when it came to impressing his younger cousins, of course. It seemed like everyone else was always faster than Shisui. The Yellow Flash (who he definitely didn't have a boy-crush on, thank you very much, Katya-chan!), Kakashi-senpai, Obito-nii, even Katya-chan was still faster! He had to find a way to speed up!

Shisui was still thinking about how he could speed up by the time he found Obito. The new chuunin was leaning against the compound gates, staring at the rising sun.

"Ne, Obito-nii, can you train me today?"

"Oh?" Obito startled slightly and looked at Shisui. "Well, well, our little Shisui-chan has grown up! Congrats, little cousin!" Obito pinged the metal headband on Shisui's forehead before giving him a noogie.

"Ay! Eh!" Shisui grunted as he tried to escape the ten-year-old's hold. "Yield, Yield!"

"Mm, I suppose I have time to train you today," Obito rubbed his chin in mock thought. "How could I say no to one of the newest members of our ranks?" The older boy's beaming smile overshadowed the mock haughtiness of his tone. He was the first person outside of Katya's immediate family to congratulate him on graduating.

Shisui could feel his cheeks heat under Obito's genuine approval. He rubbed the back of his head lightly and laughed. "So, I'll uh, race you there?"

"Training ground four!" Obito yelled over his shoulder. Shisui scrambled to keep up.

7 a.m., 3 March 53, Training Ground 4

"Nii-chan! Stop! Please!" Katya cried as Kakashi advanced. "I yield! I yield!" she shrieked, desperately trying to back away.

Shisui looked at the scene in horror without understanding. His cousin was standing stock still-he couldn't believe what he was seeing either. The younger boy could feel Obito subtly trying to disrupt his chakra as though this were a genjutsu. Shisui's breathing quickened and he felt his body move on its own before an arm went around his chest to stop him.

"No, Shisui-kun. This is something that has to be done," Minato's monotone voice came from behind him.

Obito attempted to advance on the field himself. "What the hell are you talking about, Sensei?! He's going to kill Kit-Kat!" He was stopped by an elderly man holding his cane in front of him.

"You both will learn this well: a weak kunoichi is a dead kunoichi." The man lowered his cane and leaned on it.

Obito looked torn between shocked and genuinely outraged before arguing again, "Are you really going to let him kill his sister? That's who she is to him. Are you really going to let him kill your daughter? Sensei! Answer me!" Minato remained silent and squeezed Obito's shoulder in response.

Kakashi advanced as Katya moved her broken and cut body away from him. He began to throw lightning jutsu at her, despite her pleas. 'You're losing, imouto. You need to show them you can do better… even if I have to force it out of you…' he thought in the back of his mind before pushing his emotions down even further. 'I'm so sorry Kit-Kat… it's for your own good,'

"You wanted to be a kunoichi. Fight me, then. Fight back," Kakashi said calmly. His face remained the same as it had since Sakumo's death. Completely devoid of emotion. In his mind, he wasn't fighting his sister anymore. He was sparring with a weak genin candidate, one that needed to be weeded out. Later, he would reflect on this moment when he forced his sister to use real violence for the first time in her life. Right now, he was not an elder brother. He was a chuunin, soon to be jounin. One who was responsible for the lives of his subordinates, and a weak subordinate would get the others killed.

Katya tripped over a large tree root and landed flat on her back. She tried to get up and move but couldn't. Her ankle was broken. Her body was exhausted. They had been sparring for well over two hours. Tears streamed down her face as Kakashi looked towards the Sandaime Hokage. At his leader's nod, Kakashi held back his own tears and molded his chakra into his newest jutsu: chidori. If this didn't force her to show them something spectacular, something that would save her… it would injure her enough to keep her out of service altogether.

He was her legal guardian. It was his decision to make. Her powers were supposed to be used for the good of Konoha. If that was all true, then why did it feel like his own heart was breaking?

"Nii-chan... please..." Katya whispered, on the edge of consciousness.

'Just another genin...just another genin…it'll be over soon,' he mentally chanted. The moment that Kakashi leapt to deal a disabling blow, roots sprang from the ground and held him in the air. His eyes went wide with shock. In the last three years since Katya had awakened her mokuton, she had never been able to produce more than sticks. The vines twisted his arms behind him, preventing him from molding his chakra.

He could almost see the floating door frames of the Hatake compound, the pulsing white flowers, it was in reach and then...tou-chan! He left! He left! It was his own fault that his tou-chan left! There was so much blood. Blood on his hands. The roots brought him back to the ground and began to drag him into the earth before Katya completely lost consciousness.

"That'll do, Kakashi-kun. She can be allowed on a genin team," the Sandaime said kindly as though the last hour had not happened.

"She won't be placed in the genin corps, then?" Minato asked, his voice slightly hoarse.

"No, that would be a waste of resources," the older man waved off his concern.

Truthfully, Minato and the other adults in Katya's life did not believe she should have been a kunoichi at all. She was simply too pacifistic for a child born of a ninja clan. With her last name, 'Senju,' she had little choice in the matter. The only exception to violence she made was for Shisui's benefit alone.

The Yellow Flash released the two boys. Shisui went straight for his best friend, while Obito went for his rival. The younger boy barely registered his cousin's enraged shouting and the crunch of a broken nose as he took in the deep cuts and black bruises on Katya's body. Giving the adults on the field a poorly veiled look of contempt, he looped one of her arms over his shoulder and leaped away to their secret spot.

He settled the small girl against the base of a tree and took out his canteen and a cloth from his pack.

"Kat?" he asked gently, wiping one of the cuts on her cheeks. "Kat?" The young girl began to open her eyes slowly.

The young woman with blonde hair huddled against the base of a tree, her hands on her ears. Her mouth was moving rapidly to an empty audience. 'No, no, no…' A feeling of sadness began to overwhelm Shisui as he saw the curly-haired young man enter the scene. He crouched in front of the woman, careful not to touch her. 'Safe, you're safe…I'll keep you safe,' the thought rang desperately throughout Shisui's mind as his own spirit seemed to call out to them.

Shisui shook his head to dislodge the vision. This was not the time nor the place for such nonsense to happen! He had to make sure that Katya-chan was okay!

"'Sui? Are you okay?" He huffed in response and put his arms around her shoulders.

"I should be asking you that."

"Why did they do that? Why did they agree to that?"

Shisui sighed, "Kakashi didn't want you to go to the genin corps. I guess it was his own backwards way of protecting you. They gave him the option of testing you or allowing some other chuunin to do it. He was worried that another chuunin would be too lenient and you'd be sent to the corps...that's what the Yellow Fla...no, your tou-chan tried to tell Obito-nii and me anyway."

"Lenient… he tried to kill me…" Katya tiredly lolled her head to his shoulder.

"He wasn't going to kill you, just permanently disable you enough so that you wouldn't be able to be a kunoichi. I suppose that cyborg saw it as an act of mercy...the elders know about the mokuton now," Shisui stated numbly.

"Oh, I remember… I spoke with Orochimaru-oji yesterday about it. Act of mercy… Shisui, I'm scared. What have we gotten ourselves into?"

"I am too," he whispered. "I am too." His grip around her shoulders tightened.

Katya groaned as Shisui helped her hobble home from the hospital. Kushina was out the front door and flying towards them the moment they came into view from the kitchen window.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, kaa-chan. Honestly."

"I tried to come home as soon as I heard. What were they thinking?!"

"Kaa-chan, I'm fine. I promise." Kushina continued to rant and fuss while she carried Katya inside and treated her wounds.

Later that evening, Minato ducked his head sheepishly when he came in through the front door and took his shoes off as quietly as he could. He looked into the living room and was surprised to see Katya fast asleep underneath a throw blanket. Running his fingers through his hair, he sighed and leaned against the wall. His mind flashed through even more memories of her: taking her to her first day at the academy, celebrating her birthday, braiding her hair into pigtails. Heck, he even remembered buying special ribbons for her hair when he was on an ANBU mission three years ago.

Kushina appeared from the hallway and gave him an icy glare before turning her back and walking to their bedroom. Minato dropped his head and followed her. This was going to be a very long evening for him.

4 March 53; Konohagakure Ninja Academy

Shisui took his seat and straightened his hitai-ate. He traced the long embedded scratches on the wood table with his fingertips. It wasn't long before his desk partner arrived and took her place beside him. The class was smaller today than it had been on the day of graduation. The rumor was that more than half of their classmates had been shuffled into the genin corps. Shisui shuddered slightly. To be in the genin corps was a death sentence, everyone knew that. His eyes moved to his left and he shook his head. Well, almost everyone.

The blonde smiled at him and pulled his warm hand into her own. He chuckled slightly and topped her fingers with his other. She was always cold. Even in the height of summer. Of course, the past few months had not been kind to either of them. With the death of his grandfather, he felt absolutely alone in his own home. Katya was now his sole anchor in this world. Without her, he would have volunteered to join the genin corps, just so they could send him far away from his family and clan, possibly forever. As his fingers curled over the top of hers, his mind resolved to protect his anchor. No matter what.

"Ya know, Shisui, I have a good feeling about this."

"Oh yeah? At least one of us has a good feeling about something," he joked.

Katya turned and gave him a radiant smile that created butterflies in the six-year-old's stomach. "Yeah. This is the start of something beautiful. I can feel it."

Shisui quickly faced the front of the class when he felt his cheeks begin to warm. He let out a breath he had been holding when their professor opened the door. She started reading from the list of genin team assignments.

"Senju, Katya. Team eight." Katya nodded. Minato had talked to her about the genin-corps for a long time before he walked her to school that morning. He and Kakashi had been right, even if she didn't want to admit it. Being on a genin team was for the best. She looked forward and went back to day-dreaming before she heard her best friend's name.

"Uchiha, Shisui… why the heck is this smudged…" The six-year-old genin held their breath, "Team eight. Congratulations, you two may stay conjoined at the hip." Katya jumped out her seat and manhandled Shisui into a massive bear hug before retaking her spot. The other genin present snickered. One of the bigger boys made a kissing sound before the teacher told him to be quiet.

It wasn't long after that when a ninken entered the room. He was extremely large, almost the size of a miniature pony. The top of his fur was gray and the bottom white. His soulful eyes contained a hardness that only came from battle. Katya had remembered seeing this ninken on occasion in the Namikaze household. She tried to search her memories for its human's name. She was able to recall that the woman had a three-year-old daughter named Hana. The little girl was sweet and tough, with a laugh that made everyone want to join in her revelry.

The dog nodded at Shisui and Katya, "You pups follow me. My name is Kuromaru," he said gruffly as he loped down the hall.

"Surely you're not our sensei," Shisui asked with an air of forced politeness.

"No. Your sensei is training your third teammate at the training fields. I hope you both are hardier than the last two. They fell in battle." The two six-year-olds audibly gasped and looked towards each other in horror. The grip they had on their hands tightened.

Omake:

"Your tou-chan told me that we have something to talk about. Woman-to-woman."

The following talk was going to be a very uncomfortable conversation for the both of them. Conversations like these were best had over ramen. Kushina smiled at Teuchi and ordered two bowls for herself and one for Katya.

"Oh yeah?" Katya asked, slurping noodles noisily. The broth dripped down her chin and into the bowl.

"It's about… uh… intimacy between adults. Adults only! People over twenty, at least! Something that should be kept private."

"Oh, you mean copulation! Orochimaru-oji told me all about that."

Kushina's face went blank. "He did...what?!" Her pitch rose to an unholy octave.

"Yup. He said and I quote, 'When male and female members of the human species desire to sate their base urges, they complete an act of intercourse. It is a terribly disgusting and dirty business. Yet, it is necessary. For the survival of our village depends on procreation to sustain itself.' It's why we're looking into alternatives for procreation."

"WE?!"

"Well yeah, who else is going to help him? We're working on making humans? It's not like just anyone can walk in off the street to help him with that."

"...on MAKING…"

"Yup. He took a DNA sample from me and now we're trying to clone it."

"What?!"

"He never did say what intercourse actually was, though. I guess it's something to do with waste? He did say it was disgusting."

Kushina took a calming breath. Who on earth would think this was appropriate material to teach a child? Especially in this manner?

"Okay. So first things first, I will have to have a chat with Orochimaru-san soon. Second, intercourse can happen in any kind of partnership, no matter the gender or inclination. But it is very important that they are in a strongly committed relationship-preferably married-before they are intimate. Married, Katya."

"Well, you've only been married for a couple of months."

Kushina turned red. "Do as I say, not as I do."

"That's called hypocrisy, kaa-chan."

Kushina felt the rest of her body heat up in embarrassment. Tsunade-nee always made these talks look so easy!

"Let's just eat our ramen, okay? I'll see if I can find a book on it later."

Katya shrugged in response. "Does this have to do with your chakra feeling like a purring fox when you and tou-chan are alone at night?" Kushina fell backwards out of her stool with a thud.

AN: Thank you so much for reading! Let me know how you guys felt about this chapter in the comments, please. Feedback is always encouraging, even if it's just emojis. This chapter concludes arc 1 so I am dying to hear your thoughts. Also, This week is my birthday. :D

Announcement: I will be participating in tumblr's Naruto OC ship week on the 25th of June (Next Friday). I wrote a one-shot featuring Shisui and Katya about 14 years from where they are now. It does contain a minor plot spoiler. And it's rated M due to a sex scene. I'd love for you guys to read it if you get the chance. :)

Follow me on tumblr at katydid001

The poem is a quote from "To Walter de la Mare" by T.S. Eliot

Beta'ed by: The incredible, prodigious a href=" /users/cherryberry12/pseuds/cherryberry12"cherryberry12-sama /aherself. ; who might I just say is absolutely amazing to stick with this project! Her skills blow me out of the water and I am flabbergasted everyday she works on this with me. :)