That's what this thread is for. I figure that people could adopt stories from here, maybe even start a discussion which will inspire you to continue it! If nothing else, it's an opportunity for people to enjoy what you did write.
Just to be clear, this isn't a thread just for me (though hell knows I leave enough things hanging). Anyone is welcome to post aborted fics here, from any fandom. Comments are also welcomed, be they compliments or criticism!
Kiba as Kyuubi Jinchuuriki: I basically started this on a whim, then lost interest when the backstory for the Kyuubi attack invalidated it. I did adopt the idea of Kiba's father that I created into my personal canon, though. I literally DID only get one chapter of this written, too.
Warning for Tsume's language. ~7k words.
Spoiler: show
Chapter 1: Choices
“I’ve called you here because...” Minato swallowed, facing the four parents-to-be (and one nin-dog) in front of him. How could he ask this of them? How could he ask somebody to sacrifice their child this way?
“Yes, Hokage-sama?” Mikoto Uchiha prompted. Her husband was frowning.
The Inuzuka said nothing, Tsume’s dog silent beside them, and waited.
He opened his mouth to speak, but found that words wouldn’t come out. How did he explain this? How did he...
Kushina’s hand was on his arm. He held on to that image, of Kushina’s support, the warmth of her palm seeping through his Hokage robes. He had not realised, before, that he was so cold.
“I can’t kill the Kyuubi,” he said shortly.
Inuzuka Tsume’s eyes widened and she sucked in a breath of air. Her husband stared at him blankly, whilst the Uchiha couple exchanged looks of horror. Mikoto’s hand curled over her stomach protectively, as though trying to shield the child inside.
“But I can defeat it,” Minato continued. Kushina squeezed his arm lightly. “I can seal it away. But I...” He forced himself to meet the eyes of these parents, to not flinch and look away. “But I need a newborn child to be the vessel.”
They stared at him. Inuzuka Daisuke’s brows furrowed. He shuffled a little closer to his wife.
“Would an inanimate object not work just as well?” Uchiha Fugaku inquired levelly.
“It wouldn’t be able to hold that much power,” Minato answered.
Fugaku scowled. “An adult, then. Someone who--”
“The amount of chakra would kill them before the sealing could be completed,” he interrupted. Time was running out. With every second that passed, the weight of the fox’s killing intent grew heavier and heavier. “It has to be a newborn, without a defined system of chakra coils. It can adapt as it grows older...”
“A jinchuuriki!” Daisuke spat, apparently having found his voice. “You cannot ask a parent to do such a thing to their child!”
“I know,” Minato said.
Daisuke’s mouth closed, his retort swallowed.
He closed his eyes, letting out a breath. “I know,” he repeated, quieter. “I am not asking. I am begging. A child from an established clan of ninja is almost guaranteed to survive. A civilian child is not. There are no other pregnancies close enough to term for the child to survive forced labour. I--” Kushina’s arm. Her fingers, holding on to him tightly. “I do not ask this of you lightly. If Kushina were closer to term, if I thought the child would live... I would not have to ask. I... I know this is not something I should ask of a parent...”
He opened his eyes again, daring them to say he did not care. “But I have to,” he said, all softness gone from his voice. “If I do not act Konoha will be destroyed. I am the Hokage, and I cannot allow that to happen. I will not allow that to happen.” His face relaxed. “But I cannot force you to do anything. It is still your choice.” That, at least, he would not take away from them.
There was silence.
“What happens if we refuse?” Mikoto asked.
Minato opened his mouth to reply, but Kushina had already beat him to it. “If you both refuse, he will have to use a civilian child,” she answered calmly. “But it will probably die.”
Silence again, broke only by the screams of battle carrying through the thick air. Nobody had to be told that time was short.
“What happens if we... agree?” Fugaku’s eyes were narrowed. Minato could see, behind his eyes, the gears whirring - and he wondered how a father could thing of something like that at this time.
“Sandaime-sama and Jiraiya-sensei will make sure the child is looked after,” he told them anyway. The father had to be in there somewhere. “The child will not be raised as a weapon. They will not allow it. As far as possible, they will have a normal life. The Elders have promised to support this as well.”
“And how do you hope for that to occur?” Daisuke asked bitterly. “Are you going to ask politely?”
“There will be a law,” Minato said firmly, “Forbidding anyone to speak of the sealing after this day. The punishment for breaking this law will be death.”
“But that won’t stop the child from being feared,” Tsume murmured.
He had to look away then. He could not meet her gaze. How could he? He was telling her that her child would be feared, hated, for something beyond their control. “I know, and I’m sorry I can’t do more... though I hope that feeling will change with time.” Minato took a deep breath, and looked up again. “What I hope this will do is allow the child to interact fairly normally with its peers. I can’t stop the adults from doing anything, but I hope that... they will receive acceptance from the other children.”
“You are asking a lot of us,” Daisuke told him. His tone carried no trace of anger this time, simply weariness.
“I understand.” A few months more, and he would be having this conversation with Kushina. And he would be explaining to the love of his life what he must do to their child. “Believe me... I understand how much I am asking of you. Please. You have to decide quickly, or...”
Or it will be too late.
“I wish I could give you the time to discuss it,” he said, more calm this time. “But I must have an answer now.”
Silence fell like a heavy blanket, but that might have been the killing intent lining Konoha like fog. They could all sense the Kyuubi’s chakra from here. They all knew how close it was.
“I can’t,” Mikoto blurted out, her words little more than a choked sob.
“Mikoto--” her husband started to say.
“No!” She shook her head violently. “I can’t do that to Sasuke,” she said, quieter, but with tears dripping down her cheeks. “I... can’t. I won’t let him be... I’m sorry.” Mikoto directed this at him, not her husband, and looked, really looked at him, at the fear and hope and god knows what else under his calm facade. “I can’t. I really am sorry.”
He nodded, turned to look at the Inuzuka. He could not criticise Mikoto’s decision, not when she was a mother speaking for her son. Minato had no right to judge, with what he would be doing to a child tonight.
Daisuke seemed unsure, and looked to his wife. “Tsume?”
“What?” she asked him sharply. “You’re not going to raise any more objections?”
He was silent for a second. “It’s your decision,” he said softly.
Tsume closed her eyes and let out something frighteningly close to her dog’s growl. Kuromaru stood by his mistress and let her bury one of her hands in his fur, although to Minato it looked like it kind of hurt.
“Damn it,” she said eventually. Her eyes snapped open, and she glared at him. “And damn you too, you bastard, for being such a fucking good Hokage!” Daisuke placed a restraining, but somewhat timid, hand on her shoulder, and Tsume took several deep breaths to steady herself. Minato was silent, fighting to urge to break down in tears of relief, because he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop.
“I’m only agreeing to this,” she told him flatly, “Because I know for a fact you weren’t lying when you said you’d use your own kid if you could, and because I believe what you said about not turning him into a weapon. You’re lucky, Hokage-sama, that you’re such a good man.”
“Tsume, I...” He shook his head helplessly. “I wish it could be different. Thank you.”
“Oh, stop being such a fucking pansy and let’s get this over with,” she snapped. But her voice wavered slightly and her hand tightened in Kuromaru’s fur. She was terrified. Of course she was. What mother wouldn’t be?
Daisuke’s hand dropped from her shoulder, and he just let out a resigned sigh. “I hope Jiraiya-sama and the Sandaime will keep their word.”
“They will,” Kushina said fiercely. She held her chin high. “They’ll have me to answer to otherwise.”
Tsume grinned at her. “Wouldn’t want to be in their position if that happens.”
“For what it’s worth, you will have our support too,” Mikoto said quietly. “You’re a far braver woman than I, Tsume.”
The Inuzuka waved off the compliment.
“Please come with me,” Minato murmured quietly. His voice sounded distant, even to himself. “I’ll take you to the hospital.” I can’t believe I’m doing this...
Labour was over surprisingly quickly, and Minato took the baby before Tsume even had the chance to hold him. He hoped she would get that chance later, but for now he could not delay any longer. His people had died to bring him the time for this, and no matter how much it tore his heart to see the look on Tsume’s face when he left with her child, he could not allow more of his people to die now - not when the solution was so close.
He was Hokage. He could not. It was his duty.
He baby wailed in his arms, but he doubt anybody heard it except himself - perched on Gamabunta’s head as he was, separated from the desperate battle raging around him.
One of the Kyuubi’s tails ripped right through a group of ninja below, leaving little but blood behind.
Minato gritted his teeth. This was not a battle, this was a slaughter - and he had to stop it, no matter what.
Kiba - Tsume had shouted the name as he fled - had calmed a little. Minato almost laughed. More than the red marks on his cheeks, this marked him as an Inuzuka. Only that wild clan could possibly be so at ease in the middle of this.
He wished that he did not have to place this burden on another parent. He wished that he did not have to trust Konoha to a stranger. But mostly, he wished he could live - wished he could hold Naruto in his arms just once, wished he could help Kushina take care of the baby, wished he could boast to all his friends about what a proud father he was, wished he could tell Jiraiya-sensei that they were naming him the godfather...
Minato knew for certain now - there was somebody else controlling the Kyuubi. He had an idea who it was, but he didn’t know for sure and, in any case, his speculation did not matter now; he couldn’t do anything about it. He could take the very thing their attacker was using to destroy them, and turn it into something that might one day save them. And he could hope and pray that he could trust Kiba with a burden that large.
But at least he knew that little Inuzuka Kiba would not be alone. Jiraiya-sensei, Sandaime-sama, Kushina, Naruto-kun... I leave Konoha to you now.
He completed the final seal, and felt the Shinigami’s hand reach through him. It was like being stabbed by emptiness.
The baby started to wail again as the seal formed.
“Sorry, little Kiba,” he whispered gently, white fingers ghosting against the child’s skin. “Sorry that I have to do this to you...”
Sorry that I’ve left you such a terrible destiny, he thought, as his final breath left him.
*
Daisuke loved his wife.
He did. Wholeheartedly, completely, head over heels. It had been that way since their second month of dating, when he suddenly looked at her and thought, ‘Huh, I’m serious about this one.’
But he was so... tired.
He loved Tsume. Not the Inuzuka.
'Trust me' was said in everything they did, from casual invasion of personal space they didn’t even bother to apologise for, because hey, you’re family, right down to the random play-fights they’d start just because.
“Beat me, Daisuke?” Jin said, scoffing. “Only if I was playing with you.”
They were an odd bunch. Not bad people - they never meant harm, Daisuke would grant them that. Honestly, he thought they would rather kill themselves than every deliberately hurt a member of their family, even if he didn’t truly belong there. The Inuzuka were loyal to a fault.
Jin smiled at him in that condescending-but-friendly way of his, only Keiko-sensei’s blood was on the kunai he held casually, and Genta’s body was lying nearby and Daisuke could see the three senbon sticking out of his eye and
“Daisuke, I’ve got something to tell you,” Jin said.
They were shinobi, but at the same time they weren’t. Couldn’t be - had they not gone through the academy? Had they not listened when the instructors said being a ninja was dangerous, you must always look underneath the underneath, must never be off your guard, must beware of betrayal from the most unlikely of sources--
“Turns out,” Jin said around his false smile, “That I’ve received a better offer.”
“What?”
“Are you dense as well as weak, Daisuke?” The kunai flashed and he saw it, but he couldn’t dodge. He’d wake up soon anyway, because this could not be real. Pain blossomed in his shoulder.
“I’ve betrayed Konoha.”
Could not be
“Why so shocked, Daisuke?”
real.
“Sir?”
Daisuke blinked, and sucked in a breath of air. A brown-haired medic-nin stood in front of him, and he couldn’t remember when she’d stepped into the room. “I’m sorry?”
“Would you like to see your wife now?”
He jumped to his feet immediately, which the medic-nin took as a yes. She started to lead the way towards a room that was really only a few feet away, but with everything that had happened, Daisuke felt like the distance was a lot longer.
She hovered at the door for a split second, but he picked up on the hesitation and asked, “Is she alright?”
“No,” the medic answered bluntly. Daisuke nodded, although he felt a stab of fear in his heart. But he was a ninja, and knew what this life could entail, and did not need words mincing. He waited for the rest of the sentence, because he could see it was coming. “But we are... quite certain--” He noted the uncertainty, but also the look of hope. Good news. “--That she will make a full recovery. In any case, her life is probably not in danger.”
“Thank you,” he said.
She nodded and opened the door, but scurried off as soon as he had moved towards it. Well, Daisuke could hardly blame her for that. In the wake of the Kyuubi’s attack, who knew how many people they would have to struggle to save?
Or how many bodies they will have to put back together, a cynical part of his mind noted, but he ignored it and closed the room’s door behind him. Most of the rooms were full to bursting with patients and corpses - sometimes it was hard to tell the difference, or one was close enough to the other to pass - but Tsume had the luxury of a room to herself, even if it was quite small.
How nice of them. They had taken any hope his second child had of a happy future, but at least Tsume got a room to herself.
She looked tired. Despite the medic’s warning, Daisuke couldn’t help but stare. Pale, slow, tired - that wasn’t Tsume. He ran a hand through his brown hair, suddenly wanting to curl up and cry. Or punch somebody. Perhaps both.
“Yo,” his wife said by way of greeting, but there was none of her usual vibrancy behind it. Just... exhaustion. Nonetheless, he smiled when Tsume pointed at the lone chair beside her bed, because that just so was her. No polite questions, just do this or else.
He was too tired and she was too weak for him to think of doing the exact opposite of what she wanted, just to annoy her, like he normally did.
So Daisuke sat in the chair, and took her hand, and squeezed. Because Tsume was Tsume, and she’d never let herself do something as stupidly feminine as cry, no matter how much she wanted to. She just squeezed his hand back, very hard. He took care not to wince, just to keep smiling - even if it was a little empty.
“Where’s Kuromaru?” he asked.
“Outside,” Tsume answered. “Couldn’t stay.” She frowned. “I’ll have words about that when I find him again.”
“He was no less brave than me,” Daisuke pointed out gently. He reflected, for a moment, how odd it was for him to be trying to cover for a dog - but he brushed the thought aside. He’d married into the Inuzuka clan, after all, that sort of thing had practically been on the marriage contract.
She laughed quietly. “Yeah, but I’m too tired to yell at you.”
He gave her a rueful smile. “Wonderful. I’ll be looking forward to that.”
Tsume gave a bark of laughter this time - her real laugh. His smile broadened. That was more like he wanted to see. “Help me sit up,” she told him suddenly, levering herself, with apparent difficulty, onto her elbows. “I feel like I’m fucking dying here.”
Daisuke hid a wince and did as she said.
“Sorry, guess that wasn’t the best choice of words,” she mumbled, when she was sitting upright. Her face had gone paler, and he was worried he might have inadvertently done her harm. It took a few seconds for him to click in.
“It’s alright,” he answered eventually, filling the silence. “The medics say you’ll be fine.”
Tsume’s face twisted into a savage grin. “Oh, they do, do they? Good to know. They say when?”
“No.”
Silence settled in the room again. He noticed her breathing was a little more laboured than it should be at rest, and felt a stabbing pain in his heart, again, at the thought of how low she’d been hit. Daisuke felt the urge to grab her hand again. He thought it might annoy her, as the thought of being coddled or protected always did, but he did it anyway. Her skin was warm despite her paleness, and when he laid a kiss on the inside of her wrist, he could briefly feel her pulse there, pounding and strong and alive and Tsume. She gave him a questioning glance, but didn’t ask and simply curled her fingers around his hand.
“Where’s Hana?” she asked.
“Still in the monument.” Konoha was no place for civilians or children now. The Kyuubi’s chakra had been like acid - weakening the building supports, sometimes even actually melting brickwork and wood, revealing the rooms inside where people had once lived. “It’s not safe out in Konoha right now. Repair work needs to be done. Buildings are too unsteady.” He hesitated a moment, before adding, “I haven’t been to see her myself yet. Kai went.”
Tsume scowled at him. “Idiot. She must be terrified.” She paused. “Kai didn’t tell her that Kiba is...”
“No,” he said quietly.
Her face settled into a troubled expression, her brows furrowed. Tsume had never been a deep thinker - was always too busy living - but Daisuke thought that now, maybe, she had been thinking too much.
“How bad is it?” she murmured. She wouldn’t look at him, instead glancing to the high window set in the far wall. All that could be seen through it were stars, and Daisuke had to try hard to remind himself that only hours had passed. It felt like days. Maybe weeks.
He considered briefly lying, or at least hiding some of the truth - but Tsume would hate him for that, and anyway, it would only make it harder for her when she did eventually find out.
“It’s bad,” he said levelly. He didn’t have to spell it out. When he was this tired, she must already know.
“How many dead?”
“They aren’t sure yet. Hundreds.”
“Shit,” she said mildly.
Silence again.
“Kiba.” The sudden noise startled him for a moment, and he was still blinking in surprise when she turned to give him the most serious look he’d seen from her in a long, long time. “He’s...?”
“He’s fine,” Daisuke said, saddening as she seemed to almost collapse with relief. “Sandaime-sama has him.”
“Did Kai go to see him, too?” Tsume asked pointedly, her words like steel.
He winced, but answered without sounding too hurt. “...Actually, Sandaime-sama came to see me.”
“Oh,” she said. There was something apologetic in her tone, and he accepted it with a slight tilt of the head. “Yondaime-sama?”
“He’s... deceased,” he muttered. Dead seemed too blunt. “The sealing took his life. Some kind of forbidden technique...”
“...Oh.”
It was a more understated response than he was expecting from her, when she was loyal enough to give him... Daisuke frowned at her slightly, only realising distantly how close he was to criticising her with a look like that.
Tsume must have been tired (or maybe guilty) because she made no comment on it. “I haven’t held him yet,” she said softly. He sat upright a few moments later when he realised she was still talking about Kiba.
The name seemed slightly ironic now, but they’d agreed upon it beforehand - Kiba if it was a boy. ‘Fang’. It was perhaps a little... too appropriate for the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, but it was too late now.
“He...” The grip on his hand, that he’d mostly forgotten about, tightened. She wasn’t looking at him as she spoke, but if Tsume’s voice was this shaky, then he couldn’t blame her. “He took him. Before I had a chance.” That might have been something close to a sob, but Daisuke wasn’t going to draw attention to it.
“There were a lot of people dying out there,” he said instead. Why was he defending the Yondaime? He couldn’t have answered, even if he’d wanted to. Maybe it was when Yondaime-sama said ‘If Kushina were closer to term...’, and Daisuke had believed it.
He could not bring himself to hate the man - maybe later, when he didn’t feel so old. But not now, when he remembered seeing Tsume leaving and just wanted to hide in a dark corner, even though he knew Konoha was in danger, and he’d had a brief respite but still he had to fight for her, dammit. And not when he remembered seeing the Yondaime’s face, and reflecting on how that man really would have done that to his own son if he thought it necessary.
In some ways, you had to admire that.
“Did I do the right thing?” Tsume asked.
“For Konoha, yes.” Daisuke didn’t have to see the demanding expression she was giving him to know that she wanted the truth. “For Kiba... I don’t know. But I think he’ll forgive you for it anyway.”
“He’s not even a day old yet,” she said, and she’d actually managed to sound amused.
He grinned at her wanly. “Come on, Tsume. He’s your son. I know him well enough.”
“Our son,” she corrected lightly. Then: “Stop being a pussy, Kuromaru! Come in!”
Daisuke turned in surprise to see the huge dog shoulder his way into the room. He wasn’t sure how Kuromaru had managed to get past the nurses - but then again, they were so distracted, it probably hadn’t been that difficult, really.
“Come here, you useless lump,” Tsume ordered - but her voice was soft, and she looked a glad of the company. Daisuke had never quite understood the connection between his wife and her companion, but he wasn’t about to question it.
“Sorry for leaving,” Kuromaru said, managing somehow to appear sheepish.
“Idiot,” Tsume answered, cuffing him lightly in the place where his missing ear was. “...I needed you there,” she admitted, squeezing his hand even as she glared at Kuromaru. “Don’t do that again.”
Daisuke squeezed back, his way of saying that yes, it really was okay to show a little ‘weakness’ (Tsume’s thoughts, not his), and no, dear, I’m not going to think any less of you for it.
“Sorry,” Kuromaru growled again in that awkward way of his. The growling sounded softer than normal, at least. He jumped onto the bed, lying next to Tsume. She let her free hand rest on his head, ruffling his fur to let him know he was forgiven.
Daisuke let out a sigh of relief, starting to rise out of his seat. “I’ll go find Hana,” he said, only slightly apologetic. He really needed to see his daughter’s smile right now.
“Hokage is coming,” Kuromaru commented, making him freeze.
He sighed and slid back into his seat. It might be important, and Tsume might need him there. “...I’ll wait.”
Nobody was surprised when the Sandaime slid into the room a few minutes later. He blinked at the way they all looked at him expectantly - even Kuromaru - but recovered quickly. “I’m sorry about all of this,” he said gravely. He looked old - he was old, for a shinobi, but still... everybody seemed to look older than they ought to tonight.
Daisuke’s attention was only drawn to the bundle in his arms when it stirred and moved slightly. He sighed again, and rubbed his eyes. He must be more tired that he thought.
“...Kiba,” was the only word Tsume could get out. Her face was suddenly all steel, and Kuromaru had risen and turned, and was actually growling at the Hokage in a way that suggested he’d better hand over the baby, now, unless he wanted his throat ripped out.
The Hokage was understanding enough not to be angry, and handed over the child without complaint. Tsume abandoned his hand to take Kiba into her arms, and he breathed a sigh of relief as she finally seemed to fully relax. Kuromaru sniffed him bundle cautiously. Daisuke was tempted to laugh, but hey, he was married to an Inuzuka! He was used to this stuff by now. So he didn’t, only smiled.
“What do you think?” Tsume asked Kuromaru.
He sniffed the child again, then said, “He will make the other dogs nervous at first.” He bared his teeth in a feral grin, even by Kuromaru’s standards. “But I will sort that out. Do not worry.”
Tsume nodded once, reassured.
“I’m not sure how hygienic this arrangement is,” the Hokage commented, sounding half-amused, half-exasperated. “There are some things I would like to discuss with you both,” the Sandaime continued. Kuromaru growled, and he blinked. “Er, with the three of you,” he corrected. He offered them a weary smile. “But it’s nothing that can’t wait until the morning. I will leave you in peace.”
He started to head for the door, but paused when Daisuke scraped back his chair and made to follow him. “I want to see my daughter,” he said, at the Hokage’s questioning gaze.
The Sandaime nodded understandingly.
He turned and met Tsume’s eyes at the door, briefly. She glanced down at their son, still held tightly in her arms, and back up again. She nodded. Daisuke understood. He closed the door softly behind him.
And stopped.
There were two ANBU standing outside.
“...What the hell is this?” he asked the Sandaime quietly, not even bothering to disguise his anger - these were guards, not the Hokage’s tagalongs; they were leaning against the wall casually but observing the area keenly, though it was hard to tell with the masks they wore (Cat and Hawk, he noted mentally). Bodyguards would have been shadowing the Hokage like silent ghosts - yet the Sandaime was standing a few feet away, and they weren’t even looking at him.
“They aren’t for your wife,” he told him.
Daisuke felt another stab of fear.
“There are... certain... individuals...” the Hokage explained, still perfectly calm despite the care he took with his words. “In Konoha, who, because of their... compromised mental state, may attempt to take... revenge... on what they perceive as a...” He truly did hesitate on the last word; a frown ghosted his face for a brief second. “A... threat.”
He must be very tired to let that show, Daisuke thought wryly, and wondered how many cues he was giving away. Then again, living with Tsume was not conductive to learning to control body language.
“You mean some of the villagers might think Kiba is the demon, and try to kill him.”
Strangely, Daisuke found he wasn’t as worried as he thought he should be. Then again, he would like to see anybody make an attempt on Kiba’s life with Kuromaru in the room. Tsume wouldn’t have to lift a finger (although she might do so, anyway, just for the hell of it).
“...Essentially,” the Sandaime admitted. “They will change their minds in time.”
“You hope,” Daisuke said.
His comment was ignored, apart from the way the Hokage’s shoulders sank, as though under a heavy weight. “Now, Inuzuka-san, I would hate to keep you from your daughter any longer. I’m sure she must be worried about you.”
That’s my dismissal, he realised. Not that Daisuke was really complaining. Tsume’s room was one thing. The hospital itself was quite another.
He glanced over his shoulder as he left to see the Hokage sharing a few words with the two ANBU. Daisuke couldn’t hear what was being said - he didn’t have his wife’s senses without using chakra, and anyway, it was rude to eavesdrop - but he had never seen the old man look so scary in his life. Those were some very serious words.
Daisuke sighed, rubbed his eyes again, and hoped Hana would be able to muster a smile.
He needed that smile.
*
Hana was trying her very best to be a good girl, even though it was getting quite hard, because the hiding place in the monument was really crowded and everyone smelled really sweaty and scared and horrible.
She wasn’t scared though. Maybe she was a little bit worried, because Mom and Daddy and Kuromaru were outside with the big monster. Though the big monster had gone now, because she couldn’t smell it anymore. Well, if they’d kicked the monster’s ass, they should be let out already!
Hana was glad the big monster was gone. It had smelled... odd. Like... blood and fire and... anger. But different than the times when Mom or Daddy was angry at her because she had done something bad. It was much worse than that.
And she wouldn’t admit it to anyone except her best friends (her partner-friends, not people-friends, because her people-friends could be stupid sometimes), but that had made her feel very, very scared. Especially for Daddy, since she knew he was fighting the big monster. Mom wasn’t because she was having a baby (even though the baby wasn’t quite ready yet), so Hana was a bit less worried about her. And Kuromaru of course, because he wouldn’t go anywhere without Mom.
But Kai-niisan had come to find her to tell her that Mom and Daddy and Kuromaru were okay. And Mom had had the baby! Just the thought made Hana giddy with excitement. She wanted to meet her baby brother! She had wanted to name him, too, but Mom said no, which made her sad. But Daddy said she could give the baby any nickname she wanted because she was older, and it was her job to look after him when Mom or Daddy couldn’t.
Hana was going to be an awesome big sister! Although she wasn’t sure what a big sister had to do. That was okay, though. Mokuzai, Tenkuu and Honoo had a big sister and they’d promised to ask her what a big sister had to do. Though Hana wasn’t sure partner-sisters had to do the same thing as people-sisters.
Kai-niisan had promised that Daddy would come see her soon. Hana was glad, because she wanted to make sure Daddy was okay. And she wanted to go home! Her Haimaru friends didn’t like being stuck in the monument either. There wasn’t enough room to play!
Hana was really tired. But she didn’t want to sleep here, there were too many strangers and she didn’t like it. There were all her cousins here too, but most of them were either a bit older than her or a bit younger. The younger ones were babies and she didn’t want to sit with them, and the older ones thought she was a baby (she wasn’t! She was a “prodigy”, which meant she was super awesome, ‘cause she had three partners and she was only six, even though six was still quite big). Hana would rather stay with her Haimaru anyway! But... she did miss the rest of her family.
She sniffled, and then realised with horror that she was almost crying. Angrily, she blinked the tears away. She wasn’t a baby who cried all the time!
Hana sniffed again, and then froze. Cautiously, she took a deep breath, letting the scents of the monument fill her nose. She’d been practising this, but she wasn’t too great at it yet - her family all could smell and hear better than other people anyway, but this was a “special technique” to help them find one thing in particular, because it could get really confusing with lots of different smells in the air. Mom said that most Inuzuka didn’t learn it until they were much older, but Hana still felt like she’d done bad when she couldn’t smell something.
Her eyes were screwed tightly shut as she focussed, holding her breath and the scent, just like Mom taught her. There was something there - a smell she knew, but it was too faint to place. Hana let out her breath in an irritable sigh, and tried again. The time it was much easier, and she could pick out--
Blood. Fire. Anger.
Hana almost started whimpering, but she picked up another scent as well - blood, but it also smelled of Mom and Kuromaru and it was Daddy, and the monster’s smell was only faint anyway. Now she felt stupid.
But even though she knew it was Daddy, she could still feel her heart in her ears, and her hands shook when she stood up. Honoo blinked as she did so, and got to his feet too, even though he was really slow today and his brothers were still sleeping.
She frowned at him. “If you’re tired, go to sleep.” Mom said that to her all the time.
No, he answered stubbornly. The Anger might come back.
The Anger was what the dogs called the monster. Hana didn’t like the name. It made it sound like everybody was a monster, because everybody got angry, right? Mokuzai had tried to explain that it was different, but Hana still didn’t like the name. And she didn’t see what was so different.
“Daddy helped to chase it off.” He was talking to one of the ninja at the entrance now. She could see him, but he hadn’t seen her yet.
It might come back, Honoo repeated stubbornly.
Is something happening? Mokuzai asked.
“It’s okay, it’s just Daddy,” Hana said, her frown (she’d woken up Mokuzai!) suddenly turning into a smile as Daddy turned in her direction. He’d seen her! But just to make sure, she jumped up and waved her arms about excitedly.
Oh, Daisuke! Mokuzai wagged his tail. He did especially like Daddy, since they were both quiet. Sometimes Hana worried that he might like Daddy more than he did her, but Mokuzai always said she was his favourite favourite.
Tenkuu continued sleeping. Lazy bones. She thought about waking him, but Daddy was marching over now and she decided that it didn’t really matter, anyway. But only this time!
Instead, she smiled and wrapped her arms around Daddy as he picked her up and swung her round once and set her down again, like he used to do when she was really little. She wished he would do that more often, even if she was older now.
Hana’s smile faltered as he knelt down in front of her, so that they were almost eye-level. He looked so sad, that at first she was worried that Kai-niisan had made a mistake, and that maybe something had happened to Mom. But... that couldn’t be it, because Daddy smelled strongly of Mom, so he must have seen her not long ago.
“What’s wrong, Daddy?” she asked in a whisper. Did she do something wrong? Why did he look so sad?
He made an effort to smile, but Hana could tell that it wasn’t a real smile. “It’s nothing,” he whispered back. “Just... a lot of... bad things have happened today.”
She frowned. “You mean the monster?” Did a really big monster count as a lot of bad things?
Daddy flinched at the word ‘monster’. “What monster?” he asked, his voice very sharp, like when he got really, really mad (though he never got that mad at her, which Hana was glad of because Daddy was scary when he was that mad).
“The big monster,” she explained, wondering if she had made Daddy that mad, now. Her face fell. “The one that smelled of blood and fire and anger?”
He looked at her blankly for a few seconds, and then broke into a relieved smile. “Oh, you mean the Kyuubi... I thought for a second...”
Hana waited for him to finish, but Daddy fell silent and looked at the ground. He had that sad look again. She glanced at Honoo, but he shook his head. I do not know what is wrong, either.
The Anger probably killed a lot of people, Mokuzai reasoned. Maybe Daisuke is sad because many pack members died?
Hana still couldn’t shake the feeling that it was her fault. She didn’t mean to make him sad! “Daddy, why are you upset? Did I do something wrong?”
“No!” He looked up sharply and wrapped her in a fierce hug before she could react. “Of course it’s not your fault,” he added, softly, though he still wouldn’t let go.
She put up with a few more moments of this, then started to fidget. He laughed suddenly, the sound echoing loudly in the huge, quiet space. People were staring, but Hana didn’t mind. It was nice to see Daddy laugh, instead of look so sad, even if she didn’t know why he was laughing.
“...Come on,” he said eventually, “I’ll take you outside for a bit. There’s something I need to tell you, and we don’t want other people to listen in, do we?”
Only the last bit was directed at her, and she nodded, but she didn’t know why they didn’t want other people to know. Well, Daddy didn’t look so sad anymore even if he did look really serious. Hana wasn’t sure what she’d done to make him happier, but she didn’t really mind, so long as it had worked.
“Will Tenkuu need to come?” she asked, eyeing the sleeping dog critically. How could he still be sleeping now? But Tenkuu was very good at it, she supposed. He had had a lot of practise, and Mom and Daddy always said that you’d get really good at anything you practised a lot.
“Tenkuu will probably need to come,” Daddy said solemnly. “You’d have to tell him later, anyway.”
Honoo and Mokuzai were already nudging him awake.
What? Tenkuu barked, sounding grumpy.
Mokuzai nipped his ear. Daisuke has something important to tell us!
You shouldn’t be sleeping anyway, Honoo told him. We should be on guard in case the Anger comes back!
Like we would be able to do anything about the Anger anyway, Tenkuu said, yawning, but he stood up and shook his fur like he had just come in from the rain, following the rest of them as Daddy started to lead the way towards the entrance. Even if he was being a little slow.
“You shouldn’t be so lazy, Tenkuu,” Hana told him, but something else occurred to her as Daddy led her towards the entrance. “Hey, will they let us out? They didn’t let anybody out before.”
“I had words,” was all Daddy said. Hana was confused, but nobody stopped them from leaving.
Daddy took her to the top of the monument with her Haimaru, and they sat at the edge. He even let her dangle her legs over the edge! He didn’t normally let her do that ‘cause he was scared she might fall and he said her chakra wasn’t good enough yet to stop herself. Hana agreed that it was a long way down, but she wasn’t stupid enough to let herself fall off the edge!
Tenkuu and Mokuzai didn’t like heights, so they sat behind her, but Honoo was braver than they were so he sat next to her. Hana was secretly glad, because she loved all her Haimaru the same (Mom said she shouldn’t have favourites because that was mean, but Hana didn’t have a favourite anyways, and Mom promised she wouldn’t have favourites between her and the baby) but Honoo had the softest fur, so he was nicest to stroke.
Daddy wasn’t speaking, but Konoha looked like a big mess from here so she thought maybe he was too busy looking at it. Hana knew she was too small to help, but it did look like it would take a long time to tidy up Konoha properly. It looked worse than her room, and the village would be harder to fix, too! She still wasn’t sure how a monster (even a really big monster) had caused this much damage to Konoha. But that just made the monster scarier in her head.
“Hana...” Daddy said after a while. She stopped stroking Honoo, her eyes wide. He sounded really serious. He took a deep breath. “I’m going to tell you a big secret.”
She brightened. She loved secrets!
At her smile, Daddy frowned and her face fell. “This is serious, Hana. This is a really big secret. I probably shouldn’t tell you but...” He didn’t finish and looked out at Konoha again.
“Daddy?” She was confused. Why was Daddy telling her a secret if he shouldn’t?
“...You know how your Mom and I are ninja? And the Hokage is in charge of all the ninja in the village, and we have to do what he says? And if we don’t, he’ll punish us?”
“Like chores or being grounded!” Hana said, more comfortable with this subject. She’d been told this lots of times before. “Only the punishments are harsher because if you disobey Hokage-sama, it affects the whole village, and sometimes it can get people killed.”
Daddy nodded. “Well, this big secret is actually a law that the Hokage is going to make - the old Hokage.” He hesitated for a second. “The Yondaime died fighting the Kyuubi, so Sandaime-sama has taken over again.”
“Oh.” Hana had really liked that Hokage. He had pretty eyes, and she even met him once and he was really nice to her and said she’d be a great ninja! But ninja died sometimes for the village, even super powerful ones like the Hokage. She was sad, but it happened. “What law?”
Daddy hesitated for a bit again. “The Yondaime... he died sealing the Kyuubi into a baby, because it was the only way to save the village.”
“Oh,” she said again. Kai-niisan had said Mom had had her baby... “Was it Mom’s baby?”
He looked surprised for a moment. “Well... yes.” He blinked, and then he suddenly became very serious again. “But, Hana, this is a huge secret. The Hokage is going to make a law saying people can’t talk about the sealing after today. And the punishment for breaking that law will be death. You can’t tell anybody, under any circumstances. Not even your brother.”
“That’s unfair!” She pouted. “How come Kiba doesn’t get to know?”
“That’s... grown-up stuff.” He only laughed and ruffled her hair when she glared at him. “You’ll understand one day.”
She glared at him more. She was six, she was grown-up enough to know things like that! Well, probably. But she was six and a “prodigy”, so she totally counted as grown up!
“Hana,” Daddy said, distracting her from her thoughts. He spoke very slowly and carefully, and his eyes didn’t leave her once. “You know what sealing is, right?” She nodded, and he continued, “Well, the Yondaime had to seal the Kyuubi in your brother, but Kiba’s still just a baby. The Kyuubi won’t affect him at all. It’s like...” He paused. “It’s like... if you put something in a jar. It doesn’t matter what it is, the jar doesn’t change, right?”
Hana thought about this for a few moments. “...So my brother’s a jar for the monster? Isn’t the monster too big to fit in him?”
Daddy stared at her for a few seconds, and then burst out laughing. Hana didn’t see what was funny, and she glared at him again until he stopped and finally gave her an answer. He was still grinning, though. “They just squeezed the Kyuubi up really small. Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay...” Though she still thought it was a really big monster to fit in a baby. Maybe her brother was a really big baby?
“Remember, Hana, you can’t tell anybody about this because of the law,” Daddy told her, very serious again. “Not even Kiba. And... some people might say... things... about your brother. Some of them might think he’s really the Kyuubi. But he isn’t, Hana, he’s not even close to being the Kyuubi. So if anybody ever says something like that to you, you just ignore them, okay?”
“Okay,” she said again. She paused. “But I thought people weren’t allowed to talk about it?”
“Well... sometimes people can say things without really saying them.”
Hana considered this. It did make a bit of sense, since Daddy was always talking about body language, and sometimes when he and Mom talked about something they never said exactly what they were talking about, so she didn’t know, but they still knew what they meant (Hana thought this was very unfair).
“I’m going to beat up anybody who says bad things about my brother,” she decided, scowling at the thought of anybody daring to suggest such a thing. “‘Cause that’s what big sisters are supposed to do, right?”
Daddy smiled at her. “You might want to think about that... but you look after your brother.” He ruffled her hair again (why did he keep doing that? It made it stick up all weirdly!) as he looked at Konoha once more. The smile slipped from his face.
“I think he’s going to need all the help he can get,” he murmured under his breath, but Hana wasn’t sure she was supposed to have heard.
“I’ve called you here because...” Minato swallowed, facing the four parents-to-be (and one nin-dog) in front of him. How could he ask this of them? How could he ask somebody to sacrifice their child this way?
“Yes, Hokage-sama?” Mikoto Uchiha prompted. Her husband was frowning.
The Inuzuka said nothing, Tsume’s dog silent beside them, and waited.
He opened his mouth to speak, but found that words wouldn’t come out. How did he explain this? How did he...
Kushina’s hand was on his arm. He held on to that image, of Kushina’s support, the warmth of her palm seeping through his Hokage robes. He had not realised, before, that he was so cold.
“I can’t kill the Kyuubi,” he said shortly.
Inuzuka Tsume’s eyes widened and she sucked in a breath of air. Her husband stared at him blankly, whilst the Uchiha couple exchanged looks of horror. Mikoto’s hand curled over her stomach protectively, as though trying to shield the child inside.
“But I can defeat it,” Minato continued. Kushina squeezed his arm lightly. “I can seal it away. But I...” He forced himself to meet the eyes of these parents, to not flinch and look away. “But I need a newborn child to be the vessel.”
They stared at him. Inuzuka Daisuke’s brows furrowed. He shuffled a little closer to his wife.
“Would an inanimate object not work just as well?” Uchiha Fugaku inquired levelly.
“It wouldn’t be able to hold that much power,” Minato answered.
Fugaku scowled. “An adult, then. Someone who--”
“The amount of chakra would kill them before the sealing could be completed,” he interrupted. Time was running out. With every second that passed, the weight of the fox’s killing intent grew heavier and heavier. “It has to be a newborn, without a defined system of chakra coils. It can adapt as it grows older...”
“A jinchuuriki!” Daisuke spat, apparently having found his voice. “You cannot ask a parent to do such a thing to their child!”
“I know,” Minato said.
Daisuke’s mouth closed, his retort swallowed.
He closed his eyes, letting out a breath. “I know,” he repeated, quieter. “I am not asking. I am begging. A child from an established clan of ninja is almost guaranteed to survive. A civilian child is not. There are no other pregnancies close enough to term for the child to survive forced labour. I--” Kushina’s arm. Her fingers, holding on to him tightly. “I do not ask this of you lightly. If Kushina were closer to term, if I thought the child would live... I would not have to ask. I... I know this is not something I should ask of a parent...”
He opened his eyes again, daring them to say he did not care. “But I have to,” he said, all softness gone from his voice. “If I do not act Konoha will be destroyed. I am the Hokage, and I cannot allow that to happen. I will not allow that to happen.” His face relaxed. “But I cannot force you to do anything. It is still your choice.” That, at least, he would not take away from them.
There was silence.
“What happens if we refuse?” Mikoto asked.
Minato opened his mouth to reply, but Kushina had already beat him to it. “If you both refuse, he will have to use a civilian child,” she answered calmly. “But it will probably die.”
Silence again, broke only by the screams of battle carrying through the thick air. Nobody had to be told that time was short.
“What happens if we... agree?” Fugaku’s eyes were narrowed. Minato could see, behind his eyes, the gears whirring - and he wondered how a father could thing of something like that at this time.
“Sandaime-sama and Jiraiya-sensei will make sure the child is looked after,” he told them anyway. The father had to be in there somewhere. “The child will not be raised as a weapon. They will not allow it. As far as possible, they will have a normal life. The Elders have promised to support this as well.”
“And how do you hope for that to occur?” Daisuke asked bitterly. “Are you going to ask politely?”
“There will be a law,” Minato said firmly, “Forbidding anyone to speak of the sealing after this day. The punishment for breaking this law will be death.”
“But that won’t stop the child from being feared,” Tsume murmured.
He had to look away then. He could not meet her gaze. How could he? He was telling her that her child would be feared, hated, for something beyond their control. “I know, and I’m sorry I can’t do more... though I hope that feeling will change with time.” Minato took a deep breath, and looked up again. “What I hope this will do is allow the child to interact fairly normally with its peers. I can’t stop the adults from doing anything, but I hope that... they will receive acceptance from the other children.”
“You are asking a lot of us,” Daisuke told him. His tone carried no trace of anger this time, simply weariness.
“I understand.” A few months more, and he would be having this conversation with Kushina. And he would be explaining to the love of his life what he must do to their child. “Believe me... I understand how much I am asking of you. Please. You have to decide quickly, or...”
Or it will be too late.
“I wish I could give you the time to discuss it,” he said, more calm this time. “But I must have an answer now.”
Silence fell like a heavy blanket, but that might have been the killing intent lining Konoha like fog. They could all sense the Kyuubi’s chakra from here. They all knew how close it was.
“I can’t,” Mikoto blurted out, her words little more than a choked sob.
“Mikoto--” her husband started to say.
“No!” She shook her head violently. “I can’t do that to Sasuke,” she said, quieter, but with tears dripping down her cheeks. “I... can’t. I won’t let him be... I’m sorry.” Mikoto directed this at him, not her husband, and looked, really looked at him, at the fear and hope and god knows what else under his calm facade. “I can’t. I really am sorry.”
He nodded, turned to look at the Inuzuka. He could not criticise Mikoto’s decision, not when she was a mother speaking for her son. Minato had no right to judge, with what he would be doing to a child tonight.
Daisuke seemed unsure, and looked to his wife. “Tsume?”
“What?” she asked him sharply. “You’re not going to raise any more objections?”
He was silent for a second. “It’s your decision,” he said softly.
Tsume closed her eyes and let out something frighteningly close to her dog’s growl. Kuromaru stood by his mistress and let her bury one of her hands in his fur, although to Minato it looked like it kind of hurt.
“Damn it,” she said eventually. Her eyes snapped open, and she glared at him. “And damn you too, you bastard, for being such a fucking good Hokage!” Daisuke placed a restraining, but somewhat timid, hand on her shoulder, and Tsume took several deep breaths to steady herself. Minato was silent, fighting to urge to break down in tears of relief, because he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop.
“I’m only agreeing to this,” she told him flatly, “Because I know for a fact you weren’t lying when you said you’d use your own kid if you could, and because I believe what you said about not turning him into a weapon. You’re lucky, Hokage-sama, that you’re such a good man.”
“Tsume, I...” He shook his head helplessly. “I wish it could be different. Thank you.”
“Oh, stop being such a fucking pansy and let’s get this over with,” she snapped. But her voice wavered slightly and her hand tightened in Kuromaru’s fur. She was terrified. Of course she was. What mother wouldn’t be?
Daisuke’s hand dropped from her shoulder, and he just let out a resigned sigh. “I hope Jiraiya-sama and the Sandaime will keep their word.”
“They will,” Kushina said fiercely. She held her chin high. “They’ll have me to answer to otherwise.”
Tsume grinned at her. “Wouldn’t want to be in their position if that happens.”
“For what it’s worth, you will have our support too,” Mikoto said quietly. “You’re a far braver woman than I, Tsume.”
The Inuzuka waved off the compliment.
“Please come with me,” Minato murmured quietly. His voice sounded distant, even to himself. “I’ll take you to the hospital.” I can’t believe I’m doing this...
Labour was over surprisingly quickly, and Minato took the baby before Tsume even had the chance to hold him. He hoped she would get that chance later, but for now he could not delay any longer. His people had died to bring him the time for this, and no matter how much it tore his heart to see the look on Tsume’s face when he left with her child, he could not allow more of his people to die now - not when the solution was so close.
He was Hokage. He could not. It was his duty.
He baby wailed in his arms, but he doubt anybody heard it except himself - perched on Gamabunta’s head as he was, separated from the desperate battle raging around him.
One of the Kyuubi’s tails ripped right through a group of ninja below, leaving little but blood behind.
Minato gritted his teeth. This was not a battle, this was a slaughter - and he had to stop it, no matter what.
Kiba - Tsume had shouted the name as he fled - had calmed a little. Minato almost laughed. More than the red marks on his cheeks, this marked him as an Inuzuka. Only that wild clan could possibly be so at ease in the middle of this.
He wished that he did not have to place this burden on another parent. He wished that he did not have to trust Konoha to a stranger. But mostly, he wished he could live - wished he could hold Naruto in his arms just once, wished he could help Kushina take care of the baby, wished he could boast to all his friends about what a proud father he was, wished he could tell Jiraiya-sensei that they were naming him the godfather...
Minato knew for certain now - there was somebody else controlling the Kyuubi. He had an idea who it was, but he didn’t know for sure and, in any case, his speculation did not matter now; he couldn’t do anything about it. He could take the very thing their attacker was using to destroy them, and turn it into something that might one day save them. And he could hope and pray that he could trust Kiba with a burden that large.
But at least he knew that little Inuzuka Kiba would not be alone. Jiraiya-sensei, Sandaime-sama, Kushina, Naruto-kun... I leave Konoha to you now.
He completed the final seal, and felt the Shinigami’s hand reach through him. It was like being stabbed by emptiness.
The baby started to wail again as the seal formed.
“Sorry, little Kiba,” he whispered gently, white fingers ghosting against the child’s skin. “Sorry that I have to do this to you...”
Sorry that I’ve left you such a terrible destiny, he thought, as his final breath left him.
*
Daisuke loved his wife.
He did. Wholeheartedly, completely, head over heels. It had been that way since their second month of dating, when he suddenly looked at her and thought, ‘Huh, I’m serious about this one.’
But he was so... tired.
He loved Tsume. Not the Inuzuka.
'Trust me' was said in everything they did, from casual invasion of personal space they didn’t even bother to apologise for, because hey, you’re family, right down to the random play-fights they’d start just because.
“Beat me, Daisuke?” Jin said, scoffing. “Only if I was playing with you.”
They were an odd bunch. Not bad people - they never meant harm, Daisuke would grant them that. Honestly, he thought they would rather kill themselves than every deliberately hurt a member of their family, even if he didn’t truly belong there. The Inuzuka were loyal to a fault.
Jin smiled at him in that condescending-but-friendly way of his, only Keiko-sensei’s blood was on the kunai he held casually, and Genta’s body was lying nearby and Daisuke could see the three senbon sticking out of his eye and
“Daisuke, I’ve got something to tell you,” Jin said.
They were shinobi, but at the same time they weren’t. Couldn’t be - had they not gone through the academy? Had they not listened when the instructors said being a ninja was dangerous, you must always look underneath the underneath, must never be off your guard, must beware of betrayal from the most unlikely of sources--
“Turns out,” Jin said around his false smile, “That I’ve received a better offer.”
“What?”
“Are you dense as well as weak, Daisuke?” The kunai flashed and he saw it, but he couldn’t dodge. He’d wake up soon anyway, because this could not be real. Pain blossomed in his shoulder.
“I’ve betrayed Konoha.”
Could not be
“Why so shocked, Daisuke?”
real.
“Sir?”
Daisuke blinked, and sucked in a breath of air. A brown-haired medic-nin stood in front of him, and he couldn’t remember when she’d stepped into the room. “I’m sorry?”
“Would you like to see your wife now?”
He jumped to his feet immediately, which the medic-nin took as a yes. She started to lead the way towards a room that was really only a few feet away, but with everything that had happened, Daisuke felt like the distance was a lot longer.
She hovered at the door for a split second, but he picked up on the hesitation and asked, “Is she alright?”
“No,” the medic answered bluntly. Daisuke nodded, although he felt a stab of fear in his heart. But he was a ninja, and knew what this life could entail, and did not need words mincing. He waited for the rest of the sentence, because he could see it was coming. “But we are... quite certain--” He noted the uncertainty, but also the look of hope. Good news. “--That she will make a full recovery. In any case, her life is probably not in danger.”
“Thank you,” he said.
She nodded and opened the door, but scurried off as soon as he had moved towards it. Well, Daisuke could hardly blame her for that. In the wake of the Kyuubi’s attack, who knew how many people they would have to struggle to save?
Or how many bodies they will have to put back together, a cynical part of his mind noted, but he ignored it and closed the room’s door behind him. Most of the rooms were full to bursting with patients and corpses - sometimes it was hard to tell the difference, or one was close enough to the other to pass - but Tsume had the luxury of a room to herself, even if it was quite small.
How nice of them. They had taken any hope his second child had of a happy future, but at least Tsume got a room to herself.
She looked tired. Despite the medic’s warning, Daisuke couldn’t help but stare. Pale, slow, tired - that wasn’t Tsume. He ran a hand through his brown hair, suddenly wanting to curl up and cry. Or punch somebody. Perhaps both.
“Yo,” his wife said by way of greeting, but there was none of her usual vibrancy behind it. Just... exhaustion. Nonetheless, he smiled when Tsume pointed at the lone chair beside her bed, because that just so was her. No polite questions, just do this or else.
He was too tired and she was too weak for him to think of doing the exact opposite of what she wanted, just to annoy her, like he normally did.
So Daisuke sat in the chair, and took her hand, and squeezed. Because Tsume was Tsume, and she’d never let herself do something as stupidly feminine as cry, no matter how much she wanted to. She just squeezed his hand back, very hard. He took care not to wince, just to keep smiling - even if it was a little empty.
“Where’s Kuromaru?” he asked.
“Outside,” Tsume answered. “Couldn’t stay.” She frowned. “I’ll have words about that when I find him again.”
“He was no less brave than me,” Daisuke pointed out gently. He reflected, for a moment, how odd it was for him to be trying to cover for a dog - but he brushed the thought aside. He’d married into the Inuzuka clan, after all, that sort of thing had practically been on the marriage contract.
She laughed quietly. “Yeah, but I’m too tired to yell at you.”
He gave her a rueful smile. “Wonderful. I’ll be looking forward to that.”
Tsume gave a bark of laughter this time - her real laugh. His smile broadened. That was more like he wanted to see. “Help me sit up,” she told him suddenly, levering herself, with apparent difficulty, onto her elbows. “I feel like I’m fucking dying here.”
Daisuke hid a wince and did as she said.
“Sorry, guess that wasn’t the best choice of words,” she mumbled, when she was sitting upright. Her face had gone paler, and he was worried he might have inadvertently done her harm. It took a few seconds for him to click in.
“It’s alright,” he answered eventually, filling the silence. “The medics say you’ll be fine.”
Tsume’s face twisted into a savage grin. “Oh, they do, do they? Good to know. They say when?”
“No.”
Silence settled in the room again. He noticed her breathing was a little more laboured than it should be at rest, and felt a stabbing pain in his heart, again, at the thought of how low she’d been hit. Daisuke felt the urge to grab her hand again. He thought it might annoy her, as the thought of being coddled or protected always did, but he did it anyway. Her skin was warm despite her paleness, and when he laid a kiss on the inside of her wrist, he could briefly feel her pulse there, pounding and strong and alive and Tsume. She gave him a questioning glance, but didn’t ask and simply curled her fingers around his hand.
“Where’s Hana?” she asked.
“Still in the monument.” Konoha was no place for civilians or children now. The Kyuubi’s chakra had been like acid - weakening the building supports, sometimes even actually melting brickwork and wood, revealing the rooms inside where people had once lived. “It’s not safe out in Konoha right now. Repair work needs to be done. Buildings are too unsteady.” He hesitated a moment, before adding, “I haven’t been to see her myself yet. Kai went.”
Tsume scowled at him. “Idiot. She must be terrified.” She paused. “Kai didn’t tell her that Kiba is...”
“No,” he said quietly.
Her face settled into a troubled expression, her brows furrowed. Tsume had never been a deep thinker - was always too busy living - but Daisuke thought that now, maybe, she had been thinking too much.
“How bad is it?” she murmured. She wouldn’t look at him, instead glancing to the high window set in the far wall. All that could be seen through it were stars, and Daisuke had to try hard to remind himself that only hours had passed. It felt like days. Maybe weeks.
He considered briefly lying, or at least hiding some of the truth - but Tsume would hate him for that, and anyway, it would only make it harder for her when she did eventually find out.
“It’s bad,” he said levelly. He didn’t have to spell it out. When he was this tired, she must already know.
“How many dead?”
“They aren’t sure yet. Hundreds.”
“Shit,” she said mildly.
Silence again.
“Kiba.” The sudden noise startled him for a moment, and he was still blinking in surprise when she turned to give him the most serious look he’d seen from her in a long, long time. “He’s...?”
“He’s fine,” Daisuke said, saddening as she seemed to almost collapse with relief. “Sandaime-sama has him.”
“Did Kai go to see him, too?” Tsume asked pointedly, her words like steel.
He winced, but answered without sounding too hurt. “...Actually, Sandaime-sama came to see me.”
“Oh,” she said. There was something apologetic in her tone, and he accepted it with a slight tilt of the head. “Yondaime-sama?”
“He’s... deceased,” he muttered. Dead seemed too blunt. “The sealing took his life. Some kind of forbidden technique...”
“...Oh.”
It was a more understated response than he was expecting from her, when she was loyal enough to give him... Daisuke frowned at her slightly, only realising distantly how close he was to criticising her with a look like that.
Tsume must have been tired (or maybe guilty) because she made no comment on it. “I haven’t held him yet,” she said softly. He sat upright a few moments later when he realised she was still talking about Kiba.
The name seemed slightly ironic now, but they’d agreed upon it beforehand - Kiba if it was a boy. ‘Fang’. It was perhaps a little... too appropriate for the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, but it was too late now.
“He...” The grip on his hand, that he’d mostly forgotten about, tightened. She wasn’t looking at him as she spoke, but if Tsume’s voice was this shaky, then he couldn’t blame her. “He took him. Before I had a chance.” That might have been something close to a sob, but Daisuke wasn’t going to draw attention to it.
“There were a lot of people dying out there,” he said instead. Why was he defending the Yondaime? He couldn’t have answered, even if he’d wanted to. Maybe it was when Yondaime-sama said ‘If Kushina were closer to term...’, and Daisuke had believed it.
He could not bring himself to hate the man - maybe later, when he didn’t feel so old. But not now, when he remembered seeing Tsume leaving and just wanted to hide in a dark corner, even though he knew Konoha was in danger, and he’d had a brief respite but still he had to fight for her, dammit. And not when he remembered seeing the Yondaime’s face, and reflecting on how that man really would have done that to his own son if he thought it necessary.
In some ways, you had to admire that.
“Did I do the right thing?” Tsume asked.
“For Konoha, yes.” Daisuke didn’t have to see the demanding expression she was giving him to know that she wanted the truth. “For Kiba... I don’t know. But I think he’ll forgive you for it anyway.”
“He’s not even a day old yet,” she said, and she’d actually managed to sound amused.
He grinned at her wanly. “Come on, Tsume. He’s your son. I know him well enough.”
“Our son,” she corrected lightly. Then: “Stop being a pussy, Kuromaru! Come in!”
Daisuke turned in surprise to see the huge dog shoulder his way into the room. He wasn’t sure how Kuromaru had managed to get past the nurses - but then again, they were so distracted, it probably hadn’t been that difficult, really.
“Come here, you useless lump,” Tsume ordered - but her voice was soft, and she looked a glad of the company. Daisuke had never quite understood the connection between his wife and her companion, but he wasn’t about to question it.
“Sorry for leaving,” Kuromaru said, managing somehow to appear sheepish.
“Idiot,” Tsume answered, cuffing him lightly in the place where his missing ear was. “...I needed you there,” she admitted, squeezing his hand even as she glared at Kuromaru. “Don’t do that again.”
Daisuke squeezed back, his way of saying that yes, it really was okay to show a little ‘weakness’ (Tsume’s thoughts, not his), and no, dear, I’m not going to think any less of you for it.
“Sorry,” Kuromaru growled again in that awkward way of his. The growling sounded softer than normal, at least. He jumped onto the bed, lying next to Tsume. She let her free hand rest on his head, ruffling his fur to let him know he was forgiven.
Daisuke let out a sigh of relief, starting to rise out of his seat. “I’ll go find Hana,” he said, only slightly apologetic. He really needed to see his daughter’s smile right now.
“Hokage is coming,” Kuromaru commented, making him freeze.
He sighed and slid back into his seat. It might be important, and Tsume might need him there. “...I’ll wait.”
Nobody was surprised when the Sandaime slid into the room a few minutes later. He blinked at the way they all looked at him expectantly - even Kuromaru - but recovered quickly. “I’m sorry about all of this,” he said gravely. He looked old - he was old, for a shinobi, but still... everybody seemed to look older than they ought to tonight.
Daisuke’s attention was only drawn to the bundle in his arms when it stirred and moved slightly. He sighed again, and rubbed his eyes. He must be more tired that he thought.
“...Kiba,” was the only word Tsume could get out. Her face was suddenly all steel, and Kuromaru had risen and turned, and was actually growling at the Hokage in a way that suggested he’d better hand over the baby, now, unless he wanted his throat ripped out.
The Hokage was understanding enough not to be angry, and handed over the child without complaint. Tsume abandoned his hand to take Kiba into her arms, and he breathed a sigh of relief as she finally seemed to fully relax. Kuromaru sniffed him bundle cautiously. Daisuke was tempted to laugh, but hey, he was married to an Inuzuka! He was used to this stuff by now. So he didn’t, only smiled.
“What do you think?” Tsume asked Kuromaru.
He sniffed the child again, then said, “He will make the other dogs nervous at first.” He bared his teeth in a feral grin, even by Kuromaru’s standards. “But I will sort that out. Do not worry.”
Tsume nodded once, reassured.
“I’m not sure how hygienic this arrangement is,” the Hokage commented, sounding half-amused, half-exasperated. “There are some things I would like to discuss with you both,” the Sandaime continued. Kuromaru growled, and he blinked. “Er, with the three of you,” he corrected. He offered them a weary smile. “But it’s nothing that can’t wait until the morning. I will leave you in peace.”
He started to head for the door, but paused when Daisuke scraped back his chair and made to follow him. “I want to see my daughter,” he said, at the Hokage’s questioning gaze.
The Sandaime nodded understandingly.
He turned and met Tsume’s eyes at the door, briefly. She glanced down at their son, still held tightly in her arms, and back up again. She nodded. Daisuke understood. He closed the door softly behind him.
And stopped.
There were two ANBU standing outside.
“...What the hell is this?” he asked the Sandaime quietly, not even bothering to disguise his anger - these were guards, not the Hokage’s tagalongs; they were leaning against the wall casually but observing the area keenly, though it was hard to tell with the masks they wore (Cat and Hawk, he noted mentally). Bodyguards would have been shadowing the Hokage like silent ghosts - yet the Sandaime was standing a few feet away, and they weren’t even looking at him.
“They aren’t for your wife,” he told him.
Daisuke felt another stab of fear.
“There are... certain... individuals...” the Hokage explained, still perfectly calm despite the care he took with his words. “In Konoha, who, because of their... compromised mental state, may attempt to take... revenge... on what they perceive as a...” He truly did hesitate on the last word; a frown ghosted his face for a brief second. “A... threat.”
He must be very tired to let that show, Daisuke thought wryly, and wondered how many cues he was giving away. Then again, living with Tsume was not conductive to learning to control body language.
“You mean some of the villagers might think Kiba is the demon, and try to kill him.”
Strangely, Daisuke found he wasn’t as worried as he thought he should be. Then again, he would like to see anybody make an attempt on Kiba’s life with Kuromaru in the room. Tsume wouldn’t have to lift a finger (although she might do so, anyway, just for the hell of it).
“...Essentially,” the Sandaime admitted. “They will change their minds in time.”
“You hope,” Daisuke said.
His comment was ignored, apart from the way the Hokage’s shoulders sank, as though under a heavy weight. “Now, Inuzuka-san, I would hate to keep you from your daughter any longer. I’m sure she must be worried about you.”
That’s my dismissal, he realised. Not that Daisuke was really complaining. Tsume’s room was one thing. The hospital itself was quite another.
He glanced over his shoulder as he left to see the Hokage sharing a few words with the two ANBU. Daisuke couldn’t hear what was being said - he didn’t have his wife’s senses without using chakra, and anyway, it was rude to eavesdrop - but he had never seen the old man look so scary in his life. Those were some very serious words.
Daisuke sighed, rubbed his eyes again, and hoped Hana would be able to muster a smile.
He needed that smile.
*
Hana was trying her very best to be a good girl, even though it was getting quite hard, because the hiding place in the monument was really crowded and everyone smelled really sweaty and scared and horrible.
She wasn’t scared though. Maybe she was a little bit worried, because Mom and Daddy and Kuromaru were outside with the big monster. Though the big monster had gone now, because she couldn’t smell it anymore. Well, if they’d kicked the monster’s ass, they should be let out already!
Hana was glad the big monster was gone. It had smelled... odd. Like... blood and fire and... anger. But different than the times when Mom or Daddy was angry at her because she had done something bad. It was much worse than that.
And she wouldn’t admit it to anyone except her best friends (her partner-friends, not people-friends, because her people-friends could be stupid sometimes), but that had made her feel very, very scared. Especially for Daddy, since she knew he was fighting the big monster. Mom wasn’t because she was having a baby (even though the baby wasn’t quite ready yet), so Hana was a bit less worried about her. And Kuromaru of course, because he wouldn’t go anywhere without Mom.
But Kai-niisan had come to find her to tell her that Mom and Daddy and Kuromaru were okay. And Mom had had the baby! Just the thought made Hana giddy with excitement. She wanted to meet her baby brother! She had wanted to name him, too, but Mom said no, which made her sad. But Daddy said she could give the baby any nickname she wanted because she was older, and it was her job to look after him when Mom or Daddy couldn’t.
Hana was going to be an awesome big sister! Although she wasn’t sure what a big sister had to do. That was okay, though. Mokuzai, Tenkuu and Honoo had a big sister and they’d promised to ask her what a big sister had to do. Though Hana wasn’t sure partner-sisters had to do the same thing as people-sisters.
Kai-niisan had promised that Daddy would come see her soon. Hana was glad, because she wanted to make sure Daddy was okay. And she wanted to go home! Her Haimaru friends didn’t like being stuck in the monument either. There wasn’t enough room to play!
Hana was really tired. But she didn’t want to sleep here, there were too many strangers and she didn’t like it. There were all her cousins here too, but most of them were either a bit older than her or a bit younger. The younger ones were babies and she didn’t want to sit with them, and the older ones thought she was a baby (she wasn’t! She was a “prodigy”, which meant she was super awesome, ‘cause she had three partners and she was only six, even though six was still quite big). Hana would rather stay with her Haimaru anyway! But... she did miss the rest of her family.
She sniffled, and then realised with horror that she was almost crying. Angrily, she blinked the tears away. She wasn’t a baby who cried all the time!
Hana sniffed again, and then froze. Cautiously, she took a deep breath, letting the scents of the monument fill her nose. She’d been practising this, but she wasn’t too great at it yet - her family all could smell and hear better than other people anyway, but this was a “special technique” to help them find one thing in particular, because it could get really confusing with lots of different smells in the air. Mom said that most Inuzuka didn’t learn it until they were much older, but Hana still felt like she’d done bad when she couldn’t smell something.
Her eyes were screwed tightly shut as she focussed, holding her breath and the scent, just like Mom taught her. There was something there - a smell she knew, but it was too faint to place. Hana let out her breath in an irritable sigh, and tried again. The time it was much easier, and she could pick out--
Blood. Fire. Anger.
Hana almost started whimpering, but she picked up another scent as well - blood, but it also smelled of Mom and Kuromaru and it was Daddy, and the monster’s smell was only faint anyway. Now she felt stupid.
But even though she knew it was Daddy, she could still feel her heart in her ears, and her hands shook when she stood up. Honoo blinked as she did so, and got to his feet too, even though he was really slow today and his brothers were still sleeping.
She frowned at him. “If you’re tired, go to sleep.” Mom said that to her all the time.
No, he answered stubbornly. The Anger might come back.
The Anger was what the dogs called the monster. Hana didn’t like the name. It made it sound like everybody was a monster, because everybody got angry, right? Mokuzai had tried to explain that it was different, but Hana still didn’t like the name. And she didn’t see what was so different.
“Daddy helped to chase it off.” He was talking to one of the ninja at the entrance now. She could see him, but he hadn’t seen her yet.
It might come back, Honoo repeated stubbornly.
Is something happening? Mokuzai asked.
“It’s okay, it’s just Daddy,” Hana said, her frown (she’d woken up Mokuzai!) suddenly turning into a smile as Daddy turned in her direction. He’d seen her! But just to make sure, she jumped up and waved her arms about excitedly.
Oh, Daisuke! Mokuzai wagged his tail. He did especially like Daddy, since they were both quiet. Sometimes Hana worried that he might like Daddy more than he did her, but Mokuzai always said she was his favourite favourite.
Tenkuu continued sleeping. Lazy bones. She thought about waking him, but Daddy was marching over now and she decided that it didn’t really matter, anyway. But only this time!
Instead, she smiled and wrapped her arms around Daddy as he picked her up and swung her round once and set her down again, like he used to do when she was really little. She wished he would do that more often, even if she was older now.
Hana’s smile faltered as he knelt down in front of her, so that they were almost eye-level. He looked so sad, that at first she was worried that Kai-niisan had made a mistake, and that maybe something had happened to Mom. But... that couldn’t be it, because Daddy smelled strongly of Mom, so he must have seen her not long ago.
“What’s wrong, Daddy?” she asked in a whisper. Did she do something wrong? Why did he look so sad?
He made an effort to smile, but Hana could tell that it wasn’t a real smile. “It’s nothing,” he whispered back. “Just... a lot of... bad things have happened today.”
She frowned. “You mean the monster?” Did a really big monster count as a lot of bad things?
Daddy flinched at the word ‘monster’. “What monster?” he asked, his voice very sharp, like when he got really, really mad (though he never got that mad at her, which Hana was glad of because Daddy was scary when he was that mad).
“The big monster,” she explained, wondering if she had made Daddy that mad, now. Her face fell. “The one that smelled of blood and fire and anger?”
He looked at her blankly for a few seconds, and then broke into a relieved smile. “Oh, you mean the Kyuubi... I thought for a second...”
Hana waited for him to finish, but Daddy fell silent and looked at the ground. He had that sad look again. She glanced at Honoo, but he shook his head. I do not know what is wrong, either.
The Anger probably killed a lot of people, Mokuzai reasoned. Maybe Daisuke is sad because many pack members died?
Hana still couldn’t shake the feeling that it was her fault. She didn’t mean to make him sad! “Daddy, why are you upset? Did I do something wrong?”
“No!” He looked up sharply and wrapped her in a fierce hug before she could react. “Of course it’s not your fault,” he added, softly, though he still wouldn’t let go.
She put up with a few more moments of this, then started to fidget. He laughed suddenly, the sound echoing loudly in the huge, quiet space. People were staring, but Hana didn’t mind. It was nice to see Daddy laugh, instead of look so sad, even if she didn’t know why he was laughing.
“...Come on,” he said eventually, “I’ll take you outside for a bit. There’s something I need to tell you, and we don’t want other people to listen in, do we?”
Only the last bit was directed at her, and she nodded, but she didn’t know why they didn’t want other people to know. Well, Daddy didn’t look so sad anymore even if he did look really serious. Hana wasn’t sure what she’d done to make him happier, but she didn’t really mind, so long as it had worked.
“Will Tenkuu need to come?” she asked, eyeing the sleeping dog critically. How could he still be sleeping now? But Tenkuu was very good at it, she supposed. He had had a lot of practise, and Mom and Daddy always said that you’d get really good at anything you practised a lot.
“Tenkuu will probably need to come,” Daddy said solemnly. “You’d have to tell him later, anyway.”
Honoo and Mokuzai were already nudging him awake.
What? Tenkuu barked, sounding grumpy.
Mokuzai nipped his ear. Daisuke has something important to tell us!
You shouldn’t be sleeping anyway, Honoo told him. We should be on guard in case the Anger comes back!
Like we would be able to do anything about the Anger anyway, Tenkuu said, yawning, but he stood up and shook his fur like he had just come in from the rain, following the rest of them as Daddy started to lead the way towards the entrance. Even if he was being a little slow.
“You shouldn’t be so lazy, Tenkuu,” Hana told him, but something else occurred to her as Daddy led her towards the entrance. “Hey, will they let us out? They didn’t let anybody out before.”
“I had words,” was all Daddy said. Hana was confused, but nobody stopped them from leaving.
Daddy took her to the top of the monument with her Haimaru, and they sat at the edge. He even let her dangle her legs over the edge! He didn’t normally let her do that ‘cause he was scared she might fall and he said her chakra wasn’t good enough yet to stop herself. Hana agreed that it was a long way down, but she wasn’t stupid enough to let herself fall off the edge!
Tenkuu and Mokuzai didn’t like heights, so they sat behind her, but Honoo was braver than they were so he sat next to her. Hana was secretly glad, because she loved all her Haimaru the same (Mom said she shouldn’t have favourites because that was mean, but Hana didn’t have a favourite anyways, and Mom promised she wouldn’t have favourites between her and the baby) but Honoo had the softest fur, so he was nicest to stroke.
Daddy wasn’t speaking, but Konoha looked like a big mess from here so she thought maybe he was too busy looking at it. Hana knew she was too small to help, but it did look like it would take a long time to tidy up Konoha properly. It looked worse than her room, and the village would be harder to fix, too! She still wasn’t sure how a monster (even a really big monster) had caused this much damage to Konoha. But that just made the monster scarier in her head.
“Hana...” Daddy said after a while. She stopped stroking Honoo, her eyes wide. He sounded really serious. He took a deep breath. “I’m going to tell you a big secret.”
She brightened. She loved secrets!
At her smile, Daddy frowned and her face fell. “This is serious, Hana. This is a really big secret. I probably shouldn’t tell you but...” He didn’t finish and looked out at Konoha again.
“Daddy?” She was confused. Why was Daddy telling her a secret if he shouldn’t?
“...You know how your Mom and I are ninja? And the Hokage is in charge of all the ninja in the village, and we have to do what he says? And if we don’t, he’ll punish us?”
“Like chores or being grounded!” Hana said, more comfortable with this subject. She’d been told this lots of times before. “Only the punishments are harsher because if you disobey Hokage-sama, it affects the whole village, and sometimes it can get people killed.”
Daddy nodded. “Well, this big secret is actually a law that the Hokage is going to make - the old Hokage.” He hesitated for a second. “The Yondaime died fighting the Kyuubi, so Sandaime-sama has taken over again.”
“Oh.” Hana had really liked that Hokage. He had pretty eyes, and she even met him once and he was really nice to her and said she’d be a great ninja! But ninja died sometimes for the village, even super powerful ones like the Hokage. She was sad, but it happened. “What law?”
Daddy hesitated for a bit again. “The Yondaime... he died sealing the Kyuubi into a baby, because it was the only way to save the village.”
“Oh,” she said again. Kai-niisan had said Mom had had her baby... “Was it Mom’s baby?”
He looked surprised for a moment. “Well... yes.” He blinked, and then he suddenly became very serious again. “But, Hana, this is a huge secret. The Hokage is going to make a law saying people can’t talk about the sealing after today. And the punishment for breaking that law will be death. You can’t tell anybody, under any circumstances. Not even your brother.”
“That’s unfair!” She pouted. “How come Kiba doesn’t get to know?”
“That’s... grown-up stuff.” He only laughed and ruffled her hair when she glared at him. “You’ll understand one day.”
She glared at him more. She was six, she was grown-up enough to know things like that! Well, probably. But she was six and a “prodigy”, so she totally counted as grown up!
“Hana,” Daddy said, distracting her from her thoughts. He spoke very slowly and carefully, and his eyes didn’t leave her once. “You know what sealing is, right?” She nodded, and he continued, “Well, the Yondaime had to seal the Kyuubi in your brother, but Kiba’s still just a baby. The Kyuubi won’t affect him at all. It’s like...” He paused. “It’s like... if you put something in a jar. It doesn’t matter what it is, the jar doesn’t change, right?”
Hana thought about this for a few moments. “...So my brother’s a jar for the monster? Isn’t the monster too big to fit in him?”
Daddy stared at her for a few seconds, and then burst out laughing. Hana didn’t see what was funny, and she glared at him again until he stopped and finally gave her an answer. He was still grinning, though. “They just squeezed the Kyuubi up really small. Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay...” Though she still thought it was a really big monster to fit in a baby. Maybe her brother was a really big baby?
“Remember, Hana, you can’t tell anybody about this because of the law,” Daddy told her, very serious again. “Not even Kiba. And... some people might say... things... about your brother. Some of them might think he’s really the Kyuubi. But he isn’t, Hana, he’s not even close to being the Kyuubi. So if anybody ever says something like that to you, you just ignore them, okay?”
“Okay,” she said again. She paused. “But I thought people weren’t allowed to talk about it?”
“Well... sometimes people can say things without really saying them.”
Hana considered this. It did make a bit of sense, since Daddy was always talking about body language, and sometimes when he and Mom talked about something they never said exactly what they were talking about, so she didn’t know, but they still knew what they meant (Hana thought this was very unfair).
“I’m going to beat up anybody who says bad things about my brother,” she decided, scowling at the thought of anybody daring to suggest such a thing. “‘Cause that’s what big sisters are supposed to do, right?”
Daddy smiled at her. “You might want to think about that... but you look after your brother.” He ruffled her hair again (why did he keep doing that? It made it stick up all weirdly!) as he looked at Konoha once more. The smile slipped from his face.
“I think he’s going to need all the help he can get,” he murmured under his breath, but Hana wasn’t sure she was supposed to have heard.
