about the tree
I. The one who grew the seed
.
.
"Never fall in love with a shinobi. Men only brings trouble, and shinobi are the worst of them," Ami's mother had said to her daughter many times. Granted, it sounded more like "Neve' fall in luv wis wose bastaaaards," since she could only be bothered to impart her life-management advices when deep in her cups, but Ami had enough experience with drunk talk to get the message.
Ami's mother had been a kunoichi for ten years, before she got injured so badly she got kicked out the Chuunin Corps, so Ami could only assumed she knew what she was talking about. To be fair, Ami hadn't planned to fall in love with a shinobi. She just been fooling around with one the Senju boys, and her mother had never said anything about fooling around.
Ami's best friend however did said something about keeping guys who could find a clit without a map, and before Ami knew it she had found herself into a two-years long relationship with what Konoha had closest of royalty, a small house in the Senju compound and a ring at her finger.
Also, very pregnant.
The funniest thing would be that Ami had only realized her stupid heart had been won over when her fiance's teammate came home with a blood-stained hitai-ate and sorrow in her eyes. She had stared at the sharp pieces of her foolish love spread into her empty house and thought 'Oh, Mother.'
Too bad her mother had been too long dead to come say 'told you so' at Ami. She would have just loved that.
.
.
II. The one who touched the roots
.
.
Kaoru, fifty years old and a thirty years of career in the Konoha medic corps had seen it all. Of course every fifty years old thought so, even more so fifty years old shinobi, but Kaori really had seen it all. She had seen men slaughter each other, women slaughter each other, children slaughter each other. She had seen a village built itself over decades of inimity, and not collapse when its two leaders finally slaughtered each other. She had seen life and death, and the thin edge beetween them, she had seen love, hate, betrayal. She had seen more guts than anyone could wish too, and she had assist mothers give birth to countless babies.
Kaoru had been there and she'd seen it all, and that baby had been dead. Undoubtly so. It had no chakra, therefore it was dead. No matter how its gruesome skin glowed of a bright pink, how steadly its heart throbbed beneath tiny ribs, how vigorously it had cried.
What had chakra was alive, what was alive had chakra. The child had been born dead.
"A new kekkei genkai perhaps?" the Hokage wondered, his hands tucked under his head pensively. "A hidding ability? What about the mother?"
"Kurogane Ami. Civilian. Mother was a kunoichi with no clan affiliation, Father unkown. She never showed any particular talent, but it's not impossible, I suppose." Uzumaki Mito replied clinically, the de facto leader of the Senju clan since Tobirama's death. Mostly because the actual heir was only sixteen and not interested into clan politics and no one dared to say a Jinchuuriki of Mito's caliber what to do.
"No, you don't understand," Kaoru shook her head. "It's no cloaking its chakra, it doesn't have any! When I tried to run a check on it, it absorbed my chakra. None of my jutsu worked!"
"I would appreciate if you stopped refering to my grand-daughter as an it, Nohara Kaoru-san," Uzumaki Mito glared at Kaoru coldly.
In any other circumstances, it would have been enough to silence Kaoru, who never liked conflict in first place, even more so with angry Clan Heads keeping furious Bijuu as pets. But in this case, the thing Uzumaki called a grand-daughter terrified her more than all Jinchuuriki combined.
"I've seen anything like it. It's unatural!"
"That's enough, Nohara-san," Sarutobi frowned at her. "Until we know more about Hikari-chan's...abilities, I declare complete secrecy on the matter. Mito-sama, find someone trustworthy to take care of the child. You cannot approach her until we figure out wether or not she's dangerous to your seal. Nohara-san, I expect you to give a weekly check-up to Senju Hikari. I will also assign an ANBU guard for her "
Kaoru held back a protest at the thought of having to interact with it on a weekly basis. Mito-sama had no such problem to give the Hokage a piece of her mind. "This is ridiculous. You can't keep me away from my granddaughter Saru. And trust this woman with her."
"Yes, I can."
Even Uzumaki Mito had to bow to the Hokage's decision, Kaoru thought vindically. Everyone had to submit to his will.
Long live the Hokage.
.
.
III. The one who groomed the sappling
.
.
Sayori took one thorough look at the baby resting in her arms. She could scarcely recognize Hatori-sama at all in her round face, pink pouting lips and sky blue eyes.
"Mito-sama. You promised."
Sayori had been serving the Senju Clan for fifty years. She had been taken in at five years old, after rogue Uchihas had destroyed her village and murdered her entire family. Although a simple civilian with no talent whatsover for the shinobi art, Sayori understood her duty to the clan. She had served faithfully to her entire capacity for decades.
And now, all the children Sayori had seen grow up were dead, except for Tsunade and her brother Nawaki. This servant was tired of raising the offspring of dead men only to send them to their own end. After Hatori's death, Mito-sama had promised she would never have to go through the same ordeal again.
And yet here she was, asking Sayori to care for another orphan-born child of the Clan.
"Yes, I know, Sayori-san," Mito sighed from the other side of the room. "I understand how cruel it is of me to ask such a thing of you. But I have no one else to turn to. I cannot raise that child myself, and there is no one I would trust more with the task than yourself."
Sayori didn't reply. She turned her attention back to the infant sucking silently at her thumb. Even Sayori, who had next to no chakra herself could feel the oddness, like an itch tugging distantly at her senses.
"This one will never become a kunoichi," Mito-sama added after a few minutes of contemplation. "She will never know the darkness..."
"Of course she will. She is Senju. Darkness is in her blood."
Mito flinched at the rebuttal. Once upon a time, Sayori would never have dared to interruped so boldly a Senju, especially Mito-sama. Time truly washed everyting away. Time, and the bitterness of loss. Sayori had loved all these children as if they had been hers. They had been hers. "Why not ask that ANBU of yours to deal with her?"
"Child-raising is hardly a strong point of Owl," the Uzumaki chukled without mirth.
Hikari blurped happily. And Sayori, who truly had learn nothing after all, knew she would do her duty. As always.
.
.
IV. The one who longed for the leaves
.
.
Over the years, Mito had learnt to stop paying attention to the concentration of angst sealed inside of her. The seal that chained the vicious beast to her guts was less than perfect, but the Uzumaki dared anyone to do a better job on the battlefield without any preparation. The first years after she had turned herself into a living vessel, the sudden rises of loathing had been overwhelming. Nowadays however, the Kyuubi could hardly faze Mito in his worst days. Hatred, hatred, and even more hatred, it was quite tedious after a while.
She had spent more time in Konoha than her birth village, but Mito was a kunoichi of Uzushio still. She had a stormy sea in her blood, and salt over her skin. She had seen more frightening than a petty child lashing out.
But every once in a while, Mito got to taste something else than the usual loathing. A spark of interest among the tide of rentless agression.
Curiosity. How odd.
"What is it?" Mito stared at the giant fox, ungracefully sprawled in his cage.
Sage, how she hated to come here. The stench alone never failed to bring nausea at the egde of her lips.
"My illustrous jailer, what an honor," the Kyuubi eventually deigned to aknowledge her presence. He was in a sarcastic mood today. A barely noticable change from his usual temper.
"Don't play coy," Mito frowned disapprovingly, urging herself not to snap at his provocations. She had managed not to explode with frustration after years of negociation with Uchihas, one fat fox throwing a fit couldn't even compare. "You know something about my granddaughter."
"Which one?" the Bijuu grinned with malice. "The useless one or the dead ones?"
His favorite taunt, to remind her constantly how she kept on failing her own family. As if Mito could ever forget. "You know of whom I speak."
"Ah, the cursed one then," Kyuubi rolled over, his tails waving through the toxic air. "You might not want to get too attached to that one, Mito."
...Cursed? What could he possibly meant by that? Mito knew better than to trust her prisoner with anything, but still...Kyuubi had no reason to lie to her on the matter, it wouldn't help him break the seal. "Cursed? By what?"
"Eh, by who you mean? Don't know. Don't care," the fox shruggled his enormous shoulders with an expression of casual indifference. "But one way or another, your cub had been tainted by a god. She reeks of it."
"...How?" Mito pondered out loud. Not that she believed him on principle, but it couldn't hurt to hear what the beast had to say on the matter. "Hikari was born as she is, and her mother hadn't left the Compound since..."
"Oh come on Uzumaki," Kyuubi interrupted her with a mocking bark. "Even you can't be that gullible. Surely you can recognize ancient eyes when you see them, old hag."
He was lying of course. He did that nowadays, whispering poisonous untruths and bittersweets lies. Aiming to crack her defense with doubts since he had understood screaming wouldn't get him anywhere.
Curses didn't existed. Hikari wasn't any more cursed than Mito herself.
Ancient eyes, Kyuubi taunted her from within. "Ancient eyes."
.
.
V. The one who climbed on the branches
.
.
Captain Owl was something of a legend among the ANBU forces, the kind that got reverently whispered about during long stake-out nights. At least two hundreds A and S-ranked missions to his name, and more than ten years of service in a corps where surviving was an exploit by itself. But most of all, no one knew what had become of him after he disappeared five years ago without a goodbye, before Mitsuha joined. Well, at least two persons knew but Mitsuha hardly imagined herself questioning the ANBU commander or the Hokage regarding the former captain's whereabouts.
Nonetheless, this mystery had fed by itself ANBU's rumors mill for five years. Some believed that the captain had defected, others that he was in a long-term infiltration. Most just stared unimpressingly and said "dead."
Personally, Mitsuka liked to believe Owl had been been sold to be the exotic playtoy of a spoilt princess in some minor country. She just never expected to be half-right.
"Owl..taicho?" Mitsuha repeated in what she hoped was her standard 'cool and collected ANBU agent' voice, and not an excited fangirl squeal.
"That's correct," the Hokage smiled pleasantly. "Owl had been assigned to the protection of a...special citizen of Konoha. I've been looking for an operative for him to share this mission with. His charge never leaves Konoha, therefore I think this mission is perfectly adapted to your needs, Hedgehog."
The thing was, Mitsuha loved working as ANBU. She wouldn't pretend the life of glorified murderer was anything but unhealthy and twisted, but she lived for the thrill of tracking, of the close dance with anhilation. Bit of an adrenaline junkie, she would admit. Hedgehog was good at she did, as in really, really good.
She didn't wanted to stop being ANBU. However, life had decided otherwise when her brother died last month of pneumonia, of all things, leaving his kid of four years old an orphan. With her mother departed from birth complications, little Yoshino had no one else to take her in. Mitsuha was a bit of an asshole, but not bad enough to abandon her only remaining family member to rot for themselves while she had fun chasing missing-nin all over Fire Country and murdering rich people in their bed.
Therefore she had asked for a reaffectation to regular, boring Jonnin Corps when the ANBU commander had sent her to the Hokage's office. Who had handed over to her a perfect mission allowing her to both stay in ANBU and take care of the brat. Also, work with Owl-taicho.
"I accept this mission, Hokage-sama!" Mitsuha bowed a bit to enthustically, but she couldn't be bothered to care right now. "I am thankful for your comprehension, and won't disappoint you."
"Aha, don't thank me too soon, Hedgehog-kun," the Hokage chuckled omniously. "This mission won't be as easy as it seems. Anyway, you're expected tomorrow at seven am to the Senju Compound. Owl will brief you the details there. Dismissed."
And that was how Mitsuha found herself the next morning, hanging awkwardly on top of a oak with no clue regarding her mission, pondering over the merits of waiting until her captain deigned to fetch her versus the risks of breaking into the oldest Compound of Konoha.
And then the fairy child appeared out of nowhere.
"Hello," the pretty monster flashed its teeth from the branch above Mitsuha's. "Are you my new pet friend?"
Mitsuha did not screamed. Barely yelped. At least that was her story and she was sticking to it.