Of bells and Weirdos in the Woods
Sakumo was having a normal day, he was heading home from a successful solo mission when he heard the twinkling of bells. To be honest, he was surprised to hear this sound in the middle of an empty forest that he crashed into a tree and fell to the forest floor.
Rubbing his forehead, he glances around, surprised to find a little girl about 6 years old next to him. Her red hair done up in two buns with long orange ribbons with bells at the ends keeping them in place. Absentmindedly he registers the bells as the source of the sound.
“Are you okay, mister? You fell a lot,” the little girl asks, her blue eyes wide.
“Yeah I’m fine. Just a small bump,” The man answers. Looking at the little girl he realizes she is severely out of place with her bells and extravagant kimono. She seems almost princess-like.
“Anyway, what a princess like you doing in the middle of a forest?” he asks as he stands up, stretching.
“Oh,” she blushes, “I’m collecting flowers, bugs, and berries to make dyes,” she says as she collects a basket about half her size filled to the brim with said materials. Sakumo widens his eyes at her strength.
“Do you need help? I just can’t leave a lovely princess such as your self alone in the woods.”
“Ah, no I just finished. I was gonna head back when you fell.” The small girl answers.
“Then allow me to escort such a beautiful lady to her home,” he says with a grin and an outstretched hand.
Her whiskered cheeks flush as she put her tiny hand in his.
“Where to my lady?” He asks, in response she pulls his hand, leading the way.
Seeing her hand in his he realizes how small she is and asks, “So, Hime how old are you?”
“I’m six,” she says.
“You’re about my son’s age, Kakashi” he tells her. Her eyes widen.
“Really!? What’s he like?” She asks excitedly.
“Well he’s really tiny, like you, and likes to be carried around by his best friend Obito. He’s really smart too,” He says excitedly, then sighs, “But he’s gotten this habit of saying he’s gonna be Obito’s wife, I don’t know why but oh well.” He smiles at her innocent giggles.
“He’s kinda like me then. I’m tiny and I like it when Sasuno carries me and we promised that we were gonna get married when we’re older. So, tell me about your future Son-in-law, Obito was it?”
He splutters, “Don’t you think it’s a little early to think of marriage?”
“Nope, tell me please.” She says, giggling at his reaction.
He sighs, “well okay, Obito is the younger brother of my student, Hiro. He-” he gets cut off by a loud growl.
“Get away from her, fucker!” Another red head says, a boy this time, about nineteen years old. His long red hair seeming to float as he crouches, clawed hands poised to attack, his red eyes seem to glow.
“Kurama-nii! NO!” The small girl says as she goes up to the boy and smacks him lightly on his forehead.
“What the hell, kit! I’m trying to protect you!” He says as rubbing his forehead.
“If you had paid attention you would have sensed that he has no bad intentions” the girl snarks.
“Is this you brother, Hime?” The older man asks, staring at the barefoot teen, “and where are his shoes?”
“Unfortunately, his name is Kurama, he’s a grumpy bastard that doesn’t like shoes,” She says with a smile, ignoring her brother’s exclamation of anger.
“Oh! I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Narumi. It’s a pleasure to meet you!” She says with a bow.
“Well my name is-” he gets cut off a second time but by a different voice.
“Hatake Sakumo, Konoha’s White Fang,” A girl’s voice answers. Sakumo stiffens and looks towards the source. Leaning against a tree is a teen about 17.
She looked regal even with half of her face covered, like his son’s he realizes. She has sliver hair, not unlike his own, that was wild and unmanageable, her bangs somewhat covering a crescent moon on her forehead. She had a simple but elegant kimono with a long fur like scarf-thing around her shoulders that was the same shade as her hair.
Clutching at her kimono, were two children. One a boy with black hair and one visible black eye. The other child had pink hair and green eyes with three eye-like dots underneath each one, they were the same color as their eyes.
“So, this is the person you named me after, Sensei,” the pink haired child says, studying their namesake, now Sakumo. (this is gonna get confusing very fast so they will be Saku or Spider-chan(Kasumi’s Nickname))
“Yup, but also remember it was the first name I thought of when I got you, I didn’t want to do to much work to give you a good name.” The young lady responds.
“Why am I not surprised, you did name me Sasuno of all things,” the black-haired child, now Sasuno, deadpans, “I don’t even know if it’s a real name.”
“I worked very hard to find the perfect name for you, Sasuno” the oldest girl says in a sad tone.
“Uh… May I ask who you guys are and what you’re doing in the middle of the forest dressed like royalty? Well, except for him of course,” Sakumo interrupt their conversation pointing at Kurama, who was dressed in a plain old kimono shirt with long sleeves and pants that reach his mid calves and of course he was barefoot.
“Oh, Fuck You Old Man,” Kurama says.
“I’m not that old,” Sakumo sadly whispers to himself.
“Well, my name is Kasumi, and these are my adorable students: Sasuno, Sakumo, and Narumi.” She smiles pointing at the older teen she says, “that asshole as introduced before is Kurama, my friend and Narumi’s older brother.”
“Don’t forget your fake boyfriend on certain occasions,” The red-haired teen says.
She tilts her head, “that too.”
“As to why we’re here, we’ve been looking for a new home for two years.”
“Oh well if you like I could take you with me to Konoha as I was heading there myself. I mean you two are probably Uzumaki and we have one about your age, Kurama.” To Kasumi he says, “You look and smell like a Hatake, so I can’t just leave a part of my clan out here and homeless.”
“Ooooo! Can we, Sensei? Sakumo-oji was telling me about his son who’s about my age and he seems pretty cool AND he told me that his son’s gonna be the wife to this guy named Obito, like how I’m gonna be Sasuno’s wife,” the smallest child rapidly says as she hugs Sasuno, who blushes lightly. Her loud voice drowning out Sakumo’s protests of his child’s impending marriage.
“I mean it could be fun and we won’t have to move around anymore, Sensei” Saku says as they straighten out their apron.
“And we could make money off the extra clothes we made,” Sasuno adds all the while trying to extract himself from Narumi’s vice like grip.
Kasumi looks conflicted. Her gaze wandering from the hopeful faces of her students and Kurama’s resting bitch face to Sakumo’s childishly hopeful face.
“Okay,” She answers. Giving her answer the children cheer, well what they consider cheering. Narumi gives out a happy yell, her bells tinkling; Saku gives out a loud ‘yay’ and claps, Sasuno claps one time with a barely noticeable smile on his face.
She whistles, out of the forest surrounding them appear many dogs, surprising Sakumo. Some of the bigger dogs have packs attached to them.
“Let’s go, Sakumo-san,” She smiles at the older Hatake.
“Call me Niisan or at least Sakumo, you don’t have to use honorifics with me.” He says with a smile, hoping she’ll go with niisan. She blushes under her mask and agrees, Kurama snorts. The fur around Kasumi’s shoulders rises and smacks Kurama over the head.
“What was that for you Bitch!” Kurama snarls.
“You know exactly why, you dick. Let’s go Sakumo-nii,” The girl says as she puts each student on top of a dog.
“Alright,” Says a chuckling Sakumo, happy that he has such a cute little sister now and knowing that his life won’t be the same after this.