Chapter 1: Every Cloud has a Silver Lining
It's raining. It's always raining here, so it wasn't surprising when drops started to hit the figure lying in the alleyway. The over-hangings of the buildings that stood on each side of the alley couldn't stop the rain from wetting the lone figure.
'When was the last time I felt the rain…'
Lightning lit up the sky, followed by a crack of thunder. It seemed to act as the signal for the rain to pour harder. Any other person would be darting to their homes or looking for shelter in the closest building. But not the small figure that lay on the dirty cement. The rain was welcomed to soak the figure to the bone. To them, it felt like the equivalent of being soaked in a warm bath with bubbles and candles all around. It didn't matter that the rain was actually dirty and nearly freezing. To a person deprived of the touch of water for months, it felt like heaven.
'If only it could wash away thoughts...memories…sins…'
A small tongue darts out to lick up the rain that had fallen on the dry, cracked lips, hungrily. A satisfied sigh escaped between the lips, before opening wider to allow more of the elixir in even with the pain that came with it. Drops upon drops of rain poured into the parched mouth; moistening the throat, tickling the tonsils, and glistening against canines, sharper than the average man's, before sliding down onto the tongue.
'When was the last time I had water… I can't remember.'
"Mi…zu." The words were barely above a whisper, canceled out by the howling wind of the storm. But if it were possible, the words would've been screamed to the high heavens in gratitude, thanking the country for its continuous onslaught of storms. However, since it was impossible, the person was satisfied with giving thanks with just those two syllables, before sealing the pink appendage away between a pair of now moist lips.
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Feet padded across the cement in a steady but quick rhythm. A dark, masked figure darting in and out of alleys lined along the narrow street. Chakra-enhanced feet stuck to the wall of a near-by building, then began its ascent to the top. The masked figure came to a stop once reaching the top of the high-building.
The figure's eyes were dark as they took in the surroundings. A flash of light and a roar from the clouds seemed to come in at the perfect moment as the eyes flashed a brilliant red with dark designs instead of normal pupils.
"Sasuke," a static-y voice, crackled through the headset worn by the figure.
The figure raised his hand to touch the place where his ear was hidden by the fabric of the mask.
"What is it, dobe," the figure, now known as Sasuke, responded.
"Teme, when are you going to start referring to me as Hokage-sama or at least Naruto-sama," the voice responded in an agitated manner.
Sasuke smirked behind his mask. "Okay, Hokage-dobe."
A deep chuckle sounded from a third person through the radio. "Nice one, Sasuke."
"Shut up, Kankuro," Naruto, shouted.
"Sasuke, have you found anything?" This was spoken by the voice belonging to the Kazekage of Suna, Sabaku no Gaara. He'd rather an argument not break out while they were on a mission. Not to mention he was wearing a headset and didn't want to experience Naruto AND Kankuro screaming directly into his ear.
"Everything is fine over here," Sasuke replied, smirk dropping as he went back into "mission-mode". His eyes scanned the buildings and the ground below him.
"I can't believe we lost track of that bastard," Kankuro growled out.
"He was extremely fast," Naruto remarked, a slight hint of agitation in his voice.
"I thought you were the fastest thing in the world, Hokage-dobe," Sasuke stated in a teasing tone.
There were a few seconds of silence and for a second Sasuke thought he may not have heard him. But then, "Go to hell Sasuke," was said in a seemingly calm but peeved manner.
Sasuke smirked to himself in satisfaction at still having the ability to rile his best friend up.
"We should head back to the Tower," Gaara replied.
"Agreed," Kankuro responded.
"Alright," Naruto agreed as well.
Sasuke opened his mouth to speak before something caught his eye. His eyes squinted, trying to get a better look at the object in the alley beneath him. There a small chakra signal, weak but still noticeable by highly skilled shinobi.
Sasuke hopped down into the backstreet to investigate closer. He approached the figure cautiously. The smell of blood, dirt, and sweat could be smelled through the rain. The smell was powerful, almost making Sasuke want to vomit. But he wasn't one of the best high-ranking shinobi for nothing. He wasn't going to let a smell he came in contact with often deter him.
Reaching the figure, Sasuke crouched down next to them. Upon further inspection, Sasuke realized it was a young girl, probably no older than thirteen. Her body was covered in blood and dirt. Deep cuts could be seen on the torso, thighs, and arms. The depth and thickness made Sasuke believe the marks were done by kunai.
"Poor girl," Sasuke mumbled. A slight movement, made him looked up at the top of her head.
His eyes widened a little as he saw two pointy dog-like ears laying down on the mess of her hair. One of them had a split and was bleeding, showing Sasuke that they were in fact real. 'That isn't something I've seen before'. His eyes scanned down to look at her face, framed by her long, matted dark hair. She had a few cuts here and there but a deep gash going down the side of her face that still bled. The girl's dark eyes were open a slight bit, seemingly gazing at Sasuke.
"Can you hear me," Sasuke asked, clear and loud.
The lips were unmoving and the eyes held no reaction. But one of the ears did twitch quite a bit. Sasuke wasn't sure if it was a natural reaction for when sounds reach the ears or if she was trying to show him he was listening.
Sasuke took two fingers and pressed it gently to her neck. He noticed her right ear jolt a little. He waited a couple seconds before he felt a pulse. It was barely there like her chakra signature but it was there.
"Can you hear me," Sasuke asked her once more.
He waited for her to do something. His eyes focused on the top of her head, seeing as those are the only signs she is still alive besides her faint pulse and chakra. This time it wasn't her ears that gave a reaction. Her eyes opened in the slightest bit and her irises slowly moved up to look at Sasuke.
Her eyes were dull and dark. They were filled with so much sadness and pain that shouldn't be seen in the eyes of a young child. Sasuke felt a twinge of sadness from looking into those bleak eyes.
The girl's lip started to quiver a little and opened a slight bit. The eyes closed more as if in concentration. Sasuke realized she was trying to speak but was having difficult. The only thing that left between her cracked lips were soft noises like whimpers.
"Relax you don't have to work yourself up to speak, as long as I know you're still alive," Sasuke spoke softly, hesitantly bringing a hand up to touch a limp furry appendage that stiffened upon his touch.
She seemed to relax as her eye shut and lips closed, stopping the whimpering. Sasuke was surprised at how soft the ear was as he rubbed it, even though it was a little dirty.
Sasuke looked around him for anything that could possibly identify her or where she came from. His small search was useless as he couldn't find a thing. The rain probably washed away all the evidence. Sasuke removed his hand from her ear to take off his backpack. The girl made no noise besides the small breaths through her nose.
He pulled out a thick black blanket from his backpack that was waterproof before putting it back on. He carefully slid one arm underneath her shoulders and brought her up to a sitting position. Her head lolled to the side before coming to rest on his chest. Sasuke wrapped the blanket around her before placing his arm underneath her knees. He pulled her close to him, before standing up. He took one last glance down at her before body flickering away.
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"Hey Sasuke, we have…" Naruto shouted, before asking in a softer voice, "what is that?"
Sasuke blinked up at Naruto. "It's a girl."
Naruto's eyes widened. "Sasuke, you shouldn't go around kidnapping children, we're trying to strengthen our ties with Amegakure not strain them even more. We'll get you some therapy to deal with your pedophile urges later."
Sasuke's passive gaze turned into a glare. "I didn't kidnap her, baka," Sasuke stated, walking further into the hotel room he shared with Naruto. "And I don't have pedophile urges."
"Are you sure about that," Naruto questioned, as Sasuke walked pass him.
"Yes, dobe," Sasuke said, walking through the sitting area and into the bathroom. Naruto followed after him.
Sasuke kneeled down and gently laid her down into the tub, removing the blanket afterwards. Naruto's eyes widened at the site of the young girl's battered body.
"Where'd you find her," Naruto asked.
"In an alleyway during our last communication," Sasuke replied, placing his fingertips gently, but firmly onto her ribcage.
"Poor thing," Naruto said, solemnly as he knelt down next to Sasuke. He scanned her wounded body carefully, before noticing the furry ears on her head. His eyes narrowed as he reached over to touch them. The Hokage trailed down the side of the ear with his pointer finger and thumb.
"Have you ever seen a kekkai genkai like that before," Sasuke questioned.
Naruto shook his head in negative as he pulled his hand back. "Must be rare or something. I'll have to ask Tsunade-baa-chan."
Sasuke didn't reply as he focused on finding any broken bones. So far he found a few cracked ribs. Naruto examined the girl as well before noticing her hands. They were covered in blood and cuts but that wasn't what brought his attention. It was the claws at the end covered in dried blood.
"Sasuke," Naruto muttered to get his best friends attention. He lifted up the hand by the wrist carefully to scrutinize the claws closely.
"Not too surprising with the ears," Sasuke said, before finding a long matted tail, trailing down the side of her leg, "…and tail."
"Tail," Naruto repeated, setting the hand down and looking at what Sasuke was holding.
"Kidnapping children, Sasuke," a deep, baritone voice spoke from behind them.
Naruto and Sasuke turned around to look at the person behind them. Standing behind them was the passive looking Kazekage, Gaara and next to him was the puppet master Kankuro.
"Why do you people insist I'm into kidnapping children," Sasuke said, glaring over at Naruto.
Naruto blinked innocently before smiling. "No reason."
Sasuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"Give us a reason to not believe you're into kidnapping children," Kankuro said, smiling.
Sasuke turned his glare to Kankuro, who just continued smiling. "I am not into children. I have a wife and a son."
"Could be just a cover-up," Kankuro replied as he and Gaara stepped closer into the small bathroom.
"Baka," Sasuke mumbled.
"Name calling is not nice," Naruto reprimanded, shaking his finger at Sasuke as if he was a teacher.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow before trying to bite off Naruto's finger. Naruto quickly pulled his hand back and held it to his chest and saying, "Sasuke," in an appalled manor.
Said guy just smirked before hearing a low whimper coming from the tub. His head jerked around to look at the girl.
The girl was wincing as she tried to sit-up.
"Stay down or you'll hurt yourself more," Sasuke scolded gently, reaching out to place his hands on her shoulders to guide her back down.
Her eyes jerked up to look at him and her body went rigid at his touch. Sasuke lost his breath for a second looking into the strange dark blue eyes with small slits for pupils. 'Definitely a kekkai genkai or something,' Sasuke thought as he guided her back to until her shoulders were against the rim of the tub. He released her shoulders as she looked down and away from him.
"What happened to her," Kankuro asked, in a softer tone of voice than his usual.
"She looked like she was attacked by some wild animal," Gaara stated as he stood next to Naruto.
"No," Sasuke said, watching her carefully. She looked she would bolt at any minute, but he knew she didn't have the strength yet. "I thought it could be at first, but looking closer I can see that these marks were made by kunai."
"She isn't wearing a hitai-ate nor does she have any weapons on hers. There would look to be no reason for her to be attack unless it was because of her kekkai-genkai," Naruto declared in a serious tone as he looked down at the battered young girl.
She was scared. The she last thing she remembered was seeing a dark figure looming over in the alleyway. At first she thought it was someone who was coming to finish the job of killing her, but instead he just watched her and asked if she could hear him. She couldn't speak to him and could barely remain conscious. She remembered him touching her ears and found it soothing. No one had ever done that before. Now here she was waking up in a strange room surrounded by men wearing hitai-ate from a different village.
"Are you okay?"
She was startled from her thoughts as she looked up at the person who was asking her the question. 'Am I okay?' She thought it over for a second before looking down at her body. Her body was covered in dried blood. The scent of those people and her blood fusing together made her nose scrunch up in disgust at the stench. Other than that her body ached, she felt really, really tired, and was very thirsty. She looked up at the man who had asked her the question. Her ears flattened even more from the look of his deep, stern obsidian eyes. They were intimidating and kind of frightening. She couldn't understand why but they were. She felt her fangs begin to dig into her lower lip.
Sasuke frowned as he looked at her obviously digging her teeth into lower lip. As soon as blood began to seep down the corner of her mouth, he knew she was starting to hurt herself.
"Stop it," he scolded, reaching out to tug her lip.
The girl nearly jumped out of her skin as she leaped back to get away from Sasuke's touch. She just ended up banging her back against the other side of the tub. She winced a little as one of her broken ribs shifted.
"Sasuke," Naruto shouted, pushing him firmly but gently out of the way.
Sasuke frowned glancing at Naruto. "I didn't do anything," he replied, rather childishly.
"You're too forceful," Naruto responded, looking at the girl. His gaze softened and he smiled politely at her.
His smile was nice and calming to her. She never seen such a nice, big smile before, especially one directed towards her. She was more accustomed to the disapproving and hateful looks.
"Don't worry about big, mean Sasuke. He's just a bully," Naruto remarked jokingly, as he reached his hand out to touch her head.
She cowered away from his hand a little, but didn't jerk away. A rough hand landed on top of her ears, but in a gentle manner. He stroked the back of her ear in a soothing manner. She relaxed into the touch and closed her eyes. A few seconds late she was back in lala land, head slumping against the wall.
"See Sasuke, you have to be more gentle," Naruto said, removing his hand.
"Hn," Sasuke replied, not looking at Naruto.
"There's just a problem with you lulling her to sleep Naruto," Gaara stated.
"What," Naruto asked, blinking up at Gaara.
"How are we supposed to get information out of her?"
Naruto blinked before banging his head on the rim of the tub. "Dammit!"
"And that's why you will forever be a dobe, far into your old age," Sasuke said, smirking.
"Go to hell," was Naruto's muffled reply.
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Sasuke, Naruto, Gaara, and Kankuro stood in the office of the current leader of Amegakure. Their expressions serious, even Naruto's, who had grown up considerably from the genin he used to be to the greatest Hokage Konoha has ever had since the Yondaime.
In the corner of the room, lying on a couch was the girl Sasuke had found. She had been taken care of by a few medic-nin but they couldn't get her to wake up. She still needed a good bathing, even though the blood was scrubbed clean from her.
The leader of Amegakure, Miyoshi Himoto, was a tall, burly man. He was fair to his ninjas and treated them with care but was also stern with them. Miyoshi wanted to restore Amegakure's reputation as a great nation and not some ninja factory for pawns like the former leaders Pain and Hanzo had created. He also wanted the country to gain more popularity and strength so they could stand beside the other five great nations. In order for him to do that he needed a good relationship with Sunagakure and Kohonagakure. They were the most popular and powerful nations currently.
He looked down at the girl with a puzzled expression on his face. Miyoshi never heard of a kekkai genkai like this, let alone seen one. Fur covered blue-black ears, a fluffy matching tail, sharp canines, and claws.
"I've never seen something like this before," Miyoshi informed the Suna and Konoha shinobi. "She's obviously not from Amegakure. However, since you found her here with the condition she is in, she could be from one of the smaller villages. She has woken up since yesterday?"
"Unfortunately no, so we can't get answers from her," Naruto replied, a bit guiltily.
Miyoshi looked to contemplate things for a second before going to sit behind his desk. His eyes lingered on the young child before taking in the men in front of him.
"We'll observe her for now until she recovers from her wounds and get answers from her," Miyoshi informed them as he glanced down at the report they had given him earlier. He began to discuss with them about it. It was on the missing-nin from Suna that had wandered into his village and killed a few of his shinobi. Suna decided to step in and along with it Konoha. Miyoshi was grateful for the opportunity to get closer to the two great villages and to be able to put a stop to this menace.
Sasuke was barely listening as he recalled what Miyoshi had said about the girl. He glimpsed at her from the corner of his eye. Sasuke felt drawn to the girl. When he first saw her bruised up and bleeding in that alley way it made his gut churn. He wanted to beat the living hell out of whoever did that to her. Although from the blood test results it look like she beat the hell out of them already. There were several different DNAs in the blood she was covered in. Some of it was dug out from beneath her claws. But still, she was severely roughed up and the medic-nin said if Sasuke had gotten to her when he did she probably would've died in that cold, wet alley.
It may be a little childish, but Sasuke thought since he found her he should be the one to take care of her. He always wanted a little girl, but sadly he and his wife couldn't have any more children. If he could have a daughter and not have to go through the whole diaper changing phase, it would be perfect.
Naruto, Gaara, and Kankuro were on their way out when Naruto noticed Sasuke was following.
"Sasuke," Naruto spoke softly.
Miyoshi looked up at Sasuke with a confused expression on his face.
"I'd like to take her with me," Sasuke stated, firmly.
Miyoshi frowned. "If she was born here in Ame no Kuni then she should stay here in case someone is looking for her."
"I understand that, but I would prefer taking care of her since I'm the one that found her. Konoha hospitals are also a lot more specialized in traumatized patients and would probably better for her with the state that she is in." Sasuke swallowed as if to literally swallow his pride. "Please, let me take care of her. If when she awakes she prefers to return Ame, then I will bring her back."
Miyoshi thought about it for a moment before glancing over at the girl. "On a few conditions," Miyoshi said, before looking back at Sasuke.
Sasuke stiffened and nodded his head.
"She becomes a shinobi and is allowed to be requested from me when need be," Miyoshi explained. "Also, if you discover anything of importance concerning her origins and kekkai genkai, I want a copy of the reports sent directly to me. She could be valuable with such a unique kekkai genkai."
Sasuke nodded, unsurely. "And if she doesn't want to become a shinobi?"
Miyoshi glanced down at his papers. "Then we'll just have to wait until she's older and is able to have children. As I said before, her kekkai genkai can be valuable upon finding out its full capabilities."
Sasuke gave low bow to the man. He understood what it meant to have a kekkai genkai. Having a kekkai genkai usually meant power and a shinobi village needed power to protect their selves and make money. Sasuke couldn't count how many times he was attacked for his Sharingan. If this girl's abilities were powerful enough he would have to protect her, seeing as she couldn't really protect herself.
Sasuke walked over to her and bent over to pick her up. He lifted her up and into his arms and turned around to the door. Naruto and others must have gone on without him. He lead her out of the office and was about to nudge the door close.
"Take care of her, Uchiha-san."
Sasuke stilled for a minute before closing the door behind him.
He would definitely take care of her.
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Story notes: A post Naruto story
Chapter notes: Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I do own the Oc's you find in here :3.
AN: The Lost Wolf is in the process of being re-written. I decided to upload the first two chapters of the re-written version to see what you guys thinks. I kind of like this version more because it's better for the plot but if you guys like the other version more than I won't mind uploading that back up. Just let me know. :3 This is almost a whole new chapter. The other chapters are nearly the same but with a few scenes cut out or changed. But it will be virtually the same. There will be six chapters by the time I finished completely revising. A kind of new update for my previous readers.
Chapter end notes: TBC
Review my lovelies :3
PS: Jutsus, common Japanese phrases like "Kuso!", "Teme!", "Dobe", "Hai", greetings, and some foods will be used in Japanese. Honorifics will also be used. I just find them cooler in Japanese than english :3. Also... most jutsus I know in Naruto are in Japanese =D