Naruto 1. Chapter 1 Prologue

**Prologue**

**Alright, this is my first fanfiction I've ever written, this will be a fanfiction that will be heavily based on a few OC character that I've created. Because of that we will see nothing or minimal of Naruto in the first few chapters, but we will see him and the other people from Konoha that we both love and hate soon enough.**

**I won't be divulging to much into the romance theme in this story, but as in all good stories romance will occur, the only pairing I will be revealing now is NaruHina, the rest will revealing themselves as the story progresses.**

**This story is rated M for a reason, for those of you who may expect a lemon, I'm sorry I have no intention of writing anything like that, yet. However some chapters may be brutal and as kids these days have one hell of a language, swearing will occur.**

**Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own Naruto, any characters in this story except my own belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

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><p>Just a few hours ago a terrible tragedy happened at the Konohagakure no Sato (Village Hidden among Tree Leaves). At October 10th the village was attacked by a rampaging chakra beast known as the Kyūbi no Yōko. The Shinobi (ninja) of the village fought valiantly to protect their homes and families, but the power of the Nine-tailed Fox was so vast and huge so all they could do was to halt it in its tracks.<p>

Countless lives were lost before the leader of the village, the Fourth Hokage intervened. However, to kill the beast was an accomplishment even the Fourth Hokage couldn't manage and in the end he gave his life to seal the Kyūbi inside a newborn child. The name of this boy is Uzumaki Naruto.

At the same time, not very far from Kusagakure no Sato (Village Hidden in the Grass)

The small farming community was preparing for nightfall, completely ignorant of what happened in the Land of Fire, the small village consistent of mainly three families had been working hard on gather all the crops so that nothing would wither in the upcoming cold weather. Most of the villagers were now closing their lids on the windows and blowing out whatever light source they preferred to have in their homes. However this twilight peace was not one that would last long on this day. A young man, barely 20 years of age was running with all possible haste towards the large residence that belonged to the leader of the village.

"Higo-sama!"

Higo Yasutare, a man in his early thirties awoke from his slumber and sat up straight in his hammock stationed outside his house. The man was about 6.5 feet tall and had long purple hair that was gathered in a single ponytail. Yasutare's skin was fairly tanned and his muscular and working as a farmer for the majority of his life had given him a muscular body. The most captivating about him was his eyes, as everyone in the Higo clan he had bright scarlet eye, which now stared groggily at the approaching young messenger boy. Yasutare was tired from harvesting most of the rice, chili and paprika during the early hours of the day so whatever the reason this whelp had for breaking his nap better be worth it.

"Higo-sama" the young man yelled once again, running the last few yards before stopping for a moment to catch his breath.

"H-Higo-sama, I come with a message from my parents. It is your wife, she's entering the last stages of her labor now."

A look of shock was written all over Yasutare's face, before it disappeared, leaving just a huge grin instead. He had sent his wife to the medics just a week ago, after concluding that her pregnancy was going overdue. As much as it pained him to be separated from her, he felt that it was the wisest decision as the baby now could arrive at any given time. He would've stayed with her if it was not for the fact that winter was approaching and they needed to get the crops stored inside if they wanted food beside meat for the winter. Even though the winter in the Earth Country is short, it is harsh and the crops had no way of surviving the month with biting cold.

"Are you sure of this?" Yasutare asked the man in front of him.

"Yes, her contractions started seven minutes ago." The young man answered while panting heavily, wiping away some sweat from his face.

"Good, Sakai Yuuji was it?" Instead of answering the young man just nodded, happy that the leader of their little village remembered his name.

"You did a good job getting here so fast. Now, it seems you need some rest, I'll find my own way there."

The young messenger gladly sat down on the perch to rest, the run from the medics' house to Higo had taken a lot out of him, but the look of joy that were plastered on Higo's face as he delivered the news had been worth it. The young man flashed a bright smile on his own as he watched the back of their trusted leader disappearing down the road.

Higo was almost in a state of shock, the village would now grow from 164 inhabitants to 165 and it was his own child nonetheless. Yasutare and his wife, Yuuki had tried for many years to get a child but somehow Yuuki didn't become pregnant, five years into their marriage they started praying to the spirits for a miracle and one year later this miracle had been granted in form of Yuuki finally getting pregnant. He remembered they joy both of them had felt when they got the news from the doctors after checking why Yuuki's period was so late. He once more allowed the same happiness to fill his insides while running between the scattered houses that were the core of the village. He barely felt the need to watch where he was going as he knew the village as good as his own pocket. However the road to the medics house was longer then what it could be thanks to the structure of the village. Cursing his ancestors for the layout of the village, Yasutare upped his speed a little, anxious to see his wife.

If a military strategist had been asked to judge the village survival percent based on the structure he would say that the village would easily fall to an attack, the fields surrounding the village would quickly be overrun. Also the placement of the houses once you got inside was quite messy, the buildings lay scattered here and there making it impossible to properly defend if the enemy wasn't beaten when they were out in the open fields. In fact the Shodaime Kusakage of Kusagakure had passed on his concerns to the villagers when he had come to visit the village, but due to their geographic location and the alliance with Kusagakure they were confident in the fact that they wouldn't need to change the structure or raise a huge wall around the village for protective measures. After all, who would go through with the trouble of razing Kusagakure to the ground just to get to them?

Hearing the screams of his wife woke Yasutare from his thoughts and he broke into a full sprint, pumping as much chakra as possible to his legs. He almost broke the front door to the little white house that belonged to a couple from the Sakai family, the only doctors in the village.

"Where is she, where is my wife!" He roared as he entered the house. A man he recognized as Sakai Ichimaru, the male doctor in the house came out from a bright room to greet the loud mouthed visitor.

"Higo-sama, please keep it down, we have a small house so I would appreciate it if you could show some restraint in your voice while being here. Now if you would please take a seat here to wait, I would greatly appreciate it. Your wife's birth has already begun and as we are poorly equipped, both my wife and I will be required to ensure that your wife's health won't falter during the process." With that he spun on his heel and entered the room he just seconds ago had emerged from.

Yasutare took a moment to calm himself before sitting down on a wooden chair, and he had to use both his hands to pin himself to said chair when his wife let out another cry of pain.

To divert the thoughts away from his wife and what was going on in the room where she was, he looked around to observe the room he himself was in. As the outside of the house, the walls in this room where white and completely void of any sort of decorations. The room itself was a rectangular room with one row of wooden chairs on one side of the room and three doors on the opposite side of the room, one of which his wife currently occupied. Yasutare remembered from earlier that the room on the left was a sort of a storage room, where the couple stored all their herbs and medical equipment, the room in the middle and on the right side was room reserved for the patients. A wooden counter with and open journal was stationed in the middle of the room, and at last Yasutare's eyes fell on a ladder right beside the front door led to the first floor where the couple lived.

After an hour of waiting and restraining himself, Yasutare's patience was awarded as Ichimaru came out with a big grin on his face and said " Congratulations, you have just become a father, and one more thing, it's not just one child, your wife carried twins."

If Yasutare had the ability to make his jaw drop to the ground he certainly would have done so, not only had they gotten their first born after such a long amount of time, they also had the luck of getting twins. "Can I see them?" Yasutare asked Ichimaru after a brief moment of silence.

"Of course, your wife is waiting for you." The doctor replied, opening the door to Yasutare.

When he came inside the first thing he noticed was his wife laying in the bed. Her hair and eye color matched that of Yasutare, in her arms covered in blankets was the two babies. She was pale and exhausted but otherwise okay as she nuzzled the twins, an aura of pure happiness and joy radiated of her. When she noticed her husband in the door she smiled at him, "The spirit has been good to us dear, he granted us a boy and a girl." She said in a weak voice while returning her gaze to the identical babies in her arms. Yasutare stood rooted for a second before he went to his wife's side and bent down to get a better look at his children. "They are beautiful" He said with a voice that could no longer hide the nervousness or the pride he felt at the same time.

"Yes they are" His wife replied. "Hakumei, Hisakata, say hello to your father" As if on cue both babies opened their eyes and looked up on their father.

"You know, I think we have to give them each a collar with their names on, they look so alike." Yasutare said with a playful voice.

"Baka, look closer, see that small ring of color that differs from their purple hair? Your son is the one with the red ring and your daughter is the one with yellow ring"

Yasutare took a closer look and noticed the small difference in their hair. Then slowly he touched his son's head and said "Hakumei-kun, welcome to the world" He then touched his daughter's head and repeated the line with "Hisakata-chan, welcome to the world."

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><p><strong>That's it for the<strong>** prologue, please push the pretty review button at the bottom of your screen and give me your thoughts so far, it would be much appreciated :)**


	2. Chapter 2

Here I am with the second chapter of the story, for a while now I've been unsure whether or not I should go on with this story. I like to think through a story before I write it down and after a while the story developed in the opposite direction of what I wanted, when that happened I discarded it and I tried to think of something else to write, however I kept being drawn back to this particular story. And there is no doubt in my mind that this is a story that I need to tell, starting from scratch and take it from there, remembering key parts of the original story and make different decisions in some places to make this story enjoyable for both me and hopefully for those who will read it.

One of my readers stated in a private message that I've gotten the location of Kusagakure wrong, and that they didn't have a Kage due to them not being one of the five major villages. I am fully aware of that, but as stated earlier I will change around and tweak with some facts just so it will fit the storyline.

"Normal speech"  
>"<em>Thoughtsinner conversation"  
><em>"YELLING/SHOUTING"  
>"<strong>EntityDemon speech"**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Kishimoto does.

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Chapter 2: An ancestor's choice

Four years after the birth of Hakumei and Hisakata or the Kyuubi incident if you like.

_Black, that is how Yasutare would describe his surroundings, a darkness so complete he couldn't even see his own hand. He tried to speak, but found that he couldn't hear his own voice, he wondered if the darkness had blotted out all of his senses when he heard a voice from behind. "Dad?" Yasutare turned and jumped slightly as he found himself mere inches from his own family, his wife and two children was standing, looking at him with a horrified expression on their face. Yasutare tried to call out to them, to ask them what was wrong, but no voice would leave his lips. He reached out to touch them, to comfort them, but as he tried he felt a pull on his very being. Something or someone, was dragging him away from his own family, Yasutare tried to struggle, but the force of the pull just became stronger, just as he lost sight of the three familiar figures he heard his daughter's voice cry out in sorrow just as a fiery inferno consumed everything._

Yasutare's eyes slammed open, instead of the all consuming darkness or the fiery inferno that had just occurred he was now laying in his own bed, covered in sweat from head to toe and his wife sleeping soundly by his side.

"Just a dream" Yasutare muttered before he got up, he dressed himself in a white dressing gown and walked out on the veranda just outside the master bedroom. Outside the dusk was slowly losing the fight against the coming morning and the first rays of sunlight. Yasutare took a deep breath and allowed the cool air calm his thoughts as he gazed out over the part of village that was not hidden from view.

He let out a loud sigh as his thoughts returned to the recent dream, it had felt so real and it left him with an unsettling feeling in his gut.

"Is something the matter Yasutare? Your mind is in a distressed state"Yasutare could feel the concern coming from the voice he heard in his mind.

"_Do not worry, the reason for my state of mind is merely a very disturbing dream that I just had. On another subject, I take it the awakening ritual went without complications seeing as you are talking to me now."_Yasutare replied.

"Yes, it went without complications and I awoke a few hours ago, I would like to thank you for bringing me out of my sleep on schedule."

"_You do not need to thank me, you do me great honor just by speaking to me"_

"Nonsense, how many times do I have to tell you, how you choose to live will not sway my mind. I chose you and I will stand by my oath. To be honest I rather enjoy your way of life right now. Your life isn't something that you should gamble with so easily."

"_Your words bears wisdom, as for the number of times you have berated me for consider myself a lesser leader, I've lost count, and you will probably keep telling me that every year. Doubt is a sickness, one not easily cured."_

"I find truth in your words my friend, well spoken. By the way, do you plan to introduce me to your children this year?"

"_The thought have crossed my mind, but I will honor the tradition of letting the children of our clan live for five years before being aware of your existence. One year may not seem much, but a humans' mind as well as their bodies grow immensely in the first six year since birth. At the age of five they will manage to wrap their mind around what's going on more easily."_

"You've recited that line in front of a mirror haven't you?"

_"Every night, to more easily impress you with my wisdom."_

"I see now that I have to play a game of the mind soon. Very well, then I will leave you to your own thoughts once again, give my regards to your wife"With those words the voice faded into nothingness, leaving Yasutare with an empty but nice feeling.

"He always knows what to say to heighten my spirit" Yasutare said to seemingly on one.

"Yes he does, doesn't he?" Yuuki said as she embraced her husband from behind.

"You are frighteningly silent, you know that?" Yasutare chuckled, if he hadn't heard the small creak from the wooden boards on the veranda he would never noticed her until she spoke.

"Nonsense, my ability to sneak up on you is merely that whenever you are lost in a conversation or are thinking, you tend to close everything else out, your simple mind cannot handle two things at the same time" Yuuki teased.

"Hmph, let me prove you wrong by leading a conversation while making breakfast, dawn is upon us and pretty soon we will hear the tussling of small feet in the house" Yasutare said as he turned to his wife and gave her a good morning kiss, before the two disappeared into the house.

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"So what are you doing today?" Yuuki asked as she watched Yasutare prepare breakfast. "You do not need to tend to the fields today am I right?"

"Correct" he answered. "A voice in my head reminded me that there's only one year until our children turns five. I would like to start introduce them to most of the history of our clan, along with getting them started on some small chakra exercises."

"Don't you think it's too early for that, the history lesson will probably bore them to no end and they aren't even four years old, surely you can wait with the chakra exercise?" Yuuki said.

"I was about their age when my father instructed me in how to mold my chakra, and our children are quite smart and attentive for their age. I'm sure they can manage to sit still while I tell them a story about our past, I won't go into detail about one particular incident, but the sooner they get to know who they are the better." Yasutare replied.

"I just don't understand why we need to stick to our hold lifestyle, however brief it may be, what's wrong with our life as it is now?" She spoke in an annoyed tone and it was clear that if she had it her way, ninja training would be abolished from the clan.

"There may come a time when you are happy to have knowledge and experience about his power. That is what my old man told me when I asked about why I needed to go through that when I was first instructed in how to mold my chakra." Yuuki didn't answer him, she just shot him a look that clearly showed her distrust in those words.

"Look, I know that your father was relentless in your training and I promise you that I won't take it too far, just some light exercise to start with." Yasutare said in an effort to calm his wife and make her see his point. Starting an argument with his wife is something he would try to avoid at all cost, seeing how he lost most of them and how scary she was when riled up about something.

His wife tried to hold her glare but after a half minute she caved in, this was the man she had given her heart to, the one person she trusted above everyone and she could not remember an incident where he had lied to her.

Yuuki sighed in defeat. "Very well, just bring them both back unharmed and not completely exhausted. Do you wish to bring one of the scrolls with you or do you remember what you want to tell them?"

"While I may be simple minded I have an excellent memory, there will be need for the scrolls later, but not right now." Yasutare boasted as he finished cutting the bread. "Don't worry even I won't start right at chakra control, I will just teach them how to mold chakra, nothing more."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw his wife relax and smiled, the last thing he needed was to come home to a concerned wife that would check every inch of their children to see if she could find a scratch. "Now, let's wake up the two little energy bunnies so we can eat."

Yuuki went to wake their children, while Yasutare placed everything on the table. After he was finished, Yuuki returned with two little purple headed children in tow. When they were newborn the only feature that made Yasutare able to pick them apart was their gender and the color of the second color in their hair that formed a line almost like a halo. Now however one would have to be blind not to manage to pick them apart from a distance. Hisakata's long purple hair hangs gracefully down to her waist, while Hakumei's hair was a spikey mess to say the least.

After a quick breakfast Yasutare took the children outside and went north to a small forest area while Yuuki remained home.

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With the trio

"Daddy, how much further is it to this place you spoke of?" Hakumei asked impatient, his father had said that he would show them something 'beyond cool' and he had put it and poor little Hakumei swallowed the whole bait as their father rarely showed them anything other than how to work in a field.

Yasutare chuckled, "don't worry we will be there soon, in fact, I can see it now. You just aren't high enough." Yasutare had to restrain himself from laughing out loud as both Hakumei and Hisakata faced away with a pout on their faces; ah how he loved to tease them about their height.

After 30 second of walking, the path took off the left behind a rock that was just large enough so that the two kids couldn't see above it.

_Beautiful_, was what Hisakata thought when they entered the clearing, the green grass accompanied with the sunlight and what seemed like a barrier of trees around the clearing made the place idyllic.

Yasutare let the two kids have a moment to observe the place before he interrupted them. "While I appreciate the look on your faces, I'm afraid that this clearing isn't what I wanted to show you." This caught the attention to the four year olds as they're faces snapped to him to show that they were listening. "This is a clearing isn't the only one in this forest, there are a lot of them in various placed around here, but I want you two to remember this one in particular as it is the one our line have used since we settled down in this area."

Yasutare went to the largest tree among those that formed the outline of the clearing. "Don't worry if you don't remember the way up here now, you won't have any need to go alone up here in the near future. You will also remember the way here soon enough. You see, this clearing here is our very own training area." The confusion was clear on their faces.

"Dad, what do you mean by training?" Hisakata was the first one to ask.

"Now that's a nice question isn't it? You clearly can't train on how to take care of a field here in this forest, neither how to manage a household. What I and sometimes your mother will be training you in, is something you probably will find unpractical and useless, but it's important nonetheless."

The middle aged man lowered himself to the ground and sat with his back to the tree, and beckoned for his children to sit in front of him. "Before I tell you what kind of training and how you will benefit from it, I want to talk about our clan. First up, Hakumei, what is your name?" Yasutare asked.

The reply was instantaneous "Higo Hakumei."

"Good and what is the name of your twin sister?"

Hakumei frowned; he clearly didn't see the meaning of those questions "Higo Hisakata, but dad, why do you ask if I know our names?"

Yasutare let the question hang in the air for a second, before he spoke. "Hisakata, Hakumei, before I continue, I want you two to promise me that you will never speak of anything I tell or show you in this clearing. If you want to tell someone you will have to ask either your mom or me first, understood?" Both kids nodded slowly, they're parents had told them a lot of things, but none of them had been secrets before.

"Very well, save your questions for after I'm finished if there is anything you don't understand." The old one of the three made himself comfortable against the tree before he continued. "What I am about to tell you is a secret even among our own clan, passed down only to the eldest son or daughter, which in turn have told their husband or wife the same secret when they married. The reason for why I asked you Hakumei for your names is that it is the very name that houses the deepest secret of our clan. Your mom has many scrolls from our ancestor's in her care, and while not one of those scrolls say just when our clan began they state that our clan is very old. Based on the condition of the eldest scrolls we have in our possession and some that are somewhat newer that have dates linked to them we think that our clan originates about 400 – 500 years back in time. I am also sure that there are scrolls that have been lost or destroyed throughout the ages."

Yasutare took a small pause before he continued. "This year is the 179th year since the foundation of this village that we live in. And it's also 179 years, since we changed the name of our clan and a law was put into order that no one other than the coming leaders of the village would know our real name."

"Our clan as you now know hasn't always lived here and we haven't always been a clan of insignificant farmers. Before we moved to this location we were very famous, and known throughout the Elemental Nations. In this world there are many people known as shinobi, to some they may be seen as protectors while others may view them as ruthless killers. The fact is that shinobi, or ninja as you might want to call them, take on requests by whoever it is that has a wallet big enough to pay for the request. These requests might be protection, assassination, information gathering, the list goes on."

"Our clan, was once no different, we weren't bad at what we were doing, on the contrary we executed our missions so well that rumors of our strength flourished. Now there is one thing you should know when it comes to show how strong you are, if another person who sees themselves as strong comes across another person that are stronger, it's natural that they would feel fear. One of the tactics that humans have developed to deal with fear is to band together this is where the phrase 'safety in numbers' comes from." Yasutare took a small breathing pause just to check that his kids were still listening to the story.

"When rumors of our strength flew over the nations as fire in grass that was exactly what happened. At a time when clan wars were fought everywhere, several clans banded together in order to bring down one fearsome enemy, us. We are still here so apparently they were unsuccessful. The scrolls we have in possession does not state how heavily outnumbered we was at that time, just that we had almost no chance of survival. Of course we did have allied clans, friends that were willing to fight with us in order to ensure that we would live to see another day. However, that was not how the events went. You see, our leader at that time called upon the arguably greatest tool for a shinobi and did something that many considered cowardly, he ordered us to go underground. I promised your mom not to go into details, but I can tell you that through various means and with the help of another clan, we managed to fool the ones that wanted us dead. Not long after that the construction of our village began."

When he was finished Yasutare closed his eyes, he remembered the time his own father had told him the same story, and he could some extent tell what his children would feel, confusion, as four years of knowledge about how they have been farmers is torn apart and what their real name is.

When the children realized their father was done they bombarded him with questions.

"What is the name of the clan that helped us?"

"What kind of tool did the leader use?"

"If our clan was so powerful why didn't we fight with our allies?"

"Okay, hold it. Give your old man a chance to answer your questions okay? First up I believe you asked me about the name of the clan that did come to our aid. I think I will answer that question with another question. What is the name of the families that lives in our village?"

Hisakata was visibly annoyed by the questions of names that her father asked them. "Dad, can't you for once answer our questions or go on with a story without asking us for names or some other stupid stuff?"

"But, but, if I don't ask you question then how will you learn to think for yourselves, how will I know if you are worthy of the knowledge I want to share with you?" Yasutare said in a dramatic voice and with a fake pout.

"We know the names!" the four year olds yelled at the same time.

Yasutare snickered, "Then what is it?"

"Kitei and Sakai" the two answered.

"There you have it; the name of the clan that helped us is Kitei. The other founding family of our little society. And the only clan besides the main house of our clan that knows what happened over a century ago. As for what weapon we used, I think I will answer that when you are older, or at least after you've gotten some training."

Yasutare gave a short sigh before he continued on to the last question, "If our clan was so powerful why didn't we fight with our allies, eh? Son, I'm sure there were several of the members in the clan who thought the same. If what the scrolls we have are correct, then we would have time to call for aid as we knew of the attack quite some time before it would happen."

As he stopped talking he reached for his pocket and fished up a rather small but visibly old book. "This is the diary to Keitaku, the one that made the decision for us to go underground and most of his thoughts and decisions are written down here, along with why he ordered us to go underground. An issue that none of our scrolls covers"

Yasutare opened the book and flipped to a page that he had marked beforehand and started reading. "September 24th, after I lost my twin brother two weeks ago I have been plagued by bad dreams at night, and while my brain tells me that bad dreams come and go from time to time, my gut tells me something different. These dreams that I have are filled with candles, and as the dream go on, each candle is snuffed out, one after another until only darkness remains. I think this is a warning, a warning that our clan might be facing its demise. I will talk with my advisors first thing in the morning as I fear that I have held back what might be valuable info for our survival."

"October 2nd, my suspicions were right, I have mere hours ago received intel that there has been formed an alliance with the sole purpose to get rid of us. We are strong and in all my life I have been confident in our strength, but I fear that this attack is one we can't win no matter what we do or who we seek help from, be it the Hyuuga, Kitei or any other clan that we might bribe into helping us. I firmly believe that the best course of action is to stage our own genocide to escape utter annihilation. My last wish as of now is that my clansmen will not let their pride blind the eyesight we have been blessed with."

Yasutare took is eyes of the book as he closed it, truth be told he had read that section so many times he could repeat it word for word without any help, but he wanted Hakumei and Hisakata to understand, to the best of their ability the seriousness without him telling them outright.

"I will give you two the chance to read the entire diary later when I'm sure that you will understand the context of it, as some parts are harder to figure out than others, but for now I think we need a drink." He stood up and motioned for his kids to do the same.

"There is a small stream in that direction." Yasutare said and pointed to his right. "Let's go and refresh ourselves."

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With Yuuki

Yuuki was out in front of the house, tending to the flowers. Aside from her husband and her children, flowers were one of her favorite things in this world and gardening was one of her favorite activities. However she didn't manage to concentrate so much today, her husband's words had calmed her before breakfast, but when she saw him pocketing the diary she became worried about what he might read to the kids from it. The part where Keitaku explained what he intended to do when he learned of the impending attack was actually one of the nice parts of his diary. That man wasn't afraid to write down the blood and gore he witnessed, she recalled that she had felt nausea after reading about a particularly awful fight the deceased leader had participated in.

Yuuki decided then and there that if Yasutare was stupid enough to read something of that scale to the kids he would be sleeping on the floor for a week. While her two angels developed fast they were nowhere ready for that yet.

She was brought out of her thoughts by a voice.

"Excuse me miss, but is Yasutare at home?"

Yuuki whirled around and found herself face to face with Higo Kuromuton, one of Yasutare's childhood friends and now one of his advisors.

"Huh?"

The request and closeness, together with the fact that Yuuki hadn't sensed the man at all even though he was right behind her was so sudden that she was ribbed of all coherent thought for a split second.

Kuromuton frowned before he spoke again. "Since you obviously didn't hear me last time, let me ask the question once more, is Yasutare at home?"

Yuuki took one step back, feeling vulnerable after he so clearly had invaded her personal space together with the blatant disrespect and hostility in his voice. She realized her mistake when a small smirk graced the face on the man in front of her, she quickly composed herself and replied with authority. "My husband is not at home at the moment, he is together with our kids and are preparing them for our 'special' training. Surely whatever request you wish to ask of him can wait until this evening?"

A brief look of anger flashed through Kuromuton's eyes before he seemingly controlled himself. "Very well, have a pleasant day."

Anger and pride was making Yuuki's blood boil as she watched the back of the man that was now walking in the opposite direction of her, not only had he the gall to speak to her with such disrespect but he had also carefully worded an insult in the small conversation too. Her pride was screaming at her to challenge this man to a duel right now before he got further away.

"**Pride killed the cat"**

Yuuki jumped at the voice before a soothing almost alien presence calmed her mind.

"**Hush child, you need not be jumpy at my presence, I wish you no harm, you know that don't you?**"

"_Yes I know, nevertheless, thank you for your reassuring words. However, I thought it was curiosity that killed the cat?_"

"**Oh was it? Then I guess you humans are right and a cat really does have nine lives, maybe I should spend the next year coming up with seven other phrases on how a cats own instincts made the poor creature die.**"

Yuuki was at a loss for words, this certainly had to be a once in a lifetime experience.

"_Are you joking?"_

She could practically feel the amusement that invaded her mind.

"**Maybe I am, maybe I'm not, I will let your be to judge of that, after all a 'joke' is a word you humans use to shed some light on a certain type of behavior, however, if you ask an animal if it's joking I doubt that the animal will understand exactly what you meant. Even to manage to communicate with an animal would be an impressive feat for humans such as yourself. I will also say that while I have experienced such behavior first hand I fail to see the amusement in it, yet.**"

Yuuki didn't know how to reply to that, so she refrained from replying, simply waiting for the voice to continue.

"**However, you should know better than to let your pride rule your emotions, ruler of the clan. Didn't your father learn you that?**"

Yuuki hang her head in shame before she let the conversation with her fellow clansman a few minutes ago came rushing back to the surface of her mind. Rather than try and explain with words she chose to let the presence shift through her memories of the encounter while she waited patiently, knowing that whatever advice or scolding she might get would be completely justified and she would not argue to put herself in a better light.

It took a few minutes and Yuuki was beginning to feel anxious when the voice finally addressed her.

"**I can now see for myself why you wanted to show that person its place, to think that he wouldn't even acknowledge the marriage between you and your husband. Such an insult will be frowned upon no matter who you are or where in the world you live. Say, do you have any idea why this man might disapprove of you marriage with your husband, or yourself in general?**"

Yuuki thought about that for a few minutes, trying to find something in her memories that might have triggered such a behavior in one of her clan.

"_My apologies, but I cannot recall what I might have done to deserve such disrespect._"

"**Very well, might I suggest you talk to your husband about today's event? He has referred to this man earlier as a friend and should be able to figure out why this Kuromuton acted the way he did.**"

"**Time flows endlessly, I don't think much of it, but as your race is short-lived I've come to know the fact that whatever time you have is precious. So I will now leave you to whatever activities you were indulged in before I decided to speak my mind. May the rest of the day burn brightly for you, ruler of the clan."**

With those words Yuuki felt the alien presence leave her mind. While she did not particularly like the fact this presence could read her like an open book should it choose to, it was always warm and kind and the rest of the world like a cold and unwelcome place whenever it left her to her own thoughts.

Turning her head to the sky Yuuki was shocked to see the position of the sun, it was already evening and her three hearts should return shortly. Knowing her husband, all three of them would probably be hungry enough to devour a horse. Yuuki chuckled to herself at the thought of her husband actually eating one of the plowing horses and went inside to prepare dinner.

XXXXXXXX

With Hakumei, Hisakata and Yasutare (during the Yuuki's two conversations)

After drinking some water from the stream to clench their thirst the trio went back to the clearing where Yasutare had told his two children some of their clan's more secret history.

"Alright, now that we've got the boring, but nonetheless important part done I'm going to show you the cool stuff!" Yasutare exclaimed with excitement in his eyes. There was no doubt that he was looking forward to the reaction of the twins. He then walked confidently towards the tree he sat against when he held the little history session. However instead of sitting down against it like last time he instead planted one of his feet to the base of the three and proceeded to walk up the tree-trunk. He stopped when he was about 7 feet from the ground to look back at the two kids. To say that the twins were shocked would be an understatement, their blood red eyes were as wide as saucers and their mouth hanging open in complete awe.

Hisakata was the first one to gather herself. "Dad, how do you do that?"

Yasutare smirked "Yes, how indeed. I'm baffling myself right now." Both children glared up at their father, he was not going to play mind games on them while doing something as awesome as what he was currently doing.

Noticing their glares Yasutare chuckled before he let himself fall from the tree trunk landing on his feet at the base of the tree. "What I did is called tree walking, obviously. But that's not the important thing to know, what's important is how I manage to do it. And for that I simply manipulate my chakra at the sole of my feet and make it so that I stick to the surface of the tree."

Both kids stood there with dumb expressions on their faces, how old did their father think they were, twelve?

Yasutare made a hand gesture for them to sit while he himself got into the same position as when he lectured them earlier.

"Don't worry, I have every intention of telling you two what chakra is and how you can access it. I like to refer to chakra as one kind of life force that every living creature possesses, no matter how small amount of chakra a creature have it is there. But in order to do what I just did you need to have somewhat more chakra than your average human and you need to be able to access it and control it. That is the reason you don't see humans doing seemingly impossible tasks every day, as only a minority in this world is born with the ability to use their chakra or who bother to learn how to use theirs. I know for a fact that both of you have big enough chakra reserves so with some training both of you will be able to access or use your chakra. However I am giving you a warning right now and I will continue to say it after today until I am completely sure that you both understand what I say and the severity of it. If you use all of your chakra or close to it, you will suffer from chakra exhaustion. It if is a mild chakra exhaustion you will be fine with some rest, but if you suffer from a severe chakra exhaustion you will need days to recover, and in the worst possible scenario, you will die." Yasutare took a break to let his children think through what he just said. He would've liked it if both understood how dangerous it was to use all of their chakra in one go, but even if that is the case, Yasutare knew that he would repeat himself several times just to assure that the two young ones in front of him remained safe.

"So you are saying that it is possible for us to use all of our chakra and die? Does that mean that we can use our chakra like once and then never again if we don't want to die?" asked Hakumei and he seemed a little dejected about not being able to use that cool power as much as he wanted to.

Yasutare shook his head "Your chakra will replenish itself, just as your energy does after a run or a day in the fields. As long as you know your limits you should be able to use chakra every single day of your life as long as you know how, and the knowhow is what I intend to teach you two today."

Hakumei and Hisakata let out squeal excitement and hugged their dad while Yasutare chuckled. _Just as their old man, well I guess I have to keep my word then, even if we have to stay past dinnertime. It would be cruel of me to make them leave before they at least know how to access their chakra._

Even though Yasutare was almost as excited as the two kids right now he decided to wait some more. While his position as the foot of the tree wasn't what he would call pleasant, the feeling of Hakumei and Hisakata more than made up for it and Yasutare wasn't one to deny his kids some affection. When the two kids released him Yasutare put on his best teaching face.

"All right, what I want you to do, is to sit with the soles of your feet pointed towards each other, let your arms hang loosely in your lap, close your eyes, take deep breaths and relax." Seeing that they did as he said Yasutare continued.  
>"Good, now I want you to imagine a clear blue river, full of energy running inside of you, with a big lake at your stomach. Imagine the river bringing energy and water to every part of your body before it ends up in the lake, just to do the same tour over and over. Can you feel it? The reserves of energy you didn't know that you had until now? Let yourself be lost in it for a moment, give it the chance to tell you just what wonders it can perform. It is an energy source that has yet to meet its match."<p>

The two children didn't even hear the last words that their father uttered. They were completely lost in themselves never before had they felt so at peace yet so full of energy. There was also this urge to use some of this energy, like the river inside of them were begging for an outlet to the raging powers that flowed through them. Hakumei and Hisakata didn't know how long they sat with their eyes closed, it could be seconds, minutes or even hours, but after a while the raging river subsided somehow as they became aware once more of their surroundings. The twins fluttered open to reveal their grinning father sitting in front of them in the exact same position, waiting patiently for them to return from their meditation and join him in the clearing.

"Now, how was it?" Yasutare asked, his grin still plastered wide on his face.

Hisakata really couldn't put the sensation into words, but it came pretty close to what her twin said.

"Amazing!" Hakumei said in dazed voice.

"Hehe, it sure it the first time you learn just what kind of powers you possess." Yasutare replied to his son's one word statement.

"Well then, as you now know how your chakra feels and therefore should be able to tell just how much chakra you have left at any given time I think it's time I tell you have to call upon your chakra and somewhat control it. I will teach you more about chakra and how it's divided in spiritual and physical parts later, but that is going to take a while and I want to be home for dinner as I'm getting hungry, if my hunch is correct then you two are also hungry, right" Yasutare said.

"We're not hungry!" the twins chorused, afraid that their father just might decide that enough is enough and they should head back home.

Yasutare raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really now? Well then maybe I should start lecturing you on spiritual and physical chakra after all?" He let the threat hang in the air for a second before Hakumei's stomach betrayed the poor boy almost as if it knew what Hakumei and Hisakata said merely seconds ago.

The old man snickered at his son who now had a sheepish grin on his face. "All right then, let's finish this up quickly before we head back. What I want you to do is to stand up, clap your hands together and just focus on getting a hold on your chakra, you will now the instant you manage to do it."

_Let's see how quick they manage this task. _Yasutare thought while he watched his kids concentrate with their eyes closed. While he himself were on alert for any spikes in their chakra that would indicate that they completed the task.

It took a minute, but finally he felt it, a spike in chakra from the two of them, almost as if the twins had synchronized themselves with one another.

Hakumei's eyes flew open the instant he felt that he could control his own chakra, confident that he could copy his father's accomplishment with the tree walking he ran towards a tree on his right hand side while he yelled. "All right, dad, watch this!"

"Hey, wai...!" Was all Yasutare managed to say before his son reached the tree and he could only watch as his son managed one step, two steps up the tree before he fell down, landing on painfully on his back.

Father and daughter ran towards Hakumei to see if he was alright. Fortunately he just had the wind knocked over him and quickly recovered.

"Ouch, why didn't I manage to climb the tree?" Hakumei muttered out loud while awkwardly rubbing his lower back.

Yasutare sighed before he replied "Hakumei, to do the tree climbing exercise you need to send your chakra to the soles of the feet and keep it at a certain level. It requires control you don't have yet. My guess is that it will take a few years before you get the hang of it. To be honest I am surprised that you managed to take two steps up the tree-trunk; however that might be because of your speed before gravity decided to intervene." He finished and smiled down on his son who looked a little sad that he wouldn't be able to climb any trees without using his hands anytime soon.

"Let's go back, your mother is probably finished with dinner now, worrying herself sick because we have not returned. Let's not keep her waiting any longer." With that Yasutare helped is son on his feet and the trio began the journey back towards the house.

XXXXXXXX

It was bedtime when Hisakata remembered a very important detail she wanted to know, but with all that happened and all the information she and her brother got from their father in the clearing she forgot about it. As she exited her room she turned left and ran to the end of the hallway she was currently in before she reached her brothers room. With a knock she entered and saw that her brother was already in bed trying to sleep.

"Haku-nii, come!" Hisakata said to her twin, while to stand beside his bed and threw the covers aside.

Hakumei shivered from the loss of heat and opened his eyes. "Hisa-nee, knock it off. I'm trying to sleep" he said while reaching for his covers that now was on the floor.

"No, we forgot to ask dad about something and you're coming with me right now" Hisakata replied.

"But, Hisa-nee!" Hakumei whined, but it was no use, she had already grabbed him by the arm and was now dragging him towards the living room. When they reached the living room, they saw their father and mother relaxing on the couch with a cup of tea, simply enjoying each other's presence. Yuuki was the first one to notice the twins in the doorway.

"Hisakata-chan, Hakumei-chan, what are you doing here? I thought you were in bed?" She asked in surprise. Yasutare also turned around to look at the children.

Hisakata was the one to reply since Hakumei had no idea themselves why they were not in bed at the moment.

"Dad, earlier today you said that our names held our clan's deepest secret and that we haven't always been the Higo clan. What do you mean by that?"

It wasn't Yasutare that answered but Yuuki. "Sweetie, come here." She said as she opened her arms as an invitation for her to join them on the couch. "You too Hakumei-chan." When both of the children were in between their parents on the couch Yuuki continued. "What dad meant by that is that the name Higo, is nothing more than a cover for who we really are, in fact, your name is something else entirely."

This also caught Hakumei's attention as he remembered what they had learned in the clearing the same day. He decided to ask before his sister.

"Then what is it?"

"Our name is no secret to you, I think that every person who enters the living room will see their real name as long as they are from our clan, it's really hiding in plain sight." Yasutare said as he decided to cut in, pointing one finger towards the ceiling. Four heads turned upwards and laid eyes on the symbol that was engraved there.

The symbol looked like an eye, but instead of a small round pupil there was the symbol on a flame instead. On one side of the symbol the two kanji's were engraved, forming the word 'Higo'. On the other side however they said, 'Me ni moeru'.

"That right there is our name." Yasutare said in a whisper. "Moeru".

**XXXXXXXX**

**Big thanks to Shadowstar91 for taking time to beta read my story.**

**Chapter two done, it became much longer than expected and I hope I didn't bore you to death with all the talk of names etc. but it's vital for the story. We won't be seeing Naruto for some time, but don't worry; he is one of the main characters in this story. **

**Please click the shiny review button and tell me your thoughts.**


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