"AHHHH!"
"What's wrong?" asked Kakashi, glancing over at the breast-feeding baby.
"C-c-cold," responded Rin.
"Eh?" asked Kakashi, stepping closer and then feeling the chill air hanging like a cloud.
Naturally his first thought was a hidden enemy ninja. He lifted the covering on one eye to better see.
What he saw ended up with him staring. "It's her."
"What?" asked Rin as the chill began to ease.
"The baby. The baby is emitting chakra. And I can't copy it." Kakashi blinked.
Popping the baby off her breast, Rin glanced down at where the cold HAD seemed centered. "I think we'll have to change her name then. What about 'Yukimaru'?"
"Our three-day-old baby lets loose a cloud of Ice chakra and your first thought is to change her name?" asked Kakashi.
"Priorities," said Rin, shrugging one shoulder. "Actually my first thought was to find a breast pump and start feeding her by bottle if she's going to do this regularly."
age five:
The Kyubi attacked.
At five years old, there wasn't much Yukimaru Hatake could do even with her ability to chill things or make little ice sculptures.
Sticking close to her mother, watching the stream of injured arrive at the hospital and hearing the wails of those mourning the dead - that was all she could manage.
It was horrible but also beyond what she could truly comprehend at that time. Later though, she would vow to protect the village as the extent of the damage became more obvious.
Age six:
"I have scored well in kenjutsu and taijutsu, zam!"
Kakashi didn't even try dissuading her from that 'zam' thing at this point. She was six and had been doing it since she was four after all. "Anything else to report?"
"One of my classmates is a prodigy, I must try to keep up, zam!"
"Right, zam," said Kakashi before realizing he'd just done it too. He settled for facepalming.
"If I cannot, I shall run around Konoha three times, zam!"
"You are spending FAR too much time with your Uncle Gai. Anything else?"
"A boy was making fun of me, saying I had a boy's name due to the -maru ending. After attempting to reason with him three times, it was necessary to attempt direct measures, zam."
Kakashi looked up from his book. "He's not injured is he?"
"Minor hypothermia, zam."
"Oh," said Kakashi, turning his attention back to his book. "Well, that's good then. As long as there's no permanent injuries."
Age seven:
Kakashi wasn't sure how to console a disconsolate Yukimaru. Neither was Rin for that matter. "Itachi Uchiha graduated the Academy then?"
"This is true, zam."
Kakashi considered what he could say, but the truth was that HE had graduated when he was five. Of course, there was war then and different standards.
Rin stirred. She'd graduated when she was nine, but then she didn't have quite the situation that her daughter did. There had been no rival to measure herself against.
"I shall do better, zam," said Yukimaru finally, straightening herself up and clenching one fist.
"Mah, there's no need for that," said Kakashi, trying to be placating. "Just take your time and graduate when you're ready."
"Like you did, zam?"
"Ah, right." Kakashi stirred uncomfortably.
"Now I must end my life in shame, zam," said Yukimaru, pulling out her tanto.
"You're not a samurai you know," pointed out Kakashi. "Also - even samurai don't commit seppuku for failing a test."
"Not to mention that that's your wooden practice sword," pointed out Rin.
"Dramatic symbolism, zam."
"Ah, yes, you DO score well on those tests," admitted Kakashi. Really, having a young daughter DID seem full of drama even without classes on the subject.
Age eight:
"I have graduated at last, zam!" declared Yukimaru, standing dramatically atop the roof and making the proclamation towards the center of the village.
"Merowr?" asked a passing cat.
"Mother's at work at the hospital, father's out on a mission, so I must practice my dramatic proclamations for now, zam," Yukimaru informed the feline.
The cat decided to ignore the strange kunoichi and go about its business. If it stuck around every time a ninja did something weird, it would never get anything at all done.
"I hope my fellow graduates will not fail this test, zam."
Age seventeen:
"They're sticking you with a genin team again? That never works, zam."
Kakashi nodded. "They try to stick all jonin with that job. It doesn't pay as well and... what are you doing?"
"I am getting ready to take on my own genin team, zam."
"Your own... you made jonin?" asked Kakashi.
"Tokubetsu jonin, zam. My score in poisons and assassination techniques were not high enough for the standards of my clan, zam."
"Well, not every jonin ninja is particularly well-suited for assassination missions," said Kakashi, wondering when the little girl he remembered riding on one shoulder and exclaiming at a summer fireworks exhibit had grown up. Admittedly he'd done a few really long missions in the meantime. He'd come back from one and found she'd made chunin...
Kakashi Hatake suddenly found himself feeling very old. Hadn't he been about Yukimaru's age when he and Rin-? Oh, yes, he was feeling very old and as if time had passed him by.
"Are you feeling all right, father? You suddenly don't look quite so good, zam."
"Oh. Fine. Just a bit of arthritis I suspect."
"You should have mother look at that, zam."
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(Posted Mon, 02 Sep 2013 22:57)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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