Flower in the Mirror [Hatake Kakashi] [1]

❄️ Chapter 1 ❄️

Where am I?

Yumetsuki's small head rolled over from the shoulder her head was resting on and her glazed-over blue eyes looked up at the pair of large green gates open wide in front of her. She forced her heavy and stingy eyelids to look up further and saw strange Kanji written. She focused on them as they grew nearer and said that the word 'Shinobi' was written upon either side of a strange swirl-like symbol.

Who am I?

Yumetsuki's white hair obstructed her view from a lot that was going on around her. Her head was aching and she tried to move her thin limbs but it felt like there were boulders hanging from her wrists. She couldn't lift them no matter what she tried. There was nothing she recognised of this place. Kirigakure had never been this green and blossoming. Things were supposed to be bare and cold. She wondered if her and her father had reached Yugakure. No, this is not Yugakure.

Oh, I get it now...

Yumetsuki's blue eyes stung with fresh tears when she realised what was going on. Where was her father? Was he gone? Was he dead? Is he going to come take her away from these people? This place? Where was he? Yumetsuki wanted to cry and scream for her father but she couldn't.

Oto-San was killed.

Oto-San was dead.

Oto-San was gone.

Yumetsuki felt sick as she laid on the person's back. She wanted to leave and go back to Kirigakure, go back to where her father was... go back to where her mother was. She hadn't visited her mother's grave today... what day was today? Her mother was waiting for her! She was waiting for her there...

Am I going to be tortured for Intel...?

Yumetsuki's fear reignited in her cold body and she felt her back burn with the pain from the Jutsu she had used earlier to get away from everyone trying to get her. She didn't want to see anyone. She wanted to be alone. Yumetsuki was scared, but her body could do nothing to help her escape.

"Oto-San!"

Yumetsuki froze and then turned her head around to look at the source of the voice. There were people all around her... there were people all around her... and there were so many children... Yumetsuki had never seen that many children in one place before.

Nicely dressed but anxious expression-ed, there was a gaggle of children standing right next to the gates – and they weren't that much older than she was. Anxiety wasn't the only expression on their faces. There was also expectedness and hope.

Hope...

Yumetsuki didn't know what they were waiting for. Her eyes met with a pair of dull and dark grey eyes in the crowd and she stared at him. But the grey-haired boy's eyes only stayed on her for a few moments before crossing away from her. And Yumetsuki was herself distracted –

"Oto-San!"

Yumetsuki saw the girl standing behind the grey-haired boy rush forward, knocking scrawny elbows with others as she rushed for a man that had identical black hair and ringed red eyes as her. The man easily scooped her up and hugged her tightly to himself.

They were waiting for their fathers.

They were waiting for their mothers.