Mistake - A Naruto Fan-Fiction 7 Crow's Thoughts

He saw the little child and identified her as a little girl, with wavy and long, silver gravity-defying locks resting on her head, bouncing around and trailing after her. She was quite short and was wearing a bit oversized grey long sleeves paired with black shorts and sandals.

And phew, with those short legs, she could run—Karasu could tell that much.

A few minutes of sneaking around later, he decided that he should jump in and take the little girl into safety instead of letting the chase happen, but something interesting occurred—he didn't actually expect that the young one is actually a ninja! And she can run along the walls like it was just as normal as it could be in such a young age!

As someone as young as her, normally, one's gonna do a single hand seal to focus chakra on her feet and maintain it for a reasonable amount of time—but there's no normal in this world, it seems. She didn't even use a single seal! Well, to be fair, Karasu was just like her when he was a child.

He was, after all, a gifted child despite of the things that happened, and he was, to be fair, quite surprised to see the same to the girl.

The little girl's run reminded him of the Captain who ordered this issue—Kitsune-taichō. She's fast, sneaky, and have ways to block out the paths she came from like the said man… but all of that could be improved a lot better if trained well.

She can jump too—not a normal one, but a jump enhanced by chakra.

Karasu guessed that this child had been trained for circ.u.mstances as this, but wasn't really prepared for the actual run-and-hide situation. He could tell that she was mentally panicking, but kudos to her, she kept her poker face on and focused solely on losing the mysterious white-masked man off of her trail.

He wanted to help, but at the same time, he was curious of what the child is capable of… and his curiosity was fulfilled when his gifted eyes caught her doing hand seals—and those hand seals weren't just normal hand seals for basic jutsu's… that rat seal is famous for belonging in the Nara's famous shadow manipulating jutsu's.

For someone as young as her to be able to use such jutsu, it was quite enticing. Though there were a bit of flaws and looked as though it was just did in a spur of the moment in Karasu's eyes, it was fascinating.

What was more astonishing was when the girl's manipulated shadow started touching physical objects… and again, she did another unusual thing—the hand seal she used didn't really match for the technique she had used to make her shadow touch physical objects—like the crates she used as a blockade. She only activated a jutsu seal that would usually trap one in one place… but how did she…?

It was as though she was too panicked to realise what she had done, but continued doing whatever she was doing just to escape the white-masked man who just started chasing her with no reason at all.

Karasu narrowed his eyes when he noticed that the girl was already shaking when she stopped to catch up with her breath. Was it from fear? Definitely. But, she still didn't let that fear get to her and started running again, going through different alleys and different turns as though she knew the place.

She was that determined to escape the crazy man's chase… and it seems like that determination also abled her to lose Karasu from her trail.

The ANBU didn't know where they went… he lost her. It's not like he can't find them anymore—he can amplify his sensing abilities! He's a fvcking ninja, okay? Well, he was pretty taken aback when the girl managed to lose her even for just a few seconds, and when he found the two again, it wasn't a pretty sight.

It seemed like the short time it took for him to find them again abled his target to find and reach the girl to pull her back and made her hit the hard-rock wall behind them.

Seeing the blood trickle down from her lips made Karasu hurry, Body Flicking his way towards their location, only to instinctively grab something while in mid-air and to realise it was the same girl he was trying to save. He secured the little girl in his arms before landing softly on the ground.

He then swiftly turned around and struck the white-masked man's neck, a brachial stun using an open palm strike, to quickly stop the oxygen flow to his brain to make him immobile and eventually, faint. He might've struck too aggressively and knocked the man out upon his strike.

He quickly bound the man with seals before grabbing him by the collar of his clothes, dragging him behind as he carried the trembling child.

Now, time to "deliver" his target to his captain before finding this child's home.

The child made an eye contact with him, to which of course he returned. He met her wondrous eyes that was filled with mixed confusion and curiosity… but there's something more in those brown orbs of hers. The child's eyes are filled with intelligence that of a young man, and are mostly enthralling.

The more he looked closely, the more he realised that there's a tint of dark grey in her eyes, similar to his temporary captain, Kitsune-taichō—whose eyes are solid dark grey.

Eventually, the young girl rested her chin on the crook of his neck—from exhaustion, he supposed.

His lips twitched, forming a small smile behind the bird mask. He then paused, returning to his deadpanned face after realising his action, but he still kept walking to his destination.

Why did he smile?

The ever only time he smile is when he's with his younger brother. He is getting that impression from the young child in his arms too… but why? Is it because of the warm and accepting feeling that the child was giving off?

He snapped out of his thought when the silver-haired child shifted her position, clutching her chest as her breathing became rigid. Worry immediately struck him, narrowing his eyes as he tightened his grip around the girl to make her feel safe.

His "big-brother" alarm was immediately set off, making him think of a quick decision as the girl slowly drift to an unconscious state.

The only nearest place where he knows someone that could treat her right away was in the residence of Shikakuro Nara! He knows that his wife knows medical jutsu so, that's where he's going. Like, right off the bat.

He shunshined his way as fast as he could, almost knocking into someone as he did the jutsu. He ignored the person and knocked on the door, which was immediately opened by a caregiver.

"Orion-sa—" The old woman gaped in surprise. The terrifying sight of the master's son being carried in by an ANBU tugged her heart, "Kaiysama! Kuro-sama!"

The child was taken from Karasu, and they seem to know the child so, he left to quickly deliver his target to his captain. Well, he was about to go out when a familiar masked man came opening the door and shoving him to the side with a bit of force. He was going to retaliate, but the familiar gravity-defying, silver hair was a giveaway of who he was about to mess with.

Why didn't he sense the person's chakra signature much earlier? He would've been in so much trouble if he didn't notice the iconic hair.

"Kitsune… taichō…" Karasu trailed off, bringing up the white-masked man, "… I caught the… huh."

He supposed it was futile. He just sighed and made the white-masked man's bindings stronger and started dragging him with him across the polished, wooden floor. He lounged around outside of the door where his captain went too and was a bit restless.

Was his restlessness because of his captain? Or was it about the little child?

He doesn't know himself.

__________

Karasu wanted to slap his face from embarra.s.sment.

It was a good thing that he had his mask on when he was told that the "young girl" is actually a young boy. Turns out his captain is actually the kid's uncle… whose father's Shikakuro—THE Shikakuro Nara, and mother's Kaiya—the same Kaiya who holds the name of "Silver Arrow".

Boy, Orion's something else. He'd be a legend one day, he guessed. The child's born from legends who chose to hide themselves from people's eyes.

When he finally brought in his target to his captain, the said young captain immediately asked him questions of how his beloved nephew ended up near his deathbed. Of course, Karasu apologised for being irresponsible, and the silver-haired captain understood him, seeing that he didn't know about Orion's illness.

Of course, people from the T&I Unit and Intelligence Unit asked him about the young boy who risked his life to escape, too, but he only told the clan heads of the Yamanaka's, Nara's, and Akamichi's, about it for obvious reasons.

A week later after that incident, many things have been discussed, and many things have happened—the White-Masks case shot up from four masked men to thirty-two.

The 15th generation Ino-ShikChō also discussed something with his a.s.signed captain, borrowing him from the ANBU's along with him to train the young child after hearing what he had told them—the crazy shadow manipulation Ori executed during the chase.

They had thought that it was best if Kakashi's the one who'll train the child—to not only enhance the Hatake skill inside of him, but also give him a little taste of a genius's training system and let him have a chance to develop his own technique from there.

And since Karasu's there too, he'd also become a guide for the child seeing that he had experienced training with someone younger than him—his young bro.

Now, the said black-masked ANBU is escorting the silver-haired young Nara towards the Intelligence Unit building to reveal the truth on why he was called. He was amused when they've revealed everything to him. The way he had reacted after that was way too mature from his age, which Karasu found funny.

'Just like "him".' He mused in his mind.

When Ori agreed to be trained by his own uncle, Karasu was quite to see an awful bunch of resemblance when the two hugged each other. They truly are blood-related (duh, they're relatives!) And the child didn't know what was coming for him.

Even Karasu didn't know what was coming for him, too. So, when Kakashi-san, aka Kitsune-taichō, challenge the young boy to take his black crow mask, he was surprised and blurted out a loud reaction before he shunshined in another tree to not draw any attention.

Seeing that the child was p.i.s.sed towards his uncle, because the b.a.s.t.a.r.d scarecrow has knocked him through a bush and a tree, he knew he'd do something stupid—like abruptly challenging his uncle without him really knowing.

"Is that a challenge now, Orion…?" Kakashi mused as his nephew's eyes flickered with panic. "Then… try to s.n.a.t.c.h my mask instead of Karasu's… if you dare to." He gave the young silver-haired Nara his famous close-eyed smile.

"I… I'm… gonna pa.s.s…" Orion laughed, scratching the back of his head.

"Oh? Then I'm gonna pa.s.s training you too." The masked Hatake smiled, placing a hand on his waist.

The child chuckled, "It's okay, I guess. I'd rather sleep or read than do this anyways." He waved his hands as he was walking away.

Both Kakashi, and Karasu, who's hiding on a branch a few meters away, paused, slowly processing what the four year old had just said. The child would rather read than train? Normally, if given a choice, one would train for a book will seem boring for them—but for this child?

Karasu narrowed his eyes as he caught a slight twitch at the corner of the child's mouth. 'Or is he jus merely planning something?'

And he was right.

Right before Kakashi gather himself up after the child's declaration, Ori swiftly turned around and threw several stones he had picked up using his… shadows? To throw at the ANBU captain like they were normal kunai… but he threw them like how you would throw senbons at an enemy's vitals.

What's up with this kid?! He's really aiming for his own uncle's head! It's not like the man can't dodge them, but he was a bit slow to register the kid's lie, making him use a subst.i.tution technique with a nearby log to escape the barrage of stones.

Okay—how the h.e.l.l did Ori do that?

Karasu had never seen such a way to attack.

He will never understand this boy.

Attacking an ANBU captain is as good as suicide for most people, but he isn't most people.

That boy's Orion Nara—a Hatake, and a Nara.