The Blood in our Veins

Monsters in Shadow

"Mitsu! Mitsu, come here!" the woman's soft and sweet voice sang from the other room, calling to her daughter.

"What is it mommy?" Her red-headed daughter replied, running through the house to reach her loving mother.

"I want to tell you something, Mitsu." Running into the room, which was the study, Mitsu tripped over her own feet and was caught by her mother's quick outreaching arms."Doofus, how are you ever going to become a ninja if you're so clumsy?" The mother giggled.

Mitsu pouted, pushing her bottom lip out and righting herself again, "A monster tripped me mommy, it wasn't me!" 

The mother gasped, eyes wide in fear, "Then we need to find the monster before it gets daddy while he's sleeping! What if it eats him?"

Her teasing had the desired effect on the five year old, making her mouth go wide in fear and run out of the room to where her dad was sleeping on the couch.

"Daddy! Daddy! Get up! Before the monster eats you!" She shook the poor man's arms, shaking until his head wobbled to and fro, and his eyes started to peer up at the young girl.

"Huh?" he mumbled,"What's up Mitsu? Watchya want?"

"Daddy has to get up before the monster eats him! Mitsu doesn't want monster to eat daddy!" Her father cursed the way five year olds always exclaim their opinions, instead of using quiet words.

"I'm sorry to wake you Honey, I know you were resting from your mission." The mother said as she entered the room, bending to pick Mitsu up into her arms as the father sat up on the couch to allow the pair to sit.

"It's no problem, but what's all the ruckus for? A monster?"

"Yeah daddy! A monster made me trip in the study, and it wasn't me who tripped, the monster mad me, but it was gonna eat you unless you woke up! Now you got to protect me, okay daddy?" The little girl said, believing her every word and proving it with a nod.

"I'll protect you no matter what kiddo," he said, scruffing up his daughter's red hair with a note of seriousness in his voice, the mother looked at the two with complete love and loyalty.

There was a moment of silence as the family sat there, comfortable in each other's presence. They smiled as if their innocence was not lost, the world not made of death and suffering, and love could save all.

It wasn't until the mother spoke again, still holding the toddler in her arms, that Mitsu remembered she had wanted to tell her something.

"Mitsu, I wanted to tell you something really special. You and dad both." The young girl looked into her mother's eyes expectantly, while her father stared confusedly at his wife, not used to secrets between the family.

"Have you ever wanted a brother or sister Mitsu?" the father gasped in surprise, instantly knowing where she was headed.

"Uuuh, I guess? I don't know mommy, everybody else always complains about their siblings, it might not be so good. But what does it have to do with what you are gonna tell me?" Mitsu asked, a curious scowl on her face as she looked between the two people she loved most of all in the world.

"It has everything to do with it Mitsu." The mother looked at her husband with a knowing smile on her face, it seemed as if the two were falling in love once again as they had when Mitsu's creation had been revealed, the parents only 18 at the time.

"What do ya mean momma? I thought babies were given to you as gifts?"

The two giggled at their daughter's misgivings, knowing that she only believed that because she was often called the 'gift' of the couple.

"No, dear, babies come from love, they come from loyalty and passion, and want. Don't you think me and daddy love each other very much?" Was the mother's reply, causing the easily embarrassed father to blush at her double meaning words.

"Yeah, but you love me more, right?" Was the young girl's reply, naive and completely serious.

"Of course honey, but me and your father are very special to each other, and you are getting a little baby brother because of it."

"Wow! I'm getting a brother? Like Sasuke to Itachi? How do you know it's a boy?" She replied, jumping up and down on her mother's lap in her excitement, completely forgetting her earlier opinion of siblings.

"How do you know it's a boy? Have you been keeping this secret that long?" The man asked, staring at his wife in confusion and hope. he had always wanted a boy, but loved his daughter very much despite it.

"I just know." Was her soft, gentle reply.

Indeed, it was a boy, and he grew up very handsome and brave. His name became Setsuna, and as his name suggest, he did only last but a second. For when he was ten, he went on his first mission, protected by the loving trio of family members around him. And though all the family returned home, not all did so alive.