Heritage

Family Talks

A/N: Okay, the formating is a little weird on this chapter for some reason. I'll use ~~~~ to divide scenes. Anyway, to anyone taking the time to read this -- enjoy!

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Chuutaro had clamed up about an hour ago and Soramaru hadn't been able to get him to talk since. At first he had thought that his little brother had fallen asleep, but no, he hadn't. Chuutaro had moved location any time Soramaru tried to approach. With a sigh he decided that it was time to leave his brother be for awhile.

"Alright Chuutaro," He said to the shadowy silhouette of his sibling, "I'm going to leave for a while and I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to come back."

No response.

Soramaru sighed again and turned around, looking up at the edge of the hole and gauging the distance. He crouched, then jumped straight up, caught the edge ten feet over his head and hauled himself up and over with one arm, rolling onto his feet. For some reason his entire family was... Abnormal. Whether is was because of the Orochi or not, Soramaru didn't know, but there were stories of his ancestors that made him wonder if the Kumo line was even fully Human. Given some of the things he had seen over the years he knew that it was possible, just as he knew that it was equaly as possible that they were 100% Human.

But even so, sometimes... Sometimes what his ancestors could do defied any explanation.

Soramaru stood, already having noticed that his knives were missing from where he had placed them. He looked over at Shirasu and was unsurprised to find them neatly lined up at his feet. In the pale-skinned man's hand was one of Soramaru's favorite knives. He was inspecting it very carefully. Soramaru walked over, instinctively making a normal amount of noise, so as to not startle him. He never would have snuck up on the other man earlier that night if he had known who he was.

Shirasu glanced up and gave him an amused smile.

Going down on one knee Soramaru started hiding his knives under his clothes again. They seemed to disappear as he rearranged his clothing to cover them properly. Shirasu watched him, then shook his head, amused as Soramaru continued to hide his knives.

"Your Fuuma blood is showing." Shirasu commented, referring to the fact that Soramaru's mother had been a Fuuma.

Considering how inbred the clan had been back then Shirasu suspected that they were probably cousins, though he had never bothered to look at the geneologies, so he couldn't be certain. Then again, by that point every Fuuma was every other Fuuma's cousin, so, actually, he could guarantee that they were cousins even without looking at the geneologies.

"Is it?" Soramaru asked, without looking up.

"Yes. I should have trained you."

"That might have put a chink in your plans all considered."

"Mm. Might not have been a bad thing if it had. It was a terrible plan to begin with."

"Then why did you do it?"

"There was too much momentum to stop it and I was in way too deep to pull out."

Shirasu paused and turned his clear, direct gaze on Shirasu, pronouncing, "You could have talked to us. Or big brother at the very least."

Soramaru turned his gaze back to his weapons, not noticing the startled look on the other man's face. There were no more knives, but his gun still needed reassembling. That only took him a few moments. He placed his gun back where it had been before and pulled his shirt over it. Wordlessly he held his hand out to Shirasu, who handed him the knife he had been examining without a word. Soramaru placed it in his boot and stood, then turned to Shirasu and held his hand out again.

"The other one." He stated simply.

Amused (again), Shirasu looked over his shoulder. A woman melted out of the shadows. Soramaru looked startled, then gave her an exasperated look and moved his outstretched hand towards her, his expression shifting to reproving. Sheepishly she walked over and handed him the sheathed knife. Soramaru took it from her, lifted the edge of his shirt and clipped it onto his belt, tugging his shirt back in place. The knife seemed to disappear just as the others had.

"How many times have I told you not to do that?"

"You don't have a problem with other things..."

"Not my weapons."

The woman gave him a annoyed look.

"I'm not five-"

She stopped short at the look Soramaru was giving her.

"Sorry." She said.

"Uhuh. Anyway, I'm going to be meeting up with my elder brother and if I don't drag you along he's going to have my head on a stake."

"Butt he's in a wheelchair..."

The answer came from both Shirasu and Soramaru at the exact same moment.

"That won't stop him."

The woman looked from one to the other, trying to gauge whether or not they were trying to fool her. Slowly, she realized that they weren't and turned a questioning look, with a raised brow, to Soramaru.

"Uhh... You remember those stories about the three brothers I used to tell you when you were little? Yeah... That was about my family growing up."

She stared at him in shocked disbelief.

"Remember the story I told you about how the eldest brother dealt with the burgler while standing on one foot? That actually happened."

Her eyes went wide.

"A 'burgler' was it?" Shirasu asked mildly, elbow resting on his knee and his hand cupping his chin.

Soramaru turned his attention to the other man, "That's what he told me, though I did hear him mutter something about a white-haired, back-stabbing jackass."

"Mm. Sounds about right. Can't remember what I went to talk to him about... He kind of threw his wheelchair at me before I could explain why I was there."

Sormaru regarded Shirasu silently for a moment before saying, "Relax, you got the message to Chuutaro and I delt with it."

"Ah yes... It was about that Beryl woman... How did you get to and from Antarctica?"

"Chuutaro opened some kind of portal."

Shirasu stared at him in shock.

"No, I don't know how; he wouldn't tell me - I shouldn't be telling you this!"

"You just realized?"

Soramaru gave him an irritated look, then said, "Well, whatever. I have to get up in the morning for work."

Shirasu nodded, then looked at Hanna.

"Drive him back, since you seem to know him already."

"Yes sir... And he's my father."

Shock showed on Shirasu's face as she walked past him and left with Soramaru.

Watching them he mused quietly to himself, "It seems I like that family whether I know they're a Kumo, or not."

~~~~~~~~

In Hanna's car father and daughter were silent for the first stretch of the drive before Soramaru finally asked, "How do you know Shirasu and why do you work for him?"

"I was wondering when you were going to ask that." Hanna replied wryly, then took a deep breath and said, "I can't really say since it's classified, but I can tell you that he saved my life and helped me complete something."

Soramaru nodded, expression distant and they both lapsed into silence again. By the time she got him home Hanna had to wake him up to head back inside. The people watching him had a complete freak out that they hadn't noticed when or how left his home.