Clear Path| Naruto | HakuXOc

Chapter 04

Slowly snow fell from the heavens.

And a casket was lowered into the ground.

"Noooooo!!! Why are you burying Gran-Gran!!!" Michi cried, rushing to the edge of the rectangular hole her grandmother was being placed in.

Atsuko caught Michi before she threw herself onto the casket.

Michi struggled to get out of Atsuko's hold, wailing even louder as tears from her reddish brown eyes and snot from her nose seemed endless. "G-Gran-Gran wouldn't be able to get out when she wakes up!! Stop it!"

Haku held his grip on the sleeve of his mother's kimono, looking up at Michi. He was old enough to know the meaning of the word 'dead', but not Michi. Just hearing Michi's tearful voice filled of woe, he felt tears build up in his eyes.  Then he shook his head, his grip tightening on Atsuko's sleeve. He couldn't cry; that would cause Michi to cry even more.

She said in between tears and gasps "A-A-Auntie! U-Uncle! Tell ..... them to stop!!!"

She had nurtured this girl before she was even a month old and developed maternal instincts towards her. The woman's heart ached. Atsuko held Michi against her chest, rocking her. "Shhh. Shhh. Shhh. I'm sorry Michi-chan. I'm sorry Michi-chan." She continually apologized in a soft sad voice as she tried to comfort the child.

At the end of that day, Michi Akagawa cried herself to sleep. A square bandage was to side of her right temple. Some tears still continued to leak from her closed eyes as she sniffled every now and then.

Haku who sat beside her with a small warm towel in his hand wiped those tears. "Michi." He murmured.

The child who's name he had called out to was remembering her final moments with her grandmother before everything turned red in the form of a dream.

Michi sprinted over to the bed Sachi was laying on. A big smile was on the child's face but it slowly dropped as she saw the deathly pale complexion of the retired shinobi. "gran-gran are you okay?" She inquired, concern laced in her voice. "Did you catch a cold? I will get the medicine right away."

Before the child could dash over to the medicine cabinet, Sachi Akagawa gently took a hold of her grandchild's right wrist.

Sachi Akagawa's action caused Michi to stop in place and turn around, facing her.

"Little Michi, no medicine can heal your Gran-Gran." Sachi divulged with a wry smile.

Michi's lips pressed together tightly, then she opened them to murmur. ".... then how about a ...jutsu?" She said the word 'jutsu' even softer than the previous words in her query.

The retired kunoichi had told Michi about her family being shinobi from the loathed Akagawa Clan, that no longer existed. Sachi had shown Michi several water-style and healing jutsu before. And when her father had came home, he would coldly train her until she had mastered what he had taught her.

The child had promised her grandmother that she would keep all of this a secret between them. She couldn't even tell Haku.

And she knew that she must not freely converse about such things and show others her prowess because Sachi had said these things exact words to her, 'bad things would happen and we would have to move'.

That's how she had been able to keep Michi's mouth zipped under lock and key.

Sachi reached her hand gently patting her granddaughter's head.