Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Imbroglio

Warnings: Mentions vague abuse/child abuse/read-into-it-whatever-you-will. Language. Abusive character yet to be revealed. Sympathetic Kurama. Fear of men/maybe other people.

Imbroglio: An altercation or complicated situation.

There are no hands on her skin now but she feels them running over her veins and they paint icy trails. They are real and the hot water ran out hours ago and her skin is blistered and-

She sits under the icy water and she stares-

She stares into nothing and she can forget as she scrubs a meticulously clean arm mindlessly.

There are still fingers running up her veins and crawling through her heart and out her mouth-

It is only cold and dark and fear and ice left in her veins.

She stands, or attempts to at first. She is blistered and burned, raw skin red and twisting as she wrenches herself upward. She swallows back the physical pain-

because really, the physical means very little. The agony is in the emptiness of her room and her world-

There is only her. Here in an room with so much time but never enough to satisfy. No-one to fill the empty hours and cold nights, no reply when she says 'Hello?' She should stop saying it already, cause there has never been an answer. But it's one of her last hopes, that one day a voice will answer her, to rescue her from this world.

But there is no such person to do this.

There is never anyone here.

There is just her and the monster who visits her.

He's always been there, with his gold eyes and sharp smile. He was not human but he looks like one, with his proud features she has come to hate. But no monster could ever be human, though she learns the truth later.

It was nice, at first. There was someone to greet in the morning, ask how she slept. But the monster knows how she slept, because in her dreams he was there. As she screamed and writhed, tearing her skin and crying out.

She learns to distrust the monster, even though he looks like her. He is not. He is nothing like her, with his sharp smile and greedy golden eyes.

She always feels his hands, the icy trails that she can't burn away. The red-blistered skin will heal soon enough but the icy trails burn still.

It's the monster that doesn't look like her that she trusts. She is quite sure she's passed her mental limits by now, as she seeks the solace of her own mind and the soft embrace that will meet her.

He's the fox, apparently. A monster through and through. But though he is a monster, he is more human than the man with sharp teeth will ever be.

The shower eventually runs out of water to spill over her and she is left shivering, even as she retreats into her mind, into the depths of her forest mind-scape. He's there, with his soft voice and rumbling purr that lulls her into a peaceful state.

There is nothing the ancient one can do. He's trapped in here and he hates the Fourth Hokage more than ever, though not for sealing him from his freedom.

He can only watch through her eyes, every minuscule agony runs through him and every word that tears her into pieces.

And he can do nothing, as the man with black hair destroys everything that was ever pure in this girl. But she is pure in here, safe and protected.

He has to let her go now, let her slip into reality and let her sleep upon her bed, and he will do what little he can for the nightmares that will follow.

But she never falls asleep, as the door is opened. But not in the usual slow manner, of a creeping dark malice back to dirty what he can. No, she watches as a man sticks his head in and his mismatched eyes focus on her.

No, no. She doesn't want to be looked at. He looks like the human-monster, though his mouth is covered, set in a sad line. The monster never did that. The monster grinned and snarled, even as he hurt her.

The man with the not-monster smile steps forward and she can only scramble to get away from the man with strange eyes. But he comes forward and she only whimpers as his hands pick her up, stiff as a board in fright. But the skin contact is gone, as her blanket is wrapped around her after he pauses.

This isn't how it goes. The human-monster never did this and she doesn't know where to go from here. It's a new thing, like the man with the strange hat who had once said 'sorry' to her a long time ago. He had been sad and angry,in his eyes but his face had been...emotionless, that was the word!

What did that face mean? The man with strange eyes has it set deep into his face. Perhaps he is like the not-monster, the one with soft fur and kind eyes? His eyes are strange but they are kind, like Kurama-nii's eyes.

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Hatake Kakashi had no idea what to expect out this mission but this was not it.

It was not a simple mission but neither did he expect the extent of what was before his eyes. Each room was another roomful of horrors, child after child after child. This was Lab #6, one of Orochimaru's most important labs according to the information T&I had gotten out of the ANBU traitors they had captured days ago. An experiment facility to test one thing only: the effects of mental and physical trauma on young subjects. Children.

Even Kakashi, renowned for being staunch in the face of brutality, had paled when face with the sheer madness heaped on these children. Terrible, terrible things that made war look like something from a children's story. Mental trauma, subjecting children to the most horrific images via genjutsu. And they did it again, day after day. The physical trauma that extended so deep, that several children they had attempted to help had screamed when the door had barely squeaked open.

He had almost given up hope by then, knowing the child he had come to find would most likely have never made it out of here. But in the final room, there at the end of the corridor, is where he found her.

There was terror in her eyes, far beyond anything he has ever seen or known before. Some terrible, heart wrenching grief exists in the eyes of this girl. His sensei's child. And he has failed all over again, for this is his fault.

He hadn't done enough. Had not watched closely enough, blinked away as a small little girl was stolen from the house he guarded.

She whimpered under his touch and he had to staunch the flow of anger that pooled, magma hot and roaring, into his stomach and blind himself to the images that had been presented to him during his briefing. She is stiff, immovable and her eyes are piercing his gaze with the emptiness within them, as he gently cradles her into his arms. She is still whimpering but it stops when he gently wraps her in the thin blanket, even as he keenly feels the bones of her back against his arms.

She is so small and he turns sharply, heading down the corridor and past the ANBU as they salvage what little sanity these children have left, guiding them out into the night.

Kakashi cannot fix this and he doesn't believe that even the best medic could do it either. Time could perhaps, with love and compassion and patience.

And by the Gods, Kakashi will try his hardest.

The thought of letting another care for her never even crosses his mind. No one could give her what he can.

She is as good as his own child, his responsibility now and he will fix this.

He doesn't think he will let anyone near her for a long time.

A wolf has a protective streak a mile wide after all.

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It has been a long time since Sarutobi Hiruzen felt young but in this moment, he is ancient and every years is like the weight of the world across his shoulders.

Two broken children are in his office, as Kakashi landed on the windowsill seconds ago and reeled off the information of the night. He thinks it over, even as tears trail from the corners of his eyes as he thinks of how wrong he has gone with his once favourite student.

"Kakashi, she will need-"

He is taken aback at the pure fiery determination in the eyes of this young man. He had grown far from the cold child he had once been and the protectiveness in his eyes was the same as his mentor's- a father's protectiveness.

"I will look after her."

There is something in the set his eyes, the tightness that it sends to Hiruzen's chest and he is suddenly way too old for this.

"Okay, Kakashi. You can take her, report tomorrow. I'll have the mission pay and a fund for taking care of her into your account tomorrow first thing."

Kakashi sags and the sleeping child in his arms is curling into his chest as he does so and he unconsciously tightens his arms around her. His child now.

He barely makes it to his apartment before she twists suddenly in her sleep but then curls into him, as if seeking the warmth at his heart. It's panicked but he cannot miss the thrum that goes through his heart at the movement. He curls around her, keeping her close to the steady beat of his heart and they sleep there, a family only that night but it will be an uphill battle.

One he is determined to win.

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Okay, so this was originally a prompt but I have decided it could work well as a story as well~