Mother of Monsters Act 1

A mistake had been made.

She was born Kazehana Hotaru. Her father is Kazehana Senji and her mother Kazehana Chika. Their home is a place with a grand tree standing tall above, and a great waterfall rushing far below. It was and would forever be the most beautiful place she knew, and she was blessed enough to call it home.

As she grew, her parents always told her that there was a price for such beauty. Their land stayed beautiful because it was safeguarded by some of the strongest men and women in the world. They were shinobi.

One day, her father sat before her with a choice. With a kunai placed on the table before her.

Protector or protected?

Small hand reaching across the table, her tiny fingers made contact with the smooth, metal surface and lightly ran along it.

And then she pushed it away.

When she had stood to leave, she had heard a sigh sound long and easy behind her and nodded to herself. There was more in this life for her than fighting.

Hotaru didn't want to fight, she wanted to live.

.

Some would say the mistake was falling in love with a shinobi with orange eyes.

The first time she met Sanada Tohru was when she and her father had put in a request for an escort to Kusa to oversee trade agreements on Hisen-sama's behalf. It was her first time accompanying him, now that he thought she was old enough and she no longer had to remain home to look after her mother. Tohru and one other newly minted chuunin, his old genin teammate Suien, were assigned to them. Their voices carried down the hall into the client waiting room as they speculated just loudly enough for her to hear how she must be just another "stuck up" noble. As he and his teammate entered the waiting room, she'd pinned them with a knowing look before her expression smoothed. Her father introduced her, and Tohru's own expression tightened in contrition even as Suien's remained uncaring.

"Shinobi-san," she'd greeted softly with a sharp smile, folding her hands in front of her and bending all of fifteen degrees at the waist, "Please take care of us."

Tohru's cheeks had dusted pink in response.

Like most escort missions she went on were, it was uneventful and successful. However, for the entire duration of the mission, she could feel Tohru staring at her when he thought she wasn't looking. And gifts she knew came from him would always appear when she least expected them, with him nowhere in sight to confront.

Those first gifts had been horrible. A small bouquet of chamomile and daisies. (She had allergies.) A bag of lemon candies. (She hated lemon anything.) A bright orange and plum purple scarf. (It assaulted everyone's vision and clashed horribly with her mint green hair.)

Maybe she should have been bothered. Maybe she should have been creeped out. Still, she accepted them with quiet grace. (Even as her nose ran, and her face pinched, and people visibly winced at her with the thing wrapped around her neck, all she could think was, Stuck up, huh?)

And maybe it was worth it for each time she caught him fighting a broad smile at the sight of her.

Even after the mission was complete, he was still there, filling almost every D-rank or C-rank her family had paid for. The gifts kept coming, too, but he was a quick study in learning her likes and dislikes based on the gifts that followed. Gifts like new books, wolf's hair calligraphy brushes, and tea that actually came from the Land of Tea. Most importantly, he never again gave her a flower bouquet.

After years of the same, however, it seemed like that was all he would ever do. Stare at her from afar, give her increasingly thoughtful and extravagant gifts, and talk to everyone but her. It's why she requested a C-rank escort to the Land of Hotsprings. Tohru, who was soon to be recommended for the jounin trials, was assigned to the mission on his own. (The mission desk chunins who had been shooting grins at one another behind his back choked on air when she winked at them on the way out.)

On the road to the Land of Hotsprings, she sat beside him when they stopped to make camp. She already had his undivided attention, so she reached into the sleeve of her kimono and pulled out a paper wrapped flat rectangular parcel and handed it to him. He took it and pulled away the brown paper, and she let a smirk curl her lips when his eyes went wide and his mouth fell open.

"This is-"

"Icha Icha: Violence, Tohru-san," she said for him, "I heard from Suien-san that you liked the first one."

"It only just came out..." His orange eyes darted back and forth between her face and the book. "I didn't think that you-"

"Would like erotic fiction?" She'd chuckled at his stunned expression, before leaning in and pressing a kiss to his chin and looking up at him from under her lashes. "Or that I would like you?"

"I-" Something shifted in his expression, and then he was really looking at her. "This mission?"

"How else was I supposed to get a date?" she teased, kissing his cheek that time, and getting a pleasant shiver out of him. "So tell me, who was your favorite character?"

His favorite character had intriguingly turned out to be the hero's best friend Tadashi, who had fallen in love with Etsuko, a noble girl disguised as a servant girl. It had been as they excitedly discussed the relationship (and the few romantic interludes) between Tadashi and Etsuko and how at times they had been more interesting than the main pairing. It had been when they had picked over whether shinobi had been properly portrayed, Tohru weighing in heavily there. It had been when they finally noticed that they had spent the better night talking about the book and beyond, about themselves and what could be. That was when Hotaru had known.

.

Others would say the mistake was having a child.

Tohru had admitted to her one quiet night as they lay wrapped around each other that he had always wanted a child, to help create life instead of take it. When he said that, she didn't ignore it and redirect like she thought she would have. Once upon a time, she'd been repulsed by the idea of having children. They came with a lot of sacrifice and pain. She had admired people who could commit to that kind of burden, because she thought that she was not made for it. But it was Tohru's dream. And he never asked. He never asked for things, he always gave. He gave his service to his country and his love to her, and claimed that all he'd gotten was more than he ever deserved.

If there was something that made her grit her teeth and want to tear things apart, it was when he said things like that with his eyes haunted and far away. She had never wanted to understand the horrible things shinobi did that gave them those eyes. However, Hotaru cursed the fact that she would never fully understand Tohru because of that. For a man who asked for nothing and gave her everything, she was willing to grant his unspoken plea, if only to push back the hurts in his soul that he carried around with him like a slow bleeding wound.

So when she gave him a book on how to care for infants, instead of blushing like he usually did when he received gifts from her, he instead looked her right in the eye and said in disbelieving tones, "I thought you didn't-"

"Want children?" A hand caressed her cheek, and she turned her face to kiss the center of the palm. "I only want them if they're yours."

He'd pulled her close then, his arms coming up around her as she tucked herself into him. Whispers of gratitude drifted into her ears, and she'd just snugged closer in response.

It was a perfect moment.

She'd held it close in her mind and heart through the worst of the morning sickness and all of the other thoroughly gross and vile side effects of pregnancy. It helped that Hisen-sama had assigned all diplomatic traveling to her father only and kept her to light administrative work. Hotaru had not been above getting Tohru, her father, and the countless genin teams she hired out to pamper and spoil her silly as well. A healthier and happier her meant a healthier and happier baby, which was the best for everyone in the long term. Particularly Tohru, who would have been first on her list to smother in his sleep, if she was feeling awful enough.

But keeping herself stress free stopped being something she could control when she received a summons from Hisen-sama for a private audience at his home.

Dressed in a lovely pale tomesode patterned with golden dragonflies, the similarly patterned obi wrapped just above her considerable bump, she set out to the village leader's residence. She was greeted at the gate by a guard and allowed in. Hisen-sama was already in the sitting room that opened into the garden that little Shibuki-chan was playing in. Hotaru took a seat when beckoned, waving at the child when he peeked at her from behind one of the stone lanterns. Turning her attention back to the village leader and took in his grim face.

"If you're wondering, I'm in good health, so is my family, and the baby hasn't kicked yet," Hotaru commented blandly, taking the offered cup of tea and setting it down before herself, "That's my half of the small talk. Tell me how are you and your family are doing before we get into the heavy topics you're dying to speak with me about."

"As straightforward as ever, I see," he said, his eyes closing as he took a long breath in and then opening once more, "We are doing well, too. That said, I must warn you that what we will be speaking of today is currently an S-rank secret, and cannot be discussed with anyone outside of myself, your father, and your husband until I deem it safe."

Hotaru remembered the dread that had crept upon her when those words had left his mouth. While she was an important member of the civilian council and a trusted administrative assistant in shinobi related matters, she had never been brought into confidence on anything that went beyond A-rank.

"Understood," she'd forced out then, biting the inside of her mouth.

He only got halfway through explaining what biju were before her palms slammed against the tabletop and she screamed at him because how dare he? This was Tohru's child, and he was asking that it be given up to a life of pain and torment? The man had then tried to explain that it was tradition for the jinchuuriki to be an infant chosen from the bloodline of a village leader. Her burning eyes had cut meaningfully to Shibuki before darting back and pinning Hisen with a demanding look. All he had done was divert his gaze and tell her that the advisory council had insisted if the child were his own son, it may impact his leadership. As his elder sister's daughter, her son or daughter would be a good candidate for the sealing. That her own father was a member of the advisory council and the baby's father was a prominent jounin of the village was even better.

There was no choice for her in that moment. Takigakure would have its first jinchuuriki, and it would be her unborn child.

For the first time, that poor, doomed baby growing in her womb truly felt like her own.

.

But falling in love and having a child were not the mistake.

Both Tohru and her father had been out of the village at the time she had found out the fate Hisen and the council had bestowed upon her baby. Genin continued to make trips for her that she shouldn't be making herself while she was shut in at home with her books. Notes came from the administrative office that went unanswered. If anything truly required her personally, they knew where to find her.

Expecting Parents: A Guide and Icha Icha: Paradise had already been re-read once each when she heard the sound of someone letting themselves into the house. It hadn't taken the ability to sense to know that at least one of the people who let themselves in was Tohru. Likely, the other person was her father. Whether because they chose to check on her themselves or at Hisen's behest was yet to be determined.

They'd found her there in bed, one arm clutching the books to her chest and the other resting delicately over her distended middle. Even when Tohru lowered himself down to sit on the futon mattress beside her, she didn't raise her head or sit up to greet him. Instead, she curled in on herself a little more, her hand rubbing circles absently into her belly. Her father had come to her then and knelt in front of her.

"Did you know?"

It was a stupid question. Her father was a member of the village leader's advisory council. Of course he knew.

"I tried to convince them to choose someone else. I was going to tell you myself."

"Why didn't you?"

Silence choked the air between them, before at long last, he'd whispered softly, "I'm sorry Hotaru."

And then he left her with just Tohru as company. He said nothing until they heard the front door open and shut.

"I was told today," he told her, his voice devoid of emotion.

The books fell away as she threw an arm out, grasping for his hand.

"Tohru…"

"Hisen-sama said-" he stopped, his fingers twitching against hers, "He said that if we did not want it, we could-" he paused again, "-we could surrender it, and it would be taken in as a ward of the village."

She pulled her hand away from his as if burned and pushed herself up, her pastel locks falling limply into her face.

"You can't be serious," she'd said, the futon starting to feel more like a chasm opening and sucking her down.

The orange of his eyes was luminescent in the dim lighting of the room, hopelessness warring with frustration within.

"This wasn't what we wanted when we decided to have children."

"And having children was something I never wanted to begin with," she snapped, in no way taking pleasure from his full body flinch, "But what we did or didn't want won't change the fact that there is a child growing within me. My first act in its life will not be to abandon them!"

"You're upset," he tried in a soft tone that shook like his hands did when he reached for her, "It's not good for you or-"

He went silent as his hands stopped halfway to her. So Hotaru reached out instead, pushing him gently back.

"Can you leave?" At the wounded look on his face, she kept going. "I'm not- I'm not saying for forever, not like that, but we can't talk like this." She gestured between them; him, still in combat fatigues and her, unwashed and mouth tasting like another round lost to morning sickness. "Can you just leave for now, and come back later?"

Her words hadn't quite chased all of the hurt from his expression, but some his face's tightness eased.

"Okay. Yeah."

And then he was gone in the space of a blink.

Later, when she'd taken a long bath, brushed her teeth out thoroughly, and bedded down for the night, she felt Tohru slip in with her just as sleep was about to take her.

"What are we going to do?" he asked, his breath on her ear.

"I can't speak for you," she murmured, drawing the covers in closer to her neck and chin, "But I am going to have this baby, raise them, and maybe try and protect them."

"I didn't think-" And for once she didn't cut him off. "-you'd be able to handle that. I was willing to give up the baby if it meant that I could keep you."

"I'm not something to be kept," Hotaru muttered, "And the baby isn't something to be given up. I'm going to try, with or without you. I just… I'd want it to be with you, not without."

"I want to be with you," he said finally, "I'm willing to try if it means that."

It wasn't exactly what she had wanted to hear, but it would have to be good enough.

.

She knew what her mistake truly was.

"Senji, Hotaru, Sanada-san," Hisen said as his gaze swept the room warily, "I wasn't expecting you."

"I suppose you might have chosen a less expensive ceramicware set if you had known I was coming," Hotaru remarked casually, "I am sorry about what happened to the one."

Both Hisen and her father tensed. Their reaction was enjoyable, but she preferred Tohru's tiny smile more. It had been a while since he'd done anything more than grimace these days.

"Yes, well-" Hisen shared a troubled glance with her father. "That was regrettable, but nothing that couldn't be fixed."

"True." She put a hand to one cheek, faux-guilt coloring her expression. "And I also must apologize for my behavior, too."

"You were upset, it's understandable."

"You're right," she agreed, cocking her head, "It's completely understandable that when I was informed by my uncle halfway through my pregnancy that my unborn child will have a demon sealed into them and that there was nothing I could do to prevent it, I was going to be a little upset."

"Hotaru…" her father tried, but she shot him a look.

"However, I can no longer afford to waste time being upset." All sense of drama melted away as she sat up straight and regarded them seriously. "As generous as your offer to take the child on as a ward of the village was, I will have to decline it. I wish to raise this child myself, and I aim to limit the control the village will have over them."

"You realize that there are some members of the advisory council who will not allow you to interfere with their weapon." At the narrowing of her eyes, Hisen swallowed dryly and then sighed. "That will be what your child will be to them, as a jinchuuriki."

"I guessed that would be the case, and that's why I can set aside my feelings for now." Hotaru met both Hisen's and her father's eyes for a moment before looking down at her tightly clasped hands. "I cannot alienate myself from the only allies I may have on the council right now. I will need all the help I can get in shielding this child from what's coming for them."

"For all our power, we could not prevent this from happening to you," her father said, more than a little self loathing evident in him.

"Now is not the time to be guilty." She tried and failed to soften the harsh words. "You could not prevent this, but what you can do is help me get ahead of it and control the situation as much as possible before the other side of the council does."

"What is your proposal for doing that?" Hisen asked, the apprehension that had been present in his expression from the start beginning to give way to curiosity.

"I have several ideas," Hotaru answered, looking to Tohru who pulled out a scroll and unfurled it for Hisen and her father to read through, "Can it be done?"

"Some of this will be very hard to accomplish," her father said first, eyebrows furrowed as he continued reading, pulling the scroll closer to himself.

"But it can be done," Hisen said after him, nodding as his jaw set in determination.

She bowed her head. Tohru reached across and took her hand.

"Thank you."

The first order of business after that meeting was drafting documentation concerning the care and upbringing of jinchuuriki. It helped that Taki had never had it's own jinchuuriki before, so such documentation had not yet existed. Subtly woven into it were clauses that would protect the rights of the parents or clan of the jinchuuriki, as long as they provided care that was not detrimental to the junchuuriki's development. Though parental rights would not be strong enough to keep their child from shinobi life even if the child did not want it, it would allow them to give the child a stable enough childhood before they got their hitae-ate. They'd spun it along the lines of, "a supported and content jinchuuriki is strong and loyal jinchuuriki."

Following that came the propaganda. Before the child had the biju sealed into them, they needed to control public opinion about jinchuuriki. Again, the lack of information made it easy to create it. Scrolls, texts, and new children's stories rife with symbolism and lessons, were published and placed in bookstores, schools, and libraries. They painted jinchuuriki as valuable assets, wardens of the biju, great heroes and protectors. Whisper campaigns were employed against anyone who could not be swayed or at least be neutral concerning the subject of jinchuuriki. Those people needed to be discredited and their influence reduced.

Last was ensuring that the sealing of the bijuu would be safe and secure. That meant finding a fuuinjutsu specialist who was trustworthy and skilled enough to do the job. This was where she had initially come to a disagreement with Hisen. Hisen wanted to keep the sealing to only specialists within the village. Hotaru wanted the most skilled specialist they could find and vet, especially since Taki fuuinjutsu specialists were either mediocre or more combat oriented than anything else. Her father had had to cut in and propose that they chose their best seal specialist and also bring in a skilled outside consultant without revealing to them how to enter the village. Both she and Hisen had grudgingly accepted the suggestion.

Of course, amongst all of the planning and political maneuvering, it was easy for Hotaru to forget the most important variable of all. She was reminded with a vengeance when they made themself known once more with an explosive gush of wet between her thighs and burst of pain in her abdomen that sent her to her knees. With Tohru's panicked voice in her ear, she leaned forward with a forearm braced against the floor, her forehead resting on it, and her other arm supporting her large belly.

"Tohru, Tohru please, h-hospital," was all she managed through hisses and wheezing, her eyes squeezed shut.

What followed was a blur. She only remembered pain and flashes of Tohru there holding her hand, someone wiping her brow, and the sound of the medic nin yelling, "Push!" When she'd come to, it was to Tohru hunched over her, eyes red rimmed. He'd told her, his voice trembling, that she'd almost died in childbirth.

"Ah, too cliche, killing off the wife so they can pair the tragic and attractive single dad with a new love interest," she joked weakly, trying to lift her arm so she could wipe away the fresh tears on his cheeks, "Can't get rid of me that easily."

"I hope not," he chuckled wetly, guiding her hand the rest the way to his face, "I really can't carry the plot without you."

"Mmm," she hummed tiredly in something like agreement, "Love you."

She dozed off with the feel of his lips pressed to her forehead. Next time she woke, he was there again, a blanket swathed bundle held awkwardly in his arms.

"Is that-?"

"Yeah," he answered, shifting the baby so that she faced Hotaru, "I thought you'd want to see her."

"She has your eyes," she observed, trying to keep her voice steady and unable to tear her gaze away from the infant peering cluelessly back at her.

"And your hair." He pointed at the pale green fuzz on the baby's head for effect. "You told me to name her so Hotaru, meet your daughter Fu."

.

It had been a mistake, ever thinking that this world, this life, was safe.

As she stared down at her baby, slumbering peacefully as if she didn't have a care in the world, Hotaru thought about the choice she had made all those years ago.

Protector or protected?

Takigakure had been removed from all of that suffering and strife. Like a paradise far above the rest of the warring lands, forever peaceful and safe. Why pick up a kunai when there were plenty ready to do it instead? It had been easy to ignore that there was a whole world out there that she was horribly familiar with. That Takigakure was not nearly removed enough, for as isolationist as it tried to be.

She couldn't say for sure whether she regretted the choice she made. Hotaru would never know what her life would have been like if she had chosen to become a shinobi. Would the path of a shinobi have changed her? Would she have died? Would she and Tohru have ever fallen in love? Would she have ever had Fu? Sometimes, she wondered the choice had even mattered. Would all roads have led to Fu eventually? Would it have been another Kazehana who was Fu's mother in her place? Even worse, did that mean Tohru had been meant them instead of her?

Those thoughts often had to be violently forced away. To many questions she'd never get the answers to, let alone want the answers to. They were just distractions from what she needed to focus on: Fu.

Fu, who would someday be killed when the Akatsuki came to rip the biju out of her.

That day when Hisen had first told her that her child would be jinchuuriki, she'd accepted that fact fixated on it even. It was better doing that, preparing for her birth, than thinking about how she would die. Any world where what would happen to Fu could be a reality was not safe.

Everything she had done thus far had made it so that the girl could grow up, if not loved and accepted, then tolerated. However, tolerance from the village wouldn't save her. Sure, the geography of Taki was advantageous for battle and the Hero's Water more than proven its worth in keeping them from being invaded during the war. But that meant Fu would only be safe within the borders of Taki. Short of telling the council about Akatsuki and them actually believing her, nothing would convince them to keep Fu out of harm's way.

There was- there was no one she trusted but herself with knowledge of what was to come. Not her father. Not even Tohru, she admitted to herself. Only she knew. Though she was influential for a civilian, she was still just a civilian who knew too much and was trying to place herself between Fu and some of the strongest, most ruthless shinobi the world would know.

What could she do against that?

"Kazehana-san?" Hotaru looked up and saw Misuzu-san, the Taki fuuinjutsu specialist they'd chosen, at the entrance to the client waiting room. "The fuuinjutsu consultant from Konoha has arrived."

With a nod, she settled Fu more comfortably in her arms and followed Misuzu-san to the reception area of the Administration Building. Her heart fluttered. Just who had Konoha sent? Namikaze Minato? Jiraiya of the Sannin? (She barely fought the flush of excitement at the idea of meeting the author of the Icha Icha series.)

Getting lost in her thoughts might have been why she found herself almost bumping into what was one of the most beautiful women she had ever met. As it was, she stopped just short of that, putting herself too far into the other woman's personal space for comfort. With a slight embarrassed smile, she backed up a couple steps.

"Apologies." She offered a stiff bow, trying not to jostle Fu. "I'm Kazehana Hotaru and the baby is my daughter, Kazehana Fu. You're gorgeous by the way, especially your hair."

The woman blinked and then chortled as a wide grin overtook her features.

"Thanks, you're not bad yourself," she quipped back, before offering her hand, "I'm Uzumaki Kushina. I think you're my client, dattebane."

It was Hotaru's turn to blink this time before offering the hand that wasn't full of baby after a beat.

Much later, after Kushina and Misuzu-san had gotten most of the way through planning out the sealing for Fu, Hotaru had escorted the red haired woman to her own home. She'd impulsively offered to house the woman while she was in Takigakure. Of course, all under the flimsy excuse that it would give them easy access to each other for the duration of the mission and save costs (providing for the lodgings of the hired shinobi if one could afford it was common courtesy). Tohru would likely be unhappy to hear that she'd invited a foreign shinobi into their home while he was out of the country. However, it was hard to care, when faced with The Uzumaki Kushina.

Night found her up late with Fu, who woke up wailing and could only be soothed by holding her close and walking her all through the house. That was how she found Kushina shooting one of the bookshelves in the house a suspicious glare.

"See something you like Uzumaki-san?" she inquired, as she continued walking in lazy eight loops.

"Your husband has bad taste," she replied, pulling an orange and a red book out of the bookcase and waving them at her, "And it's Kushina, no need to be so formal."

"Actually, we're both fans." Hotaru might have enjoyed the face she made at that a little too much. "Who's your favorite character?"

"Who says I have one?" She treated Kushina to the same face she gave politicians who tried to lie to her. "...Akane-ttebane."

Violence's heroine, tough and tender. Fitting. A blushing smile blossomed on the her face when Hotaru nodded at her.

Later, they sat together at the kotatsu, nursing the warm honeyed milk Kushina had insisted on making while said woman held and cooed at Fu. It was surreal, that one jinchuuriki was actually meeting another, not that Fu was one yet. Had that even occurred to Kushina yet? Probably not yet, she thought as the redheaded woman plucked gently at the baby's feet, eliciting shrieking giggles. Another one of those moments to be remembered, tucked into her mind for later days when she'd need it.

"Kushina-san." The woman stopped, Fu quieting a minute later. "I want to protect her."

Blue eyes met her own light brown.

"From what?"

"Everything." Hotaru bit her lip. "But especially from the people after the biju. I'm just not sure how I can."

It felt like an eternity passed as they stared straight at one another. And then Kushina broke eye contact and returned to entertaining Fu. Just when she thought that there would be no response to what she had said, the other woman spoke.

"Have you ever considered learning fuuinjutsu Hotaru-san?"

.

She had made a mistake, but that didn't mean she wouldn't do her damndest to make up for it.

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'Frakking Hidan,' was the last thing she thought, every nerve in her body singing agony as the last of Matatabi was torn from her.

And then she died.

.

And then she woke up. Again.

AN1: Hello everyone, and welcome to the first installment of Anomaly: Mother of Monsters Act 1. A thank you goes out to sonyat, who was like my unofficial beta for this chapter (and the inspiration for starting this collection to begin with). Anomaly will be a collection of SI/OC short stories. Some will be stand alone one-shots while others, like Mother of Monsters, may be continued as a two/three-shot. I have several more planned, but I invite all of you to PM me with creative SI/OC prompts, though I can't promise I'll choose every prompt or fill it perfectly.

AN2: Two users here on FFnet that I am acquainted with have both been plagiarized by the same user, Seishun-Kyousoukyou. I want to warn all of you to watch out for this user and any other person who tries to plagiarize. No one deserves to have their work stolen and the credit for it given to someone else. If you have any further questions about this, feel free to contact me and ask.