Author's Note: KasuSasu has recently become one of my favorite pairings... due to all of the fanart of them. It's adorable. And he loves her so much more than Kenshin does. Kasuga's love for Kenshin just seems so... shallow. And the anime is really vague about whether or not Kasuga is really Sasuke's fiancee, who she worked for before switching to Kenshin's side, where she came from, any of it... so I made up some stuff. And decided to write it down. Did research for this, too. Historical accuracy, hell yeah. So before you ask, yes, every place mentioned is a prefecture, yes it did belong to those people, and yes, those relationships are accurate. Well, uh. Aside from the shit about ninjas. But even that was researched.

Don't Let The Wind Follow
Chapter One - Potential

Kasuga watched the Sanuki prefecture fall to the Chosokabe clan of Tosa. The land her father's clan had ruled for generations, the land that was supposed to go to the man her older sister would marry... stolen. She could smell the smoke. Hear the footsteps. Her heart hammering in her chest. She was silent only because fear had stolen her voice, deathly still because it had also taken her ability to move.

"There's supposed to be two of them."

"It's just a little girl. Leave it."

"I don't want her to see her parents like that..."

"Don't be softhearted. They went out with honor."

"... yeah."

"Don't worry about the kid, she'll run out when the fire reaches where ever she is."

Kasuga felt some of the ability to move return to her hand as she gripped the kodachi her mother had given to her. If they find you, her mother said, don't let them disgrace you before you die.

Tears stung her eyes. Her mother had a wakizashi just like this... the family crest engraved on the handle in gold. It had already been unsheathed. Her father had one, too. Her sister had a kodachi, but it was more ornate, a symbol of her status as the heir. Kasuga's was rather plain... Sayaka was 10. Kasuga was only 7, but still... her mother's warning rung true. This was what was expected of her, to die with grace and dignity and honor.

She couldn't do it.

Through the screen door of the closet, she could see the blob-like shapes of men getting further away. She allowed herself to breathe again, her shaky little hand ever so slowly pushing the screen aside.

She couldn't die with grace, with dignity, with honor. Her selfish mind only thought of revenge, that her family's lives were worth at least one of theirs. She pushed herself to her feet, her young heart hardening at the backs of the men who thought they could smoke her out and truly take everything from her.

Her blade would be stained with her own blood, but not before theirs.

Not before theirs.

Her footsteps were soft and slow. There was only the knife in her hand. The warm handle and the sharp blade and the promises it made.

One of them glanced back, as if they could feel her following them. She leaped for the other, but she found herself grabbed by the obi that held her kimono closed, picked up. The other broke her grip on the kodachi, with a grin. His eyes were covered by a black mask, there were red markings in paint on his face... he was dressed lightly, a single sword on his back and kunai strapped to his waist.

A shinobi.

She struggled, but she was so small, she was always a little smaller than other kids her age. She was so much smaller than these shinobi.

"Shit, I didn't even hear her."

"She's really quiet."

Kasuga just glared at them. She let her eyes speak her hate.

"You're the little one, aren't you?" the shinobi without markings on his face asked. He was dressed in a strange green print, a metal mask framing his face and keeping it back. He tucked her under one arm as they walked into the hall. She could see the flames licking at one end, the other still seemed clear... they walked past the sitting room, she could a stain on the shoji screen door. Red so dark it was almost brown. The tears spilled down her cheeks. That was the last place she had seen her parents. Where they'd told her and Sayaka to take the knives, to hide, to die with honor when they were found.

"What're you thinking, Sarutobi?" the shinobi in black and white asked.

"She's about Sasuke and Kotaro's age."

"So?"

"Thinking about keeping her if the Chosokabe don't want her."

"Keep her? Why the fuck would you keep her? The last thing Sasuke and Kotaro need is a little girlfriend."

"She's got good instincts. You can't teach a shinobi that. Besides, I don't like the thought of the Chosokabe keeping her."

"Because she's about the same age as Chosokabe's heir?"

"She just lost her parents. She doesn't need to be told she'll be some bratty son of a pirate's sex slave."

Kasuga's face went pale.

"So she should be a shinobi instead? That's a lot better."

Sarutobi sighed. "Yeah, it's better."

"We're not keeping her. Besides, she'd be too behind on her training, the girls start younger than the boys do because they mature faster."

"We'll have Sasuke and Kotaro catch her up, between the two of them, they'll get her in shape."

"Sarutobi, NO. We're not putting stress on them because you want to make some impulse purchase of a daughter."

"Go to hell, Fuuma, she's a kid. She's got nothing but her potential, and for little orphaned girls, that doesn't mean shit, but for a shinobi, it could mean everything. She's coming with us."

"If the Chosokabe don't want her."

Sarutobi was quiet for a moment, then mumbled, "Yeah."

Fuuma shook his head.

She'd been dressed in a pretty purple silk kimono, her long blond hair piled on top of her head and pinned with a flower ornament. She could feel the strings of beads brushing against her cheek, but she was silent as the grave.

Everything had been a blur, the ninjas brought her to Tosa, some women that she couldn't tell apart aside from the fuzzy blobs of color that were their kimonos, dressed her up.

Now she was alone. Waiting.

It wasn't unlike that closet. Instead of waiting for the shinobi to find her and kill her, she was waiting for Lord Chosokabe and his son to come and decide which life she would have. A lord's concubine or a clan's shinobi. Either path was indentured servitude, but one was in the shadows with a name that didn't matter, and the other was on a pedestal with a name that couldn't be bothered to remember. Her body would belong to someone either way, but would it be to speak lies of love or loyalty?

The door opened and the lord stepped in, his son at his side. The boy had a strange appearance, white hair like snow that stuck straight up, and sharp blue eyes. He looked about her own age, maybe a little older...

"Motochika," Lord Chosokabe began. Kasuga held her breath, but Motochika just looked bored. "Do you like her?"

Motochika crossed his arms over his chest. "HELL NO. I thought you said she was the pretty one."

"She is the pretty one, she has such fair skin and fine hair like gold..."

"GROSS. Her head looks like that giant sun stupid Motonari prays to. I thought you meant the one with hair like fire!" Motochika complained. Kasuga looked down. "She isn't pretty at all. Where's the pretty one?"

"Motochika, she died."

"YEAH RIGHT. You just can't find her... you're lame. I want the pretty one. Did stupid Motonari get the pretty one?"

"No, Motochika..."

"Tell him I'll trade, he can have the ugly sun-girl, I want the pretty fire-girl!" Motochika stormed out and his father followed soon after.

Kasuga exhaled finally. So her fate was decided. She wouldn't be a glorified whore, she would be an honorable killer. But even at seven years old, she knew the lesser of two evils was still evil.

The Koga clan was so much different from her home in Sanuki. Sarutobi and Fuuma had taken her far from the island of Shikoku, to the northern inland prefecture of Kai. It was strange to be so land-locked when she was used to being able to look in any direction and see the sea on the horizon.

Now, there were only mountains and trees.

So many trees.

The Koga clan was a tightly knit village of five main families. The heads of the Sarutobi and Fuuma families, she had already met, and in fact, she was now an adopted child of the Sarutobi family. There was also the Kusanagi, Yasakani, and Yata families. She was immediately warned of the Iga clan on the other side of the mountains, especially of the Kirigakure and Hanzo families.

She couldn't sleep after Sarutobi left her alone.

It was only half because she was having trouble adjusted to this sudden new life.

The other half was her new brother in law.

"How come you're not asleep, Kasuga-chan?" He had red-brown hair and brown hair and a mouth that never shut up.

"Waiting."

"For what?" He was laying on the tatami mat, looking up at her as she sat on her knees.

"Not what."

He sat up a little. "So, who?"

"My father's retainer... he'll come looking for me."

"Huh?"

"He's the only person I have left..." Kasuga looked down at her lap. "He's supposed to protect me now that my parents and my neesama... my neesama..." Her little throat closed up and her eyes stung with tears. "Neesama..."

"Kasuga-chan." He sat up fully, patting her hair. "It's okay to cry if you want to."

"Leave me alone, Sasuke." She pushed his hand away. "I'm leaving as soon as Hisahide-san finds out where I am."

"He's not going to..."

"He will! Your stupid father kidnapped me!"

"My dad saved you."

"Your father killed my parents!" Kasuga buried her face in her hands. "Hisahide-san will find me... he will... and we'll go back to Shikoku and rebuild the Miyoshi clan... and kill the Chosokabe..."

Sasuke shook his head. "My dad could've let something a lot worse happen to you."

"Your father could have let my parents live. That's not worse."

Sasuke was dumbfounded. He fell quiet, the only remaining sounds in the room were Kasuga's sniffling.

Hours seemed to pass until everything was silent and Kasuga stood up. She started walking toward the door.

"What're you doing?"

"I'm going to make it easier for Hisahide-san to find me." She opened the door.

Sasuke shot up, grabbing her around the waist. She shrieked, and he clapped a hand over her mouth, dragging her back to the tatami mat. She struggled fiercely, kicking her legs, the thumps of her heels against the floor echoing through the mostly empty room. She scratched at his arms, tossing her head. She bit his hand, and he let go in surprise.

She scrambled away from him, but in a flash, he was in front of her, shaking his hand out. "Kasuga-chan, you can't leave."

"I'm leaving, Sasuke. You can't stop me."

"I... I can. I don't want to hurt you, Kasuga-chan. Please don't make me," he said.

She tried to run past him, but he grabbed her around her thighs and picked her up over his shoulder. She weighed nothing to the almost ten year old Sasuke, she was small even for a girl her age, and was soft from being pampered like the daughter of a lord should be.

Hanging over Sasuke's shoulder, she noticed a dark figure leaning against the wall, just beyond the door frame. She realized that even if she made it past Sasuke, his father was out in the hall, ready for her. She wasn't going to escape... Hisahide-san wasn't going to find her. There was no Sanuki to go to home to. She cried.

Sasuke sat her down on the tatami mat and pulled her into a hug. She cried and Sasuke petted her hair until they both slumped over onto the mat and somehow, almost miraculously, fell asleep.

Sarutobi shook his head, smiling sadly. He should have heeded Fuuma's warning about adopting a little girl, but... he didn't regret it. He hadn't seen Sasuke sleep so soundly in years.

End of chapter one.
Hopefully this and my other two SB fics will make it to the end.
Also, about the Koga and the Iga: they were two rival schools of ninja teachings. Kotaro Fuuma was said to come from one, and Hattori Hanzo from the other. The relationship between Sasuke Sarutobi and Saizo Kirigakure is similar. Tahdah. And Kusanagi, Yasakani, and Yata are the names of the three sacred treasures of Japan (the sword, the magatama and the mirror). Whoo for references. I win, bitches. Review me.