Chapter 7

Hiroshi slowly opened his eyes as sunlight leaked in through the dusty window. It took him a second to remember where he was, but once he figured it out, his brain started moving. Why did they have a house and not live in it?

He looked around the room he slept in. It seemed like a normal bedroom, nothing really characterizing about it, except for the smell of the comforter. His nose was sensitive enough to know that this had to have been his dad's room when he was growing up. He got up and walked over to the window, looking out into a yard that, growing up, his dad probably practiced in with his father, maybe even his grandfather practiced with his father.

It didn't sound like his dad was awake yet, so Hiroshi decided to look around. He walked with as quiet of footsteps as he could out of the bedroom and into the hall. To his right there were three other doors, probably other bedrooms, and to the left was the living room and kitchen. The house was pretty big, so much bigger than their apartment that's for sure.

He treaded carefully into the living room, afraid the floor may squeak. As he walked, he looked at some of the pictures that were on tables or hanging on the walls. He gasped as he saw the man from his dream. He was wearing more traditional style clothing and standing next to a woman with light brown hair and familiar eyes… Instantly it clicked.

Sakumo was his grandfather. It made sense, all of the things he'd been saying to the sky. He must've been talking to his father. Hiroshi shook off the chill he felt in his spine and walked out the back door, to see the yard. In a certain spot, a huge pile of dirt sat where a deep hole had been dug. Now why would that be there?

Hiroshi hopped over to the hole to get a better look inside. It was pretty deep, but the sun made it easy to see what was in it. Remains… Human remains.

"DAD!"

"It will take a week for the ritual to be complete. Are you sure these are the DNA samples you would like?" Yuichi asked as he took two bags from Sasuke and Orochimaru.

"Positive. We made sure they had no connection with each other," Sasuke said. "You said something before about another person who could be of use to us?"

"Yes, I am bringing back one of the Sand Village's most excellent shinobi, cut down too early in her prime. I could come with you to whatever you plan on doing with these puppets and aid you," he said with a strange lust in his voice. "I could be useful."

In Yuichi's mind, he could picture the ultimate revenge, striking down that lazy copy cat of a shinobi with a person he wouldn't want to fight against, a person that he stole from him. Yes, this would be perfect.

Kakashi and Hiroshi finished shoveling the dirt back onto Sakumo's hand dug grave, disgusted by the thought of an animal of some sorts digging up this relative and eating him. They tried not to think about it though.

"So Sakumo was your dad?" Hiroshi asked, staring at the now fresh plot. "And you buried him here… because the cemetery wouldn't take him."

"Yes and yes," Kakashi said. "Which is one of the many reasons why we don't live here."

"There are more reasons?" Hiroshi asked, shivering a bit.

"Well, yeah, some of them being that the house is old and in need of a severe update. Others being more personal matters… We should be heading back," Kakashi changed the subject quickly. "I'm supposed to go work on that mission again today."

"Can I tag along?" Hiroshi asked as they started walking home, neither wanting to waste chakra.

"I don't think so," Kakashi said sternly, resulting in a sigh from Hiroshi. He was starting to get restless with no missions and only training to do. "I'll keep you posted."

Once they reached the training grounds, the pair parted ways. Hiroshi decided to hang back and practice the lightning blade some more, hoping that it would finally work this time. Of course, it wouldn't.

Kakashi, on the other hand, had to go to Lady Tsunade's office and pour over the research they found about who could be working with Orochimaru, what kind of involvement they had with the Akutski, and what kind of reanimation jutsu were out there. Even though they'd been searching for weeks, the amount of information they had was sadly lacking.

"They could just want to be joining the Akutski," Kakashi said simply as he paced her office.

"But wouldn't he have just said that then?" Tsunade questioned, staring at the information. "It seems most of the shinobi known for reanimation jutsu were medical nin at one point. And, Hiroshi did say that they had come from the direction he came from, meaning they could be using the Akutski as influences on someone from here."

"We could research any rogue medical nin," Kakashi thought out loud. "but, just because they were meeting here, if they were, doesn't mean that whoever they're trying to influence is from the village. They could've done this to throw us off."

"It seems as though they didn't know Hiroshi was there until a certain point," Tsunade pointed out. "Why would they say something to purposely throw us off if they didn't know we were listening?"

"They were near Konoha. They may have assumed someone was listening," Kakashi stated. Tsunade clicked her pen against the desk and rubbed her head with her other hand. "We should probably check the area again; see if there is any evidence."

"We've already checked several times. They didn't leave a trace of anything," Tsunade sighed, dropping her pen on her desk and rubbing her temples. Kakashi went back to pacing steadily, hoping that some sort of clue would click in his head.

Meanwhile, Hiroshi was working on getting back into his rigorous training schedule, doing anything to keep his body moving. He didn't like how his body didn't feel the same after what happened at the river. Every so often, it would act differently than it use to, or freeze up, but Tsunade said that was probably only temporary.

He also didn't like his father working on this case. True, he was Sasuke's teacher, so he probably knows his weaknesses better than anyone, but whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was emotionally involved. He treated Sasuke like a son somewhat, so for him to be working to hunt him down would be like him working to hunt Hiroshi down.

On the other hand, he did try to kill Hiroshi, so maybe that's making it easier. He knows that Guy is ready to run into battle with him, guns a blazing, all because of what happened. Even with this fact, Hiroshi couldn't imagine his dad wanting to kill Sasuke. Maybe it was the shinobi mode where he was focusing on getting his mission complete. Whatever it was, he had a strong feeling that his father wouldn't be able to kill anyone who had been his comrade, no matter how bad they were now.