"You know nothing, I'll be strong." Hanako looked at the man with courage and narrowed eyes, while cleaning a bit of blood that fell from her mouth. Her eyes stung so she closed them for a bit. When the pain ceased she opened them once again, only to find that her vision had become red.
"Oh...this is getting interesting," he said amused. "Not every day you see a kid awake the Sharingan at such a young age." Hanako could see the difference; she was able to see the chakra of the person in front of her. Was this the power of the Sharingan? Was this what her father hid from her every time she asked him about it? Now she understood, now she could finally see it.
The man threw a kunai at her but she could see it slowly moving towards her, so it was easy for her to move backwards and dodge it. The knife fell at her feet, but when she returned her eyes at him, the masked man had already disappeared again. Hanako took the weapon and got ready for another attack. She felt again his presence behind her. She turned around and saw his attack coming, though she didn't react in time. Instead, she closed her eyes, waiting for the impact. Hanako felt a strong pain in her chest and again she went flying backwards. This time she crashed against a tree trunk and for a moment she wasn't sure if the crack sound she heard was coming from the wood or her ribs. She looked up slowly at her opponent, deactivating her Sharingan after feeling too tired. She still didn't have the chakra or the stamina to withstand it for long periods of time. She had never trained for its usage in her six years of life, even though at the age of four they are supposed to start preparing their bodies so that they don't pass out when it awakens.
"If you say you'll be strong then..." The masked man came closer and leaned to murmur something next to her ear. "Prove it." And with that he disappeared with the breeze of the wind. Hanako started to close her eyes, barely able to see the silhouette of a person moving quickly towards her.
"Hanako!" She recognized that voice...
"Dad..." Hanako managed to mumble softly before she became surrounded by darkness.
* * *
Hanako started to open her eyes slowly. At first, everything was blurry, but after blinking a couple times she recognized her room. The girl heard the door open and then close. When she turned her head around, she found her mother with a bucket full of water and a couple of towels. She knelt down next to it and wetted one of the towels before putting it on her daughter's forehead. She then started to nag about what she did and how wrong she was.
"Your father earned a pretty good reprimand when he came back." Hanako's gaze was still lost and she was sure her mother had noticed it. "Who knows what else could've happened to you if your father hadn't been on time." After that, they remained silent for a while. Akira pulled away the towel from her forehead to wet it again before putting it back. She did it two times. "You really scared me." She murmured softly and the girl's eyes moved slowly to her mother's face. "You were out for almost two days. I thought you wouldn't make it..." She took the towel off Hanako's forehead. Hanako tried to sit up, although it took a lot of effort from her part. When she finally made it, she felt her head pounding and she moved her hand to hold it, trying in vain to make the pain stop. "I'm glad that you're okay..." Her mother said in a whisper as she hugged Hanako tightly, making it hard for her to breathe.
"Mom, I'm fine..." The girl mumbled, trying to calm her down. She felt something humid in her shoulder and that's when she realized...her mother was crying. She had never seen her mother cry. Hanako placed her hands on her shoulders and pushed her apart slow and softly with a smile on her lips. "I'm fine," she assured her.
At that second, her father entered the room and looked at her with regretful eyes. "I'm so sorry..." he said, to the girl's surprise.
"Why are you apologizing?" Hanako asked with a frown.
"Because I shouldn't have left you alone in the woods; if I had just agreed to stay with you, none of this would've happened."
"You don't have to apologize." Her gaze drifted down. "Thanks to that, I realized something important." Yusuke and Akira seemed to be surprised at this, since they looked at each other with worried eyes, but didn't say anything about it. Hanako looked at them, figuring they were expecting her to continue. "I met a man. He told me that the Uchiha were interested solely on power." Their eyes widened slightly. "He offered to train me, but if I accepted I would be forced to abandon you." Hanako looked up at her parents for a second before returning her gaze to the ground. "I didn't want to leave you and that's why I rejected his offer. But, since Dad wouldn't train me, I asked him how should I make him proud and be able to change his mind. He told me the only thing I had to do, was let my power come to light."
"Who was that man?" her father inquired angrily.
"He told me his name was Danzo," she replied coldly. Hanako interpreted her father's anger as if he didn't want her to know something the man told her, or maybe because he was lying? But she didn't know how wrong she was. Even her mother was surprised by her lack of emotion. She grabbed her arm, making Hanako look at her. The girl softened her gaze and finished saying what she was going to say. "But I do not think that it is so wrong."
"What do you mean?" her father asked.
"After talking to the man, I encountered a masked man and I fought against him. That's why you found me in that state... But, Dad, thanks to that meeting I realized what Danzo meant." Hanako looked at him fixedly. She closed her eyes and opened them again with the Sharingan activated, to their surprise. "I've awakened my Sharingan."
"Impossible..." Her father took a few steps back. According to the clan's elders, she wasn't a pure blood, so she wasn't supposed to awaken her Sharingan. And though she did, at the age of six. Were they wrong? Yusuke frowned. He didn't understand what the matter with his daughter was. If she awakened her Sharingan, it was because she was a full-developed Uchiha. She inherited the Uchiha abilities.
"Dad...Train me please. I'm ready for anything," Hanako pleaded. Her father was watching her intently with his eyes wide until, after a long pause in which they only shared glances between each other, he finally sighed resignedly.
"Fine... But you have to do everything I tell you to. We'll start tomorrow when you're recovered," he announced, starting to walk towards the exit of the room.
"Yusuke!" Akira called after him, standing up. Hanako's father stopped before the door and slid it open.
"It's okay, Akira. She's ready." Hanako smiled looking at her father. He returned her gaze with a smirk before turning back to the door. "You should know by now, what this means..."
Akira watched her husband as he closed the door behind him. "Mom," Hanako called, making the woman look at her. "Can I get a shuriken kit, now?"
The horrified look in her face was priceless.
CHAPTER THREE: Encounter with the Masked Man
Start from the beginning
