Bloodlines

A new chapter at last! And thanks to my awsome Beta Aiza Hamada who took the time to clean bloodlines up from start to finish!sorry it took so long!

Troubling Tears

“Do we have to move? I like my room, I don’t want a new one.”

Haku had been cranky and clingy since returning from the meeting with Neji’s family. He refused to eat dinner, whined about taking a bath, was just generally unlike his usual self.

“You’ll like your new room better, it will be bigger, with your own little garden and play yard. We don’t have a yard here, maybe we can get a dog.” Naruto soothed gently, tucking his son into his bed. Colorful purple, blue and yellow frogs smiled at him from the bedspread, Haku’s face however was less than pleased, even at the lure of a dog.

“I don’t want a stupid yard.” Came the sullen reply. Haku threw himself face first into his pillow, dislodging a startled Ramen, who Naruto deftly caught and put back into his cage to warm on his rock.

He sat down, and put a hand to Haku’s forehead and was startled to find it warmer than usual.

“My head huuuurts.” Came Haku’s tiny voice, “and my eyes.” He rubbed a small fist against them, making them water. Naruto however was alarmed when he pulled Haku’s hands away and found them bloody. Tear tracks of dark red ran down the boy’s flushed cheeks and his eyes had turned the startling red of the Sharingan.


Tsunade removed the warm wet cloth from Haku’s face, before handing him the cup of willow-tea.

“Early activation of the Sharingan is something I have no experience with. I have heard of it being activated in children as young as Haku, but I’m not sure if this is a normal result.” She smiled gently as the small child burrowed closer to her. She urged him to drink the tea, which earned her a disgusted face. He looked at her with accusing, and thankfully dark eyes.

“It will make your headache go away, so drink it all.” It also had a sleeping aid in it. Now if she could only get Naruto to drink some. The worried father had crashed into her bedroom carrying Haku and a bloodied towel babbling something incomprehensible before pushing the little boy into her arms.

She had been more than a little surprised to see the Sharigan once she had cleared some of the blood away.

“ Why are his eyes bleeding!? That can’t be normal right? Sasuke’s eyes never bled!”

“Premature activation I suppose. . . perhaps it happened when he escaped from Itachi.” She couldn’t help frowning though, she had never heard of such a young child using the Sharingan. Still, the Uchiha clan had private healers of their own, like most clan’s with special traits like the Sharingan. And now, not one remained alive to give her some of the answers she needed. Damn Itachi once again.

“Take him home for now.” She told Naruto gently. Haku had already succumbed to the tea and slept in his father’s arms, the neck of his green lizard pajamas stained dark with blood. Blue eyes widened in panic, but Tsunade cut him off before a new set of hysteria could start.

“I plan on doing all the research I can. For now, all we can do is watch him. I will see if I can’t dig up something to temporarily block his Chakra until we figure this out.”
Naruto bowed his head wearily. At that moment, he looked every bit his meager twenty years, and Haku seemed impossibly small in his arms. She stroked her fingers through Haku’s dark hair. “I suppose nothing for an Uchiha is ever easy. Or Naruto.” She thought grimly.

Naruto was surprised to find Neji at his door, dressed in casual, at least for Neji, robes and a bag of take-out ramen in hand.

“I heard you had a rough night.” The man shrugged apologetically, “Hungry?”

Neji used his own Byakigan to look at Haku’s chakra pathways, but admitted he was no healer or expert on what was normal for an Uchiha, Haku’s age. Naruto was just happy to have the company. Sleep was impossible now, and Neji was a welcome, if not somewhat awkward distraction.

“I suppose for two people who are gonna get married, we really haven’t seen much of each other. . .” Naruto finally said after a uncomfortable silence over their empty ramen bowels.

“Missions and life have seemed happy to interfere. I am hoping however to have more time to know you better. Outside of what I learned during missions that is.”

Naruto had a rather intense flashback of the last time they were alone, and felt his hands go clammy. Neji was staring at him quite intently, and, Naruto realized, sitting close enough to feel the warmth of the other’s thigh against his own. Neji smelled pleasantly of incense and musk, and his eyes seemed impossibly brilliant, like pools of quicksilver he could fall into.

“Would it feel like this to be so close to Sasuke?” The thought instantly broke him from his trance, and he stood abruptly.

“Ahh, Id better check on Haku. . . Tsunade said to keep an eye on him. Neji looked disappointed, but not upset. He stood and bowed gracefully.

“Perhaps I may come again another night, or you and Haku could be my guests.”
Naruto nodded, smiling hesitantly. “Yeah, that would be great!”

When Naruto closed the door behind Neji, the Hyuuga’s scent seemed to linger in his apartment. With a sigh, and a wince at the bloodied towel still sitting on his table, Naruto entered Haku’s darkened room. The boy was sleeping with the limp boneless sprawl only the very young seemed to attain, blankets kicked aside. Naruto crawled in beside him, staring down at his son’s face until sleep managed to steel over him at last.