Slowly snow fell from the heavens.

And a casket was lowered into the ground.

"Noooooo!!! Why are you burying Gran-Gran!!!" Michi cried, rushing to the edge of the rectangular hole her grandmother was being placed in.

Atsuko caught Michi before she threw herself onto the casket.

Michi struggled to get out of Atsuko's hold, wailing even louder as tears from her reddish brown eyes and snot from her nose seemed endless. "G-Gran-Gran wouldn't be able to get out when she wakes up!! Stop it!"

Haku held his grip on the sleeve of his mother's kimono, looking up at Michi. He was old enough to know the meaning of the word 'dead', but not Michi. Just hearing Michi's tearful voice filled of woe, he felt tears build up in his eyes.  Then he shook his head, his grip tightening on Atsuko's sleeve. He couldn't cry; that would cause Michi to cry even more.

She said in between tears and gasps "A-A-Auntie! U-Uncle! Tell ..... them to stop!!!"

She had nurtured this girl before she was even a month old and developed maternal instincts towards her. The woman's heart ached. Atsuko held Michi against her chest, rocking her. "Shhh. Shhh. Shhh. I'm sorry Michi-chan. I'm sorry Michi-chan." She continually apologized in a soft sad voice as she tried to comfort the child.

At the end of that day, Michi Akagawa cried herself to sleep. A square bandage was to side of her right temple. Some tears still continued to leak from her closed eyes as she sniffled every now and then.

Haku who sat beside her with a small warm towel in his hand wiped those tears. "Michi." He murmured.

The child who's name he had called out to was remembering her final moments with her grandmother before everything turned red in the form of a dream.

Michi sprinted over to the bed Sachi was laying on. A big smile was on the child's face but it slowly dropped as she saw the deathly pale complexion of the retired shinobi. "gran-gran are you okay?" She inquired, concern laced in her voice. "Did you catch a cold? I will get the medicine right away."

Before the child could dash over to the medicine cabinet, Sachi Akagawa gently took a hold of her grandchild's right wrist.

Sachi Akagawa's action caused Michi to stop in place and turn around, facing her.

"Little Michi, no medicine can heal your Gran-Gran." Sachi divulged with a wry smile.

Michi's lips pressed together tightly, then she opened them to murmur. ".... then how about a ...jutsu?" She said the word 'jutsu' even softer than the previous words in her query.

The retired kunoichi had told Michi about her family being shinobi from the loathed Akagawa Clan, that no longer existed. Sachi had shown Michi several water-style and healing jutsu before. And when her father had came home, he would coldly train her until she had mastered what he had taught her.

The child had promised her grandmother that she would keep all of this a secret between them. She couldn't even tell Haku.

And she knew that she must not freely converse about such things and show others her prowess because Sachi had said these things exact words to her, 'bad things would happen and we would have to move'.

That's how she had been able to keep Michi's mouth zipped under lock and key.

Sachi reached her hand gently patting her granddaughter's head.

Michi being a spoilt gran-gran's girl nuzzled her head against the woman's hand.

"Little Michi, my dear child. There is a jutsu that, but it must not be done."

Michi tilted her head to the side, her eyebrows furrowed. The child was confused. "Why can't it be done if it could heal you?"

Without warning blood commenced to ooze from Sachi's eyes, nose, ears and mouth. "You will find out in the future."

Michi gasped, frightened. With her hue of her skin going paler, she trembled. Her auburn eyes became hot with tears and her brain screamed for her to back away but she couldn't. The person laying in front of her was her grandmother. "...G-g-gran-gran quickly tell me which medicine to get! What can I do you help?! Should I call Auntie?!" She used the ends of the sleeves of kimono to continuously dab Sachi's bleeding eyes, nose and mouth. But the child found out that her sleeves wouldn't cut it as more and more blood bled out of her grandmother. Before she could get a bigger fabric of cloth to wipe the blood coming from her grandmother, with her auburn eyes now closed, Sachi weakly said. "....Little Michi, the dagger."

Hearing the word dagger, the Akagawa immediately knew what her grandmother had referred to. She quickly dropped to the floorboard, trying to not pay attention to the blood that was on her. Then Michi frantically removed the loose piece of wood, threw it to the side and pulled out the dagger from it's hiding place.

This dagger, her grandmother had told her that it had belonged to her mother, Kana Akagawa. That the heir of the Akagawa Clan wielded it and that it was special.

Did this dagger possess some type of power to heal her grandmother? "How can I use this to help you Gran-Gran?!" She removed the blade from its sheath.

"Cut the thumb of your right hand enough to draw blood. Then using your thumb, tap your thumb against each of fingers."

Michi gulped but she obeyed. Why wasn't she used to this even though her father had forced her many times to cut herself, so she would be able to utilize a technique of the Akagawa's kekkei genkai? Squeezing her eyes tightly shut, she utilized the blade to shallowly slice through the epidermis of her thumb and proceeded with the rest of the steps. Her voice trembled. "G-G-Gran-Gran, I did it."

"Good." Sachi nodded her head. Doing a hand sign with a left hand, an immense scroll taller than Michi herself, appeared in front of the girl.

"Write your full real name on it like how Gran-Gran taught you, then press all five of your fingers against it."

"Done."

The scroll vanished.

"Are you going to be better now?"

Sachi Akagawa felt that every cell in her body was created out of lead as she sat up. Using her blood that bled from her, with six strokes she wrote the kanji for 'blood' on Michi's head. "Little Michi, Gran-Gran adores you. That dagger is yours. And it's ability.... up to you."

That kanji glowed then vanished from Michi's forehead. "Noooooo!!!!" She screamed. Her vision was only filled with red like before and the child lost consciousness.

".....It seems like that unfilial son isn't going to make it in time." She started to find it hard to breathe let alone speak. "Ah, Yuichi for your meaning your name, I hope you will be kinder to Little Michi. And to Little Michi if you go through strenuous trials awaiting for you in the near future with the clear path you will surely find your happiness, I hope with that unfilial son." Her voice became softer. "With that, I count all my blessings gone."

And Sachi Akagawa drew her last breath.

•••••

The squashing sounds of footsteps traipsing on the snow could be heard. The Akagawa stood in front of the gravestone that had the name 'Sachi Oda' engraved on it.

He was late, very late.

He could had made it in time if he didn't had to fight with that rogue shinobi who was after his head named Kakuzu. His mother's summoning, Komori had led the rogue shinobi to him and quickly un-summoning himself after he had told him the state in which his mother had been in.

Yuichi quickly left then returned back to his mother's grave. He lit some incense and placed his mother's favourite flowers on her resting place. He placed his hands together, closed his auburn eyes and crouched down onto his knees, praying to her.

After he was done from a long prayer, an image of his daughter materialized his head. It was most likely that she was with that woman with the Yuki Clan blood. He had tried to recall where she had lived but gave up, opting for just sensing Michi's chakra signature. Perceiving her chakra signature, he followed it.

Once he reached the small wooden abode, he saw Atsuko outside.

Seeing him to the woman's eyes widened. Then she called out to him. "Oda-san, your mother-"

He spoke, "I already know."

Concluding that he must have wanted to talk about his daughter, Michi, she had invited him inside.

Placing a cup of hot tea in front of him, she sat down at the table the Akagawa had been already seated at.

Surprisingly Yuichi was the first one to speak, "with my job, I can't bring a child with me."

Atsuko had already known that even if she didn't have exact knowledge on what he did for a living.

"Every month I would provide you with 529,037.50 ryo ($5000) for the child's expenses as you see fit and the remaining sum of money for you and husband for taking care of her." He simply said, straight to the point. "That is if you agree to looking after her."

Atsuko's hands clenched. So he was abandoning his child after she had lost her grandmother. Anger boiled through her. She wanted to splash his face with the untouched hot cup of tea she had given him. Then she had immediately thought about what would happen to Michi if she did not agree to looking after her. What would that little child go through? "We'll look after her but we don't need your money."

Yuichi stood on hearing this, then left to depart.

Atsuko didn't lead him out or stopped him.

Going to get the cup of tea to wash up, she noticed something. Next to it was a bag of money. That hadn't been there before when he had stood up or she would had noticed. When had it been placed there? How exactly had he done it?