NARUTO
by Belen the Bard
a/n: Haha. I don't think this is really an epic poem, since it's completely free-versed. Neither rhyme nor rhythm has a place in these things.
And it might not even be a "poem," actually.
But I'm calling it so anyway.
-A HERO'S BIRTH-
.
Once there appeared a nine-tailed fox that
Terrorized the village of Konoha,
A demon with a sickly orange coat
And eyes, yellow like witch's tooth.
The Fox was powerful, monstrous and terrifying:
A swing of its powerful tail can
Shatter the earth, swallowing creation, and
Raise waves as high as mountains.
Mortals were no match; death trailed at its footsteps,
And its arrival was the village's darkest day.
To fight the demon, the people of Konoha
Rallied their shinobi, bravest of beings.
And together they worked
The mythical arts of ninjutsu:
Mortal men and mortal women summoned from within
Courage, courage to face death in the eye
And fight death till the end,
Where the very last breath drawn would be
The final oath of loyalty for their beloved village of Konoha.
But even their combined force was pitiful compared to
The Fox's mighty wrath; for
What use was metal and skin-wrapped fists
Against the Nine-Tailed, the Kyuubi, strongest of its kind?
So on and on it went, the demon of destruction,
Leveling forests, destroying houses, and squatting men like flies,
Its wicked smile and yellow eyes promised death by the full-moon night.
On and on the battle raged, and the Fox roamed freely without pause,
And all hope seemed to have lost until one shinobi,
One particular shinobi, a man of great power—
A yellow flash, a red-and-white robe,
With the word Hokage printed on the dead man's back—
Was able to seal away the beastly creature
Into a newborn baby, at the cost of his own life.
This man's name was the Fourth Hokage.
While the golden-haired Kage died proudly as a hero,
The golden-haired child wept incessantly in his cradle.
For the demon now was held in his body,
And it shall forever change the baby's destiny.
So he wept, this child without a mother,
Cries drowned by the villagers' victory cheers,
Cries only heard by the bloody night air,
And this was the hero's birth.
His name was Uzumaki Naruto.