White Rose

I: Prologue – Yuffie Kisaragi

Tha-thump. Tha-thump. Tha-thump.

Yuffie's heartbeat was steady as she saw the love of her life, Vincent Valentine, transform into the legendary Chaos and annihilate the truly massive Omega WEAPON with an enormous blast of corrupted lifestream.

But then something happened that no one could have predicted: Omega Weiss, the fusion of Weiss the Immaculate White Lord and Omega, screamed, "If I cannot live as I must, then you shall live in sorrow!"

With this declaration, the dying human-WEAPON brought its tremendous hand down on AVALANCHE, seeking to destroy Vincent's friends in lieu of the former Turk himself.

Most of the others were still injured from fighting Deepground. There was no question in Yuffie's mind that unless she did something, everyone else would die.

So, readying the Conformer, the White Rose of Wutai leapt into the air, preparing to sacrifice herself in a suicide attack for her friends.

The massive energies released in her attack, along with the pure and corrupted life forces of Omega and Chaos, created what appeared to be a spatial vortex of sorts, which then consumed both Yuffie and Omega.

As the duo was sucked into the anomaly – which closed within seconds of opening – Vincent reverted to his human form and punched the ground in frustration. If not for Hojo's experiments over thirty years ago, then tears would've fallen from his crimson eyes.

Cloud, Tifa, and all the rest were horrified of what had just happened. Even Cid was struck as though by Meteor.

Barret had a brief flashback to when they'd first met the young kunoichi: back then, she would never have done such a thing, instead opting to run away and save herself. But in just three years, she'd seriously matured to the point of self-sacrifice.

Tha-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump…

Yuffie Kisaragi's eyes flashed open as she quickly took notice of three very important facts: 1) Omega Weiss was nowhere to be seen, 2) she was upside-down in the air, and 3) she appeared to be over a mile high and falling very, very rapidly.

Bereft of any other plausible options, the young lady brought out a red materia and called out, "Leviathan!"

Without any hesitation, a rather massive water serpent burst from the small red sphere's miasma before transforming into a sort of water slide that drastically slowed Yuffie's descent.

Within moments, Yuffie made her landing – lost, drenched, and with a somewhat sore bum, but nonetheless alive and in one piece.

Briefly looking over her various limbs and other body parts for injuries, the young kunoichi was relieved to find none. Deciding that her best bet for the moment was to get warm before finding a place to stay, Yuffie dusted off an old Fire materia and cast Fira on an empty garbage can nearby, providing a source of heat, which enabled her to dry off.

After warming herself for about twenty minutes, during which time she made a mental list of things she'd need to do soon (get a source of income, find lodging, etc.), Yuffie stretched a bit before going out into the streets.

The first thing to greet her sight happened to be one of the most terrible things she'd ever seen: a young boy (who couldn't have been older than five) lying in a puddle of blood. There was no sign of what might possibly have caused such a state of affairs, but that's how it was.

Gauging from the near-total darkness and the position of the moon, Yuffie estimated that it was about three in the morning, which in her mind might have explained why no one else had thought to help this dying child who presently lay face-down in a gutter on the side of the street.

Appearing next to the boy in a flash of speed that mere mortals could never have followed, Yuffie quickly located one of her green materia and cast Curaga on the child, followed by Regen. This handled the worst of his wounds and began healing his more minor injuries at a rapid pace. After just a few moments, the kid was in practically in mint condition. Yuffie smiled to herself: let them say what they will about her tendency to swipe any unclaimed materia in sight, at least she kept them excessively organized! She could locate any specific one of her countless materia in four-point-three seconds or less (depending on how far down in the bag it was) WHILE BLINDFOLDED. (1)

Bringing her mind back to the matter at hand, Yuffie picked up the young lad and carried him off to the first place she could find relative shelter, which was what appeared to be a condemned library. Yuffie leapt through the open window, and then set down the young boy on a slightly damaged couch.

Sighing, Yuffie quickly ran through a brief mental checklist. Alive? Check. Shelter? Check for now. Safe? Eh... sorta check.

Yuffie then set up a few talisman guards, thankful for those calligraphy classes her father had made her take at knife-point, before preparing to exit and find help. She was stopped, however, by a sudden thought: Little kids don't just bleed out on their own in the middle of the street, especially when they don't even have a weapon. That means that someone most likely caused those injuries intentionally – this kid… is he some kind of assassination target?

That thought made Yuffie do a 180 on the spot, pick up the kid, grab her stuff that she'd just set down, and then get ready to start exploring – partly to get some answers, and partly to find a more secure safe house.

Partially lamenting that she couldn't seal up living organisms into a scroll using her ninjutsu, Yuffie nevertheless held him securely and went roof-hopping, hoping that she'd eventually be able to find some sort of administration building. And, perhaps more importantly, hoping that the people here spoke either Wutaian or Midgar Standard, or even some passably close variant of one or the other.

Noting a conspicuously large tower near the center of the village, Yuffie began moving swiftly in that direction – even though it had to be at least half a mile away, the White Rose of Wutai could easily clear such distance in the time it took Vincent to pull the trigger on his gun.

Halfway there, however, a unit of six shinobi in black armor surrounded her, nearly moving at her level of speed. One of them said, "Excuse me, gaijin-san, but we need you to come with us."

Despite marginal relief at the variant of Wutaian that was being spoken, Yuffie's pretty face contorted into a bit of a scowl as she asked, "What for, shinobi-san?"

Emotionlessly, the speaker replied, "Hokage-sama, the leader of this Village, wishes a word with you, gaijin-san. Particularly after he learned that you found and saved Naruto-san there, who had been missing for quite some time."

"So that's kiddo's name? Naruto?"

Not deigning to answer verbally, the speaking shinobi merely nodded.

Thinking to herself for a moment, Yuffie decided that she needed answers, and speaking with the leader of this village was as good a means as any in order to get them.

Smirking, Yuffie commanded, "All righty then, boys, take me to your leader!"

White Rose

(1): Yuffie is often portrayed as having ADHD; I just gave her OCD to go along with it.