Symone: A Naruto Side-Story - "The Heart Of Rain".
Chapter One: The Day My Heart Turned Cold...
The hard life of the world reflects in each child. Children take these young memories and build from them, becoming the person they are in the future afar, accepting all the good, along with all the turmoil sedating their young, expressive minds. Some pave their own mentality, but unfortunately, there are others who don't have such an easy path to follow and have it chosen for them insidiously, living with there own detest, though those who are detested can usually still be saved if they're young enough to still be branded by new hope. This is a story about a kunoichi who was one of those unlucky children, living a path she didn't choose, and now, without further ado...
"The Heart of Rain": A Naruto Side-Story.
"The rain is pouring hard again... as usual" said the fourteen year old boy ninja, sitting by the window in his small home in the Hidden Rain village. A young girl replies to him, "...but, Souitai...", referring to the boy with a depressive response. "I'm sorry Symone. When the rain calms down, we can go and practice our kunai training... okay?" Souitai responds to the saddened girl, smiling with his head tilted to the side, stupidly expressing his glee as she responds, "Okay...!" with an avidly dramatic tone. Suddenly, an aggressive, but loving voice is heard. "Souitai... You'll soon be accepted as a Jounin, and with the potential you have at such a young age, you're a rare thing in this small country of ours. Without a doubt, you will be drafted into the war. It might be even sooner than you think with the way the Hidden Snow is advancing with their superior technologies and ninja. You shouldn't be playing child's games with your little sister!" said the man as Souitai responds, "Father... I understand. I'll go outside and train", looking down from the window as he grabs his ninja tools. "I'll be back in a few hours" said Souitai as he walked out of the door with an eerie silence emanating it's hindered whispers. "Touhou! Did you send our child out in the pouring rain again?" a woman yells. "Feiru... You have to understand. I push this child for not only our sake, but for his own. It's known by everyone how talented he is since he became a Chuunin at the Hidden Leaf's exam. He WILL be drafted. When that day comes, he will need to survive so he can come back home to us. Don't you want that... Feiru?" said Touhou as he walked towards the window, watching his son outside disappear into the woods. "Yes... I... I understand, Touhou" said Feiru as she walked into the kitchen in the next room, washing some dishes while Symone just curiously looks at her family, slightly afraid for her Brother's sake. "Daddy..." says the tiny kunoichi. "Yes, Symone?" her father replies. "I don't want anything to happen to Brother... but he looks so sad every time he goes out there! Is big Brother gonna be okay?" Symone asks with her frown piercing through the heart of her Father. Touhou replies, "I don't want anything bad to happen to him either, kiddo. I'm sure when this country settles down, he'll be fine" as he then thinks silently to himself, "...at least... I want to believe so".
After about 3 hours time within the woods, Souitai is seen training hard, slipping and gliding across the wet grass as thunder starts gleaming it's heavy weight through the gray clouds above. Souitai jumps up in the air, ricocheting off the trees as the young Chuunin readies his kunai between his fingers. As Souitai reaches the peak of mid-air, the gravity swallows him back down onto the earth as he twists his body, hurling his kunai in a consecutive row into marks he had left upon the trees in the woods. He lands on the ground with mud splashing up into his face and dark blue hair; his tan and black jeans now turned brown from the mud as well. Souitai then discards a shuriken he had in the bag to his side, hurling it over an extended length of several hundred feet, slashing the target he had put up in the tree. Souitai runs forward; mud splashing onto his body as he slips, catching himself as he glides with his hands, flipping up and bouncing off of a nearby tree as he uniquely places a shuriken around the tip of a kunai he had discarded, hurling it at a fast pace, turning the shuriken into a razor blade that was placed on the kunai as he barrels it deep in the center of a massive tree stump. Suddenly, thunder strikes down, hitting the tallest tree behind him. The tree begins to fall as Souitai realizes it at too late a time. Souitai places his fingers in a seal as his eyes widened in horror. "Ryokushigo No Jutsu!(Strength Times Five Technique!)" he yells as his muscle slightly ripples in his body, tightening his clothes as a light form of chakra circles him. Souitai holds his hands out as the tree slams down on him hard as he tries to hold it from falling on him, struggling as his feet sink into the muddy grass beneath him. "Shit!" he screams as he realizes he's slowly sinking, struggling with the tree as his fingers splinter and his head is cut open. Suddenly, his boost of power allows him to create enough adrenaline in his body to throw the tree to the side. Thankfully, Souitai breathes a relieving echo in the woods as he falls, laying on the muddy ground as tired as he could ever be; his feet being pushed out from the sinking ground as he planted himself into the mud. Souitai smiles a moment as he reflects back on the words of his Father as it steals the joyous emotion patched onto his face. "Souitai... You will have to kill for this country! As much as it saddens me to say it, you need to learn to kill! Doing so will help you come back home when you're drafted! Don't you understand? This is why you train... in hopes to learn how to emit the families blood-line limit! Once you do so... you will NOT be rivaled my child" he hears in his head as the rain gently smacks down onto his face, rolling down his cheeks and dripping from off the side of his nose as he says out loud to himself, "What's the point of coming home after killing a man?... I can't even live with myself now, and you expect me... a fourteen year old child to kill and come back trying to live an ordinary life? Heh... how ignorant you truly are... Father", turning his head over to the side as he relaxes in the rain, looking up at the beautiful, but threatening sky as it cries the tears Souitai wishes he had the power to cry himself...
Back at the house, Symone is seen standing by the window, waiting for her older brother to come back home as her Mother calls her for dinner. "Symone! Dinner!" Feiru yells from the kitchen to her daughter as Touhou sits at the edge of the dining table. Symone walks into the kitchen and sits in the chair that is placed in the middle-left; Souitai's usual seat. As they eat, an unbearable silence is all that there is to listen to, besides the chewing of the roast chicken in their mouths. "Remember guys, save some for Souitai. He'll probably be hungry when he comes home" says Feiru as Touhou looks at her, sighing in response as he nods his head from up to down a tad, agreeing with her words. "Father... Shouldn't we wait to eat until Souitai comes home?" said Symone as she places a piece of chicken in her mouth, chewing cutely and wide mouthed as always. Her Father replies, "I'm hungry NOW, so we eat now. Understood?" as Symone looks to her Father with a sad expression in her eyes, looking down, swallowing her chicken quietly. As the time passes, the family finishes eating and heads to the living room to relax and listen to their radio about the war as Symone just ran to the window again awaiting her Brother's arrival. "...Snow country seems to be infiltrating at a faster pace than we had expected, with their huge arsenal of gun weaponry and military structure. It has been reported that so far, 150 from the Hidden Snow had been killed in battle, while the Hidden Rain unfortunately skyrockets it's death toll to over 560 now. The war is becoming urgent as about nearly half the country has been plagued by these invaders...We can't"; Touhou turns off the radio, cutting off the broadcast as he walks away into his bedroom. Feiru looks at him and looks to the floor, saddened as always after listening to the radio now days as they typically always did together after a nice big dinner. Suddenly, Symone notices Souitai walking back from the woods he had disappeared into as she screamed, "Brother!", running by the door, waiting for the pat on the head and the smile she receives every time he comes home after training. Souitai walks through the door as Symone waits for her big Brother to pat her head, but he silently walked right through the door, heading straight for his room as he dragged in mud and blood. His Mother Feiru watches him before he closed the door to his room, just barely catching his attention as she says, "Souitai, we have leftovers for you on the table". Souitai silently responds emotionless as he closes his door, "...yeah". Feiru looks to her daughter Symone as she says, "Symone, come here", smacking her knees, giving Symone a signal to come sit on her lap by the fireplace. Symone smiled a little. "Okay!" she says enthusiastically as she lays on her Mothers lap, looking over at Souitai's door curiously as he comes out from his room just to walk across it to go into the bathroom, carrying fresh clothes with him. "Souitai..." Symone thinks to herself, continuing on with her thoughts, "...maybe if I was older and was as good of a ninja, I could help you... but I can't...", looking away from where Souitai was, holding on tightly to her Mother.
Two weeks had passed as yet another rainy day seemed to soak down onto the families house as they all listen to the radio in their living room. "A disappointing turn of events happened this morning in the Hidden Rain. The missing-nin named Doushu, once the Hidden Rain's most powerful ninja of the south... has died today. Doushu returned to the village, hearing it was at war as he held off multiple squads of the invading Hidden Snow until finally being brought down after a week. Because of him, many families had a chance to flee from the south side before it was unfortunately invaded. News went out to the village of the Hidden Leaf as they are sending A-rank ninja squads to help with the war. That is all" the radio had transmitted as Touhou turns it off. "Dad... wasn't Doushu the name of that guy you said you were once friends with?" said Souitai. Touhou responds, "Yes... infact, it's most likely the same person. That means, if he can't help win this war, no one can" as he walks away into his bedroom like he always does after hearing the bad news on the radio. Souitai turns around by the couch, looking for his little Sister. "Mom... Where's Symone?" he asks as he walks to the window. Feiru replies, "I don't know, is she outside?". Souitai replies as he opens the window, "Yeah, she's right out front practicing her ninjutsu" as he sticks his head outside of the window, yelling to his little Sister, "Hey! It's raining out!... and it's freezing! What are you training for?" as she replies, "If I become a good ninja, maybe I can go to the front lines of the war so you don't have to and you can stay home forever!" childishly as she hurls a shuriken at a target, actually nailing it as Souitai laughs a little, thinking to himself, "Man... she's been training for so many hours every day. I don't even think she barely eats anymore! She's real serious about this!". Souitai walks outside of the front door, walking along the wet land to his little Sister. "Symone..." he silently says as Symone looks back to him. "Yes, Brother?" she replies. "I wanna teach you something... Just incase... Oh! I don't know... I go somewhere!" Souitai says, trying to conceal the fact he's talking about possibly dying as Symone replies, "Where are you going?... You're not gonna leave me are you?". "No... of course not, Symone. I promise... I will never leave you. Okay?" said Souitai in response to Symone as he pats her on the head and smiles stupidly. "Okay! Aslong as you promise!" Symone yells happily as she then asks, "So what are you gonna teach me?". "Well, it's a seal. I all ready taught you how to manipulate chakra... so it's time you learn your first seal, don't you think?" Souitai says to his little Sister as she jumps up in the most joyous of heights, replying back to her big Brother, "Yes! I wanna learn! I wanna learn!". "Okay..." Souitai responds, continuing onwards with as he speaks, "...the seal I'm teaching you is a seal to help protect you. Come here Symone" he said as Symone walks to him, looking up at her Brother emotionlessly. Souitai places his hand on the head of Symone as a whirling breeze of chakra emanates from his palm. "Hold still, okay Symone?" said Souitai as his little Sister replied, "Okay!". Souitai screams, scaring Symone as a whirling circle of chakra gets pushed into her body. Symone screams, "Souitai!"as she begins to form a molding of chakra around her own body like never before. She looks at herself now as the chakra around her gently whisks away as Souitai takes his hand off of his little Sister. "Wh-What did you do to me... Souitai!" Symone asks in question as Souitai responds, "It's part of the jutsu I'm gonna teach you!". "Oh! Okay!" replies Symone. "Okay... Now, I will teach you the seal for this jutsu. Watch closely..." said Souitai as he performs a hand seal for the jutsu very slowly, calling out the name as he finished the seal. "Tate Iji No Jutsu!(Shield of Memories Technique!)" he screams as he emits a green chakra barrier infront of his body. "This... is the Shield of Memories. It's embedded by Grandpa's chakra. He gave it to me before he died... and now that you're learning it, you'll always have a little piece of me in you for protection, too!" said Souitai as he looks at his little Sister happily. "Wow! Okay!... I'm gonna try to do the seal!" says Symone as she forms the seal... messing it up as she yelled gently, "Tate Iji No Jutsu!"... but nothing happened. "No no no.. You had the seal wrong Symone. It's like this!" said Souitai as he releases the jutsu he first used to demonstrate with, releasing it again as he reforms the seal. "Okay! I got it!" screams Symone as she tries to do it again. She performs the hand seal, then screams... "Tate Iji No Jutsu!". Suddenly, the little girl was able to emit her Brother's chakra barrier! "I did it! I did it!" screams Symone with the biggest of smiles. "All right! Good job, Symone! I'm so proud of you..." said Souitai as he gently hugged his little Sister as she released the jutsu. "Let's go back inside now, okay? We're both soaked! Haha!" laughs Souitai as he runs back into the house with Symone following. "Okay!" she said, drenched in the rain as she walks up to her front door thinking... "I'm so happy... I have such a good brother"...
While inside the house, everyone is asleep about 6 hours after the events of Symone and Souitai's teacher-student encounter outside. Symone got up to go to the bathroom. The poor girl was sick, and was running such a low temperature. She collapses in the hallway between Souitai's room and the bathroom as Touhou was still awake, sitting on the couch in their living room as he hears his daughters collapse, crying afterwords, waking up Feiru as she rushes out to see what was happening, hearing her daughters cries of pain. "Symone! What's wrong?" yells Touhou as he kneels down, holding Symone up against the wall as she lays sitting up on the floor. Feiru touches her daughters head and realizes she is freezing. Scared... they drag her into the living room by the fireplace in hopes that she would warm up, but she just kept crying and screaming in such intense agony. Suddenly... Symone let out one monstrous scream, and straight from her body, giant fragments of ice were emitting from her body with sharp points at every which way! She couldn't control it. Her screams got more and more horrific as shards of ice were flying from off of her body, shooting through everything in sight, ruining the house and ripping apart the walls. Souitai wakes up, hearing the noise and starts walking towards his door as Symone looks at the shards of ice... calming her yells as the ice breaks apart from her, seeing blood carved all along the cold water laying upon the ground, reflecting her own face. Souitai opens his door in a hurry, seeing Symone on the floor with ice all around. He looks to his left; by the living room... and he see's two bodies with long shards of ice through their stomachs and throats. Souitai begins to tear as Symone looks over to him, hugging her knee's as she rocks back and forth in fear, wide-eyed like never before as she begins to cry with tears rolling down her cheek, then turning to ice. Souitai runs to his Mother and Father and turns them from their stomachs, laying them on their sides as he calls out to them... "Mother!... Father!...". He turns to Symone in shock, looking back to his parents as he cradles his Mother in his arms. "Mother! Father! Please don't go! Don't do this!" Souitai screams as Symone's cries then get more intense. "..Th-That's... that's it... they're... dead. Both of them... but why? Why?..." Souitai said as he looked over to Symone as she begins screaming, too mumbled by the congestion in her nose from all the crying, "I did it! I didn't mean to! I wouldn't want to hurt Mommy and Daddy... I didn't want to do it... I felt sick! That's all! I love my Mommy and Daddy! Bring them back! Please! Bring them back to me, Brother! They can't go! They can't go!", screaming even more intensively. "Symone... You..." said Souitai, stopping himself of all thought as he sits next to his Sister with a tear rolling down his eyes. Souitai places his hand on Symone's head and tries smiling stupidly. "It's... it's okay, Symone", using up all his courage just to comfort his Sister who had just murdered his parents. "Brother!... I swear, I didn't want to do this! I don't know what happened! Everything was fine and then I just got sick and then Mommy and Daddy were..." yells Symone as Souitai cuts off her cries as he speaks. "Symone..." he says, continuing on with his depressive words, "I know you didn't mean to...", whiping the blood of his parents off her face with the shirt he had taken off just at that moment. "I don't understand... she was able to obtain our bloodline-limit, yet I can't?... she can't even control it... she killed our parents by accident. She's now just become... trouble!", Souitai thinks to himself as he stands up. "Symone. Go to your room. I have to get rid of their bodies before someone comes and notices" says Souitai as suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Quickly in a shock, he pushes the bodies over into the hallway more so those by the door wouldn't see as he walked to it. Souitai opens the door after swallowing roughly, seeing two men standing there with their rain hats covering over their faces as one screams, "Souitai! We need you! Even though you're not officially a Jounin, you're far surpassed the power of one. You're young, but you're being drafted. The Hidden Snow has just pushed forward by this territory. If we don't stop them... I give them a week before they ravage this side of the Hidden Rain. We have to hurry! Get your ninja tools!" one of the men yelled. Souitai looked behind him, hesitating to reply. "...alright... one minute" he says as he closes the door. He walks to Symone's room and watches her lay on her bed, crying hysterically in massive agony and pain, soon to be living with a burden she can never erase. "Symone... I'm being drafted. I can't get out of it. There are bigger problems out there than this unfortunately. I'm so sorry this is happening right now. I can stay here, and wait to be killed, or I can leave and attempt to rescue us and others in danger..." Souitai says in a depressive tone, lacking in any emotion as his eyes gleamed a saddening strain from the heart while Symone was listening to him as her tears roll, calmly turning back into just water, melting the older tears from her cheek. Souitai walks to Symone as she looks upwards at him. Souitai kisses her on the forehead and walks away towards the door, but before leaving her room, he says one final thing before leaving his young little Sister alone with the dead bodies of their Mother and Father. "Symone... remember... I'm always there... inside of you, ready to protect you. Be safe... little Sister" as he walks away, and then out of the door. As Symone hears the door slamming, she runs from out of her room and to the window she always looked out of for her Brother's return, watching him run off quickly with the two men who came to their house. Symone sits by the window, alone... all alone.
Four days goes by... Symone sits still by the window, not moving even once since her Brother had left. She looks to the radio slowly turning her head. She gets up finally, walking over to the radio, putting it on as she sits back down in her chair by the window, thirsty and deprived of a cooked meal. "The war is over. Hidden Leaf villages elite A-ranked shinobi had helped us through our hard times. We owe our thanks to them! Without them, we couldn't of quickly revolted back and ended this 2 days ago. All ninja who made it through the hardships of this war should now be safely in the arms of their loved ones. Finally... The Hidden Rain can rest in peace after this war that lasted over a month..." said the man on the radio as Symone then tunes it out. She decides to stand up. She walks back over to the radio and turns it off. She realized... big Brother wasn't coming home. She let out a tear as it froze on the side of her face. She aggressively walked to where her parents rotting bodies were, staring at them.
Two hours later, Symone appears in front of her home, praying to the graves she had made and buried her parents in as she appeared all dressed up for a funeral. Symone leaves an open grave next to her parents grave as she thinks to herself, "This one's for Brother... for when they recover his body". Symone walks inside her house, grabbing a bite of a few crackers, stuffing even more in the side-pocket to her morbid pink and black dress as she drinks down a glass of water, filling up a canister to the top with water of her own, putting it with the broken crackers. Symone takes a kitchen knife and starts stabbing at her dress, cutting it up so it wasn't so puffy and annoying, leaving it tightly up to her mid-thighs as she lifted up the strap to the dress back onto her shoulders. Symone walks silently to her door, walking outside, bowing her head for her parents memory as she then walks off... wandering into the woods she had seen her Brother go into so many times before.
Thoughts of a Blackened Image - "Mommy... Daddy... I always loved you. I never wanted you to die so suddenly. I'll repent for what I did I promise. Somehow... I'm gonna find a way to become a greater ninja. I'll never let what Brother died for happen in the world again! I'll become strong so others don't have to be! I'll be the greatest kunoichi I can... and I will repent for every thing. By the way... you guys missed my birthday. It's okay though because I didn't celebrate it and no one even knows it's my birthday besides you guys. I just wish someone was there though. I'm 9 years old now... you guys forgot to say happy birthday. It's okay... I know you're wishing it to me from heaven, aren't you? I'm gonna go now... I won't be the same you know. I'll see you later guys... but hopefully much later than sooner. I may of cut your lives short, and Brother died too early... but there are things I have to do. It's a sunny day out today by the way. I love you... I love you all. Good-Goodbye..."
The poor tormented heart of a young child named Symone. How will she deal with the terrors in her heart and where will she go now? She runs from the Hidden Rain like a serial killer on the run, but her families bloodline-limit was the uncontrolled cause of such a serious pain. Can she learn to control herself before she ends up just a natural killer? As Symone sheds her final tears over her parents graves, she leaves, wandering the landscape for something... but what? A home?... A heart?... A new beginning?...
My Statements - Thanks for reading the main introduction to the Chapters about such a devastating scenario for such a young child. This is not the final Chapter, but just the beginning to an extreme side-story of the Naruto series. Her heart is numb now and has no where to go without the risk of being hunted, so... where to now?
Special Thanks to Toni for use of her character and allowing me to create the best of beauty from it. Special Thanks to Masashi Kishimoto for the inspiration of such dialogue through the manga and anime, "Naruto".