Disclaimer: Do I look like I own Naruto? Really?
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Live so Wise.
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Into each life some rain must fall.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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A Prologue
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Yakushima Tonbo was born on the Seventeenth of November, four-thousand and thirty two years to the day (4032 AGC) after the Great Calamity, in a small back room of the main Yakushima compound, in what eventually came to be known as the Bad-Lands.
In reality, it was the Land of Floods – a small land-locked country bordering six others, known primarily for its – surprise, surprise – vicious flood seasons and near consistent rain. But in the wars that spanned the ages, soldiers walked without care across its lands, reducing it to civil war and ruin. The Bad Lands would emerge; elusive and deadly to all who entered it's borders. But now it remained, however tentatively, the Land of Floods.
Forty-Seven miles from the closest border (the North-Western, leading to the Land of Plains – a squiggly line on the map that remained the least stable border across the continent) lay Amegakure, the Village Hidden in the Rain; A lake locally known as Yodomimashita (the Stagnant One, named for the death associated with it, she supposed, for the currents that swirled under its surface were violent and unforgiving) surrounded its walls and hid the four square miles of city behind sheets of rain and gloom. For three miles in any one direction lay the compounds of individuals associated with said village – the Yakushima Clan being one large group to the East.
They lived in amongst the Rice Paddies, next to where the trees stubbornly grew, leaves bursting into colour atop ancient trunks; covered walkways wove their way across the various agricultural pools, turning the landscape into a giant patchwork of greenery that survived despite the excessive rain, if only due to the irrigation system. Shrubbery and wispy grasses flourished in the fertile ground, surrounding the embankments and lining the roads, and contributed to the pitter-patter of rain that thundered against the carpet of green, bouncing off in a spray a foot high.
So it was to the sound of rain that Yakushima Tonbo was born, shriveled, pink and screaming.
Yakushima Hasu heaved her breaths, with tears spilling and sweat dripping as she held her daughter for the first time, and she laughed, stroking a shaky finger across the sheaf of dark green hair. Not blonde. It was matted and covered in bodily fluids, but it was there, just like all ten toes, and her nose, and her fingers and thumbs. And so Hasu laughed, because Tonbo looked just like her, and nothing like her father, who was out where only the god's knew on his supposed crusade for peace and slaughter.
He knew – he knew and he would come, but Tonbo was hers – not his, hers. Her little girl, her child – lo behold the fate of him if he tried to take her. There was a crack overhead, and Tonbo jerked in her arms, shrieking reaching a new pitch, distressed and confused, and yet all Hasu could marvel at was that her lungs were working perfectly, that she reacted, even at such a young age. She was so small; the rain beating on the windowpane outside could wash her away, fists waving and voice pitching. Her face was blotchy and squished, and her umbilical cord was still attached, and in places her skin was slightly purple but she was the most beautiful thing Hasu had ever seen.
In that moment, she decided she would have slaughtered the world if it decided her daughter wasn't worthy, regardless of shaky legs and blood dripping down her thighs. Lightning illuminated the night for a second, shining in her eyes, and for that split second, the 2nd Shinobi War could not touch Hasu and her daughter.
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Tonbo, if you'd asked, would have expressed how deeply and meaningfully she wished she could just say Fuck.
Being a newborn, however, tended to put limitations on this - this, of course being a large part in why she wished to express her opinion in the first place. You see, not too long prior to the momentous occasion that was her birth, Yakushima Tonbo was another person.
So, as you might imagine, she was fairly out of her element. She was an adult – okay, barely one, admittedly – in a newborns body. She was helpless, and vulnerable and she was angry… livid, actually.
This was all because that bloody man, she decides with no small amount of venom. Granted, she agreed to this, but she didn't sign up to be a fucking BABY. 'But how else would this work?' said a small thought that worms its way to the forefront of her brain. You don't speak the language. You don't look like them. You're fundamentally different and without any skill – how would you survive? How would you even begin to go about living once more?
She sighed as she relented to the thought, causing her mother to glance amusedly down at her face as her fingers fiddled with her small palms.
This shit was weird. This world was weird. It wasn't hers. Her brothers and sister weren't here. Her Mum wasn't here. Hell, her dog wasn't here, and it made her feel sick to her stomach. It would be as if they didn't exist at all, only memories in her mind, separated from her by her own stupidity. Tears burned in her eyes, and Tonbo wailed, ugly and loud, snuffling into her new mothers arms with helpless abandon. It wasn't fair.
Another chance, she scoffed. She's not sure it's worth it. What is worth leaving your loved ones behind? She didn't do it on purpose, but she did leave them for another life. She agreed to the options. She read the terms and conditions, as it were. But what was she supposed to do? Wait with the sure knowledge that when they next met, they would have died too? Would they even follow her to the same place?
She didn't know.
She didn't know, and it rang true in the back of her mind like a headache.
So she'd made a deal with the devil – made a deal with the man who had eyes like fire and a grip of desperation.
And here she was.
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A/N: Okay. I know I have one story already and several hundred on the back burner and I'm ignoring it currently, but life and exams and this really fucking great Idea I had.
SO, here we go. Questions welcome – reviews in general welcome. It's summer, so I have a bit more time on my hands. Granted there are exams still, but this is my de-stress thing, so hopefully I should get a decent amount written.