~Chapter 1~

It was yet another night. It was another trial she had to face, another night she had to triumph over...by surviving to see the next night. It was winter. Winter, the worst season of any. Food was scarce, water froze, and if she couldn't find shelter from the frigid winds and blizzards, she would die. It was always like this. She would one day die out here; she knew it. Fate had not been on her side, ever. The glorious snow that blanketed the ground glistened beautifully in the moon's pale light.

From deep under the root cavity of a old diseased hemlock tree, a girl rose. She was cautious, careful. She was quiet, stealthy. She evened her breathing so it couldn't be heard. She came above-ground trembling, for the only thing she could ever do in winter was shiver. She shivered to survive, her life depended on each action she chose to make. The wrong one could cost her a slow and painful death. And the right one could always end up going wrong. Her life was never easy.

She hobbled over to a berry bush near her tree. It was devoid of berries and leaves. There was nothing to gain from this bush. There was poisonous grass, but she would not eat it. Humans were instinctive creatures, they wanted to pink-haired girl was no different.

She had never known, however, that so close to her lie a village. In this village contained a Hokage, ninja, and many kindly people. She did not know what a village was. She had never known the wonders of being able to safely play in the snow with friends, or to enjoy a snow-cone. She had no idea what the concept of roasting marshmallows over the fire was, and indulging oneself in hot chocolate and equally hot cookies.

The only thing she knew was death, fear, struggle, and awareness. But then, all those things were to be expected of her, right? She lived here, in this barren forest. She survived here, she ate here, she breathed here. It was her home, the only place she knew to be safe. Yet she had no weapons with which to defend herself; she had nothing to preserve her food. There was very little water in winter; when the blessed water finally did arrive, it was always in the form of a terrible maelstrom. The inside of her "burrow", which she had dug out herself many a year ago, even though it was lined with dried grasses and occasional feathers for warmth, was always frozen over with miniscule crystals of ice. There would usually be ice coating the ground that next morning.

However, the things she did in these woods was the only way she knew how to live. Had she known any differently, she would've gone for it.

The pink-haired girl scooped up two handfuls of snow and breathed on them. The only thing she could do was hope that her body heat would melt the snow into water. Of course, breathing on the snow would help speed things up. And in the forest, time was everything. There was never enough of it in one night. During the day, she slept, that was why night was so essential. The reason for changing her sleeping schedules from night to day would be for safety reasons. Many predators came out during the day, and so did many animals. The predators and animals were awake. Any animal that wouldn't eat her was to be eaten. Any animal that would eat her was to be avoided. With both the threat and the prey asleep throughout the night, it only made sense that in order to adapt to this unforgiving lifestyle, the girl would become nocturnal. And it had paid off to be a good decision so far. She gathered small meals, varying from nuts that squirrels had buried to unconscious small animals. Every night was spent doing this. She had tried to store up fat in the spring and summer, but she was burning her fat reserves up quickly. She was already thin enough; it would be too easy to die of starvation here.

Meat was a specialty that could only be obtained through a silent kill. It had to be done flawlessly and rapidly. And the victim had to keep quiet, lest all other forest-dwellers awaken.

That night, the girl managed to somehow get close enough to a winter hare to grab it, snap its neck, and carry it off to the frozen stream a little ways out from her tree. There it would be eaten raw, for the mysterious pink-haired girl that nightly bathed in the dull light of the moon had nothing to cook it with, nor some way to dry it out. The most she could do was eat it while it was still warm. Afterward she had to be careful to punch a hole in the stream and wash off her hands and mouth. The faintest traces of blood were always detected by something. The daytime predators liked to go after sleeping prey, just as she liked to. Thankfully, her sense of smell, hearing, and touch had heightened greatly since she hadn't much use for her eyes in this forsaken darkness. Amazingly enough, though, this same forsaken darkness had never forsaken her, it had protected her very essence. Without the comforting embrace of this solid blackness, she would not have made it to live this long.

"Alright, alright," a blonde-headed boy said, making motions with his hands to tell everyone to settle down. "I have to admit, that story was pretty good, but now, I want to tell you a real story."

It had been such a great night for ghost stories, the male shinobi of the Hidden Leaf village had gathered around and proceeded to tell stories of things made up, things overheard, and things that had been legends since long ago.

"Please, Naruto, you stink at telling stories like this. You don't even add any effects to it! No spooky sounds, no jumping up to scare us, nothing," a brown-haired boy with a large white pet dog pointed out. The canine companion barked in agreement.

Naruto didn't even look offended. "This isn't something I made up, though. It's a legend even Grandma Tsunade knows about. And the best part...it takes place right in the woods that surround our village..."

Now that everyone, including the previously skeptical Kiba and Akamaru, were now interested. They had heard many a legend, but whenever Naruto told a legend, which was rare for him, he always emphasized certain parts to make it sound better. The announcement of a legend being told even captured the attention of Shikamaru, who wasn't even willing to come to this gathering. Negi hadn't really cared, he just thought the information could be useful. Kakashi, however, probably knew about whatever his pupil was about to say. Choji had wanted to come and helped Kakashi convince Shikamaru to come.

"They say," the genin began, "that there's a person, a girl, actually, who lives in those woods. They say she was born from demon hellspawn. One day, a strong ninja went into those woods where the girl lived. He never came back alive. When they sent a search party out a couple days later, they found the man dead. His arms had been ripped off his body, and he had broken bones left and right. After that day, all village ninja were cautioned about the demoness in the woods."

"What does the girl look like?" Negi asked.

"Nobody knows, because the only person who's ever seen her and lived to tell the tale now has amnesia. He can only remember that she was a girl. But there's been proof she exists. The other day, I was out in the woods, thinking she wasn't real and it was just a trick to scare us younger ninja, but I was dead wrong. I saw footprints of a human right beside the empty carcass of a stray cat. I followed a trail of blood to a stream that looked like it had had a hole punched in the ice, but the trail ended right then and there," he said. "Now, they call that part of the forest 'Pink Moon Forest', because the man who saw her claimed she was standing on a tree branch, and he could only see her silhouette against the moon's light."

"Woah..." Kiba whispered.

So it was thus the first time the boys, save for Naruto and Kakashi, had heard about this long-standing legend about a demon girl who destroyed any who dared trespass upon her forest.

Later that night they agreed that the one who told the legend, Naruto, would go back into the woods at night, which was the time of day when the man claimed to have seen her, and search for the demoness. If he should fail to at least find evidence of her existence, they would write off the legend as something Naruto made up. If, however, he should bring back evidence, they would fully believe him. Being the silly blond-haired ninja that he was, Naruto agreed and awaited the next night's coming.

After all, a girl like that...couldn't really exist.

A girl with pink hair rose from her hollow root cavity under the huge hemlock tree. There was still snow on the ground, even more snow than before. It was knee-deep now, and her bare legs were freezing. The only clothing she had was a dirtied and stained gown, which was now mixed colors thanks to the dirt, blood, snow, water, and berry juices that had gotten on it over all the years she had possessed it. She had grown so much since then, the gown was now more of a dress that came up to her thighs. It left her legs bare and exposed. It left her arms in the same condition. And it did little to help warm her.

Walking became hard for three reasons: one, she couldn't feel her legs, two, her legs were so stiff from the cold, and three, the snow wasn't the easiest thing in the world to push through. It was also unsafe because anything could be lurking under the snow, waiting and watching for something to pass by so it could strike. But she was hungry, and the slightest loss of weight could mean life or death, especially in winter. So finding food was much more than just to satisfy a growling belly.

She stopped momentarily to try to regain warmth before pressing forward. Her teeth chattered and her eyes felt heavy. Her legs had lost almost all sensation in them; soon she wouldn't be able to walk without tripping over herself every step of the way. It was time, whether she want to or not, to turn back. She could warm up again in her underground house; that is, if wasn't already frozen over. Then, once warm enough, she could try again. She could repeat this as many times as it took, because there were no chores to take up her time.

Naruto trekked carefully and cautiously through the woods. He had just entered the deepest part of the vast forest, the part that was by now considered a different forest altogether because of the tales of the lethal demoness that inhabited it. Pink Moon. The name sounded like the title of an amusement park, however to the residents of the Hidden Leaf, it had become synonymous with death; the hellspawn of a girl who had slain a jounin-ranked ninja had made sure those who knew of her dared not trespass upon her land.

Naruto was half-scared, half curious. It was strange to him that even a demoness could withstand such extreme temperatures of wintertime night. But he knew very little about such spiritual beings. He didn't know how this girl had come to be, nor how she had come to live in this very forest that harbored so many creatures and fascinating plants. Perhaps it was for those reasons that the girl took a liking to the place, and decided it her home.

The snow was deep to begin with, but he hadn't been prepared for such immense amounts of snow. The village was kept tidy because of the masses of people who cared for their homes. But this place...this place was a living nightmare! How could anyone or anything want to live as such? Unless they were fugitives who had no lace to go... No, nevermind. Not even a fugitive would opt to stay here, even if for one day.

This place was also pretty. The snow underneath him, and throughout the entirety of the forest, shone a gorgeously romantic sparkling white. It hung onto tree branches and help the icicles to drape from rocks, branches, and even fallen logs. The moon's light was reflected through these icicles, and it proved in fantasy stories to be a wonderland, its treasure the sight itself. This was a scene described only in fables told to small children to put them to rest come nighttime. In reality, though, this was a deserted wasteland. There were no fruits bared by bushes or trees. There was no meat that one could catch. There was only the snow to drink. To top it, the temperatures were definitely that of the Ice Age. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could survive in this inhospitable land.

His watched in awe as his breath materialized in front of him, quickly dissipating into nothing.

The pink-haired girl paused from searching out a slumbering animal. She peered precariously over the side of a large branch that she had been resting on to escape the icy ground below. A strange creature was walking below. Figuring it a nighttime predator, she remained motionless and tried to stave off her shivering. She somehow managed. This creature was so foreign, so strange...

Though humans were, by nature, inquisitive creatures, the girl had long ago lost her curiosity. It was often curiosity which killed the unlucky animals of the forest. A bird that was mesmerized by a snake would be eaten without hesitation. She did not want to be that bird.

She didn't know her home looked "beautiful" and "surreal". She only knew that it was her home. It was no haven or oasis, granted, but it was where she lived; where else was she to go? This place was the only one she had known for years. It would not be so easily parted with.

The girl was careful not to shake the branch she was placed on. It would no doubt attract the attention of the creature below, something she least wanted.

The genin was beginning to regret his decision to show off in front of the other boys. This place was already treating him harshly. His fingers, toes, and face were all chilled; how long would it be before frostbite set in? Or gangrene? Ah, this place was just impossible! Maybe he could find some footprints or something to show the others. Hopefully he'd be done with his quest soon... Then he could get back home and warm up by a fire, roasting delicious nuts and other treats.

"Ah, I already miss home..." he said aloud to himself.

The pink-haired girl shuddered in fear when the mysterious creature spoke. Her movement shook the branch, and icicles, paired with snow clumps, fell off.

The branch was slippery because of its icy armor, so the girl held on as tightly as possible with her whole body. Now that some of the snow was gone, there wasn't as much traction as before. She couldn't stand up for fear of falling down with the icicles.

Most of the snow hit the boy, some of the smaller icicles, too. He angrily wiped it off him and cursed the place for being so unkindly. But it was when he noticed that along with the snow, icicles had also come raining down, that he looked up into the semi-thick darkness of the moonlit night. The frightened girl tried to look inconspicuous by staying still and not breathing. She made no noise, made no movements, and tried to do anything she could to remain unseen. It was just like an animal camouflaging itself in the forest trees during spring, or a winter rabbit shedding its brown fur to be replaced by concealing white fur to blend into its new snowy environment.

Naruto was having a hard time pinpointing the exact location of the branch that had so rudely assaulted him. There were branches everywhere! They criss-crossed and grew around each other. It was confusing just to look at. Each branch looked the same as the next. There were no leaves on any of them. All had been shed onto the fall ground once nature sensed winter's approach. Now the trees of the forest looked dead.

The thought that the demoness might've done it struck him as a possible reality. That having been said, he searched all the harder through the weaving branches that were coated with snow. It was the same white-and black outlines that were making it hard to tell if he'd just searched one area as compared to the next. however, he soon saw one slight difference in the thicker branches that lingered closer to the trunks of their trees. There was a curious shape on the thick end of one of the larger branches. It wasn't moving, so he didn't think of it as a living being...at first. As his eyes grew more and more accustomed to the night scenery, he could see the vague outline of...the closest color he could think of was peach-colored, so peach-colored...uh...it looked like limbs. In fact, the limbs bent to reveal what seemed to be two elbows. And it disappeared from there.

He was amazed at just how much of this he could make out, but the moon was full and bright tonight, even though the eerie darkness that covered this forest was still very much present.

"Hey! Is someone up there?" the shinobi yelled to the person.

There was no movement to indicate the person heard him.

So he tried again. "Do you need help? Are you okay? You know, I'll completely understand if your tongue got stuck on ice!"

Suddenly, the figure moved.

The girl, not knowing why this creature was being so noisy when there were so many predators waiting to be woken up, stood on the tree branch despite her wishes not to. It wasn't safe to be around something when it was making a racket; every forest resident knew that. It attracted unwanted attention from unwanted animals. From armed animals. Teeth, claws, talons, fangs, hooked beaks, venom, muscle, you name it. They were equipped to kill.

Pushing aside her fear of falling, she jumped easily from her branch to another, speedily calculating where she would land next.

"Hey, wait! You're a ninja!" the thing yelled after her.

To her this was no longer a creature to be wary of, this was a monster to be avoided. He seemed to want to be killed. But, then again, he could do what he willed; she, on the other hand, was getting out before any harm could come.

She had gotten a little ways away, but not yet enough to be considered a reasonable distance, before she lost her footing on one of the lubricious branches. She tried to catch herself, but the piece of wood was so slick that she couldn't hold on and ended up falling. Thankfully she wasn't injured; the snow cushioned her fall. Not to say that it didn't still hurt...

Immediately the strange thing she had been trying to escape had caught up to her in surprisingly little time. She slapped the snow off the ground and into his face, another desperate distraction to boost her evasiveness and buy her some more time. It hardly worked; the moment she attempted to get up, the thing had wrapped its hands around her ankle, effectively tripping her.

This wasn't good; being down here in this deep snow, even if just for awhile, jeopardized health. Hypothermia could set in, and both of them could die. She didn't care about him, but she wasn't that eager to perish before spring came. At least then she could die warm.

Naruto finally had a hold on her. She couldn't escape. There was no doubt in his mind that this girl was not a demoness, but in fact, a ninja from a different village. Only shinobi knew how to control their chakra to the level of being able to swiftly and effortlessly move from one branch to another in a timely retreat. She still struggled to be liberated of his grasp, but that wasn't going to happen, mostly because his hands were becoming so numb by now that it was hard to control them. He'd have a hard time letting go of the mysterious girl's ankle.

"Tell me who you are!" he demanded.

She wouldn't answer. This pretty much proved her as a ninja from a foreign village. She had killed one of our shinobi, scared the rest of the villagers, and now she could finally be brought to justice for her crimes against the Leaf. She looked like she could be from anywhere, from the Hidden Sound to the Hidden Stone. Maybe even somewhere in the Lightning Country... It really didn't matter where she was from; she would be punished severely for falling one of the strongest of the Leaf village ninja.

He managed to mount her back and hold her hands behind her, restricting any hope of escape. He had to wait until the girl stopped squirming, which right now she was doing pretty violently. But, once he had the girl calmed down enough to talk to, he demanded her name again. He made sure his voice was stern and masculine; he needed to sound tough against a tough shinobi.

She only panted and wouldn't reply. This made it a difficult situation for the blond-headed boy. There might be no way he could get her to reveal anything. Or...or maybe that wasn't it. Maybe she just couldn't understand what he was saying, maybe she couldn't understand English. That was a valid possibility.

"Como se llama?" he asked, in Spanish.

There was nothing that indicated she knew what he was saying.

Ninja were required to learn how to ask this question, along with the question "What are you doing here?" in many different languages. this way they could communicate and figure out which language the person would respond to. Then when they got back, they could have a translator translate that person's words.

"Onamae wa nandesu ka?" Japanese, no response. "Ni jiao shen ma ming zi?" Chinese, no response. "Quid est nomen tuum?" Latin, no response. "Nanu heya ga lalu' su'?" Taiwanese. "Comment t'appelles tu?" French. "Irumi muoshimnikka?" Korean. "Wie heissen Sie?" German. "Qual o seu nome?" Portuguese. "Si quheni je tutem?" Yugoslavian. "Pos se lene?" Greek. "Come ti chiami?" Italian. "Mika on nimesi?" Finnish. "Cili eshte emri juaj?" Albanian. "Kakbo e baweto nme?" Bulgarian. "Hvad er dit navn?" Danish. "Kako ti je ime?" Croatian. "Apa nama Anda?" Indonesian. "Beth yw eich enw?" Welsh. "Jina lako?" Swahili. "Ten cua ban la gi?" Even Vietnamese.

She didn't seem to know any of them. She had settled down to the point of pure confusion. She didn't move anymore, just panted heavily in an effort to regain her breath. The mysterious girl never took her eyes from him. She wasn't giving him any kind of strange, foreign look. She was terrified; he knew just by looking into those rich emerald eyes of hers. They were truly beautiful, those eyes. In the soft light of the near-full moon, they looked just like precious gemstones. However, as amazing as it was to behold such a captivating sight, he knew better than to be seduced into letting her simply couldn't be trusted after killing one of his own and frightening the small children, making them feel as if they were under constant threat. She was a menace that had to be put to justice. No, she was beyond a menace... Just looking at her made him angry; she mocked him with her refusal to reply to anything he said, she tried to look as a seductress would, she even made herself look so scared...all just so she could get him to liberate her! It was sickening, really.

The girl tried to stay still. She had encountered these beings before; they were things to be feared. They were to be feared because they were not known. Every animal had a natural, innate fear of the unknown. And indeed they were unknown! They uttered such strange sounds, and so many of them. They never seemed to eat the food the forest generously offered. They rarely were seen wandering through the forest, but when they were, she hid. It was the only reasonable thing to do. After all, if the animals hid, it meant hide.

She was getting to the point of freezing. Her lips were becoming blue, her skin getting ever-paler. Her shivering had died down. Now she felt hot instead of cold. Hypothermia was already beginning to bore its chilling claws into her. Having this thing on top of her didn't help. Maybe...if she just tried to shake it off...

The girl abruptly started bucking under him. But because he weighed roughly three times more than her, it wasn't that hard to keep her down. It was kind of sad, actually. Although she looked healthy and fit at first glance, when closer examined she was underweight. It wasn't too bad, not to the point where her skin was falling off her body, but to the trained eye she was, to say the least, hungry. Perhaps the cat carcass he'd found was her only source of food that day.

It didn't make sense... A ninja; she had no weapons, hadn't used a jutsu, and might even struggle to catch her own food. ...No, that couldn't be it. It was most likely a training exercise, and he'd caught her in the middle of it. Yes, that made perfect sense! And judging from her current condition, she was practicing an endurance exercise.

He smirked. Once he got back, he would be revered as a hero for making the forest safe again. All he needed to do was take her with him. Once the Hokage's judgment was passed, the girl would be sentenced to whatever Grandma Tsunade decided.

Her body felt hot, burning! The snow around her was knee-deep, and when on the ground, she was impressed in the snow. Then, to make it worse, it was starting to snow again. She knew she had to get back to her tree burrow. If she didn't, she could die. So would her assailant, but for now she could only afford to worry about herself. Life in the wild, untamed forest wasn't easy. Every day was a blessing, a gift. If you were lucky enough to survive to see the next day, or in her case, night, then that made you one of the strong ones amid so many weak. The larger animals, herself included, had a much harder time foraging for the measly scraps they could find. Most of the birds had flown south for the winter. Very few birds remained. This made hunting that much more difficult. Then there was the everlasting competition for meals; occasionally another predator or scavenger searching for food would come across her. She could never fight them or stand her ground. She wouldn't last against them. She'd learned this the hard way. In this forest, many animals with sharp, hooked claws and long, menacing fangs strived to live.

The girl, along with the hundreds of animals who shared the forest, knew strife all too well, and was a frequent visitor.

But now all that hard work seemed to have gone to waste. The tiresome struggle to survive, the taxing task of strategizing for the next meal, and the daunting work of collecting meals nightly... it was all for nothing. Now she was going to become the meal for this creature.

It was all she could do to wait for her final breath.