.:Author's Note:.
This is just a one-shot that I whipped up. It's just an idea that's been on my mind for a little while. It's not the first fan-fic that I've written, but it is the first one that I've submitted to this site.
.:Disclaimer:.
I don't own Naruto. If I did, than I wouldn't be writing a fan-fiction, now would I?
What's that? You've just passed through the Land of Fire? Yeah, I've been through that part of the world. Did you happen to pass through the old shinobi village? Yeah? Pretty amazing, huh? What? Just a pile of rubble? Are you serious? Oh, I get it. You must not have climbed up to the top of the monument. You know, that huge rock with all the faces carved into it? Yeah, if you're not up there, you probably won't notice it. Just the occasional crevice in the ground. But hey, it's a ruined village. It's not like you're expecting the dirt to be in perfect condition, right? No, no, it's not 'till you're on top of that big rock that you can see it.
A huge spiral, even wider than the wall that surrounded the village, with it's center smack dab in the middle of town.
No one's really sure about how it got their. All anyone knows for sure was that one night, about twenty years ago, there was this feint glow of red light coming from the north. Keep in mind, we're pretty far from that village, so it must have been something big for us to see it down here. The local Lords sent people to investigate, but all they found were the remains of Hidden Leaf with that ominous spiral.
You know, it's weird. Even though all the shinobi villages are named 'Hidden This' or 'Hidden That', everyone pretty much knows where they are. Sure, they may not be on any maps or anything, but all you have to do is ask around, and you'll find one without too much trouble.
Anyways, that's all besides the point. To this day, it's still a mystery as to what happened. People talk obviously, but no one really knows. Well, no one except maybe for the survivors. But that was so long ago. Any of the shinobi from that village are either dead, retired, or working for some other village in some other nation.
I'll tell you a little secret though. A few years back, there was a couple that passed through here. Had to be in their mid-thirties, the both of them. Said they were on a little bit of a trip, and wanted to rest for a bit. Ended up renting out a room upstairs to them for a couple of days.
The woman was real nice. Turned out she was some kind of doctor or something. Some of the local kids were rough-housing outside, and one of them tripped in the middle of the road. Cut his face on a piece of glass in the dirt pretty bad. Poor kid was balling his eyes out like their was no tomorrow. Everyone thought that he would be scarred for life, but he got lucky. The woman just cleaned up his wound and put this special cream she had on the cut and wrapped it up. Next day, she had him take the bandages off. Cut was gone completely! It was like nothing ever happened! It was amazing! And let me tell you something, she was real easy on the eyes, too. Her figure was better than most women her age, and she had this long pink hair that she wore down… Only thing is that her forehead was a little…Wide, I guess is the word. It wasn't bad exactly. Just…Noticeable, I guess.
The husband was a little bit on the broody side though, but he was alright. He looked pretty average. Maybe in better shape than most, but still pretty plain. Still, he drove a lot of the woman in the village crazy. There were a couple of times when I thought his wife was gonna clock a housewife or two that got a little to brave for their own good, but her husband was able to calm her down. Pretty nice guy, actually. Came down here to the bar one night while his wife was having a nap. We got to talking, and he told me a few things.
I asked him about himself, and he told more than he probably should've. Turns out that they were both ex-shinobi from the old village. Their trip was back to their old home, so that they could pay their respects to their friends and family that had fallen twenty years ago. That reminded me of the spiral, so I thought I might push my luck. 'Sake makes the lips loose,' as they say. I asked him about it, and he flinched a little. Still, he told me.
He said it all started about forty years ago. 'Ya see, it was about that time that the Kyubi - huh? "What's the Kyubi?" You serious? Ain't 'ya ever heard of the Biju? Those tailed demons? Yeah, them! Anyways, yeah, about forty years ago, it attacked the village. Took out a lot of shinobi before the village's head-honcho stepped in and sealed him into the belly-button of a new-born baby boy. Cost the guy his life though.
Still, it worked.
Before he went through with it though, he passed a decree. No one was ever to talk about how the demon was disposed of. Also, the boy was to be treated as a hero for his role in the sealing. The thing is, hardly anyone in the village followed that rule. See, they thought that by having the demon sealed inside him, he was the demon. This boy went through hell. For what ever reason, he had no family, so he was all alone. No one would talk to him, or even come near him for that matter. Now, obviously the children of the village didn't know what he was, because of the part of the decree that said they couldn't talk about how the demon was sealed. Hell, even the guy who told me this story didn't find out till he was about 16 or so. Something about a guy with a snake-fetish or something. Anyways, all these kids knew was that here was a kid who all their parents had pretty much hated for as long as they could remember. So what do they do? Treat him like shit, and avoid him like the plague. Just like their parents.
But still, even through all this, the kid ended up having a good heart. All he wanted was people to notice him. Respect him, even. His dream was to be the Ho…Ho-something-or-other. I dunno. All I know was that it would mean that he was the strongest shinobi in town. The big-boss-man, 'ya know? He figured that then at least they'd have to look at him. Anyways, yeah, on with the story.
So, like I was saying, the kid was treated like shit. But, when he was 12, things started to change. He graduated the shinobi academy and became a Genin. That's the rank that they get when they graduate, 'ya see. Anyways, when they reach genin they're put into three man teams under a Jonin, a shinobi a little higher up on the food chain. That's actually how my ex-shinobi friends met him. Turns out they were his team-mates. Ended up being his first friends, after they got to know him. Anyways, time went on, and he made some more friends. Things were going pretty good for the most part. Apparently there were a few years where my friend and this kid had a falling out over something and didn't see each other, but it all ended fine.
He even managed to get himself a little girlfriend. Turned out that there was this girl who'd been gah-gah for him since back in their old academy days, but was way too shy to ever do anything about it. Everyone else pretty much knew it, but it sounds like the guy was kinda thick, 'cause he was really shocked or something when he finally found out.
Now this is apparently where the proverbial shit hit the fan.
See, the girl came from this really high-class clan. Not only that, but her dad was the Soke! Obviously, they couldn't let their next-in-line get involved with some demon-spawn, could they? Nope, nope, not gonna happen. So the two kept their relationship a secret. Well, at least for the most part. They only told those that they could absolutely trust. The kid seemed to be pretty close to the village leader back then. Some old blonde lady, if I remember right. Anyways, she helped them out by always sending their teams on missions together. Hell, she'd even sometimes give the two of them completely bogus missions just so they could spend a couple of days outside of the village together.
It actually worked out pretty good for a while. That is, until he accidentally knocked her up. I think the guy told me they were about twenty when it happened. That's what tossed the monkey-wrench into the whole thing. A big belly's not exactly something that they could've kept secret, 'ya know? When she started to show, it didn't take long for the villagers to put two and two together.
The thought of the demon-boy breeding, and creating a litter of more demonic fox babies scared the shit out of them. When they brought it up with the boss-lady, she ignored them and called them all idiots. That didn't really sit well with them. Most of the shinobi led this huge revolt and put her to death. After that was settled, they went after the girl and the demon-boy. By now, the girl was already pretty far along, and she wasn't able to defend herself. Her lover and their trusted friends did their best to defend her and give her a chance to escape, but 'ya gotta remember, we're talking about a group of about maybe twenty or so people up against an entire village. I don't care how good a fighter you are, there ain't no way in hell you're gonna walk away from that. My two guest were lucky enough to only get beaten down, but all the others were killed during the fighting. They made sure that they kept the boy alive though. They wanted him to watch as they ripped his child from it's mother's womb. They did it in the town square, right in the middle of the village. They forced him and the survivors to watch as they ripped open his lover's belly with one of them weird knives that they use. You know, the one's with the ring at the end of the handle.
Anyways, when it was all said and done, the love of his life was dead, and they were about to hang her unborn baby boy from the side of a building by it's own umbilical chord! Can you believe that!? It's disgusting! I almost asked him to stop the story right then and their, but he just kept going.
As they lifted up the baby, everyone began to cheer. That's when it happened. All of a sudden there was this huge roar, like some gigantic monster was their with them. Everyone looked around, but they couldn't figure out where it came from. It wasn't until they heard it again that they realized it was coming from the one that they were so afraid of. He had his mouth open towards the sky and a red glow was coming out. It kept getting stronger and stronger, until most of the villagers had to shield their eyes from it, for fear of gowing blind. Then it began to dim. When the villagers all uncovered their eyes, their it was! The Kyubi that they'd all been fearing for so long was towering over them, grinning like a fiend.
At this point, my friend said he saw the boy murmur something, but it was too low for him to pick up what it was.
Regardless though, the next thing he remembers is another horrid red light, and then everything going dark. When he woke up, he found that the entire village had been obliterated. It seemed that the only ones that were left were him and his wife. There weren't even any corpses left. Just ashes. The only bodies that they found were those of the two lovers. They didn't know how, but they found them embracing each other, her with her stomach split open, and him with a content look on his face, as if he was in heaven. They buried them as they were, and then left the village, swearing to retire and never fight again. Before they left though, they climbed up the monument I was telling you about and took one last look at their former village. That's when they noticed the spiral and mourned their fallen comrades and their destroyed village.
Anyways, the next day, the couple disappeared. Couldn't find 'em anywhere. When I checked their room, it looked like no one had even stayed their. All that I could find was a small pouch with some money in it waiting on their pillow. Just enough to pay their bill. Haven't seen 'em since then. My guess is that they left before sunrise. Probably kept going till they reached the village. Dunno what happened to them after that though. Probably still traveling around. What's that? Another sake? Yeah, comin' right up. Think I might have one myself, actually.
So there 'ya go. I'm thinking of maybe writting a companion story to this, written from a third-person point of view, following the events that lead to the destruction of Konohagakure as they took place. If I get enough positive reviews, I'll probably go through with it, but if not, I won't bother. It's time that I could spend watching the 2.5 gigs of unwatched anime that I have on my computer right now.