Sparrow
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~Prologue~
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The heart monitor echoed around the room as the young woman laid on the hospital bed, struggling desperately, her belly swollen with child. She screamed as the pain shot up her back.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Beads of sweat ran down her face as she grasped the nurse's hand and squeezed. Her blood roared in her ears. It deafened the noise of the nurse and doctor, desperately pleading for her to keep trying. She did, although she couldn't hear them. She knew what she had to do. For her baby.
Beep. Beep.
Cries were suddenly heard in the room as the baby finally came out. The woman laid on the bed, gasping for breath, her heart pounding irregularly, her body shutting down. She closed her eyes, knowing what was to come.
She reached for the child. The doctor obediently set the infant in her arms.
"She's a girl," the doctor informed.
The new mother stroked the fine brown hair on her child's head. Her baby was small, and her heart fluttered like a bird.
Beep.
The mother smiled sadly at her baby as a few tears traced their way down her cheeks, knowing that she would no longer be able to see her baby. No longer feel her warmth.
"Suzume," her mother barely whispered. "my little sparrow."
With that, the young woman's heart failed. The last thing she heard was the shouting of the doctor and the scurrying of nurses as they tried in vain to save her life. The last thing she saw was her newborn child. Then the world darkened as she drifted off to an eternal sleep.
The village monk popped up inside the hospital, hope filled in his face. He ran up excitedly to one of the nurses.
"Where's my wife? Is the baby okay?"
The nurse looked at him sadly, then quickly looked away. His hope soon turned to worry. His worry soon turned to terror. He rushed to the emergency room and stopped as he saw the body of his dead wife. The doctor held the newborn child, rocking it back and forth in a rhythmic motion. Tears traced down the doctor's cheeks. She looked up at him as he entered the room.
"I'm sorry. I couldn't save her."
The wind was knocked out of him. His wife was dead. The world swirled dangerously around him, then settled as the doctor handed the child to him.
"Your wife named her Suzume," the doctor informed. "Just before she died."
"Suzume," he repeated, dazed. "Suzume. My sparrow."
He stroked the baby's short, silky brown hair. He looked at the small hospital bracelet on his daughter's chubby arm. It had her name and date and time of birth.
The doctor left the room as the monk held his new daughter. Tears glinted in his eyes, then trickled down his face and onto the floor.
Screams pierced the chilly night air, a few hours later after the birth. The bodies of men, women, and children alike littered the streets, all drained dry of their blood. A fire raged through the village, burning whatever lay in its path. Buildings crumbled to dust. All was chaos in the village.
"Hurry up!" the only remaining jonin yelled to his two subordinates. "Find the monk before the whole village is destroyed!"
They didn't need to be told twice. They left obediently, but what he didn't know was that the moment they left the safety of the light, they were killed. Killed by the demon that now sought his life. Unknowing, the jonin faced his problem at hand. How to stall the demon….
"A beautiful night, isn't it?" a silky female voice asked.
The jonin turned around to face the source of the voice. An inhumanly beautiful girl stood in front of him. Wavy black hair surrounded a pale white face. Her eyes had a blood-colored luster. Blood was splattered on her black kimono, as if they were roses dancing in the seams. He backed away, frightened. Her red lips curled up in a snarl, opening just enough for him to see her needle-like canines.
"Wh-what are you?" he stammered.
She ignored his question, her snarl vanishing. She looked him straight in the eye.
"Two thousand ninety-nine," she whispered. "That's how many of your precious people I killed."
He took another step back, then shook his head, regaining his senses. He took out a kunai knife and threw it at her. She dodged it easily. With lightning-like speed, he formed a series of signs, and threw a blast of energy at her. As before, she dodged it no problem. It landed in the grass just behind her, melting them to ashes. She smiled, a sadistic smile that could put the demons in hell to shame. Large bat wings formed on her back, casting a large shadow over the man. Over her prey. She disappeared, only to reappear behind him. She grabbed him, her strength far surpassing his own. Her wings folded around him and, as he squirmed and pleaded, she gave him the kiss of death, her fangs sinking deep into his neck's soft skin.
The man fell to the ground with a thud, his skin sinking into his bones. Not a drop of blood was in his body. The demoness licked her lips as a bead of blood coursed its way down the side of her mouth. She had almost killed the whole village. There was only the leader left, as well as his newborn. The baby girl that made up his whole family. She wanted to savor the moment when she killed the baby right before his eyes, as his ancestors did to her family. This is what she waited for all her three hundred years of existence.
She suddenly heard a soft thud behind her and turned sharply around, the monk himself standing before her eyes. He was wearing a white robe and sandals, plain and simple. And pure. It sickened her just to see his face. She could hear his infant close by, her small cries carried by the wind.
"Do you think it wise for the child to be left unattended?" she asked. "And at such a close range, too. Though you did hide her well, I can't see her at all."
The monk glared. "She will be your ultimate downfall," he said.
Rage boiled inside her. She shrieked, then flew at him, her wings spread and her fangs glinting in the fire light. Her sharp nails reached for him. He quickly spun out of the way and did a series of signs. She narrowed her eyes and appeared behind him. She rammed her nails into his chest, piercing it all the way through. The body disappeared in a puff of smoke. A doppelganger. She looked around for the real one. She could hear his heartbeat. She looked behind her and saw him as he finished the last of his signs. She lunged at him, aiming for the heart that beat in his chest. She could see the blood coursing through his veins. She could smell it. She could practically taste it.
Just as she was about to kill him, the world turned, twisting in a way it shouldn't have. The child seemingly appeared out of thin air and safely on the ground. Characters danced their way around both her and the baby. The demon stopped in her tracks, paralyzed and dizzy. The child's cries echoed in her ears. The child's small heart beat as one with her own.
"Wh-what are you doing to me?" she yelled in a rage.
"I am sealing you inside my child," he told her, "at the cost of my life."
Her eyes narrowed menacingly. "Fool," she spat.
The monk suddenly clasped his hands together. The blood drained from her face.
"Demon, be gone!" he yelled.
The demon screamed as she felt her soul being dragged into the girl. The world twisted and turned more violently. She reached for something to grab onto, to prevent her capture, but only found air. The last thing she saw was the monk's relieved smile and soulless eyes.
The monk fell to the ground, already dead.
The cries of the baby carried on into the night until a silver-haired man appeared, wearing the standard ANBU black ops mask and dressed solely in black. He took his mask off and assessed the scene with his Sharingan eye. He walked over to the baby and picked her up.
"Suzume Miyamoto," he read aloud from the hospital bracelet. He looked around sadly at the remains of the annihilated village. "Poor thing."
With those words, he carried her off into the moonless night, leaving the ruins of the village far behind.