両刃の剣

Double Edged Sword

"NARUTO!!!" There was nothing Shikamaru could do for his cousin unless he wanted to die as well. Currently, a group of villagers were mercilessly attacking the innocent Jinchuuriki. The blond was staring in horror at the mob. There was really nothing he could do to save himself. Sure, he was four but he understood that this mob was trying to killing him, though he'd no idea why. His cousin stood helplessly at the mouth of the alley, watching with equal horror.

The villagers had never gone to such extremes before. Sure, once or twice every day, Naruto was attacked. He was used to being subjected to hurt as he walked home from the Academy. That never went far. He only got four to six scratches and bruises all over his body. Those immediately healed over… Most of the time, anyways. Naruto sighed and stood his little form firm, wincing as a shurriken grazed his right cheek, cutting into one of the whiskers. Some of the mob was chanting 'kill him' followed by a fancy name that Naruto didn't understand and probably couldn't pronounce anyways. The man to whom they were speaking smirked and drew a kunai and he lunged at the blond Jinchuuriki.

"NARUTO!!!!" Shikamaru yelled. His cousin closed his eyes and waited for the impact. None came to the blond. Slowly, said blond opened his eyes. He opened his mouth and let out a mousey squeak. A man in the standard ANBU uniform was standing in front of the four year old, blocking the offending kunai with another.

"Sh… SHIT!" and the crowd dispersed. The man that had tried to attack Naruto fled as well and Shikamaru ran to his cousin's side. The ANBU put his kunai away and face the adopted cousins. Shikamaru hugged his cousin tightly.

"A-ANBU," the blond pronounced.

"Yes?"

"Teach Naru," the boy pointed at himself, "and Shika," his cousin raised his hand before holding Naruto again, "how fight."

A soft, emotionless chuckle came from behind the ANBU's mask. "Maybe. Now get home, kids. I'll come find you tomorrow."

The cousins nodded and ran as fast as their legs would carry them.

Okee. This IS just the prologue, kids. Unless you have a super, duper awesome-matic, ninja kick ass idea, please only give feedback, because me, I write out my drafts in a notebook, and I have up to the end of the 3rd Chuunin prelims. Actually, yeah… I've finished drafting the 3rd Chuunin prelims and I figure I'd better get this up here before I forget… Etō… I'll probably ask for help on the fight scenes, 'cause I briefed over them. Basically like this: So-and-so versus so-and-so, the winner was so-and-so but just barely. And I did that to save space in my notebook, so I'll go into detail up here… Anyways, tell me wotcha think please.

-Lotsa love,

Mickey, aka .Sailor.L