A Brief Foreword:
This story is an edited version of a novel of the same name that first appeared on Quotev in the summer of 2015. This second version is being edited for plot, flow, and characterization, and is being re-posted on Wattpad, AO3, and FFN as of January 1, 2019. The storylines of the two versions may differ.
"Konohagakure?" repeated the wide-eyed girl. Her mother folded her hands and looked at her father. The kind-faced man nodded in approval, his dark hair and pale skin reflected in his wife and kin. Just looking at them together, one could tell the family was close in heart and soul. What was to come would never quite feel natural for any of them.
"That's where you three will be training," he continued, his wife smiling back at her three children in reassurance. Kuro, the eldest, looked down thoughtfully.
"Training to become ninja," he asked, though it wasn't much of a question. He seemed to already know the truth. At twenty-one, Kuro two years ahead of his younger siblings, Kashikoi and Kiyoko.
At his older brother's seeming protest, Kashikoi jumped in for a second challenge.
"Why can't we be trained here?" Discomfort plagued his voice. The Ookami clan had become smaller as time went on, that much they all knew from their basic schooling. But the family had always been tightly-knit—that is, until now.
"We don't have any skilled trainers for you here anymore," their father replied. He didn't have to expound. All the greatest Ookami had died decades ago. Their golden age had long passed. Now, they were struggling, more than even the siblings knew.
He reached for a scroll on the table in front of him. Kiyoko, Kashikoi's fraternal twin, shifted on her cushion.
"That's from Konoha," she said, and her father nodded. The room was silent as he unrolled the scroll and cleared his throat.
"You will be training under one of Konoha's best: Uchiha Madara."
The siblings gasped softly.
"An Uchiha?" Kiyoko whispered, the color draining from her face. Her mother looked uncomfortable. No, this wasn't possible; this couldn't be happening. Yes, Madara Uchiha was powerful, renowned throughout the ninja world. But the Uchiha and Ookami had never gotten along, never blended well. There was a reason the Ookami were up in the mountains, away from Konoha.
"That's right," Father continued. "This is an opportunity that we cannot deny. The Hokage, Senju Hashirama, organized it, and he will see to it that you are treated well. It is a privilege and honor to be training under such a skilled man."
"Uchiha Madara has been gracious enough to accept this apprenticeship for our clan," their mother added, her eyes sad behind the seeming happiness in her voice. "Our hope is that it will bring peace to the hostilities and ill-will that have plagued our clan relations for centuries."
"It is for the clan," Father said. "And, it is for you."
The Ookami siblings knew that their clan was small. It used to be larger, said Father, but the war killed many of their best members off. The three young ninja were the only hope that the clan had left. The three had been born with the now rare Deva Path Rinnegan, an offshoot, or genetic impurity of the fully-fledged Rinnegan. Ookami were distantly related to Uchiha in this way, despite the Ookami's failure at developing Sharingan. And now, and the strange genes had passed along to the siblings. Kuro and Kashikoi had a small amount of ocular powers, but Kiyoko had the most developed stage of the Deva Path that the clan had seen in almost half a century. Despite the long history of hostility between the clans, the Ookami leaders hoped that the Uchiha of Konoha would accept their children more easily now due to the wave of tranquility that the nations were now experiencing. It had been a decade or so since the Uchiha-Senju alliance, so perhaps the Uchiha would be receptive to another offering of peace.
It was a difficult thing to ask for, considering the clans' messy histories. Somewhere back in the earliest days, long before the Uchiha were quite the Uchiha, or the Ookami were quite the Ookami, there were more rudimentary forms of these clans. Genetic traits were just being developed, ocular powers being formed, magic being distilled. A relative of the modern Ookami had finally created a secret blood seal that would allow members of her clan to transform into wolves at will. They were one of the undesirable groups, outliers in comparison to the soon-to-be Uchiha. Nonetheless, somewhere along the line, these two clans met, just once, most likely. After that, they went their separate ways; but the Ookami had gained Uchiha blood.
As the Uchiha began to distinguish itself, the Ookami developed a sudden new technique that was all too similar to that of the Uchiha. Bypassing the Sharingan altogether, the Ookami could unlock a specific sect of the Rinnegan, the Deva Path, which allowed users to send shockwaves toward anything they could see, or in the Ookami's case, anything they could roar at. Even a partial Rinnegan mixed with the physical and sonic strength of an Ookami wolf warrior was dreadfully formidable. When the news broke, and the Ookami began to rise in power, the Uchiha were disgusted and furious. One of their clan's most prized and protected genetic secrets was now in the hands of some tribe of wolf-morphers. The Ookami finally rose in numbers great enough to challenge the Uchiha, rife with their ocular power and physical strength. As if on cue, war broke out.
To the Uchiha, this new "tainted" Rinnegan had to be destroyed. On the battlefield, the eye was hard to spot; the user's eye color didn't change, but only developed a dark ring around the pupil. More developed users' rings were visibly thicker, and thus easier to see, but more difficult to counter. As most Uchiha did not possess the Rinnegan, the Ookami had an incredible advantage. But it didn't last.
Eventually, something went wrong. As most clans of the time inbred to keep their bloodline pure, such was the case and the eventual downfall of the Ookami. The clan never had a wide variety of genetic choices, despite its size, and out of honor, they would never marry outside the clan. A much larger family like the Uchiha had much more genetic variance and was largely saved from the wrath of deformity that ensued as a result of even distant incest. The Ookami struggled with horribly deformed children, and their number of warriors drastically fell in a short time. Despite last ditch efforts to marry out of the clan, the Ookami never fully regained their power. The Rinnegan began to disappear in their blood; many members left on their own accord, mixing with other smaller clans of the time. Soon, the Ookami couldn't defend themselves any longer—many of them were slaughtered in war, and those who survived escaped in mass exodus to the mountains of the modern-day Land of Snow, far from Uchiha reaches. They never reclaimed their former glory, and the Rinnegan became a rarity.
And now, centuries later, the Ookami were finally coming down from the mountains, with budding Rinnegan.
The wolf-clan had always had the most hauntingly beautiful features. Their eyes were known to be chilly and piercing: Kiyoko's were green, Kuro's were icy blue, and Kashikoi had one of each. Their hair was always dark: Kiyoko's long, brown, and wavy, Kuro's short, black, and straight, and Kashikoi's a little of both. Like a proper middle child, Kashikoi seemed to get a mixture of whatever traits his older brother and younger sister had.
Like many siblings, it was easy to tell that the three were related. Just as easily, if not more so, one could tell that they were foreign. From the moment they left their village to their first steps into Konoha, they had the attention of curious passersby. The Ookami seemed only a fable clan now; nobody had seen them in years, and barely anyone dared to take the frigid, snow-covered trek up the mountains.
The Senju guide from Konoha didn't attempt much conversation, and neither did the onlookers, but the Ookami siblings didn't mind a bit. Their wolf blood tingled at each new sight, sound, and smell along the way. But nothing was more impressive than the gates of Konoha.
The walls towered over them like a mighty, impenetrable fortress. Even the trees seemed bigger than the shaggy evergreens of their tiny village back home. The beautiful gates stood wide open for them, despite their fear, and stepping past the immense threshold was like stepping into an entirely different world.
This was the rest of the ninja world.