Akina Chronicles: Book 1 Crimson & Clover

Author's Note: Hey everyone, I'm Marie the author (Duh, go figure?) Thank you so much for choosing to read my story; I hope you love it and will review and stay tuned for the coming chapters. I'm gonna make this author note short, so you'll get right into the story, so… enjoy.

Chapter's song: "Boulevard of broken dreams" by Green Day

Chapter 1
Vigor in Violence

Prologue
She was born in Konohagakure— to her parents Kimara Ruri and Mochizuki Yasuo, who gave her the name Mochizuki Akina— princess of the Mochizuki clan. Yasuo, her father was the head of the clan and the members of the Mochizuki have the Kekkei Genkai known as rose style jutsu and their also known for their kunoichi and jutsu-developing prowess. Akina grew up through the Third Shinobi World War, and as the war went on, and the four-year-old Akina witnessed so many lives taken. It just made her want it all to end, and it did, but before it did— Akina witnessed the death of her mother.

Day of funeral
The morning of her mother's funeral, Akina's father turned to her. "You've got to stay strong, my bud." he was a man with black eyes and the same color locks that were long, but brought up and pinned with a red hair-tie at the back of his crown.

The wide-eyed green gazing girl looked up at her father with no emotion, yet trying to pawn herself off as brave. "I will not cry… I'm not weak." She'd say swallowing her emotion, pulling a strand of ebony curl behind her ear.

Yasuo reached into his pouch and pulled out a watch, kneeling down to hand it to Akina. "This watch has been passed down through the generations. My great grandmother gave it to my grandmother and my mother passed it onto me… and now, I think it's time I gave it to you. It's time to start keeping track of your life."

Akina looked at the watch with a blank stare. "Keep track of my life?" she asked bemused.

Her father nodded with a grin— Akina then jumping into her father's arms and silently sobbing as she tucked her features. "Thank you! I'll make you proud, I promise." She was happy, that watch meant a great deal.

"Your welcome, my bud… but I thought you just said you wouldn't cry?"

"Only in front of you father, I am weak… b-but, these are tears of joy."

Akina's Aunt Iva— a woman also with dark hair and eyes, just like her brother, only her bangs that hung beside her cheeks were much longer, extending to her elbows. The woman sway into the room to say, "The funeral is starting."

Yasuo placed the long chain of the watch around Akina's neck, closing it after he read the time— closing his eyes as well, and replying sadly and going off in his memories. "So it is."

The father picked Akina up into his arms and walked out of the room, passing his sister coldly. Iva shot an evil eye to Akina— the young girl noticing that action and tucking her features into her father's shoulder as they passed. So little brother, you gave your little mistake the watch. Hmph… oh well, it's not as if she'll have a life to keep track of.

Akina stood at her mother's funeral— in front of Ruri's headstone on her father's left side and her two older cousins to her right— Benjiro of the age of sixteen and Akanah at the age of thirteen. Then there was Iva, who was just waiting for her little niece to cry— to shame the clan's laws by displaying emotion. But Akina never did; she stood like a brave warrior, never shedding one tear.

2 years later
Akina, now at the age of six, has now entered the ninja academy and everything was fairly peaceful in Akina's life— and she loved it, but things didn't stay peaceful for long.

On a pitch-black night, when the full moon haunted the sky once again, a Nine-tailed fox appeared and started terrorizing the village. Shinobi suited for battle with the beast and one of these shinobi being Yasuo— but Akina wouldn't let him go. She gripped to the cloth of his pant leg and held on so tightly that her knuckles began to turn white. "Please father, you can't go out there! You'll go just like mother did… in warfare. I can't live without you; you're the last thing I have in this life! I know I'm being selfish, but please don't go or it will be the death of the both of us!"

Yasuo's eyes soften, his hands stretching down; holding Akina's cheeks, making her look up to him. "No it won't… at least not yours. I don't know if I will live or die, but I have to serve my village, whatever the outcome. So listen to me bud, I love you and I know you will keep track of a worthy life… you'll become a bud that blossoms into a beautiful rose. Don't cry; we'll meet again. Make me proud when that day comes, goodbye, my bud."

Yasuo then disappeared as white rose petals into the night. "No..." Akina whispered to herself as she stood in front of the empty doorway alone, holding back tears. "NO!" She'd burst out the door falling over her own feet. Akina ran as fast as her legs would carry her, running down the unlit streets— it was because of the power outage the Nine-tails caused. Who was this demon? What or who could stop it? Could it even be stopped? Akina asked herself these questions, until she made it to the fox's location.

She felt a tense feeling come over her and she froze in an overwhelmed stance. The emerald-eyed six-year-old broke out of this trance when she heard Benjiro's voice scream out to her as he came closer. Benjiro grabbed around her waist and tried to get her away from the fox, her struggling against her cousin's lecture. "You can't help, you're just an academy student. You'll be just getting yourself killed and neither your father nor I want to see that… so please, princess Akina!"

Said girl waved a hand sign and replied darkly, murmuring, "My father won't get to see my death, if he loses his first. I'm sorry… please, forgive me." Thorns and rose vines then wrapped around Benjiro's arms, to make him release the girl. He was pinned by the vines to the ground where he just watched as Akina ran off— towards the fox. She's already got her Kekkei Genkai of the Mochizuki clan? Benjiro thought, but then to his surprise, he'd see a black rose bloom from one of the vines. He looked at it with a scared shock in his eyes as he thought, A black rose, impossible. She's not just got the rose style jutsu… she's achieved the rare and forbidden… black rose style jutsu. To think she might surpass her own successors. Oh man, if my mother finds out about her being able to control black roses to her command… she'll have her dead. I promised uncle Yasuo I'd protect her, but I don't think it will be long before she can protect herself.

The young six-year old ran though the trees and brush, trying to find her father, but then she seen a huge toad on the other side of the fox. Realizing that it was the Fourth Hokage— Akina knew that meant that all the other shinobi must have headed back to the village and her father could be back home. As she was heading back to the village, the fox and the Hokage started to engage and the nine-tails whooshed its tails and a massive chakra wave rushed through the air. Taking down trees and everything in its path—including Akina. The red chakra wave rushed right up her back and knocked her out. She slowly lost consciousness, as she blacked out to the sound of voices screaming in her head.

Akina woke up, opening her bright green eyes to the hospital ceiling tiles? She lay in the bed as her long wavy black hair swept over the pillow, her trying to recall what happened. Was it all a nightmare? She then tried to lean up, but fell from the bed as she felt the pain of the scar the fox had left. Akina was on the floor on all four; thinking sadly with her sarcastic reply to her own thoughts, Didn't get this from a dream. She then tried pulling herself back into the bed, but the pain of her scar was too much to bear. "AHhhhh…"

Meanwhile down stairs in the hospital's lobby, Benjiro was checking in for visiting hours, when he heard the scream— to shoot off in the direction it came, shoving himself from the reception desk. That's Akina's scream? He ran as fast as he could to Akina's room, entering with brute force and skidding across the room to his knees and giving her a shocking hug. Akina screamed again as he held her tight, "Akina?" He asked in concern as he pushed her back to meet her emerald eyes.

"My scar… it burns." She murmured in fatigue and frustration, looking away from her cousin ten years her senior.

A teenager that wore the leaf vest over a white dress shirt, and he had brown trousers and using his shuriken holster for a belt. A man with his bangs forced more to the right side of his face, a dull brown color that was strange in the Mochizuki— usually always having black hair. His eyes were also not the same; his being a unique chocolate color, narrowed with nothing but care behind them. "I bet it does. You're lucky to be alive…" he would smile, petting her face, the pale doll features. Her hair being parted on the left side, the black remnants of bangs only falling over the right side of her face, while her bangs that fell beside her left cheek would usually be pinned back with the rest of her long hair.

"Benjiro… I apologize for that jutsu I casted on you, but I needed to stop my father from— from. Tell me is my father alive or…" she kept her composer, waiting for his answer.

Her cousin would swallow, gulping as he stared into the poor wide green eyes. "I'm afraid he has passed, Akina. The funeral was about two weeks ago."

Shock hit the young girl like a truck, running over her heart completely. "What do you mean? H-how… how long was I out?" Akina asked keeping her composer, changing the subject so that her breaking heart wouldn't reveal weakness.

"About two and a half weeks." Benjiro breathed bemused by the still very young girl that hadn't broken down crying over her daddy she cherished so much?

She would keep that proper appeal to her the whole time, averting her crystal cold green gems. "Why couldn't you wait till I woke up?"

"My mother decided not to wait… she didn't believe you were going to wake up." Benjiro stared at her thinking, She died and came back at least four times. Because of the black roses is why she's still with us?

"Benjiro…" said man broke from his thoughts to the smooth child's voice she had. "I want to see my father." Benjiro nodded his head sadly and then picking her up in his arms, to not dare deny his princess for what she wanted.

Cemetery
He brought her to her father's tombstone; setting her down in the grass in front of it. "I'll let you have some time to yourself." Benjiro stated to walk away and sit on the hill over looking the cemetery— watching Akina limp body and head hang in a prayer. I can imagine what you're going through. I was half your age when I lost my father; but I guess it hurts no matter what. You must have double the pain; since you don't have your mother either. He let out a breath, after he halted his thoughts. "It's not polite to eavesdrop, mother…" Benjiro stated as Iva snuck out from the shadows, merging out from a willow tree.

Her hips would sway seductively in her advancing steps. "Well, it's not polite to sass your mother either; so I guess we're even. So, little miss Akina finally woke up I see?"

Benjiro didn't seem wavered by the bloodthirsty woman standing over him to his side. "Don't sound so excited, you'll hurt yourself. Besides… now you don't have to worry about being the leader of the Mochizuki clan for much longer." Benjiro stood after he made his sarcastic comment, ready for the worst.

Iva would just smile evilly inward. "Didn't we just discuss that it's not polite to sass your mother? And yes… once Akina turns sixteen, my privilege of being the rightful leader of the Mochizuki clan will possibly come to an end."

"Possibly?" Benjiro questioned with distrust in his snarl.

Iva replied cackling, "Yes… if Akina reaches jonin rank, receives the Mochizuki clan Kekkei Genkai, develops two jutsu and becomes a respected member of the clan by her sixteenth birthday; then she can become leader. But if she doesn't… the leadership will remain in my hands and my second born Akanah will secede me."

Benjiro rolled his eyes to come closing them. "Wow, and I thought it couldn't get any worst with you as leader, but you're going to put the only ninja that refers to a stiletto as a type of heel and not the knife… brilliant."

Iva eyebrow would twitch in annoyance. "Aw, you make it sound like I'm a bad person, son… but I can't be since I'll let Akina stay with us in our new home. Your sister is even going to share her room. So I suggest that you lose the sass soon!" She hissed stopping there, soon going to turn and head back to the shadows.

Benjiro eyes would go narrower, keening in on Iva's crest on her back— the Mochizuki crest. A phoenix stretching its wings up and rounded with the full moon ring he was set in, holding a thorny stemmed rose between its beak. Benjiro would then gain his courage. "You mean Akina's room, and her home. That's the head families house, not ours!"

Iva would coldly look over her shoulder mewing, "It's mine now." To leave it at that, puffing into purple rose petals into the air.

Benjiro would shake his head, looking back to Akina. To then march down the hill finally coming to stand behind her, while she was still knelt to the grassy ground praying. "Can I talk to you?" Benjiro asked, only having Akina nod.

Her cousin would kneel down beside her, having Akina come out with, "Did aunt Iva have some bad news?"

"Well uh… you see since both your parents have passed, your aunt Iva is willing to let you stay with Akanah and myself in your house…"

"What?" Akina asked softly scoffing, confused under her breath.

"Don't ask… my mother is not exactly the mother type, but this is not what I wanted to talk to you about. You know that your father was the leader of the Mochizuki clan, right? Well, you see now that he has passed you will be the next to lead, but you cannot do such until you reach the age of sixteen… but there are conditions you have to fulfill before then." Benjiro took in a breath as Akina stayed quiet, waiting for him to finish. "You have to reach jonin rank, develop two jutsu and become a respected member of the clan?"

Akina replied with a scoffing smirk, as she looked down emotionless. "Is that all? Don't worry Benjiro… just one question though?"

"Shoot?"

"Why would you be telling me all this? Why are you so kind to me? You do realize that if I don't fulfill these conditions… your mother will stay leader until she secedes it to her first born… you."

Benjiro placed his hand on top of her head, grinning down to Akina from the side. "Well, first of all… I want you to become the leader of the clan. Second, because I'm your cousin and I love you, and thirdly… I don't have any expectations of being leader and I don't want my cynical mother leading the clan and not that it makes a difference… but my mother isn't seceding the leadership to me, it's going to Akanah."

Akina would then giggle to then jump into Benjiro's arms. "Thank you." Akina said as she tucked her head in his chest.

Benjiro was in shock to his cousin's actions, but still being able to hug back. "There is nothing to thank me for. Just doing what I'm supposed to." He reassured as he made sure not to hold too hardly on her back to irritate her scar.

Akina pulled away, playing with her hair and bringing it forward. "Well, you were suppose to just say you're welcome… because you don't have to be nice, but you are. So I thank you."

Benjiro gave a giggle, she was profound for a six-year-old. "You're welcome."

"Now you say it." Akina said sarcastically snapping at him, while Benjiro admired her, the girl who put on a brave face just after losing her father. She's gonna go far.