The rain hammered down, stinging the cuts that had been deep set on her small face, but she had been out in the rain so long, the pain and the cold no longer bothered her.
She stumbled forward, as her trembling legs finally gave way,and she slumped to the ground, her whole body trembling, and her eyes half closed. She could see her breath form clouds as her throat stung, and her chest ached from her forced breathing.
Her body grew numb as she lay in the lashing rain. She was so tired,all she wanted to do was close her eyes, and never have to open them again.
As she watched the rain beat against the grass, and watched as the droplets splashed against her hand, the only thing she could remember was her last moments with her parents. The longest moments of her life, flashed before her eyes as she recalled every movement and word that was spoken.
"She's just a child!"
"Please, she didn't do anything wrong!"
Maybe if she had just did what she was told, she'd still be with her parents. She'd be at home, in her warm bed, being tucked in by Papa, watching the rain hammer against the window. The smell of Mama's cooking wafting through their little house. Her little cat curled up in her bed.
She could still smell the blood. She could still hear her parents screams. She could still see the flames as their house went up in smoke.
She thought she was dreaming, when she could no longer feel the rain on her back. She could still hear the relentless chorus of the raindrops as they fell from the sky, but she felt nothing.
Was she dying? No. She heard the sound of rustling, and felt the presence of someone standing nearby.
With what little strength she had left, she lifted her head, and peered up. Through her blurred eyes, she could make out the figure of a person. A man. She couldn't really see his face. She gave up, and let her head fall back against the grass. The man said something. She couldn't hear too well. Her senses had all but been diminished. She felt something like a pair of arms pick her up, and all she could remember was the sudden feeling of warmth, as her eyes finally closed and she drifted off.
And that was where it all began.
~o~
"Sheesh, cleaning out the library? What kind of mission is this?!"
The loudmouthed, spikey haired blonde, threw his arms over his chest as he looked out over the seemingly endless piles of books and scrolls, he and his team had been assigned to clean up.
"Suck it up loser.."
His raven haired team mate scowled, as he trawled past, dragging a pile of books behind him. The blonde shot his back an obnoxious glare before proceeding to begrudgingly sort through the pile of books at his feet. He glanced over at his female team mate, who seemed rather at home among all the books. Their sensei, had taken this opportunity to catch up on some reading of his own; if the reading of perverted books can count for anything.
"Isn't this the librarian's job anyway?" He scoffed, tossing a few books over his shoulder. The girl turned her head, giving him a disapproving look.
"Be more careful Naruto! Some of these books are highly valuable!" She snapped. Naruto pouted at her and whimpered .
"But Sakura-chan! You don't seriously think cleaning out a library is a fit job for a Shinobi of my calibur?" He protested. Sakura rolled her eyes at his arrogant questioning, and turned back to the shelf, placing the books in her arm in their rightful places. Sasuke had his back to both of them, doing his best to ignore their incessant chattering. Naruto had a point: cleaning a library was the last thing he wanted to be doing too, but since they didn't have any choice in the matter, he just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.
Naruto groaned, as he heaved a heavy pile of scrolls off the floor, which caused Sakura to give him another negative stare. She watched as Naruto crab walked to the other side of the room, her eyes caught as a small book fell from within the scrolls, and hit the floor with a light thud.
She went over, squatting down and picking up the book. It was small. The pages had been stained yellow: indicating this book must have been quite old. She looked at the cover, where the illustrations had started peeling away. She could just make out the title, which had been written in traditional Japanese brush.
"Bachiatarigami no Densestsu..." She muttered, reading out the Kanji. Curiously, she pried open the cover to a random page, careful not to damage the delicate paper. Her eyes widened slightly, as an intricate illustration met her eyes.
"Hey...Naruto..." She called out, never once looking away from the book. Naruto turned, seeing the pink haired kunoichi engrossed in the small book.
"What is it?" He asked, making his way over and kneeling down, peering over her shoulder. Sakura ran her fingers over the page, and Naruto followed her gesture.
"This girl, she has whiskers like you, Naruto," Sakura said. Naruto peered at the illustration. A girl, with short, bright red hair, and deep, cerulean eyes peered up at him from the page, surrounded by cherry blossom petals. As Sakura had said, there were whiskers etched onto either side of her face. Naruto's eyes scanned the whole picture, getting almost lost in the petals that were made to look as if they were dancing around the girl. Behind her were what seemed to be nine tails. Cat tails. Above her, written in Kanji were the words "The Blossom Princess: Konohanasakuya-Hime"
"What is this book...?" Naruto muttered in question. Sakura flipped the book to the cover, and Naruto read the Kanji. At this point, Sasuke had twigged onto their conversation, and had wandered over, trying not to look too interested.
"What are you looking at..?" He asked, peering down at the little book as he approached. Sakura held the book up allowing Sasuke to get a good look, and he took the book from her, holding it in one hand.
"Bachiatarigami no Densetsu...?" He read aloud the title, and glanced at Sakura and Naruto. Just as he was about to open the book, it was whipped from his grasp. He gasped a little, taken by surprise and turned round, to see Kakashi holding the book above him.
"Well now..." Kakashi muttered, gazing at the book. "This is interesting indeed,"
The three genin glanced at eachother.
"What's that book about, Sensei?" Sakura asked. Kakashi looked down at her and rubbed his chin.
"Well, I suppose you three would be too young to be acquainted with this story..." He pondered. "Then again I am too, technically speaking,"
"Is it some kind of folk tale?" Sasuke questioned, looking up,trying to read the blurb on the back.
"Not...exactly," Kakashi replied. "Well...Bachiatarigami no Densetsu...Legend of the Cursed Gods...I suppose legend wouldn't be far off.." He paused, musing at the confused expressions on his students faces.
"You see, this little story here...they say it's based on real life events that took place over 100 years ago," He explained. "And there's a prophecy...although the only people that ever believed the prophecy was true, were the hardcore Buddhist monks and such...but the prophecy spoke of the events that took place 100 years ago, and how they will reoccur, and history will repeat itself," Kakashi finished his rather strained explanation.
"What exactly does it say happened?" Sakura asked, finding Kakashi's explanation hard to comprehend, since he hadn't really put much effort into it.
"Well..." he handed the book to Sakura. "Read it and find out" Sakura looked at the book sheepishly.
"It'll be fine, as long as you're careful with it,"He said, picking up on her unease. She looked up at him.
"If you're sure, sensei.."
The sun had just begun setting when team 7 were finally finished with their assignment. They piled out of the dim library, welcoming the fresh air, and stretching their stiff limbs.
"Well, I'm off home to read this," Sakura said, as she began to walk ahead of the others, the little book tucked in her hand.
"Awww, why don't you come and get ramen with me instead of reading some boring book?" Naruto whined. Sakura rolled her eyes, and continued to walk, not even giving Naruto a second glance. Sasuke followed suit, stuffing his hands in his pockets and beginning his own journey home. Kakashi patted Naruto on the head.
"Get lots of rest, Naruto-kun, big day of missions ahead of us," He said, with what could be assumed was a smile, behind his mask. Naruto sighed and wandered off in the direction of Ichiraku's.
Approching he could already smell the aroma of fried noodles and cooking meat wafting through the air, almost as if it was calling out to him. He turned the corner, hearing a chorus of laughter echo from the restaurant.
He pushed back the curtains of the shop, and stepped inside, the heat from the kitchen warming up his face. A group of kids, about his age, all turned in their seats as he entered, each one sitting over a steaming bowl of ramen.
One boy, about a year older than himself, with jet black hair and wide, yellow eyes grinned at him, as Naruto took a seat next to him.
"Have fun today Naruto-kun?" He asked. Naruto scowled and slumped over the counter.
"Hell no! Cleaning out a library! The biggest waste of four hours!" He exclaimed.
"Damnit Toshio! You're lucky you get to go on good missions!"
"Thats because I'm older than you," The boy, named Toshio pointed out, before slurping up some noodles. The girl sat the other side of Toshio leaned over, and looked at Naruto.
"A stupid mission, for a stupid person," She said, in a sing song voice, and grinned at Naruto. Naruto flayed his arms.
"Kemi! thats not what I need!" He yelled. Kemi stuck her tongue out and leaned back onto her seat, flicking her blonde hair over her shoulder. Naruto watched her as she happily ate her ramen, and laughed with the other genin in the restaurant. He thought back to the picture of the girl in that book.
Kemi was Naruto's sister. It had been established that they were twins, separated at birth, although everything about Kemi was more or less a mystery. She had arrived in Konoha half a year ago with Toshio, with nothing but the clothes they stood in.
Kemi and Naruto were alike to a T. Litereally. They both had the same loudmouth personality, the same love for ramen, and even the same whiskers etched onto their faces. Naruto's whiskers were caused by the Kyuubi, so no one could figure out why Kemi had them too.
After seeing that book, and after hearing what Kakashi had said about a prophecy, Naruto's mind started to wander.
Kemi looked up from her bowl, to see her brother gazing at her absent mindedly. She frowned.
"What're you looking at, mush for brains?"
Naruto blinked, snapping out of his thought train, to see his sister looking at him with an eyebrow raised.
"Oh, heh, nothing," He grinned sheepishly, as the boy next to Kemi slumped over the counter, pushing his, now empty bowl away.
"Boy Naruto, you looked trashed," He said, "Hard day doing stupid missions?" He asked, mockingly. Naruto's eye twitched.
"Aww! Cram it!" He exclaimed, slamming his fists down on the counter. The boy smirked, and earned pat on the head from Kemi, who was pleased with his mocking of her brother.
"And I though you were the nice one Fumi," Naruto grumbled. The boy, Fumi, scratched the back of his head.
"My bad, you're fun to mess with ya know?"
Team 5: a three man squad made up of Kemi Uzumaki, Fumi Tachikawa and Toshio Takeda.
For unknown reasons, Toshio preferred to refer to himself as Uchiha, and is as much of a mystery as Kemi. Fumi is a relatively reserved character, from what was once the Tachikawa clan: a clan that was hailed for being masters at water jutsu, but is now more or less wiped out. His white hair and purple eyes, are a trademark characteristic of his clan.
Their sensei, is none other than Konoha's own, Anko Mitarashi. A mish mash of student and Sensei, as Anko often comments on how much she hates her Genin team, and the fact that they (mostly Kemi) go out of their way to bug her, heralds a good excuse for her anguish toward them.
Kemi stood up and stretched.
"Well, I'm off home!" She yawned. "Coming, Toshi?" She asked,looking at Toshio, who was just finishing his ramen.
"Yep!lets go!" He chanted as he stood up. Fumi followed their example, and stood up, stretching his arm behind his head.
Naruto sat at the counter, his head resting on his hand, as he listened to them say their goodbyes to eachother and head home. Now all he could think about was that book, and that picture of that girl.
'the prophecy spoke of the events that took place 100 years ago, and how they will reoccur, and history will repeat itself'
Kakashi's words echoed in his head,and the face of the girl in the book flashed in his mind.
He had to read that book...