Hey Everybody!

Happy Lunar New Year! Today we celebrate coming of the year of the Rabbit!

So I've been making a lot of origami rabbits. I just wish I had colorful paper. :(

Anyways, as promised, I present to you the first chapter of the prequel to My Father was a Hero No One Knew.

If you are a new reader of My OC, Yukimura's adventures then you might want to go back and read the story above.

You can access it at this link here: /s/5774385/1/bMy_b_bFather_b_was_ba_b_bHero_b_No_One_Knew

Enjoy!

Yours truly,

RueLin

First Movement, Part One

The group of travelers huddled closely, their bodies endured the cold wet snow and rain as the wind rapt it against the small caravan. The blizzard had come at a distressing time. They had just crossed the border into Amegakure when the snow had started to drift gently toward the earth, but before they knew it rain, as large as bells, have started fall. The caravan had planned on reaching the first village by night fall since the weather bode well in the morning, but since it changed so drastically in the afternoon they quickly made their way to a large cave that lay as a checkpoint between the border and the village that they oft sought shelter in emergencies such as this. But even then, they were still a distance way from the cave.

The people walked close to the bodies of cattle and horses and mother sheltered their children under their shawls. Everyone was stiff to the bone, but they were used to this because they were travelers after all. They never stayed in one place for too long and winter was always unavoidable here in Amergakure. They would have avoided Ame like all the rest of the traveling caravans except their leaders' origins were from Amegakure as well as the majority of the caravan. Every year they would pay tribute to their roots even if they have to undergo the harsh weather.

But Amergakure as always welcomed them warmly because the caravan would always stay until spring and take part in the annual festivities for the blooming of fruit trees. Yes, the caravan was composed mainly of performers. It had begun as a traveling troupe, but as people joined along their journeys it more or less became a caravan. People talented in music and dance were performers, and people with a knack at bargaining were merchants.

"I see it up ahead!" the current leader, Masamoto, cried out and cries of joy and relief were heard as everyone quickened their pace toward the dark dry opening. As quickly as they were in they set up their animals and camps as each family started their fires, some with their friends in large huddles.

Soon the entire cave was toasty warm and the younger children slept in their mother's laps as the older children played in their own groups. The boys, especially Msamoto's son, Toroki, loved to role play that they were their own caravan. Each child portrayed the part of their parents so of course Toroki lead the pack of mini travelers.

"Check out how fast the snow is falling," Chikako said. She was the daughter of a successful pottery seller, she was also claimed the prettiest of Toroki's generation and was always thought to marry into the leader's family one day. Toroki hated the idea of pre-destined marriage, but Chikako loved it and so caused her long one-sided love for him, though they were only just barely ten and seven at the time.

Chikako peaked up from the corner of her eye at Toroki, she knew what do say to make him excited for adventure.

"Yea, let's go check it out," he said definitely even though they had just fought a long hard battle with the storm. "Everyone that has enough balls for an adventure, grab your coats and get back here within ten minutes. I won't wait for anyone after that."

The boys who always followed Toroki around quickly went to put on their thick coats made of different animal skins their mothers have sewn together. The rest of the boys slowly sauntered off. They were torn between following Toroki, which would grant you privileges of being the future leader's friend and bearing against the cold and wet. Most would probably give in to the warmth of the fire as they walked close to their families' fires to get their jackets.

As Toroki and his posse walked off like kings, a gleeful smile crossed Chikako's cute face. He had listened to her. She hastily jumped off the rock she had sat on and headed towards her family's glowing fire.

"Chika-chan," her friend held her back for a moment. "Are you really going to go outside again? We just got dry, what's the good in getting wet again. And your mom would get mad at you."

Chikako nudged off her friend's hand. "Of course I'm going, I'm going to be Toroki's wife one day, and it's a wife's job to follow her husband wherever he goes!" she declared. "You can stay behind if you want to, Ayumi."

She left Ayumi behind and didn't look back.

Soon everyone that either wanted or felt forced to go had gathered at the mouth of the cave all wrapped up I their coats. They hid behind a large boulder used as a secret base from their parents that would have lectured them about their better opinion rather that recklessly running off into the cold and snow. By now the blizzard had grew so thick you could barely see five feet ahead of you.

"Alright everyone," Toroki announced in a hushed tone to his brethren, "make sure you are in group and keep your lamp lit, if you get lost just turn your tail and head back for the cave. Got it?"

Everyone gave him a silent nod. Toroki waved his arm in the air and headed out. The purpose they left the cave? Toroki wasn't even sure himself. He just wanted to get out of the comfort zone and have an adventure, who knows what he may find out there?

Even though he was so brave the wind almost knocked him over when he stepped out the cave. He braced himself and looked courageous while doing it. His group followed close by along with Chikako and Ayumi. They roamed around for roughly ten minutes when Ayumi shouted to Chikako, because no one would hear her over the wind if she just talked, "Can't we go back now?"

Chikako turned around and held onto her hat tightly, "Go back yourself if you want to!"

"But Toroki told us not to be alone!"

Chikako turned around furiously again. Her angry dark eyes frightened Ayumi. Even if she was Chikako's best friend, Chikako proved to be as fierce as a tigress when her buttons were pushed. "I don't care, find another group and go with them. I bet they've all quit! I'm going to follow Toroki!"

But when Chikako turned around again neither Toroki nor his group of boys were anywhere in sight. The snow had gotten thicker and the only thing she could distinguish was a wall of white in every direction.

"What should we do?" Ayumi asked in a quieter tone now that she grabbed onto Chikako.

Chikako thought hard. She knew the better thing to do was to head back to the cave with Ayumi, but she desperately wished to find Toroki. She grabbed Ayumi's gloved hand, "We're not heading back. We're going to look for Toroki!"

"What? That's crazy! We don't even know where they are!" They had to shout again because the wind had started to blow faster, carrying their voices away.

"Well, I don't know which way the cave is either!"

The two started in a random direction, Ayumi clinging onto Chikako the whole time. They walked what they presumed to be straight for a long while before they saw a torch light. The two girls quickly ran as fast as their legs could allow them in the stiff snow.

"Ah!" Ayumi cried and dragged Chikako down with her into the snow.

"What is it?" Chikako demanded to know, fearing that if she took her eyes off the light for a second it would disappear. But soon that fear was diminished by what she saw was lying in the snow.

Ayumi had tripped over a body. Chikako could see her long blonde hair tangled up in the white snow as if it were trying to suffocate her. Ayumi screamed and apparently the people holding the torch had heard her and they rushed over the remaining distance.

It was Toroki's group. Chikako cheerfully called out his name, her eyes almost in tears.

"What's going on?" he asked with authority. His coat was soaked through and through.

"We got lost and then found the body," Chikako said. "I'm so thankful that you're here, now let's go home."

Toroki inspected the body closer. He was taken in by the golden hair sprawled on the snow. He had never seen such a color hair before, in all his travels. He wanted to touch it badly and reached out, but before he had made any contact the wind blew it away from his hands and revealed with pale white face.

It was a beautiful girl. She lay in the snow motionless. Her face was stricken with a sadness that had frozen as stiff as the frozen tears that struck across her face. Toroki reached out again to wipe away the tears, a girl as beautiful as her shouldn't be sad when she died.

"Don't touch it!" Chikako ordered, angrily.

"She won't kill me! We should at least give her the honor of a proper burial!" Toroki replied over the howling wind.

Toroki broke off the rigid tears from the dead girl's face but then he felt something strange: a small breath, barely there next to the raging wind. It was cold, unlike the breath of the live children that appear in white puffs of smoke.

"She's alive!" he cried out. "Akio take out your compass and take someone with you back to the cave for help," Toroki ordered, "and be snappy about it!"

The boy named Akio just grabbed another that was standing close to him and headed back in the direction of the cave. Toroki didn't hesitate and took off his coat and wrapped it around the girl.

"What are you doing?" Chikako asked him. She put a hand on the girl's body forcing him to stop. "Put your coat back on!"

Toroki shoved Chikako's hand away and pulled the dying girl in to his own embrace. Sure, he was cold, but he had been cold for a long time now, the chill didn't affect him so much. He headed back in the direction that Akio had gone in and the rest of the group huddled close to him like they did with their parents next to the cattle and livestock when they traveled to the cave. Chikako and Ayumi stayed behind. Chikako, raging with fire and tears couldn't believe Toroki had touched a random girl like that. She had never been carried like that before.

Finally, she didn't see a point in being stubborn and getting her and Ayumi killed in the snow and headed back with the group a good twenty paces behind.

The kids were about half way back to the cave, because they could see the faint glow of fire in the distance, Masamoto and a couple of men came rushing over with torches.

"Dad!" Toroki called out and Masamoto came over quickly. He took the girl from Toroki's thin failing arms and wrapped his son within the folds of his mighty cape. Toroki had never felt warmer than when he was in the large confines of his father's cape.

"You did well, son," Masamoto complimented, even though Toroki should have never brought the other youngsters out with him. "Let's go back; your mother's been worried sick."

Within the hour everyone was back in the cave, dry and warm. Toroki quickly went over to the cover of the cave where the doctor of the caravan rested. He entered the tent that had been setup. There was his mother and various other ladies in waiting. The old doctor was examining the pale girl lying on the cot.

Her hair had been dried and she was changed into fresh clothes. The fire pit in the tent burning brightly and Toroki could see that color was returning to her flesh. Now he could see just how beautiful she was. Her eyebrows and eyelashes were the same color as her hair, a dawning gold.

"Mom," he whispered and sat next to her, "she's going to be okay right?"

"Yes, I'm sure now. It was hard when your father and you brought her back all wet and as cold as ice. We had all thought that she would die, and she would have if you haven't found her earlier."

Suddenly in that quiet environment the girl let out a tiny moan that sounded like a cry and a tear fell from her eye.

"Well, at least we know she's sleeping now," the old doctor said. "She's not in any danger now except for a severe fever she's developing to fight off the cold."

"What a relief," Toroki's mother, Nakao, sighed gladly as did the other ladies.

"Well, since there isn't much that we can do now, I guess we'll just take off and be with our families," they said and left.

As they walked out the medical tent the minstrel stumbled in, drunk as usual.

"Watch it!" one of the women called out angrily and they walked away quickly to avoid any more trouble from him.

Toroki and Nakao got up from where they sat and got out of his way as the old dirty man stumbled to the open cot on the other side of the tent from the girl. He plumped his bottom down and demanded, "Doc, I need that medicine again. My hands are hurting."

The old doctor groaned repulsively at the old musician. "Alright, I'll get that damned medicine for you. Heikuro!" He called on his apprentice and he appeared from behind the back entrance of the tent. "Get Old Man Kaimu his medicine."

"Yes sir," Keikuro said and his head disappeared behind the flaps of the door again.

The doctor examined the girl closer. He picked up her left hand and pondered on the marks she had on the tips of her fingers. Before he had that they were recent injuries that froze as her skin did, but even now that she had thawed out and was warmed they were still there.

"Nakao-san, can you please come and take a look at this," Doc said, because he was afraid his old eyes were failing him. "What do you think those are?"

Nakao took the little girl's hands and peered down on her fingers. "I'm not sure," she answered. "They look like calluses. Perhaps her parents were weavers. I often see the hands of women that weave cloth like that. They get hard from rubbing on the threads for too long."

"Those aren't calluses from thread," the old artiste commented. He sauntered over like a large monster in his dark dirty rags and took the girl's small fragile hands. He couldn't be surer of his theory being a fact. He took a look at his own worn out hands. He remembered when his hands were callused and red from the strings of instruments. "She's a musician. Doc, I'm taking her once she's well enough to sit," he declared.

Everyone's mouth gaped in awe. The lonely, grouchy, old alcoholic musician wants to take in a little girl?

"What do you mean?" Nakao asked, for she had thought of taking in the girl herself if a proper family couldn't be found for her in the village they will continue to travel to after the storm clears.

"I'm going to take her and teach her my trade," he answered honestly, much more sober now that he's found a promising legacy.

"What makes you think you have the resources and ability to raise a small girl like her?" Doc asked.

The musician gave the Doc a queer look. "How hard can it be to take care of just one girl? Just feed her three times every day and keep her dressed."

"Oh dear," Nakao groaned, "You make my job sound so easy." Nakao stood up and faced the old musician. She had grown up with him since he was around his son's age and knew him well. "Kaimu, do you really believe that you can take care of her? From the color of her hair she's probably a foreigner. She may not understand our language. She's going to need a mother when she grows up. And to say honestly, I don't think that you are a suitable guardian for her."

"Are you finished?" he asked her.

Nakao sighed loudly and wearily. She sat back down with her son. "Are you sure, Kaimu? It's harder than learning music."

Kaimu smiled handsomely. "I like a good challenge. Anyways, I'll come back tomorrow to check up on her. Call me if she wakes up. I already have a name in mind for her." He grabbed the medicine Heikuro had finally taken out and headed out the tent.

"That Kaimu!" Nakao exclaimed. "He's crazy!"

"Mom, you've said that about the old geezer a thousand times already," Toroki commented. His eyes returned to the sleeping girl.

Somehow, while everyone was occupied by Old man Kaimu, she had turned somewhat lively. Her color had returned and she had stopped crying in her sleep. Toroki smiled on the girl, little did he know he had already fallen into the snare of an unrequited love.