Ok this was originally going to be a one shot… But after the story exceeded 15 pages, and seeing as it's still really early in the story, I figured I should just start posting this up.
The first chap is introducing 2 of the main characters, so sorry if it doesn't make sense.
I do not own Naruto.
True Love & a Child
It started with a child. A 4 year old girl to be exact. A 4 year old girl named karinai. And before that it began with two people: a young man and a young woman, who fell in love, but was torn apart by two different worlds. This is their story…
The 4 year old hurriedly ran along the village's old path to catch up to the group that was ahead of her. Her girl-guide uniform swishing around her body as she ran, with long black raven hair that reached around mid back tied in two pigtail braids blew in the wind.
"Hey guy's wait up!" She exclaimed as she continued running towards the dozens of other girls, her age that appeared to be wearing the same uniform. Also beside the children appeared to be there mothers'.
The group, at hearing the child's voice stopped and waited, though a few kept on walking because they had seemed to not of heard.
"Sorry, I'm late but I took the wrong path to get here." The child gasped as she finally stopped to meet the group.
"That's okay Karinai." Said a woman, stepping to where the child stood. The woman appeared to be in he mid 30's, with wispy brown hair tied up in a bun. "But where's your mother? Today is supposed to be a day where the mother's watch what we do at girl-guides." The woman said, squatting down to the child's height.
Confused, Karinai looked over her shoulder. "She was with me a moment ago." She said in a mousy tone. Some of the young girls looked around at each other and started giggling, but were quickly hushed up by the shushing of their mothers even though they, themselves, had a very amused look on their faces.
Just then a figure was seen hurrying down the path that the child had just passed moments before. Her red spaghetti strap sun dress clinging around her athletic frame as she jogged.
"THERE SHE IS!" Karinai said in delight, looking up at the older woman's face.
When the woman finally caught up with the group, the scene was awkward. No one spoke. The mothers looked the mother up and down as if picking out every detail of her, but everyone knew what she was the moment she came standing beside the 4 year old.
The woman had an athletic build that shaped her dress and made it look like a ball gown. She had blonde hair that reached her shoulders, it was held neatly back with a burette. Her eyes were light blue, like the child's. And her facial features matched the child's almost identically. The woman could have been an athlete, Olympic swimmer or even a ninja. But a mother, no. Maybe a sister or distant relative. But definitely not a mother. Instead of being in the late twenties like the rest of the mothers, this one appeared to look like she was 20. (Actually she was 21 but whose counting?)
She was a teen mother.
"Why does she look so young?" One young girl, with red frizzy hair, asked her mom. The mother looked at the child, giving her the look that only mothers can give, which translates into "I'll tell you later, so stop asking questions or else…"
Pretending not to have heard the comment, the young mother looked up from her child, outstretched a hand towards the eldest woman with brown hair and said: "Hi, my name's Leara, I'm Karinai's mother." She gave a sweet smile as the woman grasped her hand and returned the smile. "Sorry I'm late…" Leara continued. "But I got a little separated from my daughter at the last crossing."
"Yea right" coughed out one of the mothers, barely audible enough to hear. She smirked; sure that no-one had heard.
"I'm sorry, I didn't hear that? Did you say something?" Leara asked turning to face the woman, who instantly lost her smirk. "I thought so." She said returning that smirk to the woman, who had just made the last remark.
"Anyway, let's get started…" said the woman with brown hair, clapping her hands together, in order to get every-one's attention. "My name is Merge. Today the kids will be selling cookies in the park, and you, the mothers, will get to watch." She continued, and brushed past Leara, in order to assemble the kids.
The woman, Merge, smelt like gingerbread, as she passed Leara. For some reason that smell always made her feel like she was 5 years old again, watching her mother bake in the kitchen while she ,herself, tried to be of some assistance to her mother. "Leara, darling, I know you want to help, but I really don't need any." Her mother used to say
"But I wants too." She would respond.
"I know you do my little angel of fire, and some day you will but not today." Her momma would say looking into her blue eyes. "Why don't you run along and play with your siblings." Momma would say after a few moments, ending the conversation.
Leara forced the rest of the memory out of her head. "Why am I thinking about her, she's dead, In fact, my whole family is dead." She thought as she walked beside her child, who had un-noticeably grabbed her hand.
As she, and the other kids accompanied by their own mothers followed Merge, Leara felt the eyes of every single mother on her backside, looking her through, and analyzing her every move. "Let them stare and watch my every move. You think you're the first? Ha! You people make me laugh!" She thought as she let out a smirk.
Karinai looked up at her mother to see her smiling. She to knew why all the mothers where staring, but she didn't care, she loved her mommy and that was all that counted. Knowing this she smiled to.
Merge finally stopped, and the group realized that they were in the middle of Konoha's park. Leara shivered a little, remembering the scene of the last time she was here. "Okay girls let's set up our selling station here. There are benches and places to sit over to the right where the mothers can sit." Merge said talking to the group. Something about her tone made Leara think again of her mother, but she quickly pushed the thought away. Quietly she let go of her daughter's hand. When Karinai gave a questioning look, the mother gave a reassuring smile, and kissed her child's forehead. She then walked away from her child to over where the mothers had sat. She looked at all the seats that were once empty but now full, she sighed as she saw a lone swing. She moved towards it and sat down, taking in her surroundings.
The park hadn't changed much from the last time she was here, everything had stayed the same, well, everything except that the last time she was there something had just happened, something terrible.
XXXXFLASHBACKXXXX
The rain poured heavily on the young girl's back, causing her long blonde hair to get tangled in her eyes, but she didn't care, she didn't need to see she was taught to be able to find her way around with her other senses. She just kept on running. Her Konoha headband covered her eyes as it slipped from her forehead. She finally stopped and realized she was in the park.
She gasped for air, and let all her tears come out. What had she done? She looked around for a place to sit, spotted a swing and sat down. She was no longer crying, just gasping for air and letting the adrenaline run through her veins. She looked around and then at her hands, legs and arms. They were brushed and bashed, but over top of the bruises was blood. She forced herself to look away and took another deep breath. It was then that she felt his presence. She turned around with a kunai in her hand ready to attack, but saw nothing.
"Isn't it past your bed time?" A cool male voice said from behind. The teen girl stood silent. "Leara? What happened? Let's talk about it." The male voice said…
Leara closed her eyes to forget the rest. She couldn't bear to remember that night, or any other night when she was with him. A few minutes later she reopened them, Looked around spotted her little girl, and smiled, at least her little girl could help her forget her memories. She then felt the eyes of the other mothers on her again. "Don't you have anything better to do? She thought, not looking away from her daughter.
It was then the mothers started whispering. "Have you ever seen her before, cause, I sure haven't."
"I've seen her in the market a few times with her child."
"From what I hear she's only been hear for a few months, since September I think."
"Well what do ya know they actually got some of there gossip right for once"
"I know, but the way she knows the way around Konoha, you would think she lived here all her life."
"Technically not in Konoha, but you're pretty close."
"Who cares if she's lived here all her life can you believe that she has a child, I mean at this age?"
"Here we go. I knew you people couldn't resist bringing up this subject."
"I know, I mean I would have nothing against it if it was true love, but I mean do you at all see a wedding ring around her finger."
"Well, maybe she got divorced."
"Well at least someone here is trying to defend me…Good for you!"
"Are you kidding? Listen, sugar, I've seen these girls before, mind you they normally don't live here, but they are… skanks."
"There we go, I now have my label in the town… Leara: the skank." At this Leara looked up, stood, looked strait at the mothers and said: "Actually I prefer the term whore, but hey what ever turns your crank."
The look on the other mothers was so priceless. They turned 3 shades white, mouths hanging open, eyes wide, and a pained expression which looked like they had just eaten a lemon. "I could take you all out if I wanted, but what's the point. I would just bring attention to myself and I would be even more wanted then what I already am." She gave a sweet smile, sat back down on her swing, bushed back and started going back and forth. She closed her eyes and smiled, in all her glory.
Meanwhile, Karinai was in her glory to. She had sold 10 boxes of cookies, and it had only been 20 minutes. It wasn't until a group of girls came close to her and started talking, that her day began to turn rotten.
"So what do you think of the mothers?" A girl with bleach blonde hair that was tied in ponytails asked her friend that stood beside her.
"There all pretty cool, except for that one wearing the red dress." Her friend said in response.
Karinai knew immediately where this was going to go. She turned to walk away but the group of girls moved to block her way.
"Ya I know, knowing truly what she is, I would hate to be her child." Another girl said.
"Stop it." Karinai said, as she felt her anger lever rising.
"What, did we hit a nerve, or something?" The first girl asked in a mocking tone. "Knowing that your mother is a…"
"Don't say it." Karinai warned.
"…Skank." Finished the girl.
Normally Karinai didn't mind this, after all with every village she lived in, someone always called her mother something like this. At first she thought they were talking about her. "Don't worry my angel, they aren't talking about you. There talking about me." Her mother said when she had one day asked. At first Karinai was ashamed of her mother, and loathed her for what she did, but after a while it just didn't matter anymore. "These people are judging only one part of my life that happened. They don't have the heart to look at the good that came out of it, only the bad." Her mother used to say. Her mother might have been right about that, but the thing that bugged her so much was not the fact of what her mother was, it was the fact that no matter how many times she asked, her mother never told her the identity of her father. "Let's just say he was one of a kind." Was all she said, from what her mother said she had inherited her father's hair, nose and intelligence the rest had come from her mother, well except for her eyes. Her eyes from what her mother had told her, she (her mother) and father had the same kind of eyes.
But something about just hearing a girl her own age say that about her mother, made all the anger that she hadn't felt for years came back. She felt a loathing that she had never felt before.
"Hey what's up with your eyes?" The first girl asked. "They're changing colour. They're turning red."
Karinai had heard this before. It was true that her eyes changed colour. That is what her mother had meant when she said she had inherited her mothers and fathers eyes; after all she had seen her mother's eyes go pure red when she was angry. So obviously her father had those kinds of eyes to.
At this point the group of girls started getting scared. "What's the matter with her eyes?" they kept on asking. Finally a passerby stopped, he wore a Konoha head band and ninja clothing. The man took one look at Karinai, and let out a shocked expression.
"Those eyes, I haven't seen those eyes since…" The man trailed off. "You need to come with me, I need to take you to see some people." He finally said, grabbing her wrist.
"What's going on?" Merge asked, walking over to the man and Karinai.
"We need to take this girl and see Hokage-sama."
"What for?" Merge asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Can I tell you away from her, it's a private but important matter." asked the man, in a grim tone."
"Of course." Merge replied. She and the man walked to a far of corner from hearing ears. The man did most of the talking, and once in a while Merge would say a word or two, but that was all that could be seen or heard of their conversation.
Out of curiosity, Leara jumped off her swing and casually made her way over to her daughter. Her daughter turned away from her as if she was hiding something. She slowly turned her daughter around, only to find that her daughter had her head bowed so she could not see the child's face. She took the child's chin in her hand and slowly raised her head, only to be greeted with two piercing red eyes staring at her. Leara opened her mouth ever so slightly. "Oh…My…God." Karinai turned to stare towards the borderline of trees. Leara turned to look at what her daughter was staring at, and saw to her horror Merge pointing directly at her while talking to a man in ANBU clothing. The man turned to look at her directly. At first his face was expressionless, then you could see the shock register on his face. "Maybe he won't recognize you." But, alas, the man reached into his back pouch, pulled out a book… "I know enough to know that that's a Bingo book."…Flipped a few pages till he found the one he was looking for, and then started reaching for his back pocket. He silently told something to Merge, something that Leara could read that looked like: "Get everyone to safety, this woman is dangerous." He still was reaching into his back pocket; Leara could see the glimmer of a kunai in his hands.
"Now it's time to play Leara, You have 30 seconds at the most to get out of here. You have no weapons so attacking him would be pointless. Unless you use that technique…" Leara made a very slow movement towards her daughter, never taking her eyes off the man. She grabbed her daughters' hand, with her left hand. With the other hand she felt the ground for a stone, she found a good sized one and held it close in her palm "By the looks of him you could just finish him off with close sparing, but why bother bringing attention to yourself." Leara could feel the rush of energy that she had longed for the longest time serge through her veins.
And as the man drew out his kunai, she couldn't help thinking: "Here kitty, kitty. Let's play a game." In less the a second the kunai was thrown towards her, and in a millisecond Leara had thrown the stone, which hit the kunai, which sent it in some other direction then her and her daughter's head.
The man was shocked, at her speed and reflexes. Taking the only opportunity at hand, Leara picked up her daughter jumped from the ground, into the trees and ran as fast as she could…
"Damn…" The man said, shaking his head in disappointment. "After all this time she's still got that ninja attitude." he turned his head, only to find that the woman who he had been talking to had her mouth slightly open in awe.
"Why did you do that for? Who was she?"
"That mam' is one of the most wanted women in these here parts." He replied. Looking off in to the direction that Leara had just ran to.
Merge let out a small grin. "You're kidding… Right?!"
"I could be kidding less. I'm going to need to find every little detail about her. Where she works, and stuff like that."
"Yes, of course" Merge said, walking away to gather up all the little girls running around.
The man let out a sigh and reached in his front pocket to get out his radio. "Well, well, well. look's like you've finally decided to come to you're old home." He smirked. "Looks like you've been busy, That face, and those eyes. And I was hoping for this day to be a short one…so much for that." The man brought the radio up to his lips and contacted his team to re-tell the situation.