Chapter 1: Rain
It was a typical day in Amegakure, the Village Hidden in Rain. Drizzles and drizzles of rain sprinkled down from the moisture-laden clouds in the sky above to the drenched land below. As the villagers ignored the typical rain and carried on with their typical businesses, two tall figures made their way slowly through the rows of rainproof huts. Their faces were veiled by the white strips fluttering down from their flat cone hats. They were attired in long black overcoats decorated with red clouds. And their fingernails were painted a dark shade of violet (a strange little detail one must never leave out). The run-of-the mill villager would not have ever known that they were two members of an organization known as Akatsuki, partially because every villager was wearing similar cone hats and partially because the typical villager was ignorant of many events outside the Amegakure bubble.
Eventually the two Akatsuki-nin reached a stream, nearly bulging with rushing water, on the outskirts of Amegakure. Murky water slapped wildly against the muddy banks, and raindrops pricked the slightly flooded ground like falling pebbles. In the course of this typical day, a third figure, this time carrying a bamboo umbrella to mask the face, approached the Akatsuki-nin. The threesome stopped short of approaching each other too closely. A silence, save for the rain, ensued this tense encounter.
"It's been a while, Toriya-chan," the shorter of the two Akatsuki-nin finally spoke, addressing the third figure.
"Fancy meeting the two of you here… Itachi… Kisame," she responded evenly. Her simple attire was a white outfit, similar to that of a martial artist, with a light blue emblem in the shape of a single bird's wing (symbolizing the Mizuiro clan) impressed on the collar. Iron braces covered her arms and legs, and her muddy sandals held indications of long hours of beating against the rigid earth. A left hand was holding the umbrella, while the other gloved hand held a large mahogany-brown hawk. This kunoichi oppressed all signs of her current status and maintained hints of politeness masked by sarcasm in her voice. "Whatever brings you to Amegakure?"
The taller of the pair, the one named Kisame and who was carrying a large bandaged sword on his back, grinned and showed his white, triangular teeth.
"Keh," he sneered, "we should be the ones asking you why you're here of all places. Why are you alone?"
"I'm in training," Toriya replied shortly, "and I'm not alone. This here is Tsumemaru-sama."
She looked pointedly at the hawk on her right hand.
Itachi glanced indifferently at the raptor. The rainwater trickled down his hat and further obscured his face, but Toriya's sharp eyes, a warm chestnut shade, could see his red Sharingan ones.
"Isn't that hawk lord who saved you from us last time?" Itachi said lazily.
Last time… Toriya closed her eyes and thought back to that day four years ago…
-Flashback: four years ago-
It was a regular mission assigned to her squad by Sunagakure of the Land of Wind. She and her teammates, Kon and Kai, had it easy, since their village was still struggling to keep its scrambled affairs in line subsequent to the ill-fated invasion of Konoha. Even though the barren landscape of Suna had prodded the creation of a greenhouse, there were still many herbs that the village lacked to quickly heal the injured shinobi. Baki had ordered Toriya and her teammates to simply retrieve some medicinal herbs from Kusagakure, which was extremely rich with various plants indigenous only in the Land of Grass.
"Well, that was a piece of cake," Kon complained as they left Kusagakure. He habitually brushed back his short dark green hair and casually adjusted his Suna head protector. "Why didn't Baki-sensei give us a harder mission?"
"You're one to talk, idiot," retorted Kai. "Who's always the one to run away when there's a battle? No wonder we always get easy missions."
Kon reddened at this. "Wha-," he spluttered, "where the hell did that come from? You're always arrogant and boasting about your skills, but you never display any of your so-called genius techniques!"
"You want to see them?" growled Kai, his gray eyes flashing. His brown hair (spiked up by gel or some mystical force), only dramatized his towering height over Kon's short stature.
"Yeah! Bring it on!!"
"Shut up, you two," Toriya said coldly from behind them. Her light brown hair, matching the color of her eyes, was tied into a high ponytail.
The two boys glared at each other a bit longer before continuing down the path. Ever since they left the protective folds of Kusagakure, Toriya had begun to sense an unfriendly presence in the vicinity. The feeling only increased as the surrounding grass began to thicken and enormous plants loomed on both sides of the tattered path (one was thrice the height of Kai, including his spiked hair). It was apparent by Kai and Kon's usual (freaking annoying, Toriya thought) banter that they had not sensed anything out of the ordinary.
Still feeling uneasy, Toriya made some hand seals and focused her released chakra toward a nearby sparrow. One moment later, she saw what the bird was seeing in her mind and began controlling the movements of the sparrow. The Bird's Eye Jutsu was a technique that the Mizuiro clan (her clan, of which she was one of the two remaining survivors after rogue shinobi had flattened it) had developed and used because it was extremely helpful for spying missions. In this case, Toriya was searching for the large source of chakra. No… she frowned. It was two shinobi, clothed in long black overcoats with strange red patterns. They were about five yards away behind three birch trees. One of them looked up and stared right into the sparrow's eyes. In a flash of black metal, there was a spurt of blood, and the sparrow fell into darkness.
Crap.
"Kon, Kai! Get away!" Toriya yelled.
A moment later, a flood of water suddenly crashed through the vegetation and knocked the three genin off their feet. Toriya used a kunai to break into the trunk of a tree and steady herself, wondering in the midst of the cold rushing liquid where all the water had come from. Kon and Kai were not so lucky, and they were swept away by the current. Then just as suddenly, a gruff voice broke into her thoughts.
"So you are the jinchuuriki of the six-tails."
A/N: The plot gets better in future (longer, hopefully) chapters :)
Disclaimer: Itachi, Kisame, and all Naruto villages/lands belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Toriya, Kon, Kai, and other random OCs belong to me.