Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. All Naruto characters and jutsus are a product of Masashi Kishimoto.
(PART I: Change)
There were sounds of screaming and shouts. Blood was splattered all over the forest floor, on the trunks of trees, on the grass, everywhere. Sounds of animal snarlings, children crying, and then ... there was nothing. Nothing but the sounds of flames, snuffed in the wind.
"Moriko! Get up!" There was a bang on the wooden door. At the sound of her foster mother's voice, the eight year old turned over and covered her head with her pillow. "I'm not going to call you a second time. If you don't get up before seven, you're not going to that ceremony you wanted to go to!"
The little girl sprang up and looked at the clock beside her bed – it was already six fifty. Oh jeez. She slid the door open while rushing out of it at the same time, running to the bathroom. She groomed herself in less than five minutes and was changed in another three.
Her mother smiled and patted her head as she placed eggs, bacon and a slice of toast onto her daughter's plate. It was six fifty-nine, she had just made it in time. Moriko's foster father was on the couch that was placed in the living room, flipping through the daily newspaper. He muttered to himself, "Why would some silly kid want to go to a ninja graduation ceremony? Peh! Being a ninja is just a waste of time." he raised his voice. "You hear that, kid? One day, you're going to be a lawyer or a teacher and show them who's higher in power!"
Moriko rolled her eyes and silently bit into her piece of toast. Parents.
Although she had had her foster parents ever since she could remember, she knew that she was adopted when they told her, two years ago. Ever since then, she always wondered how her real parents would be like. How they would talk to her, how they would react if they saw that she was staying at home helping with the chores than out there, learning how to throw shruikans, learning techniques to protect their village leader – the Hokage.
"Moriko, dear, would you wash your dishes if you're done please?" Her mother's voice broke into her thoughts again, as often as they did.
The girl slid off of her chair, holding her plate and her finished glass cup of orange juice and put it into the sink, letting the water run. Routinely, she took the scrub off of the counter and absent-mindedly rubbed each dishware, still daydreaming.
The entrance to the red shinobi school building was already crowded with family members and relatives, all there to congratulate and welcome newly graduated shinobi into their families. Moriko envied all of them. No matter how well they could fight, or how well they could perform techniques, she envied them to the point where she could kill just to get into that school. At least, what's what half her mind told her. The other half wasn't so sure about the killing part. She watched as the crowd thinned and listened to the cheerfulness of the atmosphere until sundown.
Her keen observation spotted out a blonde-haired boy who was sitting on a swing, his back towards the small crowd. He had been sitting there since that morning and looked very dejected, so Moriko decided to head over. It was not often that she would approach someone. In fact, she usually kept to herself, but her conscience wouldn't let the sight just slip away.
She entered the shade of the tree and looked at the boy. Feeling slightly awkward, she asked, "What's your name?" Her voice was an alto.
The boy looked up at her with his blue eyes. "Uzumaki Naruto."
"What are you doing here all alone?"
He looked back down, mumbling, "I couldn't graduate."
Moriko was about to open her mouth to reply when her ears heard, "They shouldn't let him graduate that one."
Another agreed with the first voice. "Yeah. Imagine what the village would look like if they let someone like him become a shinobi."
She grit her teeth and then calmly replied. "At least you have a chance to learn. I'm not even allowed to go to this school."
Naruto looked up at her. "Why not?"
It was Moriko's turn to mumble. "My parents won't let me. They think being a shinobi is of low class. Anyhow, how can you just sit here and take insults like that?"
"What insults?" Naruto genuinely looked surprised.
"What those women were talking about over there!"
"What are you talking about? I didn't hear them. Are you just trying to cheer me up?" Naruto asked. He stood up from his swing.
Moriko looked at him fiercely. He was a head taller than her. "No. I'm not."she replied, dead serious. A man came out of the building and waved towards Naruto. "I'll see you later. Bye."
Moriko ran all the way home, not looking back to see whether or not Naruto's eyes followed her, nor see whether or not he caught up to his sensei.
Why does everyone always think I'm lying when I know I'm telling the truth? I should just learn to keep my mouth shut. The girl thought as she entered her house. She slid the door shut behind her and sat down before the laundry basket that was already laid out for her. Pondering, she began her chores.
It was late into the night when there was a knock on the door of Moriko's residence. Dinner had been finished, dishes had been washed and dried and the girl was lying on her bed, reading from a book she borrowed from the library. She heard her parent's door slide open and quickly determined that her dad was walking towards the door. The girl lay still for a moment, straining to hear the conversation, but to no avail – they seemed to have gone outside.
She tried to turn back to her book.
"... chakra is energy that is collected from cells in the body. Jutsus, or the techniques of a ninja, whether illusion techniques (genjutsu), or ninja techniques (ninjutsu), a jutsu is completely formed by combining both chakra and spiritual energy together, which can be improved through practice and training. When spiritual energy and body energy are combined together (forming chakra, also known as the process of molding chakra), they can be released through hand seals or a series of hand seals.
Other than chakra, an important factor that plays when executing techniques is stamina, which is the ability to resist fatigue and tiredness. Both physical and mental endurance are needed in order to mold, develop and use chakra. Simply put, without stamina, there is no chakra...
Each technique..."
Moriko's thoughts trailed off as her mind wandered off again. She closed her book, placed it onto the bedside table and sat up. Her thoughts were running wild. Was it a ninja who knocked at the door? Should she go after him and ask if he could train her? No ... that was asking too much. Perhaps if she only asked a couple of questions ... yeah. Maybe she could just go up to him and have him demonstrate a jutsu. Yeah!
The girl stood up, decision made and opened the door by her bed that led to a porch. She stuck her head outside and heard a faint whispering that came from the front of the house. Turning off her bedroom light, she walked soundlessly out of her room and closed the porch door until an inch of empty space remained.
Moriko walked to the back of the house and retrieved a long stick from underneath the porch. She stood on top of the railing that lined the porch and scraped the stick near the corner of the roof. A knotted string fell from the rooftop of the house. She placed the stick back where she found it and used the rope to climb onto the roof. Pulling the rope back onto the roof, she set it into a position where she would be able to find it again and then crawled over to the front side of the house. She could make out low voices now. Both were males.
"...Look. I've told you a thousand times already. We don't know!"
Moriko inched up a little bit. She'd never heard her father talk to someone that way. He looked stressed, though amusing in his white and green striped pajamas.
The other man had silver hair that grew upwards. His eyes were sharp, yet revealed nothing. A mask covered his face from nose down and his forehead protector (that is, a metal plate bearing the ninja's village symbol on a long blue piece of cloth) slid down to cover his left eye. His voice was quiet, but firm. "Alright then. We'll be keeping tabs on you. Expect another visit sometime soon."
Moriko's dad spat at his feet as the ninja walked away, hands in his pocket. The girl waited until her father went back inside and slid off the room, landing with a soft sound as she hit the grass. She sprinted towards the ninja.
A/N: Hey guys. Yeah. I'm not used to writing in chapters and I wrote this as one entire story, only I cut it into sections so I'm sorry if the ending of the chapter is really bad. Anyways. Reviews would be really really nice. I mean, REALLY nice. As well as CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Or you can go ahead and straight criticise me. Doesn't matter. Thanks.