Chapter 1

How it all Began

I was born into a village close to the Village Hidden in the Mist. It was a small village but had very strong ninja that controlled the water to do their bidding, and they were our pride and joy.

When I was three years of age, most of the kids that old had already had dreams of being powerful ninja, but that was not me. I was not one to dream of fighting and glory of that sort, no, not I. My name is Korinala and this is my story.

From the age of three I was already planning my future. I wanted to be one of those rich women who I would see sometimes walking down the streets with slaves at their aid whenever needed. I thought that I would fit in perfectly, what with my beauty and charm. On top of that, I had long, wavy, blonde hair and big beautiful hazel eyes. My face was rounded like a child's and I was able to convince anyone of anything. I was the complete cute, little adorable child that everyone loved and wanted. Perfect for all that I wanted to become.

My parents were the same way. My dad had wavy blonde hair, deep brown eyes, and a smile that lit up a room and my mom had short brown hair, hazel eyes, and just happened to be the most loves women in our village. Everyone loved her and it was obvious why. She was the nice woman, who would help anyone and everyone out. She hated doing anything that would hurt anyone, and therefore would make sure not too.

My village lived happily for a long time, but it was not to last. On a warm summer day, a demon came and destroyed our village. It was the wolf demon... the 7 tail. It was a monstrous demon bigger than anything imagined. It had grey fur and purple eyes, and was very temperamental.

For years, my village was at war with this beast, until my mother made a decision that changed both of our lives: She decided to seal the demon within me. I was only 5 years old, but that day is the day I changed in more ways than one.

My mother sacrificed her own life to save the village and when she died, she was praised. She sealed the 7 tail within my body and died as a result. Everyone resented me for it and hated me, because they believed it to be my fault. Even my own father hated me. Every night, he would beat me saying, "It is your fault she is gone, your fault she died, your fault that everything is different!" over and over again.

It didn't help that I was changing either. My hair had become grey and straight, my eyes were becoming a black so deep that I appeared to be staring into hell itself, and my personality had gone from preppy and peppy to dark and out casted.

I had only one person who seemed to care about me, Salo. When I was….normal, I tried to avoid him at all costs. He was the creepy, emo kid who always sat on some bench looking off into space, but after my "transformation" he was actually the only person I felt close to. He had black hair and piercing ice blue eyes. He was a year older than me and was even more closed off than I was, but he understood the new me. The "prep" was long gone by now and I liked it.

It was as if I had two personalities: my annoying, happy-go-lucky weak side and my…..evil side. But the evil side was taking over, and I was completely fine with it. The "evil" side wasn't weak or scared, it was brave, strong, and tolerant of pain, but even that side of me wasn't invincible. With this new part of me I was lonelier than ever.

Everyone looked down on me and still shunned me even though it had been 2 years since my mother's death. One day, I was walking home getting ready for my daily beating when I noticed that no one was around, and when I got to my house I realized why. The whole village was waiting for me and our best shinobi were in the front of the crowd. The shinobi were arguing with each other, so no one was really paying attention to me. I slipped in between my house and my neighbors and listened.

This was the first time I had actually seen the top shinobi. They were seen by the people who hired them or in other words, the really rich. There were 6 of them and all of them were the best at water based jutsu. They all wore the same black and dark blue ninja clothing that symbolized their status as the best in our village.

After listening for a little bit, I found out what was going on: they were all there for me. The villagers had all complained to the Kirigakure about how I was a "monster" and an "abomination", and sadly enough, he agreed. So he sent the Shinobi to do whatever they wanted. That was his mistake.

They all wanted to do different things to me: 1 wanted to kill me quickly, another said he also wanted me tortured, 1 suggested to experiment on me, then I said banish me from the village, another tried to get them to use me like a secret weapon, but the last one said to just leave me alone.

My dad walked in between all of the Shinobi and made them quiet down. I couldn't help but feel some gratitude towards him for that, until he said, "I am her father," He glanced to all of the villagers, then grimaced, "and I want you to kill her."

I looked at my father with pure hatred in that moment and felt a strong tug on my gut. I had known that he hated me, but he wanted to kill me. He wanted me, his daughter dead.

Suddenly, I had no control of myself. I let my evil side take over completely and released the power I had tried to conceal for two years. I walked out of my hiding place and looked over at my father. The look of pride in his eyes turned to dreaded fear as he looked into mine.

I walked up to my father and touched his check. He flinched back expecting more, but I just stared at him, searching. Searching for the love he once had for me. I kept looking until I couldn't take it anymore and dropped my hand. I turned away from him in pain, but just then I was kicked in the back by my father, falling to the ground.

I then sank more into the demon that was sealed with in me and my eyes slowly spread into the color violet. I looked back at him and felt my anger rise and suddenly water engulfed him. It came shooting out of the ground and trapped him within a tube of water. He was drowning and I knew that I had caused it.

The life in his eyes was just about to disappear when I felt someone knock me over onto the ground once again. My concentration broke and so did the tube holding my dad. I looked up at the person who tackled me, but only saw the small ninja who voted for them to leave me alone. I was about to ask why, when he said, "Korinala, don't do this."

I knew that voice. The soft edginess of his voice was the one thing that could've helped me through anything.

"Sa….Salo?" I whispered softly. He pulled me to him and hugged me closely.

"Korinala, you shouldn't do this. Korin," he paused. Only he called me that. "I can't let you do this." He let go of me and looked me in my new eyes and said. "Please, I love you Korin. And I can't let you do this. Please, I love you."

It was then that my father stood up in weakened anger and coughed up, "Kill her."

The ninja came at me from all sides, but Salo didn't care he fought them off. I didn't understand how an eight year old boy could fight off these ninja who had years of experience on him, but he was doing it, and soon enough there was a gap in there formation and we both ran for it. And we were already half way through the village before we smelt it. Fire.

Most of Salo's jutsu obviously depended on the water in the air, but the others used the water in the ground, so with the fire in the air, Salo couldn't use his jutsu. The other Shinobi were afraid of him. His jutsu were much stronger than anything they had or probably could use, but all of them together? I wasn't so sure about that.

We kept running, but I could tell that Salo was worried. We took a shortcut through an alley, but realized we were blocked a little too late. One of the villagers was there with a torch pointed at us. I thought he was going to throw it at us, but then he threw it at the ground at our feet. We soon saw that it was a trap, there was a circle of powder around us and when the fire touched it, the fire went and spread along the powder and encircled us.

One ninja arrived and smiled at us. He had his mask off, but I didn't recognize him. He looked like he was in his early 20's and he could've been good looking if it weren't for the large burn mark across his face.

"Charaku." Salo said. Salo pulled out a long dagger out of his belt loop and handed it to me. "I want you to stab him with this." He said without taking his eyes off of him. "I'll try to leave you as many openings as I can." He turned to look at me. "Don't die, Korin." He looked as if he wanted to say more, but he just turned towards Charaku again.

I looked at the dagger and couldn't help but admire the craftsmanship of it. The blade was black, but incrusted on the left edge was gold designs. It had a snake tongue look with its strange shape and forked points and a strong white handle.

Salo and Charaku were circling each other, looking for an opening to attack. Salo made the first mistake and Charaku took advantage of it and attacked. He was incredibly fast, but somehow Salo dodged him and got him with a kunai knife. Charaku spun around and kicked Salo in the gut and sent him flying. I looked for an opening, but I couldn't find one. Charaku was too fast and too aware of his surroundings to be taken off guard.

Salo and Charaku were at this for a longtime. They seemed to be on equal grounds when it came to strength, but neither of them had used jutsu. There was still fire around us, so Salo wasn't able to use his, but I didn't know what Charaku's jutsu were based on and that worried me.

Salo was starting to beat Charaku and something changed. Charaku looked even weirder. He was getting angrier and when he got away from Salo his skin began to change. Markings began to crawl over his skin slowly then stopped about half way around him and seemed to settle there. Salo had fear in his eyes, but Charaku had obviously gotten stronger. He was completely different and I finally found my opening.

Charaku went to attack Salo and I ran towards him from the side, but I was too late. Charaku put his hand up and yelled, "Hell Whole!" and right where Salo was, a huge hole opened up down to a deep dark endless chasm. Anger flashed through me and I felt the power rise in my again.

I attacked Charaku while he was busy with the hole he had created and stabbed him with the blade. He bellowed and tried grabbing the blade, but he couldn't seem to get near it. The blade began to shimmer with a red light and then glowed making it look like it had spent an hour in a fire hearth. His skin turned back to normal and he sunk to the ground in exhaustion and pain as the blade also returned to normal.

I turned towards the hole that was in the ground and almost cried in relief. There on the edge, was Salo clinging on for his life. I went to him and helped him up. His clothes were burnt, but he looked fine. He wasn't even hot; his skin was actually cold, as if he just came from a snow storm.

He took the knife from my hand and asked simply, "Do you trust me?"

I nodded my head in answer to him.

He took my hand and put the sharp edge of the blade on my skin. My pressed down and my blood started to come out. The blade began to glow again and I felt pain. I hadn't felt physical pain since I was a girl…before the 7 tail. It was excruciating.

He pulled the blade away from my skin and right where the wound was made, a red symbol had appeared. pic1

I heard a scuffling behind me and realized that Charaku was still alive. He stood up shakily and looked at me as if I was a monster, then screamed, "What have you done?"

When I didn't answer, he charged, his hands ready to choke the life out of me. I then heard Salo's voice say quietly, "Ice Shards."

Charaku looked at Salo with an empty look in his eyes, just as holes in his shirt appeared and blood began trickle out of his now visible skin. I looked at Salo and stumbled away a few steps.

Salo's body was covered in designs like Charaku's was, except these designs were ice blue, the same color as his shocking eyes. He looked at me with sadness in them and fell to the ground. I caught him just before he hit, but I could feel that it didn't make any difference to his condition.

He gave me the dagger once again and said raspily, "Korin, st-stab me…with it. P-please."

I looked at him in horror and shook my head in protest, but he stopped me.

"Why?" I asked

"Be-because, this power-I have can he-lp you. I want you to be sa-fe. Korin, the villagers…they-they don't want you-alive, so-so you must r-run. We are different than th-the others-and so was Cha-Charak-ku and that's w-why only you-u can have this burden. You will become stro-nger and stronger and that-is what you need."

I shook my head again, sadly.

"Korin, you have to-do this. Remem-ber to p-put the knife into your s-skin, b-ut in a different place than the o-other one." He said quickly, almost rushed, "And-and also remember…that-that I love you, an-and that I will always come fo-for you."

He grimaced in pain and grabbed my hand with the knife. He pulled it towards his heart and said, "I will come back." and pulled down.

He had died my arms that night….the only one I loved.