Tsukinowa Kumo was running. At eight years old, her legs were still shorter than those of the men pursuing her. Her friends had been lost somewhere in the forest and she imagined hearing their screams as she ran. She was too frightened to cry, too frightened to make the slightest sound. Her ears were deaf to the drip-drops of water on leaves, the ground was damp and hard and she was running, running for her life.

They had come from above, surrounding the children that were digging a hole by a pool of water. Four children and three grown men. Kumo swore to herself that she had seen one's eyes glow, the scarlet eyes of her nightmares. She found a group of scraggly thorny bushes, pushing herself behind them. There was an alien, metallic taste in her mouth that she swallowed. Her body ached, coiled tight like a rusted spring. She peered through the bush, noticing the sharp thorns and the inch-long cuts on her arms. Her cheek stung.

There was a warm hand on the back of her neck and she was thrown through the bush, wailing like any child would. Her body crashed on the damp earth and the smell invaded her nose, she sobbed. Her hair was matted with blood. Deep, mocking laughter. She heard it and her sobs quietened. She stilled and stared dumbly at her hands.

"What's wrong child? Don't you want to play anymore?"

She did not want to answer the man. He towered over her. Someone dropped a limp body on the ground behind her. She noticed a small glade of grass breaking through the dark soil. She nudged it with her finger. The man crouched down and roughly hooked his finger under her chin, pulling her face up to meet him. Her eyes never left the blade of grass but the feeling of his smelly breath on her face angered her. Acting purely on her gut, she looked up at his face, met the startling scarlet eyes and launched herself at him. It was an unexpected movement from her, she had only been running all this time.

When her forehead collided with his nose, her lips found softer skin below it and she bit down, shaking her head like the wolves they watched. Hands were on her shoulders pulling away, but her mouth was clamped down mercilessly, her head shaking violently. She was ripped away, something mushy and soft still between her teeth. She tasted blood, she knew it was both her own and the man's. She spat it out just as a hand collided with her face for the fifth time, her jaw burned with pain. She collapsed onto her side, curling into herself, shaking.

Her vision blurred, there were feet by her and then another pair and then a third pair. Her heart began to skip beats, her chest hurt. How could there be so many of them. There were some strange sounds and she saw her attacker fall to the ground right next to her, an open wound spurting blood on his face where she'd bitten him and a thin, precise line across his throat. His eyes were bulging, like he'd been shocked to death. A bloody clan symbol was on his sleeve, Senju. That wasn't right, her head ached and her vision blurred again. She was rolled over to face the sky, gentle hands were cupping her jaw. Her eyes closed and opened, someone was snapping their fingers in front of her and she was lifted. Then there was silence and the scent of death.

Two days later, the little girl opened her eyes for the first time. Her bandages were being removed, the healers had easily tended to the cuts and bruises but her jaw was stiff. And it hurt. She couldn't move her neck or her mouth to talk. The skylight in the ceiling signified that this was her room. She was home. Someone moved into her vision. Her father, Tsukinowa Takeshi. He was the right hand of the clean head and confidant of the elders. Her father was an important man. The look in his eyes was stormy, he was probably deciding on whether to scold her or to welcome her with warm words. He did neither.

"Kumo, you can hear me yes? Blink once for yes."

Obedient as always, she blinked. He nodded sagely and continued.

"You were attacked, I told you not to go too far."

She blinked again. There was a rustle and another figure came into her room but the steps did not sound like those of her mother.

"Ah so she has finally woken up Tsukinowa-san."

It was a deep, low voice. It scared little Kumo.

"This man saved your life Kumo, we are very lucky the Uchiha were pursuing those mad men."

Even though she was young, still a child, she knew something was wrong. She needed to tell her father about the scarlet eyes. But minutes passed as the two men spoke and her mother appeared to usher them out and comfort her little girl.

Just like that, years passed. The neutrality of her clan was given up, Uchiha settlements found their way into the once neutral grounds of the Tsukinowa. They began to train side by side. Her clan's bloodline that was once only harbored for medical purposes was being turned into a weapon. The other children that had been with her slowly disappeared from Kumo's life as the clan became more militarized. By the age of 11, Kumo herself was fighting off soldiers and healing the men that needed it.

Day by day, her clan descended into the dirt games of war. They traded their upscale healing skills for the protection and training of the Uchiha so they could fight for themselves. Kumo, unsatisfied with the knowledge she had, began to train secretly with the man who had rescued her. Uchiha Misaki. He was five years her senior and a deadly opponent in battle. She smuggled her father's scrolls and while he helped her master the skills they contained, he memorized the secrets of the clan, preparing to report them to his head. It was because of this that the position of the Tsukinowa was weakened in the years to come. They would be taken over by the Uchiha, used by them to their fullest potential. But nobody knew it yet. Only Kumo, who remembered the scarlet eyes of her Senju attacker suspected that the raven-haired beasts could not be trusted.