Prologue – A Bittersweet Day

AN: Hi! I'm soooo terribly sorry it's been so long since I've updated! I had a major case of writer's block, so I decided to rewrite my story because it needed to be revised. Badly.Hopefull, I'll be able to finish the rewrite soon and get another chapter out, since I know you all deserve it for the wait i put you guys through.

As a side note, I just got Bleach added to my list of Animes/Manga that I've read/watched. So... yeah. Enjoy!

Today was a day to be celebrated, a day to be remembered. Everyone had an air of happiness surrounding them and there wasn't much that could change that.

One of the happiest of them all was a blonde-haired male with eyes that easily put the ocean to shame in terms of blueness. Currently they were sparkling with the copious amounts of joy he was feeling, and you can't blame him.

That man, Minato Namikaze, The Yellow Flash of the Leaf, known seal master, and Fourth Hokage of the village hidden in the leaves, was to become a father today, and he couldn't be any happier about that fact.

That is, until everything went to Hell.

On this day, October 10th, the Nine-Tailed Fox, Lord of all Demons, and by extension, the strongest, a being whom has the power to shatter mountains and cause tsunamis with the flick of one of its mighty tails, attacked the same village Minato Namikaze was the leader of, completely ruining his wonderful day, along with everybody else's.

Everybody was too busy using their flight or fight survival instincts to take into account the fact that the fox was holding back, and could have destroyed the village much faster than it actually was.

Now, surely a beast with that much raw power will be almost impossible to defeat, and Minato Namikaze realizes this, and has reached a dilemma.

The only way to defeat the beast is to seal it, at the cost of his own life, into a newborn baby whose umbilical cord is freshly cut. If it's sealed into somebody who's older, then they won't be able to handle the strain of having that much chakra suddenly forced inside of them. The process can only be done to a child whom has yet to develop their chakra network, solving one problem, but creating another.

There was only one child born in the entire village tonight.

Hikari Namikaze, his very own daughter.

Albeit, he wouldn't have asked another to make that same sacrifice had there been a choice, because as Hokage, it is, and always will be, his duty to defend the village. That and he feels as if the only one he can trust with such a burden is his very own daughter.

Even with that in mind, it did nothing to soothe the pain of having to leave his only child behind without either parent. Complications during birth caused Kushina to lose her life, leaving their child without a mother. The sealing would make him lose his own, leaving her without a father too. It's only worsened by the fact that, even though he'd love to put his faith in the village, the seal master is a reasonable man. He knows that the villagers will find an outlet to their pain, as is human nature, and the one containing the source of their troubles will be the perfect scapegoat.

However, as stated earlier, there's not really a choice in the matter, and all he can do for his daughter is to leave his last wishes and hope for the best.

And with those final thoughts, Minato Namikaze picked up the sleeping baby in front of him. He'd been painting a complicated seal array on the child, his daughter's, belly, for the last half-hour, and was now finished. With a final check to make sure everything was in place on the seal, he used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport to the battlefield.

If you asked any ninja of the leaf what had happened when the fox was defeated, you would generally hear the same response each time. The Fourth Hokage appeared out of nowhere on top of a giant toad before a flash of light came, ending the entire battle.

However, that was not all that happened.

After the sealing had been done, and Gamabunta had left that realm in a puff of smoke, the fall that came after would have surely killed the baby previously resting in the blonde Hokage's arms. Fortunately, before that could happen, a large red bird with fiery orange wings and tail feathers of the same color, caught the child mid-fall, saving it from an early death.

The baby girl that just had a brush with death had awakened from the fall. Strangely, she had slept through being in the presence of all the KI her new tenant could muster before she became a jinchuuriki. This would have warranted concern if her now-deceased father had noticed. Alas, he didn't.

However, her awakening allowed the world to gain a glimpse of her beautiful blue eyes for but a moment before she began wailing. Perhaps she knew that she was now alone in the world, perhaps she didn't. Either way, a loud crying could now be heard, alerting anything nearby of the child's presence.

After setting her onto the ground, the bird gave the orphan a long, analyzing look, before nodding to itself, as if confirming something.

With a swift peck, the blanket covering the now quiet baby's right arm fell, revealing the flesh just beneath. Channeling energy into the exposed wrist, a black tattoo like mark began forming there. The black, ink-like lines moving until they settled in the shape of a bird wrapped around the girl's wrist. After its work was completed, the fiery bird took off with a might flap of its yellow-tipped wings.

The only signs of it having been there were the tattoo and a single orange feather.

After it's swift exit, a message on the wind passed by, being the only sound in the eerily silent forest.

"I'm sorry, my daughter, Hikari. Please forgive me…"

AN: And that's a wrap! I hope you enjoyed it! Read and Review!