Another lovely fic for my fans. It's not a one-shot, though. Tenten centric, with a pairing that is yet to be decided.
Disclaimer: Don't own.
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Shichibi no Suzaku
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Prologue
Once upon a time, when all the wild beasts and demons walked the land, there were the nine most powerful of all. They were the legendary Biju, the tailed demons. Their powers were in direct correlation with the number of tails they had, from the weakest, the Ichibi no Shukaku, to the greatest, the Kyuubi no Yoko.
Year after year, the Biju would ravage the lands, causing destruction and war, until it was mutually, albeit silently, agreed among all the countries, warring and allied, that that the demons were becoming dangerously uncontrollable, and desperately needed to be sealed away. Naturally, the job fell among the shinobi.
Although the arduous task took hundreds of years and thousands of lives to complete, in the end, the nine Biju were each, in their own turn, captured and sealed into human infants, except for the Sanbi no Isonade, the three-tailed, who, being of water, escaped into the abyss within the murky recesses of the bottomless sea, where he became known to sailors over the world as the Kraken.
The babies unknowingly became the vessels for the terrible beasts, and were dubbed Jinchuriki, human sacrifices that they were, true to the name. They were, logically, to be respected, for the sacrifice they made of their lives for the good of mankind. They were also to be feared, for the powers of the Biju not so subtly leaked through to the skills of the shinobi that the children became.
It seemed, at first, that the crisis of the devastating Biju were at last solved, at all rejoiced, until on a dark, gloomy night, one of the Jinchuriki, the carrier of the Gobi no Houkou, or Five-tailed Hound, fell to an illness of the heart. He was dead by morning, and the people were forced to ponder the whereabouts of the Biju. In the best case, the demon would be gone as well, but Lady Fate was not so kind.
Two days after the death, the Houkou was once again tearing through the Land of Rain. It had to be subdued once more, and sealed within another. And thus, another problem was mounted. Each time a Jinchuriki passed away, the monster within was freed, and the process had to be repeated.
This caused severe tension for families with young infants whenever a vessel died. The Jinchuriki, although both revered and dreaded, were not loved, and most grew up to be bitter, hardened killers. Naturally, parents were not thrilled with the idea that their child could become a possible Jinchuriki, and Kage were hard pressed to find willing sacrifices, so they had no option but to choose at random. It, however, seemed to melt into an insignificant issue when compared with the well being of all the lands.
And so begins the history of the legacy of the Biju and Jinchuriki.
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A wide-eyed little girl gazed up at the storyteller in rapt attention, awe glittering in her dark eyes, entranced by the tale her mother weaved.
"Mama, are the Biju really, really, bad monsters?" Her soft voice held just the barest tremors of childish fear, the fear that young children had for the concept of creatures lurking under the bed.
Her mother paused momentarily to consider the innocent query, as she did with all inquiries aimed her way. Her fingers, worn from a lifetime of writing and calligraphy, were gentle in smoothing down a stray wisp of chocolate hair that had managed to escape the two tiny buns on her daughter's head.
"No, Tenten-chan, I don't believe so. I think they just were what they were made to be, and acted as their natures made them act. They were just themselves, and cannot be labeled evil for that." Her thoughtful reply held the quality, not of a practical kunoichi, but that of an open-minded scholar of noble birth.
The five-year-old girl, Tenten, bowed her head a little, attempting to digest this slippery fragment of knowledge that, unbeknownst to her, held far too much philosophy in it for someone of her age and naivety to comprehend. After a while, she gave up trying, choosing instead to store the data away in the niches of her mind, and turned her awareness back to her mother.
"Could you name all of the Biju, mama?" She gave a slightly pouting smile.
The addressed woman smiled in return, and obliged.
"There is the Ichibi no Shukaku, Nibi no Nekomata, the wild Sanbi no Isonade, Yonbi no Soko, Gobi no Houkou, Rokubi no Raiju, Shichibi no Suzaku, Hachibi no Hachimata, and our Kyuubi no Yoko of Konoha."
Tenten was quiet for a moment, before she happily chirped, "I like the Shichibi no Suzaku best! It sounds so pretty…a Seven-tailed Fire Bird…" She stared dreamily into space.
The older woman cast her an uncharacteristically sharp glance.
"And so you should, my dear…so you should." She murmured.
"What?" The girl had not caught the phrase.
"Never mind. I shall tell you about it in time. Off to bed with you now! It's almost nine, you know." Abruptly changing the subject, she picked her squealing daughter up and proceeded to carry her to her bedroom.
"Mama?" The tiny voice peeped up again when Tenten was finally tucked in tight, small hands peeking out over the top of the blanket, clutching tightly to the jade-colored fabric.
"Yes, dear?"
"I miss Papa." Big, shady eyes suddenly glimmered with unshed tears.
Mother allowed daughter another one of her soft smiles. "I miss him too. But you know he won't be back until the end of the month."
Tenten's bottom lip quivered. "I know. But I wish his missions weren't so long."
The woman's smile saddened a bit at that, while her eyes seemed to become distant, gazing into a past that only she could perceive.
"Yes, but that is the life he chose when he became a shinobi. And this is the life I chose when I married him." She added quietly under her breath.
Snapping out of her dreamlike trance, she bent down and kissed her daughter on the forehead, murmuring playfully, "If you want a bedtime story tomorrow, sleep tight, and don't sneak to the kitchen for another midnight snack."
Dark brown eyes widened in childish horror at the revelation that her mother had discovered her nighttime escapades.
"I won't, Mama. I promise, because I really like stories." She vowed solemnly.
Her mother smiled softly, and closed the door behind her with a familiar snick.
Tenten did not know, had no way of knowing, that it would be the last time her mother ever told her a story.
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The next day, there was a tan envelope pinned to their front door.
The little girl watched as her mother took it down with barely suppressed trembling fingers.
She watched those same nimble digits that so deftly wove paintings of bamboo and tigers remove the Hokage's seal, and unfold the parchment.
Emerald green eyes, lit with a desperate hope, scanned the sheet, before it dropped out of her hands, the worst being confirmed.
Her vision, now hazy, barely skimmed over the figure standing beside her, before she raced back to her room with the frenzy of a woman driven mad by grief.
Tenten's eyes followed her mother's shape disappearing up the stairs before she kneeled down to pick up the perverse page that had so changed her Mama's usually serene, unhurried countenance.
The message had only five words.
He's gone. I'm so sorry.
-Sandaime Hokage
--
Mama never told another story after that. It was as if the radiance of life, which had once so reassuringly glowed within her, had been suddenly extinguished with those five little words.
Of course, she would still take care of her daughter, but the movements and uttered phrases became mechanical, with none of the old comfort behind the actions.
Tenten would never say that her mother was cruel to her during those misery-ridden months. Mama never did anything like that. It was just that lack of substance behind the now empty smiles, and the little girl's conviction that her Mama was somehow lost within the folds of her own memory.
Her mother tried to hang herself by the cemetery not to long after that. If Kurenai-san had not recognized the odd blur of shapes from a distance… They had to forcibly drag her, screaming, away from the noose and to the hospital, where for three days and nights, she neither ate or slept, choosing instead to waste away her awareness either raving at the world or sobbing her heart out.
After the incident, her relatives from the capital came to take her back to the main house, especially with her prominent father worried about the stability of her mentality.
Tenten did not go with her Mama. Tenten no longer knew her Mama.
She, on the other hand, did not press the issue, either. It was as if she had forgotten she had a daughter.
The little bun-headed girl watched, peeking from behind the wooden doorframe of the now eerily deserted house, as they helped her last parent into the carriage. One dainty foot, then the other, followed by the elaborate train of her noblewoman kimono, before the door closed, and the latch slid shut with a unyielding thunk.
She did not look back from the window at the child silhouetted against the white walls of the house – the little girl who she was forcing into adulthood at the age of five.
Tenten watched the procession shrink in size until it vanished along the horizon. It would be the last time she watched as her mother leaves, fading from her life just as surely as she dissolved into a tiny dot, and was no more to human eyes.
She did not cry.
It was on that day, with the absence of visible tears on her cheeks, that Tenten first began to be aware of the small, burning flame flickering quietly above her heart.
--
If it were not for Kurenai-san, Tenten did not know what she would have done. Yes, contrary to popular belief in her later years, Tenten was not utterly alone for those years of her life from her mother's departure to her Academy days.
The Hokage, Sarutobi-sensei, after being informed of what had occurred, sent a guardian over to protect and nurse the newly orphaned child. Kurenai-san was not the perfect mother as Mama had been while sane, what with her small addiction to alcohol and procrastination, but she was a good Aunty, and a brilliant first sensei.
It was Kurenai-san who bought and sharpened her first kunai for her. It was Kurenai-san who placed her callused palm over chubby fingers and maneuvered the awkwardly amateur fingers into the correct position for throwing. It was Kurenai-san who added logs and stoked the fire that now burned confidently in the budding girl's heart.
It was Kurenai-san who inspired her to become a kunoichi.
Those four years were probably some of the best in young Tenten's life, but as with all pleasant things, it was forced to come to an end.
Kurenai-san was chosen by the Academy to become a mentor for the young, newly graduated Genin. It was the same year that Tenten would join the ranks of optimistic potential shinobi in said Academy. The kind-hearted Jounin offered to decline the job offer to take care of Tenten, but the girl insisted that she could tend to her life on her own.
She was only nine at the time.
--
Three years later, Tenten passed the Final Exam in the Academy on her first attempt, ranking ninth among the twenty new graduates. Within a week, she was one of the year's Rookie Nine Genin, although that, as grudgingly as she admitted it, was probably courtesy of the Hyuuga prodigy stationed within her three-man squad.
The former Chuunin exams were when all the seals surrounding Suzaku were sliced apart by her rage.
Her first sign of the Fire Demon came in the form of an impossibly fast recovery. Tsunade had sworn that, even with a miracle, she would be bedridden from her fight with Temari for at least a week. In her resentment, Suzaku thrived. Tenten was up and training the next evening.
Thoroughly occupied with her intense focus on bettering herself and the subtle spying on her white-eyed teammate, Tenten did not notice her nails growing abnormally long, or that they were becoming just slightly curved. She failed to detect the crimson rings that now glowed around her inky irises, and blamed the golden undertones in her once-pale skin on training in the sun too much with Neji. She paid no heed when she discovered that Soushouryu no longer drained her of all her chakra, and that she could now move on to stronger Jutsus.
On the fourteenth day of the fifth moon, Shichibi no Suzaku tired of waiting for her ignorant Jinchuriki and decided to make her presence known to the world – her style.
On the twelfth day of the fifth moon, with the issuance of a new mission for Team Gai, our tale begins.
TBC...
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Walla. Dun dun dun...and the prologue ends. Wow, what a long prologue. Yay for a motherly Kurenai! Um...tell me what pairing you guys want.
I got the idea froma Wikipedia entry on Biju, or the Tailed Demons. Here are all of them for your perusal.
Ichibi no Shukaku - One-tailed Raccoon
Nibi no Nekomata - Two-tailed Cat
Sanbi no Isonade - Three-tailed Fish
Yonbi no Soko - Four-tailed Cockatrice
Gobi no Houkou - Five-tailed White Hound
Rokubi no Raiju - Six-tailed Thunder Weasel
Shichibi no Suzaku - Seven-tailed Fire Bird
Hachibi no Hachimata - Eight-tailed Dragon
Kyuubi no Yoko - Nine-tailed Fox
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Reviews are appreciated!