Prologue: The Bells of Notre Dame
Early one morning, Suigetsu was performing in the square near the cathedral to entertain the children. It was a crisp morning but nothing seemed out of the ordinary to Suigetsu. He liked when the morning was crisp because water was his favorite element. Most gypsy ninja, like Suigetsu, favored elements like one gypsy-nin named Karin favored ice. The children always gazed in wonder at Suigetsu when performed for them. To him, children were so easily entertained yet were smart in the ways of knowing feelings.
Loudly yet skillfully, Suigetsu began singing in a clear, soprano tone to begin his latest story.
"Morning in Paris,
The city awakes to the bells of Notre Dame,
The fisherman fishes,
The baker man bakes,
To the bells of Notre Dame,
To the big bells as loud as the thunder,
To the little bells soft as the psalm,
But some say the soul of,
The city's the toll of the bells,
The bells of Notre Dame."
He paused to listen at the beautiful tolls of the bells before talking to the children who stared at him inquisitively.
"Listen," he said, "they're beautiful, no? So many sounds and colors, so many changing moods. But you know they don't ring by themselves."
"They don't?" questioned a puppet replica of Suigetsu in a high-pitched voice.
"No, silly boy," said Suigetsu, pointing to the puppet reprovingly. "Up there, high in the dark bell tower lives the mysterious bell ringer. Who is this creature?"
"Who?" repeated the puppet.
"What is he?" asked Suigetsu, eyeing the cathedral's bell tower.
"What?"
"How did he come to be here?"
"How?"
"Hush," said Suigetsu, popping his puppet on the head to shut him up, "Sui will tell you; it is a tale—a tale of a man and a monster." Again he picked up the song again to tell the story:
Dark was the night when our tale was begun
On the docks near Notre Dame
"Shut it up, will you?" hissed a gypsy-nin to his wife about the crying baby
"We'll be spotted!" hissed another gypsy-nin.
"Hush, little one," whispered the female gypsy-nin, shushing her baby.
Four frightened gypsies slid silently under
The docks near Notre Dame
"Four guilders for safe passage into Paris," whispered the traveler to the dock overseer.
But a trap had been laid for the gypsies
And they gazed up in fear and alarm
At a figure whose clutches
Were iron as much as the bells
"Judge Orochimaru," gasped the man, staring at the shadow approaching.
The bells of Notre Dame
Chorus: Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)
Judge Orochimaru longed
To purge the world
Of vice and sin
Chorus: Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)
And he saw corruption
Ev'rywhere
Except within
"Bring these gypsy vermin to the palace of justice," growled Orochimaru as the gypsy nin were dragged away.
"You there," said one of the Sound nin to the fleeing woman holding the bundle, "what are you hiding?"
"Stolen goods, no doubt," said Orochimaru, glaring at the woman. "Take them from her."
She ran
Chorus: Dies irae, dies illa (Day of wrath, that day)
Solvet saeclum in favilla (Shall consume the world in ashes)
Teste David cum sibylla (As prophesied by David and the sibyl)
Quantus tremor est futurus (What trembling is to be)
Quando Judex est venturus (When the Judge is come)
"Sanctuary," cried the woman, "please give us sanctuary!" She knocked on the door anxiously but Orochimaru stabbed her from behind, killing her and making her drop the baby.
"A baby?" asked Orochimaru, opening the blanket to see a monstrous creature and gasped. "A monster!"
He looked over at the well and was about to drop the baby in when he was interrupted by Hiruzen, the archdeacon.
"Stop!"
Cried the Archdeacon
"This is an unholy demon. I'm sending it back to hell, where it belongs," explained Orochimaru, still dangling the baby over the well.
"See there the innocent blood you have spilt
On the steps of Notre Dame," said Hiruzen, staring at Orochimaru sadly.
"I am guiltless.
She ran, I pursued," said Orochimaru carelessly, walking near Hiruzen.
"Now you would add this child's blood to your guilt
On the steps of Notre Dame," said Hiruzen, cradling the dead woman's body in his arms.
"My conscience is clear," said Orochimaru, glaring down at Hiruzen.
"You can lie to yourself and your minions
You can claim that you haven't a qualm
But you never can run from
Nor hide what you've done from the eyes
The very eyes of Notre Dame." Hiruzen pointed to the statues surrounding the church.
Chorus: Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)
And for one time in his life
Of power and control
Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)
Orochimaru felt a twinge of fear
For his immortal soul
"What must I do?" asked Orochimaru, staring wide-eyed at the cathedral.
"Care for the child, and raise it as your own," answered Hiruzen, carrying the woman away.
"What?" gasped Orochimaru, "I'd be settled with this misshapen ...? Very well. Let him live with you, in your church."
"Live here?" asked Hiruzen. " Where?"
"Anywhere," said Orochimaru, gazing up at the cathedral.
"Just so he's kept locked away
Where no one else can see
The bell tower, perhaps
And who knows, our Lord works in mysterious ways
Even this foul creature may
Yet prove one day to be
Of use to me."
And Orochimaru gave the child a cruel name
A name that means half-formed, Jugo
Now here is a riddle to guess if you can
Sing the bells of Notre Dame
Who is the monster and who is the man?
Sing the bells, bells, bells, bells
Bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells of Notre Dame!
...
Suigetsu ended the story with a chilling note of what was going to come for Jugo of the Scales, the bell ringer. This was only the beginning of something much more, and it would be Jugo's story to resolve. The bells stopped ringing so Suigetsu packed up his cart and left to his home.
A/N: I'm making a story of Hunchback of Notre Dame with Naruto characters in my own way.
Cast:
Haruka (my OC): Esmeralda
Sasuke: Phoebus
Jugo: Quasimodo
Suigetsu: Clopin
Hiruzen: the Archdeacon
Orochimaru: Frollo
Sound Nin: soldiers