Ayumi's Story
Prologue
By: Brandy Camel
Disclaimer: A lot of the concepts for this story were inspired from the fanfiction "Wings of the White Angel" by WolfGeneral. He's a friend of mine, and I created Ayumi for his use. However, I wished to expand on her story. So see this more as a supplement and insight into Ayumi's character. In fact, I'd suggest reading his story first, even though where this ends is where Wings will pick up. The prologue starts 14 years before Wings, and one year after the time skip in Naruto (I.E. Naruto and Co. would be 16).
The roar of combat was not far away, and Ketsuko knew this. He looked over to his wife, cradling the small pink bundle close to her chest and praying for the survival of them all. They were the last Nakashimas left in Konoha; most had moved away when the trouble with Orochimaru had blown up into a full out war. After all, the family had never been built to be ninja. Ketsuko and Hana were the only ones left, along with their newborn Ayumi. They were also the only actual ninja in the entire clan.
"Hana, we need to go," Ketsuko dropped the drapes over their modest hut's door, not even a real house, to walk over to his wife and help her to her feet. Ayumi had been born only an hour earlier, and the child had yet to stop crying. They had stayed in one place far too long. "We'll be noticed soon,"
Hana nodded, feeling ill and weak from the process of the birth, and held her daughter tighter. "Ketsuko… if I do not make it…"
"Shh, don't worry. You will. We all will," Ketsuko planted a soft kiss on his wife's forehead, and swept her and the child into his arms. "Let's move,"
He left the hut, holding his family tightly and leaping from tree to tree. 'It's too soon to be moving her, but I don't have a choice…' the man thought to himself, glancing behind to see the encroaching fire heading towards the hidden village. 'I must get to the main gates,'
The Nakashima family had always been on the outskirts of the village, working as medical herb farmers and outpostmen, reporting if trouble was on its way. Now was the time to report.
Ketsuko stopped, hopping down to a forest clearing and holding his family closer. 'I'm not going to make it,' he though as he set his confused wife down on her feet and slid into a fighting stance.
"Hana. Run," he ordered, and his wife bolted the best she could in her condition towards the town, Ayumi wailing the entire way.
"How noble of you. But, you know, with that screaming brat, it's only a matter of time before my colleagues find her anyway," a lithe young man with white hair and round glasses slid down part of a tree trunk to rest on a branch, lifting a hand up to adjust the lenses resting on his nose.
"Who are you and what do you want with me and my family?" Ketsuko demanded, brushing his black hair out of his dark brown eyes, a snarl on his face. 'I can sense his strength. I'm no match,'
"Who I am is hardly of any importance," the man slid down further, finally resting on the ground. "And I don't have any personal interest in your family. But that headband you're wearing tells me you are my enemy, and therefore you must die," he shrugged nonchalantly, as if it were simply a fact of life.
"You're a Sound Nin,"
"How observant! You get an A," the ninja disappeared and reappeared only seconds later with a kunai implanted into Ketsuko's stomach. "But not in combat it appears," he smirked as the man fell from his weapon, clutching at the fresh wound.
"Gyuah…" a small glow appeared around Ketsuko's hand and the blood flow abruptly stopped. "You won't… get me that easily,"
"Oh, a medic-nin! How interesting," the man readjusted his glasses again with another cruel grin. "This may prove more fun than I intended…"
Hana ran as fast as she could, no matter how much pain was tearing through her abdomen and no matter how taxed her body felt. Any chakra she had was being used as physical energy to make it to Konoha. As soon as she saw the gates peering out between the trees, she screamed at the top of her lungs.
"THE SOUND ARE HERE!"
It all happened so quickly that she only had time for one thought. Between the tearing pain of post child birth, the exhaustion that over took her weak body, and the kunai that pierced entirely though the back of her neck, all she could pray was that her daughter would be safe.
"Kakashi!" a young ninja, only just newly dubbed chuunin, burst through the headquarter doors. "Kakashi! The Sound have come! We must alert Godaime and gather forces!"
The lazy-eyed man known as the Copy Ninja looked up from his book and sighed. "I was expecting them yesterday. They're late,"
"This is no time for a joke! They've already killed our nins on the outskirts!" the man seemed enraged, a vein popping at his forehead.
"Casualties already," he sighed. "Go alert Tsunade. Send an envoy to gather up all available ninja, including the genin. I'm heading to the gates. We've got a war on our hands."
'Messy,' Kakashi thought to himself as he hopped over the gate and down to the collapsed body at his feet. The woman was definitely dead, he knew that much from just a glance. But before he could do anything more, he caught a kunai headed for the back of his neck. "Very messy," he voiced out loud, looking in the direction the shot had come.
"Well, I must be blessed. The first Konoha ninja I get to seriously kill is the famous Copy Ninja. It's been a long time, Kakashi,"
"Kabuto, I assume you've already stained your hands with your own people's blood?" Kakashi twirled the kunai on his finger before launching it back at the former Konoha nin. Kabuto caught it as easily as Kakashi had before.
"Heh, of course. Two already," he held up two fingers to emphasize and flashed a near 'Victory' sign. "But there's one I haven't claimed yet that I intend to," As if on cue, the infant still in her mother's arms began to wail and Kakashi's eye widened visibly.
"You sick son of a bi-," Kakashi didn't finish because Kabuto had already launched his attack. A flurry of kicks and punches caused him to back up a few steps before he settled into the flow and rhythm of the battle, and then it truly began.
Truth be told, once Kakashi lifted the hitai-ate band from his Sharingan eye, the fight was essentially over. There is no discrediting the fighting style of Kabuto, but there is very little for a medic-nin to compete with when he's up against a man with over one thousand jutsus memorized. Just the same, Kakashi felt it necessary to use Mangekyou, recalling thousands of images of the dead from the past Chuunin exams up to current, all caused either directly or indirectly by Kabuto.
"Remember what you did in your death, you bastard," Kakashi murmured as he cut the silently crying youth's throat out of pity. "Apologize to all those you have slain in the afterlife…"
Closing his eyes for a moment before lowering his hitai-ate again, he turned to the fallen mother and her daughter. Crouching next to the corpse, he slowly turned her over and lifted the pink blanket covering the newborn. His eye widened again.
"So young and already deprived of your parents…" his eye became lazy again and he sighed. "I am truly sorry," He looked up at the darkening sky and frowned. "I better get you somewhere safe," He scooped up the crying bundle, which quieted rather quickly. Looking down curiously, he saw the baby looking up with him inquiringly. A tiny hand reached up with a small demanding "Muh!" sound and Kakashi couldn't help but smile grimly beneath his mask. He let the child grasp his finger, and she giggled happily.
"I guess I'll have to keep you happy instead…"