The cave was dimly lit by the moonlight seeping through cracks, and almost everyone in the cave was asleep from either exhaustion or content achievement for the day.
However, one person couldn't.
After a couple of hours of fruitless attempts to go to sleep, the young girl gave up and went outside. The green grass was lit by the moonlight, appearing almost silver, and the fourteen year old sat cross-legged on the grass, closing her eyes.
Slowly pulling on her Kekkei Genkai, the silvery grass frosted over. The semi-transparent whiteness cracked softly as it crawled over every blade of grass, climbing up barks of trees to caress the leaves.
Her white hair slowly fell down against her back as the chakra she released lessened. Her white lashes raised, displaying pale blue eyes. They swept over the area she was sitting, taking in the snow-tipped rocks and the frozen ice slide of a waterfall. She let out a small sigh, the warm air visible in the now freezing temperature.
Blue eyes opened wide.
Uzumaki Naruto didn't move from her position, still leaning against the tree, shivering at the cold air. Once again, her apartment (if she could even call it that) had been ran to the ground, so she had been forced to sleep outside.
She was all alone. Nobody cared for her, really; she knew Iruka was following the Sandaime Hokage's orders and Sarutobi wasn't standing up for her. The Sandaime Hokage was much more concerned with the village's well-being.
Her tangled, bright blonde hair — some can even flat out call it yellow — appeared almost brown, and even as a curly mess reached her midback. The usual spikes that framed her face were limp with grime. Her body in general wasn't much better.
Still shivering, she hugged her knees to her almost flat chest in an attempt to conserve warmth. The eleven year old should have already started developing her chest, getting ready to enter puberty, but being so underfed, she had no energy to let her malnourished body enter puberty, unlike everyone else her age.
Wait…
Naruto always slept outside in the forest when her apartment was unavailable, which was more often than not. The forest calmed her, the lake cleaned her, and the animals caressed her. The foxes especially loved her, and Naruto could even understand them and they her.
Her legs shaky, Naruto forced her trembling body to stand up, her cerulean eyes confused. Something wasn't right.
The beautiful green grass was half white.
The frost had contaminated a bit of the grass in her view, and as Naruto slowly walked further, she saw that the entirety of the grass further ahead was white.
"What…"
She shivered again as the freezing temperature penetrated her skin, chilling her thin body. For a brief moment, she walked without looking where she was walking.
Something, somebody touched her.
She stared up in shock, the muscles loosening into jelly as the warmth on her cheek spread to her entire body.
The white haired female stared back at her before a tiny, almost unnoticeable smile appeared. Gently, she removed the hand, and Naruto immediately missed the warmth.
Then she found herself pulled closer.
Her body rested against the other's belly, and Naruto's eyes slowly closed as her exhausted, freezing body drank in the reassuring warmth.
"Stay strong and become powerful, Delphinium-chan. I'll see you again someday." She paused, leaning closer so her mouth was only inches away from Naruto's ear. "You'll recognize me when you see me again. You can call me Yuki."
Naruto's eyes snapped open, wide, as the warmth suddenly turned freezing cold, the girl tumbling into mounds of snow.
She blinked.
Her body… Still wasn't numb, despite the fact that the source of her brief warmness was gone. Bewildered, she touched her cheek, and her eyes widened when she realized that her skin was rosy and healthily warm.
Scrambling for the lake she usually cleaned herself in, knowing it was nearby, she examined her reflection in the (not frozen) water.
Her right cheek, the one Yuki touched, had a beautiful pale blue snowflake on it, white tendrils of sparkling frost spiraling out. It extended down her neck, adorned with smaller snowflakes, and a quick examination of her body told her that it continued down her side, eventually breaking into two paths. One curved away from her belly button, and the other appeared to spread over her back from what she could see of her shoulder when she twisted her body.
It wasn't like a regular tattoo, or a tattoo of symbolism like the ones she saw on the Inuzuka Clan. No, it was more like it was part of her… In her. Almost as though it was vital to her body.
She felt strangely attached. The image seemed to pulsate and glow as she touched them, and she felt warmth shoot through her body.
Who was that girl? Yuki?
"What were you doing?"
The fourteen year old froze, her heart skipping a beat in shock (not that she would ever admit it) as the male emerged from the shadows. She hadn't detected him.
But then again, that was what Uchiha Itachi did best.
The sixteen year old male looked even paler than usual under the moon's dutiful silver light. Just like her, he wasn't wearing his robe, instead having a simple black T-shirt over mesh armor and standard navy shinobi pants on, a thin simple white belt around his waist. As always, the red ring was on his right ring finger — after all, he couldn't remove it. Nobody but the leader could.
It took only a few seconds for her to get over her initial surprise and reply. "I couldn't sleep."
"Who was that girl?'
She paused briefly, staring into his onyx eyes before looking away. "You would know, wouldn't you?"
Knowing he was at least slightly caught off guard, she continued,
"She's the one your little brother asked you about. You used to look over her as an ANBU, keep people from attacking her." She paused again. "Her life, just like Sasuke's, became a lot worse after what you did."
She had to hand it to him; he still didn't break his cold demeanor. "I have no love for my younger brother. He is weak."
"Ah, Itachi, you forget something. Just because I am snow, doesn't mean my heart is ice."
She crumbled into snow, and Itachi was left staring at the mounds of white.
Uzumaki Naruto, huh?
So, clearly, this is a new story. I'm new to the world of Fanfiction... Writing, at least. I've roamed on here for about two years, reading whatever my heart desired, and I've seen simply amazing stories. By amazing, I mean they show incredible ingenuity and skill at the pen. I myself am not a very good writer... Not in my opinion, at least, but I'm hoping like those authors, my writing skill can grow. This prologue of sorts is just to give you an idea of my writing style.
Please spend the time to write a review if you read this; any criticism is appreciated.
Thank you!