Sob Story
By: Rhiannon (somedayisours)
Summary: "Every story's a sob story." Kurosawa Ume isn't going to save the world, she's going to let it save itself.
A/N: Sorry, everything I write is short.
Chapter One: Plum Tree in the Black Swamp
"Name?"
"Kurosawa Ume."
"Age?"
"Six."
"Years of training?"
"Two."
"Under who?"
"Fukui Haruki. Tokubetsu Jōnin."
My eyes never left the ninja as he recorded my answers onto a sheet of paper with easy persistion.
"Is there a reason?" The man asked, looking up from the paper and into my eyes.
He was pale in all factors, but his eyes. His skin was light colour, with an old burn that started on the right edge of his jaw, and disappeared under the collar his lose-fitting shirt. His hair was pale blond and cut so it just brushed his shoulders. His eyes were dark, his pupil and his iris the same colour, while what should have been the white sclera was bright red, as if a vein had ruptured in his eye.
I only allowed a small twist of my lips to show my displeasure, emotion was weakness, but sometimes it could be used to manipulate people.
"Shishō believed I would be suited for the position that Mizukage-sama had put out an order for," I replied icily. "Ninja under the age of ten, with little exposure to the enemy -so not to be spotted on appearance." I parroted what had been told to me.
Writing something down on my paper he put it to the side, and brought out a fresh one for the next applicant.
"Third door on your right."
The next room was unremarkable, white walls, floor, chairs, and doors. White Torture was the first thing that came to mind, trapped in a room completely white for long periods of time with no noise drove a person to the brink of insanity, and even into it. That had been "Earth's" thing, with ninja, and chakra no such methods were used.
While the room was startlingly white, what drew more of my attention was the small amount of seating. There were only three chairs, a boy older that me with blue hair sat on one, while another boy with golden hair sat on the other.
Subtly scrutinizing both boys, I walked calmly to my seat, clearing my face of what little emotion had crept onto it. I made sure my steps were soundless and all my movement was graceful.
It wasn't long after my entrance that the door swung open, banging loudly on the wall and a woman that looked like she was going into her late twenties -maybe closer to late thirties- stood in the doorway.
"Thought you were good enough, didn't you?!" The woman yelled and slammed the door shut behind her. "Three different spies, all thinking they could get home!"
Clenching my fists I leaned back in my chair as the woman approached, the heels of her shoes clicking loudly on the ground.
"S-s-sspies?" One of the boys stuttered out, a quickly look to my right told me it was the blue haired one.
"Yess," she hissed, looming over the three of us as she did so.
"We're not- I'm not..." The boy spoke again, falling out of his seat and trembling on the ground.
"Konohagakure," the woman pointed at the terrified boy on the ground.
"Kusagakure," she said to the boy with blond hair.
"Sunagakure," she said at last, her finger in my face.
I was frozen with shock, I was being accused of being a spy, a serious offence that ended with torture and death in all cases.
"Who do you think you are bitch?!" The blond haired boy yelled, standing quickly and pulling a kunai from his pouch. "I am the heir to the Ito clan! Ito Makoto!"
"Your name doesn't match your personality," I commented dryly, attempting to gather myself together.
An heir made the woman's accusations practically void, unless it was a Heng or genjutsu. It was a test, our reactions were being graded.
"My name is Kurosawa Ume. Genin. My Shishō, Fukui Haruki, can confirm that." I said reasonably.
Seeming to ignore me, the woman sent Ito flying across the room his kunai pressed against his throat when he hit the ground.
"You fail," she said bluntly, turning to the other boy and I, she spoke with the same bluntness. "You two pass, the door should be unlocked now."
She gestured to the door on the opposite wall to the one we enter from. The boy on the ground scrambled to his feet, while I rose from the chair with what I hoped was grace, but my leggs trembled, showing my fear.
The next room was average, made of thick green coloured stone with two adult ninja in standard Chūnin gear, and and six children like me and the blue haired boy.
The stone was native to the Land of Water, and the only substance that was used in structures. Because of the high water concentration in the air wood rotted easily, and most stone became slick and slippery with moisture.
"Those are the last two," the Chūnin on the right said.
While both of the ninja were dressed in Chūnin gear, they were both very different looking. The one on the right had black hair, and heavily tanned skin, making him almost grey looking instead of gold. The other one had the same features of the Ito heir, golden hair, cream coloured skin, and grey eyes.
"My name is Ito Hibiki," the blond ninja said. "This is Miyamoto Ken. Form now on we're your Sensei's."
"Eeh?!"
"All of you are going to be trained by Hibiki and I," Miyamoto explained. "After two months three of you will be selected to take three different missions. One will go to Konohagakure, another Iwagakure, and the final one will infiltrate Kumogakure. When the time comes mission details will be explained to you."
"Your appearance will be a big part in deciding where you go," Ito said.
Appearance was something that would be a main part of the infiltration of the village, but I hadn't thought about it in detail. Konohagakure and Kumogakure were the only two that I wouldn't look completely out of place in, and that was pushing it. Purple hair wasn't a common colour in any ninja village.
"I should leave now then," one boy said stoically, stepping forward so I could see his blue coloured skin.
"If you want to." Miyamoto said, "Any of you can leave as well."
A girl followed the boy, and the two left through one of the many doors against the back wall.
We were split into three groups, Konohagakure, Iwagakure, and Kumogakure. The blue haired boy was put in Kumo with a girl with crimson red hair, who I automatically guessed was Uzumaki. Two boys who both had black hair were put in Iwa, one had blue eyes while the other had green, the green eyed one loudly introducing himself as "Tsukino Minoru". I was put in the Konoha group, something I secretly prayed for. I knew little other than what I had watched in my last life, and taught by Fukui Haruki, my Shishō, about the other villages, and I didn't want to take my chances. A girl with brown hair was put in the group with me, her only problem was her eyes, which were large circles like a fish.
"H-hello," the fish-eyed girl stuttered, her voice barley above a whisper. "I'm H-Hoshigaki S-Satomi."
I blinked owlishly, if I was right Hoshigaki was Kisame's surname. I studied her closely with narrowed eyes.
Contrary to what her name suggested Hoshigaki Satomi wasn't beautiful. He skin was normal looking when compared to someone else from her clan, like Hoshigaki Kisame, her eyes were on the strange side, with thin lips and sharp teeth. She wasn't ugly, -I rarely found people truly ugly- she was just strange looking.
"Ah. My name's Kurosawa Ume, Hoshigaki-san." I said, giving a polite bow.
"O-oh!" Hoshigaki gasped, sounding surprised.
I took a quick guess that most people didn't treat her fell. She kept her arms wraped around herself and her legs togther, as if she was expected to be verbally insulted at any minute.
Blush crept onto her cheeks, "You have very pretty hair Kurosawa-san."
I blinked owlishly again, I wasn't often complemented on my hair. It was bright purple, standing out even in Kirigakure, which was know for the strange colouring of its people.
"I-I," I said flustered. "Thank you Hoshigaki-san."
"C-call m-me Satomi."
I couldn't help but smile, I hadn't been able to get close to anyone in both lives. I had been far from pretty in my past life, and a ninja life in Kiri wasn't an inviting profession like it was depicted in the anime and manga.
Even now Hoshigaki Satomi could be plotting to move against me, after all we were both trying to out do each other for the position on Konoha.
"Call me Ume then, Satomi-chan." I said with a false smile.
Chapter One: End
A/N: I know I just jumped into the middle of a story, but the idea is "nothing matters in my life until this happens", so there will be future chapters that reflect on her past, and give some information on Ume and her Shishō.
Names:
Kurosawa means "black swamp"
Ume means "plum"
Fukui means "fortunate"
Haruki means "sunshine"
Ito means "this wisteria"
Makoto means "sincerity"
Hibiki means "echo"
Miyamoto means "base of the shrine"
Ken means "healthy, strong"
Tsukino means "moon field"
Minoru means "truth"
Hoshigaki means "dried persimmon"
Satomi means "wise beautiful"
Preview:
Ai stared out at the water before standing. Letting the cloak drop he dress in his damp clothes, Jiraiya muttering something about indecent exposure.
"They didn't call me the Violet Massacre for nothing," was all Ai replied with.