Taiyō, by all means, was not a large village. There was a forest on one side of the farming fields, a large meadow on the other. The sun that constantly beamed down was supposedly gentler than what was given to the rest of the Land of Fire, as several merchants passing by had previously stated. There were few monopolies scattered throughout the village, and those that existed were small.

The community was familiar and supportive; there was hardly a moment when one could walk freely through the pathways without having conversations with neighbors. The whole village would help a family raise a child, whether it be supplying food, shelter, or simply babysitting.

Asuka came to like the tiny village as she grew up. It was quaint, completely different from the hustling and bustling of city pedestrians, loud vehicular noises, sirens, and harsh pollution fumes. The citizens genuinely cared for one another, no one had filed a complaint when Asuka was left orphaned at a young age and the responsibility for raising her was left to the rest of the village. They had guided her with open arms, provided her with a place to stay, treated her like family.

When she started showing signs of freaky abilities at the age of six, no one batted an eyelash; they took it into stride. The village elder, Imai Hanako, had proceeded to teach her the basic knowledge of chakra –a strange, yet oddly familiar sounding energy carried in everyone, and around everyone– and had her practicing little control exercises in order keep from exhausting herself.

Hanako-baa had then taken Asuka under her wing, telling her tales of Konoha, where the old woman had grown up until she married a farmer and then moved to Taiyō together. The stories were fascinating, some even ringing certain bells in the back of Asuka's mind, but they remained just stories to her. Not once had they invoked the thought of moving to the Hidden Village, simply because Asuka had like the similarity the peaceful lifestyle held in comparison with her old life.

That didn't mean that Asuka hadn't been somewhat inspired by the idea of ninjas –although the inspiration had taken somewhat of a different path. As she grew into the late teens of her past life, Asuka had been forced to quit strenuous physical activity because her asthma had developed into a more serious case. She had always loved dancing, she had even dreamed of going professional at one point, so she was left sorely heartbroken when her lungs couldn't seem to keep up with her body.

Her new life as Asuka, though, was incredibly healthy. Her body was young enough for basic flexibility conditioning to develop easily, and she genuinely enjoyed strength exercises now that she was capable of accomplishing them. She trained her body to regain the grace and fluidity it had once held in her early last life, and even surpassing that length of elegance.

Physical strength wasn't the only thing Hanako-baa's stories of Konoha inspired. Asuka thirsted for different sorts of knowledge she couldn't access in her sickly life. Chakra was the main one, its familiarity going as far as bothering her because she couldn't quite remember why the word had rung so many bells –not to mention the idea of using life force, in a sense, to do certain things was fascinating. Another one happened to be Hanako-baa's specialty, and she was more than happy to help Asuka expand her expertise on the subject.

That was how Asuka had ended up working in the village apothecary apprenticing Hanako-baa. All day, she was set to work grinding, mixing, and memorizing different herbs and their uses whether it be for medicinal use, perfumes, or even poisons. She was often sent out to either the forest or out in the meadow to pick up a variety of herbs to restock the ever-dwindling supply back at the shop.

Incidentally, being sent out to grab supplies from the forest had been the pebble to start the trail of dominos toppling, because that happened to be the very reason she met Uzumaki Kushina.

…

Toppling Dominos

…

"Hanako-baa, I'm heading out now," Asuka called into the backdoor of the apothecary, where the old woman had stuffed herself into one of the chemical-rooms for experimenting on some of the more dangerous mixtures. She left without hearing a reply, doubting the old bat would have heard her anyways.

As soon as Asuka had left the building, she was ransacked with the noticeably larger presence of what Hanako-baa called Natural Energy, which was essentially just raw chakra that flowed through the natural elements. As far as the old woman knew, there were very few people who could sense the Natural Energy, so Asuka was warned heavily to tread lightly with it.

And it wasn't as if Asuka hadn't heeded Hanako-baa's warning. She usually tried to keep away from pulling on that raw chakra, because part of her wanted to keep this new life she was gifted with. It was a good life, albeit a bit mundane, but the constant worry of looking over her sickly body was one that she had happily discarded for life in Taiyō. But it wasn't as if she could just help the fact that the Natural Energy just seemed to gravitate towards her. She was able to tell the difference between the raw chakra floating around and the diluted chakra belonging to civilians, and a large part of her wanted to see just how far she could take herself both physically and mentally.

"'Morning Asuka-chan," Ruka, a villager in her earlier teens from the family who had mostly taken care of Asuka, called whilst tending to one of the newer babies to grace the village. The baby belonged to the Momomiya family, who were probably out working while Ruka looked after the child. "Are you doing well?"

Asuka paused her step to look up to the teen, before looking down at the infant and pulling her face into a goofy grin. The baby, a boy it looked like, gave a shriek of delight before trying to mirror Asuka's expression. "Good morning, Ruka-nee, little guy. I'm doing well, I'm just about to go out and grab some more roots and stuff. What about you two?"

The idle chat continued for a short while, before they both parted ways. That routine continued for a short while as Asuka continued to walk towards the outskirts of the village, where the stragglers started becoming scarce, and the amount of workers in the field increased. Asuka was thankful for that, because stopping every couple steps to converse with someone new about pointless small talk was exhausting. Frankly, Asuka could do without it, but there wasn't really much she could do unless she wanted to seem ungrateful.

"If it isn't li'l Asuka!" It took a bit of effort to properly school her annoyed grimace into her usual pleasant smile, as Asuka had been hoping to avoid another conversation, but she managed it in time for one of the produce merchants to catch up with her. "Now what're ya up to on this fine day?"

He wasn't an awful man, Asuka knew. Sure, he looked a little rough around the edges, a couple scars here and there that he claimed were from bandits on his journeys to sell Taiyō's goods to other villages, and with a strong, burly body. His copper beard was a little scraggly, and his skin was tanned much like the rest of the villagers'. But Daisuke was a man with a large, gentle heart, who genuinely cared for the wellbeing of the entire village.

"Hanako-baa sent me to gather more supplies for more remedies," Asuka replied, repeating the same sentence for what seemed like the twentieth time that morning. For emphasis, she held up the woven basket filled with various clay and glass jars, the empty echoes of their clinking together drifting up to her ears as she did so. "There are a few requests to fill out, and we were low on most of our basic herbs. Are you out to check up on the crops, Daisuke-san?"

The man gave a low chuckle as his hand rested on top of her head, giving her caramel locks a quick ruffle. Asuka tried to hide her grimace at his familiarity, and mostly ignored the small stab in her gut from the very same action her older brother in her past life used affectionately. It all went unnoticed by Daisuke. "Hanako-sama sure has ya workin' hard, Asuka. I think ya work more than I do!" Asuka shared a false laugh with the man; before he sobered so quickly it almost startled her. "Anyways, I was goin' around warnin' everyone 'bout some rumors spreadin' through the other villages. A Konoha merchant heard the news o' a higher-class group o' bandits ransackin' villages left n' right from some ninja guards or somethin'. Wanted to make sure everyone would tread carefully until they're taken care o'."

Asuka gave the man a nod after his short spiel to show her understanding, although she wasn't all too deterred by the news as she continued towards the woods. "I'm sure everyone appreciates it, Daisuke-san. It's nice that the other villages look out for each other like this. I'll be sure to tell Hanako-baa of this too."

The man halted his steps, wrapping an arm around Asuka's bicep to stop her as well. She looked at him with a mix of annoyance and curiosity, whereas he gave her a stern look. "Listen, Asuka, ya need to be careful out in the woods until they're dealt with. We don't want nothin' happenin' to ya if we can help it –"

"I understand, Daisuke-san," Asuka cut in, with a tight smile. "But I'll be fine. I doubt the bandits will come here; we don't really have anything valuable to offer like the larger villages. If you're really worried, I'll check in with you when I come back."

Daisuke seemed to realize there was no arguing with the seven-year-old girl, because he reluctantly stepped back with a slow nod. "Alright. As soon as ya done, check in with some people so we know ya ain't hurt."

"I will," Asuka quickly nodded, letting her eyes dart to the dark greenery that was still a little ways away. She was feeling more eager to drop Daisuke as his insistence continued. She was, after all, mentally older than he was. So, without further prompting, Asuka pulled her arm from his grasp and tilted her head in a bow. "Thank you for your cautions, Daisuke-san. Have a good day."

She didn't wait for Daisuke's reply to his dismissal, simply opting to continue her trek to her usual herb-gathering niches in the forest.

~…~

The buzz of the forest's Natural Energy almost seemed to harmonize with Asuka's absent humming. The feeling was almost euphoric; the raw chakra was free to nip at her skin, which was more of a tickling feeling than pain, she could feel the energy bouncing all around her. Rather than rejuvenate her, it relaxed her.

The whole experience with Natural Energy almost felt like a drug buzz, which, in turn, meant that Asuka must be high.

She certainly felt high. Powerful. Like nothing could possibly limit her capabilities. She felt physically stronger than she could ever remember; she could take on the world if she had to. She was the artist, the world was her canvas. Nothing could best her. She was unstoppable.

At least, she thought she was.

It wasn't like she really had much to test her abilities, just her past memories and happy lungs. Surely her older brother could have figured something out, but he was living. She was technically dead, although it eased her to think of the situation as vice-versa. It was easier to get over someone's death rather than her own.

For the next couple hours, Asuka spent picking through the contents of the forest, slowly refilling each of those empty jars in her woven basket. Her fingers moved routinely, having been performing this task for nearly over a year, and she was capable of gathering and sorting with little focus on the matter. The majority of her focus was spent trying to sense the different signatures scattered throughout the forest, trying to properly differentiate between raw chakra and the diluted chakra inside of bodies, so it could be as well practiced and easy as her herb gathering.

Of course, the animals didn't give off nearly as big of a signature as humans would, making it harder to tell the difference between that and the Natural Energy, but practicing at the village would have been just as hard with the higher amount of diluted chakra from all of the civilians.

Eventually, Asuka had taken a break from both of her tasks, choosing to sit in a patch of flowers that weren't too well off. There was another little Natural Energy trick that she had been cautiously experimenting on the immature plants with. The energy was so eager to surround her, almost as if it had wanted her to play with it. She did, keeping Hanako-baa's warning in mind, and tried a small experiment on how it would affect photosynthesis on underdeveloped vegetation.

At first it had gone very badly. The burns on her hands and the scorch marks on the crisp forest floor had given hint of that. It had taken her a couple more tries and burns before Asuka came up with the hypothesis that perhaps it was because the energy she gathered was stilled, not constantly moving like it always was. Trial and error was a big method in Asuka's experiment –so much that she had taken to wearing gloves as to not give suspicion to Hanako-baa when she had come back with more burns on her skin, although the missing burn anesthetic paste was probably enough of a hint already– and she was really thankfully when she finally got some less explosive results.

The Natural Energy would lazily circle above the underdeveloped vegetation at the beckon of her hands –kind of like how Asuka's nephew from her old life imagined conjuring a magic spell would be– and form a glow that looked and imitated sunlight. That imitation sunlight in turn, would jumpstart the photosynthesis process inside the plants around it, allowing them to form the chemicals needed for growing.

It was a fascinating process to watch, Asuka decided, as she sluggishly swirled her wrist movements to guide the raw chakra around the patch of wilting flowers she was sitting in. The flowers were slowly starting to perk up from their previously shriveled forms; the glow had cast dancing demonic shadows across Asuka's body, and watching them was almost hypnotizing.

And then there was a splash of crimson; a scream tore through the silence in the woods.

…

I gave in. Here is the first chapter of Downward Spiral; hopefully this will turn out like I hope it will!

Please feel free to drop a review and tell me what your thoughts are, what you think could go better, etc…

Thanks, and see you next time!