Twilight: Oh my Kami, I am so sorry! Someone recently convinced me that my story needed major revamping…and my character was a Sue…and I sucked…and well…SORRY!
Kage: You better be, you lazy ass.
Twilight: Shut up, Fluffy. Oh, let me introduce my muse, here to help with commentary and disclaimer, Kage!
Kage: …Yo.
Twilight: Is that all you have to say?!
Kage: Yep. Pretty much.
Twilight: …I like your story version better…
Kage: Deal.
Twilight: Just do the damn disclaimer so we can get started.
Kage: Fine. Dragon of Twilight doesn't own Naruto. If she did, you'd see the guys shirtless a lot more and Matsuri would be dead.
Twilight: Damn straight! By the way, PLEASE READ THE NOTE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE!
Chapter 1: The Beginning
Shadows flickered and danced in the night, twisting in a wild dance as the flames swelled, feeding greedily on ki-enriched leaves and branches, sending black smoke billowing above the mountains of the valley.
The beautiful valley where an unknown village had stayed hidden for so long was in ruins, decimated from an invasion that had taken place only hours before. The small houses carved directly into the giant trees that had been raised on earth ki from tiny seedlings had been blown apart by explosive tags, each family's belongings scattered everywhere. A huge, sparkling crystal set in the middle of a pond had been blasted to pieces, the pond dyed red with the blood of a woman who had been injured, fallen in, and drowned. Fire had been set to the great tree in the very center of the village; it's base completely charred and the flames only now working it's way up the enormous oak tree, where the village symbol hung: the paw print of a wolf.
And even worse than the total destruction of the village, was the inhabitant's fate themselves. Bodies of dark-skinned men, elderly women, and children late into their teens lay strewn about in a half hazard fashion. Some were crushed into their own miniature craters, creating hot pools of blood. Others looked as if they were brutally ripped apart, signifying a terrible battle of brute power. Other, paler-skinned bodies were likewise scattered, but the casualties were far less then the people of the village. The small children and young women were captured and led out of the village.
The full moon hanging above the battlefield was not graced with even one howling call, a far cry from the usual symphony of howls it was used to.
A quick figure flickered briefly into view on top of a rock overlooking the decimated village, where it paused in a crouch, shadowed against the flames from the burning tree. From underneath a black cloth cap, tears streaked from glowing green eyes in sparkling trails down an ash-streaked, dark-skinned face as she looked upon the burning remains of what used to be a village.
Her dark outfit blurred into the silent night as she silently slipped away, a large bundle wrapped in charred blankets cradled in her arms. Running through the rocky pass that served as the only exit out of the valley, the woman gently peeled the blankets back, exposing the soot-coated face of a twelve-year old girl as the woman exited the valley to run along a well-used dirt road.
The girl was unconscious, her breathing forced and rasping as she breathed through flame-scorched lungs. The cool air rushing past her dark-skinned face seemed to rouse her for an instant, and a pathetic, miserable cry found it's way out of her lips as her eyes fluttered open; revealing bright golden eyes, then shut again with a miserable moan as she slipped back into unconsciousness.
The woman carrying her let out a sad sigh and glanced around for a suitable resting stop. Spying a large willow tree, she ran up the trunk to the thick, wide branch that grew conveniently close to a large hollow in the tree. Crouching on the branch and shifting the girl carefully to her other arm, the woman carefully inserted her hand into the hollow, making sure it wasn't too small.
Luckily, the hollow was large enough for both the girl and the blankets she was wrapped in, and she gently slipped the girl inside, tucking a large envelope down into the blankets with her.
"Mikomi-nee-chan…" A whispering, hoarse voice made the woman—Mikomi—look up, her eyes flickering to the girl's face and locking eyes with her. The young girl's eyes were open, the molten gold color glassed over with shock and grief.
"They're all gone, Mikomi…Makoto-sensei…Daichi-tousan …Kiyoshi-itoko (1)…gone. I saw sensei fighting…he fell…he's gone. They were after Kiyoshi …Daichi was fighting, too…I couldn't do anything…I…"
Mikomi's emerald eyes hardened as the girl's weak babbling started to take on a hysterical note, and she began thrashing in her blankets; the traumatic memories of what had happened in the past few hours threatening to send the fragile little girl into hysteria.
"Yukari…" She said softly, trying to snap her young friend out of it. Yukari's eyes remained glassy and her babbling rose in volume.
"Yukari."
No change.
"Yukari!" Mikomi snapped, using the stern tone Yukari heard so often from her sensei. Yukari stopped talking abruptly and her eyes focused suddenly on Mikomi. Startled, she stopped moving.
"Yukari, you need to stay in this tree until the traveling caravan comes by as usual. Get on the caravan. Give the envelope to the leader. Do you understand?" Mikomi snapped authoritatively. Yukari's eyes sharpened, grief briefly forgotten in defiance of authority.
As always, Mikomi allowed fondly, although her stern outward expression didn't change.
"What about you, Mikomi? What will you do? I'm not going anywhere without you!" Yukari snapped back angrily.
Mikomi abruptly switched tack. "You have to." She said in a soft voice, resting a gentle, large hand on Yukari's soot-dusted forehead, sweeping a few strands of dark hair away from her eyes and leaving her palm on Yukari's forehead.
Yukari's angry expression dissolved, tears welling up in her wide gold eyes. But Mikomi pressed on relentlessly.
"You have to forget about me altogether. Forget your status, forget your clan, forget your past, forget everything until the time is right."
"I can't! I won't!" She cried tearfully yet defiantly, fighting to get one of her hands free so that she could reach out to put her hand on Mikomi's.
"Then I'll make you, for your own good." Mikomi said decisively; her green eyes hard and the hand on Yukari's head tensing. Yukari's eyes grew confused. Without another word, Mikomi poured her ki into Yukari's energy pathways, making them sear with pain.
Surikesu Omoide no Jutsu. (2)
Learning jutsu instead of ki techniques had been a risky decision on Mikomi's part, not knowing whether her ki was close enough to chakra to use in jutsu. Ninjutsu was unknown in the land of Ametsuchi, as well of the different uses of chakra. Elemental ki was the substitute for Ninjutsu, while Genjutsu and medical jutsu was unknown.
Yukari stiffened rigidly, her eyes rolling back into her head at the unexpected assault on her energy pathways. Mikomi's grip tightened, squeezing Yukari's skin so hard she knew it would bruise. Still, the girl attempted fight off the unfamiliar jutsu, her eyes rolling to focus on Mikomi's stony face, her golden eyes confused and betrayed as she grit her teeth and attempted to force out Mikomi's jounin-level chakra with her own weak store of ki.
Still, despite the effort, Yukari was losing. The burning sensation dulled. A lethargic feeling was coming over her, like sleep medicine spreading through her body. Her eyes roved for a moment, drunk from the unfamiliar excess energy that was Mikomi's chakra. She was weakening, mind teetering between awareness and unintelligence. Still, she managed to choke out a childish complaint.
"I-It's not…fair…!"
Mikomi paused. "What?"
Yukari pushed out her response with as much venom she could muster in her half-unconscious state. "Y-you can't do…this…t-to me."
"On the contrary." Mikomi said quietly, no emotion at all in her tone. "All I need to do is focus a little of my chakra, overpower your own network, and use it to replace the information in your head with blank spaces."
"Y-you…can't d-do t-that…with ki…" Yukari breathed weakly as her eyes pinwheeled a little. Mikomi smiled emptily and without humor.
"Not with ki, but I can chakra. I'm doing this for your own survival."
Yukari didn't understand what chakra was, but she got the gist of what Mikomi meant; she was going to wipe her memory whether Yukari liked it or not.
"H-how am I going to survive, if you wipe out all knowledge of my training?!" Yukari screamed, finally clearing her thoughts enough to gather some semblance of strength. Unfortunately, it cost her dearly; Yukari slipped into unconsciousness.
Mikomi blinked calmly and finished the jutsu, rocking back on her heels and studying Yukari's sleeping face intently. She'd taken Yukari's last…request…into account, only wiping the memories of her village and what she had done to make her forget. To Yukari, she would only remember Makoto training her, and not in the place she trained. To satisfy her curiosity, Mikomi implanted some memories, indicating that Yukari trained and studied with Makoto all her life in a small dojo, which was already partly true.
Of this night, Yukari would only remember the instructions Mikomi put into her head.
Learn new skills.
Never stay too long in only one place.
Strengthen her ki.
Grow strong.
"Hide in the safety of the shadows where the world can't find you, and wait for the Call of the Guardians. Goodbye…imouto."
6 Years Later
"No! I'd rather feed the onbaa! (3)"
"You're the only one who can do it!"
"I said no, Keiji! Get another one of your lackeys to steal it!"
'Keiji' slammed his huge, work-swollen hands powerfully down on his desk and stood on, leaning menacingly forward. Over six feet tall and with muscles like a bodybuilder; Miyagi Keiji was not someone to piss off.
His coal black hair was ruffled forward until his bangs touched his nose, his eyes were piercing cobalt and his features were clean-shaven and ruggedly handsome. His skin was also the same dark color that was common to the people of Ametsuchi.
This giant of a man glared at the insolent young women in front of him that didn't even flinch at the loud bang the desk gave as protest to the abuse, her arms crossed firmly under her breasts.
"Damn it, Yukari! You do this every time I give you an assignment! And it's Miyagi-sama to you!"
Yukari didn't top 5' 5", but she stood unafraid against the anger of her boss. Her layered hair was shaggy and it went to just below her shoulder blades, the color a red so dark it was almost black. A large lock of hair hung right between her wide golden eyes, the end resting on the left side of her nose.
Her skin was dark and she had gained quite a few more scars and muscles since she had been 'found' by this traveling band of thieves that worked as a circus in its spare time. Keiji was the leader of this band, and he was the one who assigned missions, apprentices to masters, and decided where to go. It had also been his decision to take Yukari in.
It took years to get the caravan to trust her, with her constant and blatant disrespect of authority, but she put up with the punishment and continued to be discourteous, so eventually her superiors just gave up.
Around Keiji's Caravans she was known as 'The Phantom' thanks to her shadow-style powers in her thief jobs. Her job in regular circus life was a trick rider, standing upright on a horse while the horse was galloping.
Eventually, she'd been recognized as the best at stealth, infiltration, and retrieval out of all the thieves there, thanks to her shinobi background. But her physical strength was not the best. She used the grappling and throwing her old sensei had taught her, but she rarely ever went at it fist-to-fist.
She had flatly refused to teach her unique ki skills to anyone who asked, even the superiors, thus keeping one step ahead of them. Which is why Keiji, the Boss of the entire circus, hated her so much, but was forced to rely on her skills.
"Keiji, I've never called you that before, and I never will." Yukari shot back, totally unimpressed by the two hundred and eighty pounds of muscle behind the poor, abused desk. "And if you keep doing that your desk is going to break. I don't want to fix it again. And I do this every time you give me an assignment is because you always want me to steal something."
Keiji sat back down heavily, placing his elbow on the table and massaging the bridge of his nose, avoiding looking at the object of his ire as if that if he didn't look at her, she'd disappear.
"Just, please, listen to me." Keiji finally caved in and used the 'p' word.
Yukari instantly grinned and sat in the chair in front of his desk, putting her elbows on the desk and resting her chin on her cupped hands, waiting.
"Yes, I do need you to steal something. A scroll. It shouldn't be too hard. Just a quick: get in, get the scroll, and get out."
"Well, if I have to steal, might as well be a quick one." Yukari blinked slowly, analyzing her instructions as she always did, looking for loopholes or things that should be mentioned. "Where is the scroll and what's in it?"
Keiji's eyes narrowed a bit as he grinned. Yukari narrowed her own eyes; she didn't like that smile, it was greedy and there was a hint of triumph that made her very wary.
"The scroll is in the very village where we found you, which is conveniently nearby. A few bandits have set up a cozy little settlement there, and I'd hate for some of my more…straightforward thieves to rip it apart in search for one measly scroll. As for the contents…let's just say it will be interesting to you."
The grin got wider.
"So what do you say, Ookami-san?"
"…"
THIS IS IN A DIFFERENT LAND, FAR ACROSS THE SEA FROM THE SHINOBI NATIONS, CALLED AMETSUCHI. THESE PEOPLE ARE DARK-SKINNED AND USE KI INSTEAD OF CHAKRA.
(1) I heard that this was the word for cousin, so I used it.
(2) Memory Erase Jutsu
(3) Naruto had one clinging to his back, a native Fire Country animal and one kind of animal in the circus menagerie.