Okay, first things first, No, I don't own Naruto, if I did I'd be a blubbering mess on the floor 'cos of all the awesome characters killed off.
Pairings: SasoriXOC, KakashiXOC
As it stands these are the only definite pairings, others are open to request but Kuko-chan has final say, 'cos she deals with that sort of things and I bow to her will.
Also, apologies to anyone following me and hoping for an update on one of my other stories, but we found a plot bunny and couldn't leave it out in the rain. *Looks at the rain pouring down out the window* How I love British weather…
Well on we go, enjoy.
This is un-beta'd so please excess the odd error that might sneak past my spellcheck, let me know and I can fix it.
Warning: Death pretty early on
Nec Asspera Torrent
Prologue
A light dusting of snow shines silver in the moonlight, a slight breeze sending small drifts of fluttering to the ground from rooftops. A pair of serpents slither along the streets, barely discernible from the shadows they pass through. Their tongues flick out, tasting the air for the scent of their prey, following it to a small 2-storey house at the edge of the village.
The serpents slip through a slightly open window, following the trail towards the stairs. A pair of kunai fly through the air impaling the bodies and fixing them to the floor. A young man appears in a swirl of leaves, a kunai in each hand, short black hair spiking in all directions from sleep.
"Akane, get Miku and run." Upstairs, a young woman with shoulder length, brown hair and silver eyes runs into the next room, rousing the five year old girl from her bed, giving her a long coat and a pair of shoes, opening the wide window across the room.
"What's going on Okaa-san?" A pair of slightly darker grey eyes blink tiredly through curtains of tangled blue-black hair, a yawn following the girl's question.
"Don't worry, Miku, everything will be fine, we just need to leave now." Akane gathered her daughter into her arms and jumped through the window, into the garden below. Ten large snakes rose around her, hissing threateningly.
A yell from the house makes Miku glance over her mother's shoulder to see a strange man with long black hair pulling his arm away from her father, snakes hanging from his sleeve with blood on their fangs. Akane jumps up to the high garden wall just as Tadao falls unmoving to the ground.
Wasting no time, she leaps on to the surrounding tree's branches, heading towards the centre of the village. Another serpent wraps around the woman's leg, pulling her back and dislodging the child from her grasp. Miku released a terrified shriek, desperately grabbing onto the nearest branch to prevent a harsh meeting with the ground. She glanced back to see her mother fighting off more snakes, the man who had killed her father slowly approaching.
"Run, Miku. Don't look back." The child hoisted herself up onto her branch and hesitated, taking one last look at her, now sole, parent before fleeing, sprinting through the treetops and swinging from higher branches to cross wider gaps which she couldn't jump.
All night the raven haired child fled, unfallen tears obscuring her vision, terror and grief clouding her mind as she kept running, inadvertently getting ever further from the village, her ever growing fatigue laying unnoticed in the back of her mind, though its subconscious effect eventually forced her to ground level. As dawn finally began to break over the forests of Fire Country, Miku's seemingly limitless energy abruptly ran out as she collided with something, knocking herself out with the force.
"Ow…" Correction, she collided with someone.
Dark, mahogany eyes blink up at the sky confusedly as their owner tried to make sense of what had just happened.
"What? No apology? You just knock someone to the ground and leave them there? You'd better not be laughing right now…" The pissed off girl, a couple of years older than Miku, rose, long dark brown hair in almost as bad a state as Miku's falling around her in hectic waves.
"Of course. Run into me and knock yourself out…" With a huff the girl settled down to wait, amusing herself by continually poking Miku's forehead in the hope it might make her wake up quicker.
She eventually realised this hope was in vain and decided her time would be better spent napping, so she dragged the unconscious Miku into a well hidden spot among the bushes and joined her in dreamland.
*o*o*o*
The sun was nearing its peak by the time Miku finally woke up, staring vacantly through the undergrowth as she tried to remember where she was. The night's events came rushing back and the tears she had been too shocked to shed before, fall in rivers down her face. She gradually became aware of a pair of arms holding her in an awkward hug and a girl's voice mumbling in a somewhat soothing tone. The other girl noticed her slowing tears and gradual calming down and shuffled back a bit.
"Are you kind of okay now? I mean, you're obviously not okay, okay but are you a bit better? Enough that we can talk at least?" Miku giggled a little at the awkward babble, quickly drying her tears on her sleeve and nodded.
"Yeah, um, my name's Miku. I'm from Konoha, which should be around here somewhere…" The raven haired girl took a proper look around to realise she didn't even know which way she'd come from.
"Nice to meet you Miku-chan. I'm Fukuko and I'm so glad you sort of know where we are, I've been lost for a week surviving only on berries and nuts, it's seriously not healthy, a growing girl needs meat! But if you're not really sure exactly where we are, do you think you could climb a tree and find out where Konoha is? 'Cause I'm not the best at climbing and I wouldn't know what I'm looking for anyway…"
Miku slapped a hand over the babbling girl's mouth and simply nodded before scrambling up the nearest trunk and disappearing up through the branches. It wasn't long before she dropped back down, a few extra twigs tangled in her mess of blue-black hair.
"That way." She pointed in a vaguely South West-ish direction, grabbed Fukuko's arm and started pulling her along, the way she'd pointed.
"Soooo… Why were you crying back there?" Wide, inquisitive brown eyes blink innocently at Miku as she froze at the question, dropping the other girl's arm.
"A bad man attacked my parents. I don't think they're coming home." New tears blurred her vision but didn't fall and she quickly resumed walking. Fukuko took advantage of her longer legs and easily caught up.
"It'll be okay Miku-chan, my parents didn't come home but we've got each other now and we can become really strong kunoichi together so we can always come home, 'kay?" Miku smiled slightly and nodded before hoisting herself onto the lowest branches of the surrounding trees and walking along them instead of on the ground.
"Hey, no fair. I already told you I'm not good at climbing." Fukuko pouted then jogged to keep up with the younger girl who was much faster in the trees than on the ground.
"Don't worry, 'Kuko-chan, I just need to make sure we're going the right way. How did you end up wandering out here for a week anyway?"
"I thought you were meant to ask before suddenly giving me a nickname, not that I mind it, but that's beside the point." She pouted against the laughter from the tree over her head, grumbling a little to herself before answering the question.
"Some bad men caught me and dragged me all over the place but I was smarted than them and escaped at night, all sneaky-like but I didn't really know where I was so I hid until sure they wouldn't be near and picked a direction and hoped I'd find someone at some point."
"You should learn to climb, then you'd be able to find people quicker." The ground-walker glared into the trees at the smug tone of her companion.
The pair kept a decent pace and managed to reach Konoha's gates by the time the sun was half set, though both were more than ready to collapse into bed and sleep for twelve hours. Miku came to a rather abrupt halt as she ran headlong into a tall figure with short, spiky, brown hair, dressed in the standard Jōnin uniform, their arms swiftly catching her before she toppled from the branches.
"Miku-chan, we've been looking for you, where did you go?"
"Okaa-san told me to run when the bad man came. Are Okaa-san and Otou-san coming home, Morikawa-san?" The sad look on his face said enough, and Miku's tears fell once more, though silently this time, her mind already having, at least somewhat, acknowledged her loss.
The silence was broken by the rustling of leaves and loud grumbling.
"Miku-chan, why'd you stop? Aren't we nearly there? Umm…" Fukuko cut off at the sight of the, to her, unknown shinobi.
"It's ok, 'Kuko-chan, this is Morikawa-san. He looked after me sometimes when my parents had missions. Morikawa-san, this is Fukuko-chan. She was lost in the forest and is coming home with me." Fukuko gave a smile and a wave at the introduction, receiving a quiet greeting in return.
"Come on then, you two, you both look ready to drop, though Hokage-sama will need to talk to you tomorrow, Miku-chan." Miku nodded, stifling a yawn and followed Morikawa through the trees, helping Fukuko keep her balance as the other girl grumbled her way along with them.
Once within the village, the trio dropped to the streets, the two girls stumbling forward on autopilot. Morikawa swiftly guided them to the younger girl's house, watching amusedly as them both collapsed into Miku's bed snuggling together automatically to prevent either falling off. The Jōnin smiled at the sight and hopped out of the window, closing it behind him before reporting back to the Hokage.
*o*o*o*
A tall figure with long, black hair and serpentine yellow eyes slipped into the dark room where Miku and Fukuko lay sleeping, hands quickly flashing through a series of hand seals. The last sign completed, he lay his hand on Miku's head with a whispered "Kioku Fū no Jutsu*". As silently as the man had appeared, he vanished, with no trace of his presence left behind.
*o*o*o*
The next morning, Miku had a sharp wakeup call in the form of a fist to the face and a sudden meeting with the ground. She blinked confusedly, until the events of the previous day returned, explaining the other girl who had just punched her out of her own bed. With a growl, the younger girl yanked the duvet off Fukuko, letting the cold morning air attack the older girl. Fukuko huddled into a ball with a whine, one eye peeking open to half-glare at the fiend who stole her warmth, but too tired to put any heat behind it.
"Come on, 'Kuko-chan. It's morning now." The older girl whined again, curling in tighter, desperately trying to stay asleep, but she eventually gave in to the relentless poking of a bony finger.
"Wha' time 's it, 'Ku-chan?" A jaw cracking yawn followed the question as she blinked blearily at Miku.
"Six o'clock." Miku smiled slightly at the proper glare Fukuko managed to muster. The brunette grudgingly got off the bed and shuffled towards the kitchen to hunt down some tea.
Half an hour and one pot of caffeinated goodness later, Fukuko was more awake and less likely to murder everyone in sight. Morikawa slipped in through a window, carrying a gift of breakfast.
"I come bearing miso soup and Oyakodon**, who's hungry?" The man would later swear that 'Kuko had a Jōnin's speed when she stole the food out of his hands, and Miku used the distraction to sneakily grab her own before the Jōnin could use his height to torment her. Morikawa shook his head and sat down with his portion, fending off invading chopsticks with practised ease.
After breakfast, Morikawa took the girls shopping (a decision his wallet would later hate him for), as Fukuko had naught but the clothes on her back. It was nearing midday when the shopping fiend brunette finally decided she had enough, and the trio finally headed to the administrative division of the Academy. The crowd of people within left both girls hiding behind Morikawa, though Fukuko soon overcame her nervousness and started to bounce around, chatting to everyone who stayed still for even a second. The other two shared a despairing look and left her to it while they waited for the Hokage to see them.
When they were called, Morikawa dragged Fukuko away from the Mission Assignment Desk where she had been bombarding one of the Chūnin on duty with questions, much to the amusement of everyone else.
"Hokage-sama." The three bowed in greeting, though it was only through Miku covering her mouth that Fukuko didn't bombard the man with inquiries.
"Tamotsu, I'm surprised it took you so long." The Hokage glanced inquiringly at the Jōnin, who shuffled awkwardly, remembering his powerlessness in stopping the shopping fiend.
"It was 'Kuko-chan's fault, she bought a lot." Miku peeked her head around Fukuko as she spoke quietly, maintaining her duty of silencing the babble-mouth.
"Ah, so you must be Miku-chan, and your friend would be 'Kuko-chan?" Fukuko nodded enthusiastically, unintentionally dislodging Miku's hand, but she took full advantage of the opportunity.
"Yep, I'm Fukuko. This a really nice office, though it seems you have a paperwork demon in residence and that's an awesome looking hat, can I try it on, please-" Morikawa hastily took over Miku's job off silencing Fukuko, while the Sandaime laughed at her exuberance.
"Well, it's nice to meet you both. Now, I'm sorry to have to drag up bad memories, Miku-chan, but I need to know what happened two nights ago. What can you tell me about the bad man that came to your house?" The small smile that Miku had worn at her friend's actions rapidly fell as tears gathered in her eyes once more.
"Okaasan woke me up and carried me out the window but she got caught and otousan wasn't moving and she told me to run but I don't remember much. I think I saw the bad man but I can't remember anything. Why can't I remember…?" The Hokage gently patted the girl on the shoulder while her friend slipped out of Morikawa's hold to give her a hug.
"It's ok, Miku. Now, we'll need to sort out where you'll be living from now on-" Before the Hokage could get any further, Fukuko butted in.
"We're gonna stay together in Miku-chan's house so we can become strong together and Miku-chan can teach me to climb better." Morikawa shook his head at her outburst, though spoke up when he saw the agreement in Miku's eyes.
"I'll make sure to keep an eye out whenever I can, though I already know Miku-chan can take care of herself fairly well." The Sandaime hummed, looking into the determined faces staring at him, eventually nodding in agreement as he recognised the stubbornness in their eyes. Besides, he knew that any friend of Miku's parents would look in on the pair on occasion without being asked.
With business taken care off, the trio were dismissed and the girls headed home, Miku claiming the kitchen to make lunch, not accepting any other presence within the room while she cooked. Over lunch the pair made their plans for joining the Academy in April, feeding off each other's enthusiasm and determination to move on past their losses.
*o*o*o*
*Memory Seal
**Chicken and eggs on rice
The title translates to 'Difficulties be Damned'
So there we are have a prologue, far longer than originally expected but... Meh. Please leave a review, they feed the muse. As a side-note this is currently set 6 years before the Kyuubi attack so I apologise in advance for the numerous OCs that will pop up in the early story but besides the mains none of them are overly important so don't worry too much.
Also, a word to the wise, don't try and watch the whole of Naruto in one go, that's what I've done, and seriously, to watch so much gets you far too attached to the characters, 'cos I'll tell you now I don't really cry at anything in books/manga/films/tv/anime but some of the deaths in Naruto have had me in floods. So, yes, watching it all in one is a baaad idea.
As always reviewers get cookies, and I plan to chuck out an update every month, it is currently the 7th so the 7th of each month is update day, feel free to complain should I miss it without a very good reason.
Your Cat-cuddling author
Kouseki