Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!
Prologue
It was quiet; too quiet. Had hours past since the small girl had taken shelter in the darkness of her parent's closet? Was it safe, or was the stranger still lurking within her family's small home?
The girl was very fair, only three years of age with a straight, yet lively mop of silver hair and large, innocent blue-violet eyes that stared terrified at the slightly opened door of the clothes hanger. In her arms, the girl clutched a large, hand-made stuffed rabbit that sported blue buttons for its eyes and cherry thread that was its mouth and nose.
The small girl wanted to call out, wanted her parents to come and hold her in assurance, but Oka-san had told her, no, ordered her to be quiet. If there was one thing that the girl knew well, was that she must never, not matter the circumstance, to disobey her parents; yet, with the growing pit in her stomach, the girl wished that she could as the growing dread was becoming near to unbearable with the tight space of her hiding place.
The girl couldn't remember exactly what had happened earlier that day—like with most every other day—but she was aware of the fact that her family had remained home. Her mother had been tending to her younger brother for most of the day in the back room, which was her parent's room, and her father had been on the porch, enjoying a novel as he usually did.
When evening had arrived, they had just barely finished a meal of well-cooked fish when the door was heard opening. Before she had been able to ask who was there, the girl was hustled inside her parent's room by her Oka-san, who told her to hide in the closet and be quiet. Having not wanted to disobey her mother, the girl took quick shelter inside the clothes hanger and, as she now sat there weeping silently, wondered what had happened after.
She wished desperately that someone would come to assure her; the girl listened anxiously for any sound or movement within her home. It came to mind then on why Oka-san or Oto-san hadn't come to get her or if something had happened that they couldn't come to retrieve her.
Suddenly, the small girl could hear footsteps cautiously making their way to the back of the house. Having thought it was her parents, the girl nearly jumped from the safety of the closet when another thought came to her. What if the stranger was still in the house?
She knew it couldn't be Oto-san; he never walked in fear, for his stride was always one of authority and confidence. It wasn't Oka-san either, for she was graceful and elegant with each step that she took.
The body of the girl stiffened at the sound of the door leading to her parent's room slid open and the footsteps followed, sounding much closer than before. Overcome by curiosity, the girl silently inched toward the slightly opened door of her safe haven. She wondered if the new comer was the same stranger that had entered her home earlier unannounced.
Unfortunately, before the girl could properly peer out the door, she inhaled a deep breath and sneezed automatically into the white rabbit's material. She instantly became full of fear as the footsteps stopped and swirled to her direction. She struggled to conceal herself among the rack of clothes as the person came closer. The owner obviously heard the rattle of the hangers, as he halted a few feet from the door.
Feeling her heart pounding uncontrollably within her small chest, the girl breathed heavily to accommodate the sudden heat wave that had swept through, while wondering if the stranger could hear it as well. Droplets of sweat dripped from her temple and her back in such large amounts that the girl questioned if rain had seeped in through the roof.
Time had most certainly stopped in its course as the girl sat in total silence, only hearing her own breathing and heartbeat. Fear had completely swallowed her and every breath seemed to echo within her.
Then, the light that seeped through the crack widened, and the girl came face to face with the stranger. He seemed to be almost as tall as her father and, was that a gown he was wearing, or was it a robe of some sort?
"What are you hiding in here for?" the man asked gently, looking down on the small girl from his full height.
"Where's Oka-san and the Oto-san?" the girl asked back, near to a scream. "What did you do to them?"
The man didn't reply, but kneeled down to the girl's level and gazed gently at her. He didn't seem to be the killer type, with long, coffee-colored hair that was held back behind his head by a cloth band on his head that sported a bizarre shape on a thin plate of metal. His eyes seem to only add to his strangeness; they were the color of lavender, and the girl couldn't see the pupils within the orbs, which only fed her ever-growing curiosity.
"Can you tell me what happened?" he asked softly, as if not to be overheard.
"Oka-san told me to hide in the closet," the girl huffed. "Didn't say why, but no one disobeys Oka-san."
The man smiled warmly, his eyes glowing with a strange, friendly aura. "I'm sure they don't," he said after a while. "Let's get you someplace safe now."
"What about my parents," the girl exclaimed. "I can't leave them."
"They'll be along shortly," was the man's only reply as he scooped up the girl into his arms, cuddling her against his chest. He felt very warm and the girl immediately felt exhausted and silently slipped into a deep sleep. The man gazed at the sleepy girl with sorrow; she couldn't be no more than a little younger than his own son, and yet she experienced such a thing that no child should ever go through.
The rabbit, no longer held securely, slipped from the girl's lifeless arms and fell into a shallow pool of red liquid, its white cloth becoming splotched by the scarlet fluid.
