Summary: The mist hangs heavy with blood, and a daughter is born. During this war-torn era, children are turned into soldiers, shinobi are treated as tools, and a girl is trained to fight no matter what the sacrifice. But when alliances turn and she is brought face-to-face with the son of the White Fang, the child must now make the decision of where her loyalty truly lies. Slow burn. AU
Blood was her first memory. Rust-scented, slippery, the child awoke bathed in the liquid. What had happened? Her first reaction was to call for her mother, to get her out of this strange mess and comfort her, but when she was only greeted by silence, the child turned her head to find her mother's lying beside her with body cold and unmoving, hair crusted with blood. The eyes that once shimmered with gold merely stared back at her, dull and lifeless.
Barely old enough to form coherent words, the concept of death was unknown to her. However, the tyke was able to recognize that something was definitely wrong with her mother. She then wobbled on to her feet, preparing to cry for her father's help. But the only sound that came out was a hoarse rasp that left her in a coughing fit, and only a few dry tears were able to be squeezed out. Had the child been crying beforehand? She couldn't remember.
Tottering out the front door and calling out for her father, she was stopped dead in her tracks when she found him propped up against the picket fence, an entire limb missing and a pool of blood around his corpse. The flies were already beginning to gather.
Tou-san fought, she noted. But if he fought and was left in this state, that meant he lost. And to lose meant that he wasn't around anymore. But that shouldn't have been possible. Her Tou-san was strong. He never lost a fight against anyone. Even when he went away for days on end, he always returned from a mission.
Swatting the flies away, the child approached the body of her father and got on her knees, gently shaking him.
"...Tou-san. Wake up. Kaa-san in trouble. Kaa-san fall down in kitchen." The tears were pooling in her eyes again. "Tou-san... Ka-san fell... Can't carry by myself. Neh..."
The toddler was wailing now. Her cries bounced off the foliage of the trees and echoed throughout the forest. From what she understood, her father was unresponsive, her mother was asleep on the kitchen floor, and all the blood meant that they were hurt. She didn't know how or why, but whoever attacked her parents were bad people.
The sky was slowly changing into a rustic auburn as evening began to creep. She was running out of time. The number of peddlers that passed through the main road on their way to the hidden village would begin to decrease as nightfall approached. They were her only chance for help. Dashing past the gate onto the beaten track which led to the main road, she shrieked frantically.
Luckily, three shinobi on a returning mission overheard her cries and immediately changed course to figure out what all the ruckus was about. Bounding through the trees, they caught the unmistakable scent of blood. Landing in a clearing, there they found a little girl no more than three, with snot running down her nose and face caked in blood, screaming and hollering about how her parents were asleep and they wouldn't wake up.
The leader sent the two shinobi flanking him to go investigate while he stayed behind with the child.
"What's your name?" he asked. His voice was not gentle and soothing as if he were speaking to a child. It was direct and to the point. During these times of war, people could not afford the luxury of having something as precious as childhood. He did not have the time nor energy to make the child feel comfortable.
"Shizue," she responded.
"What about your last name?"
The child shrugged. She did not know.
Two bodies of water materialized beside the man before taking the form of the shinobis who had just recently left.
"Status report."
"Captain. We discovered Tsukemono Daichi and his wife one hundred and twenty-two meters north of here, both dead. The wife suffered a fatal blow to the head. Daichi-san's right arm was completely ripped out of its socket. It appears he had died from excessive blood loss sometime in the early morning."
"So this child has been lingering about for almost half a day," the leader said looking at the tyke. From the pocket of his grey flak jacket, he procured a handkerchief and proceeded to wipe down her face. "Were they the only ones on site?"
"Hai. We scoped out the area but couldn't find any lingering chakra signatures. The perpetrators appear to be unknown."
"To have him taken out so close to the village ... that's unfortunate. Daichi-san was a valuable shinobi," the leader lamented.
"Tsukemono-san was the one who wielded the shukketsu no ken, right? How could he have died? He was of jonin level. They had to be quite skilled to take him down."
The other shinobi stepped forward. "Shukketsu no ken? Bleeding sword? Do you think they attacked him for his weapon?"
The captain sighed. "It seems you were unfamiliar with Daichi-san. That's understandable though since he was from outside the village, but we'll have to discuss this elsewhere. Firstly, we must report this to the Mizukage."
Scooping the child up, the trio bounded for the trees yet again, with their destination: Kirigakure.
Kirigakure. The village hidden amongst thick mist and high mountains within the series of islands known as the Land of Water. The scent of rain and moss assaulted the senses, foliage grew amongst the high rooftops, waterfalls sprang forth from the crevices of rocks, and in the center of it all was the Mizukage's office.
"She's covered in blood," the Mizukage noted as he observed the tyke before him.
With golden eyes and cropped black hair matted with blood, she stood less than three feet tall. The man inwardly smiled as Shizue peered up at him. How easily he could crush her with his thumb, he thought. She was openly staring at him, unintimidated, unaware of the prestige the title of Mizukage held.
"I tried my best to make her presentable, Mizukage-sama."
Leaning over the desk, the Third folded his hands on top of one another and smiled eerily at the girl. The first words he spoke directly to her were, "Your parents are dead. How does that make you feel?"
Dead? What does it mean to be dead, she wondered.
As if he were able to read her thoughts, he continued, "To be dead means they are no longer alive. Your parents no longer exist. It means from this day forward, you no longer have parents. You will be utterly alone."
"Mizukage-sama," the leader interjected, but the kage put a hand up to silence him.
Alone. What did he mean to be alone? Was it the same as Kaa-san kicking me out of the kitchen while she cooked? Did it mean playing by myself? Was it the same as waiting for Tou-san to return from a mission?
"It seems you don't understand yet, but in due time you will. You know, your father Daichi never told anyone he had a kid. He kept it a secret all to himself."
"So are you my new parent?"
The Kage laughed a hollow, heartless laugh. "It seems you at least have some understanding of the situation. But no, just because something's gone missing does not mean that you will always be able to replace it. You will bear this pain for the rest of your life."
"For the rest of my life?"
"Indeed," he answered, his grin only growing wider. If it grew any wider she wondered if he would open his mouth and swallow her whole. "Aren't you sad? Won't you miss your parents?"
"I don't know. I don't remember."
The Mizukage's quiet laughter faltered. "You don't remember anything?"
Shizue shrugged.
"Then... do you remember anything that happened before this day?"
The little girl pondered his question for a moment. She knew for a fact that Kaa-san was her mother, and Tou-san was her father, but any specific memories related to them she was unable to recall. She had a general idea that her father was a shinobi, and her mother a regular civilian, but no imagery of their day-to-day lives appeared in her mind either. The only memory she could recover was the one where she was bathed in blood this very afternoon. Nothing before that.
Shizue shook her head.
"Ten, Crow," the Third suddenly announced. Two figures in masks quietly rose from the floor in clouds of mist. The tyke stared at them in amazement. How did they manage to do that? "You three are dismissed. I have important matters to discuss."
"Hai!" The trio who had originally escorted Shizue to the Kage's office bowed, and one by one they retreated from the room, closing the door behind them.
"Tsukemono Daichi and Akane are dead. Either whoever killed them purposely wiped the mind of this child, or this one found a really good hiding place and so happened to erase everything from her mind due to trauma. Most likely the latter. Even I did not know Daichi had a daughter, I highly doubt the enemy knew this as well. Ten, your orders are to investigate their house and have your team search the perimeter of the village. It seems the rebels have encroached on our territory. I do not take threats like this lightly."
"Hai." One of the masked men vanished as quickly as he had come.
"Child," the Mizukage motioned for the little girl to come around his desk, which she did so warily. "How old are you?"
"Three," Shizue answered, holding up the digits with her pudgy fingers.
"And has your father taught you anything regarding the chimyaku?"
The chimyaku? Blood pulse? That sounded similar to what the shinobi trio had mentioned earlier. Was it a game? A type of food, maybe? Whatever it was, it hardly sounded appetizing. Shizue shook her head in response.
"Well, we're about to find out," he said as he produced a curved piece of metal from the sleeve of his robe. He twisted it a few times, allowing it to glint under the light before grabbing the child's hand and slashing it across her palm.
The little girl screamed in pain and held onto her wrist with her uninjured hand. She flailed and kicked at the man, but he simply held her back with a push to her forehead.
"Settle down. Let's see your hand now."
She screeched at him, however, her struggle against this grown man was futile as he grabbed her hand once again and jerked it towards him. The sight before them had him grinning once again. Instead of finding blood profusely dripping from the wound, it pooled and bubbled around the cut, not a drop escaping her body. Her cries died down into a silence as she stared at her own hand in amazement.
"Crow," the Kage said, turning towards the last standing ANBU, "send word for Tsukemono Ryohei. Tell him that his pupil Daichi has been assassinated, but has left a new disciple to fulfill his legacy."
"Hai."
"Also, Ryohei is currently somewhere along the border collecting intel. When he arrives a few days from now, inform him to collect the girl from the orphanage."
"Hai," the ANBU said a final time before disappearing.
Briefly tearing her eyes away from her pulsating wound, Shizue babbled, "Who's Ryohei?"
Sliding open a drawer, the Kage obtained a roll of guaze, which he then proceeded to wrap around the child's hand before tearing and tying it off. "Let's just say he's your last living relative."
The orphanage was overcrowded, cramped, and filthy; everything was so unfamiliar to her. Victims of war time, the children ran around either barefooted or in shoes too small, tracking dirt into the household as the caretaker chased them with a broom. They fought over almost everything: scraps of food, sleeping quarters, bathroom space. Most of their parents were either dead or had abandoned them. Others had their villages completely eradicated, and were forced to come here during this era of civil wars.
For three days and three nights, Shizue kept to herself in a small corner, clutching her bandaged hand to her chest. During the day, she stared out the window watching the fog roll by, swallowing everything in its wake. At night, when the mist became too thick she couldn't see anything outside, she watched the orphans fast asleep around her, since she was unable to sleep herself. The caretaker called it insomnia. Every time she closed her eyes, all she saw were the flies gathering around her and her parents. They grew until they took on the shape of crows and began pecking at the flesh of her palms. Like a bubbling brook, the blood continually rolled just beneath the surface, never spilling over.
"Shizue-chan," she heard the caretaker whisper. The little girl was jolted from her state of meditation. From the darkness surrounding her and the light spilling from the doorway, she determined it was still the middle of the night. "Someone is here to see you."
Puzzled, Shizue slowly rose to her feet, carefully maneuvering around the unconscious bodies as she made her way to the door. The caretaker motioned for her to follow until they reached the entrance, where she was greeted by a tall man swathed in a cotton fabric and dawning a straw hat, casting a dark shadow across his features.
"This is Tsukemono Ryohei. Mizukage-sama entrusted him to take care of you."
Shizue took a cautious step back as the man crouched down. Removing his hat, he revealed locks of wavy dark hair and appeared as if he hadn't shaved in a while. He had a face like her father's, from what she could remember. And judging from his wrinkles, the man was older than her father, but not nearly as old as the Third Mizukage.
"It's nice to meet you Shizue-chan. I'm sorry to hear about your parents. Your dad especially. He was someone very special to me." The man paused and exchanged a look with the caretaker who gave him a sympathetic smile. "Daichi was one of my best students... and since you're his daughter, I guess that also makes you my student. You can call me Ryo-sensei. From today onward, let's take care of each other, okay?"
He held out his hand, which, after glancing back and forth between the caretaker and Ryo-sensei, she reluctantly took. It was big and warm; the first source of comfort she had encountered ever since she had first stepped foot into this cold and scary place known as the Bloody Mist.
Yay! First chapter done. I can't believe I'm finally writing this story after thinking up the idea eight years ago hahaha.
Anyways, thanks for reading! A review would be greatly appreciated!