The village of Konohagakure was in disarray. Pain's destruction and wreckage he forced upon the village had taken its toll and was nowhere near restoration. The large crater in the center of Konoha was still fresh with the blood of innocent and tents had been pitched within the boundaries of Konoha for the villagers. Nothing seemed solved even after the end of Pain, only a greater threat stood as his successor, Madara.
Sasuke had been gone with Madara, being manipulated by hatred and ideas of revenge that would never still. The young boy was powerful, but was very lost. The pain of being lied to had broken him, perhaps, beyond repair.
That is when I came into the picture. My name, Oshiro Kazuko, trailed me like a title and not a given name. My mother and uncle both had blue eyes and bright red hair. I had dark black eyes and thick black hair. I looked nothing like them, but they treated me as their own since my first memory.
I lived in the village of the hidden Star. It was a wannabe ninja village and the place I was raised. I wouldn't say that it was my home because I was sheltered all my life. I was watched closely by my mother, Azumi, and my uncle, Hiroshi. My uncle was a very skilled ninja whose people specialized in seals and medical jutsu. The skill of our clan passed down to me and I also became an excellent ninja in the eyes of the elders of the village hidden in the star. Despite not being born to the Iorin clan, with my Uncle's status as a high-ranking ninja I was able to learn the secrets of my adopted clan.
I was slowly surpassing my uncle in his shinobi skill. I perfected my Justus, charkra control, strategies, and weaponry. I needed to expand my horizons and that could not be done in the small village I was raised in. Like a koi, I could not grow in a place too small.
One summer, for the good of my family and villagers, I left the village to the land of the best ninja, Konoha. I was 16 and left my family and harbored the yearning of benign power.
The journey took a while, about a week on foot and in the trees. I was anxious and nervous. My heart was pounding and I was smiling at little things: bugs, the wind, the smell of tea and sweet buns. There was nothing more exciting to me than the idea of meeting more people with talent and techniques to teach a young girl. I felt my skin shiver as I left the plains of the wind country and reached the forests of the fire country. I am closer, I would always mumble to myself.
It took another three days to reach the village through thickets of forests with the occasional stop to help a weary traveler into the next village with their loads. As I pulled the cart of an old man up a hill and into a small village on the cusp of reaching Konoha, I noticed a woman wearing a large fan. She sat drinking tea with her legs crossed and her back straight. She stood out among the other dreary people sitting around her, but it might have been her sandy-blonde hair or the look of confident power in her eyes.
I ordered some tea for myself and a warm towel for the old man. He was bent over as he sat on an uncomfortable rock. It turned out, as he told me over our journey together, that he had received an injury plowing the fields. He usually didn't pull the fields anymore but his mule had just given birth and was recovering. His name was Hotaka, an old man in his early sixties and battered over the years of tough farming.
Hotaka smiled wearily at me as I placed the warm linen over his bent, aching neck. His collar was sweat soaked and stained with hard labor. Hotaka's mapped face was tanned with the sun's familiarity and his hands were calloused and scarred.
I sat at his feet on the ground and drank my tea quietly, and Hotaka rubbed his hands together.
"Hotaka-jiichan, is something wrong?" I asked him calmly.
Hotaka looked at me with his knowledgeable grey eyes and smiled again at me, and I returned the smile with my resilient face.
He shook his head, "I am in sadness for Konoha."
"Why, Hotaka-jiichan? What has happened to Konohagakure?" I set my tea cup down on the thin, itchy grass. I hadn't realized how well my family kept me from the outside world when Hotaka told me about the terrible state Konoha was forced in.
"I was told that Konoha had been destroyed and the people were in a dark age, Oshiro-san." He continued to rub his hands, "a terribly powerful man turned his vengeance onto the Leaf village. They were saved by a brave hero who is thought to be the next hokage."
"Hotaka-jiichan, that's awful. How many casualties were there? Do you know?"
"You are the ninja, not me. Sorry Oshiro-san, but famers out here don't get much more information than that." He grunted and rubbed his back as the old man attempted to stand from his perch.
I stood up and rested my hands on his lower back, "please Hotaka-jiichan, let me help you." I used my medical nin-jutsu to heal the aching in his spine and increased the scar tissue of his muscles. I couldn't cure his old age, but I could make it easier for him to function as a tired man.
My palms illuminated a calm green and I felt cool pressure across my hand. The coolness turned to heat as it melted the ache in Hotaka's back and up his spine to his shoulders. He no longer felt the heat of the linen wrapped around his neck, but instead felt the touch of my skilled nin-jutsu. I felt him exhale a sigh under my fingertips and a smile of accomplishment eased my pursed lips into a smile.
"Thank you Oshiro-san. That feels very nice." Hotaka stood to his feet and handed me the towel that was now cook with his sweat. I heard his knees pop and wish I could only do more. I walked my teacup to the seller and ordered a refill of chai. I returned to Hotaka's side.
"Hotaka-jiichan, where are you heading from here?" I asked while sipping my tea.
He stroked his small goatee, and smiled, "I'm heading to the Leaf Village to sell my wares to the people. They needed all the help they can get now." He took the worn handles of his wagon and hoisted it to his hips.
"Hotaka-jiichan, please let me help. I am going to Konoha too, let me accompany you." I took the dilapidated handles from Hotaka's equally tatty palms. The load was virtually nothing compared to my strength but to Hotaka it would seem much heavier.
He rubbed his palms. He seemed to value them as worn pieces of art that map his history while others used them freely. I would suspect that those who use their hands for their livelihood, like Hotaka and his family, would be much more concerned. Hotaka was very conscious about his withered hands. I felt useless knowing that I would never really meet the old man after he left the Leaf Village and I became an even greater ninja.
"You both are going to Konoha?" asked the girl from the table who was drinking tea when we arrived. She was tall and beautiful. Her hair was held up in four ponytails and her eyes were a deep teal color. I wanted to stare at her sophistication wearing a yukata-styled dress with a red sash, but I knew better, and she was giving me a very strange look as if I were someone who wasn't in her good graces.
I nodded and stood before her with the handles firmly secured in my gloved hands, "yes, we are heading into Konoha later this afternoon. I am Oshiro Kazuka a ninja from the Star Village."
"I am Temari, jounin from the Sand. " She adjusted the fan on her back and stepped towards us. Hotaka was standing at my side.
"I am Hotaka Mojiro. I am a farmer a day's travel from the west." Hotaka bowed his head and smiled the smile that would tear down all hierarchy.
Temari smirked at the old man, but not at me. She gave me another hard look, "where are you from again?"
I swallowed an upcoming stutter, "I am from the Star Village."
"Your rank?"
"My what?" Temari seemed upset and impatient with me. I didn't know much about anything but what was taught to me about ninja techniques and abilities. I was upset with myself for not learning more about my country and the rest of my horizons.
"Are you a genin or a chuunin?"
"Oh, I was never admitted into an academy. I was never given a rank. I believe in the system I am still a genin." I tightened my grip on the smooth handles and began to pull the cart. "We must get to the Leaf before the sunsets. Hotaka-jiichan needs rest on a bed tonight."
Hotaka rested a hand on my shoulder and smiled at me, "Oshiro-san, please you mustn't worry about an old stranger so much. I have been fine for the last six and a half decades I've been alive." He chuckled a little and my lips eased into another unexpected smile. Temari looked a little surprised but glared at me when I glanced at her.
She elegantly idled in place until we were farther ahead, "I am also traveling to the Leaf. Let me accompany you."
"Oh, how wonderful to have a sand jounin as an escort. Don't you think as well Oshiro-san?" asked Hotaka. I smiled and nodded as I felt Temari's stare against my back. Her teal eyes, the ones I thought that were rather pretty, now held a strange feeling as she watched my coal-dark eyes and black hair walk towards the greatest shinobi village.
