Hello everyone!

Today, November 8, 2017, is the official launch of my new story "Bleed."

I hope that you guys will review and favorite this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the Manga "Black Bird" to which this story has been loosely based after.


BLEED: PROLOGUE

The stark silence that veiled over the great visage of Naka Castle was only disturbed by the laughter of a young boy no younger than eight. The cricket that usually sang in the night were unbelievably silent and the wind that swayed with the branches of the mountain palace was impossibly still. However, the young boy's laughter seemed to be a contrast to the dark and dreary atmosphere that surrounds the place. His mother, a dashingly handsome woman with flowing ebony hair laughed along with him. The duo seemed perdurable to the lack of bustle in the usually busy place. The young boy looked at his mother earnestly as she prepared to leave his bedroom. His hair was like the wings of a raven, his skin paler than snow and his eyes were darker than obsidian. He was a handsome young lad with a secret laughter hiding behind his onyx eyes; a secret laughter his mother can never deny to oblige.

"Will you please tell me another?" he asked as he rolled his blanket away from his body. His mother shook her head.

"Now, now, my darling. You have practice with your father in the morning. Are you sure you want to stay up late?"

"Yes! So will you please tell me another? Just one more, please? Then I'd sleep. I promise!"

His mother sighed as she smiled. Her beautiful, regal face, a face often graced with happiness, smiled but with a tinge of sadness. "Alright, my little raven. Just one more, then off to bed." Tucking down her black hakama, an unusual attire to wear for bed, she sat most elegantly before her beloved son moved over and places his head on her lap. He was dressed in the usual white sleeping clothes he had alway worn, his hair was damp from his previous bath and his eyes eager at his mother's agreement for another bedtime story. She tenderly places her soft hands over his forehead as she hums a lovely lullaby she had composed at his birth. Her fingers, however, were calloused from being a well-renowned archer - a trait that has earned her her title and love. Her youngest child did not care for her calloused fingers, however, but loved them dearly for it was a part of his beloved mother all the same.
"You're cheating. Mother." the young boy said with a pout. His mother chuckled as she continued to hum his lullaby.
"How so?" she asked.

"You're making me sleepy."

"Am I? Shall we skip the story then?"

"No! You said, one more then off to bed. You haven't told me one more story."

"Alright, alright. What story would you like?"

"I want that story."

"But you've heard it so many times!"

"I like it."

"Alright then."

The young boy listened intently as his darling mother began her story. He focused on the way her soft eyes and long lashes would look down on him as she animated versed the tale he has heard many times but never lost its luster.
"The Tengoku no Tenkei is a precious gift, my darling child." she said as she prepared to finish the tale. "It embodies - "

"The Tenkei is a 'she,' mother. Not an 'it.'"

Wide eyes moved to the young boy's face as he played with his fingers. "Really, now? How can you say?" his mother asked.

"I don't know. I can feel it, I guess. You know, like when we know if there will be a storm or snow." the young boy answered in a tone so assertive.

"Alright. Let me correct myself then. She embodies life and death itself and how the cycle goes on and on. The life the Gods and Goddesses have given and the death that comes afterwards. A life fleeting but very beautiful."

"Just like the sakura?"

"Yes, my love. Just like the sakura."

"I like the sakura flowers. They are always so pretty."

"Do you, now?"

"Yes. And someday, I'll take the Tenkei to watch the sakura flowers with me." as he yawned and closed his eyes. His ebony-haired mother looked at him with great affection. She had always assumed him to be a perceptive child who was very precocious, much like his elder brother. However, she did not expect him to talk about something as sacred as the Tenkei in such a very familiar manner. She looked at his bright innocent eyes with wonder and thought. Duties and matters concerning the Tenkei would alway befall to the first-born, the heir and her darling baby's heart would break if he knew. She had figured that her youngest was enthralled by the tale of Heaven's Blessing, so much that he has given it a gender and decided to watch the sakura flowers with it; but she never could tell him that only his brother had the heavenly duty of staking claim - unless of course he abdicated - something duty will never allow.

"Off to bed, my darling." she said as she moved her son to his futon. "I'll see you in the -"

"MOTHER!"

"Itachi, my dearest," she said firmly as she tucked her youngest in his bed. "Can't you see your brother is sleeping?"

"Mother, please. Father said it is important that you come. Reinforcements -"

"Itachi."

"Mother please, it's a matter of -"

"ITACHI! Not now!"

The young boy kept his eyes closed, feigning sleep as he hears his mother and brother argue. He loved his brother dearly. The strapping young man was looked up to as a hero and as a role model for the young boy. Although often times, military duties had taken his beloved brother away, he never failed to make time for fun and games. The Wings of Naka, he was known to be, the successor to their father's title of Daitengu of Mount Naka and loving older brother.

"I'll be with your father shortly."

"Yes mother." Itachi said as he opens the doors for her. His beautiful mother hold his hand as she shakes her head.

"Stay with Sasuke, my darling. Protect him for me."

"But mother, I can't leave you and father alone! I am needed on the frontlines! If we can hold them off, there is no chance that they'll even reach the castle and my little brother would not have to hear or see a peep."

"You always did value his innocence."

"It was something never shown to me,"

"I am so sorry, my love." she said with eyes sad in guilt. "But please do this for me. I'll be back with your father at daybreak."

The young heir nodded as he watched his mother run out of the room. Slowly, he makes his way to his younger brother then lies down. Only the soft flame of the nearby lamp kept the two boys company. The castle returned to its somber silence after the sound of great wings grew fainter and fainter with distance, a sign that their mother has left the comforts of their home.

"I know you're awake."

"No I am not."

"Oh? Then why are you talking back?"

"I am sleep talking."

"I see."

Itachi shook his head as he embraced his little brother's sleeping form. He was so small, so fragile and so innocent. Someone who has yet to see the dirt of the world, someone who has not yet seen the mirth of death, betrayal and lies. Someone, Itachi knew he had to protect. Sasuke should never have to face the politics his family held as one of the most powerful houses in the Land of Fire. Uchiha, one of the two founding houses of the grand capitol of Konohagakure, a name so noble and ancient but believed to have been soiled by the second son of the Senju. Itachi had to stop himself from running outside the doors of his little brother's bedroom door and rush to the front lines. He wanted to speak with the generals allied to the Council in a diplomatic way in order to avoid conflict. He, as his father always said, was a statesman by nature. However, their father was a military man who held on to the words of the great Uchiha Madara who cursed the Senju name in his deathbed. Words and curses that had sparked a flame of rebellion within the ranks of the militaristic and proud Uchiha family. Itachi, of course, opposed his family's decision. The Council of Clans was the highest ruling body of the capitol and therefore, the Land of Fire itself. The Council was created to show equity amongst the members of the Konoha Hyakki Yakō and to show that no yokai was above the other. To oppose such a powerful congregation is to oppose the country and to violate equality. His father courted death when he declared war upon the council after they refused his demands to reinstate the monarchy. Itachi sighed heavily.

"They will be back, right?"

"Talkative in your sleep, Sasuke?"

"I'm worried."

"They'll be back in the morning, foolish otouto. Stop worrying and sleep."

Brave were his words, but when dawn arrived, the ashes and smoke of the battle at the base of the mountain only brought back one thing: their cousin, Obito, who hailed Itachi as the Daitengu.


Fifteen years. It has been fifteen years since he has last seen his mother. Fifteen years since he has last heard her beautiful voice singing the most beautiful lullaby but in the last five years, he had seen the light at the end of the tunnel. As he contemplated the events that have occurred to him, Uchiha Sasuke stared at the window nearest to his desk, wondering if his arrival was unwarranted. The trees that surrounded Mount Naka were much greener and healthier that they had ever been. The early morning mist that covered the lush greenery seemed more pleasant than dreary as the sun rose in the eastern front of the mountains. The usual flock of ravens that graced that castle gardens and courtyards seemed even more carefree and dull, at least in his opinion. Ravens were the dullest of all creatures because they did nothing to remove the fear of death the humans associate with them. To the humans, they were the harbinger of death and disaster, a painfully accurate assumption since his family, his kind, is one of the most powerful yokai clans known and is believed to be the cruel and unforgiving. However under the mantle of his brother, their image have been transformed into royalty, honor, dignity and authority. He, on the other hand, had left his mountain home to train and travel across the lands and one might say he has exiled himself after he turned his 18th year. His beloved brother supported his decision to leave, of course, knowing that it was his way to cope. Sasuke never truly got over that night when his parent's failed to keep their promise of returning and as next in line to the title of Daitengu, he knew he had to accept life as it is. When he returned, he has proven to have grown into a handsome young man with broad regal shoulders, an aristocratic brow, and fierce eyes. Features that accented his already handsome features. What's more is that in that self-imposed exile, he had developed an aura that held with an air of royalty befitting his family's history and his voice had become so hauntingly handsome and authoritative, it can charm anyone to obedience. The young tengu looked at his desk filled with scrolls and boxes. Five years he has been gone and his brother has yet to know of his arrival and of the news he brought with him.

He looked at the sleeping figure curled in the futon of his room. The figure belonged to a woman with the most endearingly annoying feistiness and spirit. She was the light at the end of his dark tunnel. He remembers the first day he had met her. It was in a bustling crowd in Sunagakure and she was a travelling apothecary. Her frame was small but the heavy load of glass vials, jars and bottles filled with herbs and various potions seemed weightless to her. The weather that day was drier than it usually was in the sandy deserts of the Land of Wind. Its golden sand seemed to conceal the sprawling capital as the dry winds created small sand storms that the locals didn't mind. His initial purpose in coming to this dry and sunny place was to request audience with the Sugureta Tanuki of the Sands before heading off continuing his journey. His brother sent him a raven containing a favor to speak seek an alliance with the royal family of the Land of Wind and he dutifully obliged. He remembers that she was on the gates of the busy market place, looking uninterested and bored, until she calls his name. Sasuke chuckles as he remembers how she called him 'handsome' while not even knowing who he was. She was a human, at least back then he thought so, and it amused him that a human was not able to detect the spiritual energy of a yokai.

His eyes remained glued to her sleeping form. Her absurd pink hair sprayed across the futon and she dreamed without a care in the world. 'She should' Sasuke thinks as he fought the urge to embrace her in her sleep. 'I have sworn to protect her with my life.' He promised her the night she pledged herself to him as his bride. The yokai stood up from his desk and walked over to his betrothed, the urge winning against his self-control. Unfortunately, loud, pounding footsteps ran across the ancient sandalwood floors of the great castle.

"Your Grace! I am so sorry! I tried to stop him but you know how he is! He just barges in!"

Kou, one of their retainers, huffed as he opened the doors of his Master's chambers. The young tengu was followed by several will o' wisps made of small tornadoes and his usually well-kept hakama was in tears and rips. Another set of loud footsteps echoed across the halls and it was followed by the loudest, most obnoxious voice Sasuke ever had the pain to hear.

"Oi! Teme! WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T YOU WRITE TO ME THAT YOU WERE - Who's that?"

The source of the obnoxious voice was a young man, about the same age as Sasuke. He had the bluest eyes that rivaled the clearest, sunniest skies, he had the most vibrant golden blond hair the seemed to have been spun from gold; he had a beautiful golden brown tan that seemed to make his handsome boyish features even more striking; and the marks on his face, the marks of the 9-Tailed Fox, Kurama, completed the whole package. The young man radiated of an aura so bright, and warm, it was like Amaterasu had taken the form of a young man. Although he possesses quarter of a humans blood, Uzumaki Naruto was known as the Sun of the Konoha Hyakki Yakō, Light of the Ayakashi; whereas Sasuke, with his hauntingly beautiful pale complexion, dark raven hair and deep obsidian eyes, he was the Moon of the Konoha Hyakki Yakō, Shadow of the Ayakashi.

"Shut your mouth dobe, or you'll wake her."

The blond looked at his best friend with teasing eyes. He knew Sasuke was not the ladies man kind of guy, unlike a certain sage he knew who had no problems hogging all the women. If Sasuke kept this woman within his reach, within his own chambers and just as soon as he arrived from his 5-year absence, the woman must mean a whole lot. Naruto observed the young woman. She had silky-looking strands of impossibly pink hair that looked like cherry blossoms; she had smooth porcelain skin that looked unmarred by weather and work; she had a built so small and fragile that looked like it didn't have the strength to lift a needle.

"Hey, is she some sort of princess you kidnapped? I never knew that you were the kidnapping type."

"Her parents died in one of the reformatory wars."

"Oh. I'm... Sorry." The blond said as his eyes became downcast. His own parents died in the Reformatory Wars as well and he had taken their place in the Hyakki Yakō. He didn't like dwelling in the past though. That's why he continued to probe about the girl. "But she is a princess, right? She looks like one."

Sasuke gave a sound that sounded like a snort. "Yeah right. No prim and proper princess can be as annoying at this woman."

"So, she's not a princess?"

"No, she isn't, you big idiot! But soon, she'll be more than any human princess wishes to be."

Naruto looks at his friend with soft eyes. Gone was the brooding, melancholic, trigger happy Sasuke that he knew and was replaced by this gentle-mannered, calm and soothing version. He liked the change that happened to his best friend and he was glad that the Uchiha finally found love. He then poked her sleeping form, hoping to see if the girl was real and not some genjutsu formed by his best friend. Suddenly, she stirs.

"...mngh... "

The greenest, brightest, emerald eyes fluttered open, before the girl shoots up and covers herself with the futon's blanket. Her face was red with embarrassment and her eyes wide with surprise. She looked shocked as her betrothed and his best friend looked at her with bewildered eyes.

"Who the fuck are you!?"

Naruto laughed as he pointed at Sasuke. "I knew it! You kidnapped her!" he laughed before a fist met his face.

"She wasn't talking about me, dobe. She knows who the pervert is." Sasuke said as he sat beside his woman to embrace her from behind. "Good morning." He said.

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun." She greeted back. Her voice was softer in contrast to the screech she gave awhile ago. She smiled and relaxed to her beloved's embrace. Her checks were dusted with a pleasing pink color as she felt him embrace get tighter before letting go.

"Your girlfriend has quite the punch, teme." Naruto said as sat up and rubbed his face.

"Betrothed."

"Betro- WHAT?! YOU'RE ENGAGED?!"

"Sakura, meet Naruto. The most idiotic person you'll ever know."

The girl, Sakura, smiled and placed her hand on the kitsune's swollen cheek. "I am so sorry for this. Although, its partly your fault. You surprised me!" She said as a soft green glow emerged from her fingertips and caused a wave of cool comfort to weave into the swollen muscles of Naruto's cheeks. A bruise begins to form, blooming into a blue-black flower before quickly fading to yellow and then returning to the young man's tanned skin tone. Sakura smiled before poking the now healed cheek, making Naruto's sapphire eyes to widen in surprise.

"You're the Tenkei!" He exclaimed. "Teme, you found the Tengoku no Tenkei!"

"Is that what you guys call me?" Sakura asked. "Sasuke-kun just calls me annoying." She passed with a teasing tone.

Sasuke doesn't answer and just smirks. His eyes has a certain sparkle that shows arrogance and egoistic satisfaction as Naruto gaped at his success. Unlike most yokai who seek the Tenkei for selfish reason, he genuinely loves the woman with the pink hair. Her vibrancy, spirit and willfulness was something he found attractive about her and he wanted to be the one to protect her. Tenkei or not, he wants this woman to be his wife.


She looked paler than a sheet of paper. Her originally puckered pink lips were chapped and white. Her bouncy pink hair lay limp and dull on the pillows sprawled around her. Her rosy cheeks were sunken and pale. Sakura was sick beyond recovery and that Sasuke understood as she smiled at him feebly. Sickly sweet was the scent from the incense sticks and regret burned within the young Tengu's core. He wanted to shout, scream, wail, cry -anything! He was mad at the world for being cruel, he was mad at the people who allowed her to leave the safety of Naka Castle, he was mad at Naruto for letting her go past her limit, but most of all, he was mad at himself for not being able to protect her, for not being enough to save her. He knew that she would try to save as many as she could. He knew that her gentle heart would never let a wounded comrade go unattended. He knew that her noble spirit and her loving nature would never allow her to stay in the sidelines as he fought the allies of the White Snake.

And now, here she was. Sick and dying.

If only they consummated their union before marriage. Then he would have been blessed with the powers to channel her abilities to heal. If only killed off they bastard Orochimaru earlier, then the invasion would not have happened. If only... If only.

"Sasuke-kun?"

He lifts his head, eyes red and swollen with tears. He takes her to his arms in a tight embrace. She was clammy and cold, unlike her usual calming warmth. The bandages on her hands and feet were no longer bleeding but she doesn't look any better. She still managed to smile at Sasuke, with all the love and care reflecting in her once vibrant emerald eyes. The tengu cradles her gently as she coughs. He held her like she were the most fragile treasure in the whole universe. Sakura cupped his face and ran her fingers across his eyes, nose and lips before gently cupping his cheeks.

"I'll return to you, Sasuke-kun I promise.. I love you."

With those words, her hands grew limp as it fell lifeless to the fragrant sandalwood floors. Her eyes closed and she looked peaceful, almost like she were sleeping. Her chest didn't rise and fall as it should. Sakura was dead.

"Sakura?" Sasuke asked in disbelief. "Sakura, wake up." He continued as he tapped her lifeless cheeks. "S-stop being annoying and wake up!" He called unto her desperately. He embraces her tightly, her head at his chest. He rocks back and forth, hoping the movement will somehow bring her back to life.

"Wake up. Please. I'm begging you. Wake up."


Okay, its a wrap! I hope you guys like it!

Let me know what you guys feel about this. After all, this is just the prologue. Many more things will come

Favorite, follow and review!