The Empire of Fallen Leaves
Arc One: The Seed
Prologue
AUisch Naruto Fanfiktion
No Pairing
Rating: Higher than M?
Heavy themes
No Update shedule, just random Uploads
Naruto obviously does not belong to me
Beta-Reader is welcome
Where is the difference between Human beings and animals?
When his brethren asked this, he had not known the answer, but if he were to voice his honest opinion, he would say, without a doubt, that there was absolutely no difference. Sure, the humans might be able to talk in a much more complex language than any animal. They might be able forge weapons and build fortresses, however in the end, it does not matter when those creatures meet on the battle field, yearning to clash their swords and Kunais, prepared to slaughter their foes and friends alive. No one would actually care about the reason they are fighting for as soon as the mass murdering starts, all that matters, is what is important to win. How many human died, choking on their own blood, crying desperately for help but get trampled to death by their own friends?
Well, he mused, animals would show much more mercy.
The battlefield, once a beautiful grassland with luscious green plants and herbs, would turn muddy and flooded with the blood of their own kin, resembling the gate to hell, at least he imagined it to be.
War justifies everything.
Absolutely everything, without exceptions.
That was a fact no one had ever able to disregard.
For some reason the faint memory of war arose, making him shudder in disgust.
He had trouble remembering it clearly since his injuries and the blood loss back then made him feel dizzy, so his memories were hazy, though still could point out certain things.
The bumpy pathway, roughed up by many citizens who left the surrounding areas to escape the terror of war, had never left his mind. Trees, the beautiful trees that usually grew around the village, had been reduced to ash, there was barely a trace left of the beautiful woodland. He had stumbled along the road, never wasting a thought about being as stealthy as possible, because the pain of loss had clouded his mind, hindering him to think straight. The last skirmish had occupied his wary thoughts. The skirmish they had lost so horribly that he actually considered calling it a slaughter. No one was able to hold their ground against them. Not even himself. The whole time he tried to avoid thinking about the lives, that had been sacrificed for basically nothing.
A loud sight left his chapped lips, while he tried to get a grip on himself.
He had to see his friends, his family.
Wandering around for several hours, trying to find a campsite where he could rest for a few moments, to close his eyes to get away from the strain, whether it was of mental or physical nature.
Despite the blood loss, his abnormal physique and the Kyuubis chakra kept his going, while leaving his body only in an exhausted state with minor wounds or scratches.
As he went on wandering through the shattered landscape, the destroyed homes of his people, his citizens, showed up everywhere he went, he wondered more than just once, where his scattered allied forces hid themselves.
Wherever he looked for them, whenever he thought he finally found a lead or a living person, he would be heavily disappointed. The only things that might showed up were abandoned towns and villages or destroyed safety camps with corpses of all age and gender littered on the ground.
At first he spilled some tears when he saw the dead bodies, mostly unrecognizable due to a blazing fire that waltzed throughout the landscape only a few days ago, however after some time he couldn´t care less. They were death anyway. Though the smell of death corpses seemed to follow him almost everywhere where he went.
However on one fateful day he met the first human being, a middle aged woman who had such pale complexion, not a pretty one but a sickly one, that he thought she would fall over anytime.
She had been hiding in an abandoned shack close to the border of Earth country and on the frontier off Iwagakures government. Surrounded by the sturdy brake the shack would be hard to spot during a normal routine search for survivors. Being in dire need to find a halfway comfy abode, he had searched especially for a hidden place to stay, which should keep him dry and hidden, so the shack felt like a godsend, even tough it was in a horrible state.
As he closed in, he felt a weak presence, obviously a civilian, since a ninja omitted a much stronger and heavier aura, even in weakened state.
When his muddied hands grabbed the door handle, the shack seemed to cringe, while at the same time a weird feeling settled itself in his gut.
Despite his Shinobi instinct had kicked in and warned him that there was something amiss, he still had pushed the shabby door open, to reveal barely anything. Straw was covering the muddy ground, a simple wooden stool was lying broken in the furthest corner, along with a blackened tin can. Even though there was just a faint sun ray, flooding through the many holes in the wood work, the inside of the shack gave a depressing, but also eerie feeling. As if something unspeakable happened in that place.
Taking one step inside the abode, not feeling the need to say anything, something in the corner to his left rustled and made a startling noise, which stopped him on his tracks almost instantly.
His eyes darted through the darkness, trying to find the source of the noise.
Of course he had known, that there was an unknown variable hiding in the abandoned building, but it was clear that the lack of rest and food, made him slower and less aware as he usually was.
Another noise arose, this time closer to his position.
His blistered hand slid into his weapon pouch, enclosing the cold metal of his Kunai in his grip, while his whole marred body tensed and slid into the fighting stance he preferred.
"Reveal yourself and I won´t harm you!", He remembered yelling at the dark figure that stepped outside the shadow it used to hide.
"Don´t hurt me, please!", It whimpered, it´s posture was crouched low and it seemed that it tried to hide from plane sight.
He frowned slightly, but the grip around his Kunai eased a bit, but it was still intertwined with his lanky fingers.
"Then raise your hands and walk forward", he demanded, keeping his watchful eyes on the person in front of him.
"Please," it screeched, though the ninja noticed already that the person in front of him was a middle aged women. A few sun rays lightened up her face, which was mangled and sunken in. Her cheekbones emerged through the papery skin and stood out of her pale complexion. "I have food and water, I´ll give it to you, so please don´t hurt me", she said while holding out her palms for him to see.
To exhausted to do anything else, he slumped to the ground. The adrenaline, that had pushed through his body before, decreased abruptly and there was no energy left in his cells.
He ruffled his shaggy hair in relief.
"Dammit" was all that left his lips before he lost focus and found his nose buried in the sticky ground, before he lost consciousness.
Some time later, about three hours later as his trained instincts told him, he regained his senses and was greeted with the moonlight, falling down on his unmovable body, but the faint rush of his blood could be still heard.
"There is water to your left", was the first thing he heard.
"Thanks", was all he could mutter before the dryness in his throat made him shut up.
While he was sliding his fingertips along the ground, trying to find the water cup, he noticed her gaze on him.
Lifting the beaker slightly, he led it to his mouth to chuck it down quickly, but still savored the coolness of it. It had been a long time since he had so much water at once as well as water that was as clean as this.
"Your name?", He asked, his voice was steadier than before, but the light scratch remained.
"Kodomose Itako, Sir." She replied almost instantly, which made him flinch and grab for his weapon pouch. Still terrified from the previous battle, his now somewhat rested mind, recognized certain things. There was a now known Individual in the same shack as him and the shack was still standing, which means that either war was far away from the battlefield or the battle had not resumed yet. He hoped for latter, tough the naive thought vanished as soon as it came.
"How long have you been hiding in here? There should be a civilian camp close to border of Suna, that is still unaffected from the war, despite the lack of water.", He asked, wondering why this lone woman would choose to stay in one of the more dangerous areas, when there were obviously safer places for normal citiziens.
"I had no money left and they won´t take in any refugees without something to contribute to their camp anymore. There was no way I could have been able to get in there"
Itako remained in her kneeing position in front of him, her head lowered in fear, it was almost in a docile manner, but for some reason he could not fathom how strong this woman could possibly be.
Falling back on the straw mat he took a closer look on the woman. Her clothes were ripped, smudged and dirtied and her skinny frame was distinctly showing through the thin cloth.
Maybe it had been audacious to ask, but the growling that left his stomach, made him open his mouth once more.
"Is there any food you can spare?", He needed to replenish his energy as soon as possible so his search for his allies could resume.
For some reason his temporary caretaker began to fidget and he smelled the sudden cold sweat that appeared on her forehead.
"I do have something to eat, but...", her voice trailed of and her gaze wandered to the other side of the small shack. The straw was heaped to a bundle, but when he focused his nose on the pile he smelled the familiar odor of death. It was just to bad for Itako, that he recognized it almost immediately.
"How could you!", Was all he could say, his fist tightened. The blood rushed to his head, his teeth gave a light screech, when he gritted them.
Anger clawed itself trough his gut and almost exploded like a Bijudama.
"I had no choice! How can you judge me? It was not my fault but the one of you trice damned ninjas who called upon war! I had to suffer, no my children had to suffer more." While she screamed at him almost hysterically and an evil hinted glint was sent in his direction. "I did everything to keep them alive, but...", was what she said, before she collapsed and never woke up, no matter what he did.
All Naruto could do, was to stand there and watch yet another corpse. It wasn´t the first one he saw, but it wouldn´t be the last one either and it terrified him.