Disclaimer: Naruto and all other things incorporated with it are © Masashi Kishimoto
Melody, writing, storyline, picture, and most of the OC characters © to me, Miaku Astradah. All rights reserved. Please be respectful!

Author's Random Blah blah blah: This is my first ever Naruto fanfic. This story is based around my original character Miotoshi Melody, or just called Melody, from the Village of Sound. There are many different Naruto characters from the series that will come into play in this story, but they will come just a bit later. So, be patient! So far you may recognize Dosu and Orochimaru. They are two of my fav cuties. I am very pleased with how this turned out and I hope that you will like it.Oh yea, Please, if you are going to leave a review, I would beg of you to leave a good constructive one. I worked hard on this and I would appreciate a well thought out comment instead of one that simply says "Nice" or "very good' or "not bad". It really brings me down and deteriorates my inspiration to write this.Your choice. Your decision. Your feedback.

Hope you will enjoy this story and review.

Thanks.

Scroll 1: Bruises

The sound of shattering dishes and upturned furniture echoed throughout the house as her father's enraged voice raised. She sat by the unlocked door, listening to the commotion going on downstairs with unease. She could hear her mother's soft whispers, trying to calm her father's sudden outburst of anger down, but she knew it was a meaningless effort. Her father slapped her mother, the sound of his calloused, rough hand against her soft already bruised cheek echoed all the way upstairs.

Her mother fell to the floor with a thud and a few sobs as her father began to walk up the stairs in frustration. The girl quickly ran into her closet, shutting it and huddling in the corner, her face buried in her knees.

"Melody!"

Her eyes tightened as he opened the door forcefully, looking around in the room. She prayed and prayed that her mother was all right. Her well-being didn't matter to her any longer. The thought of her mother's bloody form on the floor was something she just couldn't go through again. The closet door slid open, revealing the girl's hiding spot.

"Get the hell out of there you brat!" He growled, grabbing her by her long dark brown hair and dragging her out into the open.

"Please, okosan, I didn't mean to-!" she cried, quivering with fear.

Her father narrowed his eyes, daring his young eleven year old daughter to speak again. She looked up at him, her deep blue eyes filled with fear of what he was thinking behind his icy eyes. She was defenseless against him and because of his towering height and strong form, he could brutally beat her as he had before with no remorse.

He picked her up by her hair once again and walked out of the room, dragging her on the floor, regardless of her attempts to escape and her cries for him to stop. She dug her nails into the wooden floor, a sad attempt to prevent what was to come.

He threw her down the stairs like she was a rag doll, watching her small form struggling to stop and protect herself. A sadistic smile formed on his face as she huddled into a ball where she had stopped falling. New bruises slowly began to seer with pain, already making her aware of their presence.

"Get up." he commanded.

She did as she was told, slowly getting to her feet, her eyes still staring at the floor with defeat. Her father smiled as he crossed his arms, his eyes still narrowed. His ninja band slowly gleamed in the candle light as he asked, "What is your name?"

"Miotoshi, Melody." she said in an emotionless tone.

"And what will you be one day?"

"A ninja."

Her father began to walk down the stairs towards his daughter. Her fists were clenched, her body was shaking uncontrollably, her eyes threatened tears, as her lips pursed. She stared straight ahead, not looking at anything particular. She knew that this was all training to make her into the perfect ninja. But the quiet wailing of her mother in the other room reminded her of the fact that she was human. She forced herself to keep staring straight forward. If she saw her mother, her composure would break.

He stood before her and asked, "Who do you serve?"

"Orochimaru-sensei." she said.

He nodded, pleased at her direct answer. He walked ahead of her, his back turned and his eyes closed. He had always wanted a son, but had instead been burdened with a daughter, making him believe that the gods truly hated him. But over the years he had learned to deal with it and tried his best to teach her every technique that would become useful or needed one day.

He listened intently to the sound of silence. His wife lay in the kitchen, crying and wounded. His daughter stood just behind him, being molded carefully into an emotionless killing machine. He turned to his beautiful doll.

"Do not hide from me. The next time you do, your punishment will be far worse."

She nodded, taking his words in as warnings and as a reference for the future.

"Now… has your arm healed?"

She looked up at him and replied, "Not quite yet. It is still somewhat bruised from the amount of chakra I have used, but I think I can manage."

"Tomorrow we will train then."

"Of course, Otosan. Will Orochimaru-sensei be there tomorrow to overlook my training?" she asked.

"Perhaps if he is not busy with other tasks. However, there will be a few others, genin of your age. I'm sure you will be able to defeat them all." he glanced back at her.

"Of course, Otosan."

Her father nodded as he walked into the next room, sitting on the chair in front of the fire. She stood where she was, waiting for him to let her go. There was a long pause until he said, "Do not humiliate me tomorrow." she nodded as he spoke, "Because next time you will be the one to pay for your mistakes. Now go eat your dinner."

Immediately she left her place and walked into the kitchen. Her mother sat on the floor, supporting herself with the side of the table and looking down sorrowfully at nothing particular. She was always lost in her troubled thoughts. Her black hair was undone in an unsightly fashion, tangled and matted from where he had grabbed her. Her kimono was somewhat undone and stained from the food she had prepared and the blood from her small, but painful wounds. Her mother's soft gray, sorrowful eyes looked up at her young daughter's form.

"How was your training?" she spoke, her voice soft and like the cooing of a dove. She had always been a peaceful woman. Always losing herself in her thoughts and going by the traditions held in her regal family. Her skin was pale, making the bruises on her cheeks more apparent to Melody, who tried her best to look away. She had desperately tried to cover them with white powder or even her hair at times.

"It was tiring, okosan." she replied, not looking at her mother as she sat down at the wooden table, kneeling on the mat and making a small prayer before she took out the porcelain white chopsticks and began to eat some of the rice.

"Yes… I suppose it was." her mother sighed, her voice trailing off into her thoughts again. Melody glanced up at her to see her mother sitting up fully now, looking out the window; a bird looking out of her cage and wishing for freedom.

She ate the rest of her rice and slowly drank all of her misou soup before excusing herself and going out into the living room where her father resided.

"Do you need anything else otosan?" she asked, her eyes to the floor.

"Iie. Go to bed." he answered, looking down at his book with no interest whatsoever. Melody looked at her father for a moment. He had always been so cold to her, giving her nothing but pain and uncertainty. She had trained to her limits, inflicting pain on herself just to make him proud of her; just to be recognized as a human being in his eyes. But she would always be viewed as his 'doll': his 'killing machine'. She would never feel love from him and had given up hope a long time ago.

Now she lived for the sake of her mother, who had been declared dead in her mind long ago. She wasn't dead on the outside, but had died many years ago on the inside. She was a corpse looking for its soul and never truly knowing what freedom was. But even then, Melody was unsure of if she either loved her mother, or felt pity towards her.

Melody bowed her head as she left the room, ignoring her mother in the kitchen who was staring at her with dead eyes.

Going to her room, Melody slowly took off her ninja gear and undid the white bandages on her left arm. She looked at the damage it had taken with disappointment. It had been two days and still the wounds that had been caused by the flow of her chakra were showing. The weapon of sound her father was teaching her stressed her body. But then again, the Village of sound was known for the harsh training that the genins had to go through.

She remembered the day she had become a genin so clearly. She was the youngest in her class to become a genin and took great pride in that title. All the other kids envied her and were not pleased with the fact of having a ten year old become a genin. But nonetheless, she wasn't as important as the #1 rookie: Uchoten Netsui. Many of the other genins saw him as the most powerful nin in their ranking and admired and worshipped him.

Melody was jealous, of course, seeing how they had become rivals immediately. Everyone loved him and respected him, wanting to battle him instead of her. And unfortunately for Melody, she was in his team along with Samuzi Okami. Okami and Netsui were both incredibly powerful, making Melody feel even weaker than she already felt. And what was worse was that her father was the Jounin that was in charge of them.

Her father, Miotoshi Shinjuro, was known throughout the village as one of the top Jounins. Naturally that would've been something to be proud of for Melody, but she saw it as the worst kind of bad luck. With a title such as his, others would expect her to live up to it and exceed her father, as children usually did. But living up to other's expectations was very troublesome.

Tomorrow she would train hard once again. Her father was more than likely going to have her train with the other boy that used the same exact weapon as her, Kinuta Dosu. Dosu was all right to be around, but he was much stronger than her. He had been trained directly by Orochimaru-sensei, resulting in his chakra control being more superior than hers. She frowned at the thought.

Slowly she put on her white kimono and sat down on the floor, digging out one of her books from the shelf while mumbling incoherent words to herself. Sitting down on her bed and getting under the covers, she brought a candle, a source of good light, and opened the first page of the book.

The Ugly Duckling.

She smiled weakly to herself as she slowly began to read.

Look at the pretty Go button. You know you want to push it and make a review! If you do, I may pull a Sexy No Jutsu on you. Or a Harem technique. If not, I'll summon my doggies to hurtith you! If you want more to read and want to see Orochimaru and Dosu in the next chapter, then review!

I will love you and so will Orochimaru.