Slipping through the shadows, the young girl with hair as bright as the morning sun made her way towards one of the exits to the village, knowing that none of the ninja on patrol would be looking down into the alleyways she traversed this late at night. She had spent the last few weeks watching them from the shadows to make sure of it, and the truth of how lax the ninjas had become in the time since the last great shinobi war was appalling.
Darting to another alleyway once the ninja jumped overhead to give her a clear path, she brushed out her faded, formerly white dress once more, a frown darkening her features as her mind flashed back to all of the things the young seven year old had been forced to put up with.
'No more,' she thought to herself, taking the familiar path closer to the wall, and the small hole she had discovered partially hidden by a bush one day near the east gate, when she had begun making her plans to escape from this hell she had been caged in for the last seven years.
No more people glaring at her with barely repressed hatred, no more cruel epitaphs being thrown at her when no one thought she was listening, no more kids laughing at her because she was so clumsy, or because their parents told them rude stories about her. She was finally sick of it, and tonight, she would finally be away from it, no matter what she might have to do to escape.
Luckily escape was easier than she thought it would be, as none of the ninja even noticed the young girl as she darted in and out of a maze of alleyways towards her freedom, having managed to cross more than half of the village from the small two room apartment that she had been given by the Hokage in a show of pity, because he couldn't do anything else for her, even though he was supposed to be the most influential person in the village.
She saw red for a moment as the smiling visage of a kindly old man flashed through her mind, growling quietly while trying to fight back her anger, and when the smell of blood reached her nose she realized in her moment of rage she had accidentally punctured the skin of her palm with her sharpened nails, and now blood was weeping from the newly self-inflicted wounds. Regardless she brushed the matter off, as these paled in comparison to those she would receive every year from the drunken villagers on her birthday, which the Hokage did nothing to stop.
It might be that she didn't know much about the world outside of the gates of Konoha, but she had managed to dig up a map of the land of fire from the library before she was chased out by the irate librarian who was a retired ninja, and pooled her money made up of mostly spare change she could find on the streets and some she had relieved a few of the more wealthy merchants of when they weren't paying attention, and she was now confident that she could find her way to a nearby town where no one was likely to have heard of her name, and the accompanying hatred that seemed to hang over it in this forsaken village.
Slipping through the hole in the wall, which she didn't know was part of an early escape plan by the rogue Sannin Orochimaru, seven year old Natsumi Uzumaki felt her chest lightening as she took her first steps outside of the village in her whole life, and somehow she thought the air smelled and tasted sweeter out in the forest.
Snapping out of her momentary distraction, the girl straightened her back, lifted her chin, and walked off into the dark forest, putting Konoha, the village hidden in the leaves, behind her.
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Itachi Uchiha was roused from his bed quite suddenly early in the morning, and he only just barely managed to hide his annoyance at being disturbed behind his usual indifferent mask as he sat up and looked at who had a death wish.
His features softened, if only slightly, as he caught sight of his mother hovering over his bed, her hand retracted back to her chest after shaking his shoulder to rouse him, and looked worried in the darkness of the room.
Opting to treat this situation as quickly as possibly, he sat up straight, and looked his mother right in the eye, "what is it mother? I have only just returned from a long term mission, and I had been hoping to recover for at least the night before the Hokage sends me out again."
His mother had to cover her mouth to stifle her chuckles at her son's words, as it almost sounded like Itachi was whining to her, but quickly schooled her features and looked back down at him, "I know you are probably tired, but we just received a missive directly from the Hokage, requesting the current Anbu captain, as well as all of the civilian and military council to convene for an emergency meeting," the black-haired woman explained.
Itachi's eyes widened slightly in surprise at his mothers words and soundlessly threw off his sheets to sit up, noting how his mother stepped back to allow him the room to move. Calling a full council meeting meant that whatever it could be must be important, and even requesting the head of Anbu to attend definitely merited Itachi's attention.
Turning back to his mother, he inclined his head at the door, and was thankful she took the message, turning and leaving the room to allow him the privacy to change into his Anbu uniform, before he retrieved his mask, a crow, from a locked drawer in his nightstand, and slipping it over his face before using the body flicker technique to disappear from the room.
Appearing beside the Hokage, Crow quickly took stock of the situation before him, only barely noticing the fact that the aged warrior did not even jump at his appearance, and it only seemed as though the civilian council took any notice to his arrival, but he brushed that off for now.
Many people in the large meeting room were muttering idly to one another, and Crow's trained ears picked through the different conversations going over one another, the one question on everyone's mind being what this meeting was about.
Finally, just as the last of the civilians slipped into the room, rubbing sleep from their eyes, the Hokage took his seat at the front of the room, atop the small podium set aside for the leader of Konoha, and faced his citizens.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the council, I called you all here tonight so suddenly due to a national crisis, one that could threaten the entirety of Konoha, and our allied nations alike," the aged ninja stated firmly, quickly gathering the attention of the room.
All muttered conversations ceased in the room, as even the civilians were enraptured by the tone of the Hokage's opening speech, and even Crow had to quirk an eyebrow at how severe this situation sounded.
Only one person in the room seemed uninterested in the Hokage's speech, and he rapped his cane off of the desk before him as he called attention to himself, "get on with it Sarutobi, some of us aren't as young as we were, and would like to get some sleep tonight," Danzo, the withered war veteran announced.
Coughing at his former team mate's rude interruption, Sarutobi did as told, and got to the matter, "late this evening, while doing their routine sweeps of Konoha, one of the patrolling ninja squads under Maito Gai stumbled across a breach in the great walls of Konoha, as well as some dried up blood nearby, which we later deduced to have been there for at least two days."
"Pray tell, whose blood did it turn out to be?" Fugaku Uchiha asked in annoyance, obviously unimpressed with being woken up at such a late hour as his fingers drummed against the table he was seated in front of.
"After getting it tested, we determined the blood belonged to one Natsumi Uzumaki," the Hokage announced gravely, and the room immediately burst to life at the utterance of that name.
"The Kyuubi brat?" One civilian shouted, "does this mean that someone finally killed the damn girl?" She asked in excitement, before her eyes went glassy as a kunai embedded itself deep in her skull.
The rest of the room grew quiet once more after the heartless killing, and they looked over to realize it had been the Anbu captain, standing in the shadow of the Hokage, who had thrown the deadly weapon, his arm still slightly extended from the attack.
"Thank you Crow, for exercising the will of my law," the Hokage said, reaching out to gently push down the young man's arm, before turning back to the room, "I am sure the rest of you recall the law I passed on the day of the Kyuubi attack seven years ago, and hope no one else has any smart things to say that may require my Anbu captain to act?"
No one responded to the Hokage's dry inquiry, which he took as a reason to continue explaining the situation, "excellent. Anyways, yes, we found the blood belonged to Natsumi, and at this time we are attempting to determine if she is still in the village, and I am simply awaiting the return of the Anbu I assigned to it before we convene on what to do."
Just then another Anbu, this one wearing a wolf mask, appeared beside Crow, offering a quick nod to the Hokage and the rest of the gathered council, before beginning his report.
"Lord Hokage, we checked the girl's apartment, as well as the orphanage and the ramen shop she has been known to frequent, and we could find no signs of the girl," Wolf explained, loud enough for everyone to hear him. "Furthermore, from looking around, it seems that no one has been in the girl's apartment for at least the last two days, and a thin layer of dust was beginning to form on most of her things."
Sarutobi felt his heart drop at hearing that, but put on a determined face and waved off Wolf with a muttered thanks before returning his attention to the council, "now, with all of this information, it would appear that Natsumi has been taken and was injured in the process of her kidnapper's escape through the hole we found, and we do not know how far her kidnapper might have gotten, or in which direction they might have gone."
"Who cares," another civilian shouted, "there is no love lost between the brat and the village, and maybe with this she will stop trying to poison our children."
"If you might recall," the calm, calculating voice of Shikaku Nara spoke up, "that brat is also our only defence against the other village's Jinchuuriki, and without her we could be easily steamrolled by any one of the other nations that might have a bone to pick with us because of a former disagreement."
A few civilians paled at the thought, remembering horror stories overheard about the monsters Jinchuuriki could become, and the Hokage thought that their tunes might have changed slightly by now.
"Of course our only course of action should be to send out a retrieval team to find the young brat, and then lock her up and break her, so she will not consider such a foolish idea as escape again," Danzo supplied smugly, and Sarutobi noticed with growing dread that some of the civilians were nodding their heads in agreement.
"I would like to point out that at the moment that girl is only a civilian, and locking her up would leave us covered in so much red tape that it would take months to get anything actually done with her," Shikaku answered the now fuming war hawk.
"Why can't the police force lock her up, if she is a civilian?" Fugaku asked, though his polite tone was clipped and sharp as a knife, warning Sarutobi of ulterior motives, "as stated, she counts as a civilian, and thus falls under our jurisdictions."
"Running away from a village she has no ties to beyond being her birthplace does not give you any reason to lock her up Fugaku," Sarutobi pointed out, "it would be the same as if I ordered the Anbu to lock up your youngest because he breathed."
Crow tensed in the background at the Hokage's suggestion, but managed to restrain himself from attacking the man, knowing that he was simply attempting to prove a point. It still didn't keep the words from making panic flash across the otherwise stoic young man's face, and reminding him why he was thankful for his mask.
"As you said, lord Hokage," Fugaku replied grouchily, backing down for the moment, but showing Sarutobi exactly where the Uchiha's allegiances lied.
"Still, we should probably do our best to send out a team to track the girl down and try to bring her back to the village, since she is safest here," Sarutobi spoke up once more, trying to steer the conversation in a different direction, "this way she will be able to enter the ninja academy when she becomes older, and be trained in the ways of protecting herself from those that would use the Jinchuuriki for their own ends."
"Where does this concern of monsters in the shadows come from Sarutobi?" Danzo asked curiously, his one remaining visible eye narrowing, "I have not heard any reports about a mysterious group looking for the Jinchuuriki."
"Lord Jiraiya has been keeping a close eye upon a quickly growing group of S-class missing ninja that have been asking questions about each village's Jinchuuriki, and it has both of us concerned for the future, if this does become a threat," Sarutobi explained, feeling it necessary to feed at least a little information to the council to potentially loosen their tongues and earn their allegiance.
There were a few gasps around the room, and some people shuddered at the thought of a group of such powerful ninja banding together. Sarutobi stood up and waved his hands, calling for silence, before sitting back down, smiling to himself now that he had their attention.
"I'd be more than happy to gather up a team to go look for the pup lord Hokage, if she is as important to Konoha as you have all made her out to be," Tsume Inuzuka offered, taking a stand and looking around the room, "it would get me out of the office, and away from all the barking of these hounds for a while," she teased, earning a few growls from the civilians.
The Hokage weighed his options carefully as he looked upon the gathered groups, knowing how some of them would react when it came to retrieving Natsumi, and how some of them would rather deal with her. Danzo in particular was a concern, but in his position Sarutobi could see no way to usurp him for now, so he shelved that problem for the time being.
"Agreed, gather up a team of trackers and try to follow her trail based on the blood we found by the east gate, and see if you can't bring her back here," the Hokage ordered, "if enemy ninja were involved in her abduction, I hope you know the correct method of dealing with them," he asked, his meaning perfectly clear.
"Yes sir," Tsume replied, before disappearing from the room in a burst of smoke, while the rest of the council members waited patiently, though it seemed Fugaku was slightly anxious to get out of here, Sarutobi noted.
"I suppose that will be all for tonight," he finally announced, earning relieved sighs from the council, "if Tsume and her team manage to find Natsumi, I will send out a missive to all of you, otherwise I hope we will not have to meet again until the end of the month for our annual council meeting," Sarutobi stated, receiving nods from the ninja and barely restrained glares from the civilians, who were displeased to be dragged out of bed so late at night just because of the demon brat.
Once the last of the council slipped from the room, and the door closed, the Hokage brought his hands to his face and sighed deeply into them, feeling all of the weight of his seat among the village upon his shoulders tonight, and once more wishing that he could still be in retirement, instead of trying to lead a village that didn't want to follow.
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After walking for two days in the direction of the nearest town to Konoha, cutting through the forest to try and minimize her trip, Natsumi took some time to wash herself and her clothes down as best she could in a stream she found out of the way of the road in the early morning, before making her way into the town with the intention of purchasing some better clothing than the cast-offs she had received from the orphanage, and whatever overpriced gaudy trash the merchants allowed her to purchase.
No one paid the child any mind, focused on their own business, which Natsumi found relieving, unused to not being the centre of attention, though it was usually attention she didn't want in the form of glaring and whispering about her behind her back. Spotting a slightly out of the way clothing store, the girl veered off in that direction, and slipped inside behind an elderly woman, who didn't even notice her.
Perusing the clothing racks slowly, she tried to determine what exactly she wanted, since this was the first chance she had ever had to simply choose clothing at her leisure, until a hand pressed down on her shoulder, making her jump and back away, right into the rack she had been looking through, causing her to trip and fall into a pile of clothing and metal, though somehow she managed to not hurt herself in the tumble.
"Oh dear, I'm sorry about that sweetie!" A kindly woman said, helping to pull the girl out of the clothing, which made Natsumi's heart jump, this being the first time she'd ever been referred to by an affectionate nickname by anyone other than the Hokage, "I just saw you wandering around by yourself, and was wondering if you needed any help?"
Words failing her for the moment, Natsumi ended up looking up at the lanky woman stupidly for a few minutes, until the older lady gasped, grabbing onto her arm more firmly, pulling it up and revealing all of the scars running up and down her fair skin, "oh god, who did this to you hun?"
Believing that she couldn't blame the villagers, since bringing to light she was from Konoha would probably only bring about more questions, Natsumi clammed up, and when she didn't respond the woman took her hand and surprisingly began to drag her to the back of the store, making the young girl panic slightly.
She was relieved when instead of being interrogated, she found the pair now standing in a small bathroom with a tub and a lot of care products, some Natsumi had never seen before. The older woman turned to face the girl, and firmly told her to get undressed, while she went to collect a clean towel and some clothing for the girl to change into, as well as what first aid supplies she had.
Doing as she was told, and seeing no reason not to listen to the woman who hadn't shown herself to be a threat despite dragging her around a bit, Natsumi stood in the small bathroom quietly, waiting for the woman to return, keeping her hands at her sides and trying not to touch anything, in case it might offend her hostess.
The woman clicked her tongue in disapproval when she returned and caught sight of the undressed girl, though Natsumi wasn't sure if that was because of how dirty she still was even after cleaning up in the stream, or because of something else, before setting down her bundle beside the sink and walking past the small girl to the bathtub, and turning the water on, putting her hand under the flow to check and see that it was warm and not scalding, and gesturing for the girl to get in, though stopping a moment to ask, "can you get in by yourself?"
Instead of answering the woman, Natsumi put her hands on the side of the tub and hoisted herself in carefully, shivering slightly at the warm water touching her cool skin, before sitting down, her eyes moving back over slowly to the tall woman that seemed intent on helping her even if she didn't say anything in response to her questions, which Natsumi truly appreciated.
Inspecting the girl's body, the woman noticed just how malnourished this girl was, and all of the scars and half-healed scratches on her arms and legs, which made her worried that this girl might have come from an abusive home, but she set those thoughts aside for now as she grabbed a clean cloth and put it under the tap to get it wet, before lathering it up with soap and beginning to gently clean the girl's body.
Trying to move slowly and not aggravate the girl's injuries, she did her best to strike up a conversation with the girl to break the somewhat awkward silence in the room, "wow, I completely forgot to even introduce myself, I'm Shima, the owner of this store, in case you didn't realize it already honey."
"Natsumi," She replied in a clipped tone, aware that she wasn't the best at speaking, since no one had taken the time to really teach her besides the Hokage, and he could only pay attention to her for short periods of time since he was always busy with matters regarding the village, so she could only complete simple sentences at best, and she didn't even know how to read.
"That's a pretty name," Shima commented, continuing her work with a small hum, "tell me Natsumi, where have you come from to get all of these cuts and scratches?" She attempted to breach the topic with the girl, hoping that she would open up a bit now they had introduced themselves to each other.
"Villagers," She muttered in a tone barely loud enough for Shima to hear it over the sound of the water, now aware that she could probably trust this woman with the knowledge of what happened.
Turning the water off once it began to lap at Natsumi's knees, Shima got the small girl to repeat herself. Her body immediately tensed when she heard the origins of the girl's injuries, and it took all of her control to relax her body and resumed cleaning Natsumi up, even though her mind was moving a mile a minute, trying to figure out who could be so cruel to a child.
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"The trail stops cold here, maybe the kidnapper got wise to the fact she had been bleeding and dumped her in the river to wipe their scents," one of the trackers suggested, making Tsume growl quietly. She was well aware of what had been happening to the Uzumaki kid, but between the Hokage and the civilian council, no one could possibly help the girl.
"It looks like they might have been heading in the direction of Sunagakure, based on where the trail has been leading us up to this point, but there's no chance of us tracking her down now with no trail," the other tracker pointed out, though Tsume had a feeling he wasn't as invested in the search as the others she had gathered, which raised her ire further.
"Fine then, we might as well report back to the Hokage for now, and wait for further orders," Tsume ordered, gesturing for the lot to return to Konoha. Waiting for the others to move ahead of her, Tsume turned back for a moment to glance at the small grove the trail had been lost in, and growled again, "damnit, why does something like this have to happen to such an innocent kid," she mumbled. Tsume had the luck of meeting the girl on the street one day, and she had immediately befriended the dogs Tsume had been walking at the time, even though she never said anything to her, but tensed up when she noticed the older woman.
Once Tsume showed that she wasn't going to do anything to the girl, Natsumi resumed playing with the pups, until the older woman had been forced to get back to the Inuzuka compound to put the dogs away, since she had to be at a council meeting.
Taking one last look at the grove, and feeling her heart go out to the young girl, Tsume jumped away after her team.
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Once she was properly clean and after tending her wounds and leaving her with some clean clothes, while Shima trashed the rags she had previously been wearing with a huff, she sat the small girl down in one of the chairs of her kitchen on the second floor of the store, and went to prepare something for her, feeling bad for the girl that looked like she hadn't had anything to eat in days.
Sitting across from the girl, she watched as Natsumi ate ravenously, barely stopping a moment to breathe before resuming her pace, like she was afraid the food was going to disappear before she could get to it, making the woman's heart go out to the poor thing.
Most of her attempts at speaking with the girl were met with clipped answers, or sometimes mere silence, also making Shima believe the girl had been living on the streets of her so-called village, and had never been given the time of day by anyone, to her ire.
If she had her way, she probably wouldn't let the girl out of her sights again, but she had this feeling that this girl needed to leave in order to find her destiny, and as much as her maternal instinct was screaming at her to take care of this girl and help her recover, she couldn't bring herself to keep her here, and she had a feeling that even if she tried the girl would be gone in the morning.
Instead, she would simply have to do her best to help the girl while she had the chance, so leaving the girl with second helpings, she went downstairs and dug out a relatively new backpack, and began to fill it with all the clothes a girl her age would need, along with whatever supplies she could spare, including shampoo and soap, as well as food and additional medical supplies. Deeming her job finished as best she could she returned upstairs to find that the girl had finished eating and had promptly passed out on her small couch, making Shima crack a smile for the first time that night.
Going into the other room and grabbing a pillow and blankets, Shima tucked the girl in, trying not to disturb her too much, before gently lifting her head and placing the pillow underneath it. Taking a step back to look at her handy work she had to smile at how peaceful and innocent the girl looked, none of the years of hardship she probably had to endure evident in her sleep.
Deciding to call it a night herself, Shima left for her bedroom, after leaving a note taped to the backpack and leaving it by the couch, hoping the girl would notice and take it along with her before she left in the morning, which Shima knew she would, she could feel that this girl was a free spirit that couldn't be tied down.
Natsumi's dreams would be filled with the places the wind would take her in the future.