_-Prologue-_

Massacre

Alone…Alone in the darkness…

No one here beside me…

Not one here to hold me…

Everyone gone…

Mae Miyama looked forward to see her home up ahead. She saw the small village of the Miyama clan. She smiled brightly when she spotted her house. She ran down the path a little bit before she saw her house.

"Uncle Rony I see our house!" she said as she pointed at the tall house in the middle of the village.

"Yes, I see it too, Mae." He replies as he catches up with her. He's careful with the food that was in his hands.

"I can't wait to see my new little sister!" she exclaims as she jumps up and down. Her purple hair flows behind her as she jumps up and down the path.

Mae thought of all the fun things that she would do when she got home with her new little sister. Apparently, they adopted a baby from another country and agreed to take care of her. They signed the papers before she was even born! So she would be able to come right away when she was born.

"Today's March thirteenth, right Uncle Rony?" she asked as she went over to a tree and climbed it swiftly. She hung off one of the branches until he told her to get down.

"Yes it is. Why do you ask?" he asked as he looked at her happily.

"Oh, I just wanted to know so that I'll always remember when…uh, what is the new baby's name?"

"Her name is Karena."

"Have you seen her yet?" she asked.

"No, but I've heard that she's beautiful."

Mae looked forward and frowned, more like pouted. "Uncle Rony? How much longer will it take to get to the house? I want to see Karena!"

"About another ten minutes and we'll be there." He replied.

"Okay!" she said sweetly.

The sun was beginning to set, and it was rather beautiful. But through the eyes of a child, it was just pretty. The sky was beginning to turn to the shade of orange and pink. It reminded Mae of the color of the ice cream that she got this afternoon.

As they were walking down the road, Mae noticed that he Uncle had stopped.

"What's wrong, Uncle?" she asked.

He didn't answer. His face was frozen in shock.

The uncle dropped the groceries and picked up Mae. She was caught by surprise, but she didn't question him. She had never seen her uncle this was. What was wrong? He was…so serious.

They arrived at their village in no time at all. He looked at Mae and told her to be quiet. She nodded her head as he started to move stealthily through the village gates. Mae looked around, why were all of the lights off? It wasn't time to go to bed. She also noticed that every window and door was closed. What was going on?

"Uncle Rony what's-

"Shh." He hushed.

She immediately became quiet. She did not want to contradict him in any way. She tried looking around the corner, but she couldn't see anything. She suddenly heard someone scream and her uncle left her.

"Uncle!" she yelled as she reached out for him. He didn't come back, he left and she sat there behind a house. She thought to herself, what was happening? Maybe she should try and help out. But then somewhere deep in her mind told her to stay put. What could she do anyways? Cuddle the person to death? After all, she was only three…

She decided that she had better go. She didn't know why, but she should. She felt her nerves tingling as she didn't see anyone for many streets as she ran down them.

She went down the street with the ramen bar. Empty.

She went down the street with her favorite dumpling shop. Empty.

Where was everyone?

She began to panic as she felt her breath come out in swift gasps.

She finally saw someone. It was her uncle.

"Uncle!" she yelled.

She saw him fall. Why did he fall? She started to run to him. She noticed that someone was standing in front of him. She didn't care though; she ran over to her uncle and kneeled by him. She noticed something on his chest. She placed her fingers on him and swiped her finger across quickly. She looked at it closer. It was red and hot. She finally realized where it came from. It oozed out of his chest, and from the corner of his mouth he was bleeding as well.

"Uncle!" she yelled as she grabbed him by his shoulders and shook him, maybe that would wake him up. "Uncle, wake up!"

"He won't wake up…" Mae heard a menacing voice. It was from the person standing in front of her. She looked up at him and noticed that he wasn't from the village.

"Why?" she asked.

He picked her up and she tried to get out from his arms. She pounded her fists on his shoulder.

"Let me down!" she cried out as he brought her into the room where Aiko, her other sister, and the newborn, Karena, was.

The man set her on the bed and then walked over to Aiko.

"Please don't hurt her!" Mae yelled getting up from the bed and grabbing the man's pants and tugging on them. He pushed her back onto the bed and walked over to Karena. He looked at her and smiled.

"No!"

Mae looked at the person who had yelled. The door had swung open and in the arch way stood a woman. Mae resembled her in a way. Her long, silky violet hair swayed as she ran to the man and tried to pry the baby from him.

"Let her go! Let her go!" she kept yelling as she pulled his arms and tried with the utmost care to make sure that she wouldn't harm the baby in any way.

He just pushed her aside and quickly set the baby down in Mae's arms.

She looked at the baby. She had a little tuff of purple hair, her eyes were closed, but Mae could tell that her eyes were violet. Her fingers were long and slender, and she had a very beautiful face. Karena was a very beautiful baby.

The woman started doing hand signs.

The man recognized the technique, "Water dragon missile jutsu?" he said.

He did hand signs as well at a lightning fast speed and appeared behind her. He took out a kunai and tugged the woman's hair with the other.

"This is what it takes to be a true shinobi, to kill everyone in your path." He said. He got his point across as he saw that Mae was watching. He suddenly swiped the kunai across the mother's neck. He killed her mercilessly.

"No! Mommy!" Mae yelled as she put Karena down on the bed. Mae ran over to her mother's side and cried. She sobbed over her dead mother and realized now what her uncle was as well. She looked over at the man and grabbed a knife that was hidden underneath her obi. She quickly stabbed his thigh. Blood squirted out onto her face as she did so. She didn't really realize what she had done, but he screamed. And for her age, she understood what agony and pain was. She knew what she had done.

The man grabbed the knife from his leg and threw it down and picked up Mae by her collar.

"You've got guts to do that girl. What's your name?" he asked.

"Miyama Mae," she said as she struggled to be let free.

"You could be of good use to me. I could give you so much power…you would be so strong. Do you want that?" he tempted.

She had always wanted to be strong. She wanted to be a ninja, this year she had started, and she realized now that it was a little slow for her. She wanted to move forward faster. She knew that she was better than the other people. She was sure that this man would make her stronger faster.

"Yes. I do." She says with innocence, she doesn't realize what she was getting herself into.

He cackles, "Then follow me and you will have it no doubt."

"Then wait here. I have…unfinished business to do here." He says as he sets her down.

"What kind of things?" Mae asks.

He bends down to her level and looks her straight in the eye. His bright yellow eyes pierced through hers. "I'm killing your clan."

"What? Why are you-

"I'm doing it so that I can become stronger. And I am; this is how I came to be…" He bent down to her to see her eyes and lifted up her chin with his finger. "Kill one person of your clan and I'll let you take along your sisters."

Mae hesitated, she thought for a second. Even in her own mind, a three year old could figure out that saving two lives was regular than just one. She looked at him nodded her head.

He smiled malevolently. He had gotten his way. He had won.

Mae ran out of the house and looked around. The man must have not killed everyone…there must have been someone. She didn't really have that much strength to kill the two little babies, they were so innocent.

She ran down a street until she finally spotted her aunt. She sighed to herself, she didn't want to kill this person…but there might not have been anyone left. She had to take this one.

"Mae!" her aunt yells as she spots her and runs to her side.

As her aunt runs to her, Mae keeps thinking of the pictures crossing her mind about the upcoming death of her aunt. Her breathing started to become heavy as her aunt finally reached her.

"Mae, you must run! Someone is killing everyone! You must leave; I couldn't stand to see you die here. You must run!" she says as she starts to push her along the road to the gate.

"Aunt Lily…" Mae says, trying her best to act. She falls to the ground, acting as if she couldn't move. Her innocent face didn't give a hint of what she was going to do. "I-I can't move…I'm scared!"

"I know sweetie, here," her aunt picks her up and carries her as Mae wraps her arm around her neck. She searches in the pockets of her sleeve and grabs the icy cold metal. It had blood on it already; it was the same kunai that killed her mother.

Mae pauses for a minute, afraid of what she was going to do. She tries, the point almost comes in contact with her aunt's neck, but she stops. Her aunt keeps running, and they were almost out of the compound. Mae finally takes a deep breath and jabs it into her aunt's neck.

She tumbles to the ground and she hits her head hard against the dirt. Her vision was completely red and she saw stars frequently as she tried to shake off the dizziness and lightheaded feeling. Mae looks at her aunt and stares, her aunt was dead, and blood oozed out of her neck and flowed onto the ground.

Mae's knees suddenly felt limp, her legs wouldn't stay still. They were shaking out of control, and her palms were sweaty with fear. Her knees buckled and she fell to the ground beside her dead aunt.

Her eyes moved back and forth swiftly, looking at her aunt and the way her expression was, it was fearful and her eyes were still opened, they scared Mae.

Mae screamed.

The man stood next to her, looming over her an evil presence. His smile had a gleam to it that had a secret laughter inside of it. Her pain was his glory, and he enjoyed every second of it. He bent down and placed his arm on Mae's shoulder.

"How does it feel?" he asked, cackling in a way the scared her.

She couldn't answer; she just kept looking at the horrible thing she had just done. She didn't know that she would have enough strength to do this. It was either strength, or her fear of losing two more people.

He played with a strand of her hair, "The feeling of guilt and terror will pass and you will not have nightmares for long. Everything will come to a pass and this will only be second nature."

It didn't feel like the feeling was passing her by, it felt like it was crashing over her emotions over and over again. This wouldn't leave her for a long time. And now it seemed as if she was in a nightmare already.

"Let's go, we don't want to stay here for long." He says as he stood up and looked over at the death he brought to the people.

"Wait!" she yells suddenly as she finds the strength in her legs again. She just hoped that she still had strength in her heart. "What about my sisters? Can we please take them?" Mae went up to him and hugged his leg; she had enough strength to maybe convince him in doing so.

He stroked her hair and nodded silently. He looked around first and then started to walk towards her old house.

Mae was frightened, even though this man had just killed her whole clan; she still reached for a hand to hold. His hands were alarmingly icy even with all of the hot blood stained on him. She looked at him for a moment, her wide eyes almost asking a question. He looked at her, his snake like yellow eyes pierced through her. She looked forward again and started to walk forward.