Part One: Caterpillar (Academy Days)

Chapter One: Set in Stone

The night it happened is one I will never forget. Sometimes, when I close my eyes, I still see her standing on my front porch—that strange woman with the sagging skin and the dress that jutted off of her body like a tent. Most vividly I remember those eyes, the most frightening I had ever seen. Containing more colors than I could imagine, they stood in stark contrast to the gray hue of her face.

I had just learned of my acceptance to Konohagakure's Shinobi Academy and had gone out to celebrate the accomplishment with my family. That entailed an elaborate dinner and some acrobatic fireball show at the local theater. Most of the village was dark by the time it let out; our street certainly was, with only one street light lit on the far end of the street. None of us even noticed her presence until Father was unlocking the front door.

"Goodnight," she greeted, her voice penetrating the thick silence. She sounded both as if she were inside of my head and miles away.

"Who are you?" Father demanded. He pushed us all behind him.

The woman laughed. "I'm not here to harm you. I simply need to…" Her eyes fell on me and a slow smile tugged at her thin lips. "…relay a message."

"What is it?"

The woman didn't speak, but lifted her knobbly walking stick. Keys hung from the branches sticking out from the sides and a plain glass orb which sat upon it, nestled in entangled roots. She pointed the stick at Father, Mother, and my little brother Seto then hesitated. The orb went cloudy. She considered it for a moment before muttering, "Interesting…but not why I am here." She then pointed the stick at me. The orb filled with light; a solitary butterfly fluttered its kaleidoscope wings. She smiled again, as if this confirmed what she already knew. Her eyes trained to me, she spoke. "Why don't we go sit inside?"

"You can't just invite yourself into our home!" Mother said. "Whatever it is can be said out here, or you can leave."

I knew that what my mother said made sense, but still my legs led me to the door. I nudged passed my father and jiggled the doorknob open. "It's okay. She's telling the truth," I said to my parents. I couldn't possibly know that was true, but I felt it.

"Cho—"

"It's okay," I repeated. "Please, come in Ms…"

"Ria."

My family filed into the house after the peculiar woman. Mother hurried Seto off to bed while I made tea. I heard no sound from the sitting room and chose to assume Father was only watching Ria and hadn't offed her yet.

I placed the teapot on the table and handed a teacup to Ria and my parents. Ria happily filled her cup and sipped at it, but she was the only one who would touch it.

"The message?" Father said without moving his lips.

"Ah, yes. Of course." Ria set her teacup on the table and reached into one of her gigantic bell sleeves to procure a stone tablet. With effort, she rose to her feet and approached me. "Hold this. Can you feel its weight?"

The slab was solid marble, about three feet long and two feet wide with a depth of two inches—I definitely felt how heavy it was. But I was ready for it, so I was able to hold it with ease.

"Good." She took the tablet back and replaced it with a small square of parchment. Immediately, my hands dropped and I strained to lift them. The paper weighed the same as the stone tablet.

"What—what is this?" I stuttered.

"On this tablet and on that parchment is written the same message. That version is yours to keep, Shirogane Cho. It is your fate, set in stone at the moment of your birth. We have been waiting to deliver it to you, and finally you are ready." She reached forward and pressed a wrinkled thumb onto my forehead. "There is no changing prophecy. This is your fate. You have been walking its path your whole life, but at last it seems you are nearing its crux…." She withdrew her hand from my face and placed it instead on my shoulder; it felt as if she had stacked a slew of those marble tablets onto me. "Be careful, Caterpillar. The road ahead is dark."

With that she vanished, leaving nothing but the weighty parchment behind. Unable to speak, I turned to my parents hoping they had some sort of explanation. They stared back, two fish with unblinking eyes and gaping mouths.

"…Are you going to read it?" Mother whispered, her voice catching in her throat.

Would I? From all that I ever heard, knowing your future did you no good in the long wrong. Generally it seemed to shorten it. A mere thirteen years old, I wasn't ready for that burden; I wasn't ready to ruin my life. "No," I said firmly. "If my fate is set in stone as she says, then there is nothing reading it can do to change that."

I stared at the parchment. If I looked closely, I could see the script of an unsteady hand seeping through the back. I didn't mean to, but I caught one word: butterfly. My mind immediately flashed back to the image of the long butterfly in the orb, fluttering in that bright light. Was that supposed to be me?

I shook my head, dispelling the image. I placed the parchment on my mother's lap; she didn't react at all to its weight. Instead, she carefully lifted it with one hand and looked at me, curiosity in her brown eyes.

"Hide it," I said. "Please. Somewhere I won't find it."

And then I went to bed, hoping that in the morning I would find that it had all been a dream.

a/n Hello there! Thank you for reading! I'm sorry that Shikamaru doesn't make an appearance in this chapter. He actually doesn't come in until chapter three. Eventually, their romance will be central to this story, but first I need to establish the plot and her character. I hope you stick around :) If you are a returning reader here to see the revised version of this story, I hope you will find that it is much improved. If you are a first time reader, I simply hope you enjoyed!

Thank you again for reading! Feedback is appreciated :)