DISCLAIMER:
NARUTO THE MANGA AND SHOW ALL BELONG TO MASASHI KISHIMOTO AND CO.
I OWN NOTHING!!! (cries inside)
Author's Notes: Okay, after reading all the super awesome Naruto fanfics, I thought I'd give it a shot myself, so wish me luck! This story came to me after years of watching movies that featured corruption, anti-heroes, and the like. XD Yes, the kings of cheesy!
Here's the basic summary I came up with, but just so you know, it's only the starting summary, and this first chapter/prologue is a test to see how well people like it. If I receive ten or more reviews with this chapter, I will most certainly continue with it. Chapter One is 85 percent finished.
Summary:In the dark age of the new millennium, the city of Kage is a dark place, filled to the brim with different social classes ranging from aristocrat to the mob. Yet in all of the darkness of Kage shines a bright light, a bookstore owned by the mysterious "Cerise". Taking up an old brownstone in the Harajuku District of Konoha, "Autumn Books" caters to all kinds: the high class Clans, the residents of Ponto-Cho Street who live around the store, and the yakuza levels of the underground. All are welcome to "Autumn Books": the only rules are posted in brown calligrapher's ink on a plain piece of cream cardstock taped below the chipped golden letters on the only clear portion of the door…
Just so you are aware, "Cerise" is a name that is supposed to mean "Cherry" in French. However, I currently take Italian and took Spanish, so I'm not one hundred percent sure, as I was looking through names on the website "The Etymology and Meanings of First names". If I'm wrong about the meaning or spelling, just let me know, and I apologize in advance!
Also, the names of the streets and districts are ones I looked up on Wikipedia; The way I described them is in no way a reflection of these places! Their use was for story purposes only.
HINT: the character Cerise is NOT a Mary Sue! If you can't guess who she really is from the meaning of the name, the accessory she always wears, or from her eye color, then I strongly advise you to twirl around really, REALLY fast until you fall over.
Okay, I'm done.
"If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer, a magic-bean-buyer. If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire, for we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!"
Shel Silverstein
Prologue: March Winds
It started at the end of March, when a petite woman cloaked in a neutral camel trench, a simple brown headscarf that hid her hair, and large, Audrey Hepburn sunglasses walked through the smashed door of the old brown stone building. Fingering the jagged edges of the single door, she had stopped on the threshold to gaze in at the ruins of former glory, reminiscing about a time the shadowy onlookers across the street could not even begin to imagine. Shoulder back and head held high, she stepped inside, and none of the curious eyes ever saw her leave from that day forward.
Parents told their young children to avoid the odd woman, who was obviously a lunatic. "Who would willingly come to investigate the ruins of a once bright and cheerful store on Ponto-Cho, the battlegrounds of the yakuza gangs?" However, you cannot tell destiny what to do, after all, so what happened next was inevitable.
One day, a week from the young woman's sudden appearance, a group of children accidently kicked their bright red ball into the store. It was a sunny spring day, and a holiday to boot! The gangs never fought on holidays.
Scared to go in and fetch the ball, a young boy timidly ventured inside. Tip toeing carefully over broken glass and torn up floor, he flinched when clunk-clunk SMASH began to echo faintly throughout the large room. Unconsciously whimpering as he moved farther into the burned wreckage, he was startled by movement in the corner, the clanging long gone. Jumping with a shriek, he tripped over a fallen beam towards a particularly jagged pile of broken glass, when a gloved hand reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder. Moaning in fright, his brown eyes met with the face of an angel as he safely returned to his previous position.
She wore a green leaf patterned scarf this time, and the sunglasses replaced by silver-rimed oval spectacles that barely hung onto the tip of her nose. The thin lenses pulled tricks with her eyes, turning them emerald green, peridot, then a deep forest color the next. They currently sparkled an interesting shade of jade as low laughter fell from her smiling pink lips. Dressed in a dirty white t-shirt and comfortable, worn jeans, a hammer hanging from her white working apron with other various tools, she arched a fine, brown-stenciled eyebrow and held out the red ball she had just picked up from beside her after she was reassured of his safety.
"Is this yours?" her light voice inquired softly, as she held out the red ball between her rough textured working gloves.
Nodding rapidly as she held out the ball, he thanked her profusely before dashing back outside to his friends who were now cowering in the shadows across the street. Reaching the door, he turned to face her. "Wh-who are you?" he asked her curiously. The spring breeze blew several cherry blossoms inside, which made the woman stare absently as they fell near her feet.
"Cerise."
Cerise.
Cherry.
Smiling widely, revealing a missing tooth, he replied, "I am Sarutobi Konohamaru! And I'm gonna be the next Hokage! And I'll remember this, so as the next Hokage, me and my friends will help you!" he finished proudly, chest puffed out.
Nodding seriously, her lips twitching into a small smile, Cerise replied, "Thank you, future Hokage-sama, for your promise! Now I shall make one in turn; you and your friends will be welcome to my shop, once it is finished in…well…when it's finished." She said sheepishly, gesturing to the work that obviously still needed renovation.
Smiling again, Konohamaru ran towards his now curious friends as the shadowy Miss Cerise faded into the shadows. Scrambling around him, they listened eagerly to his tale.
"Cerise."
That is the name of the mysterious proprietor of "Autumn Books".
She quietly emerged from the darkness of the old abandoned brown stone on shady Ponto-Cho Street, the only part of the city where the territories met.
The bookshop came into life seven years ago amidst a war between the students of Kage Academy, whose students lived in the poorer Harajuku District or the richer Asakusa District. Arranged into yakuza "families", they engaged in activities against each other ranging from gambling, clubbing, and nights of sin, to public upheaval, street racing, illegal boxing, and the most vicious of all: the Oto-Ko-Yo. This was the most violent and cruel of all their fighting arenas, a young children's past time turned war game…
In their war games, Ponto-Cho was the literal border between Harajuku and Asakusa, (if you looked at town records, it was officially marked as Harajuku territory), but to the yakuza of Kage Academy, it was a symbol of power. In the the fight to secure that power, however, the denizens of Ponto-Cho suffered, as once thriving businesses quickly went bankrupt and families who could left as soon as possible. Only those who had no other place to turn to stayed, cowering in the safety of the shadows.
Then, almost as if the gang marked cherry trees blooming for the first time in ten years was a sign, the fighting abruptly stopped on the once war ruined Ponto-Cho Street.
Cerise had finished her nest.
At seven in the morning on the day Kage Academy was due to start summer break, "Autumn Books" opened it's newly repaired glass door.
Painted with a mixture of light and dark colors, the door was actually made of recycled glass bottles, which showed when the sun struck the blurry imprint of a long gone manufacturer's company name. Sunlight illuminated the subtle colors of the glass rainbow, covered with light swirls of gold and bronze paint. The two windows that allowed one to peek inside the newly made store were regular glass, the bookstore's name proudly painted on the floor length glass in gold script.
The main attraction, however, was the single, 8.5 x 11 inch cream-colored cardstock that lay smack in the middle of the door, surrounded by the swirls of gold and bronze as if a picture frame.
"Autumn caters to all; we bar none.
The books care not who or what you are."
Upon meeting for their usual brawls on Ponto-Cho, the newly released minor yakuza gang members were stunned to find this new shop amidst the dark gloom of Ponto-Cho. Angry murmurs racked the five boys as they emerged from hidey-holes to try to find out why this unwelcome building was in their territory.
They halted in their tracks, however, when a group of children poured out from the door of the brightly decorated brown stone, laughing as they clutched assorted sweets and children's books. Why, these were children from Ponto-Cho and several different yakuza gang families!
They were even more shocked to see Konohamaru, the grandson of the prominent Konoha yakuza gang leader, laughing as a smiling woman with an azure head wrap, embroidered cream peasant top, and an ankle length patched scarf skirt gave him a large cookie and a book. The entire time, he held onto the hand of Moegi, the young daughter of the Amekagure yakuza leader, who was blushing as she munched on a brownie, her own book under her arm.
These weren't the children of enemy gangs! They…they were happy…
Scrambling down the steps, Konohamaru and Moegi walked away hand in hand, unmindful of the watching gangsters. Finished waving them off, Cerise turned towards them, and bestowed her same calm smile upon them. Skipping down the steps in her worn leather sandals, she approached the mixed group and smiled in relief. "Oi, you look like strong guys; do any of you know how to fix a sink? The one in my back room doesn't seem to be working…" trailing off as they looked at her in confusion and shock, she pursed her lips. "Oookay…umm….lessee…oh! I know! Okay, I still have fresh pastries in the back, I can give you those, and I'll give you a hundred if ya fix it by nine tonight. Any takers?" she asked anxiously.
Fidgeting slightly, a brunette on the end sighed and stepped forward, a blush on his cheeks. "Umm…I'll do it…um...but…you don't need to give me a hundred…fifty or less will be fine…" he murmured, hands stuffed into the pockets of his worn black jacket.
"Idate! The hell are you doing? She's on Konoha territory without permission! What if the Heads find out?" Haku whispered anxiously. "Not unless you snitch, Haku!" Idate snarled, a mixture of an angry and nervous blush on his face.
"Ah, is, uh, there a problem here? You can all come in and relax if you want…I don't mind!" the waiting scarf woman replied, a hand rubbing the back of her head nervously. "It IS a bookstore café after all…"
Trailing after the now chattering woman who yanked Idate along by his arm, the five boys entered the bookstore. Gazing about the warm front room that was filled to the brim with books, they marched behind her towards the back, where a few small tables and chair waited with silverware, fresh flowers, and a few trays with pastries had been set down to cool. Large French doors covered a section of the back wall, leading out to a half-finished patio and the beginnings of a small garden.
By the time midnight rolled around, the yakuza grunts were laughing with the young woman, Idate having finished with the sink a while ago. Leaving around one in the morning, the five boys promised the cheery shopkeeper to return another time. Winking at them, she sent them off with pastries and tea, carefully hidden in plastic bags from a drug store one street over from Ponto-Cho, reachable by the back gate in the garden.
From that day, the five boys or several others from their gang or rival ones would return to the small store and café, basking in the warmth of the atmosphere or picking up a good book or comic to read at home.
Word soon spread quickly amongst the lower grunts of the yakuza gangs. No one dared breath word to the higher ups that their lean, mean fighting machines were having tea and cookies with a scarf wearing, happy-go-lucky bookstore owner on the cross roads.
Soon, Ponto-Cho became less and less a battleground and more of a neutral territory. Slowly but surely, business returned to Ponto-Cho, as did the job opportunities. Ponto-Cho soon became the district of dreams; it was a chance for many to start anew in such a corrupt city.
However, as most dreams do, they soon end; the short peace would be disrupted…
Yay! Prologue up!
I hope you readers liked it so far! Please review so I can post the next chapter; as we speak, it is 95 percent finished!!!
Remember, constructive criticism is the best criticism, so if you feel I ought to be doing something I'm not, let me know!!
QW