The Third looked at the report that had just come in from the rain country. He frowned. There had been a massacre. The whole clan had been killed off. Nothing of this scale had happened since the Uchiha massacre, except this was worse because there were no survirors and the murderer was unknown. He sighed. He had been watching the Rain country and the clan that had been killed off, the Wara clan. It had been Rain's strongest clan. With that clan, Rain could have become recognized, if the clan had not been warring amongst itself for decades. He pulled a large book from the shelf with known clans and descriptions of their traits.
All there was about the Wara clan was those members that became ninja (a good deal of them) favored the use of taijutsu. acquired new jutsus quickly and that there was a genjutsu called teishou no jutsu that was only used by Wara clan members. There wasn't any detailed information about their history, like there was with most of the other clans, except that it was noted that the family complex was located just to the south of Rain's hidden village and that they had been fighting amongst themselves for years.
The Hokage shut the book with a sigh. Why would someone kill all of them? More importantly, who would be strong enough to kill them all? The Wara clan, although they had kept to themselves, had been bigger than the Uchiha clan and the Waras that had not become ninjas were still skilled fighters, men and women alike. Such a person or people, could be very dangerous indeed. He needed more information. He sent an anbu and a Jonin to investestigate further into the matter. He had suspicions aleady, but he hoped they wouldn't be confirmed.
Meanwhile...in the village hidden in the sand...the Kazekage had a different concern. He met with a masked man in his office "Do it tomorrow."
The man replied, looking up at the kage "What if I cannot kill him?"
The Kazekage replied "Drive him out. I want him out of this village. Let him be Rain's problem and menace."
The masked man nodded, half-bowed and was gone.
Back in Konoha...
A six year old boy didn't know what to do. Tomorrow was the day that he feared the most, the day the village celebrated the defeat of the Kyubbi, and he had been kicked out of the orphanage this morning. It was starting to get cold as the sun set. He shivered and started walking closer to the food stalls as he went through the more deserted area of Konoha at the moment. The smells coming from within them made his stomach growl, but he had no money. He needed a break, though, and to get out of the wind. He shivered again and went to one of the brigher shops that didn't have any customers. He ducked and went in and there was a girl looking back at him, maybe a couple of years older than he was. He waited for it, cringing...but then looked up surprised as she didn't yell at him or cry out. His stomach growled. He crossed his arms, still cold and his stomach grumbled again. His mouth began to water as he smelled food again, very strong this time. He looked, there was a bowl of food on the table. He looked at her.
She said "You sounded hungry."
"What is it?"
"Ramen."
"For me?" She nodded.
Naruto was in disbelief, but he wolfed it down. "Gomen. What..." Just then Naruto felt something dull hit him in the back. A broom handle. He yelped and got off the stool.
The old woman from across the street had come over "Get away from that little girl, demon-brat!" Naruto took another couple of beats with the broom handle to catch the name of the shop. 'Ichiraku'. He looked at the girl, then took off running. He hid behind a corner a few blocks away and panted. He sniffed, on the verge of tears again. He was always beaten. Why?! He never did anything wrong! He had only said eaten a bowl of ramen and said thank you. That wasn't something to get beaten over. He cried at the unfairness of it all.
After a few minutes, he started to feel thirsty, so he wiped his face with the his sleeve and made his way down to a stream, just outside of the village. Once there, he kneeled down and washed his face, then dranks. Afterward, he curled up in a ball near the stream, beside some rocks that acted as a windfall for him.
Naruto woke up in the morning cold. He shivered. It was still early. His stomach growled again. It was early...maybe the villagers would still be asleep...maybe no one would see him...he went back inside the gate and he could smell food in the direction of the Ichiraku stand. He walked that way, with a smile, maybe it was the nice girl again. He saw a bowl of ramen sitting on a crate in the alley across from it and went for it without thinking about where it came from.
As he picked up the bowl and drained it, a group of men appeared from the shadows. Naruto backed up. Their killing intent sent shivers down his spine and made him drop the bowl, which shattered into a million pieces.
One of the men then blocked his path and said "I hope you enjoyed that, kid, because it's the last meal you're gonna eat." The others laughed.
Naruto whimpered, then did the only thing he knew to do. He curled up in a ball on the ground and waited to be kicked. The man who had made the comment earlier said "Get up, demon-brat, and run, or I'll kill you now."
Naruto knew by his voice that he was serious, so he got up and started running, knowing that they were probably still going to kill him anyway, but if he stopped they would for sure. His adrenaline kicked in and he ran and ran for what seemed like forever in the dark, barely missing running into the trees and bushes in the overshadowed forest. After going on for longer than Naruto could ever remember running in his life, his adrenaline and stamina gave out and he fell.
One of the group of men said, with a pant, "Damned fox sure can run. We're at the border of the rain country."
Another said "Yeah. No body but us could have kept up with him the whole time."
The man said "Shut up before someone hears you two. That was the plan, remember?" Then he chuckled "Brat won't be Konoha's or anyone else's problem anymore." He took a kunai in his hand and walked over to the boy who had fallen on the ground.
Naruto panted, exhausted. He couldn't move anymore, but he was still scared. Suddenly he heard footsteps and then a searing hot pain in his chest. He screamed then all faded into nothingness.
The leader of the gang took the boy's jacket and made sure to smear it in the blood that had fallen and he ripped it. He chuckled "Such a pity that the Uzumaki boy was attacked by wolves. He really shouldn't have been playing alone outside the village gates." He put on a sad face "This is all I found when we heard his scream..." He trailed off with a malicious grin. The others laughed again and the group left the bloody boy to die on the ground beside a rock as it started to rain.
On the outskirts of the land of wind...
Gaara was by himself like he usually was, but Yashamaru said he would meet him here today. Suddenly an armed Shinobi dressed in black was running towards him, kunai raised. Gaara had no reason to run, he knew the sand would protect him, but he was afraid at another assassination attempt. He ran and the sand protected him from the attacks. He was chased out of the boundary of the land and into the land of rain. When he tripped on a log, the sand flew up to catch him.
The man faced him and said "Gaara, never return to the land of wind." He turned around and started walking away.
Gaara cried "Yashamaru!"
The man turned back around and threw a kunai, but his mask had fallen.
Gaara cried "Yashamaru..." but he didn't follow after him. Gaara cried. Yashamaru had betrayed him. Had he hated him too? Then everyone hated him! Why? He didn't mean to hurt anybody. Why was everyone scared of him? Was he really a monster?
Meanwhile...
One Nekomi Wara woke up underneath a pile of rubble, boards, pieces of the screens that had been the walls, bricks and bamboo. She checked her body first, out of instinct. She was alive, with no major injury now, but by the pools of mostly dried blood around her, she could see that it had been bad. Suddenly it all came back to her and she remembered what had been the cause of all this. She got out of the wreckage and saw the bodies, with horror. That evil man and his army had done this, Oorochimaru. A shiver went down her spine at just the thought of him. Her horror rising as the first three people checked were dead, she went on to check the rest. Dead. Dead. All dead. Her friends, husband and her two sons. Her stomach and heart sank, but she had to check the rest of the compound, where their half-enemies lived. She ran over the the building across in the compound and found there was no survivor there, either. So many dead bodies, so much blood...her throat became hot and her head swam. Then she lost strength in her knees and collapsed to her hands and knees vomitting. When she got up, she was shaky.
She said, in a faraway voice, "The anbu will come and clean up all of this..." She went back to her house and looked at her husband and two sons. She put them side by side on the floor and looked at them. "Dai, Ryoku, Shin..." She couldn't bear to seem them disposed of by the ANBU. It would be hard enough to see the rest of them go like that, without a proper burial, but she would give that to them. If the ANBU didn't like it, she could care less.
About a block away from the complex was a little hidden place with a water fall where the boys would play. It would be there. She took her husband first, then the boys and then came back for the shovel. She dug the hole quickly, but tears ran down her face as she held her husband, who she had decided would be the first to go in. "Dai..." She kissed him on the cheek before she lowered him in. Then she did the same thing for her sons and covered them up with a sob "I cannot bury myself, but we will not be seperated much longer."
She noticed vaguely that there was a pause in the rain and a wind had picked up. It dried the tears on her cheeks and blew her long raven hair out from under her forehead protector. She walked away under a tree and lay her outer robe down. She lay her husband's sword and her sons' daggers beside her. She knelt on the robe and took the smallest katana, not a ceremonial dagger, but it would do. As she prepared to join her family, she heard a sound that distracted her. When it stopped, she aimed again, but it started again. She listened more closely. It was a mornful sound...crying...a boy crying.
She performed a few handsigns "teisatsu no jutsu" There were two boys about a quarter mile away. One was awake and seemingly unhurt, but the other one was unconscious and near death. The awake one was of course, the one doing the crying. She put down her hands from her face. If it had just been the first boy, the one that was crying, she could have ignored it, but she couldn't let a child die in front of her, knowing that she could save it. Not after...her own children had died...right in front of her. She put down the dagger and stood. She walked towards them. They were spread out by 10 meters or so. She just needed to heal him, he could fend for himself after that. She got to him and knelt down. Her stomach flipped as she saw the amount of blood. She then put her hands on the wound and concentrated. A green light shone.
After half an hour, she had done it. It had taken up a lot of her energy because the boy had been so near death. She looked at his face. It looked peaceful now. She realized that she couldn't leave him, now that it was turning dark and, as she felt a drop of water hit her cheek, starting to rain again. She picked him up and went looking for the other boy.
She found the little red-haired boy sitting on some sand, still crying. She said "Young one, it begins to rain again. I am going to get dry. Will you join me?"
He looked at her without answering, almost blankly. She said "I found this young one over there." She pointed. She wondered if the boy had known the other one. At no reaction once again, she turned and said "You can join me if you wish."
Nekomi didn't understand why she had invited the other boy. She was just going to keep watch over this one until morning and he would be awake and he could take care of himself and she could...take care of herself, but the red-haired boy...he had looked so lonely, so brokenhearted...so like her...She shook her head again. He didn't look like he was going to come anyway.
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