I feel obligated to warn anyone reading that this is my first fanfic ever...go me. Hopefully it's decent! This idea has been floating around in my head for a while now, so I've decided to just get it over with and write the darn thing...here goes!
I don't own Naruto. Imagine that! Same goes for any other copyrighted material that shows up here. But my characters are mine. Don't steal them, darlings.
"Oh, I understand what you mean," said the little prince, "but why do you always speak in riddles?"
"I solve them all," said the snake.
And they were both silent.
--The Little Prince
He had thought he would have the road to himself, what with the recent heat wave sweeping across the country. It was an all-consuming heat, leeching energy and life alike with great tendrils of withering temperatures. But here he was, drenched in sweat and feeling rather less than amiable, his path being blocked by a young child sprawled across the narrow dirt road. Her current state of health seemed rather questionable. Cautiously, the man poked her in the side with his foot.
Her eyes slid open, staring up at the startlingly blue sky, with as little expression as a mask.
She was blind. She had always been blind. It was a fever, when she was very small, a fever that would not break for many days. But it did not matter; not really. She had other ways of seeing.
The man cleared his throat, visibly unnerved. "Are you lost or something?"
"Are you?" When he did not reply, she struggled to her feet, brushing the dirt from her clothes. She was fairly tall for her age, which he guessed to be around ten, and dressed in nondescript colors. With a shrug, the man brushed past and continued on. Better not to get involved, better not to ask questions.
Only…he had not spoken to another human in months, it seemed, and now that the opportunity was there…
With a sigh, the man glanced back to see her still standing there, still staring up at the sky as though in thought. He had never seen such eyes; they were the color of sea foam, of hurricane skies, shrouded with blindness and the walls that arise from an unforgiving life. How could someone so young already carry the scars of an outcast? How could a child hope to survive on her own?
"What's your name, kid?"
"Don't have one. At least," she smiled a little, gaze focusing somewhere to the left of his face. "No one's ever told me if I do have one. So that's that."
So that's that. If only all things were as easy as such. Hitomi stumbled away from the scene of the raid, weight mostly supported by a bloodied staff. The feel of the wood against her calloused hands was familiar. She'd had to use it far too much as of late, it seemed.
"Hitomi-sama! All the items have been gathered, as you asked. They await your inspection now."
The figure impeding her way looked down at her with bright brown eyes, warm and excited from their recent success. From somewhere far away, she was able to dredge up an answer.
"Good. Thank you, Daichi. Keitaro here yet?" When the young man shook his head, she sighed and glanced back towards the rest of her followers. "Suppose I should keep an eye on all of you then. C'mon. Our work here isn't finished just yet."
"Of course, Hitomi-sama!" He gave her a quick bow and sprinted ahead, energy practically radiating from his pores. She chuckled a little, watching him go with a fond gaze.
"Cute kid. His admiration seems to border on worship, when it comes to you. All of them seem to think you are some infallible leader. A goddess of war. Is that what you are these days?"
"Don't ask stupid questions, Taro. You know I hate that."
"Hm…where's the respect I used to get? It used to be Keitaro-sama this, Keitaro-sama that." The man bumped shoulders with her lightly as he walked ahead of her. She snorted derisively , but there was a smile on her face that said she was happy to see him. There was a strong aura of intimacy between them—not like that between lovers, for physical intimacy is nothing compared to the deep familiarity of the mind. It was more a feeling that the two, despite age differences, were practically the same person; that they could share thoughts by merely glancing at one another.
"Another success?" He prodded when she didn't respond to his bantering. Something serious was on her mind. He could see it in the darkness of her eyes; they were the color of the sea just before it capsizes a boat.
"You know it was, Keitaro. Otherwise we wouldn't be standing here. Where the hell have you been all week?" Hitomi asked, her irritation half-hearted, before tossing her staff at her once-savior. He caught it out of reflex, amber eyes full of distress. "Look, Taro, I've been thinking lately…"
Exactly what she had been thinking, he did not find out because one of the older patrollers ran up, gasping for breath.
"Hitomi-sama. Keitaro-dono. They…" she took a steadying gulp of air and straightened. "They're coming. The Konoha ninjas. We have to leave, now."
"Sound the alarm then, idiot! You don't have to ask permission!" Hitomi snapped. As the woman moved to join the rest of the raiders, she grabbed her arm briefly. "Good work, Aya." Though the woman was at least ten years Hitomi's senior, she beamed, basking in the praise. Then she raised her hands to her mouth, and let loose a piercing whistle, three times.
The once milling group of rogue ninjas suddenly moved with purpose, scattering into the forest like wraiths, leaving no signs they had been there. At least, no signs but for the bodies of their unfortunate victims. Keitaro eyed his subordinate curiously.
"We need to get moving, Mi-chan. Unless you want to get caught…"
"My leg was injured in the fight," she muttered, absently cracking her knuckles. "I'll distract them for a while. That will allow everyone to get back Home without having to worry. Go on—I'll catch up later."
Keitaro laughed. "Don't be stupid. If I don't get to have fun, neither do you!" With that said, he scooped her up in his arms and they, too, vanished into the trees.
"What were you doing out there, anyway?" Keitaro finally asked one night. They had been travelling together for a few weeks now, the strange blind girl and he. She was sarcastic, laid-back, but very tight-mouthed when it came to anything important about herself. When he asked how she could see anything when she was so clearly blind, the girl just smiled.
Just smiled and said, with an acid bite, that it wasn't any of his business.
"Waiting." She swirled the river water with her feet, peering at it as though it held all the answers in the world for her. Perhaps it did, at that, for she seemed more a creature of the elements some days than a mere human child. "Is that a tadpole?"
"Waiting for what?" He asked. Her brow furrowed slightly and her eyes focused on him, almost translucent in the moonlight.
"The end."
The night was clear and moonless, accentuating the countless stars in the sky. Hitomi sighed, throwing herself on her back carelessly beside the fire. A number of her followers had already gathered there; there were only so many fires allowed in the Home, so as not to attract any undue attention to themselves, and this forced the rebels to sleep in close quarters if they wanted to keep warm.
A person can get used to anything, after a while. Any fear of heights was quickly overcome, here. It was a necessity when you lived in the treetops, always closer to the sky than the earth.
"You okay, Hitomi-san? Does your leg still trouble you?" The young medic half-rose to his feet, brow furrowed with worry before she could reply.
"No, thank you. I am quite well." Despite this assurance, many of the other ninjas seemed unconvinced. Akira, one of the elders of the group at twenty years of age, leaned forward on his elbows to speak.
"You seem pretty…quiet. Something got you down?"
She laughed a little. "Nah. I was just thinking of how far we've come since the beginning…I'm proud of the way everyone handled themselves and dealt with the situation. It's hard to run from those people, I know. But we have a lot of work to do before we can face them down."
Several of them nodded their consent, faces grim with resolve and hatred. Daichi pounded his fist on the ground and spat with disgust, brown eyes darkened with his desire to fight.
"Damn those shinobi," he hissed between his teeth. "I can't wait until I get my hands on one of them. They'll pay for what they've done!" Hitomi indulged him with a rare, true smile and reached over to touch his shoulder with a calming hand.
"They will pay, Daichi. I promise you that. I promise all of you that." Her eyes returned to the sky, turned to crystallized jade in the strange light, the fire reflecting in an almost demonic way within them. But rather than being unnerved by this sight, the rebels smiled eagerly—this was their leader, their 'goddess of war', as Keitaro had put it. "They will suffer…as we have suffered…and there shall be no safe place in the world. Because I will find them. I will hunt every last one of them down, by myself if I have to."
"We will be there with you, Hitomi-sama! We will fight together."
She spoke again after a moment, the words more for herself.
"They will suffer."
"Tsunade-sama?" The Hokage looked up at her with a vague sort of grunt. Shizune bowed, catching her breath as she did.
"There has been another raid, just a few miles outside the village walls. A group of our scouts caught a glimpse of the raiders, but little more than that. They vanished into the air, it seems. There were no survivors. The damage was…terrible. Just like the last time."
The blond woman chewed on her lower lip, sighing lightly. That raid would be the tenth in the past couple of weeks, and still there had been no true sightings of the marauders who persisted in attacking innocent people and towns.
No, they did not attack—they annihilated. At first it had seemed just a series of thefts, but then…it had escalated to the point where she could not help but try to figure out a pattern in the seemingly random acts of destruction.
Each episode was fairly similar: no survivors, all the dead lined up in neat, respectful rows, no traces left behind. The only ones left alive were children, those with no connection to any of the Hidden Villages. All others were cut down with no discrimination; it was mindless, it was unpredictable, it was…a nightmare. It was as though this group of rebels were not human, but vengeful spirits. How was she supposed to track down a bunch of ghosts?
"Double the guards on the walls; send out more patrols. And make sure that all the nearby dwellings outside Konoha are fully aware of the danger. We will have to consider the possibility of having to evacuate them inside the village…" Tsunade made an irritated noise. "Also made sure to continue spreading the news that people should travel as little as possible. If they must, stay in large groups and stick to the main roads."
"Yes, Tsunade-sama!" Shizune turned on her heel, but then paused a moment."You know, Tsunade-sama…a lot of the ninjas are starting to worry. If they knew why all these raids are happening, maybe morale would not be so low, but as it is…"
"I know, Shizune. There's nothing I can do about that, though. I hardly know what to think these days…"
Shizune bowed and left the office swiftly to carry out the Hokage's orders.
Why were they attacking? Who were these rouge ninjas? What did they want, what could they possibly hope to gain? Her mind went in circles, tracing the familiar patterns of thought that had occupied her for the past month. The only clue, the only evidence that these were merely humans, was that they sometimes attacked for food and other similar items.
One of them had snuck in a while back, to steal medical supplies. She had caught a glimpse of the figure, silhouetted against the sky, saw a flash of his eyes; it had been terrifying. It was only a glance, over before she could grasp the situation, but it had been enough.
The hatred she had seen there was pure, unadulterated. Such loathing…such unfounded loathing…
One week later.
The battle was intense, desperate, full of suffocating heat and violence. Keitaro and Hitomi, the leaders of the rebels, were right at the center of the chaos, both wounded, both unperturbedly fighting off the advances of their opponents. Why the damnable ninjas had tracked them here, to their next raiding spot, was not their concern. It was, after all, fairly self-explanatory. But how they had been tracked was more worrisome.
Hitomi supposed that it had only been a matter of time before the rest of the world had caught up with them. Her followers were not infallible. Nor were they invincible, she noted sadly, glancing briefly at the few of her fallen comrades.
"OY! A little help here, Mi-chan!"
She growled under her breath, but turned at once, intent on stopping the assailants all around her and her people. It was difficult to find space to move, what with the press of the confused mass of opposing ninjas and the members of the caravan. Both were fighting, both were falling.
A sharp blaze of pain across her shoulders made Hitomi fall to her knees, but she automatically twisted, slamming the head of her staff into the unfortunate man's throat, crushing the delicate windpipe. His eyes widened in horrified surprise and agony, collapsing with a liquid choking sound. She had no time to shudder as she struggled to her feet, no time to consider her next move before they were upon her again. Keitaro was a comforting presence somewhere to her left, fighting just as hard with a snarl fixed upon his face.
The rebels worked as a unit, moving forward before the enemies could take advantage of any weakness, not letting them gain any ground. But we're outnumbered…whatever way you look at this, the only way we survive is by running. Keitaro's eyes roved over the scene distractedly, only to be brought back to reality by a cry of distress.
Hitomi.
She had collapsed on the battleground, pain coursing along her spine, ending at her throbbing skull. Everything else…a blur. The young woman blinked groggily up at the sky, wondering how she had ended up on the ground. Sounds from the ongoing fight suddenly pierced the haze of injury.
'Ah; that's how.'
"Hitomi!" Keitaro knelt over her, ignoring the fight all around him, all other concerns eclipsed by her bloodied form. She blinked slowly, then coughed with difficulty, spitting up blood. "Everyone, fall back!"
He tried to lift her, but was stopped by her hands gripping his forearms with desperate strength.
"I'll…slow you down." Another painful cough, more blood. He winced, brushing her silvery hair away from her face. "This is…the last…for me, Taro."
"Like hell it is," he snarled. "Fall back, damn it all! Retreat!"
"You have to leave me, Keitaro. They'll…never know. There are so many civilians here…I can blend in…go on."
"No."
"Keitaro. There isn't time for this. Just…do it."
He heaved a sigh, staring down at his surrogate daughter, the reason that he continued to live and fight. Hitomi waited for him patiently, expectantly, eyes the color of new spring leaves, glazed and unfocused by pain. What was going on behind them was anyone's guess.
The ex-ninja's hands swiftly moved in the all-too familiar hand motions of his specialized jutsu. As it descended upon her, she smiled a little and gave into her pain-induced exhaustion. He could only pray that she would open them again to a kinder world. Keitaro lingered one moment longer, drinking in what could be his last glimpse of her.
"Goodbye, Mi-chan," he whispered before vanishing. The last of the rebels fell back into the forest, leaving their attackers to fight nothing but air. A few of the Konoha ninjas gave chase, but soon returned—if there was one thing the rouges were skilled at, it was disappearing without a single trace. Not even a scent trail was left behind, something that never ceased to baffle the ninjas attempting to track them.
Kakashi surveyed the area with a tranquil eye, catching his breath. So many wounded in so little time…these people, whoever they were, were deadly. At least there did not appear to be too many casualties; better yet, the caravan that the rebels had targeted was safe.
Slowly, Kakashi approached the figure that the rebel leader had been kneeling over. Was she one of them? Or just another victim? Either way, she was heavily wounded, blood soaking through her shirt and matting her silvery hair. Who was she? There was no time to consider his actions. He scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the wagon the others had designated for the wounded.
"There's no sign of the rebels…we may as well head back to Konoha. These people need medical attention. And…" Raidou's speech cut off abruptly as he saw the newest addition, his perpetual half-scowl darkening. "This girl isn't one of ours. Part of the caravan, maybe?"
Kakashi shook his head. "No idea. Her injuries seem to be the worst of the bunch, but that's nothing to go by. There's no time to check and make sure. Let's just bring her in with the rest of the wounded and go from there. Unless someone remembers fighting her?" He glanced around the patrol unit, but they all shrugged, answering in the negative. No, they had not fought against this silver-haired girl. There had been that whirlwind of a fighter, the rebel leader that they had
attacked, but the two looked nothing alike. This girl was of average height, whip-cord slender, barely giving off the sense of having chakra. The woman they had fought was tall and radiated massive amounts of power, moving so quickly that you could not catch sight of her face.
"Besides," Genma pointed out eventually, "even if she is the same girl, then we can take her in for interrogation. She would know everything the rebels are up to."
The girl stirred restlessly, a soft moan of pain escaping her lips, reminding them that they had better get moving or risk wasting any more daylight.
"What are you?"
She smiled mysteriously. The blood ran in wine-colored rivulets across her skin, the trails twining themselves around her limbs like so many poisonous serpents. Poisonous serpents curling about her lovingly, just before they struck. Her eyes had lost their vibrant green-blue color, now flashing silver from the darkness. Cold and flat and soulless.
"What do you want me to be?"
Whew! First chapter done with. Please let me know what you thought! Any comments, questions, suggestions, things I can do better, huge grammar mistakes...feel free to write your mind. I will be eternally grateful