waves Hello everyone, this is the beginning of an on-going story created by me and my aniki. We hope you enjoy it and we encourage feedback. Thank you!

Disclaimer: Do I really have to say? All the characters in this chapter are original and our own.

It was quiet…same as every day before this one. The only thing that separated this day from any other was the steadily increasing river of blood slowly flowed through the village…staining the dirt paths with its coppery scent, driving even the crows away. Those that indulged their gullets on the rotting corpses of the once living, and whose last meal was taken only two months prior when they were offered the bodies of three innocents.

Oh how they gorged themselves that day. Taking the path of the known vulture and tearing apart every piece of flesh that reached their crooked beaks. They were mindless and uncaring as they plunged their beaks into the still warm flesh of a young girl, never having reached the age of 7. The gentle wafts of the steaming flesh beckoned them closer like an alluring perfume and they wet their beaks with rounded tongues and eagerly heed the call of a meal.

They settled close to the opening of her throat for easy access to still bleeding meat inside. Black feathers she once though beautiful lost their luster in the rain of blood that splattered against them with each quick pull from their beaks.

She felt sick.

Even now, remembering how they greedily guzzled down their meal of human flesh…. her family.

Crimson tears ran down her cheeks, mingling with the splattered droplets that stained her pale, cut cheeks and began to turn to a dead brown. She didn't seem to mind though, but nothing bothered her anymore. Not after this. What was there to care for? What meaning did her life have?

Her body slowly rose and fell, trembling with each staggering, heavy breath as though the very act was killing her. Which in truth, it was.

She remained idle for the full part of three days, never moving from the sight of the carnage. Not even her eyes averted from the scene nightmarish scene. Those once bright gold suns, so full of life and excitement, turned dull and bronze, laden with only sorrow and the glint of a bittersweet satisfaction. They lowered only a fraction to the clenched, bloodied fist still clutching tightly to the broken katana. Her knuckles were pale and turned raw with missing flecks of skin down to the back of her hand. Numerous marks of desperate clawing and struggling graced her arms, running up to her shoulders and around her neck…especially her neck. Some very gifted with long arms to reach the exposed throat, but still they couldn't get themselves free. It almost made her sad.

Almost.

Those bronze eyes closed finally followed by another heavy breath and a tremor from her body. It slumped a bit, as the weight of the foreign blood was too much to hold up for such a long time…but her body wouldn't move further. A single strand of white hair slipped forward, gently caressing her face before it ceased its gesture and lay still. Then a second fell. And a third, before the entire curtain of silvery white bangs slipped down to conceal her face, accompanied with a dark blue sheet running down her back and over her shoulder.

Night was dawning over the village once again, and still she didn't move. Not even as the lightning flashed overhead and the clouds began to gather. Not when the wind came in more powerful gusts joined with a chilling wind that bit through her fragile and pale skin bitterly to the bone. Not even when her own tears began to mingle with the crimson streams down her face. All the while she remained still…motionless. Dead to the world.

Just like them…

All that was heard was the silent utter of, "Why?"

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A week had passed for the little village shrouded in snow. The crimson rivers that once stained the streets were lost under the many feet of tightly packed snow, giving the illusion of a pure landscape with nothing to taint its innocence, except for the few drops of red adding a bit of color. Soft shuffled footsteps were the only sounds being made in the village common. People began to creep out of their homes with a paranoid caution, looking over their shoulders to one another with every step as they gathered together like a herd of mindless cattle. She was disgusted. How could such creatures be allowed to live? Relying solely on the actions of another before their own was to be made. That was how the attacked the first time. Following one and then another and another and another, until the entire village was in an uproar and racing to the small home on the outskirts of town.

It was a quaint house, no larger then the size of a small farmhouse, and oddly enough, it was painted the colors of a traditional home: a fading red and a pale off-white. In the front next to the porch was a small garden trying to flower in the hard, partially frozen soil, but they managed somehow to bud, and that was all. No other life adorned the yard…no trees, nothing. If it wasn't for the greenery, a few sprouts of grass, it could have been mistaken for a graveyard, the silence was truly deafening to the ears. Why her parents decided to settle here, she didn't know. It had always been a mystery.

Walking toward it, with a few tendrils of silver hair stained in red as well as the rest of her person, tears began to well up in her dull golden eyes with each stiff, aching step. How did it come to this? She often asked herself. What had she done for her life to be changed in such a way…all she wanted was to be acknowledged, just like her elder brothers who went off to become fine warriors for the village. True shinobi the village was proud of. Every time she and her younger siblings would venture through the village common retrieving goods their mother had asked of them, they would here the news of their brother's triumphs in lands far away. ANBU they were called. An elite group of ninja sent to perform dangerous missions for their country's leader. There was always that chance that they would never return, but somehow, they always escaped the jaws of death and came out victorious even in the most dangerous of missions. They were the true pride of the village hidden in snow.

The young woman came to rest at the base of a dying tree. Its branches hung low, dipping into the river that ran along her home, slowly wavering with and against its flow. She was always at peace here and would often spend hours just staring at its glassy surface lost in thought. Her little brothers and sister would run to her in the late afternoon of the day after all the chores were done and ask what she was thinking of.

"Nee-Chan," the smallest would ask with an adorable smile while she tugged on her sister's arm for attention. "Kouen nee-chan, what are you thinking about?" her "k" always sounded much like a "g" making the elder sister laugh all the time.

"Well little one," she would say, "I'm thinking of our brothers…" and then the twins would smile brightly. Their grey/green eyes would light up and suddenly became more alert.

They would ask in unison, "Have you heard from them yet? Are they ok?" And then Kouen would ruffle their long stringy black mops of hair and shake her head.

"I'm sorry boys…there hasn't been word, but I'm sure they are fine." That always seemed to tide them over, and then took to harassing their sister again in mock fights and chasing her along the riverside. Then of course, the other sister would take charge and chase them down instead, claiming in laughter that if she caught them they would be forced to do her chores for a week.

She always won. Her speed would greatly outmatch theirs, always leaving the boys stunned with awe.

Wanting to know the secret to her speed, they approached her one day and asked with shy voices, "Nee-Chan, how you do that? You're fast like our aniki-kun."

At first she was unsure of how to answer. Was she to tell them that as they slept late in the night she would sneak out the house and travel deep into the white woods to train? That she pushed herself to the very point of breaking even with the simplest of training she had seen her brothers do during their time here? Should she tell them that she spent all of her time at night pushing to be like her brothers? To be as good as they are? So many thoughts ran through her mind over such a simple question. So many chances to escape with a simple, "I don't know." But then, she was never one to take the easy way out, even over something so small. So she set the boys aside and told them honestly, "I train at night, while you sleep. I got out and teach myself the same way our brothers used to. I try to be like them."

This in turn, confused the adolescents. "Why do you want to be like them? You're fine being you."

A smile was brought to her face at these words. They were so young, and didn't understand the means of self-improvement. Perhaps they would understand…"You will understand one day," she assured, "when you've grown up a little more and have desires of your own to be "the best". Just you wait." And she tapped them both lightly on the nose sending them into fits of laughter.

But sadly, they never understood, for a mere 3 months later, they were killed. Blades were placed at their throats and tore into them as they stared at her screaming for her help, but how could she…when she was dying herself. She watched as the same village that praised and marveled at her brothers so much slaughtered them.

Kouen looked into the river still heavy with the villager's blood to peer into the eyes of the monster they screamed and accused her of being. She truly had turned into what they claimed her to be. As she stared at her form, eyes drifting over the blood obscuring her face from sight, the dried blood solidified on her upper robe, which had been torn at the collar down to her left side. She barely noticed it had been ripped clean to her skin allowing for the still bleeding slashes across her abdomen to be exposed to the open air. Her entire left side was caked with a mix of her own and other's blood. The smell was beyond repulsive, but she didn't so much as flinch against the stench. Her hair was stiff with the hard crimson in odd places making the shorter strands stand at odd angles amongst the black and blue curtain of that which was pulled back. The lower half of the robe was completely torn free revealing her shapely legs littered with scratches ranging from small hair thin marks to deep gashes and even portions of missing flesh.

They had put quite a struggle up against her. That much was certain. As she stared at the damage done, Kouen began to feel the weight of the injuries and heavy amounts of blood loss take affect, reducing her to an immobile pile lying at the river's edge. As the darkness began to cloud her vision, she let her body grew loose, releasing what little energy she used to move. Her eyes fluttered shut just as the first drop of rain fell onto her cheek.

Overhead, the clouds gathered rapidly, highly unusual for a day was that was moments ago clear and without a cloud in sight. Yet stranger still, the clouds only gathered in one area, just above the river. With the heavy clouds came the brief flashes of light rolls across them in rapid succession. One right after the other, but not thunder was sounded. Finally the lightning stopped all together as more drops of rain followed the first, cascading in a thin sheet around her just as thin, misshapen bolts of lightning struck the ground close to her, but never touching her. More like a barrier than a means of an attack. Seemingly unknowing of what was going on, Kouen slept on, her face contorted in a frown of internal pain. The hole in her stomach and gashes on her side ceased to bleed and was slowly beginning to heal, but the loss of blood was too great. If she was lucky she would be able to move later…but that was if she awakened. Oblivious to the danger her life was in, she slept.

Kouen was 19 years of age that day when she watched her family be killed. Myo and Tsuyo were 12. Mimori was 4. And the day after, Kouen took her revenge over the innocent lives taken the day and became 20.

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Three years ago…

The moon broke thought the clouds, its light shown over the whole of a small village, it was silent, serine and peaceful. The light beamed down in through the window of a small room illuminating it, the image of a man and woman laying near-sleep in a bed comes into view. It was nights like this, so peaceful and quiet, that he would lay awake are watch her sleep. Nights like this that he was taken in by her beauty, and would simply marvel at her as she lay next to him.

She lay next to him, her arms wrapped around him and her head lying atop his bare chest. His slow breathes and steady heartbeat relaxed her, she loved nights like this, nights she could just lay with him and feel safe.

Nights like tonight where few and far between for the two, rarely were they so fortunate to both be on leave and not have suffered some grave injuries, so nights like this where cherished by both. He reached over and gently strokes her cheek, "Love… are you awake?"

She traced her fingers over his defined chest and stomach, "Yes…" she said as she shifted against him, causing a few more strands of dark hair to veil her face.

He pulled the strands from her face again; she looked up locking eyes with him and smiled, "Why do you do that?"

"Do what…?" He asked with a light smile as he bore into her eyes with his own icy orbs

She gently hit his chest, "That… you're staring at me again." She said with a hint of playful glee in her voice as she slid up on the bed and sitting with her back flush to the headboard.

"I can't help it… It's not my fault I love you woman." He teased with a large grin gracing his lips while propping himself up onto his elbows.

She leaned forwards and stole a quick kiss from him, then taking his hand she interlocked her fingers with his. "Yes it is… It is completely your fault." She teased with a playful smile as she looked into his eyes once again.

He looked down at her had in his and squeezed lightly, "Karie…" his voice was suddenly serious. He sat up next to her and quickly wrapped his arms around her. He gently pulled the woman over sitting her in front of him so her back rested against his chest and he leaned against the headboard holding her tightly.

His rubbed the back of his hand against her cheek then it slowly began to slid down her neck and across her chest, "I love you Karie, and I will always be here…" his hand moved further down her light frame and came to rest on his love's taunt stomach, "For both of you…" He used his free hand to turn her head to the side and he leaned forward and took her lips with his own.

She gladly accepted his kiss, slowly turning around and wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down to the bed with her. She broke their kiss for a moment, "I love you too, Enkai, and I know you will be here…" She placed her hand on her own stomach, "For both of us." She smiled weakly and wrapped her arm back around the man's neck to pull him back to her.

One of her hands slid free from its lock around the large male's neck and it began to glide over the muscles of his back, around to his chest and stomach and lower. He smiled against her lip in response to her advances, holding himself above her one a single elbow his free hand began to wander over her body… there was a knock at the door and both froze.

The couple cursed to themselves, they must have been hearing things, who would need them at this hour? Another knock came, both silently prayed that their visitor would simply lose interest and leave, but they would not be so lucky this night. After several minutes of unanswered prayers and reluctant to leave his love's arms, Enkai stood up from the bed donned a loose pair of pants and answered the door. To their displeasure, a man clad in the traditional ANBU garb held out a scroll the moment the door opened. "You are summoned," was all he said. Enkai sighed and took the scroll, opening it and reading its contents. He nearly shouted. The Kage was giving them another mission on what was supposed to be their day off. He dismissed their messenger and took the scroll back to their room and handed it to his love for her to read. Her face changed to the same upset and annoyed look he held.

"When do we leave?" she asked quietly, and as if to answer the question, a tremendous howl was heard not too far off, almost like the sound of a beast in pain.

Their mission. Glaring hard at the scroll for a second, the pair ran to retrieve their gear... honestly of all days why today? An abundant supply of double edged kunai and large shuriken, sized larger than the man's hand. Each had a long katana strapped to their hip along with their equipment and a few small scrolls, just in case. Both adorned masks of a similar shape; the woman's was in the shape of a wolf tinted blue with a single stripe under it's left eye while the man's was also in the shape of a wolf, but fangs lined where the mouth should be and had multiply scratch marks over the surface. Clearly he had been through many battles.

Before they headed back to the door, Enkai grabbed his lover gently by the arm and stared at her for the longest time. No words were exchanged between the two, only a small nod of understanding and a soft stroke of his fingers against her gloved hands. Silently they left the house to face the threat brought upon their village.

Sadly…it would be the last time they would see one another…

Somewhere in the midst of the battle, it turned for the worse. The dreaded demon of five tails, Houkou, was having her way with the village and its people. She sent her victims into a whirlwind of nightmares, flooding their thoughts of their loved ones dying grotesque and unimaginable deaths to her pleasure. She fed from the fear in their eyes and the very thoughts that lurked inside their hearts. The demon of the pure, she was called. But there was nothing pure to her intentions. Why she was bestowed that title, no one ever knew.

What had caught the village's attention aside from the demon's reign was the mass hoards of people running through the town, burning things as they went "attempting" to destroy what all the demon has touched. Their minds only held intentions of tearing apart what they believed would kill the ones they loved and cared for. It was catastrophe where ever they turned and no end could be seen.

Teams of the top shinobi in the village were ordered to take down the demon while the lesser ninja were instructed to calm down the people and break them from the illusionary nightmare before they caused more damage to themselves and the public.

One such nin ordered to stay behind in the village was Karei…Enkai's lover. But the young woman could not stand the thought of knowing that he might not come back alive. Houkou was a formidable demon and even their strongest force was no match against her or her genjutsu. She was thought to rival the very Nine-tailed demon himself, though not nearly as lust driven for blood as he. There was always a point to her carnage some believed. Other just thought she was a demon acting as all should. Either way, the change for survival was next to non existent.

It was thought to be a losing battle…

And she would be damned to let him die.

Big mistake…

Houkou howled with a demonic laughter at the humans' futile attempts to wound her. She had faired through a mass of their weak and strong attacks alike. The only mark to show for their fight was a single diagonal gash across her muzzle given to her by the man who's lover lay disposed on the ground. Said reckless human insisted to attack her head on with only a mind driven by rage and lust for blood and revenge for one innocent who had fallen. By a toppled tree rested a broken body bearing a child that would never be named amongst the splintered bark. Her frame was twisted around almost completely from the hip with an arm hanging by a few remaining pieces of tendon. Blood pooled in great amounts around the tree, more than what a normal human should,staining the ground to a hard, dead colored brown while a pair of darkened yellow eyes stared blankly at the gore below as another crimson tear dripped from the slitted eye.

"I'LL KILL YOU!!!" he screamed over and over again to the demon, unsheathing his blade for the second time then springing forward to slash at her flank. But she only laughed and swiped a massive paw to bat him away with ease. His body was flung hard against the very tree that held his love, but he couldn't dare to look at it again. Tears gathered in his eyes as he envisioned the very scene that lay next to him. His strength seemed to leave him…

What was there to fight for? The village? The very people that had sent his beloved Karei to her death? He slumped to the ground in exhaustion and helplessness. His body was soaked heavy in blood from both himself and his fallen comrades, and of course Karei. How he tried to save her…to stop the excessive bleeding. But all his healing spells were useless against something so extensive and severe. His armor had long since shattered, revealing the straps of cloth from his uniform dangling limp off his body. He could barely stand under the weight of so much stress on his body, but he forced himself to assume another attack stance and prepare to fight the beast again. If not for himself…or the village….or his fallen comrades…then for Karei.

Again Houkou laughed, baring her long, glistening fangs in his direction. She taunted him by lying down and exposing her neck in a submissive fashion. That dangerous, yet beautiful smile still plastered across her face. "Be glad child…" she spoke softly, "that I spared your life. There is no trick that I know that could bring you the pain that consumes your heart…but it brings me pleasure to see such hate and malice in your eyes." Her tails danced lazily behind her, in a calm, soothing ballad or raw power. Even Enkai was finding it difficult to stay blood thirsty as he watched them. "If you were of my kind…" she continued, "you would truly be a worthy mate."

The tails ceased their dance and raised high behind her, displaying power and authority over the human. Houkou dipped her head only slightly and met the defeated, hurt, and angry eyes of the human. "Until next time…" And like the shadows of the nightmares she conjured, she slipped away into darkness with only her haunting howl fading after.

Enkai continued to stare at the place where the demon once stood, his body reluctant to move under so many reasons; one could not count them all in a day. "Karei…" He whispered to his love, yet still would not gaze upon her. His voice was broken and raspy, holding back the cry trying so hard to escape, "I will join you...one day…my love…I will see you again."

Then his world turned black.