Before there was anything, there was one. He created the world known to all those who resided in it, called Earthland, and all things that move within it. Born from the defeat of the Enemy, He split the terrible creature into a great many beings. These were the Tailed Beasts, the Nine. Alongside them came the 5 Ephemeral Dragons, the ancestors of all dragonkind, each commanding one of the five Eternal Powers; Life, Death, Time, Space, and Energy. In time, they faded into myth and legend, but the Nine and the Ephemeral still exist, hidden in the world, awaiting His return.
Deep within the mountains, draconian ears picked up the sounds of terror and carnage. Human screams, to be precise. The roar of fire. The shattering of wood and stone. The rumble of a mountain crumbling and turning into a landslide. The footfalls of a creature that rivaled the dragons. The furious snarls and bellows of the beast responsible.
Invisible to any mortal gaze, eyes glowing dark blue opened, and wings as black as the abyss unfolded. With a silent flap, the Death Dragon soared from her nest like a wraith, up into the night sky.
Within moments, she was above the city that was being laid waste to by a titanic fox with nine tails as long as its body writhing behind it and eyes blood red. The humans were trying to push it back and failing miserably, in fact they had all but been wiped out along with the buildings. None were intact, but for a small one about a mile away. Blood drenched the stones that had been upturned, not one left on another. Corpses littered the rubble, those that were not visible buried beneath it.
"YOU HUMANS NEVER LISTEN! I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE ME IN PEACE!" The fox roared at those that were left.
"So that you can cause more chaos?! I think not!" A tanned, spiky blonde man retorted. "Whatever comes, keep hitting it! We will battle to the end and NEVER SURRENDER!"
Above, the dragon regarded the remaining humans with apathy.
'Humans, they evolve, but they do not change.' She sighed internally. It was their own actions that brought this end upon them, she wouldn't intervene. Death was a necessary part of life, her duty was to ensure that was upheld as the Death Dragon.
With hundreds of metres between it and the humans, the fox opened its jaws and aligned its tails above its head. Ethernano of two colours, red and blue, condensed into a compact sphere, which was ingested by the gargantuan, multiple tailed beast and it sank down on all fours. A red glow came from between the closed fangs, and the Nine Tailed Demon Fox spat out a massive ball of pure Ethernano the bore down on the few dozen living humans. In a blinding explosion of light, they were disintegrated.
"The ignorance of humanity has not changed with the millennia that have passed, would you not agree?"
The demonic being looked up at her whilst she descended on pitch black wings to stand beside him. "I saw them at the beginning, as did you, and they have changed only in terms of their means. What our Father sees in them, I do not know. How long must we wait for the promise to be fulfilled?"
"Until he returns, or calls us home, here in his power we will stand. Remember, he came to save, not to condemn." She replied.
A sharp sound reached both of their ears. The cry of an infant. It came from the one structure the Nine Tails had left intact. Taking brief flight, the Death Dragon landed beside it and gazed in the window. Inside were countless children, all infants. Two in particular caught her attention, a sickly blonde boy and a strong black haired boy. Her claws gripped the roof, and she safely tore it off and cast it aside.
"I saw no children in the city, this must be where they were taken."
"Alas, one good thing has come of this day, though it is small in comparison to the hundreds of deaths I felt. You killed no children today Kurama, even in your rage."
The great fox frowned as he came to her shoulder. "I have not heard that name in millennia, not since the Great Divide. It is strange to hear it again Nesa."
Nesa said nothing to acknowledge it. Instead, she gazed at the disturbingly silent, sickly child with immeasurable pity in her eyes, knowing his fate now that his family were all dead. "A tragedy for one so young to be condemned to die of agonising maledy."
"For the hundreds of lives I have taken today, I will save these ones." Kurama vowed.
His razor sharp claw came to rest on the boy's chest, and a small charge of bloody crimson went down the nail, into the baby. His pale skin returned to a healthy colour, and three whisker marks appeared on each cheek. The fox took his limb back and placed it back on the ground with care as not to shake the earth.
"Human and frail as they may be, I will not abandon them to die here."
"So you intend to care for them as if they are your own?" She inquired. "These ones we have found, they have the potential to walk in both worlds. The children can grow in His grace, learn our ways."
"If they survive the process. It has never been done before." The Nine Tailed Fox reminded her.
"A revolution begins with one person." She replied calmly.
"Human in birth, but they will not be so when their time has come. They will be Dragon Children."
An ethereal blue portal opened, and from it came a slender, male dragon of the same colour and aura. He spoke. "Your plan is dangerous Nesa, but it could bridge the divide between mankind and dragonkind."
"I am aware of the risk Kendri."
"Very well." Kendri consented.
Casting his field of vision down onto the infants, he settled his gaze on the black haired boy she'd identified with earlier. "I will take this boy as my apprentice."
With a shift in his body, an ethereal blue field burst outward, connected to his body by a tendril of energy between his wings, enclosing the three titanic beings and the infants in the building. It then imploded, transporting them to a massive underground chamber where gravity was immensely increased as opposed to the rest of the world to the point when even Kurama struggled for a few seconds before adjusting.
"So this is where you have resided all these millennia, deep beneath the earth, out of mortal reach." The fox remarked. "I am impressed by your ingenuity Kendri."
"I thank you Kurama, it took many decades to expand this with care enough to not cause a collapse. The rock will hold for an eternity, thus it is a safe haven for all those that wish to stay. Now, however, it will serve as a stronghold within which to raise these children. Are you aware of the conflict in the East and West?"
"I have felt the deaths of quite a few souls there." Nesa confided.
"The beginnings of a war over the value of human life, if I have heard correctly." Kurama spoke his piece calmly.
"Correct. There are many, many dragons here, among them is Damus. His power of Energy is what has set the rock such that it cannot erode or crack. His thoughts echo yours Nesa as you echo those of revolution, he believes granting humans the powers of dragons is the way to end the conflict. He has already taken an apprentice, a strong boy named Acnologia who remains on the surface world. Others have followed his example, and more seek humans as he did. Not all humans survive the power transference, but those that do now walk among us."
"You are building an army."
The fox's realisation resounded in the cave, one that the Death Dragon shared. The Space Dragon continued. "Indeed, we have been amassing a peacekeeping force, and the number who stand ready for the potential conflict rises by each cycle of the moon. At present we have 23 peacekeepers at the ready, with a human queen, Irene, at their head. She was the first. Acnologia is the only Ephemeral Dragon Child we have, but with these newborns, there is far less chance of their bodies rejecting the transference."
"Nesa, it is good to see you, sister." Damus' voice rang out across the chamber.
She inclined her head. "Brother, the millennia have treated you well."
The Energy Dragon had a pale blue glow from between his gunmetal grey scales and from his white eyes, as well as the inside of his mouth and body. There wasn't a single scratch on his scales anywhere.
"I wish to make one of these humans a Dragon Child." She stated clearly. Kendri concurred.
"As do I, brother."
Damus turned about and motioned with his head to follow. "Then come, I will show you the process."
Taking their selected child, the two Ephemeral Dragons followed their brother, the Nine Tails accompanying them as a mother dragon took watch of the infants. They were led to a series of engraved lines in the rock that were filled with a light blue liquid and laid the infants where directed.
When directed, they channelled their power into the liquid, not to harm but to transform, and it flowed into the baby boys. No visible changes happened, but there was now something different about them.
They were Dragon Children.
"Do they have names?" Damus inquired.
"No." That was the unified response he was given.
Gazing down at the blonde boy, Nesa pondered a name for the child, as Kendri did the same for the ebony. The Space Dragon decided first.
"Sasuke."
She thought a little longer, then decided.
"Naruto."