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The Birth Of Death
The life and times of the Black Death assassin
Chapter One
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I never asked to be born what I was. I never asked to be born at all. Had it been up to me, I wouldn't have ever existed in the form I took upon entering this world.
Half-blood. Half-breed. Half-demon. However you chose to say it, it meant the same thing. And it was what I was. To make it worse, my parents weren't even married. Not to each other, at least. My mother was human, married to one of Konohagakure's better-known shinobi, known as the "White Lightning," Hatake Sakumo. He was often away on important missions, and I suppose my mother got...bored, for lack of a better word, while he was out of town. As I was told, my father was a cat demon who traveled the country as a bounty hunter, and stopped in the village while my mother's husband was away on a mission to Mizugakure. My mother quickly took a liking to him, and I was born soon after he left for Sunagakure in pursuit of a target. Sakumo had returned not long before, and although he was incredibly hurt upon learning of his wife's affair, with a youkai, no less, he recognized me as his own child, despite my obvious differences from the rest of his family. His son, my half-brother, seemed indifferent at the time. Of course, Kakashi, only being seven, could be expected to be absorbed in his own life and trials and caring nothing for such things as a younger sibling.
I never met my real father. If he had ever bothered to grace his half-blood daughter with so much as a glimpse of him, I don't remember. The only things I had to convince me that he had ever existed were the black leather collar with the golden bell and the Roman numeral tattoo he had insisted be carved into the skin below my right shoulder: "XIII." Unlucky thirteen. An omen of what was to come? A subtle hint as to all the things I would be forced to endure? Foreshadowing of the things I would do, of what I would become? Who knows. But if he did know, if he could see my future, he was one sick son of a bitch to do this to me.
Upon Sakumo's death, I was left without a father figure at all. It wouldn't matter, however. I didn't need one. Sure, a father could have prevented my mental and emotional instability, but these scars have made me what I am today. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. And this power, I would change for nothing else. This strength is all I need.
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"Get lost, half-breed."
Once again, I was getting kicked out of a public place by the other kids, this time being evicted from my place under my favourite tree in the park, where I spent most of my free time reading whatever I could get my hands on.
"For God's sake, this is a public place, ain't it? I can read here if I want to," I snapped in my defiant seven-year-old voice, tired of having to get up and find a different place to read. I had been doing that all morning, and it was really starting to piss me off. Already, I was the most looked-down-upon figure in Konohagakure, and I hadn't even become a Chuunin yet. Graduating from the ninja academy had been easy for me. My chakra control was much better than most my age, and the amount of chakra my body contained was off the charts, at least for a place populated almost entirely by humans. Performing the Bunshin no Jutsu to pass and become a Genin was a simple task for me, and I found it annoying that they wouldn't give me a more difficult test. But, still, Genin was Genin, so I took what I was given and did as I was told on missions while trying to keep myself above bickering with my rival, Uchiha Itachi. I never did win an argument with him, and fighting him would just be stupid. But I never quit trying to best him in other things, be it training exercises or getting a higher score in the written part of the Chuunin exams. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.
"Yeah, it's a public place, so what?"
"So that means everyone can be here, stupid," I said, calmly flipping another page over and continuing to read.
"Yeah, but I'm not so sure you count as someone. You're not a person."
My eye twitched. My voice lowered a bit, remaining calm, but with a dangerous edge to it. "You want to repeat that, jerk?"
"Yeah. You're not a person, half-breed."
In an instant, my book was on the ground and he was up against a tree, my hand at his throat. "Demons and half-demons are people too, bastard. That's like saying someone with a different skin colour isn't a person. That's like saying someone with a birth defect isn't a person. It's racism, pure and simple. And if you're going to purposely say those things to piss me off, I'm gonna show you exactly how my people deal with jackasses like you."
I didn't really know how "my people" dealt with people they hated. From what I had heard, some of them tore out their enemies' throats, or just plain tore them apart. I wasn't actually going to do that, but I figured if I scared this idiot enough, he'd leave me alone, at least until tomorrow.
I tossed him aside and glared down with my gold-hued eyes, satisfied when I saw him shudder. "Now get the Hell away from me, before I get really pissed."
He stood up and ran away. However, his last words before doing so didn't escape my sensitive ears.
"Just die, bakemono."
My interest in my book was gone. Picking it up, I turned the corner of the page down to mark my place and turned to leave, my eyes meeting those of my older brother.
"Kuro, you're only making things worse for yourself by doing that," he told me through the mask he always wore over his face, his one visible eye looking bored. "You're only making them believe that they're right about you."
"They'd believe they were right no matter what I do, Nii-san," I muttered. "They just don't listen."
"Aa, I know. But attacking them is only going to make matters worse. If the Yondaime gets into this, it's not going to be pleasant." He sounded a little sympathetic, almost as though he knew what it was like to get a punishment from the Hokage himself.
"I don't care. The Yondaime's just like the rest of them," I snapped, not caring that he was only trying to help.
He sighed. "If that's what you think, I really can't change your mind. Just try not to let them get to you." And with that, he was gone, likely to speak with his teammates about his next Jounin mission.
And again, I was alone.
As I always was.
As I always would be.
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Author's note: Well, I thought I'd test this out. Lackofname desperately wants to know about Kuro's backstory, and I was planning on writing it out anyway, so here's the first chapter. I'm not sure how many chapters will be in this story, and I don't know how often the updates will happen, so you might want to put this on your story alerts, just in case. Who knows? If we're all extremely fortunate, I'll be able to put up more than one chapter in one day. Don't expect that to happen regularly, though, if it happens even once. That will NOT be the case all the time.
Review, don't flame, and if you don't like this character, then don't read the goddamned story. It's your choice. I'm just writing out all the things I've worked out for her backstory and the reasons she's so messed up. I'm sure you have some OCs that I really wouldn't like, and I would be considerate about it and not tell you how much they suck or how stupid they are. I expect the same courtesy from you.