Prologue: The Storm

Part 1

2013

March

Shiro Village

North sector

Delasko Shrine Compound

11.45 pm

Hinata jolted up from a nightmare, the fourth time this week, but like any other dream it already it had began to fade into nothingness. She tried to replay the images in her mind, but all she could see was the flashing phantoms of corpses that littered the ninja training grounds of T-17. Hinata tried to shake them away, furiously thrashing her head from side to side letting out a small sigh of relief as it worked for a brief moment.

Why she wanted to see those horrific images again, God only new.

A loud boom of lightning was thrown across the night sky, setting it a blaze, and the rain drummed heavily against her window causing it shudder and vibrate.

She propped up her flawless naked body against the cool wall covering herself with the thin blanket as she pondered on the last stubborn images of the dream, the ones which just wouldn't seem to relinquish them selves, and continued to flash away in her mind. The young Delasko girl shook her head violently once again, but this time to no avail. She rested her head in her hands giving a slight sob at the sight of her friends that lay dead on the cold, stony ground. Other then the sound of slight whimpers of sorrow that reverberated around the room, the sound of a small object hit the wooden floor, bounced, and rolled across the floor. Breaking out of her state of depression, Hinata spotted the cause of the sound, a small piece of fashioned oak that once lay in her hair, holding it in place. She reached out to collect it only to be startled by the sudden darkness that fell upon the room, only to realise that this was no phantom, it was only her hair that had swept into her eyes. Hinata then returned the intricately designed hair pin back in place, pinning up her naturally occurring lavender hair into a tight fold.

Looking over at her clock the time was twelve o'clock dead.

Hinata returned her head back to the safety of her hands, fumbling with her phone, trying desperately to pick it up in an almost zombie like state. About 5 seconds had past when she succeeded in picking it up.

Tapping a few buttons brought the phone to life, the time was eleven forty-five. Dropping her phone to the futon she watched it bounce off to the floor with a muffled thud. Not caring to pick it up she looked at the clock again seeing it was still 12:00, only this time it was blinking. 'The power must be out' she thought while reaching above her head flicking the light switch on and off trying to prove her theory.

Nothing.

Leaving the warmth of her bed, Hinata moved over to the large maple framed window. She stood in the window with an elegant stance and looked over the sold granite wall that surrounded the entire Delasko compound, a wall so large that it put to shame even the most experienced of masons.

Peering over the large wall, Hinata could only see a few men drenched from the down poor working on a fallen pylon, 'probably struck by lightning' she thought to herself. They were trying to restore its power. She gazed carefully through the thick sheet of rain and could make out a small crane. On a clear day, the view from her window overlooked the entire village, able to see as far as the south wall, and all the way to the east.
Focusing back into reality, Hinata noticed that one of the men was resting on a soaked bench with a cigarette in hand. Sheltering it from the rain, he took a rather large puff from its contents. Lethargically he rubbed his eyes, trying any desperate attempt to stay awake.

He looked around his surroundings, trying to find something to take his mind of the cold rain that trickled down his neck. He then eyed Hinata, standing in her window when all of a sudden his jaw dropped slightly. Hinata began to ponder why, looking down at the front garden for an answer with a bewildered look on her face. She looked down at her feet and was startled. Vigorously she shut her curtains, bending down to pick up the blanket that had fallen to the floor.

Heart beating fast,

Breathing heavy,

She wiped the bitter sweat from her forehead and once again swallowed hard trying to catch her breath and forcing the lump that had formed in her throat down into the pit in her stomach. She looked around the room panning from side to side only seeing what she saw before, the light violet walls that seemed to light up the room.

Getting up she peered out of the curtains to spot that the one man was no longer there any more, on the contrary, all of the men where there, and they were all still staring at the window hoping to see Hinata once again.

"What is it with men these days, all they want to see and have is flesh and...other things," she said out loud to herself. She dropped her head with embarrassment as she could feel the heat from a blush, flushing across her face.

Rubbing her eyes tiredly, sitting on the somewhat of a cold floor she shuffled over to her phone leaving the safety of the blanket. She picked it up pressing a few buttons. "11.52," letting out a sigh of regret she climbed back into her bed once more trying to feel sleeps embrace.

Tossing and turning in her bed she switched from one side of the cold pillow to the other. Once again looking at her phone, 1:25 Am, Hinata twisted her body to the edge of the bed, stretching her legs over the very short side, placing her phone back down onto the wooden floor.

Hinata stood, and decided to go for a walk,

"I am not that tired anyways," she announced aloud. She searched the draws that surrounded her room, only to find the clothes that she had worn yesterday. Walking over to them, she bent down to pick them up, feeling the fabric gently caress her soft skin as it glided along her slender frame.

After a couple of minutes getting dressed she quietly slipped out of the front door while the guards were changing shifts. Pulling her lavender hood up over her head and started to walk down the misty road. Hinata began to mutter to herself, thanking Kami that it had stopped raining. She turned the corner, following the gentle curve of the surrounding wall, tracing her fingers along the natural lines of onyx that lined the tall structure. Hinata had always admired the wall. It was built strong enough to protect those who lived within its confines, ready to bear the brunt of any assault, yet beautiful enough not to destroy the angelic nature of the shrine.

A few more minutes had past, and Hinata was still held captive by her dream state. Her thoughts moved onwards to the village, the very same village that Hinata has yet to place one foot outside its grand walls. Shiro, meaning fourth son, was the fourth village to be raised in order to teach the way of the shinobi. Ninja were proud and loyal people, only taking assassination contacts that would benefit the ever changing world they lived in. Weather it be a high ranking General, or a simple group of mercenaries, if it benefited the land, they would be removed, one way or another.

Hinata was shunted back into reality, not realising that she had aimlessly wondered into the direction of the workers, walking past them she heard them call out to her, a high pitched whistle set the air alight. Hinata retreating further into her coat trying to shut the world away, this only aggravated the men causing them to follow her down the road. Hearing them coming closer, Hinata decided to move a little faster, feeling her heart pound heavily in her chest, she prayed that they would stop following her.
In a desperate attempt to get away fast Hinata began to run only to be stopped dead in her tracks. A powerful grip latched onto her wrist, tethering her to the spot.

"Hey hey hey don't do that, it's rude," one of the men shouted, not caring about the time of night it was. Hinata without thinking, spat back in a sudden burst of anger into the empty air in front of her,

"And spying isn't!"

She turned around completely only to see three men standing before her, a mere few inches separated Hinata from her impeding doom. A strong smell of tobacco infected the air around him radiating from his lungs and the odour from his body. 'God it stank like nothing else on this very earth,' she thought. She stepped back trying to get away from the stench only to be tripped over by another worker,

"why don't you give us another little show huh, hun!"

Slightly dazed from the fall, Hinata tried to gain her bearings, she noticed that they were far away from the front gate, and it would take a good few minutes for the guards to come to her aid. With her head still spinning, Hinata tried to sit up, it was futile as she must have got a concussion from the fall.

The piercing laughter from the workers was all that could be heard at the time. No rain, no thunder, just those voices, derived from Hinata's pathetic antics at regaining her composure.

One of the men crawled on top of Hinata laughing through his teeth, she tried to scream, only a tenth of a lung full got out before she began to feel the pressure he had exerted with his rough working hand onto of her mouth

"sshhhh, don't be like that, that would be bad," he exclaimed, his breath filling up her lunges. She struggled violently as she could feel his freezing cold hand snaking slowly up underneath her coat.

Hinata struggled and had freed his grasp from her lips "no please don't, please just let me go I won't tell anybody please!" Hot tears began to roll down her checks as the man said "oh no come on now, don't you want to be with me, well I su-"The worker unpredictably let out a large huff, as the air in his lungs was driven out of his body by a large black blur that had connected with his face and midriff, spraying a small amount of blood across the floor.

The worker went flying of the young Delasko priestess. Hinata looked over at her savoir, just a young lad, his t-shirt which was tucked into his long jeans and hung limply by his aside, exposing his sweaty muscular physique. Countless number of scars and bruises littered his torso, almost screaming the fact that this person was a shinobi. However, what was more interesting was that it was blindingly obvious that he was from the West and not born of this village.

Looking down to his boots, she could see blood splashed across them and going up onto his faded maroon jeans. Looking back over to the other workers she could see them just standing there, blinking in confusion at the fact that there friend just got beaten into a submission within mere seconds. One of the workers held a substantial torque wrench over his shoulder, but looked like he didn't really have the muscles to use it. Then out of the blue in the blink of an eye, the ninja had somersaulted over Hinata, who had curled up into a ball, he twisted in mid air to land on his hands performing a well balanced handspring landing right in front of the astonished workers.

He charged