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PROLOGUE

Elevator

Tatsumaki Kanade would be the first to admit that she didn't remember The World Before in as much detail as her mother did. She did remember, however, that it had a lot less food-persons.

... No, that's not quite it. The World Before had more food-persons in it if she counted them, yes, but then it had a lot of not-food persons in it as well — persons like Kanade and her mother — and the not-food persons ate the food-persons, so there was much less food-persons for Kanade and her mother to eat. And she remembered that there were rules there, too. She remembered how stupid those rules were.

Kana should wear a mask, Kana should not use the name Kanade when eating, Kana shouldn't eat too much, Kana should pretend to be a food-person, Kana shouldn't eat the little food-persons, Kana shouldn't do this, Kana should do that, Kana should roll over and play dead.

Tatsumaki Kanade hated rules, almost as much as she hated being hungry while surrounded by food-persons in The World Before. The World Now didn't have such rules — even if her mother liked to pretend that it did — and it had more food-persons for them to eat. The World Now also smelled better: it didn't have as much of that poopy garbage smell that Kanade hated so much, and the food-persons smelled sweeter, tastier, than the ones in The World Before. Kanade loved The World Now. It was perfect.

Which was why she didn't get why her mother wanted to go "home" to The World Before so badly. Whenever she asked her, her mother only smiled that smile that made Kanade feel all sorts of weird and sad, and said something about how they didn't belong in this world, and going back to The World Before would be best. The World Before was the world they came from, and it's where they belonged.

Kanade didn't believe her.

Three months later, on her sixth birthday (her first in The World Now), she would stare numbly at her mother's broken body (it's so weird that a not-food person like her mother looked just like a food-person on the inside, and Kanade would briefly wonder if she looked like that inside as well, but she really, really didn't wanna know—). She would cry as her mother's sightless eyes reflected the blue sky, and she would wish that she could take it all back: all the times she wished they could stay in The World Now forever, all the times she wished her mother would never find a way back to The World Before. Because Kana's very sorry—

—sorry, Kaa-chan! I'm sorry! I didn't know! I didn't! I didn't know didn'tknowdidn'tknow!

Kanade had no idea. How was she to know that the food-persons in The World Now could hurt them back? Food never fought back before — they never shot fire out of their mouths or moved the wind with their hands — they just screamed and begged and showed their insides and got eaten. It was how the world worked.

Only, she was no longer in the world she knew. Not anymore. The World Now wasn't the world in which she and her mother were the hunters, in which they were the monsters that hid in the shadows.

This was the world in which her mother was helpless, killed by a stray attack by (monsters, a voice in Kanade's head whispered) people she would find out were called "shinobi." Her mother died, just like that, the same way food-persons died — just like that — in The World Before.

In this world, Kanade was prey. If she's not careful she could, and would, die just like that.

A/N: There. I finally did it. I've been wanting to write a TG/Naruto crossover fic, and it took me FOREVER to figure out just how to write it, but there you go. First chapter — or prologue, whatever — featuring our protagonist-chan, who is a ghoul and an OC. TG storyline will not exist here, in any shape or form, so if you're hoping for that, I'm saying now that you won't find it here, sorry.

Hmm, what else to warn you about...

OH! Pairings! As of now this will be very gen, because of stuff. If there will be any romance, not that I'm saying that there would be, then it would be pretty mild and probably mostly unnoticed, going by our protagonist's eventual problem with kissing food, of all things. There will be Friendship with a capital F though! And drama. Angst is a given.

Tell me what you think!