A small blonde boy stepped through a cold, dark forest made of spruce trees coated with an inch of snow, the ground of the forest blanketed in 2 inches of snow, snow consistently falling from the sky, maintaining the soft blanket on the ground more so than adding to it. The child's strides looked more like he was waddling instead of walking, the large first aid kit draped across his torso and handing to his side like a messenger bag only added to the comical image.
The boy shivered, naturally seeing as he was only wearing blue shorts and a long-sleeve white shirt, blue shoes adorning his feet, making a swirling imprint in the snow with each step the boy took, shivering with little puffs of visible air coming out of his mouth each time he breathed.
The boy stopped, scratching his head as he looked around, staring at his surroundings. 'I thought… wasn't this supposed to be south? Moss grew on the south side, right?' the boy thought to himself, looking at the trees, trying to find moss and failing. Deciding he might have just passed through a mountain range or something, the boy continued his trek forward, his first aid satchel bouncing on his hip with each step, his right hand gripping it loosely so that it did not flap too much and potentially get caught on a stray branch or something.
As the boy continued to stride forward, his eyes began to notice a large stream on menacing smoke billowing upwards into the sky from further ahead of him, dispersing into the air slowly. The boy's eyes glimmered slightly as he watched the smoke slowly billow upwards into the sky, his left hand grasping the strap of his first aid bag, his right hand snaking under the bag and grasping it tightly. The boy wanted to smile, hoping he could help some people, but knew that it would be wrong to be happy in a situation like this.
Regardless, the boy began to run towards the billowing smoke, towards the beginning of his story.
A small blue haired girl strode through the hot land that made up her home, her bare feet burning slightly with each step, the ground coated with 2 inches of soot, the air slowly swirling ash around her home like a canopy. What had caused the destruction of her home, at this… absolute level, the young girl did not know, nor could she fathom it. Her family, they were the strongest. They hunted danger beasts for food every day, they killed weak bandits for their valuables, they were the strongest.
The girl groaned slightly, her face scrunching up into a little pout, tears brimming the top of her lower eyelid as she looked around, seeing blood-soaked grounds, limbs hanging from burning rooftops, charred bodies, and even some bodies that were cut in half. The girl, for once in her life, was scared. It was a new emotion, one that the girl had immediately decided she hated. She loathed the feeling. It was foreign and disgusting. Unbefitting of a Partas daughter such as her.
The young girl's eyes slowed painfully to a stop on the shaking, shuddering body that was laying painfully on its back at the center of her home, next to the large compound that made up the main hall of her home. The girl wanted to run forward, but found that she could only stumble forward, her hands clasped in front of her mouth, tightly wound into a ball that grew whiter and whiter as she neared the body, sharply breathing as it grit its teeth, hand over its profusely bleeding stomach.
The girl slowly kneeled next to the body, a blue-haired man gritting his teeth and forcefully closing his eyes, his breath raspy and stuttered. The man's eyes opened sharply, immediately snapping over to the girl in a dazed state, fast and shaky as he attempted to steady his breathing. He grinned slightly, removing the hand from his stomach and placing it, despite the copious amounts of blood covering it, onto the little girl's shoulder, grasping it firmly.
"Heh, heh, re-remember, heh, The Strong Live and The Weak Die. Always, ulgh, always remember that… Es h…" the man's words lost strength as he laid his head down, eyes slowly closing until his breath stopped, his hand falling limply off of the girl's shoulder and loudly onto the ground, making a slap sound as it landed in the puddle of his own death.
The now named Esdeath said nothing as he leaned forward over her father's body, her blue hair shadowing her face. Her mind had shut down, unable to fully process the situation she found herself in, her father's dead body at her knees, her body coated in his blood.
"Helloooo~ Hey! Anybody here!?" A loud, annoyingly high-pitched voice cut into Esdeath's mind, the sheer annoyance it brought her breaking her trance, and somehow distracting her from her situation. Esdeath turned around slightly, her chin over her left shoulder. Her eyes drifted over the burning setting, before settling on a small blonde boy as he meandered through the wreckage, naive to the death that surrounded him, a comically-large first aid bag draped over his body and flapping against his hip as he walked.
Esdeath did not call out to him, his annoying voice already piercing her mind and she did not want to actually talk to him. Elgh. However, her silent prayers for him to ignore her were, well, ignored. The boy's eyes lit up as they landed on Esdeath's form, his face breaking from a large grin, a tooth missing from his top row of teeth and two from his bottom.
"Hey! Heya! Little girl!" The boy shouted at her, waving his hand as he ran towards her. As he neared, his eyes landed on the dead body next to the girl, his eyes widening as he realized the weight of the situation he had found himself in. His speed slowed to the waddle-pace he had in the forest, crouching down next to the girl and staring at the body. The girl's eyes watched him, a dead-ice glazing over her normally bright blue eyes.
For a moment, the pair were silent. Neither speaking nor moving. The boy continued to stare at the body, his face slowly contorting into grief, regret. Esdeath did not know what he had to grieve in this situation. Until, he spoke. "I…. I was too late. I-I ran as fast as I could but… I was too late." His voice was low, loathing. He was angry. But, sad. Esdeath was confused, but decided that, she shouldn't question it. She was angry and sad too. Perhaps the boy understood how she felt.
"He is my father. Or, was." Her soft voice caught the boy off-guard, breaking him out of some sort of trance he found himself in, causing him to shake his head and look at her, sapphire meeting ice. "Oh…" his voice trailed off. Now, he felt even worse. That was, until he noticed the blood smeared shoulder that Esdeath boasted.
"Oh oh oh are you hurt!?" The boy shouted in a manner that Esdeath couldn't fully describe as excited, but she couldn't fully deny that it wasn't excitement. It was odd to her. However, she did not correct his mistake, watching as he quickly approached her and began to tear into her clothing, trying to see the 'wound' she had on her shoulder until his eyes met bare, porcelain skin underneath her now destroyed sleeve.
"...No." Esdeath muttered, looking into the boys regretful eyes. She was annoyed, and he could tell. "Ahahaha uhhhhh," the boy looked around, at first thinking to grab the clothes off of the body but… that was just wrong. Seeing no other option, the boy quickly stripped himself of his long-sleeve white top, his chest now bare in the cold environment, to the girl.
"Here. It was my fault, so naturally I should be the one to fix it." The boy explained,
noting the somewhat surprised look on the girls face. Regardless of her shock, Esdeath drapped the shirt over her body, the shirt surprisingly a little too large for her, the sleeves coming past her hands and folding over them slightly.
"Thank you." Once more, the boy nearly missed her soft voice, though he smiled in a cheeky manner and rubbed the back of his head. "Hehe, no problem. Name's Naruto by the way, what's your name?" Ah, so his name was Naruto. Esdeath stared at him, before nodding slightly. "Esdeath Partas. Do you not have a surname?" The girl's innocent question broke the boy's smile and made his tear-lines darken slightly. "Y-Yes I have a surname, but… I don't like to tell people what it is." Naruto explained slowly, awkwardly trying to avoid the situation.
"Uhhahah, uhmmm, well I should be going. I'm trying to make it to the capital in at least the next week. I found your home while heading south." Naruto explained, going to stand up, until Esdeath's small hand clasped his wrist, forcefully tugging him down to her eye-level.
"I-I don't wan… You're not going south, idiot…" Esdeath's words trailed off, and she nearly giggled upon seeing the boy's exasperated and shocked face as it contorted into mental pain. "What!? Oh come on!" The boy groaned, clasping his forehead with his free hand, the one not in a claw grip courtesy of the small blue-haired girl near his knees.
"Agh! Which way is south then, since you're so smart huh?" Naruto angrily demanded, forcefully swiping his arm away from Esdeath, who mumbled something when he did. "I… I can show you… I-If you want." Esdeath stumbled on her words, not out of embarrassment, but she did not think she would feel a need to… get the boy's help. She… didn't want to be left alone in her burning home. And, while the boy's voice alone annoyed Esdeath, he was her only option at the moment.
The boy reared back slightly, his face in shock, before he crossed his arms and looked away. "Fine. Let's go then." Naruto demanded, until his eyes looked at Esdeath once more, who looked up at him with Icy blue eyes. His glare softened, until he reached down to her with his hand.
"Come on. I know it's hard now, and while it might not look like it, I know how hard those first steps after something like this can be. How bout a deal, since you've got my shirt and it's cold as heck here, I'll carry you so that you don't have to walk and I don't have to shiver, deal?" Naruto offered, his serene face calming Esdeath, who grasped his hand and nodded.
The boy closed his eyes and grinned, his missing teeth adding to his image, before he promptly turned around and held out his hands. "Come on then! Let's get goin!" The boy exclaimed excitedly. Esdeath grinned slightly, reaching her arms around his neck and allowing his arms to snake under her thighs, hoisting her up onto his bare back, the boy grinning.
"Heheh, here we go then! To the capital!" The boy shouted, waddling out of the burning Partas compound.
There's a little snippet of a full rewrite of The Medic that I've been thinking of doing. Give me your thoughts on whether or not you'd rather see a full rewrite or for me to continue what I've got, though I kinda don't want to.
If you want more information about why, I've noticed how shallow the characters are in my original chapters. They were hastily written, and their "development" happened within one page usually, or not touched on at all. And everything was rushed. I found that, looking back, I missed a huge opportunity with further exploring Naruto and Esdeath's upbringing after he found her, as well as a huge mistake in the development of their relationship. While it makes sense for them to be so close in later years, they clicked far too quickly for such different individuals in my original write. In this one, Esdeath is more reserved and cautious, even annoyed by Naruto. Though, having just experienced a great loss, Naruto is able to ease her thoughts by distracting her from them, and eventually she will find comfort in how he handles things, since it will be a further distraction from her grief. Though, as she gets older this evolves into what he know it is from my original chapters.
Anyway, give me your thoughts. Though, I might still just proceed with the rewrite. In certain areas, it really pains me to read the original chapters.