-Tsunade's POV-

"Tsunade-sama, look at all the pretty flowers I picked for you!"

"Tsunade-sama, this flower reminds me of you! Because it's so pretty!"

"Tsunade-sama, when I grow up, I want to be as strong as you! I want to be the strongest kunoichi in my village!"

She was so cute back then. What happened to her?

My thoughts traveled so far in my mind, I didn't even realize I was standing atop the roof of the hotel, and beneath me, I could imagine the room of which she was kidnapped quite clearly, though I had never seen it. I could still hear Hotaru's faint sobs that seemed to drift into the hallway from the closed up room. I could still feel that sudden sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I could still see her in my mind's eye, tall, matured, all grown up…she was exactly how I pictured she would end up. Everything but her eyes. Her eyes were still silver gray, but they were so much colder, now, so much deeper and darker. The eyes of one who has seen gruesome and brutal deaths before them, and no longer is effected. A poor child that has seen the sins of this world.

I remember well of a time not long ago when the child came to this village, this at-one-time-peaceful village. The child was such a shy and innocent one, hiding constantly and concealing herself from strangers. However, she at once warmed up to me and Jiraiya. She never once pulled away or tried to hide. I even remember the day I met her. Her "father," the Sixth Barrakage, was visiting the village with her, and not-even-one-year-old Hotaru, and the child even then was shy. I'm not quite sure how old she was, but when I came to greet them with Jiraiya at the gates, I immediately fell for the little girl. She had the longest black hair I had ever seen, and the prettiest gray eyes, soft, gentle, but cold, as well. She was so pretty, and although her "mother" constantly nagged her about wearing lighter colors, prettier, girlish colors, the child still looked extremely cute in her light blue and grass green kimono.

"My, aren't you a cute little thing. What's your name?"

"Um…uh…Rika…."

So shy she was, and when her "father" eagerly pushed her to greet the powerful Sannins, she was still shy, but she somehow walked out from behind him, and came walking slowly towards me, while I had fallen to one knee, and held my hands out to her. I believe she had stumbled, but I never regretted that fact, as she had fallen into my arms, and before I realized it, I was holding her in my arms, as if she was my own child. Even Jiraiya took a fondness to her, as I held her then, he patted her head, and she even smiled lovingly, (yes, I said lovingly), at him. I even remember how warm she was, but I'm sure most of the warmth was from the red blush on her face. After that, she was not so shy around me or him, but she was well shy around other strangers. We brought her to meet the Fourth Hokage and the other Jonin, and she hid behind us, while her "family" was out and about. It seemed as if they had abandoned her, and wanted nothing to do with that sweet child. Yondaime grew easily attached to that little girl, as the moment she appeared before his eyes, he literally welcomed her with open arms. The little girl was so sweet, and she, herself, grew attached to the blond Hokage.

She even had a habit, during the time of her stay, to call me "Mama," something I never heard her call her own "mother." She stayed by my side, and when she wasn't near me, she would go off on her own, and return to me with beautiful bouquets of flowers. I remember of when I once asked her why she called me that, and it was her answer that took my heart away.

"Because you are to me what Mother never could be. I want to look up to someone, to be like someone, to care and love someone like a daughter and mother should. And to me, you are that someone, Tsunade-sama! You are my Mama Tsunade! You are...my heart-mama!"

I smiled fondly in the memory, as I had nearly cried when she spoke those words. I even remember the day that happened. I had come upon the Sixth Barrakage, and begged to take his beautiful daughter with me to the field of flowers on the outskirts of the village. He honestly couldn't have cared less. When I took Rika with me, she and I seemed to dance in the large field of flowers, and when I had asked of that reason, she merely smiled at me and gave me a beautiful pink lily, and placed it in my hair behind my ear.

"A flower so beautiful should only envy the beauty of the woman who wears it."

Tears stung my eyes as I thought of that once beautiful little child. Where did she go? Somehow, the world around her seemed to morph and change her into what she is now, and although she is quite lovely now, that stroke of innocence and purity had long since vanished. She was no longer that beautiful little girl now, but a beautiful young woman who was not afraid of death…or Hell.

"Tsunade?"

A voice came from behind me, and I at once turned to see Jiraiya standing a few feet away from me, standing closer to the entrance of the hotel. A concerned look was on his face, a look as if he knew what was going through my mind, not like I didn't know what was going through his. I knew, he knew, we both knew and realized in this silent and brief moment, the little girl we knew long ago was the one that was missing now, not the woman, but the child. Jiraiya approached me, and seemed to become locked in my eyes. I could still hear her voice, though, calling out my name…mine, and his.

"Mama Tsunade! Papa Jiraiya!"

"I know it hurts, Tsunade. To suddenly realize that…that little girl from long ago had not only grown up, but had also changed. That sweet little child…she has seen her real power, her real strength, and she's not shy or afraid anymore," Jiraiya spoke calmly to me. Words still echoed in my mind as I turned away from him, and stared up at the pitch black sky, the white orb of the moon sending beautiful blossoms of light down onto the city that I seemed to control and reign over.

"As years pass by before the child's face, wars rage around it, and it finds itself and the parasite that made it, and the world around it. When the child finally overcomes the virus that controls it, it will see the darkness of the storm, the shadows that dance over the pools of blood, and will see the eyes of the demon that started it all. It will see its own reflection…."

"Jiraiya, do you remember what…Yondaime told us all after Rika and her family left that night? About the child in the storm of darkness?" I asked of the man, who seemed slightly stunned that I would remember such a speech of anger and evil. But I did, and there was no way of ridding myself of it.

"Of course. It made me think of Rika, and how naïve she is to the darkness around her, to the world around her," he responded to me, but I could hear the fear, the sudden shudder of terror that seemed to rage through my veins, and probably through his own.

"Well…what if it wasn't just a speech, a saying that meant we needed to protect this girl? What if it was actually a prophecy? What if he was predicting the coming of certain events?" I asked of Jiraiya, turning to him and seeing his eyes stare at me with concern and fear.

"You mean, what if that little girl, Rika, suddenly becomes evil? Are you actually saying that there's a chance that girl can change so quickly and create such damage?" Jiraiya asked of me, accusing me of speaking of nonsense, when it really didn't seem like it.

"Why not? Rika has grown so much stronger and powerful. Earlier today, she shattered a sake glass in the bar that was at minimum four meters away, and she crushed it into dust. It is without a doubt that she has gotten stronger, let alone...Her eyes, Jiraiya, they were colder, darker. She's changed," I spoke to him.

"But she wouldn't kill anyone, would she? I mean…years ago, she was traumatized to even see blood, how could she kill so many people and cause so much chaos?" he asked of me. I didn't know how to answer him. Something in my stomach knotted painfully as I imagined this once innocent little girl suddenly becoming destructive and deadly, and all because of what had happened to her years ago. Perhaps it was that drumming, falling sensation that succumbed me as I thought of this girl staring up at the black sky, blood covering her face and body like crimson light, and her silver eyes just staring up in pure fear. She screamed...and her screams pierced through the night and echoed through the sky, like an echoing siren that was without a doubt an omen of the destruction of the village. Torn, destroyed, and broken, that child left the village that was shattered due to her, and even though it had been years since she last was here, a part of me...no, all of me, felt that same fear and horror would come once again...