CHAPTER 1
Deep inside the woods somewhere in the Land of Fire, far from any signs of civilization a mother gives birth to a child. A new life is about to enter the shinobi world under the prying eyes of their relatives. The woman strains and strains. Everybody has high expectations for the baby, so when the little girl finally spills into the warm water of the bathtub, a sigh of relief escapes the mother's lips. Female attendants immediately wrap the newborn baby into a soft towel.
The baby doesn't cry as she lay in her mother's arms, looking so pale and still – so frightfully still. Tears flow down the woman's cheek as she clutches her baby even closer to her chest. The disappointed looks she receives do nothing to ease the weight on her shoulders.
"Kyomi," whispers the mother being painfully aware that her work was not blessed by god. What use did this child have if it couldn't even defy the boundaries of her own blood?
But just as they're about to acknowledge another failure the girl's body suddenly flickers in the most royal purple. In the blink of an eye, everything in the near vicinity is engulfed leaving not even a speck of dust behind.
Kyomi finally opens her eyes as she floats on the warm water and starts to breathe, revealing her lifeless grey eyes. The faint smell of blood still lingers in the air.
She's five and she watches the kids play around in the orphanage of Konoha - the village hidden in the leaves. These boys and girls shout and run around the field, not noticing that they're being carefully watched. Still, Kyomi cannot understand.
When a hawk screeches as it circles around the ninja academy a few blocks away, Kyomi winces involuntarily, her tiny hands clutch her ears, her hectic eyes try to pinpoint the source of the sound. Something about birds just rubs her the wrong way. Soaring through the sky without a care in the world – the sky had no limits.
Oh, how she detests them. If she could just remove them from her sight, shoot them down, rip out their wings. To steal their freedom, to take what she does not have, to stop this feeling bubbling in her che-
Kyomi turns around and stares.
Stares at the blonde boy sitting on the swing under the shadow cast by the big tree, and soon the feeling in her chest starts to disappear. Kyomi cannot understand.
And so, she stares and stares with those big grey eyes – as grey as the shadow cast by the tree – devoid of any human emotion.
But she wants to understand.
The blonde boy flinches and closes his eyes when he hears the steps of someone approaching. Soon the footsteps stop, and he can hear nothing but the excited screams and shouts of the other children. Nothing is happening.
He decides to lift his head and sees a small girl, even smaller than him, with the softest black hair he has ever seen framing her delicate face and those stunning doll-like grey eyes staring at him.
"H-Hello?" he stutters as he straightens his back. But the girl only slightly tilts her head and stares. Stares at him with no contempt in her eyes, no hatred, no disgust, no… nothing. And he stares back. Because there are no words that need to be said.
A sudden grin spreads on his face – the brightest smile Kyomi has ever seen, with those radiant white canine-like teeth. It looks nice so she tries to smile back but her entire face feels stiff – so extremely stiff.
The boy's grin grows even wider at the sight of her funny facial expression. "I'm Naruto and I'll be the Hokage one day!" he proudly announces.
The girl tilts her head once again. "Hokage?"
Kyomi tightly holds Naruto-kun's hand as they find themselves on the grounds of the Ninja Academy. Naruto-kun excitedly releases her hand as he tries to take a better look at the old man – his ojii-san - holding a speech about ninja and the path they are about to take.
She filters out the speech and the excited kids tugging at their parents' sleeves – mouth agape in awe because of seeing the Hokage in person - until there is nothing but static in her head.
She looks at her left hand - the hand that Naruto-kun had held in his own. His hand feels warm – so soothingly warm - but her hand feels cold – so familiarly cold. His warmth still lingers in her hand. It feels nice, she thinks as her dull eyes search for her source of warmth until she finds him sitting on a tree.
Kyomi wants to be warm for once in her life.
Both children are standing amidst the crowd completely unbothered by all the shinobi parents and the shinobi children who already know how to strike to hurt and handle weapons along with the strange looks pointing their way.
She's six and Kyomi attends her first kunoichi class. And it does not feel right. They are learning Ikebana – how to make flower arrangements – as part of her ninja training.
"This does not look very pretty," says the teacher with a frown on her face as she reviews Kyomi's work. The other girls just giggle as if their arrangements aren't any better. None of the arrangements look pretty – not even the one her teacher set as an example. Nothing is pretty. She has never seen anything pretty. So, she has no choice but to try to imitate her teacher's style.
Kyomi does not like kunoichi classes nor does she like the girls attending these classes. She wants to return to the joint lessons.
After classes finally end a girl kicks her lower leg making her stumble head-first to the ground. The remaining girls laugh with their high-pitched voices just like hyenas ogling their prey. They kick her and trample on her body until they are chased away by Iruka-sensei. The man rushes to her and helps her up.
"Are you okay?" sensei asks worriedly as Kyomi slowly collects her thoughts. The other children are very cruel and make fun of her. So maybe if she was very fierce and just as cruel as those things, she would be so superior that they would not dare.
She's eight when she comes across a rusty knife tossed away on the riverbank during another survival expedition. The handle fits right into her frail hands as though it was made just for her. She swings it around with such precision as if she knew how to handle such a weapon – as if she was born to wield this knife.
But the academy would not teach civilians something so dangerous until they were a few years older. Instead, they listen to lectures, learn the Shinobi rules, and arrange flowers.
Kyomi can't wait to get older. A bubbly feeling spreads in her chest as she tosses the rusty knife back into the river. After all, a piece of rust that can't cut is no knife.
Kyomi is ten and attends their first real practical taijutsu lesson after learning all the katas, stances and forms of the Konoha Standard style. When she is assigned a certain other girl to spar against the gears in her head start turning and her body immediately starts to move.
Kyomi does not forget. She never forgets. So now she can finally show them how cruel she is - that she is superior, that she is the one who stands above them. She beats her opponent senseless, makes her bleed and even after her enemy is out cold, she does not stop until Iruka-sensei has to separate them.
Her unlucky sparring partner is sent to the nurse to have her wounds treated while Kyomi is told to run laps until she understands what she did wrong. But Kyomi cannot understand. So, she runs laps for the rest of the day. But she doesn't mind because she is just missing Ninjutsu and kunoichi classes.
Her distaste for kunoichi class only grew over the past years as soon as they introduced seducing techniques. At least she now knows what it feels like to have someone wrapped around her finger, doing everything she wants with just a single word, have them begging for more-
Neither does she like Ninjutsu classes. Using chakra is easy – so very easy. Kyomi does not understand why Naruto-kun has so much trouble controlling his chakra. But after performing just one or two E-rank jutsu her head starts to feel dizzy – so uncomfortably dizzy – and her body starts to feel so numb. She knows how to use the Henge-no-Jutsu and the Bunshin-no-Jutsu to utter perfection, but sensei still makes her perform it again and again even though her head feels like it is going to burst open any second and leave a mess of blood behind-
The sun starts to go down, ribbons of orange and gold spread across the sky against the red-tinted buildings of Konoha. Kyomi breathes through the unpleasant sting in her lungs, takes one last look at her bruised and bloody knuckles and feels nothing but soothing satisfaction as she closes her eyes and collapses to the ground.
She is eleven and all the girls in her class start to behave very strange – so very strange – and start to fight each other because of their one and only Sasuke-kun. They say they can't be friends anymore because they have to be the perfect girl for their beloved Sasuke-kun. Kyomi does not understand.
She stares intently at the back of Sasuke-kun's head. He's the last one left of the Uchiha Clan after the Massacre. He belongs to one of the founding clans of Konohagakure. He is interesting.
Kyomi can see his rage. A rage so vast like the endless ocean during a thunderstorm, the rough waves hitting her, the violent torrents pulling her, the raging water threatening to drown her underwater until she loses her sense of direction, loses her breath, and suffocates in the deepest depths of the ocean where no light reaches her. He feels warm. Naruto-kun also feels warm. Both feel warm in a different yet similar way.
Kyomi decides she likes Sasuke-kun, too. But probably not the way those other girls like him.
"Kyo-chan, I-I have something to tell you," mutters Naruto-kun the day after they graduated from the academy. He explains that he is the Kyuubi that destroyed the village. Oh, that's why, thinks Kyomi as she hugs Naruto-kun tightly trying to stop him from trembling.
"Naruto-kun is still Naruto-kun." But now she understands why she can see so much rage inside Naruto-kun. A scorching fire so hot that it burns her skin just by being in its near vicinity, the boiling lava inside the giant volcano threatening to suddenly erupt and destroy everything in its wake, burn everything down, and cook her alive until her skin starts to dissolve, until nothing but bones are left, until her whole body evaporates into thin air.
Yes, Naruto-kun feels so warm.
Kyomi sits in between Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun as sensei announces the new genin teams. "Team 7. Nisora Kyomi, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke." Disgruntled murmurs echo around the room, both from boys and girls alike. A silent pout appears on Naruto's face, but no sound of objection comes from the new Team 7 themselves.
Kyomi is happy – so uncharacteristically happy – because her new teammates are the only interesting and warm people inside this room. She immediately grabs Naruto-kun's hand and tries to reach for Sasuke-kun's but he just slaps her hand away.
Kakashi-sensei gives Team 7 a final test before they can be full genin. Kyomi watches Naruto and Sasuke attack their very famous jounin-sensei with mild interest as she fiddles with her brand-new katana attached to her waist. Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun are very strong and can use so much chakra to perform difficult ninjutsu, she is still very weak, but sensei is so much stronger than all of them combined. Maybe ask for help, Kyomi thinks as she starts to search for her teammates scattered around the training ground.
Kakashi drops a genjutsu on her as she reaches a clearing. Leaves get picked up by a sudden gust of wind and Kyomi is momentarily distracted by the dance of the leaves. It looks nice - unlike real leaves.
She looks back ahead to find Naruto and Sasuke bleeding to their death. Kyomi kneels down and brushes a hand towards their 'blood' smearing her whole hand red. It's not warm, thus she unsheathes her katana and slices open the arm of 'Naruto'. It does not look real, so she straightens her back and walks over the 'dead bodies' while forming the correct hand sign. "Kai."
The genin do eventually manage to work together but it isn't until Sasuke and Kyomi decide to share their bento with Naruto that Kakashi-sensei pronounces their teamwork satisfactory and passes them.
After countless D-rank missions Naruto complains and Team 7 gets their first C-Rank mission. Their client Tazuna is drunk when they meet him for the first time. "I expect you to provide me super protection", he demands as he makes no effort to hide his disdain towards the genin that are supposed to protect him from some nobodies - some bandits at most.
When Team 7 leaves the village through the village gates Tazuna once again expresses his contempt by doubting their ability to protect him, so Kyomi narrows her eyes at the client. She does not like him – she does not like liars.
Along the journey to the Land of Waves Kyomi notices that Kakashi-sensei starts to fall behind. But when she looks at him with those innocent grey eyes, he just ruffles her hair fondly and smiles. Kyomi blinks and a metallic screech pierces her ears. Sensei is wrapped in chains, then blood spills across her face and the ground as the thick chains cut through sensei's body as if it was nothing.
Kyomi blinks one more time and another metallic sound comes from the side opposite of where Tazuna stands as the Demon Brothers approach her with their dangerous gauntlets covered with the acrid stench of poison. She immediately unsheathes her katana and watches in awe how one of the criminals, Meizu, with his body leaning to the front, runs straight into the tip of her brand-new polished and sharp sword impaling his liver in the process. With the whole weight of an adult male pushing her, she harshly falls to the ground, the now shocked criminal on top of her. Her grip on the katana loosens and the stab wound widens even further until even the Tsuba – the guard – is stuck inside his body.
Kyomi can feel the sticky pool of blood trickling down her arms and spreading on her stomach as Sasuke takes care of the second criminal. Her hands let go of the blade and slowly make their way up to Meizu's throat, her thumbs press into his trachea, her nails dig into his skin until it draws blood-
Kakashi-sensei reappears standing a few meters away, his arms around both bandit's necks – the katana still stuck in Meizu's abdomen. "Good job, Kyomi, Sasuke," he praises as his eye crinkles.
The kunoichi stands back up, walks towards her sensei and roughly pulls her katana out of the bandit with no regard for the amount of blood he is losing, widening the wound once more. She eyes her now sullied katana, her once lovely lilac clothes tainted red and her whole body reeking of blood.
"S-sensei?" her gentle voice utters as she looks at her sensei uncertainly. Kakashi softens and helps her clean up after taking care of the criminals. "We're shinobi," he says reassuringly. "Things like these are inevitable."
Kyomi walks over to Naruto's side and grabs his arm to lean on him. "What's wrong?" Kyomi asks and nudges him carefully. The boy stays silent for a while. "You two had all the fun while I was guarding Tazuna," he finally admits with a pout on his face. "Then I'll guard the client next time," the girl decides and closes her eyes letting Naruto lead her.
It doesn't take long until Zabuza, the Demon of the Hidden Mist, appears. When Kakashi reveals his Sharingan – a crimson eye with three tomoe – Kyomi can't help but stare. It looks pretty, she thinks. For the first time in her life, she thinks that something is actually pretty - those ugly flower arrangements can't even compare to the beauty of this eye. She continues to stare throughout the whole fight and protects Tazuna while her highly capable teammates are cornering Zabuza until he is carried away by a hunter-nin.
Kakashi admits that Zabuza might not be dead after all. But because he needs to rest, he decides to teach his team how to climb trees with their chakra. (Team 7 completely ignores the little kid, Inari, yelling at Naruto about heroes and how they are going to die. "Maybe you should talk to him later," whispers Kyomi to the blonde boy. After all, Naruto has a certain way with his words.)
While Kyomi's spiritual energy is larger than average, her physical energy is severely lacking. But exactly because she does not have much chakra, she had to learn how to channel the exact amount through her body for each and every jutsu they learned in the academy. (She still remembers what her head would feel like if she messed up the portion.)
So, of course, it feels natural to Kyomi to create and maintain a set amount of chakra in the soles of her feet. The girl climbs and climbs until the tree trunk is too thin to walk on. From the top of the tree, she can overview the whole forest and a small part of the village, the clear blue sky covered in little clusters of white clouds, the bright sun towering in the distance accompanied by animals – by birds-
Kyomi's eyes widen as she loses control over her chakra, her feet no longer cling to the tree and she falls down through the prickly leaves. Luckily, the branches catch her a second later and the girl has time to recollect her chakra.
When she walks back down to the ground, Naruto and Sasuke look at her jealously. Kakashi-sensei smiles at her from behind his mask and tells the boys that they'll just have to try harder.
Kyomi decides to hug her sensei to calm her heartbeat.
Kakashi-sensei is like a gemstone. A gemstone shaped by its journey through fire and water but ultimately ending up where the fiery lava of a volcano collides with the frigid water of the ocean – encased in the hardened rock and rising steam, cut off from the light of the sun, stopped from turning into the brilliant gem it could have become. If only it didn't end up there - if only the lava and water could mix too quickly until the rapidly expanding steam ignites a devastating eruption-
Yes, sensei is still warm, Kyomi thinks as she buries her head deeper into his shinobi vest. Slightly surprised Kakashi stiffens, his hand awkwardly hovers over her head until he finally relaxes his body and ruffles her hair.
"Let's try it on water now," he says as he takes her aside. Kyomi lets go of her sensei and focuses her chakra on the soles of her feet. It's slightly more difficult and she falls into the water once, but her control is perfect and she manages it shortly after her failure. Kakashi proudly smiles at her and hands her a towel. She is relegated to guard duty.
The girl returns to the clearing where her teammates are still trying to climb the trees. Both of them did make some progress – but it is not as much as she expected. Naruto notices her first and sees that she is still dripping wet with water.
"Whoa, Kyo-chan, you should take better care of yourself," he exclaims as he takes the towel from her hand and starts to dry her hair, "Or else you'll catch a cold, dattebayo!"
Sasuke watches his teammates in interest. He had noticed it before that his female teammate often searches for something or rather someone to touch. But now, he can clearly see how the girl practically melts into Naruto's touch. When Kyomi catches him staring he quickly looks away slightly embarrassed with a faint blush on his cheeks.
"Come here, Sasuke-kun," the girl demands – but with such a silvery and soothing voice that it doesn't sound like an order – so he complies and wordlessly approaches his team.
Kyomi softly places her left hand on Naruto's hand to grab his attention and stop him from ruffling her hair for a moment. "Do you want some tips?"
As expected Zabuza returns a few days later on the almost finished bridge – along with the hunter-nin who saved him, a boy named Haku. Kakashi-sensei sends Sasuke to fight against the masked boy while Kyomi is staying behind to guard Tazuna.
When Haku displays his formidable skills - the one-handed seals and the Hidden Jutsu: Crystal Ice Mirrors, an Ice Release jutsu, a Kekkei Genkai – she feels just a tiny little bit jealous that she has to guard the client again. After all, Sasuke is the only one who hasn't had the 'privilege' of doing the most boring job yet. "Don't do anything when Zabuza tries to attack Tazuna for the first time," Kakashi tells her on top of that, but the girl complies – has to comply – because it seems like her sensei has a plan.
Kyomi lets out a sign and releases the grip on her katana – she unconsciously reached for it when their enemies appeared – and crosses her arms. All she can do is to watch. But with the mist unnaturally thick – a product of Zabuza's Kirigakure-no-Jutsu – the girl can't possibly follow the fight with her eyes. Kyomi has no choice but to settle for the sound to tell her how her team is doing.
Just like her teacher predicted, Zabuza decides to go for their client first. The kunoichi makes no effort to even try and defend Tazuna as she watches Kakashi stop his attack with his body, marking his greatsword with his scarlet blood.
Kyomi once again readies her katana in case the missing-nin does decide to attack the bridge-builder again – but he doesn't. She wonders when Naruto will wake up. Maybe he can take over, she thinks – but of course, of course, he jumps right into the battle the moment he appears.
The girl does not know how much time passed but suddenly the oppressing feeling of chakra, wild and furious, spreads around the entire bridge and she instinctively knows that this is Naruto's chakra. She can feel his warmth so clearly and so much stronger than normally – she can feel it all over her body. Just how much warmer would she feel, if she could run to him and embrace him right now?
But Kyomi knows she can't do that. She knows that she has to stay where she is. She knows that she has to protect Tazuna. She knows that she should not go against her sensei's order. She knows.
She bites her lip. But that's okay. The fight will be over soon. Then she can move. And he will still be radiating with warmth. Right?
Kyomi's knees painfully slam onto the ground. She hears a shrill scream. Her trembling hands frantically try to clutch her dizzy head. A sudden coldness hits her core. She nearly loses her balance. The world around her is spinning. A shaky breath escapes her lips. Her eyes widen. Her vision becomes blurry. She can't think straight. The sound of a thousand birds clogs her ears. Her head feels like it's going to burst open. A hand touches her shoulder. "We should go over." And then - she realizes that the scream was hers.
She clumsily stands up and rushes to Naruto. He looks sad. He is crying. The Kyuubi is suppressed. The warmth is suppressed. He is back to normal. He is not warm enough.
She hurries over to Sasuke. He is lying on the ground. He is covered in needles. He looks pale. His eyes are closed. She kneels down. She touches his cheek. He is cold. But he opens his eyes. She removes her hand. He is not warm enough.
She stands back up and turns around. More people appeared on the bridge. They are grinning. They are laughing. They are looking down on her. They are insulting her. They are slandering her. They are acting like they are superior.
She clenches her jaw. Her muscles tense. She violently unsheathes her katana. She wants to rip off their grins. She wants to make them scream. She wants to make them die a painful death.
She is smouldering with resentment. Rage is overtaking her.
She is angry. She is so, so angry.
And they are going to pay for it.
The agonizing screams of terror sound like music to her ears, like a regal melody praising her magnificence. The contorted bodies look like a painting, like a portrayal of a proud-red mighty flame engulfing an entire village. Combined with the metallic and slightly sweet fragrance of blood, the distinct smell of human blood-
But there was no one left.
Kyomi sheathes her tainted katana and looks towards the sky.
It's snowing.
The cold delicate snowflakes tickle her pale skin.
She closes her eyes.
Ah yes, it feels so nice to be warm.
Reuploaded because ffn ruined my layout so I had to fix it.
Can anyone recommend me a good (just use your standard) gory Naruto fanfiction or just any story with explicit gore? Might need it in the future.
~ Kei