Summary: (AU w/ OCs) Naruto leaves Konoha at age 6 and meets a stranger on the way, who later turns out to be a little bit like him...no pairings yet
Author's Note: My first ever Naruto fanfic. I don't give a flying focker if you don't like it, so flame away if you want...thanks well read and enjoy!... Oh yeah, it starts of in prologue as two years after the Kyuubi attack and seaing in Naurto, so therefore Kiyoshi is two years younger than Naruto and gang.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Naruto characters and it greatly saddens me... ;;
Prologue : A Tool's Creation and Baptism
Tormented cries echoed through the bleak, shadow-filled hallways of Akatsuki's hidden headquarters. The stonewalls just seemed to amplify the pain that filled each piercing scream. The cries continued for a while longer before they faded into silence and the angry wails of a newborn infant took their place.
In a small, stark room of stone walls with an occupied bed over which a young silver haired teen bent over. A man stood silently in shadow near a wall opposite the bed as the young man turned to face him. A golden amber gaze stared at the exhausted, sweaty body of a teenage woman before rising to stare into the gray eyes of the teenaged boy that had assisted in the birthing labor. The wailing cries of a baby drew the man's gaze from the young man and toward a small bundle of blankets laying a wooden crib near the bed as a menacing predator's smile formed. Soon the infant's cries also faded into silence.
"Orochimaru-sama," the young man began in a tired, low voice," Keikan-sama is resting and recovering--"
The golden-eyed man cut him off, "I don't care how she is, tell me about the child." His raspy voice had a small lisp to it, his narrow beady eyes and long tongue made him seem more snake-like than human.
"Of course, Orochimaru-sama," the silver haired man sighed, "The child is very healthy. Five and half pounds and just over ten inches." He paused again before adding," The child is a girl."
The man, Orochimaru, chuckled softly and slowly walked over to the crib and picked up the silent infant. " It matters not what the child's sex is," he remarked." My daughter," he rasped as he held the infant up so he could stare into eyes the same color as his own. "I shall name you Kiyoshi, the quiet one."
Behind him from the bed, blue eyes, the color of the sky on a sunny day opened and glared hatefully at his back before closing once more and surrounding to the depths of a dreamless slumber.
-----((Three Years Later))-----
A young girl with long hair the color of fresh blood sat perfectly still on a metal table in a dark room with darker shadows. Her golden eyes narrowed and her small mouth pressed pale lips into a thin line, overall her expression would not see on most children's faces, but she was not like most kids in any way.
A sliver of light suddenly broke up the shadows of the room as the metal door slowly creaked open and revealed a tall man with the same golden eyes and long black hair standing in the doorway. The sudden light had slightly blinded the young girl before her sensitive eyes could adjust to the new light and her body was tenser and alert because of the sudden brightness and of the presence she felt was watching her.
"Orochimaru...." a quiet, monotone voice filled with an icy edge spoke out into the room, "...sama."
The man in the doorway closed the door after he found the light switch and flipped the lights on. Slowly, he walked over to the young girl and smiled viciously when he noticed the slight trembles of her shoulders. "Ah my little Kiyoshi, how are you today?"
Biting back a snarl, Kiyoshi glares with a burning hatred at her father and spat out in a bitingly sharp voice, "Why do you even care? I'm just your tool.Where is my mother?"
"Oh, but it is my paternal duty to care for you and about you, my silent tool." He paused for a minute as he reached out to stroke a lock of crimson hair back from her cherubic face. "As for your mother, she is alive for the moment and will remain so as long is there is something for her to teach you about your heritage and the bloodline of her clan."
The young girl suffered his touch for a moment, Kiyoshi glared at him with a molten golden gaze his genes had graced her with, before gathering herself to launch an attack at him. Kiyoshi snarled as Orochimaru easily evaded her punches and kicks, a smile never leaving his serpentine face. Without pause, Kiyoshi continued to strike out at the man who was her father by blood only.
Abruptly, Orochimaru seemed to vanish from sight before Kiyoshi felt a sharp, biting sensation that burned at the base of her neck on her left side and then the world went black.
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"Ki...shi...kiyo...Kiyoshi..."
Kiyoshi moaned as she tried to respond and silence the voice that kept whispering her name. Slowly opening her eyes, Kiyoshi glanced around the room that had held her prisoner since her birth before she noticed a presence at her side. Turning her head to the left and wincing slightly at the pain that flared with the movement, Kiyoshi fixated upon the caring face of the one person she held precious in her heart. "Kaa-chan..."
Azure eyes filled with silent tears as a soft hand reached up to stroke Kiyoshi's cheek, " Oh, my poor little one. What he did you to you? Oh I wish..." Her words faded as the silent tears began to trail down pale cheeks. "But don't worry, my little one. I will take you far away from here, and he will never hurt you again. Do you understand, Kiyoshi?"
"Hai, Kaa-chan, I understand." Kiyoshi whispered in a weary voice of one who had suffered too much already before she surrendered once more to the comforting embrace of oblivion.
-----((One Year Later))-----
It had been a whole year since her mother and herself had escaped from their prison and Orochimaru's torturous hold. Free from pain of that man's experimentations, Kiyoshi had slowly begun to heal both mentally and emotionally as she experienced a true childhood for the first time. No more training to kill. No more enduring tormenting tests. Tranquility and healing was what the tiny village had offered the young mother and child how had sought refuge in it.
However, peace does not last forever, and sometimes, the silence hides even greater peril.
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Kiyoshi smiled brightly like any other four year old as she played tag with the other children of the small village. Laughing with the others, Kiyoshi dodged the boy who was "it" this time and ducked behind a merchant's stall to hide.
A cold feeling slowly spread throughout her body causing shivers to run down her spine. Kiyoshi only spared a half glance at the other kids before she took off for the tiny cottage that was home to her mother and herself.
Something did not feel right.
Something was wrong.
Something awful was happening.
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As Kiyoshi approached the silent cottage, she knew immediately that something was terribly wrong. Usually when she got close enough to the cottage, she could feel her mother's loving presence. There was no feeling this time except a cold dread, an icy feeling that made her blood run cold. It was feeling that made Kiyoshi feel older than her four years of life. It was a feel of derad Kiyoshi hadn't felt since her mother had taken her from Orochimaru.
Cautiously, Kiyoshi walked up the pathway towards the door and pushed it open. The sight that greeted her when the door was completely open would forever be etched in her thoughts and entire being as it made her freeze in shock.
In the center of their tiny, two-room cottage lay the bleeding corpse of her mother. Her beautiful blue eyes were glazed and dull with death. The rosy tint to her cheeks was gone, washed away with her last breath.
A cry of full of soorow and pain tinged with the heat of an building rage erupted out into the world from that tiny cottage. Echoing cries followed it dying in intensity before becoming only faint, heart-wrenching sobs.
"Kaa-san," Kiyoshi's voice sounded tiny and faint as she whispered into the silent room, "Why, Kaa-san? Why?"
Kiyoshi felt her knees go weak as she slid to the floor beside the open door. Crawling on dirtied hands and bruise knees over to her mother's stiffening body Kiyoshi collapsed in an emotional drained heap. Rocking her body back and forth, Kiyoshi reached out a tiny hand to caress her mother's golden locks away from her sky-blue eyes one last time. Slowly, Kiyoshi eased her child's body to lie next to her dead mother and let a smotheirng numbness overcome her senses as the world around her faded into blackness.
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Thick eyelashes slowly opened to frame golden orbs.
Kiyoshi blinked a couple of times to adjust her sight to the darkness of the cottage as a cool breeze flowed through the room and dried the tear stains on her cheeks. Impatiently, she rubbed her forearm across her face to wipe away all traces of her tears, of her sadness, of her weakness.
Traces of the painful event seemed to linger on the edges of her consciousness, but Kiyoshi refused to focus on them. Taking a calculating and methodical glance around the dark cottage, Kiyoshi reviewed the plans her mother had oraganized in case of just such an event occurred. Kiyoshi focused on those items and objects her mother had said would be most important for her plans: her jacket, her black knapsack with a change of clothes, an emergency pouch of ration bars, her mother's silver chain on which hung a tiny locket with Uzumaki clan symbol on it, her mother's twin kodachi swords, and an emergency hippack full of supplies hidden wedged in a corner beside the door. The last object she turned her golden gaze upon was the dead body of her mother that had already stiffened with the passing of the afternoon daylight. ' Kaa-chan,' she thought to herself allowing one last moment of grief to hold her attention before she returned her focus to the task at hand and closed off her child's self to become the tool trained by Orochimaru to survive at all costs, to become once more practical, purposeful, and detached.
In a voice raspy with repressed emotions and disuse, Kiyoshi spoke out into the cottage as if speaking once last time with her mother's spirit. " Kaa-chan, your little one has to leave now. But don't worry, I'll give you your proper deathrites and your memory will be in my heart forever."
And with that said, Kiyoshi set about to complete her mother's final wishes one last time before she set her feet on the path her mother had given her.
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The orange glow of the blazing fire bleed into the crimson sunset of the sky and warmed Kiyoshi's back as she walked away with a travel pack over one shoulder and her mother's twin blades sheathed at her waist.
Looking over her shoulder for one last look at the closing chapter of innocent childhood in her young life, Kiyoshi offered up one last prayer to her mother's pyre. Kiyoshi turned to face forward once more and resumed her steapy pace as she set out on the path her mother had pointed out to her.