Rating- PG-13, T
Warning's: Mild cussing, but other than that there really isn't anything.
Shinobi: I dedicate this story to someone I used to know very well, someone dead today, a good friend, who died of a desease with no cure, please believe me when I say her memory lives on... and as long as I live, I won't let anything else be.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters mentioned from the anime: Naruto, nor do I own the story line of the Hokage, 'nor any other object expressed from that anime.
A/N: Please give this story a chance, I know this chapter is very short, but this is just the prolouge.
Parents,
Raiden- Kakashi H. and Rin
Midori- Asuma S. and Kurenai Y.
Takara- Asuma S. and Kurenai Y.
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Prolouge: In The Beggining We See The End
I live the life every day, a life where error eqauls death, and death eqauls nothing... I- a shinobi- can only give my life to my leader, hoping that he will take note of the loyalty preserved for him.
My name to most, is not worth saying. My life to many, is not worth saving. I am what I am, a barrier through and through, for one Raiden, my leader, and ultamate goal. I can only sit back and watch each day as he makes himself more enimies, and makes more meager, and yet boistrous, large, mistakes.
I- four years younger than he- have yet to have been called a konouchi, and simply serve my role proudly as his shield, just a fighting weapon for his whims. And yet i'm ok with the path I have chosen, for in destiny we cannot simply wait for the climax, we have to jump for it.
My eyes seemed to fall on the stone all at once, once more I sat before the marker of a life, and the marking of a death. It seemed so awkward to be standing in front of some stone, somthing I had often mocked before when passing the graves of our fallen ninja's.
My eyes were transfixed on the name written so casually on the stone, as if mocking me in my sense of reality. 'Asuma S.', it read in all it's glory. I knelt beside my fathers grave, bowing my head as I prayed to Kami-sama.
My eyes looked down at the ground, so damp, and so cold it was from the early mornig dew that I almost knew my clothes would be ruined, not that it really mattered. I looked to the back shoji as it came open revealing to me Midori, my five year old sister. I smiled as she came running towards me, tears staining her beautiful face.
As she reached me she jumped into my lap, grasping my shirt as she sobbed into it. "Daddy's not coming home... is he?" She asked her voice shaking as she looked down at the stone I sat before. "No... he's not." I said my eyes looking down at her small form.
She sobbed harder and I could only watch silently as she cried herself to sleep. I looked down at the sleeping face of Midori, her eyes closed, her face red from crying, and tears staining her pale face.
I sighed as I stood, my arms cradling her as I walked up to the open shoji, stepping in and carrying her to her futon in her room. I smiled as she snuggled into her covers and I sighed once more as I stepped out of the room, my eyes looking over the small table cluttered with kunai, shuriken, and katana.
I heard a faint knock at the door, and sighed as I made my way to the small doorway. I opened the door and was surpried to see Raiden standing before me, clad in his all black ANBU uniform. "We have a new mission." He said and I knoded my eyes capturing his small smile as he looked around at my small house. "Nice place." He said with a smirk on his lips.
"Yeah, I just haven't had the heart to clean it yet." I said looking at the old cigarette buts in the ash tray beside the small couch. My father's presence still surrounded it in a sence, and I feared that if I ever moved it, he would fade away from me forever.
He had always been a stout man, meager in every sense of the word, but I had looked up to him no matter what though, the indeiference somthing learned in growthe, to see his calloused hands and to be proud of his work. That's exactly why I had become a shinobi, instead of a normal student of the accedemy.
"We're leaving at dawn." He said, and I nodded absently, my thoughts turning to what I would do with Midori. She was deep in thought when he stepped in, his back disapearing down the hall as he made it to Midori's room.
He had always been a good at reading my thoughts, even when I wore the mask so common to a shinobi. "Midori can stay with my sister, i'm sure she'll be fine with her." I nodded as he picked her up. I sighed once more almost unwilling to let her go.
He smiled as he walked out the door, carrying Midori casually as he walked down the street to his sisters house, his black hair ruffling in the wind. I closed the door, taking out my mask and placing it upon the table as well as many other things I would need for the next days mission.
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I stood at the meeting place, my mask concealing from view the worry plain to see on my face. This mission was of official goverment order, and I was scared, although I would never admit to that. What if Raiden slipped up again? It wouldn't be the death of just me, but two other shinobi's as well. They had been assighned protection of him as well, but as it usual, Raiden had requested me. His reason? I was eager to give my life for anyone, and was more used to his way of working.
All of this was true, I mused as I moved my foot back and forth, as if rocking or dancing. My muscles were stiff, and my eyes a dark red from the lack of sleep. I clutched my kunai out of sight, making sure they were still there.
I heard a cracking sound behind me, and my whole body stiffened, the silence erie as I turned my body to face the on-coming person. To my relief it was simply another shinobi, most likely the other girl on the team, as I found that she had a fairer structure, her body slight in the comparison to any male.
She looked up at me, her eyes almost pleading as she stood before me. I knew the un-asked qeustion hidden in her eyes, and I know the look was mirrored in my own. I must have looked like a deer caught in the headlights as she nodded toward me, and I at her.
We stood in silence for the first fifteen minutes before she turned to me and spoke. "Are you as worried about this mission as I am?" She asked her voice muffled by the mask.
"I am." I said simply, my voice doubtful of it's own being, and in a way I didn't know if I did truly mean it, the only real thing I had to live for was Midori. We fell into silence once more but I looked up to see Raiden and the third shinobi coming toward us.
It wasn't until they were most of the way toward us that I noticed Raiden carried a scroll with him, most likely from the Hokage. I sighed as I slipped my hands into the fold of my unoform, pulling out a small piece of parchment. On it was written the cordinates for thier next attack, the exact place we would have to fight these so called 'cerial killers'. As it was the men were killing young konouchi, not once reverting to killing civilians or male.
It seemed strange though, that they seek out female ninja, what was thier reason. They must have had somthing against the fairer sex, I brushed the feeling off, decideing to think on this another time. "Let's get going." Said Raiden, and I glared sharply at the back of his head. He should've known better then to be so late but of course his damn father being at such a rank led him to believe that anything he did went without conseqeunce.
I sighed, but followed all the same, as we made our way to our destination, somewhere I would no sooner want to be than before a pack of hungry wolves, but as was my life, the life... of a shinobi.
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Raiden sighed as he pitched the tent's, his eyes wandering to Takara. She seemed so out of it lately, ever since her father passed away that is. She had her hands full trying to raise Midori, yet she still had to worry about him. In a way he was saddened at her proffesion. She should never have become a shinobi, but his stinkin father had to except her into the accademy.
It had stunned him at first when she was assighned to him, but he had come to terms with it quick enough. She was a good fighter, and her instict was better than any shinobi, not to mention she was smart. He enjoyed having her around too, although he'd never admit to that. She was just a shinobi, and when she finally did become a full fledged ninja, then, and maybe then he'd tell her how he felt.
She cut through another block of wood, placing it on the fire, causing it to crack and snap in ways that almost soothed the soul. He couldn't help but stare when she took off her mask, her eyes a deep red, her lips turned down in a frown, but her nose fitting perfectly to make her look all the more stunning. She was beautiful, he'd giver her that.
She went to the stream, splashing the cool water across her face, her eyes flashing with some emotion he couldn't place. She seemed so tired, her eyes darkening with that of fatuige. She smiled over at him for but a moment, and then walked back over to the fire, placing some more herbs in the dinner, before nodding to the other female shinobi, and heading to bed.
As was thier ritual of a mission, just a force of habit you can suppose. That's all it ever is, in the life of a shinobi, and that's all she is... a shinobi... a beutiful... perfect... shinobi.
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A/N: So the prolouge is finished, and you'll soon find out who they are chasing... hehe, I hope to have at least three reviews before then!