12, nearly 13, years ago…
Officer Kinoko is on her way home from her shift at the police station. The evening is warm, and she is looking forward to seeing her family. Her civilian husband and their two year old son will be waiting for her so they can eat dinner together.
Kinoko stops walking when she feels something off in the air. Something doesn't feel right…
ROAR!
The Nine Tailed Fox appears in the centre of the village.
Kinoko's blood runs cold. She runs home, weaving through the panicking people. Buildings are crashing down, people are screaming - it is too dangerous to shunshin in these conditions. It is too dangerous to jump onto the roofs.
The village's leading shinobi are trying to lure away the Fox.
Kinoko keeps running. She is nearly there. Then she sees her husband running towards her with their son in his arms. He smiles in relief when he sees her.
Then with a crash one of the Fox's tails knocks down a building. Kinoko tries to grab her husband, to pull him out of the way, but he is crushed along with their son an instant before she reaches them.
Kinoko's eyes burn.
Falling debris hits her, knocking her unconscious.
Kinoko doesn't even wake in time for the memorial service for all the fallen. But at least they didn't bury her family before she woke.
They are blaming the Uchiha clan. They are blaming the Uchiha clan because Madara could control the Nine Tails. Now people who used to be her friends cross the street when they see Kinoko. The fragile trust the Uchiha clan had finally built up with the rest of the village is shattered.
Kinoko is promoted to Deputy Inspector, but she still feels empty inside.
A rumor spreads around the village that a little boy named Naruto Uzumaki is actually the Nine Tailed Fox. Kinoko wonders if the stupid idiots even know what a jinchuuriki is. The poor kid is only three years old and already his childhood has been taken from him.
And now Naruto is six years old and he went and knocked out the entire police station with help from the Hyuuga heiress in order to draw mustaches on everyone.
The Chief is growing a mustache, and somehow he seems different. He stops Kyabetsu and his gang from convincing the Uchiha clan to stage a coup d'etat. Kinoko realizes that Fugaku has been infected with the Will of Fire.
They protect Naruto from people who hate him for being the jinchuuriki of the Nine Tails. The kid is starting to grow on Kinoko. It is not long before she, too, can feel the Will of Fire burning inside her. She doesn't feel whole, but at least she feels alive.
Then Kinoko realizes she has the Mangekyou Sharingan. She awakened it that night when her family died in front of her.
Ten Years Before the Present Day….
Kimimaro does not hate the darkness. It is simply the only thing he knows. Locked in a cage for as long he can remember, carving faces into the walls of his prison, Kimimaro is used to the darkness. But why is he here? Why was he locked up? What did he do wrong? Doesn't anybody care about him?
He is pondering this when a huge man unlocks his cell and lets him out, telling him he must fight and make himself of use to the Kaguya clan.
They are to attack the Village Hidden in the Mist under cover of night to avenge something. Kimimaro does not understand why, or what he should do. But he is told to go to the village and kill every single person he comes across. So Kimimaro runs towards the Village Hidden in the Mist.
He stops running when he comes across a tall man with a large sword and a small girl with black hair walking along the road. "Are you from the Mist Village?" he asks them.
"No," says the man, grabbing his sword's hilt in warning.
"I see," says Kimimaro. "I'm sorry." He runs past them, towards the village. The man was scary, and it wasn't just because of the bandages covering the lower half of his face.
Kimimaro sees another person standing in the road. This one has long black hair and golden eyes. Kimimaro attacks thinking this one must be from the Mist Village. The person knocks Kimimaro to the ground with ease. But Kimimaro wasn't fighting seriously, so he gets back up and charges at the strange person again.
"Just a moment," says the person, in a silky voice. "Don't be so hasty. I'm not from here. I'm from the Leaf Village. What you seek lies just over that ridge."
Kimimaro runs to the edge of the ridge the person so helpfully pointed to and sees a valley covered in mist. He jumps down, wondering what, exactly, a village actually is.
What is it that I fight for? What am I? Kimimaro asks himself as the Mist shinobi kill the Kaguya clan until only a few are left, cornered and trapped. But for the first time in his life, someone needs him, so Kimimaro fights.
Besides, if he does not fight, he will die.
And when dawn broke, he realized he was the only one who did survive. In the clear light of day, Kimimaro sees the bodies of his clansmen, piled up in a heap, and realizes he is alone. He sits in the tree he hid in the night before and feels worthless.
Kimimaro wanders alone from place to place, until one day he sees a white flower growing by a river. He smiles and goes over to it. "What are you doing blooming in a place like this?" he asks.
The flower doesn't answer, and Kimimaro gets mad at it for ignoring him. He pulls out his bone dagger and goes to kill the flower.
"That will do," says a silky voice, and Kimimaro turns to see the strange black haired and golden eyes person he met outside the Mist Village. "Maybe there is no meaning in life, but if you linger long enough, you might find something of value." The man smiles and pats Kimimaro's cheek. "Like how you discovered that flower or how I discovered you."
Kimimaro is happy. Someone wants him. He follows the golden eyed man - Orochimaru.
Jugo cannot control himself. He cannot stop himself from killing. But he enjoys it until he has already slaughtered entire villages, and comes down from his bloodlust. Then he feels soul crushing regret and horror at what he has done. So Jugo stays away from people and lives in a cave in the middle of the forest. The forest animals know to stay away when he heads into his cave.
The people nearby call him Bipolar Jugo, or 'Jugo of the Scales' in reference to how unbalanced he is. But so long as they keep their distance, Jugo does not care what they call him.
But then one day a boy his age walks into Jugo's cave. Jugo tries to kill him, but the boy pulls out his spine and uses it as a weapon to tie up Jugo and stop him in his tracks.
The strange boy offers Jugo a way out. If Jugo went with the boy to join Orochimaru, the boy who uses his spine as a weapon could stop Jugo from killing and maybe Jugo will someday be able to control himself.
Jugo goes. He does not want to kill anyone else, ever again.
The strange boy is Kimimaro. He was alone and feared once too, but with Orochimaru, he is not alone.
Orochimaru is not afraid of Jugo's power. He is enchanted by it. He finds a way to re-create it in others. They call it the Curse Mark. Not everyone survives. Then Kimimaro gets sick and Orochimaru gives him the Curse Mark too.
They all hoped the Cure Mark would slow the disease's progression, or even heal it.
It does not. Kimimaro is still dying.
And now Orochimaru is dead too. The Hidden Sound is in an uproar, the village Orochimaru created is trying to sort out who should lead them. Kabuto, Orochimaru's best medical expert, betrayed them to Akatsuki. Hundreds of prisoners escaped. Many people died in the struggle for power.
What will become of the Hidden Sound, the refuge for freaks and monsters?
Jugo does not care so long as they lock him up and throw away the key.
Kimimaro does not care, so long as he sees the sun before he dies. He was born in darkness, and he will die in darkness: but first he will see the sun.
The present day…
Kimimaro looks up at the strange Leaf Kunoichi, waiting for her response. What will she say? What will she do? Will she be afraid? Will she try to kill them for being aligned with an enemy of the Leaf?
"So the two of you basically went to Orochimaru because he was not afraid of you, and had need of you?" asks Kinoko.
"Yes," confirms Kimimaro. "But now he is dead, and soon I will die. Then Jugo will be alone."
"What will you do, Jugo?" asks Kinoko, turning to look at Jugo, a searching expression on her face.
"I will lock myself away where I can never hurt anyone again," says Jugo.
Kinoko looks from one boy to the other, tears welling up in her eyes. "You poor kids," she says, wiping at her eyes, which have turned red for some reason.
"I'm going to kill you," says Jugo, and before Kimimaro can stop him, Jugo has already attacked Kinoko.
"Jugo! Stop!" Kimimaro yells.
Blood splatters on the ground.