The grass is crushed underneath the boy's feet every time he takes a step. He needs to rest. He has been running for days. They are going to catch him soon. He was warned they might come for him one day. He was nowhere near ready for them though.
The boy slumps down against a tree. His stomach growls. He cannot remember when he last had any food. If only someone would come and help him.
The boy hears a noise close by and takes off running. He cannot let them find him.
Hiashi and Hizashi Hyuuga are on a mission. It is a low C Rank, which means it will probably end up a high B rank to Low A Rank. They took the mission for the lols and the brother-bonding-time. No matter what rank it turns out, the mission will be a breeze. Hiashi and Hizashi are in it for the bonding time. They don't get to spend much time together nowadays.
"So what was the mission again?" Hizashi asks, adjusting his backpack.
"I dunno, something about a missing orphan," shrugs Hiashi. "The mission brief is in my bag."
"We should probably read it."
"Yes, we should." Hiashi stops, takes off his backpack and fishes around inside it for the scroll. "Ah, here it is." Hiashi holds up the scroll. Straightening up, Hiashi opens the scroll and reads it out to his brother. An orphanage in the Land of Rice Paddies is requesting aid finding a boy who disappeared after he was attacked by what the orphanage manager assumes are bandits.
"They are probably rogue shinobi or bloodline hunters," comments Hizashi upon hearing that part.
"Oh most definitely," says Hiashi. "Unless they are child traffickers, but that is unlikely considering they didn't seem to bother keeping their presence a secret." Hiashi rolls up the mission scroll, stuffs it back into his backpack and hoist the backpack onto his shoulders. "Let's get a move on. No matter who's got this kid, he needs help."
Hiashi and Hizashi set off again at a run. A shinobi run.
Hiashi sees a boy running, or rather stumbling, down the road towards them. Hiashi activates his byakugan to see who is chasing the boy. Closing in at lightning fast speed are five men with byakugan eyes activated and locked on the boy.
"Hizashi, defend that kid!" says Hiashi, running forward.
Two of the strange men pull ahead of the others and leap for the boy, attempting to knock him to the ground. Hiashi and Hizashi hit them hard with the jyuken, killing them instantly. Yes, byakugan can be used for instant kills. Take that, Uchiha clan!
The boy turns away from Hiashi and Hizashi. He staggers towards the roadside, still trying to get away, it seems. Unfortunately, the boy collapses after a few steps.
The three remaining enemies halt their advance and stare at Hiashi and Hizashi. Then one says to another, "Go and tell the nearest search party that the Rebel faction is after Toneri as well."
The man does as he is ordered and shunshins away.
"Rebel faction?" asks Hizashi. "What Rebel faction?"
"Don't play dumb," says the enemy who spoke before. "We know you are with the Rebel faction that idolizes the traitor princess. Don't try to deny it, you even look like her. For all we know, she procreated while down here on the earth."
"We are not part of any Rebel group," Hiashi tries to explain. "I am the head of the Hyuuga clan."
"That is not possible," says the enemy who has not yet spoken, slipping into an attack stance. "No human could possibly possess such power."
"He's never met an Uchiha obviously," says Hizashi, rolling his eyes. "And what does he mean by 'human'?"
"Capture one of them alive, if possible," says Hiashi, slipping into an attack stance of his own.
"Right," nods Hizashi, activating his byakugan and slipping into the gentle fist stance.
Hiashi runs at the enemy on the right while Hizashi heads for the one on the left. Hiashi aims a gentle fist strike at the main chakra point in his enemy's arm. The enemy blocks the attack with his hand. Hiashi's attack shatters the bones in the man's hand. Hizashi, on the other hand, attempts a palm strike to his opponent's abdomen. Hizashi's opponent dodges out of the way and lunges for Hizashi's throat. Hizashi drops and rolls backwards, out of reach of the strike.
Hizashi's opponent runs towards the boy, who is still lying on the side of the road. Hizashi intercepts him with a kunai in the face. Hizashi's opponent falls to the ground, screaming.
While his brother is busy stabbing a guy in the face, Hiashi stares down his own opponent. "Who are you people, and what do you want with this boy?" Hisashi demands, shifting into the position for the Eight Trigrams Sixty Four Palms.
"Stop trying to play innocent to get me to talk, rebel," sneers Hiashi's enemy, glaring at Hiashi and holding his shattered hand.
"Don't let my father hear you call me a rebel," jokes Hiashi. "He already thinks I'm too unconventional, what with that unicorn my kid keeps in the backyard."
"...what?"
"I don't know what planet you come from, but it sounds to me like there's some sort of civil war going on there," says Hiashi. His jutsu is locked on.
"The MOON, stupid!" says Hiashi's enemy, glaring at Hiashi like Hiashi is some kind of rare disease without a cure.
"Hahahahahahaha!" Hiashi drops his pose for long enough to point and laugh at his opponent, before taking up the Eight Trigrams pose again. "Die, moon alien." Hiashi attacks ruthlessly. "Eight Trigrams." The funny thing is, Hiashi reflects as he beats the chakra points out of the Moon Alien, is that the Eight Trigrams Sixty Four Palms technique actually has a lot more than 64 strikes in it. It's actually 100 and something. "One palm, two palms, four palms…" Hiashi can't be bothered figuring it out right now, but there are a lot of strikes. "Eight Trigrams, Sixty Four Palms!" Hiashi delivers the final blow.
The moon alien flies across the road and crashes into a tree.
Hizashi is staring at his own moon alien enemy, who has gone limp. "I think he's dead," says Hizashi, as if that is a surprising and somewhat inconvenient annoyance.
"Well, we still have one," says Hiashi, turning back to his alien. The alien is gone. "...or not. How'd he escape my byakugan?"
"Maybe it was a clone of some kind?" suggests Hizashi. "What are we gonna do with this one?"
"Seal him in a scroll," says Hiashi, scooping the passed out kid up off the road. "We'll hand him over to the autopsy people when we get back to the Leaf."
Hizashi pulls out a scroll and seals away the dead body with its mutilated moon alien face. "Do you think this is the kid we were hired to find?" asks Hizashi, tucking the scroll into his backpack.
"Probably."
Shiro, orphanage matron in the Land of Rice Paddies, is fifteen minutes into a lesson on stranger danger. The children gathered in the village common room all look either really bored or really scared.
"...and especially don't take lollies from strangers," Shiro says sternly. "They might ask you for something else in return. Or they might ask you to go with them. And no, if a stranger asks an orphan to go with them it is not because they want you to be their kid. If an adult wants to adopt you, they gotta go through me first."
"Why?" asks one eight year old.
"So I can make sure they'll be a good parent," says Shiro without breaking her stride. "I don't want you going to live with someone who will hurt you." Shiro glances at the clock. 4:15 pm. She still has 15 minutes to impart her knowledge about stranger danger in a child friendly format.
"Do strangers kill you?" asks one of the younger teenagers. "Or do they mutilate your body and eat you with fried rice?"
So much for child friendly. "Some of them yes," says Shiro. "And some do worse things!"
All the kids are paying attention now.
"So...so is Toneri getting his arms and legs chopped off one by one?" asks that same young teen.
Some of the little kids start crying.
Shiro sighs. Ever since Toneri disappeared, all the kids have been theorizing about what happened to him. Some are funny like 'maybe he went to the moon', some are odd like 'maybe he turned into a unicorn' and some are just plain disturbing. Like getting his limbs chopped off. "You see, this is why you need to be wary of strangers."
"Oh, a lesson on stranger danger," says a strange man from his perch on the window. "This is probably not the best time for us to drop in, huh?"
Shiro gasps in fright and plants herself between the man and her orphans. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
"I'm one of the ninjas the Leaf sent," the man says, fishing around in his bag and pulling out a scroll. He holds the scroll out to her and adds, "We rescued a kid on the way here. It might be the one you asked us to find. If not, we'll get right on that."
The orphans back away from the strange man sitting on the windowsill, but Shiro takes the proffered scroll. She reads it carefully and decides this man is telling the truth. He is wearing a Leaf headband and jounin uniform, after all. "Very well," Shiro says. "You may come inside."
"Hizashi, bring the kid in here," says the Leaf ninja over his shoulder. Then he jumps down off the windowsill. A moment later, an identical man climbs in through the window with Toneri in his arms.
"Oh my goodness! Toneri!" Shiro runs forward to check on Toneri. The poor child has dark rings around his eyes, his skin in pale and blotchy, and he is covered in dirt, scrapes and bruises.
"So then this is your missing orphan?" asks the first ninja. "Sweet."
"Where did you find him?" asks Shiro, frantically fussing over Toneri.
Amused for some strange reason, the man holding Toneri, whose name Shiro already forgot, says, "It seems there's a group of moon aliens after him for some reason. We got rid of a couple of them, but there are more out there."
"Did you kill some aliens?" asks one of the kids, all wide eyed and fascinated. "Are they gonna come back for Toneri and rip his eyes out?"
"Yes, and we aren't sure what they want with him," says the first ninja. "But I think it would be safest for Toneri if he were to come back to the Leaf with us until we have sorted out the moon business."