Unyielding

Hi All!

This is my first honest attempt at writing any fan-fiction so any feedback bad or very bad is appreciated!

Please let me know what you think. I have no idea about an update schedule for this, I suppose if at least a single person enjoy's it I'll write more.

Thanks, Kineticals

Fire raged across the street from where I was sprawled, the flame itself so hot that stone was gradually decaying into molten sludge. Screams reverberated through the air, numerous yells and cries forcing their way into my ear sockets. There was a high pitched whining continuously reverberating in my ears throwing off my sense of balance and causing intense disorientation.

I could taste ash upon my tongue but trying to wipe it away was of little use when my hands were also caked in it. I couldn't see a lot from where I lay, smoke filled the air and much of my surroundings was blotted out. I could make out rubble of various sizes scattered around me, pieces of timber no longer attached to anything and other remnants of building materials no longer serving any useful function. Random items also lay scattered in the dust around me, various parts of random homes that wouldn't normally be seen together. Half a torn pillow (where was the other half?), broken cutlery, dyed green cloth etc..

My limbs felt heavy far heavier than ever had before. It wasn't a familiar sort of heaviness brought on after a period of intense exercise or when you felt a sort of lethargic tiredness as you trudged upstairs to bed after a long day. As my eyes traveled down my priority was torn away from the circumstances around me and abruptly forced onto trying to comprehend what I could see.

My own limbs were far shorter than they were before. It's a simple statement but it vastly underestimates the horrifying feeling that entered me upon not recognising the body that I saw and walked around in day after day. Your physical appearance and personality, the two things that most people recognise makes up who you are and at least one of them was now different. Would anyone even acknowledge me as being the person I was before, if you look like a child you are treated as one. Was there even a way back, was I permanently stuck like this? As if waking up in what looked like a bomb site wasn't already fucking with my head enough.

I could feel the ground I was lying on digging into me, pieces of gravel, fresh scratches that had been made upon my skin before I'd awoken.

'Jesus..' I uttered as I pulled myself up into a sitting position, trying to expand my sight line and workout what the hell was going on. Not every building around me was destroyed, some were only halfway there, but even then the style differed to what I saw on a day-to-day basis. Traditional Japanese roofs and previously picturesque houses made-up the structures I could see around me. There was at least enough differing material / designs that I could tell each home hadn't been another cookie cutter version of the one beside it. There had been care and love put into these buildings and now well.. now they were broken and scattered on the ground.

I had no memory of how I'd come to be laying in this random town, and….

A vile, grotesque, insidious sensation slammed into my chest, expelling the air from my lungs causing me to audibly gasp in shock. Brand new feelings and sensations open themselves up to me. I was blind but now I see. There was no joy here, this wasn't a heart-warming video of a child hearing for the first time, someone with colour blindness finally seeing what trees truly look like. How do you describe gaining a new sense so overwhelming that it forced you to physically tell your body that breathing was required for it to function. A weight hung in the air, turning your head took three times the effort it normally did and willing myself to stand required a herculean effort.

A roar so strong that the few remaining unbroken windows that existed quickly found themselves shattered erupted into the air and even though it should have been impossible the sheer malevolence in the air increased. It was a roar of anger, of hatred, a roar of a pure desire to cause wanton pain and destruction, without a shred of care of who was in its path. It physically knocked me backwards not from force but from the sheer shock of how loud it was. Gripping on to the crumbling wall for strength, I hauled my short frame back onto my feet. My panic at my sudden reduction in height was well and truly put on the back burner. Moving away from whatever the hell was causing this noise was the only priority.

Slowly beginning to stumble through the semi-dense clouds of ash and smoke I frequently stumbled and used my small hands to support myself as I moved between structures. My sense of balance was completely off and having my head height multiple feet below where it normally was held didn't make things any easier either. I could see shadows rapidly flitting across the rooftops just a little bit in front of me, but none of them paused long enough to notice me. They moved with a sense of urgency, clearly well informed about the current situation or perhaps they were just aware of which direction they should be running in.

I tripped, falling forward. The combination of my unfamiliar body and attention being focused on the figures ahead of me resulted in a typical sprained knee. Walking whilst naturally avoiding tripping hazards was not a skill I currently possessed. Stupid in hindsight, less obvious given the extraordinary situation I'd found myself in.

There was red in front of me, I can't believe I hadn't noticed it before, but there were blood stains all around. Some of the blood was evidently from light wounds or simple cuts bleeding, whilst other area had stains in great big patches that looked far bigger than one person could make. The weight in the air and the metallic smell was not a welcome combination. Continuing to suppress my horrified thoughts and reactions I continued forward coming to the corner of a wider street.

There were other people here finally, not one that flitted past quicker than I could react to or likely covered under the small mountains of rubble. They all wore large green vests, various kinds of clothing as well but that was their one unifying feature. Well, some had headbands on too, but others didn't or they may have done but wrapped around their arms or legs? I wasn't sure…

Six of them were angled slightly towards the other two, seeming to pay attention to what they were saying. Some looked completely at ease and calm, whilst other were nervously fingering some sort of knife twirling it around there fingers rapidly, catching it and then continuing the cycle again. They were speaking in quick hushed tones and I couldn't make out a word of what they were saying, but then again my ears were partially clogged. Other than the colour of their vests the other sole unifying feature that I could identify was the determination that seemed to be rolling off of these men, …no people. On closer inspection two had longer hair and more feminine features, although one of their eyes looked kind of milky and clouded over.

The second that I moved, dislodging the tiniest piece of stone from its nestling place of the floor their heads snapped around towards me, and their expressions tightened.

'This area was supposed to be clear already' a man with a shaved head uttered once I had moved closer towards them.

Faster than I could react, and I mean literally faster than I could even comprehend the man that had spoke was standing in front of me, his hand firmly gripping my shoulder.

'They must have panicked and not done their job properly' one of the long-haired figures remarked. 'We'll delay for two minutes, Haru do a quick sweep in the direction he came from and Aoi get him to a shelter'.

'Sir' both men uttered and the one he'd called Haru bounded past myself and the newly named Aoi and flickered in the direction that I had just stumbled from.

'You shouldn't still be here kid' Aoi said a grimace upon his face at his words. 'Everyone else that we could find is already at or on their way to a shelter. You should know better than this at your age'.

Confusion was prevalent on my face at this comment. I had at the very least had lost 2 ft from my previous height if not more… how old could he possibly have thought I was. There was no way I was any older than eight… or at least this body couldn't have been older than eight. Just because I was currently stuck at what look to be barely 4 ft tall didn't mean I was going to start considering myself a child again. Hell if you thought about it since I was in a new body I'd kind of gained 8 years to my total age, which made me what nearly thirty…..great.

I decided to take the honest approach.

'I have no idea what's going on' I said simply to the main towering above me, who still had a strong grip on my shoulder. 'I woke up a few minutes ago back that way and don't know how I got there'.

'Get medical to check him for signs of a concussion while your there as well Aoi' the long-haired feminine person spoke, clearly having been listening in on us. 'And go now, we need to co-ordinate with everyone else to distract this thing'.

Whilst I was looking towards the person that had spoken, I was hefted into the air and then placed on the back of Aoi, who had lifted me almost before his superior had even finished speaking.

'Hold on tight kid' he said, 'your doing well already dealing with all this foul chakra in the air, just keep it together for a bit longer'.

'What do you mean chak -umfff' I spoke, being interrupted midway through my sentence as Aoi, whilst still keeping me secured on his back athletically leaped onto the top of the nearest standing building and then began to rapidly hop away from the group.

'Just keep your eyes closed' he ordered as the weight and evil sensation in the air increased without any buildings to shelter us. I of course didn't listen to this command and immediately put my head on a swivel trying to find out more about what the hell was going on.

An immense orange being or creature or monster or whatever the fuck you wanted to call it was in front of my eyes. Writhing tail-like appendages that were rapidly moving through the air, casting huge quick-moving shadows over large parts of the village that lay sprawled out in front of me. Burning red eyes that seemed to gleam in the twilight sky, with the pupils narrowed into slits surveyed the destruction in front of it. The sky itself seemed to be furious at this village looking down upon it in rage with just how tall this creature was. White teeth seemingly sharpened to an hilarious and unnecessary level rested in its mouth and made whip like cracking sounds when they came together as the beast snapped and snarled from its position.

Worse still was the sheer amount of shadows fliting around the beast at blinding speeds all seemingly being able to do nothing to stop it in it's path as it trudged forward. Razor sharp looking wire extended from all angles around the beast, fire storms extinguished upon contact with its fur and winds thrown at it were cancelled out from tiny flicks of its tail. Large chunks of rock and kami-damned dragons of water broke upon its skin or were swatted away with a swipe from its massive claws, sharp nails extending the entire length of my body from their origin. Even lightning itself extending from multiple sources and all targeted at the same spot seemed to more inconvenience the beast rather than do any meaningful damage to it.

I looked at the back of Aoi, focusing on the symbol on the back of his vest. The swirling pattern as if I even needed it to now confirmed my disbelief. Chunin Aoi… Konoha village… and as I turned my head once more and gazed at the immense powerhouse in front of me tearing through hundreds upon hundreds of shinobi before it I fully realised where I was.

'Kurama'… I uttered completely terrified out of my mind, which was only exacerbated as the humongous fox's head snapped around like a bullet towards mine.