Okay, onto another chapter. This will (hopefully) be the last time I go over this so I can continue my story.

This chapter deals with violence, death and traumatic themes. I try and keep things dramatic yet tasteful however if you are upset or alarmed please say so. This is rated T as of now however this can change.

Read and review but more importantly... enjoy!

Lonski

Chapter Two

What can't kill me can only make me stronger... right?

The sharp sounds of metal clashing with metal rung throughout the Village covered in the shadowy cloak of midnight. A harsh wind breathed and cruelly numbed the hands of the soldiers who desperately fought for their lives and home. Blinding white and yellow explosions burst into life at random intervals which threw unforgiving parts of buildings and... some even saw friends, neighbours... unknown faces being caught in the blasts also. The sheer force of nature was indifferent and ruthless as it tore apart everything within it radius.

Amidst the cries of dying men and women, a small child was curled in her bed and trembled in terror as the sounds had begun to make its way towards her own home. How many of her friend's were dead already? She screamed in terror as her bedroom window was suddenly lit-up from outside and a hot blast of air shattered the glass. Was it a monster that was destroying her home? Was that its breath? Was it going to eat her? All she could do was tighten her grip n her knees as she cowered under her bedclothes.

Her bedroom opened and it splintered against the wall from the sheer force. The little girl shrieked in panic, "NO! Don't hurt me please!" She was unable to raise her head and look up; her fear had made her body immobile. Cold hands grasped her shoulders suddenly and the girl's heart stopped for a moment as she was shook free from her covers.

"Kushina! It's Mother. You must get up; we don't have much time to leave!" Glassy hazel eye searched her daughter's face; auburn hair framed her heart-shaped face. Just as the little girl's own hair would in a few years' time.

"M-mum?" Kushina implored. Her voice was hardly above a whisper.

The woman pulled Kushina from her bed and took her hand as she led them both out of the room and towards the entrance hall of the compound.

Suddenly, the girl realised she had left something behind. Something she could never leave behind, she pulled away from her Mother's grasp and turned back to her room.

"Kushina?" The woman cried, her voice was thick with terror.

Kushina pulled out her most precious treasure from her draw; it was a gift from her father for her fifth birthday. Pair of green and black goggles, just like his. She pulled them over her head and around her neck for safekeeping.

The moment of peace was broken when a sudden flash of a better-aimed explosive detonated on the far wall of the compound. Kushina's bedroom wall.

"KUSHINA!" Her Mother screamed as she watched her child fall through the air as the entire front of the building crumbled apart, sending her daughter to fall almost weightlessly down.

Thankfully, Kushina managed to grab a part of a wall and it landed with her diagonally protruding from the ground. The small girl slid down the bricked wall. Her hands, cheek and her knees were battered ruthlessly until she ground to a halt on the cool carpet of the garden lawn. The little girl lay stunned on the grass until she was dragged back to painful reality when a terrible sound greeted her ears. It was most defiantly her Mother's voice but she wasn't calling for Kushina. She was begging for her life.

"N-no please DON'T! STOP PLEASE!" Her Mother screamed; her voice cut through every other sound. To Kushina, it was the only thing which existed in her new world of pain, terror and... Her world was suddenly re-introduced to the noises of her surroundings after... after the last sound Kushina heard her Mother make was... a blood-curdling scream as the life from her body was torn away. It would remain etched in her memory for the rest of Kushina's life.

"MUM?" Kushina as her trance was broken. She scrambled to her feet, ignoring the blood and the pain from her fall as she tried, desperately to climb the fallen wall to try and get to her Mother.

Heavy footsteps approached her from behind but she was beyond caring about anything other then getting to her Mother. It took three tries for the Soldiers to finally catch her attention.

"Kushina-Sama?" The youngest of the pair of Shinobi knelt beside where she stood and tenderly took out a handkerchief and held it to her cheek. Kushina winded away with pain and something in her broke. She knew there wouldn't be anything she could do to help her Mother now. The girl was suddenly overcome with tears.

"My Mum sh-she's" Her breath hitched as her throat shrunk to the point where she could no longer speak, she pointed a shaking hand towards where her room once was.

The older man nodded with understanding and commanded the other, "Kenji-San." The other man understood and saluted with a hand across his chest and disappeared a he sprung up the collapsed wall. Kushina tried desperately to tell them it was no use she was...

"I'm Hiroshi, your Father sent me to find you. I will take you to him if you will allow me to carry you. It is safer and quicker that way. Understand?" The man was tall, even from an adult's perspective and she looked at him with tear-filled eyes as he shadowed him. Kushina nodded and immediately the man knelt where Kenji had been and allowed her to climb onto his back.

She was shown a dizzying view of the state of her Village; few buildings stood whole, there were men and woman fighting enemies who were shrouded with tattered cloaks, with no sign of a ninja headband. The stench of burning swept over her and stung her nose and eyes, she covered her face with Kenji's borrowed handkerchief and instead she tried to concentrate on the salty and metallic combination of her tears and blood on the cloth. She didn't want to think about what other things were burning from wood. It was too much to think about. All those people...

Eventually, Hiroshi slowed as they reached the main square of the Village. They both tensed as a feeling of foreboding washed over them. There were no shrouded men fighting her own people... there was no one there other then a lone man with his back to them both. Hiroshi placed her on the ground and Kushina fought to remain on her feet.

"Father?" Kushina asked, her voice held hope as she began to rush towards the man, Hiroshi suddenly gripped her arm painfully tight and prevented to move any further as...

A glimmer of steel caught the light of the full moon at the centre of her Father's back. A sickle-shaped blade came into view as a dribble of crimson fluid dropped from its edge and stained the cobbled floor. The blade suddenly vanished with a sickening sound and her Father fell to the floor as though he was a broken puppet.

"NO!" Kushina screamed as she fought desperately to free herself from Hiroshi's vice-like grip.

The image of her Father burned into her mind as she replayed it over and over in her head; she hardly heard Hiroshi's yells and only responded when he pushed her away behind him protectively. Kushina stumbled to the ground and smacked her head hard on the floor. She raised her head upwards just in time to see a young man stand exactly where her own Father had only moments ago. Such a thing could not ever be described as human. His mouth seemed to be in a perpetual and unnaturally large grin as a dark line spanned from his lips to his jaw line. His skin was deathly pale and had a dun wax-like appearance. His vividly green eyes shot from his poor imitation of a man's face and they glared at Kushina, framed by feather-like blood red hair which waved gracefully in an otherworldly breeze which caught his cloak as it stood to regard them both.

It stretched out his hand and offered them an unlined open palm, in a flurry of movement however, it suddenly changed and a short word shot from the middle of his palm and it snapped into place.

Hiroshi cleared his throat and stood unbelievably calmly before Kushina as he asked, "Where is the real you?"

"Right here."

A soft voice responded politely to the Shinobi as he materialised in a waft of black mist from behind Hiroshi. Kushina yelled as she scrambled away from the thing. Thankfully its attention was focused entirely upon Hiroshi as its head was turned at an unnatural angle to regard the man.

"Akasuna no Sasori?" Hiroshi gasped as he remained rooted to the spot. Kushina realised suddenly that Hiroshi was not calm. He was simply still with resignation that he had few options which would lead him away from their situation. None of them were good.

Sasori seemed far too young for someone to invoke such terror on a fully grown man like Hiroshi. However, there was nothing normal about the man.

"From this day forth, the name Uzumaki is extinct. The Nation of Whirlpools has fallen with its leader. All that remains is you." Sasori directed at Kushina. "My one hundred puppet army cannot and will never be stopped."

Hiroshi began as he turned to face Sasori, "It is not dead, not while I still protect-"

"You are already dead." Sasori hissed and the Shinobi froze with realization as a prickling sensation from the side of his neck turned into a cold feeling which ran through his veins as though he was suddenly being doused in iced water. Hiroshi stumbled; he suddenly felt as though his limbs were several times heavier then before and his body ached for rest.

"Within the next few moments your body will gradually cool as your core temperature is being affected by my poison which is by now; indefinably within your brain. Your heart rate will decline and your body will become starved of oxygen and will become heavier and heavier with each moment." Hiroshi clumsily pulled out the thin lass-like needle from his neck and shattered it in his hand. "That action was pointless as you have no hope of survival. Your body will become frozen from the inside and you will be rendered unable to think, breathe, speak and move. A perfect piece of art of a moment captured in time.

Hiroshi staggered as he struggled to fight for air as his lungs began to shut down. He couldn't allow himself the dishonour of not attempting to complete the task his leader had charged him with. He pulled out a scroll from a pocket of his flack jacket as he ignored Sasori's voice which said,

"Resistance is futile, you can only marvel at my masterpiece with your last few-."

The young man was cut off as he launched himself safely away from a shower of Kunai from above. Kenji appeared with a few recent wounds but he stood firm regardless. "Kushina-Sama, remain as far away as you can. Hiroshi-Sempai, forgive me but I couldn't have arrived soo-"

Hiroshi ignored Kenji's runaway mouth and simply threw the scroll at the younger man to cut him off. Kenji deftly caught it and looked up just a Hiroshi had begun to pitch forward. "Activate it, save Kushina." And the man fell to the floor, dead before he touched the stone.

Sasori's puppet focused on the scroll between Kenji's fingers and shot forward to steal it from the young Shinobi. Kenji leapt backwards and away from both Sasori and his duplicate and narrowly avoided the puppets blade as it slashed through the air where he had stood only moments ago. Kenji ran around the puppet's next attack and kept an eye on the still Sasori. It seemed Sasori was waiting for his puppet to kill him. Kenji shot towards where Kushina lay on the ground and shouted "Suiton: Suijinheki!" as he skidded to a halt to face the two enemies.

A thick wall of water shot from the ground and spanned across the square. The puppet had followed Kenji closely and it crashed into the water. Confused by this seemingly weak barrier it thrashed at it with its sword several times before it received orders to calculate another approach. Which only took three seconds as a long and heavy scroll was flung into the air and activated to create its own barrage of miscellaneous weapons and light explosives, most of which had managed to break through and shower down onto Kenji.

Kenji collapsed in pain as the number of wounds trebled in less then a second. He still gripped the scroll in his hand however, and he turned to face the tearful Kushina. It took everything he had to shoot her a smile but it was a true one and it managed to set her slightly at ease. There was a way out...

"Kushina-Sama." He said his voice had become harsh and low from surprised pain; the girl ran towards him and placed a hand on his shoulder as she reached for his handkerchief. "Keep it. Let it remind you of something important. Tell them what you have seen. Tell them it was Sasori. Tell them who you are and you will be safe. Understand?"

Kushina nodded, her mind was blank but she was certain she would remember when the time came.

"Good. Not hold out your hand." Kenji threw open the scroll as he used his other hand to hold onto hers. His fingers were cold in hers. He spat out some blood from his mouth onto the intricate pattern on the paper and he caught her attention with a squeeze of her hand. "Run." And with that Kenji, the advancing puppet through the weakened wall of water, Sasori her home... Everything simply melted away from view as her hand wad forced down onto the scroll.

Her feet landed heavily on uneven ground and she stumbled as she tried to obey Kenji's last command. Her foot suddenly sunk in a soft pile of decaying leaves and connected with a fallen tree log. Kushina fell forward and painfully jarred her ankle. A shocked flock of blackbirds flapped away with fright above her head and the sound snapped Kushina from her daze. A flickering warm light shone through the darkness of the forest and she hurled herself onto her feet and towards it.

An impressive wooden-paneled gate stood proudly before her as the Village's name was scrawled in red; Konoha.

Relief swathed over her small form followed swiftly with exhaustion and pain as she watched the gate glow in the warmth of the torches at either side. Suddenly her view became much lower and Kushina simply stared at the wondrous light and regarded the approaching darkness with confusion.

Author notes.

Doing an all-nighter and after a misbehaving laptop I've managed to churn this one out right after the first. I really like Eminem's new song with Rihanna; 'Love the way you lie.' Really good mood-setter for the end of this chapter. Don't worry though, this isn't gonna be a song fic and have the lyrics plastered in between paragraphs. Coz that's really annoying. Wanna know what else is annoying? Me, I'll quit yapping.

Just as a side-note. I know Kushina is very observant for a child her age however she is no ordinary child. She's been brought up in a clearly mature militant background. So from this, I am able to assume that she would have been taught from a young age how to read people as a form of defence as she is too young to defend herself physically. Instinct also plays a large part in this too.

Thanks for reading, please continue to read and if you have the time, be a fantastic and wonderful person (more-so then you usually are) and post in a little review for Lonski.

Lonski.