A/N: I fixed this chapter because I agree with Wopsidaisy on the pacing, I took out some stuff and edited this a bit. I think this version is better do tell me if it was okay?
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its character I'm just borrowing them for a bit! Also I do own the OCs that show up in this chapter along with the plot.
Warnings: Shounen ai, cursing.
Chapter one: I Don't Even Need a Stupid Guardian!
If you were as far up the food chain as say . . . a mouse what would you do? With about one hundred things that wanted to eat them, humans decided to ask for help, because they're too much of a bunch of damn weak cowards to try and learn how to fight so that they could defend themselves. That's how the Blood Ceremonies started. Once a human turned fifteen they would go through the blood ceremony. Once you were fifteen you were considered to have crossed the invisible line that marked you innocent and pure, and therefore you became easy pickings for things like demons, malevolent fairies, trolls, werewolves, hell just about any evil little piece of shit that felt like you looked tasty.
This is how the blood ceremony works. At the end of the month a blood ceremony is held so all the children who turned fifteen that month and those poor suckers who hadn't yet been picked by anything the previous years are taken to the center of the village, where - lay, on the stump was a blood stone, that looked like solidified liquid and shone as red as a scarlet rose. One by one - like ants - they would go to the Blood stone and prick their fingers with a golden needle. When the droplet of blood hits the stone a crack appears In front of the space in front of you. It would split apart the weird ass demonic thing that wants to claim you will stamp their mark on the palm of the hand that you pricked your finger.
Not everyone is chosen their first time, many aren't in fact. So if you aren't chosen you have to wait until the next Blood Ceremony and try your luck. The ones that aren't chosen aren't allowed out of the village for a multiple of reasons the main reason though was that, the village itself was protected. So if they stay inside they were safe from malevolent beings and many do stay because they don't know a how to fight or can't run very fast. Of course staying all protected like in the village is not always easy to do, especially if your family is poor and on the verge of starving. If you are then you'll be as desperate to leave, even though a trip out of the village to hunt for food is some scary shit... for them, some find there's no other way around it.
This is the case for me. With mom sick with some kind of radish fever, dad dead and buried six feet in the ground, and three, four year old - demons - sisters to feed, if I don't get picked on my first blood ceremony my family will be faced with tough shitty odds and even though I keep telling them that they shouldn't worry cause I'm awesome and I don't even need a fucking guardian, mom is worried and won't listen. So just to keep her happy - not because I actually need any help! - I hope I do get picked. My blood ceremony is tomorrow, ironically it is the exact day of my birthday, which is strange and it will probably give some kind of bad luck and shit. The last of 'purity' or whatever I don't give a fuck really it's not like half of the girls in the village are so damn pure anyway, especially with Sai, Mr. High-And-Mighty-I-Got-A-Goblin living here. Though for the sake of mom I give it some thought.
Getting something like a troll or a Goblin is considered good and only a few people actually have something that strong. Most of them have fairies, or magic rabbits or something completely unhelpful. I would like to have a goblin or better yet a demon, Heh that would show that stuck up asshole who's better than who! Though getting a demon is nearly impossible, demons and werewolves are super strong and the only thing stronger than that is a vampire. The only person that has a vampire in this part of the country is the princess, Hinata. And since I'm not a prince I don't even fantasize about getting something that strong.
Though it's got nothing to do with status, or at least human status. No there was a way humans were grouped by the other kinds not that any of us know how exactly they group us but I think it has something to do with your soul or at least that's what my mom says.
The men in the village usually bet on the outcome of the Blood Ceremonies, who would get chosen and by what that type of stuff. This of course only brings more pressure on the kids partaking in the ceremony and the jack asses know it too! I can't sleep; too much was depending on the outcome of my own Blood Ceremony, I couldn't let them down.
But eventually I fell into a restless sleep. I awoke to somebody shaking me. I sat straight up, cursing as I throw the blanket over my face. Mom was standing above me looking wearier than usual.
"Mom! Get back in bed you shouldn't be up and about!" I cry out as I stumble out of bed and nearly trip over the covers that had curled around my feet.
She gave a tired smile. "I'll be ok, beside how can I sleep it's my baby's first Blood Ceremony. Do your best and don't get upset if you're not picked, not everyone is." She said it as if it wasn't a big deal but the truth was that it was a huge deal. I grinned my award wearing grin and saw her brighten.
"Don't worry mom, I'm Naruto Uzumaki of course I'll be picked I'm awesome!" I shout cheerfully and feel the stress sink out of me as she chuckles. I hope I'm right; I hate it when she's sad.
Mom left and I hurried to get ready. The ceremony would start at sunrise so I only had an hour or so to get ready. I bathed and got dressed in my most formal attire, which sadly wasn't something to boast about. I brushed my wild pointy golden hair and cursed silently every time I ripped apart a knot - so mom won't hear and reprimand me again. I looked at my aquamarine eyes and studied myself in the cracked full length mirror. Grinning, I strike sexy pose after sexy pose admiring how my clothes clung to me. My clothes weren't that nice but they worked well enough and I didn't really give a shit about how I looked it was the fact the mom and my little sisters had to go around in nothing better than rags that made my heart lurch.
Sadly mom's guardian is a low ranking fairy; he could barely provide us with enough food each day. I used to rely on my own hunting skills to make sure we didn't starve but now at fifteen I wasn't safe out there and even though I can take care of myself there is always real fact that I will die. I can't really fight, I've always been better at setting traps and using long range weapons like the bow and arrow which I made myself, though I was the fastest kid in the village I kept getting this haunting image: where I am, unprotected and alone and I keep seeing myself as a grave stone walking out there. I shake myself and force away negative thoughts there was no if, I would be picked and if I wasn't then well... I guess I'd just have to learn how to fight; death was not in that equation.
The sun was rising, I left my house and walked - read jogged - to the center of the village. I noticed that nearly the whole village had come to watch, those sick fucks where just waiting for something tragic to happen. For them this was their weekly excitement, jerks had no lives. There were four others taking this month's Blood Ceremony, Temari, Chogi, Ino and Sakura. Sakura was the only other beside myself that was partaking in the Blood Ceremony for the first time. This was Temari and Chogi's third and Ino's second.
The bell chimed and the ceremony started, it went by alphabetical order so Chogi was first, I and the others formed a line behind him. My heart pounded wildly. I was third after Ino. Chogi walked up to the stone and pinched his finger with the needle that was handed to him by one of the ceremony guards, Azuma it looked like. Blood welled and fell in one perfect drop on to the stone.
I poked my head out to catch a glimpse of the stone. It wasn't like I'd never seen it before but I'd never really looked. Chogi stood in front of a gigantic wooden stump with like a gazillion rings on it. The stump was as tall as his knees and if he were to lay on it the stump would be wider that he was tall. On the stump was the stone. The blood stone was the color of freshly spilt blood – which is how it got its name. The blood stone was about as big as a six year old kid and weighed as much as a thousand six year old kids. It was so damn heavy that it was only ever moved by magic and since our little town has got nothing powerful in the magic sense it hasn't moved in like a gazillion years, maybe it's been here since old lady chief was born and that was a very long time ago.
Suddenly the space around us throbbed in a light the reminded me of sunset, all red and yellow and orange. The light was blinding and I had to narrow my eyes because it hurt to keep them open. A black streak appeared in front of Chogi, like the sky had cracked and the Earth around us shook as the crack pulled apart. It felt like the whole world was being ripped in half.
In the space inside the rip everything was black. A kind of jet black that made you think you were going to get sucked in and consumed. It stood out so drastically from the light around it that you couldn't look away; it captured your eyes like a snake would to a rabbit. In the middle of the darkness a small fairy hovered uncertainly.
She was a startling pale blue with long golden hair that fell to her shapely hips. Her eyes were like a bug's; they had no iris or pupil and were completely purple. She wore a soft looking dress with a fluffy light green vest and shoes. On her back were wings the same color of her hair, they sprouted from her back and were translucent and sort of pointy at the ends. She hesitantly kissed his palm and as he stared wondrously after her even after she vanished.
He stepped aside as the rip closed and the light faded staring at the mark on his palm the mark of an average strengthen fairy which was pretty good for someone like Chogi who's family wasn't going to starve either way. Me though, I needed something stronger and there was a very real chance that I wouldn't get anything.
Ino was next and she was shaking like the ground was still moving I felt bad for her. I wouldn't want to be next after feeling something like that, seeing and feeling were two entirely different things you know.
The guard handed her the needle and she let out a hiss as it pricked her finger. The drop of blood hit the stone and we all waited patiently. A second ticked by, then another I saw Ino start shivering in front of me and after a second I realized she was crying. I watched as she stumbled away from the stone and into her mom's arms. Truth be told Ino's family was pretty well off she didn't strictly need this ceremony to have succeeded but it still had to be a letdown especially having it been her second time.
I nervously stepped forward; I eyed the stone and saw that it had swirls the color of fiery reddish orange engraved in it and symbols scattered around it. I forced myself to look up. My heart quickened and nervously I took the needle handed to me - the same needle that Chogi and Ino had, the thing about golden needles was that they absorbed the blood and were always clean) and pluck my finger with a hiss, damn that shit hurt! The blood welled up and it felt like a year that it fell before it hit the stone with a splat. I waited and damn it felt like everything was slowing down around me, where was it, damn it?! A minute passed and nothing happened. I couldn't think my heart turned to stone as I stepped aside, if I looked up I knew I would have seen sympathy in people's eyes, I didn't want damn sympathy so I didn't look up. I waited for tears but they never came, I bit my lip forcing the idea of crying away I said I would deal with it if it happened and I will, damn it!
I forced myself to look up and watch the end of the ceremony. Sakura pinched her finger and a golden light shone making her gasp. I couldn't believe what I saw next, it was fucking unfair! In front of Sakura was a vampire he had black hair, black eyes and was dressed like an upper class man, concealed in black. The vampire looked at her for a second then looked around until he saw me and then he smirked.
My body heated and chilled at the same time, what the fuck was with this dude?!