Chapter 2: New Beginnings
Year 65, Shinobi World
It's been little less than a year since Third Shinobi World War has ended where five great Shinobi Villages fought between each other and smaller Shinobi nations. Five great Shinobi villages had been diminishing national power ever since Second Shinobi World War eleven years ago where smaller nation had instigated prolonged conflicts with them, they smelled the blood in the water and like sharks they had gone after it.
And what was the results and prices, results – Some heroes born and some fallen, five great villages weakened to the point where they started training shinobi as young as 5 years old and by age the of 8 – 10 they already saw combat, the price - dozens of smaller nations and villages wiped out, their names to be forgotten in a decades time.
But what is most of the time not considered regarding the price and result of war, willfully or just from indifference, is civilians that doesn't belong to a Shinobi village. Thousands upon thousands displaced people seeking safety or just trying to survive. If you were to ask leaders of these nations 'how did this happen' they would answer with best of 'It's regretful that it had to happen but it's the price we pay for the survival of the village'.
While the war was over for shinobi with occasional skirmish and heated relations, the war wasn't over for regular people. Bandits, slavers, rogue shinobi, unknown lands, hunger and disease. For them war only changed shapes.
March 10th, Land of Fire, North-Eastern region bordering Land of Hot Waters
With sun already beyond the horizon, embers and smoke painted sky of the twilight hour. In a forest clearing off the main road towards Fire nation's capital half a dozen of horse wagons and carts were burning, almost two dozen people lay dead on the ground still warm, cut down by bandits.
"You inbreeds how are we going to transport the booty! Put out that fire NOW, and I don't care how, jump in it for all I care." A big burly man with front teeth missing yelled at his underlings.
To the side of the group focusing and trying to put out the fire, a skinny man with greasy long hair was crouching and poking a corpse of a women with his dagger. "Can this even be called a woman, it's nothing but skin and bones."
As he lifted his head up he saw a young girl at the edge of the clearing, she looked about ten years old, wearing white cat mask with purple shoulder length hair and just standing there watching him.
Almost exclaiming aloud, he looked over his shoulder at the boss kicking other men at the burning wagons and back to the girl. He stood up and slowly approached the girl, he would finally have what he has been denied for so long.
"Kitty, kitty, here kitty..." In his imagination he could swear the girl looked innocent and even shivering from fear. Reaching out to grab her shoulder he would be the happiest bandit in Land of Fire shorty after. But for some reason his grabby thing didn't work, looking dumbfounded at his hand there was only a gushing stump, his only thought 'Where it go?'. Before registering the pain and what had happened something stung him in the neck and...
The girl pulled out her short sword from his throat that had been stabbed so hard that it pierced the back of his skull. Giving the short sword a light swing to get rid of the blood she rushed at the backs of the bandits without making any sound. Jumping into the air ready to pierce bandit leader's spine at the neck another three people with white animal masks were in the motion ready to take the bandit group down as well.
Timing her takedown between his bellows when he inhales air to yell more at his underlings, she stabbed and twisted her blade severing his spine at the skull, using the momentum with his falling body she rolled forward and spinning her small body sideways, she severed four pairs of achilles tendons. As she stopped and looked back at the four bandits in the motion of dropping to the knees, their screams about to escape their throats. Her comrades that had taken down three more were already piercing their necks with blades. Once they hit the ground no sound escaped them beyond couple of gurgles of their blood.
The four masked shinobi looked at each other and nodded, splitting up and checking the corpses for any life despite knowing they all are deceased, it was protocol. A minute passed and they gathered back up again.
Captain of the squad wearing the Raccoon mask asked, "Anyone alive?" and the rest of them shook their heads.
The girl with cat mask however handed him a parchment, "It was on the coachmen of one of the carts, he was hired to transport a group of refugees from Hot Water to Fire Capital, contracts issued from Fire capital however."
If their eyebrows could be seen, you could see the captain and two others raising them. After reading thru it the captain turned back and looked at the scene 'Curious.'
"Shabby wagons and carts, refugees suffering from malnutrition and disease from other nation, some supplies and anonymous contract at a premium issued at our capital to get them there. Something doesn't add up." The captain pondered.
"Where's the coachmen you got this from Neko?" As the captain asked this, she threw him a scroll in which she had sealed the man's body.
"Good, we'll forward this to Hokage. We'll leave this mess for our patrols to deal with. We have to get back and report about our mission." They nodded to captain and started to run behind him to the edge of the clearing.
If one believes in destiny, fate or any higher power, it would surprise even those omniscient forces because something happened that shouldn't have been. As the group of masked shinobi were ready to jump into trees and leave, they heard a wailing cry of a women. Immediately spinning around in middle of the jump they faced back to the scene of massacre ready for combat.
Waiting for a second or two for something to happen, they rushed back to the smoldering wagons and carts. Without communication between each other they started sifting thru smoldering wrecks knowing there must be a survivor somewhere.
The cat masked shinobi was in the process of rolling over a half-burned crate behind the wagons and removing smoldering planks and tarps. Then she started to hear it, between occasional crackle of embers here and there, shallow and strained breaths.
"Found it!" She spoke up to her squad mates and they rushed to her, helping her to remove another crate hastily. As she grabbed the last layer of the tarp and removed it a sight of unconscious, beautiful pregnant women greeted them.
The women had silky white hair tied into single big braid, even though half of her head was covered in ash and burn marks her skin still looked like porcelain. If anything, the dark soot marks contrasted her beauty even more. As the group of Anbu cleared everything around her they inspected her, despite wearing shabby and dirty clothes they could tell she was someone important. Polished nails, white teeth, no malnutrition or any visible disease.
"Her arm and leg is crushed, multiple third-degree burns, and piece of wood lodged into one of the shoulders" Spoke one of the Anbu to the captain.
Checking her vitals, captain spoke with finality, "If we attempt to move her, what little strength she's holding on to will be gon..."
He couldn't finish as the women's ruby eyes flew open and she screamed again, scaring the living hell out of the four Anbu. And then he understood what was happening, what was about to happen. Her hips trembling as she's trying to move her legs open wider.
The cat masked Anbu immediately helped her take the correct position and inspected her belly. Looking back at the captain she almost froze up herself, if he wasn't wearing his mask she was sure he would look like an owl looking completely gobsmacked. Looking to the side it wasn't much different with the other two, one hiding behind the other pretending they don't exist.
"Idiots! Captain get me warm water now! You two find cleanest cloth you can find." She spoke firmly, but on the inside she was a nervous wreck as well. She never had seen or participated in birth being given, she only ever studied about the process and how it's done, she's ten god damnit, had she known this kind of thing could happen she would have visited Leaf's hospital and observed how it's done.
Not looking back at any of them she could feel her captain hesitating, having inner turmoil about a past trauma or something. She spoke up with annoyed tone and twitching eyebrow pointing to a pot, "Pot..." then to his belt, "disinfectant..." then pointing to two headless chickens trying to find cloth, "Idiot number one, water style. Idiot number two, fire style!"
As the male Anbus were running around performing jutsus and gathering cloth the cat masked Anbu removed the women's dirty kimono exposing her belly and lower half. She tried to speak to the women but to not luck. She was half lucid at best of moments, eyes unfocused, murmuring and grunting ready to give birth at any moment.
As the other Anbus returned with pot of warm water and cloth the women started to scream in convulsions. But something was off, almost earie, the women's eyes rolled back into her skull and she started yelling like mad, "DEMONS... THE BLOOD E... FOXES ARE COMING... OTHER WORLD..." startled by this they couldn't react in time as the women stabbed herself with piece of pointy wood in her belly and prepared for second swing while continuing to yell, "... KILL THEM, CUT THEM OUT AND KI..."
The cat masked Anbu was fast to react and grabbed her wrist before she could stab her belly once more while landing a right hook to the women's temple knocking her out. Silent, "What the fuck!" escaped all four Ambu's mouths.
"Captain hold her arm and shoulders down, I'll have to cut it open. You two by me now!"
This time captain didn't hesitate, he was already in process of doing just that and then he barked at his two subordinates, "You heard her, RIGHT NOW!"
Cat masked Anbu girl disinfected her hands and a kunai blade, taking a deep breath she calmed herself down and started to perform a master blade work on the pregnant belly where it was stabbed. Less than half a minute later she was lifting two baby girls covered in blood from the carved-up women's belly. Severing their ambilocal cords and cleaning them with warm water she wrapped them in cloth into two bundles, they didn't cry and weren't hurt, their new foggy ruby eyes swimming around unable to see anything.
"Gimme a blanket from survival kit." As she said this she was removing her flak vest and chain mail, taking out a baggy jacket from her storage scroll. Before putting it on she toke the blanket and made sling to be makeshift carrier around her neck.
Placing the two bundles in the sling she put on the jacket and zipped it up, hugging and holding them close to her bare skin she looked at her comrades, captain who was finishing sealing the mother's body into a scroll, second one contemplating something deep and third who was a rookie like her puking his guts out to the side.
The captain and two others approached her, slapping his subordinate who just puked he said to him with a chuckle, "That was way better than the real thing, you'll be fine."
If you could see it, he was probably pale behind the mask, "Cap how can it be worse?"
The captain gave a hearty laugh having a momentary flashback to his wife giving birth, shuddering at the thought he responded, "Lots of screaming, not about demons of course, but cursing and broken fingers."
"But enough of that we must make haste, Neko are you ready?" he received a quick nod from her and all of them ran to the edge of the clearing, jumping into trees and then from tree branch to tree they rushed to the Village Hidden in the Leafs.
1 hour later, Village Hidden in the Leafs, Hospital
Shift change was happening, as the receptionists were greeting each other and exchanging places a gust of wind blew thru the reception area as four Anbu appeared next to them.
One of them was about to scold the stupid shinobi to stop making ruckus all the time but stopped and palled when she saw the young Anbu girl with dried blood up to her elbows holding on to something under her jacket.
"We got two infants that were born an hour ago, please..." the cat masked Anbu said as she was unzipping her jacket revealing the two bundles sleeping against her chest.
The other receptionist dropped her bag and immediately without hesitation scooped them out and almost cooled at the two adorable things hastily taking them to children's ward, while the first one spoke to the Anbu girl, "What's their names?"
The Anbu girl was about to respond but she felt a hand of her captain on her shoulder, as he spoke to the receptionist, "They don't have names, the mother is dead and we have zero clue of their linage, but we'll leave Neko-chan here. I bet she'll come up with great names for them since she received them."
She looked up at her captain and she could swear he was grinning like mad under that stupid mask, looking at her comrades she saw one intently looking at no particular spot on the wall while the other one pretended to notice exciting journal on the table in the waiting area. Before she could voice an objection, she was grabbed by the receptionist and dragged off to clean herself up.
"Don't worry, we'll debrief the Hokage. Have fun." said the captain as the three Anbu disappeared in swirl of leaves and she could swear she heard echoes of snickering.
'Damnit, I'm going to be made fun off at the HQ now, aren't I? Youngest mother to be in Anbu or something?' As she was having internal crisis she was dragged into women's bathroom.
Half an hour later
After cleaning herself up and getting back into her Anbu flak vest she waited outside the children's ward to be called by a nurse. Unfamiliar excitement and satisfaction crept inside her making her slightly confused at her own emotional state, pondering harder about it she came to the conclusion that she as Anbu ever done assassination, infiltration, intelligence gathering etc. Undoubtedly those things save lives but you don't see the lives saved, this felt new and much more gratifying to her.
She was broken out of her thought by the nurse calling her to come in, with a smile under her mask she followed. Stopping couple of steps from the crib with twin baby girls she watched at them with amazement. One was flailing her little arms as if trying to fly while other one was kicking with both of her legs as if trying to jump, it looked silly and almost made her chuckle.
"They don't bite, you can come closer you know." the nurse from the side said with amused chagrin herself.
Cat masked girl stepped closer, slightly leaning over the crib, "They look very hyperactive, how are they otherwise?"
"They're better than fine, most energetic ones we have seen in a long time. When we gave them shots, they didn't even cry just slightly frowned. They'll grow strong." the nurse informed while leaning over the crib from the side herself.
Cat masked girl couldn't handle the adorable little twins any longer and she extended her index fingers ready to tickle their bellies. One on the right immediately caught her finger with her tiny hands and let out amused squeaky laugh, while the one on the left froze up with her hands up and something akin to suspicions look directed at the finger.
Both the nurse and cat masked girl were melting inside. Slightly wiggling her finger, the cat masked girl spoke, "C'mon, don't be afraid." And after a moment the baby girl on the left hesitantly grabbed onto her finger as well. "And now let the tickles commence!" she lightly tickled both of their bellies while they held on to her fingers for the life of them.
"What will happen to them?" the masked girl inquired to the nurse breaking the mesmerizing atmosphere.
Nurses look changed from happiness to somber look as she replied, "They will go to the orphanage... Speaking of which I was told you have their names?"
She nodded and replied, "Give me a minute for that." as she continued to play with two bundles of joy.
After couple of minutes of playing with them, she lifted her cat mask to her nose revealing her lips and leaned into the left baby girl placing a kiss on her forehead and speaking,
"You will be Rei..." Leaning to the right baby girl and kissing her on the forehead, "... and you will be Mei."
A/N: First thank you for reading. Second let me say I haven't written anything in my life, this is the first time I've written something with effort. I'm self-thought in English and it isn't my first language. As such I'm posting two chapters to seek criticism, tips and tricks regarding my writing, possible suggestions of tools to help with punctuation and formatting(I have really hard time with paragraphs). There might be more chapters in the future but not until I have written couple of dozen of them. Also someone who could please explain to me how to copy and paste my chapters from Word into here, it keeps copying source code with the story(pulling my hair out at this rn)