In the village hidden in the leaves, there used to be a large and powerful clan. This clan was known for producing many powerful ninja. It stood above the rest due to its member’s bloodline limit, which gave them a boost during battle, and made them almost unbeatable. This clan was renowned in the leaf village, and was even known in the other hidden villages around the world.
The Uchiha clan…
One of the members of this clan was Uchiha Itachi. A boy of six years old, with long charcoal hair tied back in a ponytail and eyes the colour of stone, he was a child prodigy. Already a genin, he was one of the youngest ever to make ninja.
On the other end of the scale completely was the Bōei clan. They were hardly known at all, and were few in number because the gene that gave its members the bloodline was recessive. This meant that it was rare to get the bloodline, even in the Bōei family.
A member of this clan was Bōei Sukiyo. Also six years old, she was just starting in the ninja academy. Short with long chocolate hair and jade green eyes, she looked unremarkable, plain even, just another child trying to be a ninja…
Suki yawned. She was bored with being in class, listening to her sensei blather on about how to keep your balance while jumping fast. Although it was something she needed to learn, Suki just wasn’t in the mood. She gazed lazily out of the window watching some birds in the forest fly up in alarm at something. She yawned again.
“Sukiyo, I said; are you listening!?” asked a rather bothered looking dog-nin. Suki turned her head to look at her teacher; a highly-strung chuunin called Inuzuka Ashi.
“Yeah Ashi-sensei!” she answered hastily.
“Oh, then what did I just say?” Ashi asked slyly, knowing the child wouldn’t be able to answer. The dog that laid by the door lifted its head, listening to the conversation. It was a large tan coloured dog, that slobbered a lot and looked menacing, but most of the time was completely harmless. The children had to step over him to get out of the classroom at the end of the day.
“Eh… I can’t wemember sensei” Suki said sheepishly
“And why’s that Sukiyo?” Ashi pressed.
“Because I wasn’t listenin’ sensei…” Suki said, blushing.
“I know Sukiyo” Ashi smiled, and the class laughed, the dog by the door wagged his tail “so who can tell Sukiyo what I said?”
Instantly a hand at the front of the class shot up, and the class groaned, the dog putting his great head back onto his paws.
“She SAID,” the owner of the hand began, looking smugly up at Suki, who sat up a few rows back, “that your balance receptors are in your ears, so some ninja may target your ears…”
While saying this, he never took his eyes from Suki.
“You get it this time Sukiyo?” Ashi sensei asked
“Hai, sensei!” Suki said as her teacher turned back to the blackboard. Suki took this opportunity to stick her tongue out at the boy in the front row.
The boys name was Sarumaru, after the third Hokage himself. He was a boy with glasses and a mop of straw-coloured hair. He smirked at her. Sarumaru was ALWAYS trying to one up Suki. He was lots smarter than her, a fact he told her often, but lacking in physical ability. Suki always told him that he was slower than a snail carrying four bags of heavy shopping. And she was pretty much right, he was slow in the practice races and such, but his brain was sharper than a newly grinded axe.
Later that day, as class ended and the children were stepping over the dog, Sarumaru fell into step with Suki as they exited the room.
Sarumaru sighed. “You handed me that win Suki-chan” he said as he looked sideways at her
“No way,” Suki replied, “She got me off guard!”
“Coming to the secret place?” Sasumaru asked her, even though that’s where they were headed anyway, following some of the other children through a hole in the wall of Konoha.
“Yeah, and I’m gonna kick yer butt t’day, Saru-kun!” she grinned at him.
“In your dreams!” Sarumaru grinned back.
The little group of children were now following the Konohan outer wall around to where there was a forest clearing. They weren’t really supposed to be out of the village, but they were kids, and didn’t really care.
The clearing now in view, Suki could see that there already seemed to be some children there; older kids, of about seven or so.
“Gah, those baka’s are back!” Suki said to Sarumaru
“Yeah I see ‘em” Sarumaru said back, a frown on his face.
One of the children ahead of Suki and Sarumaru, a boy named Hachi, ran forward to confront the older kids.
“Oi, I thought we turfed you baka’s outta here here last week!?” Hachi asked with menace.
One of the older children narrowed her eyes at Hachi.
“Yeah, right, like you little kids could get rid of us” she told the now growling Hachi.
“Be careful Hachi-kun!” Suki shouted to her friend as she ran to his side, “but I thought you guys didn’t wanna be here anyway?”
One of the seven year olds looked at Suki sheepishly “I tried to stop ‘em Suki-san…”
Suki looked at the boy who had spoken. He was a little short for his age and had his brunette hair up in a high ponytail.
“eeeh, it’s alright Iruka-kun” Suki said to while turning back to the girl who had spoken before. “So, what ‘appened to yer ‘Roof Top Paradise’, eh?”
The girl, whose name was Yukihime, frowned at Suki.
“Oh that dump, we’re too good for that place now.” Yukihime said her frown turning into a sneer.
“You mean you got told off for being there.” Sarumaru told the girl, his trademark knowing grin on his face.
Yukihime’s sneer wavered.
“N-no,” she said as she tried to regain her self, “we just got sick ‘o it!”
“Yeah right,” Hachi and Suki said together.
“So, we gonna get this on or not?” said another seven year old, a boy called Hige. He was stood beside Yukihime but a little in front of Iruka, who had retreated upon hearing Hige’s words.
Suki and Hachi tensed up a little, they knew they couldn’t defeat the older children; they were not only bigger but had more ninja training than them, and so were faster and stronger. They had only won last time thanks to Iruka. He’d been hit accidentally in the battle with a stone, and had needed to go to the nurse. Therefore, the younger children had won.
Hige stooped to pick a handful of mud from the ground, and all the children were on tenterhooks, waiting for the first shot to be thrown.
When suddenly there was a rumble from deep in the forest.
All the children turned to look for the source of the noise, but could see nothing.
“What the heck?” Asked Hachi, saying what all the kids were thinking
“What was that?” Asked Yukihime, looking into the shadowy depths beyond the clearing, but seeing nothing.
Again, there was a rumble, louder this time, closer.
The children stood in silence, waiting, when the ground began to shake, a little at first, but then more fiercely.
“An earthquake!?” Iruka said as he tried to keep his balance.
“Look at that!” exclaimed Sarumaru, pointing to a large shape in the distance, getting bigger at the same rate as the shaking was getting worse.
Suki followed his point to see a large rusty orange shape. “A… fox?” she asked
“Yeah… that’s what it looks like,” confirmed Hige, “look behind it though, are they… tails?”
Yukihime narrowed her eyes, “I count… eight, no nine!”
“Nine tails!?” asked Iruka
Suddenly around fifty ninja flew over the children’s heads, towards the fox
“Was that the Yondaime!?” Said Hachi in awe
“Yeah I think it was!” Hige answered, “Come on, let’s go see!”
“No way!” said one of the other older children, and there was a murmur of agreement “I’m going home!”
He and the rest of the seven year olds and six year olds took off back through the hole in the wall.
Now all who were left was Suki, Yukihime, Sarumaru, Hige, Hachi and Iruka.
“W-what, no we can’t, we might get hurt!” Iruka protested.
“Stay here then, Dolphin-boy!” Hige said as he ran into the forest, Suki on his heels.
“Guys!” Suki heard Iruka call as she ran behind Hige, she could also hear Sarumaru puffing as he tried to keep up, and Yukihime’s light steps somewhere behind her.
Eventually Iruka caught up, but spent the whole run telling them about how they all were going to get hurt, and that if the Hokage was involved, that it must be really dangerous.
He was ignored, although the children should have listened to him.
The kids got to an area of forest that had broken trees everywhere, and three dead ninja.
One had been torn apart, so he was only a torso, while another was impaled on a tree branch and the last crushed under a fallen tree.
Suki gasped.
“T-they’re…” she heard Yukihime try to say
“Dead…” Sarumaru breathed.
The children looked at each other, for the first time wondering what they had gotten themselves into…
“I told you!” Iruka said in distress, clearly on the verge of tears
Suki looked in the direction of the now killer fox.
“We… should turn back,” she said
Hige looked alarmed
“No way,” he said defiantly, “we’re ninja, we’re gonna have to see dead bodies at some point, these ninja probably just sucked!”
With that, he ran into the forest in the direction of the fox.
“Hige!” Yukihime called after him, “HIGE!”
She began to run, still calling his name, into the forest after him
“W-we can’t let them go!” Hachi said, a little unsure
“No we can’t…” Suki said, looking at her friends, before running after Hige and Yukihime, Hachi, Sarumaru and a now crying Iruka behind her.
They ran, but saw no sign of Yukihime or Hige, but the shaking had gotten much worse.
Soon they could also hear shouting from up ahead and then, an ear-splitting roar.
The children, although fearing for their own lives, kept running, desperate to find the two missing seven year olds.
Suddenly, they burst out of the trees and bushes into a clearing, where they got their first look at a sight they would never forget.
There were ninja everywhere, and quite a few of them were dead in heaps on the ground. And, as Suki looked up, she could see the source of this terror; a massive demon fox, its nine tails waving as it tore up trees and crushed both ninja and boulders alike.
As the children stood on the edge of all this destruction, Iruka gave a squeak, causing Suki to tare her eyes away from the fox and to two small figures near the fox’s feet.
“That’s them!” Sasumaru shouted, causing Iruka to run out onto the battle field. The younger kids watched as he dodged flying boulders, and ducked under speeding kunai. Finally he had reached his friends, only to seemingly collapse.
Without a second thought the younger ones tried to run to his side, following the same path he had.
“Saru-kun!” Suki screamed as Sarumaru was struck by a wayward shuriken. She tried to double back, to reach her fallen friend, but was blocked by another child.
With tear filled eyes she looked up at the boy blocking her. He looked about her age, and had long charcoal hair tied in a ponytail, and eyes like bottomless pits; a black that seemed to go on forever.
This new child stared back at Suki, before grabbing her by the hand and pulling her towards the edge of the battlefield.
“No, my friends, let me go, I need to help them!” she screamed as she struggled, trying to prise his hand from her wrist. The boy merely pulled her harder.
In desperation, she looked back towards the terror she was now being forced to leave, and saw that the battlefield had now cleared, apart from one man, who stood facing the enraged fox.
Completely engrossed in the man on the battlefield, Suki had stopped struggling, and the boy, feeling this, looked back, and saw the man.
“The Yondaime…” Suki heard him whisper, and she looked at him before looking back at the man.
“The forth Hokage?” Suki narrowed her eyes, and studied the man. He had blonde hair, and his Hokage cloak was blowing in the wind. It was indeed the Yondaime.
Suki and the boy watched as the Yondaime started performing hand signs and then bend down as if to touch the floor.
Suki gasped as she saw smoke billow and then clear to show a huge toad, the Hokage stood upon its massive head.
About a minute elapsed, with nothing happening; the fox and the toad stared at each other, sizing each other up. Then, there was a bright flash of light, causing Suki to grab the boys hand in fear, she shut her eyes and waited for a death that wouldn’t come. She stood, shaking as silence enveloped the battlefield.
Slowly, she opened her eyes, only to see that the fox, the toad and the Yondaime were gone, replaced by an unnatural stillness in the air.
Suki sensing the danger had passed tried to run out into the massive clearing left by the Fox, to try to find her missing friends, but as soon as she tried to move, she began to feel dizzy, and the ground rushed up to meet her…
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Chapter notes: Disclaimer: I don't own naruto or any of its affiliates ^-^
Chapter end notes: if you read it, review it please! ^^