This is a fanfiction set in the Naruto universe. The characters in it may or may not be familiar to you readers. I am writing this for my own pleasure and may discontinue it whenever I feel it‘s taking too much of my free time. Any similarity to scenes from the original Naruto manga may be intended so I refuse to accept criticism on that part. I realise this chapter is mostly the narrator talking, though this is a prologue so I want you to feel the atmosphere of the world the characters live in.
Working title – A tale of old times (this could be subject to change)
Narrator: Grey clouds filled the sky above an oak forest. A few hills marked its east end and on the very verge of that end lay a wooden house.
Lightning struck the tree on the nearby hill. Its largest branch cracked and in a few seconds it had broken and fallen on the ground. The thud heard, however, seemed closer – like someone bashing the front door open. Bades‘ mother held her hand on his mouth while his father was prepared to fight off the intruders.
Narrator: They were hidden in the closet under the stairs – a dark place with a very small window which was even darker now because of the heavy storm raging outside. Footsteps were heard above their heads – it seemed someone was climbing the stairs. Bades‘ father had designed the closet himself so that should another conflict between the ninja clans arise they could safely hide in it and escape through a hidden tunnel. The door to the closet was almost unnoticeable from the outside but the trapdoor leading to a nearby hollow hill was jammed. Not willing to risk breaking it and alerting the strangers the family was simply going to wait for them to leave.
Narrator: Bades was a twelve–year-old boy with purple shoulder-length hair and amber eyes. His parents had always told him „Son, we live in a time of great strife. Not long ago vast quantities of unusual metal were discovered in underground deposits all around our land. It is used to make weapons and everyone wants to get their hands on those deposits. Our land is poor and has no leader, it cannot resist them. What‘s worse is that they don‘t care. They will stop at nothing to get their hands on these deposits. All we want for you is to have a happy, untroubled life. One day our land may be in ruin and our lives may be lost, but know that nobody can take your memories of it away. And one day, after all this fighting ends you may return and rebuild it.“ At first it seemed like a lullaby to him, yet when he grew to the age of ten he had had enough contact with people other than his mother and father to figure out this was probably how it would go. Misyna, as the region the boy grew up in was called, was torn by open fighting between different outsider fractions intent on supplying themselves with weapons. The boy had wondered many nights why they would wage war for things they would use to wage another war. Bades had dismissed those thoughts long ago, thinking himself too young to understand the reasoning behind all this, though recently he had started approaching this problem from a different angle. Suddenly a deep voice sounded from upstairs.
Soldier 1: It seems there is nobody here at the moment, Captain Kakori.
Kakori: Check again I am sure I saw movement through the window when we were closing in. We can‘t risk alerting the bear clan.
Narrator: The voice that came from a few feet away startled the family. They had not heard any movement outside and yet there was someone so close to their hiding place. Bades‘ parents dare not speak, they merely nodded to each other as a symbol of their love.
What happened next was so quick that by the time the dust from the explosion settled there was a huge hole where the front door stood and Bades‘s father, Gaboru, had dashed out to meet their attackers while his mother, Natasu, was opening the trapdoor. Suddenly her eyes widened and a large red spot colored her shirt.
Natasu: I love you, Bades.
Narrator: The woman collapsed and the child saw his father on the floor outside lying in an awkward position, no doubt stabbed by the same blade.
Kakori: What the-
Soldier 1: What happened, captain? We heard the explosion, did you defeat the enemies?
Kakori: I don‘t think they were enemies, merely a man and woman trying to protect their-
Soldier 2: Captain I sense a group of more than twenty ninja closing in from all directions! Their combined chakra is around one hundred times more than our own
Kakori: Damn, it must be the enemies... I hope my two sons and daughter were far enough behind us to avoid this conflict as I fear this is one of the tiger clan‘s elite groups – the Haruki squad... Their special ways of training may lead to a high death rate but those who survive become something monstrous. Boy, tell me, do you have an escape route leading to safety?
Narrator: Bades who was crying in the room lifted his head and nodded weakly, mourning his parents. He then pointed toward the jammed trapdoor on the floor. Kakori proceeded to open it and then shoved the boy in.
Kakori: Get out of here as fast as you can and head north. You might run into two boys and a girl wearing the same pattern of clothes as our own, those should be my children, give them this ring and tell them what happened. After what we did to your parents we can only stay behind and buy you time to get to safety and seal this tunnel behind you. Now, go.
Narrator: With those words Kakori shoved his small bag containing all his money in the child‘s hands and closed the trapdoor. He could hear the echoes of fast-paced footsteps from the tunnel for a few minutes and when the sounds finally faded he put an explosive tag on the door and blew it up. Suddenly, kunai with explosive notes started raining on the house and in a matter of seconds Kakori and his two men were outside, fighting their pursuers. It was a battle they knew they could not win yet they had followed their clan‘s ancient and almost forgotten teaching to do something meaningful in their last moments.
Haruki squad leader: Pathetic, and to think they call themselves ninja... wormfood is more like it.
Haruki squad sensor: I thought there was one more but the chakra signature was more like that of a child. I only felt it for a brief moment and then it disappeared, like the chakra flow ceased.
Haruki squad leader: You are getting old, Taruno, that‘s what it is. Now hurry up, we have to be at the bear clan‘s mining site before dawn.
Narrator: The group set off to the south leaving a ruined house and three bodies behind them. On a hill nearby a boy was watching them from behind a shrub.
Bades: (in thought) Their sensor seems to have not sensed me. Damn this war.
Narrator: After making a small mound of dirt to honor the memory of his parents the child set out north as the stranger had told him.
-end-
Working title – A tale of old times (this could be subject to change)
Narrator: Grey clouds filled the sky above an oak forest. A few hills marked its east end and on the very verge of that end lay a wooden house.
Lightning struck the tree on the nearby hill. Its largest branch cracked and in a few seconds it had broken and fallen on the ground. The thud heard, however, seemed closer – like someone bashing the front door open. Bades‘ mother held her hand on his mouth while his father was prepared to fight off the intruders.
Narrator: They were hidden in the closet under the stairs – a dark place with a very small window which was even darker now because of the heavy storm raging outside. Footsteps were heard above their heads – it seemed someone was climbing the stairs. Bades‘ father had designed the closet himself so that should another conflict between the ninja clans arise they could safely hide in it and escape through a hidden tunnel. The door to the closet was almost unnoticeable from the outside but the trapdoor leading to a nearby hollow hill was jammed. Not willing to risk breaking it and alerting the strangers the family was simply going to wait for them to leave.
Narrator: Bades was a twelve–year-old boy with purple shoulder-length hair and amber eyes. His parents had always told him „Son, we live in a time of great strife. Not long ago vast quantities of unusual metal were discovered in underground deposits all around our land. It is used to make weapons and everyone wants to get their hands on those deposits. Our land is poor and has no leader, it cannot resist them. What‘s worse is that they don‘t care. They will stop at nothing to get their hands on these deposits. All we want for you is to have a happy, untroubled life. One day our land may be in ruin and our lives may be lost, but know that nobody can take your memories of it away. And one day, after all this fighting ends you may return and rebuild it.“ At first it seemed like a lullaby to him, yet when he grew to the age of ten he had had enough contact with people other than his mother and father to figure out this was probably how it would go. Misyna, as the region the boy grew up in was called, was torn by open fighting between different outsider fractions intent on supplying themselves with weapons. The boy had wondered many nights why they would wage war for things they would use to wage another war. Bades had dismissed those thoughts long ago, thinking himself too young to understand the reasoning behind all this, though recently he had started approaching this problem from a different angle. Suddenly a deep voice sounded from upstairs.
Soldier 1: It seems there is nobody here at the moment, Captain Kakori.
Kakori: Check again I am sure I saw movement through the window when we were closing in. We can‘t risk alerting the bear clan.
Narrator: The voice that came from a few feet away startled the family. They had not heard any movement outside and yet there was someone so close to their hiding place. Bades‘ parents dare not speak, they merely nodded to each other as a symbol of their love.
What happened next was so quick that by the time the dust from the explosion settled there was a huge hole where the front door stood and Bades‘s father, Gaboru, had dashed out to meet their attackers while his mother, Natasu, was opening the trapdoor. Suddenly her eyes widened and a large red spot colored her shirt.
Natasu: I love you, Bades.
Narrator: The woman collapsed and the child saw his father on the floor outside lying in an awkward position, no doubt stabbed by the same blade.
Kakori: What the-
Soldier 1: What happened, captain? We heard the explosion, did you defeat the enemies?
Kakori: I don‘t think they were enemies, merely a man and woman trying to protect their-
Soldier 2: Captain I sense a group of more than twenty ninja closing in from all directions! Their combined chakra is around one hundred times more than our own
Kakori: Damn, it must be the enemies... I hope my two sons and daughter were far enough behind us to avoid this conflict as I fear this is one of the tiger clan‘s elite groups – the Haruki squad... Their special ways of training may lead to a high death rate but those who survive become something monstrous. Boy, tell me, do you have an escape route leading to safety?
Narrator: Bades who was crying in the room lifted his head and nodded weakly, mourning his parents. He then pointed toward the jammed trapdoor on the floor. Kakori proceeded to open it and then shoved the boy in.
Kakori: Get out of here as fast as you can and head north. You might run into two boys and a girl wearing the same pattern of clothes as our own, those should be my children, give them this ring and tell them what happened. After what we did to your parents we can only stay behind and buy you time to get to safety and seal this tunnel behind you. Now, go.
Narrator: With those words Kakori shoved his small bag containing all his money in the child‘s hands and closed the trapdoor. He could hear the echoes of fast-paced footsteps from the tunnel for a few minutes and when the sounds finally faded he put an explosive tag on the door and blew it up. Suddenly, kunai with explosive notes started raining on the house and in a matter of seconds Kakori and his two men were outside, fighting their pursuers. It was a battle they knew they could not win yet they had followed their clan‘s ancient and almost forgotten teaching to do something meaningful in their last moments.
Haruki squad leader: Pathetic, and to think they call themselves ninja... wormfood is more like it.
Haruki squad sensor: I thought there was one more but the chakra signature was more like that of a child. I only felt it for a brief moment and then it disappeared, like the chakra flow ceased.
Haruki squad leader: You are getting old, Taruno, that‘s what it is. Now hurry up, we have to be at the bear clan‘s mining site before dawn.
Narrator: The group set off to the south leaving a ruined house and three bodies behind them. On a hill nearby a boy was watching them from behind a shrub.
Bades: (in thought) Their sensor seems to have not sensed me. Damn this war.
Narrator: After making a small mound of dirt to honor the memory of his parents the child set out north as the stranger had told him.
-end-
Last edited:
