Picking Up an Orphan

The forest around our village was truly beautiful. Tall pine trees, lush green vegetation, all covered in a fine white layer of snow. It was not an enchanting, eye catching kind of beauty but a peaceful and still one. Wandering through the forest amongst the light flakes of snow, although I was hardly in the mood to appreciate the scenery, it did have a calming effect on my grieving soul.

I wasn't sure exactly where I was or where I was going. I had found a map in the storage scroll, but unfortunately I wasn't exactly skilled in navigation, even with a map. In fact, it should be said that my sense of direction was horrible. Coupled with the fact that landmarks are hard to spot in a forest... Well I remember having an easier time interpreting ancient Japanese texts than this god forsaken map.

'Ah! If I could choose one cheat when going to a different world it would be a GPS system! Whoever dares complain about google maps should suffer one hundred bolts of lightning! They have no idea how convenient it is!' I thought angrily.

Kiyo and I had gotten into a number of... debates... heated debates... over where to go.

"Go right."

"Go left."

"No I meant your right."

"But I meant your left."

"But then that's what I said."

"No it's what I said."

Well, I knew I was still in the Land of Water at least.

I wandered around in this manner for weeks. I somehow couldn't even find the coastline. Then and there, I gave up on a career as a recon ninja.

As I walked, I would come across a few villages here and there. Only a few of them were left intact. It seemed that the force from Kirigakure had continued on wiping out the other villages in the Kekkei Genkai clan alliance after slaughtering the Yuki clan. Every village I passed roused the nightmarish memories of the destruction of my own village and the faces of my mother and father. I swore that one day Obito would pay, and Zetsu I would deal with even more harshly.

The more I travelled, the more the forest seemed more haunting than beautiful. It had once been full of life. But now, even animals were scared to come out of hiding amidst all the violence and bloodshed. Everywhere I went, the smell of blood seemed to follow me, and the beautiful flakes of falling snow were often turned a disgusting gray color by the plumes of smoke rising from some of the destroyed villages.

I fell into an almost daze-like state as I walked, a new bout of sadness coursing through me as I observed the sheer amount of deaths increase steadily with each ruined village I passed.

During this time, I also began practicing some of the basic water and ice style ninjutsu recorded in the scrolls. Thanks to my heightened chakra control, I was able to achieve basic proficiency in a number of jutsus with astonishing speed, although I had only began working on shortening the hand seals required for the substitution jutsu, water wall jutsu, and certain-kill ice spears jutsu.

Perhaps half a year after leaving the Yuki clan, I came across a particularly large village situated on a lake. It was one of the worst things I had ever seen. The people here hadn't even tried to resist; none of them were even fighters, they all survived by fishing from the lake and gathering herbs and berries from the forest around them. Yet, no mercy was shown to them. They were brutally slaughtered in a one-sided massacre.

I couldn't help myself. I walked towards the village center, where the most bodies were. As I moved through the village, I barely registered the gruesome scenes around me. My mind didn't want me to. I couldn't bear to.

"Kaito, there's someone alive near here. I can feel his or her emotions."

Kiyosei could sense the emotions of others near her, an ability that could be viewed as an extension or evolution of Kurama's ability to sense negative emotions in others.

I immediately snapped out of my numbed state.

"What? Someone survived? Can you tell where they are?"

"Not exactly. I can just feel an overwhelming sense of sadness, fear and loneliness coming from somewhere to your right. Normally I have to see people to be able to sense their emotions, but this person's emotions are strong enough that they almost seem to be calling out to my senses."

I turned to my right.

"Hello?" I hesitantly called out.

"Imbecile. There was just a spike in the amount of fear I'm sensing. This person is way too scared to answer... It almost feels like a child."

I used chakra to sense my surroundings, carefully listening for faint sounds of breathing.

"Kiyo, tell me when I pass the area you sense the emotions coming from."

Maybe she couldn't tell me the exact location, butI could at least create a boundary within which to search.

"It's still farther ahead."

"Towards the lake?"

"Yeah."

I walked towards the lake. A steep bank covered in low reeds surrounded the clear, pristine waters of the lake. Somehow they remained untouched by the violence in the village.

I stopped at the top of the bank, carefully observing the surroundings for any sign of movement or traces of passing.

"Hello? I'm not from Kirigakure. I'm a survivor from another village, like yours." I tried again.

There was no response.

I slowly moved up and down the side of the lake, searching for something that would reveal the person's position. I didn't even know why, but I was determined to find and help this unknown entity who had suffered the same tragedy as me. I felt a bond with this person due to having experienced the same horror.

I suddenly noticed a couple of bent reeds on the side of a little divot in the bank. The water in the lake had carved out a little inlet-like protrusion into the ground around the lake, and reeds had grown over it, covering it from sight. It was a perfect hiding place - a tiny, unassuming cave naturally covered by reeds on the side of the lake.

I cautiously bent over to pull away some of the reeds, revealing a little hollow. Curled into a corner, there was a tiny girl with auburn hair, covered in mud and dirt. She lifted her head, revealing tracks tears had left through the mud on her face and vibrant, enchanting green eyes as she pushed herself as far back away from me as she could.

"NO! Get away!" She screamed and raised her hands in front of her.

A scorching mist shot out around her, stunning me and burning the hand I used to hold the reeds away.

"Agh!" I let out a scream of pain as I stumbled back, holding my bright red hand to my chest.

What was that mist? It burned more than any flame I had ever come into contact with!

'Wait... Could this be the boil release?' I wondered.

Gritting my teeth, I pulled a bandage from the storage scroll and wrapped it tightly around my hand. I could hear crying from inside the hollow.

"Please! I'm not here to hurt you!"

I moved towards the hollow once again, and reached to pull away the reeds.

"Stay away!"

An explosion of steam forced me to pull back my hand.

She had fully withdrawn into a defensive shell. I doubted that words would get through to her frightened mind. It was understandable. She didn't look an older than me, and her entire village had just been slaughtered, and she probably had to listen to every scream from her hiding spot. I couldn't imagine how traumatizing it would be for a two year old child. It was bad enough for me who had my memories from my past life.

I wasn't sure why, but something about her frightened eyes, her tear streaked face evoked a strong, protective instinct in me. I didn't want to just leave her here.

Clenching my teeth, I used the water whip jutsu to wrap myself in a large amount of water from the lake.

I moved as quickly as I could, pulling away the reeds and moving into the hollow. The little girl screamed again, and more mist exploded out around her. My water armor helped a little, insulating me from the heat. But I could feel the water heating up - soon it would do more harm than good.

I pushed forward and grabbed the girls shoulders, pulling her out of the hollow and hugging her to my chest. Heavy tears streamed from eyes, as she screamed at me through her sobs and weakly battered her fists on my body.

I grit my teeth and ignored the pain, clenching her even tighter against me as her blow became weaker and weaker and the boiling mist began to fade away. Finally, she stopped struggling, collapsing weakly against me and, still shuddering and crying through shaky breaths.

It must have been a weird sight, a two year old child holding another two year old two his chest as they both cried, they're tiny bodies shaking in a mixture of pain and relief.

I sat down on the muddy ground, still holding her. She had buried her head against my chest, and seemed almost afraid to look up at me. I let the water armor around my arms fade away. Fortunately, her boiling mist had faded away just before it destroyed the armor, allowing me to barely avoid getting severe burns, though my skin still felt chafed and raw.

We sat there for some time, holding each other. I let her pour out all her emotions, her fear, her sadness and grief, in wave after wave of sobbing tears. Finally, some time later she began to quiet down. Although occasional sobs did still rack her body, she was calm enough to draw away from me and look clearly at my face.

I saw a mixture of gratitude and wariness in her green eyes.

"I'm Yuki Kaito." I said after a while.

"Terumi Mio." A small, shy yet sweet and gentle voice answered me.