The Sweet, Plentiful Sound

Long ago, Konoha was a peaceful village, filled with proud and strong ninjas, who’s only goal was to protect the innocent and keep peace amongst its people. It was a village filled with powerful family clans and even more powerful elite ninjas that worked for the soul purpose of the village.

But many years ago all of that changed…

An outpour of demons terrorized different villages, including Konoha. The squads fought with all their might, but even their best wasn’t enough. At the same time, a band of rogue ninjas, named the Akatsuki, used the opportunity of the weakening villages to take control of all the towns, villages, cities, states, and countries.

One by one, they took over and one by one the demons began to disappear. All that was left was Konoha and the Nine-Tailed Fox demon. In battle, the leaders of Konoha, named Hokages, fought alongside with their ninja armies. In this war, the Third Hokage, Sarutobi, died in battle and the Forth Hokage, Minato, disappeared without a trace.

As the Akatsuki moved forward into Konoha, the family ninja clans started to disappear along with the Forth Hokage. One by one, minute by minute, each clan disappeared, leaving only one in the village.

In desperation, the Konoha Council appointed a new Hokage; the Fifth, Tsunde, but she did not last long. As the Nine-Tail Fox made its way to the village, Tsunde disappeared, as well as the ninja’s that followed her. Only a few ninjas stayed. Some joined with the Akatsuki and others found new ways of life, to erase their memories of their falling village.

The Konoha Council was overthrown by the Akatsuki, before being able to appoint a new Hokage. Suddenly, without warning, the Nine-Tailed Fox disappeared, leaving no trace of its existence.

Konoha, now under the hands of the Akatsuki, became part of a list of villages and countries taken over. All large villages had been taken over, but only time stood in the way of smaller villages before they too were overthrown. The Akatsuki appointed a leader for Konoha, leaving it in his hands at the young age of sixteen.

The village now sits in fears. Villagers go on with their lives as if nothing has changed, but underneath they know that with any wrong step, their lives would be taken away. Practicing the art of becoming a ninja became forbidden, unless you joined the Akatsuki and worked for their armies.

With the village in a state of fright, no one dared fight against the Akatsuki. They decided to live a lie of happiness and a false sense of peace and security. Still there was one thing that kept their hopes up high, a place where they could escape the streets and find peace for a few minutes, a place where they could pray and hope for a better tomorrow.

The Church of Konoha stood in the center of the village, standing tall above the skyline. No matter where you were you could always see the top chamber of the church were a set of bells stood. These bells were rung three times a day. Once at dawn, once at noon, and once after the sunset when the moon shined it’s brightest. These were the chimes that brought real peace to the village.

The sweet, plentiful sounds of the Bells of Konoha.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Who is the Monster and Who is the Man?

The bells chimed as the full moon shined brightly upon Konoha. Most of the villagers escaped to their homes, running from the streets filled with watchful ninja eyes. The streets lay silent as the final ramen shop shut down for the evening. Those that still roamed the streets didn’t say a word, the only sound heard were their footsteps as they made their way back home.

The bells chimed once more, this time with a loud bang that shook those that were not alert. A small canal ran along the main street. Its clear water reflected the moon light, beaming as it would during the day. No fish swam in these waters, as the canals ran to the wells for drinking and bathing water, of course only the hot water ran to headquarters of the Akatsuki in Konoha as the rest of the village dealt with the water as it flowed. The villagers preferred the summer, when the hot sun would warm the water, but during the winter, the water was colder than the air that blew through, leaving a shiver down their spines.

The water splashed softly as a man placed a poll to the bottom of the canal. He pushed the poll so that his small boat would move along the canal. In the boat sat four people along with the man: two men, a woman, and a baby boy. The five of them quietly moved along the canal, until a sudden loud splash from a rock awoke the baby. He began to cry, screaming at the top of his lungs.

The sudden sound broke the silence in the area, freighting the others on the boat. The two men, twin brothers, turned to the woman. “Shut it up, will you,” said the youngest twin brother.

“We’ll be spotted,” continued the oldest.

She rocked the baby in her arms, wrapping its blanket tighter as to warm the child from the chilling night wind, “Hush little one.” She gracefully rocked him in her arms and hummed a song into his small fuzzy ears. She brushed her finger through the small bits of blond hair that poked out of his head. He began to quiet down as he yawn and began to fall asleep. He opened his eyes, blinking them a few times before grabbing the woman’s finger.

She smiled at him, as his grip loosened and he fell to sleep.

The man rowing the boat reached the end of the canal. He began to help the other four out of the boat, leaving them near the front of the gates of Konoha. As they stood outside the boat, the man extended his hand, “Some money for your safe escape from Konoha.”

As the oldest twin began to reach for some money, a sudden sound caught them off guard. They quickly moved away only to find a small kunai land near their feet. They looked up to see a band of ninjas hiding behind bushes, trees, and walls.

It was a trap planted by the Akatsuki. How did they learn of their escape? How did they know what time or place?

The woman stood back, holding her baby firmly to her chest. The twins stood in front of her, taking a stance that showed they were prepared to fight. A storm of ninjas rushed towards them. The twins spun in a circle, creating a barrier to deflect the ninjas attack, but there were too many of them and they were not fully prepared.

The ninjas grabbed hold of the twins as a figure walked closer to them. The ninjas separated, creating room for the man as he walked towards them. The twins looked up while they struggled to set themselves free and gazed up in fear and alarm.

The moon light radiated off of the man, showing his devilish face. “Uchiha Itachi,” the twins responded. He was seventeen years old, with long black hair, tied in the back. Two scar-like marks ran across his cheeks from underneath his black eyes. He was emotionless, showing no expression what so ever. He looked down at the twins and gave a command to the ninjas, “Take these gypsies to the Palace of Justice.”

As they took the twins away to the palace, the woman struggled to keep the ninjas away. She tired to hide the child in her arms, so that none of them would see the baby, but one did, “You there, what are you hiding?”

“Stolen goods, no doubt,” said Itachi, “take them from her.”

She ran.

Holding the baby firmly near her chest, she dodged a group of ninjas and sped through the village. Itachi ran after her, tracing every step she took. He threw a kunai at her, but before he could see her, she created a hand jutsu. She disappeared into a cloud of smoke and reappeared behind Itachi. He quickly changed his footing.

Before she could blink, he was in front of her. She bumped into him and fell to the ground. “A ninja I see. So the gypsies are smarter than I thought.” He raised a sword from a sheath on his back and swung it at her. As he felt the sword slice through, a log appeared to have been split.

She had transformed a log into a clone.

She took deep breathes from behind a safe wall, watching Itachi fall for her trick. She began to run again, when a sudden burst of lighting struck in the air. The moon was quickly covered by dark, menacing clouds and heavy rain began to fall. The water made it harder for her to see even a few feet ahead of herself, but she knew not to run back to the entry gate.

She ran to the center square, where small market booths stood, closed for the evening. At the end of the square she saw a tall familiar building. Craved into the stone walls were faces of elite ninjas and past Hokages. Legendary figures of Konoha’s past were engraved in the walls, around a large wooden door. It was the Church of Konoha.

It had been a long while since she had stepped foot near the church, but she knew that it was the only place she could escape. She ran to the large doors and pounded them with one of her hands, holding the baby tightly in the other. “Sanctuary, please give us sanctuary!” she cried, but there was no answer.

The rain poured harder on her face, there was no part of her that was dry. She raced to the back door of the church. Water splashed as she dashed to the door, but before she could knock, she felt a sharp pain on her back.

Five kunai stabbed her spinal cord. She collapsed to the floor, but with her last bit of energy she held the baby close as to not hurt him when she fell. Blood flowed from her back, as she took her last breath, staring at the baby. The blood flowed with the falling rain, running down into the street, to the middle of the town square.

Itachi walked up to her with no regret, looked at the dead woman on the floor. Surprised, he heard a whaling sound from underneath the woman. He reached for the blanket and pulled it out. “A baby?” he said, pulling the blanket away from its face.

He cringed in disgust when he saw what he was holding. “A monster,” he recoiled as a small furry red tail touched his arm. He placed the child on the floor beside the woman. There was no mistake; he had to get rid of this monstrous child.

He pulled out his sword and raised it above his head. The rain fell brutally on the baby as it screamed for comfort. A flash of lighting streaked across the sky as Itachi launched his blade towards the child.

“Stop!” cried a voice. Inches away, Itachi stopped the blade from touching the baby. He looked to his side to see the two priests of the church, Iruka and Kakashi. Kakashi was bent, near the woman’s body. He raised her head, moving the bright red hair away from her face. He gasped, “Kushina?”

His eyes watered, mixing in with the rain that dripped off his sliver hair. He wore a mask over his mouth and nose and wore the old Leaf Village headband over his forehead and left eye. He held the body close, embracing her cold skin in his arms.

Iruka looked at the sight and then back at Itachi. His brown hair was normally pulled back, but since he had been awoken by the loud knock on the church doors, he did not get a chance to fix it. His dark skin seemed to glow, even in the darkness of the heavy rain storm. A scar marked the center of his face, running across his nose and underneath his brown eyes.

“This is an unholy demon,” said Itachi, “I’m sending it back to hell, where it belongs.”

“See fair the innocent blood you have spilled on the steps of Konoha?” responded Iruka.

“I am guiltless. She ran. I pursued.”

“Now you would add this child’s blood to your guilt, on the steps of Konoha?”

“My conscience is clear.”

“You can lie to yourself and your ninjas. You can claim that you haven’t a flaw. But you never can run or hide what you’ve done from the eyes of Konoha.” Iruka pointed to the cravings on the church, the statues of the legendary ninja of Konoha’s past. For a moment, it seemed as if each statue was staring at Itachi, each one judging him for the mistakes he made. He looked high above the church to see the statue of their God and messiah. Lined along with them where the saints and priests that had cared for the church in the past, each one staring at Itachi’s sins.

He had done so many things wrong in his life, so many things that would send any man to hell, but there was something about this moment. Many of those worst than the moment he was placed into, but never had he felt as if his life was endangered, or better yet, his afterlife.

“What must I do?” he asked.

“Care for the child,” Iruka answered as Kakashi took the woman’s dead body into the church, “and raise it as your own.”

“What? I’m to be settled with this misshaped…Very well,” he said as he looked at the child, “but let him live with you in your church.”

“Live here? Where?” he asked.

Itachi looked up at the church, “The bell tower, perhaps, and who knows, our lord works in mysterious way.” Itachi smiled to himself. “Even this fowl creature may yet prove one day to be,” he thought, “of use, to me.”

Itachi named the child Naruto and left him in the hands of Iruka.

The rain poured down heavily throughout the rest of the night, not clearing up until the sun began to rise from beyond the Hokage Mountain. What began as a trap to capture escaping gypsies, ended him up with a creature beyond what Itachi had ever seen.

But who is the man and who is the monster?