Chapter Text
The cold whipped through the trees as fierce as the wind that followed it. Dead plants followed the breeze as the frozen grass remained unmoving in the gale. It was very near the dead of winter and anyone who dared to venture far from their village would encounter the biting cold.
One such unfortunate thing, a small girl, hugged onto the large cloak she donned and continued further into the woods. She shivered and swayed with the wind as her bandaged feet crunched the ground beneath her.
A few days prior someone had attacked her camp and forced her to flee into the cold. She was sure they had stopped looking for her now, or maybe they were waiting for her to keel over. She wasn’t sure.
The sky was beginning to turn to dusk and walking in the dark did not seem appealing.
‘But what if the men caught up’
Then all her running would be for naught. She was weak, hungry, and cold. Unsure if there was anyone nearby to help, the girl slumped against a large tree trunk and shut her eyes.
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Her eyes couldn’t have shut for long. They screamed at her as she forced them open to face the noise she had just heard. It was close, the snapping of a branch, but from what direction?
Another foot fall snapped her head in the other direction. She needed to hide.
She brought her hands close to her chest in the hopes of making a hand sign, but her numb little fingers could barely even make a fist. Much less the intricate fingering that the signs required. She tried to bring forth what little chakra she had left for concealment, but nothing happened other than a fresh wave of pain and exhaustion.
Teetering in her position, the sound of movement is closer and closer. The last thing that crosses her vision before she crashes to the ground, is a person in a mask standing over her.
She closes her eyes and accepts her fate.
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Opening her eyes again, she sees her mother. Her warm smile graced her pale features as the woman pulled back her hand that was previously shaking the girl.
“It’s time to wake up, Inako,” she stood to go throw the curtain open, “Papa is waiting for us to start training.”
Throwing her legs over the bed her feet did not touch the floor. She hopped down and started to dress for the day.
It was all just a nightmare. Her mother and father hadn’t really left her all alone and she wasn’t freezing to death on a tree. Her wild imagination even scared her.
Her mother held the door open for her and they both exited the home onto the training barrack where her father insisted they spend the majority of their time. As long as she could walk, her father insisted on learning to hone her skills and abilities.
By age 3, she could scale the trees with her parents and throw out weak water jutsus. By age 5, she was successfully sparring with her older brother and mother. And by the time she was 7, her kekkai genkai was the best tool in her belt. Her prowess would only grow as she got older. Her parents were sure she would be a wonderful shinobi.
However, this day did not feel normal. Her eye level felt smaller, as if she was shorter by a foot. Her movements were slower and she felt herself toddle as she walked.
She looks up to her father who is staring down at her and cooing.
“My sweet daughter, already running after your mother! So smart!” He also looks much younger than she remembered him.
Taking another step forward, she misplaced her footing and topples backwards into the dirt. She expects her parents to come running but they don't.
Inako looks up expectantly, hoping to see her parents smiling fondly as she gets herself up, but they aren’t.
The scene she is met with makes her feel a sense of deja vu, as if she has seen this before.
She can feel someone grasp her shoulder and looks up to see her mother. Her face was dark and held an uncertain emotion. She looks forward to the crowd again to see a man, bloody and beaten, who was tied to a stake .
The man who was becoming clearer as she looked on. The face of her father slicing through the crowd to cut her down to her core.
Lord Hoshikage, whose name she does not know as he was recently named the leader of the hidden star village, stood front and centre waving his arms wildly. She felt like the world was muted. No sound came from the crowd or the man speaking in front.
Before long, a rope was tied around the man’s neck and four of the strongest looking men she had ever seen, were given the other end and instructed to pull.
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Inako awoke with a start and sat up. Much to her dismay, every part of her body screamed at her. She yelped out as her blanket fell away and the pillow she leaned on crumpled down.
Hearing the commotion, a tall nurse threw open the door and looked around, only to see the young girl sitting up looking at her.
“You shouldn’t be moving,” she hissed as she went to her side to fix the pillows for her and cover her back up.
“You’re in a very fragile state. You’re even lucky to be alive, kid.”
She looks at the woman, but makes no move to speak back to her.
The woman looks the girl over and begins to examine the now conscious child. She starts at her feet and runs her nail softly up the sole. Her toes curl as she tries to jerk away from the touch. She then moves up, lightly squeezing her legs and poking her stomach. She feels her arms and asks if she can feel everything she has done and Inako nods.
The nurse documents her findings on her clipboard and then sets it back down in its spot.
“Where…Where am I?” Inako asks the woman as she tidies the sheets again.
She offered a small smile, “just try to rest, you need it. Someone will be in to speak with you soon now that you are conscious.” With that, Inako was once again alone in the room.
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True to her word, later that evening, an older man knocked on her door and entered the room with a younger blonde man.
Her eyes immediately fell upon him and he gave her a sympathetic smile.
“You must be the child we found outside the village.” he says as if he already didn’t know that.
Inako’s eyes filled with panic. Was this the man who had been looking for her? The leader of the men who had hurt her mother and father?
“Please, don’t be afraid,” the younger one spoke up, seeing her fear, “we don’t mean to hurt you. We want to help you.”
“Can you tell us your name?” The older one asked.
Her mouth felt dry and useless. She opened it and attempted to speak past her fear.
“What is…your name?” She asked with little bravery.
He gives a dry laugh and looks to his companion “I am the 3rd Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village. Sarutobi Hiruzen.”
He then points to the man beside him.
“This is my advisor, Namikaze Minato.” The younger man throws a hand up at the mention of his name and offers a kind smile.
“Now, do you want to tell us your name?”
“Yumi…Inako.” Familiarity flashes their faces. Did they know her?
“Can you p-please tell me what happened? How did I get here?”
The two men share a look and the blonde steps forward.
“Some of our men were securing the perimeter of the village after the storm last week. They found you huddled against a tree and when you saw them you tried to conceal yourself, but, you must have been out of chakra.”
“I’ve been out for a week?”
“At least a week, we were not sure if you’d pull through or not, you were so weak.”
“Has anyone come for me? A woman or anyone?” The men shake their heads and she frowns. Her mother was not coming for her. Something bad had to have happened.
Lord Hokage took a seat on the very corner of the bed and leaned forward.
“ Do you remember anything that could help us get you home?”
Her face paled and she shook her head, “Please, I can’t go home. They’ll hurt me. They’re after me, they hurt my mother and father!” tears escaped her eyes and fell down her face.
The two men were taken aback and Lord Hokage stood to make his leave.
“You should get more rest. I see that we’ve come at a bad time. We can speak more about your residence when you get better.”
She bids them goodbye and is once again left alone in the room.
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Once far away from the room, Hiruzen looks to Minato.
“ It has been a long time since I’ve heard the Yumi name being thrown around.”
“Someone you know from a previous life, sir?”
“The Yumi clan was a powerful entity during the founding of Hoshigakure.”
“The hidden star village?”
“Yes, but they broke off into their own village after fights broke out over who ruled the land,” Minato nodded for Hiruzen to continue his story, “there are rumours that outlier villages trained their children with rare jutsu, many using multiple at once. I wonder if she was old enough to be one of them.”
“Are you worried she could be dangerous, sir?”
“Not dangerous. But with unchecked power like that, who knows what she could be capable of,” they exit the hospital and Hiruzen replaces his hat on his head, “we need to gauge her abilities immediately upon her recovery. She may be an asset to the leaf village far beyond comprehension.”
“Yes, Lord Hokage,” Minato nods with a respectful bow.
