Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Suffer the Children ❯ Ichi ( Chapter 1 )

Suffer the Children

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I don't own the FOM either; they own themselves except for Fuzen who owns my brain…

 

Notes: I know I got the title somewhere, but I don't remember where. This story will have nothing to do with that book/movie/whatever.

 

Suffer-the-children

 

Mitarashi Anko was really pissed off. Wave Country hadn't changed at all since she was last there. She was angry; mostly with herself for accepting this mission. She had been so relieved to get a mission that didn't require a team - more people to whisper and call her a monster, a traitor - that she hadn't truly looked at the mission description. So now she was stuck in one of the more run-down and crime-filled villages in Wave. All around her there were suggestions of depravity and poverty. Children dressed in rags were wandering around, begging for money or scraps; as were homeless and drunkards. She was startled from her brooding thoughts when a small, grubby hand tugged on her jacket. She turned and looked down.

 

A little girl stood there, so covered in grime that you couldn't tell her skin or hair color. She looked up at Anko with deep brown eyes that held no fear, but were loaded with wariness. `Like a feral kitten,' Anko thought. She looked a little beyond the child and saw two more, a boy and another girl. The girl looked as skittish as a rabbit, but the boy looked protective and as wary as the child in front of her did. They were obviously waiting for her. The boy looked the oldest, but he couldn't have been more than five. She looked back down at the girl.

 

“Gots any food?” She asked abruptly and flatly. Anko smirked down at the child. She liked the straight-forwardness the kid presented the question with. She had never been one for dancing around the subject.

 

“Get your two little friends and follow me.” Was all she said in reply. She did not wait, but walked over to the nearest food stand, a place that sold grilled fish, and placed an order for three plates. When she snuck a look behind her, the three grimy kids were a few feet behind her, looking hopeful. “Hurry it up.” Anko snapped to the proprietor. Soon he had all three take-out boxes in front of her. She paid him, scooped up the boxes and walked on. The kids stumbled and followed her until she disappeared down an alley. She left the boxes on the ground and silently leapt to the top of the surrounding wall to observe.

 

The kids peeked around the corner of the building with appropriate caution. When they saw the boxes, and more importantly, the empty quality of the alleyway, they scuttled in. They each snatched a box and opened it, sniffed it cautiously. Smelling nothing out of the ordinary they quickly consumed the food. One of them was always watching the alley entrance, Anko noted. They had good survival instinct. She cocked her head as she heard hurried footsteps coming at an angle towards the alley.

 

“You kids better scram. There's someone coming.” Anko informed them. They all jumped, not having seen or heard her for the entire meal. They regarded her with wondering eyes for a split second before running off. She departed along the rooftops, tracking the kids to see where they camped out. She tried to convince herself that she wasn't mildly concerned for their safety, but the attempt failed. These kids intrigued her. She made a mental note to maybe see if she could feed them some more before the mission was over and maybe learn their names. She grinned to herself. This would provide a welcome distraction from her mission.

 

For the next four days she left out food for them in that same alleyway. They always came for it, always cautious. They knew she was a ninja. They saw many out on the streets; cruel killing machines. They wondered what made her different - maybe it was because she had a different symbol on her headband? None of the three could guess. All they knew is that the strange lady kept feeding them and that they had not dropped dead yet. That gave them hope - an elusive thing for all the people of Wave. They wondered what her name was, who she was; so when one day she sat on a crate a couple feet away instead of on the wall, they did not object.

 

“What's your names, kids?” She asked in a soft voice when they had finished eating. The littlest one - one Anko had mentally labeled Rabbit - raised her head and crawled a little ways over to her. The older ones - the girl she had labeled Kitten and the boy she had labeled Wolf - tried to pull her back, but she had none of it.

 

“We don't really have names.” She said in a barely audible, hoarse voice. “But I'm called Otonashi.” Anko offered a soft, non-threatening smile. “Where are you from? Why are you so nice?” Otonashi questioned, shying back to her companions.

 

“I'm Mitarashi Anko. I'm from a place very different from here.” She suddenly scowled. “A place where there's less mist and more trees. It's called Konoha. I'm here on a mission.” The two girls nodded interestedly. The boy looked like he was spacing, and Anko was reminded of a boy in the class she sometimes subbed for Iruka. What was his name? Nara Shikamaru - that was it. The Nara clan was a notoriously lazy lot. She shook her head a little to clear it. “Anyway, you never told me what your names were, you other two.” They looked at her warily. “I'm not gonna bite ya, kay? I just wanna know your names and then I'll go. I'm supposed to be working anyway.” The little girl nodded hesitantly.

 

“I'm Fuzen. This is Mukiryoku.” However odd she'd though little Otonashi's name was these two topped it considerably. Who would name their children Evil and Apathy? Although, Otonashi had said that the names they carried weren't really names. She stood slowly, making all her movements lethargic so as not to scare the already skittish kids.

 

“Well, I'm outta here. Duty calls and all that. I'll leave more food tomorrow. Day after tomorrow's a little iffy, as I think I'm gonna be working all day then. See ya.” She wandered off until she heard the scuffling of bare feet right behind her. She looked over her shoulder, and there was little emaciated Otonashi. “What do you need?” she asked cheerfully. The girl thrust something into her hand and raced off, rejoining her friends and making for their hideout. Anko looked curiously into her hand. There was a small necklace made of hemp with a trio of rough wooden beads. Anko smiled. Maybe the kids really were warming up to her.

 

Three more days passed and Anko decided she really wanted to keep her pet strays, if they would have her. She was making her way to their usual spot when a scuffle alerted her to trouble. A small boy went flying out of an alley, and Anko instinctively ran forward and caught it. Fuzen's eyes fluttered as she looked up at Anko, bruises swelling and discoloring her face.

 

“Oto-chan. They've got Oto-chan. Help her, please…” she rasped out before falling unconscious. Anko propped her delicately against the building and ran for the alley. Four burly men stood there, one with a hand around Mukiryoku's throat and another holding Otonashi against a wall.

 

“You can't stop us, little boy. We're going to kill you and then we're going to break the little girl.” One of them was saying in a menacing tone. “Then we'll see what sort of a price she'll raise.” The men sniggered, Otonashi whimpered pitifully and clawed at the hand holding her against the wall. Mukiryoku's struggles were becoming weaker as his thin, bony arms flailed and scratched at the arm holding him. Anko saw red. No one was allowed to treat her strays like that. The men never knew what happened. They were all lying dead in a matter of minutes. Anko quickly picked up the unresponsive boy and pulled the girl close.

 

“Come with me. You aren't staying here anymore.” The girl nodded swiftly, eyes wide, and attached herself to the hem of Anko's jacket. Anko swiftly crossed the street and picked up Fuzen, settling the child on her other hip. It should have been a lot more difficult to carry two five-year-olds like this, she reflected angrily. She walked quickly to her hotel, passing a tall, dark-skinned Kiri-nin with a small ragged child of his own.

 

Haku looked after the angry, blood-spattered woman nervously. The little girl hanging off her jacket had looked terrified, but not of the woman. The children draped over her had looked beaten - he had seen bruises around the boy's throat. Haku looked up at Zabuza. The Kiri-nin was staring after the woman with fierce recognition on his face.

 

“Zabuza-sensei?” The boy asked softly. Zabuza's eyes dropped to him momentarily before he took off in a slightly different direction. The scent of blood soon filled Haku's nose and the boy tried not to gag. Zabuza stared at the corpses of the four men for a minute and then turned away.

 

“Haku.” The boy looked up at his savior uncertainly. “She saved those children for the right reasons. Try to be like her - save people, don't bind them to you.” Haku looked confused, and hurried to keep up with the older man as he took long, loping strides away.

 

“Yes, Zabuza-sensei.”

 

Suffer-the-children

 

And there's the first chapter of Suffer the Children. I hope you liked it and will come back for more. Reviews are welcome, especially when they help me to figure out the kinks in my writing style. PMs are welcome, as are e-mails if you have any questions. A big thanks to all of my readers and most of all to my dear friend, CrypticElf, who beta-reads my stuff for me. I love all of you. -FuzenKomadori/CrazySpark