Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Outcasts: My Crystal Angel ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

::hyper_hurricane::junketsu_tsuta::

Outcasts: My Crystal Angel

Prologue

"Squad 2, what's your status?"
"Squad 2 reporting, we've cleared the area. Targets are no longer in sight."
"Good job. Rendezvous back to the village."
"Understood."
"Squad 3...?"
"This is squad 3, the area has been secured, no sign of any bandits of the Kuroitsume* but..."
"What's wrong?"
"We found corpses of children in one room. It looks like they've been dissected or something..."
"How many exactly...?"
"23. 3 of them were the missing children from the Suna*, 4 from Tsuchi no Kuni*, 6 from Kusa no Kuni*, 2 from the Mizu no Kuni*, 5 from Kaminari no Kuni* and 3 others, unidentified."
"I see. Report back to the village. Squad 4?"
"This is Squad 4. We found more corpses here and we found one survivor. We've returned to the village with the boy."
"Good. We might need him for some information. Has Namikaze-san's squad arrived?"
"No sign of Squad 5, Uchiha-taichou." the young ANBU captain was surprised.
"What? They sould've been there by now. Where in the world could they-?"
"We're kind of in a tight situation, Taichou." a familiar voice said over the radio.
"Squad 5, what's you status?"
"We're in-"
"Hitomi!" he yelled in his mind, thinking what could've happened.
"Namikaze-san!"
"Too busy - can't talk."
Then paused.
"We found company, and a lot of them." she added, but he heard her teammate yell before she cut the connection, it was faint but audible enough,"Namikaze-sama! Behind you!"
"Don't get yourself killed, Hitomi..." he told her mentally.

"No sign of Squad 5, Uchiha-taichou." I heard Homura, Squad 4's captain, say.
"We're kind of in a tight situation, Taichou." I said.
"Squad 5, what's you status?" our captain asked.
"We're in-"
I got cut off by an attack from behind before I even finished. Luckily I managed to counter it. We were surrounded by the Kuroitsume bandits, nearly a hundred of them. I was assigned as Squad 5's captain in this infiltration mission.
My name is Namikaze Hitomi, given to me by the Fourth Hokage himself, Namikaze Minato, the person I came to know as my father. "Hitomi" literally means "pupil of the eye" though ironically, I don't have any.
"Namikaze-san!"
"Too busy - can't talk." I quickly said. I paused for a moment to deflect another attack from the enemy.
"We found company, and a lot of them."
"Namikaze-sama! Behind you!" one of my comrades quickly alerted me.
I attacked the masked shinobi before his kunai even landed on my shoulder. I silently watched as the ice shards I threw at him pierced through his skin.
"Namikaze-sama, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, thank you Shirayuki-san."
Shirayuki Aya: the sweet 18-year-old blue-haired shinobi on my team, supportive of her comrades.
"Namikaze-hime isn't that easy to beat Shira-chan." my other teammate said as she was showing-off her new justu.
Kaede Aiko: 16, the hyperactive red-head nutcase on my squad, but she's a better shinobi than she looks, don't be fooled.
"Why not concentrate on the situation right now?" suggested the other...
Akaichou Ryuuko: the 14-year-old prodigy, hard cold on the outside, soft on the inside.
Before my comrades began to execute another formation, I called them back.
"Shirayuki-san, Akaichou-san, Kaede."
"Yes ma'am." they said in unison.

The moment their captain gave the signal, they prompted to get out of her way. But before they even got to where she was standing, Hitomi disappeared.
The three watched in awe as each of their foes dropped to the ground as a yellow color seemed to pass them by.
"S-so fast..." Shirayuki thought, “She really is the 4th's daughter..."
After a while, she reappeared, standing on the other side of the battlefield, her hand on her hip as the last of the bandits fall with shards of ice pierced through his entire body.
"That's the last of them." she said as she turned to her team. Kaede could tell she was smiling under that white mask of hers.

"This is Squad 5 reporting, we've taken down the target, we're on our way back to the village." I said over the radio. The forest was getting thick as we went futher away from the area.
"So how many were they Namikaze-sama?" that was Squad 3's captain, Tatsuki Kaito.
"Anything to break your 49-hit record?" he added followed by an irritating snicker.
"Can you talk about gambling when we get back to Konoha?" I asked rather annoyed.
Just after I said that, Kaede joined in.
"THEY WERE OVER 75, TATSUKI-KUN! I WIN THE BET, DO~BE!" she said, more like yelled, over the radio.
"Alright, Kaede, knock it off." I said starting to get really annoyed; sometimes they tend to act more childish than a 12-year-old. They keep betting on how many I could get when I use the jutsu. I learned the Shunshin no Jutsu when I was 5, my father taught it to me, but took me 2 years to get it as fast as his.
We arrived to the Hidden Grass Village in less than a couple of hours, but it was already dark. Then Tatsuki's squad caught up.
"Ne, you owe me Tatsuki-kun!" Kaede said when she saw Tatsuki. I could imagine her facial expression right now.
The two kept talking until we arrived at Yoru Misaki's home; he was a former shinobi from Konoha.

Uchiha Itachi leaned on the wall as he and the 3 squads waited for the other two. He didn't know why he was feeling so worried all of a sudden. Especially after that last message. The Kuroitsume were skilled tacticians and getting cornered by them won't be easy. The others noticed he was in deep thought.
"Hitomi...."
The image of that certain blonde-haired girl flashed onto his mind.
"I know I don't have to but why can't I stop worrying...?" he asked himself.
It took hours before the 2 remaining squads arrived. He felt somewhat relived when he saw the ANBU wearing the wolf mask. Itachi couldn't explain why though.
As soon as they entered, Homura Yuuji came out of the other room.
"He's still not talking, Taichou..." he said.
"Who's not...?" asked Hitomi curiously.
"The kid Homura's squad found at one of the Kuroitsume's abandoned hideouts." Itachi stated.
"Maybe you should talk to him, Hime-sama." Kaede Juro, Squad 2's captain suggested.
"Okay." She said casually, "Just stop calling me 'hime', Kaede-san." she added as she walked away.
Itachi stayed silent as he watched Hitomi make her way to the room, looking for answers.

Later...
She came out of the room with her palm bandaged.
"What happened to you hand?!" Juro ran to her immediately.
"It's just a scratch, I'm fine." She said.
"What did he say?" Itachi asked, his voice seemed suppressed, as if he was trying to keep himself from saying something.
"He's kind of traumatized so it's hard to talk to him. All I found out is that his name is Shiro and he's from the Hidden Mist. The Kuroitsume looks like they're interested in experimenting too just like Orochimaru..." she said.
"What do you mean...?" asked Akaichou.
"Strange cuts and wounds covered his back, his chakra is different and seems to have been altered, and he has no idea where his power is from." Hitomi replied plainly.
"What kind of power..?" asked Homura next.
"I"m not sure either, but it's somehow similar to mine. But he's not from that clan..." she said. "I think we should bring him to Konoha..." she added.
"It's almost midnight. We'll return for Konoha at dawn." Itachi stated after.

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|Author's Note|

This story has been published in my Quizilla© account with the title “A Frozen-Solid Heart”

Please forgive the incorrect grammar and misspelled words.

What follows are the translations for the words denoted with asterisks (*).

*Translations:

Suna - Sand

Tsuchi no Kuni - Earth Country

Kusa no Kuni - Grass Country

Mizu no Kuni - Water Country

Kaminari no Kuni - Lightning Country

Kuroitsume - Black Claw

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|Disclaimer:|

Namikaze Hitomi, `Kuroitsume', Shiro, Akaichou Ryuuko, Kaede Aiko, Shirayuki Aya, Kaede Juro, Homura Yuuji, Tatsuki Kaito and Yoru Misaki belong to me.

If any of the scenes or the plot itself is similar to yours or those you have read they are purely coincidence.

I do not tolerate with any forms of plagiarism.

Thank you for reading.

Reviews are requested.