Tales of the White Fox [plot]

[Uchiha Ichiro]

Outskirts of Konoha | 5:39pm

[atrb=valign, top] Ichiro ran for his life, and this time it really seemed like it was his life that was on the line. Normally kids would chase him, or random drunken citizens. This time though, he had far more on his plate as a duo of shinobi led the chase to catch him. He was panting heavily, the sweat dripping from his face in huge globs. Every now and then a tear would fall from his eyes. He was so confused. What had he ever done? Every day the people of the Uchiha compound would abuse him one way or another, either mentally, or sometimes physically for looking so different. But could they really blame him? He had no control over his genetics. Several times a week he has gone being bullied. He was six, and by now he'd just accepted this was the way things were. He was so desperate to get away he didn't notice the rock in his path and he ran full on into it. He instantly reached up to clutch his head and nose which when he pulled his hands back noticed it was now bleeding. It stung horribly and his head was now pounding, but the rushed footsteps behind him urged him to move on. He was absolutely terrified by ninja. Villagers he could handle; they didn't hit so hard. But shinobi he knew from witnessing that they would kill without mercy. As a child, he shouldn't have been able to understand the concept of killing, but he did, and he was afraid of it. Of death. His only hope now was to get back to the village. The gates were already in sight, but he wasn't on the main road. After being chased off from the private training area, he decided to go out to the forest to gather foods he thought he could eat. Sometimes he would eat poisoned fruit but even though his stomach would hurt badly, it always subsided an hour or so later. Sometimes he didn't have a choice but to eat something he knew was poisoned just to survive. But while he was looking for something edible, the two Uchiha ninja had shown up. They hadn't said a word the entire time they'd been chasing him. The only reason Ichiro knew they were out to get him was when one lazily threw a kauni right by his face, cutting his ear to scare him. Ichiro knew he needed to run and did so. Ichiro knew little of the ninja system, but he knew they were divided by ranks. He hoped the ones chasing him were lower level shinobi; he might be able to outrun them. He looked back again to see two shadowy figures leaping after him. He was in the tall grass right now, and it was over his head in height. He wanted to sit down and hide, but that wouldn't work against a ninja. To him, ninja were liked gods, capable of doing anything, finding anyone, and destroying everything. He was getting closer to the gates now, and hope glimmered in his tear-stained eyes. He was sobbing as he ran, the emotions of fear and incomprehension overloading his six year old mind. But just as he was about to dash into the clearing, he heard a light whistling sound and a sharp pain emitted from his calf. He fell to the ground with a cry. Skidding to a halt, his hands instinctively reached down to his wounded leg. He wasn't looking at it as his eyes were shut in pain, but he could feel the problem. There was a knife imbedded deeply into it, and trying to pull it out only hurt even more. The soft sound of grass rustling behind him made his wails cease in terror. Hesitantly, he dared to look behind him. He regretted it immediately. They stood there, arms crossed, walking casually up to his bloody form. One stopped at his feet while the other circled around to his head. Ichiro didn't dare move. Like a wounded animal, he stayed absolutely still, tears still running freely down his face. The one in front of him leaned down on his haunches, and pulled out another knife. He held it up in front of him as if examining it, Ichiro's eyes also looking at it, but for him it was in fear. The Uchiha grinned looking at it, and then his gaze fell on Ichiro. Immediately Ichiro tried to scurry away on his hands and knee, but a quick stomp down from the other Uchiha behind him on his other legs halted his escape. The snapping of bone could be heard for several dozen feet. Ichiro cried out in pain, not like he had with the knife in his leg. This was a completely different type of pain altogether. "It's too bad you're just a kid. If you were a little older, you might have been able to get away." The Uchiha with the knife said as he brought the blade to Ichiro's throat. "W-w-w-hy are y-you doing t-this to me…?" He stuttered out through pain and tears. The Uchiha offered no answer but grabbed the albino's hair and lifted it up, exposing his neck. He brought the knife to the skin and pressed the sharp edge against it. He grinned and began to drag the knife slowly across the boys' neck when his partner, the one whose foot was currently crushing Ichiro's now broken leg, called out softly. "Wait." The Uchiha with the knife stopped just short of cutting the boys' jugular, but not before he had already started to slice over to it. "What is it?" He asked. His partner looked over to him. "Can't you feel it? Something powerful is coming!" The knife wielder instantly looked alert and wary, glancing around at his surroundings. He quickly dropped the boy's head and used the hand that had held it to smother the boys' cries. "How powerful?" The other closed his eyes and brought his hands together in the ram seal. After a few tense seconds he opened his eyes again. "I can't gauge it accurately, but its stronger than both of us!" [WC:1,077] Jutsu / Item / Action → → → credit: template made by oxymoron! of btn

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[Uchiha Ichiro]

[atrb=valign, top] "Damn it. Guess we'll have to hurry this up." He raised his hand up and was ready to simply hack his way through little Ichiro's neck when his partner grabbed his wrist and stopped him. "No! If it's someone from the village and they find him dead and link him to us, we'll be killed ourselves! At least if he's still alive we won't be killed." The other Uchiha wasn't happy about this but grunted in frustration and got up, kicking Ichiros body one last time for good measure before they both dashed away. The forest was quiet now, except for the sobs that came out forcefully from the small boy. But even though battered, bloody, and bruised, he knew he needed to get into sight of some public place. The main road to the village was nearby, and he could try to crawl, but with a knife in one leg and a broken other, it would take quite a while before he got there. It was an agonizing fifteen minutes of dragging himself through the forest, over roots and dried leaves, leaving a trail of blood and dirt. When at last he could see the road, his spirit went into a frenzied fervor to get to safety. With one last shove of strength, he dragged himself onto the road. He could see the village gates in the distance from here, but he decided he was in far too much pain to try and make it. He would wait a while and see if anyone came by. His neck was bleeding, his leg was bleeding, his nose was bleeding, his left leg was broken he was sure, his right's muscle was probably shredded, and his meager little arms were weak with exhaustion. He simply lay there, crying in abrupt sobs. He was scared and hurt, and no one was around to care for him. He was sure this was not the way other six year olds were treated. But what had he done? All he wanted was to have a normal life and given similar opportunities. He had never done anything to make people angry, as least as far as he knew. He didn't know why every Uchiha his age hated him. Presently, soft footsteps could be heard coming from behind him. Even though he was six, he was smart enough to know people not from the village would be nice to him, for some reason. So the fact that someone was coming from the opposite direction toward the village meant they were visitors. But he didn't dare think they were ninja or he'd probably go into a fit of hysterics. The footsteps grew louder and louder until the ceased to exist. He hesitantly raised his head to look at the stranger in front of him. "Hey now, that ain't right." The voice was smooth and flowing, and carried and air of humor to it. Ichiro's tear filled eyes tried to focus on the man's face, but all he got was a blurry fuzz. All he could see was a basic outline of the man's body and basic colors. He wore all white, from what Ichiro could see, and he had fair, un-tanned skin. But the one thing that stood out to Ichiro from the man's attire was his blue hair. The man stooped down to examine the pathetic heap, turning the boy over until he was laying on his back. Ichiro hissed as the knife in his leg was pushed further in, and he did his best to position it so the knife wouldn't be affected. The man seemed surprised by Ichiro's condition and muttered something under his breath. The man seemed to have taken pity to him, which for Ichiro was a good thing. The man reached down and gently brushed a finger or two over his face, wiping away some of the tear stains. Ichiro heard some shuffling and the cried out in pain as the knife was removed from his leg. "They sure did a number on ya. Whoever y'are." Ichiro thrashed in pain and tried to get away from the man, but his flailing hands were caught in the man's own. "Don't worry, I ain't here ta hurt ya. That's the worst it's gonna hurt, 'K?" His accent was strange; Ichiro had never heard of it before. But regardless, it held a soothing tone to it, and Ichiro willed his body to relax, which it did slowly. The man grasped Ichiro's sliced up leg and held a hand above the wound. Instantly Ichiro felt relief wash through him. What he didn't know was that the wound was slowly closing and repairing itself. 'This kid's got a neat little body there. The wound shouldn't be closing that fast even with me fixing it,' the man thought with surprise. But t didn't show on his face. Ichiro's head was resting on the dirt path, and he didn't seem to mind the rough ground. The calm sensation in his leg vanished but he felt no pain after word. He opened his eyes to see the man's hand now resting above his neck. "Hold still now." Ichiro did so and the relaxing feeling returned. Soon it disappeared too, and again he couldn't feel anything from his neck. No pain at all. The man went down to his other leg and examined it. Broken, as he had guessed. "So what's your name kid?" The man asked lightly. Even though Ichiro had been through such a major incident, he seemed at peace with this man. He didn't know why. He reached up to wipe away the water from his eyes. "…I-Ichiro…" He looked at the man for the first time with fresh eyes. Now that he could see clearly, he found the man wore a sort of formal white outfit that Ichiro had never seen before. The man's face formed in a kind smile, his eyes a ruby red color. His hair was blue still, but it actually held a sort of silver tint to it. "Ichiro huh? That's neat little name ya got there. Mine's Satoshi…"

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The man held a hand out to the Uchiha.

"…Sagami Satoshi."

Ichiro looked up at the man and accepted his hand, with some hesitance, and the man swung the surprised boy up onto his back.

"So, mind tellin' me why yer so beat up?"

Ichiro didn't answer at first. Instead he merely sunk his head down as if trying to escape attention.

"…I-I… I don't know why."

Satoshi for his part took the answer without batting an eye.

"So where ya live then?"

"…I don't know."

Ichiro said again solemnly, despite having parents Konoha didn't really like much of a home. The man's face changed, instead of a smile, it changed into a surprised frown.

"Don't ya have family or somthin'?"

Ichiro nodded his head. Satoshi turned back to the road that Ichiro now realized was leading back to the village. Instantly the boys' blood went cold and he began to shiver.

"Don't…"

Satoshi looked behind his shoulder in confusion.

"What'd ya say?"

"Don't… please don't take me back there"[/color]

Ichiro murmured while holding on tightly to the stranger.

"Don'tcha wanna go back?"

Satoshi asked.

"No!"

Ichiro answered a bit more forcefully than he intended. Satoshi looked at the boy surprised.

"Well I can't fix that leg by myself. Yer gonna need a hospital fer sure."

Ichiro looked all the more terrified and he clung to the man with all his might.

"No, I don't wanna go back there! Never again!"

"O-o-ok then. You don't have to go back."

He said quite surprised at the boys' reaction.

"Sheesh, didn't think kids were that afraid of hospitals…"

he commented to himself.

'But I really can't fix that leg. Maybe I can just leave him with someone.'[/i]

"Tell ya what… We go to the hospital and I stick around until ya get out."

Ichiro looked skeptical and was tempted to outright deny him as quickly as he had before. But something about the man's face, despite its cunning look, seemed to make it hard to say no.

"…Promise?"

Ichiro asked quietly, his eyes shining with hope.

"Promise."

Satoshi raised his left hand behind his shoulder and extended his pinky. Ichiro looked at it in surprise. He knew that linking pinkies and shaking was like making and ultra-super-cool promise that you can't break, but he'd only ever seen other kids do it. He'd never done it himself. Shakily extending his own hand he reached out with his pinky finger and linked it with the man's own slender one.

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[WC:1,438]

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[Uchiha Ichiro]

✔ COMPLETED

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| Brief Summary |

Young Ichiro was out venturing the outskirts of Konoha and was confronted by a duo of Uchiha. Luckily, Ichiro escaped from bullies and ended up bumping into a mysterious man who he hadn't seen ever since that day. This day is very important and vivid day for Ichiro because it was the first and only time he actually made a friend.

| Casualties |

None

| Items Acquired |

None

| Total Words |

2515 / 2500