A small alley on the outskirts of a large village was cluttered with trash and scattered objects. In this narrow space, a skinny boy with a prominent ribcage was running. He wore a snug, small orange shirt adorned with a red swirling symbol on the front. Although he appeared to be only three years old, he was four years old, nearing five. The boy had wild, spiky wheat-colored hair and striking, crystal blue eyes that were filled with fear, yet also held a glimmer of resilience.
The boy who has been running for an hour shows no signs of exhaustion, and his breathing is steady but quick in motion. Behind the running boy, there is a mob of people of many ages, from older adults to young adults, men, and women, chasing after the boy with many full of anger and fury residing on their faces. All of them are yelling at the boy, saying similar things.
"You killed my kids!" "You killed my parents!" "You killed my siblings!" "You killed the Fourth Hokage!"
Though the most prominent words said by the mob:
"Kill the demon!" or "Die, you demon!"
It is heard by the running boy the most; he questions in his mind why he is being called and chased like this. While running close to the entrance on the other side of the alleyway, he hollers back, asking, "Why are you attacking me? Why am I called a demon?" The mob instead calls back, "You know exactly what you are and what you did, demon!"
The child crosses the edges of the alleyway into the open walk path, massive enough to fit 12 people across. He keeps running to the right towards the center of the village, where the Hokage Tower is located. Where he believes he will be safe from the mob, and potentially where the masked figures or morely a Dog-looking masked person are near.
"Come back here, demon, we are going to kill you for what you have done!" a man in the mob bellows. Many of the people in the mob chanted in a chorus, "Yeah, come here, demon, you are going to die by our hands!" The boy did not do as they asked by speeding up his running to even more than in the alleyway. He was running by the walls, windows, and doors. It felt like many were watching what was happening to the boy, but all of them were filled with the desire to kill the boy who was running.
The running boy did not look behind him and looked straightforward toward his goal and desire to get to the Hokage tower or somewhere close to it, where he could truly be protected and safe. While running to where he wanted to go, he did not see the mob behind him getting bigger, and Shinobis being added to the mix; some of them were closing the gigantic gap between one another.
***
On a roof, half a block in front but to the left side of the running boy and the massive dust made by the mob, a single Shinobi wearing a dark green vest, a Jonin Shinobi, lies in wait for the group to get closer and has his hand near the button pocket on the back side of his belt. Slowly unlocks the button and dives his hand in to then pull out a smooth, clean, and sharp kunai that looks like it can cut leather cleanly without any faults.
He murmurs under his breath, "You will die soon, demon…I will make sure of it." His face had a full, insane, and murderous look to it, as if the man saw the death of everyone he loved in front of him and then saw the Shinigami directly in the eye. He only thought of killing the one who did it all, the Kyuubi Brat. His eyes only held insanity in them, and the smile he wore on his face was that of one only a psychopath would have for enjoying the suffering of another person.
He was so focused on the idea of making the boy suffer and then kill later after satisfying his gratification, that he forgot, as a Shinobi, his chakra would leak out and send waves of hateful aura around him, letting others sense it. The proof of this was two squads of Anbu appearing to his left behind his sight. They masked their chakra, letting not one leak out.
The Anbu group surveyed the area to see the situation and why there was a spike of chakra full of hatred in the area. They saw the Jonin and the weapon in his hand, along with the bloodlust chakra surrounding him, looking at a certain position. They looked at where he was looking and saw the boy and the mob; they sought who the man was aiming for and found he was going for the boy.
Without saying a word or even giving a sign of what to do, they moved in motion like a stream moving down the mountain. The leader of the two squads took position on the side of Jonin's weapon hand and went to forcefully grab the arm with strength equal to five adult male Gorillas. The other Anbu shunshined behind the running boy and directly in front of the mob, along with the shinobi that was getting too close to the running boy.
Everything happened in seconds. The Jonin was startled, and before the Anbu Captain could stop the movement, the Jonin threw the Kunai, and then the arm was grabbed. The kunai, on the other hand, was too far; it was fast but aimed lower than the Jonin wanted, aiming directly for the boy's left arm, grazing it.
There was a wailing scream that sounded like a child, as if a part of them was being torn. The little boy immediately had a crimson thin line on his left arm, and the Anbu captain was holding the arm of the Jonin. They placed more of their strength into gripping the arm, and the Jonin felt excruciating pain, feeling as if the muscles were squished and the bone was creaking under the pressure of the Anbu Captain.
"You have done something you should not have done," a furious masculine voice came from the Anbu Captain, "Hokage-sama will be enraged with your actions."
Fear is the only thing the Jonin Shinobi can feel in his bones and heart. His mind was thinking of any possible way to save himself from the Hokage's wrath. He, though, is interrupted by suddenly being shunshin to somewhere else. The Jonin suddenly found out where he was shunshin to, the Hogake's main office, in front of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage - The Professor.
——————————
End of chapter 1 in Volume 1.
That was 1,124words for the entire chapter. I will make the next one bigger, but I just wanted to see what all of you think of this now, what you all expect in the future, and how you think all of this will go down.
Comment, like, share, and gift how you want. Until next time then!
Edit 2: I fixed some of the punctuation and wording in the chapter, and now the word count is 1,192 words.