"Hello, Miss Ai! What have we got here?"
"It's a daisy crown! I made it for you, Auntie!"
You reached up on your tiptoes and offered your aunt the flowers. Smiling, she took them and placed them on your head, then pulled you into her lap.
"They look much prettier on you." she said, twitching her white ears. You were sitting on a bench in a spacious courtyard, filled with flowers of every kind. You like to make a different crown of flowers every day after lunch, and had a habit of offering it to the first person you saw.
The courtyard was on the eastern side of your mansion, which in itself held many servants and the highest ranking family members. The Ueda Jinchuuriki always resided here, as well as his or her closest family. The rest lived in the Ueda estate, which took up about a third of Yamigakure!
Suddenly, the doors to the mansion were thrown open, and an irate man called out to you.
"Ai! It's time to get back to your studies!" he yelled.
"Yes, Papa!" you quickly answered back. You gave your aunt a fleeting hug, then scampered off to your personal classroom. You're sparring sensei was there. You spent the next two hours practicing your Shadow Justsu and perfecting your Neko Toboe. You were a quick learner, and you were days away from being declared an official Yami genin at the age of six.
After you were dismissed from class, you wandered out of your estate and into the marketplace. Everyone knew your name here.
"Miss Ai, I just made a new flavor ramen! Please try it!"
"Miss Ai, we baked some of those cookies you like! Want one?"
This continued as you walked through the markets. You were polite, always saying "Yes, please!" and "Thank you so much!" They never accepted your money, so you'd often sneak out at night and paid them whilst they slept.
You were just about to head home for dinner when an explosion rent the evening air.
"The estate!" cried out a nearby shop owner. You watched with terror as great, billowing clouds of smoke filled the distant skies above your home.
"No! Stop!!!" you screamed as you raced across the rooftops. Several more explosions erupted all around you.
'What in the world is happening?' you thought. as the villager's cries pierced your furry ears. When you finally reached your estate, more bombs had detonated. Your courtyard, your mansion...everything was lost amid the blaze. You hid behind a charred tree as several foreign ninja surrounded your home.
'I recognize those bands! Those are Ame and Iwa ninja! Where's Papa?'
A leading jonin stepped towards the mansion doors.
"Where is the demon? Where is the twin tailed cat you masochists worship?!" he bellowed. The doors opened, and several of your relatives blurred by in attack. The shinobi battle was short lived, as the Ueda clan was as strong as they were sacred. Your father, one of the lead Ueda shinobi, took an Iwa ninja by the throat and held him high.
"I suggest you leave, and quickly." he growled as your relatives literally melted into the long shadows cast by the setting sun. With a grin, the jonin swiftly stabbed your father through his throat with a hidden kunai knife. You tried to scream, but all you could manage was a choked sob.
"Run as far away from here as you can. Quickly." whispered a voice in your ear. You did as you were told, and fled the village. Within a split second of leaving the gates, Yamigakure exploded in a ring of fire. The shock wave threw you down, but you scrambled to your tiny feet and dared not look back. Somehow, you had the strength to run all through the long night.
By mid-morning, the forests had given way to plains. The plains were short lived, changing to red earth and sand.
'I'm so hungry I could eat a cow...' you thought as you traversed the desert. The heat made you dizzy, and you stumbled towards a shady dune.
'I'll rest here, then tonight I'll look for a village.'
The heat kept your mind numb, and the tragedies of the night were kept at bay. Your cat nap proved dreamless and less restorative than you'd hoped. The night's huge temperature drop left you weak and aching.
"Damn it all!!" you screamed at the moon. You didn't feel like moving. Then, all at once, memories of the attack hit you hard. You took off on all fours, afraid the other shinobi may catch up with you. Tears blinded your otherwise perfect night vision as you mourned the loss of your family, friends, and villagers.
As you blinked the tears away, you found yourself about a kilometer away from a village. You urged your body on, hoping it wouldn't give out in the strange desert cold. When you got there, the gates had long since been closed. You giggled silently.
'Time to put my Jutsu to use!' you thought as you stepped within the shadows. You sunk right in, as if it were a bath. Traveling through the shadows felt a lot like swimming. Each shadow was a different pool, and like a fish, you'd jump out of one and dive into another. You eventually found some rocks near a sad looking swing. Easily hidden, you emerged from their shadows, curled up, and slept.
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