Another Take (A Naruto Fanfiction) (Complete)

*Prologue: Fireflies

~You would not believe your eyes, if ten million fireflies, lit up the world as I fell asleep~

Atop a dark mountain, later in the evening, a young girl was wandering the mountainside. She looked about three or four, much too young to be wandering around on her own. The yells of other people could be heard from further down the mountain, but the girl wasn't listening and as such discarded them as useless noise.

She had bright blond hair that shimmered on the dark mountain, and medium toned skin that aided her as she wandered through the dark woods. Her eyes, though, were the most striking feature she possessed. They were like clear-cut amethysts, sparking with curiosity as she gazed around at her surroundings

These eyes were continuously looking around, scanning the mountainside with a child-like wonder that wasn't surprising, considering she was a child. Her head whipped around when she heard a branch crack, but it turned out to be only a mother deer and her fawn. The girl stared at the pair until they wandered off back into the forest, then she kept exploring.

This wasn't unusual for her. The girl was well-known throughout her village as being the one who was always exploring, and it caused her parents a lot of grief. But she hadn't gotten injured or seriously lost yet, so they let her get away with smaller excursions. If only so she wouldn't try going any further, though.

Suddenly a boom echoed throughout the mountainside, one loud enough to startle the girl and a nearby flock of birds. The birds took off, rising into the air with raucous screeching. It was also loud enough to momentarily silence the voices of the people searching for the lost little girl. But only for a moment, and then the voices started back up with more enthusiasm, trying even harder to locate their quarry.

Sounds like that were not normal.

But the girl didn't notice the renewed efforts of those trying to find her. She had heard the boom, and was able to roughly guess where it had come from with the intuition that all children possessed for locating dangerous things. So she headed further up the mountain in pursuit of the interesting and different sound.

Further down the mountain, the searchers were getting worried. The girl, a child of two of the ninjas of their small village, wasn't responding to their shouts. But anyone who knew the girl knew that she had a stubborn streak a mile wide. Thankfully not the attitude to match, but still. They figured since she wasn't responding that she was being stubborn and didn't want to come home. That didn't make them any less worried however.

When the little girl finally reached the summit, she saw something strange. There on the cold top of the mountain was a huge, still form laying on the rock. A group of human-like figures were surrounding it, but the girl only had eyes on the first thing, obviously an animal of some kind. But what kind of animal was that large? She unknowingly drew closer, and finally got a clear view when one of the humans took a step to the side.

It was a great wolf, maybe the size of a large house. It was hard to tell, but the flickering light from the torches the people carried made it look like the wolf's fur was brown. Though not completely brown she learned, because the light was affecting her sight. There were also patches of black and cream mixed in there, giving the wolf a mottled look.

The people moved around again, and this time the girl got a good look at the wolf's face. It's fur was mostly brown there, except for a patch of black around it's left eye. A scar also ran across the black fur, slashing right through one of it's bright green eyes. The wolf was growling, but something was preventing it from rising.

As the girl snuck forward, trying to get a closer look at the wolf, she accidentally stepped on a twig. And, while small, the sound caught the attention of the wolf, who swung it's head over to peer in her direction. The girl whimpered, then as the wolf's hard eyes seemed to soften, the other people noticed the direction of it's gaze.