yakudoshi

Prologue

Chapter 1: Prologue

Maki Senju is five years old, one hand grasped loosely in her caretakers palm, the other holding the Senju clan fan that's covering the lower half of her face, when her hate for Konohagakure plants its seed deeply nestled into the depths of her stomach. She hasn't been alive for a decade yet, doesn't know and understand a lot about anything, but being born just as the Third Shinobi War takes off gives her a lot to look at for a quiet, observant child. She doesn't understand why children her own age begin to go missing, streets and playgrounds and orphanages emptying slowly but surely as tensions between nations grow.

Weeping wives herd together in flocks, finding solace and support in each other as their shinobi husbands are sent off far, far away.

Considers herself lucky that many people are keen on keeping the Senju line determinedly protected within her villages walls. That she won't be shipped off, not yet, because the blood she carries has value, that the name she wears is a safety net just as much as it's a birdcage. Clans children at the Ninja Academy side-eye her, noses turned up, and civilian kids squawk and point and gush over the first hokage's grand-niece even as she pointedly doesn't speak to anyone, not even when prompted with questioning. Awe slips into disappointment, which is a snowball down into resentment. Far too easily, she fades into the background.

They call her a genius, is what's whispered. Too bad she's just another talentless, spoiled brat.

She lets them think what they want, won't give them what they want from her, refuses to bow and bend into the mold they've laid out for her. Denies letting them see past what she's put out on the surface. When the sun rises, she plays the part of the sole Senju clans member and when it sets, she trains herself to the brink of exhaustion. Sweat, tears and blood become comforting and her only friend as she whips herself into the shinobi her predecessors could only dream of being. Each jutsu, each punch, each kunai, each kick is fueled by the rage spreading throughout her own chakra system, cold and hot just beneath her skin as she raises herself up just to tear it all down each and every night.

Angry at her own complacent, sheep-like behavior, hateful towards the number of dead or missing children being sent out to die alone, and disgusted that nobody's doing anything to fix this problem, only sending out more people for the slaughter. The older students at school have already joined Konoha's ranks, already too late to be saved.

She's five when she decides that since the village that claims to love their people so much are so eager and willing to kill off its citizens, that she'll change the way Konohagakure does things, even if it means destroying it all and rebuilding it from its crackling ashes.

She grips her caretakers hand a little more firmly before they vanish into the boisterous crowd.

Maki Senju the Godaime Hokage has a nice ring to it, no?