Snowy Heart. (Naruto FF)

"Yes, Papa."

   "It's dark...and I'm cold..." A small child with tangled red hair adorned with pale frosted tips muttered to herself, curled up on the side of the road. Though she was hardly eight years old, her skin was covered in rough scars and dark bruises as it hung on her bones like damp paper. Her icy blue eyes were dull and lifeless as they bugged out of her skull. "Is this how I...die?"

   "Pitiful. The villagers taking out their anger on this child is just wrong." A voice above her caught her attention. Slowly, she lifted her head and looked to see two people, one a small boy and another a strong man.

   "Zabuza-sama, we should help her. She's too young to die like this." The boy spoke, his voice surprisingly feminine even for someone of his age. Seemingly ignoring him, Zabuza knelt down and looked her over. He reached out, but wasn't very surprised when she shrunk away in fear.

   "Tell me, what is your name?" His rough voice asked. Despite his scary outward appearance, the girl knew that he meant her no harm.

   "They said...my name was....Saruko...but, I'm usually called...other things." Her weak voice held much pain as she told them her name.

   "I know that. The villagers aren't very nice, are they?" Saruko shook her head as the young boy came closer, kneeling down to her level as well. Neither he nor the man missed how she drew her knees tighter to her chest.

   "Where are your parents? Surely they must be worried about you." He asked. Saruko weakly shook her head again.

   "I don't...have any parents...I'm an orphan, so the villagers...they do whatever they want...to me..." Both Zabuza and the boy turned to look at each other, knowing what to do next.

   "Well then, why don't you come with us?" Saruko blinked out of shock at his offer. Zabuza stood for the moment and watched as Haru slowly offered his hand. Out of reflex, the girl flinched out of fear before continuing to shiver from the cold. "We'll take care of you, and you can grow strong with us. We can be...well, we can be your family."

   Tears began to flood the girl's widened eyes. The dark haired boy smiled, providing the first bit of warmth she's felt in a while. Saruko's eyes then drifted over to Zabuza, who only watched with a rather blank expression. Through, under his bandaged mouth, Saruko swore she saw the slightest bit of a smile as he nodded.

   Looking back to the boy, Saruko tentively reached out her thin hand and placed it in his. Tears poured over onto the ground as she herself smiled out of pure joy. "Okay!"

   "Hey, Saruko! Where are you, huh?" A pair of frosted blue eyes opened to see that she was, still, upside down. Releasing the chakra in her feet, Saruko begun to plummet towards the ground. Before she could hit, however, she turned her body around and rolled into a landing on the damp grass. Standing on her two feet, Saruko brushed her outfit of stray grass and dashed over to where the voice was calling her.

   Once inside the hidden house that she resided in, Saruko's eyes met a very familiar figure. "You called, Papa?"

   "Yes, I did. Now, tell me how your training has been progressing today." The figure turned and faced her, revealing the hard set face of Zabuza Momochi, infamous rogue ninja and assassin for hire. Despite his threatening appearance and blood smeared past, Saruko looked up to the man with a vibrancy that simply oozed out of her and infected those around her.

   "Well, I did some target practice right after you left, then some cardio and some jutsu training in the forest. After that I simply meditated while practicing my chakra control." She listed off with a grin. Under his mass of bandages, Zabuza managed to pull off a small grin and placed a scarred hand on her head.