A Thousand Years

The Akatsuki

A small white bird glided smoothly over the buildings of Konoha, giving a perfect view of the chaos underneath: the empty streets covered with rubble, wisps of smoke rising from decimated houses, pieces of buildings cracked off and jagged, and the frantic behavior of the shinobi who were out looking for the two responsible for all of it. Once they had noticed the bird, groups of jonin and anbu worked together to try and force it down, from mud bullets to fireballs, just about everything had been launched at the flying nuisance. Eventually, a jolt of lightning from one of the shinobi struck the wing of the bird and it came crashing down, just barely missing the academy building. Dozens to ninja immediately surrounded the fallen bird, cautiously waiting for its rider to emerge.

"Be careful! We don't know how powerful he may be." One of the jonin warned.

Once the dust from the crash cleared, a figure could be seen walking out of the wreckage. The man was blonde with one eye hidden by his hair, a frown was plastered on his face as he approached the shinobi.

"Some Konoha nin want to fight me, hmm?" His eyes glinted and a smirk spread on his lips. "Bring it, un."

The streets were completely abandoned except for those strange human-like beings that crept from building to building. They would break open the doors and, disregarding the ear-piercing shrieks, scanned the faces of the civilians and children huddling in the rooms. Upon not finding what they were looking for, they would leave and move on to the next building, house, or store. If anyone was brave, or rather, foolish enough to attack the creatures, they would be killed quickly and without pity. Sometimes it was stabbing, other times it was decapitation, other times still it was slicing. Though the beings didn't seem to have the goal of killing, they certainly showed no hesitation in doing so if someone was in their way.

Naruto was hiding under a desk with a few other children when he spotted a familiar face out of the corner of his eye. Near the back wall was a girl with short blue hair, knees drawn to her chest and body shaking.

He hurried over to her and tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped a little and whipped her head around to look at him. She relaxed a little when she recognized him and even managed a small smile.

"Hey, Hinata, are you ok?" He asked, concerned.

"I-I can't find my f-father." She pulled her legs closer to herself. "I-I came to the festival w-with him and m-my cousin and I... I can't find them!" She cried.

He was stunned, what was he supposed to do? Maybe try and comfort her?

"It's ok, we can find them after this is over. I'm sure things will be fine." He assured her shakily.

"R-really?" Her shaking began to lessen.

He nodded with a smile.

"Yea! The anbu and jonin are super strong! The bad guys have no chance against so many of them!"

Hinata smiled softly and nodded in agreement.

Bam

Everyone jumped and looked towards the door. There stood an expressionless, hunched woman with sickly pale skin, she stepped into the small store and swept her glassy eyes across the frightened civilians.

Naruto was frozen like everyone else, that is, until his heart stopped when her gaze landed on him. His entire body became paralyzed as she began a rythymless, crooked walk towards him. She stopped in front of him and reached a thin, pale hand down towards him. She grabbed his neck and lifted him up with inhuman strength then turned and walked out of the building, his struggling seemed to have no effect on her.

"Naruto!"

She had just stepped out of the doorway when a voice screamed for him from behind. He glanced back and saw Hinata running towards him. His gut told him to stop her but all he could do was yell.