The Sword

Chapter 1

Aya woke up in a dark and narrow space, so narrow that she could barely move. She got agitated immediately and started thrashing around, only to hear a soothing sound. Although she couldn't understand what she was being told, it did calm her down, after that, she fell unconscious. She was phasing in and out of consciousness for what felt like years or even decades. Usually, when she woke up she panicked only to be calmed down, by the strange voice. She was also probably regaining some strength as she could move and push the walls around her a bit more away, with her legs. It felt like she was in a sack, but she still lost her consciousness fast. But then suddenly the viscous liquid she didn't even realize was around her drained away, and she was being pushed out of her prison. She heard screams around her, coming from the voice that had been telling her soothing sentences. Suddenly a bright flash of light pierced her eyes making her scream out, with the scream her lungs opened wide and accepted the rush of air going through her air channel, the dryness of the air hurting her throat and burning her lungs. If she could pay any attention to anything else apart from the pain she would have been stupefied about how big everyone was around her or of the fact that she lived more than half of her life in a desert, how could the air be dry for her. Then the ground shook and the building collapsed on them burying her under the nurse and the rocks

Kakashi was the first who had arrived at the collapsed hospital after the Kyuubi has been sealed. And that is when he heard the cries of a newborn. He rushed over and started digging, only to find that it came from beside a now dead nurse. Her hands had been crushed by a rock, but from under the stone, he could hear the cries of the baby. When he removed the stone he could see the bloody stump that had once been attached to the poor nurse, and in it, he saw a baby who didn't even have a scratch on her. So he took her to the orphanage, which had survived the Kyuubi's attack, and told the Matron how he found her.

"Well beautiful, from now on your name will be Machiko." She smiled at the girl and then thanked Kakashi who left to help with the rebuilding.

At first, it was quite nice in the orphanage for Machiko. She lacked the bonds with her new mother thus loss didn't affect her. She was sad, true but she would have been just as sad to see a puppy die on the side of the road, from being hit by a car. There was something that was bugging her none the less, it was about a boy, he was born on the same day as her but he was ostracized by all, even the matron of the orphanage. She couldn't understand what a less than a one-year-old kid could have done to deserve this. So she took it upon herself to be his friend.

3 years have passed

The Matron has put the 'Devil Twins', as she now calls them, into the same room and has forbidden everyone to even associate with the two. As Machiko and Naruto had been ostracized by everyone in the village, Machiko took it upon herself to teach Naruto on how to stay unseen so that he wouldn't be hurt by the villagers, on how to act in ways he could get accepted. Although whenever it had been noticed who they were, the villagers would chase them around with knives, kunai, and shuriken. Some even threw rocks at them for the lack of a better weapon. If they got caught they were tortured as the 'Devil twins', as only someone who is evil would stay with a Demon. That is what they told themselves. Machiko had to scoff at that bullshit. If anyone then they were the evil ones for putting him through that. But Naruto was lucky, he had the blood of the Uzumaki family, and the Kyuubi to heal him unlike his 'sister', Machiko who didn't have anything of the sort and since no one was willing to heal her injuries they stacked up.

This day started like any other, Machiko and Naruto dressed up in rags even before the sun was out and left the orphanage's compound. They ran to one of the parks where they haven't been spotted yet. And started running around playing hide and seek. They played this game to improve their senses and hiding. It was something they needed for their survival. They were usually on the streets begging for food. Since they wouldn't be able to spend the money as they would get thrown out of the stores no matter if they showed who they were or if they just kept the rags on themselves.