The White Dweller

Prologue

Prologue 

The vast amount of snow that covered the almost incalculable section of land was not a problem to Setsuko. Not even the whistling wind that could give anyone frostbite in a substantial quantity of time did anything to further hinder even her breathing. Although that didn’t mean that she was feeling troubled and desperate to find someone to save her. At a fresh age of ten, not even she, a strong child, could handle the loss of an abundant amount of blood.

However, for the people who knew her better, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Setsuko was not, in any way at all, affected by the cold seeping into her wounds and blood.

She was a child of the snow; hence, her name, “Setsuko”.

Not once did her captors think of leaving her in the middle of a snowy mountain in the Land of Iron away from any living creature besides her. She didn’t know what happened, they just… vanished. It wasn’t that she saw them vanish or anything of that matter, but she was already certain that they didn’t leave her… because they were already dead when she finally woke from her short and slightly chaotic slumber…

Her black hair was covered in snow, as were most parts of her ghostly pale body. Although she noticed something a little warm on her mouth. She deduced it to be fresh, considering that at such harsh weather that the Land of Iron had, the tepid fluid had the possibility of freezing in a matter of just a few seconds, if not even a minute and a half.

When she reached up to her face to touch it, she could already smell the faint odor of rust.

Immediately, without even trying to remember why she was even where she was at the moment, or why she wasn’t in the safety of her mother’s arms, Setsuko sat up and looked around.

The terrifying and gut-wrenching gash across her clothed stomach went unnoticed upon the sight of five frozen bodies in the snow—no… rather, the bodies weren’t even complete. With a designated pool of blood for each, arms, legs and even heads scattered about, a few ways away from their possible owners; fingers, palms, toes, knees and strips of blued skin (additionally) were also strewn all around Setsuko’s line of sight.

If Setsuko had been the more vocal person she already wasn’t, she could have screamed, but instead, she let out a series of soft whines and whimpers, like a lost puppy (undoubtedly, she was one). Her white hands flew to her white lips, and her dark blue eyes widened in absolute dread and grief for the dead men.

It was no longer surprising that fresh and slightly warm tears surged down her cheeks.

Although she was able to shut her eyes and lower her head, she tried desperately to erase the rancorous images from her mind.

“Mommy,” she whimpered helplessly.

All the young Setsuko wanted to see was her mother’s warm and loving smile, the only thing that could warm her peculiarly cold body.

“Pl…please… mommy, help… m-me…”

She tried to block out the screams in her head. Somehow, as she was unconscious, her mind seemed to record the possible screams of the men… at least, that was the only way to interpret her current situation. Despite the blistering heat of pain that she was receiving from the enormous gash on her stomach, all she could manage to think about was where her mother was, why they weren’t together and trying to block out the wails in echoing throughout the recesses of her brain.

Gradually, the area around her stomach released a much more distressing amount of blood, painting her snow-white kimono, soaking it.

‘Someone… please, find me…’

A/N: So here's a new project! I hope you guys will like this Kakashi fic :)

LOL, I know, I know, I have two more projects I'm working on right now... but that's just how I want it. As long as I don't get past 4 projects, then I know that I'll be fine. Russian Roulette is not counted because I only do it when I feel like doing it... which is almost never.

Oh yeah, this will be a multi-gen story. Meaning, I'm starting out with Kakashi's childhood, then to his days as an ANBU member, then to his days as a Jonin... and maybe after the war... I'm still not sure about that.

But there most probably won't be a sequel for this one :) Which also means that just because it's multi-gen, doesn't mean that it's automatically long.

Let's just see how this'll turn out, shall we.

Oh, fair warning... I HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED WINTER. So my descriptions may not be "almost-entirely" accurate.