It had been a peaceful night in the village of Konoha, the streets were empty, and all was silent. In the forest surrounding the village it was a different story, even the most inexperience Ninja could follow the trail of blood that smeared the once pristine leaves. If one were to follow the trail they would find a small boy no older than four trying to hide himself in the hollow of a tree. He had bright sun kissed blonde hair, his chubby face was smeared with dirt, which was slightly damp from the tears running from his bug blue eyes. The most defining feature however was the six whisker like marks that adorned his cheeks.

He was wearing a white t-shirt that looked to be two sizes too big for him, it was tattered, with streaks of red and splotches of dirt. On the back of the shirt had a red spiral design. The boy also had a pair of dirty green shorts with some minor tares in them.

As the boy tried to hide himself further into the tree he could hear the sound of footsteps getting closer. Whoever was making their way through the forest was not trying to hide their presence from him.

Each crunch was agonising to the child all that he wanted was for them to leave, to just turn around and walk in the other direction. But as the footsteps drew closer he could hear his little heart beating in his hears.

'Please just go away, please, please, please." Where the only thoughts running through the child's head. As the sounds drew closer and closer the boy did the only thing that he could in order to save himself. He held his breath in the hope that the people who were out there wouldn't be able to find him.

"Where is the little Bastard" he heard a gruff voice say.

"I don't know maybe he went this way, he couldn't have gotten far." The second voice sounded much smoother then the first.

"Don't be a fool if he went any ware it would have been in this direction." The first speaker said.

"Shush, if you don't stop the little demon will hear and get away. Some of the Ninjas are looking for him as well it's only a matter of time." This time it was a feminine voice that spoke.

As the boy tried to set as still as he could possibly be he finally heard the footsteps starting to leave, letting out the breath he was holding in he finally thought that he would be safe, scooting further back into the hollowed out tree he rested his back against the trunk, letting his weary mind finally rest he closed his eyes.

"Got you, you little Bastard!" He heard someone shout before he felt a callous hand grab him by the scruff of the neck.

Being roughly pulled from his hiding spot he suddenly found himself surrounded on all sides, not knowing what to do the boy tried to tuck himself into a ball, he knew there was nowhere to run.

"I'm sorry" he tried to choke out. Hoping beyond hope that the simple words would be able to save him from whatever the people had in store for him.

"Do you hear that, the Demon is sorry? Well we should just let him be" one of the men said his voice just dripping with sarcasm.

Unfortunately the boy didn't understand sarcasm and at hearing the man's words got his hopes up and not receiving another beating. As he tried to lift himself up feeling slightly better about not being hurt he suddenly felt the air leave his lungs as he was kicked in the stomach. If any of the people heard the sudden crack they didn't let on.

"Why should we show you mercy when you didn't show any huh?" The second man spoke rearing his leg back ready to deliver another kick.

Gasping for breath the boy tried to cry out in pain, before the pain left he felt another blow on his stomach. His eyes burned as tears starter to fall from his eyes. He couldn't even focus enough to form coherent thoughts.

The second kick suddenly became a third, then a fourth until blow after blow rained down upon him, tears fell from eyes as he tried to beg them to stop, as he tried to apologise for whatever he did wrong. But the words wouldn't come out.

Pain racked his body, his arms were bruised trying to protect his head, tears streamed from his eyes as his small frame was being beaten.

As his mind was losing consciousness he heard what could only be described as a loud screech.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

-()-

It had been a very annoying six months for the woman walking through the forest, she had landed in a port that she didn't know the name of to find that they spoke a language that she didn't know and now she had been traveling through the continent seeing if there was anything interesting.

'Thank whatever deity that is up there that people will accept gold as any form of currency' Though she wasn't too sure if she was being over charged or under charged when she landed at the port.

It had taken her four months to learn the language in any reasonable way to try and understand the people of this land, and even then both she and they had to talk slowly.

The most frustrating part for her was when she found out that the entire continent works off of some type of mercenary system. From what she could piece together was that if people had problems they went to one of the groups for help.

The reason it frustrated her so much was that it made it really difficult to try and find jobs add in the language barrier and it had been next to impossible. Though she had managed to find some work nothing to serious enough to help cover some bills and pick up a few new tools.

However, she had managed to get something far more important that will help with her the next time she comes back to this land.

She was broken from her musings as she heard a loud shout coming from within the forest, curious by nature she decided to take a look at what had caused it. As she walked through the floral path towards the sound she noticed blood on some of the leaves.

'Huh guess either someone is being overly friendly or I might get a new job' she was hoping for the latter. Not that either really mattered in the end, she lived life the way she wanted to or everyone else be damned if they had to.

As she moved through the forest she came upon an odd sight four people were beating on a fifth person that was on the ground. The scene wasn't that bizarre she had seen similar things happen. She was about to call out to get their attention, offer some help to the one on the ground people were generous when they were desperate.

Before she called out she caught a glimpse of the person, upon seeing the target of the hostility her mind froze. 'It's a child' was the first thing that came to her thoughts. An unbending storm of anger swelled up inside her at the sight.

She would never call herself a good person, she lived in a world of grey but there was one thing she believed in above all else. In a world of grey each individual has to draw their own line of what they would and would not do. And for her it was one thing, Children are off limits.

Witch all of her anger she shouted at the group "What the Fuck do you think you're doing?" the roar was primal instinct. And four pairs of eyes turned to look at her. She took measure of each of them in that moment.

The first was a rather broad man wearing simple white shirt, dark trousers and a pain of sandals. He had brown hair and looked rather unkempt. 'Broad, possibly from menial labour, possibly weak core.'

The second was a more slender man rather tall by comparison to the group. He wore a dark green jacket with a navy undershirt and brown trousers. He had dark black hair. 'Slim, kind of lanky. Might be wiry strong hard to tell.'

The third was a woman with a rough looking tunic shirt, and grey trousers. She had long brown hair tied into a pony tail. 'Looks like a housewife.'

If she had of been in the mood to make comments of those in front of her she would of said that the three of them didn't look that special. However her attention moved to the fourth member of this motley crew.

He wore all dark clothes with a dark green flak jacket, but the part that really stood out to her was the metal plate attached to a headband. This wasn't the first time that she had seen a similar item 'It's one of the mercenaries, take him out first.'

It was the woman who decided to speak first, "What did you say?" The wording sounded almost inquisitive as if she couldn't understand why someone was talking to them.

While she may not have properly understood the words in her rage induced mind she could defiantly understand the tone. Trying to calm herself down she tried to speak in there dialect. 'What Fuck you do?' She tried to sound as calm as possible as she inched closer to them, she would be the first to admit that she probably sounded far from calm.

The four people looked quizzically between each other as they took in the appearance of the strange woman in front of them, the female decided to speak again, "Where killing the demon." She once again spoke in that same tone, as if it was as plain as day.

Now there will be times when wires get crossed when it comes to trying to understand another language and sometimes tone of voice is very important. This however was not one of those instances. Out of the four words spoken she understood only two of them. 'Where killing' the anger that she was feeling suddenly came back in full force, it was made worse by the woman's tone of voice. There was a lull in the air that was suddenly broken by the sounds of soft whimpering.

She noticed that the child had managed to turn himself around, to see if it was finally safe. She looked at the boy on the ground, he was covered in dirt and blood, his nose looked to have been broken, and his cloths were dirty, torn and bloody. His eyes were red and puffy with streaks of tears rolling down his whiskered cheeks. She could see the fear in him and the little bit of hope.

None of the four were prepared for what came next.

-()-

All that he could do from his position was look on at the turn of events, the people who had been hurting him had finally stopped he was able. It had taken all of his effort to turn around to see the new comer.

She was an average height woman, with dirty blonde hair tied into a pony tail, her face had hard features with what looked like some light scars. She wore a brown leather duster with the sleeves rolled up exposing her forearms. She wore a white undershirt and a pair dark brown trousers with a yellow band wrapped around the waist.

When he met her eyes he could see anger in them. For a moment he could only hope that she was going to make them stop. He wasn't able to properly understand what they were talking about. He however did hear one thing 'There going to kill me' fresh tears started to fall from his eyes as the thoughts went through head. It hurt too much to move.

It all happened very suddenly, he didn't have time to properly register what he had seen. When he thought of being like one of the ninjas in the village he always thought that fights were going to be long drawn out battles where each participant would throw cool jutsu at each other until one finally came out on top.

What happened was completely different, the woman moved forward, the ninja had moved to the left in an attempt to throw something a kunai or shuriken maybe. There was suddenly something warm splashing on the boy's face.

As a scream left the ninjas mouth the woman pivoted on her right foot and turned towards the broad. Placing a strong backhand in the man's stomach he bent over with the force of the blow, she proceeded to shove a knife in the back of the man's neck.

Continuing her momentum she pulled the knife from his neck throwing it at the woman, there was a loud thump as the knife hit the woman in the head. Blade sliding in.

There was a brief lull in combat as the woman took in her soundings before shooting off towards the tall man, woman's knee shot up catching the man between the legs, as his body began to crumble forward her right hand hit him in the throat.

Spinning 180 degrees she brought up her left hand revealing a small hand crossbow that she fired at the Ninja with a missing arm.

The boy was both marvelled by the spectacle of how the woman fought and terrified that she would suddenly turn and kill him as well. Closing his eyes he tried to will himself to stop crying. Time seemed to stand still.

He felt himself be pulled onto his back so he was lying flat on the ground, scrunching his eyes closed he waited trying to calm his whimpering body. He felt something damp rub at his face and his eyes shot open.

"It… okay" the woman voices was rather soft, stark contrast to her appearance. He could see her gently try and wipe the blood off his face. "Are… you… hurt?" she was talking slowly as if testing each word before she actually said it. All that he could do was nod his head, too afraid to actually speak.

Upon seeing his nod she pulled out a small knife, the boy flinched away and tried with all his might to scamper back. "I… won't… hurt you. I… helping you." She made gentle soothing sounds as she stoked his hair trying to calm him down.

-()-

As the little boy started to calm down she started to cut open his t-shirt, 'I can replace it later first things first injuries.' Looking at the now exposed torso she took a good look at the damage. 'Fuck. There's some severe bruising on his chest and possibly a broken rib or two' if she hadn't just killed the people doing the attack she probably would of taken the time to castrate them all nice and slowly.

Looking over some of his other injuries she couldn't stop that all-consuming rage from building. 'He's got two broken forearms and small knife wounds.' She noticed him flinch as a pained cry left his body. Trying to bring her anger under control she put on her biggest smile and looked at him

"It will… be fine… have you… patch in no time" She tried to sound as nice and sincere as possible to the small child, 'How the fuck are you still conscious kid. I've seen grown men pass out from less than this' Opening up her coat she looked at the pockets lining the inside of it, 'Where did I put that first aid kit.' After thinking for a moment she reached into one of the pockets and produced a first aid kit.

"Tell me… about you, while I patch" she tried to speak to the kid in his language since she was certain that he wouldn't be able to understand her.

"My name is… "She could hear the strain in his voice 'There is a cracked rib at least but the lung isn't punctured. Thank god for small miracles.' "Naruto Uzumaki."

She couldn't help but smile genuinely when she watched his little lips tug up when he said his name, 'He has so much pride in his name.' "My name… is Clara." She set about cleaning the wounds that were on his body before bandaging them. "Where… parents?" 'Damn it I wish this was easier' she noticed that the small smile disappeared at that, she didn't need to be told what was coming next.

"I don't have any. I am an orphan" the words were hard to get out, whether he didn't like talking about it or the pain made it difficult she wasn't sure.

Taking the roll of bandages she positioned them near the boy's mouth, "Bite down… need to reset arms." Nodding slowly the Naruto took a bite of the bandages and waited. Clara wasted no time in grabbing his forearm to realign it, before quickly moving on to the next. Naruto screamed in agony as the bones were forcefully realigned. Reaching into one of her pockets she pulled out a rather long stick. 'And they said that I would never have a need for this thing.' Clara thought proudly to herself.

"Do you have a home" She asked him while slowly making a brace for his arms, she watched as he shook his head slowly in the negative. 'It'll have to do until I get him somewhere with an actual doctor or healer.' Taking the bandages out of his mouth she threw them back into the box.

She could see that his little blue eyes were getting heavy the exhaustion finally catching up with him. It didn't take long for him to fall unconscious.

Looking over her handy work Clara removed her duster and wrapped the Naruto before lifting him up. "Guess you finally passed out huh. You're a tough little bastard that's for sure." She felt a smile tug at her lips as she looked at the young boy. Memories of a foregone time playing through her mind.

"Well I guess it's time to figure out what to do you with you" she spoke to no one in particular the clearing only two people were alive and one of them were conscious. Looking at the people she had just killed she started to think aloud.

"If the mercenary is from one of those villages it might be nearby. I don't think it is wise to bring you back there, though I am not quite sure where there is." Looking around the forest she came to her decision. "Well I guess it's back the way I came."

-()-

A.N

There is not much to say I got this stuck in my head and don't know if it is actually any good but I am going to give it a shot and hopefully some of you people enjoy it.

Everything that happened will be explained at a later point in the story.

If you have any problems let me know I will try to improve it for the next chapter.