Please read this warning before continuing: This story takes place in the warring state area. Which means there will be character deaths and detailed violence. If this upsets you please do not read 'Second Wind'. There will not only be OCs that'll suffer in this story.

Second Wind

Prologue – The Hum.

The hum is the common name of a series of phenomena involving a persistent and invasive low-frequency humming noise not audible to all people.

The area was barren of living things. The animals had fled days ago because of the menacing and monstrous presence they'd all felt.

Deep into what would one day be named Kumogakure, climbed a blond girl clothed in a travelling cloak over a light, grey haori wrapped closely about her to shelter from the howling wind. Underneath she had on plain dark pants that reached to her shins with a plain shirt.

She was a ninja: a young kunoichi who was far from home without friends, and had been so for years. Never had Naruto been as isolated as she was these days, not having talked to a single human being in over two months while she searched the five great countries for her first target.

She did have one companion, but he wasn't one for much compassion, and was not a human so he couldn't grasp entirely how solitude affected a person, or what hunger felt like.

So in a sense, Naruto was all alone, fighting through the everyday trivial things to survive. It had been difficult these past few days since the animals had ran away, and only nuts and whatever edible plant she could gather kept her stomach from being empty. Even though she was still hungry, today she had forgotten all about it, she was too excited to remember.

At the top of the mountain she was currently climbing, she would find the demon fox. She could feel it with every inch of her body. The creature of legend who came from the ten tails along with his siblings: a legend every human wished had just been a story. Had there been anyone to see her, they would have assumed she was both mad and suicidal, heading towards a certain death.

It would be painful too.

No one dared cross the Kyūbi. It was known for being merciless, hateful and for enjoying others' suffering. The demon fox was so incredibly powerful that people believed its presence meant their own unavoidable doom. The Kyūbi had slaughtered many towns; burned them to the ground with children, women and men still inside. He laughed at their screams and relished in their agony. He hated their existence: those talking, blubbering monkeys, who kept challenging his superiority and magnificence. He cursed their existence the same way they cursed his.

As the girl came closer, the Kyūbi began to feel her presence. The nine tailed creature had felt her long ago when she had first come to this land. Her lack of trepidation had infuriated him at first. That is until he felt the second presence, and for the first time in thousands of years he had been struck dumb, completely speechless.

This would not be the only instance in which she shocked him this night. Not by a mile.

Land of Fire.

"Who the hell are you?" Asked a young boy as he studied the newcomer who had interrupted his attempt at skipping the small rock he clutched in his hand across the creek.

The newcomer had a ridiculous haircut. Who on earth thought such a straight cut hairdo was cool anyway? It looked like a brown, floppy fish bowl. And the clothes: the light pants were so large it made his shins look incredibly skinny. Not to mention the huge scarf around his neck. Did he belong to a circus or something? With clowns? The styles were sort of similar.

The creek ran through a clearing in the surrounding forest. It was a peaceful place, untouched by both fighting and people. The stream led all the way from the ninja village higher up in the terrain to this creek, before joining the ocean miles away. The daylight made the water surface shimmer cheerily, and the green grass dance in the lazy breeze. It was easy to forget the despairing world they usually found themselves in.

"Hmm...Right now, you could say I'm your rival at rock skipping. But I've already gotten mine to the other side." The brown haired boy stated teasingly.

'What sort of answer is that? He's insulting me damn it!' the first boy thought angrily. He had been struggling to skip stones across the river for the last half an hour.

"You never answered my question! Who the hell are you?!" He demanded, getting agitated at the weird stranger.

"You can call me Hashirama," the brown haired boy said with a grin, "probably best if I don't tell you my last name..."

'He must be a civilian,'Hashirama thought as he studied the black haired stranger. He had black eyes and fair skin, which reminded him of some of the civilians from Karonichi Village. He also wore a dark, lilac haori and white shorts, not uncommon amongst civilians. Though spikier, the other boy's hair was reminiscent of his younger brother, Tobirama. He also looked shorter than himself, even though Hashirama suspected they were about the same age.

"Hashirama, take a close look! 'Cuz this time it'll reach!" the spiky haired boy proclaimed and twisted his torso around towards the river while skillfully throwing the rock with strength and precision.

Hashirama recognised that the precision was better used for shuriken throwing than stone skipping. This boy had shinobi training, just like him. But he had to be from another clan that was not the Senju. Instantly Hashirama felt grateful he hadn't told the boy his clan name. If the stranger was an Uchiha or Hagaromo, he'd be in serious problems.

The stone skipped once, twice, three times before with a loud plop, sank into the water a metre away from the opposite shore.

Silence hung between them while the thrower looked disbelieving at his failed attempt. Whirling back around towards Hashirama with annoyance, the boy started shouting at him.

"Asshole! You stood behind me on purpose, didn't you?! It's so obvious you're trying to distract me! I can't even take a leak if someone is standing near me! That's how aware of my surroundings I am!" He shouted while gesturing wildly.

Hashirama looked crest fallen at being accused of sabotaging his new acquaintance. As the boy finished his ranting, Hashirama suddenly bent down with his hands around his knees, and his head lowered towards his thigh: a deep depression loomed around him.

The other boy was startled at this abrupt change of mood, confused as to how someone could go through such a rapid change of emotions.

"Forgive me."

The spiky haired pre-teen couldn't help the upwards twitch of his lip as he looked down at Hashirama. It was ridiculous that the other boy had taken his shouting that seriously, he sure had to be a touchy guy if he let something like that to get to him.

"Uh...Relax… No need to get emotional and stuff. I mean… I kinda have this bad habit of making excuses when I..." He started to explain to cheer up the strange boy he was starting to find very amusing.

Hashirama however didn't let him finish as he looked up and interrupted.

"You don't need to explain. Your ego is just so big you have a God complex."

The boy instantly got angry again, and pointed accusingly at Hashirama. "Why you… I can't tell if you're hypersensitive or a smart ass!"

As suddenly as the boy had knelt down, he rose to his feet and burst out laughing. "Gya Haha! One thing you should be able to tell is… You are no match for me when it comes to stone skipping!" Exclaimed Hashirama between his laughter while the other young ninja got more and more mad.

"Keep gloating and we'll see how well you skip across this creek!"

And it happened again.

One moment he was laughing and the next Hashirama knelt down with his hands around his feet. The bad mood almost tangible in the air.

"Forgive me…" He repeated in a small voice. "I've clearly upset you… To atone for my sin, you have my permission to use me as a rock and skip me across the creek... "

Looking incredulously down at Hashirama's teary eyes, the stranger wondered if the other boy was entirely stable.

"Jeez… No reason to cry about it!"

Hashirama got a funny look as he peeked up from between his knees. "I just hope… I won't drown before I reach the other shore."

Land of Lightning

The Kyūbi had let her climb up. He could now feel what was inside her. Even if it confused him greatly since it didn't make any sense.

He could always feel what his victims and enemies felt, but this was different: there was a second presence inside the girl. Normally he felt the desperation, hate and agony. The demon fox felt it constantly. Even when they didn't feel him, he could easily tell when a stray human walked into his turf.

It was always the same. The moment they noticed him they were filled with dread and terror. It hadn't always been like that. The Kyubi remembered a time of peace where the people had loved him, and when he had loved them in return, especially his own father who once had been more or less human.

He had been under the misconception that humans had some form of intelligence and compassion. He knew a lot better now.

After his father died, things took a turn for the worst for the Kyubi and his eight other sibling. The talking monkeys had started fearing them at first. Their fright had then turned to greed and anger. They tried to control the biju, take away their will and freedom. Cage them like animals, calling them according to the number of tails and attacked them.

This betrayal had at first devastated the Kyūbi. Mostly because they were stamping on his father's legacy, disrespecting and mocking his wisdom by convincing themselves that the biju was nothing more than tools of war and power. Something to control and submit to their weak, idiotic will. The Kyūbi had eventually started enjoying watching them fail.

Lying silently on the mountain top, the nine tails was therefore astounded to realise there still was maybe one, only one talking monkey who might understand a little. Who knew some of it, and came to him not with the intention of capturing his power, but with love and compassion.

Love like he had only felt from his own father and a selected few of his siblings.

This confusing girl made him uneasy, but curious enough not to lean over the side of the mountain and swat her away-at least not before he made sense of what the hell she was.

He raised his head as the girl lifted herself over the cliff side, breathing heavily while sweat rolled down her forehead. Completely unaware of the immobilizing killing intent aimed at her, the girl seemed to be used to it.

Land of Fire

The spiky haired youth lost his temper for the third time in under five minutes. "Man you are pissin' me off! Leave now!" He all but roared, a small amount of spit escaping his mouth as he pointed at Hashirama.

With a sad look Hashirama got to his feet, looking more like a kicked puppy as he mournfully peeked over at the other boy. With a last loud sigh he slowly turned to walk away with slumped shoulders and that infuriating depressed look on his face. "If you say so..."

Gapping with annoyance at Hashirama's submissive nature, the unnamed youth grabbed his shoulder, and halted the brown haired boy in his tracks. "Hold on!" He exclaimed.

He wanted Hashirama to have some spine, and find out if he actually was mentally unstable or just playing mind games with him. He hated being confused, it was something his father had known since he had been three months old and refused to give back the shuriken he'd gotten a hold off.

From what he had been told later, he had not cried when it had cut his hand, he'd simply tried to figure out which part was safe to touch and what was to be avoided. This was a similar dilemma, he wanted to figure out what made this boy so unpredictable, which emotional button would make him 'cut', or more accurately sulk like a baby.

"You want me to leave or not?" Asked Hashirama looking over his shoulder with a moping expression. "Stop being so indecisive..." He muttered while looking at the boy who seemed at loss for a reply.

He had just told him to get lost hadn't he? Trying fruitlessly to come up with an explanation, something odd reached the corner of his eye, something that hadn't been there a moment before. It was just then they both noticed the body floating calmly down the river towards them. The person wasn't moving at all, it lay deadly still on the surface of the calm, sunlit water.

Land of Lightning

The Kyūbi didn't speak to the girl in front of him, only took in her strange appearance. Golden hair bound into a ponytail, he knew for a fact that not many talking monkeys had this hair colour. It was usually dark or brown, and those he had seen with light hair had never had this specific shade of yellow.

Another thing he found strange was that even though she was fair haired, her skin was at the same time tanned; he had never actually seen a pale monkey with blond hair with such sun kissed colouring. Their skin always seemed fragile to the burning star, so they had to cover it up weak as they all were. The exception was the dark talking monkeys who dealt with the sun better. From experience however, the nine tails knew their skin was as easily cut through as the pale faces.

Her clothes where dirty and ripped from her journey, but she didn't seem to mind. The demon fox also decided she was shorter than any warrior who had faced him before, and probably just at the end of her childhood.

What held his gaze however was her eyes. They were sharp and very expressive, framed like the eyes of a cat. Clear as a cloudless sky in daytime, and staring back into his own red gaze unblinking.

Words said the day he was born came back to him, some of his father's last spoken sentences. A mischievous, blue eyed youth.

The girl took a couple of steps towards him with a relieved smile. He rose alarmingly to his feet, standing fifty metres above the blonde and snarled viscously.

Land of Fire

It looked like Hashirama could turn serious as quickly as he could become depressed. His eyes was fixed on the floating body drifting past them with a stern expression, turning into a completely different person.

Gathering chakra underneath his feet, he ran away from his new sort-of friend, over the surface of the water of the slow running river to check out who the dead man could be. He prayed to the sage of the six path that it wasn't someone he knew.

The other boy was left at the shore with a startled expression on his face as he watched Hashirama run over the water surface.

"You are... a shinobi." He muttered realising he had been arguing with a possible enemy, and not some harmless civilian as he had assumed. Hashirama didn't reply as he moved the corpse over on his back to check who it possibly could be.

The corpse had the symbol of the Hagaromo clan on his armour.

"So the war has finally reached these lands. It's best if you head home." He said, voice filled with sadness and trepidation as he looked down at the dead man. "I should probably leave as well."

Standing up, he jumped from the middle of the creek to the other side of the shore in one leap, not a jump even a fully grown civilian man could have managed. Hashirama was definitely a shinobi.

"Later… um..." Hashirama said and looked back at the boy on the other side. He had a small smile as he studied Hashirama, trying to figure out which clan he belonged to, hoping it wasn't the Senju.

"I'm Madara. Not giving your surname to a stranger is basic code of conduct for shinobi," Madara answered and tilted his head an inch. Hashirama nodded now that his suspicion had been confirmed.

"Heh… I figured you were one as well." He stated and turned to leave at the same moment Madara did. Walking away they both had the same feeling; their personalities clashed, but for some reason there was a kinship between them, a feeling that they could relate to each other.

Maybe that was why the other had come to the creek in the first place.

Author note: This is self explanatory, but I do not own Naruto.

Thank you so much for taking the time reading this prologue! The next chapter will be longer then this one.

Story information: This story will be a bit AU and there are some changes from cannon. Changes such as Naruto being a girl and the fact that she has time travelled to point out the obvious ones. I like to keep it somewhat close to the original, so Naruto will make mistakes in this story, she does have limits, and she will not have out of this world abilities. She is strong, but not unbeatable. Changes from the original will become apparent as you read on, but I'll try to keep them to a minimum. The ones put in will be there to get the story moving along.

I hope you'll enjoy reading 'Second Wind', if not I'm sorry and I hope you'll find one that's more to your own taste. It's hard to please everyone, and some might like this while others don't. I at least am enjoying writing this, and that's the reason I'm working on this, to have some fun and learn how to write better.

Edited 03.2016 Jaden-the-Jaded has agreed to beta this story for me, and I'm very grateful for that, so the correction of my poor grammar and fumbling english is all thanks to Jayden.