It's a popular legend.

A long time ago, during the Warring States Period, the Nara clan was attacked in a sudden assault. As the adults fought their enemies, children fled into the forest, where they had been taught to hide and survive. However, their attackers were numerous, well-informed and merciless. They were waiting for the children under the trees, and one by one proceeded to kill them.

As the blood of innocents seeped into the earth, the trees stirred and came to life. Roots came up to trip the murderers, and branches struck them. As the attackers fought against the forest, the children disappeared, led deep into the woods, their tracks covered, their injuries bandaged by antiseptic leaves and herbal roots. The trees formed an impenetrable barrier to protect them.

When the victorious Nara came to find their children, curtains of leaves parted harmlessly before them to reveal the innocents, safe and sound.

It's the first known manifestation of Konoha no Kami, protector of children and families, Spirit of the Forest.

This territory became well-known as a safe place for the innocents. To fight in its midst became a sacrilege for all the clans whose children were saved by reaching this haven.

Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara conducted most of their negotiations on those sacred grounds.

Konohagakure was named in the Kami's honor. When the village was founded near the forest, Hashirama respectfully came to meditate in the woods for one day and one night, praying to Konoha no Kami for her blessing. His talent for Mokuton allowed him to speak to the Kami and explain his dream for the village. The Kami approved and agreed to treat Konohagakure no Sato like her home, its inhabitants like her children.

In return for her protection, the village promised to care and respect the sacred grounds. The Nara clan naturally became the guardians of the forest. The deers they raised were blessed by the Kami and became smart enough to protect the land.

That's why Konoha, more than any other hidden village, is blessed and powerful. For there is a Kami looking after us.

Konoha-hime.

Call her name under the leaves. Pray for help at her shrines. Bow your head at the deers staring at you.

Konoha-hime is watching over you.

o

Shikaku was starting to wonder if his father was trying to kill him. Usually, when they trained together, it wasn't in the middle of the forest, which was strange in itself, and it wasn't either to a level where Shikaku worried about his ability to sit up the next morning.

Shikakai's next attack sent his ten-years-old son to the ground. The genin rolled until he hit a tree and rested here, too dazed to stand up. Yet, his father marched toward him, threatening, and although he had never had any reason to fear him before, Shikaku could feel his killing intent and knew he was serious. What the hell was going on?

Shikaku valiantly tried to straighten, but his arm gave way under him and he fell back. "Dad, what—"

A bellow sounded out, startling the youngest Nara, but the clan leader stood back and loosened his stance. This was the signal he was waiting for to stop.

"Sorry, son," Shikakai said before offering him a hand to stand up. "She had to see your worth."

Shikaku accepted it in a daze. His limbs were shaking. He glanced at the deer who had stepped into the clearing. It was the most majestic one he had ever seen, and he had seen his fair share since caring for the deers was a weekly chore for every young Nara.

The animal was taller than Shikakai, even if you discounted its antlers which were magnificent and decorated with leaves and flowers. Its fur was light chestnut with white spots, like a fallow deer.

When it came closer, it towered over Shikaku, who was staring intently. As the magnificent head slowly lowered itself to his eye-level, Shikaku shook himself and took a step back to bow to the waist.

"Greetings Konoha-hime. It's an honor to meet you. Please take care of me."

He felt the soft snout against his cheek, the animal's breath brushing his ear. "You'll see and live through many hard times, Shikaku-kun. I have advice for you if you'd take it." Its voice was deep and slow.

"I would be honored."

The snout nudged him until Shikaku straightened so they could be eye to eye.

"Come to me when your heart is heavy, your soul is confused or your body is drained. Bring to me those you trust wholeheartedly or those who need to disappear," she said solemnly before raising her head. "Also, don't smoke those nasty things, I hate the smell. What are they called again, Shikakai?"

"Cigarettes, Konoha-hime. I told ojii-san you were the one who got the squirrels to bury his packs. He promised to stop."

"Good." The deer tapped the ground in satisfaction. "That's it then. Here." She leaned forward and touched Shikaku's forehead. Immediately, his muscles loosened and his exhaustion disappear. "You'll do great. Don't become Hokage though, or you won't have enough time for me. That wouldn't do. I want to see you at least once a month. Don't worry, you can just nap with me. That fighting business is a one-time thing, it's too tiring otherwise."

The stories never said that Konoha-hime was cool, Shikaku thought.

o

The fire started soon before dawn. It was a calculated move. The warm colors of the sunrise hid the flames and the darkness hid the smoke.

The Nara were awakened by the bellows of stags. They were so loud that they seemed to have all joined the call, a sure sign that this was an alert.

Shikaku rolled out of bed, put on a shirt and grabbed his weapon pouch while his wife was doing the same on the other side of the room. Yoshino grabbed Shikamaru from his crib. The two weeks old baby was awake and fussing, but as soon as he was in his mother's arms he settled.

"Bring him to okaa-san," Shikaku said as they moved down the stairs. "Then take control of the compound protection detail and send the reinforcements with a Nara guide as soon as they arrived."

Yoshino agreed with a tense nod. She was barely recovered from her pregnancy and childbirth, she couldn't join him even if she wanted to. They jumped out of the house and in the adjacent trees without a word.

Shikaku was followed by all able-bodied Nara of chuunin rank and above. Under their feet beating the branches, the deers were fleeing the fire in direction of the compound, where they would be safe in the courtyard. They were carrying small animals on their back, like squirrels, foxes, or hedgehogs. It was the first time Shikaku had ever seen the extent of Konoha-hime's perfect control over the forest's inhabitants.

As one, the Nara stopped. They were forming a semicircle in the middle of the forest without any apparent reason why.

"Why did we stop?" someone asked.

They were all wondering the same thing. The order had come from nowhere, silent and inescapable.

"It's Konoha-hime telling us to stay away," an elder said. Nara Hideaki was Shikaku's great-uncle and the most knowledgeable about the forest and its protector.

"But why? We're supposed to protect her! to protect the forest! We need to put out the fire!"

"There are some things we can't protect a kami against," Hideaki noted somberly.

Before they could debate on what was attacking them, they were blasted by an explosion coming from the fire's origin. Most of them were blown off the trees. Shikaku was propelled against a tree trunk and only avoided a fall thanks to it.

Their ears were ringing. They needed a minute to get back on their feet and look up to see the devastation. The fire had progressed faster thanks to the blast. It was on them.

A few jounin tried to douse the flames with water jutsu, but it wasn't their clan's speciality. There weren't enough of them.

"We need to pull back!" Hideaki shouted.

Shikaku was going to give the order when waves of water rose above them and crashed into the flames, getting the fire to retreat.

"Reinforcements!"

Konoha shinobi flooded in, forming a line in front of the fire, water users on the forefront. The Yondaime landed beside Shikaku, with Inoichi and Chouza right under them. Inoichi was starting another water jutsu.

"What happened, Shikaku?" Minato asked.

"We don't know. Konoha-hime forced us to stop here, and a moment later the explosion happened. We have to get to the center of the blast!"

"So, since it's already on fire, do you think Konoha-hime will forgive me if I flatten the forest a little?"

"What?"

Before Shikaku could guess what Minato had in mind, the Yondaime jumped to the ground and started a summoning. The apparition of Gamabunta knocked over a few people off the trees once again.

"Bunta-san, can you help us extinguish the fire?" Minato asked from his perch on the toad's head.

The blast of water coming out of the toad was like a torrent, sweeping everything along the way. Once he was done extinguishing everything in reach, Gamabunta puffed on his pipe (its smoke blended in with the smoking trees) and commented: "Well, now, someone's going to be in trouble with the Kami, and I tell you it won't be me."

As he spoke, several corpses washed up at his feet before the remaining water evaporated or penetrated into the ground.

Shikaku stared at the fallow deer's corpse in the middle of the human bodies. "No!" he shouted, jumping down and rushing to the deer's side.

Silently, all shinobi dropped to the ground around him, surprised by the clear distress in the usually phlegmatic jounin.

The corpse was gravely burnt, but it was recognizable by its magnificent antlers, although the leaves and flowers which used to decorate it were in ruin. Shikaku's hand trembled as he stroke the snout covered in blood.

"Shikaku?" Minato murmured softly. His friend had been brought to meet Konoha-hime after his inauguration. He knew who the body belonged to, just like Inoichi and Chouza. None of them dared to step forward, conscious that this was something much more important to the Nara.

"It doesn't mean anything," Hideaki said as he stepped forward slowly. His inability to stare away from the corpse negated his apparent calm. "A kami doesn't need a body to exist. The deer was only a vessel, for our benefit."

"While that's true," Gamabunta said, looking down upon them, "a kami can regenerate their vessel nearly from scratch. A few burns and bumps shouldn't matter."

"Then, what happened?" Shikaku asked.

"I'm no seer," the toad grumbled. "If you want me to answer that, maybe you should start by telling me what I missed and who are those?" He pointed toward the two human corpses.

ANBU had surrounded the strangers and were studying them. At Minato's glance, one of them spoke up: "The corpses are badly burnt, Hokage-sama. One of them is actually rotting at an accelerated rate as we speak, it's rather… disgusting." The agent faltered for a second and took a step back as the form at his feet broke down into dust. "This one didn't seem to be human."

"And the other?"

Another ANBU, crouched next to the corresponding body, replied: "While he shows body modifications on his right side, this one is human. Male. Age impossible to determine. His eyes seem to have exploded in their sockets. The damage is consistent with multiple internal hemorrhages due to an overdose of chakra. Someone or something destroyed him from the inside. Remnants of matching clothes are visible on the two bodies. Black cloth with red patterns."

Shikaku related the events before Gamabunta's summoning.

The chief toad hummed and observed: "An explosion is due to a discharge of energy. A kami can contain an enormous amount of energy. There are two options here: either the energy produced was too gigantic for even Konoha-hime's power and she was destroyed when reducing the blast to a manageable level for your benefit… or the explosion was an attempt to annihilate those two here. In both cases, that would indicate that your enemies' power was great enough to confront a kami head-on. The second option seems more likely. In the first case, anything in the middle of the blast would have been incinerated, there wouldn't be any bodies left. In the second case, the explosion might have been produced by the attempt of those two to defend themselves when she overdosed their bodies with her chakra. They would have been in the eye of the blast which explains their relatively intact state."

"What of Konoha-hime?" Shikaku asked impatiently.

Gamabunta huffed and looked at the horizon, where the sun was rising steadily and bathing the world in warm colors despite the catastrophe it witnessed. "From where I am, it seems you might find something interesting in the middle of the crater."

Shikaku didn't wait for more. He ran into the burnt forest. He took a kerchief from his pocket and covered the bottom of his face to protect himself from the smoke. His eyes itched because of the fumes and his sandals made hissing sounds as he pushed through hot ground. After a minute, he reached what had only been visible to Gamabunta: a crater so wide that it could have swallowed half of the Nara compound. Its depth was twice Shikaku's height, and that was only the part who wasn't yet filled with water.

In the middle of the crater, Shikaku squinted to identify the small shape floating on the water. It looked like a tree trunk and on it…

"A baby?" Inoichi asked as he stood on Shikaku's side.

The Nara didn't pay attention to the four people who had joined him — Inoichi, Chouza, Minato and Hideaki. He jumped into the crater and walked on the water.

It was indeed a baby, a human baby looking a few months old, female, with dark hair, dusky skin and green eyes. She was waiting calmly until Shikaku appeared in her field of vision. That's when she started to wave her arms and legs in his direction, babbling and smiling.

"Hey there," Shikaku murmured on instinct before reaching for her.

"Is she who I think she is?" Inoichi asked, wide-eyed, as they all watched Shikaku take the baby in his arms.

"Kami don't age, but they can die," Gamabunta's voice sounded out above them. He was watching from the side of the crater. "The thing is… they reincarnate in any way they want. Apparently, Konoha-hime was done with the whole deity business. I can't say I understand her interest in humanity, but that's her choice I suppose."

"So it's really her?" Minato asked.

"Do baby humans often spontaneously appear in the middle of craters?" Gamabunta replied, deadpan.

Minato chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "I guess not."

"What should we do?" Chouza asked. "Will you raise her with your son, Shikaku?"

"I wouldn't recommend it," Gamabunta warned.

"Why?"

"Human, she might be, but that's a past deity we're talking about here. She'll retain part of her abilities. What do you think will happen around a young kid with such power? I'd certainly not trust such a tadpole around squishy defenseless beings."

Shikaku winced at the idea of his house ending up as a similar crater, with his son still in it.

"I can raise her," Hideaki offered. "Until she's able to control her powers, I can raise her in the forest. I raised two girls and still help with the grandkids, it can't be hard to remember how to do it, kami or not. I owe Konoha-hime that."

"If you're sure," Shikaku said. If he couldn't do it, he trusted his grand-uncle to do so.

Hideaki carefully took the baby and smiled at her big grin. "Whatever she did today, it seems she saved us from certain disaster. I'll protect her with the same devotion as she did for us all these generations, I swear it."

"You'll have Konoha's full support. If you need anything, tell me," Minato announced.

"You should help with the forest's care. That's what she would want."

"Of course."

In case that wasn't clear enough, the Kami killed Obito and Zetsu, thus avoiding the release of the Kyuubi on Konoha.

This story is nearly completely written. It will be short: only a few more chapters after this.