A/N: This was done for the LJ community 'fanfic100'. It will most likely be updated sporadically; I'm using this as something to do in between chapters of 'The Nine Broken Mirrors'.
Disclaimer: Everything in here except for OCs belongs to Kishimoto.
001. 'Beginnings'.
The story began, like all stories do, with death.
The man stood on the rooftops, watching the endless lines of dead shambling towards him, lit in the red glow of the fires around him. They were overwhelming the paltry defenders that stood against the encroaching darkness. Their Raikage was dead, and he saw her body in the lines, black fire burning on her bones as she tore the shinobi, hesitant to attack the spectre of their leader, apart. The blots of torn viscera were dark against the sky as she carved through the defenders like a knife.
He looked down at the infant in his arms, her pale blue eyes open, staring guilelessly at him, and then up again. The Nekomata loomed over the village, gray skin gleaming in the moonlight like a corpse's, ebony fire lashing out and cooking the concrete, the buildings crumbling as it stepped forward. Twin tails lashed, and more of the dead climbed from their graves, wrenching free of the earth's embrace, joining the carnage.
His fingers shook as he dipped them in ink. The bottom of his stomach had dropped out, and he wanted to vomit, wanted to cry, wanted to turn his back and run from his duty. The baby giggled as the ink smeared across her skin in an Eight Trigrams Sealing Style, a black collar around her neck, waves of ink spiraling out across her shoulders in a parody of wings.
He glanced one more time at the Raikage, hating her, hating her for leaving him to do this, before he set the baby down and braced himself as the Nekomata, sensing its danger, charged.
The road cracked underneath its paws. A blast of foul-smelling breath hit him in the face, jaws snapping at him. He stood alone at the end of the world, and let his fingers come together.
The summoning jutsu was finished. The Death God stood over them both, one hand on his back, the other on the Nekomata's head. He felt very weak, and fell to his knees beside the child, kneecaps cracking on stone. Hammers were pounding at the inside of his head, and he tried to take a breath, cried out as pain lacerated his insides. Fingers hooked in her blanket, dragged her forward. The Nekomata, frozen, glared hatred at him.
The Death God looked the girl- not 'the girl', Yugito- over, and met his eyes with unknowable sadness. Sadness that a new god was being created here this night, a God of the Earthbound Dead. He swallowed, dipped his fingers in ink, and finished the Four Symbols Seal.
There was more agony, bright and hot and fierce. The Nekomata crumbled into black chakra tumbling over itself, disappearing into the seal around Yugito's neck.
The world was gone, and he lay sprawled on his back on the rooftop, the Death God coming closer. He swallowed, tears on his cheeks, and forced out- so paltry, these last words-
"I'm so sorry…" Another last breath, words dancing on the wind, "…my daughter."
The end was here, and he mourned that he must leave his child behind to begin a life alone.
Death beckoned, and he took its hand.
A/N: Review?