***EDIT: SO MANY ISSUES! Ugh formatting and editing and all that jazz just driving me crazy…. Sorry about all that guys here's the ACTUAL prologue to my fem!naru fic Contracted! Hope you all enjoy!

*Don't Own Naruto*

The light pitter-patter of a child's feet was drowned out by the heavier plods of an adult. For every two or three splashes that resulted from the child in the rain water, one splash would be heard from the other. Such was the difference in their heights.

The kid, whose blonde hair and ragged clothes were caked with grime, clutched a fat coin pouch close to her erratically beating heart. With a quick glance back at her pursuer, cerulean orbs expanded wide. The grownup was gradually advancing and continued to do so even as the blonde attempted to speed her run up. Slowly, ever so slowly, the distance between them closed.

The breaths out of her tiny body were laborious and the movements of her tiny limbs became sluggish. The girl tripped over her foot and scraped her knee. Hastily picking herself up, the blonde tried to dash around a corner and into in alley to escape the ever-closer chuckles of her pursuer. Too bad stubby six year-old legs held nowhere near enough strength to outrun a fully fledged adult, no matter the civilian status.

Now, it wasn't like the streets were empty. The earlier downpour of rain hadn't scared everyone into shelter. In fact, there were plenty of people out and about and plenty of people able to stop their fellow villager from hounding the child. Only the problem wasn't that they couldn't help the tiny kid, but that they wouldn't. They actually went out of their way to selectively blind themselves of the two humans straying off into one of the many alleys of Konohagakure. To them, a child disappearing in the labyrinthine alleys of Konoha's red light district wasn't a rare sight.

Luckily or not for the girl, someone new was walking around the red lights district this day. Luckily or not for the girl, that someone zoned in on her and her chaser before releasing a feral grin and following them. Burgundy eyes shown with manic glee as their owner slyly slid into the alley behind the two.

_B_R_E_A_K_

"You filthy rat, how dare you try to steal from me! You lowly trash!" When the man had finally cornered the child, he exploded with rage, no longer under the public façade of calm.

Now trapped into a corner, the girl trembled out a brave and defiant reply: "I-I'm no trash! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future h-hero of Konohaga-gakure!" Naruto's fragile bravado cracked, however, as the man barked out a low laugh.

"Future hero, you say?" he asked, a menacing gleam overtaking his eyes. "Why, you're already the destroyer and demon of Konoha, idiot! Simply being a human is out of you're league, let alone you being a savior!" His arms swept across his body angrily as he started skulking toward the miniscule, whimpering body, already curled inward to subconsciously protect its vital organs. The pouch full of money lay abandoned to the side, ignored. It was only an excuse to him, really.

"N-no…I'm Naruto Uzu-zumaki the future-"

"Only a demon hiding in a lamb's skin."

"No! I'm Narut-" The repetitive speech was cutoff abruptly as the man's fist descended upon her, colliding harshly with her cheek and sending her head reeling back into the wall she was pressed against. Though her vision was spinning and splitting pain migrated from the base of her skull to the rest of her head, Naruto attempted to scramble to her feet and put up a defense.

The man grinned maliciously at her feeble try at protection, quivering arms barely held up in front of her. A laugh escaped his throat, rumbling deeply in a way that chilled Naruto's bones. Her immature muscles tensed.

"You can't fool anyone," he hissed, "People will parade me as being a hero for what I'm about to do to you." With these words he advanced again, malicious smile no longer on his face just simple, cruel, seriousness. The demon bitch had to die.

Despite knowing it was coming, Naruto failed to scurry away from the blow in time and in her scramble to dodge, her shoulder practically ran into the unforgiving force of the man's hand. She cried out as she fell to the grimy floor.

"I'll be a hero for killing you."

He kicked her once in the ribs, eliciting a gasp of pain. And again, with more manic glee, he kicked her in the head, causing her to groan as well.

With trembling and weak arms, Naruto endeavored to push herself up and face the man. She was Naruto Uzumaki, believe it! And she would survive this like she did everything else. With a whimper, her right arm collapsed from beneath her, shoulder burning with pain.

Naruto howled in pain as he grabbed her hair and ripped her head upward, forcing her to look straight into the man's eyes as he spoke again: "A fucking hero."

With her hair trapped in his grasp, Naruto was forced to watch as the man's fist, curiously now harboring a sharp kunai knife, began to fall towards her. Wide eyes watched through her tear-blurred vision as her end was coming, and fast. Her body protested movement, and escape seemed truly unlikely this time.

An unfurling, dark heat boiled in her stomach, slamming against chakra pathways she didn't even know about yet and attempting to plow through immature chakra coils that refused to permit access. Clenching her eyes close, she came to naïve terms with her untimely death as she silently whimpered against the bubbling burn in her stomach.

Yet, the last thing she felt wasn't the sharp pain of a knife being stabbed through her temple nor the dull nothingness of death. Instead, she felt her face hit the grubby ground of the alley as the man released her. More pain splintered her head.

"Wh-who are you? Why would you stop me from killing that mongrel?" screamed the man. His voice bounced of the close walls of the alley and up into the cloudy sky above. Naruto surely would have opened her eyes to see the newcomer if her head hadn't felt like it was tearing apart.

"I'm you're…" there was a pause in the new and silky voice, as if a thought process was running through the options of the words to be uttered next. Naruto wanted to open her eyes, to gaze at her savior's face and see if it emulated that beautiful savior she always pictured in her mind, but the pounding. The pain.

As if her savior's thought process had reached a conclusion, words gracefully bubbled out of her mouth. "Termination."

Naruto kept her eyes shut.

A roar of pain, a dull thud of a body, and a sticky and unnervingly hot substance found rest across her body. She was still unwilling to move, though gradually the pain was receding.

A sound came to her ears, one oddly reminiscent of somebody dragging a sack across the floor, and Naruto could no longer hear the breathing of two people. What just happened…?

With an 'Oomph!' and a tell-tale sound of hands being swiped together to clear off dust, Naruto deemed herself okay to unbolt her eyes.

Striding towards her with a crookedly cocky smile was a girl, you seeming, with some of the most distinctive features she'd ever seen. Firstly, her hair was a bright clash of red and orange, unnaturally bright on such a cloudy and rainy day. Though an unremarkable five-foot-five, the girl's legs looked almost unnaturally long. Her athletic build and sun-kissed skin was covered by black baggy pants, hanging low enough on her hips to reveal a perfectly toned midriff, tucked aesthetically into dark maroon calf length boots that molded to slender legs. The heels, belts, and other embellishments were outlined with dull gold.

On her torso lay a skintight, black turtleneck with the sleeves cleanly cut off, the cloth attaching at the base of the neck. The solid black cloth gave way into about an inch of black mesh at the middle of her ribs, stopping a little above the girl's belly button. Two loose kimono styled sleeves covered both of her arms with a good amount of extra maroon silk.

As she took in the newcomer's feature, Naruto unceremoniously gaped in awe. Her attire wasn't what set you apart by no means. This was a shinobi village and, as such, clothing preference wasn't anything to gawk at. No, instead Naruto was gawking at her unveiled bits of skin with childish abandon, unaware of the pompous gaze that permitted the girl to have. On the right side of her body, twirling from underneath her turtleneck to across her shoulder and hidden under her sleeves and shirt, was an amass of archaic symbols and letters twisting around. They almost glowed in the hazy light of the stormy sky.

This is the one who saved her.

"So," she began amicably, picking Naurto's childish body up from her armpits before settling Naruto across from her, sporting a shark-like grin, "you said you're name was Uzumaki Naruto, Imouto?"

The blonde girl could only nod numbly and lean closer to her unnatural warmth.

"What an adorable name: Maelstrom…" The woman sighed almost dreamily. Her purple-red eyes met Naruto's sincere blue ones. "Well, Imouto, those from where I come from call me Kazia." She flashed that crookedly dark grin again.

"O-ohaiyo, Kazia-nee," Naruto practically whispered, not believing she was truly there. Naruto reached her hand up to her savior's face, which the red-head amusedly allowed, and clumsily felt her hair and ran stubby fingers over her eyes. Kazia had to hold both a laugh.

With more and more confidence brimming in her little chest, Naruto began to excitedly bounce in her seat, yipping out incessant chants of, "Kazia-nee! Kazia-nee!"

The receiver of her affections shifted almost uncomfortably under her attention. A scowl adorned her face.

"Kazia-nee! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you for saving me, Kazia-nee!"

Damn brat just loves saying that, doesn't she, the redhead thought tiredly before placing her hand firmly on top of Naruto's unruly hair, forcing him to stop bouncing. Naruto's head bend slightly down with the woman's will, but the smile never disappeared.

"Ok, ok, Imouto! Calm the fuck down." Naruto looked pitifully up at her, like a berated puppy. She smiled at that. And that smile only grew as she opened her mouth again. "Good. Now, where I…come from, one favor is deserving of another favor in return, got it? Like… give and take if you will."

Naruto's head nodded wildly on her neck. Once again, the older girl smacked her hand atop Naruto's head and positioned it to look at her.

"Continuing on…While me saving you from being maimed began more along the lines of a whim," she explained easily, sliding her fingers through knotted hair, "I saw something unexpectedly great and decided to reconsider my whim and classify it as a favor instead. As such, I expect something in return." Her hand tightened into a fist for a moment before Naruto ignorantly whacked Kazia's painful fingers away with a slight wince.

Naruto answered in a saddened voice, "But Kazia-nee, I have nothing to give to you…"

"Nonsense. There's always something one can give," she answered simply.

"But-" Naruto was once again cut off as Kazia shifted her off her legs and stood up. Gazing deeply into the young girl's eyes, Kazia slowly bit her thumb and dragged the bleeding digit underneath her silk sleeve. The result was instantaneous. With a slight spike of power, a small scroll poofed into existence in between the pair.

In a scholarly fashion, Kazia pushed a make believe pair of glasses up the bridge of her nose. "This, dear Imouto, is a contract. Do you know what a contract is?"

"Like a su…summoning contract, yeah?"

A feral smile. "Yeah, in order to make agreements with the summons, you need to sign their contract. Only this one is with me. And this one makes you my personal," she paused, "...aid." Naruto's jubilant and willing smile would have made Kazia feel guilty for what she was about to do if she were someone else. But, she wasn't. "Sign it."

Looking unabashedly happy and determined, Naruto quickly squealed out a yes.

Without even a blink and without Naruto noticing anything, Kazia had taken the toddler's hand into hers and ripped the palm open with her nails. Giving the toddler no time to register the pain, Kazia unravelled the scroll on the ground with her foot, swiftly forced Naruto to palm its surface and leave a bloody print. Releasing her hand, Kazia slit her own open and placed her palm print on top of Naruto's before chanting, "I, Edyta Kaziamera of the disordered law, deem this contract valid with this girl, her Sakkaku, Uzumaki Naruto." Burgundy eyes seared into blue maliciously. "This contract will be complete when my gladiator speaks her Honto and she shall fight on my behalf."

Bending down slowly, Kazia's thin lips tickled at Naruto's earlobe. "Speak your truth, and become mine," she whispered. Placing a soft kiss just behind the child's ear, the bloody palm prints swirling into each other, shifting colors and shapes ferociously. "Finish the binding," she growled.

Naruto's lips moved breathless words out of her mouth, and the palm marks solidified into a black symbol, mimicked by the skin where Kazia kissed.

"Thank you, Imouto. Guess we're even." Flickering out of sight, Kazia tenderly placed the limp Naruto on the ground, surrounded by the bloodied walls and dirt that were the remains of one Hatsuki Shimon, the idiotic civilian who tried to lay a hand on the Goddess of Destruction's new interest and new warrior.

****EDIT: Thanks for reading! Please review :)