Prologue

It was a late Sunday afternoon, the crickets were all ready making a racket as dusk enveloped the small village. Between the houses walked the last of the villagers to their houses, there was nothing they could do in the dark. One last villager sat at the porch of an average houses staring out over the mountainous region, it was so pretty. Light streaming in through the pink clouds and the the darkness around it about to swallow up the last of the day.

She was leaning against the wooden pillar a little tired, the long day had made her weary. Then... the crickets stopped. She held her breath in anticipation and bursting out from the forest in front of her shinobi ran, before she could stand up a man in black in a mask pointed a long katana at her throat. Barely half a metre away, he had no scent and his black eyes bore into her grey orbs like he was trying to read her story.

Slowly she put her hands up in surrender, "we aren't a threat, I promise." The shinobi in front of her jerked his head up commanding her to stand, nervously she stood and brushed the dust from her plain cotton kimono.

As he walked behind her, the katana at the back of her throat she was joined by others and they were shuffled to the village centre like cattle. There she was forced to her knees in the dirt crossroads next to the village healer. A shinobi hopped to the top of the statue's raised hand like it was nothing and stayed their, surveying the villagers. There was barely one hundred of them, what could they want from them?

"We are the Uchiha Clan," the man's eyes flashed red for a moment and the hair at the nape of her neck stood on end. "This was once a prosperous village," he waved his arm about. "Full of wealth but now look at you," he stepped down from the statue and stood in front of an old woman, her kimono must have been beautiful but now it was worn out so much that you couldn't see the design. Only the patches that didn't even match the fabric, fraying sleeves and occasional hole. "This must have cost you quite the pretty penny ma'am." He tugged the shoulder of her kimono.

The old woman nodded. "More than you'd make at least." She cackled.

The shinobi stared sternly and turned to the rest of the crowd. "We offer you all a place in our village, there is nothing here for you now." He walked at a brisk place and stopped in front of her. "You, what is your name?"

"Yuzuki, sir." She said a little timidly and tugged her kimono sleeves over her hands, head low. The shinobi glanced her up and down from her long brunette hair in a messy bun to her pointed chin and big brown doe eyes.

"I'm being honest, a pretty girl like you with no protection would be raped and killed, body on display for everyone if bandits raided this village. We can offer you protection in a village like ours, every Uchiha man or woman has some sort of fighting skill." He said and looked her dead in the eyes, she craned her neck a little to look at him. It wasn't that she was short, he was just tall.

He walked along, stopping occasionally and saying something similar to what he said to her, Yuzuki bit her lip staring at the ground avoiding eye contact with everyone. Soon the shinobi left the way they came, jumping over roofs and within a few minutes they couldn't see them any more.

"Yuzuki!" Her brother called beside her and swivelled her around an embraced her. "I was so worried. Please don't tell me you're going to work for the Uchiha, they are hit men, they kill everyone! I've heard so many stories, did you know that their leader Madara Uchiha has killed over five hundred men?!" He practically shouted, but he knew her too well.

"We need the money..." Yuzuki said softy and ruffled her little brother's head. "You're too young to work for the Uchiha and they said that the pay is good, I can take care of myself and to be perfectly honest... They can take care of me, you know that the bandits have become a problem, its only a matter of time until they take this village."

"Why do you have to be so smart?!" He yelled and buried his face into her bosom, Yuzuki smiled and wrapped her arms around him.

"Keep working with Grampa Stirling as an apprentice, in the mean time I will provide for this family," she sighed. "Lets go have dinner if its not cold all ready."

…

The morning air was sharp and cold, Yuzuki wrapped her cloak a little tighter around herself and cradled her small bag of belongings. The forest was still a little dark and to be frank it made her a little nervous.

"Hey," said a tenor voice behind her and she stifled a scream in her scarf.

"H-hey... you scared me. Your name is Kazuo right?" Yuzuki asked, he was dressed similarly to her with mousy brown hair and a goofy grin. He sat down next to her on the log and watched the forest.

"Yeah, my little sister and your brother get along really well. Its about time we met properly." He crossed his legs and continued to chatter. "What do you think the work will be like? Will we be able to see each other there, we should probably get acquainted, I doubt anyone else will come from the village they're all really really old." He would not stop talking.

Yuzuki laughed, "em, I suppose."

"So you came after all," a hooded figure said coldly making Yuzuki fall backwards off the log with a little shriek. Kazuo helped her up.

"Watch it!" He yelled and turned to her, "you all right?"

"I'm fine," it was going to bruise... "Is there anyone else coming?" She asked the shinobi in front of her. They all looked the same with a half mask covering their face and either long raven hair tied up or a hood, cold eyes. The shinobi shook his head. "Then we should be going."

…

Author's Note: I deleted an old fanfiction of mine called 'Madara Uchiha's Son' or something like that, this is similar but not the same. As a prologue this is really short, I don't intend to ever write something so short again as this was only two and a half pages on 'word', my average chapters are between fifteen and twenty pages. I will be including Yuzuki and Madara's meeting next chapter, so please review if you like what you see.