The Difference.

Prologue

Once in a land far away, known as the land of fire, lay a village in the middle of a disaster. The village was simply known as The village hidden in the leaves, sometimes called Konoha. Many men and women were dying in the village, and many were trying to find safe haven. However the disaster wasn't what most would think as they looked at the bodies that lined streets. It wasn't an earthquake that was destroying the buildings, it wasn't a storm that caused people to run and bolt their doors, it wasn't plague of famine that gave the people hopelessness in their eyes. It was something worse.

Looming in one of the towns many forests was a giant beast, it had nine, long slender tails, that it was using to destroy buildings, trees, and may other things. It was covered in red fur, all of it standing on end, looking like needles. It had two long ears on top of it's menacing, snarling head. The villagers had soon learned it was a Nine-tailed fox.

The creature loomed above the buildings, almost the size of a small mountain, and yet many of the villagers boldly fought the creature, proving only effective as flies attacking a bull.

One man with white eyes looked at the beast destroying the village, and killing hundreds of people. The man wanted nothing more than to stop the beast from ever doing such carnage again, but wanted to flee and leave the world to it's troubles. In his hands, he carried his newborn daughter. In the midst of the destruction, the girl was quiet, she did not cry, despite the fact her first time into the world had been so ugly.

The man leapt ontop a red toad that equaled the size of the Nine-tailed fox, and looked the man who had died summoning it in the eye, both comforted by the fact neither would be alone in death. As the toad man died, the white-eyed man faced the beast, and did the most devastating of things for a single man to do. He converged his energies, and struck the Nine-tailed fox while on top the toad. However, just as many failed to kill the beast, so did the white-eyed man, the beast fell, but it's spirit remained, refusing to die. With no other option, the man pulled the beasts spirit, and pushed it into his daughter's stomach.

However, just as many of his fellow men had died trying to fell the beast, so did the man with the white eyes. The man screamed in pain, before he simply vanished from the forest.

When the white-eyed man died, snow fell from the skies, letting everyone know, that it was a time deserving silence, to let the heavens cover the ground, and give people a time to think.

It was only when the beast was gone, did the white-eyed man's daughter begin to cry. The little girl wept and wept, not simply because her father had died, but mainly because she felt a pain, starting from her stomach, and burning her body. When the pain went away, the child still cried, even when it had gone to sleep, the baby still had tears coming from it's eyes.

The toad, saddened by the deaths around him, gently took the baby and the man who summoned him, and lay them on the ground. Knowing the time he was needed was over, he vanished in a puff of smoke.

Men jumping from the trees were happy that the beast was gone, but when the found the child and the dead toad man, they became sad again, because they knew that the beast had stilled killed many, and still destroyed much that they had held dear.

An old man appeared, walking in the snow towards the girl, his eyes making him look older than he really was. He took the baby, who still wept even though it was asleep, and checked her stomach, and was saddened by the spiral marks he saw. With a deep sigh, he alone told everyone in the village:

"This child is to be considered a hero, she is to be honored for taking the greatest burden among us."

With that, he returned back to the village with the child, and the old man led the village as it began to rebuild, and they always honored the small girl, for taking the greatest burden of the Village hidden in the leaves.

But this is but a story, Giant foxes and toads are of but myth, men cannot slay such beasts, and old men are too senile to run government. But the biggest lie of the story, is that the white-eyed mans' daughter, was honored. People were truly scared by the beast, the Nine-tailed fox. Their loved ones killed, and homes destroyed, they wanted to make sure nothing like that would ever happen again. The white-eyed man settled for stealing the beasts spirit, and hiding it in his daughter.

Many others weren't. Many picked, bullied, often times hurt, the small girl, as they thought she was the beast, the Nine-tailed fox. They wanted the fox to pay. The small girl didn't even get the honor of having a family, her mother had died giving birth, and if was forbidden to tell her that her father was the white-eyed man.

The moral of this story, dear children, is that often times, nothing is learned from the actions of others. Nobody understood that the white-eyed man, chose his own daughter, instead of someone he could do away with. He chose his own daughter, as an example to his fellow people, that person who would hide the beasts body, was someone who deserved a chance to live, a reward, if small, for carrying the heaviest burden of the village.

Even when the old man told everyone that it was forbidden to say that the girl was the hiding place of the beast, they still treated her the same. Even when they got too old, their children were encouraged to do the same.

The only good thing about the girl, is, since she lived in ignorance, she strove to prove everyone wrong, to prove she deserved to live, to give the people a reason to let her live.

But this is were the story ends. At least for today. What happens to the girl, is but a story for tomorrow, when we are wiser, more open-minded, and more willing to learn of this young, white-eyed girl.