Chapter 4 - Home

After a long hug Pretz continued on her way with a smile. Saruko's words echoed in her mind. Itachi was a genin. That meant he was alright, for now anyway.

Pretz wouldn't return till the next winter. Nothing of interest had really happened since last year. She was now ten years old and looking forward to seeing Himine as a ninja, given that she graduated a year early like she was supposed to. As she got closer to passing by Konoha she abruptly stopped. Someone else was standing in the clearing, blocking her path. It was a female ANBU member. Her mask was a standard kitsune mask, except for the markings. The markings on the left side were blue, though other green. The only other identifiable factor was her white hair. As snow started to fall, Pretz's sakkat protected her head, the cloak keeping her warm.

"What do you want?" Pretz said, with no real regard for the skill the ANBU members had.

"I'm ordered to stop all foreign ninjas from passing this point. Turn back now"

"What the hell makes you think I'm a ninja? I'm no one's dog!"

The woman pointed to the forehead protector that rested around Pretz's neck, since only her nose and below was visible.

"Turn back now, or I will have no choice but to use necessary force"

Pretz searched her pocket for a moment. The shuriken from the fight with that wolf creature was still with her. She smirked and hurled it at the woman's chest, but since she had almost no practice, it hit her square in the forehead of the mask. It cracked in two, falling to the ground, her cold white eyes exposed.

"Very well"

She charged forward, grabbing Pretz in some sort of arm lock. Pretz leaned forward, throwing her to the ground and jumping back. As the woman stood up Pretz charged forward, only to be blocked and kicked back into a tree. Many punches and kicks were exchanged, most of them blocked by each of them. It looked pretty bad. There was no way she could beat an ANBU, and she knew it. She jumped forward, slamming a rock into the woman's stomach. She fell backward, staggering. She turned into a log suddenly.

"What the- AH!?!"

A swift kick to Pretz's head sent her to the ground, but before she even hit the snow she was beaten several more times. As she rose to her knees slowly, she smirked. The woman was obviously very aggravated already that a ten-year-old could even hold her own against her.

"You're gonna have to do better then that, granny..." Pretz smiled, wiping the blood from her lip.

That's where she turned wrong. The woman preformed an unfamiliar hand seal, and immediately started growing in size. It must have been some type of blood limit. Pretz looked in shock as she stood at least twenty feet tall, probably more. She immediately tried to make a run for it, but was slammed to the ground by one of the woman's hands. Lying on her back in the snow, she gasped for air. The woman applied both hands, a very angry look in her white eyes, she started crushing Pretz. As the earth below her cracked, she screamed in pain. As she pushed harder and harder, all Pretz could do was scream. Her head leaned back slightly, the sakkat falling off, exposing her face. Suddenly it all stopped.

The woman had already begun to shrink back down, a look of sheer horror on her face. As she staggered back she stared at Pretz for a moment before completely fainting. Pretz looked over at her one last time before coughing up a quantity of blood and going out herself. Soon after several other ANBU arrived, with a medical ninja, and examined the fallen woman.

"She'll be fine, she just needs rest. The kid however, she's too far gone"

And with that they left. The snow continued to fall. As Pretz came to she was in an all too familiar bed. She moved her eyes across the room just as Saruko ran over to her.

"No, no, no! Don't talk, don't move. Seriously. And leave that oxygen mask on too"

"Wha-?"

"What did I just say? Look, you've got cracked ribs, a broken arm and a lot of internal injuries. You have to stay in bed for a good while. I've given you some medicines, so you'll be allowed to move again in a week, maybe"

"How the hell did you give me m-meds? If you say n-negi I'll kick your @$$"

Saruko smiled and walked across the room. "I'm heading to bed. You should try and get some rest. I'll see you tomorrow"

"G'night, onee-san"

And so Pretz stayed in Amegakure. Mostly because Saruko refused to let her leave until she fully recovered. She tried to escape though. She was caught within an hour. So while Himine was out on missions Pretz would wander around, or train herself, though she knew nothing of controlling chakra. Within the first few weeks she began to heal nicely. As Himine left for a mission, Pretz headed to the outskirts near the cliff for a walk. The cliff extended to a point in one spot, and was clear of trees for a solid thirty feet back from it.

Everything was going swell, until someone else arrived. He was someone from Himine's team. His spiky black hair stuck out over his forehead protector, and his icy blue eyes stared at her. His name was Kaji He walked over to her with his arms crossed.

"Hey, narichi!"

Pretz turned around to face him, and was greeted by a good shove, and she tripped backwards.

"What the hell did I do to you? And what the hell are you talking about?"

"You know DAMN WELL what I'm talking about!" He yelled and punched her "You're all the same, you're monsters! I've seen that eye of yours!"

He gave her face a solid punch and she fell back over. As she started to get back up she was on her hands and knees.

"Why the hell-?"

"Why?" He kneeled down beside her "Because a group of you bastards killed my brother"

He kneed her sharply in her still healing ribs. She screamed and collapsed to the ground. If it weren't for something her mother once told her, she might have reacted differently. She remembered it vividly.

One of the Konoha children had pushed her onto the sidewalk and she had scraped her knee. As her mother sat her on the couch and cleaned her cut she was a little surprised at how bent of revenge Pretz was.

"You shouldn't give them a response. Then they know they can keep doing it. And revenge is just sinking to their level"

Kaji kicked at her once more. "Get up! Fight back!"

"N-No..."

Pretz refused to fight back. Maybe it was because of what her mother said, or because of the amount of pain she was in. The world may never know. But the beating continued and he eventually left. Pretz just lay thinking. Maybe she really was a monster. It would make... sense.

She didn't move for a good half hour. As she walked home slowly she thought about what he had said. Maybe he was right. But standing at the door as usual was Saruko. She walked Pretz inside and put a Band-Aid on her forehead.

"Fat lip, hmm? Get into a fight?"

"No"

"Whatever the case, you need to take care of those ribs. Understand me?"

Perhaps it was out of laziness, or for no reason, but Pretz stayed. But not without a fair share of problems. Because her and Himine ended up like sisters life was prank after prank after prank. Pretz was asleep on the couch, relaxing, and laying on her belly. Himine took a can of air freshener and sprayed a very large amount on her butt. She then took a lighter and the rest is history. Pretz returned fire by pouring a whole bottle of baby powder on Himine's head in her sleep.

This continued for a solid three years, until one day Pretz spoke up while everyone was relaxing because Himine was going to take the chunin exam in a month or two.

"I think..." They all looked up at her "I think... I'm gonna go back to Konoha..."

A grim silence filled the room.

"You..... You sure?" Himine stuttered.

Nobody really spoke for the rest of the night. Pretz once again left while Himine was away. Saruko once again gave her a cloak and a sakkat. With a hug Pretz was off, but she could never stay away too long, despite the fact Saruko said she was going to give her a physical next time.

She was gone several months. She walked through the woods thinking to herself. She had gotten almost no better at controlling that weird feeling during fights when everything would go blank. What Kaji had called a monster. She started planning a trip to the hidden village of stone, though maybe next year. She looked up at a pair of all too familiar gates before her: Konoha.

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