Chapter 1
Deva
Konoha. Night of the Nine-Tails.
The Third Hokage donned his battle armor and jumped on the roof.
He saw the dark silhouette of a beast, several stories high, its nine tails wrecking havoc in the centre of the Village. His momentum halted and his chest heaved up and down.
Then, he ran.
Suddenly, several Anbu and Jonin appeared running alongside him in succession.
"Lord Third!"
"Hokage-sama!"
They were panicked.
An Anbu quickly closed in.
"Reporting to Lord Third!"
"The Nine-Tails suddenly appeared in the middle of the Village with no prior signs of its emergence! Until now, an area of around 120m has been destroyed! Destruction has reached Konoha Orphanage! Preliminary estimates report a loss of more than 700 lives! ", the Anbu quickly reported.
"So many... ", the Third Hokage sighed in his heart. It was hard to bear. But he understood that at the moment he could not show any weakness.
He thought about the orphanage. It held a special place in his heart. It was where he found Jiraya. It was also where Jiraya found Minato. He hoped the orphanage could still be saved, but he knew he could not divide too much manpower. Hope was slim.
Shaking his lightning quick thought, he quickly thundered a series of commands.
"Chunin and below restrict the parameter around 300m of the Nine-Tails!
Priority is to evacuate all villagers to safety!
All Special Jonin and above, follow me! We have to contain the destruction of the Nine-Tails!
Team 13... go to the orphanage and save as many as you can!
Desperse!"
"Yes! Lord Third!", the following shinobi bellowed.
He trusted Team 13, a team of 3 chunins civilian ninjas, who had also grown up in the orphanage, to protect it.
No time to think now. He leapt towards the Nine-Tails and readied his chakra for the incoming battle.
" Minato... Where are you... "
In his worries, Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen did something that was not supposed to happen. Originally, Team 13 was supposed to be annihilated while fighting the Nine-Tails. Fate had deemed so.
But now, due to Hiruzen's momentary deviation of thought, something completely different happened. Team 13 was sent off to complete another mission.
An anomaly, had occurred .
The butterfly, had flapped its wings.
The Next Day.
The Third Hokage came to the Konoha Hospital and entered a guarded room. He smoked his pipe and looked deeply at the lone cradle in the room. He saw the sleeping child with fox-like whiskers. His eyes were complicated.
The Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato was gone. So was Uzumaki Kushina.
Close to a thousand were dead and the village was in shambles. What was left, was this child.
He walked out of the room, thought something, and turned his footsteps to the next room.
He remembered he issued an order for Team 13 to protect the orphanage.
They had done their job, they had rescued the survivors in the orphanage, but two of the three members were dead and the last remaining woman was admitted in hospital.
She was a civilian ninja. She did not have a surname. She was very ordinary.
However, what brought his attention to her is that at the time of admission, she had been unexpectedly pregnant with a child who was 7 and a half months due.
The hospital staff had to resort to deliver the baby prematurely. Miraculously, both the baby and the mother had survived. It was a peculiar matter.
He walked in. There laid a woman, unconcious. Bandages wrapped around her four limbs, a bottle of blood transfusing into wrist and a hint of red on her bandaged forehead.
*Sighs*
Her husband, also a member of Team 13, could not survive last night. She had not regained consciousness yet. He did not know how she would take the news.
*Sighs*
Another tragedy. On another thought, he had been sighing a lot lately. He's really getting old, he somberly thought.
Suddenly, his gaze shifted to the cradle beside the bed and he saw a baby, so small he was sure this was it. This was this woman, Shiori's child.
He noticed there was a sun-like birthmark on the boy's glabella. A peculiarity, he thought.
Suddenly, a name popped into his heart.
He said aloud, "Deva".