Cloud buckled over the horizon. A thick layer of white sheet covered most of the forest. The river flowed rampant.

"Unusual."

A stern, aggravated tone hissed at the turn of events. Two children with well trained figures stood on either side of the lake, clutching a pebble in hand. Ebony eyes met dark chocolate ones, and they pulled their hands back, next to their ears, positioning themselves as a smaller target, throwing their strength into their arms.

S p l i s h . . .

S w i c t . . .

The two youths opposite of each other caught the others thin smooth, rock. The ideal rock for sliding across water. Hashirama looked to his friend with bright eyes before speaking the words that may get them into a deep pit of vipers in the near future. "You wanna spar Madara?" Madara's face remained blank with the slightest hint of happiness. Madara opened his mouth to accept the proposition that was sent his way. His words flowed out naturally, but it was drowned out, his mouth was moving into all different shapes and sizes, but the words faded away.

Hashirama jumped from the white noise that had overtaken Madara. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong.

Madara noticed it too. The gentle breeze in the trees, swaying the leaves back and forth. The wind stopped. The sound stopped. He found himself unable to move. The river was frozen. Not just in time, glistening in the sunlight, frozen fractures and slippery sheets of the arctic temperature in the middle of what was supposed to be the hottest season. More than suspicious to Madara. Finally, a bird chirped again, breaking the eerie silence that was bestowed upon the land. Hashirama was about to take a step forward, until the bird from before made a noise like a chirp but different.

A plea for help, it echoed through the forest in agony.

Something was most definitely wrong.

S l r c h t t . . .

The sound of sharp stinging metal piercing flesh, with the deafeningly slow droplets of metallic liquid that fell on to the ice only meters away from them. Madara would be completely horrified to say this, but this wasn't just fear he was experiencing. This was worse than anything on the battle field he'd ever scene, or even what his father told him about.

There were no footsteps coming from the figure that was shown clear as day, no cloak, nothing to hide their identity. But they walked calmly down the riverbed, not paying mind to any creature that was making noise. In their dainty small right hand, a feathery monstrosity lay. Blood splattered across the ice.

A girl, no older than twelve walked down the completely frozen water, without making a single sound as she stepped, holding a dead bird in her hand which she caught out of the sky, because of it's song that was like nails on a chalk board to her. Tan feathers and blood stretched across her arm, staining her pure white shirt and pants. Black tomoes lining around her neck. The violet hair that was held by a band framed her face along with her cold-blooded wisteria gaze. But that's not where the horrors ended. Bruises and scratches lined her arms, and bare feet. Blood and tan feathers stuck themselves to her lips.

That is when it struck them, she was eating the bird. A violent caw of a large bird made her soulless wisteria eyes trace up to its form. Although the bird didn't have hands, just because of her austere, pitiless glare, the large bird clawed at the ground near Hashirama, who was visibly shaking. The chocolaty brown eyes that had once been filled with the blind hope for peace, and unrelenting kindness had dissipated into nothingness, only a pure terror of their lives, the horrified gaze of Hashirama, just nailed the situation into place. If they made a single noise, their lives could be on the line.

But the large black feathered bird with razor sharp talons never burried itself. The girl came on land, walking right by Hashirama without a care toward him, as if this thing happened all day. The girl raised her foot bringing it down on the bird, the squawk of agony as the flesh was ripped apart, droplets of the forming liquid spattered on Hashirama, tears welling up in his eyes, of terror, unrelenting dread. He broke. Immediately when the cry left Hashirama's mouth as he whipped around. Madara bolted, hoping to protect the best friend he had. Her pitiless eyes traced to them as she moved her head back, ripping the meat of the bones, feathers covered her as she chewed and swallowed the raw meat.

"What." Her cold, brutal tone sent quaking shivers down the pairs spine. "Why-why are you doing this!" Hashirama cried, unable to stop the shaking in his tone. "Doesn't everyone need food, even people with no humanity left."

"But why do it so mercilessly." Madara spoke, trying to keep the whimper that built up in his throat at the complete and utter incompetence he felt compared to the girl. Those intimidating eyes, that was the source of it. Those wisteria eyes that had seen to much for a child to handle.

"They're just birds." She spoke, the words leaving her mouth stung him. Those careless eyes. The eyes of someone who has seen the worst part of the world, the eyes that had seen everyone they ever loved get brutally murdered in front of them. "I had no intention of killing either of you, I may be a margin of a cannibal but" she paused seeing the pupils of the two boys shrink, she grinned. "-But I'm not foolish enough to kill you two."

Hashirama and Madara momentarily stared into the others eyes, realizing that the other was somehow important to another side of the war they were facing. The sharp teeth that were stained with fresh, and dried brown crippling blood. "I am Enmei." The words flowed effortlessly out of her mouth before she continued on back to the river, all of the blood that had stained her outfit slowly came out and swirled around her left hand. Her right hand dropped the mutilated small tan feathered brown bird. Both boys chased as she neared the waterfall, walking right off it without even noticing it.

The frozen waters thawed into the cold depths that they were used to.

Questions bared their fangs, gnawing at their subconscious. They wanted to see her again. Just so the questions could be answered.

Why did she no longer have it.

Why

didn't

she

have

her

H U M A N I T Y