Long before the establishment of the Ninja Villages, before the constant bloody slaughter of the warring states, before the time when The Sage first taught men of the way of chakra. Before still, the time when men huddled around fires, finding sanctuary in caves, the idea of language and civilization never crossing their minds, focused solely on survival. Maybe, since the time men looked up at the sky and could distinguish Day from Night, they have existed.
Ladies of the Night, Street Princesses, Prostitutes...call them whatever, it would not take away from the fact that theirs was the oldest trade on Earth. Hated for what they do, yet desired for it at the same time, sometimes by the same people. They live on the lowest rung of the social order, but hold enough influence to sway the highest of kings. It is no wonder then, that a brothel might as well be a little world of it's own. It certainly had it's own little web of politics, trade in favors and clients, the higher ups wringing those below them for all their worth, and those at the bottom plotting to rise either by working for it or scheming for it.
Konohagakure no Sato, like any other settlement of it's kind (where people grew up fast, were indoctrinated early, and died young) had a respectably (or disgracefully, depending on who you ask, when you ask, and how many people are in earshot) large red-light district and it had only seen a rapid growth in the recent years.
Those who traded in money, attributed this growth to the Third Shinobi War. With the vast amount of young men and women being sent off to god-knows-where, to kill and bleed and die for their village, it was only natural that many of them would seek out the comfort of flesh. Maybe to leave their mark on the world or to just know what it feels like before they die in a ditch somewhere.
If they came back, which was unlikely, it was just more business. Money was money, whether given by a bright eyed young woman or by the same woman who returned without an arm and a thousand yard stare in her eyes.
Those who traded in lives however, knew the reason behind the growth of the red-light district was not only the profit it brought to the village (though it is highly appreciated), but also the orphans it produced.
Lives were spent faster than kunais in the war, and the village was in desperate need to rebuild it's ranks. It was a well known fact that the pleasure district rarely ever kept any of the dozens of boys that were born there yearly, surrendering them to the Konoha orphanage. Sometimes girls who were deemed 'incompatible' with their trade by the decree of their matriarch were also surrendered to the orphanage.
The orphanage would always accept these kids, no questions asked. To it's credit, there were worse places for a kid to be in than the Konoha Orphanage. Here the kids were clothed, fed, and taught by a staff, hand selected by the village higher-ups. They were even allowed to have a playtime and the caretakers would read them bedtime stories!
The only minor catch behind it all was that it was designed to funnel orphans into the shinobi pipeline.
The hand-picked staff was there not to care for the children but to keep them alive till they reached Academy age or left The orphanage (Which was by the time they reached academy age.)
The food was often spiked with concoctions that would make the kids more 'open-minded' to the lessons that were taught.
The lessons of course included stuff like Language, Mathematics, Wars, Shinobi lifestyle, Loyalty to the village above everything else, Inherent inferiority, evil, and sub-human nature of foreign shinobi, and other such topics.
The playtime was closely monitored and kids were segregated in lists based on how good they would be at different aspects of the shinobi work. Every innocent game of hide-and-seek was analyzed to seek out potential future trackers and assassination specialists. Every game of house was analyzed to mark future spies, infiltrators and coercers. Every prankster was analyzed for their worth as a trapper or saboteur.
Bullying and Playground brawls were never broken up, instead they were analyzed to mark out potential frontline combatants. Those that showed promise would sometimes simply disappear one day, never to be seen again.
Those that stayed and survived in The Orphanage (there are always a few who run away to take their chances on the streets and a few who show up dead in their beds after weeks or months of absence) would always enroll in the Ninja Academy.
Most of the kids enroll because of the stories of blood and glory they were read to by their caretakers every night, that would paint the ninja world in an alluring color.
Some kids were smarter and enrolled because the village bore the cost of all their living expenses and provided them a small stipend on top of it, as long as they were studying to become a ninja at The academy.
No such safety net was provided to those who chose to join the Civilian School, and so none ever did. Especially because, Konoha forbade employing 'minors' and it would lead any orphan trying to attend civilian school with precisely ZERO means to earn a living, other than stealing (which would be suicide in a ninja village) or begging (money with no claim had a way of ending up in the pockets of shinobi).
Convenient, how children as young as 4 were considered 'adult' as long as they earned their hitai-ate and would continue to be treated as such even after they stopped being a ninja later in life (more often than not due to loss of limbs, sanity, or life. Sometimes all at the same time.)
For all it's clean and kind image in the hearts of the mundane folk from peasant to the Daimyos, it's history was soaked in enough blood (of the innocents and the enemies alike) to put the bloody mist to shame.
Very recently, this lesson was rather brutally imparted to Iwagakure, by one Namikaze Minato (better known as 'The Yellow Flash of the Leaf' or the 'Yondaime Hokage'). All for the low-low price of crippling Iwa for a couple of generations.
Naturally, life in the village quite resembles the village itself (unless you were a rich civilian, a clan shinobi, or born to them).
It is pretty and easy on the surface, but the longer one lives and works, the more the layers peel away and the ugly truth peeks through them.
However, this is of little concern to the village. They know it is far more likely for someone to die before they reach the real ugly truths of their life, and if they live long enough, they will be in too deep to back away.
After all, a kid who is slitting throats since the tender age of 6 can't go back to becoming a productive member of the civilian life later in life.
And it was at 2217 hours of 26th June, of the second year of the rule of The Yondaime Hokage, that another such life was started in the village.
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In the basement of a small brothel, one among many, neatly tucked away behind the flashier (and costlier) of it's kind on the main street, the screams of a woman undergoing labor slowly transitioned into gasps of exertion, before the shrill noise of a baby crying filled the room.
Those outside the basement (the clients and their 'escorts') would not know it due to the extensive noise proofing of the basement, but those present would mark this event as the birth of the newest girl among their ranks.
As was the custom, for the birth of the child of one of the Oiran, the Matriarch of the establishment herself was present to witness the birth and to name the child.
The courtesans were a superstitious bunch, and as such, names were not given out thoughtlessly. Only the authority of the Matriarch legitimized the name of all under her 'care'.
After one of the Shinzo assisting the midwife cleaned and swaddled the baby, she held it in her arms, gently but not with any maternal affection (she had made deals in flesh all her life, by the time she reached her old age, she had stopped seeing the new girls, however young, as anything but commodities.)
She held the baby to her chest and closed her eyes. What she thought and how she reached a conclusion after the few minutes she stood silently and eyes closed, was something for only her to know. But the conclusion itself, she proudly proclaimed to all present.
"I sense in this girl a great power, a power that can tangle the threads of fate to her whim...the same threads that the powers that be, have already set up for us mortals to unravel till it's the end of our lines. I only wish she does whatever it is she will do, out of love for another, not malice. For this reason, I name her Aiki (愛希), with the Kanji for Love and Hope."
And thus Aiki-hime, the suffix added because of her mother's status as an Oiran of the establishment, was born into this world. The Matriarch handed her to her mother who held her close to herself for the entire night. Later she handed Aiki over to some of the Kamuro running around and that was the last time Aiki was ever held by the Matriarch or her Mother.
Aiki would sadly never remember the affection and care she was given for the next few months of her life.
She was kept in a nursery with the other girls born in the establishment. The younger Kamuro would often come over to play with her, talking to her about her beautiful green eyes that shined whenever she was happy (which she was as long as she was fed and well rested), her curly brown hair (which must be her father's genes peeking through, because her mother's hair were straighter and blacker than any Uchiha woman), or telling her she looked a lot like her mother and would grow up to be an exceptionally beautiful woman.
All in all, Aiki was a happy and healthy baby, and her cute face and baby noises would ensure she was always well fed, cleaned, and had enough playtime. For all intents and purposes, she really was the Hime of her little world (which revolved around the few Shinzo on baby care duty, the Kamuro who came over to play, and did not included her mother.)
All of it came crashing down around her on the night of 10th October of the same year. She would later come to know it was the night of the Kyuubi's 'attack' on the village.
To the girls currently playing with her, it was like Aiki just burst out crying for some reason and was inconsolable. No amount of cuddles, or milk, diaper checks, or toys were able to distract her from whatever it was that upset their hime so much.
To Aiki however, every second of existence was torture, unlike any she had felt in her short life so far.
She was too young to form words even in her head, but she could feel, and currently she was feeling malice so overwhelming that for her little body the simple act of keeping itself alive was feeling like an affront to the rules of nature. And to make it all worse, there was that...UNGODLY amount of VILE...'something', out in the distance and it was only coming closer.
Had anyone known what Aiki 'knew', they would have dropped everything (except the babies) and fled as far in the other direction as their legs would allow them. But they didn't, and so when the wave of Kyuubi's malicious chakra slammed into their building like a raging, inescapable tsunami of liquid toxic fire, there was little they could do but scream.
Aiki's cries were drowned out by the screams of the older inhabitants and the crashing of rubble as the wooden building came crashing down around and on top of them.
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Sarutobi Hiruzen was once known as The God of Shinobi.
Shinobi are a rather proud bunch, so them collectively labeling someone a god would mean there was a VERY good reason behind it.
In case of Hiruzen, it was rather simple. On the fields of battles during the first and second shinobi wars, he alone had killed enough enemy shinobi to make it look like God disapproved of the enemy maneuvers.
He was faster than any thrown weapon, had the counter to any jutsu thrown at him, impossible to ambush with his speed and sensing jutsus, impossible to detect with his stealth jutsus and chakra control, and finally he was not only smart enough to choose the perfect counterattack but also strong enough to make every hit lethal and rarely miss it's mark.
To make it even worse (for his enemies), he had excellent crowd control and repositioning methods when paired with his friend and summon, The Monkey King, Enma.
Kumo still sorely remembers that day, sometime after the Niidaime Hokage's death, when reports of the newly appointed Sandaime Hokage himself appearing in 10 different locations at the same time, perched high on top of an impossibly tall bo-staff, had rained down a frankly comical amount of ordnance on their reinforcement camps.
Justus, Shuriken, Kunai, Paper bombs, anything that could kill if thrown fast enough, was rained down upon the camps till there was nothing alive even tens of feet below the ground.
The likes of this massacre would only be surpassed by the one his student Jiraya's star pupil, Namikaze Minato, when he slaughtered thousands of Iwa-nin within minutes.
Kumo had lost their Jounin commander, around half their active jounin, hundreds of chunin and even more genin. Worse, these were fresh troops, to be brought in to cycle out the injured and spent troops already fighting at the fronts.
Since the knowledge of the Niidaime Hokage's Shadow Clone jutsu, had not yet made it out of Konoha, this brutal suppression of Kumo forces could only be compared by them to an act of God.
A God that was angry at them and had chosen to smite them for their transgressions.
Then, Sarutobi Hiruzen gave up the life of a full time combatant, and instead became a career politician sometime between the second and third ninja war.
Thus he took on the title of The Professor, to remind himself that though he had fight in him yet, it was his greater duty to use his mind and guidance to groom the next generation of Konoha, leaving the combat to the likes of his dear students, the Legendary Sannin.
While Tsunade would not step foot anywhere near the frontlines due to her Hemophobia, she was still indispensable for healing patients that were properly processed by other medics and leading the Konoha's Field Medic Corp.
There was no defense that was strong enough to protect from Orochimaru. Orochimaru also, almost single handedly, carried Konoha through the constant war time arms race. Any innovation or advancement made by the enemy was quickly analyzed by him and it's counter designed and deployed by him with frightening haste.
Not to be outdone by his teammates, Jiraya made sure that any secrets that the enemies try to keep, would end up in the hands of the Hokage. And if Hiruzen wanted someone caught or killed, there was NOWHERE Jiraya's target could run or hide.
By the time of the Third War was nearing it's end, he had reigned long as the Hokage and made many enemies, it did not help that he was getting on in years as well.
His last job as Hokage, would be choose a worthy successor. And he chose Minato.
While he loved Orochimaru like a son, he could never hand over Konoha to him.
To everyone Orochimaru was a Genius Powerhouse, if a bit emotionless and tactless. But Hiruzen could only see in him the young boy who was consumed by the fear of death at the grave of his parents, a fear he had not shed yet in his, by ninja standards, old age.
The Hokage could NEVER put his life before the safety of the village. This concern turned out to be valid in the worst way possible when Orochimaru fled Konoha after Hiruzen had discovered his laboratory.
The pain of that discovery was two fold. It had hurt to know that he had failed as a teacher and a leader, the title of 'The Professor', now felt like a bad joke.
Some professor he was who couldn't even keep his student from going down the dark path. But it had hurt even more when the realization set in that Orochimaru, the boy he loved like his own son had crossed the line of no return.
He would have killed Orochimaru right there, Enma certainly wanted to. But when Orochimaru didn't attack and simply asked to be allowed to escape, he couldn't do it.
Orochimaru had never been an expressive child by any means, but, whenever he would make some mistake or indulge in some mischief that would draw Hiruzen's ire, Orochimaru would always ask to be allowed to leave and reflect on his actions alone.
That was his unique little way to show sorrow, for he had never seen the boy shed a single tear, ever.
When Orochimaru and Hiruzen separated it was their equivalent of a sorrow filled goodbye. He couldn't bring himself to kill the little kid he had raised from toddler to man, especially when said 'kid' had parted with shame and sorrow for his actions.
He would hold on to the hope that Orochimaru would mend his ways later in his life and would come back to Konoha, his rightful home.
He had just chosen his personal feelings, over the good of the village. His decision to step down as the Hokage was the correct one after all.
The weight of The Hat was too heavy for his weary old head to bear, his head was now too full of losses and regrets he had been collecting since before the Ninja Villages even existed.
Minato was charismatic, intelligent, loyal and most importantly, whole-heartedly supported by the population of Konoha. Giving up The Hat to him was one of his best decisions ever.
He was happy living his life as part of the Elder Council and pursuing his hobby of painting in his free time.
But Kyuubi's attack on the village had thrown a wrench in his plans.
The old professor had not yet forgotten his time as 'The God of Shinobi' and had played his part in keeping the Demon Fox at bay.
Everyone fighting on the frontlines could see the shadow of a sharingan lazily spinning in the eyes of the bijuu and the Ex-Hokage could only think of the political fallout and possible bloodshed this revelation would cause in the future for the proud Uchiha clan.
But that was a problem for Minato to deal with, so he again shifted his full focus on the battle in front of him.
Watching Minato and Kushina dead in front of him had hurt him just as much as Orochimaru's defection from Konoha.
"Minato was like a son to Jiraya and Kushina like a daughter. How would he react when he finds out", Hiruzen thought as he picked up Naruto from the sealing altar.
The thought of the baby in his arms, orphaned within an hour of birth and forced to carry a great burden without any choice of his own. The boy, Naruto, would NEVER lead a normal life.
Too many lives were reaped by the Demon Fox, for the majority of the village to see Naruto as anything but the demon he carried, knowledge of sealing wasn't easily accessible, even to Ninjas, let alone the civilian population.
Hiruzen would have wept at the tragedy of the situation but he was still in shock.
He had lost the love of his life, Sarutobi Biwako. He had lost the bright future of his village, Namikaze Minato. The village defenses were at an all time low, with the death of their Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Kushina. A sizeable chunk of his village laid in ruins and to add the cherry on this shit cake, he was the only Hokage candidate available to the village.
Jiraya was needed in the field to maintain his spy network, Tsunade was busy mourning in her own messed up way, Orochimaru had defected, Kushina had died, Uchiha Fugaku would NEVER be accepted as Hokage by the Shinobi council after seeing the sharingan in Kyuubi's eyes, Hyuuga Hiashi was too rigid and cruel, Nara Shikaku was lacking in raw power and so were the other clan heads.
The village would have to make do with him, an unfit Hokage, for the rest of the foreseeable future.
As the realization sunk in, Hiruzen felt every second of his nearly 60 years of life.
Every wound he had ever received since he first wore the forehead protector of the Sarutobi clan and later Konoha, ached all at once. Every failure in his life flashed in front of his eyes and all he could think of was fleeing from it all.
He grabbed Naruto and mumbled something about dropping the baby in the Konoha hospital to the nearest ANBU, and without waiting for a response took off walking towards the Konoha Central Hospital. Running would take more effort than his weary bones could manage.
It was lucky, that he chose to walk instead of roof hopping, or he would have missed the faint and tired wails of an infant coming from the smoldering rubble of a building, as he was crossing through the pleasure district of Konoha on the way to the hospital.
Hiruzen didn't knew how a baby could survive in what was essentially a coffin on fire, he was only thankful that it did. Enough lives were lost today and the old Hokage wasn't sure if failing to save another life tonight, especially one so young and innocent, was something his sanity could bear.
He molded a minor water jutsu and carefully doused the rubble trapping the child with enough water to cool it but not enough to drown the baby trapped within. Sure now, that there would be no backdraft, he swiftly knocked away the rubble and scooped the baby in his free arm (one was still holding Naruto).
He looked down at the baby to assess it's injuries.
Despite his years on the battlefield, burning countless bodies to ash. Despite his years as a politicians, where the ability to keep a good poker face decided how much you can get for how little. Despite it all, he took one look at the baby and his eyes went wide with horror and his mouth ran dry.
The child was burned badly, really badly.
Third degree burns covering every part of it's...(Hiruzen checks)...her body. Only her beautiful green eyes were spared from the lick of the fires that trapped her till he came to her rescue.
The damage was not only superficial but internal too, if her raspy breathing was any indicator.
Every hair follicle on her body was destroyed, he didn't knew if she had any hair prior to this, but he did knew that she will NEVER grow a single strand of hair on her head, if she survived that is.
The only silver lining was that none of her burnt clothing had stuck to her skin.
Only worldly possession she had left on her was a dented and warped piece of cheap metal, no doubt it was once a pendent, with what was apparently her name engraved on it.
"Aiki-hime", Hiruzen read out in his head.
Hiruzen did not waste anymore time and Body-Flickered to the Hospital and arranged for immediate and appropriate medical aid for the 2 babies in his arms.
Hiruzen stood outside the ICU for good 3 hours, waiting for the doctors to work their magic and stabilize the girl, Aiki, the one life, no older than 6 months, he had managed to save that night.
The village could function fine without an old man like him for a few hours.
Finally when the doctors came out and told him that the girl will survive, he let out a breathe he did not knew he was holding.
He instructed them to later shift her to the nursery where Naruto was being kept (his diagnosis was hunger and cure was extra helping of baby formula) after necessary medical care was given to her and walked out. No destination in mind, just sorting his thoughts.
"Both Naruto and Aiki, were innocent children. But life isn't fair and people will always act irrationally when it comes to their hatred. Naruto will be treated like a demon because of the damn fox sealed inside him, and Aiki will be treated badly due to her unfortunate appearance." His brain played the thoughts of both of them suffering in the future due to circumstances out of their hands.
This time, the weight of the tragedy was too much, the sorrow he was holding back over the years was too much for an old man like him.
Unseen by any eyes, but his own...Hiruzen wept for the first time since he was a kid.