The hidden vilage of the rain: The rise of the Amekage (CHAPTER 1)

Chapter 1: The Ametoukai

*Enter the Hidden Rain Village. Sora, a young Rain Ninja lies on her back and stares out at the clear sky.

Narration in italics
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It is one of those days again...

There has not been any rain in the village in months and as I look at the cloudless clear sky, I sense her coming nearby.

"Oi, Sora, stop lazying around and come and help out here..."

Thats Natsumi, she thinks she is hot because she was voted the most beautiful in the village. Really, they took a vote (sigh).

"Dont make me come there Sora!"

I wonder why she never gets tired of screaming. I would honestly rather lie here than help fetch water. Our village has been in a bit of a crisis lately. The hidden rain village was really hidden because there was a seal created over our plateau. The rain activates a shield in the area that can only be penetrated from the outside by those who carry the bloodline. The only people that can get out are the shinobi and since we have all we need here they have become rather limited to doing odd jobs around the village and using jutsu's for building the village rather than fighting to protect it. This life has been all we have ever known. The plateau is large and plentiful but…I wonder sometimes if they feel stifled.

The recent and very long drought has me all excited and I knew that it would come to this.The elders have decided to take matters into their own hands and have the Ametoukai early to bring the rains. This means that we have to collect all the water in the village to put in the dam to reinforce the shield. Since there hasn’t been any rain we have to go digging in the dry riverbeds. It just so happens that I can extract water from just about anywhere. Did I mention that I am a shinobi in training. Still only just though. I take lesson with Master Arashi. He can literally make it rain, on command. He is amazing.Time to get up now.

"Finally she arrives. This is so unlike you. You are usually happy when you get an opportunity like this. I thought you would jump at any opportunity to use your jutsu outside the academy"

Did I mention that the only time I am allowed to practice my jutsu is when the academy is open. Not that it is a general prohibition, it is just that for extractors like me who work with real elements are allowed to tamper too much with the composition of the land. So our jutsu always has to be controlled and monitored. It takes a lot of practice to not change anything at all or even to restore. So we are taught mostly geography. It’s kinda lame. We hardly ever get to actually do it. I have a water crystal though. It is a frozen piece of water in the shape of a snowflake. It sparkles in the light and glows in the dark. Master Arashi says that it possesses great power and can be used to conjure water from within itself, infinitely. I dont know how to use it. I have tried everything. It is my only possession. I came to this village by way of the Tenkuu River that flows through. I was hidden in an ice catacomb and the elders took this to mean that I was from the areas in the north. Once I had entered the plateau I couldn’t leave. Everyone that manages to breach the barrier gets to stay here. The shield does not only keep people out, it also keeps all of us within its confines. For shinobi we are taught how to manipulate the shield and create a small opening for brief period. It’s an advanced skill and only members of the Military ANBU here knew how to do it. They are now a myth.

Natsumi is the best at Water Jutsu in the village. Really, they took a vote for that too.

That aside, someone passing through actually saw me the other day. I was hanging around on the boundary just wondering what is out there and someone actually caught a glimpse of me. The thought of actually being seen by an outsider made me tingle. Even knowing what is out there...

“Natsumi, don’t you ever wonder what is out there?"

We use vials to extract water. The vials seem small but can hold a great amount of water. The water particles are compressed in there and the vials themselves are virtually unbreakable.

"Yes, sure I wonder but the plateau is large and vast and there are many areas that you have yet to explore. Why do you not try to see all you can of life here before your heart leaps to other worlds?"

“I saw it all in a dream once, just like the time when I came to this village. But not what is out there. I can only sense them at times. Some of them get really close. You can feel it in the earth too. In the rain, it tells you what is happening. There are wars and battles being fought. I long to know what it feels like not be so restrained. Is that bad?"

"Oh Sora, there are things that go on out there that you will never want to face and we are hidden here because more than anything we desired peace. We have had peace for a long time and out there it is utter chaos and violence. Blood stains the waters."

She always gets a faraway look in her eye as if she has seen some of what has gone on. I understand her sentiment but we cannot just hide out forever, without ever being known or acknowledged. But I will let it rest for now. It is strange but I sense a storm brewing on the horizon.

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It is a clear night. All of us assemble under the light of the full moon. We are clad in white and gleam; a substance that was mixed and produced by the medical nin here to act as some sort of conductor of Chakra. It has been used for the Ametoukai for as long as I can remember. We all mark ourselves with the gleam from the center of our bodies to the tips. Then you concentrate on the flow of chakra along those lines. This is how we manage to transfer chakra from one person to the next in the collective circles. We all have to gather around and join in concentric circles around the spirit dam where we put all the collected water. We collect all our chakra and pour it into the seal of the dam and then shoot it into the stratosphere.

I feel the crystal weigh heavy on my heart. It’s a bit unusual.

"You seem distracted today, what is up with you?"

That’s Kisame. He goes to the Academy with me. We usually train together with our allocated water rations in the vials. He is really good.

"I just have a weird feeling is all, like something is coming to invade us, almost like we are being watched too. But I feel like that most of the time so…”

He thinks I am crazy.

The Ametoukai requires that we all join hands to facilitate the transfer. The youngest and most inexperienced with chakra control are on the outer circles. The more experienced shinobi are in the inner circles that are smaller and the last are our best conductors that lay their hands on the base of the spirit dam. The chakra filled water is shot out by the last conductors up and out into the stratosphere to activate the shield. The residual drizzle is blue in the night light and falls down to earth like snow slow and steady. It is quite a sight of glow and shimmer and light. Tonight Aoi sings the tribute, it usually calms everyone down and puts us all in sync as we sing along…but this nervousness refuses to dissipate.

I am one of the base conductors, my eyes are closed and this time I hear...thunder. I see the lightning. I feel the chakra enter into me but I cannot redirect it and it keeps building up, more and more. I can’t control it but I can’t let go either. The collective soul of the village holds me here. It’s strange, this new feeling. I know that I must submit now, but I can’t. I can feel myself being filled up to the brim. There is nothing anymore now but me and silence and.. the crystal. It’s so heavy, it starts to sink into my skin above my heart and then...

"Sora!!!"

I can see that she is screaming but I can barely move now. I try my best to answer but all I manage are hushed tones…

"Natsume...don’t cry."

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"I do not know how it happened but there I was, outside. I could barely take it all in and I saw him. He was hurt and bleeding clutching at his wound. I felt no fear, no hesitation. The next thing I knew I was right there next to him healing him. I was not even a medical ninja and yet it was as if it all just...flowed. That is all I remember."

I must look bad because she is staring at me with those eyes. Like she wants to hold me there with her eyes, as if looking at me will make me not disappear. I wonder how long it has been since I have been home. Home. I was always resenting the word, with my feelings of being trapped here. I am just so glad that no one got hurt. The barrier is up again and now we are undetectable again. For once I was at peace with that knowledge. When I was healing the outsider I saw it all, the destruction, the people that he had lost. I felt his pain and I was so relieved that all my loved ones were alive and well and fussing over me.

“Natsumi...”

I can hear them whispering about me in my sleep.

"Did you tell her?”

“No it’s too soon…”

“Waiting will not make it go away Natsumi. It is best if she knows now and can prepare-“

“I know that father and I will, one more day will not change anything.”

Natsumi. I keep on hearing Aoi’s song and watching the gleam fill up in the thick lines until I am a blur of gleaming skin. The circle is broken as she rushes over to me. I try to open my eyes but I can’t see. My eyes. Her eyes are brimming with tears now and I see my reflection in them. I am all ablaze and am a gleaming statue of chakra. My hair, my blue gleaming eyes and that shiled around me that keeps expanding. I see it happening now. The chakra goes into starts to dispense itself on the base of the spirit dam with me along with it. It all lasts but a second and the Ametoukai is completed.