Pov: Aiko kaguya, last kaguya bone user.

The world is a rough place, At least this one is. Thousands of Shinobi, millions of people, all with their own goals and interests. All with their own allegiances and expectations. In a world with everyone competing for limited resources, people will almost always prioritize themselves and the people around them. Even though if everyone shared and worked together, they would likely have enough for everyone.

The kaguya clan was no exception, known for our violence and brute strength, as well as our control of bone. We were feared, and we knew it. Like pirates robbing merchant vessels, most wouldn’t even fight, they would surrender. So often did this happen that we became little better than bandits. Over the years, we became little more than hired thugs, or mercenaries, leaching off the land of water.

Eventually, we got complacent, so used to getting our way without trouble that we slowed our training. We stopped studying tactics and strategy, not that we did much of either from the start. Weakened ourselves thinking no one would challenge us. Our leaders getting bolder and bolder, taking on stronger and stronger opponents.

But we forgot one thing. We weren’t the only clan in waves, sure we were the strongest clan individually. But if they all worked together? No, we forgot about teamwork and politics, alienating ourselves from our allies of old, making ourselves a common enemy of every clan in the land of water.

And lastly, we forgot that we no longer had enough shinobi with kekkai genkai to make up for that. Shikotsumyaku, an incredibly long name for a kekkai genkai that could be simplified to “bone control”, was only given to 1 in 5 children of someone who had it. One of the strongest kekkai genkai ever recorded, but also one of the rarest. And one of the only kekkai genkai that caused the user harm.

Shikotsumyaku is rare on its own, giving direct control over the users' bones. But that direct control is also a detriment, if you’re using chakra to make new bone cells and marrow. Unless you have perfect chakra control, will eventually lead to cancer. Many holders of it dying by 30 outside of combat. With the rest sent to their deaths in battles they couldn’t win without letting them have children. 

 With only myself and one boy holding our family kekkai genkai, with that boy in a jail cell out of fear, and myself hiding my ability to escape the same fate? Our clan was like any other. We were just another clan with high individual power and high chakra pools. Without any team work to multiply our ability.

Once we convinced enough clans, our survival was no longer worth the cost of destroying us. We were as good as dead.

The attack on kiri was the last straw. We in our arrogance thought we could fight a village with dozens of clans, some of which almost as strong as we were? We couldn’t. 

We lost resoundingly, according to the people we had watching the battle. We didn’t even get past the first wall. Getting surrounded and outnumbered almost immediately, the situation was so bad, our patriarch ordered everyone to give up on surviving and to just kill as many enemies as we could. All in the first 10 minutes of the fight

With our shinobi defeated, no more defense to be offered, and a century-long grudge against us? It was the perfect opportunity for the clans to get revenge. The only thing stopping them from taking back what we took were barely trained civilians trying to escape. Out of what was once a clan of 700 people, I doubt more than 200 are left. Only a few dozen of them would be trained in shinobi arts, most only to the level of gennin. Not nearly enough to truly rebuild without great effort.

Over 800 years of history, of battle, and survival. All that ended in a five-day span due to poor leadership and complacency, not to mention that we became something our ancestors would have despised. The first 500 years of our history, we were an isolated, self-sufficient clan. We did no wrong to others, and were left alone in turn. Only battling when it was necessary. All until we realized everyone got weakened by war, except us.

Now we’re evacuating, leaving the clan territory, waiting for a signal to return and rebuild, a signal not likely to be called by anyone loyal to the clan. To the point where the elders told us anyone using it was an enemy, and to go even further away. That is how unlikely rebuilding was. The chances were so low that people who spent decades believing in our superiority unanimously agreed we were done, we could do no more. 

But despite my rants about why this happened, the causes, and the motivation behind it. It doesn’t change the fact that the clan is done, and in turn, so is the family. Almost all of my family is dead. Only 2 out of every 7 people survived the initial fighting. Almost none of the survivors close relatives. My parents, my uncles and aunts, even my grandparents. Hundreds of cousins and extended family members I spent my life with, people I celebrated birthdays with, people who I visited to deliver food on Sundays. The kids I would play ball with when I was young, all gone.

I might not have seen it happen, but that does make it any less heart wrenching. And this time, everyone else feels the same way. We're travelling in a group of 23, 22 people in a circle around me, all feeling the exact same way, with no one to turn to, no time to cry on one another's shoulders. Always on the move, always keeping a fast pace to gain distance from our pursuers. A distance that was never going to increase, only the time till arrival increased.

And pursuers there were. According to the only true shinobi among us ,a chunnin names Shinto Kaguya,  3 chunnins and 3 gennins were following our trail, far behind, barely in sensing distance, but there none the less. With us only having 1 chunnin, myself and another gennin, all unprepared for battle with civilians to defend. The odds weren't looking good.

The only chance we had was to find a village with people to escape into, ambush the enemy, or just make it not worth the trouble of chasing us. Either way, the Land of Water was no longer safe, making fleeing the country our only option.

 Find a boat and sail where our enemies can't follow us. Perhaps next time if we survive, I'll go to ninja village academy for a few years, maybe finally start truly training and start practicing fuinjutsu like I always wanted when I was young. Something fun until I graduate.

But now is not the time for reminiscing. It's time to figure out how the fuck we are supposed to beat a group of ninjas twice as large as ours, without me being forced to use my kekkai genkai and it getting extremely hard to cure bone cancer. When we're  all already tired from a 6 hour jog with huge backpacks.

"Anyone got a plan?" 

~~~~~~~~~

End of chapter 1.

Authors note- sorry for the prologue being kinda mediocre. I’m still trying to get back into the habit of writing. And I just needed to throw a chapter out to keep motivated.

Also turns out Naruto has basically no detailed cannon about the land of water. I found out the hard way.