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Dreaming is reserved for Humans, at least that is what has always been said. Dreams weren't meant for anything other than Humans, that it was created by the gods for the Humans to pass the time between dusk and dawn. If that's so, why is my sleep filled with such vivid things?

Yuura turned slowly from the open view of the mountain range of the Crescent Valley. Her deep purple eyes, turned black by the moonless night, took a slight survey of her small home as she pulled her blanket tight around her shoulders. It was autumn in her Valley and the village was slowing down for the winter as they brought out the small heating lanterns to the various homes to keep the villagers warm and healthy.

Aside from her heating lantern, her bed, her small table, and her chest where she kept her cloths, Yuura owned little. She kept just enough food in her small space to fuel her body and kept just as many weapons as she needed, never more, never less. She wasn't addicted to the power in her blood like many of her kind, nor was she one to live in hatred of it as a few had done in the recent years. She did not run from The Enemy, nor did she hunt them down and, perhaps, for that reason, she was one of the last ones to be left free.

She came to a stop at the head of her small bed, her face deepening in its sorrowful expression. Her brothers, her sisters, they were dwindling down into extinction. Did the Humans not know their purpose in this world? Why the gods had allowed them to live here? Many of her siblings went mad with their prolonged lives, ravaging villages and causing destruction, some took their own lives, unwilling to live any longer. The ones that were left were sealed away as a form of an Ultimate Weapon for the Humans to use as they wished.

Then, there was Yuura...

She rubbed the space above her heart, her fingers caressing the mark and ridges of her own choice. There were times in her lives that she regretted what she had started, but most of the time, no matter the age of her body, she was pleased to see her people living happily and with little to worry of. Unlike many in this day of war and pillaging, her village worried only of the next harvest and if the new born babe would be walking before the spring. The peace of the village brought a small and gentle smile to her lips, "Maybe Dreams are blessings from the Holy Ones."

She lowered to her bed and crawled against the cold surface, pulling her blanket as tightly about her as she could. The first frost will be falling tonight and she planned to enjoy every moment of it. Tomorrow's dawn would be beautiful and she intended to be the first one to see it.

This wasn't how they imagined it.

Ever.

They could never have imagined things could go this badly.

Where were the gods that placed them here? Where were they now that their precious Guardians were in harm? Why had they abandoned them now when the world was becoming such a terrible place for us to be in?

Yuura tied the deep hued ribbon tightly around her hair. The sudden freedom from her neck gave her great satisfaction as she leaned one hand down on the branch below her for greater stability. She refused to use any more chakra than she had to and this bough was large enough to carry her on all fours if she desired it.

She could see the battle below her, the ninja of the leaf village battling their own mirrors, learning more about themselves as they did. Her eyes that stood in darkened shadows across the forest and the river side granted her all the views that she needed. They were smart, pushing themselves to do things that they couldn't do before, catching their replicas off guard and defeating them one by one.

She smiled at their victories, proud of them in a way that a mother would be proud of her own children. She could see it in some of them, the way that they moved, the way that they spoke, some of them carried her blood in their veins. Old traces that were nearly faded, these were her distant relatives, children of her children's children. From lines so long that Yuura doubted that any of it could be linked back to her ever again.

The explosion's sound caught her attention, pulling her vision to the shadowed form that watched from an outcrop of rocks in the cliff face just above the explosion's source. She steadied the eyes, the others that dotted the land vanishing at her unspoken command as she conserved her chakra from what might come. For whatever was coming from the resulting whole in the cliff face.

"They're fast," she said softly to herself as the one below her vanished into the forest, hellbent on finding the cause of the explosion. Her Second Vision showed several of the ninja escaping from the whole, chasing after something unseen. Her tiny familiar leapt into a series of shadows that kept it close to its targets, ever bent on carrying out its master's task. She nodded in confirmation as she turned away from the explosion, the scout taking on the task on its own.

Unlike Humans, she did not require a constant Reminder to be sent to her summonings. She told them once and that was enough, a talent of her kind and of any who shared her blood. Some villages, generations ago, had used it to track down her children and induct them into their own village bloodlines. Much like the one who raced along with his white hair, "The Fang Line," she told herself, "the purest of my descendants."

She slipped from the bough, her nimble form clad in traditional Crescent Moon Village ninja garments. Her shoes were common among those of the ninja occupation and left a large gap of skin from her ankles to her upper thighs where her black shorts were just past the hem of her sleeveless gi that crossed formally over her chest and was held tightly in place by her obi. Black lines with purple, Yuura was easily recognized by those of her own village, even without the presence of her headband, which she traveled without on nearly all of her journeys.

Except this one.

She checked her bag, it was secured to her back, her headband tightly in place on the outter pounches. It granted others a sight of her source while staying out of her way should anything come to test her. Like the one who seemed to be so interested in her now.

She dropped to the ground and slid to a stop in the shadows, her gleaming purple eyes staring up into the trees fiercely as she gave a silent summoning. He stopped in the trees the moment her Second Vision landed on him, the tiny foxling sitting on a branch not far from him, glowing purple eyes and a blackened tail that swayed gently from side to side as it chirped his greetings. He regarded it with a slight angle of his head, "Summoning without hand gestures?"

"You sound surprised," her voice seeped from the tiny fox, it adding a soft whimper afterwards.

"Only the most elite ninja can do such a thing."

"Like your 'Hokage' and her precious slugs?" His jaw locked with the unseen grind of his teeth. Yuura's laughter escaped from the foxling as she turned and returned to her travel. The fox turned and vanished into the shadows of the forest canopy, its fluffed tail tickling his nose before fading away, as silent as it had appeared.

The cold and emotionless eyes narrowed in thought before he turned form the direction of the fox. He still had a mission to carry out. Don't forget about me, Leaf Ninja, he tripped and quickly caught his balance. That voice was intoxicating...