Chapter 1
Konohagakure village…
Things aren’t always what they seem…for darkness is always covering them…
Please stop….make it stop…it hurts…
These were the thoughts that were racing through your head as you ran down the path into a dark forest. They were chasing you. He was chasing you, as though you were his property. But no. You were only going to be beaten again, to be tortured mentally by him. But you couldn’t take it any longer. This was your only chance.
Please stop…I’m so tired…
Another voice zoomed through your head as you continued to run for your life, the sound of your heavy breathing and your beating heart echoing through your head. You turned your head back to see if he was catching up. Your rapidly beating heart skipped two beats. He was only about ten feet from you. Even in the dark you could still make out his pale blue skin. But the worst part was you could see two pale white, beady eyes staring at you. Your fear rose as you tried to run faster.
No…let’s rest…it hurts…
You ignored the statement and continued running. But your legs ached and you didn’t know how much longer you could last. A sharp branch sliced over your arm and you cried out in pain. If it was just you walking through the forest, it wouldn’t have hurt so much. But you had gashes all over your body and the rags you wore as clothes were a dark red from your blood. For hours now you had tried to ignore the pain and it seemed to numb, but was now slowly coming back.
Please…you must stop…I can’t take it anymore…!
A small light caught your eye coming from the left. Amazingly, you could see what it was right through the trees. A festival, a celebration was going on. That means there must be a lot of crowds were people can easily get lost. You abruptly stopped and turned to the left off of the path. Branches everywhere were clawing and scratching and cutting into your legs and you bit your lip to keep yourself from screaming. Through all the sounds of the branches, you could dully hear him quickly turn and run in your direction.
Run faster…hurry now…
Who was this? Who is speaking now? But you didn’t need to be told to run faster because you could hear his footsteps quicken. You finally reached the border of the forest and you jumped out, receiving a slash to your stomach from a thick branch and you fell down in reaction.
Get up you baka!
Your mind clicked and you got up and started running for the festival. You had to squint for you had been kept in darkness for so long. But the lights were beautiful. They shined through in glistening blues, reds, oranges, yellows, and all sorts of colors. But you were too horrified to stop and look. You quickly maneuvered through the crowds so it would be hard for him to find you.
You didn’t stop to notice all the shouts of shock and worry for you to stop, but it seemed that they were speaking a different language. They must have seen all of your wounds and wanted to see if you were alright. But you were too concerned to just get away. About the time when you were halfway through the crowd, you looked back to see if he was still following you. You looked to see that know one was following you. ‘What if he’s just about to kill me?!’ you panicked. Your heart started beating even faster than it already was but then calmed down slightly when you noticed a black figure where the beginning of the festival.
Even from a distance, you could see two pale white eyes glaring at you, as if trying hard not to rush into the crowd and rip you apart. You shuddered deeply. Another figured then appeared next to the taller one. He lifted his head and you could barely make out two red eyes. Your eyes widened and your heart pounded against your rib-cage. It was him. You had to get away.
You quickly turned your gaze in front of you and noticed that you were almost out of the festival. But you weren’t safe yet. Once you had zoomed out of the festival, you started to feel slightly safer. But a rustle in the bushes told you otherwise.
You suddenly stopped to look at the bushes to your left. Someone abruptly jumped out and started running towards you. Your adrenalin kicked in (as well as your heart jumping into your throat) and you started running again, but faster this time. You quickly jumped into the forest to the left of you and weaved in and out of the many trees. But wait a minute…
This isn’t the same person who was chasing you before. This person is much faster and easily dodges the trees while still keeping up. Oh no…it’s him. He’s chasing you now.
/Let’s see if you can get away now / a deep voice spoke in your mind.
‘No…’ you whispered in your thoughts. ‘NO!’ You started pushing your feet down to run faster, but your aching legs would not approve of it. You weren’t scared anymore…you were terrified. The very horror that you felt; sketched all over your face. You couldn’t get away. There was no denying it. All of your thoughts finally ceased as the only thing you knew to do was run and escape.
You suddenly heard the sound of running water ahead and your body followed it. Another branch clawed at your face leaving a deep slash on your cheek. The thick darkness of the night clouded the forest you were in, making it hard to see the branches in the way, therefore you felt like you were being torn apart very slowly every minute.
You finally reached the end of the forest to find a wide river. But there was a high cliff on the edge so you were really looking down into the wide river from about 50 feet. You took two steps back from where you were standing at the edge. You were always afraid of heights; you always thought that you’d fall off no matter what. But the light from the moon lit it up, making the top of the water seem to glimmer and shine and beautiful to gaze at. It was then you noticed that there were no footsteps behind you and that everything seemed quiet.
‘Did I loose him?’ you thought. You slowly turned your head…and screamed. There he was, not even three feet from you. You quickly turned around and stared in horror. Now, there was nowhere to run. You started to back up slowly but his deep voice stopped you in your tracks.
“You…are not going anywhere else then where I am taking you…” he said. A deep shudder traveled up your spine as he lifted his head to reveal his eyes. To blood red sharingan eyes.
“Get away from me…” you whispered, trying to make it sound like a threat, but only sounding like a whipped animal. He slowly took a step forward while you took two steps back. You then felt the edge of the cliff on the bottom of your feet. Another step back would send you into an ice-cold river.
“There is nowhere to run…” he said as he continued to walk forward. You started to tremble from the horror that was radiating off you in waves. You had to get away somehow.
From out of nowhere, the only thing you could see were the two sharingan eyes burning a hole through you. They were torturing to see looking at you, but the destruction of the mind and the insanity they could cause and you living through it all was even worse. You could already start seeing everything only black and red and already feel the cold steal of his blade ripping through your flesh. Your eyes widened even more than you could imagine and your pupils shrunk to the sizes of mere dots. The action that you least wanted to do finally snapped through your head; run.
You quickly turned around and jumped off the cliff, only to realize what you had done. Never once had you know how terrifying it was to fall down a high cliff, and you screamed all the way down.
As fast as you could blink, you hit the water hard. Cold water rushed into your lungs and the rushing water swung you back and forth while you tried to resurface to get air. But you didn’t know how to swim. The light from the moon started to dim down as you continued to travel downstream. You then realized that you weren’t sinking, your eyes were slowly starting to close. ‘No…I must stay awake as long as…I…can…’ you thought. You were slowly loosing consciousness in the cold, rushing water. But you couldn’t loose consciousness in the middle of a rushing river for you would surely die.
‘No…I must stay alive…I can’t…I won’t die like this…I won’t allow it…!’ you thought. With your last bit of strength, you pushed as hard as you could to get to the top, but it wasn’t enough, you didn’t get close enough. You failed. You finally closed your eyes as all thoughts, sounds, and sight ceased and darkness took you…
Somewhere near Konoha village~
Iruka sighed as he lazily kicked a lone rock out of his way on the path. About an hour ago, Iruka had decided to take a quiet walk by himself and get some fresh air. Today had been Naruto’s thirteenth birthday and he had invited everyone to a party at whoever had the biggest house. Apparently, Mitsumi did (Mitsumi is really mah character Sakura from ‘Echoes in the wind’, just with a different name). They had met Mitsumi a year ago, around the time that the Chuunin Exams had finished. She was an extremely skilled samurai with very long, black hair and grey eyes. Her eyes though were really what made her stick out. Aside from the katana regularly worn around her waist, her eyes were a cold but enchanting silver instead of grey really. The color swirled and shifted and shined very brightly in light, but a vicious acid was hidden deep within their depths if anyone were to come too close. Little diamonds seemed to blink on and off in her eyes, seeming to hide the deadly acid from any length. But her personality was entirely different from what she looked like.
She had a very vicious attitude and rarely trusted anyone. Luckily, she did trust Naruto (with a little lecturing), Hinata, and himself. She was also very serious. She would threaten people if she didn’t trust them and would continuously question them if she should trust them. But she was also very similar to Sasuke. Both of them were very serious, were always very strict about their training, and weren’t very flexible. The only time that anyone would like her was when she would get drunk off of all the sake she would drink (which Kakashi brought plenty of at the party for the adults, even though Naruto had somehow gotten some).
After that had happened, all of them decided to never bring sake to a party with Naruto in it for Sakura and Naruto turned into a couple of drunk idiots. But Iruka had actually enjoyed it for it was so funny to see someone who was so serious all the time to laugh, smile, and make all kinds of funny and embarrassing comments. He even got a picture of it! Woohoo! Blackmail!
But truthfully, he couldn’t believe how beautiful Mitsumi had looked when she smiled, even though she was drunk. And her laugh was like a flute playing a lovely yet fast-pace and happy tune. That was the real reason why he had taken the picture. The truth was; Iruka had had a huge crush on Mitsumi the day he had met her. He had always felt content whenever she was around or even when he thought of her.
But unfortunately, Gai had also caught sight of her and tried to win her heart and impress her as Lee had (and still does) to Sakura. Mitsumi though brushed him off by saying no, but Gai kept trying. Sometimes, but not very often, he and Gai would get into argument about who was doing what with Mitsumi whenever they did something special.
But enough of Mitsumi, Naruto’s party was the real subject. Naruto had invited everyone, and he meant
everyone. Everyone who was anyone that was Naruto’s friend was invited to his party at Mitsumi’s dojo; a huge, five bathroom, twenty-eight bedroom with a hot spring, large training area, and humungous dining area (where the party was held) dojo. And of course, anyone who hadn’t passed out got to sleep in one of the guestrooms. But what Iruka couldn’t get over was why Naruto had invited Sasuke. ‘Maybe Sakura had forced him to’ he thought. Iruka chuckled at the idea.
Anyway, Iruka had told them that he wanted to take a walk in the middle of the party so he could get some fresh air and get away from all the “party animals”. He lifted his head to gaze up at the stars. Mitsumi had lived just outside of Konohagakure village, so it was much more peaceful out here. The air was fresher and there were also less people. But Iruka liked how clean the forest was so it was much nicer to take walks in.
A shimmer out of the corner of Iruka’s eye caught his attention. He turned to the left (but still on the path) to where he saw the shimmer of light. Once he had made it to a small clearing his eyes widened in amazement.
A wide, beautiful river softly flowed in beautiful patterns and streams. The light from the moon glowed over the water, making it shimmer and swirl and seem alive. Never had he seen such a beautiful sight (other than Mitsumi). Iruka decided to sit down and lean against a tree and enjoy the sight before him.
After a few minutes, Iruka’s eyes started to slowly droop as he started to grow tired. He never realized how tired he really was. Naruto’s party must have really put a number on him (and for the smell of sake was burned into his clothes. He would have to throw them away when he got home). The intoxicating yet lustful smell of sake and the peaceful site of the river started lulling Iruka asleep.
A sudden concern and alert then shot up Iruka’s spine and he was immediately awake and on his feet. He then wondered why he was acting like this; he couldn’t sense an enemy or any immense chakra at all. But for some reason the hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up and he was very alert.
A different movement in the river finally caught Iruka’s attention. Very cautiously, he walked over to the side and kneeled down to see if he could notice what it was. There was another strange movement but it was farther into the water. Iruka squinted to see what it was. His eyes then shot open.
A girl in a long, grey and red dress was barely floating above the water. He had to get her or she would die from not enough air and the freezing temperatures of the water. But if he were to swim across, he could be swept away himself or he would be to slow to get to her.
Iruka quickly thought of a jutsu in his head and preformed four different signs with his hands. He concentrated very hard on his chakra and focused all of it on the water.
“Mizu watarirouka no jutsu!” he shouted. The water in front of him started to lower to a single path running towards the girl. Once it had reached her, it circled the girl until she had lowered into the path made to part the water. Iruka then ran down the small path parting the water and quickly kneeled down and picked her up. He then felt a warm liquid run down his arms from where he picked her up and realized what the red in her dress really was.
The girl was submerged in her own blood. Slashes and scars covered her body and a huge bruise was on the side of her forehead. Her head had also somehow opened; soaking her long, (color) hair.
“How did this happen to you…?” he whispered even though the girl was unconscious. He then looked back and noticed that the jutsu was starting to ware off and he quickly hurried back. He ran in the direction of Mitsumi’s dojo; but being careful with the girl in his arms. ‘I must get to Mitsumi’s dojo, she will understand. Besides, my own house is to far away and the hospital is out of the question’ Iruka thought while running up the path.
After about five minutes, Iruka could see a split in the path leading either left or right. ‘Right is the path I want!’ he thought. Then, as though the girl had read his thoughts, flinched and shut her eyes tighter. The image of the right path in Iruka’s mind suddenly disappeared and he turned left. Throughout the path, the images of the right way to Mitsumi’s house vanished and Iruka always turned the wrong way. And all caused by the girl in Iruka’s arms. But he never noticed it; until he came to the end of the path which ended up in Konoha village, not Mitsumi’s dojo. He immediately stopped and looked around him in confusion.
‘What’s going on??’ Iruka thought, ‘I thought I went the right way. But I can’t go back now, it would take too long.’ Iruka then realized where he was and started running again. He weaved in and out of sharp turns and was silent as a mouse. Almost everyone had already gone to bed therefore it wasn’t very hard to run through town without having to go through the crowds. But it was very dark in town for there were no lights on so it was difficult to see where he was going.
Iruka finally reached his destination point; a small, two story house. Iruka quickly rushed inside and ran up the stairs to his room. When Iruka made it to his bed, he gently set the girl on his bed. Then he realized that his shirt was saturated in blood from the girl. His eyes widened but he would need to take care of that later.
Iruka had then quickly took a first aid kit from the small bathroom in his house and came back a minute later. He knelt down beside the girl and before he started anything, he checked her pulse. Faint and slow, but it was still there. Iruka sighed in relief. He then took out some bandages from inside the first aid kit and begun his work.
Later~
Iruka placed the iodine bottle next to him and exhaled deeply. Iruka had bandaged the girl for the past two hours, and he had finally finished. He didn’t bother in removing the girl’s clothing for it was kind of like a giant bandage itself. And besides, he would allow for her to change when she woke up. Iruka then noticed some of the blood coming through the bandage on her upper-arm. He sighed. There were no more bandages and he didn’t want to rip some of his already bloody clothing for a bandage. Iruka placed his hand on his forehead in frustration only to feel his hitai-ate leaf headband. ‘I suppose that would work’ he thought grievingly. That was the only thing available that was in his position, so that was it.
Iruka reached behind his head and untied his leaf headband. He then placed it on the girl’s upper-arm so that the sign of the Konoha village was facing him and he tied it there. Now he was finished. He then noticed that the girl was shivering from the lack of warmth. Iruka pulled the blanket from the end of his bed up to her shoulders and she finally stopped shivering. His eyes started to droop as he watched the girl sleep (which was reminding him how tired he was). Iruka’s head then dropped onto his bed as he fell asleep.
~Beforehand~
Your POV
Darkness was all I could see. All I could feel. I could not hear. Everything was silent. Just darkness. I had been like this for what it seemed like hours. Was I dead? A glowing warmth surrounded me as I relaxed into it. I do not see why so many people are afraid of death. It is much better than the life I was already living. I shuddered from the thought. A sudden small pain, about the size of a paper cut, appeared on my stomach but I ignored it. I was safe…and warm. In a split second, I was freezing cold and the pain from my stomach grew and spread over my body like wild-fire. I tried to scream but freezing cold water rushed into my mouth. I had regained consciousness.
Something rubbed against my hand and I immediately grabbed it and pulled myself up onto the shore. Once I inhaled as much air as I could, I started coughing up water. It hurt so much to be rid of the water in my lungs but it felt a little better once all of it was gone. Slowly as I could, I lifted myself from the ground. Good. My legs weren’t broken. But I could already tell that some of my ribs were broken from the immense pain in my stomach and that it hurt to breathe. I looked down at the so called “dress” I had on and saw that it was soaked from water and my blood. So that’s where the warmth came from.
I looked ahead to see a path leading clearly through a small forest. I took a step forward and earned myself a hiss. Even though my legs weren’t broken they were sore. But I need to get some help. I lifted my other leg and I slowly made my way on the path. My upper-arm bumped against a nearby tree and I hissed from the pain. It’s not broken so it must be fractured or something. I carefully covered my upper-arm with my right hand and continued walking.
After a few moments in complete silence I started observing my surroundings. I could see that there must be a town nearby for someone must have made this path. But I still don’t know where I am. Lost in my thoughts, I just realized how dark this path was. I tried blinking to see if there was a difference. Nothing. But I kept walking in the same direction in which I came. I somehow noticed that the path was starting to turn so I continued following it.
After what seemed like hours, I started to hear something from up ahead. What was it? I continued to follow. I suddenly felt my foot start to slip and in a blink of an eye I started falling. While on the way down, I hit the back of my head on something sharp and I then landed on a thick branch. Using my right arm, I felt the back of my head and felt a thick, warm fluid all over the back of my head and my hair. I must have split my head open. ‘Well this is great,’ I thought. I started to feel the branch snap and readied myself for the fall. Even with all my attempts, I was not ready for the increasing fall. I screamed all the way down and hit the water hard. The impact somehow knocked me unconscious.
Later~
Uh…where…where am I? I could feel myself going at a fast pace somewhere. Once a little more of my consciousness came back, I realized that the pain in my head had increased. I couldn’t wait till I fully woke up to feel the rest of the pain (not…). I opened my eyes slightly to see what was going on. I was being carried by someone…but who? I couldn’t tell. My vision was too fuzzy to see. But I could make-out that it was a male with brown hair.
I could feel my consciousness slipping again as I mouthed something, and then I fell into darkness once more.
Chap. 2
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