My name is Washi.

I am a bird.

As free as the evening sunbeam,

But a lonely as a single cloud.

You wake up slowly on a cold morning. Your warm cheek is glued to a pillow. You grasp the pink sheets with your long fingers, rejecting the fact that you would have to leave your confort zone. You pull your knees to your chest and curl up your toes, trying desperatly to keep the heat in.

You had no parents or family members to get you up. In fact, you had no reason to get up at all. Maybe you could stay in your dreams forever. Sweet dreams or nightmares, you didn't care which. Either way, you'd be flying. You always fly in your dreams.

Of course now you'd forgotten the little birdy. The songbird who just happened to build her nest on the tree outside of her window. She perches there each sunrise, and sings. She lets out a beautiful whistle to attract a mate. She sings with every ounce of soul she has in her small delicate body.

You can hear her precious tune and are brought out of your trance. You lift yourself up with wobbling arms and let your mid-length dark blonde hair fall of your shoulders. The green sleeve of your nightgown falls down to your elbow as you lift up a hand in the air and press it firmly to the frosty window. You take a breath, and begin to whistle through your thick lips. You catch the tune of the songbird. The two of you sing your song together. Only you aren't singing for a mate.

At least, not yet anyway.

My name is Washi.

I am a bird.

Death has cast it's shadow on my family.

This is my story...

You trudge home through the blanketing snow. With small arms wrapped around your fluffy silver jacket, you carry a satchel of food on your tired shoulders.

You can almost see it now. Your home in the village of Sound. It's getting close. You were running, not only because you were excited to see your family, but because they were starving and waiting for the food.

Thinking about this made you want to reach the front doorsteps immediatly. You race through the empty road and leap onto the porch. You bang the ice off of your wool boots and open the door.

The first steps inside were the one that you'll remember for the rest of your life. You remember how your flame of happiness was snuffed out by that terrifying moment. You can recall exactly how you felt as your knees hit the wooden floor and you held your hands over you eyes, trying to block out the images you saw. But you couldn't let go of the aweful smell of blood. You can remember how your heart raced when you slipped your hands off of your wet cheeks and to the ground as you crawled patheticly to the center of the room and sat by one of them, simply hoping you could help them somehow.

Three bodies on the floor. Your mother, father, and older brother. One huge puddle of dark red blood stained your clothes. You looked around for some hint of how this could of happened, and you saw one thing. Your father sacred sword stolen off of the wall. Thieves. They took the sword and the lives of your family.

You ran. You left the house, the street, the entire village. In your confused trauma you came to Konoha. After they heard your sad story- and checked for a criminal background- they gladly took you in so that you'd never be cursed by those foul memories again. As if that would work.

But still, you were an official Konoha resident now, so you have to stay there weather you were lonely or not.

My name is Washi.

I am a bird.

My heart is set on one goal;

Exceptance.

After getting dressed into a yellow T-shirt and blue shorts, you were getting hungry. You weren't in the mood for making something, so you decided to go out for breakfast.

You got out of your small apartment and stepped onto the sidewalk. The air had warmed up, and people were coming out like working ants to start their daily chores. You thought to yourself, 'Now where was that ramen bar? That place was pretty good...'

You spotted it and saw the kid with spiky blonde hair going inside. 'Now what was his name...? Naruto. That was it.'

"Good morning, Naruto," you said after sitting down and taking your order.

"Oh! Morning... um..."

"Washi," you reminded him. 'Whew. I'm not the only one who's bad with names...'

"Right, I knew that," Naruto said, "Morning, Washi!"

You giggled. Lucky for you, this kid was pretty funny.

Once the steaming ramen had arrived someone else showed up who you'd never seen before. He had bowl-cut hair, round eyes, and bushy eyebrows.

"Naruto-kun..." he gasped, staring at you, "W-who is this?"

Naruto put his hand on your shoulder, "This is Washi. Washi, this is Bushy Brows!"

You laughed at the name, but after seeing the disappointed look on his face you added, "But, um, I-I like your eyebrows! They're kinda cute..."

The bowl-cut kid beamed as he sat down beside you. Naruto's jaw dropped at your 'cute' comment.

"My name is Rock Lee," he said reaching out his arm.

"Pleased to meet you, Lee," you said shaking his hand. You realized after about thirty seconds that he was staring at you with an odd grin.

"Um, Lee?" you said glancing at your hand.

He blushed and took it away, "Oops! I'm sorry, Washi-chan."

You laughed for the third time this morning. It feels so good to laugh again...

My name is Washi.

I am a bird.

I spread my wings,

But the wind won't carry me away.

The next morning your ritual was the same. You were taken out of bed by a single songbird. You couldn't believe that you were letting it take advantage of you this way...

You made your own breakfast today. Actually, you just put a bagel in the toaster. You didn't have time to do something big, and you didn't want to waste the effort on one person.

You wore a scarlet red hat this morning, and went for a walk through the woods. The sun cast it's rays on your sweet body, and you saw something. Your beautiful songbird had found a mate. You grinned as she and a male bird stared at each other on a branch before flying away towards her nest.

You put your hands behind your back and thought of the bird's tune. When you'd remembered the entire song, you put your lips into an O-shape and whistled it. You were almost dancing on the dirt path as you sang to yourself. You promised to never forget the song, because that was what got you out of bed each morning in this difficult time.

You heard a noise behind. Stopping quickly and turning around, you saw Lee emerge from the trees. He caught you having your happy little moment. You felt the blood rise to your cheeks.

He held up his hands, "No, it's ok! You don't have to stop, I was just--"

You shrugged, "I'm fine. Thank you, though."

He stood there nervously wondering if he should ask what he was going to. You got sick of waiting, so you did it for him, "Do you want to walk with me, Lee-kun?"

"Ok!" he smiled with relief that you'd asked first, and joy because you refered to him as 'Lee-kun'.

The two of you strode along the lovely path together. You talk to eachother and learn all about him. You learn about the fact that he can only use taijutsu, his rival, Neji, and his beloved Gai-sensai.

"But enough about me..." he said, "I'm sure you've had a facinating life."

You shake your head, "It's nothing special..."

He urged you on, "Well, don't you have any dreams?"

You look towards the sky and reach your arms in to the air. "I wish... that I could fly."

He looks at you dumbfounded. You blush in embarrasment, "I-it's silly, I know..."

"No!" he says, "It's a great dream! In fact... I..."

He reached down into the orange things on his legs, and pulled out the weights inside them. "Gai-sensai told me not to use these unless I was protecting someone important to me... but I'll make an exception because I'm protecting the dreams of someone very very important to me!"

You blink. 'Very very important...?'

He gets down on his knees and instructs you, "Here. Sit up on on my shoulders."

You think twice about it, but do it anyway. You could trust Lee, somehow you knew that.

He grabs your ankles gently and says, "Now, just don't be afraid. I won't let you go."

You nod, even though he can't really see it. You wonder what he's going to do now.

Lee jumped up onto the shortest branch on a tree. He leapped to the next one, and the next but being careful not to hit your precious head.

He got to the very top branches and you gasped. The land streched out for miles and you could see every inch of it. Each tree seemed to be at your feet, making the green leaves look like fancy tiles on a kitchen floor.

"Lee..." you whispered, not able to find words to express these feelings inside of you.

"Alright, when I tell you to, stretch out your arms," he said.

Before you could ask what he meant he was running. He ran swiftly on the top branches of each tree at the fastest speed you could possible imagine. The wind roared so loudly in your ears that you could barely hear him telling you to put out your arms. You immediatly did as he said.

'This is it,' you thought to yourself as the green blur below you swept by, and your hat fell off of your head, 'It really feels like I'm flying...' You pointed your eyes in the direction of the sky, and saw a small flock of birds. 'Right now I'm one of them,' you realized with delight. You streached your fingertips out as far as they would reach.

"Oh, Lee..." you sighed, "This is the most wonderful feeling..." You began to whistle the bird's little tune.

He was exited to hear those words from you. He got a bit more energy to run even faster...

My name is Washi.

I am a bird.

I whistle for my mate now.

The one that I love; Rock Lee.