Chapter One: Stranger
I never paid much attention to the world around me. Faces seemed like blurs in the crowd of people at the market. I pushed my way through the hundreds of villagers crowding the square to catch a glimpse of the new Kage. Sure enough, the blond boy with a baby face emerged and greeted the crowd. I rolled my eyes at how ecstatic everyone was. All I was trying to do was make it home so I could hide in my emptiness. As the crowd was going nuts I tripped over something like a foot. "Whoa there" I heard a male voice say as a pair of sturdy hands caught me before I landed on the hard gravel. I gazed up at the brilliant face before me- the creamy tan skin which glowed in the sunlight, the deep brown earthy eyes that I could get lost in and rich dark brown hair. "S… Sorry" I managed to stutter as he helped me to my feet.
"You should pay more attention" he said in a mock- father like tone. I smiled, the first smile since my parents died in the fire that wiped out my clan. I immediately realized that he was starting to unravel my protective shield, my face went blank and I turned around and walked away. "Nice meeting you" he called after me followed by a sigh. "Great, scared another one away" he muttered to himself with a sigh. I ran home to my empty apartment and locked myself in. The apartment was dark, it was starting to rain so no light shone through the windows that were wide open to let the summer breeze in. "What are you doing Akira?" I said talking to myself and curling up on my bed. "Boys are off-limits; you will only hurt them like everyone else you have come in contact with." I said with a deep sigh of loneliness. I walked over to the mirror and gazed at the 18 year old girl staring back at me. There was nothing special about her, long brown hair that fell in waves down to her middle back, chocolate brown eyes that seemed to be filled with sadness and lack of purpose. Her slender yet strong figure seemed to stand out the most- like she didn't like to seem weak or vulnerable- always was on the defense and never letting anyone close enough to hurt her.
I thought of the boy at the marketplace often. Why did he notice me? All my life I have been invisible to everyone, a speck of sand that everyone passed by without a thought. He should have let me fall- it would have put my mind more at ease. Part of me longed to find him and have him notice me again and again. It felt good to look at someone and know they were looking back. The other part of me was telling myself to let him go and brush it off, what would he want with a broken girl like me? All I would cause him is pain and suffering- like a toy that is unfixable- no matter how hard the child tries to fix it, it remains deformed and useless- the child soon loses interest and never wants the toy again. I couldn't argue the logic that was playing over and over in my head. What did the boy mean by "scared another one away"? Could he possibly be like me and hurt everyone he loved? I pondered the possibility that there was another person in the world as broken as I was. Like two halves to a whole I wished my other half was with me- without whoever it was I always felt, well, alone.
