Thanks to Chizune, my beta. She is doing a wonderful job helping me with this fic. Also, thanks to those people who are reading this.

Disclaimer: I wish I could own Naruto, but I don't (and probably never will).

Prologue:

She had been there for longer than anyone could remember. So much time had passed that even she wasn't capable of remembering either. But she didn't care about that. She didn't care about anything. It wasn't that she was careless. It had always been like that. She just hadn't been born with the ability to care. She wasn't capable of loving either. In spite of that, she had seen displays of love and care. She had lived long enough to watch many people.

Hate.

Care.

Happiness.

Surprise.

Love.

Love…what was love?

Love was a feeling.

Those "feelings" were things she would never be able to experience by herself. Those feelings were beyond her reach. Only human beings could feel such feelings. Humans were different.

They were ephemeral. Just like a summer breeze that would pass by, but would eventually have to leave for the winter to come.

People only lived for a short period of time. They lived, and died. Their lives could be happy or sad. They were capable of living the way they wanted to. But she… she was different. She was ethereal. She couldn't choose how to live. Her life had already been decided, without her asking for it. But she didn't care.

Many people told her she was beautiful. She had heard it from many voices, so many she had already lost the count. Well, no one had taught her to count in first place. She had seen kisses, hugs and tears. But she had never experienced any of them herself. Those experiences were saved for humans. And she wasn't one of them. Humans were born so they could live their lives.

But she wasn't.

She was born to live. She was alive; she could feel life running through her. She could feel the wind, the sun, and the cold chilly wind. She could hear the sound of the chirping birds, the thunder and the little droplets of water when breaking into the earth.

She was alive, but she couldn't feel.

Was that okay? She didn't know. It had always been that way. She didn't remember having a mother or a father who had taught her anything. She had never had any brothers or sisters. She had never known what it was really like to have a friend. It had always been her, only her. She had been there alone all along. She had been on her own for as long as she could remember. But she had never experienced loneliness.

Her life was boring. Despite so, she couldn't get bored. She didn't have the ability. Each day was the same as the last one. Days, weeks, months, years… life passed by without her noticing. Human life was much more exciting. Each day was different. But… she was different. She couldn't feel. She couldn't share. She couldn't live her life. She was alive, but she couldn't live.

It was a contradiction. Yet that was the way that ethereal beings lived. In a series of contradictions that would just be incomprehensible for the ephemeral.

However, one day… everything changed.

It was a day like any other. It was one of the first days of spring; the sun was setting and the last chilly breezes of winter blew away from the earth, pushed by the young winds of spring. People had been telling her how beautiful she was. Some happy couples had lovingly caressed her.

Just the same as any other day. No difference. At least, until that moment.

Until she heard it. She heard the voice. It wasn't unusual for someone to talk to her, but this person was different. This person was calling her. Asking her to listen. It was a voice full of nostalgia, of sadness. It was…magical, full of power. It made her want something she had never wanted: to go out to meet that person. But she couldn't.

It was forbidden for her to feel. Humans were the blessed creatures, the ones chosen by God to live and feel. Ephemeral, condemned to live bound to death since they were conceived; yet they could live their lives, unlike any other being. And she wasn't one of them.

She was an ethereal.

However, each time, the voice was more and more attractive. It was as if she was a leaf being carried by the wind. She wanted to resist, to be able to tell the voice she couldn't go. Nevertheless, it was all in vain. The voice was too powerful. She had to meet the person.

She gave in.

But before being totally pulled away from herself, she thought:

'Please, forgive me…'

It was the first time she heard her own voice since she had been born. Was it her imagination? But, at the same time, she realized she had never had any imagination.

Then, everything turned black.

To be continued. Review, please.

COC