This is my first time writing something like this. Totally unrelated to canon characters and such. And it's also some way of relating a few fanfictions starring characters from the 'real world' in one collection of stories.
Rated T for death/suicide and massive swearing.
Naruto belongs, obviously, to Masashi Kishimoto.
May-Lin, Hitaru, Fye, Yuuko and Naiyomi belong to me, thank you. C:
The rain fell down in a deaf patter
The rain fell down in a deaf patter. No one seemed to pay much attention to the cold, nearly freezing, droplets of water falling down. One girl, though, hadn't dared bring out an umbrella. She stood out amongst the see of paper and synthetic materials, drenched from head to toe. No, she hadn't bothered staying dry. After all, water never hurt anyone, right? Wasn't like it made you melt. Not like that stupid movie she used to watch when she was younger. What was it called already..? The Wizard of.. Something or another. She didn't really care enough to remember. It only hurt a little more every time.
The girl, annoyed of the crowd heading home for the afternoon, had decided to seek refuge atop the building where she lived. There were fences all around, to prevent idiots from committing suicide—not that a stupid fence would stop anyone determined to die, right? She jumped up and sat on the farther right corner, in front of the still opened door that lead to the roof. The landlord was probably bound to pop up sooner or later, raging on about how long it was to clean up after her wet mess in the halls.
Pah.
She didn't care.
"Os iusiti..." she started humming lightly, staring at the distant cliff, in which was carved several faces. Some bearing harsh traits, intimidating those who'd done something wrong. Other seemed serene, encouraging children to do their best. But it's not like any of those faces were meant to say anything to her. Not like anything THERE, then, was meant to involve her.
I have a meeting today... she thought vaguely, trying to remember where it was she was supposed to meet the others. Yes, they often talked about how they got there, what they were doing with their lives, and how they planned to live, or even go back home.
Home.
It was such a benign word to her, nowadays. It was like nothing was home anymore. Where she used to live, well, it was just a distant memory, almost a dream. It's not like she could remember faces, voices, sounds or places. It had been too long. But where she was, it would never be home. It wasn't her dream, it was her sister's. She had never so much as wished she could be there.
And yet, there she was, living so many girls' dreams, and she was hating it more than she had ever hated anything in her life.
"May-Lin, you better have a good excuse this time!!" the old landlord called, making the girl—now May-Lin—sigh heavily. She knew it, the old woman always had it out for her, even though she was sympathetic with her.
"I was outside without an umbrella when it started raining." She said quietly, her hushed voice not fitting with her rugged, rebellious air. She didn't give any further explanation, nor did she give an apology to the elder woman. She simply jumped off the railing and heading back inside, not really hearing the landlord's numerous and loud complaints.
Living in Konoha was hell for May-Lin. She had never like the series, Naruto, and she'd hated pretty much every character aside from Sasuke. She could actually relate to him. She hated him originally, calling him a stupid emo child. But now that she knew what it was, losing your entire family and being left alone... She felt sympathy for him. She felt like she had some sort of connection, even though it was vague, VERY vague, and perfectly one-sided.
"And just where do you think YOU'RE going, young miss?"
May-Lin turned and smiled in the lounge; she had to pass through there to go outside. Ame always was one of the womanizers, even though he was married. She was always happy, even though she knew something was always on his mind. He was a shinobi, one of the best(or so he said), and often had days off seeing as he was in the AnBU.
"Just going out to see some friends, is all, Ame-san." She replied curtly, sticking out her tongue, just a little bit. "I wouldn't mind having an umbrella this time, though. Can I borrow one?" She asked quietly, putting her and together in front of her and blinking a few times.
The elder man gladly accepted the request and handed the girl a black and red umbrella, with which she headed out with in the rain. She would've gone outside without one, but she figured that the girls would be asking her why she was soaking wet. They probably still would, because she figured she'd never have enough time to dry out before she got to wherever it was she was going.
Her feet were directing her in some forgotten direction; it was a day to day struggle to remember thing for May-Lin. She was told by the Hokage, Tsunade, that it was perfectly normal. Her body was still under some shock, ever after two months, and that it would take time for her to get adjusted, and remember everything she was before.
"I remember that day..." May whispered under the heavily pouring rain, staring down at her feet. The streets had emptied faster than usual; maybe it was because of the rain? She found herself weaving through the streets without running into the usual upset wife or drunken husband.
Yes, that day had been strange. She'd woken up in the middle of a street, people looking down at her, glaring, as though she was nothing more than a murdering beggar. That day, it was a sunny day, and she could feel herself burning up. She was on the side of a building, but still exposed to the sun. All dressed in black, she felt like a potato in an oven. She'd gotten up and looked around, clueless, lost. She'd just done what anyone else would've done: headed for the biggest building around. She figured someone there might help her.
The minute she'd walked in, people started dragging her one way and another, without so much as telling her what happened. She thought everyone looked so strange, all... Asians. And she was sure she'd recognised something. Some... Some metal plate on someone's head. But everything was so vague; could she even remember her name?
"Bring in Hitaru."
That's what Tsunade had said when she saw her.
May really couldn't tell who this Hitaru was, though she had very clearly remembered why she thought everything was familiar; she was in Konoha. NarutoLand. Ninja World. Her little sister's dream world.
Then Hitaru came in.
Beautiful woman, really; flaming red hair, thin waist, flawless complexion, hard and beautiful teal eyes. Another girl was with her, with... With purple hair. She was called Yuuko—May-Lin wasn't too sure about the name, she was a little too busy trying to wake herself up. Hitaru smiled, just like a mother, and guided her outside.
They shopped for clothes, and May was escorted to her new apartment. She was told to stay there until further notice, that someone would come by and tell her what to do.
It was the worst day of May-Lin's life.
But, then again, that was the day she'd met the girls.
"Lin-chan! I thought you'd NEVER make it!"
May-Lin carefully closed the black and red umbrella and set it beside the door, still unsure how she ever got to the same place every afternoon or night. Sure, she recognised everything, knew where she was, who she was meeting, who was talking to her and who she was talking to...
Just, not how she got to all that.
"Don't worry Naiyo, I wouldn't miss out on our nights together." May-Lin said, offering the younger girl a small, delicate smile. Naiyomi was only fourteen years old, whereas May was already seventeen, and turning eighteen... Well, soon, she figured. She couldn't believe, though, that Naiyo was so enthusiastic about everything. Torn away from her family and thrown into Konoha. Apparently, she was near Thunder; May remembered that the Akatsuki were there. She didn't really want to think what a bunch of assassins would've done to such an innocent girl...
"I'm glad you made it, May-Lin." Hitaru greeted, and May only raised her head, letting her smile fade, little by little. She figured it was useless keeping charades with the woman. After all, it was like she could read her like an open book. Hiding things was pretty pointless. "...without being too careless, this time." She added in a light chuckle.
May-Lin often showed up exhausted, stained here and there, after falling in the streets, or walking in the rain without an umbrella, or walking in the snow without wearing a coat. She always got sick, but never really cared. She didn't do much of her life anyways, so staying inside was almost better than what she usually did. Which was, really, nothing.
The evening went on quietly, as May-Lin stood by as the other girls talked about their daily lives. One of the girl, Mariana, was squealing on about how she accidentally bumped into Naruto on her way there, and how he offered to take her out for a bowl of ramen. She kept on gushing on about how nice and polite he was...
"What about you, May-Lin?"
She had lost track of time, and hadn't been listening to much of anything that was being said. Busy fiddling with the rugged hem of her shirt, May had been, once again, lost in her empty thoughts, waiting for time to go by, for her life to just find a meaning again.
Or for God to take her back home.
"Uh... Me?" She asked incredulously, blinking sleepily a few times. "I've been... Thinking a lot lately." She said effortlessly, already used to speaking her mind in front of them all. "I can't remember my parents' faces, or their voices. I can't remember where I used to live or how I used to be before I came here. From day to day, it's pretty much a struggle to get up in the morning, knowing that I won't do anything meaningful, and knowing that I'm never going home."
The once bustling room fell to a dull silence, thick with anxiety and uneasiness. May-Lin whispered an apology and got up, heading for the door of the small room, hidden amongst the Hotel's various conference rooms. Right, it was a run-down hotel...
"May-Lin, wait..." Yuuko called out, grabbing her arm and pulling her back.
"WAIT. For what? For an opportunity to go home, huh? Wait until I die to be able to remember what my fucking boyfriend looked like, huh?! I'm sorry, but I'd rather fucking die by my own hands consciously than rot in a motherfucking hell hole waiting to go to a home I can't even call home anymore!"
She ran out the door, crying tears of frustration, lost amidst the rain, a little lighter than when she'd first gotten to the old hotel. It was only early evening, and she was hungry as hell. Frustrated. Angry at the world. Hating Tsunade. Hitaru. Hating the world, in general. She was being a stupid emo child, and she was resenting herself for it.
But she wasn't really caring then. She just wanted to die of a heart attack while jumping off that cliff she always stared at, while she stared at her butchered wrists. She would jump off the edge, like she's heard in so many songs.
The clouds were clearing, slowly but surely. A rainbow shone in the distance, but May-Lin didn't take notice of it. She was running faster than she'd ever thought she was able to run. She didn't even think she would last that long without stopping and coughing a good hundred times. The carved faces were staring down at her after ten minutes. She glared, glared at them all, one after the other.
"I HATE YOU!" she shrieked, heading for the stone staircase that lead to the top. The mask encrusted into the cliff, right beside the stairs, caught her eye. A fox mask, broken, shoved into the rock. She felt oddly attracted to it, compelled to call out to it and tell it she understood.
She skipped so many steps, and yet, the top never seemed to get any closer. She could hear them call her name. They hadn't yet realised where she was, and May-Lin was hoping it would stay that way until she was long gone. She stopped about three quarters up, tired, spent, coughing and hyperventilating. May cursed the days of rest she could've spent running or training, like anyone else would've done.
After what seemed like an eternity of anxiety and waiting, May forced herself back up on her unsteady legs and ran up the remainder of the carved steps, sighing in utter relief as she finally slammed her hand onto one of the many wooden pikes that composed the railing around the top of the cliff.
She steadied herself at the edge.
"That's it. I can't take it." She whispered, letting a lethal tear fall down, past her chin, onto the rock below. A song ran by her head; one of the few things she could remember from before. "I scream into the night for you, don't make it true... Don't jump..."
She sobbed. More than once or twice. That song brought back the time in the car when her mother would yell at her father, when her boyfriend was beaten by those thugs, when her brother had protected her from that rapist—
She remembered.
Though, it really was too late.
Her heart was beating faster with ever inch lost in altitude. She was praying for someone to catch her, for someone to guide her though everything. Why hadn't she thought about it before...?
There was a deafening scream; as though someone was pulling on a ton of bricks with all their might. May-Lin chocked on air as something hard hit her left side, and coughed once the feeling of weightlessness was completely lost. She cried so hard...
She woke up in the hospital, staring blankly at the ceiling. The lights were making her eyes burn; she didn't care to hide her tears anymore. It wasn't really worth it. As she unconsciously proved the IV needle stuck into her right wrist, May-Lin noticed someone was sitting at the edge of her bed. A woman with jet black hair and coal eyes, completely dressed in black, scars running up and down her arms, and one up her neck, was staring down at her. Her eyes seemed so empty; May thought about what her own hazel eyes must've looked like, pooling in tears.
"Her name's Fye." Hitaru spoke up, finally making her presence known. "She's the one who almost died saving you."
May-Lin could clearly make out the bandages under the woman's fishnet shirt, running down half of her right arm. Though she hadn't even thought, for one second, that she might've caused it. She whispered an apology, closing her eyes once more.
"You had a heart attack, dear..." Hitaru added quietly, staring down at May with saddened eyes. "A heart attack, a concussion, water on your lungs, two broken ribs and light internal bleeding." The older woman added, crossing her arms, but not in an intimidating way.
May-Lin vaguely nodded, after noting that speaking was fairly out of the question. The tangy taste of blood was still as clear as black letter on white paper in her mouth, the irony taste almost pleasant.
"They bandaged your wrists." Fye finally spoke up after a long moment of silence had slipped in the room. May-Lin carefully rose her left arm to stare blearily at the white fabric wrapped around her arm. She nodded vaguely, resting her head on the pillow.
"You're going to stay here for a while. Yuuko's going to..."
Hitaru's voice slowly slipped into nothingness as May-Lin lost consciousness yet again, slipping into a slumber filled with images of her smiling brother and sister, of her parents getting along, of her school and friends, of the Lost Girls, of the women she'd met...
"She's gone, isn't she, Hitaru?" Fye asked quietly, a single tear rolling down her cheek.
"We can't save everyone. But we can try."
On that, Hitaru walked out of the room as nurses filtered in, notified earlier that May-Lin would go through heart failure. The dull hum of worries, orders of resuscitation falling upon her deaf ears. No, they couldn't save everyone. They only tried.
But losing someone who's already Lost is just horrible.
