Kan sighed tiredly, leaning against a tree for support, clutching her side-stitch. I paused, laughing at her, and collapsed in the grass. My feet and legs were pointing skyward, suspended in the air as I kicked childishly at the sky. Kan laughed gently, flinching in pain as she did so.

I smiled, closing my eyes and allowing my feet to slump to the ground with a thump. My bangs caressed my face, my short hair was blowing everywhere and it tickled my closed eyelids gently. I sneezed as the dust picked up. It blew around me and then settled down. I mouthed the words to a song stuck in my head, as they often were. Wow, I'm pathetic.

"Kan?"

"Hn?" That's definitely her trademark reply. She almost always says it when I wanna ask her something. She's just that way I guess.

"Let's go get some dango." Dango was my second favorite food. Everyone knew that. Because ice cream was my favorite.

"Why?" she asked. She asks a lot of things. But usually why is her favorite question. I don't know why she's never really happy with the answers but that's not my problem.

"Because I'm hungry!" I whined. She says I whine a lot, but I don't think I do. Maybe it's just because she's the way she is. Well, not like I can do anything about that, now can I?

She snorted. "You're always hungry, Jojo."

"Nuh-uh. Only when my tummy needs food!" Haha, tummy, that's a silly word. I like silly things. Like kangaroos. Seriously, who would think it's really a rodent when it's so big. They're kinda like horses only they hop on two legs and they have weird pouches. I once heard that koala's had pouches like those too. My mom says our cat has a pouch. But it's a boy. Then again . . . he is really fat, so that might be why she says he has a pouch. It's still weird, no matter what way you look at it. They're like built-in pockets, only on your skin.

" . . ." She didn't say anything. I hate it when she doesn't say anything.

"Well?" I demanded.

"What?" she asked. That's another one of her favorite things to ask. She doesn't pay attention to much of anything

"Say something!" I hate it when she tries to avoid the subject. It bugs me. But I kinda like bugs. The animals, not like the virus. Then again I guess you could say a virus is an animal too, but it really isn't. It doesn't really live the way animals or people do.

"I just did. . ."

So, we were off to the dango stands for the fourth time that hour when suddenly. . .

"Kan?" I asked. I usually don't ask her things. I usually command her because she never listens when I ask her questions. It's really annoying. My brother says I'm annoying, but what does he know, he's just a little kid. I'm almost fourteen and he's . . . well I forget how old he is but-

"What is it this time, Joku?" She was annoyed. She was seriously annoyed. Man, why did this always happen to me? j

"I'm not hungry."

"Yes you are," she stated. Gosh, she always thinks she's me or something. Because she always answers from what she thinks is my perspective when it really isn't. she's really bad at being me. But then again, she does know me really well. I love food. There's almost no better thing than eating. I'd really like some ice cream about now, but I'm not hungry. Actually, I might be, but I'm not so sure.

"No I'm not!"

"Fine, whatever, let's go train again. You still need to work on your genjutsu and we don't have that much time til I have to leave on my mission."

It was four, I think. She had to leave at seven to go guard some dumbass who got caught by the ANBU when he was trying to escape the village, the idiot was sixteen. Oh yeah, we live in Iwagakure, but, like, I'm actually from Suna, cuz it was, like, where I was born and shit. Yupperz, almost fourteen years ago now, pretty awesome shit, ne? I didn't like living in Suna. It was too hot. And I don't like hot. I never had ice cream there. And ice cream is one of the blessings of the earth. So I like Iwa better, because ice cream doesn't melt in like seven minutes. Especially cuz in Suna we didn't have a fridge or freezer. We had to buy food from stands whenever we were hungry. Sometimes we didn't eat for days because we couldn't afford it. So now I take advantage of food. It's yummy.

"Nah, it's hot as hell. Let's go back to my place and chill, I'm exhausted." It was August 3rd and there was yet another drought in Iwa. Figures. I wanted something to drink, but we had to conserve water. Which meant no shower. Ewww. Oh! I should go swimming in a pond. That would be fun. But then I would smell bad. Eh, oh well, I was just training anyway, I'm sure I smell bad already.

"No, that's alright. I need to get ready, so I guess I should go home anyway. You can come and hang out for a while. but my mom will be home in an hour and you know how she feels about you being around the kitchen. Especially when you tried to make that turkey that one night. You know, when you left the feathers and everything on and it exploded in the oven."

"Yeah, I know, seeing as no one let's me forget. . ." I groaned. They just couldn't forgive me could they? "I guess I should pick up Hokori anyway, he trains way too long, it's not healthy . . . or normal. Especially when he's only five, he thinks he's so big since he started going to the academy."

"Since when has anyone in your family been normal?"

"I don't know. A long time ago I guess."

"It was a rhetorical question." Guh, she treats me like a little kid and I'm only a few months younger than her.

" . . . Right." What the hell did rhetorical mean anyway?

"It means you weren't supposed to answer it."

Sometimes I could swear she reads minds. Damn. That's awesome.

"Why don't you come to my house and help me get my things together?" Kan suggested when I didn't say anything. I shrugged, smiling.

"Sure, why not? I wonder what I could blow up this time. . ."

"My mom put a lock on the microwave and you can't open the oven unless you have a password."

"What about the stove?"

"It doesn't work. Don't you remember when you tried to make peanut butter on it and you-"

"Yeah, I remember now . . . thanks. . ." I said, cutting her off mid-sentence. She laughed, grabbed my elbow and pulled me towards her house.

We kicked the dust and threw rocks at stray cats, well, I threw rocks at stray cats, as we continued on our way towards Kan's house. We talked about everything, anything, we kept ourselves busy with inside jokes and our stupidity. It was pretty much uneventful until we got to the heart of Iwagakure. Hell had broken loose.

There were dead bodies in the street and blood was strewn over buildings, it pooled in the streets. The ANBU were everywhere, homes and companies were on fire. Screams and smoke filled the air. I stared at the chaos that lay there, in my village. I could feel my heart about to burst. What happened to Iwagakure? Who in hell's name did this?

Then I saw something that I wouldn't forget as long as I lived. My mother was an ANBU, and she was the only guardian I had. She was standing in the middle of the street, parallel a boy. The boy Kan should be guarding at seven tonight. How did he escape? Its nearly impossible. I remember once I got into this fight in the academy and I beat the kid up so bad they kept me in there until my mom came to pick me. There were all sorts of locks. It was so boring. Fluorescent lights, whites tiles, white walls, white ceiling. Nothing interesting. Although I found a whale on the ceiling. Yup, it was part of the plaster. When I asked the guard if he saw it too he thought I was crazy. I don't know. I might be crazy, I'm not so sure. I'm not sure of many things. Like if the sky is blue. What it someone was color blind and blue to them was green. What if I'm colorblind? Wow that's scary. But anyway, I think the sky is blue, blue to me anyway. Like the blue between purple and green on the color wheel. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. So anyway, I'm not sure of much. But there's one thing I am sure of, it's that I'm not sure of anything. Well, seeing as I just contradicted myself once again I'm going to continue with my life and stop thinking random thoughts . . . for now anyway.

"Joku?" Kan tugged on the back of my shirt, which was sticking to my back, slick with sweat. I took off running, into the fight, towards my mother. Something was wrapped around her, she was talking to the boy, who was only a few feet from her, a smirk on his face.

"Mom!" I screamed. The boy turned his head towards me, raising his eyebrows.

She looked at me. "Joku, go! Go away!" she cried, tears ran down her cheeks and landed on the clay centipede that was wrapped around her. Why weren't the ANBU doing anything? They just stayed back, they were . . . scared. But why? It was just a boy, right? What's Mom so scared of? Should I be scared too? Nah, it's just some kid who has a knot in his knickers. Haha, knickers. I like that word. I think I'll use it from now on.

The boy's blue eyes danced with the surrounding fire, his smirk grew and he started laughing. What's so funny? What's he laughing about? Stupid kid. I just wanted to punch the brat in the face. In fact, I think I would. It's always fun to punch someone in the face. . . but it's not that fun to get punched in the

"Katsu!" he yelled maniacally, his laughter resounding. The centipede around my mother exploded, I was feet from her. Fire burst around here, over her body, burning her skin. It happened so fast. There was a cloud of smoke and dust, I couldn't see her. Then I knew why. She was gone. What was left to her, her innocent, crimson blood, was splattered everywhere. Horrible waves of red. It lightly speckled my face.

I stopped mid-step in my run towards her, falling to the ground on my knees, staring at the spot where my mother had just stood. It was covered in her blood. I was petrified, frozen, shocked. I couldn't feel tears coming, it wasn't realistic. It was a dream. This couldn't happen. Not to me, not to my mom.

The boy turned completely, and took a step toward me. I raised my eyes to look at him. The usual amber color of my eyes was tinted with red. Anger, tinted with pure anger. I got it. It did happen. But why?

He walked towards me, and my breath caught in my chest. I wanted to dig my nails into his face and tear off his skin. He stopped when he reached me, and kneeled down next to me. A little closed and I would be able to strike. He grabbed both my hands in one of his. Damn, I couldn't. But I would when he let me go. I would kill him. I would sink a kunai deep into his flesh and have my victory over him. He pressed his head next to mine and caressed my face. He whispered calmly into my ear. "Hello, Joku, my name is Deidara." Then he stood and laughed.

I tilted my head to look at him. His crazy smirk was still in place. I stood up and rammed my closed left fist into his face. He stumbled back, his eyes widening, slightly surprised. He narrowed his eyes and stepped back up beside me. Blood was coming from the corner of his mouth.

I braced myself before his fist collided with my ribs, and there was a cracking sound as I flew backwards into a building. I heard Kan scream. I scraped the side of my face on the rough wood as I turned to look at her. Large splinters of wood stuck into my back.

Deidara, as he had called himself, walked toward me again, this time with a kunai in hand. He got on his knees in front of me and raised my arm and pressed it against the building with his right hand gently. With his left, he pierced my palm lightly. I gasped. Then he thrust it in harshly. I screamed in pain and struggled as he pressed it even farther until my hand was nailed to the building. Then he repeated the process with my other hand. Blood seeped from the wounds and poured down my arms and onto my face as I craned my neck upward.

He removed my headband and lightly ran a kunai over my forehead. Blood, mixed with dirt and sweat, poured down my face into my eyes and down my cheeks. It stung my eyes. I could taste it as it ran into my mouth. Some was rolling done from the corner of my lips. It dribbled off my chin and onto my chest. Oddly, he ran his tongue over the gash and licked the blood off his lips. He looked down at me, murder in his eyes. I could feel tears. Mom. . . me . . . was Hokori next? What about Kan? Who was next to die? The tears began to slip down my cheeks.

Deidara stood. He smirked at me, the sun blared down at us from behind him, making it hard to look at him, as if it wasn't hard already. I couldn't move. I struggled to stand, but my body wouldn't obey, my hands couldn't free themselves. The dumb blonde laughed at me and spat in my face. I rubbed the saliva off on the shoulder of my shirt and fought the kunai that pinned me to the wooden building. It wouldn't work. The pain was too much and the open sores were beginning to turn red and swell.

"Joku . . .?" Kan whimpered from somewhere not too far away. Deidara's eyes blazed in that direction.

Hell no. Not Kan. Never Kan.

I screamed at him and thrashed against the wall, kicking my legs out at him and striking him the shins. That would keep him from getting to my friend. He would finish me, but that would give Kan enough time to find a new place to hide for the time being. If only that.

He turned back to me, agitated with my stubbornness. his hand lashed out, hitting me in the cheek and knocking my face against the hard, cold wood of the building. I hadn't noticed it was so cold before. Or maybe it was just me.

My cheek was red as my face turned suddenly to the side with the collision. My neck was stiff from the impact and I could feel consciousness, or life, whatever it was, it was leaving me. The blow to the head had been the last of it all. And I was leaving the world I used to know. Damn, I was only thirteen. I didn't wanna die . . . but if it's for Kan, or if it's in place of Hokori, then I'd do it. Whatever. There was nothing I could do about it. Blackness crept into the corners of my vision, it began to overcome my sight, my breathing calmed. Bad signs. My heartbeat was slowing from the former racing pace. I couldn't see any more, or hear. All the sounds, the screams, they all faded. How strange . . . is this what it's like to die?