Solitude and Cherry Blossoms, a naruto fanfic

So! My name's Laila and this is my first story in a long time and I hope you enjoy it! This has been written for about a year now, and I just found it in a pile in my bedroom so I thought it might be worthy of being online. Anyway, this is in the category of Naruto, and just so you know the first bit of it is a little slow. But only the first few paragraphs, so please, don't blow off reading it. It gets good after a little bit, at least in my opinion, and I hope that you will think so too. I really enjoy writing and will do anything to get better. I hope you think it's good, and as always reviews are welcome. I need all the help I can get!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto now any of its characters. Only the ones I create.

Please enjoy! Please review too

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Seclusion can be a dangerous thing, something that most would try to avoid at all cost. Being alone, no one to hold or embrace, not a soul to depend on but your own. Though these traits are of the most disagreeable nature, seclusion can also be the greatest company, so to speak, that you could imagine. Obtaining bravery beyond measure, total independence, and no emotional connection to anyone to distract you of any sort of task or predicament are gained through loneliness. These can be some of the most valuable things for any human being to gain, yet at what cost. For years I have favored seclusion. The mere thought of having only myself to depend on filled my stomach to the brim with, oh what's the word…happiness…? Yes, that's it. The joy of having no one near me to bring annoyance or disturbance into my life 'tickled me pink'. Although I have not always had the enjoyment of isolation, it came soon enough, bringing with it the valuable traits, those of which would not make me the person I am today if I had not received them.

Considering my most amiable nature, I would have rather been stabbed in the chest than be stuck in the middle of the predicament at hand. Being in any contact with humans disgusted me, and yet, this was something to do, entertaining even, if that's what you could call fear. But even then, this was bound to happen some way or another, so might as well face it now than later on when your mind has been wrapped around the expected experience, one that you have no desire to come into contact with. As of now, I must admit, I am not prepared for this situation. However that has never stopped me before, so why should it now.

Fright has never been a large problem for me. It's not as if I hold no fear. It only took grasp of me on rare occasions, and when it did it held strongly, releasing its grip on me for no reason. For causes I knew not, fear seemed to avoid me most of the time, only approaching me in a life or death situation, that of which were the circumstances taking place this very second. In the manner I had since long ago expected, fear had taken hold of me once again.

Sitting upon the back of my horse we ran through the forest, my heart pounding with excitement, which it rarely did. My glance had not stayed still since the moment we had departed from safety and nor did it now. Damn I hated the fact that my eyes always betrayed me, always examining everything around me against my will. The old saying 'you are your own man' was a load of pointless shit in my consideration. If we were our own, then why did our bodies do things that we had no opinion in, therefore not even phasing the execution of the act? No, our bodies are people in themselves, and we are but the things to fill them.

My eyes continued to wander left and right, searching the premises of any threatening person. Trees blurred past me as my horse galloped through the branches encircled around us. Hooves pounded the ground beneath me, the full extent of their power digging into the earth with ease, my horse's legs pivoting off the ground to push himself forward with more force.

My breaths had become harsh and raspy, as had my horse's. I had, of course, physically and mentally prepared myself for hardships in life through my earlier years, one of which was facing me. Though my body is extremely fit and has a large amount of stamina, it still does not fit the requirements of my standards. But that can always be changed. But for now I must deal with what I've got, even if it isn't sufficient enough. And to state it simply, my mind has never been stronger, always a concrete wall to any obstacle coming its way.

My head, unwillingly again, turned to glance behind. Once again my eyes disappointed me, revealing the thing I was trying to shun away at all cost. About five hundred feet behind me were five men mounted upon thoroughbred horses pursuing me at an even rate of speed. Each of their gazes set firmly upon me, they increased their velocity in an instant, closing some distance between us. Trying to release some of the fear inside of me, I smirked as I did the same, putting more distance than before between us.

This was a disturbance to me, and I wanted more than anything to rid of it. Having hidden myself from the world for so long, even just seeing others brought contempt into my mind. I wanted this to end as quickly as possible so that I could escape the view of people.

A cold chill ran down my spine, in return waking me from my thoughts. I smiled at this new factor.

Trying to get the upper hand, eh?

As I expected a slightly audible twang was heard in the direction behind me, followed by the view of a thin arrow flying past, missing its target by a small amount. This shot a great amount of adrenalin through my veins.

"Arrows won't work you dicks!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. That was sure to tick them off. And of course it did.

In a span of three seconds, seventeen arrows were fired at me, one of which struck my right shoulder. Though it did hit its target, it didn't faze me whatsoever. One of the benefits of my 'childhood' was stamina through pain. Reaching over with my left hand I grasped the wooden stick and pulled it out with ease, throwing it to the ground afterwards.

They had to be joking if this was all the power they had. Good Lord, I could have beaten them in my sleep! Well, I should know better than to assume that. I learned never to act as though you understood the whole situation in and out. And the one time that I did, I paid for it greatly.

Gripping the reins tighter, I prepared myself for the obstacle up ahead. One hundred feet away was a large concrete wall, a small cottage to one side of it. If I could get over this with more speed than the men behind me, it could put some space between us.

The jump came and went in a matter of seconds, my horse flying over the concrete gracefully without even a hint of coming into contact with the wall.

I was growing tired of this game of tag, so I set my mind to work on devising an escape. Where would be the perfect place to run, without being followed? I could've ran into the small cottage we had just passed while the men were still behind the concrete wall, but that chance was far gone, plus it would have been an obvious place to search. I had to think of something new with the materials I had before me, which admittedly was not much.

All around me were trees and brush, all except a small four-way crossroad coming up ahead. From what I could tell, not a soul was near it. Just the way I like it. If only it were that way at this moment, where no one was near and I had only myself. But sadly enough it wasn't. Sometimes life could be such a disappointment.

Above the center of the crossroad hung the branch of an oak tree. It loomed over the dirt road, about fifteen feet above the ground. This could possibly work. If I could time it just right, it might be successful. And if I could get cries of pain from my followers, then my heart would be filled with pure ecstasy.

For most the task of flipping one's self onto a high branch while on the back of a galloping horse would be a great challenge, one that would strike uneasiness into their hearts. But for me, this was easy. Twelve years of physical training wasn't done for nothing, now was it?

The shear thrill of escaping my captors once again was beginning to enter my body, though I knew not to become overconfident was what truly should have been in my mind. This was supposed to be a challenge? They couldn't possibly think that this was threatening in any manner, and by the looks of it that was what they suspected me to believe. What insolent people. If they thought that this would stop me, forcing me to hand myself over to them, they were sorely mistaken.

Now not only was I about to throw myself upon a thick branch fifteen feet in the air, but I was also going to position myself atop that limb and attack them from above. To be truthfully honest, this was not one of my best creations in mind and yet it worked for the situation at hand.

Here goes.

The distance between the escape and I lessened with each second, and eventually I was twenty feet from it. Timing was the key to this dodging of these unlikable things. If I thrust myself upon the branch too early or too late it could cause a problem such as losing my grip on the limb and falling or not getting a firm enough grip on the branch.

My horse took one last stride before my departure and we were right below the branch in question. I reached up, grasped the wood and flung myself onto the branch, flipping my body around the limb and landing myself atop it, balancing myself fairly well and keeping my eyes pointed toward the area where the soon to be victims would arrive in a short time.

The men finally caught up. Their horses had been halted and their gazes had come to look above, toward the area where I was positioned. But their searching was, of course, futile. All they had seen was a disappearing adolescent, and though they knew the region into which I had gone, they knew not the pinpoint spot of which I was hiding. Leaves covered my existence, though not fully. True, they did not cover me entirely, yet they did hide me from view unless, that is, you have the eyes of a hawk in your skull.

I reached behind me and grabbed the bow and arrow tied around my back. I pulled them into my grasp and held an arrow to the bow. Raising the contraption to a position before me, I held steady my arm in an attempt to get a perfect aim on my first target, the man in the front center.

Soon my mind would be rejoicing fully, after hearing cries of anguish from my target, naturally. And for once in my life, what I had desired was given to me without hesitation. Cries emanated from the mouth of my prey as he fell to the ground, his hands lightly wrapped around the arrow that now pierced through his chest. The men around him jumped from the horses' backs and crowded around him in an attempt to give him some sort of assistance.

Inside I was shining with triumph, even though it was a small amount of it. This small accomplishment showed that the men had no clue where I was hiding, which theoretically can be the best advantage when attacking in an unbeknownst position to the victim.

As I drew a second arrow to my bow, an unfamiliar presence crept into my heart. I paused and held my body still, for precaution. I had a few hunches as to what this 'feeling' could be. One, a human minding their own business though drawing near a place they should never have entered; two, some animal wandering in the forest; or three, another enemy.

I turned my head to look behind, the exact direction from whence came the presence I had felt. My eyes immediately went to work searching for the new addition to our happy little congregation. They quickly caught sight of a small form and discovered that it was but a fox, a familiar one at that. Its eyes met my own in an instance and with the look it gave me I knew what to expect. An interruption was on its way though it might not truly be an interruption. Hell, it could just mind its own business and leave on its merry way, which was most likely what it was going to do.

I quickly nodded my head in thanks and shot my vision forward to return myself to the present event. The men had not progressed much since the time my attention had left them, and they still searched the trees. Man can truly be dysfunctional at times.

I returned to my bow and arrow and aimed for the next fool. Firing another shot, the next victim fell to the ground motionless. I felt another rush of adrenaline flow through my veins. You could never defeat the feeling of bringing down an enemy without flaws. It was a feeling of pure ecstasy that not a thing could diminish.

The unharmed men pulled the two wounded upon their own horses and galloped away. Apparently they had come unprepared, for they left in quite a hurry, if I must say so myself.

My job had been completed. I had once again escaped the clutches of those heart dirty bastards, and would now return to my daily solitude. But before doing so I would wait, just to see if they truly had left. I would wait for at least twenty minutes, just to be sure that it was safe to leave.

After waiting, which was truthfully the hardest part of the entire ordeal, I leaped from the branch and onto the ground, balancing myself perfectly and landing softly upon my feet as if I were a feline. Bringing my fingers to my lips I whistled, a notice for my horse to return. Within seconds he ran up to me and stood at my side, waiting expectantly for me to mount his back.

With hopeful thoughts of peace and quiet running through my head, I galloped toward my residence, if you could call it that. I have been on the move for as long as I can remember, and have never stayed at one spot for more than a month. But of course, no doubt people knew about me. Damn, word traveled fast these days, considering I would leave one area, and go five hundred miles away and the next town would know who I was as well as the last did! Well, it wasn't as though they didn't have a right to know…

Ah, how I loved the fact that my horse would tire after a large amount of sprinting, just as he did now. It gave me a chance to run, something I loved to do considering I was probably the fastest runner anyone could find no matter where they searched.

I hopped off of his back and pat his neck, a sign of a job well done. He trotted off toward a river nearby to drink and take a rest, knowing fully well that I would call for him when I had reached our hideout. It was a regularly done act, and he had grown accustomed to listening intently for my whistle during his rest.

I took my running position, one I had used many times, and took a deep breath. I loved running, so this was an extra bonus to beating my pursuers. When I was young I had become amazingly good at running, for reasons I'd rather not say.

My house, so to speak, was about five miles from my current location. It would only take me about three minutes to get there, and that was at a slow pace. If you were to watch me run, which I'd prefer you didn't, you wouldn't be able to see me. The only thing visible to your eyes would be a blur, disappearing the second it became detectable. Rarely was I noticed when running, for I ran so fast that only the sharpest of eyes could pick up my form.

I kicked off from the ground and was gone. Instead of running on the ground like normal people, I would thrust forward and then push off from the trunk of some random tree, and continue doing this until I had reached my destination. It took barely any effort, and was the most sufficient way of traveling without being tracked.

In no time at all, literally, I was at the place where I took residence, which strangely was a large cave on the side of a steep cliff. The rocks poured over the opening of the cave, covering the existence of the rocky shelter from travelers' eyes on the road below.

I entered the cave, knowing that I was not alone.

"Shit."

So, that's the end of Chapter 1. The ending wasn't much of a foreshadow, but hell, it will all work out. If you have any comments, please give me a review. If you have any suggestions or anything for the next chapter I am completely welcoming them. Well, I hope you liked it. I will update as soon as possible. Reviews, reviews, reviews! I will love you if you give them to me, because I really want feedback. I want to know if I can actually write well or not!

Please Review!

Till next time,

Laila