Chapter One... No I'm not lying.
I stroked my raven braid delicately. It was my pride and joy, my signature style. The black ribbon of my headband flowed into the dark waves of hair that snaked down my back. Where the cloth ended and my hair began was impossible to tell. Tiredly, I straightened my robe-like dress. It was large, baggy, and came down to my ankles in an earthy, brown, shape-less mass. My fingertips barely showed at the end of my cuffed sleeves. I looked down over my form. I had another signature 'habit.' I hid all my weaponry underneath my robe. Under the robe, I have a skin tight body suit. The weapons are heavy, but they don't hinder my speed. It's what sets me apart. Normally, as ninja fight, they slow down from fatigue. I am an exception, but only because of my specialized fighting style. I fight only using the arsenal of projectile weapons I have hidden on me. While I attack the enemy, I lose the enormous weight of the shuriken, sebon, and kunais I carry. As I lose weight, I become faster. Not only do I then have the upper hand physically, but it mentally diminishes the opponent too. So long as I am faster, there's no way I'll lose.
Proud of own cleverness I smiled into the mirror, only to realize my surroundings. My stomach lurched and threatened to return my miniscule breakfast. I was in a hotel, in Konoha. Konoha, the last place on earth that I wanted to be. Under different circumstances, I wouldn't have minded so much, but... I was here to repay a debt because of a failure in my brilliant attack strategy. The memory shoved its way into my consciousness, unbidden and unwelcomed.
The day was lightening up after the gloom of the fog that came off the ocean and settled over the Land of the Waves. The heat of battle had adrenaline thrumming through my blood, but my frayed nerves were slowing down my reactions. I had always been the leader in speed. Somehow, this lowlife rogue was besting me at my own game. I was just seconds too slow, but it was enough for the rogue ninja to find an opening. He dodged a fistful of shruiken and appeared behind me. I turned around and time seemed to stop. I wasn't as invincible as I had believed. Stunned, I stood immobilized. This worthless scum was about to end all that I had worked so hard to achieve. I knew wasn't I fast enough to escape his attack after my hesitation. I saw the claw reaching out of the masked freak's shroud and glinting in the budding sunlight. It was coming for my neck, just below my jaw, I could feel the blowing tingling before it even hit. But as I tried to wrap my head around my certain death, I was saved. An arm snaked around the front of my shoulders and swiftly uprooted me from the spot I should have died in. My eyes refused to leave the metallic claw implanted on the enemy's arm, as it shredded nothing but air. Being dropped onto the ground jerked me back to reality. I turned to identify my rescuer. A familiar, but still uncomfortable wave of nausea swept over me as I recalled Sasuke Uchiha standing beside me. I would rather have ended unceremoniously then and there, than lived and been in debt like this.
I turned rigidly to leave. As I did, I glimpsed my reflection in the mirror. My face was hard and ivory white with anger. I couldn't live like this. The last thing I wanted to do was save Sasuke Uchiha from certain death. There had to be another way out of this mess. If only there was something he did that would cancel out every good deed he had done. Some dark twisted secret that no one knew. The kid screamed evil secret, finding a good piece of dirt on him shouldn't be too hard. But he was so secretive. Finding out what I wanted to know was going to be a bit more of a task than I anticipated… I would have to stick to the brat like glue.
I left quickly, practicing my stealth before the day really began by sliding out the window. As the sun rose, I sat rather uncomfortably seated in a tree overlooking Uchiha's house. All the windows were curtained and shuttered, to my dismay. How was I supposed to know if this guy was even awake?! But fortunately for my sanity, he walked out the front door arrogantly without keeping me too long.
I had assumed the arrogance and tough guy act was, well, an act. But even now, with no one in sight, he strutted down the pathway with malice. Exactly what kind of person was I following? Seeing this, I wasn't so sure about what I would do if he caught me. Not really that I had been sure of that in the first place.
While I surveyed him from my cover in the abundance of shrubbery around the village, he stopped by his teammates, only to blow them off, and slip away to train. When I say 'slip away,' I mean, I blinked, yawned, or something, and he was gone. Simple as that, gone. I panicked and almost fell from one of my treetop perches. How could anyone disappear like that?! This wasn't a fair game. But he had not so politely excused himself from his comrades' presence to train, if I overheard correctly. It shouldn't be too hard to track him if he was honest to them. I regained my poise and slid into the shadows to search the training grounds.
I found the part of the forest that enveloped Konoha and had been set aside for training grounds easily. They appeared empty and desolate at first. He must have lied! That definitely meant he was up to something unwholesome, but the knowledge did me no good without knowing exactly what it was. As I turned to leave in the shadows from whence I had come, I realized that the emptiness of the training area was only part of some genjutsu. This genjutsu was odd and unlike any I had seen before. But even more puzzling was its purpose. Why would someone go through all this trouble? Whoever it was, was obliviously up to something no good. This was much more interesting than anything that Sasuke could ever be involved in. I decided it was a worthy sidetrack, considering the arguments against it were flimsy and not worth my thought. What was I now, the foreign ninja detective of Konoha?
I set off by moving tree by tree. I had time. Who ever was here, was in my sights and I had the up on them now. I came across two or three clearings, all empty and devoid of clues. By the fourth or fifth one I came across, I was growing tired of my stealthy and routine sweeps of the massive training areas. But nonetheless, I crept to the edge of the clearing. I was about to leave until I heard a voice. At first I thought I was going slightly insane, but I came closer to the outer edge. That was when I recognized Sasuke's voice. A million questions exploded in my mind at once.
"You won't get away with what you've done," he yelled," I will kill you!"
The words shocked me. I had to take some kind of action. Without thinking, I leapt out of my hiding place and into the edge of the clearing. I stood there unnoticed while another ninja flew towards Sasuke. The ninja seized him by the throat and rammed him into a tree. I watched the jacket the mysterious ninja wore settle around him while he calmly held Sasuke's neck. The rest of his body caught up to his head, which proceeded to meet the tree mercilessly. I studied the red clouds on the black background of the jacket, while the ninja held Sasuke's eyes. From my vantage point I could only see the black hair of the ninja that swept back into a pony tail, which I could only guess the length of. It struck me, as I stood dumbfounded, that Sasuke and the new ninja shared almost the same exact shade of black hair.
"Good bye little brother," I heard the ninja say in low, deadly voice.
What?! Brother?! When did Sasuke have any family? Such a self-centered person was surely an only child.. Right? The shock was too much.
"STOP!" I cried, wanting time to wait for me to get my bearings again, so that I could comprehend the situation before me. Too many shocks all at once.
The ninja, who I now identified as Sasuke's brother, turned and met my eyes. The blood red of the sharingun was more mesmerizing and terrifying than I could have imagined. The world swam away and I felt my body taken over by an unexpected numbness. Was this the power of the sharingun? As I gaped at him, I began to feel almost as if I had known him from some past life. The hard expression on his face softened. Maybe that was a trick of my imagination. I stood transfixed until he turned away, and broke the spell he had over me. He abruptly dropped Sasuke to the ground and disappeared into the lengthening shadows of the forest.
I did not move my feet from where he had rooted them, until I heard Sasuke gasping and gulping for air. It dawned on me that he must have been choking Sasuke, as I walked dazedly towards him. I stood over him, staring at a patch of the sky through the trees, pondering the last minute or so of my life. I looked down to see Sasuke reach his hand out towards me. Still half gone, I stared at it with a quizzical expression. Then I realized he had wanted help to him up whilst he pulled himself upright. Embarrassed at my idiocy and angry that he had the audacity to do such a thing, I turned my back to him.
"What did you – cough - do to him?" Sasuke asked, still struggling for air. "What did you do?" he insisted in slightly steadier voice.
I didn't say anything. The question had caught me off guard. I had no idea what kind of answer he expected. I couldn't give something that I simply didn't have.
Instead I asked a question of my own," Who was that exactly? Why did he call you 'little brother?'"
He paused and his face hardened to stone. Clearly this was something he did not want to answer. "It doesn't matter to you." he replied sternly.
"Answer me, or I'll find other ways to get what I want.." I said curtly.
"I said it was none of your business.." He hissed, all his venom leaking out his eyes as he glared at me with contempt.
"I saved you, I want answers." I said, pulling my defective triumph card. But he didn't seem to notice its flaw, and sigh resignedly
"If you must know, it was my brother." He said as if that explained everything.
But I persisted on, "I heard what you said earlier. Why do what to kill him? I mean he's your brother, right?"
"I hate him," Sasuke replied slowly. Getting answers from him was like pulling teeth. Well duh! I mean I just go around trying to slaughter the people I adore most. I had no idea you hated him, I thought maliciously.
"Why do you hate him?" I said as if speaking to a small uncomprehending child.
He gave a disgusted look. "He killed my entire clan. I'm the only survivor," he replied acidly.
I stared stupidly at him. I had no idea until exactly who he was. I remember vaguely hearing about the massacre when I was younger a few years back. I wondered why I hadn't made the connection sooner.
"I am an avenger.." he said quietly, and for once without prompting. I glanced up form my feet to his face, only to see him watching the forest.
His words stirred an anger in my heart and I pitied him a little. Without my permission, the words escaped my mouth, "You can't live in the past. You'll have to move on eventually." I sounded harsh and critical, even to myself.
"Who are you to judge me?" he said, turning on me. "You don't know anything about what my life has been like."
"You're right, I don't know. But that doesn't mean you can isolate yourself like this. Your 'mission in life', or whatever, it's wrong, and you know it." I whispered, trying to catch his eyes.
"Like you said, you don't know anything.." Sasuke replied, twisting my own words around on me. Before I could argue what he said, he turned and left me alone in the training grounds as twilight came over the world.
I guess that explained some things. My debt to him was repaid, I could leave to go home now. But leaving like that, it would have left too many questions unanswered. I couldn't just walk away from the mess in which I had entangled myself. I had solved one problem only to stumble into another.
Yep.. She's a retard. I know, and that's why I love her. And kinda hate her.. Give me reviews.. PLEASE!!