1A/N: 1/5/2013- Hey everyone! I am currently altering the beginning chapters of this story- it won't be anything major, just thought I should let you know. Thanks and enjoy reading! :)

What is it like to die?

Strangely you would think I would have contemplated that thought a little more in life then I did. But it often isn't until we have to fight the enemy that we truly consider the foe's face. And it wasn't until I was sixteen years old, that I actually meat death eye to eye.

Sixteen years. Even now that notion still sounds absurd to me- I mean, I brushed by death many times in my life. My entire clan died when I was seven for crying out loud!

Yet there is something to be said about the blindness, and pride of the human mind.

I mean, I truly thought I was invincible.

Sure there were close calls, but what is a few scrapes and bruises in the face of ambition and destiny? I fell in the past, but then, past examples have shown to me that I would rise once again.

The key was always about never registering there was a cliff on either side of you- a chance that this time the kunai will not miss, that the hand chocking you will remain steady for a few seconds more.

Death shouldn't have been a stranger to me when he came- and yet, he was.

I wasn't ready to die- then again, is anyone every really? People often put on a brave face in front of it, they lift their chin, steady their sights, but when the time comes… You can still see that tremble, the quickened breath, the panic.

For death is not an enemy you can conquer, and the afterlife is a realm where no man returns to tell the tale.

The day I died, I was afraid.

…Yet I can still remember that last flash of the fire's light through the swaying weeds; that gust of wind in the nighttime air…

I was frightened; but a small voice in me kept me calm, kept me centered admits my despair. I didn't know what lay ahead of me on the road, but whatever it was, it had to be peaceful right? Death was the eternal sleep, and in it I could finally find that peace Naruto enjoys talking about so much.

…Yeah right.

If I knew what laid ahead of me then, as I do now, I would have told that small voice to shut up.

Because life was hard-

But death, was the beginning of something even harder.