Chapter One
Shards of light shot through the thick mass of clouds suffocating the sun I longed to see. They spotlighted deserted cobblestone streets, icy from the rains of past nights. I looked out on this empty silent world alone. My breath hissed out in puffs of ghostly white and my ears stung from the bitter cold nipping at my exposed skin. Normal children would have run inside, pleading for their mothers to make them hot brews to warm them up. I curl up inside a damp crate and hope that the following morning won't find me dead.
It had been three days after my father's disappearance that I discovered life was difficult. I'd woken up and finally realized that my father was not coming back. He had said don't worry, Akira. I'll be back in a few days. That unspoken promise was gone, like him, a mere memory, fading into the wind. My mother had gotten along for the next week without complaint, still believing in that promise. Then she fell sick. Delirium took her mind, and she called my father's name without pause. She still held faith he would come. My mother was sick for many days, close to five weeks. She never got better. I'd come home from school to find our possessions being sold to pay for the medicine the herbal master had given her. The rest, as they say, is history—or rather, the present.
I crouch in front of an abandoned building, hoping that for once they will see me—the people who walk by. They stare ahead, eyes focused on a path I cannot see. The younger children will slide frightened eyes to stare at me; when they eventually realizing that I can see them as well, they turn away, hoping I don't notice. I do.
Then the impossible struck, crashing in the midst of my thoughts. Something glinting dropped down beside me. I looked up, but it seems to have fallen from the sky. Maybe it has. Either way, it's luck that I have scarcely seen.
A kunai, sleek, sharp and elegant, landed next to me and I wondered if I can sell it for food. My examination of it begins with the odd circle above the grip. It's almost black, decorated with sapphires. The grip is unusual, coarse and oddly warm, like someone has just held it. Then I saw the blade. I couldn't tell if the edge was really that sharp or it just looked it. The triangular blade was engraved with something, two letters that I had learned to make out before I'd left school: I. U.
I.U.? Ignorant Underclassmen? Iwagakure University? Maybe I should think about who threw it instead…
"May I have that back?" The voice was all smooth and quiet. I almost didn't look up; it had been that long since I'd talked to another person.
The man that stood in front of me looked like me. No, not by appearance, but his eyes. They were like mine, made to grow up before they were meant to.
His request took me by surprise though and I looked down again. I was a coward, something I cannot control and so I kept still, unable to look into his eyes for a second time. He held out his hand and I studied it as it lingered before my eyes. The palm was smooth with an intricate pattern of lines, slim fingers stretching towards me.
"The kunai?"
My head snapped up once again and this time I noticed something besides his eyes. He didn't have mere black hair. His silken locks were the kind of black that no other color could invade. Long wrinkles like trenches framed his nose, making him look all the older. The obsidian that constituted his eyes was cold and nonetheless inviting. The tall man exuded a presence that cowed me further. He was emotionless, yet he spoke with politeness, as if to him, I mattered.
The cloak he wore swept the ground, black with foreboding red clouds clinging to it. It triggered something in my mind; however I couldn't find what it was.
I managed to place the weapon in his strangely warm hand, feeling the calluses on the pads of his fingertips.
"Your name?"
"Akira. Akira Suzuki." My voice was dry and croaky since I rarely used it.
"Look at me, Akira." I did just that, his voice held an allure that I couldn't shake.
I should not have looked.
His eyes were no longer that nice shade of black. Crimson orbs spun wildly, three commas dancing in his gaze. My mind froze and I could feel pain, a wave of it designed to knock me out. A hundred kunai, burning and merciless, plunged into my body simultaneously. If this is a preview of hell, I think I'll pray every day now.
Then I blacked out.
O0o0o0
"I have her. I have the key to Orochimaru's downfall...and with it, my brother's life."