Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, that belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. The only thing I own are my OC's.

Enjoy!

Part One: ~birth

"But if I had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice."

-Robert Frost, Fire and Ice

I like to think that the day I was born was a good day. It wasn't, but that doesn't mean I can't hope that I brought some joy. I know that my birth was not something that was planned and even something that was very evident to my mother when she started getting morning sickness and thought she had fallen dangerously ill. She use to tell me that she almost fainted when her healer said that she was pregnant, and that I would be arriving soon. At that point of time I became aware and would listen to her voice.

Why was I aware? All I remembered was sipping wine from one of my family's expensive glasses and suddenly feeling my stomach start burning and my body falling…and then I was inside somewhere really warm and small. I felt strangely safe, and slept for a really long time to the sound of soft feminine whispering. I now know this was my new mother.

On the day I was born I absolutely did not want to leave the safe haven of my mother's womb, it was warm and safe. This is probably the same train of thought everyone forgets when they are born and so I no longer question the selfishness of the human race, because at that moment all I thought about was me. My mother had a difficult childbirth, she had to be cut open by her healer as I was pulled out and slapped to cry. All I was focused on at the time was how cold it was on the outside of her body and that I couldn't see, and then I was handed over to my mother…and I felt content. I guess this is what you call mother-daughter bonding.

Although I felt the regret of feeling this sense of love for a complete stranger there wasn't really a choice of denying the bond between a newborn and their mother. I could feel her warmth as she wrapped me into a cotton blanket and rocked me back and forth, vaguely reminding me of my mother from before. My mother from my first life wasn't really the ideal mother; when I was born she didn't know how to perceive me and as I grew older she tended to ignore me. It's not that she didn't love me, it's more like she didn't know how to handle a child.

Needless to say I was their only child, and heir to their fortune. My parents in that life (I can't remember their names anymore) had been both raised in houses that their main focus was how to earn money and keep it and so they passed the arrogance of the rich onto their daughter. I remember when I thought that I was better than everyone else because I had the best clothes and the best cell phone, and then I was slapped by reality when I started to fall in love with a boy who barely had enough money to feed himself. Love, I have learned, is not something you can chose or predict; it's either there or not. My first love taught me that I should get off my high horse because I'm just like everyone else and I actually believe him…well after denying that I wasn't special in any way and glaring at him when we had classes together in university. He was so frustrating, and for weeks I avoided him because I didn't want to believe that having a lot of money didn't mean I was better than everyone else.

I can't remember his name anymore. I wish I could, but fragments of details from my past life fade as I focused on the life I now reside in. I remember that he had the greenest eyes I had ever seen in my life, and that I cared very deeply for him even when he broke up with me after two years. I don't remember specifically why he did, but I don't think he thought of me as a lover—more of a sister. The memories of him end at that moment, I can't remember ever seeing him again after he told me that it wasn't going to work out but I always get these flashes of him when I sleep.

Two days after I was born the Kazahana Castle of the Land of Snow burned to the ground and left my mother to fend for herself and her newborn. She tells me that she almost didn't make it out of the castle because she was still weak from having me and the walls were caving all around her. What I remember of that day is fire and smoke, and the desperate weak calls of help from my mother.

She barely made it out alive; with me clutched so tightly to her chest she was scared she might have suffocated me. My eyes had not opened fully at that point (thankfully) and so I missed her staring at me critically for any injuries. She carried me through the snow, wind scraping her face as she murmured to me that everything is going to be okay.

If I wasn't here she wouldn't have to go so slow, I think even as a newborn. Although my days pass between the long naps that my body demands I know that it's been at least two since the castle was destroyed. My body is starting to shiver and by the sound of my mother's cough she isn't faring very well either. I fall asleep shortly after noticing and weighing our chances at living and only wake again when I hear voices—unfamiliar voices that swarm my senses.

"Nanami-san!" A man's voice, filled with the kind of desperation that I've heard only once in my life. Footsteps crunching in the icy snow run towards my staggering mother as she starts to slow down. Multiple people, it sounds like, and people that know my mother.

I can hear the smile in my mother's voice, "Sandayu-sama! I'm so relieved to see you, I've been walking for so long…" She pauses and I can feel her shift her arms to bring me closer to her face. "Sayuri is very quiet." Well, yes I'm kind of cold right now (and is that my name?).

Another face grew close to me, by the slight musk smell my brain instantly named it male; this must be Sandayu. He makes a worried noise and suddenly my mother is handing me over into another pair of arms and he's clutching me so tightly that my numb limbs sting from the pressure. I start wailing, my throat burning.

My mother frets, her voice raising in alarm as Sandayu starts to run with her close behind. She's yelling questions about where he's going and all he does is mumble words under his breath and suddenly I can't hear my mother's voice anymore. I start to shake, the longing for my mother causing me to wail yet again and choke out sobs.

"Shh, Yuri-chan, your mother is just being taken to one of the houses. She used up all her energy to get you here, I would like that she rest, don't you?" I cease my crying, my small hands grasping air as he laughs softly. Soon after telling me this we enter a faintly lit room that swells with warmth, even though my eyes have not opened I can see the light of the fire against my eyelids. In the room there is a faint murmuring of women's voices, and when I come into their view there is a long pause.

"Sandayu-sama, who…?" one questions.

"Nanami-san has arrived, she's been wandering for days at least. Her daughter is running a fever," I am? "do you know what to do?"

Another woman answers her voice gruff. "Give her here." He hands me off to another pair of arms, these arms are much warmer and thicker. The woman places one of her fingers on my cheek and huffs when I barely make a movement, she snaps her fingers and suddenly there is something warm and thick running down my throat. Milk.

I gulp it down greedily, thankful for the food my body needed even though I had been ignoring it for so long now that I had almost forgotten that a newborn needs to feed a lot. My throat and lungs burned as I forced as much milk down as I could, until I became aware of how sluggish my body has become and I slow down. It's hard to adjust to being an adult to a newborn, disorienting and confusing to say the least.

I fall asleep shortly afterwards.

My eyes open after two weeks. My mother, who I have learned is named Aiko (although most call her by her family name), was the first person I saw as my eyes adjusted to the light from the fire. The first feature to amaze me is her hair—it's purple. Well, not purple, but a very dark plum color that I only ever thought the odd fruit back home could be. Never would I ever imagine that someone could even be born with hair that shade. She has her (purple) hair pulled away from her face to look down at me, but a few stray strands fall to curve around her oval-shaped face. Her eyes are a very light shade of blue that is lined with a small bit of makeup and her lips are colored a vibrant red. Odd.

She gasps when I open my eyes, her colored lips forming an o shape. "Oh!" Next to her another woman comes into view and I recognize her from the radiating heat coming from her body. The nurse that fed me when my mother and I first arrived at the refugee camp and Aiko was in no shape to feed me herself stands proudly by my mother's side. I'm amazed at her height; she could easily be taller than any woman I ever saw and she's very wide but not fat. Motherly. Her hair is a plain brown that's cut short and her eyes are the same pale blue as Aiko's except that don't hold the same wonder, they have a faint bit of warmth but also caution.

She grins, "Looks like Yuri-chan decided to greet us today." She rubs my forehead and I make a general baby noise of pleasure.

Another voice, young and boyish comes from below where my mother is holding me. I recognize this voice as the nurse's two year old son, Souta, who tends to stare at me when my mother lets him sit next to her. "I wanna see!"

The nurse frowns, rolling her eyes as she lifts the little boy up and I get the first view of the only person who will ever put up with me and my odd way of thinking. Happens when you're really over twenty years old in a child's body, your mind and body tend to go against each other a lot of the time. Souta looks like a general little body, with round cheeks and large eyes; he's a perfect clone of his mother down to the slight dimple on the right side of his mouth. When he catches my eyes he grins, crooked teeth flashing against his brown skin that looks faintly tanned.

Aiko giggles, "I think she likes him." I make a snorting noise, then a short coo as a response and my mother smooth's her hand across my forehead. The nurse places Souta back onto the ground, and his short stubby fingers are suddenly poking my cheeks.

"Talk?" he asks.

Aiko laughs softly, "She won't be talking for a while, Sou-chan." I babble this time to prove a point and then start crying when my stomach pulses with the hunger only a baby can understand. Aiko frets and starts to feed me, her eyes soften as she stares at me and I fall asleep as she whispers something I now think of as a dream.

"His eyes…"

First chapter, done! Yay! Review please, thank you.

-Hotaru