Eye of the Storm
Chapter 1: Horse With No Name
The shadows stretched across the ground, reaching away from the setting sun. The sky looked like a blanket of cherry blossom petals flowing delicately, reflecting the sun's final rays of light. The air felt calm and peaceful, the smell of flowers and pollen engulfing my nostrils…
I stared off in deep thought as I walked towards the faces in the mountains I had seen from afar. I felt I was doing this almost automatically, like I didn't have a choice in the matter.
Suddenly, I was startled and thrown to the ground as a powerful force struck the back of my head.
I stumbled to my feet to find two guys around me, ugly smirks across their faces.
"Give us all your possessions and we'll let you go without a scratch." Said the tallest goon, his eyes were burning with greed.
I placed my hand on the back of my head to check for blood. To my surprise, it was just a lump.
"You seem to have already broken that agreement." I spat to him.
"We'll just have to rough up this punk!" The fattest goon punched the palm of his hand several times. Teeth were missing from his grin as he spoke again, "His attitude is pissing me off."
They both moved so fast I couldn't tell who was throwing the kicks and punches at me. I tried to duck, I tried to block, but it was to no avail that I found the strength to help myself.
I became all too familiar with the ground in such a short time. Every time I tried to get up, I'd only be reminded at how weak I was. I didn't like this.
I lied there briefly to collect my thoughts. Everything was going so fast. Was this going to be the end? Was I never going to reach those mountains?
Suddenly I felt a burning desire inside to keep getting up. I applied pressure to my left eye to prevent swelling and to help the pain. I stood up, almost falling over but keeping my balance long enough to say, "I won't lose to the likes of you!"
That's when the whole tide of battle seemed to unexpectedly shift. They now looked at me with worried eyes.
"I-I know that…! I recognize it! We've got to get out of here!" The tall ugly one seemed to be very afraid and staggered away, leaving the big dumb one behind.
"Ah-uuugh I know let's scram!" And with that, they were gone in an instant. I smiled as I fell to the ground, passing out before my face could embrace the dirt.
When I finally arrived to a town called "Konoha" the moon was high in the sky. I noticed the five faces carved into the huge mountain that loomed over it and tried to focus on them in great detail. Four of them were men and the last one was a woman. I had guessed they were very important people for this town. I gazed upon the fourth face in awe, and decided he would be my favorite.
When I finally came to, I realized that I didn't even remember anything recent about my past. All I could think of was being in darkness, complete silence, except for this strange feeling I had to help someone. Someone close to me, someone I was sure was my friend.
But how was I going to locate my friend? Maybe they would somehow recognize me?
I wandered around Konoha almost aimlessly. I didn't really bother to look around much; there were only a few people on the streets at this time. I knew I wouldn't be lucky enough to find them on a dime like this.
I did stop to look at a flier, however. It read, "Konohagakure's Hanami Festival: March 25-27." I didn't even know what day it was today. I let out a hefty sigh of discouragement. Now that it was late night time, it started to become a bit cold and I really needed to find somewhere to sleep.
I did happen upon a bench, and even though it was made of rock, it could have been made of clouds for all I cared, since I felt like I hadn't slept in years.
It was a good thing I had a jacket on, otherwise I was sure I would've froze to death overnight. I couldn't believe how cold it was, I knew it was near spring, but how could the cold still linger around like this? I felt sore from the beating I had taken yesterday, but knew it wasn't anything serious.
I got up to stretch and take a second to notice my surroundings. Some of the residents of Konoha seemed to be starting to set up tables and decorations for the festival today. My stomach roared as the aroma of food filled the streets. I couldn't help but follow the tantalizing smell deeper into town.
As if subconsciously, I had made my way to a place called "Ichiraku Ramen." I peered in only to find out that there weren't any current customers. The roaring of my stomach grew louder, so much to where it became noticeable to someone other than me.
"Hello! What can I get you?" said a cute brown eyed woman.
"Ugh... umm… but, I don't have any money, so…" but then my stomach betrayed me again.
"Well, since you're my fourth customer of the day, it'll be on me." She suggested with a wink.
I felt my face light up. "Really? That would be great!" I said as I took a seat. "Wait, why the fourth customer?"
"Four happens to be my favorite number." She giggled.
"Oh, that's lucky for me, then." I grinned along with her.
She placed a bowl of a delicious looking meal in front of me. "Itadakimasu!" I said as I took a bite. It was delicious… for the first few seconds until suddenly…
"Hot… hot! HOT! This is the spiciest thing ever!" I yelled as I fanned my tongue.
"I'm sorry, is it too hot! It's a recipe I've been experimenting with!" she held out a glass of water that seemed to have appeared from thin air. "I'm sorry. Here, drink this quickly!"
After my mouth was no longer on fire, she offered another bowl of ramen, assuring me this one would not melt my taste buds.
I cautiously took a bite from this one, unbeknownst to her as to prevent hurting her feelings and this one appeared to be normal… well not just normal, very delicious.
After a long while of chatting and stuffing my face, I found out that her name was Ayame, and that her and her father ran that ramen place. It turned out he was out of town for the moment on a business trip of some sort. I felt pretty bad that she had to run it on her own, especially since the festival was going to start in a few hours' time.
"I'm sorry again about that spicy ramen. I was hoping to make it successful enough to where my Dad would add it on to our old menu." She said as she bowed.
"It's ok Ayame, I know you meant well," I stared at the bottom of my empty bowl. "This was the greatest meal I've ever had in my whole life." I meant that to the fullest of my stomach.
"Aw, you're just saying that," She blushed a little. "But thank you though, that means a lot... Um, what is your name? I know I've never seen you around Konoha before."
Name. A name? I couldn't think of what to say. In that second I searched the depths of my soul for a name. Anything. I didn't want to look like a nameless freak. But I also didn't want to lie to this sweet girl. The only person I've known so far to treat me with such un-measureable kindness. I had to come up with something, she was waiting, and I couldn't back out of this one.
"Takashi?" I said with a small amount of uncertainty. "Takashi Nakamura." I grinned nervously.
"It's nice to officially meet you, Takashi." She softly smiled.
"The same for you, Ayame, it's a real pleasure to meet someone like you." I said as I finished the rest of my water.
She began to pick up my mess, and I felt the need to help.
"Ayame, will you be able to handle working the festival by yourself?"
"Well, my Dad's never been away on such busy days before, but I bet I can handle it."
"Are you sure? I could definitely help you out with dishes and cleaning."
She thought about it for a minute, resting her head on her hand.
"Sure, why not? You can start right now, actually." Then she looked me up and down. "Wait; let me get you and apron and a hat."Ayame disappeared into the back of the store briefly and returned, motioning with her hand to step behind the counter.
I slipped on my uniform, and then smiled at the thought of having my first job.
"Ok, let's go into the back room and I'll show you how to properly wash these dishes." She said as I grabbed my bowl from the front counter and followed close behind.
After just a few minutes of washing dishes, I slipped into a trance. I couldn't help but think about all the things that had happened to me in just a few hours. If I tried to remember anything earlier, it seemed to give me a small dosage of pain. I tried to avoid thinking about this.
I sighed heavily. I still could not help but think about who my friend was. Was I ever going to find him? I didn't even know his name.
I dropped a bowl on the ground. How did I know it was a he?
Ayame came running into the back room. "Takashi! Are you ok?"
"Y-yes, Ayame, I'm so sorry." I bent down to start picking up the broken ceramic frantically.
"Here," said Ayame as she used a small broom and a dust pan. "I'll take care of this, and I need you to watch the front counter for orders."
"Of course, it's not a problem Ayame." I dried off my hands and went up to the front to expect lots of customers. To my surprise, there was only one. The first thing I noticed about him was the cast over his right arm. He looked confused when I asked him what he would like to eat.
"When did you start working here?" He questioned.
"Just today, Ayame's father is on a business trip so I'm helping her out."
"Ok, give me a bowl of miso ramen with extra pork."
"Not a problem." I said as I proceeded to write it down, sloppily, I might add.
"I'm Naruto, by the way, Naruto Uzumaki."
"Oh, I'm Takashi Nakamura; it's nice to meet you, Naruto." I bowed politely.
"I've never seen you around before, are you new?" His curiosity beamed on his face.
"Yes, well, I'm just passing through."
"Where are you heading?"
"No where in particular, but I'm trying to find someone here in Konoha."
"Anybody I know?"
"The thing is, I don't know his name."
"What? Then how are you supposed to find him?" He wailed.
"I'm not sure… exactly. But I do know that my friend is a 'he.'"
"How do you know this?"
He's right, I thought to myself. How would I know that? This only brought up my most recent of a hundred questions.
"I remember his face." I lied.
"I see. Well, maybe I can help you find him?"
"Are you sure? That would be great!" I smiled as I saw that Ayame came back. She was just bringing out Naruto's order.
Placing it in front of him, she asked. "So how's my best and favorite customer?"
"Much better now that I have this food." He joked as he gobbled it down whole-heartedly. Ayame and I both laughed.
"So how are we going to find the person I'm looking for, Naruto?"
Ayame's interest was piqued. "Oh? You're looking for someone, Takashi?"
Naruto spoke for me, "Yeah, Takashi remembers what he looks like, but not his name." Doubt enveloped me. I wish I at least had that…
"Huh. Well, you'll have an excellent opportunity in the next three days since there will be lots of people here at the festival."
"Hey that's a great idea Ayame! I didn't think about that."
"What do you mean, Naruto?" I asked.
"Since there will be a lot of people here at the festival, you can just look at all of their faces and see if it matches the memory you have."
Great, I thought to myself, how am I going to compare faces to a memory I don't have?
"I do still have to help with Ichiraku." I said. "I need to pay you back for the bowl I broke, too."
"Well…" she pondered."I guess for now I can do it on my own, it's about time I tried it. My father isn't always going to be around to help me, you know. Besides, you can always work here when the festival is over too."
"That's awesome Ayame, now Takashi and I can go find his friend." He beamed.
I took off my apron and my little white hat and handed it to Ayame. "This means a lot to me, thank you very much." I bowed to her. Even if I don't have much of a clue how to find him, at least I have some great help around me.
"Here's your pay for the past hour, Takashi." Ayame handed me ¥500. This was a lot more than I had expected.
"Wow! Thank you very much, Ayame!" I was so overjoyed my mouth hurt from smiling so much. "I owe you one."
"You're welcome, Takashi. I know you're going to need it."
Naruto struggled using his chop sticks with his left hand to pick up his pork, so I felt the need to help him. After all, he was helping me with something I probably couldn't do alone either.
Naruto and I started walking around Konoha's Hanami Festival around 10:00am. I made sure to look at every single male person to see if I would get any kind of gut feeling or a sudden blink of a memory. So far I hadn't gotten anything and I was sure I had looked into the faces of at least fifty male people so far. Even though I was starting to feel hopeless, Naruto's determined spirit made me want to go on. It was really funny, though, how Naruto and I bonded almost instantly. It was like we were long lost brothers or something. Maybe we were just a lot alike though?
After such a long time of walking around, I just had to get something to eat. Naruto was hungry as well, so we bought something to eat from the stand we were closest to and sat down at a nearby bench. As I ate my food, I couldn't help but look up at the five faces carved into the mountain once again. The fourth face seemed almost familiar to me that an idea struck me. What if he is the friend I'm looking for? He does seem to be someone I would know after all. I decided to try and ask Naruto.
"Hey, can I ask you something?"
He spoke with a mouth full of food, "Thure, thut zu thu thunna thask?"
"Well, it's just that… I don't know, but the fourth face up there on that mountain seems kind of familiar. Who is he?" Naruto's face became serious as he spoke.
"He… died, a long time ago. He was protecting Konoha from a… terrible monster." His face saddened intensely.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Naruto."
"It's ok Takashi. You didn't know." He said as he finished up his food. After a few seconds of silence, he got up and started waving frantically to someone with the biggest grin on his face I'd ever seen.
"Hey! Sakura-chan! Hey! Sai!"
"Come on," He said to me. "I want you to meet my friends." I stood up and walked over with him.
"Hey Sakura-chan! How do you like the Hanami Festival so far?" He asked the pink haired girl.
"Well, it's been pretty fun I guess. Sai here just doesn't know how to enjoy it, though. He's never been to one." I looked at the dark haired guy standing next to her. His face seemed so empty yet I still got the impersonation that he was having a good time.
"I'm still getting used to this, Sakura." He told both her and Naruto.
"Oh? Who's this, Naruto?" The girl asked as she looked at me. Her stare made me slightly nervous. Her aqua colored eyes had an edge to them, but deep within them were pools of a hidden secret…
"This is Takashi Nakamura."
She was cute. No, she was beautiful. But still not as beautiful as… and in that second, I saw the image of a girl flash in my mind. Huh? Who was that? I was so utterly confused that Naruto and the other two saw that I was out of it.
"Takashi?" Naruto moved his hand in front of my face.
"Huh? Oh, sorry! Hello, I'm Takashi Nakamura," I bowed to both of them. "I'm very pleased to meet you both."
"I'm Sakura Haruno." She said with a smile.
"I'm Sai." He said with what I think was a smile.
"I'm helping Takashi find someone here in Konoha," Naruto told them. "He doesn't remember his name but he does remember his face."
"Huh. Well, maybe we can help you out. Mind if we come along?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah, sure, the more help the better." I said with a big grin painted across my face.
Walking around with Naruto and his friends was really fun. I also discovered the capacity of Sakura's strength as she tested it on Naruto. I felt so bad for him after that, but he did kind of deserve it. I laughed silently to myself. Sai was a strange one. Although he was silent and I forgot he was there, he did try and speak up and say something funny or nice, but it didn't end up that way most of the time. Sakura must really like punching these two all the time. There was no way I was going to join that club.
As soon as it was getting late, it started to get a little bit chillier. I couldn't believe how fast the day had gone by. Sakura had already left to go home for the night, and only now did Sai begin to leave as well, but before Naruto could even say a word about leaving, a woman holding a pig came up to us.
"Naruto, Hokage-sama needs to talk to you right away."
"Ok, Shizune." Naruto turned to me. "Do you have anywhere to stay tonight, Takashi?"
"Nope, not at all, unless that bench over there counts." I pointed at the same bench I had slept on last night.
"Come on, come with me." He pulled me along. The woman with the pig in her arms was gone just as quickly as she had appeared in our presence.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"We're going to see Old Lady Tsunade." He grinned sheepishly.
"Well, what do you need, Old Lady Tsunade?" We stood in front of a grand desk with a blonde haired woman behind it. Her hazel eyes could pierce into your soul… or so it seemed. She had a diamond shape on her forehead, oh, and did I mention very huge breasts?
"I need you to do me a favor, Naruto."
"Is it a mission? Is it a mission?" Naruto said with excitement. What was a mission for?
"Something like that, but with your condition it isn't very tough. Only you are able to do it, however."
"Ok, what is it?"
Her eyes darted to me and I wondered what was up. "Please ask your company to leave first." Naruto didn't even have to say a word before I was already stepping outside of the door. I wasn't a part of this mission stuff anyway so I didn't want to bother them.
I stood with my back against the wall and just stared at the floor. How far have I gotten in the past few hours? I thought to myself. I don't even feel any closer to my goal then when I first arrived to Konoha. I felt tears well up behind my eyes. Now's not the time to cry… I told myself. Now's not the time to cry. But my eyes were betrayed and tears ran down my cheeks.
Suddenly, I felt a presence, and I looked up. I quickly wiped my eyes to clear my vision and noticed someone was standing there, staring at me. He had white, spiked hair, with a mask over his face, but his headband fell over his left eye. I could see a very lost look on his face, despite only being able to see a part of it. He looked scared or frightened. No, it was more like he had just seen a ghost.
Just then, Naruto came rushing out of the door. "Ah! Kakashi-Sensei! Just the person I needed to find." But he still kept his eye on me, not moving a single muscle. "Kakashi-Sensei?"
Kakashi then shocked himself out of his glare. "Sorry. What was his name again?"
Naruto finally seemed to notice Kakashi's odd behavior. He turned to me, giving me a questioning look. I shrugged, not knowing the answer he wanted to hear. It seemed to linger on longer, but all was silent and still for a brief second in time…
Naruto was the first one to speak.
"Kakashi-Sensei, why are you staring at him like that?" My stomach churned at his question, as if I didn't want to know the answer. Kakashi didn't reply, but only began to walk towards me. I was afraid of what he was going to do, but I stood still regardless.
When he stopped in front of me, he placed his book into the small bag behind him. Maybe this was more serious than I thought. Naruto stood there, as utterly confused as I was. Neither he nor I could read what the emotion was on his face. Was Kakashi going to attack me? Perhaps it was for the best if he did, maybe that was my goal, what I was here for.
"Kakashi-Sensei, do you know who he is?" Naruto asked. He only ignored his question yet again. I wasn't really prepared for what happened next.
Ever so cautiously, Kakashi lifted his right arm and steadily reached out his hand towards me. I saw it shaking slightly so I clamped my eyes shut, bewildered at what was going to happen. In that moment, I felt his hand on my shoulder. I had my eyes open in an instant to see what his expression was. He looked so relieved and peaceful; it was easy to see it labeled on his face, regardless of his mask and headband. He let his arm drop to his side before he spoke. I couldn't tell if it was to me but he faintly whispered, "You're real."
I decided to respond without thinking, "Of course I'm real." He only looked like he doubted what I said, so I spoke again. "What makes you think otherwise?"
He blinked slowly, took a deep breath, and said, "It's nothing. I just need some sleep."
Kakashi turned and started to walk away from us but Naruto's curiosity was not satisfied. "Kakashi-Sensei what was all that about?"
"I'm not feeling well; I really should get some rest."
"Oh, well, I just needed to ask you a favor." Naruto put on a big grin. "I just got a mission from Old Lady Tsunade and Takashi here needs a place to stay since I'll be gone for the night."
Kakashi looked back at me, then back at Naruto, "Fine, just for tonight."
"Awesome! I'll be back tomorrow morning Takashi. Then we can look for your friend." He said as he started to jog towards the exit.
"Ok, thank you Naruto." I smiled and waved to him.
"Come along, Takashi." Kakashi said sternly.
After what felt like hours, but was only mere minutes of following Kakashi to his apartment, we finally arrived.
Once inside, it was cozy, but quite small. I walked around the living room to take in my surroundings.
I tried to compliment it as to avoid the awkward silence but was cut short when he motioned for me to follow him down the hall. While walking down the hall, I stopped to take a peek in a room and noticed it was completely full of books similar to the one he had on him! Kakashi coughed as to get my attention and I grinned, embarrassed once I realized I had been caught. He pointed to a room at the far end of the hall.
"You can sleep here tonight. You can find blankets in the closet on the right." He advised.
"Ok. Thank you, Kakashi."
He turned to go down the hallway and held up his hand to let me know it wasn't a problem. I smiled at the thought of having these great people in my life.
To be continued…