Remember
That
nothing here seems difficult
I'll be the wish upon a star
I've
lost something so magical
And gone so far
Just remember
When
everything is difficult
I'll be shining from a far
When it
feels like things have gone away
I'll see you again
I'll see you again, Goodbye
Grey clouds hung low in the sky; water was hanging off the trees from the recent rain. The forest was quiet save for two small children; a girl and a boy playing make believe.
"Come save me, Prince Sasuke-kun!" A girl with long black piggy tales, who was no older than six, cried out as she sat in a tree. Her light blue eyes took in her surroundings as she waited in a tree for her prince to come and rescue her from the evil ninjas. "Sasuke-kun, where are you?" She called out. She waited for her best friend to find her.
"I'm coming princess Ri'n." Sasuke, a boy with spiky dark hair, called to her as he fought the invisible foe that was standing between them. "I will kill you for capturing the princess!" He waved a wooden kunai in the air. "Take that, evil ninjas, and that!" He threw his kunai at one of the imaginary foes, and the toy went right into a bush.
"I have saved you Princess!" The dark haired boy walked towards the girl in the tree, but stopped as another child came out of the bush. It was a small boy with red hair and dark blue eyes filled with tears. In his hand was a bear with the wooden Kunai sticking out of the plush toy's head.
"You killed my bear!" He cried furiously tears were pouring down his cheeks.
Sasuke looked at the plush animal and laughed. "Only babies carry stuffed bears!" He moved towards the tree that his best friend was sitting in.
The little red-headed boy dropped the bear and lunged for Sasuke. "That's not true, take it back!" He was hitting and punching Sasuke. "I'm not a baby!"
The little girl in the tree watched on with fear and amazement. She leaned forward as Sasuke fell to the ground, which put her off balance. She gasped as she started to fall from her branch
The boy with red hair saw her slip and quickly caught her. The little girl was ready to hit the ground but, instead, found herself looking into the boy's eyes.
"I'm Gaara. Are you really a princess?" He asked innocently.
"I'm Riven, and you hurt my best friend!" She pushed him away and ran over the Sasuke. "Go away, you're a horrible person! GO AWAY!" She yelled at the red-haired boy. She picked up one of Susuke's wooden kunai, which had fallen into a puddle of water, and threw it at Gaara.
As the kunai left Riven's hand something strange happened with the water, it made almost a line from her hand to the head of the boy where the kunai hit. Sasuke was sitting up by this time and watching as Gaara ran away with fear.
"Sasuke-kun, are you hurt?" Riven knelt down in the mud beside her friend.
"I'm fine." He grumbled, but then noticed the look of hurt on his friend's face. "Don't worry, Ri'n, I'm just upset at the boy, not you!" He hugged her as if trying to be reassuring.
"Ok, Sasuke-kun." She smiled, but her forehead furrowed as drops of water started to come from the grey sky. "We need to go, or Big sister will be worrying about me."
The two walked back to the village hand in hand, talking about the weird water trail on the kunai, the strange boy they met, and when they next would be able to play together.
"Some day I'm going to save you for real, Ri'n!" Sasuke announced. "Then I really will be your prince, and you'll be my princess, and…. And we could live happily ever after, like all those stories we hear." He blushed at his final statement.
"Oh look at that, my little brother wants to be a hero already." The children were interrupted by Sasuke's older brother, Itachi. "Riven, your sister is coming for dinner, so you can just come home with Sasuke and me."
"What about father?" Sasuke interrupted. "Does he mind?"
"He is at a meeting this evening with the Police Force, Sasuke. Mother has already agreed to have the Shuro family stay for the evening meal." Itachi smiled. "Don't worry, little-brother, I made sure it was ok."
Sasuke and Riven skipped the rest of the way to the house where Riven's sister, Hoshi was waiting for them. "Sasuke, did you manage to rescue my sister today?" Hoshi hugged Riven then Sasuke.
Sasuke stuck out his lower lip. "No, I didn't get a chance. Some boy with red hair, really scary eyes, and a teddy bear attacked me. Ri'n ended up saving me by throwing one of my toy kunai at him." He paused and looked back to Riven proudly. "She made a water string follow the kunai and scared that boy away."
Hoshi's smiled was instantly replaced with a frown. "You must have been mistaken; Riven couldn't have made a water string follow the kunai… the ability to control water an ability that takes years to cultivate. A six year old can't do that." Hoshi pulled on a strand of her blue hair; her eyes were clouded with thought.
"Hoshi-Chan?" Itachi whispered to Hoshi. "What's wrong?" He put his hand on her arm. "You look ill."
Her eyes cleared up. "I have some bad news." She looked as if she was about to cry. "Riven we are leaving Konoha." She looked to Itachi and almost whispered. "I'm sorry, Itachi-kun."
"Leaving, when will you be back?" Sasuke tightened his grip on his best friend's hand. "I still want to be able to play with Riven. I still have to rescue her from the evil ninjas."
"She won't be coming back Sasuke. Don't worry, you can play with her all tomorrow, but we leave the next day." Hoshi looked though Sasuke to Itachi. "So make sure you tell her good-bye."
"Why!?"
"What, Riven?" Hoshi was amazed her sister would yell.
"Why must we leave Konoha? It's our home." Riven was shaking from the anger. "Why?" She cried out.
"Riven," Hoshi knelt down next to her sister. "You are to start school this year in Takigakura's training school." Hoshi pulled her sister close to her, "you are to have the training I can't give you."
"She's going to the Land of the Waterfall?" Sasuke asked, but he didn't receive an answer, he didn't need on.
That night Riven couldn't sleep at all. She paced her room, examining it, scrutinizing every detail. She wanted to remember. She wanted to remember that it smelled a bit like cinnamon, that the walls were discolored and in slight disrepair… the way the window opened up to the sunrise.
She gave up on sleeping and spent most of the night looking out the window. Once the sun rose she ran down stairs and out of the house. She ran all the way to the Uchiha house, praying that Sasuke would be up.
Riven was usually afraid to approach the Uchiha house one her own, but today was different. She was determined to spend all day with Sasuke. She ran up the steps of his house and was about to knock on the screen when it opened.
Sasuke's father stood before her, in his horrifying magnificence. Riven bowed to him, but he didn't seem to even see her, he just walked by, he didn't even close the screen door as he left.
Riven took that opportunity to steal into the house and towards Sasuke's room. "Sasuke? Sasuke, are you awake?" She slid open the screen door to find an empty room. "Oh, Sasuke…" she whispered.
Riven left the house and walked down the main street of Konoha towards her house. Where could Sasuke be? It was only when she looked up from the ground that she saw Sasuke standing outside her house crying.
"Sasuke!" She ran over and hugged her best friend "Why are you crying?"
"I thought you had left." He smiled through his tears. "Come on let's go play; I am going to be able to rescue you today!" He said triumphantly.
The two young children played for hours. Sasuke climbed trees and jumped root, while Riven pretended she was tied to a tree unable to escape her evil capturers. When the sun finally began to set Sasuke called an end to their game.
Riven climbed out of the tree and watched as Sasuke pulled out a kunai, not a toy one, but a real one. He started carving at the tree. He pushed with all his might against the tree and scratched out his name. "Put your there too."
Riven nodded in agreement and marked her name into the tree. "In ten years, Sasuke, in ten years we should come back and put a mark by our names to show we've been here."
Sasuke nodded. He looked to the ground fighting back tears. "I will see you again! I'll see you again… Good-bye…" he hugged his only friend and then ran home.
"Sasuke…" Riven watched her friend disappear. " I'm so sorry."
