Running from them. Yes, this was one of my first few memories. Running from the ones I stole from. Thankfully, I was somewhat gifted with speed and I always managed to lose them. After running, I always reminded myself that every sprint I made was worth it. It brought me nourishment and I knew I had my life ahead of me, but for now, this was my life. I..I don't remember exactly where I was born. I don't entirely remember my 'parents' either. I can kinda vaguely remember their appearances, I guess. My mother had hair that wasn't too dark, sorta messy and it traveled down to her shoulders. My dad wasn't anything out of the ordinary either; an average stature along with spiky grey hair, something I apparently inherited, and dark eyes. But, what I do know was that my life had changed forever on September fourteenth, by him.

"That's the kid from yesterday wasn't it dad?" The shorter of the two men yelled.

"That's the one!" The older man panted," He's dead for sure!"

Though somewhat scared of the older man's threat, he was confident in his abilities and sprinted into an alley. But to his surprise, the alley led to a dead-end. Shocked, a younger Zaku Abumi shakily took steps back in fear. The two men eventually caught up to him and confronted him.

"This is the last time you steal from us!" The older man shouted at the top of his lungs.

Zaku flinched, but he knew he had to act tough, that was his only option left. That was always the other option.

"And who's going to stop me?" Zaku scoffed.

Relentlessly, the younger man punched Zaku in the mouth. Zaku fell backwards and onto the ground.

Before the man was about to throw another punch, the older man stopped him.

"Huh?" The younger man sounded.

The older one looked towards Zaku in disgust and threw his foot on Zaku's stomach.

"Aren't you going to give your old man a turn?" The older man smirked. The two began to beat Zaku without a single bone of regret in their body. Their hatred for Zaku seemed to be infinite as they kept beating the young boy for roughly two hours. Finally, when Zaku seemed unconscious and presumed dead, the two walked off.

After ten minutes, Zaku eventually sat himself up. He coughed up blood and rubbed the excess blood at the corner of his mouth with his arm.

"These bastards think they know everything." Zaku coughed," Like judgment and equality."

He didn't know it but, Zaku received a black right eye and several bruises on each limb from the two men. It also seemed like a miracle that he survived. Course, he never really regarded the gift of vitality as a miracle really. Sometimes, he felt it to be the opposite. Sometimes, he wondered why fate had decided this upon him. He would wonder why 'God' (if there was one) took away his parents and only family. He wondered if his life would meet a turning point before it was taken away from him. He blinked lazily and looked up at the oranging sky. He didn't have it in him to get up, but his pride wouldn't allow him to lay around just in case someone else he looted from would show up. Slowly he tried to stand up by putting all of his weight onto his wrists. He had a sensation of sprain appear in both his wrists instantly and collapsed back to the ground.

"Why do I even bother?" He asked hopelessly as he brought his palms in front of him.

"Surely it because you seek tomorrow and refuse to live in the moment." A raspy voice slithered.

Zaku brought himself up again," Who's there?"

A figure appeared from the corner of the alley. He was, very pale with long dark hair that reached his waist.

"Is this a girl or a guy?" Zaku thought to himself as his eye twitched.

"What do you want? I don't ever remember stealing from you.." Zaku said as he pushed himself back.

"I could get you out of these slums..I could train you to be a shinobi." The man said.

"At...at what cost?" Zaku stammered.

"No cost. I only see, potential in you." The man grinned.

Zaku's expression changed and a blank look took over his face. Potential? Sure he had heard the word before, but never was told he had potential.

"But..but come on, why me?" Zaku asked cautiously.

"Is this what you're like when offered help?" The man asked.

"What do you mean when you say help?"

"I will help your potential bloom from within you, I will raise you to become the strongest ninja you could ever dream of, and I only ask for a simple condition."

"What?"

"You must give me, your immortal loyalty." The man declared.

"What's he going on about? I'm not even sure I have enough loyalty to give him, let alone immortal loyalty."

After contemplating for a few moments, Zaku finally gave him a response.

Zaku held his hand out and the man helped him up.

"Deal."

After that day, I abandoned the streets the man named Orochimaru called slums and went alongside him to be a shinobi. I trained relentlessly for hours and hours each and every day. I trained from morning until night when my muscles grew awfully sore and I could barely keep my eyes open. Blisters would occasionally form on my hand after gripping every single kunai and shuriken Lord Orochimaru would give me. I could care less about the physical damage I brought to myself as I trained though. I knew it would all payoff. It would only be form a little longer, and then when Lord Orochimaru would consider skilled with simple weapons, he would teach me ninjutsu. Finally, after countless throws of kunai and blisters covering my palms, I was told by him I was ready.

"The first thing we need to see is your chakra nature." Orochimaru stated.

"My chakra..nature?" Zaku repeated.

"It's quite simple really," Orochimaru walked over to the desk in the room and grabbed a small white paper. He held the chakra-filled paper out towards Zaku.

"What do you want me to do?" Zaku asked.

"Simply focus your chakra into it." Orochimaru replied.

Gingerly, he took the paper from his hand and did as Orochimaru said. He shut his eyes tightly in concentration and after a few moments, the paper split in half.

"Huh..?" Zaku said as he opened his eyes.

"Excellent." Orochimaru hissed," Your chakra nature is the element of wind."

"Wind..?" Zaku said.

"I know exactly what can amplify your abilities." Orochimaru stated.

I didn't realize his 'amplifying' was going to involve inserting tubes of air into my palms. The pain I underwent during the surgery was unbelievable. It was basically extracting the center of my palms and shoving in metal tubes down into my wrists. The amount of blood I saw escape from me that day made me think I was going to die during the surgery.

After a few months, I got used to the tubes and I was finally given new clothes, along with a a metal plate with a music note adorned onto a purple-grey headband.

One day, while I was adapting to blowing air from the tubes in my palms, Orochimaru approached me with a timid dark- haired girl by his side.

"This is Kin."