So this is my first story guys and I would like to hear some review from you guys about how to improve the story so it's pretty long. And also Kakashi will be seen more later on this is just all intro. Thanks for reading!

/

Chapter 1: Forevermore Pained

Light pours in from the window of my dark bedroom. The light making ringlets of dust creating a path to the edge of my bed. I reach out with the tips of my fingers. The light doesn't touch me, and I don't want it to, I only stretch enough so that it doesn't. A warm feeling comes into the tips and I quickly retreat my hand.

Living alone in has its advantages. Years ago there weren't. I would have craved for comfort in this world. But I wasn't about to be a slave of pain, I was over that. I was over a lot of things.

I grudgingly got out of bed, took the clothes I had prepared to wear today, and went into the shower. I washed my body, flecks of red falling off my body and dissolving down the stream from the shower. Blood. I watch it. The scars across my stomach flex as I move around. I watch the red stream. I sigh. Life. Pain. Why live it? It'd be easy to end it with just a flick of a finger. But I'm no coward.

I get out of the shower, put on my light grey fleece sweater and jeans with running shoes, and walk out the door of my apartment. I restrain myself from cringing as I get a horrible headache. 1...2…3… I count as I wait for it to go away. And then I start to walk, then sprint, then run. Wind flowing against my slightly tan face. I keep running. Running to escape my past, the past that always comes to devour me.

I look at the yellows and reds of the leaves on the trees. Fall, my favorite season, and I continue running. I live in a small apartment on the first floor near some suburbs and main shopping centers, but that is the part I hate. My favorite is the woods near my home. With a crystal clear river, pine trees and dark soil and always filled with fog. As I run I am so captivated by my thinking of my destination I don't even notice when I bump into someone. Papers scatter out of a bag. I grumble in Latin. I see a flash of grey hair and black clothes as I reach down to help. Geez man! Is this grandpa blind!? I fume inside as my morning run is disturbed, but I don't show it.

The stranger reaches down to pick up his stuff revealing strong milky fingers. "Sorry ma'am, kind of in a hurry, the stranger says. Stranger yet is that he isn't old. A cloth covers half his face from his nose down and a headband covers his left eye. What a weirdo. I mean sure its like 40 degrees outside but his clothing seems a bit excessive. He looked to be in his 20s but his hair was the most ridiculous thing. Spikey, it looked like a porcupine, and then is if some cow had licked it to one side, but at the same time almost natural. I was tempted to smile, but I stopped short and retreated back into my hole.

I don't answer him so I nod and start to run, but he stops me short and grabs me by my wrist. I seethe inside. I hate touch. "Wait ma'am, um, sorry," he sees my angry face that I don't try to hide this time, "But, um, I was wondering where I might find Channingway Rd. near here," he asks in a nonchalant voice that it bothers me. I hate calm.

I contemplate whether I should tell him or not and after a moment's pause I point in the wrong direction. I know where the road is, but I don't feel like telling him that. I know it's cruel, and that's exactly why I do it. "Ok, thanks. See ya," and he walks away. Ha, like that's ever going to happen. He'll probably get lost if he's new around here. The town is like a maze if you haven't lived here long. Luckily for me, I've been here for a long time.

He thanks me and heads in the direction I pointed to. I laugh inside me but my face remains the same and I continue running. After a while I reach my destination, the forest. My real home, my only peace in life that I have.

As I walk in I go my usual route. Over the river, through the sycamores, down the dark hole, and into the Other World. I slide down the vortex and land on my feet. Yes, that's right. The Other World. A place of floating sky lands, mystic powers, danger, filled with hideous creatures and the elite race of tormented souls. Exotic plants that shape- shift, water that floats around like tiny air bubbles, and carnivorous silvas (an animal that has woods sticking out it's back. Like a porcupine). It was beautiful to me but scary for the weak of heart. This is where I went to meditate and practice my fighting skills in both my mental and physical body.

The elite race was the ones that raised me after the Incident. Creatures of unknown darkness, human-like, amazing, strong, but filled with torment and sorrow. Majestic in every way, but filled with the hidden scars of many who have avoided pain from occurring to them. They were the keepers of pain and loss. They were the ones that could make me get close to the family I lost long ago. They were the tormented lost souls until I discovered the entrance to the Other World when I was twelve, and ever since then I have been living with them. Somehow they seemed slightly cheerful to have someone that was not completely lost to pain. But I wanted to be. Here my body flickered slightly, wanting to merge with the Other World, but for some reason I never gave in completely to that pull that tugged at the strings of my soul.

I whistled like a Nightingale on its last sunset. Sad, low, and painful. The song of the bird was a call I had learned from my mother which I used to call to the tormented. Soon they appeared one by one until there where around a hundred who slowly glided towards me. It wasn't all of them, I knew there were tons more where they came from. Each one had their own human that they carried their pain for. They were transparent one moment, and solid the next. They looked normal as usual but slightly better. Some had cuts across their faces, arms or legs, others had drooping eyes, and a limp that was common in almost all of them, like they were carrying the pain of the world…which they were. But at the same time they all had the rainbow colored eyes that changed from brown to red to purple and the next and so forth. They warmed your heart like a tiny puppy. Warm, kind, and especially urging. They also wore robes, gowns, tunics, like foreign royalty.

"Why hello Aéstās, horrible day is it not?" grinned Dómina who inched closer to me. "Yes, it's especially horrible today. I see it's a bit more morbid than usual," I respond. Dómina, the lady of the Other World, smiles. As the matriarch of the tormented she sees to the well-being of her people and ensures the most comfortable conditions she can offer, which is not much considering they have to deal with pain constantly.

Dómina was beautiful in a sad majestic way. A deep gash going from check to right eye made her even more stunning and intimidating at first, but once you got to know her she was really nice. Too nice for my taste. She was the first to embrace the torment in the other world to her advantage unlocking powers of the elements which she passed on to me.

"Yes, it's a shame. The younger me would have been screaming with pain right now. Aéstās you bring me and the Mórtuus a beautiful moment prima luce. I thank you, "she continues and I respond back. "You know I don't bring light, I'm just like you. I don't possess a smudge of true joy like the humans…" I respond in an angry voice. She was like a mother to me, but sometimes I couldn't take compliments from people. I stare at the lady's light caramel hair. Beautiful. Motherly. Drifting down her shoulders and ending on the shoulder of her white gown in tiny curls.

"Look, child. You may not have joy in you like the weak humans, but seeing someone who cares about us…knows about us, and helps, brings us joy that we have not experienced in over a millennia. And if you were like me you would be living in that apartment of yours. Please non iam. Stay with us here where we can protect you. I know you can take the pain that you can handle it. I don't want to see a good person go to waste," Dómina says in a tender voice. The Mórtuus all flicker in agreement and edge closer to me.

"I'm sorry, I can't. I need feel like I need more endurance, more pain. I'm not completely emotionless or pure. I'm not-" I start to say but Iócus, a good friend of mine interrupts me. "Don't you DARE say you're not good enough or not worthy to be a Mórtuus. You have more suffering in you than most of us. I think we all respect your choices, but don't limit yourself to your own judgment." He finishes in a puff of air. Angry, he disappears and solidifies next to me touching my hand. It electrifies me and fills me with a hunger for more. His touch sends jolts of pain through me, and I love it. Wait. What am I thinking?

I shudder slightly and close my eyes. "We all care about you Aéstās," he whispers in my ear and then vanishes. I'm more empty than ever when he leaves. Dómina straightens and comes towards me, "I think you are ready despite your opinion, but like Iócus said, we respect your choices…um. But *cough* I think that's enough talk about this. Let's get to your training." Yup. She usually isin't one for sweer talk.

/

"Ok. Let's do the usual warmup. So try to move the skyland slightly to my right," Dómina says. I concentrate my internal pain as I feel the gateway of my mind radiate with torment and start to bleed into my thoughts. When I open my eyes I concentrate the pain on the skyland, all of my frustration and anguish- the floating island in the sky- jolts to Dómina's right in less than a second, in less than a blink of an eye.

"Good, I see you've improved significantly. I barely noticed it move that time," Dómina continues, "Just remember to let the pain flow. Don't hesitate, see it through." I nod. "Now concentrate on the soil of the skyland and take it apart…." I set my legs apart slightly, my right foot stretched forward to my right and my left foot following a step behind. I crouch slightly and spread my fingers in front of me causing the land to crumble into a mass of dirt. Particles floating aimlessly in the air. The dirt encompasses the practice arena Dómina built me and makes the ghostly purple columns a dark brown.

The floor of the arena is steel and there are no walls so it gives a perfect view of the surroundings. The arena sits on top pf a giant skyland with ghostly green grass all over and only a single white tree in the northwest corner of the island.

"Now I want you to put the land back," Dómina orders, standing beside me. I start to float up slightly and relax my body into a meditation position, something I can only do in the Other World. I whirl my arms around smoothly and slowly bring my hands together into a fist that I shake rapidly. The skyland is back together with a spiral column and a small swingset set on top that I added made from the grass and dirt.

"Wow, Aéstās, that's a well done. Except you didn't need to make the skyland in the shape of my face," Dómina says amused at the colossal image of her.

I shrug. "I think that's enough mental training for today if you want…I have certain things to attend to today, Dómina says. "Well, I usually practice for 10 hours and I guess it is getting a bit dull now. So I guess I'll just go back to the apartment and practice my Tai Jetsu," I respond.

"Very well, and with that Dómina disappears leaving me alone on the skyand. I sigh and start walking to the portal back to the human realm.

As I go down the bony path, literally made of the dead men's bones, to the portal I get lost in my train of thought of what happened today. Realizing my mistake to late, I trip on a jutted out bone and almost fall on my face. I close my eyes and brace for the impact, but I never hit except slightly jerk back, the sweater I wear pinching my sides.

What the heck? I realize someone grabbed me by the sweater before I fell to the ground. "Watch where you're going," a gruff voice says.

They pull me back even more, really fast, and I bump into them. Pain immediately flares all over my body as the contact jars me. I restrain from flinching. A Mórtuus. Only they can cause this to me.

"How nice of you Iócus to save me from my doom," I say in a sarcastic tone. I look at him, the pain of his touch flaring through my body, but I don't show it.

He wears a velvet shirt with grey jeans mimicking the human dressing style but wears a laurel wreath around his head.

His curly chestnut hair sweeps to the side as the wind blows. His chocolate brown eyes bore into mine and I look away. I stare at the lonely tree in the corner and then turn away slowly and start walking. I know he'll follow me, he always does.

Iócus is 3 inches taller than me, something he always bragged about since we were kids. Mórtuus have the ability to act and display the age of their human link and for Iócus. Well… he can be an…lets just say he can be stubborn sometimes.

" I hate it when you think less of yourself in any way Aéstās. You're always doing it, that its getting really annoying," Iócus mentions. I remain silent as he walks next to me. "Hey," Iócus stops as he watches me reach the entrance to the human world. "You are ready…And I want you to believe that.." he pauses. "I didn't want to tell you in front of the others that…*cough* I don't want you to become a Mórtuus, I don't want you to suffer more. Anything I usually say in front of them is a lie." He looks up at me on the edge of the entrance. I'm surprised, but I don't show it. "Goodbye Iócus," and with that I step through the entrance, out of the hole, through the woods, past the river and straight to my apartment.

/