Edit 27/12/2015: Hello and welcome! Good morning, good evening, wherever you may be. First, I would like to say thank you. Thanks to you, for clicking on this fanfic and choosing to read it amongst the thousands of other options that are available to you. I really am flattered that you've deemed this story good enough to take a look at, even if it's just the prologue!
You may notice the publish date is in 2009, and this edit is from 2015. Six years. I started this story a long time ago, but it means so much to me that I am still typing away, trying to finish it. In the publishing of Who I Am, there were gaps of more than a year between updates, because I learned very quickly that life gets in the way of writing, no matter how much I love it. Thankfully, the posting gaps have been beaten down to a couple months. I can't believe that there are people out there that have stuck with this from the very beginning, and still more readers that have discovered this story a good couple years after it was first posted. That being said, there is a huge evolution from this prologue to the most recent chapter (37, at this point in time). The authors' notes change drastically, the writing changes too. The plot, which I had set way back in 2009, has been dismantled, picked apart, and put back together. Plot 2.0 accounts for things revealed in canon, and is a product of me gaining a whole lot of maturity both as a writer and as a person. While I was rehashing the plot, I felt like some changes were put in as damage control for absolutely insane things that my fifteen-year old self decided were brilliant ideas. Regardless, I've gotten the end result of this story to be something I am much happier with, and I can only hope that all my lovely readers eventually feel the same (when the long-awaited end of this story is published).
I hope that this prologue on its own is good enough to convince you to continue on to the first chapter, but believe me when I say that it evolves and matures a lot along the way. Six years is a long time, and life has taught me a lot. I've changed and grown in many different ways, and so has my writing. After a long hiatus, when I finally picked up writing again, I did consider going back to this very first page and editing the heck out of it and all the other published chapters. Because they no longer reflected me. But after some thought, I decided to leave it just the way it was. The prologue is a reflection of myself, when I first ventured into writing. And even though my present self is not even close to the same, my older work very much merits its spot in this story. Who I Am is a story about my original character, but it is inevitably also a story about its writer. It is a chronicle of fictional events, and buried in the writing is a more subtle record of my own life experiences. So come on, jump in! Let's go on this adventure together.
A/N: Ummmm I'm not actually trying to become a writer or anything but I've been composing this fanfic in my head for quite a while. Right now it's summer and I don't really have much to do so I figured I'd write this all down just for fun. The names are in "Japanese order" meaning last name, then first name. The names sound weird to me any other way. Please review and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. (I wish I did though...)
Prologue
Everyone has a story to tell.
Some are long; some are short.
Some end with the words 'happily ever after'; some end in dark pools of shining, wet blood.
This is my story.
This is... Who I Am.
He ran. He chased his target over the roofs of slumbering villagers. The Land of Waves was very beautiful at night but he didn't have any time to appreciate the view.
Damn, I'm falling behind.
Not wanting to lose track of her, he forced more chakra into his feet. Pushing off the roof, he sped onwards following the obscure, shadowy figure. The sheer force of chakra gathered in his feet caused shingles to separate themselves from the roofs. By the time they shattered on the streets below, he was already out of earshot. The figure stopped, perched on a structure near the edge of Tazuna's unfinished bridge.
"Well, you can keep up with me, I'll give you that," said the silhouette. "There aren't many that could even manage."
Hatake Kakashi landed on the scaffold as softly as he could manage in his winded state. Hunched over, hands on his knees, the silver-haired Jounin tried to catch his breath. She was someone he had seen before, talking to Sakura, one of the Genins under his care. She had almost no features identifying her as a shinobi. Only a battered katana strapped to her back made her stand out as a ninja. Without a headband showing her home village, it was even more important to find out who she was and who she worked for. "Who... are... you?" he gasped between gulps of air.
"I've already said it once before you decided to hunt me down," said the quiet female voice. "What makes you think I'll say anything different this time?"
In a split second, the Jounin had pulled out a kunai and placed himself behind his target. With one arm he pinned hers to her sides. With the other, he held his kunai to her throat. "Give me a straight answer damnit!" growled Kakashi. "Tell. Me. Your. Name."
"I don't know."
With that, she vanished. There was no 'poof' sound, no cloud of smoke. She was simply... gone.
"Wait-!" he shouted. Hatake Kakashi sat up in bed and took in his surroundings. He was in his apartment in Konoha, not above the rooftops of the Land of Waves. Moonlight spilled in through the open window illuminating his small bedroom with a silvery glow. He combed a hand through his unruly silver hair and sighed. "That dream, again..." he mumbled to himself. Staring out the open window, enjoying the cool summer breeze, Kakashi asked the darkness the question he had asked so long ago. "Who are you?"
Knowing he'd be unable to fall asleep again, he got up and dressed. Jumping out the window, he headed for the memorial tombstone carved with names of fallen shinobi. There he stayed for a while, reading the names of his comrades, the ones he has failed to protect: Rin, Uchiha Obito, those that were precious to him. When Kakashi looked up, the sun was already in the sky, waking up the people and ninja of Konoha to another peaceful morning. Turning around, the Jounin headed back to his apartment. On the way, his sharp hearing picked up an impossibly obnoxious voice that he hadn't heard for years.
"I MISSED THIS PLACE! IT HASN'T CHANGED ONE BIT!"
Picking up the pace, Kakashi hurried to the source of the yelling. On a telephone pole he found him. He was gazing at the all of Konoha with his baby blue eyes, blond, spiky hair blowing in the breeze, and still wearing a trademark shade of eye smarting orange. After two and a half years, Uzumaki Naruto had returned. He was muttering to himself about Tsunade's likeness being carved into the Hokage mountain and didn't even notice his sensei until he spoke.
"You've grown a lot haven't you... Naruto?" said the silver-haired Jounin.
Naruto spun around, startled. "KAKASHI-SENSEI!" he hollered, "HAHA! YOU HAVEN'T CHANGED AT ALL! Wait, I have a present for you!"
Naruto reached into his pouch, fumbling around for said present. Kakashi noticed that Naruto still said everything as an exclamation. His student had grown, but hadn't changed all that much. Naruto finally found his present and handed it to his mentor.
"H-how did you get this?!" Kakashi stared in awe at the Icha Icha Tactics book that his student had presented him. Eagerly, he reached out and accepted the gift.
"Awwww, well you know, Ero-sennin being the author and all, I got the first published copy for you!" explained Naruto. "NEXT STOP; ICHIRAKU'S RAMEN!" he shouted at no one in particular. Shaking their heads, Kakashi and Jiraiya followed the hyperactive blond.
A quiet shadowed figure watched as Naruto and his senseis ran into the Hokage and his pink-haired teammate, Sakura. Creeping closer, she heard them speaking of being "equal shinobi" and taking a "bell test" again. As students and sensei headed towards the training grounds, presumably for the bell test, she followed silently.
At the training grounds, the figure watched as Kakashi talked for a bit. Then she stifled a giggle as Naruto launched shuriken at his sensei, knowing that such a pitiful attack would never even scratch the ex-ANBU captain. Kakashi announced the official start of the test and disappeared in a 'poof' of smoke. Sakura, being the smarter of the two quickly discerned his position.
"BELOW!" she warned Naruto. Without hesitation, she drew her arm back and punched the ground beneath her feet.
For a second nothing happened. Naruto opened his mouth to tease the kunoichi but the words were lost in his throat. The ground suddenly broke up as if hit by an invisible boulder dropped from the sky. As predicted, between the rocks sat a very stunned-and-almost-scared Kakashi. The figure watching from the trees quickly clapped a hand over her mouth in an effort to stop laughing and stay hidden.
Many hours passed, neither side gaining an advantage for long. The moon shone brightly in the sky, watching the battle along with the figure in the trees. Both sides had taken refuge behind trees and were planning their next move. In the end, the students launched a direct attack on their sensei. Naruto pulled the real trump and threatened to spoil Icha Icha Tactics for his sensei. An instant later, Kakashi lowered his hands from his ears and opened his eyes. He was greeted with the sight of his students holding a small bell each and faces glowing with happiness.
"Hm... good job on getting the bells this time, Naruto, Sakura. You really have grown," their sensei praised them. "You guys head back to Konoha, I've got something else to take care of."
"Awwww... But you were supposed to treat us to ramen at Ichiraku's!" the blond complained loudly.
"That's enough Naruto," reprimanded Sakura. "He never actually agreed in the first place. See you around Kakashi-sensei. "
"You know, I'm not really your sensei anymore..." he corrected her.
"It doesn't matter," smiled the kunoichi. "Besides, it doesn't feel right to call you anything other than 'sensei'."
Kakashi stood in the middle of the training grounds, waving to his former students until they disappeared from sight.
Turning around slowly, he glared pointedly at a random spot in the trees.
"Hm... you have improved, Kakashi," came a quiet voice from the trees. "Three years ago, you wouldn't have been able to detect me at this range."
"Well you were kind of hard to miss with the way you wouldn't stop laughing," Kakashi said irritably to the tree.
"Oh, you heard that?" the voice inquired, this time with a hint of amusement. "Sorry, but you really didn't know that Tsunade taught Sakura more that medical jutsu?"
"No, I really didn't," he said calmly. In truth, he was anything but calm. The gears inside his brain were turning furiously, trying to figure out who was hiding in the trees. I've heard that voice before, but where? It has to be someone from the village because no one outside Konoha knows both mine and Sakura's names. But then again, no one in the village, not even Sakura or Shizune refers to Tsunade as just "Tsunade." Who is this person?!
In the end, the Jounin decided it would be best to appear behind whoever it was and immobilize their arms with a binding jutsu, just to be on the safe side. If it turned out to be someone he knew, he'd release the jutsu and hope they weren't too offended. On the other hand, if it was an enemy-nin, he would be free to beat them up within an inch of their life and haul them to Morino Ibiki for torture and interrogation. Deciding to put his plan in action, Kakashi disappeared and left behind a cloud of smoke.
The instant Kakashi disappeared; the figure in the trees turned a full one hundred and eighty degrees, waiting a split-second until smoke appeared in front of her. From the cloud, an ominous voice rang out.
"Suiton: Suirou no-" and suddenly stopped.
Before the smoke cleared, Kakashi had already formed the hand seals and was calling the name of the jutsu. As the smoke blew away in the summer breeze, his target was becoming clearer.
"Suiton: Suirou no-" he stopped. "You!"
The last of the smoke cleared away to reveal a woman, standing calmly on the branch before him. She had somehow noticed his disappearance from the field below and had the time to run around and face him. She replied quietly to his loud outburst.
"Me."
A/N: THANK YOU! YOU READ ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM! WOOT! *jumps up and down and throws stuff in the air* XD It's actually my first time writing something that's NOT a mandatory school assignment so please give me tips to improve. If anyone finds any spelling or grammar mistakes, please point out the sentence and the problem in a review.
Please leave me a review and THANK YOU ALL FOR READING!