*Important AN in the end*
NIRA
I looked around the huge hall with awe; my mouth agape and my eyes wide enough to engulf the horizon. This was my first Anime Con!
There were SO many Anime here, I felt so juvenile as I knew only some of them. Bleach, Hetalia, Yu-Gi-Oh, Ao no Exorcist, One Piece, Fairy Tail, Death Note, Black Butler, Hunter x Hunter and many many more along with the most important ones; Dragon Ball and my favorite, my life NARUTO!
I looked at all the different cos-players bringing Anime to life, all the banners and posters, people rushing around to find their favorite Anime, excited chatters and yells, some writers who were invited all the way from Japan, voice actors, merchandises fans could sell their souls for; it was like a dream for me!
India does not hold such humongous Conventions for things like 'comic-books' and 'cartoons'.
My own parents believed that my obsession was useless and immature.
For 95% Indians life is just study, job, money, marriage, family and children; only the remaining 5% include people who want to live. But Anime and Manga isn't their way of living.
Of the 125 Billion people of India, only 0.009% might be the ones who knew the difference between Anime and Cartoons, only 0.0000073% only were the ones who liked it and only 1 girl who loved the show Naruto like a lifeline, me.
I basically survived on the show; its characters, its story and it's affect on my life was unbelievable! I learned so much from the stubborn Naruto, the hard working Lee, the silent hero Itachi and all the others; I don't think anyone ever inspired and taught me as much as those fantastic fictions out of Kishimoto's mind.
But my parents and family never understood that. For them my becoming a doctor, maintaining the dignity of our family of producing only Engineers, Doctors and MBAs was more important.
They never pushed me into it, but it was so apparent they wanted and knew that I will become a doctor; their only child.
Little praises of my exceptional grasp in Biology, disappointed looks at my interest in any other fields or hobbies, random emotional sentences like 'we don't have a doctor's income to afford that Nira ' left here and there; it wasn't forcing physically or mentally, it was forcing emotionally.
A war of strength I might not be able to win but I would not give up till my last breath, a war of intelligence I'd win easily, but a war of emotions; I couldn't do anything but surrender to my family.
And that was the reason why I was in US at that time, sent to study, brighten the name of the family, yada yada expectations that I was trying to fulfill even though they weren't my dream.
But all the pressure of studies and expectations altogether with my family's dislike towards distractions also wasn't enough to keep me away from Anime Con., from my Naruto.
In all my life I always compromised my happiness for the happiness of everyone else; but Naruto was something that brought out the rebel inside of me..
If anyone said it was childish and worthless, it's worth increased 100-folds for me; that show and its characters had a way of igniting fire inside of me, making me fierce and passionate instead of my usual collected nature.
And Naruto was not only a life-transformer for me; it was my creativity and inspiration!
If given a chance I'd have tried to become a writer, writing stories with not only rush and romance but with characters that would touch souls, lives that inspire life; a story not just amazing but affecting, just like Kishimoto-san.
And that's why I kept writing as a hobby; hiding it from my family, improving and enhancing it with time. I made Ids on internet and started writing fan-fictions, obviously on my life changing show!
"NinjaNirato" wasn't the best name option and neither was she the best fan-fic writer on web, but she had some followers following her story, some supporters who read her every update sincerely and shared their views; and that was enough for me and my creation "The Purpose of Me".
I walked past a few excited teenagers, trying to find some merchandise related to Naruto; 'A Hitai-ate or an Akatsuki cloak would be nice!' I thought as I looked around.
While scanning my surroundings I bumped into someone and we both fell back because of the momentum of our excited selves.
My embarrassed laugh mixed up with the other person's like our apologies, as we both tried to balance ourselves on our feet.
As I finally managed to stand still and tried to apologize seriously, my eyes met a pair of mist-blue orbs, the color of fresh pure water out of some glacier.
The crazy curly red head to which those orbs belonged also rose and then the fiery haired girl (no she is NOT an Uzumaki and not going to be one) smiled a lively smile towards me which I returned with my gentle one.
"Hello fellow Narutard! Sorry to walk head first into you! I was trying to find the meeting place of the Naruto fanfic writers, you have any idea where it can be?" she said in a bubbly voice, pointing to my Konoha-symbol T-shirt and then looking around to find some clue.
She was so full of energy and her voice, expressions and aura was so lively, I couldn't help but brighten my smile.
"Same here Akatsuki fan! I was also roaming around like a zombie so my mistake as well." I replied pointing to her Akatsuki rings necklace.
"And Naruto fanfic writers gathering right, they rescheduled it to tomorrow; don't know the reason though. I was also looking for them until I rechecked the site for any clue!" I told her noticing the sudden sadness in her eyes.
ROSE
"What! I ruined my schedule, missed my family gathering, traveled for 6 hours and went through all the troubles with security here to do this again tomorrow? God this is irritating!" I mumbled angrily.
6 hour drive in the shitty rain and storm while I could have been enjoying family stories and amazing food in my grandparents' farmhouse with my cousins, and let's not just mention my schedule that I made to follow this year after joining college; really I was irritated like hell!
After mumbling incoherent words for a minute I got hold of myself and turned towards the girl in front of me.
Her wavy black hair were tied into a past-the-shoulder ponytail that complemented her south-Asian features and her eyes were a dark earthy brown; the color of earth after rain. All that along with her gentle smile created a calming affect around her.
"So… You're also a Naruto fanfic writer? What's your pen name? Well tell me if you want to!" I asked as I held up my hands in surrender pose.
The girl replied waiving her hands "Oh no… I don't have any problem telling. I'm not that famous an author to worry for fans!" she said in an amused tone. "My pen name is 'NinjaNirato', I'm the writer of 'The Purpose of Me'… It's a fic about a girl sent into the Naruto world-"
"-as her world ends and then she tries to survive there without super ninja powers; just a normal girl. I know that story! It's yours? Wow… you might not know but I'm one of your story's followers… I'm 'RootNodules'. My story is-"
"-'Heartwood'! Oh my God! I'm a very big fan of your story! It's so fresh and different and AMAZING and-"
"-well it's not as amazing as you're describing it… you know there are many places where I can improve… and my story's not that famous also, like 'PrincessMoon's 'Night of Dreams' and-"
"Bullshit! I've been following your story ever since you wrote it, it's amazing! Yes not as popular as 'NOD' but still it's a very nice story with a new approach!" the girl said with finality in her voice.
That made me smile genuinely in return as I said "Thanks… anyways, I haven't told you my REAL name now have I? We got quite stuck with Fan-fiction there! I'm Rosetta Anne Johnson, in short Rose" I finished bringing forward my hand which she took.
"I'm Nira Agnihotri. Quite a short name so I don't have any nicknames! Although you can call me H2O if you want because that's the meaning of Nira, water!" She replied as her eyes smiled constantly.
After that we walked around the Convection together, talking and sharing thoughts about our favorite Naruto.
It was my most favorite show. My older cousin introduced me to it years ago on one summer vacation when I was getting bored, and ever since then not a single day went by when I didn't spend at least a few minutes over Naruto.
Writing fan-fictions of it, researching on it, pulling out random connections of different everyday things with the show or it's characters; I literally kinda grew up with that show ever since then.
My parents and family always used to joke how thankful they are towards 'that Japanese dude who wrote that comic book' because writing fan-fics for Naruto was improving my writing skills drastically and they could see it.
For them it was a casual thing; even for my cousins who watched the show, but for me Naruto was much-much more important than that; it was like an obsession.
Not like that crazy fan-girlish obsession, Naruto was a serious need for me; so deeply engraved in my life that thinking about it was as normal as breathing.
So much so that my family nickname was 'Orange' even when I had Red hair, just because the theme of the show was Orange!
Well, in between our obsessed discussions of Naruto and its characters as we were roaming around in the convention, I figured out that Nira was a 2nd year medical student originally from India, making her 1 year elder than me; with me studying to become a teacher.
Although the age difference got balanced by my being taller than her.
By the time we finished our tour together it was late afternoon and we were standing in the middle of the huge ground floor hall of the building, the entrance in front of us, and the stairs to 1st floor behind us.
The number of people visiting was a lot more than when we started our tour, meaning that it was peak hour at that time.
Me and Nira were eating popcorns and discussing reincarnations; she was telling me stories of reincarnations from different Indian religions and we were discussing about their possibilities like in fan-fictions when a blond girl with sharp green eyes in a blue summer dress came running to us.
"Excuse me! Can you tell me where Naruto Fan-fiction writers are meeting, they are holding a kind of gathering and I'm already late!" she said hurriedly.
"It's postponed to tomorrow. They updated it at 12 or 11:45 something this morning on the site. We both also came here to attend that." I told her pointing towards Nira and me with my thumb.
KATE
"What! No! Arrrggghh…. This is so unfair! I fucking left my lunch in half to come here! Seriously man…" I groaned in frustration.
My friends were going to have Chocolate Brownie Sundays after that and I refused because I was getting late for the gathering and it got postponed. And the weather outside made it impossible to return anytime soon.
"So you guys also Naruto fanfic writers?" I finally asked, pushing some stray strands of my straight shoulder length hair past my ears; at least I had nice company for the time being.
The two girls in front of me were wearing normal dresses except for a few marks to show they were Naruto fans just like me; my hair tied back with a Suna Hitai-ate; did I tell you I was a diehard Naruto fan? Well I was!
One of them had south-Asian features with dark skin tone, black hairs in a ponytail and earthy brown eyes, while the other one had fiery red hairs in messy curls reaching her waist and misty blue eyes that shone with liveliness.
"Yup, I'm Nira Agnihotri and she's Rosetta Johnson. Nice to meet you!" the girl with the ponytail replied. "Yeah nice to meet you, and you can call me Rose, Rosetta reminds me of Tinkerbell." The curly red haired girl added.
"I'm Kate Brooks, nice meeting you too! So… any idea why they cancelled the gathering?" I asked still feeling angry about the whole thing.
"No… But I think it's related to some foreign members who are not able to come today." Rose said shrugging and then offering me some popcorn which I easily accepted; left half lunch remember!
"So you're also a fanfic writer right, what's your pen name?" Nira asked offering her caramel flavored popcorn which I accepted double easily.
"Ummm… I-I'm not that famous of a writer you know! My story is also more for practicing my writing skills… and…." I trailed off uncomfortably, talking about my writings wasn't my favorite point of discussions and there were some solid good reasons!
"Oh… well its okay if you don't want to tell us. Although my story also is not that famous nor am I!" Nira said smiling kindly.
"Yeah me too! Anyways tell me what's your view on reincarnations? We were discussing this and the NOD story, and Nira and my views kinda clash so we need a third party opinion." Rose spoke, casually changing the topic to ease me.
I smiled at the two girls in front of me genuinely with some hidden amusement on the choice of the fan-fic as I got into an entertaining discussion over reincarnations with them, that turned into scientific debate over cosmic science and then childish arguments over who's favorite characters were the best.
They were around my age, Nira the exact same age studying 2nd year in medical school and Rose a year younger than us hoping to become a teacher.
By the time the two girls were commenting on my genius-ness for perusing physics and I was telling them how I'm not a 'Neji' of my subject, a sudden blast towards the entrance of the building cut my speech short.
A bunch of men holding big guns entered from the smoke that covered the entrance doors and behind them a security guard came running inside screaming in his radio "Terrorists! Terrorists!"
The second the security guard clearly appeared, one of the men shot him with 15 bullets and as he fell to on the floor, chaos broke.
NIRA
The security guard fell on the floor as people around us started to scream and run.
The terrorists ran in all directions and started screaming things and firing blindly, as I stood rooted there in my terrified state.
Absently I felt someone hold my hands as I turned to see Kate coming out of her horror-trance and tugging at my hand to move.
Hurriedly I hooked my arms with Rose's as I shook her to get her out of the shock.
She came out of it abruptly and then within a few seconds the three of us were trying to run in the disoriented crowd of screaming and running people.
We were not even a few feet away from our original position when a tall built man appeared in front of us out of the smoke.
He looked at the three of us and then without even saying a word; without giving an explanation as to why he was going to do it, why he was going to take the life of three harmless girls who had dreams, hopes, families and so many plans for tomorrow; he brought his gun up and started shooting at us blindly.
A bullet pierced my shoulder, another my left lung, a few went through my lower abdomen and one through my right cheek as blood started to pour out of me like a fountain.
I felt my hands lose the hold on the two other hands which shared the same fate as me, as gravity perused my weak body to fall on the floor with a thud; a pool of my own blood forming below me.
I looked in front of me and there some distance away from me were Rose and Kate, also lying on the floor and bleeding badly.
The pain suddenly hit me in that moment and I realized I was going to die there on the floor of an Anime con., thousands of miles away from my parents and family who wanted me to become a doctor; someone who saves lives.
I again looked at the girls as tears started to fall from my eyes mixing with my blood, no action able to increase the raw pain I was already feeling as my wounds bleed mercilessly.
Kate was looking at me with same tear filled eyes reflecting hopelessness and pain, expression of realizing the loss of all your dreams.
Rose was on the third corner of the triangle that we three girls were making on the floor, gun shots and bomb blasts loud in the background with heart chilling screams and smoke.
She looked at both me and Kate with similar tears filled eyes but there was a small sad smile on her face as she tried to direct our eyes to something.
I followed her gaze along with Kate and saw a small torn Naruto flyer in the middle of our death triangle, getting soaked with our own blood.
I looked back at the girls, then at the flyer and then stretched my hands with difficulty to fall limply over the flyer; fingers open and asking others for company.
Following my lead, Rose moved her arm that was bleeding nastily with a bullet hole, and stretching it placed it over my own with a low cry of pain.
Kate then looked at the both of us and after making a gurgled sound in the back of her throat, stretched her arm and placed it beside ours.
All three of us looked at each other with sad tear filled smiles as our fingers clasped around each others' over the name of Naruto and we took our last breaths in that building with hundreds of other innocent people.
Three average girls, three Naruto Fans, three fan fiction writers who will never be able to live anymore, go crazy over a life changing experience of a show and complete their unfinished stories.
Our stories will never get updated, no one will be able to know what ending we were planning for; people will read, wait and forget but this Writer's Block of ours will never end…
*In Some Other World Somewhere*
Three girls are born at the same moment at three different places around the globe.
A blond child born to a wealthy merchant's wife in Kirigakure no sato.
An astonishingly curly red haired child born to a woman in the war shelters in Konohagakure no sato.
And an unusually dark child born to a Kunoichi, fighting with death in the streets of Konoha as the other ninjas around her fight with the Kyuubi.
Three different girls, three different places, three different mothers but all connected with a single thing.
Sumi, Akane and Kurai are all born with a beautiful smile across their face.
AN- This is a plot bunny that came to my mind while having a conversation with Songfern1128 about her plot bunny.. Thank her if you like this story! :D
I want your help in this one as I want ideas for this story so feel free to suggest anything; story ideas, shippings, girls' future professions etc... your ideas might get into this story! Just one thing, our girls will NOT become NINJA...
My main concern is going to be my major story "The Part I Played" but if this story gets good response I'll put both equally on my priority list!
So please please Review Follow and Favorite... Thank you for reading! :))