Before I Die Alone
2013-08-12
Published
2013-12-09
Nightingale: I'm sorry for those of you who have been reading this story! I'm rewriting it because I don't like where I started in the story. I'm starting it back when she first arrives in The Village Hidden in the Leaves instead of doing silly flash back chapters. Again, I'm sorry!
CHAPTER 1 – Take a moment
"Takara!" That was mommy's voice, Takara thought. "Run!" The young girl, no older than four, trembled. Her mommy had never screamed like that before. Takara did run, but she did not go far. Too scared and too confused she darted into a closet in the sitting room just down the hall. When she heard someone approaching she would later wish she had never gone into the closet.
A tall man, covered head to toe in black walked into the room dragging someone by the hair behind him. It was a woman Takara knew by the way she struggled. It wasn't until the woman pleaded with the man to stop that she discovered it was her mother. Tears silently rolled off her cheeks.
The man asked her mommy where the others from the clan were and she refused. Takara's mommy was thrown to the floor roughly. With another look to see if the woman would answer him, he took out a kunai and positioned it on the outside of her kneecaps. He asked once more about the clan member's whereabouts and when she didn't answer, with quick motion, the man shoved the kunai in the knee joint. Her mommy screamed loud and clear, Takara had to choke back her own scream.
"I won't tell you!" she sobbed.
"And why not?" The man questioned, pressing a little on the kunai. Mommy screamed again. Takara silently let her tears fall while holding back sobs.
Her mommy stayed silent.
The man took the hilts of the kunai and twisted it. She could hear the muscles tearing and the bones splintering. She could see her mommy's blood as it gushed down the man's hands and her mommy's leg. She could all but feel her mommy's pain in every scream she let loose.
"Tough aren't you?" the man said as she heard the bone crunching crack of her mommy's right shin as the man punched her.
"No!" Takara's mommy wept and shook as more tears kept coming.
Takara watched as her mommy cried; the shin bone showing through the broken flesh as blood stained the floor and her clothes.
Yet, after all of that she still refused to tell him.
"Hm, a smarter person would have told me a lot sooner than this." He twirled the Kunai around with a menacing smile gracing his lips. "I've heard the collarbone is the most excruciating bone to break."
"No," she whimpered then screamed as he dug the Kunai into her collarbone.
She sobbed as he went to dig into her other collarbone. "No more! I'll tell you what you want to know!"
"I thought you'd see things my way eventually." The man grinned crookedly.
"Kumogakure! They are in Kumogakure!" She whimpered again.
He nodded to himself and turned away from her as he flew through some handsigns; within seconds Takara's mommy was engulfed in flames. Her mommy was screaming in agony and there was nothing Takara could do to stop it. She cried and ran out of the room as the flames neared her hiding place. Sadly she could not run far enough as she ran right into the man; he had been waiting for her outside the room with a frightening smile.
The man drew away, pulling out a kunai and dragging it, flat-sided, down her cheek. The young girl could feel the cold, dangerous metal against her skin and cringed in absolute fear. Soon, the man pulled back then imbedded the kunai in her side. Takara's breath left her with a whoosh as her body convulsed forward from pain. Letting out a sickening sob, the girl looked the man straight in the eyes. After three more stab wounds, Takara faded into oblivion.
Somehow she woke up sore, tired and in pain but alive. The young girl only knew that her parents were dead. With the thought of her uncle and aunt in mind she began to walk north, with only the cloths on her back and her trusty stuffed puppy.
Takara dragged her stuffed puppy along behind her. Her steps were faltering. It had been a full day since she left with no food and only a few sips of what from a stream. She started to sway back and forth, barely able to keep her eyes open. She narrowed her eyes, there was someone up ahead. All she could make out was short light colored hair before she collapsed to her knees. She was unconscious by the time the boy caught her as she went to face plant onto the ground.
The young girl woke groggily, with a moan she tried to sit up. Clearing the sleep from her eyes, she started at the fire to her side. She was further confused by the blanket on top of her. How had she gotten here, where was she? She was still in her blood spattered dress.
"You slept all day." A voice stated. Startled Takara spun around quickly. She immediately regretted doing so as a sharp pain shot up her side.
A boy, not much older than herself sat down beside her and poked at the fire with a stick. "You're still hurt so I wouldn't move around a lot."
The boy had silver hair that took on a slightly pink hue from the light of the fire. His hair just brushed his shoulders; Takara thought it would tickle at that length. He had a slight chubby face, with high cheek bones. His hands were larger than hers. When he looked over at her, feeling her staring, she was startled by the color of his eyes. They were purple, almost pink.
"What are you staring at," the boy asked, sounding offended.
Takara tilted her head to the side to get a better look at his eyes. "I really like your eyes!" she smiled, even though it hurt, even though her family was dead. Her mommy and daddy were gone. She started crying remembering the blood and her mommy's screaming.
The young boy sprung to his feet, kicking up gravel. "No, no, no, no," he kept repeating, holding her close, her head under his chin. "You're okay, you're safe and everything is going to be okay," the boy keep giving her comforting words, he didn't know what else to do. He remembered his mother telling him if a girl was crying, to hold her close and comfort her. So that's what he did. He decided right then that he really didn't like crying girls.
She fell back to sleep in the young boys arms, and woke up still in his arms. The fire had gone out long ago. She shifted her side only sore, no longer excruciatingly painful. She looked up into the boy's face, his purple eyes were open. "You okay?" he asked, hesitating as if he was worried she would cry again. He was obviously uncomfortable with it. She nodded her head slowly at him.
He let out a slow long breath. "Hey, what's your name?" Takara blinked at his question, tilting her head to the side in slight confusion.
"Why do you want to know my name?"
Now it was the boy's turn to look confused, his silver eyebrows furrowed. "We can't be friends if I don't know your name."
"Ta-Takara," was the girl's shy reply.
He smiled brightly. Takara blushed; he was really cute when he smiled. "My name is Hidan!"
Hidan knew that he needed to become a lot stronger in order to protect his new friend. She couldn't stay with him as he would seek strength for fear of her safety. Where could she be safe and yet grow strong herself? He knew no village would accept him; he himself from a hidden village but Takara-chan had no village and would have an easier time getting into one. He would have to pick carefully though.
That night Hidan asked his new friend if she knew what her element was. It would be easier for him to pick a village for her. If she was wind then Suna would work, fire and Konoha and so on. He never expected her to tell him she had two and that combined it created what her mom said was a Storm Release. The village hidden behind water wouldn't work, they purged blood limits. Rock would probably accept her but at what cost? He had heard they were mean to outsiders. Village hidden in the leaves, what had he heard about them again? They had around five clans with blood limits didn't they? The yellow flash was said to be kind to allies and brute to enemies… but didn't he die last year? Ugg, Hidan didn't know what to do and all this thinking was giving him a headache.
Three days later the two were walking southward, getting close to where Hidan mentioned a great Ninja village was, the Village Hidden in the Leaves; Konoha. Hidan had decided that it would be the most welcoming and kindest to his Kara-chan. He was coming to consider her almost like a little sister.
They came to a stop as soon as they could see the village walls in the distance. Hidan knelt down to look Takara in the eyes. Tears started clouding her ability to see his eyes, she roughly wiped them away.
He placed his hands on her shoulders and smiled brightly. "I heard this village is really nice to their Ninja Kara-chan. You'll be safe and you'll make friends too!"
The tears came back again, why did he have to leave? Why couldn't she go with him? Couldn't he come with her? "Don't leave me!"
His smile turned sad. "I have to find my way Kara-chan."
"But Hidan-kun-"
He kissed her forehead then leaned his forehead against hers and smiled. Purple orbs met blue. "I'll come back one day to see you!"
"Promise?"
"I promise."
"If you don't come back within," she thought for a moment and counted on her fingers. "Ten years, I'll come find you! That I promise you!"
He laughed and smiled. The next thing she registered was standing in front of The Village Hidden in the Leaves gate with two Shinobi watching her with curious expressions.
She ended up telling them about her friend and what he said about their Village when the guards asked her what she was doing. She smiled when she noticed one of them covering his mouth to help muffle his laughter. When the other Shinobi elbowed the laughing one in the tummy, she laughed aloud.
While the Laughing Shinobi escorted her to a really big building she noticed some of the village seemed to be newer and under construction. To gain the man's attention she tugged on his pant leg and asked why there were building new buildings. Weren't the old ones good enough? The man told her that not too long ago the nine tailed beast destroyed part of the Village. "But don't worry the beast was defeated by the Fourth Hokage."
The first time Takara meet the Hokage she thought he looked older than the Rikudou Sennin would be if he was still alive. She told him what she thought. Everything went quiet in the Hokage office for a moment. The young orphaned girl smiled when the old man laughed so hard that he doubled over. She thought he looked younger laughing.
The Hokage asked her many questions and Takara tried her best to answer them all. When he stopped asking questions he told her with sadness in his voice and eyes that her answers weren't enough.
"Who are you?" Takara asked a blond haired man. She thought it a little funny how long his hair was and giggled a bit. It was longer than her hair! His eyes were a weird pupiless blue color, pretty but still weird. She was ready to tell him so when she noticed her surroundings. It was nothing but a beautiful never ending field of grass. There were patches of flowers with an array of colors here and there though. "Where are we?"
The weird man smiled kindly. "I am Inoichi Yamanaka and this is your mindscape."
"We're in my mind?" Eyes widening Takara took another look around. This beautiful field of flowers was her thoughts and her memories. She smiled at the man, "That is so cool!"
They walked around touching the flowers that held her memories. They saw her take her first steps, her first time opening her chakra pathways. They saw her first jutsu and they saw her mother's death. Inoichi relayed to the Hokage that she was an orphaned girl with a Kekkei Genkai. The village did love their Kekkei Genkai's. So they let her stay and offered her to join the academe when she was ready.
It was a beautiful autumn morning in the Konoha. The sun was shining; the leaves were a beautiful mix of red's and gold's. The streets were buzzing with the voices of the villagers. Everyone was happy, everyone but one small child.
Naruto Uzumaki was not having a good day. He didn't really know when the last time he did have a good day was. The just turned three-year old had dropped his plate when he went to eat breakfast in the orphanage. Naruto took the harsh slap from the orphanage lady without a single word. If he showed that it hurt he would only get hit more. He had adjusted, it had become his normal.
Naruto may have been young, but he knew that the beatings, the glares, the insults and the loneliness were always the worst in the month of October. So that morning, he had run away from the orphanage and had kept running. He always went into the forest or to the park; no one usually came after him.
Naruto may have become accustomed to the thrashings and he may have come to understand that they would become an everyday occurrence, but that didn't lessen the pain, it hurt, it always hurt. He just wanted a friend; all he wanted was someone to not look at him like that. With those eyes.
Naturally he had wished for far greater things than that but it would mean the world to him if only those two things would come true. He knew that those wishes would never be granted. He knew it was impossible for him to have parents. Naruto tightened his grip on his arms, curling into a small ball under the swing set. The tears came, just like they always did.
Why did you leave me, mom, dad? Why am I here alone?
Takara Yuzuki didn't like her first day at the orphanage. It started out with getting introduced at breakfast, loudly by a cranky old lady. No one paid attention after a moment and Takara had a hard time deciding where to sit. It was packed full of children of all ages. After getting a plate of bland looking rice balls and limp looking veggies Takara took a seat next to a shy looking big bushy eye browed kid who was looking at a pretty girl with buns at the sides of her head.
After a couple bites of her food there was a commotion up front, seemed like someone had broken a dish. Takara stood to get a better look just as a cute little boy got slapped across the face. She immediately thought of her mother getting beaten by that wicket monster. She was frozen still until the boy ran away and out the doors.
Takara looked down at her food, she wasn't so hungry anymore. When no one was looking she darted out the doors after the kid. Wasn't this village supposed to be better, wasn't that what Hidan-kun said? So why would anyone hit a kid only a few years younger than herself? Unable to find an answer she took off after the boy hoping to catch up to him.