Inspired by Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine
Howling at a Starless Night
Knives, claws, and gnashing teeth. I may be the runt of the litter. but that's what makes me one of the pack.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
A light snuffed out before its prime.
Its ashes and cinders giving birth to a fire that never should have been.
As one torch is extinguished, another wick is set aflame.
The Will of Fire burns bright.
Look too close, and it may blind you.
I know, I know. I can be a little dramatic at times. I love drama. I love stories.
So let me tell you mine.
But let me give you some backstory before I begin. I lived...a fairly normal life, all things considered. I had a loving family. I had plenty of opportunities. Opportunities that I took. A fresh college graduate, I had a fairly promising future ahead of me.
I was on a flight home to visit after a month of interning at...well it hardly matters now. The point is I was pretty young. I was on a plane. Something went wrong. Weather? Human error? Divine intervention? I suppose it doesn't matter either.
I remember clutching a pen in a death grip. My eyes stung as I scribbled letters on crumpled up napkin sheets. Letters to my family...to my friends. Names that no longer matter. Faces that no longer matter.
Damn. Looks like a lot of things don't matter anymore.
I guess that's what happens when you die. The life you lived...it fades away.
I remember crying my eyes out. Passengers screaming for help. Flight attendants telling people to calm down, that everything was going to be okay. They weren't very good at acting. My body trembled with panic as the hull rattled and creaked. I looked out my window, only to catch sight of the wing on fire, shaking loosely in the wind. I averted my gaze as the aircraft groaned and shuddered around me, ready to brake apart at any second. I realized that this was definitely the end of my all-too-short life.
Oh my God I'mgoingtodiehere
In an instant, there was a flash; I felt no more. I knew no more.
But...
I was still...alive? No. No way I could've survived that. But then...what was this...existence? It was strange, to say the least. I felt again. I felt warm, safe.
And then I was pulled out of the safety. Giant hands wrapped around me and I screamed and cried as a giant woman held me in her arms. I couldn't speak. I couldn't move...anything. My motor skills were nonexistent. I could only cry. And boy, did I cry.
I was a damn baby
I never believed in...life after death. Reincarnation.
Apparently I was wrong.
So very wrong.
The woman opened her mouth. She spoke words that were almost alien to me. Fortunately I've been to Japan, I recognized the language.
In my old life, I was named...another thing that doesn't matter anymore. I didn't understand what the woman, most likely my mother, was saying; but something told me she was about to say something really important. And out of her mouth flew two words that I somehow knew were my identity. My name.
Mimiko.
Inuzuka.
That last name raised some warning bells in my head. That name was familiar. Maybe my brain wasn't developed enough to remember. Come to think of it...how could this brain remember anything. It wasn't mine, hell it was brand new. And how could I see or hear this clearly? But I did remember. And I could see. And hear. Hazy though my memories were, there had to be some sort of explanation for why I remembered anything at all.
I didn't believe in a soul.
I guess I was wrong about that too. Because what else could it possibly be? But then that brought up the question of why my 'soul' was of any importance. Because really I died before any of my dreams -now completely irrelevant- could come true. But I guess those were questions for another day.
Or lifetime. I was never one for spirituality.
Well now you know a bit about me. Or maybe not. Probably.
Now that that's taken care of, we can get to my story.
So listen up. I don't like repeating myself.
It didn't exactly hit me until I was brought home by way of suicidal jumping on rooftops. Damn crazy Inuzuka. Who risks a baby like that? Inuzukas. But anyways, I was brought home. The woman who gave birth to me left me with a wolf-dog thing. I was worried. That dog looked like it had been through hell, ripped ear, missing eye, multiple hairless spots covered in wounds- a fighting dog?- and then it opened its mouth...and talked. My itty bitty brain pretty much exploded. It left me dangling in its mouth like some kind of toy...or snack. Was I going to die again? Eaten by a dog. Hah. ha. ha. ha.
Very funny. Not really. I was terrified.
Everything just sort of clicked in my head. The headbands. The superhuman feats. Talking dogs.
No way. It wasn't possible...but this...this was an anime world. Improbable as it was, I didn't think I was hallucinating. This is the world of Naruto. A Japanese man's imagination come to life. And I was living it. I dealt with it the only was I really could. I cried.
Apparently my mother had been taking some special medication during her pregnancy. Inuzukas needed to develop their bodies extremely fast in order to learn the clan jutsu. But I was still an anomaly. Inuzukas developed fast, but never as developed as I was when I was born. I may have had no motor skills, but that would be solved with practice, my eyes, nose, and ears were already developed to the level of a toddler's. Most of the med-nin chalked it up to my mother being as good a ninja as she was.
And an Inuzuka.
Inuzukas had a reputation. Inuzuka bodies were treated to perfect the senses and the incredibly dangerous clan techniques. They were a closely guarded village secret. After all, we made the best trackers, and it took more than training and bonding with a ninken to get Inuzuka good at tracking. So the med-nins usually let us deal with our own...problems.
But my chakra...not even the Inuzuka med-nins understood what was going on with my chakra. And they were masters of knowing what the hell goes on in an Inuzuka's body. My physical and spiritual energies almost refused to come into contact. I could produce only enough chakra to keep me alive. The med-nins thought it was because my physical energy was developing much faster due to my body than my spiritual, but they scratched that idea when they found that I had the needed spiritual energy. It just didn't mix with the physical.
That...that was going to be a problem.
Because I was going to be a ninja. And no way was I going to let that stop me. So...my first order of business. Fix my damn chakra.
A/N:
So. Here's the first chapter...to my first story. There are going to be a lot of parallels to Dreaming of Sunshine, but I'll do my best to keep it original.