(A/N): Wow, it's been years. I'm sitting here in my dorm, drowning away feelings and pouring everything into my fingertips. I don't even think my writing has stayed the same. It feels a bit choppy, but I would really appreciate if you guys would stick with me through this first chapter as I fall back into the hang of creative writing again. Research papers and formal proposals aren't as fun and they suck the soul right out of you.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Chapter 1: He Who Fell From Night
It is exactly 1:42 A.M., but he is not asleep. Almost, but not quite as he lays atop his tangerine bed, tanned arms folded neatly behind his head. It had been a tiring day at the infirmary; his grandmother seemed to be in need of his every possible assistance at every possible second. He'd spent all day at the place, filing patient paperwork and taking calls. It wasn't until after dinner that he had time to catch a few waves at the beach. He breathes in, noting the salty scent of the sea still floating from the surfboard in the corner of his room. A soft, muffled sound of a hiss climbs in through the window and licks at his eardrums. He yawns – alas, his eyes shut as sleep finally peeks into his conscience, and he pleasantly gives in to the pull.
"Naruto, get up!" His door is slammed open, the bronze knob digging itself into the bedroom wall with a loud thud. "Fuck, wake up!"
The blonde jerks out of bed, tossing aside his thick blanket. Seeing that it's only Kiba, he sits back, rubbing roughly at his eyes. He groans, "Goddamn, Inuzuka. I am not in the mood. Who dumped you this time?"
The canine boy gapes at his friend, but quickly comes to with a shake of his head, "No, you don't understand. It's raining fire. Fire."
"Goodnight, Kiba." Naruto turns to lean back into his oh-so-comfortable bed, but is yanked up by the arm and dragged over to his window. "Ow –"
Kiba rips open the curtains, jabbing his finger against the glass at the fire that seemed to be raining from the heavens. So that's where the hissing had come from. Yet the flames do not make their way into the neighborhood – they shrivel into ashes just before striking a surface, flowering the land with a gray rain. The sky is bleeding ashes. Kiba looks pointedly at Naruto, who turns on him, "Where are my grandparents? Why didn't they wake – how the hell did you get in here? Tell me I'm dreaming."
Naruto yelps as Kiba grabs the skin on his arm between his forefinger and thumb, and squeezes. "Dreaming now?" The brunette deadpans, "This is serious. They're outside. You'd better start packing – it's Code Red."
Code Red – meaning evacuation, meaning great danger, meaning that people may die, meaning that people will die. Never before in Naruto's nineteen years of life has he ever had to execute the emergency procedures rehearsed since grade school. And so it leaves him only two choices: utter cluelessness or complete panic. He takes one side-eyed glance at the window and choses the first (simply because he is too tired to deal with the adrenaline of the second): utter cluelessness.
"Red… so I pack, right?" The blonde turns to his closet, retrieving a backpack and proceeding to stuff it with a spare change of clothes, his Gamakichi wallet, a first-aid kit (as grandson of a renown physician in Los Angeles, it would be a terrible shame to not carry one at all times), and his alarm clock.
Naruto can hear the screaming sirens before he even opens his front door. Somehow, in the three minutes between the first hiss of fire at his eardrums to the moment he clasps the doorknob with shaking fingers, the world has fallen into chaos. He cracks open the door, feeling mildly annoyed at the itch of Kiba's nervous breaths down his neck. He is just about to flip around to tell his friend to cut it out before a strong gust of searing wind slams the door against the wall. Behind him, picture frames fall from the walls and litter the tiles with shattered glass. A rainbow mosaic is reflected across his golden hair.
The fire had stopped burning out before hitting ground zero. His once-peaceful neighborhood is now covered in flames. The brightness of the fire claws at his retinas. Blue irises contract as he squints in pain. Some people are huddled together in front of their homes, but many are running, trying to dodge the drops of fire falling from the sky. The policemen scurry about, trying to herd families into areas deemed "safe" while the firemen aim their hoses straight into the night. He watches the water attack the fire and fill the neighborhood with steam, making it difficult to make out anything clearly.
"Go, go." Kiba urges, snapping him out of his reverie. Naruto stumbles forward, sloppily jogging to the "safe zone" with his friend on his heels. He scans his surroundings, taking in the scattered crowds of people. His blue eyes flash through faces, taking in the despair, fear, concern, worry. The shock of the brightness is wearing off and he can see his grandfather's white mane amongst a group of silhouettes. He spots a familiar face—his grandmother—in the same small circle of people. Normally, a collected group of individuals standing around in this situation would not be odd. But here, they are looking down, not up. Almost as if the raining flames weren't even there.
"Something's wrong," Naruto murmurs, jerking his chin in the general direction of the circle of people.
"No shit," Kiba cuffs him in the head, "I haven't noticed at all."
Naruto returns the hit, taking temporary pride in Kiba's wince, and jogs towards his grandparents, "They're all standing in a circle. Looking down, not up. I'm going to check it out."
The blonde roughly shoves through two cops on his way over, earning himself a few yells. He slides between his grandparents, interrupting their seemingly urgent conversation, and freezes.
What?
Naruto had briefly considered what the group was standing around before reaching them. A meteorite. Moon rocks. A fallen star. Burning bushes. But it's a girl.
Just a girl, lying on her side, curled into herself. Her cropped ebony locks hide her face. Her bare skin is covered so thickly in ashes that Naruto doesn't notice her nakedness at first. Then as if suddenly awaken from a slumber, she uncurls from herself and props herself onto her arm, struggling to sit up. But everyone only stands there. No one moves. No one helps.
"What the fuck, guys," Naruto huffs, taking a step.
"Naruto, wait—" His grandfather grabs his arm, but the blonde shakes himself out of the older man's grip before he can latch on. "Wait, kid!"
The blonde rushes forward, kneeling by the struggling figure. He reaches out, "Hey, are you—"
The girl suddenly flips up and slaps away the offered hand before jerking away, as if then expecting the blonde to return the hit. Some ash falls off her body, creating a billowing black wave following the twist of her arm. In the distance, flames still rain across the sky, but nothing hits this circle around her. It's only when she's fallen back onto her elbows, facing Naruto, that the blonde realizes she isn't a she. A quick glance slightly down south confirms his initial mistake.
His hand burns almost as much as his cheeks do as he takes in the lean body of the man before him. Hair darker than night. Cheekbones sharper than diamond. Eyes redder than blood. Cerulean eyes meet crimson ones in a piercing gaze.
Naruto opens his mouth to repeat his question, but the earth jerks suddenly and he stumbles. He thinks he feels a wetness dripping down his neck. I'm so tired.
He falls forward into blackness.