At the awakening of dawn, I slowly opened my eyes to music that rang from my walls. The sound was magical, and persuasive, luring me to it's touch. But where exactly did it come from? I hopped out of bed, eager to find the source of my calling. In moments, I was outside, on my doorstep, breathing in cold air that burned my lungs. I held my breath and woke up, back in my warm bed, with a dab of sweat across my forehead. I took in a deep breath. I had been holding my breath, like I was in my dream.
"Makes no sense at all..." I mumbled to myself as I squinted at the bright light that shot out from my window. I sat up. My head swayed a little. I was dizzy. 'What time is it?' I thought to myself. I coughed from the burning in my lungs. 'Am I sick?' rang in my head. Being sick was a miracle that would excuse me from the day. I was a nerd. So much as a mere fly that was only in the way. Nobody acknowledged my existence. Who would? I had no father, and my mother despised me. I was "a poor excuse of a child" to her. We basically ignored each other. She supported our rent and food with her money, while I took care of everything else I wanted for myself with my money that I earned at the farmer's market down the street from my apartment. This was my life. I had no siblings. I was just a lonely child with no friends, and technically, no parents.
Being alone doesn't bother me like it used to. When I was little, I was treated like a princess. Then my father died and my mother lost all her love for me. We couldn't afford to live in our house anymore because my dad couldn't help pay for it, since he was dead, so we moved to an apartment in a sunny little village and the only things my mom helped me out with were cooking us both our meals, and paying my bit of the rent. Other than that, I wasn't a child to her, I was just some girl she didn't even know. I used to cry myself to sleep while dreaming up plans to make my mother love me again, but nothing ever worked. She was just an expressionless zombie with no love left to give. Sometimes I thought about killing myself, but then I would stop myself and realize that that wouldn't solve anything. I decided, right then, that I would live, but if I was ever in danger, I wouldn't beg for my life.
Friends are only a pain. What's the point of having friends anyway? When I was little, I would always try to make new friends, but nobody liked me. I was considered a "loser". I still am. Then, when my mom and I moved, I switched to a new school. I would see all of the girls talking to each other. Sometimes I would listen to their conversations, as if I was part of it, just to see what it was like. I thought about going over and trying to join them when I noticed that after one girl left, the rest of the girl's talked trash about her behind her back. I was disgusted with them and decided that you can't trust anyone. That friends aren't actually your friends.
I was a really plain looking 11 year-old girl. My hair was a musty brown, a little longer than my shoulders. I cut my own hair. My dark blue forehead protector hung around my neck. My eyes, always a pale blue that made me look blind. I always wore gray colored T-shits and some ratty old jeans, or khaki pants. This was because dark colors made me depressed and bright colors made me feel like I was showing something that I wasn't. Gray colors fit me best, so that's what I wore.
Anyway, as I said before, it was very hard for me to make friends, but one day, I walked into school, and on my way to my class, I noticed someone peculiar. A kid with bright blonde hair in an orange jumpsuit. He was wearing the villages forehead protector. He noticed me staring at him and ran over to me, as if eager to meet me.
"Hi! Oh... um... Now that I see you up close, you look kind of scary, but... um... maybe we can be friends!" He said to me, bouncing on his toes.
"... Who are you?" I sounded panicked.
"Oh! Sorry! My name is Naruto!" He stated proudly. Ever since that day, Naruto and I had been friends. Even later, at 16, we would run into each other on missions. I quit my job at the farmers market because I made enough money on missions, but then my mother kicked me out of the apartment and I had to get a place of my own, so I went back to my old job as well as doing the missions, so I could support myself well enough.
One day, on a cloudy afternoon, I was running over to a ramen restaurant to treat myself, and I bumped into a boy. He had black hair, a dark blue shirt, and the Uchiha sign on his back. I looked at him kind of disgusted by his depressing look and apologized before I started running again. Like I said, dark colors made me depressed and that guy had "depressing man" written all over him. That's partly why Naruto and I are friends, since he wears a bright orange, happy color all the time, and the way he acts so hyper.
When I got to the ramen place, I saw Iruka sitting at the counter, all by himself. He was my old ninja academy Sensei. I sat right down next to him and smiled.
"Hi Iruka! Long time no see!" I laughed.
"Autumn? Is that you? I hardly recognized you! You've grown so much!" Iruka smiled back. "I hardly recognized Naruto too, when I saw him." He added.
"You saw Naruto?" I asked.
"I treat him to ramen all the time!"
I wasn't sure how to continue the conversation, so I ordered a small bowl of ramen. The man behind the counter handed it to me with a wrinkled grin. Then I had realized the identity of the boy I ran into on my way to the ramen restaurant. It was Uchiha Sasuke, the brother of Uchiha Itatchi. He was an A student while I was a B student. I was always looking up at him as my ninja goal. I wanted to reach his level. Of course, everything he did, I was always one step behind, and Naruto was the same way, but he was a complete failure. However, I knew that if he tried, he could beat Sasuke, but all Naruto did was seek attention, so he tried to be the class clown rather than the class success. After ninja academy, I realized how great a ninja Naruto became, and I began to fall behind very quickly, so he helped me a little bit so I wasn't too far back. The next thing I knew, Naruto was my new ninja goal.
Iruka didn't seem to notice my mind dozing off in the silence that lay there while we ate our ramen. I looked back at him and asked "Where is Naruto?". Iruka was quiet for a moment and then said "He's training somewhere in the village with Jiraiya." I looked away with a blank expression on my face.
"Jiraiya huh...?" I mumbled to myself. I wasn't exactly sure who Iruka was talking about, so I quickly finished my ramen, payed the old man behind the counter, and left on my search for Naruto. I used my chakra to push myself up onto a roof of a building and jumped from roof to roof looking for that bright orange jumpsuit of his. I quickly spotted him and jumped down. Naruto looked over at me and ran over.
"Autumn?" He confirmed my identity.
"Hey." I waved.
"Um... I'm kind of in the middle of training now... but if you want to meet up later..."
"Uchiha Sasuke; Remember him?" I interrupted.
"Of course! He's on my team!" He told me as if I was stupid.
"WHAT?! SINCE WHEN?!"
"Since we first got into teams for missions!"
"You never told me this!" I sounded aggravated.
"Um... sorry? Anyway, what about him?"
"I bumped into him. He's very depressing..."
"Nah, you just have to get to know him!" Naruto claimed. A man with white hair looked at him like he was an idiot. 'Is that man Jiraiya?' I thought to myself.
"Um... actually... your right. He is depressing." Naruto realized what was wrong with what he said before. "Well... like I said, I'm in the middle of training. You can watch if you want. Right Jiraiya?" He looked over at the white haired man.
"Sure!" Jiraiya said with a huge smile tapped onto an awkward face.
"That's OK... I should be training too." I said.
"Can I show you one thing before you go?" Naruto asked in excitement. I nodded. In moments, Naruto bit his thumb, and slapped his hand on the ground saying a jutsu so fast, I couldn't understand it. Suddenly, A giant frog appeared in a puff of smoke right before my eyes.
"Wow!" I said in amazement. Naruto looked proud of himself.
"Huh? You again?!" The frog said in a loud husky voice to Naruto, who was standing on the frog's head. "What is it this time?"
"I just wanted to show off one of my new jutsus." Naruto explained. The Frog began yelling at Naruto for doing something so pointless and at that moment, I knew it was time to go train.