I've never known what it was like to have everything you've ever believed in thrown back in your face. To have everything you've ever worked for seem like a waste of time. Most people go throughout their whole lives without feeling anything like that. As no one should, it's one of the most disheartening feelings in the world. It often makes people wonder if their futures are worth anything whatsoever, seeing as their past is meaningless. Needless to say, it never ends well.
Sadly, I am no exception to this rule.
My day started off as it normally would. I was positive that I was a force for good in our troubled world. I was so happy. I had breakfast with my family and kissed them goodbye. My sister was pregnant with her first child. It was going to be my niece's birthday and I was excited about the gift I got her; it was perfect! My parents were enjoying there retirement; my father was finally starting his garden and my mother was enjoying spending more time with him.
Oh, yes. When I left my family's compound everything seemed in order. The rustling leaves that scurried along the ground made the smile on my face content as I took a deep breath that seemed to spread the fall air through my body. It was refreshing.
I checked my ninja gear pouch. Everything was as I left it last night, full of kunai and shuriken that I sharpened to perfection. It was a habit of mine to make sure I was fully prepared for a day's work. Call me paranoid, but when you're on an A-Rank mission it sucks to be caught without long-range weapons.
I breathed out a sigh and quickened my pace at the thought of a mission. I loved my work. The feeling of the adrenaline rush while skulking into a secret base. The thrill of the chase. The way my heart started pumping like it was a big game of hide and seek.
When I finally made it to headquarters I met up with my team mates. They made my job a thousand times more fun. Well, it was already the best job I could ask for. But it was like expanding this great big game. They were my play mates. Not that I'd ever tell them that, of course.
"Hey, good morning guys." I said and smiled. Sachi smiled back and waved. Hiroma shook his head and yawned.
"I don't get it. What's your secret?" He asked and rubbed his eyes.
I froze and quirked an eyebrow. "What secret?"
"How you can be so smiley in the mornings!" He grinned sleepily. "That secret!"
I chuckled. "I wake up early and see my family. That's my secret. And now, because you know, I'll have to kill you."
He smirked and wiggled his eyebrows. "We both know that you find my company too enjoyable to kill me."
At that I had to laugh. "For now I do. But if you bore me…"
He tried to hide his smirk as I drew my index finger across my throat. Sachi smiled and rolled her eyes.
"Alright, alright quit flirting you two. We've got a mission to do, if you'll please remember." She grinned. Hiroma and I both gave her a blank stare.
He shrugged. "Whatever. C'mon, let's get going."
We agreed and shrugged on our back packs and started down the main road out of town. I was excited about this mission; it was completely confidential and only a select few knew about it. It was an infiltration mission that required someone with unsurpassable stealth skills. I don't mean to sound cocky, but that'd be me.
A few people in my village nicknamed me the 'Invisible' ninja. I was, literally, untraceable. I knew several genjutsu that aided me in this, but mostly I didn't even need chakra to be stealthy. I was just as quiet, if not more, as a mouse and I could find a hiding spot almost anywhere.
But today, my mission was to follow and trace a suspect. We walked to the spot of road that was marked on our map, and settled into the trees on one side to wait. We talked quietly to ourselves about random things; my sister's pregnancy, how Sachi's children and husband were doing, Hiroma's mother's mysterious illness…
"Yes, but the thing I'm worried about is that I won't be there for her." He said quietly.
"What? Of course you will!" I reassured and squeezed his shoulder lightly. "You love her so much, why would you think you wouldn't?"
"It's just…" He began and sighed. "Have you heard about all the deaths since the new Hokage came into order? All the Jounin and ANBU to come back home in body bags?"
"Well, yes, of course. But there only rumors, right?" Sachi asked and frowned. Hiroma shook his head.
"I thought so too, but a few days ago I saw… Three body bags being drug into head quarters."
"What? Are you sure they were bodies?"
"I've been around enough corpses to know what death feels like." He replied as his mouth became a grim slash. "And there are so many deaths… Whole teams being taken out! And that's not the worst part of it."
Sachi and I were both too tense to interrupt. My eyes flicked over to her and I knew that she was lapping up this information with interest. I admit that I was finding Hiroma's story hard to turn away from or deny.
"It's… It's been rumored that the killings were done by our own ninja."
"What?!" I breathed and as Sachi clasped her hand over her mouth. "Surely you're kidding! Our leaders wouldn't do that to us! They know us and our friend's loyalty to the nation!"
"It can't be!" Sachi choked out as tears welled in her eyes. I took her hand in mine and patted it as comfortingly as I could muster.
"It's what I've heard." Hiroma replied, his mouth a grim slash. "And that's what setting me on edge. If somebody within our society is arranging for the deaths of their own ninja, what could they be planning on doing to the people?"
I didn't want to think about it.