A/N:This is my first Fanfic! WEE! please review and tell me what you think! I'll try to have the next Chapter up by next week.

Disclaimer:I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. Even though that's pretty irrelevant seeing as this prologue has absolutely nothing to do with the manga yet...

Prologue - The Manhole

High school sucks. Infinitely and eternally. Not because I'm one of those kids that sits in the back of the room exploding into sinister giggles while writing a hit-list on her desk in black marker (because I'm really not cough), but simply because all of my peers are complete and utter imbeciles. I'm not being harsh either. Their all just plain unintelligent. I have a few choice friends that reach my level of awesome, of course, but that's it.

It's not that I'm ugly. I'm regular looking - long brown hair, green eyes (or hazel... or blue... whatever), about 5"6, not skinny but not fat either, my usual outfit consisting of nothing flashy (dress shirt, cargo pants, always classic I-look-like-someone-who's-dressed-by-their-mom colors, you know) - so that's not why i depend on my smarts. In reality, I just enjoy knowing things. It makes life so much easier when you know what the hell is going on, ne?

Anyway, back to current topic; highschool sucks. 9th grade specifically. It especially sucks when your second period is approximately half a mile (yeah, I measured) from your first, you have five minutes to get there, and you can't fucking DRIVE yet. So there i was, on my merry way to Integrated Science (or, you know, running like there's no tomorrow - whichever you prefer), the Florida sun beating unmercifully upon my poor, unfortunate paleness (that's not a word, is it?) when I nearly fall face-first into a large gaping hole in the sidewalk. It wasn't even, like, a sewage manhole or anything - just a huge, black pit.

Seriously, what the fuck?

I observed it cautiously - Science could wait, man-pits could not. There wasn't any street construction going on as far as I was aware...sigh safety hazards always did bother me. Who puts a freaking HOLE where people walk? I looked around for the person responsible, only to find that I was alone. Literally. Everyone in my general vicinity was gone. 'Maybe the Mothership finally decided to let me have the planet to myself,'(Ha ha... kidding). It wascreepy though. I don't think there were even any birds chirping anymore. Baffled, I kneeled down at the edge of the hole and tried to examine the black abyss. Maybe it had swallowed everyone? It wouldn't be a terrible loss...

"Uh, Hello?" I called. No answer. Irritation flaring, I tried again.

"HELLOOOO?! ANY MORBID IMPENDING HORRORS DOWN THERE?!"

...

Nada. Zip.

'This is ridiculous,'I concluded. If someone wanted to kill me, wouldn't they have just, like, pushed me in by now? Honestly, serial killers really were losing their touch these days. I leaned a little farther, steadying myself cautiously on the rim, when all of a sudden, a whoosh of air swept under me where my feet should have been grounded.

Great. We have a moving manhole now.

I probably looked pretty comical in that moment, flailing my arms desperately in hopes that the air particles around me would suddenly condense into some miraculous life-support. Looking back on it, had I been the serial killer in charge, I would have been laughing my ass out, but by now i was falling. Just falling and falling and falling into the black. I didn't yell or anything (too busy flailing) but I did manage out a grunt of panic after a while. Sweet Jesus, did this thing ever freaking END? I was probably going to get wind burn or something. It was getting warmer as I went downward and i fancied the possibility of me getting closer to the center of the planet as I fell. strokes chin skeptically Hmmm...

Five minutes had gone by now and I was beggining to wonder if this was some elaborate illusion like that scene from Spy Kids. Seriously, no hole is thatdeep. I was probably going to die. I did a little twisting maneuver with my arms so that I was facing upwards as I fell. If I was going to be splattered across some dank, pit-floor, I didn't want to see it coming. I took this moment to admire the fact that the hole was so far away now that it looked almost like a single star. The Lone Star... teehee. In case you haven't realized already, I have A.D.D. Anyway, the darkness really was beautiful. You never know what it hides or what it shows. It's dangerous and mysterious and... well, deep. Definitely the first thing i would prefer to see before I die.

Huh. Irony.

There was a little tingle in the back of my skull that I assumed to mean the ground was near. It disturbed me at first that I could have an entire 6th sense dedicated to knowing when I'm about to be squashed by gravity- NOTa comforting thought. But the tingling quite suddenly started spreading. All through my arms, legs, face, toes, stomach - everywhere until I was literally writhing in hysterical giggles, causing my whipping hair to fly into my mouth.

Still falling, remember?

Then, just as soon as it had started, a piercing scream ripped itself from my throat halfway before I could even register the new pain:

First, it was like I was being stretched and compressed like silly putty.

Secondly came the the searing fire that lit my insides and plunged needles into my skin.

Third, of course, came the pounding pulse in my skull.

All I could do was scream and scream and scream bloody murder for it to stop. Then, just when I thought only hell could be worse, I was suddenly thrust into a world of blinding light and wavering color in sharp contrast with my previous dark residence. I screeched my throat raw and clawed viciously at my assaulted lids to block out that FUCKING LIGHT and writhed in mid-air. That's when, of course, the ground decided to show up-

And with its impact came the beautiful darkness.