((Quick A/N! This chapter started out in third person view, mostly focusing on the main character. The time skip is in first person, and the rest of the chapter after that is in third person again. I hope this doesn't confuse you!
Hello and welcome to my Naruto story, The Higher We Climb! This is my personal OC-Insert Naruto fic. I tried to make this chapter kind of long, but left it off at a point I thought was good enough. (: If you have any questions, feel free to ask them! Make sure to leave reviews, too!))
If you asked a certain young woman, she'd tell you how great the sand was. She'd tell you how great it is to lay down under the hot sun and feel the grains move with every shift in your body, or how nice it is to take a nap in the warmth- in the shade, of course, you don't want to get sunburned- and wake up rejuvenated.
But she really thought that all of those warm, fuzzy memories could go to hell the moment she woke up, sand in her mouth and skin baked dry under the hot sun. She probably had a sunburn, too, if the burning under her skin was anything to go by.
Coughing was a bad idea. It made her lungs ache and her chest hurt. She tried to spit, but the best she could do was simply let the dry sand fall out of her mouth and onto the ground, which was, she noticed, even more sand.
She blinked once. That hurt her too, considering she had woken up face down and probably had sand in her eyes as well by now, taking her time to look around. Sand was everywhere. She bawled her hands into fists and rubbed her eyes, facing the ground as she tried to clear her eyes. When she pulled away, her brows furrowed in confusion.
"Where the heck...?" She didn't bother finishing her own sentence. Her voice sounded small and weak, making her seem so young. It would be odd enough to speak her thoughts aloud, especially considering there was no one to listen to her in the first place. There was nobody around, not as far as she could see, though that perhaps didn't matter, considering her terrible eye sight. Where were her glasses, anyway? Why the hell was she in a desert? Or perhaps a beach, Hell if she knew where she was.
She certainly remembered where she was supposed to be, though, and that definitely wasn't in the sand, desert or not.
The last thing she remembered was listening to music, studying for her high school finals. She was only slightly panicking at the idea of going through with the tests, but she certainly hated the idea of flunking even more than that. So, boring as it may be for her, she had been studying for hours on end, writing notes over and over- the easiest way for her to remember things was to write them several times- and softly singing along to a song called 'Stereo Heart'. By who, she couldn't really remember.
That was it. She had been inside her own, dark bedroom, wearing her thin rimmed blue glasses, mumbling lyrics under her breath as she wrote letter after letter repeatedly until she committed each sentence to memory.
She didn't even remember going to bed afterward. Studying was her last thought, before everything suddenly and inexplicably became dark.
Then she woke up in the sand, face down and in pain. Also with memory loss, apparently. Also apparently getting worse with each second, because she could have sworn she had just remembered being somewhere a second ago, but now her head just ached when she thought of it.
She remembered that last moment, right before the darkness came, and she remembered she was unhappy where she used to be. Other than that, nothing. What was her name? Who had she been? Who was she now? Hell, she didn't even know how old she was.
She sighs shakily, forcing down the cough that tried to make its way up into her chest and out her throat. The inside of her throat itched, and she wished nothing more than to scratch that annoying itch, but simply ignored the bugging feeling. Pushing herself up, she leans back on her knees, plopping down to rest her legs underneath her as she looked up at the sky.
It was dark out. Very dark.
It had to have been at least past 10 p.m., with how dark the sky was. The clouds were heavy and dark, and the girl almost thought that perhaps it would rain, but, no. It was a desert, it hardly ever rained. It simply looked dark and heavy due to the nighttime. The moon hid behind said dark and heavy looking clouds, making the world seem even darker than it possibly was already.
She just sat there. Her muscles ached. Everything ached, really. She was in a lot of pain, she was suddenly aware. Not only did her throat constrict with every cough she let out, her chest and lungs ached with every breath she took in and she could hear some kind of rattling inside her with every breath she let out. Her body was unbearably hot, even through the simple, off-white spaghetti strap and single pair of white shorts she wore. She wasn't wearing socks or shoes, or anything else, really. She was glad for the simple outfit, especially considering the environment she suddenly found herself in, even if there was seemingly no breeze to cool herself.
She didn't know how long she sat there, simply staring up at the sky, eyes open but not really seeing as the clouds floated by slowly, seemingly ignorant the strife she found herself in.
Ah, if only she could be a cloud. That'd be nice.
Suddenly, a feeling of a twitch began in her chest. Then, an itch. She breathed in deeply, trying not to urge the itch any further, but failing. She kneeled over herself as she tried to stave off on the coughing fit she knew would soon come. Her lungs and throat still hurt, and her mouth was as dry as ever. She let out a choked sound, placing her hands in the hot sand as she began coughing. Starting small, her coughing session got worse as her stomach clenched in response to her constant erratic coughing and forced, labored breathing.
This was hell.
A second of coughing passed, then another, then a minute, until eventually she was certain her face was blue from the choked, wheezing noises coming from her throat. She let out a single, last cough and spit flew from her lips into the sand as she gasped, trying to get her breathing back.
She licked her lips, trying to bring her breathing back down to normal.
Or, she would have, if she hadn't paused and her eyes flew open to witness the sand in front of her, wet. Wet with blood, not spit. She had coughed up blood, and a lot of it.
Just as she was about to think about how fucked up this situation was- waking up in a desert with amnesia and coughing up blood- she heard a noise. An odd noise- something akin to a shuffle, to her right.
She inhaled deeply, or as deep as she could without hurting her aching stomach and burning lungs, and saw the last thing that had been on her mind from the moment she had awoken in this strange place.
People.
People, and they were walking towards her. They also had a mule with them, but she wasn't going to judge, really.
She grinned, showing off her no-doubt-blood-stained teeth as she sat back on her legs.
People.
Fucking people.
And they were coming for her.
She saw a few of them speed up their movements until they were in an all out sprint, before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell forward, into the sand, and everything went black.
I watched from the side. Or from the ceiling, I couldn't tell, really. All I really know is that I was watching a girl and a man converse. What they were talking about, I don't really know.
I couldn't move, or speak. I could hear and smell, and, if there was anything to taste, I'm sure I would have tasted it. Probably. Maybe.
"..interesting..."
He purred almost, interested in the young girl in front of him. She looked almost 15, 16 maybe. A man- no, not a man, a thing- was here in front of the girl telling her that he was about to kill her and do the impossible, and all I could think was, 'wow, he sure does purr like a cat'.
Then he spoke again. He told the girl not to compare him to an animal. I was worried- scared, even. He grinned. He told the girl that she had a right to be scared. Was he talking to me? Could he hear me? He faces the young girl the entire time.
Then he told her he wanted her to know his name.
No, not yet. He hadn't told her his name yet.
He opened his mouth, about to say his name, when he stopped. Suddenly, the room went cold. He turns on his heel, almost as if he were in a hurry to do so, and stares.
He stares right into my eyes, and grins.
"There you are, Rae."
And then I was dead.
The moment her eyes flew open, the woman sat upright in a heartbeat and screamed. She screamed as loud as she possibly could, for all but a split second before she slapped her hands over her mouth, tears running down her cheeks for some undisclosed reason.
She muffled her sobs- why was she crying?- behind her fingers as the door to her side flew open and hurried footsteps ran in beside her. She shakily looked toward the noises with her wide eyes.
Two men- at least she thought they were men, but she couldn't really tell as they were wearing a type of clothing that covered every part of their body but their eyes, and was rather baggy- looked at her in surprise and perhaps concern, but it was hard to tell. They took a step forward, and, as glad as she was to see another human being- and not that monster- every thought of human contact flew out the window as she screamed again, attempting to push herself backwards and off the bed.
She succeeded in getting off the bed, albeit rather roughly as she landed on her back and hit her head rather hard against the hard ground. She didn't waste a second in shouting,
"Get BACK! STAY AWAY FROM ME!"
They obviously could not take a hint, or perhaps they simply didn't care about the screaming woman pointing an accusatory finger at the two people as she scooted backwards on her hands and knees, for they simply held up their hands in a sign of surrender before they began taking small steps forward, attempting to stop her from moving or screaming any further.
Her vision blurred only slightly, spots of black and white flashing through her eyes as she moved further and further away, and she could only assume this was from hitting her head so hard against the floor. What was this floor made out of, anyway? It felt grainy, like sand, but hard and didn't mold under her fingers, as if each speck of sand had been carefully glued together to make a floor. She nearly laughed at the ridiculous thought, but then remembered the current issue.
She heard laughing, and she glowered at the two people in front of her, still making small moves toward her but still otherwise. She poured every ounce of hatred and venom into that glower. She was glad, and, admittedly, perhaps slightly amused when one of them lowered their eyes, too afraid to meet that venomous glare.
"Don't laugh at me!" She shouted at the offending men- she was just going to assume that they were men, from their tall and bulky statures- scooting back further, until her back collided with a wall.
"Sir, please! You're dehydrated and are experiencing hallucinations!"
Sir? Did they just call her a man?
Before she could even muster the correct amount of vulgar words to throw their way- which was all of them, by the way, she was honestly planning on cursing them out with every single vulgar word she knew-, the door was thrown open and another man came walking in.
This man was... different, this was obvious.
He was not wearing the dull beige colored scrubs-like outfit the other two men wore that covered their entire body like fitted gloves. No, he did not look like some cosplayer who didn't know how to dress as a proper nurse- what kind of nurse wears a dirty yellow that looks like dirty pee, rather than the usual sky blue, anyway?-, this man was obviously someone important, if the sudden stillness and the shift in temperature meant anything to her.
Which it did.
She stopped struggling the minute the man entered the room. There was an air of importance to him, it would surely be obvious even to a two year old. He took two large strides forward- God, he was tall- and was standing in front of the girl. His long, grey-blue robes with golden hems flowed behind him with his every step. He looked down at the girl, as if he pitied her.
The look sent shivers down her spine, and she decided she didn't like him.
She managed to bring her eyes up, looking right into his own dark, midnight blue eyes. His arms were crossed over his golden sash on his chest, and his eyes narrowed at her in something she couldn't really place. It both scared and kind of excited her. She hated it.
"Who are you?" She asked hesitantly, voice hardly even raised above a whisper. Her voice sounded odd in her own ears. Was it her own?
He made a face at her, as if disgusted by her very existence, and responded in a smooth and sultry voice, "I am Rasa, the Yondaime Kazekage of Sunagakure. What is your name?"
She furrowed her brows. Rasa? Yondaime Kazekage? Sunagakure? They all sounded familiar to her, but she could not place them, just as she couldn't place her own memories of her past. She didn't know her own name, either.
"Where am I?" She asked, instead, opting to ignore his question. She didn't dare tear her eyes away from his own, however. They almost scared her to look into them for too long. They were dark, like voids. Empty.
They were beautiful.
Also, she kind of felt scared of what he might do if she showed disrespect.
"I told you before; you are in Sunagakure. What is your name?" He repeated the question. Sunagakure sounded familiar, sure, but it didn't sound like a place to her. She was certain she would have remembered a place like this; after all those hours spent studying the world's geological and physical attributes as well as the states and capitols of every country around the world. She could name all 50 states of America in under a minute, quite impressive if she does say so herself.
And considering how they seemed to be making up places, she kind of was just saying so herself.
"What- where is that?" This time, she finally did break the stare. She looked around the room cautiously. It was rather dark in here, despite the cleanliness of the area. There was a single light hanging above the bed she had been resting on a moment ago.
She briefly heard one of the pee colored nurses telling the man before her that she was having serious mental problems, although she could only hear the world 'hallucinatory' and 'probable disassociation'.
"Look at me," a voice spoke before her. She almost had to do a double take to realize it was the same man as before; the one with the beautiful eyes. He was crouching in front of her, resting his elbows on the tops of his knees as he kept his gaze locked onto hers.
"Do you know where you are?" He asked softly. So softly, in fact, that she really had trouble believing it was the same man as before. He had been so confident and entirely certain of himself, there was an air of authority and command around him. She felt small under his gaze- both metaphorically and literally, she realizes, she does feel rather small, as if she is physically younger than her mind is-, now, however, his eyes were softer. Instead of feeling small and weak under his gaze, he looked at her as if they were equals. She almost believed it.
"Suna... whatever you said..." She mumbled, hugging her knees up to her chest and placing her hands atop her knees.
He looked at her in pity.
"Sunagakure," he corrected her patiently.
"Yeah."
"Do you know who you are? Your name?"
She slowly shook her head 'no', mumbling under her breath, "No, I-I don't know..." The man lifted his head slightly, making some noise of acknowledgement in the back of his throat. His eyes looked less like dark voids and more like the deep ends of the pool. She liked the water.
Then she remembered that dream- if you could call it that. The man, the scary man who was talking to a girl. The man had turned to her and called her by a name. That had to be her name, right?
"Ahh," she hummed. "Rae...?" She asked, hesitant.
"Your name?" He asked.
She paused, then nodded, hesitant at first but gaining confidence slightly. "Yes. My name is Rae." She was pretty sure her name wasn't actually Rae, but it was something to go by for now. Maybe she'd find out what it really was later on.
He shifted on his heels slightly, most likely attempting to get in a comfortable enough position so his feet wouldn't fall asleep. His position doesn't look very comfortable, either. His knees must hurt.
"Hajimemashite, Rae-San. My name is Rasa, of The Desert."
She ignored the oddly familiar sounding word he had mentioned in another language. Rae-San? She was fairly certain she had only said Rae. Also, 'of The Desert' sounded more like a title than a name.
And it sounded familiar.
She nodded once, mumbling his name under her breath as if to convince herself of him. "Rasa."
With a single nod, he stood up from his uncomfortable looking position, standing to his full height- which was still tall as hell, by the way- and stared down at her again.
This time, he offered her a hand.
She stared up at the appendage, before slowly, ever so slowly, untangling herself and reaching up to grasp at it softly. He wrapped his fingers around her hand- which was smaller than she remembered, but then again she can't really remember anything- and pulled her up with ease. She gasped quietly when he did so, both helping her up and subtly showing off his strength in a silent message.
What that message was, she didn't wish to find out.
He let go of her hand, and she vaguely missed the warmth, before turning around and walking off, not even bothering to turn as he spoke to the pee nurses once more,
"Treat him kindly," 'her', you handsome dipshit, "He is a wounded patient, not a prisoner."
The two nurses stand at attention, except without bringing their hands to their heads in a solute, and shouted something akin to a "hi" quickly. He nodded once, glanced back at her- at Rae- and walked out of the room, the door swinging shut behind him.
"...and then there were three," she mumbled under her breath. The two men turned to look at her. One of them scowled while the other sighed dejectedly. She shrugged, as if that would help any one of them. She knew it didn't really help, anyway, though.
"Rae-San," one of the nurses- or doctors, she didn't really know- spoke up, taking a hesitant step toward her. She took a step back. The one trying to approach her slapped his hand against his forehead, groaning a muffled cry of outrage behind his hand. Considering how he was also the one to glare after the man from before- Sara? Hasa? Rasa! Yeah, yeah it was Rasa- had left the room, we'll decide to call him Happy.
She could laugh at the irony, really.
The second man sighed sympathetically, lowering his deep brown eyes to glance at the girl. She was really kind of uncomfortable because of how short she was. She may not remember much from her past, or anything really, but she certainly didn't think being this small was normal for an adult. She thinks she was an adult, or maybe supposed to be one? She couldn't think straight.
She'll call this guy Leo, simply for the lack of a better name.
Happy and Leo.
"Rae-san," Leo interjected in a much kinder tone than Happy had been using a moment ago. "We need to take a look at your injuries."
The girl stood still for a moment. She carefully thought this through.
On the one hand, Leo was seemingly kind, and had pretty brown eyes, like melted chocolate. He was kind enough to not force her anywhere, and he was probably trustworthy. Maybe.
On the other hand, Happy was a jerk. Period.
After thinking it through (not so) clearly, Rae took a few steps forward, specifically towards Leo. They must have noticed this somewhere halfway through the third step, as Leo reached a single hand forward to welcome her as Happy crossed his arms, practically staring daggers at the girl. Rae reached forward, grabbing onto the kinder man's sleeve of his shoulder. It was really starting to bother not knowing how old she was, considering her arm couldn't reach any higher than his shoulder.
"How old am I?"
The two men were obviously not expecting that question. Leo did nothing but blink at the sudden question's appearance. Happy's glare lessened, if only by a slight fraction, and he, too, blinked at the question.
"W-well, ah," Leo spoke up, crossing his arms and placing his hand to his chin, "we could do a blood test, and run it through our databases. I mean, not only would that tell us your age, but also any possible known relatives- if we have them here, that is."
Rae glanced around. "If you have them here?"
"If we have them here," Happy nodded once. "If they're not in Sunagakure, then we don't have them in our system. If we don't have them in our system, then we can't locate them. You'd have to search in another village for them, if that was the case."
Rae made a noise, strangled between a, "ooohhh," and a questioning sound nobody could really place their fingers on. It conveyed her confusing thoughts and emotions pretty damn well, in her opinion.
"..I don't think they're here. I've never been here before," Rae mumbled, hardly above a whisper as she thought aloud. "...at least I don't think so."
Leo nodded.
"Memory loss. It's alright, your memories should come to you soon."
Rae nodded.
"Okay."
An hour and a half later, the medics, which Rae had learned that they had actual names other than 'Happy' and 'Leo', would let her out of the hospital, as long as she had someone to watch over her as she was walking about.
Although, while on the topic of Happy and Leo, she had learned quite a bit about them. Not only did they have actual faces underneath those pee colored tarps that they wore, but they also had pretty cool personalities- and were kind of cute.
Happy was already her favorite person to mess with, it's official. Leo had a weakness for young kids, so he always gave into whatever she had asked of him.
..And that was the next topic.
They did the blood test, safely and securely. As expected, they did not find any blood relatives in Sunagakure. They did, however, depict her age- and gender, by the way. They had immediately apologized after finding out she was actually a girl. Or, rather, Leo did. Happy just grumbled about the way she looked like a boy.
It was also that comment that had urged her to ask for a mirror, since she could not even remember what she had looked like.
They granted this wish to her.
So here she stood, in front of a full, body length mirror.
The first thing she had noticed was her hair. She huffed as she figured out that Happy was, in fact, correct- she did resemble a little boy.
She had been told she was roughly 9 years old, as they didn't have her exact time of birth or day. She had decided that, until she found out for certain, her birthday would be August 12th, the day they found her in the sand(she hadn't found out until later that she had been unconscious for a full two days. She honestly had to wonder how they hadn't bothered to figure out her actual gender in that time).
She furrowed her brows, ruffling her pale, skinny hand through her short, messy cut white hair. As expected, it was dirty and filled with sand- her hair alone could be another desert, she had joked. Happy didn't find it funny. Leo did.
She looked into her own eyes. Were they her own? No, impossible. They were too beautiful to be her own.
Her eyes were a vibrant blue, but had shades of red mixed in, making almost a mixture of purple in her eyes. They were beautiful, and she swears she could get lost in her own eyes.
Leo had told her that she was underweight. This, she could see fairly quickly, actually. She was taller than most kids her age, as she was around the age of 9, but she looked almost 11. This could both help her and cause problems in the future for her, she could only assume. She was also incredibly skinny, as she had been warned from Leo. She could practically see her bones peeking out from underneath her skin, and it almost disgusted her. She liked to be thin, sure, every girl did, but not unhealthily so.
Leo left to grab her some hospital food a while ago. Currently she sat on the same table she had awoken in, with Happy as her only company.
He was asking her a lot of questions, and checking something off on his check board after every answer.
"No last name?" He would ask.
"Not that I remember," She would answer. He scratched something down.
"Family- nevermind," he mumbled the last part. She assumed he was about to ask about family members.
He asked a lot of questions. Most of her answers were something along the lines of, "I don't remember" or, "Not that I know of."
Leo returns with food later on.
"Thanks, Leo," she mumbled. She had had a hard time speaking up loudly, perhaps from dehydration, perhaps shyness. The two men had yet to figure out what it was, and so had she.
Leo tsked, placing a tanned hand atop the girl's head and ruffling up her hair worse than it already was(which was kind of impossible).
"I told you already, Rae-San, my name is Eiji Takechi."
Happy spoke up from behind him, "And if you have yet to remember the names, then keep in mind I am not 'Happy'," obviously not, "I am Ryuu Seiji."
Rae hummed as she shoveled food into her mouth in a very unladylike manner. She didn't really care at the moment.
"How come your names are so similar? Your first and last ones, I mean," she spoke up, food half chewed and half swallowed as she looked between the two. They, or rather Leo, had explained already the use of saying their first names last, and last names first. Or, they didn't explain their use, just that that's what they do, and that's what she should do, too. Until they realized she didn't have a last name in the first place- which kind of made her sad, which made Leo sad for making her sad, and made Happy pissed because everyone else was sad.
She's hardly spent a conscious day with them, but she loved them already.
Really.
