Author's Note: Hi there! I started this back in 2008 and always wanted to continue the story but never really got around to writing it down though. I sat down once, wrote some of it, and never touched it again. Until now. Inspiration has struck! Just a warning, I stopped following Naruto A LONG time ago so there may be some things that are not canon or even close to accurate. I will definitely try to keep the characters as in-character as I can and will definitely try to keep as close to canon as possible. Any constructive criticism is appreciated and please point out to me any grammatical errors so that I can improve my writing. Alright then! Let's get to some fanfictioning!

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Woe Is Me.

Life sucks. No, I'm not over-exaggerating. It just is what it is and right now, it sucks. That's all I can think about as I get everything ready to give my house the scrubbing of a lifetime. Cleaning helps me clear my mind and it has the added perk of well, leaving my house clean. Who doesn't love a clean home? It usually does an amazing job at distracting me but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be working right now. Must mean I need to clean harder… The kitchen cupboards have been looking like they need re-arranging, may as well do it now! With that thought in mind I set myself to tackling the kitchen first.

A couple of hours later and my house is squeaky clean. I stand by the front door and breathe in the smell of a freshly mopped house. I look around my house and think about the days when my parents were still around. I can barely remember their faces, I was five when they passed away. Years ago, disease struck our little village and took many of our neighbors, family and friends. My parents did what they could to keep us safe and healthy, but Kimura was a small village and unprepared for the disease. Neither one of my parents made it. My grandparents had died long before I was even born and my parents had both been single children so I didn't have any immediate family to be with. That's not to say I was alone. My parents were both well known and well liked people in the village, so I had more than enough people volunteering to take care of me. It also helped that I wasn't a hard child to take care of. In other words, I was pretty lame and boring as far as children went. I did what I was told and respected my elders. I didn't have a reason not to and while I did have my moments of stubbornness and childishness, I usually got over them pretty quickly when I was given a piece of candy or something to keep myself busy with. One week after my parent's death we got a visit from The Sannin Tsunade herself and just like that, the disease was no more.

All in all apart from my parent's death, my childhood was a pretty happy and normal one. I used to be afraid someone would come and take me away from my home to live with a stranger since I was still only five years old and couldn't take care of myself. Two weeks after my parent's funerals though Ichi-Obasan, the elderly neighbor who had been taking care of me at the time, took me back home. At first I had been wary, I thought for sure I would be taken away to live with a stranger. When I voiced my concerns to Ichi-Obasan though, she just gave me a sincere smile and told me, "you have gone through enough already and I'm afraid taking you away from your home would hurt you more than help you." And that was that. The following morning she informed me that different neighbors would be taking turns spending the night at my home to take care of me and teach me how to take care of myself.

After a while I got used to the routine and welcomed always having someone near in case I needed anything. It actually became a thing where many of my neighbors would volunteer to come and "take care" of me if they got into an argument with their spouse. Aka-san was one of the regulars who would use me as an excuse to get away from her husband whenever they had a disagreement. They were both young, in love, recently married and stubborn as hell so they tended to buttheads a lot. Usually by the second night though, Yusuke-san would come and fix things between him and his wife. I thought they were adorable, even if they did disagree a lot. Two years later that all changed when Aka-san got pregnant with Miko-chan. I don't think I've ever seen a husband more devoted to his wife and child as Yusuke-san is. Maybe someday I will have that as well.

As the years passed and I learned to care for myself, the need for someone to stay home with me became less and less and while at the beginning I felt a little lonely, I learned to enjoy my new freedom and the time I got to be by myself. By fifteen, while still attending school, I got my first job at the library and have been there ever since. There's no shinobi in Kimura so there was no way for me to be able to become a medic-nin. Tsunade had made an impression on me but moving to the closest shinobi village, Konoha, would have been way too expensive. Sure, I could've sold the house and probably fetched a good amount of money for it but my parents weren't shinobi and as far as I knew no one in my family had ever been a shinobi so I couldn't risk getting rid of the only thing I had left from my parents to go chase after a dream I knew would most likely never work out. And c'mon, I was five! Even I realized I couldn't make life-changing decisions at that age (I'd be surprised later on at the amount of people who thought five was a perfectly reasonable age to choose your career).

Sometime during my reminiscing I moved and sat down on the couch. I was tired from cleaning all day and now that the sun was setting and my stomach was growling. I realized I haven't had any food since early this morning. I could make something but I really didn't have the energy for it. With that thought in mind I decided to rinse myself off and go out for dinner.

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After cleaning all day I felt like eating something heavy, something meaty and delicious and juicy. I decided to go for the barbecue, it never lets me down. The lady who runs it has known me since I was a child, she used to be one of the ladies who would go and care for me, so I get the added family/friend discount. No, barbecue never lets me down. It's a little bit of a hole in the wall, an older shop but with a cosy atmosphere. I walk in, say hi to Kawa-Obasan and get down to business. By the time I leave I feel like I should be rolling home with how stuffed I am and decide to go on a walk.

As I said before, Kimura is a small town where pretty much everybody knows each other so going out at night is relatively safe. Of course, things do happen from time to time but as long as you stick close to the hustle and bustle and stay in well lit places you should be fine. With that, I turned and headed to my favorite spot, the river. It's a little bit off the center of activity in town but not so far off where a well executed scream wouldn't catch anyone's attention. I'd be fine.

The night was clear and there was a soft, warm breeze. Spring was here and the weather was amazing. The Land of Fire was never really cold but it could get a bit chilly from time to time. I could hear the crickets loud and clear and the sound of people enjoying the night out as I headed to the river. In the distance I spotted Hiroshi with his girlfriend walking hand in hand and I stumbled a bit remembering the scene from earlier today. Feeling my face heat up, I looked up from my little misstep to see Hiroshi waving at me and heading my way with his girlfriend in tow. I did the only thing I could think of, acted like I didn't see them and turned into the nearest corner taking off as soon as they lost sight of me. Turning corners and moving fast (not running, of course I wasn't running!) I managed to get away. The streets here where a lot less crowded, in fact there really wasn't anyone out. Not really looking where I was going and looking back to make sure they didn't follow me, I failed to notice a man standing in the middle of my path looking at me. And so, I crashed into him. Full on crashed into him. I wasn't even really running at that point (not that I ran to begin with, of course) more like jogging (fast jogging), but this man didn't even so much as flinch when my entire body went SMACK against him. Seeing stars, I fell on my butt. Something sharp had hit me on my temple and looking up, I saw the stranger rubbing his chin. His chin had hit my temple. While trying to get away from Hiroshi and his girl, I unsuccessfully almost ran over this man. Oh Kami. Feeling my face heat up again I forgot my dizziness and jumped to my feet to apologize.

"I am so, so sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going and almost ran you over! Are you ok?" I'm pretty sure I closely resembled a tomato at this point but I couldn't just walk away seeing as to how it was my fault he kept rubbing his chin (the entirety of his injuries it seemed like). I mean, what if I really hurt his chin? Can you really hurt someone's chin?

He didn't answer me and just kept slightly rubbing his chin. I couldn't really make out his features but I knew he wasn't from around. He was tall and just looked, dark. Dark clothes, dark hair, covered by a dark bandana, and I think his eyes may have been dark too but I couldn't really tell since we were closer to the edge of town and there weren't that many street lights. He was still looking at me though and not saying anything and it was a bit unnerving. I decided friendly was the way to go since, well, who doesn't like friendly?

"My name is Hayashi, Nanami. I'm so sorry for running into you. You keep rubbing your chin, did I hurt you?"

At this he paused and just slightly raised his eyebrow. Somehow, that little gesture made me feel really, really dumb. Feeling like my head was about to explode from embarrassment, I barely managed to keep my gaze on him while he looked at me. He looked like he was about to say something when he was distracted by something behind me. I turned to look so I could see what he was looking at, but there was nothing there. I thought it may have been Hiroshi (he didn't notice me in the library did he?) but the streets behind us were empty. I turned back to him and noticed he was glaring at something behind me, I just wasn't sure what. I turned to look again and there still wasn't anything. He didn't look very happy though. While he was distracted by flying trash or a tumble weed or whatever, I took the opportunity to study him a bit closer. We didn't regularly get many people from out of town. Sure, we got the merchants and what not, but they had been coming for years and were well known by everyone in town. Something told me he was most definitely not a merchant though. Looking at him now, I noticed he looked to be maybe around my age. He was wearing what looked to be a black cloak that pretty much hid most of his body. His hair was a bit on the longer side and boy, did he have a bone structure to kill for! Not going to lie, I was a bit captivated by this man. I couldn't make every detail of him, but I could see he was handsome. I noticed a bit too late he had finished glaring at the air behind me and was looking at me again. Feeling my face re-heating itself, I decided I had made a fool of myself enough for the day and it was time to go.

"Listen, if you're ok I'll be taking my leave now. It was nice to meet you and sorry again for bumping into you." I walked around him and was almost past him when I felt him grab me by the arm above my elbow.

"Go home." It took me a moment to realize he had said something and that he was holding me by the arm. I was so flabbergasted that all I managed was a weak "eh?".

"Go home" he repeated. His voice was deep and well, manly. It had a bit of a no non-sense edge to it. Whoever this guy was, he was used to people doing what he wanted. I wasn't a confrontational person, but who the hell did this guy think he was? Not to mention he was still holding my arm.

"Excuse me? What's your problem? Listen, I have some friends that are on their way and if they see you grabbing me like this they're going to be upset. I really suggest you let go of me before they show up." Complete and total bull but he doesn't know that, and while I'm no pushover I'm also not delusional enough to believe I can fight him off if he were to try anything. Oh crap, he's not going to try anything is he? Fuck. I should've just went straight home. A well executed scream can be heard from here, right? Crap. Realizing that I was close to the edge of town with a stranger and no one else around, I began to get a little nervous. I pulled my arm back and he let it go without resistance.

He looked around, glaring at the world again and said, "I suggest going home. Unless you want to get caught in the middle." Get caught in the middle? In the middle of what?

Of course, that was when I saw three guys stepping out of the shadows of the forest behind him with what looked to be very sharp and pointy knives. I just wanted to relax by the river for a bit? Was that too much to ask? I hadn't even noticed the other two guys that were coming from the shadows behind me. The guys the Dark Man had apparently been glaring at this entire time. I should've really just gone straight home.