Posting a new chapter right after I cycled through a hailstorm.


"D-d-do you think the third one murdered her?" The shy girl suggested.

"I don't think so we had better track down the thief first, maybe she followed him?" The lazy boy suggested.

"I think that Shikamaru is right, Hinata could you lead us the way?" Yamato suggested asthey walked out of the door and followed the path of bloody footprints.

Somewhere less bloody.

"Ino, could you come in?" Naruto spoke out softly as Hideo was lying in his arms.

She entered the room and sat beside him. "Hideo," she talked with a calming womanly voice "could you tell us what happened?"

"I-I-I…it begun when my granny found a girl." He whispered between his sobs.

Flashback

It was dark in my world, never once did I see the sun or the sky. But most of all I never could see the smile my granny wore, but it wasn't that bad.

I still could hear, taste, smell and most of all feel. The world might not have been easy on me, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

It was like one gigantic puzzle where I was the hero of my story. Every day I needed to explore more of it and each day I learned more. It was like my own adventure. Sometimes I was walking through a maze, other times I tried to cross a canyon.

So I wasn't that bothered when my granny brought in a visitor, I rather was excited to tell the person my storied.

My granny put her in our extra bed, I immediately began to explore the most obvious. It was I girl, I could feel it by her waistline. Her breathing was slow as she was unconscious. Her clothes were tattered to almost nonexistent.

My granny took care of her that day till she woke up.

"Hideo could you please come. I've something to tell you." My granny called out for me. I walked through the gate of the maze and sat down on our visitor's bed.

"Hideo, this is a wounded girl. I've found by the river. She will be staying here till she's well again." My grandma paused like she was done. I stood up and was about to walk away when she called out again "There's something wrong with the river so don't go there, if you want some water go to the well, alright?"

I nodded and walked out of the room.

The next day when my grand-grand was collecting firewood, I walked into the sleeping beauty's room.

I sat down beside her and began to feel her face, it wasn't like any other face I've ever felt. It wasn't plain or wrinkled like my granny's but it was parted in two halves one of which felt like it had been burned. My fantasy imagined a young girl with a sunburn on her face.

Later on I began to feel the rest of her body, the face wasn't the only weird part. Her left arm had also sustained a burn it felt exactly like the lefts side of her face. The burns also ran down partially her left leg and her left rib.

I was busy feeling her face again to get more details when it started to shift. The first thing I thought of was that it was a shapeshifter. But after a few painful grunts, I concluded that she was waking up.

"Where am I?" Was the first thing she said or rather whispered.

I tried to search for the glass of water beside her bed when she beat me at it. She picked up the glass as I heard a small friction of the table. She probably drunk the whole glass as there was a hollow sound when she put it down.

"You're blind?" She said with a much clearer voice.

"Yes," I answered "you're at my granny's house. My name is Hideo. What's your name?"

Weirdly enough she didn't answer me directly but waited –like she was in deep thoughts- before she spoke: "I-I-I don't know."

I could sense that she was stressed, I tried to relieve her as I hugged her. "Don't cry, my granny always says that 'Whatever may happen even if you can't see or the world ends, you must always smile.' Please don't cry." I pleaded.

To my relieve I felt that her facial muscles were working, lifting the tips of her lips.

"Hideo, I'm home!" I heard from the livingroom.

"Granny she's awake!" I screamed back.

I heard her walking towards the room when she said: "Oh dear, are you alright?"

"I'm a little bit soar, but I think I'm fine."

"Granny," I added "she doesn't remember anything."

"Amnesia?" She sat down beside me as I felt the bed shifting its weight.

I guess she nodded because the next thing my grandma said was "Don't worry dear, maybe you will remember in time. How should we call you till then?"

"Can I suggest one?" I said excitedly as I got a new 'sister'.

"I had like it." The stranger answered.

"If you insist, I guess why not. What would you like then?" I smiled at granny's approval.

"What about 'Hohoemi' it means 'smile' just like the thing my granny likes to do most."

"I love it." They both said

Minutes passed as we talked about all kinds of things.

"Hideo could you excuse us?" Granny asked.

I stood up and left the room, but as curious as I was. I stops right behind the door to eavesdrop at them.

"It's an interesting boy." Hohoemi whispered out.

"Yes, he's always been like that. But let's talk about you, do you remember what happened?"

She probably shook her head as I heard my grandma again.

"I hoped that you could tell me, but oh well. I found you by the stream when I was searching for wild mushrooms for in the stew. You were unconscious by then. I hate to say this but the normally clear water was colored and it stunk horribly. You were lying in that water or rather lying in the poisonous drab it became. You might have noticed but your face was by then half eaten away by that stuff."

Seconds passed when I couldn't hear their conversation till Hohoemi spoke again. "What should I do now?"

"You could stay with us. I could use another hand and Hideo would love to have a new playmate. I also believe that I still have some of my old clothing lying here and there."

I heard my granny standing up and I ran away as fast as I could.

Days went on, as my newly acquired sister was helping us.

I could sense that she was happy again, helping my granny cook, collecting wood and most of all playing with me.

But her memories never came back.

At the time she was wearing a T-shirt with a jacket above it, which she let open. She also wore a pair of shorts and knee high sandals.

The days merged together as time passed on. Me and my 'sister' were playing in the forest as the time dragged on, but we noticed too late that it became dark.

We walked back to the house, relaxed by the soft breeze that the grassland brought us. I could hear the door screeching as we came closure to the house.

She suddenly began to pick me up, carrying me as she ran. 'Why would she be running? Aren't we close to home? I could hear the door scree… No way, why would the door be open this late at night?'

I felt the wind stop as we entered the house. She put me down as she hit the ground, sobbing harder than I could imagine possible.

I began to kneel down and began to search the ground. I was utterly confused and couldn't get my grasp on it when I hit some kind of wet substance.

"Please don't cry," granny spoke out, I began to crawl towards her voice till I found her. My fingers crawled over her on their own command. Till I felt her face, she felt cold but her muscles were tense like they were still trying to smile. "don't be sad. Lives goes on, even without me."

Then it hit me, the wet substance was her blood and the cold of her skin was her life slowly leaving her. "Remember to always smile no matter what life throws at you."

"Who did this?!" My sister screamed.

"Don't be angry now, you were like a daughter I never had. My mother once told me," she began to babble on as her consciousness was leaving "that a man once told her to always laugh at the world, and those words were the one she told me. So I ask you two to always keep that beautiful smile of yours on your faces no matter what." and then her body fell limb.

Emotions rushed through my veins as I too got embraced into the darkness, but not before I heard a door slamming shut.

I woke up in the arms of my sister as she was carrying me towards an unknown location.

"Listen to me, Hideo. I'm going to drop you off by the nearest village."

"What happened?" I asked her as I was touching her face. My hands hit a sticky substance that caused them to automatically retreat back. My hands hit her arms, especially her left hand that was heavily bandaged for some reason.

"I followed the thief…let's just say that he won't bother anyone anymore."

"W-what do you mean?" I began to stutter as her voice left her usual tone.

"We got into an...argument, but it's all good know cause I left him with a smile."

I flinched between the pause of her sentence, and tried not to think much about it.

"What are we going to do in the village?"

"Sorry, but I won't be joining you."

It became even more confusing than before. I stared at her like when she just arrived at my house, injured from an horrible accident –which she did so I knew what kind of face I made-. "Where will you be going then?"

Her breathing became fast and heavy like she was chocking or something when she let out a loud laugh. "I will show the world the last thing I promised my 'mother'."

I flinched as I even didn't dare to call granny 'mother'. I was shaken out of my gaze as we stopped.

She put me down the road and patted my head. "The village is another fifty meters behind you."

I felt her warmth leaving me as she walked away.

"Remember to always smile!" She screeched.

Flashback end

"I'm sorry."

Questions marks rose from the two shinobis' head. "Say kid, why are you sorry?" Naruto asked.

He began to sob as his mouth was put into I smile. "I promised my sister and granny to always smile, and look at what I've done the last few days."

Ino suddenly embraced him into a hug and whispered quietly "Ssssst, don't cry. They aren't mad. We are here now."

The boy stopped crying as he entered a deep slumber.

Near Hideo's house was a group of three shinobi walking through the forest.

"W-w-we have a problem."

Everyone stopped in their tracks as they looked at the talking woman.

"T-t-the earth has way to much moisture here. My Byakuguan isn't able to detect the d-d-difference between the ground and the fainted blood tracks."

"That isn't good." Shikamaru whispered out.

Time passed as they thought of a new way to follow their trail.

"What's that?" Both of the teenagers looked at their captain. "What's what?" The boy asked.

"That chakra," he spoke out "it can't be." Everyone listened intensely "It's the Kyuubi's chakra."


There we have it, the plot.

next chapter: somewhere next week

I'm probably just going to post weekly or something like that.

If you want to know when the prologue will come to play, around chapter 6 or 7, I guess.