It was not the loud yelling outside the door or the banging against the wall, but the soft beeping of the machine next to her that woke the red-headed little girl up. The gentle blowing of the wind through the trees outside of her window and the bright light shining down upon her face also helped. It took her some time to get to her senses. Akemi couldn't open her eyes, couldn't move her body and trying to move even something small and insignificant like a finger hurt immensely. Her arm throbbed and her back hurt. Where was she?

Slowly, but cruelly the memories of what happened came back to her. Akemi remembered getting at the gate, the intelligence department and the cruel man with the scars. She shivered. The move got her to gasp for breath so fiercely that she choked on air and was forced to arch her back which hurt even more. God, she was in so much pain. When was this going to stop?

Akemi didn't hear the beeping of the machine getting faster- dangerously fast. The sliding doors opened quickly and her bed was surrounded. She heard things in soft murmurs, which must have been shouts for them because she could barely hear a thing. A hand was pressed on her chest and she struggled against it. It hurt, they had to stop touching her. They shouldn't touch her, it only made it worse!

A scream ripped itself from Akemi's throat. She wanted them off of her. She was pain; they needed to stop touching her.

Finally someone seemed to understand. She heard a shout of somewhere along the lines of 'Don't touch her!' and all hands let go. The voice sounded male, but there was nothing else she could comprehend. Akemi calmed down slightly as soon as they let go, whipping her head around. She wanted to open her eyes, she wanted to see, she wanted out of here. And then she felt a slight pinch in her arm and everything went black once again.

Her dreams were filled with memories, filled with longing and loving, filled with desire and pain. It was only too soon that she woke up once again. This time there was no bright light, but a gentle soft glow. Akemi slowly pried open her eyes with huge difficulty and found herself looking at the beautiful full moon. Stars were surrounding it; there was not a cloud to be seen.

A sigh escaped her lips. She had always loved the moon- it had been symbolic to her clan. They lived off the moon, it gave them strength. It was during the full moon that they were at their strongest. The moon was their mother, the sun their father. No, the sun didn't give them any power of enhanced strength, but the sun was the moon's lover, their mother's lover, and thus the sun was their father. It was a subject not many knew about, but of course there had never been another clan so close to the gods as they were. Well, as they had been.

Akemi took a look around the room she was in. It was white and tranquil. She disliked it immensely. Akemi immediately knew she was in a hospital, but it wasn't anything strange after what happened. She just didn't expect being in a hospital. In all truth, she thought she had died. The dark was so very gentle, coaxing her towards the end but she didn't give in. She knew she could never give in. Akemi had a promise to live up to.

She took a deep breath and tried to sit up, but her body wouldn't let her. It was too weak and distaste immediately filled her heart. How could she be this weak? Akemi had never been this fragile before and it bothered her. She missed her companions and she missed walking around the nations without a worry. Konoha ruined this.

A strong dislike for the nation filled her heart. She had thought Konoha to be a gentle, kind nation. When did it turn into this cruel place? However much she didn't want to, Akemi quickly shoved the feeling of dislike down. No matter how much she disliked this place, she had made a promise. She had no choice.

After struggling for a while Akemi finally got herself to sit up straight. She took a hold of the needles in ber arm and ripped them out. A small groan escaped her as she threw them on the ground. Damn it, that hurt. She swung her small legs over the side of the bed and pushed herself off of it. The landing was clumsy and she stumbled. She gasped in pain trough her clenched teeth as she made sure to keep her sounds inside. It wouldn't do to alert someone, now would it?

In order to take her mind of the pain she quietly started humming a song her mother used to sing to her as she took a small step towards the window, wary of taking too big steps. Another groan was uttered as her foot was placed on the ground. Akemi kept her cursing in as she had already cursed way too much for her liking. She was never a cursing kind of girl. She gasped as she took another step. It just hurt so much. What had that man done to her?

After struggling for a little while more Akemi finally reached the window and pushed it open with one hand. The other was resting around her damaged waist. She looked up at the moon, love filling her heart. Akemi bowed slightly as she clasped her hands together. "Mother, please take care of me." she thought.

It was then that she heard something behind her move. It was soft, but she heard it. Akemi turned around quickly, which didn't turn out to be that great of an idea. She fell to her knees as a small pained scream escaped her lips into the world for all to hear. She scrunched her eyes closed and bit her lip. She could feel someone come up to her and pick her up, placing her fragile body back onto the hospital bed.

"You shouldn't be up." A deep voice, male. Akemi couldn't get herself to look at the person because her body hurt but she could feel him placing the IV back into her arm, the slight pinch making her wince once again and her annoyence at herself rise. Akemi shook her head "I know." It was the only thing she managed to get out as she laid back into the mattress and waited until the pain had lessened. The male had taken to sitting in a chair next to her bed quietly.

Akemi took a deep breath as the pain slowly ebbed away. They sat in a comfortable silence; not bothering to ask any questions both of them knew they wouldn't answer. Akemi took her time to take the man in.

He was very well built. Wide shoulders, lean body. His face was covered by a mask; only one eye of his was peaking trough the cloth. Grey hair was spiked up, defying gravity to the max. Akemi found it very amusing.

Then he breached a line. He spoke.

"Who are you?" he asked, his voice filled with cold. Akemi knew he wasn't interested. He was ordered to get as much information as possible, and thus she obliged him.

"Akemi." She answered in the same steely cold voice as he had. Surprise crossed his eyes for a second before disappearing immediately. She knew it was an answer that would most likely piss him off but she couldn't help it. She had never been someone who made things easier for others.

"Last name." He stated, not even bothering to ask. Akemi stared him right in the eye. "Ishiguro."

He shook his head and Akemi immediately knew why. There doesn't exist an Ishiguro clan, well, not according to them. They didn't know of said clan. No one knew, really.

He sighed as he stood up.

"You're making things awfully difficult for yourself." He said as he put his hands into his pockets and bowed forward. His one visible eye seemed to look into her very soul. She knew he wouldn't be able to find anything, but that didn't mean it didn't bother her.

Akemi's body started throbbing once again, and it was then that she knew that whoever healed her sucked at medical ninjutsu.

Medical ninjutsu was so tricky because it required the user to have an in-depth knowledge of the human body. You couldn't just form hand seals and let the jutsu do the rest. And the human body is a complex machine. There are thousands of different parts and thousands of different ways in which they can be damaged. A lot of study is simply rote memorisation of facts bit there were a lot of facts to be memorised. Asses to that was the difficulty of forming and holding Yin natured chakra. All in all, it was no wonder there was only one in a hundred shinobi that even tried to study medical ninjutsu- let alone became a master at it.

The man must have seen her flinch because he sighed and walked towards the door. He slid it open and turned around once more.

"Be sure to rest. We'll be back tomorrow." He said and somehow the tone he used when he said it didn't predict a lot of good. The man turned and left, shoving the door closed roughly.

Akemi took a little time to think back to her parents. She couldn't sleep yet and normally one of her familiars would help her sleep. Alas, they weren't here. She figured it took her merely minutes before she finally fell asleep once again, dreading the thing that was going to take place tomorrow.

She had not slept well. It might be more accurate to say that she had a nightmare, probably brought on by the nervousness and pain she felt. She woke silently, the gasp never leaving her lips, eyes flaring wide and darting about her hospital room. For a second, she thought there was someone standing in the corner. But no, there was no one there. Her chakra sense told her the only person in the room was herself.

The human brain was good at facial recognition. Too good sometimes, because it found faces in other things – shadows as a prime example. It was particularly common during hypnagogia, or waking sleep.

Funnily enough, that didn't really reassure her.

Akemi gathered chakra in her hands. If you get a great enough concentration, chakra could become visible. She called it up and held her hands out, reassuring her that there was no one there.

A knock resounded into the hospital room and the door was slid open. Akemi sat there, unsure of what to do. A man stepped through the door. He was followed by two people in masks, each of a different animal. He smiled at her, though she was pretty sure there was some animosity behind that smile. The old man looked kind, acted kind, but inside every person there's a dark side. Even inside this man.

The man walked towards the side of her bed and sat down in the chair beside it. He took off the ridiculous hat and folded his hands together in his lap. His eyes were stern – cold, whereas his face had a smile. His eyes betrayed his almost perfect image of the gentle old man.

"Hello, Akemi. My name is Hiruzen. I am the Hokage, leader of this village." The elder had held out his hand, ready for Akemi to take it. She just sat there, not moving. He slowly retracted his hand, a little twinkle in his eye. The twinkle was not one of kindness, Akemi figured.

Hiruzen cleared his throat. "Well, anyway," he ordered the two masked people to leave the room with nothing more but a nod of his head. "I'm very sorry about what happened. Rest assured, Ibiki has been punished." An awkward silence filled the room. The little girl had no desire to talk.

"The two guards, Kotetsu and Izumo, told me about you wishing to join the village. Now, of course, I cannot simply allow this. But as you have already been searched by Yamanaka-san there is nothing more I can do."

He stood up and folded his hands behind his back. He had an air of importance, of strength.

"I will allow it, but you'll have to do everything yourself. I will not give you funds nor will I allow you to stay in the orphanage seeing as you came here alone and you could pose a threat."

Akemi finally decided to ask the question that had been bothering me for a while already.

"Where will I be staying?" She asked quietly.

The man snorted as he looked at her once more. He looked at her as if she was trash and nothing more.

"Well, I think I heard Ichigan-san of the Ichigan inn and hot springs saying she needed a new servant. You'll do nicely, won't you?"

It was then, as the man turned and left, that the familiar feeling of dread filled her once again and she gulped.

She was truly scared.

This chapter was really hard to write. I hope you understand and like it. If you don't, just comment. I will most likely react to you.

Enjoy reading, please vote and comment and follow me on twitter rollingnoodles, or DiaryDreamSarah. My Instagram is Rollingnoodels and my Snapchat is Rollingnoodles. I also have a blog - .com

I hope all of you won't hate me too much for making the hokage... mean, as it were. All will be explained some day.

All the love, Sarah Anna Riling