7. A Dream about the Past

"What would happen if someone broke into the base?" asked Hayoto.

"There's an emergency exit," said Kakashi. He pointed to the door with the words "EMRGENCY EXIT" over it.

"Oh," replied Hayoto.

The two men on the building were preparing to infiltrate the base. One was tall and quite pale. He wore all white clothing. His partner was much shorter than him and had darker skin. He wore all black clothing. The pale one then said, "Kuro, should we go now? I saw that Ryouma has gotten rid of the three kids that left an hour ago. There should only be nine in there."

"We can handle them," Kuro replied. The two jumped off of the building onto the ground and walked towards the secret entrance of the base. "By the way, Shiro, don't die on me."

"I won't," replied Shiro. Shiro kicked the wall and the brick wall changed into a steel door. The steel door swung open and the two entered. "Hello little children," said Shiro.

Chouko immediately ran for the emergency exit holding the crystal tight in her arms. The others, instinctively, ran after her. The last two that tried to leave were Hayoto and Daichi, but Kuro said, "Magical Barrier." An invisible wall appeared before the exit and Hayoto ran in to it. He slammed his face into the wall and fell down. His ferret, Kasshoku prepared to attack the two intruders. Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, Kakashi summoned his ice sword and struck the invisible barrier multiple times, but the wall didn't seem to get affected.

"Guys, just go without us!" yelled Hayoto.

"Yeah, we'll be fine," said Daichi.

Kakashi decided to respect their wishes and left with other six ninjas.

"Well, well, it looks like there are only two of you," said Shiro. "This should be easy." He then cracked his knuckles and pounded his fist into the ground, sending a crack along the floor. Daichi jumped up to avoid it. Meanwhile Kuro was constantly forming hand seals.

"Hayoto get up and help me!" yelled Daichi.

"Oh ok," replied Hayoto, "Kasshoku Drill!" Hayoto threw Kasshoku at Kuro to stop whatever technique he was trying to do. It struck him in the face, sending him flying into a wall.

"Lightning Release: Electric Current!" yelled Daichi. Lightning shot from the ground hitting Shiro causing him to get stunned. "Hurry Hayoto, we can team attack!" "Thunder Spark!" he yelled. Meanwhile, Hayoto was running towards Shiro to get closer and got hit by the thunder. "What was that!" yelled Daichi. "You were supposed to attack him, not get closer!"

"I was trying to get closer, I'm sorry," he said quietly as he attempted to stand up.

"You're so useless!" he yelled. He stopped talking. It reminded him of one of his worst memories of his life.

Kuro then finally was able to resume his stance and then finished his technique while Daichi was yelling at Hayoto. Daichi and Hayoto started to stumble. They fell to the ground and became unconscious.

"It's too bad that during my illusion technique, they can't be harmed," said Kuro. "If only I could use it on them, but that might cause permanent mental damage."

"How long will this last?" asked Shiro.

"A couple of minutes, if they don't commit suicide during the dream," he replied.

Hayoto woke up, in his house.

"Was everything that just happen only a dream?" he asked himself. "No it can't be. It was too real." He got off of his bed and ran down the stairs. "Kaa-san! Tou-san!"

His calls had no replies. Hayoto continued exploring the house and he realized that it wasn't his house in the Cupcake Village, it was his home from the Bear Village. He couldn't find anyone so he ran outside the house and saw his parents…and himself five years ago. It was the worst memory of his life. It was when his original village was destroyed forcing his family to move the Cupcake Village. The village was ironically attacked by bears, but these weren't normal bears. They were mutated as a result of scientific experiment done by the village to use as weapons of war. This backfired on them, their quest for power ended up becoming the village's demise. The bears attacked and destroyed everything. They were the reason his brother died. He always fought with his brother, but realized that he cared for his brother after his death. The scene changed. He was now in front of his current home in the Cupcake Village. His parents had a couple of boxes of items that weren't destroyed. He remembered that that was the reason he was afraid to like a place because he was afraid he was going to lose it again, like he lost his brother and his home. The horrible memories were flooding back, but then remembered about the friends he made because of his move.

He tried to relax and think positive. He couldn't change the past, he could only move forward. These thoughts comforted him and he closed his eyes. When he reopened them, he was looking at the ceiling of the secret base.

Daichi woke up and saw himself, sprawled on the floor, bloodied and bruised. His eyes wet with tears yet stayed in his eyes as if they were too scared to come out. His father had beaten him nearly to death again. His parents found out that Daichi couldn't transform perfectly into his teacher. He slowly tried to sit up, finding it useless. He lied there resting his face on the cold, wooden floor. The cold floor felt nice against his bruised cheek. Laying there his mind went blank with the voice of his parents echoing themselves.

"You're so useless!" yelled his mother.

"Why can't you do anything right!?" his father asked him. Bitter words haunted him. No matter what Daichi did his parents never seemed satisfied with him. Daichi lifted himself up a bit, crawling over to the window. Heavy curtains shield the light from his dark life. He looked through the small opening, looking outside. He couldn't see why his life was so much different to everyone else. He couldn't understand... Why was everyone else happier than him? Why was he supposed to suffer? Why?! He slammed his fist into the wall next to the window tearing up.

"It's not fair... It's not fair," he cried. He hated his life. The bitter love his parents gave him. He wanted to forget all of this... everything he hated... all of it. This was the reason for his fake smile. He only smiled hoping that no one would suspect his parent's abuse. His parent's would kill him for that. One day, his aunt and uncle came to visit and saw his parents beating him. His mom saw that they witnessed it, so she attempted to kill him, but his aunt jumped in the way and was stabbed in the arm. This event opened his eyes and showed him that people cared for him. He was taken away from his parents and lived with his aunt and uncle. This caused his life to become happy. He suddenly remembered that it was a dream. Everything turned to black and when he opened his eyes, he saw the ceiling of the base. He looked over and saw that Hayoto had awoken too.

"What?!" yelled Kuro. "It's only been a couple of minutes! How did you two awaken?"

"We thought about the good things in our life," said Hayoto.

"The memories are in our past and the only thing we can do about them is to forget," Daichi said.

"Well it doesn't matter now since we're going to kill you two," said Shiro. Shiro and Kuro both pulled kunai from the pockets on their legs. They rushed towards the two sitting ninjas.

Daichi and Hayoto both stood up and jumped out of the way. Then Hayoto said, "Earth Release: Dust Storm!" Hayoto placed his hand on the floor of the base and dust arose from the ground blowing in all directions. The dust blinded Shiro and Kuro causing them to stop their attack. "Remember the formation Iruka taught us that needed the best of teamwork to work?" Hayoto asked Daichi.

"Yeah," he replied. "I'll take Shiro, you take Kuro.

"Okay," he replied. "Hey Kuro!" yelled Hayoto. "I'm over here!" He waved his hands in the air as the dust continued to blow.

"Hey Shiro!" yelled Daichi as he was standing with his back touching Hayoto's back. "Come get me over here!"

Shiro and Kuro saw the two and both rushed towards them with their kunais facing forwards, ready to attack.

"One!" yelled Hayoto.

"Two!" yelled Daichi.

"Three!" they yelled simultaneously. They both jumped up and since the dust was affecting Shiro's and Kuro's eyesight, they both thought the other was their target and both stabbed each other in the heart. Kuro's smirked when he felt blood run down his hand. He put his body weight into pushing the kunai more into his enemy's body. When the body he stabbed hunched over, Kuro finally realized the blood running down his hand. Shiro's blonde hair gently brushed his hand, staining itself. Kuro's eyes went dilated; his hands shook as he held his partner up. Shiro violently began coughing up blood.

"I... I'm..." The words Kuro wanted to say couldn't come out. Shiro smiled softly as blood continuously spewed out of him.

"It's... alright..." Shiro managed to say as he stood up. Shiro wrapped his arms around Kuro, resting his cheek on his hair. Shiro began making hand seals stopping before the last one. "Let's go together," he whispered softly to Kuro. Kuro nodded burying his head into Shiro's chest.

"Yes... Let's go together," Kuro whispered back. Shiro smiled again and they entwined their hands for their final goodbye.

"Good-bye," said Shiro.

"Good-bye," said Kuro. "I hope I see you on the other side."

"Um…are they…?" Hayoto asked.

"I think so," replied Daichi.

They sat down from exhaustion only to hear the breathing of someone behind them. The two turned their heads and saw Ryouma looking at them.

"Hello," he said.

They ran towards the emergency exit, but they tripped on a puddle of mud. Ryouma placed his hands on their foreheads, taking their souls. He put them in the jar where all of the souls he collected were. Ryouma walked by the bodies of Shiro and Kuro and kicked their bodies. "You guys are useless," he said to the dead corpses.