A/N: Ok peeps. This is the 10th chapter. Each and every one of you have struggled to guess the characters. And now...it is time for the scoreboard. In 1st place we have: Wolf Demon Kunoichi13 with all correct answers. In 2nd place: causeiambetta with 7 correct answers, he didn't review chapter 9 yet. 3rd: windsoftiti with 6 correct answers didn't review chapter 9 yet. That's all for now. Keep on guessing and maybe you'll make it up to the top 3. Now...onto the chapter! Good God, I will be scared if somebody guesses this wrong. This chapter is so darn obvious!
What am I? Actually...that's a hard question. I don't exactly know anymore. It's been so long since I've been acknowledged by people to my face, that I can't honestly comprehend that question. But if I had a choice, I would most likely be compared with a tiger or a lion or something like that. But I'm more likely to go with the tiger analogy, being that I like tigers more than lions. Well...anyway...I compare myself to a tiger because they are strong, brave, smart, helpful.
Tigers are strong. I hope I am. I wanted to prove my strength to a certain somebody, my biggest rival. He just wouldn't acknowledge it. Finally, in one fight with Earth shinobi, I could finally prove just exactly how strong it was. I had a poster in my room that had a tiger on it with Chinese lettering down the side. I deciphered it and I found out it meant, 'Your force, your strength, your energy'. (the author has this poster in her room) I instantly decided that was what I was going to be like: a tiger. In that fight though, the fight in which I died, I showed how strong I was with a skill I'd never known I'd had until that very moment.
Tigers are brave. They will do whatever they need to to achieve their goals, whether it be proving strength, finding food, anything like that. I wanted to prove that I was just like that. So during missions, if both my teammates were down by some paralysis jutsu and I was the only one standing, no matter how many shinobi they were, no matter how strong they were, I would still charge in headfirst. Most of the time I would kill or injure all of them mortally, so they almost always retreated. And then afterwards, I would always faint and then the kunoichi on our team would have to nurse me back to health. Not like I minded.
Tigers are smart, intelligent. I wanted to be smart. I used to think that if I studied hard enough, I would become smart. Sometimes I wondered what would have happened if my parents had been just a little smarter. Then would I be just as smart, or even smarter? I don't know, not like it will matter anymore anyways. I'm already dead. Why should anybody care if I'm smarter or not? Because most of them don't anyway. So it doesn't matter to other people, but it still matters to me. I'm still striving to get smarter, better and live up to my clan's name.
Tigers are helpful. Well...if you could call sacrificing yourself helpful. My rival, in the fight with the Earth shinobi, didn't see that jutsu coming. Even though he is the strongest, sometimes he needs help too, you know? Who doesn't need help? Well...he would've been dead if I hadn't done what I did. Now as a result, I'm dead, he's not. I remember such agony as the boulders fell down on me crushing my entire right side. I knew I was going to die that instant. So I offered what I had left undamaged to him, so he could defeat the enemies and save the kunoichi I loved so much. Before my eyes closed for the last time, I remember I was thinking on those two teammates of mine. And I just wished I could've spent more time with them.
Now my name is written on the KIA stone. I don't necessarily feel proud of it, though. I mean, its just my name, nothing more. Its mixed up with a jumble of other names, half of which I don't care to know. But he visits that stone every day, making him late for meetings, late for his squad, late for everything. Sometimes I wish he'd stop pitying me, sometimes I wish he'd stop being so hard on himself. Its not his fault. I don't see why he has to go and make such a big deal over it. Well...then again...I probably would've if I'd been saved and he'd been killed.
I probably don't have much use anymore. My skills have probably grown rusty. But sometimes, I just think, "What's happened to that poster in my room? Is it gone? Crumpled up? Thrown away? Is my room even still there?" But then...on that date that I'll remember for all time, he'd come, as usual. He was carrying something rolled up in his hands. He'd unrolled it gently on the earth under the stone, and I knew almost instantly that it was my old tiger poster. It was still in mint condition, and he lay it gently on the ground, placing a few small rocks on the corners so that it wouldn't blow away. And now...I am always reminded of what I wanted to be.
I am a tiger. Well...at least I hoped to be. My dreams are still living on in other people, so other people will have determination, courage to do what they know is right. And my only regret is not having enough friends, not spending enough time with the ones I'd had. But...that doesn't have anything to do with this. The question is: Who am I?