AN: Thanks so much for the amazing reviews, Thomas Drovin. I don't own Naruto.
Teagen's P.O.V.
I was tired. My legs didn't want to walk any further. It had been days since I'd last eaten and there was nothing left but forest. Looking down, I saw my worn out sandals. The cloth covering my feet had long since withered, and the only thing protecting my feet were bits and pieces of the shoes that had survived my weary hike and long imprisonment.
My stomach rumbled, demanding food.
But I didn't have any to give it.
Eyelids fluttering, desperately trying to stay open, I wondered if I would die again. Even though I'd died from hunger before, I didn't ever want to do it again. I could still remember my bone thin body, threatening to be swept up by the powerful wind that night.
I didn't want to experience that ever again.
A week ago, I'd had thoughts of impersonating a small child and entering another village's Academy. That was then, and this is now. Those childish thoughts had vacated my head three days ago, when I had realized my current predicament.
And now, I barely had the energy to walk. Even though I couldn't stay dead, I could still die.
My arms swung by my side, occasionally brushing against my smelly shirt. My feet were barely shuffling along, barely moving me forward, barely leaving the dusty earth.
As my left foot shuffled forwards, it caught on something. I never saw what it was because of how dark it was.
I went down, and so did my will to continue.
As I lied there, turning my head so I didn't accidentally inhale the dirt, I wondered what I had missed.
I'd always wanted to read, "The Fault In Our Stars," but it had always been checked out of the library. Through eavesdropping, I'd heard tidbits of what the book was about. The bookworms at my old school had never shut up about it, saying, "I wish I could find someone like Augustus Waters. He's so caring and considerate of Hazel," and "Always." I had never actually figured out why they said, 'always.'
Wearily, I twisted myself over, so I could watch the stars.
"It'll be a dramatic death, maybe one worthy of a Shakespearean play," I thought, curiously gazing at the stars the way a newborn would its parents. They looked absolutely breathtaking, at least when you were about to die. Did Shikamaru - I'd remembered his name yesterday - look at the sky because of the clouds and the stars? Did he watch the sky at night, too?
Should I say something before I die, like in the movies? Licking my cracked lips with a dry tongue, I remember a poem I'd had to memorize in 9th grade, back in the old world.
"Nature's first green is gold," I began in English, ignoring my wispy-like voice, "Her hardest hue to hold. Her... early leafs a flower, but... but only so an hour," I paused, trying to remember the rest of the poem, "Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief. S-so dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay."
As I closed my tired eyes, I wondered what would've happened if I hadn't been an idiot for joining ROOT.
"Save your blabber." Cracking my eyes open to a woman's voice, I spotted a dark figure hunched over me. Was that-? No, it wasn't Kiba. The woman had red stripes on her face and spiky brown hair crowning her head. She had on a green vest, a symbol of Konoha. Underneath the vest was a long-sleeved, black shirt and she also wore black pants.
A snout blocked my vision of the woman, and then, teeth. Hearing a growl, I deemed it a wolf, a very large wolf. In that moment, I remembered "Jurassic Park" and how scary I had been when my father had forced me to watch it. I had broken down in tears when the T-Rex had broken out of the cage.
"Down, Kuromaru!" The woman snapped. Immediately, the teeth were out of my sight.
"Mother, don't get too close," another voice said, also female. The woman hunched over me gave a sharp bark of laughter, revealing sharp, white canines. I wondered if she was insane.
"Hana, don't order me around. You can clearly see she's close to death, don't you?" The women asked, gesturing to me. Hearing this, I gave a weak chuckle, but the joke was lost on them.
"What're you laughing at?" The woman questioned, turning to stare me in the eye, "You've just been captured."
"Mother, what if she really is-?"
"Quiet, Hana!" She ordered, looking me over. I heard a 'humph! before another woman entered my line of sight, watching warily. She resembled the first woman, but looked younger.
"Awake?" I stayed quiet, almost on the verge of death. The feeling before you died was like a falling sensation and I was beginning to fall.
Down.
Down.
Down.
The older woman's hand shot out and grabbed my chin, halting my fall into death.
"Hana, water." In less then a second, an opened water jug was in her other hand. Opening my mouth, she carefully gave me refreshing water, all the while I stared at her dark eyes. It was hard to believe this woman wasn't Kiba, after all, they did have the same features. Maybe this is what Kiba would look like if he was a woman.
"I can see you've got something on your mind." Finishing off the water she had graciously given me, I nodded slightly.
"W-why," I shakily started, coughing a bit, "Why don't you kill me?" The woman's smile was gone and in its place was a gruesomely serious face. I had no doubts she could kill me if she wanted.
"We were instructed to track and capture you," she answered, voice low and dangerous, "But, if you give me any reason to kill you, I won't hesitate."
"What I want to know," Hana interrupted, "Is why an A-class criminal let herself starve."
"I would also like to know," the other woman agreed, "We were prepared to face a stone cold murderer, but you just reek."
I never answered, only let them haul me to Konohagakure.
"Can you see the sunset from the South side real good?"
"Yeah, real good."
"You can see it from the North side too."
-The Outsiders