'Huff!'
'Huff!'
'Huff!'
"I'm almost out! Just a little further!" The boy's voice resounded through the dark corridor in front of him. It had seemed as though he'd been running forever. Off in the distance was a bright light, one which pierced straight through the darkness around him. But no matter how long he ran, he couldn't seem to reach it, but now it seemed to be getting closer and closer.
He continued to run longer and longer, faster and faster, before coming to a halt as he heard a spine chilling voice coming from behind him.
'Wake up boy.'
The boy slowly turned around only to see two, yellow snakelike eyes staring back at him through the darkness.
'I said wake up!' The voice said a bit louder, getting closer to the boy as he took a step back.
'WAKE UP!'
The boy took another step back, tripping onto the floor, which he fell through like water
He began to sink lower and lower, but strangely he felt calm in the dark depths.
Before violently splashing into the other side.
"Wake up boy!"
Moeru swoke with a start, hearing a loud yell from the entrance to his room in the orphanage.
He rubbed his eyes sleepily, looking at his caretaker, Ms. Makoto, who was giving him quite the harsh glare.
"You don't hear me all of a sudden you little brat?" The raven haired woman asked with narrowed eyes.
"I hear you quite clearly, thanks." The boy replied, rubbing his teal eyes. It was far too early in the morning for this.
"Who do you think you're talking to?" Makota demanded angrily.
"You're the only person here, are you not?" The boy replied in irritation, "Did you need something or are you just here to screech at me from the doorway?"
"If you didn't have people here to see you, I'd...forget it. Hurry up and make yourself presentable, there are a few people from the shinobi academy here to see you." She spat the word out as though it was poisonous to her.
"Shinobi?" He asked in confusion. What could the leaf's military academy want with an orphan like him? "What do they want with me?"
"Like I know. Just make yourself presentable and make your way downstairs." With that she turned and left the room, closing the door a tad harder than normal.
The boy went into the spartan bathroom and looked in the mirror, seeing himself staring back at him. The boy had white hair that went down to the middle of his neck with two locks framing his face, along with a few stray locks that obscured two scarlet dots on his forehead and teal eyes. He didn't know why he had those red markings on his face, they'd been there as far back as he knew so he never questioned it much.
He got ready, doing the normal morning rituals one would do then got dressed, putting on a blue shirt and pair of white shorts. After making sure that he was ready, he went downstairs, looking into the living room to see two men in the leaf's standard shinobi uniform waiting for him. One of them was fair skinned with shoulder length, blueish-white hair and the other one had tanned skin with long, brown hair and a scar that ran across the bridge of his nose. Moeru looked the two of them over, as they noticed him entering the room. The white haired one looked at him with an odd smile.
"Hello, you must be Moeru, right?" The scarred man asked with a smile. "My name is Iruka Umino, and this is Mizuki. We are from the shinobi academy and have been sent to personally invite you to join the 1st year class by the hokage himself." Iruka explained. He then proceeded to tell him everything about the curriculum that him and the other students would be going over in the academy. "So, what do you say?"
The child peered at the two Chuunin, eyes shifting between the two of them before opening his mouth to speak.
"No."
"Great, so we'll get your paperwork together and-", Iruka said before the boy's answer connected in his head, "Wait, no?" Iruka asked in confusion.
"You heard me. No." Moeru repeated himself more firmly this time.
"But-" Iruka began, before Moeru began speaking once more.
"If the hokage wants me to join this academy or whatever, he can come and invite me himself. And even then, I don't wanna be some stupid shinobi." The whitette said with narrowed eyes.
"Hey, shinobi aren't stu-" Iruka began
"Well, this was unexpected. I guess we'll just leave the paperwork here for you. Just in case you change your mind. It was nice to meet you." Mizuki interrupted with that same weird smile he had been giving the entire time. "Come on Iruka." He said, grabbing his friend's arm and pulling him out of the house after dropping the paperwork on the coffee table.
"Good, now she'll be happy." The boy thought, looking at the paperwork they had left for him, before taking it and stowing it away into his room.
"What did those two want?" Makota asked from her room. Moeru poked his head in, "They...wanted me to join the ninja academy." He said with a slightly downcast look.
"And you told them no, right?" Makota inquired with a slight narrow of her eyes, looking up from her book, "You know how I feel about shinobi."
"Y-yes Makota, I just…", Moeru started before stopping, turning around to leave, "Nevermind, I'm gonna head outside for a bit, is that okay?" He asked, quirking his head around to look at her.
"Hm...Fine, do what you'd like. Be back before dinner." Makota agreed impassively, waving the boy off.
Moeru left the house, walking through the streets of Konoha, a bustling village filled to the brim with noise and life, where many people walked to and from the many shops and restaurants scattered throughout the place. Many stared at the eight year old as he passed, whispering amongst themselves, pulling their children close as he continued walking, pretending not to notice a thing.
The whitette continued walking until he reached his favorite spot in the village, the heavily forested area near the edge of the business district. He continued walking into the dense foliage, eventually reaching the clearing he always came to. It was a nice area to get away from all the noise and excitement of the village.
He rested his head atop a random log that laid amongst the swaying grass and closed his eyes, listening to the buzzing of the cicadas resting on the trees. His mind began wandering back to the last twenty minutes, the arrival of the two shinobi who came to recruit him for the academy. He remembered turning them away harshly, saying that he had no interest.
"What if though? What if I did become a shinobi? Tch...I'd still be the same orphaned kid living under the old lady's roof." He thought cynically. "Nothing changes so why even bother thinking about it."
Ever since Moeru could remember he'd lived with his caretaker, Makota. Her own son had died many years back, around the same time she'd started taking care of him. She said that he'd been a genin himself, a prodigy of sorts. She'd never divulged what had actually happened to the boy, not that he wanted to ask any how.
Before too long the sky began to darken, signaling that it was time for him to begin heading back home.
Deep in treeline a lone figure stood in the shadows peering down at the whitette seemingly speaking to someone who simply wasn't there.
"Yes master, the package will be delivered soon enough. I just need a few more days…" He paused for a moment, wincing before speaking again, "I...won't fail you, I swear it."
With that he disappeared into the night.
Moeru returned home to a scolding from Makoto for being out so late, before eating the meal she had prepared for the night and retiring to his room for the night.
The boy grabbed the paperwork on his desk, flipping through the pages which detailed the curriculum for Konoha's shinobi academy, getting more interested the farther he got, before reaching the page for his caretaker's signature.
He put the documents back on his desk and got into bed with one final thought in mind.
"What if?"
And with that the boy drifted off to sleep.