Chapter One-Dark Night
Disclaimer: Repeating things is bad for my health...
Warning: Angst, death, a ramen theft, and an evil Kakashi? o 0 Rating: P.G.ish still for cursing and violence. -evilish grin- I really need to up the rating here soon. Will it ever be rated R? We'll see.Pairing: SasuYoru for the entire fic. Other pairings...possible.
Author's Notes: Whee! Chapter one is finally finished. It took me long enough...but then again, I've been very busy.
-stares all all the nice reviews- Kiyyaaa! Oh, thank you, thank you! I'm glad that you all enjoyed my fanfic! Here's the next chapter, and chapter two is in works...
Chapter Dedication: And this chap goes to Usagi! Miss ya' girl-child; and here's all of us hoping you're having a good time where you now live. Enjoy!
-Sasuke pounces and covers the author's mouth before she is able to continue- Hurry and read before she starts up again!!!
Chapter One-Dark Night
A piercing and freezing cold rain plummeted from the overcast and violent clouds above the treeline.
No pain anymore. Not even a tingle. Just cold. Deep, penetrating cold.
"I'll look after you. Don't worry; I'll be here. I promise."
She could dimly see a figure in her mind's eye. Someone she thought that she may have once known. May of once cared about.
She did not know. Her memory was fuzzy from those days. Occasionally, certain things and events triggered a flash of memory. Names never came to mind though, nor faces. Hell, all she could recall was shadowy people and familiar voices.
Pain.
Opening her eyes for real this time, she firstly saw that it was raining. No wonder she was cold.
Then she saw her best friend in the world, lying in a pool of his own blood. The genin had been gutted, his intestines coiled on the ground next to him.
A cold chill went down her back.
"Lin-sensei?"
She managed to squeak out, coughing fiercely from the effort to speak. The girl pulled her body up, then a soft whimper slipped from her mouth.
Her jounin's head lay under a tree not to far away from her; his body not in sight.
"Ryu-ko?"
A soft, whispery voice creaked from behind her.
"Sonha!"
Ryu-ko dragged her body over to the closest sister she could remember. The older girl was lying with her back propped up against a tree, her glazed violet eyes barely able to stay focused on her.
"Ryu-ko...w...wh...y?"
"I don't know, Son-chan."
"Tai...yo's de...ad. Is...n't he...?"
Sonha's words sounded even fainter to her ears. How she had loved their fellow genin dearly. She knew that she would be with him soon.
"Yes. Both he and sensei."
A slight smile, the briefest curve of her lips, was the only thing that Ryo-ko saw. Those eyes closed, and a soft breath rattled from Sonha's chest.
"Hold on, Sonha! Don't die on me! Don't leave me too..."
There was no answer. Sonha's spirit had passed on to whatever afterlife that Ryu-ko had been forsaken from...
A crystalline tear slowly slipped down Ryu-ko's cheek. Why? Why had they had to run into the missing-nin? Why did Lin-sensei have to forsake his duty to protect his genin and attack him?
A fierce flare of pain coursed its way through her body. She could remember the blow the missing-nin struck on her. It was remarkable that she was even still alive.
Of course, the blood running from the jagged gash on her side didn't help matters. Struggling to stand, she forced herself to stagger away from the sight of death and destruction that lay behind her.
A trickle of blood ran from the corner of her mouth from the effort of movement.
'So this is what it is like to die?'
Panic gripped Ryu-ko, and she almost fell into a ditch. Sliding down the embankment, she ended up lying on her back at the bottom of it, her eyes staring unblinking up at the raining sky.
'I don't want to die!!!'
-cutscene-
"You did what?!?!"
Kakashi stared down with his one visible eye at the three genin. Naruto hung his dead, the bruises on his face sharp and obviously fresh.
"I got hungry."
"Yah and he tried to take some ramen from that new restaurant in the village."
"Only he forgot that he had no money."
The jounin shook his head at the impossibleness of Naruto.
"You should have just waited. Iruka would have bought you each a bowl of ramen since your mission had been a success."
Kakashi tried to have patience show in his normally calm and laid-back voice.
God help him.
Sigh...
"No dinner. You three will go out on a sweep around Konoha."
"WHAT??!!"
Naruto stared at Kakashi as if the jounin had sprouted another head.
"You heard me."
"That's evil!"
Inner Sakura was growling fiercely at Kakashi. Outer Sakuya was trying to think of a way to sneak some food from her home so that she could share it with Sasuke.
"Return before midnight, and I'll make sure you get something to eat."
"DAMN!"
-cutscene-
"Naruto, you see anything?"
Sasuke hissed to the blonde genin, who was supposed to be keeping point. The young ninja was easily distracted, however, not keeping his attention properly on his surroundings.
With a sigh, Sasuke elbowed Naruto hard in the side.
"Oomph!"
"You better pay attention for once."
"I don't have to listen to you!!"
The two bickered amongst themselves as they walked through the undergrowth that tangled along the outskirts of the city. Sakura kept on trying to interfere, and managed to strike Naruto with her fists several times whenever he dared to insult her beloved Sasuke.
"Ah!"
Naruto ran from Sakura after one particularly vicious wave of punches, diving into the underbrush in order to escape her. However, since he was looking back at her, he wasn't looking at where he was going and he tripped over something, sprawling face forward into the dirt.
"Shit. That hurt."
He moaned, and then looked to see just what he tripped over. Probably just another damn root.
It was a person, severely injured. First Sakura, and then the trailing Sasuke, peered over Naruto's shoulders.
"Is she alive?'
"I don't think so."
Naruto picked up a stick, poking the limp girl's arm. The arm twitched slightly, and one gray eye opened about halfway.
"She's alive!!!"
The girl managed to turn her face until she was looking at the trio of genin. They could see a scar that went from the top of the right side of her face, all the way down between her eyes and stopping just below the left side of her chin.
It was an old scar; one that had been long healed.
For some reason, Sasuke was struck with an unusual familiarity, as if he and the girl had met before. There was no recognition within her eyes as she looked to them, just a muted plea for them to end her suffering. She had lain in the ditch all night long, slowly and painfully losing all her blood without falling into a blissful unconsciousness.
"Shit. Shit shit shit. We need to get her to a healer, pronto."
"Lend me a hand here, Naruto. Sakura, go tell Kakashi. He'll find a healer."
Sasuke growled at Naruto, snapping the boy from his wonderment. Sakuya vanished in a cloud of chakra-produced smoke-a move taught to her by Kakashi because of her strong chakra control.
Both he and Naruto gently lifted the limp figure between them, and slowly headed back to Konoha with their burden.
-cutscene-
Author's Notes: Yyyyyyaaaaahhhhh! Chappie uno is done, done, done! -cheers- And only with a few days from the prologue-I'm on a roll!
Plans for Chapter Two:
(1) A healer tends to Ryu-ko.
(2) An amusing event involving Kakashi's manga...
(3)Forgotten memories are sparked on Ryu-ko's side, while Sasuke is haunted even more by his past and the familiarity of the girl. Have they met before? Or is this just some funny coincidence? Hehehe...
