Chapter I

The pain in her right side seemed to pierce her mind, and she let out a groan, clutching her arm. She keeled over, and the boy, Naruto, began asking frantic questions.

"What's wrong with you?"

"What's happening!"

"Do you need help!"

She tried to answer, but the pain becomes unbearable, and she couldn't speak. She clutched her arm, and as the pain increased, she opened her eyes to the room and noticed something was wrong about it. Something black was stretching across the walls, and Naruto was cowering by this as piercing, red eyes appeared in the black surface. She whimpered as the pain increased, and she let out a scream of pain. As she screamed, an air-splitting screech echoed from the black surface, and a billion hands crawled from it, stretching out and grabbing Naruto.

"HEY! WHAT'S GOING ON!" he yelled with fear as the creatures pulled him into the wall, and, ignoring the seering pain, the girl jumped from the bed and made the symbol of a raven with her fingers. As Rika did this, she began to chant, and the creatures released him and fly back into the wall, crying and screeching horrible sounds. Naruto fell to the floor, twitching in fear, his face pale and eyes wide.

"What the hell just happened!" he yelled at her.

Rika let out her hand to help him up.

"It's the shadows. They thought you were harming me..." she muttered low and softly, and he looked at her confused. But then another voice spoke from the doorway of the room.

"Is everything okay in here? I heard someone scream!"

Rika looked up to see an older man standing there, his wild, light gray hair flowing over his own metal headband with the leaf sign on it. His left eye was covered by the headband. He looked from her to Naruto, and then back.

"Was that you that screamed?"

Rika didn't answer his question, but the pain shifted back into her body. She winced, but ignore it as the man approaches her.

"What is your name?" he asker her. She gave a smug smile and responded.

"It's always common curtesy to give your own name."

He was taken aback by Rika's comment, but spoke.

"Very well. Hatake Kakashi, at your service." He held out a hand.

"Nice to meet you. Micamura Rika."

She took it and shook hands, but pulled away firmly. Something about this guy she didn't trust, but then again, Rika remembered that she was a stranger, and that they didn't trust her, either. But then a question that had been antagonizing her this whole time came up.

"Where am I?" she asked.

Naruto spoke before Kakashi could.

"You're in my room. I found you outside the village gates during training. It had been raining that day, and you were unconscious. It seems you've been out there for days," he explained.

"Really?" she asked. "What village is this?"

"The Konoha village, the village hidden in the leaves," Kakashi spoke. Wow, Rika was so far away from home.

"What rank are you?"

She looked up at Kakashi, surprised to hear the question.

"Hm?"

"What ninja rank are you? Your headband."

She subconscious touched her own metal headband, and distinctively remembered what he was talking about. It had been a long time since she told anyone what rank she was.

"Oh, I'm a Jounin, but I somehow became an A or S-rank shinobi. I forgot."

"WHAT!"

Apparently, you had surprised them with what you said.

"You're...an S-Rank Jounin? But you're barely the same age as my students," Kakashi spoke to her.

Rika blushed at this, and didn't know how to explain it, because she didn't remember much of what her past was like. She smiled at Kakashi, though, surprised by the look on his face. Why was he so surprised? Were all ninjas under the age of eighteen stuck in their chunin level?

"Why? What's wrong?" Rika couldn't help but ask.

Naruto and Kakashi exchanged looks, and then Kakashi appeared like as if he was smiling under his mask.

"We better go. We're already four hours late. Sakura is going to kill me," he complained.

She looked at Naruto, and asked, "Is he always late?"

"All the time. And sometimes he lays it on too thick!" Naruto laughed.

Rika tried to smile, but something is bugging her. She remembered running away from something. Running away into the darkness, where she could hide...running from something that would hurt her...

"Rika!"

"Huh?"

She looked up at Kakashi, who was already out the door.

"You coming?"

She nodded and followed him and Naruto out of the building, and down the street to meet two other chunin ninjas...

As the three approached a large bridge where a large river flowed under, Rika saw two young kids standing on it, waiting for them. One was a young girl with shoulder length pink hair and green eyes, while the other was a boy with black, wild ravenous hair and dark eyes. The boy looked quite handsome, but he's not quite Rika's type. As she approached the bridge, the boy noticed her. She stopped abruptly, seeing a familiarity in his appearance, but she didn't remember from where. He approached her, and spoke in a calm, cool voice.

"Who are you? You're not from this village."

He pointed to the headband on her forehead.

"My name is Micamura Rika. I come from the Village Hidden in the Shadows, the Barakouge village," she spoke. (A/N: I made that up, as an FYI).

The boy grunts in acceptance, but then spoke again.

"I've never heard of that village."

Rika said nothing, but looked at Kakashi, who had just walked onto the bridge.

"Sorry we're late. We were trying to save a cat from a tree..."

"YOU ARE SUCH A LIAR!" the pink-haired girl yelled, startling Rika. She noticed her talking to Sasuke, and started to fume at the ears.

"Hey, who are you!" she demanded.

"Micamura Rika," Rika spoke again. "But who are you two?"

"Oh, I'm Haruno Sakura," the girl spoke.

"Uchiha Sasuke," the boy spoke. She nodded, and then looked at the water.

As she stared at it, she noticed a strange shadow forming in the surface. The shadow than formed into the reflection of another being...matted black ravenous hair...crimson, piercing eyes...a black and red-cloud-painted kimono...a Konoha leaf headband with a cut along the center...the being smiled evilly at her, and she gasped and jumped back, ready to feel a blade pierce her skin...

Rika jumped back, and accidentally hit someone behind her with her elbow. They let out a moan, and she turned to see Sasuke there, clutching his nose where she had hit him.

"Goddamnit! What the hell was that for!" he yelled at her.

"I'm so sorry! You scared me!"

Rika felt her heart beating vigorously in her chest. Sasuke looked so much like him, it was an honest, yet horrifying mistake. In her mind, she can't forget him. She knows he has hurt her for so long now, he had become a part of her. There's nothing she could do. He is there. He's inside her, watching her, waiting for her to fall. There was no way to escape from him. He'll find her. He'll kill her. And when she finally realized it, he was already there. She noticed the fan on the back of Sasuke's shirt, and she gasped when she realized that he was one of them. He was related to him, and that meant that eventually, he would find her.

She stepped back from him, and ran towards the end of the bridge, terror striking every nerve in her body. Rika ran away from them, and she ran into the woods. She tried to run away from what she thought was him. As she came into the shadows, something caught her off guard, and she fell back into a tree. She looked up to see what it was she collided into, and saw it was a boy with wild, unruly red hair, and piercing, green eyes. He glared at her like a basilisk, and she then felt like she had just met a demon...