Top of the Tree

VI

It took a while for someone to come for me. I felt my hands shake in their restraints from the adrenaline coursing through my veins, and a headache came along due to the overrunning thoughts in my brain—rather, the only thought running through my mind was "I'm safe," repeatedly, and the relief slipped over my little body like a cold shower. I was safe.

A dark figure came up to me (the lighting in that place was shit), and behind it appeared another three. It crouched in front of me and helped me up from my sprawled position on the floor. One of the figures came behind me, which immediately made me tense, and undid my bindings. Then the same crouched figure picked me up, held me protectively to its chest, and nodded slightly to its comrades.

We slid out of the place (which, turns out, was a cave), and into the night in a forest, of which I had no memory. On our way out we passed some bodies slumped on the ground. I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for them, but the poor suckers had it coming. Arriving at the cave's entrance, we stopped, and I was set down on my feet, which gave out so I was instantly on my knees instead. For the first time, I looked for my rescuers' faces, but found none; instead there were masks—ANBU, I thought lightly.

The one, who'd been holding me, once again, crouched to my level and unexpectedly removed his mask. He looked vaguely familiar with is gray hair that seemed to defy gravity, and had a ponytail trailing down his back. The other three removed their masks, and also crouched down to my level. They all placed slight smiled on their faced, probably to make me relax a little, though until I was in my mother's arms, I wouldn't feel such.

Dully, I noted that my eyes were stinging with tears that I was desperately trying to keep at bay, and my breath shaky from adrenaline. My hands were as dirty as my clothes from lying on the floor for so long. My face felt sticky from the salty tears that did escape and ran down my cheeks. I probably had some bags under my eyes due to the lack of sleep.

"Are you alright, Kozue-chan?" asked the only female of the group, with her rather bland-looking brown hair and eyes.

I probably looked a little alarmed, not expecting to be spoken to, but I answered anyway, "Yeah".

Before any of them could talk again, there was a grumble noise coming from my stomach. I don't know why people seem to blush when their stomach grumbles in public, it's never affected me that way, and it never will, truthfully. The team started laughing though, not because I blushed or was embarrassed, but because I was legitimately startled by the sound that I jumped a little and yelped. Now that was a reason to blush.

"We'll find somewhere safe to settle down and feed you, okay?" suggested the familiar looking one.

I nodded furiously.

We went into the forest and walked for several minutes (I was piggyback-riding on one of the men), until we found a small opening, perfect to settle down and eat. By then, the ninjas had placed their masks on their face, much to my displeasure—I wanted to be able to look at their faces and have a hint as to what they were thinking. I was given an energy bar that tasted like mud—don't ask how I know that—and water. I devoured it all in one go, and was disappointed to find that I was still very hungry, but decided to ignore it for the time being. The man with the grey hair chuckled slightly, got up from his place against the tree, walked up to me and sat cross-legged. He reached into his pocket and pulled out another energy-bar and handed it over to me.

I almost squealed in delight.

Between bites I asked, "Where are we?" and as at afterthought, "and who are you people?"

"We're on the borders of Rain and Fire Country," answered one of them.

"You don't know your village's symbol?" asked the one with a monkey-like mask, pointing to his forehead protector, which was tied around his neck.

"I do," I said nonchalantly, "But you're different, you wear masks—you're ANBU, right?"

Ha! I bet they didn't expect m to know that.

As if on cue, "How do you know about the ANBU?" asked the woman with the bear mask.

"My Dad may have mentioned it once or twice," I continued, "what I want to know are your names—you never mentioned them,"

"I'm bear, this is monkey, donkey, and wolf,"

"I meant your actual names, not codenames," I frowned in annoyance.

"Oh, we can't tell you that,"

Should have told me that earlier.

We didn't spend too much time in one place; it wasn't exactly safe with a war raging on, especially since we were so close to the actual battlefields. Before long, I was defeated by exhaustion, and fell asleep in the arms of the donkey-masked ninja. Had I been less fatigued, I would've fought to stay awake, at least until we reached home, but alas, a child can only be deprived of sleep for so long before they pass out unwillingly.

It should've been a few hours at least until I woke up; unfortunately, however, I wasn't awoken by natural means, rather the contrary—I was roused by the sound of an explosion.

You know how when you're in a deep slumber, and you hear the sound of your loud alarm clock, and you wake up with a start, with your heart racing miles per hour? Yeah, that's what it felt like to be woken up by an explosion, except the ringing in my ears didn't leave me until a few days later.

An ambush, that's what happened. And I wasn't even awake enough to begin to comprehend why the hell my heart was racing, because I was thrown into a bush off to the side.

The problem of doing such?

The bush was concealing a cliff.

Now, the cliff itself wasn't all too high, but it was steep as hell, and when I fell, lets just say, I wasn't expecting it.

Bush—edge—fall—fall—branch—fall—branch—fall—floor—crack—a long scream in agony.

Actually, I heard a few cracks, and came to the conclusion that either they were branches snapping with the impact of my body, or they were my bones breaking. Sadly, I later found out that it was the latter.

I was lying on my back looking at an overcast sky, wondering to myself, why the hell did shit have to happen to me. I wondered if I'd somehow angered someone important in one of my past lives (it's plausible). And I thought to myself, not much can worsen this day. I tried to stay still, to not move at all, because what if I'd broken my neck from the fall? Moving would only worsen things.

And that's when the rain started. It wasn't a simple drizzle, no—it was a goddamn thunderstorm, and there I was, lying on my fucking back, wishing that someone would kill me already.

Deciding that staying still wouldn't get me anywhere (literally and figuratively speaking) and highly annoyed by the thousands of drops patting my face, I turned my body so that I'd be lying on my stomach instead. There was a puddle, and my hair was dripping into it. I focused my vision, and gasped.

I saw my reflection.

Now that I think about it, I didn't really look much like my parents, though other people would beg to differ. I was rather plain-looking—brown unruly hair, almost black eyes, a small nose (thankfully I didn't get Hiruzen's big-ass one), and a rather round face. There were several cuts, one under, and off to the side of my right eye that I knew would scar, and on my upper lip, that wouldn't stop throbbing—note, I was also covering in mud from head to toe, and in places that no mud should ever be. But overall, I was nothing special; well my appearance was rather ordinary, can't say the same about my personality, though.

I didn't look like my past self at all.

And for the first time since I was reborn, did I feel like I wasn't me; like I didn't belong; like I was intruding—it wasn't my body.

I shouldn't exist.

It didn't take long for my 'rescuers' to find me, though they did seem a little apologetic at throwing me off a cliff. No harm done, right? (Note sarcasm).

We arrived in Konoha a few hours later—the assholes decided to pick up the pace—soaked to the bone, and worse for wear. The rain was still ongoing, and I'd figured with my luck, I'd get the flu just to even things out.

The team left me at the hospital before reporting in, so at least I didn't remain in my cold, wet clothes for too long. Not much later after being seen to by a doctor, did the door to my room burst open with a frantic mother marching along, and behind her my two brothers (Asuma being carried by Hiro), but there was no sight of Hiruzen—that bastard. I was cooed at and coddled, for what seemed like ages, until Hiruzen decided to grace us with his presence—thankfully Mom was still under the influence of pregnancy hormones and ripped him a new pair.

All in all, I was a very moody little girl, for the next weeks to come, covered head to toe in a cast, surrounded by an overly protective family. And to worsen the situation, the watching (or stalking, call it what you want) only worsened.

Damn it! Can't a girl get a break?

I was interrogated for a few days, and informed that I'd been gone for a full seven days (apparently there'd been rain for several days on end, so it was hard to find my kidnappers' trail). And apparently my abductors were mercenaries working for Iwa, and were hired to capture me, collect whatever information I had, and then use me for ransom (apparently they wanted to exchange me for one of the war prisoners under Konoha custody).

I sometimes wonder if Hiruzen would have made the trade.

I didn't sleep well for the next few weeks.

Ironically enough, it wasn't due to the kidnapping, or the fact that my father would have gladly given up my life for the good of the village; it was the fall of the cliff and the pain upon impact with the floor that kept replaying in my head every time I closed my eyes. I'd wake up drenched in cold sweat screaming and crying.

My parents didn't know what to do—when I started screaming in my sleep, I'd accidentally wake up Asuma, and he'd scream even louder that me, and it didn't help that we had to share a room (the never ending rain had flooded half of our house's first floor, so Asuma was currently staying in my room).

The only time that I'd actually settle down was when Hiro would let me sleep with him in his bedroom. It was the only time I'd ever feel safe—Dad had, time and time again, failed to protect me, and indirectly so had Mom. Sometimes I felt like Hiro was the only one who genuinely cared about my wellbeing. And that only made me love him more, but it also made me resent my parents a little—Hiruzen more than Mom.

I couldn't blame Mom for being neglected, because she had just had a baby, and I recognize that Asuma should always come first (now more than ever, seeing that I'm also responsible for his safety), but even so, she tried to make up for forgetting about me with many hugs and kissed. I was able to forgive her (not that she really needed forgiving in the first place), because she had never betrayed my trust, and there was never a hint of doubt that she'd protect me with her life.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to do the same with my father, because there were bigger things than me, in his life. And I was competing with an entire village for his attention—for his protection.

I couldn't help but hate it.

And despise him for it.

That's it for chapter six! I told my sister what I was planning to do with this chapter and she asked, "why are you torturing Kozue? Isn't she supposed to be you?" and then I answered her: "Life has been a bitch to me lately, and thus it'll be a bitch to Kozue as well".

Truth be told, I enjoyed torturing her far too much, and that makes me wonder what kind of person am I to do such to a character that supposedly reflects me.

Now that I think about it, she also asked me why I'm writing so many chapters of baby Kozue, and I've come up with a reason: we don't know much about the past in the Naruto manga. And usually the OCs are from the canon timeline, and not from before it, so since we don't know much about the past, I have to make up for it by inventing crap and filling in the gaps.

Guys! 100+ review and 250+ follows and faves! I had no idea this would be so popular. I think the biggest compliment from you guys is when you say that Kozue isn't a Mary Sue—you can't begin to imagine how hard I try to keep her away from the MS-ness. I was very tempted to make Kozue a kickass baby who could beat the four idiots on her own, but decided against it; I also wanted to throw more crap at her, but that's borderline evil, so I stuck to the falling off a cliff thing—now thinking about it like that makes me feel a little guilty.

Anyways, next chapter Kozue starts the Academy (finally)!

Stay tuned,

CupcakeLoopy