Symone: A Naruto Side-Story - "The Heart Of Rain".
Chapter Two: Was It Destiny?
Sometimes in life we get dealt lonesome days as we struggle for what's right in our hearts. We see no destiny or truth as depression can checkmate the emotions over the mind. Symone was such a girl now, dreading the heartache of the loved ones she had lost and accidently murdered, struggling to find peace within as she trembles on a journey, looking for an answer of any kind to make her aware that she truly is alive, and not just a pawn in a slowly performed dream. This story will take us into the world of a troubled girl as she travels far from her home in the Hidden Rain where most of her memories remain, soul searching to find a better truth than this somber misery she could have never predicted.
Let hope shed its light...
Four days after leaving her home, Symone is seen by her lonesome in an unfamiliar landscape. "Mother... Father... and of course, Brother..." thought a dirtied Symone as she is seen wandering the Hidden Rock country, ending up at it's border by a small unknown country as she continues thinking to herself, "...I will go to the Hidden Leaf, and become a true ninja. I don't want to be just a curse. I know this is the bloodline-limit you all wanted to have, and yet somehow, I was dealt it without any training. I promise I won't use it carelessly. I'm on my way to become a Chuunin now. I hope you're all proud of me. I heard how hard the test can be, but I'll do it anyway!". Symone pulls out a piece of cracker from her haggard dress as she takes a few sips of water, putting the canister back in the side pocket as she sighs in a relieving manner, starving from lack of food and dehydrated from lack of water intake the past 8 or 9 days. She crosses the border into woodlands as she falls and slams her knee on a stone. "Crap!" Symone yells as she covers her mouth, watching the blood drip down her leg, knowing that she had said a bad word... a word that her Mother and Father would detest as she realized, they aren't there anymore for her to try to hide the fact she had spoke in such a way, but still... she enjoyed their care and company when they would lecture her about things such as this as she begins to drop a gentle tear, drooping her head as she uncovers her mouth. She looks to the dirt on the ground aimlessly for a minute as she then pushes herself up, stretching her leg out a bit, walking forward to the Hidden Leaf. "I can't slow down now! I have to make it!" Symone says to herself as her eyes then begin to glow with a fearsome determination, knowing there's only a few hours before the exam started, remembering her Father telling her just over 2 weeks ago.
The main doors to what seems like the Hidden Leaf village is seen as Symone walks up to it, looking up at the massive doors separating the woods and the village she had been trying to reach as 4 hours passed by from when she first entered the woodlands. She then enters the village of the Hidden Leaf and walks into the main road as the eyes of all the villagers are seen staring at her with a curious intent, most likely wondering what happened to this young, dirty child. Suddenly... Symone is approached by a Jounin as she had bumped into him, looking up as she see's a ninja with a covered face. "Hmm... Are you lost little girl?" says the Jounin as she responds, "Yes. I'm here for the Chuunin exams". "Oh-hoh! Come with me. I'll take you to where you can register" said the Jounin as she nods in acceptance. "My name is Kakashi by the way. Nice to meet you... and what happens to be your name?" said the Hidden Leaf's young Jounin ninja as they walk the main road. "My name... My name is Symone" she said as Kakashi replied, "Ahh! Nice to meet you Symone!", enthusiastically speaking with that typical sarcastic tone as Symone smiles at the ninja that gives her such a comfortable feeling. Suddenly... "Kakashi!" yells a girl by a side road, leaning against a tree. "Hmm? Rin?" Kakashi says as the girl runs over to him. "Kakashi! We were gonna meet for lunch! Remember?" Rin yells as Kakashi responds, "Hey-hey-hey-hey!... I was gonna meet you. I was just gonna take this young girl to the Chuunin exam registration first! That's all!", making up a typical excuse as he always had lately. "You were gonna meet me? Kakashi!... Lunch was over 2 hours ago! Why are you always late!" yells Rin as Kakashi lets out a faint laugh as he responds, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I must've lost track of time!" as he looks over to Symone who happened to be standing to his side with a blank face aimlessly carving into the two babbling in front of her. "It looks like I have to go have lunch, so I'll just tell you where to go, okay?" said Kakashi as Symone responds, nodding her head in agreement. "Alright then... Take this road straight, then just cut left and keep going straight again for about a minute. You should see a young pointy haired lady that kinda has the same hair color as you. Ask her to register you, okay?" Kakashi says as Symone walks away. "Thank you" she says as she makes that first cut to the left, just as Kakashi said.
In the Hidden Leaf, the special operations Jounin, Anko is seen collecting last minute forms for the Chuunin exam by the 'Forest of Death' as she is accompanied by her two Chuunin subordinates. Suddenly, she notices a ragged Symone walking towards her, looking to her curiously. Then, as Symone approaches Anko, she speaks, "I'm here to sign up for the Chuunin exams. Did I make it in time?" she spoke as Anko responds, "Yes. Registrations are still accepted" as she pulls out a form with that curious look still eyeballing Symone. "Okay! First things first. Give me your name, and then the name of your other two teammates" says Anko as Symone drops her mouth open a bit. "Two... teammates?" Symone says in question as Anko tells her, "You mean, you don't even have a team? I'm sorry, but you're not allowed to enter the exams without entering in a three-man team". Symone looks to Anko... her eyes as blank as paper as she begins to walk away in disappointment. Anko yells to her, "Hey! Wait! Are you alright?", curious about the blood and dirt covering her body. Symone turns around, looking to Anko emotionlessly as suddenly, from out of no where, Symone passes out on the floor. Anko yells to the Chuunin subordinate on her left, "Boushimaru! See if she's okay!" as Boushimaru responds, "Right!", jumping over to Symone's body as he holds her up with his forearm lifting her head upright. "From the color of her face, I'm assuming she has poor malnutrition. This girl... she probably has no life left in her at all when you compare that with the injuries she has!". Anko screams, "Take her to the Hospital at once!". Boushimaru replies, "Yes, Sensei!" as he jumps with Symone in his shoulders to the Hospital.
A scene of a blank, black image appears... Feiru is seen standing side-by-side with Touhou as Feiru yells, "Symone! Come eat your dinner before it gets cold!". Symone appears in the image as she looks at her Mother and Father, screaming hysterically, "Mother! Father!", running to them with open arms as she hugs them tightly, but quickly... they just fade away, making Symone fall onto her knees. Symone looks forward towards the emptiness of black as she hears a voice from behind her. "Symone... You'll always have a little piece of me in you to protect you" said the voice, turning around as she see's her big Brother, Souitai. "Souitai!" yells Symone as she runs to him as she did her parents. "Souitai! I miss you so much!" she yells again, falling into her Brother's arms. "Little Sister... Live for me..." said Souitai as suddenly, Feiru and Touhou reappear behind them, speaking in sequence with Souitai, "...Live for us". Symone looks up as tears fall every which way, screaming, "I'm so sorry! I never wanted this to happen! I love you! I love all of you!" as her parents disappear along with Souitai as Symone falls on the ground again. Symone gets up, crying with sorrow filling the open wounds of her heart, ignoring the pain of her body. Symone turns around, seeing her parents appear yet again. "You... you killed us, Symone" says Touhou as Symone falls to her knees. "We only loved you, Symone. How could you?" then says Feiru as Symone screams from the pit of her stomach as loud as she possibly can as shards of ice emit from her body at the speed of falling rain, piercing through the images of her parents as they fade away again. Symone stops her screams as she turns to the left, seeing Souitai standing there with blood dripping down his face from his head and lips as he speaks. "Symone... I wouldn't of died if I didn't have this broken heart you gave me". Symone's eyes brighten as she screams even more, emitting more shards of ice from her body, having it unintentionally pierce Souitai as he screams...
Symone's eyes open, realizing all that had happened was just a dream, or more like a nightmare. She sits up, realizing she's in a Hospital bed, hooked up to an IV as she feels a slight increase in energy from it, slightly curing her malnutrition. "Hey! You're awake!" said a nurse who was sitting in the chair beside her. Symone looks to her as she speaks silently and slow, "What happened?". The nurse responds, "You passed out from hunger, silly! You should be fine now... here! Let me take out that IV!" as she walks up to bedside, removing the IV from her arm. "I'll be back in a moment, I'm just gonna go and help with a few of the other patients on this floor, okay?" said the nurse as Symone responds, "Okay". The nurse walks out, winking at Symone with a smile before she walks out of the door. Symone sits up a little more, seeing a tray of food over her body. Symone begins to eat it, opening the carton of chocolate milk that was left there as well as she gulps it down after swallowing some jello. Symone then gets up, and sneaks up to the door. She peaks out of it, seeing where the nurse is as she leaves a room, entering another next to it. Symone takes the chance and shoots across to a set of stairs as she follows them down, ending up by the main entrance as she walks outside through the doors. Symone begins to run and run until she finds her way to the entrance of the village, leaving into the woodlands she had came to the village from in the first place as she thinks to herself, "I'll never be a ninja. I don't have a team. What will I do? I need to become strong. I thought this would of been perfect for me!". "Darn it!" she screams, walking into the woods without remembering where it was she even came from. "I guess I'll just go back home. I'll become strong in my own way then if those jerks won't let me in their stupid little exam! Who needs them!" Symone yells within her thoughts as cutely, yet as aggressively as possible.
A few hours later... night begins to fall as Symone becomes slightly afraid. She decides to get some sleep in a tree above before continuing onwards with her journey to find hope and strength. She lays in the tree, falling asleep... but wakes only after about three hours due to how uncomfortable and terrified she was to be alone in the dark night. Symone jumps down from the tree, wandering ahead by her lonesome, figuring if she at least keeps moving, she might find some decent refuge to ease her conscience as she's seen walking in the distant night. The moon shines down, reflecting the suns light into the leaves of the tree's as Symone wanders the distance... alone...
A failed attempt at finding the answer she might've needed; Symone's Hidden Leaf adventure brought her nothing except the food and energy she desperately needed, but now that she has abandoned the Hidden Leaf, where will her next stop be? Lost in the woods, a lone girl wanders, hoping for the comfort of refuge. Will she obtain the refuge she needs, or will... something terrible happen?