Yay! I really liked how this chapter turned out. Enjoy everyone!

Memories of Nobody

Chapter 1: Childhood

A young eight year-old, scrawny, Natsu hungrily clawed through the garbage, searching for even the smallest trace of food.

Nothing.

Natsu let out a hard sigh, collapsing onto the floor, her stomach growling shaking her entire body. Natsu had had days like this, days when her stomach would growl for days on end, but she willed herself to bear through it. However, today, she was losing the strength and will-power for it – she had gone without food for too long.

To any on-looker, Natsu was a walking dump – her magenta hair was unruly and pulled into two strands, hair falling into her eyes and sticking out on the sides and on the top of her head. She had haunting orange eyes and had teal triangles on the upper and bottom lids. Mud and dirt was smeared onto her face, legs, and arms. Her clothes that consisted of a shirt and shorts were tattered and torn and had bleached in the sun. What had once been a beautiful blood red now had turned into an ugly, mud-splattered coral pink.

"Kuso," the young girl muttered. She laid back and looked up at the grey sky. A raindrop fell on her forehead. She smirked; the weather seemed to reflect was she was feeling today – sadness.

"I don't want to be a nobody anymore," she wistfully said with a light airy voice. "I want to be someone!" An idea popped into her head, "I'll be… a shinobi-dayo!"

However, that statement would be easier said than done. For starters, she was an orphan. Well… she wasn't always an orphan. She used to have a mother, a father, grandparents, and the lot. But they died. Her mother and father were sent off on a mission and never came back and her grandparents died of natural causes. Another thing, she hadn't even learned the family's jutsus! Her parents died before she was old enough to learn them! (She was only four at the time.)

She got up and dusted herself off, "Hmmm… maybe I'll have to go back to Ojiisan's house, mou ikkai-yo" (Again/once more.)

After about 15 minutes of aimlessly searching around Mizugakure, she found her grandparent's house. It had been so long since she had set foot there. The weeds were running wild and growing wherever they pleased, vines were covering the windows and doors. The once brightly colored home was now a sad shade of grey.

"Doesn't anyone care about this house anymore?" she shouted, trying to make her way through the three foot-long grass that blocked the door.

When she finally got in, she looked around, scanning for a scroll, a diary, something! She then rested upon a red scroll lying on the floor. She picked it up and carefully unraveled it.

"Genjutsu?" she read aloud. "In the Kisetsu clan, each family member studies Genjutsu and creates their own techniques that have to do with art, or sakuhins."

Natsu struggled to read the rest, but it was blurry with watermarks and ink splotches. She sighed, throwing the scroll over her shoulder, "That helped a lot." Her voice drenched with sarcasm. She looked around for anything else that would tell her what Genjutsu was when she came upon a box.

"Nani?" She ran her fingers on the smooth black surface and smiled, "It's so… kirei!" She opened it and gasped. It was tons and tons of money! She almost let out a scream, but contained herself. "I have to spend the money logically. First, I need… to get a place to live. Next, food and clothes and maybe spend stuff on a spa or something. I REEK!" Underneath the money, however, was a note.

Natsu read it aloud, "Dear Natsu – it's addressed to me! And it's from Obaasan and Ojiisan!" She continued,

"Dear Natsu,

When you probably find this money, we will probably already be dead. However, do not let this discourage you. We know you will spend the money wisely because you are a bright little girl – we could tell when you were only but the quaint age of three and four.

Your hahaue and chichiue loved you very much, Natsu, and we wish they were still alive today to care and nurture you. However, this is not the case. You must now face a new challenge – getting into the Shinobi Academy and surviving through its treacherous tests and challenges without the help of a parent to guide you through or a grandparent whose shoulder who can cry on. Usually, you need paperwork to get in, but when the time comes when you want to be a shinobi, present this to your sensei and we are sure he will understand.

Once again, we wish your parents were alive. Your life would probably be so much easier and happier with them."

Natsu gripped the letter tight, new-found determination shining in her orange eyes, "Yosh, I now know what I must do."

That day, Natsu stayed inside the empty house. She looked around, remembering how it was when she used to live here.

(Flashback)

Natsu was balancing on a small fence, pretending that she was a famous tightrope walker. She looked over at her aging grandfather, "Ojiisan?"

The man looked up from his painting and sighed, "Take, take, Natsu! Hold still! I'm not done painting you yet!"

Natsu sighed, and looked the other way once more, "Why do you paint?"

Her grandfather laughed, "That is a question that has no answer. It is the same as asking yourself why you like to eat or sleep or laugh. And also why you add '-yo' and '-dayo' to end all of your sentences."

Natsu made a face, "But you need to eat and sleep, and you can't help it if you laugh." She then crossed her arms, pouting, "That's just what I do!"

He laughed, "And painting is what I do." He added a last stroke to the canvas and called, "Come down, Natsu! I've finished your portrait."

Natsu jumped down and ran up behind her grandfather. She gasped in awe, "Sugoi! It's wonderful, Ojiisan!" She hugged him and smiled, "When I grow up, I want to be an artist, too-dayo!"

Her grandfather laughed, giving her a gentle nudge in the stomach, making the young girl laugh, "Spoken like the true daughter of your mother, no doubt."

Natsu then sat down on the ground, looking brightly up at him, "Tell me more about her, Ojiisan. Tell me about Okaasan, kudasai!"

Her grandfather smiled, "Alright." He then got out a notebook and flipped to a blank piece of paper and a freshly sharpened pencil and whispered to her, "Watch very closely now." He drew out a young girl who looked just like Natsu, "Your hahaue looked just like yourself and she was a bright little girl just like you were." He then drew in the Shinobi Academy and people. He frowned, "But, because of your hahaue's appearance, she didn't make any friends." He added a frown and tears to the girl's face.

Natsu frowned, "So…she was alone?"

He nodded, "Hai, very alone." He turned the page in his notebook and drew Natsu's mother and two other children and an adult. "The only 'friends' she made, were in her team, but even they tried to stay away from her."

Natsu was infuriated, "But that's not what team members are supposed to do! They're supposed to be friends and help each other, right? Teamwork!"

"Yes, but since your mother looked so scary… no one liked her." A smile then played on his face, "Until… she met who would be your father."

Natsu's face lit up, "Otoosan!" She smiled, "Did he become Okaasan's first friend?!"

He nodded, "Hai, little one." He turned the page to the notebook and drew a young man and a young woman.

Natsu looked at them in awe, "They look so…kirei!"

"Why yes, your hahaue was a beautiful woman and your chichiue was a very handsome man." He drew a forest around them with enemy shinobi coming in on both sides, "They met on the battlefield. It was love at first sight. They promised to each other that they would marry if they survived the mission – they did." He turned the page and drew the two of them, happy, flowers surrounding them and Natsu's mother in a beautiful dress.

Natsu smiled, "Kawaii, da ne-yo?" She smiled at her parents looking so in love, "They look so happy."

He nodded, turning the page, "And then they had you. You were the pride and joy in their life." He drew the two of them looking at a baby Natsu with love and affection. "They couldn't leave you for a second. They were afraid someone would snatch you up and that they would never see you again." He turned the page again, "But then… they had to go on a mission. I tried to argue with the Mizukage, saying that they should send another couple instead of them since your mother was still recovering, but he refused. He said that there were no other people more fit for this mission than your mother and father. However, he made a grave and fatal mistake that cost them their lives."

Natsu winced, "A-and what would that be, Ojiisan-yo?"

He shut the notebook with a slam, "They were outnumbered. Your mother and father couldn't possibly take down a whole squad of high-class shinobi all by themselves, now could they? And that is why…"

Natsu bit her lip, "Wakataeru-yoOjiisan. You don't have to say anymore." She got up and gave him a fake smile, "I'll go see what Obaasan is cooking, dane?" She waved to him and scampered off, "Ja ne, Ojiisan!"

(End Flashback)

Natsu bit her lip, hugging her knees to her chest, "I miss you, Ojiisan, Obaasan, Okaasan, Otoosan. Why did you all have to die and leave me…"

She looked around, the darkness closing in on her as she uttered the words, "Alone… so very alone." She sighed, "But this is all partly my fault, da ne? I did… run away."

(Flashback)

Natsu sighed – her grandparents were asleep. She would have to make her move now or never.

Natsu bit her lip, 'Do I really want to do this? I mean… they've taken care of me all this time. But still…I want to get away. I need a new atmosphere.' She got out a piece of her grandfather's scratch paper and wrote:

"Dear Obaasan and Ojiisan,

Sumimasen, but I can not stay with you any longer. It's not for the reasons that you may think – you have done so much for me and I love you with all my heart. It's just that I feel that I must move on. I don't know what I will do, but I'll figure it out… eventually. Please don't look for me. Sayonara, aishiteru-yo.

Kisetsu Natsu-dayo"

Natsu then opened the door and walked out of the house, never to see her grandparents again.

(End Flashback)

Natsu bit her lip, 'I shouldn't have left them. Then my life would have been so much easier. They could have trained me, made sure that I had proper education. I wouldn't have to do it myself…' She sighed, 'Gomen nasai… minna-yo.' And with that, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

It's kinda cool to tell a story in almost all flashbacks. Basically that's what this story is - a flashback. RAD, NE?