I don't think I've ever been so wired before in my life. Even when I was stealing food from the marketplaces out of necessity in my youth (and I swear, I'm been completely over all of that ever since I got my License, so don't even think about bringing something like that up), I have never before felt so desperate to escape.

If there is a God, please tell him to hurry up and provide me a miracle, because I could sure use one right now.

I don't know how it had happened in the first place. One minute, I was enjoying a nice breeze out in the open, and the next, I was running for my life with these intimidating figures after my head. I didn't think that I'd pissed off the community that much when I had first moved in. Didn't President Netero tell me that I'd be on a special reconnaissance mission? How did I get into this situation anyway? And who the hell ratted me out in the first place?

It's raining now and my joints are stiff. If I ever get out of this mess, I'll offer prayers every day for the rest of my life. God, I feel old for thinking something like that. It doesn't help that every part of my body feels like it has aged a hundred times faster than normal either.

I just wanna lie down and take a really long nap without having to worry about those people behind my back. Taking a break sounds really good right about now.

The sad thing is that now I look like a poor sappy adolescent teenager writing my thoughts in some crappy journal. Well, I guess that last part applies as I am holding a cruddy piece of paper against my leg in the middle of a storm. But that's not the point!

The point is that I'm miserable, I'm wet, and I'm tired beyond belief. And I'm taking it out by whining on a stupid sheet of processed tree bark. God so help me die if anyone else ever reads this…

I need to find a decent place to sleep and a hot shower, dammit.

- Taken from the diaries of Lucy K.

Black River

Chapter 02: "On the Run"

By Ikabi and A Writer Wannabee

Special Agent 112118(etc. – her designation code went on forever to the point where she didn't bother with it anymore simply because it was a hassle), codename "Ghost" (attributed to her abilities and skills as a professional one-man reconnaissance team), A.K.A. The Lady With No Name ("Cuz my real name's classified information," she would joke back at Headquarters when one of the newer guys tried to ask.)… (1)

…Had no idea where she was now. There were trees everywhere and the branches were hindering her from being able to see where she was going. The foliage prevented her from being able to tell where the moon was (Was there even a moon at this point?), and in the darkness she had lost track of all sense of time. She would have stopped to find her bearings a long time ago, but the ones on her trail had somehow managed to gain on her during the course of the afternoon.

She was not lost. Not lost at all. Nope. No way in a million years.

She looked around, taking in how unfamiliar everything looked and gulped.

Okay, so maybe she was off course just a little bit.

A small rustle in a nearby bush startled her and she quickly veered to the left in order to avoid what-ever-it-was that was in it. More than just a little unnerved, she decided to head in the direction that seemed safest, as that was away from any source of noise. After a little while, a small clearing appeared before her, and she checked the area for any traps before venturing forth. Her attention was caught by a small overturned stone with a single symbol on it, and she tried not to scream in frustration.

Ghost had already been here, if her marker was any indication. And there must have been a type of Nen placed over the area (which was quite a feat – she should look into that later…when she wasn't running to save her life) to confuse enemies, because this had been the third time she had walked through this particular clearing.

'Wait a second,' her mind told her. 'Someone else has been here too.'

Footprints were embedded in a particular soft spot in the earth she had discovered the first time around. It looked as if the owner of this set of tracks hadn't noticed, but that was probably due to haste and lack of discretion. She calculated how old the prints were and estimated how far the pursuers might be behind.

Maybe it was a slightly good thing that she had come here again. They were catching up to her and she wouldn't have ever known by how much if not for this.

Taking one last look around, Ghost bounded off in a direction she hadn't tried before, hoping that it wouldn't lead her around in a circle like last time. At least she knew that it wasn't the people following her that put the confusing spell up. She doubted that they would still be so far away if that were the case.

'Although,' she thought, 'that still didn't explain who's responsible for getting me lost.'

Stupid wide-ranged Nen.

Uchiha Kurogami sat down next to the rice-paper door of his family's household and bent over to put on his sandals, laying his equipment off to the side in favor of being able to do the task without the hindrance. (2)

"You're going out?"

He didn't turn around when the soft voice of his sister echoed in the narrow hallway, but he acknowledged her all the same. "Something like that."

"Where to?"

There – one side done. "Ichiraku's." He picked up his other sandal and started putting it on as well. "The weather's been bugging the hell out of me, and I need to eat lunch before my next patrol shift." He finished his task and reached over to grab his vest from a nearby coat-rack where it had been left to dry a few hours ago and shook it free from the last few stubborn drops of water. "Damn rain makes me fucking uncomfortable."

"Language, Onii-chan!" the younger girl scolded, changing the tone in her voice so that it leaned towards a hint of disapproval. Yikes, Mikoto was starting to sound like all the other aunts that nagged at their kids.

Kurogami gave her a questioning look as if to say, 'Are you my mother?' Instead, he brushed the topic aside and retrieved his equipment, checking his mental list one last time before setting out.

"Was there something you wanted or were you just going to watch me leave?"

Suddenly, all traces of courage fled from the girl's figure as she nervously fingered something small and white.

"Um... never mind."

He sighed and held out a hand. "What is it this time?"

"C-could you drop by the market and buy this for me?" Mikoto thrust a piece of paper in his face, completely bypassing his hand. "Mother wouldn't let me leave the compound until I finished all of my chores, but that would take forever! And you know most of these stores close before dinner-time."

Unsurprised, Kurogami leaned backwards so that the offending object wouldn't threaten to blind him anymore. "Yeah, yeah. Got it," he muttered before scanning the list. He did a double-take. "You're making chocolate?"

"Well…"

He paused, looking her over a few times, wondering when his sister had grown so much. Mikoto tensed, waiting for some kind of verbal teasing when he spoke up.

"So." Kurogami waved the list around, gesturing at some elusive object. "Who's the lucky guy?"

His sister blushed a bright shade of pink. "N-none of your business! And I never said what it was for!"

Kurogami grinned this time. "Ah, my imouto-chan does have a boyfriend! You'd better bring him to the house soon, 'cause father and I would love to interrogate him."

"Okaa-san! Onii-chan's being mean again!" Mikoto screamed, trying to win the support of the other female in the house.

"Listen to your brother, dear," was the reply that filtered through the walls.

The young girl nearly screamed again, frustration evident in her posture. Kurogami took this as a sign to make his escape and dashed straight out the door, narrowly dodging a couple shuriken along the way.

Ghost paused under the cover of a large tree, taking the time to assess her current situation.

Not good. They were getting even closer.

She felt the sense of urgency pushing her to run faster, harder, longer. But her legs felt tired now from her flight and the constant movement. So very tired… She felt like she could sleep for a million years from fatigue.

How many days had it been since they had started pursuing her… Ten? Eleven? It didn't matter now. She was so far away from civilization that nothing looked familiar anymore. Her days were now filled with scraps and bruises obtained from her falls and stumbles alongside with the cuts she received from stinging branches and rough bark.

The large welt on her left thigh had been from a wound six days ago when she had fallen from a small cliff in hopes of throwing off the hunters. The large, thick scab on her right arm was the result of engaging the enemy before she could set the necessary traps to escape them when they had found out where she had set camp four days ago. All in all, she was not in the best of conditions, relative or otherwise.

Shaking these thoughts out of her mind, she pressed onward, hoping that her natural speed would soon pay off…

White… Pink… Yellow… Red… And, green…?

Who the hell would eat green chocolate?

Kurogami tried not to wince when he saw the myriad of different colors some of the chocolate melts and syrups came in, but couldn't suppress the shudder when he saw a tube that advertised a special brand of tie-dye.

Really, what sane person would want to eat anything that was a combination of fuchsia and purple?

Looking back down on the list, he snorted.

Okay, so maybe his sister wasn't as sane as he had first thought…?

Grudgingly, he reached out to snatch an offensively bright package of chocolate bags that came in a set of hues he never thought possible.

Well, at least she didn't want the tie-dye…

He shuddered again.

It was starting to rain again, and while this helped her put more distance between herself and her pursuers, it also made hunting animals that much harder.

Her stomach grumbled, but Ghost knew there was nothing she could do to appease it. There were berries and other forms of vegetation around, but she didn't know what kind of natural poisons were laced in them, and whether she had any immunity against them.

She didn't want to take the risk of facing the unknown, but being in a foreign environment without any means of contacting the others grated on her nerves on top of being constantly in (relatively mild, she mused) pain.

But she knew that eventually, at the rate she was going, her body was going to give up. Nerves steeled, she slowly forced herself out of her hiding place and in the general direction of where she could feel the Nen originating from.

She had to reach a safe place.

Soon.

Kurogami fiddled with a few of his shuriken as he paced on top of Konoha's outer walls, securing his footing with a steady stream of chakra to his feet. It wouldn't do to slip and fall from the lack of traction that was brought on by the constant drizzle, after all. But aside from a few near slips, nothing much was going on.

In short, patrol duty was boring. Always, unless it was during a time of war.

That was like saying that D-rank missions sucked like hell, the Hyuuga clan had sticks up their asses, or the Sandaime was the current Hokage.

Basically, it was like an unspoken, generally accepted rule that no one questioned.

But Kurogami was a chuunin, and as such, was expected to complete his share of missions in order to bring in revenue to Konoha's economy. But being an Uchiha made things a lot more complicated than just fulfilling his duties, because that meant that he had to do everything perfectly.

Argh! Sometimes being a member of Konoha's Police Force really stank!

Ghost took a quick look around and saw that no one was in the vicinity. Silently, she took a calming breath and relaxed into a state of meditation, hiding her aura with Zetsu and stilling her mind so that she was more in tune with her surroundings.

A rabbit passed by in front of her.

Lucky!

She fingered the weapon she had found earlier in the day and quickly threw it. The knife hit its mark (a little too high and a few too many degrees left of where she had intended), puncturing the animal in the neck before it flopped down and hit the earth.

Ghost eyed the foreign object carefully, noting how it was designed. It wasn't fancy by any means, but it got the job done and was convenient enough to carry around. She had met a few Hunters (most were ninja who had participated in the Exams) that carried weapons such as this one, but the throwing stars they had used were slightly bigger and heavier than the one currently in her possession.

Flicking away the small flecks of blood on the metal, she pocketed the weapon and set about preparing her meal, her mood lightened by the recent change in events.

There was a chance that by continuing on this path, she would chance across someone whom she had met before.

"I'm back," Kurogami greeted when he opened the door to his home.

Mikoto immediately ran out from the kitchen. "Onii-chan! Welcome home!" She gave him a quick hug before helping him out of his soaked vest and sandals.

"What are we having for dinner?" he asked, when he smelled something delicious waft through the hallway.

"That's – a – secret!" Mikoto joked, shaking a finger back and forth. "Mom put me in charge of the main dish tonight, so you have to tell me how it tastes!"

"We'd better give the hospital an early warning to make room for a few patients, then."

Mikoto pouted, hands on her hips. "Not funny!"

"I was just teasing."

"Did you get my stuff?"

"Yeah. Here." He pushed a market bag into her waiting arms as he strode into the kitchen. "I have to eat dinner really quick and report for the night shift. One of the scheduled chuunin fell ill, so I have to work again tonight."

There was a wall in front of her, she vaguely acknowledged. A fairly large wall.

Ghost stared at it for another few minutes.

It was huge and well built, which made her more frustrated than anything else. How was she supposed to climb over something like that? The architects of the village must have taken abnormal superhuman physical conditions into account in order to plan for something as preposterous as a ri-friggin-diculously enormous barrier such as the one standing before her.

'It's mocking me,' she decided after trying to glare it into submission for the umpteenth time to no avail. She had reached this wall-gate-thing approximately five minutes ago after getting wind of the fact that her pursuers were even closer than she thought they were. There was no way on earth that she would risk taking the time to travel around it. Depending on the size of this village; that could take hours. Over it was impossible. Through it was plain stupid. Who knew what sort of people lived behind the fortified gates?

Ghost was so deep in thought that it took her a few seconds to realize that someone was calling for her attention.

"Hey, you there," came a voice from on top of the wall. "What brings you here at this hour?"

"I need help," she answered back after weighing her options carefully. "I'm looking for shelter from a group of mercenaries unjustly after my head."

The patrolman (she could tell from his voice and posture) on the wall seemed to take in this information slowly, as if mulling over a wine taste. She could just picture the skeptical raised eyebrow and the slight frown on his face.

"What village do you hail from?" he asked finally.

"Um…never lived in a village. I just came from Yorkshin City."

"That name does not sound familiar. Are you a civilian?"

Civilian? In what sense?

If it meant that she wasn't a military figure or held a position that was associated with an organization of that caliber, then the answer was a big, flat-out 'no.'

On the other hand, if he were only referring to that of which was custom around these areas, then there was a slight chance that she would be considered non-military. Hunters, after all, could be seen as either one depending on what profession they decided to go into.

Ghost was about to answer with a 'yes' when a rustling sound reached her ears. Stifling a curse under her breath, she started running in the first direction that came to her mind, now ignoring the man on top of the wall. A sharp knife sailed past her and embedded itself into the bamboo gate, missing her by just a few inches. She vaguely registered a startled yell from the guard gate, but at this point everything was blurred in her mind. The only thing she could think of was to run away.

Quick, quick, run, run, hide, jump, leap, sprint, dash, soar, faster, hurry, faster, FASTER!

But the person pursuing her was just one unlucky step ahead. More knives were thrown at her, intended for vital organs that she somehow just barely managed to evade in the nick of time. All her quick maneuvers, however, made her lose sense of her location so that she didn't see the ditch next to her until it was too late.

Another projectile aimed at her left made her veer in the opposite direction and straight into uneven ground where she lost her footing and balance, resulting in a twisted ankle and a lot of pain.

She was going to be butchered to death because she tripped over a stupid hole! Just wait until Netero heard about this!

And then, everything went in slow motion as she saw the man guarding the gate leap from that impossible height and land in between her and her assassin-to-be. Quick as lightning, he pulled out two short blades that had been strapped to his back and proceeded to drive the attacker away. When the assassin proved to be stubborn, the gate guard killed him with a swift, clean jab to the heart. The body fell with a soft thud to the ground and the guard turned away to wipe off his blades. Then he made his way where she had fallen (and still had yet to get up due to surprise) to see what had become of her.

"What is your name?" he asked as he extended a hand to help her up.

"Lucy," she answered shakily. To hell with secrecy, using her codename would probably put her in a less favorable position, especially if people have heard of her before. At least her real name had no profile – or at least, anything really worth mentioning (or on any official records, she added with an afterthought).

'What the hell was that!? I have never seen someone jump that high in my entire career as a Hunter! Oh Kami-sama, I hope that I'm not getting into more trouble by coming here in the first place…'

"I am Uchiha Kurogami. You will now be escorted to the Hokage's tower for interrogation," he said a little abruptly, still scanning the area for possibly more assassins. After seeing the terrified look across Lucy's face, his voice softened somewhat. "Relax, it's no big deal. If all goes well, you'll be sent to the hospital for a checkup and given a place to stay for the night."

She breathed a sigh in relief as Kurogami helped keep the pressure off of her bad ankle by offering an arm in support. He took a few minutes for her to adjust her weight so that they could both travel easier.

"There's more than just this one," Lucy said after a period of silence as they both gazed back to the dead body.

"Then we will just run away before they get here," he replied without a pause. Lucy marveled at how calm the man next to her remained despite the tedious situation they were in.

"I'm afraid that option is no longer available to you," a voice answered not too far away. The owner of the voice stepped out of the row of trees, revealing a masked face, long hair tied in a ponytail and an unusual weapon behind her.

"Our orders are to restrain that woman and bring her back to our client, dead or alive. Though, with all the trouble she's been giving us, I'm sure he wouldn't mind if she came back a little damaged," another said, also emerging from the forest behind the masked woman. A few more shadowy figures made themselves known by rustling the bushes or stepping on twigs that they would have otherwise avoided. "Should anyone get in our way, they must die." With that, they charged and leapt at Lucy and Kurogami, weapons bared.

Kurogami wasted no time in transporting the two of them out of the immediate range of fire with a kawarimi no jutsu. He then created a few bunshin to distract the enemy while conjuring up a mizu-bunshin (thank the gods there was still a lot of water around this time of the year – making water clones would have been that much harder otherwise) to help protect his new charge.

"Stay here," he whispered into her ears. After making sure that she understood, he laid the strongest genjutsu he could cast given the short amount of time he had at his disposal.

The Uchiha then jumped back into the fray, disabling all of the remaining targets with precision and accuracy, careful to be sure that at least two or more of them were uninjured enough to be detained for questioning later. He noticed that all of his regular bushin had been exterminated by this point, but that hardly mattered anymore since there wasn't a reason to have them around.

He turned around to give the all-clear signal to Lucy, but something in the back of his mind was screaming at him. There was something very wrong about how she was just sitting on that tree branch, and the signals his brain was sending him were now blaring at full blast, almost like the red-alert sirens during a natural disaster.

Kurogami quickly called forth the Sharingan and cursed when he realized that he wasn't the only individual capable of casting some sort of illusion on others. Not to mention that his earlier genjutsu had been broken by now. There was another person sneaking up behind the unsuspecting girl, and he was close enough to strike and leave a fatal blow.

"Behind you!" Kurogami called out, a second too late as his brain registered what he was seeing through his Bloodline Limit.

Lucy responded to the voice and quickly turned to see another assassin leap out at her. She blocked to the best of her ability, but knew that without a weapon, she was powerless against this enemy. Something sharp pierced her skin as the assassin made contact with her, and Lucy instantly felt pain somewhere around the middle of her stomach. A split-second later, the man fell to the ground like the rest of his companions, silent and unmoving as a knife embedded itself into his skull.

The attack had made Lucy lose her grip on the branch she had been sitting on and her sense of balance was quickly failing her. Kurogami moved to catch her before her head collided with the ground, throwing his weapons to the side in order to reach her faster. She landed in his arms safely, but that was not what was concerning him at this point in time.

"Gotcha," he said in the most soothing voice he could muster. "Where does it hurt?" The blood was making it very obvious where she had been cut, but the chuunin wanted to be sure that she wasn't about to pass out any time soon. The amount of pain she must be feeling was probably enough to overwhelm her in any given moment.

"Everywhere," Lucy clattered through her teeth, trying her best not to shiver. But the wind was picking up and her body temperature was dropping at an alarming rate. "It's cold."

"Don't panic, I'll get you to the medics as soon as possible," Kurogami said as he picked her up and started sprinting back towards the gates. "Just hang on!"

It wasn't any good, she realized as her vision started blurring from blood loss. There wasn't enough time, and her wound was just too deep. She was going into shock and her hands were already starting to shake. She closed her eyes as one last bitter thought came to mind.

After trying to live a somewhat normal life in the middle of one of the most prominent cities on the continent, Lucy Kuroro was going to die alone in a remote part of the world literally minutes away from the most civilization she had encountered during the last ten or eleven days.

And despite how gently Uchiha Kurogami was trying to move while carrying her, the jostling was causing her more grief than her ankle and stomach combined. However, soon the pain started to fade away as she started to slip into a dangerous state of unconsciousness.

Dammit. Sometimes life just plain sucked.

To Be Continued…

1. Lucy Kuroro (aka Ghost): Original character. More stats will be revealed later.

2. Uchiha Kurogami: Original character. Older brother of Uchiha Mikoto (Sasuke and Itachi's mom).

Ika-chan's Notes:

Original characters only serve to help the story and set up backgrounds for future events. And in case you didn't get the hints, this chapter takes place before any members of the current cast (i.e., Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, etc.) were born. And if any of the Japanese words were unfamiliar, I'd be more than happy to explain in the forums.

Bee-chan's Notes:

I'd like to thank all those who have read our first chapter – especially to those who took time to review. It has been sometime since this was updated, but I'm sure the wait is worth it. Why? Because Ika-chan worked hard on this chappie! So enjoy reading and don't forget to share what you think.

Oh I'll be posting my review responses on the BR forums now that the chapter is posted, so if you're curious enough, go ahead and check them out.

Ikabi

A Writer Wannabee

March 05, 2007