A/N: Here you go! Chapter 1! Hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: Aki - Hikari doesn't own Naruto and its characters. 'Nuff said.

Chapter 1: Haze

Purple orbs shot open, blinking in an attempt for vision to clear. Only there was no sunlight, just an uneasy twilight.

"Where...am I?" A murmured question, unanswered.

Slowly, the owner of those amethyst eyes slowly, painfully sat up. Presently, her eyesight adjusted to the gloom, and she glanced around. She was in a room whose walls were stone, along the walls were several large transparent cases, each one filled with an eerie, greenish liquid. She glanced behind her. There, propped up against the wall, was a similar transparent case which must have held liquid, but the glass was broken now, and shards of it littered the floor around her. She glanced down at herself and saw that her clothes were rather damp. Slowly she realized that she was the one who had broken the glass. But why? She glanced around once more.

Here and there, bodies, some mangled beyond recognition, lay on the cold stone floor. Amethyst eyes widened in shock. "They're...they're dead...?"

Confusion.

"But...why aren't I dead?"

"Onee-chan!"

Startled, the girl turned around. But there was no one there.

Who-?

Then she remembered the 'dream'...I'm hearing things now...they aren't anywhere near here... She sighed. If only the voices would stop. The girl glanced down at her lap. And gasped again.

Why...

Her hands...covered with blood. And in front of her...several bloody kunai engraved with what she recognized as her family's crest.

"No..." Horror, shock, denial, swelling up in her, in her heart, her mind. "This is...this is just a dream. It has to be!" She didn't kill anyone!

...did she?

Quickly, she got to her feet, made her way over to the door at the far end, staggering every now and then. Please...that door has to be open. She was frantic now, overwhelmed by the thoughts nagging at the back of her mind.

I killed...I killed them! So many...There are so many of them...so much blood...and I killed them...I'm alive...but I killed them!

She tried to ignore it, but somehow knew it was the truth. And it was this that brought her to her current decision.

Get out! Have to...get out of here! I don't care where 'here' is; I have to leave this place, get away...before someone comes after me...I have to...I have to...run...

At length she reached the gigantic door. Summoning all of her strength, she pushed and shoved, willing it to move, to budge. Finally, as though a giant hand had appeared out of nowhere and pounded on it, the door gave way. The girl, raven hair flying, tumbled to the dusty ground under her own momentum. She picked herself up quickly enough, strength returning to her legs, just enough for her to run, as she so wished.

A few moments later, she glanced back at where she had just escaped from. The house - was it even a house? - looked to have around three levels, and she had come from the lowest one. She shivered. Even from outside it gave her the chills, and it wasn't just where the house was standing. Yes, its surroundings were rather scary - old, gnarled trees with twisted boughs that looked like withered hands with vines hanging off them, tendrils so dark they looked like slowly coagulating blood dripping out of a corpse - it was the house itself. Gray walls, darkened windows, and the knowledge of what lay inside - at least, inside the room she had come from - combined to give off an aura of foreboding, as if the house were some slumbering creature of darkness that would awake at any moment.

She shuddered and turned away, never stopping. Onwards she ran, into the beautiful, majestic sunset. So she was heading west. She grinned. I'm going the right way...

I have to get back now... she thought, the grin turning into a smile, one that was a mixture of determination and sadness. They're probably worried about me...

Hatake Kakashi glanced up, shielding his one eye from the harsh sunlight with his hand, smiling behind his mask. This day was turning out to be good one, he decided. Perfect for a training session with his former students.

All three of them - Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto - had reached the age of sixteen and no longer in need of a mentor, but Kakashi had become quite fond of them through the years, and treasured the times when they would train together, just as they had when they first became a team. Frankly, he missed those days, but did not allow himself to dwell on them.

He reached one hand into a pocket of his jacket and brought out his favorite book. He would read on the way to the training grounds. But no sooner had he turned the pages than a sudden sound broke the silence.

"Kakashi!"

The silver-haired jounin snapped the book shut and shoved it back into the pocket before going over to Naruto - the one who had called his attention.

"What is it, Naruto?" he asked.

Instead of replying, the blonde ninja raised an arm, pointing towards something amongst the bushes in the Forest of Death.

Kakashi squinted, trying to decipher the form through the dappled sunlight. His single visible eye widened, and he darted through the trees towards the prone figure Naruto had pointed out.

Sakura and Sasuke noticed that Kakashi and Naruto had fallen behind, and the two came over, curiousity aroused. "What's happening?" Sakura asked, glancing up at the now-taller Naruto. She was often pleased to see this, because when they had first come together as a team, the blonde had been shorter than Sakura by one inch!

"I saw something in the forest, and I think Kakashi's gone to take a closer look..." the blue-eyed Chuunin replied.

"Was it...a person? A ninja from Konoha or the the neighboring villages?"

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know. But Kakashi certainly seems to think so..."

A few minutes later, Kakashi came back through the trees. On his back, he was carrying the 'something' Naruto had spotted in the forest. True enough, it was a person, a girl with pale skin and jet-black hair. None of them could see her face for it was buried in the fabric of Kakashi's jacket. Apparently, she was unconscious.

"C'mon, you three, let's go back. This girl needs tending to." Kakashi instructed, his voice soft.

"Right."

Silent, the foursome turned around, heading back towards the gates of Konohagakure.

A/N: Aaargh! It's so friggin' short! (performs a deep bow) I'm sorry, everyone. It's just that when I was typing this, that last part seemed a good place to end it... Gomen...

Anyway, please let me know what you think and if you want me to continue this fic. Arigatou!

Dewa mata! Peace out and God bless!