Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ A Red Rose ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

IMPORATANT NOTE FOR PAST READERS!
A/N (06-27-13): Please see the A/N in the Prologue.

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Unaware of what was looming ahead in the near future, I walked somewhat calmly through the trees that grew thick around the little clearing I had woken up in. Not an easy feat I must tell you. I was actually surprised at how calm I was for someone who had just lost all their memories. Maybe the shock was just waiting to set in until the time when it could do the most damage. Shock seemed to have a way of doing that, I knew. Somehow.

As the sun disappeared behind the trees and the sky grew dim, I realized that I was tired and hungry and that if I didn’t find shelter soon I would be forced to sleep outside on the cold, unforgiving ground with nothing but the clothes on my back. This consisted of a filmy, violet coloured half-length kimono with a sakura blossom pattern. The obi was the same light pink as the blossoms and every time breeze blew cold against my legs I could bitterly tell that they were bare. Luckily, I at least had sandals on rather than being barefoot in the woods. The kimono was beautiful, but definitely not the best choice for camping in.

Folding my arms in their long sleeves in front of me in the hopes of warding off the encroaching cold, I began to search for shelter. At this point, any form of life would have been welcome and I desperately hoped for such an occurrence. The silence was driving me crazy. As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for and I soon knew exactly what that meant.

My wish came true in the form of eight men, all of them were grinning. I was not. I only saw the first one when he stepped out of the trees in front of me and by the time I guessed that his intentions may not be in my favour, I was surrounded. I was surprised at their stealth. I didn’t know why but I felt as though I should have known all along that they were there. With no memories to go on, all I had left were my instincts and I trusted them completely.

They were all wearing the same weird outfit. Their faces were covered with cloth masks (not that I would have known who they were) and they sported headbands with what looked like a music note engraved on the metal part. Around their waists were large purple bows.

The name shinobi appeared in my mind from the darkness of my memories along with an intense and immediate sense of danger.

The men stepped closer, completely enclosing me as I glanced around frantically, looking for a chance to escape. Smirking now, the first man, who appeared to be their leader, spoke.

“Now what would a pretty young thing like you be doing out in the big, bad woods alone at night?”

Quickly thinking it over, I decided that I would take my chances answering him back. Who knew, maybe they just looked creepy and were actually really nice guys.

“Actually,” I began, “in case you haven’t noticed, the sun is still setting so it’s not quite night yet, though I could use your help to get to the nearest village, if you don’t mind.”

The men shared looks that sent foreboding chills down my spine.

“So you’re lost?” the leader asked. In fact, he sounded almost hopeful.

“Uh…” Shit, I thought. What the hell was I going to do now?

“I don’t believe what I am doing here is any of your damn business,” I said defensively.

Unfortunately, the masked man didn’t seem to appreciate the concept of privacy, or personal space, because he scowled and stepped closer.

Oh, shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. As a side note, I discovered that swearing helped to keep me focused.

When I instinctively took a step back from the man’s advance, his smirk returned and I mentally cursed myself for not standing my ground. Seeing as I was outnumbered eight to one with nowhere to retreat to and, as far as I knew, no one nearby, I decided to do what any sane girl would do in a situation like this. I took a deep breath and I screamed.

Apparently, I had a very loud scream for every man covered his ears in an attempt to block it out; that or each of them had very sensitive hearing (how close the guess was to the truth, I would only learn later). I only hoped my scream was loud enough to attract some attention or at least scare them off.

When I stopped for a second to catch my breath, an unfortunate necessity, one of the men to my right lunged at me in an obvious effort to stop me from screaming again. I wasn’t aware of how I did it, but I ended up dodging him and he landed on one of his team mates opposite him.

Seeing this as my chance to escape, I quickly dashed toward the gap the man had left in their once tight circle. As I rushed forward underneath reaching arms, I thought for a moment that I might get free. I realized at that moment that fate has a cruel sense of humour when right after I thought that, I felt someone grab a handful of my waist-length hair which had been flying out behind me as I ran. I yelped in pain as several strands were cruelly ripped from my scalp.

The leader yanked me to the ground by my hair, forcing me to my knees, and whispered harshly in my ear. “You better keep quiet, girl, or I’ll give you to my men and let them have their way with you. They’d enjoy it immensely but I doubt you will.”

I clenched my hands into fists to stop them from shaking in fear. I was scared. Hell, I was terrified. If you were alone in the middle of a forest with eight men who seemed to enjoy making you squirm and absolutely no memories whatsoever, you would be too. But I wasn’t about to let them know that.

“Eight on one is hardly fair. A real man wouldn’t need seven others to help him take down one helpless little girl.”

I mentally congratulated myself when I didn’t make a sound as he viciously yanked my hair back a second time.

“Got some attitude in her, ne?” He chuckled and a few of the men joined in. “Our village could use a girl like you, and by the looks of you, you’ll likely fill out quite nicely in a few years.”

I seriously considered giving in and letting them take me to this village as long as they didn’t try anything. If I got to a village someone might recognize me and tell me who I was. Thankfully, I wasn’t that desperate – yet – so, in an act of pure immaturity, I stuck out my tongue at their leader.

I had expected him to get mad; I had expected him to maybe be offended; anything that might cause him to make a mistake. I did not expect him to burst out laughing. Well, that would work too, I supposed.

“What did I tell you, boys? These Konoha chicks really do have spirit.” Konoha? “Maybe we should teach her some discipline.”

“But Torao-sensei, we have a mission to complete.” Mission? “That mission takes priority over personal…pleasure.” Pleasure! Shit.

The leader, now identified as Torao, snorted at the man to his right who had spoken. “The mission will get done. Besides, I don’t plan on doing anything to her just yet. Give her a few years to fill out before we use her, I say.” He glared around at his men as if daring them to argue.

As this conversation went on, I felt something wet fall on my cheek. Glancing up while trying to remain inconspicuous, I took note of the ominous, dark clouds filling up the sky, darkening it even more then before. I figured now would be as good a time as any to try to escape. Unfortunately, in this thin, unlined, and unnecessarily short kimono, I knew I had no weapons.

Spotting my subtle glance and noticing the rain clouds as well, one of the other men spoke up. “We should find shelter. It’s going to rain.”

Torao looked up as well and grimaced. Obviously, he was disappointed that his fun was going to be ruined. I, on the other hand, was very, very grateful.

“Alright then,” he started, grabbing me by the arm with his free hand and pulling me roughly back into a standing position. “Let’s head back to camp. Raiden, you hide our trail. The rain will wash it away soon enough but we can’t take any chances now that we have a captive.”

The man who had told him about the clouds and impending rain nodded and promptly disappeared into the forest. One less person to escape from. Lucky me.

“I’ll carry the girl.”

“What!” I couldn’t help myself as fear and shock chose this time to finally take over and I began to struggle frantically in his grasp.

“Don’t be afraid, girly,” he said, grinning at me. “We’re not going to hurt you if you co-operate.”

“Oh, that’s very comforting,” I muttered, but I ceased my struggles... for the moment.

Then the rain started. It didn’t start slowly like most storms; it was sudden and it was fierce like the sky had suddenly opened its floodgates directly above us. Torao briefly released my hair as he made to grab me around the waist for a more secure hold.

Using skills I hadn’t known I had, I spun around, kneed him in crotch – hard – and flipped backwards out of his reach when he released my arm as well, in favour of his abused genitals. Obviously shocked, the other men stared at me through the rain as though they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

“Serves you right,” I yelled through the noise of the storm as their leader fell to his knees in pain.

“Is she a kunoichi?” one of the men asked the man beside him. Again the name seemed familiar, but I didn’t have a chance to wonder what he meant when Torao pulled out a sharp, triangular-shaped metal weapon with a handle and ring on the end, and lunged at me in a fit of rage. Somehow, I knew that the weapon was a kunai. I dodged quickly enough to avoid a normal blow but I hadn’t taken into account that he was quick too.

The weapon sliced through the kimono and the side of my left arm before I had a chance to dodge it again. It felt like a line of fire along my arm. I didn’t look but I knew from the warm gush that my blood was flowing freely to the wet ground, mixing with the rainwater. The pain was intense. I forced myself to ignore it, to block the pain from my mind so I wouldn’t be distracted. Mostly I kept myself from even briefly glancing at the wound. Something inside me told me that that would be a bad idea.

I watched in horror as Torao lunged again. I didn’t know what skills I had, much less how to use them; I had been working on instinct alone before. Luckily, none of the other men moved to join their leader but neither did they try to stop him.

I froze. There was no way to dodge with opponents on all sides and no way to stop him with abilities I didn’t know if I had, so I did the only thing I could think of. I screwed my eyes shut, threw my arms out in front of me defensively, and willed a miracle to occur.

The effects were immediate. A burning light lit up the tiny part of the forest in which we were situated. Of course, I had my eyes closed the whole time so I only saw the glow of it from behind the thin membrane of my eyelids and not the colour of the light itself. All the same, it appeared intensely bright and seemed to originate from directly in front of me, my hands, to be exact.

Simultaneously, it felt as though there was something flowing through me and out my hands, leaving a tingling feeling in its wake. It was strange and familiar at the same time, as though it was a part of me long forgotten or lying dormant inside me. I could feel the path it made from the point where my heart would be, through my chest on both sides, down my arms, and into my hands. Where this strange feeling went after that, I had no idea.

I felt it die down on its own after a few seconds and hesitantly opened my eyes when the strange light faded away as well. Upon doing so, they immediately widened in surprise and disbelief.

Starting about a foot from my feet and ending about thirty feet away was a path of destruction. It looked as though a mini-tornado had struck right there, travelled thirty feet, and then disappeared. Any trees along the path were up rooted and lying haphazardly around the newly formed clearing along with sticks, branches, rocks, and anything else that happened to be in the way – including the men.

They were moving, so they weren’t dead and I wasn’t going give them a chance to recover as I about-faced and bolted in the opposite direction. Running as though my life depended on it – which it probably did – I dodged trees and branches that tore my now soaked and ragged-looking kimono and left scratches and cuts all over my quite exposed skin. I didn’t stop for a good fifteen minutes until I was forced to due to lack of oxygen.

Completely exhausted and feeling suddenly drained of most of my energy, I collapsed onto the ground taking gasping breaths as I tried to re-inflate my burning lungs. It was then that I finally broke down. Heaving sobs wrenched themselves from my body as I shuddered in the rain and the cold.

It hit me like a wave, tossing me around and ultimately drowning me. I was alone. Completely, totally, and utterly alone. I didn’t know anything. I couldn’t remember anything and I was alone in a world that seemed so alien to me. Curling up into myself I continued to cry until my exhaustion finally overcame me and I slipped into blessed unconsciousness.

----____----____----

Scared. Alone. Frightened.

“Mommy?”

I walked down the dark halls of the complex, glancing in every room I passed. There were windows but they were shuttered against any light the moon and stars may have offered. So I continued in the dark, the desperation not allowing me to stop and light one of the torches lining the walls, the way I had seen Mommy do every night.

“Mommy, where are you?”

Fear made my young, high voice thicken and crack. Tears, unshed, welled up in my eyes. Misery would be plain on my face, the face of a very young, little girl, as I reached the end of the hallway.

“Mommy!”

The patter of my bare little feet on the wooden floor increased as I darted towards the last room. A tiny gasp was wrenched from my mouth as I threw the doors open and beheld what was inside.

----____----____----

I sat up, gasping for air. Freezing rain poured down my face. It was numbing – the cold and the rain. I lifted my face to it as I recalled what I had been dreaming and realized that hot tears were running down my cheeks as well, melding with the rain. The little girl, she was me, yet was strangely different. I could see what she saw, feel what she felt, yet I was not a part of what was happening and I had no control over it, and, for some reason, that scared me.

Could it have been a memory? Was it just a dream or something more? I didn’t know what to think. The cold had numbed my body while I slept but now I could feel the stiffness returning – and the dream slipping away.

I desperately tried to grasp the dream and pull it back to the front of my mind before it could fall into the black abyss that was my memories.

A young girl. Me?

Scared.

Searching.

Mother.

Running.

Doors.

Emptiness.

There had been nothing behind that door. It had been empty of people and furniture. It had looked as though the people who had been living there had suddenly packed up every belonging and left. It was devoid of life – of hope.

It had been frightening. Even more than the dark or the searching had been. Those were things I could deal with. But, the girl had felt like I did now. Abandoned.

Dragging myself out of those depressing thoughts, I tried to lift my head, which felt like a twenty pound brick, to get a notion as to where I had gotten to this time. It wouldn’t do to fall back down into anguish and dwelling on that dream wasn’t going to help. I filed what I remembered away for later perusal.

Not able to see much but grass and dirt from my position on the ground, I forced my still drained body to push itself off the sodden soil. The first time I tried, my hands slipped and I ended up with a face full of mud. The second time I managed to get up onto my elbows.

The cut on my arm gave a spasm of agony which nearly brought me back down. I had forgotten about the cut. I moved my head to access the damage, but once again, that nagging feeling stopped me. For now, I would ignore it. As much as I could ignore gut-wrenching pain shooting up my arm anyway.

From my new vantage point, I could see that I had ended up in another little clearing. I couldn’t see very far into the dense forest but I could hear sounds not far away – voices. From the sound of it there were quite a few but they were not quite close enough to discern exactly how many. The sky was black with the cover of night and the receding storm clouds added a greyish tinge from the moon.

Afraid that it was the men from before, if they had managed to survive, I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t about to fall into another trap that could very well get me killed. Thinking back – was it really only a few hours? – I tried to remember what had happened, but it all seemed so fuzzy. The only thing I could remember with any clarity was the feeling that had come with the light.

It had been strange – a mixture of warmth and comfort but with an underlying feeling of power. It had felt… natural, as though it had been a part of me my entire life. Maybe it had? There was no way I would be able to know until I got my memories back, if I ever did... No, I couldn’t think like that. I had to keep hoping so I wouldn’t break under the paralyzing despair that threatened to overwhelm me every second I was alone with nowhere to go and no one to turn to.

I forcibly turned my attention back to the world around me. The voices had stopped and the silence pressed down on me like a weight. Despite the incident that had happened before, I couldn’t help wondering if the people I had heard could have helped me. The despair began creeping into my heart once again as I lay shivering in the rain. Had I been shivering this entire time? It was hard to concentrate. I must have been more tired than I had thought. The twigs and stones were digging into my arms and my shoulders were aching from the strain of holding up my body for so long. My stomach growled at me, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten since who knew how long. My arm – no, I wouldn’t even think about it.

A barely perceptible rustle to my left drew my gaze to the tree line once again. I wasn’t about to let anything sneak up on me this time. Tying to sharpen my focus, I fixed a hard gaze in the general direction of the sound. The more I tried to concentrate the more I realized that I could feel something, sense something.

A presence. Some king of energy.

It was strong: a kind of cold, merciless strong. It was the kind of strong that didn’t hesitate before stopping your heart cold. I shivered in sudden fear. I didn’t know how I could feel that someone was there or even if I should trust this instinct but I had no other choice, nothing else to rely on, and I had trusted them before with somewhat beneficial results. I waited with bated breath for the person to reveal him- or herself. Please let it be a her, I silently begged. No more men, please.

The minutes passed slowly, achingly slowly, and the pain in my arm only intensified as the time went by. The stranger still hadn’t moved. Neither had I. Eventually, after what I assumed was a good ten minutes, my eyelids became heavier and heavier until it was too much of an effort to hold them up any longer. My head nodded toward the ground. The pain was becoming too much to handle and it was trying to force me into unconsciousness. My total exhaustion wasn’t helping any either.

Trying to keep myself awake, I mumbled under my breath, “This is getting ridiculous.”

“Indeed.”

Startled, I jumped, exhaustion temporarily vanishing in a surge of adrenaline. My eyes locked onto a figure barely visible through the trees. I couldn’t see any details because of the dark shadows surrounding the stranger, but the person’s voice was clearly masculine, and thankfully, unfamiliar. Another man I didn’t know. Joy.

“What do you want?” Better to find out now then later, I thought. Maybe I would actually have a chance. A part of me argued that I could barely stand up, let alone run away.

“I should ask you the same thing,” the stranger said, not moving an inch.

“Then why don’t you.” Sarcasm leaked into my voice. I couldn’t help it. The superiority in that voice just called me to contradict it.

“You’re not exactly in a position to be acting tough.” His voice was mocking and slightly amused. I didn’t know then that I would come to cherish that tone of amusement and how rare it was. At the time, all I could think about was getting out of that mess and finding out who I was.

“Really?” I replied unthinkingly. “Because, frankly, I couldn’t care less what position I’m in. I’m not going to let some fucking stranger walk all over me and I sure as hell am not going to bow down and accept my fate when I don’t even know who or where I am!”

That seemed to shake him up, at least as much as possible with his distant attitude. I couldn’t see his face of course but the silence that came after my announcement was proof enough, as was his reply.

“You don’t know who you are?” he asked, demonstrating a sudden curiosity that hadn’t been there before.

“I have no idea,” I confirmed. “I can’t remember anything before a few hours ago.” Why was I spilling my guts to a complete stranger? Maybe it was because I was growing desperate and was ready to cling to any hope of regaining my past. Maybe it was because he hadn’t made a threatening move toward me so far that I felt like I could open up to him, given the circumstances.

The silence came again, but I wasn’t going anywhere. Not for a while, anyway.

“So, you don’t know anything about where you came from or where your loyalties lie?”

Loyalties?

“Like I said, I don’t remember anything.” The dream surfaced in my mind but I quickly shoved it back down. I couldn’t let anything distract me if I had a chance to get to civilization. Besides, I couldn’t really call that remembering, per se; it could have been just a figment of an overactive imagination resulting from exhaustion and mental instability. Maybe I was simply losing it, falling into the realm of insanity.

The stranger spoke again, “Do you recognize the name Konoha?”

Konoha again?

“Um, no, not personally, but I heard some men mention it…” I trailed off, unsure of what to say. How about, ‘Oh, yeah, they mentioned it, and then they were blasted away by some freaky light that I know nothing about even though I think it came out of me’? Yep, that would go over well.

“Who?” the stranger demanded. Why did he make it sound like an urgent matter? Was it important?

“I don’t know who!” I responded angrily. Hadn’t I just said that I had lost my memories? I suddenly felt the exhaustion come back in a rush. “Look, these guys just suddenly appeared around me and attacked me. While I was being held captive,” I stressed, “their leader ended up mentioning Konoha. One of them also mentioned something about a mission that they had to do, but that guy in charge… he wanted to take me back to wherever they came from first.” I winced. The memory wasn’t exactly a pleasant one even though it had ended better than it could have.

Another short silence greeted my explanation.

“Did they say anything else about the mission?” the stranger asked.

I groaned in frustration as I rested my forehead against the ground and closed my eyes. “I’m not answering another question until you come out of those trees and prove you’re not going to try to take advantage of me too. I’ve had just about enough of that for one night, thank you very much.”

Another silent pause. Well, that was growing frustrating.

I waited and listened for another few moments before he moved.  I didn’t hear him; he was completely silent and I wouldn’t have known that he had moved at all if I hadn’t sensed him. I tensed reflexively. I didn’t know what to expect and I was sick and tired of being scared. Summoning what little strength I had left, I lifted my head to look at the mysterious man who had stumbled upon me in this pitiful state.

The first thing I noticed was that he wasn’t a man as I had first assumed. He was a boy, a startlingly handsome boy. If I had to guess, I would have said that he was the same age as me or close to. The second thing I noticed was the colour of his eyes. They were a deep charcoal black that seemed to draw my own eyes toward them instinctively. They were mesmerizing, and they were blank.

He was standing about a foot away from the edge of the forest, and by the way he held himself, I could tell that he wouldn’t back down easily if it came to a fight. Those black, emotionless eyes stared straight into mine and I could only stare openly back. He was devilishly handsome, dark and mysterious with an aura of hidden secrets.

He had long, black hair that was tied back at the nape of his neck with loose strands falling down at the sides of his face. His face was purely aristocratic and he had slight shadows running along his cheekbones from his eyes that accentuated it. Oh, and his eyes – did I mention his eyes? They were slanted at just the right angle to make him look dangerously sexy and completely masculine at the same time. I was lucky I didn’t start drooling right then and there. Damn, I was ogling, wasn’t I?

“First, I’m not about to prove anything because I cannot trust you,” he said.

I started at his words and at first I didn’t grasp the meaning. “What—”

“Second, you will come with me.” His eyes narrowed into a chilling glare. “That is an order.”

My jaw dropped. Then I got over my shock and quickly closed it again. My eyes narrowed and I opened my mouth to tell him just what I thought of his orders and where he could shove them, when three more people appeared beside him, two on his left and one on his right. These were men.

Frantically, I attempted to force myself to stand despite the protests of my aching body. When I nearly fell back over, I settled for simply kneeling on the ground. By this time, the rain that had been pouring down steadily had lessened to a light drizzle. I was already soaked, but at least the softer rain would not impede my sight and hearing as much as the downpour had. So, with my knees half sunk into mud, I faced the new arrivals.

“Is this the one who caused all that damage back there?” the farthest one on the left, his face hidden behind a porcelain mask, asked as he stepped forward, still slightly behind the boy who had found me.

He was dressed the same as the boy with a black shirt under a gray vest and a sword strapped to his back. He also wore arm and leg guards, as did the rest of them. They also had the same headband. I hadn’t noticed that before as preoccupied as I had been with the boy’s face. The marks on the headbands were different from the men I had come across earlier but it was still the same style and that gave me enough reason to become wary.

“Damage?” I questioned.

“Yeah,” the one on the right spoke up. I could just tell he was smirking behind his mask. “Someone blasted their way through some Sound Shinobi and wiped out everything else around in the process.”

“Must have been one hell of a fight,” the final man commented. Well, obviously they weren’t friends with the men from before – a small relief.

“Oh,” I smiled weakly. “You mean that.” There was no point in denying it. I only hoped it would make them cautious enough to leave me alone if they knew what I could do; I had already noticed that they were still keeping their distance.

They all turned to look at me again when I responded – except the boy, of course. He had never looked away. Obviously, they wanted an explanation.

“Yeah, well… It was kind of an accident. I didn’t do it on purpose. It just… happened.” If exhaustion hadn’t been preventing me from moving my shoulders, I would have shrugged.

“Care to expand on that,” the boy, who was obviously younger than the rest of them by far, intoned. I desperately wanted to cross my arms in defiance at this point.

“Like I said, I’m not saying anything until I get some answers myself.” I was not budging on this. No more information freebies.

Our eyes locked once again but this time I was a little more prepared. Even so, I could still feel the intensity of his gaze. The man on the right sighed and put his hand on the younger one’s shoulder.

“We should bring her back to Konoha, what do you say?”

“Konoha this, Konoha that. What the hell is this Konoha anyways?” I fumed. I was tired and cold, and all I wanted was some answers and understanding.

They all looked at me like I was insane – except the boy with the cold, dark eyes.

I opened my mouth to try and explain when a certain someone beat me to it.

“She lost her memories. She says she can’t remember anything before a few hours ago.”

The glare that I sent the boy should have had him backing away in fear, yet he didn’t even seem fazed.

“She’s weak, or at least untrained. She’s not a threat.”

That’s it! I fiercely pushed myself off the ground, onto my feet-

“Now, hold on a-”

-and promptly fell flat on my back.

“Ow…” I moaned, rolling over onto the side with my uninjured arm, which I still was instinctively avoiding. “When will this day end?”

“Soon,” the boy said, his voice barely audible.

I mistakenly looked up at the sound of that voice, and saw only red and swirling black before unconsciousness took me.