夢

Chapter Forty-Three

There was a boy. He had dark hair and dark eyes and a soft face. He looked mellow, but had a calming aura around him.

Up until she met him.

The day she met him, she had been in the orphanage for a year or so. She had become friends with this blue-haired beauty, where they both pranked and set up traps for laughs. Before being approved to learn at the Academy, they went to the library and read books. They learned the basics of being a genin, about ninjutsu and weapons.

However, a few months after meeting, the blue-haired girl had been adopted. They still read at libraries and studied genjutsu and experimented with traps; however, at the end of the day, they separated ways.

That day, she was going back to the orphanage from the library. A soft smile was on her face as she walked, reminiscing what she and Mireya had read together.

Then she met him. He was waiting by the trees, in the forest that was adjacent to the street. He stepped out, blocking her path.

"Excuse me, I just need to--"

"Do you remember them?" He suddenly asked, a threateningly blank gaze aimed at her. He didn't look angry, but he just looked...mocking.

"What?"

"Your parents. Do you remember them?" That prodded deep inside her.

"What are you talking about--"

"If you miss them, don't. There's a reason they gave you away."

And he was gone, leaving her in tears.

...---...

The boy was gone after that encounter. Not too long after that, Danzo's men raided the orphanage, and just like that, daily meetings at the library were gone. As the years passed, she forgot her original name, her friend, and that boy altogether.

She never became a genin, but, in other terms, she did learn to be more than one.

Danzo forced upon her, as well as other poor kids, the weapons she once curiously studied, the armor she once fawned over, and the life she once thought was amazing.

Helping people, isn't that cool?

But in this kind of way, where you kill to save lives, imprison to grant freedom, and threaten to establish a form of safety, was it really that cool?

She was granted a life of no identities, no names, and no personalities. She forgot her past more and more, as the time passed.

That was, until she met him again.

...---...

"It's you again," she commented as she jumped down from the tree. This was before Danzo kept her on a leash, so she roamed out after curfew time. "Who are you?"

"I think it's obvious." Of course she knew, nearly the entire village knew about him.

"But I want to know who you are to me. Why you talked to me about that. And why you're here." She explained, jumping down from the tree.

"I'm here to declare something." He said as he walked closer, taking out a photo from his pocket. A young couple, both with raven hair and onyx eyes. And bright, light smiles on their faces. "These are not your parents. They're mine."

"I don't care," She whispered, swiping the photo from his hands, letting it flutter to the floor. He picked it up and stashed it in his pocket, before crossing his arms. "Leave me alone."