i just want to be happy | NARUTO |

Under the Clouds

"Hey, Noiz."

The intense pressure pushed against my chest, a feeling of uncertain direction surrounding me that only a dream could have. Flashing lights turned on and off in front of my face, my body was thrown to tumble over and under itself.

"What?"

Rushing air blasted against my hair, a numb feeling erupting on my forehead as a feather-like object repeatedly whipped random spots on my face. My body's bones creaked as a small pop in my neck shot a bolt of pain soaring up to my unconscious mind.

My closed eyes twitched in pain.

"What if I told you that I could change our boring life into an adventure"

Opening my eyes proved too difficult against the current of force and left me frantically trying to swim against the pressure. Arms flailing. Whistling in my ears. No sense of direction hurdled into my subconscious and slurry panic settled into me, but also that dream-like displacement.

My eyes had only just pried themselves open as another sharp pop erupted from my leg, caused by the entanglement of limbs and senseless positions that I couldn't even begin to think of how it looked. The pain sent my spasming body onto my back and a pained whine slipped out of my numbed mouth, too much going on to feel the painfully, but even my words were whisked away from me. Taken up by the force of pressure and leaving me soundless.

Heart beating in my ears so loud I'd thought the organ had slipped up into my head, I pried my eyes open. Not to look at what was happening, but out of pure, frightened, survival instincts. Yet I was forced to squint just as fast as the Sun's rays slashed into my vision and my pained gasp was silenced by the wind.

But the sight was enough to get me to look again.

"You know I don't have time for adventures... Why can't we ever just play in the garden?"

The sky seemed to be all around me and there weren't any clouds around. Just the ones far off in the distance that cradled the earth like a ring.

But everything was so bright.

I wasn't strong enough to shield my eyes from the sun, the wind pushing it up and keeping it about above me. The world spun around me and I spun with it in somersaults. My breath came out rushed and uneven, but I still couldn't hear it. 'T-this has to be a dream!'

"Why then you're in luck! We're still going to the garden!" A memory of a cheekily smiling girl with strange white and black parted hair stood confidently in front of her friend.

"What? How's that an adventure? We go there almost every month." Her companion, a boy with light, curly, blond hair argued.

"Tsk tsk, now Noiz, my friend... I never said we'd be going JUST going to the garden..."

A blurry object rammed into my body, making me turn and spring into the opposite direction of the force. Eyes already watering from the air pressure, they surprisingly were able to widen as the blurry object turned into a familiar face.

Naomi.

Naomi was falling just as I was, but her back was to the ground and she wasn't twirling around; her unconscious face seemed almost too peaceful as we both fell to our death. I was surprised that I wasn't on fire falling at this speed and this far up, but why couldn't I see any land? Were we that far up?

No, my eyes were deceiving me, there was land - and not too far at that. Were we to die in such a horrible way?

I don't even remember how we got here! Was it the rush of air and the feeling of certain death preventing me of my memory?