Platinum

Chapter 1: Frogs & Freedom

I always knew that I was different than everyone else around me. I could almost feel the differences between us. The way we held ourselves, the way we moved, even the way we breathed was always different. Maybe that's why I never stayed in one place. Well, that and the fact that I never had to. There was no reason for me to stay in one village and not another, no purpose in me being any where in particular. I have no family, no friends, and no home. I don't even have a name. 

One of my earliest memories is of me starting on the journey I continue on today. I remember being tossed down the stone steps outside of the temple I had called home. The monks who lived there had found me on the verge of death no more than a day old. They had been retrieving water from a nearby stream when they saw what looked like blood in the water just a few yards upstream. I was found wrapped in an old blanket that had gotten stuck on a fallen tree that crossed the stream, soaked to the bone and clinging to life with a ferocity that the monks had never seen in a baby so young. 

I was injured, a deep cut directly above my heart bled wildly and the freezing waters caused hypothermia that almost killed me even a week after they had returned with me to their home and treated my wound. However, they soon realized why I had survived my time in the river. My healing ability was unnatural and it became apparent that I was much tougher than any normal child my age. At first the monks took this as a blessing. They celebrated me and cherished me as if I were a precious holy item sent to them from their god. 

It wasn't long before the seeds of doubt about my identity began though. Soon the monks began to think that maybe I was not a holy child sent to them, but simply a babe that had been orphaned in the horrible war going on around us. My healing ability was suddenly seen as something evil and not a gift from a higher power. My ability to do things that other children could not, such as walking at an extremely early age and learning quicker than any child anyone had ever heard of, soon became something unnatural and eventually lead to them deciding to force me out as soon as they deemed me old enough to survive on my own. I was little more than a toddler when this decision was made. 

Since then, I have wondered from village to village searching for something. At first I wasn't sure what I was looking for but as I grew older I realized that my goal was simple. I wanted to find a reason to stay. I wanted to find a village where I had a reason not to leave anymore, a reason to stop my travels and settle down. But now, I have given up. I have accepted my sentence in life to be without a true home. I am nothing but a traveler with no real purpose and one day I will be gone and no one will even notice. 

Ribbit. Ribbit. Ribbit. 'Stupid frog, I knew I should have eaten that thing for dinner.'I thought to myself as I rubbed my eyes, sitting up from my bed for the night. The frog hopped away happily as I slowly stood up and stretched my aching muscles. Sleeping on the ground never gets easier on the back let me tell you. With a yawn I lazily dusted myself off and picked up my bag that I had been using as a pillow among the large roots of a gigantic tree that I decided to rest at last night. 

The roots at least provided some cover from predators but it's not like anything has ever tried to eat me before. In fact most animals seemed to love me to an almost unnatural degree. I had always known that living creatures favored me but never knew the full extent until I woke up one morning with several fox pups curled up on my chest. I had unknowingly entered their den the night before and instead of attacking the family of foxes simply curled up around me as if I was some sort of space heater. I didn't have any food to offer them but they still allowed me to stroke them before I headed off the next morning. 

This morning unfortunately, all I managed to attract is a bunch of noisy frogs from the pond just through the trees. Ugh. Slinging the straps over my arms I headed off in the direction I had been walking yesterday. I have decided that my next destination will be Konoha. The village hidden in the leaves. I have been to many villages throughout my life, all over the world really but, this will be my first time entering this particular hidden village. Hidden villages are usually either the worst places to be or the best for someone like me. A traveler, who is.....different, if that's what you want to call it. Hopefully this one will be the latter. 

I wasn't too far away when I decided my next target and the only reason I was forced to stop was because it was getting dark and I was afraid arriving in the middle of the night would raise more questions than it will in the morning. At night I might be seen as a criminal or spy but coming during the middle of the morning, I could easily be a simple traveler or even a merchant, despite my lack of goods. This is just another thing I have picked up along the way. 

Another interesting thing about hidden villages is that the people, or should I say ninja, there always seem so suspicious. Hence why I am going out of my way to make sure I draw as little attention to myself as possible. I do not want to fight anyone in the middle of a village surrounded by their comrades, all of whom are trained to kill. I may be a magnificent fighter for someone with no formal training but, even I would be captured before I could make my escape. 

Shaking the negative thoughts out of my head I finally stepped out of the forest and onto the path I had been following for miles. I don't often travel on the actual path, for some odd reason, my ability to connect with nature allows me to move much faster than I would on the ground. I learned a neat trick of jumping from tree to tree when I was only young by watching shinobi from the Village Hidden in the Stone. Now I can move even faster than any shinobi I have ever come across by travelling this way. However, approaching a village full of ninja this way is also on the list of ways to draw attention to yourself. 

The path was wide and well traveled, that much was obvious by how packed down the dirt was on the path by the sheer amount of steps that have been taken on it. This is a good sign for me. A high traffic area means they are more lenient of visitors than some of the other villages I have been too. When the gates came into view it was mid morning, the sun shining high above me and the dew long since dried from its heat. A smile stretched across my face as I gazed up at the clouds above me. Morning is my favorite time of day.

 I snapped out of my trance just in time to stop right before the gates. 'Well Konoha, let's see what you have to offer.'