I immediately shot up when my ears heard the gurgles of a flowing river. I had slept through the night and who knows how many has it been. I did have fuzzy memories about it. I looked around and noticed that I was in a forest and by a river. The feeling was familiar yet different. Thus, I deduced that I must have been in another country. That strikes me as odd because we were doing something that endangered us and then I remembered. My sister had sacrificed herself to buy us time to evade my father"s army.

I began to fully recall bits and pieces that had happened a few nights ago. We were running from Chichi-ue"s Army when she had decidedly stayed behind to stall him any way she can. She died from being shot by countless arrows that were triggered by an accidental shot. She died because of us--she died because of me. If I hadn"t stop Mother from killing that vile man, Aino Ane-san would be alive right now. Tears started to well up to my cheeks.
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"I am weak and unworthy of life if I let my sister died that way," I thought as I sobbed helplessly.

The tears were falling too fast for me to handle. This pain was never that I could endure. I remembered that my mother had to send me here, that I was in danger. She shouldn"t have done that, I could"ve helped her back then. My hand went to my thigh to involuntarily scratch it but I was stopped by the immense pain from the said spot. I looked down to find that my thigh was caked in blood, fresh and dried, from it, I knew now that I had hurt myself again, subconsciously. But I knew eventually, I understood that Hahue would never let me sullied my hands with blood. She loved me too much. I hated that she sent me here to this, world, but I decisively accepted her reasons. I was still sobbing when a strange man spoke to me.

"Hey, kid? Why are you crying?" The man asked. I rubbed my eyes to see him. He had grey hair but he looked young; he wore a dark blue mask covering his nose and mouth while another dark blue cloth with a symbol resembled a primordial leaf on it was covering his left eye. His lone eye was kind, compa.s.sionate and sad as he took on my face.

"Mother... sent... me away," I said while sobbing. The man"s eye closed as he presumably smiled and rustled my hair.

"Maaa, did you do something bad? Hyuugas had never sent one of their own away," The man asked.


"I hoped not," I sniffed, "What"s a Hyuuga?"

The man"s eyebrow was raised.

"Hyuuga is one of the most prominent Clan in Konoha who are predominantly Byakugan wielders. You have their eyes," he said.

"Wait a minute, there are other peoples with Byakugan?!" I thought.

"What"s a Konoha?" I continued to say after I sniffed my snot. The man let out a nervous laugh and sweat could be seen dripping from his forehead.

"You"re not from around here, are you?" He asked. I managed to shake my head.

"Konoha is my village and it"s nearby. Would you like to come and visit?" he continued.

I had considered the facts--I have no place to go and no means to travel back to my mother. Plus, alone in a forest that I do not know about, I couldn"t last a week here, let alone finding a way out of here on my own. I have no other choice but to follow this man. I wiped my tears and sniffed deeply and then I bowed towards the man.

"Thank you for your kindness, Oni-san. If you wouldn"t mind, I would like to accept your invitation. I am forever in your grat.i.tude," I politely said after I stand up. The man rustled with my hair again.

"You should go down there and wash your face," the man reached for something from his jacket and tossed it to me, "wrap this over your wound. You sure are too polite like them."

I nodded and ran towards the river. I was nearly tripped into the water but I quickly caught myself. I kneeled and saw my reflection as I took off my robe and dust it off. Grimacing, I bitterly noted that I was indeed caked in filth, Hahue and Ane-san would scold me for this. I felt a tang of pain every time I thought about them. Perhaps, I should forget about them for a little while. I shook my head and I splashed the water on my face. I took a deep breath and drank some of the water with my hands. I was drying off my face when I saw my reflection. There was a vertical line at the center of my forehead. My hands instinctively went to touch it. It"s a slit.

"This must be the Rinne-Sharingan that Mother had told me. I wonder if I could open them," I thought as I tried to consciously open the eye but nothing happened, "then it must be chakra activated."

I closed my eyes and focused my chakra towards my forehead and the slit opened slowly revealing the Rinne-Sharingan; red-eye with 9 tomoe, three of those are in three sets of rings...o...b..ting the pupil. I couldn"t believe my eyes. I wondered idly what this eye could do. A question that was answered almost immediately as my Byakugan saw the man staring at me from behind, quite a distance away if I remembered. The eye enhances my Byakugan"s effectiveness. It was obvious to me that thousands of thoughts had run through the man"s only questioning eye. I could see it in my eyes. He let out a huff of breath and called for me.

"Hey, kid? Are you done?" The man asked. I turned off the Rinne-Sharingan and prepared myself for the aftermath. This sort of moment would predictably meant that I will have to deal with his questions. I unraveled the bandage that he gave me and wrapped it around my left thigh in which my blood could be seen seeping through it a bit. Satisfied with my handiwork, I reached for my robe and wore it.

"Yes," I said loudly before I climbed up the river bank afterward. After I reached the top, I saw that he was looking at something orange in color in the right hand. His eyes moved intently suggesting he was reading it.

"Yosh! Let"s go," the man said nonchalantly. Thus began my journey towards this village called Konoha.

We were about half an hour in our walk when I started noticing that he was a quiet person. This struck me as peculiar as he should have been asking me thousands of things right now.

"Why are you not say anything about the eye? I know that you saw it," I asked politely.

"If I ask you, you wouldn"t have an answer about it, right? I figured so when I saw you looking interestedly at it. You are as much as clueless as me. Although, I know someone who might tell us about it if you are that much curious as me," he said without lifting his eyes from what he was reading.

"You"re right," I simply said. Then I thought that the man seemed trustworthy enough and that I should perhaps accept another of his offer.

"I didn"t get your name, who are you?" He asked.

"My name is Otsutsuki Hikari. It"s a pleasure to meet you," I answered. I could say that my name got his interest.

"Otsutsuki... haven"t heard that in a long time." He muttered under his breath. That piqued my interest.

"There is an Otsutsuki here?" I was elated because whoever they are, they could be related to Mother and they could send me back to her.

"Otsutsuki is the family name of the founder of ninjutsu thousands of years ago," The man said. My face fell at this news. There could be no way for him to be alive. I was then sure of the reality that I will be stuck here forever.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi, by the way," the man said as he smiled, "you can call me Kakashi."

"Thank you for saving me back there, Kakashi-san," I said politely, "anyway, what is ninjutsu?"

"You"re kidding me, right? Ninjutsu is a technique used by ninja by molding their chakra and mental energy to form an ability used to defend themselves. You should at least know some if you knew how to channel chakra to a specific part of your body," Kakashi explained. This had narrowed my eyes, I knew about this--mother used to teach me about it.

"Oh, you must be talking about ninshu. So, everybody here could use chakra?" I asked.

"Ninshu is a really old word for ninjutsu. Thus, a family as old as yours would refer to it as such. Yes, every living thing has and can use chakra," He answered. He was partially correct--humans didn"t have enough chakra for them to notice, so the G.o.d Tree had pa.s.sed through their notice as some weird tree that grows enormously. People were afraid to go there, they were saying that the tree is evil or some sort. When my mother first landed on the planet to guard it against those people, she was surprised to found out that the tree was, for the most part, untouched apart from the piles of rotting offerings around the big tree. She became immensely fascinated by them, the only group of mortals that weren"t even aware of chakra let alone use it.

"The people here know how to use chakra. This could be a problem--Mother told me that those who wield the power of chakra would always thirst for more. I must hide this eye," I silently deduced.

"Do you have another cloth like the one you cover your eye? I need to hide that. I trust that it would draw too much attention," I asked. He stopped walking and rummaged through his bag.

"We ninja don"t usually have extra forehead protector but I think this should do the trick," Kakashi handed me a black cloth. I thanked him as took it from his hand. He continued walking with me close behind tying the "hitai-ite" as he called it, around my forehead.

"What is a ninja then?" I continued. He sighed.

"Now that is a d.a.m.n proper question to ask," Kakashi answered while looking at the sky. He looked a few years older when he said it. I must have triggered some bad memories and I instantly felt bad about it.

"Pardon my questions. This place is a stranger to me. I didn"t mean to hurt your feelings," I said. Kakashi laughed and turn his head to look at me.

"No, it"s okay. It"s only normal. The wording you are using, I feel like I was talking to an old person," he jokingly said. He suddenly stopped and made some hand signs after he bit his thumb. When he touches the ground a puff of smoke appeared. When the smoke cleared, there was a pair of dogs appeared--a sleek silver one and a small brown one that was sitting on top of the previous"s head.

"Pakkun, could you run ahead to the village towards the Hokage Tower. I request an audience with Sandaime and Hiashi-sama," Kakashi said to the dog. The brown dog said okay and they immediately sprinted ahead of us.

"A summoning technique? My mother never taught me this Ninshu. It"s the first time I"m seeing it," I said in awe, "so you need to do some hand signs to mold chakra."

"Not every time, only the ones that require more precise chakra amount and control. There is a place that teaches young kids such as you to use ninjutsu. If you choose to stay at Konoha, you could enter it," Kakashi explained. I didn"t answer that at the time. I was considering going but I didn"t know if I would stay there or not. We continued walking in silence towards this Konoha place that he said. Kakashi was reading the thing all the way.

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