The Lost Shinobi

I Was Nobody Before

Akiko was seven years old, she knew that for sure. She could still feel the shards of glass still stuck in her skin. She tried desperately to get the feeling out of her mind. Before Naruto had become her friend, Akiko had lived on the streets. She remembered quite a lot of memories. The feeling of the rocks sticking and blistering her feet. 

She could sense the looks of hatred that were sent in her direction. She remembered Kakashi. His face back then was etched in her mind. The way he ignored her the first time they met. She had pleaded for help from him, but he turned away and left her in the shadows of hate. So, she trudged on, receiving hateful stares, hurtful whispers, and most viciously, the abuse. Had her father been there, she wished for that every day, just to come take her home, to Haku, to the Mist, anywhere. 

She knew deep inside, that Zabuza had some connection to her. She had called him "Father" or "Dad" in many occasions. After she had dealt with the beatings, she would go into the forest and cry. Nobody knew that, because nobody bothered to care. She would yell at nobody, shouting and asking "Why me!?" "What did I do!?" "Why did you leave me!?" The last one was meant for Zabuza to hear. After a couple more shouts, her own realization hit her. She ran away, Zabuza never left her anywhere. 

Her crying left her tired, especially after shouting in thin air. Trying to defeat her own tired self, she ran, or tried to with her own blistered and tattered feet, to a training field. She had seen many people, some kids she was guessing, train there. She managed to wobble her way, but halfway there, her feet gave up on her and she fell. She got back up, her feet bleeding, and continued on. She saw two very drunk men walking her way, and she froze. 

"Hey, look, it's a girl," one of the guys said. "She's pretty," another said. Akiko had known that when men talked like that, the outcome was never good. Slowly she backed up, and the man yelled at her, "Hey! Stay right there!" She didn't obey what he said and the man pulled out a knife. Now she was really scared. She started crying, and bolted. She could see behind her that the two men were trying to keep up with her, but she was pretty fast. Turns out, so where they.

And they were ninjas. Even worse. The two men had appeared in front of her, the both of them with knives at the ready. Akiko moved back and could almost feel the blades slice her skin. It was a cold night, but she had not been able to wear anything warm. The blades came down. She could remember each one slicing a piece of her skin. Her blood was visible each time they struck a blow. The pain seemed to be numbed out by the cold. She silently thanked the wind for that. 

As bloody and beaten from the knives, she managed to walk away, even if she was only shuffling her feet just to get to away from the two men. The two men, as drunk as they were, caught up to the slowly walking girl. One grabbed ahold of her shoulder, while the other got in front and managed a slash on her face. One neat slice. It seemed too much for a seven year old little girl. She dropped to the floor, and saw the two men above her. They got closer, which scared her a lot. She couldn't find her strength to move.

There was a shuffling of feet and the two drunk men's heads swirled back. There she could see a young boy, maybe a year or two older. "Leave her alone!" he shouted. His hair was as white as snow, and his eyes flashed silver. Not a rough, cold, brutal type of silver, instead it was melting, kind, considerate. "Scram! This doesn't involve you kid!" One drunken man said. The other picked up Akiko, who was currently numb of pain and cold, and tossed her over his shoulder like a sack. Her blood oozed the same color as her hair, and spreading on the drunken man's shoulder. 

The young boy, noticing how weak this young girl was, ran up to the drunk man who yelled at him and kicked him in the nuts. The man doubled over and lunged at the boy, slightly missing. Next the boy kicked behind the man holding Akiko, in which the man fell, and the boy pulled Akiko out of his grip. She was soft, but moist due to all the blood, not to mention bony. She didn't seem to have been eating well at all.

Doing the only reasonable thing an eight year old could do against adult men, the boy ran. He ran carrying a girl who was quite small in his opinion and easy to carry. It was only when he finally got tired from running, and carrying Akiko, was when he stopped. Well, he fell. A man with gray hair and a mask looked down at him. The boy glared at him, then focused on the girl he had dropped accidentally, currently sprawled on the ground. "Need help kid?" the man asked. The boy glared, "Who're you?" The man said, "Kakashi Hatake."' 

The girl lifted her head up to where she could. Kakashi bent down and picked up the girl with ease, he asked the young boy if he wanted to come with him. The boy responded that his sister was back home. Kakashi understood and walked off, carrying Akiko to the hospital, where he'd understood as the child of his "mother". Later on, a couple nights in the hospital, Akiko looked to Kakashi.

"Why do you have nightmares, Kakashi?"

"It reminds me of the bad things I've done."

"Like saving me?"

"There was a boy in the cold night, he saw you bleeding and his heart bled with you. He saved you that night, I took you somewhere safe."

"Did he say what his name was?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"He said his name was Scar."

There were no more visits from Kakashi. The ladies in the hospital said that he was busy a lot. There was no more need for Kakashi to visit anymore. Akiko had a home.

And their names were Naruto Uzumaki, and her savior that she never got to say thank you, Scar Kaminari. For now.