The Story of Kumiko (A Naruto Fanfic)

Chapter 1 ~ Amnesia

Everything was blurry as I opened my eyes. The world was swimming in thick crimson blood, all coming from my broken and bruised body it seemed. My heart beat like a heavy drum in my dulled ears. My breathing was raspy and coarse. My body felt like it was on fire. But worst of all was my head; the searing agony pierced my brain like a knife.

            Even though I couldn’t see anything that well, I looked around at all the twisted and deformed figures caused by the blood in my eyes. I couldn’t make out anything. I wondered how much time had passed since I fell, but I honestly couldn’t tell. Looking around once more I suddenly I saw what looked like a person. I blinked immediately, blood trailing down my cheeks, and stared at the figure watching me. However, my eyes were not adjusting and I had to strain hard to see the blurry shape.

            He was tall with spikey silver hair that leaned to the right, along with a suspicious-looking mask covering half of his face. I shivered. He was staring at me with surprised simple black eyes, and I stared right back with my own agony-filled onyx orbs. Something about him seemed vaguely familiar, though I couldn’t put my finger on it. Something about that gravity-defying gray hair and that one wary eye stirred up thoughts wildly in my mind; but I couldn’t tell what I was thinking. I felt as if I couldn’t think straight, and when I did start regaining my awareness all of those thoughts faded away as the stinging pierced my skull once again. I bit my tongue to keep myself from crying. Instead I just let out a pained whimper.

            Suddenly the ninja was beside me, kneeling down to examine and comfort me. I, being the aggressive girl I was, tensed up and managed to let out a soft growl of warning that touching me would result in his funeral. However, he wasn’t fazed in the slightest. Instead he leaned down to look closely at my head, his hand gently running over the base of my hair on the back of my skull. I wanted to punch him but my body still felt numb, like I wasn’t fully conscious yet.

            “You really had quite the fall,” he muttered. “How do you feel?”

            Luckily my throat let me speak. “I feel wonderful,” I spat sarcastically. Was that blunt enough? I wanted to come across as dangerous but maybe I was joking too much.

            He gave me a questioning glance, probably wondering why I was so cold to him. After all, he was trying to save me. Or was he…? I couldn’t really tell all he did was touch the back of my head like a weirdo.

            He sighed, “Well you’re bleeding in a lot of places; your hands are ripped apart, you’ve got a broken leg, and you’re all scratched up. Also it looks like your skull is cracked in the back so your brain might be damaged. You could easily die within the next few minutes just by blood loss. Now tell me… how are you really feeling?”

            I gulped at the intensity of his voice. He was dead serious about me dying soon, and that opened my eyes. I needed help. If I didn’t get my wounds healed soon I could actually die. I didn’t want to die. I was too young and I had so much to live for and… I felt like I needed to find something. But that one thing was like soap, slipping through of my fingers right as I grabbed hold of it again. In fact, everything I was thinking of was like soap; everything I tried to do was like soap. I tried to get a grasp of what had happened, but again I just couldn’t hold on to those things that were teetering on the edge of my mind. And my actions were in vain, all mixed up, not working properly. I was lucky I was even able to speak that one time.

            The man’s deep voice snapped me out of my fading thoughts. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked with sudden worry. Just then I noticed that I’d totally forgotten about his question.

            Trying to talk normally, my voice instead came out as a husky whisper. “What…? What… question… again…” My words weren’t even coherent. What was happening to me?

            He frowned, continuing to stare at me, probably figuring out how to react to my sudden decrease in intelligence. I watched the stars above my head. No, I watched the white dots above my head. Everything was still blurry; I couldn’t make out or comprehend anything. Just then I realized something. As time passed my condition was becoming worse and worse…Was that not obvious before?

            A glowing green light appeared on my left, where that ninja was. He was still there but the light wasn’t in sight.

            “Wha…?” I struggled. “Light…”

            He glanced at me quickly before looking back at the back of my head. “Your brain is severely damaged, and it’s getting much worse. I’ve never practiced medical ninjutsu but I do know the basics. I’ll try to heal you as much as I can.”

            I was barely able to understand what he said. All I did was nod and close my eyes, letting his hands softly glide over the back of my head. I wasn’t sure what he was doing; I was never familiar with medical ninjutsu; but I’d started to trust him. Ever since I stopped being able to talk I had no choice but to trust him since I was essentially helpless without his assistance.

            After a few minutes I grew lightheaded. There was a small difference in the soreness; he must’ve healed me a little. Yet for some reason I suddenly felt light. I was lying on a cloud, in the middle of the sky, drifting along inside my near-empty mind. As I passed by the small fragments of my memory I reached out to grab them, but they were just barely out of reach. I repeatedly tried, needing to catch just one of them. Nevertheless I was, again, left empty-handed. Would I ever remember anything?

When I woke up next I was in the arms of someone. They were carrying me, to where I didn’t know. But for some reason I felt relaxed in their arms. I snuggled deeper into the soft warm body of my captor, wanting to fall asleep again. I wanted to, but I couldn’t. I wondered what it was that was keeping me from relaxing. It took a while, but I soon started feeling a harsh stinging sensation in the back of my head. I groaned as the one carrying me walked, sending shivers of agony up my spine every time he took a step. I felt his body tense up a bit.

            “So you’re finally awake,” he muttered quietly. His voice seemed loosely familiar, but I couldn’t seem to remember where I’d last heard it. “How are you feeling?”

            “Mmmm,” I hummed, struggling to get my tongue to work. “M-My… My heah… hurhs…”

            I felt his breath stutter for a second. “Yeah. I couldn’t really heal you all that well since I ran out of chakra. But I think I managed to stop the memory loss,” he explained slowly.

            I nodded my head, causing a moan to escape my lips. I wondered if I would be alright.

He seemed to read my mind, “Don’t worry, you’ll be alright. I’m taking you to my village. You’ll be safe there.”

My eyes opened a fraction as I desperately tried to get a look at him. And through the tiny crack in my eyelids I saw the blurry figure of a man with familiar eyes. Oh right. He’s the guy who found me… I thought feebly. At that moment everything started to come back to me. He was healing me, and I passed out right? I was losing my memory due to some kind of injury. I was hurt; I think I fell. I must’ve hit the ground pretty hard if I’m feeling this dead. What was I doing before that? Wasn’t I trying to find someone? I can’t remember anything before that… Reality stabbed me in the heart, digging deeper than any wound could. Where am I? Where’s my home? Where’s my family? Do I even have a family? Do I have friends? Sensei’s? Anyone? What’s my name? What’s my story?

……Who am I?

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~Kane