Disclaimer:

I do not own Naruto. It was created by and belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

"Have you gotten a little taller?" Itachi asked, looking at the boy facing him from across the room. Although his face was obscured by the darkness, making any of defining features disappear, the boy's eyes betrayed him. He glared with intense hatred at Itachi, his fists tightening at his sides.

"...you haven't changed at all," the boy muttered quickly, as if he couldn't keep the words in any longer. "You still have those heartless, cold eyes of yours."

There was a short pause, during which the two young men merely stared at one another in dead silence. Finally, Itachi asked, "Aren't you going to yell and run at me like last time?"

The boy started chuckling under his breath almost immediately after Itachi had finished his assumption. A bright, ghostly light appeared out of nowhere and lit up his face, contorting his features and making him seem to appear from out of a nightmare. Instead of rounding on the other man, he turned swiftly on his heel and eyed the girl, gripping his katana in his hand.

As he approached her, he enjoyed the fear that was clearly written on her face. "I'm going to kill you now," he told her when he had finally reached her, leaning forward to whisper it in her ear. "And I assure you, it is going to be very...very...painful."

Elva jolted awake, breathing heavily. This was the fourth time this month she had had that dream. It always began the same way – the boy talking to her father, Itachi, in an almost conversational tone. Just talking. Then suddenly, at the exact moment he had the opportunity to kill him, the boy instead whirled around to face Elva, preparing to kill her before she had the chance to stop him. But then she would always wake up.

She hugged her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them, trying and failing many times to slow her breathing and calm herself down. Each time she would get so close to achieving her goal, but then the picture of the boy's face would flash in her mind, and she would tighten her grip around her knees and get scared all over again.

After what seemed like forever, Elva told herself what she had told herself every time this happened before in the recent weeks: Elva, you're being ridiculous. Get up and get to the academy. This isn't the time to be fooling around.

She had to repeat this several times to force herself to do so. Elva got out of bed hesitantly and went to her closet, slipping on a red shirt with a wide collar and plain, dark khaki shorts. She walked into the bathroom across the hall, running a brush through her long, black hair once before pulling it all into a high ponytail. She stopped to look at herself in the mirror, and instantly felt a frown tugging at her lips.

It wasn't that Elva was vain or anything. In fact, she hated how she looked. It wasn't that she was ugly, nor was she beautiful, or anything close to it. She was ordinary, and that even wasn't what she hated so much about herself. She was perfectly fine with her hair; it could get unmanageable and tangled sometimes, but there was nothing horrible about it. She had bangs that, for the most part, she liked, unless they became too long. It was her eyes that she hated.

They were violet. Not a shade that could be mistaken for being blue in a different light. These were a bright and very distinct violet – a definite purple. It made Elva stand out, even in the diversity of looks at the academy, which was one thing she never wanted to do. It made her feel uncomfortable and unbelievably self-conscious. She just really hated them; there was no other word for it.

Shrugging and turning away from the mirror, she headed to the kitchen. There, she grabbed a shiny, red apple from the fridge and her new Konoha hitai-ate from the table, holding the two in one hand as she took her shoes in the other, leaving the door to her small apartment unlocked on accident as she hurried outside. Once she had gotten out into the fresh air, she began to feel more at ease. She stopped now, and stuck the apple into her pocket. After slipping on her shoes and tying her brand-new forehead protector on her forehead, she paused to look up at the apartment building.

It had been something her grandmother had always told her when she was growing up, about how fortunate they were. Her grandmother had often told stories about days when she had lived in luxury, the wife of a famous, rich feudal lord, and also about afterwards, when her husband had ultimately left her after his death with barely anything to live off of. Her grandmother had always said they were fortunate. Elva had never really understood what she met until three years ago.

Three years ago, just as Elva was entering the academy, her grandmother suddenly died. Although the case of death was never officially determined, one thing was for sure – Elva no longer had a guardian to take care of her. She never wanted one, anyway, but the Hokage, at that time Sarutobi-sama, had insisted on having someone to take care of her. As it turned out, the couple who owned and managed the apartment building she and her grandmother had lived in didn't mind at all to watch Elva and at the same time allow her to live on her own in the apartment she had grown up in. To her luck, the Hokage had agreed to this, but just barely. Still, it worked for Elva.

All of a sudden, leaves blowing by due to the changing of the seasons caused Elva to come back to present. She shook her head several times, but then tensed. I'm going to be late! she realized with dread, and set off at a quick run to the academy, knowing how angry Iruka would most likely be.

By the time Elva reached the academy, she had planned to simply sneak into the room and past Iruka-sensei, sliding into the first empty seat she could find. It didn't go quite as smoothly as she had planned. The second she opened the door, not only did Iruka look up, but so did every other new Genin. Iruka raised his eyebrows, although besides that he didn't look especially surprised.

"Good morning, Elva," he said, gesturing to a seat in the front row with his free hand. In the other, he held a sheet of paper that had on it the list of the Genin teams. "Why don't you join us?" he continued, amused at how quickly Elva had realized the flaw in her plan and had flushed a bright shade of red.

Elva nodded quickly and, eager to get the unwanted attention off of her, went to the seat he had just referred to. Settling down a bit, she sat and hesitantly flashed a quick smile at the girl sitting next to her. "Ohayo, Moegi," she greeted quietly.

Moegi broke off the conversation she apparently had been having with Konohamaru and Udon, smiling unreassuringly to the other girl before looking back over at Udon, who had been about to say something next. Elva let out a small, exasperated sigh, slumping down into her seat more and crossing her arms across her chest.

It wasn't that Elva was 'unsociable.' She loved talking to people, even though she had a knack for becoming shy easily. It also seemed that it was easy for her to insult people – sometimes, it seemed as though she always happened to mention the worst thing possible around certain people, or would just come around at a bad time. And Elva could probably consider Moegi a fairly stable friend; they didn't talk a lot, but she was someone Elva felt comfortable with. It was just that Moegi was more attached to Konohamaru and Udon.

"Okay..." Iruka broke the silence as he ran a finger down the paper until he stopped abruptly, glancing back up at the class. "Right. Team Three. Egami Sanyu, Umeko Elva, and Iida Haru."

Behind her in the back row, Elva could vaguely hear what she assumed to be high fives. She resisted the urge to scoff or roll her eyes. Sanyu and Haru were best friends. They had been for as long as Elva – or probably anyone else at the academy – could remember. It figured that they would be on a team with her. It would only be harder for her to be their friends or connect some way when they were already so close.

She fell silent and remained that way for the rest of the team announcements. She didn't have anything to say about it. It was simply bad luck that had put her with the inseparable duo. It could have happened to anybody, but fate had naturally chosen Elva as the bearer of the misfortune. But her solemn mood wouldn't last long.

Suddenly, she heard a squeal beside her. She glanced at Moegi, who was practically jumping out of her seat, beside herself with joy. She grabbed Elva's arm, smiling brightly. "Did you hear that? Konohamaru, Udon, and I – we're on a team! Isn't that great?" she blurted out, having to tell someone before she burst.

Elva nodded slowly, a small smile creeping onto her face. It was hard being so serious when someone around you was so happy. "Yeah, Moegi," she replied, feeling herself nodding again. "It's really great. I'm sure you'll all make a great team."

"You bet we will!" Konohamaru chimed, joining in the conversation. "Maybe we'll even be better than Naruto-nii-san's team!"

They all nodded in agreement, but afterwards, the three of them all seemed to fall silent. Elva didn't understand why. They all looked like they had swallowed some bitter pill or something like that. Elva frowned. "Are you okay?" she asked, slightly worried and hoping she hadn't subconsciously done something wrong.

Udon was the first to reply, his tone sounding almost confused. "Yeah. Yeah, we are. It's just..." He trailed off, unsure of how to explain it.

"Naruto-nii-san's teammate, Sasuke," Moegi finished, taking over for a relieved Udon. "He left two years back to go to Oto. Didn't you hear about that?" When Elva looked confused, she continued, "Naruto and Sakura have been trying to get him to come back ever since. But they can never find him."

"Oh." Elva frowned. Well...at least it isn't my fault. That would have been awful, she figured, and nearly found herself shrugging. Luckily, however, she caught herself, and instead said, "That's...really awful. I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Konohamaru said, sighing and resting his chin in his hand, his energy seemingly depleted by remembering one of the only things that was wrong with Konoha. "Really, it is."

Before anything else could be shared between them, someone else spoke up. "Okay!" Iruka repeated, now smiling widely at the Genins in the room. "Now you can all have a break. Go bond with your teammates, spend some quality alone time, or just do whatever. Just be back here in three hours, and then you can all meet your senseis. Good luck!"

Author's Note:

This first chapter ended up being about seven hundred words more than the original in the abridged version of this fanfiction. I think it's more informational...don't you? -smiles weakly- Please agree... Eh, forget it. I can't force you to like my fanfiction - You already do! ...no...but you can pity me if you want.

On Thursday (the 8th of November), I started feeling really sick. And then two days ago, on Monday, my mom finally brought me to the doctor, and...yes, I have strep throat. And today's Wednesday, and I'm still home from school, because I'm apparently allergic/not responding to amoxicillan. How...unfortunate. Now I have to take more medicine for longer. -sigh- Oh, the horror.

Okay, so if any of you truly awesome people went to Reactor 2007 near Chicago on Sunday, and you saw this totally wicked awesome girl cosplaying as Shikamaru, you know who I am, you stalkers! You also probably saw me holding a video camera, and...yes, I shall be putting that on YouTube once my computer permits me. I'm not quite sure when, but my deadline is officially Saturday. If it's after that – which, please don't hate me, but it probably will be a little late – then I will feel very guilty.

Anyway, I love you all for reading this. I would really appreciate reviews, and will begin to be writing shout-outs to all of you if you do you know, the way normal people do in their fanfictions, but I just realized what they're for? So please do! Even flames are – honestly – appreciated.

-Meri Umeko-