For everything that exists, there is an opposite for it. For every positive, a negative. For every virtue, a sin. For every light, there is a dark. And sometimes, when everything is in just the right order, when everything is in just the right light, the line between positive and negative blurs...

And Accidents Happen.

The morose gray sky dumped out tears like a woman with a broken heart. The shrieking winds were her screams that lashed out like avenging claws.

'There is no wrath like a woman scorned.'

I couldn't help but scoff at the intense irony of my random contemplation, seeing as I myself had scorned my fair share of woman in my meager sixteen years. Not that that stupid fact was worthy of any sense of pride, but, still. And (to prove me right, as I nearly almost always am) in revenge for my past cruelty towards women, the rain stung at my open eyes forcing me to blink and causing that annoying feeling of needing to rub them.

Perfect.

I didn't, (rub them, I mean) though. I merely closed my eyes for a moment halting my advance down the damp forest path.

'Just ignore it and it will go away.'

That WAS my answer for everything, anyway. So why not apply it here? It only made sense to, lest I be seen as a hypocrite among the other unflattering names I surely must be labled.

Traitor. Bastard. Coward. Useless. Weak. Heartless. Cruel. Failure.

After spending those very uplifting few minutes resisting my impulsive urges, I continued on my way through the forest of dripping trees and sodden bushes. Internally, I wrinkled my nose as wet plants brushed up against my legs and arms, making them colder and wetter than they were before.

Because that's exactly what I wanted and needed to happen to me at that exact moment in time. Externally, though, I showed absolutely nothing- a perfect poker face if there ever was one.

It was something I'd been good at. That calm façade of perfection.

I suppressed a shiver as the wind and rain blew through my mostly open white shirt, chilling me farther than I was previously.'Damn it.' I cursed, my eyes tightening in slight annoyance.

'I should have brought a cloak… Then again, that would have slowed me down during the mission.'

For a second, I cursed myself again for my rationality.

Because no one was around, I allowed myself to sigh. I had just finished yet another assassination mission that Orochimaru had oh so lovingly charged me with.

And I, despite being a ninja, detested pointless killing. According to my snake of a teacher, though, the man's death wasn't pointless. The man I had just recently killed simply knew too much about our operation and needed to be disposed of.

I was on my way back now. Joy upon wonders. Back to the dank, dark cave system that had been my 'home away from home' for the past two and a half years. I had grown to hate the dar. And I honestly did appreciate the irony in that. I, who had metaphorically AND physically condemned myself to the darkness… Had decided that I loathed it with every fiber of my being.

Almost as much as I hated my brother, in fact.

Being in a cave for too long not only made you too pale-hence Orochimaru's skin condition-it also made you crave the sun, you see.

The bright, glorious, golden sun.

An unbidden image of one Uzumaki Naruto flashed in my minds eye, and I had to stop again, my eyes squeezing shut tighter than before.

'God damn it-No.'

I would not think of Naruto. I wouldn't think of the dobe. Not his smile, not his laugh, not his eyes that shone like the endless ocean on a sunny day, not his beautifully golden hair, or the way his stupid orange jacket clung to his frame—even if it was baggy because I certainly knew what was under that lying jacket-and I would most certainly NOT think of the feelings the boy I'd left behind roused in me.

Because that would be dangerous.

Because that might just make me turn tail now and head home, like the weak emotional fool I've strived for so long not to be.

I opened my eyes, my face impassive once more.

'Naruto who?'

Feeling slightly dizzy from straining the muscles around my eyes (note to self: Stop closing them so God Damn tightly all the time, stupid), I leaned against a tree for support. I needed to calm my spinning head. And although it was a sign of weakness, I brought a semi-shaking hand to my face, expecting the skin there to be cold under my relatively dry hands. Instead my palm met burning flesh, and I internally groaned. If I was getting sick, I was going to absolutely murder that skink Kabuto.

Because I can't get sick-How could I kill him if I got sick and died? Or something equally as pathetic as that?

Why kill Kabuto, though, you may ask? How would that connect to my getting sick? Well, to be completely honest it didn't at all. He just annoyed me.

And it would probably feel good to kill him, too.

I stayed like that for several minutes, calming myself and hoping that if I rested, my body would fight off whatever illness I was contracting. So, with a rather grave sense of determination to get out of this damp rain (and hopefully therefore avoid getting sick), I took a step away from the tree…

And into a puddle.

I began to curse aloud when I felt a sucking, sinking feeling around my foot. It felt like…

Like I was being pulled in, being pulled down? With almost wide eyes I looked down to find my foot was completely submerged within the seemingly tiny puddle.

'What?'

My foot slipped under and into the stuff up to my ankle.

I cursed lowly to myself again, not even having the common sense to keep my charade of quiet perfection going as I struggled rather piteously with a puddle. Really. You'd think I'd be brighter than this, considering who I am. I mean, honestly! This mistake, this stupid little blunder was Naruto-esque at best and I-…

'It's not even five centimeters deep!'

It was the truth; I could see the softened dirt beneath the thin film of water.

And slowly but surely I began loosing the tug of war for my foot, and my whole leg-up to my thigh-was pulled into the deceiving puddle. And despite my now turning frantic struggling, I was swallowed whole, dropping into a dark, unknown new world.