A Struggle To Love

                                                             Chapter 1

        A stranger walked through the streets of the Hidden Leaf Village. He had been here before, but only on a mission. It was a short mission when he was here so he didn't know much about the village. He breathed in the many smells surrounding him. The smell of fresh flowers, food, but one smell stood out from the others. It was the strong smell of ramen. The stranger walked past a group of girls who stopped and stared at him as he passed. The girls giggled and talked among themselves.
       "He's cute." One girl whispered.
       "Yeah, he is. I wonder where he's from." Another girl giggled.
       "I don't think he's from around here. I wonder what he's like." The first girl said smiling.
       The boy turned and stared at the girls. They blushed as his icy blue eyes settled on the group. Their eyes traveled to his headband causing their blood to run cold. The slash through the symbol could only mean one thing. He was from the Akatsuki. They turned and ran away from him. When they were out of ear shot or even out of sight of him they began whispering to themselves again.
        "W-what is the Akatsuki doing here?" One of the girls asked in horror.
        "The only proof we have that he's from the Akatsuki is the slash on his headband, that we saw anyway." Another girl said.
        The boy walked further through the streets not knowing where to go. He could hear talking coming from a restaurant that he passed.
        'Maybe I'll stop there and get something to eat.' He thought as he stepped in the dimly lit lobby of the restaurant. He noticed a group of kids at one side of the restaurant. He noticed only one girl stood out from the group. She was kind of tall, with shoulder length pink hair. The other girls in the group wore light colored summer dresses, but the girl with pink hair wore a red shirt, with a white circle on the back, and black shorts. He turned away from the group and sat at a nearby table with an outlook into the streets. The boy's mind wandered back to the last day of the Akatsuki.
           The sound of kunais rebounding off of each other filled the air. The Akatsuki had stumbled upon a small group of ninja. They were winning by a lot until Tobi had fallen to the ground in defeat. Deidara ran and stood in front of his fallen comrade. Sasori, Deidara's original partner, helped Itachi, Kisame, Hidan, and Kakuzu finish off the enemies. Deidara bent down next to Tobi and held his head up.
           "Hey you okay, Tobi?" Deidara asked staring down at the orange mask Tobi always wore.
           "Tobi, has one more thing to say to you senpai." Tobi said gasping for his last breath.
           "What is it Tobi?" Deidara asked.
           "Tobi..... is a good boy...... But, senpai, I'm not....... Tobi." Tobi whispered before dying in Deidara's arms. Deidara looked away and squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn't cry, not in front of the Akatsuki. Just then Zetzu, their messenger, crawled out of a hole in the ground.
            "I have news you all may want to know." Zetzu sighed.
            "What is it?" Itachi asked staring at Zetzu.
            "Leader Pein-sama and Konan have died. Therefore, there are no longer leaders for the Akatsuki. Which brings up the question what will we do now?" Zetzu said as he approached the others. The others looked at each other and stripped off their cloaks and threw their rings in the dirt.
             "We are no longer held here against our will!" Kisame said as he began walking in the direction of the Land of the Waves. The others too walked off in different directions back to the villages where they belonged.
              As that unfaithful day replayed itself over and over in the boy's head, he didn't notice the girl with pink hair approach his table. She had noticed that a boy that was not invited to the party had sat down at a table and looked completely lost. She decided that maybe she could go talk to him. Moving on her own she found herself standing at the edge of his table. He seemed to be staring out into the streets as if he were off in his own world oblivious to the girl standing there.
             While she stood there, the girl got a really good look at the boy. His eyes were an icy blue and his hair was between a dark and light blond color. She couldn't quite tell what shade to call his hair. He kept a good amount of his long hair in a pony tail and let his bangs grow long on the left side of his face until it hid his left eye.
              "A-are you lost?" The girl asked the boy. He snapped back into reality at the sound of her voice.