The darkness swallowed the surroundings, the moon replaced the sun's rays with its pale light.

I continued my path untouched.
A way I didn't know
I didn't have a specific goal.
Probably wouldn't have one for a long time, because I was traveling alone. And that for abouttwo years.

Day in and day out.

I never stayed in a village long enough to find companions.
I wasn't afraid of attacks because I could defend myself and not only that.
I was able to send my opponents to the afterlife with a single targeted blow of my chakra-soaked fist.

Strength was vital in those times.

The five great ninja villages had started an all-encompassing war and that in turn breathed life into many innocent and weak people.
In the past, Konohagakure would never have provoked a war of this magnitude, but Konohagakure was no longer under the control of a benevolent Hokage.

Almost two years ago it was overrun by an almost infinite number of Oto-nins who showed no mercy.
The Godaime was overthrown and those who escaped were declared Nuke-nin.

I was one of them.

The fight for our home village was exhausting and hopeless.
Many were killed or captured.
Some of my friends, among others, but I didn't know the exact number of prisoners or even all of their names.

After I had recovered from the exertion, I started looking.
I wanted to find them all, hold them in my arms and never let go of them again.

Today I knew it was a waste of time because my search was unsuccessful. Here and there I heard rumors of Nuke-nin from Konoha roaming the villages, but I couldn't find them.

Not even one.

In the meantime I learned to suppress it, put an impenetrable mask on myself, like any Shinobi who did not want to give up his life earlier than necessary.I put my head back so that my hood slipped back a bit and exposed individual pink streaks that were blown into my emerald green eyes by the cold wind.

The stars that stretched over the sky sparkled at me with their cold light and seemed to mock me, the moon bathed everything in a dim light.

I liked the night.
A quality I've only had for two years.
I used to be afraid of the dark, I was afraid of more than just the dark, even loneliness would have torn me with fear, enemies took my breath away when I was younger, and yet I did not give up.

No way.

Even when everything seemed hopeless in the past, I didn't give up, but I still lost:

my home village, my friends, my life, in a certain way my identity, because in these times I was no longer traveling by my real name.
For many I was a simple wanderer, for others one of many, still others simply referred to me as a 'shadow', because they saw me only vaguely, no longer as a blurred shadow, but some, the few who were responsible for this business were or were chasing us, knew:

The shadow that chased the wrong was none other than Sakura Haruno.

A bounty hunter.