A/N: this is a picture of Eve's outfit.

A disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 1: {edited}

Eve

In the darkness of a dream, the mind would conjure up magical beasts with jaws that were home to razor teeth. They would move in unnatural ways, maybe a limp, or be severely hunched over.

However, my dreams, or should I call them nightmares, were far away from imaginary beasts or some freak of nature, they were always about a boy.

Now, riddle me this. How can I call it a nightmare if it doesn't leave my presence, my thoughts, and my mind when I am awake?

He haunts my dreams, stalks my life but he is not here. It's all in my head and it's driving me insane, this thirst for revenge.

A startled scream tore its way from my lips. I sit on the bed trying to collect my jumbled thoughts, turned into an incoherent mess after the same nightmare that's been plaguing my mind for 3 years. Yet, it came to haunt me once again.

My breath comes in quick gasps and I feel like I'm blacking out. My heart is hammering inside my chest as if it belongs to a rabbit, running for its life. The room spins, my vision becomes blurred and I start to see double. I take a deep breath trying to make everything slow down to something my brain and body can cope with.

The sunlight beamed through the white blinds presenting the morning sun against my face. I blinked trying to erase the blurred visions of my nightmare and help my eyes adjust to the burning light. I felt the heady pull of my dreams, beckoning me back to pester my existence, but I shook that thought off as I saw that the morning had long ago shown its presence.

Cramped, old, and square-like, that is how my room looks like. The window is the only source of light in it. Fending off the creepy shadows in the morning but perpetual darkness is what claims it at night. No speck of light can be seen unless the moon decides to grace me with its presence, sending waves of silvery rays to lighten up the darkness and the terrifying feeling it poses.

My bed, if I can call it a bed, is mismatched of cheap wood, patched together to form a rectangular shape. The comforter was so thin you can feel the wood dig into your flesh -a hungry beast waiting to feast on your muscles- rendering you exhausted and sleepless. A small, circular grey rug with yellow and black spots littering all over, stood in the middle of the room.

A small closet, which can barely fit all my clothes, stood hunched in the corner, a small table facing it on the opposite side of the room. The only thing that's acceptable in this rats hole is the square shape window above my bed, can't say the same for the blinds though as they are filled with gaping holes the size of a cats' mouth.

I stood up and stretched like a lazy cat. I made my way to the kitchen to begin my day. The kitchen and the bathroom are in no better shape. Cracks were plastered on every wall. The once white paint is now sickly pale color that looks horrible with some paint peeling off, threatening to fall at any second. Thank god the ground is steady and the roof is strong otherwise, I would've been buried alive.

I shouldn't nag, that's all I can afford for now.

After I did my daily routine, I put on my outfit for the day.

"Let us kick some butts," I whispered enthusiastically, ready to leave this dreary place behind. With that, I was out of my shabby apartment and into the busy street of a small village in the land of waves.

.oOo.

The smoke twisted in an artistic way forming curls in the gloom, illuminated only by the pubs' lights. Along the wall, there was every shade of amber liquid you could think of in their own bottles that varied in shape and size.

Hundreds of conversations held in loud voices, the clanking of cups filled with the yellow liquid dominated the place along with the boasting, swearing, back-slapping, and drinking games... all the things you only find in a cheap pub.

The foul stench of cigarettes and sweat attacked my senses making me gag in repulsion. My eyes burned from the sight of couples in a secluded bay doing vile things to one another. I turned my gaze only for it to clash with the sight of a man too drunk to be able to stand on his sickly-thin legs; his body immediately tumbled to the floor in a heap of bones, collecting obnoxious laughter around him. Others were either snoring or crying their eyes out.

I guess no one cared that it is morning time and they still are passing out drunk. I sighed.

Suddenly the loud noises dimmed into utter silence like if a switch turned off along with every single head turned towards me, the new intruder.

Wide bloodshot eyes and jaws dropped to touch the floor met me and I relished in the fact that my presence can cause such a reaction.

I heard someone gulp beside me, but I didn't care.

I made my way to the bartender, my body emitting an aura of confidence and dominance, suffocating the room and adding a new stiffness and weariness to the audience here.

"Hey, isn't this the black beast?" said one guy whose belly looks like it swallowed an entire watermelon.

I was called by many names, savior, temptress, evil, but the one that stood out and stuck in people's minds and tongues was 'the black beast'.

The credit goes to my attire I guess, as well as my job as a bounty hunter. Slaughtering criminals and sweeping the grounds from their wretched souls in exchange for money.

Still, I never attempted to correct them. I kind of liked the nickname. The ferocity of it along with the emotion and the response it elicits from people around me gave me a sense of joy. As I see many cowards stay away from my presence or kiss the ground I walk on.

Funny how, a little more than three years ago, I was as innocent as a newborn baby. I would've balked at the thoughts that are running through my mind or at how much my hands had spilled blood on them.

They say the devil is real and that he is not a little red man with horns and a tail. I agree.

To me the devil is every vice clattered in any form of temptation, pulling you away from everything that is good. Turning you into another form of being, deprived of any sense of humanity and goodness, filling your soul with venoms of dark wicked emotions until the darkness you cause swallows you whole and claims both, your mind and soul.

My own version of the devil is revenge.

And I don't care if I am going to burn in its fire or get killed. As long as my goal is achieved I care naught for this shell of a girl I have become.

"Oh, who's the unfortunate victim this time? I really feel sorry for whoever the black beast chooses as his next target," another drunken guy slurred with bloodlust tone to his companion in an attempted whisper, which he clearly failed at, pulling me out of my trance.

I turned and looked at him; he instantly sobered and shut his mouth.

Ignorant fool!

People's lives have become a trivial thing to others. The scene of bloodshed ignites their blood lust instead of scurrying it away and make them pray to all the gods that they won't have to witness such a scene anymore.

I released an irritated sigh and looked at the bartender in question.

The bartender who was drying the glasses with a towel stood as stiff as a board. His pale face contrasted with the dark clothing he wore. A mop of brown hair decorated his head and a pair of deep brown eyes, almost black, met my gaze, unblinking, wide in shock and fear.

I looked to his left, assessing the papers; I made my choice and pointed it to him.

He took the paper and handed it to me. Everyone was watching the exchange while holding their breath as if I was going to turn into a predator and pounce at them any second.

Sorry to disappoint, but you guys aren't on my kill list, yet. I mentally chuckled and left the pub to pursue my prey.

It's always the same routine for me every day. Has been since my training ended, now this daily occurrence is but to hone my skills as I wait for the real target. It's always the same response as well. When I step in all motion seizes to exist, I take what I want, leave, and then come back again to retrieve my reward. However, you'd think they'd be more welcoming. I don't think so and they never will.

I looked at the crumpled piece of paper in my hand. The dark messy black hair stood out in all directions, like the needle of a compass when it points in a different way all at once. Dead, hollow brown eyes with a spark of evil stared at me along with thin lips and a long nose, some wrinkles on his forehead that shows he's in his late thirties.

"Wanted:

Dead or alive.

Brief description:

Attempted murder, 10 victims raped and dismembered.

The criminal is identified through a series of signs he left behind at each crime scene - a symbol, the sign of the devil's fork carved on the body of the victims, under it the letter Y and A.

The initials for Yu Kasha Akemi."

Ten innocent young lives raped, dismembered, and buried because of his sick pleasure.

However, he has made the mistake of leaving his mark which is utterly and undeniably foolish.

The killer thinks it's a sign of power and dominance, a mark that will leave his name imprinted in the minds of peoples, a sign of accomplishment over the other killers. But it's the mark that's going to lead him to his death.

He thinks he outwitted us -the bounty hunters since it's us who do the killing and cleaning job here- but he's wrong on so many different levels. One of them being, I'm the one who's after him now. I'm the reaper who has come to claim his soul, not some amateur hunter.

It's weird how people think they outsmarted someone when they are the ones who fell into their trap and they don't even know it. That's what happens when you let your ego take action instead of your brain, how pitiful!

I went to a nearby village to gather information about him. It took me two days of journey, thanks to the mother luck. He wasn't that far as he was last seen, heading into the nearby forest after he left the bar made a slurring and stumbling mess.

I choose my targets according to their criminal record. If they are a major threat or some amateur killer along with the time it's going to cost me to hunt him down and the amount of bounty on his head.

After all, I'm not going to chase someone across the globe, except that single person. Besides bounty hunting isn't my life job, it's merely a means to an end, just a temporary job that allows me to afford rent and food.

To some I'm labeled as a hero, to others I'm no better than the rest of the killers, but I know myself more than them to know that I am neither.

I might be cleaning the ground from vermin like Y.A, but I'm not a hero. I don't do it for the goodness and safety of people; - it partially is for that reason. I'm not completely heartless on the inside-. I do it for money and to test the limits of my strength.

Ugly reasons, I know, but that's what I've become. Sometimes I fail to know who I am anymore, it's like a new person resides in this body of mine.

I headed to the forest they mentioned and after hours of following trails, that looked a day old, I found him outside of his shack.

I vanished and in a blink of an eye, I was in front of him. Shock was written all over his face.

"Yu Kasha Akemi?" I asked calmly. However, my calm voice sounds more deadly than a raging storm.

He was trembling in fear, shaking like a leaf on a windy day.

What a sight to behold, my favorite!

The moment I can inflict the fear of a predator, the stronger being, who you know is much more powerful than you and your days have come to an end. That's when I'd be satisfied.

Isn't that what those murderers do when they come upon their prey?

"b-b-lack bea-ast," he stuttered and made an attempt to run.

"Found you. Hope you enjoy your time in hell," I said to him with a smirk on my face, though he couldn't see it.

It only took me two minutes to finish him off. I slit his throat off; he didn't even have time to react because I was faster than him.

I thought he, at least, would put up a decent fight but he only stood there, shaking like the pathetic excuse of a person he was.

I took his head, put it in a plastic bag, and found my way back to the bar. I claimed my money and went to my apartment.

I was tired from the mission. Even though it took me minutes to kill him it's the journey to do so that bugged my limbs and made my body ache.

I dropped myself on the bed and fell asleep, not bothering to change or even eat.

Today is my last day in this village.

Tomorrow I shall head to Konoha.

With that in mind, I drifted into another agonizing, nightmare filled sleep.

Hi, my Naruto fellas.

Okay, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I know it's dark and gloomy, but that was the point, haha.

keep on reading the story is going to be to your liking I'm sure... hopefully.

Well, if you enjoy reading, vote, comment, and follow.

Thank you

~* Eva.