Echo's Past: Broken Expectations

This is an early autobiography narrated by Future Echo. It details his early childhood and the first link of the chain that lead him down a life of suffering.

My First Crime
I was seven years old and living with my adoptive parents, John and Raika Uchiha, Raika who in fact shared the name of my future teammate who is now deceased, Raika Haruno. It was early in the morning so the sun was not shining upon me as I wept in the cemetery where my parents were buried, for you see, I was not nearly as hardened then as I am so unfortunate to be now. I was getting my already old and fake leather boots even dirtier, covered in mud at an insidious level. I gazed up towards the foggy skies, ever so empty in the marshy graveyard. As I sat still, my ears perked due to my constant cautiousness, I felt a hand wrap around my throat. I screamed, turning around to see a fairly muscled man who looked to be in his early fourties, looking down at me with eyes that had my murder already said in stone. I shook my head and closed my eyes, not wanting to believe this to be reality. But, it indeed was, for he lifted me until I was upside down, banging my head on a tombstone, barely light enough to preserve the innards of my skull.

He breathed through his nostrils impatiently, scanning me with those same compelling eyes that I now despised. He finally spoke, ending the silence that began my fear. "Boy, you'd better give me one really good reason not to kill you."

As tears streamed down my already damp face I perked my head to him, shrugging. "Well sir, if you're hungry or anything I could manage to fill you up."

He narrowed his eyes. "Why should I trust 'yull' come back?"

"Because sir, I will."

He glared once more. "And you'd better not ring anyone with ya boy, or I swear I'll kill you."

I looked at the apparent fugitive and nodded, backing up and running away.

In about twenty minutes I reached the market district of the new Uchiha section of town, which was still extremely poor compared to the main cities of Konoha. I ran as fast as my legs would carry me, which as many of you know would be very fast years later. Finally I reached the meat and bread shops, owned by some folk that I knew quite well. One of the women gossiping near by put her hands on her knees and smiled widely at me. "Good-day lil' Echo."

"Thank you Miss." I said, red hot in nervousness as if she could read my mind and realize I was about to commit theft. I ran off, not wanting to have another run in. I entered the bakery/butchery to see that it had not opened yet. I looked out the front door to see that the street was relatively clear, not that anyone would hav esuspected em anyways, I was actually an extremely well behaved child at that time. I entered the back to see what was already set to take out, and found some packaged sausage and several loafs of bread. This, alogn with a bottle of refined wine that I found were several of the things that I took out the back door, speeding down the street so fast that I could barely manage the load I was carrying.

To my surprise, I was stopped in the middle of the street my so called mother. "Good morning Miss Raika." Said I, my palms sweating with nervousness.

"Boy, you better tell me what all of that food is for right now!" She said, scanning the quantitive amount that I was carrying.

"Sorry Miss, I just saved up some money I've been collected for a whiel now, and thought it might serve a good day to have a picnic."

She unintentionally folded her lip in dismay, grunting and then shooing me away. As I ran towards the marshy cemetery I thought about Miss Raika and how it always seemed like she had something quite mean to say to me. John always told me that she was a good woman, just an angry one. Finally I reached th graveyard not to find the husky man. "Sir!" I shouted. "I have some food for you, I promise I didn't bring anybody, I promise sir."

The man came out shivering from behind a group of trees, he snatched the food from my hands and began to gorge it i nsuch a manner, if I may say so, that rather disgusted me. He looked up every other second, scanning the area. It made me sick to know that he had to do such things, considering he was a fugitive. I coudl not conceive such a factor at my age, yet I still felt terrible for him. He patted my head and stood up, strectching. "You're a good boy son, thank you."

I nodded and stood up as well. He immediately tunred around and limped off after he thought he heard a voice. I could vow that I heard him say that he wouldn't forget my knidness, then again I had already started running off back to my home, never wanting to deal with such a man again.