Disclaimer – I do not own Naruto or Senran Kagura!


"Freak!"

"Look at her ugly eyes!"

"Even her hair color is weird!"

The voices of young children filled the room as they stood around in a small circle. Cruelly, they would not allow the person inside to leave.

The kids within the orphanage, especially in this case of not being adopted after years of potential parent visits, tended to be harsh towards other orphans. This was a problem for the young 8 year old in the middle of the circle.

Hikage stood in the middle of the children, staring ahead at particularly nothing as the verbal insults continued. With her messy shoulder length green hair, yellow eyes with a snake like slit pupil and no emotion showing on her face. She always struggled with emotions and what she should be 'feeling', sometimes even believing she has none. In this case she wondered why the other children were doing this, is she really that different?

"We don't need freaks like you with us, when the adults see kids like you, they won't want us!" The chubby black haired boy yelled right into her face.

"Yeah! Look at her, she doesn't even care that we are yelling at her!" Shouted another short boy with unkempt brown hair as he noticed her bored looking expression.

"We should teach her a lesson!" A black haired girl around the same age remarked as she stared at Hikage with disgust.

The Matrons of the orphanage were so distracted with preparing for welcoming more families to adopt that they weren't checking on the room where some kids were supposed to be playing.

Hikage heard every word but didn't know what to do in this situation, she was used to being yelled at by others, but now with the slightly older children approaching her, her heart started beating faster.

"Oi! Stop right now!" The yell from the doorway drew everyone's attention.

All the kids, including Hikage, turned to who was intervening before they can "teach" her a lesson.

"Oh, it's the other weirdo..." Muttered the brown haired boy.

Standing in the doorway was a boy around the same height of Hikage, looking to be around her age as well. The boy has bright blond hair, framing his head in messy spikes and a pair of clear blue eyes that were staring at the scene before him with anger. But the most peculiar thing about him was the whisker marks that adorned both sides of his face, 3 on each cheek.

"You guys better stop right now or I'll make you pay!" The blond boy yelled pointing at the group of kids.

"Another freak trying to help out the ugly girl, these weirdos are the reason we will never have parents." Remarked the young girl with a grimace, believing these two were the cause of everyone's problems.

Hikage heard the insults but due to her being distracted by the blond boy, she just watched with slightly wide eyes.

The boy on the other hand looked even angrier after hearing the girl's words about adoption.

"You! That's it, I'm gonna kick all your asses! I'll do it for the pretty eyed girl! Remember my name when I do! I'm not a freak, MY NAME IS NARUTO!" The boy rushed at the group of boys and girls, not caring what potential trouble he could be in with the matrons but with anger fueling his steps he blindly ran towards them.

The girls in the group widened their eyes and screamed, scrambling out of the way. While the chubby boy and his partner in crime stared at Naruto with disgust.

"Come on Takeshi, lets teach this freak a lesson first." Said the brown haired boy as he was determined to put this kid in his place.

"Right Michio!" The chubby boy responded.

Once Naruto reached those two, he started throwing out punches and kicks wildly, hoping to show these two that him and the pretty eyed girl weren't freaks!

Unfortunately, due to the size of the other boys they quickly held Naruto down together and started beating on him, punching and kicking almost as wildly as Naruto was beforehand.

Hikage watched this scene and her body was telling her to move, she wasn't sure why, but seeing this boy who shouted his name proudly being beat up to save her from being abused made her chest hurt.

'What is this...' Hikage couldn't put a name to the pain in her chest.

"Stay down you little freak." Takeshi warmed him as Michio was doing his best at holding down the thrashing Naruto.

"You bastards are holding me down! What a cheap way to win!" Naruto roared out with various cuts on his face and a bloody lip staring up at his opponents with hate now.

Hikage didn't want her supposed savior to get hurt anymore despite her uncaring attitude towards everything else. Knowing that the adults were busy, she was about to jump in to help Naruto as much as she can.

However, before she can move again, another voice called out from the doorway, stopping all the kids in the room from either panicking or fighting. "YOU CHILDREN WILL STOP RIGHT NOW!" An old woman screamed loudly, piercing the children's ears with her shrill voice.

'A matron.' Hikage thought but didn't care to remember her name. These people didn't mean much to her.

The women rushed towards the group of fighting boys before pulling them apart and forcing them to stand away from each other.

"You boys will tell me right now what happened! The nerve of you all, on adoption day to do something like this!" She yelled at the 3 boys again.

"They started it! They were picking on the girl with pretty eyes, they said they were gonna teach her a lesson!" Naruto was on the defensive, genuine in his answer.

"He's lying! He always starts trouble around here! He ran towards us when we were playing and started hitting us!" Michio put on his best sad sounding voice to trick the old woman.

Takeshi nodded his head, agreeing with his friend and feigned a look of sadness to the matron.

The matron didn't know who to believe and turned to Hikage and the other girls, but just as Hikage was going to say something for Naruto, the other girls beat her to it.

"It was her fault too Miss! She was telling him to do it." The young girl with black hair cried out.

Hikage snapped her eyes over to the girl, making her shiver seeing those piercing yellow eyes peer into her own. Turning back to the matron she looked at her with teary wide eyes to better sell her lie.

The matron who knew Naruto was prone to trouble and Hikage being generally considering "abnormal" among the staff, was biased in her decision and declared them both as the ones to blame. She was too busy today to take time settling this. None of the staff ever seemed too keen on helping either of these children besides the bare essentials.

"That's it! You two are in trouble, Hikage you take Naruto and help him get cleaned up. Once the parents leave, you both will be properly punished." The now strict sounding voice of the woman said.

Naruto, not one to give up easily was about to shout back when Hikage snapped her eyes to him next, making whatever response he had stop as she stared at his bruised face and busted lip. She proceeded to grab his hand and leave through the door the old woman entered from.

The other children gave smirks seeing the two freaks leave and knowing eventually they will be punished made it a good day for them. Only way it can get better is if they were adopted.

The matron shook her head and breathed out a sigh before watching the problem children exit, she then made her way out to the family room where many families were waiting to meet the children.


"Stupid old hag, stupid Michio, stupid Takeshi, stupid orphanage." Naruto grumbled as he was being dragged slowly through the hallways of the now quiet end of the orphanage towards a bathroom to get cleaned up.

Hikage heard his mumbles but her head was filled with so many thoughts right now that she couldn't even respond to him, she doesn't even know what compelled her to grab his hand.

"Oi, pretty eyes we are at the bathroom, you can let go." The voice cut her out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see Naruto's bright blue eyes staring at her with curiosity.

"Why?" Muttered Hikage

"Eh?" Naruto responded back cluelessly.

"Why did you help me?" Hikage questioned him.

"Oh, because those assholes were gonna hurt ya and I couldn't allow that. They always pick on me too, but you saw I can take care of them with my strength dattebayo!" Naruto said back proudly, pumping his arm into the air. Despite all his injuries and the fact that he didn't win the little fight, he was still cocky.

"Why" Hikage asked yet again.

"Uh, you ask a lot of questions Hebi-chan." Naruto tilted his head at her.

"Hebi-chan? Pretty eyes? Why call me that?" Hikage continues to question him, not understanding his nicknames. She wasn't used to interacting with others.

Rubbing at his nose Naruto blushed a bit before saying "Well you do have pretty eyes, I like the color a lot and they look so cool! Just like a badass snake would! Even your hair color is awesome, I wish I had a cool hair color, like orange...or red...yeah that'd be cool dattebayo." Nodding his head thoughtfully to himself as he finished.

Never having received a compliment for as long as she can remember, Hikage didn't know what to respond to this and just stared with somewhat wide eyes at Naruto because of his words.

Naruto's voice again broke her out of her inner thoughts that were trying to make sense of this strange boy with whisker marks.

"You think you can help me with...uh all this blood from my lip hebi-chan? It kinda hurts ttebayo." Naruto said embarrassedly.

"Hikage."

"Huh?"

"My name is Hikage." She said back to him, this boy seemed a bit slow.

"Eh! I already knew that, the stupid lady said it before we left the room." He replied to her, this girl seemed a bit weird.

"But you won't call me Hikage, why?"

The response she received was a shrug followed by him saying "Dunno, you're hebi-chan from now on." Naruto gave a bright grin at her that she didn't know how to respond to again.

Entering the bathroom to get towels and use water to clean up Naruto's face, Hikage couldn't stop staring at him like he was a living breathing puzzle, while Naruto couldn't stop wondering why she was just holding the towel and not using it to actually help him.

"Hebi-chan a little help please, I know I'm strong, but my arms are a bit sore." Naruto said to her.

Hikage gave a small "Ah" in response to Naruto before helping him clean up the mess that was his supposed "victory". The entire time Naruto was being cleaned up he didn't stop smiling, happy that a pretty girl was hanging out with him for once instead of those losers like Takeshi and the others who made fun of him.

That smile she kept seeing while cleaning his face, invoked something in Hikage that she would become so familiar with in the coming years, but for now it was foreign. That feeling that she couldn't determine was one of warmth, and just from this interaction with Naruto, Hikage's life was changed forever.


Having spent a while cleaning Naruto up, Hikage returned to her small room at the end of a dark hallway to wait for whatever "punishment" the matron talked about before. Hikage was hungry and tired, but she really didn't care about much right now since her mind was too occupied by Naruto.

The orphanage made Hikage uncomfortable, the laughter behind her back, the insults, the adults looking at her weirdly. She didn't understand it when she was younger but now, she knew it wasn't a safe space. When Naruto jumped in today to save her, despite him getting his ass kicked, something in Hikage woke up. She wanted to help him, she wanted to tell the old lady that it wasn't his fault. Even now when she closed her eyes, the image of Naruto grinning while she attempted to clean his face remained. 'Why am I still thinking about him, we just met…' Even in her head she couldn't comprehend why Naruto left such an impression on her.

A bunch of fast knocks at the door broke Hikage out of her thoughts. She figured it was the matron, oh well she'd get this over with so she can either eat or sleep.

Opening the door, Hikage's eyes widened yet again today at the sight of Naruto now changed into a black shirt and orange shorts smiling brightly at her from the hallway.

"Yo hebi-chan I knocked on every door in the hallways until I found your room! Took a while but I wanted to thank you again for helping me." Naruto told her with a smile.

"Ah, but you helped me." Hikage tilted her head at him, not understanding his gratitude.

"Doesn't matter, you helped me get cleaned up and you were gonna stick up for me, that's more than what anyone's done for me in this crappy place." Naruto told her with a grimace now.

"Oh." Hikage didn't know what to respond to that either, but she looked down at the floor as her messy bangs covered her eyes.

"Can I come in? I mean you don't have to let me, but I just want to uh, ya know talk or something dattebayo." Naruto asked while rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

"That's okay I guess." Hikage looked back up at him and moved to the side to allow him to enter. This is the most she's talked with someone, for as long as she can remember in her short 8 years of living.

Naruto smiled as he entered but then frowned at her room, his room wasn't exactly packed with stuff, just mostly stuff he either stole or collected. Hikage's room had basically nothing but a bed, closet and a light. How can she just stay in here doing nothing all day?

Meanwhile while Naruto inspected her room, Hikage just watched him closely, wondering what he exactly wanted and why his eyes and smile made her think she was under a warm blanket.

"Hey hebi-chan... I have an idea..." Naruto trailed off while sitting on her small bed.

"Huh." Hikage responded quietly

"I don't like this place, I'm sick of all the crap the others put me through, and I saw what they did to you, I just feel like... I don't know, can we just leave? Without parents I mean." Naruto questioned staring at the blank ceiling.

"I never had parents ya know, they told me I was just found on the doorstep of the orphanage and it looks like I'll never have them at this rate." he grumbled a bit sadly.

Hikage did relate a lot with Naruto here, she knew that she didn't like this place and would rather leave. Nobody seemed keen on wanting to adopt her due to various reasons and she didn't even know anything about where she came from, only knowing her birthday. However, they were just 8 year old kids, where would they go even if they sneak away?

"How can we leave? We have nothing, and we are only 8." she asked him curiously.

Naruto thought quickly for an answer before snapping his fingers and saying "Hmm well we don't worry about money for now I'm actually really sneaky ya know! I already steal from those old hags. But you're right we are young…I feel like we can do better for ourselves if we get outta here."

It was a dumb idea, something that two children at such an age shouldn't even attempt to do. Living on the streets and surviving was foolish, but for some reason Naruto's grin made Hikage believe. Believe that life can be better out there than in the orphanage.

"What do you say hebi-chan, you in?"

Staring into his blue eyes Hikage gave a single nod that made him smile widen even more. For a moment Hikage could have sworn her own mouth twitched at the sight of his grin.


They both couldn't have picked a better time to try to leave the orphanage. The ladies that take care of the children were too busy managing the affair of parents coming and going from the doors to watch everyone. The kids were told to either wait in their rooms or the playroom until they were hopefully adopted.

Sneaking around happened to be Naruto's specialty. He didn't know why, he just always felt like he knew what he was doing when trying to steal or move around silently, almost like his body moved on its own. He had some money he swiped off the old ladies and even visiting parents stuffed in his pockets. They all had no idea what he did either. Maybe it was because he was so amazing that nobody can detect him, yep that was probably it.

"Why are you doing this?"

The almost bored sounding voice broke him out of his internal boasting as he turned his head to look over his shoulder. Blues eyes coming into contact with yellow slits.

"Eh? Doing what? We are getting outta here"

"Why am I on your back?"

That's right he almost forgot about that, Hikage was so light and he was inside his own head thinking about what window or back entrance he can leave through that he forgot for a second that she was on his back.

"Oh, well I figured we would make less noise if only one of us was walking on the floor, so a piggyback ride seemed okay for you."

Tilting her head Hikage asked "Piggyback?"

"Yeah that's what it's called, carrying you like this, I saw it in a manga! A guy was saving a girl or something and carried her the same way."

"Ah..." the small noise from Hikage told Naruto she understood.

"I can put you down if you don't like it dattebayo..."

Not getting a response back, Naruto peaked over his shoulder again to look at Hikage. Her yellow eyes closed at the moment until she breathed out.

"Smells good." Hikage muttered, loud enough for Naruto to hear.

"Uh..." this girl was weird, she was very pretty to him, but weird.

"...Anyway hebi-chan, once we get to the room where they hold the garbage, we can get outta the window, I tried leaving with the door, but they lock it."

"Mhm." Hikage seemed content to lounge around on Naruto's back and let him go through with his own plan.

Naruto began to feel excited as he rounded the corner to the trash room, this was it, freedom at last. He didn't know what it was, but he honestly felt like he didn't belong here, maybe the orphanage or the town he didn't know, but he felt so out of place and uncomfortable with these people. Hebi-Chan was an exception, they may have just met and she's really weird, but he felt a connection with her already. He wasn't even sure why, maybe the cool hair color? Naruto didn't know what his fascination was with different colored hair, but the brown and the black hair he saw everyday couldn't compare to Hikage's.

"That window?"

It seemed like Hikage loves to break Naruto out of his own thoughts, as she pointed a finger at a window in the top right of the room where a big window was placed leading to the alleyway.

"Yep! Alright hebi-chan let's get outta here."

Almost bouncing with excitement Naruto stopped to put Hikage down, expecting her to get the message and release her hold on his neck.

"Huh?"

"I can't climb up to the window with you on my back ya know."

Hikage seemed almost confused but then figured he was right, it's not like he was a ninja or something that can walk up walls.

"Ah." was the noise she made moving off his back almost snake like and standing behind him on the floor.

"Okay I'm gonna get up there and pull you up, we gotta be quick so nobody comes to check on us."

As if they had divine luck, the people in the orphanage were not interested in taking trash out at that exact time and everything was going smoothly.

A jump onto the windowsill was easy from the furniture in the room for Naruto as he learnt over the side and extended his hand. Hikage thankfully got the message without explanation and grasped Naruto's hand with her own smaller one.

One pull up was all Naruto needed, seriously Hikage was light, really goes to show what the orphanage was feeding them. The window thankfully wasn't locked either, making this breakout anticlimactic.

"I expected this to be harder." Naruto whispered as he was opening the window.

"Do you want it to be?"

"I don't know I guess, I thought it would seem like one of those cool escape scenes from tv!"

"Ah okay." Hikage nodded to herself thoughtfully

"Eh? hebi-chan what're you doing?" Just as he was about to get the window open finally, Hikage decided to use her legs that dangled from the windowsill to kick a hanging cabinet with all her strength, resulting in a loud smacking sound that echoed throughout the room and carried into the halls.

"HEBI-CHAN WHY?!" Naruto was nervous now, he didn't want anyone knowing they left until they could get farther away from the orphanage

"Cool escape scene." Hikage said giving him a peace sign with a deadpan face. This girl was weird.

"...Let's just get out please."

Naruto tugged on Hikage's hand again to help her through the window as they were able to jump down onto the ground of the alleyway.

"Smells like crap…ew."

"You smell better."

"Aha…thank you?"

It seems it would be a long time before Naruto would become used to Hikage's unique way of compliments.

"Where do we go now?" Hikage's deadpan voice carried softly through the alleyway. The outside noise from the city was loud but the kids were in their own little world.

"I guess we live on the streets for now, not like anyone was gonna take us in for adoption anyway...but still let's do this hebi-chan! Me and you against the world! We got some money I took so we can buy food and stuff!" Naruto seemed almost excited to be essentially homeless and without help, but deep down they both knew they had no other options. Even at the age of 8 they were just unwanted by the people in the orphanage and outside it.

Copying the action that Naruto did hours ago when she was cleaning him up, Hikage pumped her fist into the air.

"Woo." The lack of emotion really showed her enthusiasm.

"Eh, we'll work on it."

Somewhere in another life, Hikage made the escape from the orphanage on her own, roaming the streets by herself. But here, she had someone who in the future she would never give up to anyone or anything.

'Why does he smell so good to me though?'

"Hebi-Chan get off me we gotta go! And stop smelling me dattebayo!"

Hikage didn't plan to ever stop.


AN - So this is the first time I've ever written fanfiction, hopefully it goes well. I have read a ton of stories from various authors on this site over the course of a couple years, but a Senran Kagura and Naruto crossover is seemingly rare. I do have ideas for the future of this story if everything works out, and if you're familiar with the Senran Kagura series, you obviously know Hikage is best girl. I'm willing to fight any of you on that. Thanks for reading and please let me know what I'm doing wrong since this is a new experience for me.