May 8th, 2013: EDIT: Hi! This story reached 100 favourites - wow! Thank you for that! Ideas are speculating and now I'm wondering...how do you feel about on a Spin-Off? An in between sort of story that expands on their relationship? If you're possibly interested, do leave a review (I deleted a chapter, so you may have to sign off as guest...) or a PM would be great :) If there's some feedback, I'll get started as quick as possible and it could be posted up by tomorrow!
Thank you :)
A/N to Returning Readers: Sorry about the false update, I just changed some chapters and fixed up the grammar! Hope you enjoy, nonetheless! :)
Prologue
"Mom – mom, please, please! No, no…this can't – this can't…happen,… please mom," her voice was shaking, quivering, "I'm so sorry, I'm so so sorry; I didn't mean for this to happen, I swear – mom! Mom!"
A broken sob, words incomprehensible. It didn't matter anymore. She was gone.
Chapter One: Meet Team Seven
"Perfect, Sasuke, absolutely perfect."
With a puff of smoke, his form reassembled itself - the reappearance of the pale boy with dark hair and darker, cool eyes. He slowly walked to the counter and ignoring the smiles of the three chunin in front of him, he grabbed the forehead protector that they held out proudly and left the room. Closing the door behind him, he gave one glance to the metal plated cloth before putting it in his pockets along with his hands. As he did so, his eyes flickered up to meet the gaze of a plain, brown haired girl. He narrowed his eyes but didn't stop.
In alphabetical order, it made sense that she was behind him - and yet, he was sure no one expected her to arrive to the exams.
There was always something strange about Reiko Yukimora. Maybe it the fact that she always alone in her class, yet everybody glanced over at her ever so often. Or maybe it was despite the fact that she was alone, she always seemed happy. Reiko would sit there in the midst of her class – big, chocolate eyes observing yet completely detached. Those eyes, he recognized. But her presence itself was quite rare.
Either way, she - like the rest of them - would eventually fall into place and start a one-sided romance - no, obsession, with him anyway. And from what little he knew of her, he doubted she would make it to genin anyway.
0-0
It was the day of the Graduation exam when Reiko forced herself to go to the Academy. She had gone in, did the jutsu - pretending she didn't see Iruka-sensei's hesitant eyes - and passed without too many complications. Distractedly playing with the ninja headband in her hands as she walked out of the Academy, she looked up to see a blonde boy, his eyes darkened with a sort of loneliness she recognized.
It was Naruto, she had seen him here and there. But because of...reasons she couldn't quite form real friendships with anyone. But seeing the look on his face, she opened her mouth, about to call at him - because why not? They were all celebrating now – but then a familiar burning in her chest shook her, and she knew that she had to leave. She made a sharp turn and walked home quickly, only pausing to look up to smile at those who waved at her.
"Congratulations, Rei!" an old woman called out fondly. It was the owner of the dango shop in front of her, practically her second home. She stopped, and waved enthusiastically at the senior but that alone made her unbelievably exhausted, the muscles in her arm sore so with a polite bow, she continued on home and ridiculously out of breath. Come on, Rei, not today...not today. But despite the half-hearted self-encouragement, the moment the door closed she collapsed against it and fell down, pulling up her knees and leaning against it, wrapping her arms around the bony, twelve year old knees with equally weak and arms to slim and lacking of muscles to be a real kunoichi's. She took a deep breath, her forehead against her knees.
"Not today," she said quietly, eyes shut.
Echoes were prominent throughout the compound. She was alone, and she was going to let the exhaustion win.
0-0
"You're late!"
"Huh?" Rei looked around the class, only seeing Iruka-sensei there. She had a dreamy gaze, as if she was not quite there. He sighed and hit his palm against his face. He knew about her situation – why she was so infrequently at the Academy, but today was important. Since she had arrived on time yesterday for the exam, Iruka had figured she would be present for the squad distribution as well, but apparently not. Although the Hokage had gone to measures to include her in the process of forming the squad, she was just thrown on to any squad that he felt would not be burdened by her lack of participation. The fact was...there was only one group left for her that was still here that wouldn't be set off balanced in skill. Iruka walked up closer to the young girl.
"Will you be okay today?" he asked hesitantly. He was never sure. Sometimes, Reiko came in all excited and determined to work - only for her to be gone by lunch time and not back until the next day. She gave him a small smile, her brown eyes holding that same hopefulness as she had when she arrived at the Academy at seven years old, an orphan.
"Sure I will," she said slowly but sounded just a little unsure of it herself.
I hope Kakashi will be a little more lenient with this one..."Then I think your team is waiting for you outside on the terrace."
0-0
"…restore my clan, and destroy a certain someone."
"…"
Silence everywhere except for the sounds of the birds chirping...then an awkward laugh. "Woah."
All four ninjas turned to the girl who stepped out on the balcony. Her eyes were wide, slightly surprised but mostly amused but a bit scrambled. "Am I at the right place?" she asked in a light tone, playfully confused. Sasuke's dark aura immediately disappeared at the sight of the brunette girl. It was as if she was intruding on his moment, breaking the tension.
"Huh?! You're on our team too?" Naruto cried out, his blue eyes squinting. Although he wasn't one to be picky, he had never thought that Rei - Rei - would be on a team with him. Then again, so was Sasuke and Sakura so why not add to the squad of opposing powers?
"Naruto!" Sakura scolded.
"What – what? I was just wondering, I mean, I've never even see Rei fight…"
The pink haired girl and the blonde boy continued their ramble, but Sasuke felt almost...well, not embarrassed but not at ease. He turned his eyes away from her quickly, seemingly glaring at a speck of dust. As for Kakashi…he was staring at her. Hard.
Because Reiko looked so much like Rin. His Rin.
She had the collar length, brown hair, the bright large brown eyes and friendly face. She blinked. "I was away for a bit...and Iruka just sent me here," she explained, carefully watching the other reactions. Sasuke avoided her gaze but Naruto seemed naively excited now that he had gotten over his short-lived surprise. Sakura just smiled at the other girl supportively. At last, Kakashi blinked, repressing all the thoughts of his past and focusing on the present. Yet still, the girl reminded him so vividly of her…
"That's fine," Kakashi said in a slow measured tone, "why don't you introduce yourself?"
"Introduce myself?" she echoed and tapped her lip, looking up at the sky. She hated introductions, she never knew what quite to say. "Well, my name is Reiko Yukimora, um, or Rei, and…I want to help people. Work at the hospital someday, maybe be a medic-nin." She shrugged and smiled at her sensei. Exactly like Rin.
Compared to the other three's answers, hers stood out the most. It wasn't childish or disturbing…it was sincere. It was attainable but in the same time, it wasn't. When he read her profile, there was nothing very much impressive about her at all. A young girl - an orphan, like the other two of his team - with average chakra. Poor attendance, but was up to par. What even made him remember her, if not for his intelligence, was the fact that like Rin, she had a medical background attributed by the amount of hours she had checked in the hospital - as a patient. Regardless, she wasn't too special. But meeting her in real life was a large contrast. Pictures and words couldn't properly describe the genuine tone or eyes she had.
"Good." He responded at last, his eyes scanning the group. A blonde, idealistic idiot. Minato's son, the jinchuriki. A dark and self-absorbed brat. The last Uchiha. A pinkette fangirl. An intelligent kunoichi. And a completely average, brown haired girl. The sick orphan. "You're each unique and you have your own ideas. We'll have our first mission tomorrow." I wonder if Reiko would fail this one.
0-0
"Hey – wait up!" Rei called out quickly before Sasuke disappeared around the corner. She ran up behind him, trying not to make her breathlessness obvious. He raised an eyebrow, but said nothing else. Brooding as always, she thought, resisting the urge to shake her head. But if she was going to be seeing him for the majority of her ninja career, she decided to make the first move knowing that no one would do the same for her. "Are you busy?"
"Why?"
His curtness surprised her, but she was one of the girls who smiled compulsively so she continued anyway. "Well, I figured that since we'll be in a team, we should get to know each other."
He stared at her, but his eyes weren't cold – she didn't see it though. She didn't know him well enough to distinguish his glares from glances. So she awkwardly continued, wondering what the hell got into her to find the nerve to talk to the Uchiha. She should have approached Sakura first - they were both kunoichi, after all, or maybe even Naruto. He was loud and brash, but harmless. "If you want, I mean. The Dango shop is pretty -"
"No." He said no to Sakura too because she was annoyingly persistent and had been asking that same question for the last couple years. But with Rei – who just looked honestly interested in 'getting to know' him, didn't deserve to be completely shot down. As he turned away, he added, "Not really," as if it would soften the blow. Her smile dropped but she just nodded. "Okay." She shrugged, trying to play it cool. Her palms were in the air and her eyes were bright and smiling, "it's okay."
Yet when the sun began setting, he wandered around the village and found himself going towards the Dango shop. It was strange. He knew that he would run into her surely and yet he made no move to avoid it. And as he walked by the sweets shop now and Rei looked up and turned to beam at him – he felt…not alone.
And he wasn't.
Because behind her was Sakura and Naruto.
The sense of comfort was fleeting, and his eyes slit into a glare at the irritating duo. Sakura perked up.
"Oh Sasuke! You came!" she cheered with a giggle that was anything but subtle. Naruto looked surprise that Sasuke arrived as well, but he just muttered to himself and seemed intent on ignoring him. Sasuke was thrown off guard and immediately he planned some sort of way to escape. Hell, he would prefer to just walk right by them and ignore the other ninjas - or whatever they were. To think I put myself in this situation...
But when he stopped at a distance from them, Rei's smile dropped visibly. Her eyebrows pulled together and she took a step closer towards the dark haired ninja. "Sasuke?"
And something about the way she said his name made him stay.
I'm back in the Naruto Fandom!
Yes, this is a SasukexOC fanfiction...which is a bit different since everybody here seems to love SakuraxSasuke. Still, this is just a testing of the first chapter! I hope you enjoyed nonetheless.
Tell me what you think! :)
