Note: Neji is not dead in this story. This takes place before the attack of the village by Pain. Naruto Shippuden.
Chapter 1
The rubble felt like clouds to her for they were something she had wished for long ago. Naomi knew this day would come sooner or later. She stared at what used to be the great Sky Village and the remains of the almighty and powerful sky ninja but she could not find anything that proved that they deserved the term great. They were ruthless and cared more about revenge than rebuilding their culture and society. Shinno played them like pawns and she knew it.
She hated Shinno. His thirst for blood disgusted her but at the time, she did not realize he was so hungry for domination so his almost success was partly her fault. You see, Naomi was important to their success. She was very instrumental in their works because she was a gem they could not afford to lose. Her father had died when she was a child but before he did he managed to teach her some jutsu that was lost to the sky ninjas long ago. To make up for their lack of ancient jutsu, they used technology which she made in hopes they would never find out about her knowledge. She made contraptions that would connect to the body in order for them to fly and they could combine their chakra with it to better control it against the wind. She also created the unstoppable laser that everyone was scared of but she had no idea what its use was intended to be. They were nice projects and they kept her on Shinno's good side…until that day. It all seems so clear now:
He had called her in and she walked in reluctantly like the perfect solider.
"Yes sir? You rang."
"Yes. Naomi, you are one of the best ninja we have and I would like to appoint you as captain of a fleet."
"A fleet for what sir?" Naomi was already not happy that they used to Zero-tails to rebuild their society but now a fleet. She thought it would be over. The Zero-tails was already enough on their heads, especially since no one can really control it.
"I want to send a fleet to the leaf village. With this new technology and power we can destroy them like they destroyed us."
"I thought we were going to rebuild ourselves and rejoin the ninja world."
"Bah, ninja world – we will be the ninja world. Imagine. Just sky ninjas. The world would be such a better place. We are the very best ninja of course. Besides, why rejoin a world that wanted to very much cut us out? After the second world war, everyone else was fine except us. Homeless. Destitute. That is what we all were and we can now make them feel all the pain we have suffered all these years and more."
"No."
"No what?"
"My answer is no. I will not be fleet captain. In fact, I want no part of this. The leaf village will destroy you and this village once more and we will be nothing. And it will be because you are holding onto a past that does not have to repeat itself."
"Why you little – did you forget who practically raise you when your father died?"
"No sir. Of course not. My mother did a very nice job of raising me."
He gripped her up and gritted his teeth. "Your mother died right afterwards so do not play games with me. Do not forget who you are messing with."
"One the contrary do not forget who YOU are messing with." Naomi used her chakra and pushed his body onto the wall and made a break for it. As she ran she heard the words "Alert! Alert! She's escaping". Soon, ninja flooded the hallways.
"Give it up Naomi. Why don't you be a good lil' girl and calm down?"
"I'm not little," she gritted her teeth. She jumped in the air and just as they were about to grab her, her body disappeared into thin air. She landed in a cave where she found light. Her mother sat by the fire in the middle of it. Her death was faked so that Shinno could not try and force information out of her about lost jutsu. In fact, she would have been killed if they did get to her because her father never taught her. Her ignorance of the subject would only make them believe she is lying and need to be punished. She had to keep her mother safe but the cave life would not do forever. She took a rock and scraped the ninja plate with it possibly over 1000 times to get the perfect exiled ninja sign. She did not want to be a sky ninja anymore. They never found her again and were free to do as they wished with no objections.
So, here she was – a tourist in her own country. To you left are the dead ignorant soldiers who fought for honor but only received pain. To the right you will find plates of steel that used to be perfectly in lined with intelligent technology but now it is useless and broken like the history of the sky ninja.
Naomi started to move the rocks and steel to get to the remains of Zero – tails. When she found them, she thought it was strange that the parts were almost pieced together as if all this time it were moving slowly under rubble to put itself back together. One would think that it would take years and years but it was moving fast. She put out her hand, wrote letters on a blank black scroll in its dry blood with the other hand, and watched the letters glow. Then she took the scroll and punched it into her stomach sealing the Zero-tails and all its powers inside of her. It left a strange swirled mark around her belly button but she doubted no one would notice. Tattoos. They are in style. She had to do it for the sake of the world so when she dies, it dies with her.
Naomi ran home shortly afterwards. There was nothing left to see of her fallen homeland. She built her mother a house in the country with a farm so that she could still make some money. She hired workers and has been getting along very well but Naomi could not stay there and live a farm girl life as much as her mother would have liked. Being a ninja is not something that just goes away and with her there, things may very well catch us. Sometimes it's better to be apart. So she parted from her mom with only the promise of visiting often and set out for (ironically) the leaf village to see what was so "evil" about it.
Naomi POV
With everything packed, I moved my hands quickly and transported myself to the leaf village. It took me to the gates. I sure do wonder if I would be even allowed to just step foot in here, hopefully my strike shows something….wait. It means I'm a criminal. Yes, just my luck. I guess it's worth the shot or maybe even finding some new clothes. Yes, masking my identity would work well. I quickly stashed my ninja headband into my bag and walked in.
Woah…This is so…like…medieval. Everything looks so authentic and so…so…non-electronic. It is much different from back home. Their technology could use some work but if they defeated us easily, they jutsu and fighting skills must be good. As I was admiring, I was quickly interrupted by a loud…
"CHAAAAAAAA! Naruto! You need to take training more seriously!"
"Gosh, I'm sorry Sakura but I really can't train on an empty stomach. Just one little break please. You've been starving me for 4 hours now."
I walked in that direction and saw that a pink haired girl was choking a blonde boy who was just begging her to stop. "Excuse me…"
She stopped and turned towards me. "Oh, hello there. Are you lost? I've never seen you before." The boy looked at me also with interest.
"Yes, I was just visiting and you two were talking about training. You see, if he does not eat even just a little bit, his body will start to feed off of itself for nutrients. So, he should take a food break…I think. But if you really want to train still, I'd be happy to spar with you."
"No offense but it would pointless to spar with someone who was not a ninja as well."
Some other ninja started to walk towards us. There was a guy sitting on a large dog, a guy with big bushy eyebrows, and a blonde girl with abnormally large breasts.
"Pointless. I see," I felt a little insulted. I tried my best but I could not control my tongue. "Does that mean that you are scared to find a commoner?"
Her and the other ninjas looked at me. The blonde boy tried to console me.
"What she means is that she does not want to hurt you."
"Hurt me? You know, the biggest problem with ninjas is that many underestimate their opponents."
"Okay, I'll take you on then," the pink haired girl finally gave in. "But we will need to go a little further outside the village to spar."
"No problem. Just tell me where."
They led the way and I followed on foot so I would not give up any element of surprise. Perhaps these ninjas could assist me in my quest. We finally got to a field. Everyone decided to watch so they were on the sidelines. Well…the top of trees for some reason.
"Okay, ready?" She yelled from her side.
I threw my bag to the top of the tree and nodded in agreement. She ran, jumped up high, and rammed her fist into the ground making the earth beneath my feet crack and separate. I jump up before I can crash down with it, transport behind her like lightning, and grab her body. I carry her weight and toss it to the tree. Her weight and the impact knock down the top half of the tree. Falling to the ground, I quickly move my hands, lick my fingers, and ram my fingers into the ground, making a line of fire follow her. She gets up and runs but it follows her regardless. I raise a sign up to the sky and rain wipes away the flames and disappears afterwards. Everyone looks at me in awe. I hope I did not do too much that they would figure out I am a sky ninja….
The blonde boy runs to me. "How do you know jutsu?"
The one with the dog asks the same but demands answers. The pink hair girl runs to me and introduces herself.
"My name is Sakura…You're amazing but you cannot be any commoner. You'd have to go through ninja training to be able to master anything fire related."
While I was thinking of what to say, my eyes caught the image of a boy standing on a tree branch. He had long brown hair and gray blank eyes. He stared down at me, contemplating. Those eyes….they captured me.
Neji POV
I had come home early from a mission and heard all the commotion from the training camps so I thought I would check it out. Little did I know there would be a show going on. Now, Sakura is mostly brute strength. Her specialties lie in healing but the fact that she was training with a commoner dumbfounded me. If anything, she should be practicing alone and brushing up on some jutsu that may prove to be useful in battle, but today, that was not the case. She was battling with a commoner…or so I thought.
I watched, thinking it would be an easy win for Sakura but I was wrong. The unknown character used fire and rain, but the presentation of each jutsu was very strange. And when she transferred – it looked very similar to Mabui's heavenly transfer technique though I always thought it was not recommended for human bodies because it cannot handle the speed of light. There is something strange about her.
Now that she has beaten Sakura, I feel compelled to take a better look at her. I stared at her. She looks rather innocent. She is of very small stature but despite that, her jet black hair is ridiculously long. It arrives just above her ankles and bears no curl at the ends. Her eyes have an emerald green color to them and they compliment her creamy mocha skin. She wore ninja like attire though with tight shorts, blue shoes, black crop top with fishnet above her cleavage, and a white cloth that was tied so that it hung in front of her pants. What intrigued me the most was the symbol on her stomach….
I did not realize how long I was staring at her because she eventually started staring back…our eyes met…
This is a very weird feeling.
Naomi POV
"Who is that?" I asked, referring to the guy on the branch who just kept staring at me intensely.
"Oh that's just Neji," the blonde boy grinned, "my name's Naruto by the way. Naruto Uzimaki. And I'm going to be hokage someday. You know, you should teach me some of those tricks. A lot of people do not know how to use fire jutsu."
"Hey Neji! It's okay! You can stop creeping now and come talk to her!" The boy on the dog grinned. "The name's Kiba."
Bushy brows smiled. "Rock Lee."
The blonde girl giggled. "Ino. Pleasure to meetcha'."
Neji jumps down from the branch. "My name is Neji and I was not creeping. I was merely observing." He then crossed his arms. "Those hand movements. I've never seen those before. Where did you learn how to do that? No commoner could possibly have the resources or the connections to that knowledge – not even properly trained ninjas do."
I looked at them. "There's only so much I can say for it may endanger my life."
"What do you mean by that?"
"My name is Naomi," I told them. I trusted Neji's eyes. "I am a runaway ninja from another village. My father taught me everything I know before he died when I was a child in hopes I would use it to protect my mother. She in return lives a happy life on a farm and I cannot continue to live with her in fear that one day something may happen again because I am there with her. Being a ninja is not easy. I came to the leaf village to talk to the hokage but I got sidetracked. It was nice to meet all of you…"
"What village did you run away from?"
"I can't tell you that…I'm sorry." I started to walk away but then Neji grabbed my arm.
"I will escort you to the Hokage but afterwards, I do want answers. Regardless, you obviously don't know where you're going so I will have to guide you." He then turned me around sharply, wrapped his arm around mine, and we started walking. He was….holding me. I think if I were to die right now with the rest of the country…I would die happy because a beautiful, handsome young man is holding me and if he stops, I will still feel his hands on my arms…like a permanent tattoo.
*Haven't updated in soooo long. College applications and school killed me. I was drawing my oc for Naruto and I couldn't resist making a new story and concerning her and my one true love: NEJI! When he died, I died with him so I decided to bring my hubby back to life. Review and tell me what you think of Naomi and Neji. And I should be updating other stories as well, if I have the inspiration a next chapter of course. See ya. –Nefis*