SUMMARY:
She's the girl who can't seem to have others keep their eyes off her. Not cause she's attractive, but because she isn't.
She's the girl that's constantly teased and denied of any meaningful friendships. Not cause no one refuses to speak with her, but because they act fake or she drifts away from them.
The girl who's cynical and insecure yet sensitive to the core.
Nia Umino is the kunoichi whom is a master at taijutsu, a decent genjutsu user, but a complete amateur at ninjutsu. She's a strategist in glasses and is determined to find a certain Toad Sage sannin who'll help her in two different prospects of her life.
He's the boy whose been alone his whole life. Not cause he chose to, but because it was forced upon him.
He's the boy who was treated like a monster. Not cause of how he looked or act, but because of what's inside him.
The boy who's optimistic and confident yet stubborn to the core.
Naruto Uzumaki is the ninja whom is diligent in whatever he does, empathetic and kind to the unfortunate, but impulsive in battle. He is a knucklehead who never goes back on his word and is fixated on making the ninja world he lives in a better place for everyone.
Both are understanding individuals who wish for complete contentment and peace in their everyday lives. When these two meet, will they connect on a deep level or will one or the other focus on someone whom they can't fully get over?
{CONTAINS POPULAR NARUTO PAIRINGS}
[WARNING: CONTAINS MATURE THEMES AND MILD SWEARING! PG-13+]
******
I DO NOT OWN NARUTO SHIPPUDEN OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS! I ONLY OWN CHARACTERS WHO NEVER APPEARED IN THE SHOW/MOVIES AND THE PLOT OF THE FANFIC!
Cover By: JanaeH
Chapter 1: Nia Umino~ Fan Of Jiraiya
Exhaustion was the word for it... No, fatigue was more like it; Fatigued by a long journey to the Hidden Stone Village then back to the Hidden Cloud that is. A team of four was now headed to the Raikage's office to report what went down during their mission to send a special message to the Tsuchikage from the Raikage.
It was a message concerning a recent event that had been occurring between the two villages. On the way there, Karui, a kunoichi with red long hair, dark skin, and amber eyes continuously debated with her brother, Omoi, about what they thought the Raikage would give them as a reward for completing the task.
"I'm telling you Karui, it's going to be a rank up to jonin." Omoi said as he sucked on a red sucker in his mouth.
Omoi shared the same skin tone as his sister but his hair and eye color were different. His short somewhat spiky hair was white and his eyes were black. Despite the strange hair color, Omoi remained as a handsome young man.
"Are you really that dense, Omoi?" Karui replied, "We didn't do anything that huge to get jounin level."
As brother and sister bickered, another teammate their age walked quietly behind them with a book in her hands. Her eyes never left the page she was on and yet she was able to walk freely around her surroundings without bumping into a single thing or person.
Tales Of A Gutsy Ninja
That was the name of the book the lady was reading. Karui noticed her teammate reading the book and snatched it from out the girl's hand.
"This again, Nia?" The redhead holdef the book upside down, causing her associate to lose the page she was on.
"Don't do that, give me it back." Nia reached for her book only for Karui to twirl around and avoid Nia's attempt to grab her belonging.
"Karui!"
"What? What's wrong?" Karui snickered, "Can't get your book back from me?"
Nia remained quiet and stopped her actions; She hoped that if she didn't do anything, Karui would just give the book back. However, that plan backfired.
"Not gonna fight for this? Well, I'll just keep this safe with me."
Again, Nia didn't speak; she was frightened to. Karui isn't the type of person that she would want to mess with. Nia has seen the brutality in Karui's personality and didn't want to end up like her one of her other victims.
"Karui, hand the book back!"
Karui and Nia turned to see their sensei, Samoi, sauntering a few feet away. The blonde hair blue-eyed woman had witnessed what went down between her younger teammates. Karui, realizing she was caught doing wrong, rolled her eyes and pushed Nia's book against her comrade's chest.
Nia smiled in relief as her book was once again in her possession.
Seeing that his sensei was lagging behind everyone, Omoi rushed to her side and began messaging her shoulders.
"Omoi, what do you think you're doing?" Samoi stopped.
"I saw that you were quite far from the rest of us. Sensei, these large breasts of yours is beginning to slow you down, Listen, if you need me to message your shoulders at anytime, let me know."
Karui crossed her arms, "Like she would want you to do that for her. Just admit it, you're being a pervert."
"You're just mad because you have no breasts; you're as flat as a wall." Omoi retaliated.
Karui glared at her brother then cracked her knuckles, "WHAT WAS THAT?!"
"You heard me! I said-"
"Quiet!" Samoi hushed, "We're here."
Immediately, Karui and Omoi closed their mouths and prepared to face the village's leader. Nia became slightly nervous as the door opened.
"Ah, there you are, Samoi; How'd the mission go?" A very large built, middle-aged, intimidating man speaks with such high authority.
"Good Sir! My team was successfully able to carry out the message to the Tsuchikage himself." Samoi responded before she handed a scroll to the kage.
The large man unrolled the scroll and read over it.
"Hmm, I see." His eyes shifted right to left a few times before re-rolling the scroll, "So, the Stone won't cooperate with the Cloud..."
"It seems that way." Samoi spoked.
The Raikage slammed his fist down his desk, "ARGH!"
No one moved a muscle.
'What is it that they want from us if it isn't our weapons?!' Raikage asked himself silently in his thoughts.
The room stayed silent as the Raikage tried to come up with a solution to the request that the Tsuchikage had sent his fellow kage. About a couple weeks ago, a ninja of the hidden cloud had encountered the Tsuchikage of the Hidden Stone whilst out on a mission. Apparently, the ninja had accidentally crashed into the elderly man and injured his back then left without apologizing. A Stone ninja was then sent to give the message to the Raikage about the incident and ordered the middle-aged man to give an apology to the elderly gentleman for the mess one of his ninjas did. The old man hasn't been up right since then.
With a lump in her throat, Nia nervously said, "Sir, maybe apologizing isn't too bad to do."
"Quiet!" Raikage once again pounded on the desk, "The Tsuchikage's request for me to go down all the way to the Stone just to apologize for something I didn't even do is absurd!"
"Y-Yes! Of course." Nia responded as her body trembled slightly.
With a groan, the Raikage sat back down on his chair, "I guess it can't be helped... Darui!"
A male with white shaggy hair, dark skin, a slightly large nose, and eyes that usually looked bored, stepped next to his superior; He wore the traditional jonin outfit.
"Darui, you are to watch this office while I'm out for a few days; don't let anybody into the village unless it's one of our villagers."
Darui nodded his head, "Yes, understood."
"All right, Team Samoi, you're dismissed. Good job on your mission." Raikage gave us his acknowledgement.
"Thank you, Sir. Have a safe trip." Samoi smiled.
"Hold on."
All four team members stopped their actions.
"Nia, I'm gonna need to talk to you alone." The Raikage pointed his finger at the teen.
Nia nodded and everyone but her, Darui, and the Raikage left the room. The girl stood awkwardly in front of her superiors.
"How's your training been?" Raikage broke the silence.
"Not as good as I hoped." Nia mumbled.
"What do you mean?"
"I just... lack motivation..."
"Training to strengthen your ninjutsu and become a chuunin should be your motivation!"
"Y-Yes." Nia nodded shamefully.
The older man sighed and leaned back on his chair.
How on earth can this girl get to improving her ninjutsu? She has hardly no motivation and even Samoi can't seem to get this girl on her feet nor the classes she took at Kumogakure High School.
The Raikage recognized the book in Nia's hands, "That's one of Jiraya's books, isn't it?"
"Yeah; Do you know him or something?"
"That doesn't matter... Just hand that over to me."
Hesitant, but not wanting to anger her superior, Nia handed over her book.
"I'll have to hold onto this so that you can get the drive to train your hardest; I believe this book is slowing you down for some reason. Nia, you just finished your first year at the high school not too long ago, now is the time to show me what you learned in all the missions that is to come."
Nia had no response.
"This book will be returned to you once I see progress with your training. If it does not improve even slightly, I will be forced to send you back to the academy; Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes." Nia mumbled.
"I can't hear you!" Raikage yelled.
"YES!" Nia shouted.
"Good. You're dismissed."
Moonlight entered through the blinds of Nia's room; She shared the room with her younger sister, Misumi, who's about a year and a half younger than her, having just turned fifteen in May while Nia was approaching seventeen-years-old in a few months.
"Misumi?" Nia called as she stared up at the ceiling. The light coming through the blinds made a shape on the ceiling similar to that of a crayon.
"What?" Misumi answered before laying herself down on the floor.
The two girls shared a bunk bed in their room since the ages of eight and ten. Recently, Misumi had disliked sleeping on the top bunk and would rather sleep on the floor.
"The Raikage and I had a chat again." Nia talked, "It was about my training with ninjutsu. I told him that I'm lacking motivation to do the work."
"Well, maybe if you weren't so lazy and reading that book all day long, you'd probably get somewhere."
"I'm not lazy and I don't read all day long! I write too!"
"Oookay." Misumi sarcastically muttered.
Nia smiled then flipped on her lamp. The yellow light illuminated the bedroom. Misumi squinted her dark brown eyes and covered her face with her long, straight brown hair. Nia stared at the small scratch on her sister's tan skin; It was on her arm.
She must've gotten that while training or being on a mission...
Nia grabbed a cup filled with water off the night table next to her bed and sat up, staring at her reflection.
Her dark brown eyes was behind large black frames of her glasses. Her dark brown hair was put into a messy bun with bangs hanging off each side of her head, and her brown skin seemed to glisten in the reflection. However, despite these nice features, Nia could only focus on two things: Her smile and left eyebrow.
Her eyebrow wasn't like the norm. At about a center of it, a few hairs had made a slight curl upwards; It had always been that way since the day she was born. Though Nia saw it as something that made her look unique, others had constantly teased her about this feature. Her smile, on the other hand, was something she was insecure about. Nia never smiled with her teeth showing cause she was embarrassed about the fact that she had a minor open bite that formed after all the years of her having the bad habit of sucking her left index and middle finger as a child.
The reason for this was because of the immense comfort it brought her after a long day of teasing. To her, she compared the habit like how someone enjoyed smoking or drinking cause it "soothed" them. No one knew she had this habit except for her family and of course, herself. Another problem was her eyes; they would always look squinted thanks to her cheekbones pressing up against it tightly while laughing or grinning. However, at least when she were to laugh or smile, others would be able to easily determine if it was a genuine one.
Nia drinked out of the cup; she set it down again and sighed.
"I want my book back."
Misumi brushed her hair out of her face with her fingers, "Why do you care so much about that boring book?"
Her sister grinned, "Cause."
"Cause what?"
Nia thought of the hero in her favorite story. His bravery, kindness, maturity, and desire for peace soothed her soul. She imagined the man to be extremely handsome and tall.
"The plot is awesome..."
Misumi raised an eyebrow, "And..."
Nia looked down at her hands on her lap.
She already knows why I love the book so much so why does she always urge me to spill it out?
"The character." Nia admitted.
Misumi laughed, "Knew it."
"Why did you ask me that if you already know?" The sixteen-year-old smiled as she laid down on her mattress again.
"It's just funny."
"But how? You know what it's like having a crush on... Non-existent people..."
Nia's response didn't stop Misumi from giggling even louder.
The two girls were always close since childhood; As kids they were inseparable and did everything together like best friends would: Tell secrets, play, go to the academy together, etc.
"Your crushes on them are different than mine; With you, you actually fall in love with them while mines remain just as a tiny crush and/or a feeling of adoration." Misumi resumed the conversation.
"I guess." Nia agreed.
My crushes have been more intense than her's since childhood... It's actually a little embarrassing sometimes but I can't help it.
"I mean, it's not like I never had a crush on real guys, you know; I've liked plenty."
"Yeah, but it was mostly fictional characters you've crushed on." Misumi sighed, "Well, you did have a huge crush on Peron when you were eleven to twelve and Bejiri at-"
"Don't bring up that name!" Nia became agitated suddenly. Her smile faded immediately.
The long-haired sibling frowned and quietly thought to herself:
She's changed ever since that whole Bejiri thing when she was thirteen to fourteen. With Peron, she always wore a smile on her face and talked to him quite a bit to actually like him for the person he was. The two were definitely into one another but slowly they drifted apart because Peron went off to one of the smaller villages.
Misumi clenched her fist and subconsciously formed a annoyed facial expression.
Then Bejiri showed up and wooed Nia into liking him. Though the two were too shy to get to know each other, it was still kinda cute how they would glance at one another often and smile.
Anyone who'd payed any attention to those two would see there was a strange yet special between them. But still... what they had going on was strange and not very healthy. Nia got really obsessed over a guy she barely knew and within time of not having the courage to speak to one another, Bejiri eventually got a girlfriend and Nia didn't find out about it until a month or two later; breaking her fragile heart and angering me very much.
Misumi face softened as she watched Nia grab another copy of her favorite book from underneath her bed and opened it to the page she was on.
Even after all the heartache, Nia still remained attached to Bejiri, who was a handsome young man with a slim yet tone body, black hair and eyes, fair skin, and was of average height. For quite some time she felt these unhealthy feelings. No longer did she smile as much as she used to years prior; She just couldn't find a reason to and let her sensitive emotions run over her. Depression, jealousy, and bitterness set in as a result; her world shut down and she avoided anyone who wanted to give her comfort: her family, sensei, and Raikage himself. Killer Bee, knowing and understanding her desire to be accepted and acknowledged by others other than her family, gave her some consoling and at least managed to get the girl to go out on missions again, though her eyes still had a touch of sorrow in them.
It wasn't until she stumbled upon Jiraiya's, Tales Of A Gutsy Ninja, that she began to feel a change of mood. On that day, in late spring, Jiraiya had been carrying a large overflowing luggage of every book he had so far written and was planning to have another book signing in the Hidden Leaf after returning from a long trip of doing "research". On his way there, a few books of his novel fell out of its bag without the old man noticing. Nia, who was on a mission at the time, spotted the books. She mistaken it as one of the enemy's possessions, brought it to her village, and was told it had no importance or connections with the mission and/or enemy. So, being that she enjoys reading, Nia got curious and read the summary then first chapter and instantly became hooked; Never did she leave her home without at least one copy of it with her. The story had touched her heart enough to do so.
"Did Iruka send a letter yet?" Misumi changed the subject.
Nia eyes didn't leave her eyes off the book, "Yeah. Mom and Dad has it. You didn't read it yet?"
"No." Misumi shook her head, "What did it say?"
"Iruka says that he's doing alright at the Hidden Leaf and that another group of his students had made it to genin rank a while ago. Apparently, one of them was the late third hokage's grandson; you know, Konohamaru Sarutobi?"
"Never met the guy."
"Me either. Iruka says he is a huge troublemaker but definitely has potential to be as great as his grandfather one day. I think he's a preteen now."
"What about that jinchuuriki boy that they have in Konoha?" Asked Misumi, "What was his name again?"
Nia tried to remember the name, but nothing ringed a bell, "I don't know. Um, I think that they might still have the host alive there... well... maybe."
"Do you remember what he looked like?"
Again Nia tried to remember. Nothing but one thing came to mind.
"His eyes were a deep blue and were quite large."
"I can't remember anything about that boy's physical appearance hardly. Well, he did have those weird marks on his face. Other than that, I can't remember. I haven't seen him for years after all." Misumi responded.
"Well, it's been years for me also you know."
Misumi looked down.
'I know it was a long time ago, but I wonder if Nia still remembers...' She thought.
Almost as if the two had the same mind, Nia spoked, "We used to play with him sometimes when we were toddlers. Back before we were forced out of the village and came here, remember? In the park..."
Misumi nodded slowly, "He seemed so lonely... I always wondered where his parents were whenever the sun set and everyone else's parents brought their kids home."
"Yeah..." Nia agreed with a sad tone.
Misumi caught this, "You sounded sad there."
"No." Nia denied, "It's just, our parents and older siblings always told us to not be around that kid; Not that they hated him or anything, but because they thought he would kill us. I just think that all the other children's parents told their kids that too."
"Yeah, I remember... Even Iruka was harsh towards that kid a little. You could tell by looking into his eyes."
About a dozen years ago, Nia and her entire family had been residing in the village hidden in the leaves. During the attack of the Nine Tails, Nia had been no older than seventeen days, Her parents and Iruka's had went off to battle the beast. Unfortunately, only Nia's father, Iruka's father's brother, and her mother, made it out alive thanks to the third hokage, who had saved them with reinforcements.
At the memorial, tears were shed, and Nia's parents attempted to comfort Iruka, who felt very alone and depressed because of the lost of his parents. For a while, Iruka lived with his uncle's family. As Nia grew older, she noticed that Iruka would look at a particular child her age and glare coldly at him whenever he happened to be within sight. His eyes wouldn't leave the kid and the mean look in them frightened his three-year-old cousin.
Again and again she was told to never go by the boy. However, in order to get to her home, she needed to walk past the noodle shop he would normally eat in and the apartment building he lived in. Sometimes, the two would stumble upon eachother and glance at one another, but none would say anything. One day, while playing outside, Nia spotted the young boy running away from the adults who were chasing him because of his harmless prank of painting throughout the homes of the village. The kid was covered with different colors of paint on his face, hair, and clothes. Since he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, the child tripped over a rock and spilled paint all over the person in front of him: Nia.
The girl cried after realizing what had happened, and, feeling guilty but not wanting to get caught by the adult ninjas, the boy sprinted to his home that he lived in alone. As always, the older generation made complaints to Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, ordering that he kick the child troublemaker out of the village; The Third would not.
Just the next day, the jinchuuriki spotted tiny Nia at the park with other children and approached her; apologizing for what he had incidentally done to her. When the parents seen that the boy was in the area where their children were, they took their kids by the hand and left immediately before the boy could interact with any of them.
Nia was somewhat still shaken up from the previous morning; her body trembled.
The boy saw this and looked to the ground with hurt feelings.
"Why is everyone so scared of me?" He asked with a shaky voice.
The Umino girl didn't really understand why the boy was acting the way he was and insensitively answered, "My Family says you're scary cause you're going to kill me if I get close to you and I shouldn't ever play with you or be your friend."
Offended by her harsh words, the boy became angry and yelled at her saying that her and her family are stupid and that he was gonna be recognized as someone who would be treated with kindness while tears rolled down his face.
"My Mommy and Daddy mostly said that stuff; I don't think you look scary; You don't have really long nails, sharp teeth, and a lot of tails; I think you look normal and nice." Nia innocently talked, "I only think you're kinda scary because you spilled that Colory stuff on me yesterday; it got me dirty and in trouble."
The boy wasn't exactly sure how to respond. A part of him was mad because Nia said she found him kinda scary, but another part of him was relieved and happy cause she didn't see him as a nuisance that other people saw him as. He had thought that the girl was scared that he would attack her, not because she didn't want him to get paint on her and get her in trouble again. The only thing that confused him was when she was using adjectives that would be used for animals or beasts. The boy didn't understand why she was comparing that to him.
"Nia!"
The two children looked to see who was approaching them. A young boy who looked to be thirteen came into view. His hair was brown and kept in a ponytail, his eyes were dark, skin was a light brown, and had a scar running across the bridge of his nose. This boy's name was Iruka.
"What do you think you're doing all by yourself? I was looking all over for you." The teen says as he picked his cousin up in his arms.
"I wasn't doing anything bad." Nia responds.
"Oh really...?" Iruka then gives a cold look to the three-year-old boy who stood a couple feet away.
It's him again... Why doesn't he just stay away from everyone? I don't want him gnawing his claws into Nia's flesh like he did to my parents.
"Let's get going before Uncle and Auntie get mad at me." Iruka begun to walk away from the playground.
"Okay." Nia gave a whiny tone and gazed at the sad toddler who was now alone again.
I wanna play with everyone; I don't care if everyone sees that boy as a monster. He looks nothing like the scary clowns or zombies on Halloween.
Nia would always remember the sadness in the boy's big deep sapphire colored eyes as she was carried away.
Whenever she would go to the park with her then two-year-old sister, they would, once in a while, attempt to play with the jinchuuriki boy but would always get caught within a few minutes by the adults and would be sent back to their home. Eventually, their parents got tired of their daughters putting themselves in "danger" and demanded that they be sent to live in another village away from the Nine-Tails. With difficulty and time, Nia's parents succeeded and were sent away from the Land Of Fire and transferred to the Land Of Lightening. There, Nia and her four other siblings, two brothers and two sisters, would be raised there till the current time. The boy that Nia and Misumi had to leave behind, would continue to live his life lonely and friendless until he was put into his very first genin squad. As for Iruka, his dream of being a teacher at the academy someday prevented him from moving away. He stayed alone at Konoha, sending letters to his relatives every now and then for the past years.
The light in Nia's room began flickering on and off. The older adolescent was just getting to a good part in her book when it had happened. Finally, after about half a minute, the light blew out.
Nia groaned; she had no choice but to close her book and go to bed since there was no candles or a lightbulb to replace the burned out one.
Tomorrow she would have no choice but to get up and practice her ninjutsu. Even though she had no motivation, she still wanted her other copy of her favorite book back safe and sound from the Raikage. However, would she be able to improve before the Raikage would return from his trip to the Hidden Stone or will he send her back to Kumogakure Academy? That was all Nia could think about as she tried to get some sleep.
A/N- That's a wrap! The conversation between Nia and Misumi felt a little strange for me to write but I like the way it turned out. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the first chapter anyways cause I put a lot of work into this with trying to think of my OC's personality, flaws, and backstory. Please comment what you and think of it and maybe a leave vote also.
Oh and please let me know if you would prefer to see what the chapter is called when it's posted (ex: Chapter 1: Nia Umino or should it just be like, Chapter 1 with no title thing?) I mean the title will be shown when you click to read the chapter but if you don't it'll just say Chapter 2. Plz let me know. I find it important. Thx for reading btw! Happy New Years :D Can't believe it's already 2016 omg! I'm excited for this year to start going by.
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