A/N: Well, this is my first try at writing a NejixOC story. I'm praying I won't blow it... By the way, my Oc's past may seem pretty Mary-Sue-ish right now, but have no fear, it will get less Sue-ish throughout the story. I promise.
Anyway, here it goes:
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Someone once asked me to sum up my childhood in one word. I puzzled over the question for some time, but then I finally figured out the perfect word for my past: Stressful.
Well, it wasn't stressful for the first eight years of my life. I lived in a nice, warm home with my mother, my father, my older sister, and my two younger twin brothers. I remember being a care free girl, dreaming about becoming a great ninja, which is why I got my paretns to enroll me in the Academy when I was six. I remember playing ninja with my older sister, Riko, even though her heart wasn't set on becoming a shinobi. I remember my mom's home cooking and my dad's bear hugs. I remember life being fabulous for me.
Then, when I turned nine, such an awful event occured that it's haunted me until this very day.
Both Mommy and Daddy were Hidden Leaf Shinobi and had to go away on missions from time to time. Once upon a B ranked mission, they had to go to the Marsh Country as escorts for some fancy-schmancy celebrity. Unfortunately, while travelling through the Marsh Country, my parents encountered what I consider far worse than enemy shinobi. Something you're bound to find in any marshy place.
Mosquitoes.
Both Mommy and Daddy arrived back home with a number of bug bites on their arms and legs. I remember asking Daddy if he lost too much blood from the bites apprehensively. Daddy laughed and told me to not worry about the bites, and that they would be gone in a few days.
How wrong he was.
About three or four days after returning from the Marsh Country, Mommy and Daddy got sick. They had fevers, chills, and joint pain. Before they had left, Mommy had a cold, and was already a little sick, and Daddy suspected it turned into the flu, and he had caught it too.
"Nothing some bed rest and orange juice can't fix," he had said.
But bed rest and O.J. didn't cure them. My parents were ninja, but they were not medical ninja, and didn't recognize what they were really affected with until Mommy had severe head aches more frequently than usual, and Daddy found out he had something called blackwater fever, which, according to my aunt, a nurse at Konaha hospital, is a result of kidney failure.
After these symptoms developped quickly, it didn't take a medic to recognize something was seriously wrong. My mother was the one who had figured it out after reading an article in a health magazine my aunt had left at our house one day: Her and my father had a horribly severe case of malaria.
I over heard Mommy and Daddy talking that night. Apparently, malaria was caused by a bite from an infected mosquito from a tropical or marshy place.
"Naoki, we have to get to the hospital now!" Mommy had said to Daddy, close to tears. "I-If we don't, and the malaria's spread too far in our bodies, we-we c-could-"
"Hold on, Emi," Daddy interrupted Mommy. He walked over behind the couch, and peered over the top, seeing me crouched on the floor, rather scared and confused. I thought Daddy was going to get mad at me for listening in on their conversation, but he didn't. Instead, he beckoned me to follow him.
"Come, Kayami," he said to me. "It's time for bed." I left my hiding place and followed my father upstairs to my room. He tucked me in bed, and gave me a kiss on the forehead.
"Are you and Mommy okay?" I asked him, cuddling my teddy bear. "Will you get cured?" Daddy gave me a forced smile.
"Kayami-chan, we'll be fine, it's just a little sickness," he lied. "Mommy and I are going to see the doctor's in a little while. Riko's going to be babysitting you tonight, and when we get home tomorrow, we'll be as healthy as we ever were."
"Okay," I yawned, believing that everything was going to be alright. "Goodnight, Daddy."
"Goodnight, Kayami," he said, leaving my room.
Hours later, I was woken up by a huge clap of thunder. It shook the foundation of my house. I leapt out of bed and looked out my window.
I had never seen such a thunderstorm that occured in the Leaf Village in my life. The rain came down in dense sheets. I could barely see the streets, which were so flooded that no cars could be driven on them. Forks of lightning lit up the sky, and the thunder boomed for the whole village to hear. Scared, I ran out of my room, and downstairs, looking for Riko or my parents to sooth my fears.
The living room was pitch dark, and I remember I couldn't see a thing unless the lightning lit up the room for me. One thing I could see without the lightning, though, was the candle light that shone through my parents' bedroom door which stood slightly ajar. I crept up to the door, and peeked in the room.
In the light the candles gave off in the bedroom, I remember seeing Mommy and Daddy lying in their bed, and Riko sitting on a chair next to them, tears streaming from eyes which had become two blue faucets.
"Mom, Dad," she croaked. "Isn't there any way that-"
"No, Riko-chan," Daddy said, feebly. "There's no way anyone is going anywhere in a thunderstorm like this... I'll bet the hospital isn't even open considering the hour and the weather..."
"But, you can't die!" Riko exclaimed, sobbing. "You can't!"
"Riko-chan, shhh..." Mommy cooed as she took my twenty year old sister's hand. "You'll wake the twins and Kayami."
"There's no avoiding it, dear," Daddy murmured. "Within a couple of minutes... We'll be over and done with..."
Riko broke down, and buried her face into her arms on my parents' comforter. Mommy was the first to go. Then Daddy. All that time, I was outside their bedroom, crying like a little baby.
A couple of days later, after the thunderstorm blew over, and the street became passable again, Riko and I attended Naoki and Emi Tsuji's funeral with the rest of the family while my twin brothers, who were just babies at the time, were left with a sitter. I remember I would not stop crying, even after the funeral was over.
Despite the death of my parents, I still attended the Academy, still hoping to become a ninja. I made many friends there, but my best friend was a girl named Tenten. She was nice, pretty, and excellent with weapons. She was pretty sympathetic too. I remember she'd comfort me when my parents died. I felt very lucky to have a friend like Tenten. Without her, the stress of my parents' death and my school work would break me.
Three years passed, and I became a graduate along with many other classmates of mine. I was hoping to be in a team with my best friend, but she got put in a team with two other boys who I didn't really associate with.
I was put in a squad with two boys and a jounin sensei, like all the others. One of my team mates was Katsu Togashi. He was a short boy for his age. He had dark hair, and bangs that were usually pressed against his forehead by his headband. He usually wore a light coloured t-shirt over a dark long sleeve. He was a nice boy, but was rather clumsy.
My other team mate was named Akio Mizuto. He had light green eyes and spiky, dirty blond hair. He wore his Leaf bandanna around his neck, and wore a short sleeve jacket unzipped to reveal a shirt bearing the kanji for 'ninja' on it. He was a little obnoxious at times, but was a very good fighter.
And my sensei, Shinto Ishikiwa, was a twenty five year old jounin with a gruff manner, but a good heart. He had brown eyes and dark brown hair. He wore a green jacket, like all the other jounin, under a blue long sleeve and sweatpants.
This was my team, Team Shinto.
I remember being thrilled when I became a ninja, and when I met up with my team that day, I was on cloud nine. But, Shinto-sensei brought me back down to earth after we introduced ourselves.
"I hope you kids are ready to prove yourselves," he told us. "Because if you don't, you're getting sent back to the academy."
"What!?" I cried.
"Are you kidding!?" Katsu exclaimed.
"Of course he is!" Akio said, confidently. "Why would we be sent back to the Academy? We already passed our graduation exam!" Shinto-sensei gave Akio a look.
"Did you, now?" he asked. "Well, I hate to burst your bubble, kiddo, but preforming one measely technique for your teachers won't make you a ninja. That test was made just to eliminate the hopeless cases in your class."
I couldn't believe it. I got very worried. How exactly did our new sensei intend to make us prove ourselves worthy of being good ninja? We soon figured it out.
Shinto-sensei put us through a tough obstacle course that ran through a good portion of the training grounds. We had two hours to complete it.
Sounds easy, right? Wrong. It wasn't just your average obstacle course. We had to overcome not only things like tall wooden walls standing in our way, or swing from a rope over a raging river. Shinto-sensei had been kind enough to cast gen-jutsus all over the course so we often either got lost or ended up fighting amongst ourselves. Other times we would encounter enemy ninja, which turned out to be our leader's shadow clones. It was very nerve racking indeed.
Maybe it was a fluke, or miraculous fate, but just before two hours were up, Katsu, Akio, and I stumbled through what felt like a forest of poison ivy, and fell flat on our faces at Shinto's feet, who was waiting for us at the end of the course. He laughed when he saw us.
"So, you three managed to complete the obstacle course," he chuckled. "Well done, team. You pass."
Despite being covered in poison ivy, I couldn't have been happier. I remember jumping up and cheering. I remember Katsu and Akio joining me. I remember telling Riko and the twins, Tabito and Kouta, when I got home.
I remember.