Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters.
Chapter 01; Dawning
The year I turned seventeen should have been the year that I was essentially a dancing queen, instead it was the year of my death.
My mother had always been a Broadway fanatic; she would sing the songs, and dance around me with a dazzling smile planted on her face. She would grab my hands and twist my arms around body so I would dance with her as a small child. I adored the songs that she would play, they were energetic, just like my mother.
I don't know how she did it, but she raised me by herself. She never talked about my father, but when I would ask she would reply the same way as always, "It doesn't matter if you don't have a father honey, I love you, and I will never stop loving you." Even if she never talked about my father I could tell I looked more like him than I did my mother. My mother had beautiful pale skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. I, however, had a lighter brown skin color, with dark brown hair, and hazel eyes. I never felt different from her, we were like the same people in different bodies.
When I turned thirteen my mother brought me to my first Broadway performance, "The Phantom of The Opera." I immediately fell in love, of course I had heard all of the songs, but seeing it was something else entirely. It sparked a passion and need within myself. I remember pointing at the stage and whispering to my mother, "That's going to be me one day mom."
She had that brilliant smile on her face, "If you want it sweetheart, you have to work for it."
I nodded quickly, "I want it, and I will be on that stage."
After that day, my mother signed me up for voice coaching and dance lessons. Living in New York City, those lesson were expensive, so my mother took up another job to pay for them. Whenever I would express I guilt she would tell me, "Just do your best in your classes, that's payment enough."
I did my best in class, this eventually paid off. By the age of seventeen I had an audition for "Mamma Mia," it was a background part, but it was a start. My mother was ecstatic for me, she wrapped her arms around my shoulders, and hugged me so tight I thought she was going to break me.
The audition itself went well enough, after the audition is when everything went downhill. It was late, I had no money on me, and my mother was working one of her many jobs. So, of course I made the shit decision to walk home.
I was about two blocks from the apartment I shared with my mother when someone grabbed me from behind. They pulled my hair and threw my body on the ground. A small squeak escaped my mouth before a thick hand covered it. Tears leaked out of my eyes and dripped onto the ground.
My attacker never talked, never asked, he didn't look through my purse, he just took everything, he took my dignity, my hope, and finally, my life. After he was done with my body, he dragged a knife across my neck. He didn't cut deep enough to kill me immediately, I laid on ground gasping for breath until my lungs let out air for the last time.
I would never see my mother's smile again, I would never star in a Broadway performance. I was dead. Gone.
SUNLIGHT
Death was strange, it was squishy, warm, and wet. If this was heaven, it sucked.
A scream sounded, it didn't feel like it came from far away, it sounded like it was all around me. I felt the vibrations of the noise on my body. Another scream came, it was louder this time, more throaty. Then, I felt the pressure. My head felt like it was being squeezed to death. The pressure on my head stopped and light flooded in from behind my eyelids.
The rest of my body felt the pressure, then it all stopped.
I think I was just birthed.
Something hit the back of my body in a hard slap.
Damn that kind of hurt.
And, like any other baby, I cried like a fucking bitch. Then I passed out.
When I woke up again I was able to open my eyes, but my vision was blurry. That didn't mean I couldn't make out shapes and colors. Two faces leaned over my tiny baby body.
These must be my parents.
They both had darker skin, and dark hair, I could make out the color of their eyes, because like I said before I eyesight was like awful. My mother still looked tired, but she wasn't my real mother. My mother always smiled, that wonderful smile. I must have begun to fuss, because I was picked up and rocked. She sang to me, her voice was beautiful, but it was obvious that she wasn't speaking English.
Well, guess I'm learning a new language.
My new mother, finally stopped singing, instead she touched my nose and spoke, "Hikari"
That must be my name, or something, maybe it meant nose.
I didn't contemplate this anymore, I was tired again, stupid baby senses.
SUNLIGHT
The next six months were spent trying to pick up pieces of the language my parents were speaking to me, and observing the area now that my vision wasn't as blurry. Learning a new language actually wasn't very hard, given that that my mother carried me around practically everywhere, and spoke to me constantly. She told me how we lived in a village named Konoha, and how father was the leader of our family. She also spoke of ninjas, for a while I actually thought she was crazy until father also spoke about ninjas. Apparently I live in the feudal era of Japan.
Given the amount of time I had spent with my new other, it wasn't a surprise that I had actually began to care for her. It was obvious that she loved me very much. My father was different, I didn't have a father in my other life, so I had no one to compare him to. I could tell he loved me, he just… wasn't around very much.
I could tell that father's absence sometimes bothered my mother, it was like she was expecting him to die or something. I did my best to keep her busy when he left, I would smile more, and giggle constantly, hoping that it would keep her mind off his absence. It worked most of the time, but sometimes she just wouldn't take the bait. In times like those I could only hope that father returned soon.
Anyways, my mother was beautiful, she had dark brown skin, and black hair, but her defining feature was her yellow eyes. I was a bit creeped out when I first saw them, but I have seen stranger things. Father actually looked a lot like her, dark skin, black hair, and yellow eyes. Which probably meant I looked like that too. It wouldn't be the worst thing to happen.
SUNLIGHT
In all my new life I had been through some embarrassing this, including having my diapers changed, and don't even get me started on breast feeding, but this took the cake.
Both of my parents were home, and they were currently trying to get me to speak. I had already learned how to crawl and stand, and at a year old they thought it was an appropriate time for me to learn words.
"Say Kaa-chan, Hikari, say Kaa-chan!" My mother had a large smile on her beautiful face.
My father say next to her smiling also, "No Hikari, say Tou-san!"
I could say Kaa-chan, or Tou-san, but I could also say something completely different.
"No!" I was such a devious little shit. "No! No! No!"
Their shocked faces brought me immense joy. I loved being a baby.
SUNLIGHT
"Hikari-Chan! Come here please." My short, stubby legs ran across the hardwood floor of my family's house.
Once I reached my mother, who was sitting down on the floor surrounded with leaves, she beckoned me to sit with her. "Now that you're three it's time for you to learn about chakra."
"Chankla?"
"No Hikari, chakra." She moved her hands out in front of her, "Now, I want you to hold out your hand like this."
I quickly moved my hands out in front of me, "Close your eyes."
I obeyed once again, "Now, calm down, I want you to take deep breaths, and search for the warmth inside your body."
Warmth? What the hell?
Nevertheless I searched, and to no surprise, found nothing. I let out a breath of air in frustration.
"Don't get angry Hikari-Chan, keep looking."
My frustration levels were at an all-time high, I was ready to give up, until I felt sunlight, or what felt like sunlight. It felt like the summers in New York, warm, bright, and it reminded me of my mother. I brightened, "Kaa-Chan! I found it!"
"Good, now nudge it towards your hands."
I gently pushed the light inside of me towards the palm of my hands, moving it was harder than it sounded, and it took me a good ten minute to do it.
"Look at your hands Hikari." I slowly opened my eyes to find my hands glowing a light yellow. "Our clan's chakra is a different color than most chakras, because of how we use it."
My face must have shown my confusion because she explained more thoroughly, "Our clan works with the suns beams, it's why our eyes are yellow, and why our chakra is yellow. Most chakra is blue, but because of our work with the sun, its light has changed the color of the chakra."
I'm a freaking sun fairy.
"It's also why our clan's skin is so dark, we spend most of our time in the sun, and our skin helps protect against sunburns."
"Kaa-chan, if we spend our time in the sun, why haven't you taken me outside yet?"
"Well, your skin isn't quite ready to spend too much time in the sun, starting in a month I'll start taking you to the park to get your sun."
I clapped my hands together smiling, my hands no longer glowing with chakra. Mother smiled with me, she had a very bright smile, it was… beautiful.
I loved my mother.