STARLIGHT

CHAPTER ONE: UZUSHIO

The quiet murmur of voices from the kitchen was too tempting to resist. Channeling the small amount of chakra needed to make her steps silent, Hikari crept along the hallway until she could hear the conversation between her aunt, uncle, and mother.

"The mission was a failure," came the voice of her uncle Daiki, "We don't know what time they're going to strike."

"But we do know the strike is coming," her aunt Sayuri replied. "That's more concrete than anything we've had before."

Dishes clanged against each other, drowning out the beginning of what her mother said next. "—s understandable, considering how injured his team was."

Daiki sighed heavily. "Why do you always have to be right, Isuzu?" There was a pause. "I probably would have made the same call to retreat that he did. At least this way we know to get our asses in gear."

"And in addition to that," Sayuri said after the soft sound of flesh thwacking against clothed flesh reached Hikari's ears. "Katsurou-sama doesn't hold anything against Hatake-san. So neither should we."

"Alright, alright." There was a smile in Daiki's voice. "And you may as well come out, Hikari-chan."

Hikari scowled as she ran towards the kitchen, socked feet pitter-pattering on the tatami. "What gave me away this time?" she demanded, hands planted on her hips.

Daiki reached out to ruffle her hair fondly. "Same thing as always, kiddo. Your chakra's like a splash of cold ocean water to the face."

"Sensors," Hikari said on the end of a great, heaving sigh. Really, they were more trouble than they were worth, sometimes. It was next to impossible to do any sneaking in the house when Daiki or her aunt Naoto were around. But that was neither here nor there when there were things to be seen in the kitchen. "Are we having people over for supper?"

Her mother smiled from where she was stirring something on the stove. "Your Katsurou-jiisama is coming for dinner and he's bringing a guest from Konoha with him. So be on your best behavior and make sure Rikuto is too, alright?"

"I'll try, but Rikuto's a handful." Hikari lifted herself up onto the counter so she could look at the frying vegetables. "If Kaori-neesan came over for dinner too both of us could handle him."

Sayuri hid a smile behind her hand and Daiki snorted. "Nice try, Hikari-chan," he said. "The second we get the three of you together, all hell is going to break loose. The only reason Rikuto's going to be there tonight is because Sayuri and I are going to be here, and we don't trust him alone at home." Hikari opened her mouth to reply, but Daiki cut her off before she could start. "And I trust you more than I do your cousin. Kaori's a good kid, but you're more responsible."

"Maybe if you and Rikuto are good tonight, Naoto will let the two of you sleep over later this week," Sayuri murmured. She didn't look up from what she was working on, but Hikari could see the sly grin on her face.

"Are you trying to bribe me or cause trouble for Naoto-basan?" she asked, unable to stop the grin on her face. "Or both?"

Isuzu threw her head back and laughed. "It's more likely she's trying to cause trouble for Naoto's husband. He did accidentally ruin her favorite vase a few weeks ago."

"Was that when he was teaching us that one Suiton jutsu?" Hikari asked. Carefully keeping her eyes on her mother's face, she reached into the pan to grab a slice of red pepper.

Her mother's wooden spoon came up and gently hit the back of her hand, just as she shoved her prize in her mouth. "Stop that, you'll ruin your appetite. And, yes. That's when that happened. Now off with you, Hikari-chan. Wash your hands and face, and get dressed in something a little nicer than your training clothes. Supper's almost ready and our guests will be here any minute."

Hikari rolled her eyes as she dropped down to the floor. "I like family dinners much better than having people over," she said matter of factly. "We don't have to act like we actually have manners then."

Daiki's loud laughter followed her as she ran off to the bathroom, and then her room. She hurriedly dressed in her usual top and pants, pulling off one sock so she could wear a matched pair for once. From the front of the house, she heard her grandfather's laughter mingling with her grandmother Miyu's. Their guests were here. She grabbed for the two long, thin hair sticks on her dresser and two of her explosive tags as she ran out her door. The tags were tied to the ends of the sticks, which were then shoved into her bun.

She skidded into the dining room with a large grin on her face. "Katsurou-jiisama!" From the corner of her eye, Hikari could see her mother covering her face with a hand at her daughter's entrance. Perfect.

Katsurou smiled down at her, eyes twinkling. "Hello, Hikari-chan. Come meet my friend from Konoha."

Hikari stepped more fully into the room. It wasn't hard to spot the man. His long white hair stood out like a sore thumb in the veritable sea of red that was the dining room. With a smile, Hikari bowed like a proper granddaughter of a clan head. "I'm Uzumaki Hikari. It's nice to meet you."

The man from Konoha laughed, his tired eyes lighting up as he bowed in return. "It's nice to meet you, Hikari-san. I'm Hatake Sakumo."

"Found him!" Daiki walked into the house carrying his slightly muddy son. Rikuto grinned as he was carted off towards the bathroom. "Sorry about this, we'll be back in a sec. Feel free to start without us."

Sakumo chuckled as they all sat down around the table. "Don't worry about apologizing," he said to Sayuri. "I've got a son, Kakashi, that's maybe a little older than him. I know the kinds of trouble boys can get into."

Miyu laughed around a small mouthful of rice. "How old is your son, Hatake-san?"

"Seven," Sakumo replied. "Though he's always reminding me he's almost eight and he's a genin, so I shouldn't baby him."

Daiki returned and plopped Rikuto in the seat next to Hikari before ruffling her bangs the way he always did when he wanted to annoy her. "This one's always doing the same, though she's got a few months yet until she turns eight and she only just became a genin a month ago." Sitting down in the free seat beside Sakumo, Daiki grinned. "I think that's a universal kid thing."

"Indeed." Sakumo took a sip of his tea and turned his attention to Hikari. "So, Uzumaki-san—"

She cut him off with a wave of her chopsticks. "It's okay, Hatake-san. You can call me Hikari since there's so many Uzumakis here right now. You don't need to stand on formal ties."

Her mother choked on a slice of pepper. Daiki leaned on the table, one hand covering his eyes as he grinned. It looked to Hikari like he was trying desperately not to laugh, which was silly. She hadn't said anything funny. "Formalities, Hikari-chan," he said. "The word you're looking for is formalities."

"Right." She blinked, bemused. "That's what I said."

"I still can't believe Kakashi is already seven," Miyu remarked. "It feels like I was showing Aina and Tsunade some of our medical seals only a little while ago, and now Aina's son is already a shinobi. I must be getting old."

Before Hikari could say that of course Miyu-baasama was old, she was a grandma, Rikuto tugged on her sleeve. "Nee-san, guess what," he said, a slow smile spreading across his face.

"What?"

"I caught a frog." That was all that was needed to direct Hikari's attention away from the grown-ups and onto her cousin. "Wanna see it?"

She sighed. "It'll probably be gone from wherever you left it when supper's over. Why didn't you show me earlier?"

Rikuto shook his head, his side braid whipping to and fro. "No, no. It's not outside. It's in my pocket." He carefully reached into the large zipper pocket on his shorts and pulled out a bullfrog. Hikari gasped in delight, just as the frog let out a loud rrrrrrribbit.

All conversation around the table stopped.

Sayuri looked like someone had painted her face white. "Rikuto, please tell me that's not what I think it is."

Rikuto laughed nervously as his mother's face went from ashen to flushed with anger. Before she could start yelling at him, the frog jumped out of his hands and onto the table. Hikari shrieked with laughter while her aunt shrieked in alarm. Bowls were knocked over amid loud laughs and haphazard attempts to try and catch the thing without harming it.

Really, it was kind of funny, Hikari thought, that three jounin, two former jounin, and a former chuunin couldn't catch a single frog without ruining dinner. Some shinobi they were.

When she remarked on that fact, her mother snorted and told her that it was off to Naoto's with her and her cousin. Once everyone finished picking the rice out of their hair, they were going out to eat. Without the children. It was horribly unfair, especially since Hikari was subject to another your cousin looks up to you, so you should really be a good example and not encourage him lecture from her mother that night.

But the event was soon forgotten. Hatake Sakumo left for Konoha the next day, and Hikari was preoccupied with her new busy schedule to wonder why he was on a joint mission with Uzushio shinobi in the first place. In the mornings, she was either with her mother, Rikuto, and aunt Naoto in the old, dusty library in the middle of the island or with her grandfather, learning the sealing techniques of their family.

Katsurou often laughed at the look of intense concentration on her face as she traced out the symbols in ink. "Patience, Hikari-chan. Without patience, you'll never be able to master sealing the way you want to," he told her, only to be met with a ragged sigh.

"Why can't I just start with hand seals and have the symbols do the floaty in the air thing the way they do for you, jii-sama?" she asked one day as Katsurou helped her wipe ink off her nose.

"You don't have enough chakra or control for that yet," he explained. "And the only way to use a seal without first writing it is to understand and memorize every part of it. It can take months of practice with more advanced seals before you can use them like that, and some of them will always need to be written out because they change depending on the circumstances at hand."

Hikari hummed and kicked her feet against the cabinets she was sitting on top of. "Is that why Daiki-jisan carries around so many tags? Because he knows a lot of seals but not enough to be able to do that with all of them?"

Katsurou nodded. "Daiki is very adept at using fuuinjutsu, but he's always focused on being competent with many seals instead of being excellent at using a few." He paused and wrung out the dirty cloth he'd used to clean his granddaughter's face. "That's why he was nearly twenty before he finished his masterpiece."

"What?" Hikari squawked. "But I thought the masterpiece was what made everybody think of you as a grown-up ninja and fuuinjutsu user."

A deep laugh rumbled up out of her grandfather. "It is. The seal you create as your masterpiece is your coming of age. It's symbolic of you being able to carry your own weight among the clan. It was more important in the Era of the Warring States than it is now, but we still hold onto the tradition."

With a wide grin, Hikari scrambled up to stand on the counter top. "My masterpiece is gonna be the best seal you've ever seen, jii-sama! Just you wait—it's gonna be so great it'll blow your geta off!"

Katsurou smiled and pat her head in a way that Hikari had a feeling meant he was laughing at her instead of with her, and sent her off on her D-rank for the afternoon.

Where her missions had once consisted of weeding and dog-chasing, now she was run ragged by fetching and carrying things for seemingly everyone in the village. Scrolls, ink, messages, and books as thick as her thighs were carted back and forth and back and forth across the village. If Hikari was especially quick about it and happened to be there at the right time, she sometimes got to watch groups of the fuuinjutsu masters seal away massive amounts of paper.

In the evenings, she met up with Daiki who acted as her jounin sensei. He started drilling her on evasion and survival techniques, much to her displeasure. It was exhausting and she'd had a lot more fun when he was showing her how to goof off with Suiton jutsu.

"Ji-saaaaan. How come we've gotta do this all the time?" she whined one night.

Daiki sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Because, Hikari-chan, if you want to become a great kunoichi like Uzumaki Mito-sama, you have to live to be an old woman."

That didn't answer her question at all, but pestering him didn't get a better answer. Just frustration, which seemed to be a common feeling in the village as weeks slipped by and by.

The shinobi of Uzu were more twitchy than normal. Her family members' already short fuses seemed even shorter as the days went on. Even her mother, who was always kind and helped Hikari wash her hair when she came home from training, seemed more distracted and stressed than usual.

When Hikari woke in the middle of the night and discovered her mother's bedroom light was still on, she carefully stole into her room and clambered up onto her bed. "Mom? Will you tell me what's wrong?" she asked.

Isuzu smiled sadly and stroked her daughter's hair. "It's a boring, grown-up thing."

"Ewww," Hikari said, nose wrinkling in distaste. "Tell me anyway?"

Her mother laughed quietly. "Alright, little star. But come sit between my legs so I can braid your hair while we talk."

After she was situated, Hikari patiently waited for her mother to start talking. The gently tug of fingers in her hair was soothing and she knew she'd fall asleep soon unless she was careful.

"Your grandfather made a decision for the good of the village that's making things a little hard right now, for us especially since we're his immediate family and it's easy for them to blame us," Isuzu said. "He's cut off trade temporarily and kept the shinobi in the village, working on missions here that don't pay very well. Because of that, we're limited to the amount of food we have on the island, and we have to be careful with our money. That's making things hard for the merchants that live here too, and everyone's having some trouble with it."

"I don't really get it," Hikari mumbled around a yawn. Her mother tied off her braid with an elastic, then pulled down the covers so they could snuggle together in bed. "But 'm sorry it's hard for you. Wish I could help."

Isuzu pressed a kiss to her daughter's forehead. "You help just by being here. Your father would say the same thing, if he were still here."

"Will you tell me a story about Dad?"

Her mother nodded and flicked off the light. Hikari fell asleep to the sound of her mother's voice quietly telling her the story of how she fell in love with the fisherman's son.

October came faster than anyone thought it would, bringing with it a chill and a lull in missions. Hikari was free to run around the village with her cousins like they used to, even if her mother seemed to get twitchier every time she did it. Less missions meant more energy. More energy meant more time spent getting into trouble with Rikuto and Kaori. So maybe her mom's jumpiness made sense.

The night of October third, Hikari carefully sneaked out of her room a little after midnight. She pulled on her sandals and ducked out the unlocked ground-level window. Her feet hit the ground and she was off like a shot, heading for the beach where she was supposed to meet her cousins.

Only Rikuto was there when she arrived. "Hey, where's Kaori-neesan?"

With a shrug, Rikuto replied, "I dunno. But you're ten minutes late, nee-san."

Waving a hand dismissively, Hikari turned her attention to the waves lapping at the shore. "Is it just me, or are there way more ships in the west harbor than normal?"

"Yeah, there are a ton of them. I can't see a free spot anywhere!" Rikuto frowned. "Maybe that's why dad's meeting with Katsurou-jiisama is going so long."

Hikari turned to him in surprise. "He wasn't home when you left? Wooow. That's a long meeting." She spared the ships one last glance before grinning at her cousin. "Wanna go to Kaori's house and get her?"

He returned her grin, nodding enthusiastically. They ran off into the night, ducking between high-rises and alleys as they made their way to the middle of the island where their aunt Naoto and uncle Ryoichi lived. It was a fun challenge to keep their footsteps silent and their breaths even as they sprinted down familiar streets.

Or at least, it was fun until unfamiliar shadows caught Hikari's eye and made her stop short, ducking back into the alley she'd almost made her way out of. Rikuto stumbled into her and shot her a confused look.

"Nee-sa—?"

She clapped her hand over his mouth, cutting off the whisper. Throwing him a few basic Academy-taught hand signals, she crept forward so she could peer around the wall of the building they were hiding behind. He ducked underneath her and stole his own peek around the corner.

The sight in front of them made Hikari's heart leap into her throat. Fear gathered in her gut, like nothing she'd ever felt before. Not when she'd heard her aunt had gone missing on a mission. Not when she'd been chased across the village by Mizushima Arashi's dog. It was choking her. Breath and words were ripped right out of her throat.

"Those are Kumo nin," came Rikuto's hushed voice from below her. "Nee-san, what are Kumo nin doing in Uzushio this late at night without an escort?"

Hikari thought of Hatake Sakumo and his visit months earlier. She thought of the sealing all the experienced fuuinjutsu users had been doing since then. Important documents, family records—the secrets of their village locked away where none save those who knew the seals could get to them. Suddenly, all the empty ships in the harbor made sense.

"They're attacking."

Rikuto's head whipped around and he stared at her, wide-eyed. "What?!"

"Did you hear that?" came the gruff voice of one of the shinobi down the street.

Hikari's heart hammered against her ribcage as she grabbed Rikuto's hand and pulled him away, back down the alley. "We have to get to my mom or Katsurou-jiisama. They're closer than any of the guard stations," she whispered.

They had the advantage of knowing the terrain and exactly where they were going. The both of them knew the streets of the village better than the backs of their hands. But they were still six and seven years old. Their little legs could only carry them so fast, and it was only a matter of time before two of the Kumo shinobi caught up to them.

Acting on instinct, Hikari ripped the small explosive tag off the end of Rikuto's braid and sidestepped the incoming katana. The man swinging at her looked torn. He doesn't want to hurt kids, her mind whispered. That was good, it let her slam the tag onto his chest before ducking under his arm.

"Rikuto, run!" she yelled. Her left hand flashed in the activation sign and she didn't look—she didn't, she didn't—as the explosion went off behind her. The man screamed, and it abruptly ended in a gurgle.

"You little bitch!" the remaining ninja growled. He reached for her, and Hikari froze. She could smell blood and charred flesh. There was a man rushing at her with a kunai and her legs wouldn't move.

A loud cry of, "Fuuin!" shocked Hikari out of her reverie. Her mother stood in the alley, her nightgown smudged with dirt and a tag in her hands. Symbols spread out from the tag through the air, creating a sphere around the Kumo nin. The faint blue glow of chakra surrounded it and Hikari watched, amazed and horrified, as he screamed. His kunai seemed to melt into his glove, the corner of a building disintegrated into dust, and he seemed to shrivel up into a dried husk right before her eyes.

"Hikari!" She turned to her mother, eyes wide and wet with tears. Isuzu caught her daughter's face in her hands and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Oh, thank goodness you're okay. Come on, we're going to the harbor."

She picked up Hikari and bounded off, leaping across rooftops in her bare feet, red hair streaming out behind her. "Mama, what's happening? Why is Kumo attacking?" Hikari asked, voice breaking.

"They're scared of us, baby," her mother said. "I can't explain any more than that right now."

A few moments later, her mother dropped her down onto the sand and they stared in horror at the ships burning in the harbor. "Dammit," Isuzu cursed under her breath. "Dammit."

"Ba-san!" Rikuto ran into Isuzu's legs, tears streaming down his face and arterial spray dotted across his cheeks. "They're coming! And they got my mom!"

"Shit." Isuzu took the bag off her back and shoved it into Hikari's hands. "Alright, you two listen to me. There's another boat, a rowboat, up the coastline by the cliff caves. I want to two to run there as fast as you can and row to the mainland, alright? If you think you can, get to Konoha. If you can't, find a village somewhere in Fire and stay there. Whatever you do, don't tell anyone you're an Uzumaki—use your father's surname, Hikari. If I can, I'll try and find you two later, okay?"

Hot, salty tears finally spilled over Hikari's cheeks. "You're not coming with us?"

Isuzu smiled that sad smile of hers, shaking her head. "I wish I could, little star. But I have to go and fight. Now run, both of you."

Two shinobi with dark red clothing and brown flak jackets were racing down the beach towards them. Even though it hurt Hikari to do it, she nodded and wiped her face. Shinobi Rule #25—a shinobi must never show their tears. Shinobi Rule #4—a shinobi must always put the mission first. She grabbed Rikuto's hand and ran.

"Nee-san! Are we really leaving Isuzu-basan?" Rikuto asked as they ran. "What about my dad? Nee-san!"

"Shut up, Rikuto!" she yelled back. "We have a mission, and that's to get out of here alive! We have to do it for them!" That quieted him right quick.

The little rowboat was right where her mother said it would be, the waves rocking it gently. Ignoring the way the cold ocean water felt seeping into her pants and shoes, Hikari raced into the sea, scrambling into the boat and pulling her cousin in with her. It was easy enough to loose the rope tethering them to the docks, but it was harder to get them going.

"Grab the other oar," she ordered. "It's heavy, but we gotta row out of here."

Rikuto sniffed and rubbed at his face, smearing the blood, snot, and tears over it. "Okay."

With some trouble, they managed to make their way out into the sea. When it seemed like they were far enough to be safe, Hikari stopped rowing and looked back at the island. It was lit up orange with fire. She could see explosions going off, buildings toppling as they did. Screams carried their way across the sea to her ears.

Rikuto tucked himself into her side as they looked out at their home, still crying. "When's dad, and Isuzu-basan, and Kaori-neesan, and her parents, and Katsurou-jiisama, and Miyu-baasama, and everyone else coming?"

A sinking feeling overtook Hikari and she felt herself start crying again. "I don't think they are coming," she said quietly.

Before Rikuto could reply, she heard a yell off in the distance. "Hey! We've got some escapees!"

Her eyes widened as parts of the beach leapt into the air. Doton jutsu, her mind supplied. "Rikuto, get down!" she turned to push him into the boat, but didn't manage to even touch him before something hit her in the back of the head.

As the world went black, she heard, dimly, a cry of "Nee-san!" followed by a pained noise. And then she knew no more.

END NOTES:

- thus begins my brainchild muahaha. this is, obviously, an oc fic and i'm gonna go ahead and call it an au too. some timeline things may be tweaked a tiny bit and all my uzushio canon for this fic is liable to get jossed as the manga comes to a close

- there's a lot of names to keep straight here, so if anyone's interested i've got a family tree made up that i could post somewhere, if that would help.

- there's some art for this fic! check it out on my tumblr, link on my profile.

- thanks for reading!