Hello, fanfiction. Welcome to my Naruto OC fanfiction, Sparks Among Kunai. Oddly enough, this isn't my first time attempting an OC fanfic. On my main account, I used to have a fanfic called The Rain's Shimmer. However, after some heavy (as well as accurate) criticisms, I took it down since it was written so poorly. Over the years, I have not only developed the OC of that old fanfic to be less of a Mary Sue, but I have also made more Naruto OCs. I've always wanted to try and get back to working on these OCs, but since I still have concerns about putting this on my main account, I will make this fanfic here to not only practice with OC writing but hopefully get me back into the swing of fanfiction as well.

I will say the first few chapters probably won't be too exciting. This chapter, for example, is merely introductions for my four main OCs. But I promise, once the ball gets rolling for this fanfic, I will try to bring more excitement.

I believe that's a good amount of set-up for now. So, with that said, enjoy the first chapter to Sparks Among Kunai.

Disclaimer: Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto. The OC, Kizumi Karasu, was initially created by an old friend of mine, PandaChan21, for my use and now is my OC. OCs who were first made by and are owned by me are Hitoshi Isamu, Yukino Madoka, and Kiyoshi Hisao.

Another typical morning for the Hidden Leaf Village: the sun peaked over the horizon, bathing the village in light. No doubt, the villagers would awaken from their slumber and go about their daily duties in a matter of minutes. Off in a small house crowded by others like it, a small alarm clock went off, its buzzing sound filling the bedroom.

Within this bedroom, a young boy groaned in his bed and slowly lifted his arm to turn off the alarm. As soon as the buzzing was put to a stop, he let his arm drop and hang limply over the edge of his bed. Just when the boy thought he would be allowed to fall back to sleep, the sound of a young child's wail pierced the air. At hearing this, the boy groaned once more and mumbled, "Ugh, you guys just won't let me sleep, will you?"

He slowly pushed himself into a sitting position and ran a hand through his tangled, blue hair. Forgetting what time it was, he turned his sleepy gaze to the alarm clock and looked at the time.

7:52 A.M.

Almost immediately, the boy's grey eyes shot wide open as he jumped out of bed and scrambled around the room for his maroon muscle shirt. While he pulled it over his head, he slipped on his black ninja sandals and began running out of the room.

'Damn! If I don't hurry up, I'll be late!' the boy thought as he made his way to the top of the stairs. However, the sound of loud crying made him stop and groan, mumbling, "Oh, yeah. Almost forgot…"

He quickly spun around and went to the room next to his own. Upon entering, he saw three toddlers awake in their cribs: two boys and one girl. All three of them had blue eyes, but while the two of the babes had short, brown hair, one of the baby boys had blue hair. This boy was silent while the other two were being fussy.

Swiftly, the young teen got his siblings out of bed and sped to get them into the kitchen downstairs. After getting the last toddler at the table, the boy was greeted by his father: a tall man with midnight blue hair and blue eyes, his glasses on.

"Slept in again, Hitoshi?" the man asked with slight amusement.

"Yeah," the boy said, reaching for his ninja headband that he had left on the counter last night. As he went for the door, his father asked, "Aren't you going to have some breakfast?"

"I'll get some food later," Hitoshi replied, grabbing his tan, short-sleeved jacket by the door. "I'll see you later, Dad!"

And with that, he burst out the front door and got into a full sprint as he worked on putting on his maroon, fingerless gloves, hoping he wouldn't be late for his surprise training session with his teacher.

Name: Isamu, Hitoshi

Age: 16

Ninja Rank: Chunin

Elsewhere, at the hospital, a young girl was filling out forms at the front desk. Today, she was finally able to leave after being in a coma for a few weeks. Everything felt so strange to the young girl. One moment, she was a shinobi of the Hidden Mist Village, taking on a difficult mission with her team. The next, she wakes up on a hospital bed to be told that her team was dead and that she was being transferred to a Leaf Village squad. To be honest, it seemed unreal; she still couldn't believe what had happened.

After filling out the last form, she let out a tired sigh. Hearing this, the woman behind the counter asked, "Is something wrong, Miss Karasu?"

The young girl looked towards the woman with bright, aquamarine eyes and a small smile before saying, "Oh, no. It's just, I'm still trying to adjust." As she said this, she ran a hair through her brown locks, lingering on the ends that were dyed purple.

Name: Karasu, Kizumi

Age: 15

Rank: Chunin/Medic

"Well, don't worry. I'm sure the shinobi here will be able to help you get settled."

"Thanks," Kizumi replied before handing in her paperwork. "Here you go. Thank you for your help."

After the two said their farewells, Kizumi exited the hospital, making her way down the streets quietly. She reached into the pocket of her long-sleeve jacket (which was mostly light blue save for the white sleeves) and pulled out a map for the village she had received a couple of days ago. Looking at it, she thought to herself, 'Okay, I'm supposed to meet with my new sensei today. Now where are the training grounds?'

She spent some time surveying the map before she figured out where she was supposed to go. Quickly, Kizumi put away the map and ran towards the training grounds.

At a small lake, a young girl was on her knees, looking over at the water's surface. Looking around with her deep blue eyes, she wondered aloud, "Hm, I wonder when they're supposed to arrive?"

Name: Madoka, Yukino

Age: 16

Rank: Genin

Yukino had recently been converted from a cloud ninja to a leaf ninja, having been separated from her old team on a c-rank escort mission. Had some Konoha ANBU not come across her, she honestly wondered where she would be. She had initially been put under arrest, having accidentally stumbled into the Hidden Leaf Village and been suspected of being a violent intruder. However, once she answered their questions, they realized she had gotten lost. Yukino had given a physical description of her team, but they had never been found: even after Konoha had gotten in contact with the Hidden Cloud Village. Yukino never found out if her team had been killed or if they had merely chosen to forget her and leave her behind; honestly, she would believe either one. Yukino did feel like she was the weakest of her old team, although part of this was because she was trying to keep a secret.

After not spotting anyone else coming, Yukino turned back to the lake. She smoothed out her blue short-sleeved jacket, a yellow stripe on each side of the zipper, and stared down at her yellow capris before taking a deep breath. Yukino closed her eyes and went through quick hand signs. Slowly, water came from out of the pond, and she thought, 'Good, now I need to focus.'

Yukino stared intently as she worked on slowly trying to freeze the water. Before losing her parents, Yukino had been told about her kekkei genkai. Her mother had been a refugee from the Hidden Mist Village and had left her home to avoid persecution. Shortly after becoming a shinobi, Yukino discovered that she had this power as well, but fearing the possibility of facing abuse from her old village, she had tried to keep it secret. However, wanting to use this power as best as possible, Yukino tried to practice this ability in private as well. Truthfully, this may have kept her from worrying about her other ninja skills.

After a couple of minutes trying to make solid ice and only succeeding in forming small ice crystals in the water, Yukino let out an exhausted breath and allowed the water to fall back into the lake.

'Oh, Mother, I fear I'll never master this power you passed on to me,' Yukino thought morosely, placing a hand on her necklace. This necklace had a pendant in the shape of a blue backwards "s" with two ruby circles sitting in the curves. It had been a possession of her mother's before she and her father had died, and it was the only physical thing she owned to remember them by. Yukino truly did want to make them proud, but with the pace she was going, she feared she wouldn't get anywhere.

"SENSEI!"

Yukino turned suddenly to see a boy with blue hair barrel through the trees and trip into the clearing. After mumbling utterances of "ow", he said quietly, "I'm not late, am I?"

He looked up, and the boy's grey eyes met her blue ones, and the two stayed quiet as they took in each other's presence. Yukino froze, thinking, 'This boy, is he one of my new teammates? What do I say to him? I don't want to make a fool of myself!'

Before she could speak up, the boy cleared his throat and said, "Um, hi."

"H-Hi…" Yukino whispered. Curiously, she asked, "Um, a-are you looking for someone?"

"Uh, yeah… My teacher said I was getting some new teammates today…" He picked himself up from the ground and approached Yukino while saying, "I'm supposed to meet him and these teammates here today to train. Are you one of my new partners?"

Yukino, a little uncomfortable with the staring for some reason, looked away bashfully and replied, "I-I think so… My name's Yukino… Y-Yukino Madoka."

"Oh…" The boy then smiled at her before saying, "Well, it's great to meet you, Yukino. I'm Hitoshi Isamu."

Yukino nodded, glad to have Hitoshi's name and happy to know that he was friendly. At that moment, someone else entered the clearing, saying, "So, you two are my new squad members, huh?"

Yukino and Hitoshi turned to see another girl approach them while she said, "I'm Kizumi Karasu. Is our teacher here yet?"

"Nope," Hitoshi answered, leaving Yukino to watch the two. "Judging by how fast I got here, I'd say we all got here early. I'm Hitoshi Isamu, and this…" he gestured to Yukino. "… is Yukino Madoka."

"It's nice to meet you guys," Kizumi said, grinning at them both. Her face fell slightly when she looked at them. Yukino wondered what made her drop her smile, but before she could ask, Kizumi said, "Hey, Hitoshi, did you scrape your knee?"

"Hm?" He looked down and noticed a small scrape on his knee where light blood was trickling out. "Oh, I guess so. I kinda tripped getting here. But it's not that big of a deal. This sort of thing happens all the time."

Kizumi came up to him and without a word, placed her hand over his knee. After a moment of focusing, her hand began to glow a light green. Hitoshi and Yukino gasped and watched in awe as she healed his knee. Once she was done, Hitoshi said, "Wow, you're a medic?"

"Yeah, I was kind of the main healer of my old team."

"Old team? What happened to your old team?"

Kizumi went quiet and looked away. Sensing that she was a little upset, Yukino nervously asked, "Um, Miss Kizumi, did we upset you?"

"… No, it's fine…" Kizumi said quietly. She made a quick shake of her head and looked back over at them before saying, "It's just, my squad was from the Hidden Mist Village. I was told they were killed, but I don't remember how it happened."

"Oh…" Yukino and Hitoshi both went quiet, neither knowing what to say. Yukino was, however, intrigued that she wasn't the only one who came from outside of the Leaf Village. Perhaps it wouldn't be too hard to fit into this new squad after all…

"Hey, I see you guys are all here on time."

Yukino and the others turned to this new voice. The voice belonged to a fairly tall man with amber eyes that sparked with a hidden sense of wisdom. His orange hair was pulled back into a small ponytail, and he wore the traditional outfit of Jounin of the Hidden Leaf. While she and Kizumi observed this new man, Hitoshi said, "Yep, we sure did, Kiyoshi-sensei. Made it over in record time to make sure I didn't miss out on the training."

"That's great, kiddo," Kiyoshi said with a slightly teasing smile. "But don't go roughing yourself up too bad; I still need you around to show these girls the ropes of how we work."

Name: Hisao, Kiyoshi

Age: 27

Rank: Jounin

Hitoshi pouted lightly and said with slight irritation, "It's not like I do it on purpose…"

"Yeah, I know, kiddo, I know…" Kiyoshi came up and ruffled Hitoshi's hair. Hitoshi swatted his hand away, but judging from the small smile on his face, Yukino was sure he didn't mind his teacher's behavior. Kiyoshi turned to the girls and said, "So, you girls must be Kizumi and Yukino. Name's Kiyoshi. We're glad to have you on the team."

"It's nice to meet you, sensei," Kizumi said politely with a bow.

Following suit, Yukino nodded her head in respect and said, "Y-Yes, th-thank you. We're glad to meet you, sensei…"

After lifting her gaze, Yukino watched Kiyoshi inspect her and Kizumi, causing Yukino to look away shyly. After some time, Kiyoshi said, "Well, I think it's time to see what skills you girls have. Then, we can do more training as a team. You ready?"

"Yes, sensei."

"Alright, let's get started then."

And there we have it: the beginning of what I hope becomes a successful Naruto OC fanfic. I promise, more about these OCs will be revealed as the story goes on. I just want to make sure it's revealed gradually. I hope you enjoyed the fanfic. For all who review, favorite, or follow this fanfiction, I will say thank you ahead of time. Stay tuned for the next update!