[A/N]: Hello everyone! Rui here. So, this would be my 4th ongoing story, and 5th story that I published in the site. This would also be my first try on a Narutoverse fanfic so please go easy on me! Hopefully, a lot of you would like my take on it. I'm also hoping that a lot of people could give me support.
Feel free to drop reviews, as it works as a motivation of some sort to me. Thank you! And I'm hoping you will like the story.
A dark figure loomed over a collapsed little girl with shoulder-length, ruby-red hair. A face stained with tears, and pale skin covered in soot, bruises and scratches. And she was hugging a small pack to her chest.
That mysterious figure hoisted the girl in its arms like a princess, then disappeared in thin air under the cover of the dark night.
It reappeared again after a few minutes. But the scenery had changed by then. Instead of the dark forest, it was a village. A village filled with houses with colorful roofs, and tiled or wooden walls. The mysterious figure traversed the roofs skillfully and quickly.
It jumped once more, but this time, it was higher. It finally stopped when it landed on a ledge with an open window and then slipped through the opening, with the small girl still being carried safely in its arms.
"Hokage-sama," the voice of a man could be heard inside the now closed-off room. The appearance of the man was hard to figure out, since there was little light.
But his silhouette was lean and tall. Also, the man seemed to have spiky hair. Aside from that, nothing eye-catching could be noticed on the said man.
He kneeled briefly in front of a cloaked man with a large hat covering mostly the upper half of his face. But judging by the wrinkles on the cloaked man's lower half of his face, he is already past his prime. Probably for a long time already. He is sitting with his hands clasped together that almost cover his mouth.
"What happened?" The expression on the old man's face was grim, but stoic. His voice was calm, but there is a stormy undertone as if he would go ballistic any moment.
The man before him is now treading on shallow waters. He had to choose his words and actions carefully, or else he could be the one to take the brunt of the old man's wrath.
"I found her at the clearing near the gates," he paused, as he searched in his memories for confirmation. "I decided to take her back before any of our enemies wandering around our land could get their hands on her."
The both of them were silent for a moment, before the old man spoke in his raspy voice, "A wise choice."
"Get her treated at the hospital, before we send her to the T&I just in case the girl is under some mind-controlling ninjutsu," the old man called Hokage unlaced his hands before waving off the man before him.
The man looked at the face of the child he was carrying in his arms. He felt pity and at the same time, responsible for the girl's well-being; moreover, they are at war with the other hidden villages right now and he could not afford not to save one of their kin, even if she is from the farthest and hidden territory of their country.
"At your will, Hokage-sama," the man finally said, before disappearing once more.
Once his subordinate was out of sight, the old man took his pipe that is emitting smoke and took a puff of it. He muttered under his breath, "I wonder how the rest of her clan is faring."
"I think she's waking up now," an unfamiliar voice resounded, as bright lights hit her making her wince. The little girl coughed violently, and someone rushed to her side immediately.
"Are you alright?" A female voice asked gently, helping her sit up on the bed she was currently resting on. Her eyes opened, revealing a pair of pale red orbs that glistened darkly as her consciousness slowly returned.
"Where am I?" The child asked in a small, yet emotionless voice which sent shivers to the people currently present in the room: a middle-aged doctor and two nurses, including the one who is beside her.
"You are currently admitted in the Konoha Hospital. You were unconscious for two days now," the nurse with short, brown hair and kind demeanor explained. The girl's expression turned grim with each syllable that the woman spoke.
"I have to return…" She muttered under her breath and tried to get out of the hospital cot she was now sitting on. However, it was futile because she was immediately stopped by the said nurse, at the same time the doctor spoke.
"You can't. You have to stay here until you get better—"
As soon as those words left his lips, a pair of teary, red eyes were glaring at him. Somehow, it unnerved him—as if those glistening eyes were seeing through his whole being.
"A-Anyway, you can't leave just yet, especially when we were strictly told to keep an eye on you while you are recuperating." The doctor managed to stutter out, as he pushed up his glasses that are slipping off from his nose.
"I will send someone to fetch him. So, monitor her while waiting, Taji-kun." The brown-haired nurse who was still beside the girl, nodded at the doctor before taking a look at the seething child beside her.
Once the doctor and the other nurse were outside, Taji stood up from the cot and continued to stare the little girl down. Feeling the intensity of the nurse's stare, the child looked up and met eyes with her instead.
"Aren't you going?" The child asked in a monotonous voice.
"Did you not hear what he said?" Taji shot back, making the girl more irate than she already was.
"I'm not even from here, so I don't get why you're helping an orphan like me," the kid huffed, and crossed her little arms over her chest while looking outside the window. There, she saw the garden filled with trees and flowers. Nostalgia immediately hit her, and her stony expression softened for a bit, making her look like the child she actually are.
Taji noted the way the child formed words, and deduced that she must have lost her family in the skirmishes that is currently brewing between Konoha and Iwagakure. Unconsciously, she had put a hand on her shoulder, as if comforting her. That action caught the attention of the girl, whose head almost snapped at how fast it turned just to look at Taji spitefully.
The two of them had another round of stare-down but the older female was unwavering. The medic-nin decided to break off the tensed silence, when she remembered that she had forgotten to ask one vital question to the young girl.
"What's your name?"
The question caught the child off-guard that her doe-like eyes rounded in surprise, before she quickly regained her composure and rolled her eyes at the adult who asked the question rather too late.
"Why should I tell you? For all I know, you're out to kill me." She harrumphed, turning her head away from Taji.
'An act of stubbornness,' Taji thought. 'A smart child if you ask me, but if she continues like this, she'll eventually get herself killed by saying the wrong thing…'
"Either you tell me your name, or you can settle with me calling you little girl for as long as you're here," the medic-nin voiced out. She noticed how the girl's cheeks slowly turned pinkish. Whether it was out of anger or embarrassment, she did not know and she doesn't plan to, out of fear that the said child would become more bull-headed.
However, she finally managed to get a proper answer after a little while.
"…Nao."
At first, Taji was confused, but then she soon realized that the girl was letting her know her name. Thank god, there was some sort of progress to this mental battle. She would be able to write her report later properly, and accurately update the hospital's records.
"Is that all? Your name, I mean." She probed further, wondering if the kid has a family name, or if she even know it. Taji assumed that the girl is at least four or five years of age, despite the brilliance that 'Nao' displayed.
And a minute had passed before 'Nao' spoke up once more, and the information she revealed astounded Taji more than she could have had imagined. Her eyes widened in shock, at the words that spilled from the child's lips.
'Nao' stared at her in the eyes. Her pair of pale, red orbs slowly darkening by each syllable—by each word that left her mouth, as she continued her introduction.
When the child was done revealing who she was, she did not avert her gaze elsewhere like she always did earlier. It held a certain degree of firmness to it. On the other hand, Taji had disbelief clearly written on her expression as the girl's words finally sunk in, in her mind.
Before the medic-nin could utter a word, the door suddenly opened with a creak. It revealed a handsome man in his early twenty's with spiky, yellow hair and bright blue eyes, like the color of the sky. His face was expressionless—almost stoic even. He was wearing a flak jacket over a blue garb, with bandages wrapped over some of his body parts. But what Naoko noticed instantly was the distinguishable forehead protector, which symbol she recognized.
Realization dawned on her as soon as she saw the leaf symbol on his forehead protector. She was taken in by Konoha, after she had collapsed at a clearing while fleeing away from enemies.
It completely left Naoko's mind that she was in Konoha right now, and that she was supposed to ask for help aside from deciding to go home. She started shaking, remembering what she came here for. However, it was probably all in vain now.
"Greetings esteemed child of the Higanbana. Heiress to the deceased clan head, Naohiko. Daughter to the deceased Hitomi. And the only known, living survivor of the Higanbana clan as of now."
The mysterious man said as he repeated the words that she had used to introduce herself to Taji, while his blue orbs met her pale red ones. And now, the child deeply regretted doing so.
"Welcome to Konoha, Naoko of the Higanbana," were the last words she heard from his lips, before the red-haired child could notice or react that she was already transported somewhere else afterwards, while she was in the midst of her internal battle.