Chapter 1: You mean jerk!
Yuko, a 5 year old girl with emerald green eyes and dark magenta hair, was at the third training ground to practice her weapon skills, since her ability at handling weapons were the worst in here entire class at the academy. She had just started in the academy not that long ago, but she was already at the bottom of her class. She tried to hit the targets with her kunais as she jumped from side to side while aiming, but she tripped over a stone and fell to the ground, hitting the grass with her face first. "Ow…" She mumbled to herself as she sat up and rubbed her forehead.
"You're so clumsy. You are never going to be a great ninja!"
She looked around with a few tears in her eyes when she heard a familiar voice. She blinked when she saw the silver haired, masked boy, named Kakashi, by a nearby tree. Yuko sniffed a bit and rubbed the dirt off of her cheeks. "Shut up Kakashi! Why are you always so mean to me?" She asked frustrated, not understanding why he would always tease her about her abilities.
Kakashi shrugged slightly and folded his arms over his chest. "Hmm, maybe because you're making it too easy for me? And what I say is true. You're clumsy. You're about as talentless as Gai. The only difference between you two is that you can do ninjutsu and he can't." He said and scoffed.
Yuko got up from the ground and rubbed her eyes, trying to wipe away her tears and hide the fact that she was on the verge of crying. "You are such an idiot Kakashi!"
"And you are such a clumsy ninja." Kakashi said with a bored tone in his voice and placed his hands behind his head while leaning against the tree.
Yuko grabbed one of her kunais and threw it at him, but she missed him big time. The kunai hit the tree that stood next to the one Kakashi was leaning up against. She looked at Kakashi when she heard him scoff, like he was trying to hold back a laugh. "Seriously Yuko. You couldn't hit me even if you were as fast as Gai." He said somewhat mockingly.
She frowned at Kakashi's words and folded her arms over her chest. "Just you wait and see Kakashi! I will get better and prove to you that I'm a good ninja!" She said with a convincing and confident tone in her voice.
Kakashi looked at her with a raised eyebrow and shook his head a bit. "You're too confident for your own good Yuko. You show no talent of being a ninja. Both of your parents are retired ninjas, and they're still in their twenties. The ninja life must have been too difficult for them to handle, so now they own a weapon and herb shop."
"So what if my parents aren't ninjas? They're good people! And even though they aren't ninjas it doesn't mean that I can't become one!" Yuko said and looked at Kakashi with an angry frown. Her parents owned a shop where they sell all kinds of weapons, tools and herbs. The name of the shop is 'Tohiro weapons and herbs'. It is named after her father's surname, which is Tohiro. Her parents are not ninjas anymore, but her father still sometimes uses the medical jutsus he used when he was an active ninja. He used to be a medical ninja. He has promised Yuko that he would teach her some of the techniques when she got older.
Kakashi sighed and walked over to Yuko. "No matter how many weapons you try from your father's shop, you will never be good at using them. You've been training with your weapons for how many times now? I know that you are often here to train how to use your kunais and shurikens, and Gai, Kotetsu and Izumo are sometimes training with you, but you don't show any signs of improvement. You just don't have what it takes to become a ninja." He said with a bored tone in his voice.
Yuko was getting fed up with Kakashi's endless criticizing and teasing of her and her ninja skills. She felt the tears fight their way to her eyes and she did her very best to hold them back. She did not want to give Kakashi that satisfaction of seeing her cry. "I'm only 5 years old! What do you expect from a 5 year old girl?!" She snapped at him through slightly gritted teeth and clenched her small fists to try and stand strong towards him.
"Yuko, I was 5 years old when I graduated from the academy as the top of my class. I became a chunin just a year later." Kakashi said and kept looking at her with that usual empty expression of his. Though, Yuko could sense a faint smirk play on his lips through that ridiculous mask he always wore. It annoyed her even more. "No one can be as perfect and skilled as you! Just because you graduated from the academy when you were 5 and became a chunin a year after, doesn't mean that everyone can do it!" She snapped at him once again and with a slightly raised voice this time.
Kakashi seemed like it was amusing him to see her this annoyed. He was pushing her limits like this on purpose. "You know Yuko. When you become 9 years old, like me, you will still be a clumsy ninja that can't hit a target with a kunai."
Yuko's eye twitched annoyed, but also because it was becoming difficult for her to hold back her tears. She turned around as a few tears began to run down her cheeks. She would not let Kakashi see her cry. She simply would not give him that satisfaction. "You are so mean Kakashi!" She said before she ran off to her home with tears flowing down her cheeks. She did not understand why Kakashi always was so mean to her. She knew that he was pretty ignorant and kind of mean towards everyone, but it felt like he was being more mean to her, than others. Once she got home she rushed through the front door and ran up the stairs, ran inside her room and threw herself on the bed with her face buried in the pillow.
Sachiko, Yuko's mother, had heard her daughter run through the house and into her room. She walked up the stairs and inside her daughter's room. "Yuko? Sweetie, are you okay? You ran through the house so fast that I didn't get to say hi to you." She said with a worried tone in her voice and sat down next to her daughter on the bed. She began to rub Yuko's back in a comforting way as she heard her sobbing. "Oh Yuko. What happened?" She asked with a more worried tone in her voice than before.
Yuko lifted her head a bit from the pillow and turned her head to look at her mother with red and teary eyes. Her vision was so blurry from all the tears that she could barely make out her mother's face. "K-Kakashi happened..." She said and sniffed.
"Oh dear. What did Kakashi do this time?" She asked with a concerned voice, yet she sounded like she was mad. She was not mad at her daughter, but at Kakashi. He had made Yuko upset and cry many times now.
Yuko wiped away the tears and sat up in the bed. "H-he told me that no matter what I do, I will always be a clumsy ninja… He basically told me that I have no talent in ninja arts." She said and sniffed again. She knew that her skills as a ninja were not the best. She was at the bottom of her class, but she really did her very best to become better and to understand what she was being taught at the academy.
Sachiko pulled her daughter closer for a loving and comforting hug while she gently rubbed her back. "Don't listen to him dear. He is a kid who has no parents to tell him the differences between right or wrong. Even though it should be common sense not to treat others like that. It's not your fault that the ninja arts doesn't come easy to you. We're all different in how we learn things." She said and kissed Yuko's forehead gently.
"I-I know mom, but it just hurts so much when he tell me those things. It's not funny anymore." She said as she slowly pulled away from her mother's warm and comforting hug, who then placed her hand on Yuko's cheek and looked into her eyes. "Listen to me sweetie. You are a great ninja. You are only 5 years old and no one expect of you to be as good as him, okay? You develop in another pace than he does and that is okay. Don't rush yourself just to prove him wrong about your abilities." She said and held Yuko's hand. "We are moving to Kumogakure tomorrow, so you won't have to worry about Kakashi ever again. You're going to get some new friends and forget all about him, okay?" She said and smiled kindly at her daughter while giving her hand a light squeeze.
Yuko nodded lightly and hugged her mother again. She always knew how to comfort her and she loved that about her mother. Just three weeks ago her parents told her that they were moving to Kumogakure. Their reasoning for moving, was that another weapon shop had opened just a few streets away from theirs, and the new weapon shop had lower prices on their weapons. Because of that, Yuko's parents' were losing customers. They had heard from a friend that the prices on weapons in Kumogakure were higher than the prices her parents had, which is why they had decided to move to Kumogakure. of course, they needed the permission to move to a new village from the Hokage and the Raikage.
The front door opened and in stepped Yuko's father, Daichi. "Yuko, Sachiko, I'm home!" He shouted from the front door and closed the door behind him while stepping out of his shoes.
Yuko let go of her mother and got up got up from the bed, ran down the stairs and hugged her father tightly while burying her face into his stomach.
"Hi there sweetheart." Daichi said with a smile and ruffled his daughter's hair a bit, even though he knew that she did not like that. "Are you ready to move tomorrow Yuko?" He asked as he picked her up and held her close to him.
Yuko held onto him tightly and nodded lightly while looking at him. "Yes I am daddy." She said and sniffed a bit. Her eyes were red and her cheeks were tear stained.
Daichi noticed the tear stained cheeks on his daughter's face and figured out right away what had happened, but smiled warmly at her and kissed her forehead. "Don't worry sweetheart. You are never going to see that Kakashi kid again." He said and rubbed her back gently to comfort her.
Sachiko came downstairs and looked at Daichi with a loving smile. "Welcome home dear." She said and walked inside the kitchen, where she had been preparing the ramen she had bought from Ichiraku's ramen shop just before Yuko came home. All of their stuff was packed into boxes, so they had nothing to cook in.
Daichi smiled and followed his wife to the kitchen while carrying Yuko. He kissed her head before placing her on her chair by the table while his wife placed the bowls with ramen on the table. Both of them sat down and they began to eat. No one said a thing the first few minutes, but then Sachiko broke the silence. "Did you finish packing the last things at the store dear? We're leaving tomorrow after all." She said and looked at her husband.
Daichi looked at her and nodded. "Yes I did. I loaded the last boxes in the moving carriage. The carriage is on its way to Kumogakure as we speak." He said with a smile.
Yuko finished eating her ramen quite fast and looked at her parents. "Thank you for the meal. I'll take a shower and go to bed. I'm tired." She said as she got up from the chair and left the kitchen. She walked upstairs and entered her room, grabbed her pajamas and went to the bathroom to take a shower to wash off the rest of the dirt from her impact with the ground earlier. She turned on the water in the shower and undressed while the water was heating up. She stepped into the shower once the water was not cold anymore and enjoyed the feeling of the water hitting her skin as it washed away the dirt. She imagined how it also washed away all the mean things Kakashi had ever said to her. She was going to leave the village, so she did not want to bring with her all of the negative things that had happened to her while living in Konoha. She was going to get a new start, meet new people and best of all, never see Kakashi ever again. As She finished the shower after rinsing her hair and body with soap, She dried off and put on her pajamas. She walked inside her room and laid down on her bed, snuggled under the blanket and closed her eyes.
Yuko was by Konoha's main gate, sitting inside the carriage that was going to take her and her parents to Kumogakure. She was waiting for her father to arrive. He had something he had to do in the last minute before they could leave, and Yuko were deep into her thoughts about what it could be, when her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice yelling out her name in the distance. "Yuuuukooo-chaaan~!"
Yuko stuck her head out of the carriage and looked towards the village. She sweat dropped a bit when she saw the always energetic Gai running for full speed towards the carriage. She got out of the carriage just as he reached it and looked at him with a smile. "Hi Gai. You seem like you are in a hurry."
Gai leaned forward as he caught his breath after running so fast. When he caught his breath he looked at Yuko with tears streaming down his cheeks and hugged her tightly. "Yuko-chan~! Why are you leaving?!" He asked while sobbing and kept hugging her tight, almost breaking her back, ribs and spine.
"G-Gai! A little too tight!" Yuko manage to breath out and gasped for her breath when he loosened his hug. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him back. "My parents are moving the shop to Kumogakure. It's not my decision to move."
Gai pulled away from the hug and looked at Yuko with tear filled eyes. "But- But you can't leave Konoha. This is your home~" He said while whining and had a begging look in his eyes. He did not want her to leave. He was having fun when the two of them would train together, or just hang out.
Yuko smiled lightly and flattened out the wrinkles on her clothes that had formed after Gai's bone crushing hug. "I'm sorry Gai, but we're moving and there's nothing I can do about it. I wish I could stay, but I can't." She said and patted his shoulder in a comforting way.
"So the rumors are true. The weapon and herb shop is moving to another village." A way too familiar voice said, making Yuko's eye twitch a bit from annoyance. She looked up to see Kakashi sitting in the tree next to the carriage, and just his presence annoyed her. She knew that he was only there to say something mean to her before she left the village, so she clenched a fist and tried to remain calm. "Why are you here, Kakashi?" She asked annoyed.
"What do you think I'm doing here? I came to say goodbye, of course. And I wanted to see the clumsy ninja one last time." Kakashi answered and jumped down from the tree, landing in front of Yuko, who just huffed at him and looked away from him while folding her arms over her chest. "Well, now you saw me. Say goodbye so you can leave again."
"Hey, calm down now. When you are gone, who am I supposed to push into becoming better? Sure, there's the crybaby over there," Kakashi said and pointed at Gai. "But he's no fun to tease." He stated and chuckled lightly.
Yuko frowned and turned her head to look at Kakashi and pushed him away from her, making him stumble backwards and land on his butt as he fell. She would not give him the satisfaction to see her cry before she left the village. "You're an idiot Kakashi!" She said and saw her father coming towards the carriage. She walked over to Gai, who had stepped away after I pushed Kakashi, and hugged him. "Goodbye Gai. I will miss you." She let go of him again walked past Kakashi, who was still sitting on his butt on the ground. "I will do anything to forget about you!" She snapped at him while sending him a glare, and got back in the carriage as her father came back.
"Ouch. That one hurt." Kakashi said sarcastically as he got up from the ground and dusted the dirt off of his clothes.
Yuko just ignored him and felt the carriage move after her father had entered it. She looked out from the carriage after a little while and looked back towards the village. Both Kakashi and Gai were still there. Gai was crying hard as he watched the carriage leave with his friend and Kakashi seemed to be scolding him or something.
Sachiko placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder, making her look at her smiling face. "Everything is going to be better now dear, okay? We're going to start a new life."
Yuko nodded agreeing and smiled a bit. "I know mom… I know." She rested her head against the carriage as she closed her eyes to get some sleep. While she was drifting into sleep, she thought about how much she wanted to forget about Kakashi, and thought of the new life she was going to start in Kumogakure along with her parents.