A/n: First, I would like to thank Obssessiooonnn because if it's not for her and her character Nana-chan, this story won't happen at all. Her story, Bocchan Dango is my inspiration for writing this story, so check it out because it's pretty good and interesting. Anyways, I would add the filler arcs in the anime in this story in the near future, so yeah enjoy. Lastly, if you guys find any grammatical errors and wrong spellings feel free to point it out and I will edit them right away. Thank you!

Disclaimer: Please, let's get real here because seriously? I won't be here writing Fan Fiction if Naruto and its characters are mine. I only own my OCs and that's that.

Summary: After years of running away and aimlessly wandering around in order to survive, Akina is getting tired of it all. She just wanted to be free from the shackles of her origin and to find a place where she didn't need to hide her identity, that she's in fact an Uzumaki. [Slightly Gaara x OC]

Edited: 02/08/2016


The Wanderer's Life

It's getting dark outside the lone and small wooden house, near the forest in the outskirt part of a certain village in the Land of Fire. A little girl, no older than four with a pair of innocent silver eyes and straight and vibrant red hair sat in front of her mother, reading a scroll on her lap and patiently waiting for her father and older brother to come home. They've been gone since early in the morning and they're little late than usual.

Where could they've been gone all day? What are they things they see and do outside? How is it like to be in a world outside of their home? Where the little girl is strictly forbidden to go. She'd been wondering since the past few weeks. Since she saw her father and older brother left the house every morning and coming back with the scent of "sweat and dirt". She also noticed the few bruises on their arms and her beloved brother, too exhausted to even play with her.

"Okaa-san," The little girl called her mother, who's embroidering a swirl pattern on a piece of white cloth in front of her.

"Hmm?" Her mother hummed in her soothing tone.

"Why did Otou-san and Onii-chan could go outside while you and I can't?"

At the sudden innocent question that the little girl posed to her mother, her mother stopped stitching a red spiral symbol on a long piece of white cloth.

"Because the world outside is truly dangerous for us." Was her mother's short reply as she continued stitching where she'd stop.

"But if it's dangerous outside, why does father and older brother go?"

The concern question of the little girl made her mother chuckled in fondness.

"Only your Otou-san and Onii-chan have the strength against the dangers outside." She explained and cradled her daughter in her arms, "Besides, it's better and safer for us to just stay here and wait for them to come home."

The little girl remained silent as she stared at her mother's beautiful face. She understood that it's dangerous outside, but she didn't understand what made it dangerous.

Moments later, the girl somewhat got the gist of what her mother was trying to tell her. Her father and brother finally came home and she was happy. They looked tired with some bruises on their faces and arms as usual, but there's something off about them that puzzled the little girl. They were panicking and immediately packed their valuable stuff. Her mother did the same too without a word from neither her father nor older brother. She just watched them in confusion as they scooped up some of their belongings, her father carrying her in most protective manner.

She saw how her family ran outside using the back door of their house, fleeing from the safety of their small wooden house to deeper part of the forest. For the first time in her life, the girl tasted the outside world and it wasn't that bad. If only her family wasn't running away, needing to escape to their "pursuers" because the secret was out.

The secret piqued the little girl's curiosity, and it was the start of her awareness about her family's odd lifestyle…

xxx

Months after fleeing from the small wooden house, the little girl turned five. Her family decided to settle in a small village after weeks of traveling around. For the little girl, traveling was the best experienced in her life. She was excited how the outside world looked like, at the same time, she was afraid that everything around her was spacious that she'll eventually get lost. Although, excitement got the best of her. The trees were taller than her. The blue sky was so wide. The moon giving them light and following them during the night. She was also overjoyed how warm the rays of sun and how refreshing the cold waters from the streams felt on her skin. How the wind caressed her face and gently blew her vibrant red hair.

It was all amazing!

But unlike before, the little girl noticed some changes in her family. Like how her mother was now allowed to go outside if accompanied by either her father or older brother. How her mother's beautiful fiery red hair that the girl always admired had changed to the colour of dark blue, similar to her father and older brother. It was all strange, especially if her mother will come back unusually exhausted like her father and older brother were. Although, the girl is thankful that her mother doesn't have bruises like them.

Those changes lit another fire of curiosity out of the little girl. She have many questions in her little mind. Questions that if answered, she will learn the painful truth and unfortunate fate of her family. And that in the near future, she will have answers and it will cost the life her family.

xxx

"I've been thinking of training Akina starting next week." The little girl's father started, one ordinary night after the family finished their supper.

For little Akina, that night wasn't ordinary. It was the night she will be allowed to go outside like her father, mother and older brother. She was afraid, but happy of her father's decision. But the sudden gasped from her mother and the sound of chopsticks, hitting the wooden table had somewhat dampened the girl's mood.

"But Tou-san," Akina's twelve year old brother, Atsuya interrupted. "She's too young!"

"I know that Akina is too young, but I'm sure that she could manage."

Little Akina frowned and tilted her head in confusion. She didn't know what her father and older brother were talking about. Akina looked at her mother, who's composing herself.

She cleared her throat to get her father's attention, "Atsuya is right, dear. Akina is still too young to train and to know about our family's affairs."

"I've already decided to train her after she discovered and started reading those sealing scrolls." Her father firmly said to her mother and his eyes were desperate. "And I don't want to risk it and put her in dangerous situation in the future, where she didn't know how to protect herself."

After her father's explanation, her mother and older brother didn't say a word anymore because it was decided. Akina will be taught by her mother and trained by her father.

Akina tried to stand up properly in her dusty pair of black flats with small red spiral symbol on the heel before she took another deep breath. She's training to perfect the Transformation jutsu with her older brother in the woods, outside the small fishing village their family were currently staying in the Land of Tea.

Sweats formed on her forehead as she started moulding her chakra from the centre of her stomach, spreading it to her body and bringing it to her fingertips. Then, her fingers formed the hand seals for a hundred time now since her father had taught it to her.

"Henge no Jutsu!" Her tired high-pitched voice said.

The gust of wind fluttered the hanging cloth of her scarlet obi around her waist. Smokes surrounded the girl for a second and her appearance changed of her older brother's. No more than ten seconds later after performing the technique, she suddenly released it and fell on the ground due to her almost low chakra. Obvious signs that she'd been training for a long time now.

Akina stood up and her little hands dropped on her knees as she panted, her lungs were craving for air.

It seems that moulding chakra and doing techniques that requires chakra control are pretty tiring for her age. She finally found out why her father and older brother were always unusually exhausted before. She also learned where the bruises on their faces and around their arms were coming from; it was from "harsh trainings", she discovered recently. After all, she's getting them too as of lately.

Akina started her training with her father and older brother after her mother taught her how to properly mould and control her chakra. It took her half of the year to control it enough and until now, she's still trying to learn how to control her large pool of chakra.

In a year, she learned a lot of things aside from knowing what chakra is and its fundamental use from her mother. She also started to learn how to write and read academic books. And secretly, she started mimicking the patterns and intricate writings in the scrolls she'd discovered before.

The little girl dusted off the skirt of her sleeveless cream kimono. She glanced at her father's direction, who's supervising her and mostly, her older brother's training.

"Water Release: Dragon Chaining Seal!" Her older brother hissed after he did some fast hand seals.

All of a sudden, a colossal Dragon made of water with its body like-chains came out of her brother's mouth. Akina watched in amazement at her older brother's technique. She wanted to do the same technique too, but what she wanted the most was to surpass her older brother.

As if reading her thoughts, "Atsuya has been training his nature chakra since he was seven. You won't catch up to him if you don't mind your own training."

Akina flinched in surprise when her father had said that.

"If you want to get stronger, you need to concentrate in your own training…" Her father strictly said that the little girl never knew her father was capable of, "…and to break your own limitations, Akina."

Akina stared at her father in fascination before she nodded. Determination, burning in her silver orbs. She tore her eyes away from her father and older brother and once again, moulding her chakra and formed the hand seals of Dog, Boar and Ram in her hands before muttering,

"Henge no Jutsu!"


Leaves fell from the trees to the ground as the branches swayed by the wind and got shook by several feet, leaping from branches to branches. Strands of red hairs flowed with the wind: it's useless now to conceal and hide the common traits of their family. And until they reached and passed the borders between the Land of Hot Water and Land of Rice Fields, only then that they could finally conceal it back.

"Kaa-san… Tou-san… I'm sorry." Fourteen years old, Atsuya apologised to his parents in the middle of running away, "It's my fault that we're leaving again and I'm so ashamed for being careless."

Akina glanced at her older brother. She couldn't comprehend why he's apologising to their parents. It's obviously not his fault that they're leaving from Yugakure. She can't helped it, but to voice out her thoughts.

"Why are you apologising to Okaa-san and Otou-san? It's not your fault–"

"Wherever you looked at it, it's my fault, okay?!" Atsuya snapped that shocked his little sister. He clicked his tongue before his face softened a bit: a sign of apology for yelling at her. "Your concern for me is not appreciated at the moment, especially if you don't know a thing, Akina."

The now seven years old, Akina groaned in frustration at her older brother's words, "Then, could you please tell me what I don't know?"

"This is not the time–"

"I'm not an idiot… I noticed that every time someone from the villages discovered that we have red hairs, we're always packing our stuff immediately…" Akina bit her lips as tears started to form in her eyes.

She thought of the friends she'd left in every villages. Every friends who doesn't even know her real name. And because of this, for the first time in her life, the little girl felt a pang of pain in her chest. It's a kind of pain that won't rival the physical pain that she received during her trainings.

"Akina…" Her mother called her name in concern and to calm her daughter.

"Why are we always running… always lying… always hiding… I'm getting tired of it!" She complained not just to her older brother, but to her parents as well, "I have my own life and friends too, you know?!"

"We will not have this conversation while running, Akina. Quiet down if you don't want them to know where we are." Her father only replied as the family continued to leap from branches to branches.

Without a choice, Akina just huffed.

It's been two years since her family started to change residencies at different villages in two countries– three if Land of Fire was counted, where she was born. She knew that the colour of their hair was pretty peculiar, but she didn't understand why they needed to flee because of it. She didn't get the reason for concealing it using a ninjutsu too. Most of all, she found it really absurd that her family was lying and giving false names to everyone instead of giving their real names.

In the early age of seven, Akina felt that her family was deceiving the world and that it suffocated her. With a firmed decision in her little mind, she foolishly decided that she will not hide her identity anymore. She will not conceal her red hair. She will be true about herself, a stupid decision for an ignorant little girl.