DISCLAIMER: the following characters: Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, Sasuke, Shika and the Akatsuki members belong to Masashi Kishimoto. In no way affiliated with Naruto. The O/C Kihara is my own personal creation. Enjoy my pretties
CHAPTER ONE - The strings of the heart.
Flash Back...
She ran down the muddy streets of Konoha not daring to look behind her. Her clothing being mere scraps of old material clung to her small body as the cold rain beat down on her like needles stinging her hazel eyes. The only warmth she felt in her cruel world was the tears that always spilt down her cheeks. She lowered her head as her hair hit her like whips on her open back leaving red marks on her skin. Stumbling she fell to the floor struggling to rise to her feet in desperation. "Hey keep your hands off that girl Mr.!" Shouted a voice she had never heard before. She peered up, petrified to find a boy dressed in black and orange, not much older than she was standing protectively in front of her. Her whole world was soon engulfed in black.
End of Flashback.
They sat together laughing at the ramen stand. She owed her life to Naruto for saving her that fateful day many years ago. Sakura and Sasuke where with them as they all laughed together. Naruto looked at her and roughed up her shoulder length caramel hair before he walked to go pay. Sasuke accompanied him, leaving the two girls alone.
"I don't know how you do it. Well nobody knows how you manage it Kihara." She sighed as she watched the hyper blonde and emo black haired teenage boys leave them. "Huh? What do you mean Sakura?" She was confused. "Handle been around him ALL the time." Sakura nagged. Kihara chuckled. "By the emphasis on the word 'ALL' I'd take it, it's a bad thing?" She snickered. Sakura rolled her eyes and rested her chin on her palm melodramatically. "You know what I mean Kihara. You never get sick of Naruto. Some of the nin can't understand how you handle him so well. It's not humanly possible." Kihara simply smiled. "Have you ever owed someone such a great debt that nothing, absolutely no amount of money or no items what so ever could show your gratitude to that one person?" She whispered to her friend. "No, but I don't understand Kihara." "Then you never will truly understand Sakura. Some things are better left unsaid." She smiled sweetly.
Naruto and Sasuke walked back to where they were sitting quietly. "We thought leaving you two alone would make you a little more social, you know with your girl chats." Sasuke said in his usual disinterested tone. "Why don't you try cheering up?" Kihara raised an eyebrow at the boy and chuckled. "Yeah whatever." He sighed walking to the door. Kihara smiled at Naruto and walked with Sakura.
"I forgot to ask Kihara, have you found a partner for the moon festival tomorrow night?" Kihara shook her head silently. "Naruto asked Hinata." She said simply looking up at Sakura. The look on her friends face worried her. "No, you got the wrong idea Sakura, it's not like I wanted him to ask me! It just would have been nice you know... "She lowered her voice, "to have a partner and not go alone." Sakura smiled. "Don't worry Kihara, leave it to me. I will make sure you have a decent partner." She beamed thinking of the one man who would accompany any beautiful, young woman to a festival.
Kihara pulled on the rest of her kimono, traditional wear had so many layers she felt suffocated so she removed a few and shortened her kimono in the front. Sakura had left her a note, that her mystery date would fetch her at approximately seven that evening. Adding the last clips to her hair she smiled as she admired herself in her full length mirror when Naruto called her from down stairs. Her date had arrived. "I'm on my way." She called touching up her final touches as she started walking down the steps with a fan covering the bottom half of her face.
Slowly, step by step a familiar jounin came into view. He was all neatly dressed. She had to admit he looked good all prettied up. She saw a smirk through his mask and smiled back. "Kakashi-dono." She smiled. The man took her hand in a chivalric manner and kissed it through his mask as she took his arm. "My you look splendid Kihara. You'll definitely be the most beautiful young lady present tonight. I'm honored to have you on my arm." He teased. "Oh Kakashi-dono stop." She cooed. Naruto just stood staring in disbelief at his Sensei and his best friend. Picking her up bridal style he carried her off the porch of the house and down the steps before using the trees as the quickest route to where the festival was been held.
Gently her arms rested around his neck as they landed on a large branch of a cherry tree. He set her down on the branch sitting and patted the place next to him. Slowly she sat down hanging her feet down. The jounin smiled again and looked down at the crowd below. "He looks so happy with her, doesn't he Kakashi-dono?" she asked softly feeling sad when she saw Naruto happily hanging on a blushing Hinata. Kakashi looked over at her and placed a gloved hand under her chin bringing her saddened gaze to meet his. He knew that Naruto was watching them and in so leant in close to her making it look as though they were kissing. "Why didn't you just tell him then?" He whispered in her ear. This made her cheeks flare up and Naruto misunderstood the whole situation which he had seen. Angrily he took Hinata by the hand and led her away from the cherry tree. "Go tell him you little baka girl before it is too late." He petted her head and motioned for her to go too Naruto. She smiled and jumped down from the tree running through the buzzing crowd to find him.
She noticed his mop of fuzzy blonde hair and ran faster, her heart was racing in her chest when she stopped dead in her tracks to see him lip locked with Hinata. She felt her heart break as she stood there unable to move. Biting her lip she forced herself to walk away and went straight home.
The fireworks lit up the night sky behind her as her shadow stretched out wearily before her. The village grew further and further away until all that was heard was the cracking of the fireworks billowing through the empty evening air. She couldn't bear to see Naruto after she had seen him kiss Hinata the way he did. She knew of a small abandoned house in the forest and had decided that it would be perfect for her, it was secluded and no one knew of it. She had found it before when on a solo mission and made use of it. Opening the door she cleaned it up and settled herself in.
Naruto took Hinata home and returned home to angry to even look at Kihara. He couldn't bother where she was because he knew she would be by Kakashi if she wasn't home. Yet he couldn't help but feel bad about what he had done and after he kissed Hinata, Shika had told him that Kihara had seen them and turned right around and ran away. Either way he went to her room to find it empty. Sighing he knew he would have to go look for her, so he made his first stop at his sensei's home. Kakashi answered Naruto and looked down at the boy confused. "What seems to be the problem Naruto." He asked curiously. "Is Kihara here?" he looked desperately at his sensei. "No actually I haven't seen her since I told her to go to you to confess her feelings." Naruto felt his face pale. "Argh! I am such an Idiot." He groaned. "I saw the two of you in the tree. I must have mistaken you talking to her for you kissing her, and well I got real pissed and I ended up kissing Hinata and Shika saw her when she saw me, he said she turned and ran away. When I opened her room to see if she was there it was empty and some things were missing like when she goes on her missions and I didn't think that she would have actually run away." He turned around and ran, looking for her everywhere he could think of.
The bag was ripped from her head as she found herself in a damp, cold dark room. "Where am I?" she asked in a slightly dazed voice. "Why was a girl such as yourself alone in this forest?" she blinked remembering why she was alone. "I ran away. I just wanted to be alone." She spat the words out like they were made of acid as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Join us or die then." Her heart stopped. She was in the akatsuki's hide out. "You are an asset my dear girl, it would be a pity to let someone kill you, I could either give you as a human sacrifice to Hidan for his god Jashin, or I could feed you to Zetsu. I could have Sasori make you into a puppet of his own. I could even let the man that brought you here blow you up in one of his clay creations, is that not so Deidara." She looked around her in slight fear. "You only mentioned four members." She questioned slowly. "ah yes because of the simple fact that those four would make your death easy, if I left you to Itach, or Kisame or even Kakuzu they would torture you Tobi however I'm not very certain about." She sighed and nodded. She was so upset and angry she just nodded and accepted o join for the better. She knew then at least that Naruto could be happy with Hinata and forget about her.
A/N: keep an eye out for part two, hopefully coming soon.