Disclaimer: I don't own anything except Yami! I definitely don't own Naruto; if I did, a lot of things would be different ;)

AN: I'm sorry for copying some scenes down to dialogue, and some scenes might be misplaced in non-chronological order; please tell me if anything bugs you.

Feel free to point out mistakes, and I hope you'll enjoy^^

The Stranger

The forest was on fire, and there were ashes in the air; she could feel it. The air was filthier now, and it was harder for her to breathe as she ran out of the wooden house with a horrified expression on her face. Her heart beat faster; why was their home on fire?

She heard people screaming and crying as everyone tried to flee and abandoned their occupations; some even left their children behind. She saw a toddler lay helpless on the ground, and for a split second, their eyes met. His were big and watery, and his dark pupils reflected the fear that she felt herself. The boy reached out a skinny hand towards her, but before she could do anything, a ball of fire hit his tiny body, and the next second he was only ashes.

She wanted to scream, but she couldn't. Her heart beat even faster, and she desperately searched for her father, and even her grandfather, even though she knew that he was far away. Her black hair was released from the ponytail, and it fluttered and constantly whipped her pale face; she could hear the elder trees groan as they watched their youngsters were mercilessly sacrificed to the flames, and a blackened oak fell to the ground just as she caught sight of her father, standing tall in the middle of the crowd, his black hair and his dark eyes flashing violently over the crowd, commanding his horror-struck and panicking people and trying to lead them to safety.

"Dad!" she croaked; her voice was hoarse.

Her father stopped yelling for a second to hastily meet her gaze, but there was no warmth nor comfort in his black eyes.

"What's happening?!" she screamed as her dark strands continued to flutter in her face. "Why is our home on fire?"

He glared at her for another moment, almost as if considering if he was going to give her an answer or not, before he nonchalantly turned his back on her and proceeded in taking care of the others.

"Dad!" she screamed; she refused to acknowledge his ignorance this time, she needed to know what was going on. But perhaps that is what panicking people always want.

"It's those fuckin' ninjas from the goddamned shinobi villages!" he growled furiously as a shuriken barely missed his head. He wasn't looking at her daughter, but she could sense his fear without even seeing his face, and it scared her; how could her father be scared? He was never scared of anything...

"But... why are they-"

"I don't fuckin' know, Yami!" her father cut her off with immense darkness in his voice, much more fierce than usual. "Everyone, stay calm! We'll head eastwards, to the mountains," he yelled at his people, though fewer and fewer were listening. "Just stay ca-"

The flames that engulfed him interrupted his speech, and his once so confident and strong voice switched to a horrible scream, a long, dark but at the same time high-pitched scream; the yelling of a shocked and terrified maniac, and the scream echoed for a long time through the night and clenched her little heart long after his blackened remainings had crumbled to the ground to never rise again.

Her mouth was open, but no screaming was heard; she seemed to have lost her ability to speak. She didn't know what to think or feel right now, because everything was concealed by smoke and darkness and ashes. She wanted to cough, but her dry throat wouldn't let her; she wanted to cry, but the hot air had drained whatever liquid there was in her eyes. All she could do right now was what everyone else were doing: Fleeing.

She ran for her life; she passed bleeding and screaming and burning people, wounded children, burning houses, away from their "village" and deeper into the woods, and she ran away as far as she could from the distant voices that shouted out the repeated command: "Kill them! Kill them all! Now!"

She panted hoarsely and continued running on her skinny, filthy scratched legs. The tears started running down her hot cheeks as she fled from her home, and left behind everything she knew of to crumble in ashes...

About four years later, in a forest...

Naruto was kind of very shocked.

Just when he thought that they'd defeated the two ugly, bandage-faced ninjas that'd attacked them, they rose again, and he was pretty sure that someone would have died if not that girl had appeared out of nowhere. She'd landed a full-power kick right into one of the attackers' back, preventing him from attacking them.

And now they were standing side by side, fighting to take them down.

"Sakura, stay back and protect Tazuna." Sasuke ordered loudly.

Sakura looked startled, but she gripped her kunai tightly and positioned herself in front of the old man that they were supposed to escort.

"And Naruto, don't just lie there, get up!" he hissed at Naruto, who was sitting on the ground, holding his gashed hand. "And you.." Sasuke continued, turning to the raven-haired stranger. "If you want to get out of this alive, you'd better give us a hand."

The girl looked at him. "I just saved your life, so I'd be grateful if you didn't use that tone." She retorted.

Sasuke snorted. "Well then, back me up against them."

And the two set off in opposite directions, darting through the air, then met up and clashed on opposite sides of one of the attackers, blocking his escape route and doing damage at the same time.

The enemy barely avoided fatal injury; he was a Chuunin, after all. The two ninjas threw a dozen kunai at once, and Sasuke and the girl was forced to pull back.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura squealed. "Naruto! Get up! Sasuke-kun might get hurt!"

But Naruto was as good as petrified; these were Chuunin ninjas! They were fighting to the death, their lives were on the line.. They couldn't do this!

And Sasuke charged at the enemy, using shuriken as decoys. The enemy dodged them easily, jumping up in the air, when the girl took off too and launched shuriken as well.

The battle went on, until when the enemy charged at Sakura and Tazuna, Sasuke shielded them, and then Kakashi appeared out of nowhere and took down the enemy, tied them tightly together and imprisoned them. Then, when they had calmed down, their sensei turned to face them.

"I'm sorry I took so long." He apologized. "But I had to find out who they were after." And with a glance at Tazuna, he turned to Sasuke, Sakura and the stranger girl, smiling.

"You did a great job protecting your friends, Sasuke." He praised. "And you too, Sakura."

Then he turned to the girl.

"You have our utmost gratitude for helping us." He said gently. "If you hadn't shown up in that moment, someone probably would've gotten hurt."

The girl smiled in return.

"And that is absolutely not thanks to you." Sasuke pointed out sarcastically.

"Eheheh.. Sorry about that.." Kakashi laughed nervously and scratched his head. Then he turned to Naruto with a serious look on his face.

"Sorry, Naruto. If I'd been quicker, you might not have gotten hurt," he said, "But I really didn't think you were that slow."

Naruto could feel the blood shoot up in his face. Kakashi's words felt like stabs from a knife, and they hurt even more than the gash in Naruto's hand. He bit his lip to hold back his emotions.

And then Kakashi and Tazuna started the discussion – or rather inerrogation – about whether their pursuers' target was them, or Tazuna.

That's when he noted that, whatever the case, they would have to turn around and see to Naruto's poisoned hand anyway.

That was crossing the limit.

Naruto took out his kunai, and by impulse, he stabbed himself in his hand, causing the blood to flow in every direction.

Everyone turned to stare at him, and Sakura cried out in horror. "Naruto! What the heck are you doing?!"

Tazuna glared and gasped, Kakashi frowned, and the girl simply looked shocked.

"There's no need to turn around.." Naruto said through clenched teeth. "We will finish our mission and escort the old man back home."

He shut his eyes in determination.

"And I promise, by the pain in this hand…" he continued. "I will never step down from a challenge!"

The girl stared at the short, blond boy in shock. He stabbed himself. He stabbed himself to cause the poison to leave his body, and thereby enabled his friends to carry on with their mission.

She was shocked. Utterly shocked. She'd never met anyone with that kind of determination. A few minutes ago, he'd been sitting motionless on the ground, obviously terrified, and now he was pulling his kunai out of a wound he created himself, for another person's sake.

The girl wouldn't stop staring. She swallowed hard. Now the blond boy was suddenly looking terrified as his sensei was examining his wound with a serious look on his face, stating that he might die from loosing too much blood.

"K-Kakashi-s-sensei.. I-is it d-danger-rous..? Y-you have s-such a-a serious l-look on your f-face.." he stammered, loosing all colour in his face.

Odd person… A really odd person.

"K-Kakashi-sensei, I-I don't w-wanna die..!" Naruto stammered as he stared down at his bleeding hand.

Kakashi looked up, smiling.

"Relax, you won't die." He assured him and wrapped bandage around his hand, though he knew that the Nine Tails' power was already healing him. "This will do." He simply said, then stood up.

And suddenly, Naruto regained full energy, sniggered and then exclaimed; "Okay, everyone! Let's head to the Country of the Wave!"

Sakura rolled her eyes and started scolding him for yelling so darn loud. Sasuke kept the cool expression on his face and simply turned his back on the others. Kakashi smiled, and Tazuna simply looked startled.

".. You're going to the Country of the Wave?" the girl suddenly asked, and everyone turned to her.

She shifted uncomfortably under their gaze for a while, and then straightened herself.

"I know a somewhat safer path there. I can follow you, if you want too.." she said. "And maybe help you to protect the old man from some enemies. I really don't have any special location to go to now, anyway..." she added carefully.

"Eh?" Naruto blinked.

"That would be great." Kakashi answered. "We could really use your help."

"Another kid..?" Tazuna murmured to himself.

Sakura looked happy, and Sasuke showed no reaction. "As long as she won't get in the way," he simply said.

Usually Naruto would have barked at Sasuke for such a comment, but right now he was too thrilled. "Eh? We're getting another teammate? Great!" he exclaimed excitedly. "I'm Naruto, and I'm going to become the Hokage one day," he presented himself, and then he pointed at Sakura. "This is Sakura-chan, and she's really smart, but watch out, cuz she can get really pissed and hit you." He continued, sounding clever.

"Naruto..!" Sakura raised a fist at him, and he immediately took back his words.

"Nice to meet you!" Sakura said happily to the girl, who waved her hand awkwardly.

"And that is Kakashi-sensei," Naruto interrupted, pointing at Kakashi. "I know he looks kinda lame and lazy, and he's got an even lazier attitude, and he's pretty nonchalant and casual, but he's really a cool ninja."

The girl glanced at their sensei; he looked utterly offended.

"And that" Naruto muttered, his eyes full of bitterness when he pointed at Sasuke, "is Sasuke. He's a stupid moron who thinks he's the best, but I'm better, ya know." He continued, before turning his back grumpily on Sasuke, who snorted as an answer.

"Don't mind them, they always fight," Sakura sighed and shook her head.

"So, you should follow my lead and learn from me." Naruto continued, grinning.

The girl couldn't help but smile back.

"My name's Chihiro Yami." She said. "I'm not from any Hidden Village, so I don't know if I count as a ninja.." she looked away momentarily. "But I wouldn't say that I'm completely clueless when it comes to shinobi techniques."

It was impossible to read Kakashi's expression, Sakura just smiled, and Naruto didn't seem to really care where she came from or who she was. "Alright! Yami, huh? Welcome to the gang!" he laughed and gave her a thumbs-up.

Yami grinned. "Thanks."

And with that, they continued. But of course, Naruto and his friends couldn't help but to ask their new companion questions.

"So, if you're not from a village… where are you from?" Sakura asked.

"I've been… travelling."

"How come you know ninja moves if you're not a ninja?"

"A long time ago I was trained as a shinobi."

"How old are you?"

"Twelve."

"Ooh! She's like us!" Sakura giggled.

"How tall are you?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, that's a silly question." Sakura said.

"How much do you weigh—?"

"SHUT UP!" Sakura hit him right on in his face, causing him to fly backwards into a tree. He should really learn to behave himself in fron of his violent friend, if he didn't want to get killed soon.

"S-Saku..ra-chan..!" he whimpered weakly.

"Sorry about that." Sakura sighed and gave Yami a tired look, "He's a complete idiot, and he knows nothing about manners."

"Aha.." Yami said, glancing at the staggering Naruto, whose face was all swollen.

"So, it's necessary to punch him sometimes." Sakura continued.

Yami nodded slowly.

"So.." Sakura leaned closer. "Do you think my forehead is… wide..?"

"And you're accusing me for asking silly questions..?" Naruto murmured while standing up with the help of the tree, and Sakura shot him a nasty look.

"Uuh.. It looks like a normal forehead to me." Yami answered.

Sakura lightened up. "Really?! Oh, thank you! You're the first one who's ever said that to me!"

"You're only gonna scare her off if you keep asking questions like that." Sasuke said calmly without turning to watch them.

This made Sakura giggle nervously; she didn't seem like she wanted to look bad in front of him. "Oh, but, Sasuke-kun… we… we just want to know a little more about her.."

"Yeah, and why do you get to decide which questions are stupid?" Naruto shot in.

"Naruto! Don't use that tone to Sasuke-kun!" Sakura barked.

"But, Sakura-chan..!"

Kakashi chuckled nervously as he walked behind them. "Well, my students might be a little eager to talk all the time.."

Yami looked at him with a pleased look on her face. "I find them amusing." She answered.

"For now." Sasuke said.

Yami gave her an odd look as an answer.