Ch1 - Konoha's Mountain

Summary: Naruto story / I had quite a lot of these things - bullshit I call them - thrown at me in my relatively short life. I could whine about it all day, but I won't, the main reason being is that it doesn't matter. / OC-centric, no pairings yet

Prologue

There are many things life throws at you, many, many things. I had quite a lot of these things - bullshit I call them - thrown at me in my relatively short life. (Again, whether my life-span is short or not depends on which territory in the world you live in) I could whine about it all day, but I won't, the main reason being is that it doesn't matter.

I'm sure a lot of people are like; "The fuck?! How could that not matter?!"

I'll explain why, you see, I'm dead, or rather, I'm going to die. In this war that is going on, I'm one of the average ninjas and I'll be the cannon fodder of Konoha. It sucks, but if I don't at least try to fight, then I'll be stuck as a mindless drone of the rest of my life, and if there's anything I hate, it's having my life decided for me. So I'm here on the floor with one of resurected Akatsuki members ready to strike me down, I'm exhausted, injured and have little to no chakra left. My legendary speed will do me nothing here.

The conclusion: I'm going to die, and there's nothing I can do about it.

Chapter One

Not the worst fate, but a rather boring one so far, I'm not even able to feel hunger! All I can see is darkness and all I can do is sleep and stretch when I feel cramped.

I remembered my birth (one of the joys of having a photographic memory), and it was ridiculously uncomfortable, I felt like someone was trying to squeeze the life out of me, and it was only when the nurse smacked my butt when I realized it was over and I cried.

Well, I say cried, but it was more like screamed. I remembered lots of voices, and a long beep sound before the nurse who was carrying me (I assume it was a nurse, I couldn't imagine that my mother was carrying me after giving birth, that would be a ridiculous assumption) took me out of the room into a nice, quiet room.

My sight was blurry, and the only colours I could see besides, white, black and grey, and nothing kept to a particular form, everything was blurry and everything looked like giant blobs. I hated the colour grey.

For a long time I remained in the hospital, and a nurse would come to feed me, along with the other babies (the noisy cries gave them away) but I was rarely given any interaction, and it was never the same nurse who came to me. That was lonely.

If there's anything I disliked, it was being given unnecessary attention; I didn't like people much, and I never truly connected with anyone, and I liked it that way. Going about life through logic rather than emotion was much easier and far more reliable than the emotion everyone else my age used.

However, time seemed to fly before what sounded like an older lady, came and took me away from the hospital to a noisy place with lots of other children. It took me a few years to figure out where I was; an orphanage. I can only assume my mother died giving birth to me.

I felt a tiny bit of guilt for that, more than my usual nothing at all, but I ruthlessly squashed it, it's not like it's my fault this happened; I didn't chose for her to have me. I felt even more guilt at that, and again, I ruthlessly squashed it.

During my stay in what I soon discovered was the orphanage, I started to be able to see again and learned to crawl and walk very quickly. What impressed the nurses was how quickly I learned how to use the potty. There was no way in hell that I was going to shit my own pants anymore than necessary, thank you very much.

I learned that my name was 'Yamashita Riri', or 'Riri-chan' as the matrons liked to call me. 'Riri' impressed the nurses, and they were very happy with me because I was so well behaved and tried to help look after the other orphans. What worried them was my independence, I never went to them for help, and they snatched me away once when they caught me attempting to cook something for myself because the cook was too busy helping the other matrons control the overly-excited kids.

I concerned them with my independence as well as impressed them, but I couldn't care less, especially with the way they treated one little boy. Uzamaki Naruto. The boy was blond with blue eyes and naturally tanned skin, and people picked on him, even the matrons. I really started to hate the matrons for how they treated him. All who attempted to befriend him were ridiculed, everyone except me had tried.

It was one day that Naruto had raided the cookie jar because the people refused to feed him properly, that I finally stood up for him. I knew how to use my words better than most 3 year olds, and that gave me the advantage when the head matron started yelling at Naruto.

Normally I didn't care if someone was getting in trouble with the head matron, but I couldn't help but feel disgusted with the way people treated Naruto; they were bullying him, and if there was one thing I hated, it was bullies.

With that, I marched right up to Naruto and the head matron, and, as she reached down to strike him, I stepped in the way and she struck me instead. There was silence as the matron stared at me in shock and a mild disgust at what I have just done; now I was condemned in her eyes, and I felt an odd thrill in that.

"Leave him alone," I hissed at the lady, and wiped at my mouth, where the lip had split at the force of her hit. "You bully," and with that, I dragged Naruto away.

The blond was silent for a minute before we hid somewhere safe (underneath my bed), and the look in his almost dead-looking blue eyes was chilling as he asked me; "Why?"

"I don't like bullies," I answered simply, but truthfully.

Something changed in Naruto, and his eyes looked less dead, they sparkled and he smiled shyly. "Thank you Riri-chan."

"Anytime shrimpy, and I like to be called Yama-chan."

After I stood up for Naruto, the bullying had started to get worse for him, and others started on me. I ignored the bullies my age and the younger ones, and the older ones I usually avoided or got myself beaten up in attempt to help Naruto.

Naruto, of course, tried to defend me loyally, but was beaten even worse than me. He always healed from most of his injuries (usually bruises) by the next morning, it had gotten me curious, but I had no time to satisfy my curiosity when I had to hide Naruto and myself and somehow provide food for us both.

There was only so much I could do in an orphanage with almost all the cupboards locked and matrons watching our every move.

I managed to steal a little, and we often watched the ninja behind the orphanage walls as they sped by to occupy ourselves (we weren't allowed to play with any of the toys or play with the other children). Naruto was more interested than I was, and we both decided to do races every day to become as fast as the 'big awesome ninja' (as Naruto likes to call them).

We quickly became the fastest kids in the orphanage, and the kids that could climb the trees the highest; Naruto and I often spent our time in the orphanage gardens up in the trees or racing in the long grass.

We managed like this until we were seven, but as time went on, I came to a rather dark conclusion, one that made me hesitate in one of the few times of my life.

We were six now, and we would be even more vulnerable on the streets, but at least we would be protected by the ninjas... hopefully. Considering how people behaved to us so far, I had very little confidence in the other authority figures of this village. However, it was either take the risk, or slowly die from hunger.

"We need to leave, Naruto," I explained to him as we huddled in the closet we hid in. It was best to remain hidden in this old, forgotten closet until everyone else was asleep, especially during the summer when everyone was outside.

"Why?" The blond asked. "It's not night yet."

"No, I mean we need to leave the orphanage, forever," I explained with as much patience as I could muster in my stress. "We could live outside near a river, it'll be like a long camping trip."

Naruto's sky blue eyes, even when muted in the dark, seemed to glow with uncertainty. He didn't voice it though, he tried to be brave for me; why boys felt the need to pretend to be brave for girls is something I'll never understand.

"It'll be just us forever Naruto-chan," I added with a tired smile. "We won't have to worry about scary matron-sans, or people who hate us, we'll be hidden from everyone else forever, and we'll get everything we need by stealing from the mean people."

Naruto smiled and tried hard not to giggle at the thought of stealing from the people who have been mean to him; even children understood the concept of revenge. The blond, while not cruel, definitely believed in justice, and to him this was the best way to get justice.

I had to agree with him, but I knew this was really just a petty revenge, if a necessary one. So, it was tonight that we stole not only a couple of backpacks, but filled them with food, blankets and drinks. We crawled out of the window (we dropped the bags out of the window first and climbed down after) and then we fled out of the gate of the orphanage and onto the oddly quiet dirt-road streets.

If it weren't for the fact that I didn't believe in a god (how can such a powerful being let us suffer like we have?) I would have believed that there was a divine power on our side; no-one seemed to notice us at all. I sighed in relief and I wandered down the dirt road with Naruto trotting alongside me.

Soon, however, I was beginning to tire, and we had to stop in a foresty looking area on the outskirts of the village, the buildings we had passed were very plain and others starkly fancy with a few darkly dressed people around who moved at unimaginable speeds. We were in the ninja area of Konoha.

We finally stopped near a small lake and I did a rare thing; I grinned. I looked around the area warily for a place not only for me and Naruto to take shelter in during the rainy season, but also any signs of regular occupation. There was no flattened grass or cut trees or burnt items around here so it was safe to say this wasn't a training ground, or at least not one that is used regularly.

It would do for now, this was too close to the ninja houses for me. I finally spotted some thick roots that had grown up-right and wrapped around each other to make a small hollow, it was perfect to rest in.

"There!" I declared as I pointed to the hollow, and I marched towards it (and wading through the cold water in the process) even as Naruto sighed in exasperation and followed after me. "All we need to do is hang out one blanket across the hollow, the brown one, and we'll be fine."

"Sure Yama-chan," Naruto replied with a yawn.

Despite myself, I smiled; he was too damned cute! How could anyone hate him?

"Come on, we'll set up for bed," I told him, in my usual 'bossy' manner.

Naruto made no complaint as he helped me pin one blanket onto the roots to cover the entrance (using some rusty old senbon needles I found in the river), then one to cover the dirt floor before we settle down with the last blanket and the packs as our pillows.

It was a tight squeeze, but oddly comfortable. Naruto cuddled into my back for both comfort and warmth if the way he held onto my shirt was any indication. He yawned again, and he whispered; "We'll be ok, right?"

I didn't want to lie, but I didn't want him to panic and give up either. So, with a heavy heart I said; "Of course, I'll show you how to make a fire and I'll show you how to cook."

Naruto didn't ask how I knew how to cook on an open fire, and for that I was grateful, I didn't want to lie to him again. Having such skills at my age was impossible without any training... unless you had a photographic memory like I did.

I scowled; why was I experiencing such annoying emotions? I never needed them before, nor have I ever acted on them until I met Naruto... why did I allow that to change?

I wasn't sure if I liked the change or not, and that night I fell, like Naruto, into a fitful sleep.

I woke up at dawn the next morning and I washed my dirty clothes in the river as well as myself, and then I changed into the spare clothes I packed. I left the spare clothes to dry on the roots; until I could steal some wire or rope to make a clothes line I had to make do with roots. Then, I gathered any loose wood and sticks I could find (whilst making sure not to wander too far away) to make a fire and start breakfast.

This morning we would have dry toast and water to drink. I didn't want to drink river water, so instead of using the bottled water we stole to bathe in, I bathed in the river in favour of having clean water to drink.

Naruto joined me just as I pulled the toast away from the fire. He silently accepted the toast, he was a bit more cheerful once he had his toast, and I quickly doused the fire and saved any wood that hadn't burned all the way through and put them in a pile next to our little shelter.

"We need to get more water, we only have three bottles and we'll run out soon," I mentioned to him as we headed towards the streets, the sky was lightening and soon more and more civilians would be out and ready to become our victims. "We'll also need some pans and pots to cook with."

"Ok, were are we going to get everything?" Naruto asked me with a grin, and I winced at the volume of his voice, people were starting to notice him in their early morning exhausting because of his loud voice.

"We need to go to several different places to get everything, if we keep going to one place we'll get caught and sent back to the orphanage," I explained patiently. "We need to be quiet and sneaky, like a ninja."

Naruto frowned; "I thought ninja used awesome techniques?"

"They do," I hastened to correct him. "But to use them without getting their own butts kicked, they need to sneak up and surprise them first, like a huge prank."

Naruto nodded his head as he thought this information over. "So, where do we go to first?"

"We need to find a well, or an outdoor bathroom to gather water, then we explore the rest of the village to find where all the different shops are." I said to him, and I lowered my voice so others wouldn't notice us, and Naruto moved closer to me to hear me. "We'll get any pots and pans if we can, but what we need more than everything is to learn where everything is and to get more water, we still have enough food and shampoo to last us a few days."

Naruto nodded with a smile and exclaimed. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's explore!" I glared at him to enthasize my earlier point. "Sorry."

The day went by quickly, and after Naruto bathed in the river like I had, we found and managed to remember the most important places for us, and we filled our empty water bottles with water, and we also stole some more underneath the nose of a busy civilian woman during the lunch time rush hour of a small cafe.

Things seemed to be finally be looking up for us.

That evening, I was able to laugh with Naruto over how oblivious the civilians were, and how the kids our age stared at the two 'naughty orphans'. Well, I laughed, and Naruto remained quiet over how people judged us as if we were objects, and not people. I stopped caring a long time ago, but Naruto hadn't. That, more than anything else, was what worried me.