First Fanfic! Yay! This chapter and possibly the next one or so are gonna be about the OC, introducing you guys to her so you can get to know who she is and where she comes from (how she grew up).

Read and Review! Thanks!

It had been a year since the nine-tails attacked the Hidden Leaf and Kushina and Minato sacrificed themselves to seal the Kyuubi inside of Naruto Uzumaki. The village had just fully re-cooperated, everyone had fallen back into their regular routine, every death had been mourned, and the entire village had been repaired.

Night had fallen hours ago and the civilians had tucked themselves away in their beds. The only night life consisted of the poor souls with night duty and the occasional midnight stroller. The village was nearly silent.

The Sandaime Hokage himself happened to be one of the few midnight strollers walking around the streets of Konoha rather aimlessly. He'd had a rather late night working in his office and for an hour he sat at his desk thinking of the village's past, present and future. Once the past brought him memories that he'd rather not face again, he decided that a walk in the cool summer night air would help him to clear his mind.

Hiruzen Sarutobi made his way past the front gates, greeting the ninja who stood their posts. As he made to walk quietly past, a dark figure just outside the village walls caught his attention. Deciding to satisfy his curiosity, the Hokage moved closer to the opening but he didn't sense a thing. He sensed no chakra, no movement, no quiet breathing, nothing. He began to turn around when his ears just barely caught the soft cry that he would not have heard had he not had his ninja senses. He followed the sound to find a basket just outside the gates. Another cry could be heard from the basket and his feet began to move closer to the soft noise.

What is this? It sounds like… The Sandaime's thoughts trailed off and he opened the lid of the basket.

Bright blue-grey eyes stared back at him and at the first chance they got, tiny hands reached out to grab at his white and red robes.

A newborn child. Hiruzen's brow creased. Where did it - ? Why couldn't I sense anyone coming or the child's own presence?

The child was tiny, smaller than your average newborn and had bright light blue eyes with flecks of grey. It was wrapped in a white blanket and that was it. Hiruzen reached down and slowly and cautiously he picked the child up and cradled it.

The Hokage sighed as the child he had brought into his arms played with whatever it could get its hands on, and looked around. He was surprised to find that he hadn't attracted much attention from the ninja around him but then again they were probably just keeping a distance.

"Whoever brought you here must be long gone by now." He mumbled. I can't just leave it here.

He made a quick decision and turned around, child still in his arms. Walking back into the village, the ninja on duty shot their Hokage curious looks, brows furrowed at the sight of the child in his arms, other than that though, they seemed to leave it be.

Step by step he made his way to a small apartment in the middle of town and knocked on the door. Minutes later the door opened to reveal a woman with wise eyes and an obviously aged face. Wrinkles sat around her eyes and she stared at him calmly then her eyes took in the bundle in his arms. Slowly she opened the door and motioned for him to come in.

Anzu was an old civilian tea shop keeper whose shinobi husband of many years, Botan had been killed in combat during the second shinobi war. Botan was a very close childhood friend to Hizuren Sarutobi and the two had always helped each other out. When Hizuren Sarutobi ensured that Botan's body be returned to Anzu in one piece and given the burial a worthy shinbone deserved, Anzu declared herself forever in his debt.

The Sandaime cleared his throat. "I'm here to request of you to look after the child."

"Whose is it?"

"I'm not sure. I found it at the gate when I was walking. One minute there was nothing around for miles, the next there was a child in a basket. But I sensed nothing, not even the child until I heard it cry and I went to see what it was. None of the guards saw nor sensed anything either. I get an odd feeling from it though."

"Enough calling the child 'it'. Is the child a boy or a girl?"

Hiruzen had never thought to check and seemed just a bit caught off guard. Anzu rolled her eyes lightly. "What a wise man" she joked and reached out her arms as a signal for him to turn over the child. He handed the bundle to her.

Anzu undid the blanket that was wrapped neatly around the little body slowly.

"A girl." She breathed. Anzu felt a small hand wrapping around her finger.

"I think it- she just likes to touch things. She was grabbing at my robes the entire way here…" He paused at the way Anzu looked at the little girl. Anzu and Botan had once had a child. It was a boy named Ayato. He died when he was only six years old. "So will you take her?"

"I will. But I ask, why couldn't you? Why me?"

"As Hokage, a child who is not my own is not something that I can deal with right now. I also believe that she needed someone who also needed her. That is you." Anzu looked at him with knowing eyes and in them flashed something Hiruzen could not quite recognize. Happiness? Gratitude? Sadness? Loneliness? Whatever it was it was gone quickly and replaced again with the wise yet gentle eyes.

"I recognize what you are doing and I thank you." Hiruzen nodded and stood, moving to the door. He stopped and looked over his shoulder at the old woman and the child.

"I do not know the origins of the girl, but I should leave her to you in hopes that you will be her family and she will be yours."

The Sandaime turned to leave. As he left he nearly failed to hear the last thing Anzu said to him that night; it was barely a whisper.

"Haya".

Three and a half years later

People stared. Anzu didn't have to be a ninja to know that people stared. They did not stare nearly as much as they did at that boy with the nine-tails, but Anzu knew none-the-less that they stared at the mysterious child who showed up one night out of the blue three and a half years ago.

Anzu had taken Haya to the playground where Haya immediately ran to the monkey bars. She swung herself up and managed to sit herself right up top and then she stood and walked across the top, one bar at a time. She had done this many times before and at first it had worried Anzu's old heart but she soon realized that Haya had abnormal balance and that fighting her was rather pointless as the girl could and would find a loophole or just do it anyway.

The children that had been playing on the swing set jumped up and most of them ran while one stood still with his back turned and hands over his eyes, counting. Haya jumped down from the top of the bars when children ran toward her. They all stopped and eyed her skeptically.

"What are you guys doing?" Haya asked gently

"Playing hide and seek tag" One kid answered slowly. Haya's eyes lit up.

"Can I play too?"

"No! We're not supposed to talk to you." Another interjected. Haya didn't understand.

"Why? Says who?"

"Our parents said that you're an outsider! You don't even have a family. You've over extended your stay!" A girl said cooly even though she wasn't entirely sure what "over-extended" mean't, she just repeated her parent's words. "Go home!" Haya's face twisted a bit but not angrily, just sadly.

"I have parents or I wouldn't be here. I am a leaf villager. I've lived here all my life! I know all about the Leaf Village. And I thought this was a public park so why must I go home when you tell me to?" These were all things that Anzu had told her expecting something like this to happen.

"You are not. If you have parents then where are they?"

"I… I don't know. But I am part of the village!" By now the children's parents had noticed the crowd and come over to take their children home.

"Yumi!" One woman called with a frown on her face "Time to go." The girl who had asked most of the questions turned around and planted a big smile on her face before skipping over to her mother. They started to leave and Yumi's mother began to ask Yumi something once they had turned around. Haya didn't hear it but Anzu did. "Why were you talking to that girl? I told you not to associate yourself with her."

"I'm sorry mama. She came over to me! I didn't know what to do!" Lies.

"It's okay, just don't let it happen again." With that, everyone had left and Haya stood there not quite understanding what had happened.

"Anzu" She said quietly "Why don't I have parents? Why was I left alone? Why didn't they come with me?"

Anzu thought quietly for a long moment. "There are many possible reasons why they didn't stay here with you however, I may not be your blood family, but I just like to think that when I got you, we both gained family." Haya looked at Anzu and smile.

"Thank you, Anzu." Anzu smiled back.

"C'mon. Lets go home. I'll put on a pot of rice." Haya nodded happily and took the hand Anzu extended.

A year and a half later

Haya walked back from the store to the apartment she lived in with Anzu with grocery bags lining her arms. She had gone on a walk and Anzu had asked her to bring back milk and some ingredients for homemade curry.

When she finally reached home, she walked up the steps and momentarily switched most of the shopping bags to one hand so she could open the door.

"Anzu" She called out "I'm home, I got everything you needed." Haya waited a moment. No response. "Anzu… You here?" There was no where else the woman would be, the tea shop closed an hour ago and Haya had gotten groceries, Anzu went to visit Botan every Sunday and Thursday but it was a Monday. Haya set the groceries on the counter, she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Anzu" one last try. She walked through the living room to Anzu's room and hesitantly pushed open the door.

Anzu was on the bed. Her head on the pillow, blankets tugged up around her. Oh, Haya thought. She's sleeping. No wonder she didn't answer. Of course she would take a-

Haya took another look. Wait. Anzu snores. She moved closer at an extremely slow pace. "Anzu?" Haha shook her once, twice, three times. She didn't understand what was happening. Why wouldn't Anzu wake up? "Anzu?" And then a thought creeped into the back of her five year old mind.

What if? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO! Haya put two fingers to Anzu's wrist and waited, it was something Anzu had taught her. Nothing. Anzu had no pulse.

Haya's fears were confirmed. Anzu was dead. Haya was alone.

Haya took a step back. Then another. Then another. Then she spun around and flew out of the room, slamming the door behind her. She sunk down to the floor against the door. For the first time in her life, Haya wanted to cry but nothing was coming out, her eyes didn't even water. Instead she got back up and ran out of the apartment and into the street.

"Somebody! It's Anzu, she has no pulse! Help me!" She yelled into the street. Anzu was well known and well liked by her neighbors and those who frequented her small tea shop. It was lucky that there were a few passerby's, civilian and shinobi alike, whom were among that crowd of frequent friendly shoppers. Two women that Haya recognized faintly covered their mouths with their hands in horror and two men, one shinobi and one civilian, ran up the stairs, past Haya and into the apartment. Haya followed and from behind her came several more people.

As she reached the bedroom a man, a shinobi, stepped out with a solemn expression on his face. Haya couldn't quite read the situation. She made to rush inside but the man stepped in front of her and slammed the door.

Haya pressed her ear up against the door trying to hear anything she possibly could. She could only make out a couple words out of the faint whispers that they spoke in.

"She was getting… older years" "…but…seemed fine" "Anzu… poor woman… take care of… outsider" "What… do with it?" "…heard…Hokage-sama…nuisance." "…back… came from" She couldn't make sense of much of what they were saying but there was one last word that she understand clearly and knew exactly who they were talking about; "orphan".

Where was she going to go? Lost in her thoughts, she didn't hear the doorknob turn and fell backwards on her back when the door swung open.

"What is she still doing here? You! Get out of here! There's no place for you" The shinobi sent her an angry look. He treated her like a stray dog, shooing it away from his garbage cans.

"W-why? A-anzu is m-my f-famly." Haya whimpered.

"Anzu is dead. You have no family here. This is not your home." Haya lifted her head and her eyes widened considerably.

Anzu is dead. Anzu is dead. Anzu is dead. Her mind repeated that over and over again. She knew but she couldn't acknowledge the idea. Shock coursed through her veins and she turned around, attempting to stand but fumbling again and landing face-first.

As soon as she was shakily on her feet, Haya ran. She ran as fast as she could to the door, down the steps and out into and down the street.

Haya ran aimlessly. She didn't know where she was going nor did she care. She just had to get away from there.

B-but Anzu always said, "good things come to good people. Be a good little girl and work for what you want and good things will come." So why not? I've never asked for anything other than to always been with Anzu, I've always tried to be a good girl. Why? Why? Why!?

Haya felt her legs begin to give out from beneath her yet she kept running until finally her knees buckled and she fell to the ground scraping her knee in the process and cutting up her hands. She grunted in pain and yet she still didn't cry. I wonder if Anzu felt pain. Slowly, she rose and sat back on her calves, sitting straight like she was taught. She looked around and took in her surroundings.

The Ninja Academy? But... This is three miles from home. How long had she been running for? It hadn't felt that long to Haya but she hardly remembered running there anyhow. Haya spotted a bench a few feet away from her and eyed it sleepily, weighing her options. The sun had set long ago and it was a warm summer night. It must have been quite late. No one was around, everyone still awake would be walking around downtown, not here.

I can't go back now. Haya thought.

Deciding that she didn't have a choice, Haya went and laid herself down on the bench and curled up. After all that running, it didn't take her long to slowly drift asleep.

Ok, so this is my first fanfiction. I got this account a LONG time ago but never wrote anything :( I would LOVE suggestions on what to fix because I'm sure that there are plenty of errors here but please, NO HATE. IF THERE IS AN ERROR ABOUT KONOHA PLEASE CORRECT ME AND I WILL CORRECT IT!

Like it, love it, hate it, review it.

I will try to update soon but I've always been a busy body.

THANKS FOR READING AND I'LL SEE Y'ALL SOON