DISCLAIMER: The story of Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto but this fanfic and the character of Haruna belongs to me. And I hate Mary Sues as much as the next person, believe me. Hopefully Haruna doesn't across as one, because I really don't want her to.
This is set Pre-Part I with Naruto being six years old. Japanese terms will also be used occasionally.
Please R&R at the bottom of this chapter and may your chakra never run out.
Once I had a sister
Chapter 1
Enter, Haruna
High above the streets, masked figures watched the buzz of the village below.
"He's the jinchuuriki?" a female voice asked in surprise. "The blonde kid?"
"Affirmative. Uzumaki Naruto. Caution to keep our distance."
From behind a wolf-painted mask the woman watched the grinning kid bounding down the streets with wide eyes. "Why? He's kinda cute. Does he have any friends?"
Grim laughter rippled across the huddled group. "The brat's too obnoxious for that."
"But has he got any living family?" her voice continued curiously. "Any brothers or sisters?"
"Nah," the dog-masked member shook his head with authoritative will. "Don't press on the subject, Wolf. The boy's dangerous."
She stood there on the street, watching silently. She watched the young blond-haired boy, a grin so wide on his face she wonders if it hurts to smile that broadly, bounding down the street, his laughter ringing off the shop walls.
She didn't really know why she'd bothered to take a look, but the talk of all the shinobi in the mess rooms were unanimous on only one subject. Uzumaki Naruto, Jinchuuriki to the Kyuubi no Kitsune. The story was always the same.
The boy had no focus! He would try the patience of Buddha himself!
She'd heard things from the academy instructors about his horrible lack of any ninja skill and his raucous behaviour. Perhaps since the story rather reminded her of a girl a long time ago, ANBU Wolf decided that Naruto should still be given the benefit of the doubt to prove himself.
And on the streets of Konoha, she realised he was far from the dangerous monster she heard of in the office.
The kid sported a bright, eye-catching orange jumpsuit that caught the disapproving attention of civilians and ninja alike. As he went by in his get-up, the foxy grin never left his face. One look at the Hokage monument said it all – the four village heroes now sported lipstick and swirly patterns on their otherwise dignified faces. A smile played on the ninja's lips from behind the ceramic mask.
Then, the scene suddenly went wrong before her eyes. There was something off in everyone's expressions. Though no words were said, it seemed the whole village automatically changed their mood when he appeared; irritated sighs at his last successful prank and transitions from a bright smile at the last customer to an icy glare at the kid.
The Kyuubi container was the village pariah.
She wondered whether the kid noticed it, and if it hurt him to experience that. He never seemed to stop laughing, as if joy was perpetually plastered on his face. Despite the boys' obnoxiousness she was struck by the fierce determination and the will of fire she could see in the boy's blue eyes. It both intrigued and fascinated her.
ANBU Wolf gave one last wistful glance at the blonde child before disappearing just as silently as she'd arrived. Duty called.
The whiskered kid bounded between each stall, captivated by the melange of colors, scents and sounds.
He halted abruptly outside a stand, baby blue eyes widening in delight at the colourful array of masks behind the vendor. Porcelain animal masks akin to those worn by the infamous ANBU members, fearsome-looking gigaku masks and even ones crafted in the faces of past Hokages. So many choices!
"Uwahh!" he exclaimed, peering at each unique item.
The burly store-owner must've had a bad day or something, because he strode over to the boy standing outside his stall menacingly. What he found unpleasant in the boy's excitement thoroughly mystified Naruto, but nothing prepared him for the rough shove that followed. He coughed in confusion as the world tilted and he sat looking up at the stall-owner.
"I was just looking!" He protested. "What's your problem?!"
"Get out, you cursed thing." The man answered in a voice low with suppressed rage. "Get out!"
The ceramic mask he had exclaimed over clattered on the dusty street beside Naruto. He felt sick to his stomach, his eyes swimming and his heart clenching from the icy glare that man had given him. That look, that expression he had grown to recognise on everyone's faces, still punctured him. Whispers began to circulate from the crowd that had gathered and for the millionth time in his life, Naruto wondered just what on earth he had done to deserve this.
"…who would allow such a thing here-"
"—someone get that bakemono away —"
"...haven't we been exposed to enough evil—"
High in the treetops, ANBU Wolf surveyed the scene below grimly. Dangerous? The small vulnerable kid at the mercy of the villagers - dangerous? What kind of brainwashing did these civilians go through to think that, the kunoichi pondered. She watched in growing dismay as the villagers who had witnessed it averted their eyes, the way they tilted each other heads to whisper, the pointed fingers. As if the six year old boy was some demon incarnate, a hideous plague made flesh, as if breathing his very air was lethal.
A little bit of her died as the boy picked himself up with his skinny arms and walked away.
For a moment, the kunoichi – her name was Haruna, no surname - seriously considered intervening although to do so was a serious breach of conduct. ANBU were not meant to intervene or go near the civilians unless ordered to. She herself had neither business nor reason to be in the marketplace – or above it, since she was atop a tree. Her superiors would never forgive her. Her peers would hate her more than they already made obvious. From behind her wolf-painted mask, she watched the boy's retreating figure make its way as far as possible from the hateful crowd with regret.
No one else was making a move to help him and she was joining them too. It offended her sense of justice…
Naruto was walking away slowly when the rush of air above him stopped him. The mask sailed over Naruto's head in a neat parabolic arc before landing almost gracefully on the stall owners head. Though it was just a mask the man stumbled back like he'd been hit with a boulder.
…Huh?
He looked up as a brunette, silver grey-clad woman brushed past him, walking straight towards to the vendor. Naruto gulped, confused, before turning tail and bolting quickly. In his mind there was only the opportunity that strange girl had given him to run away he needed to disappear before the attention came back for him.
While he fled from the scene, the man at the stall was unrepentant –or, she observed drily, did not think he was in the wrong. If this was the kind of people she risked her life protecting every day, she rather regretted not throwing the mask any harder.
The kunoichi looked down at the mask on the ground and seemed to realise for the first time that she was out in the open and that she hadn't thought of what to do next. The Uzumaki had disappeared down the maze of the village streets, and as an ANBU she had forgotten what normal people did in a market situation.
In the end, none of the passerbys could complain. The ANBU kunoichi paid for the mask the jinchuuriki had been thrown, and left a bruise with the notes as she wished the stall keeper a good day.
.
.
.
ANBU Wolf found the kid some ten minutes later, sitting alone on a hill overlooking the village looking profoundly miserable. The mask twisted nervously in her hands as she debated on how to give it to him, the jinchuuriki. She didn't exactly want to scare the kid or him to get the wrong idea about it. Besides, a masked ninja dropping in on a solitary kid? That was creepy, even for ninja standards.
From where he sat, Naruto looked impossibly small. Something about the sight brought memories back. She pulled her wolf ANBU mask over her face before making her way to him.
The boy looked vaguely panicked when spotted the ANBU member heading towards him and scrambled to his feet.
"Uzumaki Naruto?"
The blonde head nodded uncertainly.
After a silent pause, the figure placed the mask in her hands on his face, much to his surprise, before it flickered and disappeared.
"Wolf. Captain says you're filling in for Nezumi. Tora's going to Kiri in an hour."
"Roger that. Where am I going?"
"Gate patrol, 'cause Genma's sick."
Haruna pushed a kunai into the holster on her thigh. "Okay. How's the Uzumaki today?" she inquired conversationally.
The other ANBU agent crouched at the desk beside her shrugged. "Easy day for us. He's just been hanging around the square trying to find someone but other than that, nothing to worry about."
"That's good. Oh, and I'm cancelling that meet up with Beaver, if that's alright. Not in the mood for eating out tonight."
"You mean you blew off your salary on chocolate, I know. Hurry up, they're waiting."
"Sure, sure. Have fun without me!" She rolled her eyes as she exited the building.
The dull ache in his stomach reminded Naruto that he needed food- and fast. Upon inspection, it was revealed his scant fridge held nothing particularly appetizing so he slipped out of the door in the search of something better.
It was growing dark but he didn't mind. In fact, it was better, seeing there were less people likely to be walking the streets at this time. He spotted the lights of a brightly lit ramen stand at the corner of the street- one he had frequented a few times before. Unlike a lot of the other stores, it was one of the places where he was served without a plastic smile or disdainful glare cast in his direction as he entered.
He walked silently, his mind still reeling over the incident with the mask the day before. Over the years an inward survival instinct had taught him to let whatever bad incidents he experienced go without a second thought but this time, this love-starved boy was filled with a desire to at least say thank you. A simple thank you for the mask that now stayed at his beside his bed.
He was still mulling the idea over a hot bowl of ramen when the cloth curtain lifted once more and another person joined him at the counter. It was a girl, wearing the ANBU uniform, her dark hair in a ponytail. A strange feeling stirred in his gut. Vaguely, somehow he thought he recognised her, almost certain he had glimpsed the same shock of dark hair before.
"Ojisan, miso pork ramen please. All night would be great."
"Hai!"
The sound of the boiling noodles, frying pork and the cosy clatter of chopsticks filled the silence that fell over the table soon after. Naruto, hiding behind his own bowl of noodles, surveyed the ninja from behind the wisps of steam curling from the broth. Sensing his blue eyes on hers, she too turned and realised that the kid beside her was the jinchuuriki she had helped from the other day.
Well, what a coincidence - did the kid like ramen too?
"Hello." She said first, taking the role as the older one here.
"Hello."
A pause. The kid was still staring at her. Haruna, trying to engender some sort of friendship with the scrawny child looking at her with ocean eyes, smiled awkwardly. "You like ramen?"
Naruto nodded, unsure of whether or not to tell her that he practically lived off it and that it was one of his reasons for living.
"Oh?" she nodded exaggeratedly, all the time thinking, is he going to start running here or what? "Me too." Thankfully her order was ready just then, bowl sending off wafts of savoury bliss, which she dug into gratefully. Shinobi could learn how to kill enemies without a sound, commit daring deeds on a daily basis, but the majority of them –especially those in the base kitchens – couldn't make anything as nicely as the civilians did. Particularly old man Teuchi here. It had been rumoured that even the Yondaime loved the ramen at Ichiraku.
Naruto gulped his mouthful down, wondering why he was so curious about this newcomer that he'd spent more than five minutes on his one bowl. She must've just come from a mission, the small boy assumed. But since when did ANBU eat at Ichiraku. (And also, did ANBU people have normal faces under their masks as well? He didn't know what to think anymore.) Of the rare times he'd glimpsed one of the silver-clad masked ninja, they'd always been mere glimpses that melded into the shadows like smoke. It was the first time he'd seen an ANBU without her mask on - and eating ramen as well. Small in his seat, Naruto looked around; at the ceiling, the smoke wafting from the stove, the empty street, as he waited for his bowl. His eyes drifted silently, and caught sight of the mask on the chair beside his counter-top companion.
The mask that resembled a wolf.
The chopsticks fell from his hands with a clatter. The ninja realised the situation a heartbeat after. Her thoughts immediately fluttered between ingrained instinct to dispose of anyone who knew her identity or to think of how to not alarm the child.
"Ahh.." Naruto stuttered. His hands gestured wildly at the wolf swirls on the ceramic of the mask on the bench beside her. "Were you – Are you… the other day…"
"Yes I am, Uzumaki Naruto," she kicked herself inwardly because if anything, she sounded like she had been caught stealing or something. Calm conduct as her guide, she spoke slowly. The main priority was not to scare the kid and thus raise the alarm that she was in a civilian eatery that evening. "My name is ANBU Wolf and I stepped in because what that man did to you was wrong and he was not going to get away with that on my watch. So um… no need to thank me, okay?" she finished. "Naruto?"
Naruto shook his head, looking – to her momentary fright - dazed. "Thank you. For the mask." he said anyway. For some reason he was looking at her with an expression that took a while to recognise as gratitude. "No one ever did that for me before."
Haruna stared at him quietly. "No one?" She knew she didn't even have to ask; he shook his head.
"That's why I really wanted to meet you. To say thanks, I mean." he chuckled brazenly, all the while clenching his hands into the folds of his shirt.
Lost for words, Haruna racked her head for what to say in reply. She felt dangerously close to losing her train of thought for somehow all the years of order and training had flown out of her mind and she found herself recalling them, remembering better times, before she joined the ANBU and when her little brother was at her side and asking her what she thought about his new idea to -
"So it's nice to meet you," Naruto was saying, "but you know if I have to go then I'll go…"
The kunoichi blinked, finding herself back at Ichiraku and instead of him, the Uzumaki looking up at her. "No, not at all," she found herself saying, "in fact," she continued as she pulled her chair closer to his with a smile, "I was looking forward to meeting you too, Uzumaki Naruto."It did not strike the boy as strange that this unknown ANBU agent was aware of his name. (It seemed everyone was fully conscious of his existence and had often expressed their displeasure at it, through the not-so subtle comments he happened to pick up on a regular basis.) Besides, all any child really needed was attention and now that someone was giving it without him getting in trouble first, Naruto lit up quickly.
"Why don't you tell me more about yourself, okay?"
And so for the first time, in the warmth and cosiness of Ichiraku, the kunoichi learned more about the jinchuuriki to the Kyuubi than she could ever have hoped to know from the shinobi she worked with. By the fourth bowl of ramen it seemed a shame that she had never gotten to know the kid before and she was almost disappointed that the time had flown so fast for there were evening patrols to do. Naruto as well had lost the guarded expression he had worn for the majority of the day as well.
"Hey kid," Haruna eyed the clock as she fished out a wad of notes and placed it on the table top. "I know a lot of people have been mean to you, so enjoy yourself, okay? There's enough there for another six or so bowls." Smile, she thought. Be happy. Enjoy what you like since everyone else has done their best to treat you like dirt. "Later."
"W-wait!" Naruto called out, swallowing a fish ball as he said so. The brunette kunoichi paused obligingly, resting one hand against the frame of the stand. "ANBU lady! I didn't get your name!"
She took off her mask to show a grin at the childish title and told him with a smile, "My name is Haruna. It's a pleasure to meet you, Naruto-kun." Then she turned on her heel and and went on her way.
The boy remained silent as he watched Haruna's figure disappear down the empty street, barely allowing himself to enjoy the strange, warm sensation seeping over him. Haruna. Newly-found acquaintance or not, it was an unusually nice gesture to someone like him.
.
.
.
-END OF CHAPTER ONE -
AUTHORS NOTES:
Whatever writing mistakes - even though I read my writing again and again until I can practically say it off by heart - you may find here I apologise for. I'm just starting off at the moment, so I intend to improve the story as I write more and more chapters. I want to be proud of this fanfic, and especially make all NoeticSky's work behind the scenes count.
Please R&R and I'll see you at Chapter 2!
Alatariele C.
- in collab. with NoeticSky