And now a serious time jump.

All the way to after the Five Kage Summit, when Sasuke and Naruto are talking.


So this was Naruto.

He didn't look like an idiot.

As Yucara listened to his words she felt Sasuke's arm muscles tense where they lay across her shoulders.

It occurred to her suddenly that he would understand. Hell, he already understood.

Without really thinking about, she took one tentative step forward. In a flash, Sasuke's hand slipped from her shoulders, grabbed her arm, and spun her around to face him.

"What are you doing?" He asked. She would've answered but she wasn't absolutely sure. She looked into his eyes. They didn't look the same. She leaned forward slowly, stretched her feet until she was tall enough that she could tilt her head up to him, and lightly pressed her lips to his. And before could regret or question why she had done this, she let her lips glide across his cheek to whisper in his ear.

"I'll help you."

Then she dashed across the water to stand with Naruto, the pink-haired girl who she assumed was Sakura, and the man with the face mask.


As they walked back to the village, Sakura wondered idly who this girl was. She wore fishnet stockings, short pleated teal skirt with black shorts underneath, a black cropped jacket over a cropped shirt that ended just over her belly button with lace sleeves, fingerless fishnet gloves, her with stomach covered with fishnet as well. She was about 5'6" and Naruto was carrying her on his back. She was keeping her head hidden in his shoulder.

"I'm sorry." She said, lifting her head from his shoulder. "I'm being rude. My name is Yucara Zimo."

"Naruto-"

"Uzumaki." Yucara said, leaning her head over his shoulder to look at him. "Sasuke told me about you. He said you were an idiot. But you don't look like one to me."

Naruto blushed slightly at the girl's bluntness.

"He told me about all of you. When he first came to us."

"Yucara, how did you end up with Orochimaru?" Kakashi asked.

"I'm not sure. He's in most of my earliest memories. And then Sasuke killed him. He said he was going and asked if I wanted to leave with him. I saw no reason not to."

Naruto kept his eyes forward.

"We should be getting there soon." He said. "You do know that they will take you into custody, right?" He asked, speaking to Yucara.

"I am aware."


Yucara sat in the white room staring stoically at the ANBU in front of her.

"How long were you with Orochimaru?" He asked.

"From when I was about seven to when I was like sixteen, so around nine years."

"Where are you from?"

"I don't remember." Her back felt bare. They had confiscated her swords.

"How long have you known Sasuke Uchiha?"

"Four years."

"Did you or did you not help him kill this man?" the ANBU asked pulling a picture out from under the table. Yucara looked at the picture. It was the man, the one who'd saved her life when she was just five-years old.

"Sasuke wanted to kill his brother." Yucara said, not fully comprehending want the man was saying. Or perhaps just not wanting to.

"Yes." The man agreed. "Did you not help him?"

"I helped him kill his brother." Yucara admitted. "But what does that man have to do with anything?"

"He is Sasuke's brother." The ANBU looked exasperated.

Yucara felt faint. She knew that Sasuke wanted revenge against Konoha for what the elders had done to his brother. She knew that he had wanted to kill his brother for his clan's massacre. She knew that he had succeeded. But not once had she had what his bother looked like. Not once had she seen him for herself. If she had, maybe she could've stopped Sasuke from doing it. Maybe she could've stopped it all. But she hadn't.

She felt faint.


When Yucara awoke it was night time and she was in a hospital. Her head was pounding and she felt the memories she'd been holding back since the first time she saw Sasuke began jostling forward.


Yucara looked around, frantically searching for her mother. She'd lost her at the market and all she could see were a bunch of people that she did not know. She turned around and bumped into the abdomen of a tall man.

"Sorry." she said around her thumb, not raising her eyes from the ground. She began to move around him. He grabbed her shoulder and she froze, frightened.

"Who are you looking for?" He asked, squatting so that he was at eye level with her. She kept her eyes on the dirt ground.

"Mother says not to talk to strangers."

"Do I look strange to you?" He asked and she finally raised her eyes from the ground to look at him.

"Yes." She answered. He laughed. She thought he had a nice laugh. "I was looking for my mom." She said, deciding to answer his earlier question. The man tilted his head.

"What does she look like?"

"She looks like me." Yucara said, twirling a piece of hair around her index finger. She thought about what she had just said. "But bigger."

"Hop up." He said, indicating for her to climb onto his back. When she did, he stood. "Where was she when you lost her?"

"By the fish stand." Yucara recalled the stench; she'd inched away from it slowly and the next thing she knew she couldn't see her mother anymore.

They searched for her for a long time until finally they spotted her standing in front of the rice shop glancing around urgently.

"Mom!" Yucara yelled, waving an arm above her head. She jumped form the man's back and raced toward her mother. Her mom turned to her, lifting her from the ground and twirling her in a circle.

"I was so worried about you." Yucara's mother said, trying to smooth the wild hair around her daughter's face to no avail. "Don't you ever do that to Mommy again, okay?"

"Okay." Yucara said. "Mom, there was a-"But she stopped her sentence when she looked back at the crowd and found that the man was gone.

"There was a what, honey?"

"Nothing." Yucara said, quietly.


"Go away." Yucara said, sitting up in her bed and covering her ears. She didn't want to remember. It hurt enough already.


"Go." Yucara's mother told her as her father exited the room to go answer the door.

"Go?" she was confused. Why would she – why should she – leave her home?

"Go." Her mother's voice was more urgent now as she listened to her husband open the door. She could hear men's voices. She turned her daughter around and pushed her through the back door.

"Wait! Mom!" Yucara exclaimed as she saw her mother slam the door. "Where should I go?" she asked in a much quieter voice. She heard a glass shatter and her mother yelled. She turned and ran into the forest behind her house. As Yucara scrambled through the trees she caught her foot on a large tree trunk and fell. She hit her head on a rock and blacked out.

Yucara awoke to feel a warm tongue licking her face. She opened her eyes slowly and raised her hands to keep the animal from licking her anymore. She looked at the russet fox that stood before her, staring at her with a look of absolute adoration.

"What are you doing?" she asked it as she stood to go home. Surely that would be fine. As she began to walk home the fox tailing behind her, bounding energetically over the high tree roots.

When Yucara finally found her way home, she entered through the back door and made her way to the living room. She screamed at the sight that welcomed her.

There was blood everywhere. Her father's head was tacked to the wall while his lay on the wooden floor bent in a horrible way. Her mother was slumped against the wall with a sword-hilt sticking out of her chest.

And so she did what any five-year old would do when faced with such a situation. She ran back to the forest wishing she had never decided to come home; the fox still following her.

Once she was a good distance into the forest she fell onto her knees, clutched the animal to her, and sobbed until she no longer had any tears to offer.


"Go away." Yucara said, her hands clutching her hair tightly. "Go away, go away, go away, go away."

She wanted them to stop. They hurt her like she was being stabbed repeatedly in the chest.


"You are the devil's child!" one man yelled.

"You need to die!" yelled another. Yucara scrambled over the tree roots frantically. It had taken a year, a year of her hiding out in forest with only the fox, who she'd decided to name Chikyu, for company but they had finally decided to storm the woods in search for her. She'd known it would happen eventually but she had never thought it would be so soon. She was glad Chikyu had gone to search for food; she didn't want her to be here for this.

Yucara skidded to a stop as the trees ended and she almost fell over the edge of a cliff into the ocean's water. She spun around to face the large crowd of people bearing pitchforks and torches. She was becoming frantic.

She was six-years old! She didn't know how to fight! She stuck her thumb into her mouth as the group began to move towards her. She gnawed on it until she began to taste blood and then she kept gnawing until a drop fell from her mouth. They were getting awfully close.

As the small drop of blood hit the grass below her feet, symbols began to spread out around her until they surrounded her in a circle. She wasn't sure was happening but she heard the loud rumble of thunder and felt a droplet of rain hit her shoulder. She saw the crowd stop its movements and heard the ocean beat hard against the cliff side. One of the men screamed loudly. And Yucara glanced to her side to see a giant head that looked to be five times the size of her entire body. Yucara moved away from it as she saw one aquamarine intelligent looking eye look at her. It moved one gigantic foot onto the edge of the forest as it began to climb the mountain side. It was royal blue and had scales like a snake and when Yucara looked behind her she could see giant wings growing from each side of its body. It was a dragon, and a rather large one at that.

Yucara watched as the crowd dissipated and ran at the sight of the beast. It turned its head to look at her.

Let me take you somewhere where you will be safe.

Yucara did not feel as if she were in any position to argue with it so she scrambled onto the dragon's neck and thought about Chikyu, who she would never see again. The dragon took flight and Yucara watched the ground speed by below her. She was afraid so she closed her eyes and pressed her face into the creature's neck. They may have hated her but that place was her home. She couldn't watch it go by without a second thought.


"STOP!" Yucara so shrilly that all the way across the village Akamaru awoke and burrowed his face into his paws, whining.

She had had enough. She didn't want to remember anymore. She yanked violently at her hair. She vaguely heard the hospital staff the worked the graveyard shift crowd around her but she couldn't see where she was anymore. The only things her eyes saw were her parents bodies, mutilated in the living room and the giant beast, who had told Yucara at some point that her name was Mizu, that had cared for her for weeks and then left her alone in the desert where Orochimaru had found her.

She wasn't sure how it had happened or who had told him to come find her but at some point during the night Naruto showed up. He lay down on the bed next to her and pulled her into his chest. Eventually her screams turned into sobs and she curled herself into a ball against him, clutching the front of his shirt. He wrapped his arms around her slim frame and rubbed her back in soothing circles until she fell asleep with him following soon after.

Yucara remembered now that she was just a little girl from the small Hidden Village of the Stars in the Country of the Wind.