Okay, I was off to a good start with this only a few days after posting the last chapter, but then some other things got in the way and the whole thing slowed down a bit. Had some reviews to write, had to actually finish some games to review, had to argue with my university, etc etc.

Anyway, it's here now and I hope you'll enjoy the new chapter. Thanks again to the lovely people who reviewed last time! Keep them coming, guys! More reviews mean a happier Waves and a happy Waves is one that's motivated to write...Don't think that means that the feedback has to be positive, though. If you spot something you think I screwed up, let me know!

I do not own Naruto. If I did, there would be some changes to the ending. Oh yes, some very interesting changes. Mwuahahahahaha-ugh! Fly! A fly flew into my mouth!


Bonds

The day after his unfortunate first tutoring session with Hikari, Naruto waited until everyone had made their way out of the class before approaching Iruka. "Ehm, Iruka-sensei? Could I ask you something?"

Iruka looked up from his desk in surprise. Normally Naruto was the first out of the door when the bell rang. Immediately he felt himself growing paranoid and he started looking in places Naruto had previously placed traps. "Okay, Naruto, why are you pranking me this time?"

The blonde smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Ehm, no, that's not it I promise." Perhaps he had been a bit too aggressive in pranking Iruka if the man thought his only possible reason for staying behind was to prank him more. "Just…Hikari-neechan told me to ask you something."

"Hikari? Oh, of course, you had your first tutoring session yesterday. How'd it go?" Iruka asked with a smile. "And of course you can ask me something if your tutor found it difficult to explain."

"It went pretty well, but she made me do a lot of boring bookwork." Naruto made a face to show what he thought of that. He also decided to keep the, somewhat embarrassing, fact that the session had ended with him passing out to himself. "Anyway, we talked about being a shinobi and, well, killing and stuff. She said she's done that a lot, so..."

"And you're uncomfortable with the idea of killing?" Iruka asked with an understanding smile. He got little more than a shrug in reply, but he'd seen enough students work their way up to this question. "That's natural, Naruto. However, I won't sugarcoat it for you. You'll probably have to kill sooner or later after graduating. Either to save yourself or your friends, to complete a mission or to protect Konoha itself."

He leaned back in his seat and toyed with a few of the papers stacked there. "It's part of being a shinobi. I had trouble with it too. It's part of the reason I decided to become an instructor. I'm not cut out for field work."

"But you did start out doing field work, right?" Naruto asked, idly scuffing his feet. "Did you have to kill?"

Iruka nodded, a wry smile on his lips. "Yup. A few times." He leaned forward and placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Look, it's not like killing rabbits like we had you all do at the start of the year. That's just to help you get used to the idea. The first time it happens, you'll probably be shaken up. However, you won't know if you're cut out for it until it happens." He squeezed the little blonde's shoulder. "I always figured I was doing it to protect those dear to me and that helped. Perhaps you just need to think of it like that."

Naruto looked at his teacher and nodded slowly. Right now he didn't really have that many people he'd consider dear to him. Sure, there was the hokage and Ayame and her old man from Ichiraku's, but that was about it. The idea of one day having lots of important people to protect, though, was very appealing to the little blonde. "I'll try. Thank you, Iruka-sensei."

"Don't mention it, Naruto." Iruka said with a grin. He stood up and stretched, before looking down at the little blonde again. "What were you two talking about anyway that landed you on this topic?"

"Hikari-neechan specializes in capture and assassination missions." Naruto answered.

Iruka blinked at him in surprise for a moment, but slowly a look of dawning comprehension appeared on his face. "Ooooh, of course. Your tutor's from the Hoshiko clan, isn't she?" The specialization in question wasn't exactly a popular one, so word got around of people who took it. Of course, that wasn't the only word going around about Hikari Hoshiko and her family, but Hiruka had always written those off as nasty rumours. "That kind of makes sense, then."

He saw Naruto give him a questioning look and adopted his lecturing tone with a chuckle. "If you want to be simple, you can identify two categories of shinobi. The first is shinobi who prefer traps and stealth in a fight. The second is shinobi who prefer to overwhelm their enemy and smash right through their guard to kill them. The Hoshiko clan is a rather extreme example of the second sort." He looked down at Naruto and grinned. "A bit like you really. More wrecking ball than scalpel. They sort of have to be, as their large chakra reserve often make them easy to find."

Naruto stared into the distance as he thought on what he'd been told. "But you always say surprise is a shinobi's weapon of choice."

"Oh, they'll fight much like other shinobi. They wait for the right moment and go for blind spots just like everyone else, but the difference is just in the scale at which they fight." Iruka saw Naruto was still having trouble grasping it and chuckled. "You'll understand if you ever see it." He paused uncertainly for a moment. "You aren't bothered by the missions she prefers to take, right?"

Naruto vigorously shook his head. "Of course not! Hikari-neechan's not a bad person!" Sure, she'd knocked him on his ass, but she didn't treat him like most of the village did either. "Yeah, she kills people, but everyone keeps telling me it's part of being a shinobi." His smile grew into a wide grin. "Besides, she has to be pretty strong if she keeps completing those missions. Training with her is gonna help me become hokage for sure!"

"The hokage knows how to use a clock, kid." Naruto turned around to find Hikari leaning against the doorframe, face shadowed by her hood. "Hello, Umino-san. Just picking up the kid."

Naruto looked up at the clock and blushed. They had agreed to meet outside of the school about 10 minutes ago. "Eh, sorry Neechan. I lost track of time."

"That's probably my fault. I tend to jump all over any chance to lecture." Iruka added as she walked over to the tall kunoichi. "We didn't really have time to introduce ourselves when you came by to tell me Naruto would be late. Umino Iruka. Nice to meet you."

Hikari's red eyes darted between the extended hand and Iruka's scarred face a few times before she finally reached out and took the hand. "Hoshiko Hikari. Nice to meet you too." She noticed the way Iruka's eyes lingered on the dark skin of her fingers and quickly found something else to turn his attention to. "Has the kid been paying attention?"

Iruka smirked as he stepped back. "If Naruto ever actually wants to be in class, I'll retire immediately because I'll never witness a greater miracle." He ignored the blonde's indignant shout. "But at least he didn't skip."

Hikari chuckled softly and beckoned Naruto over. "I'll see if I can beat a work ethic into him. Come on, kid, let's go!" She nodded to Iruka and walked out the door, closely followed by Naruto.

Before he could close the door, Iruka called after him. "Naruto! If ever wanna talk again, just let me know alright? We'll get some ramen or something."

Naruto grinned widely at the scar-faced instructor. "I'll hold you to that, Iruka-sensei." He closed the door and left Iruka feeling strangely worried for his bank balance.

Naruto generally refused to take the back streets. It was just a sign that the villager's odd hatred of him was having some effect. No, instead he made a point of taking the main roads. However, that didn't mean he had to like being on them at the end of the day. They were always at their most crowded then and that meant there were more stares and awful comments flung his way. 'Just smile. They'll see once you graduate.' He coached himself as he plastered on a fake grin and studiously ignored the negative attention.

"You lookin' at something?"

Hikari, apparently, wasn't as inclined to ignore it.

Her piercing red eyes were locked on an older woman, who had stopped to glare angrily at them. "Say what you have to say or move the fuck along, yeah?" She said, arms crossed under her chest and foot tapping against the road.

The woman only glared harder, but then turned around and kept walking, mumbling to herself about the state of the shinobi forces these days.

Hikari scoffed and continued, now moving at a pace that Naruto almost had to jog to keep up with. She led the Naruto to one of the newer training grounds, as she didn't want to explain to the kid why the old one looked like someone had bombed it. "Alright, get your stuff out." She said as she plonked herself down on a stump near the edge of the clearing.

Naruto groaned loudly in progressed, but opened his bag anyway. Much like the day before, they spent a good portion of their time on the theory. Naruto answered question after question and every now and then Hikari would add a little to the theory by giving examples from her own experiences. This time she didn't limit them to just one book and she kept switching between subjects after every chapter or so.

Soon enough Naruto felt like his brain was bleeding again and he felt like hugging the older girl when Hikari took pity on him and announced they were doing something else. "You did well, so we're gonna do something extra again."

"Finally!" Naruto all but tossed the book over his shoulder and gave her a massive grin. "What are we gonna do, Hikari-neechan?"

She raised a handful of leaves, eyes twinkling with barely restrained laughter. "Did I mention that I'm not your sister?"

"…You suck, Hikari-neechan."

This also went much the same as it did yesterday. Naruto still struggled to slow the tiny flames even the slightest bit, but whenever he failed he immediately held out a hand for a new leaf. Hikari had to admire his determination.

When Naruto was forced to drop the last leaf Hikari had picked, cursing under his breath, the kunoichi reached out and ruffled his hair. "Dammit, I can't even do a basic exercise?" Naruto crossed his arms and pouted.

"I told you it wasn't gonna be easy. You're trying to squeeze an entire lake through a tiny straw, kid. All we can do is widen the straw slowly." Hikari said, scratching her cheek beneath her facemask. "Don't worry about it, yeah? This took me quite a while to get right too and I probably had less chakra when I was your age."

Though he felt a bit better at knowing that he wasn't the only one to struggle with the exercise, Naruto still felt a little sore that he'd apparently always have difficulties with something so vital for a shinobi. Not that Hikari gave him much time to linger on it.

Since Naruto had energy left, and it fit the lie she had told him that morning, Hikari had him run laps around the field. A lot of laps. As in, she didn't let him stop until sweat was running down his face and his clothing stuck to his body.

"Why…Am I…Doing this?" Naruto panted as he passed Hikari, who was lounging on a stump with a cookbook. "Can't we…Pratice…Taijutsu?"

"Of course not." Hikari muttered as she turned the page. "We're working on your basics. Physical conditioning is one of those and you need to get stronger." She noticed the blonde was glaring at her and chucked a kunai at him. "No slowing down."

The blade barely missed Naruto's ankle and dug deep into the earth, dragging a yelp from him. "Is that thing real?" In response the green-haired kunoichi chucked another one at him, which cut his sleeve. "What the hell, Hikari-neechan?"

If nothing else, it did make him move faster. Each time Naruto slowed down, Hikari absently chucked another kunai at him. When he finally collapsed, he was covered in more than a few shallow cuts. "I hate you." He groaned into the dirt.

Hikari laughed and pulled a scroll out of one of the pouches of her vest. "Here, kid." She unrolled the scroll, pressed her thumb to the centre and unsealed a water bottle. "Something tells me you need to rehydrate."

Naruto greedily drank from the bottle while Hikari walked around the field, gathering up the weapons she'd thrown at him. He watched her work for a while, but soon felt himself getting bored and decided to question her further. It was probably best to get as much information from her as he could. Still, as he tried to decide on a topic, he came to the realisation that he didn't really care about her missions or what jutsu she could teach him. "What's it like to be part of a clan?"

Hikari froze while inspecting one of her kunai and turned one guarded red eye on him. "Why do you want to know?"

Naruto chuckled and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Well…I just wanted to know. I mean, hello, orphan and all." He gestured at himself. "It's like a really big family, right? Must be nice. " A wistful smile played over his lips as he imagined a clan of his own.

"I suppose it's sort of like a family." Hikari answered as she sat down, still toying with a kunai. "But there's a lot of people with the Hoshiko name who I'm technically related to, but don't know or have never met. Hell, even plenty who aren't even related to me." She gave Naruto a curious look. "Aren't there a lot of clan heirs in your class?"

"Ah, yeah." Naruto answered. His smile faltered for a moment. "But I don't really have a lot of friends in my class. Besides, I don't want to ask them." He shrugged.

"Hm, I suppose I can see how that would be a little awkward." Hikari muttered, looking at the little blonde. Honestly, she wasn't sure how to answer his question at the moment. She'd have been a lot more favourably disposed towards the whole thing a few years ago than she was now.

Still, Naruto had asked so the least she could do was answer. "Actually, family sums it up pretty well." She said as she idly drew meaningless symbols in the sand with her kunai. "We're our own people and we love each other, but we all have a duty to ensure the clan does well. Sometimes we fight, but we're all proud to be members of the Hoshiko clan." She smiled and drew a small crown in the sand. "We're born from stars, after all."

Naruto watched silently, captivated by the way Hikari's eyes softened as she watched her clan's symbol. They clearly meant a lot to her. "Is that why you became a kunoichi? To help your clan?"

Hikari looked up from her drawing and nodded. "Partially. My dad's a shinobi and mom was one too. I wanted to be like her when I was little."

"Was?"

"She died, during my third year in the academy." Hikari ran a hand through her green hair and sighed. "Her and an entire genin team. No idea what hit them, but they never found bodies and they never arrived where they were supposed to." It still felt strange talking about it. It had gotten easier, sure, but talking about it always seemed to make it that much more final somehow.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry." Naruto said quickly. "I didn't mean to remind you." While he knew what it was like to miss having a parent in your life, he couldn't say that he knew what it was like to lose one either. Still, he figured it wasn't something he would want to be reminded of at least.

Hikari let out a humourless chuckle and shook her head. "Kid, it's alright. Don't worry about it." She leaned back to look up at the sky and only then did she realize how late it had gotten. "Shit, I think I kept you pretty long. Come on, grab your stuff." She made one more pass of the training ground to make sure she hadn't left any weapons behind and when she turned she found Naruto picking leaves from the trees surrounding them. "What are you doing?"

"Getting leaves." Naruto said, jumping for a branch and snatching a few more. "I'm gonna keep practicing this stupid exercise." He wasn't going to expect the fact that he had large chakra reserves as a reason for not being able to do this. He'd practice his ass off and then he'd show off in front of everyone when they had to start the exercise in class.

The streets were largely deserted when they made their way back to the residential district and on a crossing near Naruto's apartment building Hikari stopped. "My place is over there, so I'm gonna leave you here. See you the day after tomorrow, alright?"

"Aw, why not tomorrow?" Naruto protested, gesturing with his hand full of leaves. "We can just meet every day, right?" The more he met with Hikari, the sooner they'd catch up on the theory and the more likely it was that she'd teach him cool jutsu after all. "I can just swing by your clan compound. Your clan does have one, right?"

Hikari nodded. It wasn't very big and it took a while before it was assigned to them, since the Hoshiko clan itself wasn't very large nor vitally important to Konoha when they first arrived, but the clan had a small compound not far from the Nara clan. "You could, but I don't live there." She said with a wry grin. "I've got a place of my own near the shopping district."

"What? Why?" Naruto asked, confused. "Don't you want to live near your family?" If he had a clan he'd get a home right in the centre of the compound so he could see them all pass by every day.

"Well, remember how I said a clan is like a really big family?" Hikari asked as she pulled her hood up. "Sometimes families fight. I got tired of their shit, so I decided to get a place somewhere else while they pulled their heads out of their asses." She smiled when she saw Naruto actually giving her a pitying look and ruffled his hair, much to his annoyance. "I don't need your pity, kid. I'm fine. This will pass." It hadn't in the past 6 months, but it would eventually…Probably.

"Okay then." Naruto murmured uncertainly as he tried to smooth his hair out again. "Are you sure we can't just meet up tomorrow? I promise I'll be better at the leaf thing by then!"

Hikari laughed, but shook her head. "Kid, I need to do other things too. My place is kind of expensive, so I'll need to take other missions every now and then." Well, that and she didn't want to spend every evening tutoring Naruto. She wasn't the most social creature, but that didn't mean she didn't like getting plastered with her friends every now and then. Drunk Anko was hilarious, when she wasn't hitting on anything with tits.

She looked at the leaves in Naruto's hand and gave the little blonde a stern look. "Don't spend all night on those, yeah? It's gonna take time before you get good at it." She nodded at the leaves.

"Screw that!" Naruto answered with a grin. "I'm gonna get this by the next time we meet and then you've gotta teach me something new."

The green haired kunoichi crossed her arms and chuckled softly. "Sure, kid. Tell you what, if you manage that, I'll teach you something special." She saw Naruto open his mouth to cheer and quickly held up a hand. "However, only when I see you're ready to learn it, yeah? You need to have a good grasp of the basics first."

Naruto's excitement was barely diminished and he almost sprinted home. "Sweet! You'd better have something awesome to teach me, Hikari-neechan!"

"Not your bloody sister!" She chuckled as she watched him go and turned to make her own way home. "He'll be lucky to get it in a week."

That estimate turned out to be grossly inaccurate as, two days later, she found herself looking on in amazement at the leaf in Naruto's hands. He hadn't stopped the fire from spreading, not entirely, but he had managed to slow it to such a slow crawl that it would probably take most of the day before he'd have to let go.

"So…About what you were going to teach me." His smile was almost insufferably smug, but she couldn't help feeling a little proud. Not that she didn't smack him anyway, though.

From then on they established a bit of a routine.

Every other day, after school, Hikari would pick Naruto up and they'd claim a training field to work on until dark. They'd always start with theory and when Hikari decided they'd done enough, she'd throw a few practice exercise at Naruto.

Mainly this still involved the leaf exercise and running laps, but she soon noticed Naruto growing used to the laps and made him do other exercises. Jumping jacks, sit ups, anything she could think of to tire him out.

Naruto often complained about how she wasn't teaching him anything cool, as they were mostly working on his strength, speed and of course his chakra control. She had him doing all sorts of variations of the leaf exercise, from balancing it on his head to actually making it burn faster and even keeping it from burning while running laps.

He had to admit that the tutoring was having some effect, though, both in class and outside of it. After a few weeks it was time for his first make-up test and he found that, unlike before, the answers actually came fairly easily to him now. He was still never going to be a straight A student, but at least he was scoring average or higher now.

Hikari had picked up a few new things as well. Most of them involving Naruto. Clearly the hokage had been correct when he'd told her that the physical part of his education would probably come easier to Naruto, as he visibly became stronger and faster. She still managed to tire him out by the end of the day, but it was like he only came back more energetic for their next session.

Still, the promise of practical exercises proved to be a good motivator whenever Naruto whined about having to work on the theory. She'd also taken to teaching him how to dodge...Mainly whenever he bugged her about how she'd promised to teach him something special.

Naruto was even less fond of that part of their sessions than he was of the theory, as the dodging practice involved him bobbing and weaving for his very life as Hikari chucked shuriken at him. He soon learned to just stop asking and to accept that Hikari would teach him when she thought he was ready.

His normal classes continued at a steady pace too and most of the boys were absolutely thrilled when they heard they were ready to start the basics of academy taijutsu. They had a long practice every other day and it became clear pretty quickly that some students were going to do well in this class. Most of the clan heirs were in this group, as they were taught their clan's own style at home after school, and to the surprise of many of the students, so was Naruto.

He wasn't quite as good at some of the trickier stances or moves of the style as some of his classmates, but he was often stronger, faster and far more willing to take a punch. Pain is a good motivator for learning to block, but not to Naruto. He'd take a two punches to the face, if it meant he could land one that would take his opponent out. Granted, this brawling style of fighting had proved less than effective against Sasuke and his interceptor style or Kiba's equally aggressive Jūjin Taijutsu (Beast Human Body Techniques), but he managed to last a bit longer each time.

Hikari was pleasantly surprised that, after each lost spar, Naruto actually asked her to train him harder. She was very impressed by how determined the little blonde was, despite his background and she had to admit that it was cute to see him light up whenever she told him he was doing something well. She'd even started letting him get away with calling her neechan. When she was in a good mood. And it was a nice day. And nobody was around to hear.

She could do without his curiosity, though. He had asked her multiple times about why she chose to cover up as she did, why her skin was darker than nearly everyone in the village and what was with the massive seal that could be seen above the gap in her flak jacket and shirt when her hood was up. All of those were topics she didn't like talking about, except to the ones closest to her. She could see herself talking about it with the kid at some point, but for now she figured he was too young. He didn't need to worry about her problems.

She'd fully meant for things to stay that way, but after about a month or two she found good reason to have a heart to heart with Naruto.

That day, Naruto was eagerly heading for the training field. In keeping with the idea of teaching him things slightly before his class learned them, so long as he did well in their sessions, Hikari had promised Naruto to teach him about incorporating a kunai in his taijutsu. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so excited. 'Probably when Ichiraku's was holding that 2 for 1 sale.'

He arrived to the training field to find his tutor sitting near a small pond, with her back against a large tree. She was reading a scroll with her clan's symbol on the back, but the moment he stepped into the clearing she looked up and those piercing red eyes found him.

"Hey Hikari-neechan." Naruto said as he walked over and she rolled the scroll up. He put his bag down next to her and grinned happily. "I made sure to bring a few kunai, like you asked!" As he generally did, he tipped his bag over and let the contents spill out without bothering to simply take them out when needed. It was impossible to tell which book Hikari would tell him to start with, anyway.

The kunoichi's eye twitched when she looked at the resulting mess. However, this time her attention wasn't on the abused books. "What's that?" She asked, pointing at a rust-marked piece of black steel that poked out from between the old, weathered books.

Naruto gave her a confused look and picked the object out, holding it up for her to see. "A kunai, of course. Why?" He asked.

Hikari took the weapon from him and examined it with a frown. On closer inspection, it seemed the rust had spread to just about every part of the kunai. In fact, it looked like someone had just tried to paint over it. "Are they all like this?" She asked, her tone even. Naruto showed her the rest of the kunai had brought and it became pretty clear that, yes, they were all sort of like this. She studied each in turn, her mood growing darker with each flaw she found. 'Rusted to shit. Dull. Chipped. Going to break on the next blow.' She counted them off as she inspected them and put them down to the side.

"Where did you get these? You can't seriously think these are any good." Hikari muttered.

"Hey!" Naruto protested, crossing his arms over his chest. "Those were expensive because of all those stupid taxes." If he'd been paying attention, he'd have seen Hikari's eyebrows shoot up at that, but he kept going. "Besides, the guy told me about the special material he used to make these."

Hikari looked at him in silence for a while and let out a dark chuckle. "Taxes and special material, hm? Okay." She began very calmly putting the kunai back into his bag, ignoring his attempts to catch her eye and find out what was going on. "Pack up, yeah? We're gonna make a few things clear." She stood up and Naruto had to quickly throw everything back into his bag and rush after her.

"Hikari-neechan, wait!" He struggled to keep up with the far taller girl. He had seen Hikari annoyed plenty of times during their sessions, generally at him, but he'd never actually seen her angry. Her eyes were all but impossible to read and at first glance she seemed calm. However, the tense set of her shoulders and the suddenly very deliberate way she moved made Naruto wonder if this would be his first time seeing her truly mad.

She had him lead her to the shop he'd bought the kunai at and the shopkeeper barely looked up when they entered. Hikari looked around for a moment and then walked over to the far wall, where dozens of kunai were on display. She spent a few moments quietly studying these, from dirt cheap to ridiculously expensive, and then nodded to herself. "You want to see something funny, kid? Watch this."

She picked out one of the most expensive kunai and walked over to the counter. "Excuse me." She began in a kinder tone than Naruto had ever heard from her. "I'd like to ask about this kunai."

The dark-haired, middle-aged man behind the counter reluctantly tore his attention away from his magazine, but quickly grew more invested once he saw the kunai she was holding. "Ah, a very fine choice, ma'am. That's imported, that is. Steel from Tetsu no Kuni, ironically. Great stuff. Very strong."

Hikari nodded politely. "I see. That sounds good, but they're a bit pricey to buy in bulk. You don't sell second hand, do you?"

The man theatrically placed a hand over his heart with a self-depreciating smile. "Ma'am, you wound me. I do not have the talent to make my own wares, but I am an excellent merchant." He gestured at his wares. "Made by others they might be, but I ensure my customers get nothing but the best. None of these have been used."

Hikari's eyes narrowed and she held out a hand. "Naruto, give me a kunai, please."

Naruto handed over one of the damaged kunai, trying to ignore the way the shopkeeper's eyes hardened when he noticed the little blonde. By now, Naruto had his suspicions on what this was all about, but he still wasn't entirely sure what Hikari was trying to do.

The green-haired kunoichi put the rusty kunai down on the counter, much to the shopkeeper's confusion, and then brought the imported kunai down on it as hard as she could. With a terrible noise the rusted weapon snapped in two and the imported one buried itself deep into the counter.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Yelled the store owner. He stared in horror at his ruined counter and glared at the kunoichi. "You better believe you're paying for this, girl."

"Really?" To call Hikari's voice ice would have been charitable. "Naruto, that kunai I just broke, you bought that here, yeah?"

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the store owner. "Yeah, I bought it here. He said the only thing I could afford with all the different taxes was the special stock." He honestly couldn't say he was terribly surprised, but between this man and his instructors at the academy, he was getting kind of sick of people screwing him over.

"What? You lying little brat! I only sell the finest wares!"

"Well then…" Hikari grabbed the merchant by his collar and all but pulled him over the counter, putting them face to face. "We should have a little talk, yeah?"

10 minutes later they walked out of the store again, Hikari still sincerely pissed off and Naruto with a bag full of the most expensive kunai in the shop. As it turned out, there were a lot of weapon stores in Konoha and whenever the smaller ones fell on hard times, they took to scrounging training fields for kunai and shuriken that got left behind. Even if they were no longer useable, they could sell them as scrap. Or, when the village's punching bag walked into your shop, you could just pawn them off to a gullible kid for an absurd price.

Naruto was barely aware of Hikari's foul mood, though. He was far too busy inspecting his new kunai. 'I think these are the most expensive weapons I've ever owned. Hell, I think they're the most expensive things I've ever owned period.' He turned his attention to the tall kunoichi and grinned widely at her. "These are so cool, Hikari-neechan! You didn't have to do that, though. You could've just told me that guy sold me crap and I'd have found a different store. I'm kinda used to it anyway."

Hikari let out a long sigh and crouched down so she was at his eye level. "Kid, you shouldn't be used to it. That's not right." She placed a hand on his head and gave him a soft smile. "Now how about you tell me about the other stores that treated you badly, yeah?"

Naruto didn't consider himself a particularly vindictive person. Sure, if people pissed him off they could expect a pranking, but he never did anything too serious. Still, he found that seeing Hikari manhandle people was oddly cathartic. They went by every store that had ever denied him service or jacked up their prices and Hikari would 'convice' the owners that this was not a very good plan for future business. Apparently the threat of bodily harm and creative use of profanity made for quite the argument. He learned at least 6 new insults that day, though he'd have to look up hemorrhoids in the dictionary later.

By now they were both carrying bags full of stuff from the different stores they'd been too. It was still paid for, of course, but at a seriously reduced price. Hikari had called it compensation for poor service in the years prior. They had everything from food to more kunai and shuriken, but she had pulled him out of the clothing store the moment he'd wandered over to an awesome orange jumpsuit.

Apparently he wasn't allowed to go clothes shopping without the assistance of someone who wasn't 'freaking colour-blind'. Naruto could only lament the fact that yet another person didn't understand how awesome orange was.

By the time they reached the last store they were drawing strange looks from the few people who were still out around at this time, but Hikari pointedly ignored them as she marched right on in with Naruto hot on her heels.

Almost the moment he'd stepped over the threshold, the store owner began yelling as he stepped out from behind his counter. "Hey! No! What did I tell you?" He pointed at the door with a large cleaver as he approached Naruto. "Out! I'm not selling my meat to you. Get out, before I-hurk!" His red face suddenly went very pale when he was disarmed, slammed against the wall and pinned there by Hikari's forearm on his throat.

"You know, you'd think I would've gotten used to that reaction, but nope." Hikari remarked as she tossed the cleaver to the side, where it clattered on to the floor. "Seeing grown men victimize a kid still pisses me the fuck off." She pushed a little harder against his throat and the store owner let out a spluttering noise as he clawed at her arm. "Look, I've given this speech a lot today, so I'm gonna keep this brief. If I find out you've treated the kid like this again, I'm gonna pay you another visit and this one will be far less cordial. Is that clear?"

The store owner nodded furiously and rubbed his sore throat gently when Hikari let him down. She smiled and turned around. "Great, we'll just be going then." She turned around and was already almost out the door when she heard him growl something behind her.

"…Fuckin' Kumo cunt."

She stopped dead in her tracks and turned around very slowly to find a vindictive glare trained on her.

Naruto reacted a lot more quickly and snarled at the man. "Hey! Don't you dare call Hikari-neechan that, you bastard!"

"I'll call her whatever I like in my own damn store, brat! Thought I didn't know who you are, girl?" The store owner said, pointing at her arm. When he'd clawed at it before he'd pulled her sleeve down a bit, revealing more of her dark skin. "It figures, I suppose. The daughter of a deserter like your father would take up with a creature like him."

For a moment Hikari's eyes narrowed in rage, but then she just suddenly seemed to relax. The tension slipped from her muscles and she walked over to the merchant with calm and almost graceful movements. "It's funny you should mention my father." She slowly reached up for the hilt of her machete and the merchant took a few hesitant steps backwards as she approached.

Suddenly a large hand grabbed her shoulder and held her back. "I thought you were working on your temper, Kari-chan."

She turned around and found two members of the Uchiha clan standing behind her. Both were chunin and wore the red band that identified them as part of the Uchiha police force that handled minor offenses in the village. They also both had their clan's signature dark eyes and hair, though the one holding her back had it styled into very short spikes, while the one behind him had thick curls.

"Daichi." Hikari sighed. To Naruto's surprise, she almost sounded relieved. "Isaru." She lowered her hand and brushed Daichi's from her shoulder. "I'm not gonna bother dignifying that remark. My temper's fine." She gave him a look that clearly said she'd kick his ass if he argued with that.

Daichi chuckled under his breath. "Well, maybe it is." He was in his late teens, a little on the short side and had a slender build. A long scar ran from his left eye to his right and his easy smile seemed to come naturally to him. He glanced at the store owner behind Hikari and his large, expressive eyes narrowed slightly. "He's not dead yet, that's something."

"I dunno, I think it's still a work in progress…" His partner, Isaru, joined in. He was taller and burlier than Daichi and his left eye was partially obscured by his messy curls. "I keep telling you to keep her away from Anko. Maybe she'll stop roughing up merchants."

"You guys are both assholes, yeah?"

"Excuse me, I'm very sorry to interrupt your little get together here." The store owner said, irritably. He'd gotten some of his confidence back now that there were two police officers there. "But can I assume you're here to get this bitch and the brat out of my store."

Daichi's smile never wavered. "Sort of, yes." He turned to Hikari with poorly concealed amusement. "Hokage-sama says he appreciates your intentions and the dedication you've shown to them, but feels it would be in Konoha's best interests if you were to stop manhandling its merchants." He glanced at his partner and jerked his head at the merchant. "Isaru."

The burlier of the two Uchiha nodded. "On it." He took the store owner to the man's office. "C'mon, sir. I'm going to explain what just happened and then we're going to have a talk about what it means to own a store in Konoha."

Once they were inside, Daichi chuckled and crouched down to put himself at Naruto's level "Hey there. I take it you're Naruto." He held out a hand and offered the confused blonde a wide grin. "Uchiha Daichi. Nice to meet you."

"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto mumbled as he hesitantly shook his hand. "You're not going to arrest Hikari-neechan or anything, right? She was just trying to help."

Daichi chuckled and shook his head. "Oh, don't worry about that. I have no plans to leave you without a tutor. She's actually told me a lot about you." Daichi said with an amused laugh. "She says you pick up the practical exercises pretty quickly."

Naruto beamed at Hikari.

"She also said she basically needs to hit you with the books before you get the theory, though."

Naruto slumped and pouted at his tutor, who shrugged and gave him a sheepish smile. She knew it wasn't entirely his fault, but that didn't keep her from getting frustrated at times.

Daichi chuckled and patted Naruto on the head when he noticed his downtrodden expression. "Don't worry, kid. We all have things we're bad at. Like Kari-chan and peaceful conflict resolution." He stood up and turned to the tall kunoichi. "Speaking of which, it probably is best if the two of you get out of here for now."

"Well, since you won't let me stab him." Hikari chuckled dryly. "Let's go, kid."

Naruto nodded and quickly stepped outside with his bags, he was already walking away from the store when he noticed Hikari wasn't following him. 'What the hell?' He turned around and quickly headed back the store. They were probably done for the day, but Hikari still had some of his stuff. "Hikari-neechan, are you-whoa!"

He found Hikari and Daichi locked in her tender kiss. She was leaning down a bit to make up for the height difference and he had one finger hooked under her facemask, pulling it down just enough to reveal her lips. At Naruto's exclamation they quickly shot apart, Daichi laughing while Hikari growled. "Kami, kid. Just…Just wait outside!" Red-faced, she pulled the mask back up while Naruto nodded quickly and disappeared back outside with wide eyes.

Still laughing softly, Daichi ran a hand over her covered cheek. "Hey, c'mon. The kid didn't know. I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"

Hikari leaned into the touch a little and smiled. "Sure, stick me with the nosy brat."

Naruto was waiting for her almost directly outside of the store with a mischievous grin and Hikari quickly decided the best way to fend off the oncoming questions would be to simply pretend nothing had happened. She gestured for Naruto to follow and set off for the residential district.

"So…"

Well…The idea had been good in theory.

"Figured you could get a moment with your boyfriend, hm?" Naruto said. "A display like that in front of an innocent child like me. I feel like I might have been corrupted just now." He shook his head dramatically and placed a hand over his heart. "What would hokage-jiji say?"

Hikari snorted and rolled her eyes. "Innocent my ass. Besides, it was just a fucking kiss." She held up one of the shopping bags and gave Naruto a meaningful look. "Actually, he would probably mention the fact that I'm the one carrying your damn ramen."

Naruto paled. "I'll be good."

That bought Hikari a few minutes without questions, but Naruto could only keep quiet for so long. "How did Daichi and you meet? The academy?" He paused and looked around. "Oh, crap, I actually need to go left here."

"You're coming with me." Hikari said, steering him right instead. "We pissed a few people off today, so it's probably better if you're not alone at your crappy apartment. I've got a couch you can crash on and we can put your stuff away until tomorrow."

Naruto blinked in amazement at his tutor for a moment. He was well aware that not everyone in Konoha hated him. He got the occasional kind word and a few of the tenants in his building would sometimes bring him food. Still, nobody had ever looked out for him like this. Nobody had ever offered to put him up for a night.

"T-Thank you, Hikari-neechan."

"Don't mention it." She ruffled his hair as they walked and gave him a kind smile. "As for your question, Daichi's three years older than me, so we never really saw each other at the academy." She brushed something from her shoulder. "My dad was under investigation for a really long time and Daichi's dad was in charge of that. We saw each other as kids every now and then because of that."

"Investigation?" Naruto asked. He thought back to the last store owner for a moment, who had said something about Hikari's dad being a deserter, but if that was the case, why was he still here? Wouldn't that make him a missing nin? "What did he do?"

Hikari was silent for a while and when she spoke again, she was careful to keep the emotion from her voice. "My dad's from Kumogakure." (Village hidden by clouds) She said. "They had a plan for a mission that would hurt Konoha, but many civilians could be hurt and it might have started another war. Dad lost both his folks in the last one, so he decided to prevent the plan from working. He came to Konoha and told the Hokage of the plan."

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, fingers lingering in the red streaks among the green. "Kumo aborted the moment they realised what had happened and dad eventually joined the shinobi forced here and married mom. They kept him under observation for a really long time to make sure he wasn't a sleeper agent or spy or something." A hint of bitterness crept into her tone. "They never found anything, but it never stopped people from calling him one."

Realization slowly dawned on Naruto's face. "Oh…I guess that explains your skin colour." He saw her shoot him a look and he quickly raised his hands in a placating gesture. "I didn't mean anything bad! I think it's pretty. It makes you unique"

Hikari chuckled and held her hand down next to his cheek, the dark skin of her fingers that wasn't covered by her fingerless gloves a stark contrast to his paler skin. "Yeah, it's not exactly common here." She looked at her hand for a minute and then looked down and gave him a grateful smile. "Thank you, Naruto. Only people like Daichi or my family have said that before."

"Don't worry about it." Naruto grinned at her. He wanted to ask Hikari more about the circumstances of her father's defection, but despite her concealed face he could tell she wasn't very comfortable talking about it. He decided to find a different topic. "Have you and Daichi been together long?"

"No, not very. Coming up on a year, but he's been nothing but sweet and attentive. There was this one time I came back from a mission and I was really ill…"

Naruto smiled as he watched the way Hikari seemed to relax while talking about her boyfriend. She always seemed like a fairly tense person to him, so it was nice to see an different side of her. While he was a little young to really appreciate a relationship, having someone to talk about like Hikari spoke of Daichi didn't seem like such a bad thing. "So no wedding, yet?"

Hikari let out a bark of laughter, her face colouring slightly. "Fuck no! We're way too young for that, yeah?" She walked up to a far larger and nicer apartment complex than Naruto's and unlocked the front door. "I'm not sure the relationship will last that long, but we've got plenty of time to work it out." She threw the door open and gestured for Naruto to enter. "Come on. I'll cook and we can make plans for what we'll do if the guys we dealt with today give you trouble again."

Naruto gave her a curious look as he stepped into a nice lobby with tan walls and a dark stone floor. "Hikari-neechan, I don't think jiji's gonna let you get away with attacking them again."

"I thought you were good at this." She chuckled as she walked to the stairs. "I'm not allowed to manhandle them. I figured you would know a few perfectly nonviolent pranks."

"…I think I love you, Hikari-neechan."

A few months later, as they were coming up on a full year of tutoring, Konoha was turned on its head by the Uchiha massacre. When, years later, Naruto talked about it with Sasuke they both had to admit that their lives could have turned out very different if not for a single choice.


Okay, and it's done. I've got things I like about this chapter and things that I'm less fond of, but those needed to happen so I could move the plot forward. I won't bother you too much with those. In the end, I'm fairly happy with how this turned out. It felt good to tell you a little about Hikari anyway, even if she still has a lot of secrets. That's just the sort of character she is, I'm afraid.

As you might have guessed from the last paragraph, the next chapter will take place after a bit of a timeskip. For those of you hoping to see some of the new things Hikari will be teaching Naruto, the next chapter will probably be a good one for you. I'm still undecided on a few things for that chapter, though, so no promises on when I'll have it out.

If you wanna see me write something that isn't fanfiction (I'm good at other things too, I promise), be sure to swing by the Fanbot trough this link: www,thefanbot,wordpress,com. Just replace the commas with periods and it'll be fine. Thank you to Chargone, who pointed out that ate my link!

The Fanbot is a fantasy blog started by a friend of mine and yours truly. We write about anything fantasy, so things like movies, video games, books and yes, even manga and anime! Come check us out, we can always use more readers!

On that note, bite me, ! I have beaten your stupid system. See, it not only eats hyperlinks, it also eats anything remotely phrased like one, so it took me a few tries to find something it wouldn't devour. Frankly, I think it's idiotic that we can't put in any other links. Yeah, you don't want people to start linking to competitors, but I'm not competing. I'm just linking to a different kind of content I make.