AN: Ok, first off I was really disappointed at the lack of reviews lately. I decided to update even with the lack of reviews only because I wanted to get the story at least past the survival training and on to the first mission, which are the next few chapters. You will learn more about how Hikari fights in the next chapter and in this chapter you learn about some of her childhood.

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Chapter Four: Konoha's Second Ice Flower

She always loved the time of the year when it started to get cold and leaves fell from the trees. The landscape looked void of all life with the branches bare and the grass losing it's green color, a reminder of how nature could mock her soul. She would go out on quiet nights and sit in a tree and stare off into space, thinking and planning her future, her revenge.

That was all she would think of, it consumed her thoughts even at the young age that she was. She would try to focus on having a normal childhood but everything was hollow and cold, nothing was worth the time. She would not always be alone in her pondering because her sealer would always find her and then sit with her even when he should be home.

Did his parents ever notice his disappearance almost every night? If they did know they obviously didn't do anything that would make him stop because he always came and sat with her in silence. She knew that no one knew he was teaching her at night, after all in public they never were seen together. Sure, they would make eye contact and she would send him a secretive smile and he would give her a smirk but no one ever noticed this.

It was funny how that was what she was thinking about moments before she was going to die but her short life had only been about three things: her mother, her revenge, and training with her sealer.

Three ninjas loomed over her tied up body, blood was all over her. Her blood. They had stabbed and cut her to weaken her body so the demon within her would be able to take over her body easier when her seal was removed from her right hand. The icy rain stung her skin, pain shooting through her body every time the rain hit her fresh wounds.

"Let's hurry up and get this over with. Someone will figure out she is gone soon and then the ANBU and her sealer will be after us." One of her kidnappers hissed.

"Alright, just shut up and give me the flask."

She stared off into the branches, darkness surrounding the small group and cocooning them in a horrific nightmare world while elsewhere others were in a romantic dream world. She couldn't help but wonder that if she hadn't been kidnapped tonight would she have taken notice of the raining night time? Would she find this night anymore special than all the other nights? Most likely not. After all she couldn't see anything anyway and she didn't really care about such things, only revenge.

Within a few moments her empty soul would be destroyed and she would be no more, the demon within her would have her body and destroy and kill everything and everyone, including the three idiots that were letting it loose.

Her eyes looked unfocused and dull as she stared into the forest depths but she was really trying to untie the ropes that secured her fragile body. One kneeled down in front of her, the smell of the flesh burning acid reached her nose and made her want to vomit.

"No one can save you now, Himura. You're alone." A voice hissed at her but she continued to stare off into space.

"Are you sure about that?" a calm voice asked.

An ANBU stood a few feet away from the three kidnappers and the battered child. The fight commenced immediately, the three against the one ANBU. The six year old undid the rest of the ropes and sat up, letting the ropes fall to the ground. The fight flashed in front of her gray eyes that were clouded with her blindness, two of the kidnappers had hit the ground and only one remained.

She let her fingers form signs instinctively and then she blow out fire from her mouth attempting to hit the last kidnapper so the tired ANBU could win. (AN1) Her kidnapper avoided the fire attack but was hit by the ANBU, knocking him out cold.

She curled herself up into a ball and closed her eyes, the pain radiating in her body intensifying. Relief swept through her though, she was still alive to avenge her dear mother. The ANBU knelt down and picked her up in his arms, she fought him for a few moments until he comforted her with gentle words. The smell of new books, wet dogs, and take out foods mingled together with his sweat to make a unique scent coming from his clothing. The little girl snuggled in his arms and buried her face into his ANBU clothing, liking the strange odor of the ANBU.

He carried her back careful to protect her damaged body from the pelting rain. Somewhere along the way she slowly drifted asleep, listening to his soothing words.

"You're safe. You have people who love you and will always protect you, Aisuhana. Your mother, she loves you and wants you to be happy. . . I am sure your parents are proud of you. Your father was strong and brave and so are you. Don't lose yourself to avenging deaths . . . her death. There is nothing to be gained from revenge. Live for them, Aisuhana."

/Wake up Hikari./ Fang nudged the thirteen year old awake.

"Wha-" Hikari jolted up which caused dust to fly.

Sneezing violently, Hikari fell off the side of the bed and hit the dust covered wooden floors, causing more dirt to fly.

"Oww." Hikari whimpered, once she finally stopped sneezing.

/Smooth./

"Shut up, Fang! . . . Wait, where am I?"

/Your mother's old bedroom in the Himura compound. You fell asleep./

"Oh, so what is it dinner time or something."

/No, it's 4:30 in the morning. You have to be at the training field in a half in hour for your survival training test./

"What! Why didn't you come and get me last night?" Hikari screeched, jumping to her feet.

/I did come over but you looked like you were really tired so I let you sleep and slept next to you the whole night, missing my own dinner mind you. I didn't think you would mind since you were tired./

"Well, I mind. Totally mind. You should have waken me up!" Hikari said, leaving the room and starting down the stairs carefully.

/Oh, now wait a minute! Do you have any idea how hard it is to wake you up in the morning? It would be easier to try and make moody smile then get you up./

"That is so not true."

/Yes, it is./

"No, it's not."

/Yes, it is./

The two argued all the way back to the Hyuuga branch house and up to Hikari's bedroom before Fang admitted defeat and Hikari went to take a shower.

/Stubborn human brat./ Fang grumbled as he laid down on Hikari's still made bed and closed his eyes.

After the bath, she pulled on her black cargo capris and sleeveless blue top. Turning her white sleeveless trench coat inside out, she pulled on the hunter green side of the trench coat.

As a Himura, part of the training was to learn camouflage. Many of those in her clan use to wear trench coats like hers that were reversible, one side was for snowy terrain which was when she wore warmer clothes underneath the white side of the trench coat, the other side which was green was for forest terrain with lighter clothes underneath. The Himura symbol was stitched in on both sides but wasn't hard to hide and the clothes she wore underneath the trench coat were usually dark to hide her when in night conditions though that wasn't always true.

She rubbed her right hand where the scar of the Himura triforce, her demon seal, was and sighed as she tried to ignore how irritated her skin was there. Pulling on her gloves and sandals, she ran a comb through her wet, tangled hair.

"Fang, where did I put my forehead protector and sunglasses?" Hikari asked, rummaging through the drawers of her dresser.

/Let's think for a moment. You were wearing them when you were at your compound, you were wearing them on the walk back from the compound, and you were wearing them right before you took a bath. I'm going to have to take a shot in the dark and guess that your sunglasses and forehead protector are in the bathroom./

Hikari blushed, feeling stupid for asking the sarcastic wolf as she walked back into her bathroom and found her forehead protector and sunglasses by the sink. Tying her forehead protector around her neck, she snatched up her dark blue sunglasses and put them on to hide her slate grey eyes.

/Don't forget your weapons./ Fang called to Hikari, still laying on her bed.

"Oh, right. Thanks Fang." Hikari said, snatching up her messenger bag filled with weapons and strapping her kunai pouch onto her left leg.

Fang sensed that Hikari was done and hopped off the bed, stretching a moment before rubbing himself against her side to let her know that he was ready. Hikari adjusted the strap of her messenger bag for a moment and exhaled slowly, nerves on end.

/Are you worried? I am sure you will do fine./ Fang assured Hikari.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's go."

/What about feeding me first? I'm not helping you on an empty stomach. Scarecrow said you shouldn't eat breakfast, he didn't say anything about not feeding me breakfast./ Fang complained as the two headed downstairs.

"Alright, alright. I'll feed you but eat fast because I don't want to be late." Hikari hissed, heading towards the kitchen.

/I'll eat at my own speed. You know sometimes you are quite a pain to be with. Even if I do love you as my master./ Fang commented, remembering to compliment Hikari since she was the one that feed him.

Hikari rolled her eyes, but ignored the wolf as she let her thoughts drift to the dream she had last night. It was more than a dream, it had actually happened to her. She remembered it so clearly, it was the fourth attempt at kidnapping her since she had gotten to Leaves. The first time her kidnappers were caught before they even got out of Leaves but the second time the kidnappers had gotten her pretty far away and had removed the seal. She was found by a ANBU team which consisted of the person who would become her sealer. The next time she was kidnapped her seal was removed but she had managed to get away from her kidnappers and hid in an old tree before she was found by her sealer. The fourth time would be the last time she was ever kidnapped and luckily she had been saved before her seal was broken again.

'I should have tried to find the ANBU that saved me. Why didn't I ask the Hokage about the ANBU? I just let it go and never even thanked him. He knew my parents, he knew my mother. He called me Aisuhana. . . Ice flower, only my mother ever called me that. He saved me from those kidnappers and . . . from myself. If it wasn't for him I would have probably gone with . . . no, never think about that again. I swore I would never think about that day or him. I don't have any regrets about that part of my past . . . I think. Man, I am so confused.' Hikari thought.

/Hikari, someone is in the kitchen. The light is on./ Silver Fang informed Hikari, who abruptly snapped out of her thoughts.

Stopping at the door to the kitchen, she slowly pushed it open and peered in. She couldn't see anything obviously but she sniffed the air gingerly for any smell that may give away the early riser. The smell of sweat, dirt, and blood mixed with the all to familiar smell of peaches.

"Rye?" Hikari whispered in surprise.

Rye Hyuuga, who was now an ANBU captain, had left on a top ranked mission with his team about a month ago and no one knew when they would be coming back.

The twenty-three year old Hyuuga sat tiredly in a chair at the table, dark brown hair tied into a ponytail with a few stray hairs falling into his face. His silver eyes were hidden beneath his eyelids at the moment but flicked up and regarded Hikari curiously when he heard his name.

"Hikari!"

"RYE! You're back." Hikari squealed, pouncing on the older Hyuuga.

"Hey Hikari. Don't tell me you woke up early just to greet me after the extremely hard mission I just came back from! " Rye stood up, still holding the Himura girl and twirled her around in his arms.

"Ego much? I have to go to the training field at five to do a survival training test with my new team."

"Really? So my favorite kunoichi passed then. Well I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Anything else happen while I was gone?" Rye asked, putting Hikari down and unwrapping himself from her.

"Nothing really . . . but I am a bit nervous about today's test thing. I hear that there is around a sixty-six percent failure rate." Hikari played with a silver strand of her hair.

"Don't worry. You'll do fine. After all I helped train you. I am sure you can pass."

"Thanks Rye."

"Do you have time for breakfast? You can have mine. I can make more." Rye asked.

"Thanks but I can't. Kakashi-sensei said if we have breakfast we will puke." Hikari explained.

"At least take my toast. I don't want you to fail because you are weak from hunger."

"I don't think missing one meal is going to make me fail." Hikari said, but upon sensing Rye giving her a stern look, added, "But I guess eating a piece of toast won't do much harm. Thanks Rye."

"No prob. I'll feed Fang for you too. Now sit." Rye ordered the girl sternly, picking her up and sitting her down on the counter.

Hikari laughed, dropping her pack to the ground and taking the toast that Rye handed her. Rye moved around the kitchen snatching up Silver Fang's bowl and preparing a quick breakfast for the ravenous wolf.

"What time did you get back this morning?"

"Not five minutes ago. I'm exhausted but my stomach was protesting louder than my eyes so I decided to get some breakfast before I got some sleep." Rye said, putting Fang's bowl on the ground and stepping away to let Silver Fang eat.

Hikari finished her toast and swung her legs in boredom, waiting for Fang to finish eating. Rye walked over to her and stood in front of her, pulling off the sunglasses to check her eyes for any sighs of improvement. Hikari was use to him checking her eyes so she sat still and waited for him to ask the same question he always asked after he had been gone for a while.

"Did you get your eyes checked recently?" Rye asked seriously.

"Define recently?" Hikari replied.

"Hikari!" Rye gave her another stern look though she couldn't see it.

"No, but I will go after today's survival training test. I promise." Hikari said quickly, knowing Rye would be pissed off if she didn't go to the hospital regularly to get her eyes checked and let the medics make another pathetic attempt at fixing her eyes.

"You better or else I am dragging you there. You know it is important to go see the medics regularly." Rye scolded the Hikari.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Listen, I better get going or I will be late. See ya." Hikari said, hopping off the counter but Rye caught her around the waist and held her back.

"RYE! I'm going to be late!" Hikari whined.

"Hold it there, Kit. (AN2)" Rye said, using his nickname for her.

"Oh, Rye! Let me go! I don't want to be late." Hikari whined.

Rye only tightened his grip and grinned at her, "I know you. I know that no matter how many people tell you that you will do great or you are an amazing kunoichi you won't believe them. I don't understand why you do that to yourself. I can't imagine that your mother would set such high standards that are impossible to reach . . . I am telling you right now that if you do your best I will be proud of you. Everyone will be proud of you. Oh and don't forget to trust your instincts. It's okay to ask for help. Understand?"

"Yeah, I understand. Can you let me go now?" Hikari sighed.

Rye's grin widened, "Why don't you try and make me?"

Hikari smirked and whistled. Silver Fang appeared behind Rye and nipped him in the butt making him jump and loosen his grip enough for Hikari to get free.

"Oww. Hey! That's cheating." Rye glared at the snickering Fang.

"You never said I couldn't use Silver Fang to get you to let go. Serves you right for trying to make me late, Rye. But thanks for . . . you know." Hikari sheepishly said, picking up her messenger bag filled with weapons.

"Yeah, no prob Kit. Good luck today." Rye said, handing her another piece of toast and a bottle of water.

"Thanks. See ya." Hikari started for the door but turned around and gave her best friend a kiss on the cheek before running off.

Hikari slowed down and walked towards the training field with Fang at her side. Taking a bite into Rye's toast, she smiled, butter melting in her mouth.

'That's Rye for ya. Always taking care of me. At least I won't have to eat dry toast again.' Hikari thought, savoring each bite of her buttered toast.

She just finished eating and had taken a swig of water when she arrived at the training grounds, spotting her three teammates also coming. Hikari glanced down at her still snickering pet wolf, noting how happy he was just because he got to bite Rye. Rolling her eyes, she joined her tired team.

"Morning." Naruto and Sakura both said, yawning while Sasuke said nothing.

"Morning. You guys seem tired." Hikari commented.

"Aren't you?" Sakura asked.

"Not really. I usually wake up this early to train." Hikari answered off-handedly.

"What!" Naruto's jaw dropped at her statement.

Hikari shrugged and laid down on the grass, positioning one of her arms under her head. Sighing in boredom, she stared up at the sky, her mind already going over what she would have to probably do for the test.

11:20 A.M.

Hikari was still laying on the ground with Fang, with Sakura sitting next to her and the nodding off Naruto on her other side. Sasuke was still standing and Hikari had to wonder how he could stand for that long without getting tired and sitting down.

"Morning, everyone. Ready for your first day?" Kakashi greeted them.

'Here we go.' Hikari thought, standing up and stretching.

"Hey, you're late!" Sakura and Naruto yelled, pointing at Kakashi.

"Well, a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way." Kakashi explained.

Naruto groaned and Hikari rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses.

"Well. . . ahem. Let's get started." Kakashi said, walking over to a tree stump and placing a timer on it. "Here we go. It's set for noon. Your assignment is very simple, you just have to take these bells from me. That's all there is to it. If you can't get them by noon, you go without lunch. You'll be tied to those posts and you'll watch while I eat my lunch in front of you."

'Wow. Thank you Rye.' Hikari thought, listening to the three bells jingle as they moved.

/Rye called that one, didn't he? Kinda surprising, don't you think./ Fang mused, making Hikari smile slightly.

'So that's why . . .' Sasuke thought.

'. . . he told us not to eat breakfast to make it harder on us.' Sakura thought, holding her stomach.

"Wait a minute, there's four of us. How come there are only three bells?"

"Well, that way at least one of you will end up tied to a post and ultimately disqualified for failing to complete the mission. That one goes back to the academy. Then again, all four of you could flunk out too. You could use any weapons, including shuriken. If you are not prepared to kill me, you won't be able to take the bells." Kakashi informed them, jingling the bells.

"Those weapons are too dangerous, Sensei!" Sakura exclaimed.

Naruto laughed, "Especially since you couldn't even dodge that eraser!"

"Class clowns are usually the weakest links. You can safely ignore them: lowest scores, losers." Kakashi said calmly.

'Ouch. That comment was definitely directed to Naruto.' Hikari bit her lip, catching the angry look on Naruto's face.

"When I say start, you can begin." Kakashi instructed them.

/You ready for this? It's going to be tough./ Fang said, Hikari giving a small nod in reply.

Naruto, letting his rage get the better of him, whipped out a kunai and charged Kakashi. Kakashi swiftly maneuvered so that he was behind Naruto, pulling Naruto's kunai so that it was against the back of Naruto's head.

"Don't be in such a hurry. I didn't say start yet." Kakashi said, holding a grunting Naruto.

/I could barely see his movements./ Fang growled.

'Well that can't be good. I see a definite problem occuring during this test.' Hikari thought, running her fingers through her silky hair.

Sakura, Sasuke, Hikari, and Fang all took a few steps back as Kakashi let go of Naruto. "But you came at me with the full intention of destroying me, so . . . how can I say this? I'm actually starting to like you guys." Kakashi told them.

'What a weird guy.' Hikari frowned as she prepared herself for the survival training test.

"Get ready . . . and . . . START!" Kakashi said as the four students and wolf bolted into hiding.

AN#1 – the attack that Hikari uses on her kidnapper when she is six years old is the attack that Sasuke uses on Kakashi in the survival training test. It's called Fire Element: Grand Fireball (Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu).

AN#2 – Rye calls her Kit from when he was training her and though it suited her. Kit is a name for fox pups. Rye calls her Kit because she is tricky, sly, and quick but has not yet become a vixen or adult female fox.