*Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. I simply borrow them for my own musings and fantasies and do not get paid for their use in said musings or fantasies.

Hey everyone! Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing and adding this to your favorites/ follows. You're the best and my inspiration to keep writing. It's a good feeling knowing that people enjoy what you do, so thank you all. :3 In this chapter you learn a bit more about Yuriko's past, which I'm sure you've all been wondering about. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well and please don't forget to let me know what you think. :) -Nira

Chapter 9

It was raining. The sound of the water pelting against the window pane and tapping against the glass was comforting. Yuriko sat in the sill with her fluff ball of a Maine Coon, Lynx asleep in her lap, a fresh cup of green tea beside her, and a book in her hands. She'd begun to doze off when a crack of thunder startled both her and Lynx awake, shaking the entire house with the resounding boom that followed, and Lynx jumped away in fear, running off to cower under a bed somewhere.

"Yuriko, when you go to bed, don't forget to leave your door cracked in case Lynx hid in your room and needs to get out later," came the soft, feminine voice of Amaya from the threshold that led into the kitchen from the living room and Yuriko yawned and waved the raven-haired woman off.

"I know, Mom. She always hides in my room when it storms," Yuriko replied with a huff, her own low, melodious voice not yet fully developed.

"You should take it as a compliment. Cats are usually more withdrawn. For her to be so attracted to you is a huge accomplishment, especially since she found you rather than you finding her," a huskier, raspy male voice belonging to her father, Isamu chimed in.

"I know. Lynx is my baby. I love her and she loves me," the young Kimiko smiled. "I'm going to bed, now, though. I've finished this book again. Can't we ever go somewhere to get new ones? I've read every book we have at least a dozen times each already."

"You go through a book a day. Where would we get the money for that?" Isamu inquired.

"I don't know, but it's so boring reading the same things over and over again! What am I supposed to do to keep myself entertained?"

"Why don't you try writing your own book? Or better yet, spend more time with your friends. You and Eiichi have been spending quite a bit of time together, haven't you?" Amaya smirked.

"We always get in trouble…" Yuriko grumbled, fiddling with the tattered corners of the well-loved and worn fantasy book she'd just finished for the thirteenth time.

"We'll think about it. Go to bed and we'll let you know what we've decided in the morning."

Yuriko nodded and yawned again before hugging her parents good night, receiving a kiss on her forehead from Amaya as was the routine every night. She'd showered, dressed in pajamas, brushed her teeth, and curled up in bed, Lynx soon coming out from her hiding spot to sleep on the pillow next to Yuriko's head as she often did. When Yuriko got comfortable, she smiled and scratched behind Lynx's ear until the feline was purring.

"Good night, Lynx. Thanks for keeping me company even though you're scared."

It wasn't long until Yuriko had fallen asleep to the pitter-patting of the rain and dreams and pictures began to swim behind her eyelids. The colors were so bright and warm and she swore she could feel the sun's rays on her face while she and her best friend Eiichi—a young boy only a year older than her at the age of twelve with a mop of wild red hair and innocent green eyes— ran through a field. They'd been stealing blueberries from an elder couple and storing them in their shirts, ruining the bright white fabric of their plain t-shirts with the dark purple juice as they crushed the berries to their stomachs to save as many as they could while they fled when they'd gotten caught.

The two misfits escaped to their favorite clearing in a small wood not far from their equally small village and laughed as they opened the makeshift pouches of their shirts to show how much they'd managed to save. The two of them sat in the clearing and smiled and laughed as they talked and ate their spoils together, and when they'd stuffed themselves with the sweet, round berries and had purple juice staining their lips, fingers, tongues, and t-shirts, they laid there in the grass, basking in the summer sun, their hands clasped together.

"Yuriko, you know what?" Eiichi smiled after a while.

"Chicken butt?" she asked back.

"No," he laughed and turned onto his side to face her with a huge smile on his face. "One day when we're older, I'm gonna ask you to marry me."

A blush spread across Yuriko's face and she looked away. "No way. You're crazy."

"Honest! I'll ask no matter what! So… will you say yes when I do?"

Yuriko remained silent but smiled and nodded, still not making eye contact. Eiichi smiled and kissed her on the cheek, a slight blush across his own cheeks and a chuckle in his voice. As Yuriko leaned in to kiss him back, a loud crack of thunder sounded through and the brightness of the dream faded to black and gray as a storm rolled in, ruining the moment. She began to fall backward and through the earth and a sense of foreboding took over the young kunoichi as her dream slowly morphed into a nightmare as she heard her mother's voice urgently calling her name.

"Yuriko… Yuriko, wake up!"

Yuriko's eyes shot open to meet the violet eyes of her mother whose expression was troubled and terrified but still calm and collected.

"Grab your weapons. All of them, quickly," Amaya demanded just above a whisper and Yuriko jumped up from her bed, doing as she was told.

When Yuriko had procured all of her weaponry, Amaya held her hand and they snuck through the housekeeping their heads low until they came to the kitchen. It was then that Yuriko noticed the red glow from outside of the window that she knew wasn't from lightning while her mother hurriedly gathered a small bag of food.

"Mom, what's going on?" Yuriko whispered.

"This village isn't safe anymore. When we get outside, stay close to me. If anything happens to me, if I tell you to run, you run and I want you to keep running no matter what. Head south, trust no one and avoid the Rain and Mist villages at all costs. Do whatever you have to in order to stay alive, even if that means taking someone else's life. Your father and I have trained you well. You'll know what to do."

"Where's Dad? And what about Lynx?"

"Your father is taking care of business and Lynx was a stray before she found you. She can take care of herself."

"But—!"

"No buts. You'll do as I say when I say it, do you understand me?" her mother growled, strapping the bag onto Yuriko's back and Yuriko feebly nodded in understanding.

Just then there was a banging at the front door and Amaya quickly unlocked the back door and pushed Yuriko outside. Her eyes widened seeing all of the houses around her gone up in flames, people running around and shinobi cackling as they chased the villagers like they were chasing after prey for the slaughter. Bodies littered the ground with kunai sticking out of their backs like pins in a pincushion and the sounds of people screaming in terror and agony as they were hunted or burned alive under the rubble of their houses ablaze in an inferno collapsed on top of them assaulted her ears. Yuriko looked to the house next door that Eiichi lived in and she could see her best friend running toward her, panic and terror on his face as his cheeks glistened with tears that mixed with the water from the still pouring rain.

"Yuriko! Amaya ba-san! Please help me!" Eiichi hollered out and as Yuriko took a step toward him, her hand reaching out, she saw a flash of silver from behind him and his eyes rolled in his head, his expression frozen as he fell forward into the mud, unmoving.

A pool of blood formed beneath him and the shinobi who had slain him turned his eyes to Yuriko with a malicious grin. Before Yuriko could wretch or scream, Amaya grabbed her hand and they took off, the murderous shinobi who had killed Eiichi following after them, laughing maniacally. Their trail was cut off a couple miles away from their house by a Mist shinobi with a large sword across his back and spiked black hair wearing bandages to cover the lower half of his face, and their escape behind them was blocked by the shinobi who had cut down Eiichi.

"Draw your kunai, Yuriko. Remember all of the training you've done since you were a child. It was all for a day like this," Amaya stated and Yuriko nodded.

The shinobi standing in front of Yuriko chuckled but a kunai sliding across his jugular from behind strangled the sound and his eyes widened as he reached for his throat. As he fell to his knees, Yuriko's eyes teared up at the sight of her father. His usually pristine silver hair was dirty and matted to his face with blood and dirt and there were senbon, shuriken, and kunai protruding from his back and legs, pouring blood.

"Yuriko, sweetheart," Isamu forced a strained smile. "Run."

With a final glance between her parents, Yuriko focused chakra into her feet as her mother had taught her to do, and ran for her life, the sound of metal clashing echoing behind her as her parents both faced the remaining Mist shinobi to buy her time to escape. When she heard Amaya scream, she paused and looked back. The shadows depicted the scene perfectly and Yuriko watched, frozen in terror and disbelief. First, her father's frame seemed to fall in slow motion, seemingly struck down by the monstrous sword of the Mist shinobi, and the reason for her mother's scream of agony. Next came a quick movement on the part of the Mist shinobi as Amaya recklessly attacked him in her grief. A round object was thrown into the air, and Amaya's petite frame slowly sank to her knees. Yuriko brought her hands to her mouth to stifle the scream and vomit that threatened to spill forth at the realization that she'd just witnessed her mother's beheading.

She gathered enough sense and focus to make three clones of herself to take off in different directions and forced more chakra into her legs and feet to propel her forward, quickly turning away from the gruesome scene and ran through the blurred vision created by her tears to get as far away from that monster as quickly as she possibly could.

A crash of thunder and a bone-chilling scream startled Kakashi awake. It sounded like a female and it sounded close, so he pulled his mask up, grabbed a kunai, and ran through his apartment to his balcony door, throwing it open and on high alert. The wind whipped his hair and sleeping pants around in a frenzy and rain pelted against his bare arms and torso in stinging needles. The scream was coming from his right and it had apparently woken up the neighbors, as well, as a few lights turned on in other apartments except Yuriko's. Putting two and two together, Kakashi examined her balcony door and window to see no signs of forced entry before making his way to her front door, again, not seeing any damage. Pressing his ear to the door, he could hear that the screaming was indeed from inside and slammed himself against the door to let himself in, yelling her name.

When he'd barged his way in, the sound of her screaming grew louder and louder the closer he got to her bedroom. He swung the door open and his heart wrenched seeing Yuriko tangled up in her sheets and curled into herself, screaming, her pillow drenched in tears and her face contorted in an agony that could only be expressed if someone had experienced an unspeakable loss. He threw himself onto the bed beside her and shook her shoulder, calling out her name, hoping and praying to get through to her.

Yuriko's eyes shot open, her screaming instantly stopping and she grabbed onto his arm, throwing him onto the bed and agilely maneuvering herself to pin him below her, rendering him motionless and stealing his kunai, pressing it to his throat. Her expression was wild and terrified and she was panting, tears streaming down her face as she slowly came to. When she'd gained enough of her senses back and recognized the masked face below her, she instantly released him from her hold and jumped off of him, handing the kunai back to him.

"K-Kakashi-senpai, I… what are you doing here?" she rasped, her throat raw.

"You were screaming…" he stated, his eyes calm and understanding as he sat up and took the weapon back.

"I was screaming..?" she whispered, and the nightmare she'd been having flashed through her mind. She shivered but bit her lip and cleared her throat, composing herself as best as she could by putting on a strong face. "I'm sorry for waking you, senpai. Thanks for your concern, but I'm fine n—"

Another window-rattling crack of thunder cut her off and made Yuriko jump and scream, curling into herself in a crouching position with her hands over her ears and eyes clenched shut. Her strong façade was demolished as she sat, trembling and in a cold sweat and rocking on her heels. She rushed through her lullaby and Kakashi's expression softened. He took the blanket from off of her bed and gently wrapped it around her. Feeling the warmth, Yuriko stopped rocking and slowly opened her eyes to look up at Kakashi who sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

"We can't always be strong, Yuriko," he cooed after a moment of silence between the two of them, the hand in his hair moving to caress over his left eye.

There was a soft knock at the door and the shinobi duo turned their attention to the new sound to see a middle-aged lady wearing a heavy bathrobe and curlers in her hair. "Excuse me… Sorry to intrude, but is everything alright? The screaming woke us up and we're all worried," she inquired, her voice soft and motherly.

"I'm sorry," Yuriko rasped, the blush across her cheeks deepening and embarrassed tears threatening to spill over her lower eyelids as she stood and bowed, her usually strong demeanor now shy and timid. "I'm sorry to have caused you so much trouble. I'm so sorry."

"No need to apologize, dear. I'm just glad you're okay," the woman smiled, patting Yuriko's shoulder. "You take care of her, young man," she then said to Kakashi and turned to leave and let everyone else know that everything was fine and that they could go back to bed.

It was silent between the two after the woman had left and Kakashi sighed. Yuriko was still shaking and she wouldn't even look in his direction. The storm was still raging and Yuriko's door probably wouldn't lock since he'd literally burst his way in and he didn't want to leave her alone. She was haunted by whatever it had been that she was dreaming of and he didn't know her well, but she was still a comrade—a fellow Konoha shinobi. She'd been alone for too long and he couldn't leave a comrade in need.

"Yuriko… would you like some tea?" he inquired.

It was silent for a moment but she'd looked up at him finally, confusion on her face. "What?"

"Tea. Would you like a cup? I don't know if what I have would be suitable to your tastes, but I won't be able to get back to sleep any time soon so you are more than welcome to join me for a cup. And, I may have broken your door to get to you, so if you would be more comfortable sleeping behind locked doors, you are welcome to stay."

A short pause passed between the two as Yuriko thought about what he was offering before she nodded and Kakashi smiled from under his mask. She only grabbed her herbal tea and book, figuring she could come back if she needed anything else and followed Kakashi to his apartment, doing the best she could to close the door behind them as they left despite the heavy damage to the frame. When she'd walked into Kakashi's apartment, she blankly looked around noticing that there were no decorations and that the apartment was extremely simple and not much different from how hers had been when she first moved in. While she took a seat on the couch, he put the kettle on and went to his room to retrieve his own book, taking a seat in the chair when he'd returned.

"Senpai…"

"Hm?" Kakashi hummed, already absorbed in the words of his book.

"About the screaming… Can we keep that just between the two of us? …Please?"

"Would it be too much for me to ask if it was caused by the thunder or the nightmare?"

"Yes… both."

Kakashi nodded and let the topic go, closing his book and standing up to pour the tea. They sat together in content silence, reading their books and drinking their tea and after reading a couple chapters, Kakashi yawned and looked over at Yuriko. She'd fallen asleep with her book open to the page she'd been on clasped in her hands still and her head bent. The storm had dissipated, finally, he noticed and sighed in relief. Setting his own book down, Kakashi walked to his room and changed the sheets on his bed. When he came back, he removed the book from her grasp, placing it on the coffee table before lifting her bridal style from the couch as smoothly as he could manage to move her to his bed where he thought she'd be more comfortable.

He was surprised by how light she was and the scent of lavender and vanilla caught his attention as her head rested on his shoulder and long silver tresses swayed with each step that he took. When he'd laid her on the bed and tucked her in, he couldn't help but stare for a moment. Her hair was a wild mess splayed out beneath her and her face was calmer than it had been, though her eyes were still swollen with bags beneath them from her crying. Her brow was furrowed and tense and her lips were pressed into a thin line, but she was in a deep sleep, he could tell by her deep, even breathing.

Just as she'd done for him before to soothe away his tension and nightmares, he gently rubbed along the bridge of her nose and between her eyebrows until her expression had softened before he grabbed a shirt from his closet, turned off the light, and left the door open a crack behind him as he took his leave of the room, grabbing a spare blanket and pillow for himself from his hall closet and throwing them on the couch before locking up his apartment and making his way to report to the Hokage about the night's events.