I swear to you on my mother's grave that Hikari will not end up a sue.

I swear it.

I still don't own Naruto, by the way.

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"C'mon, you guys! Hidden Time is a long ways away, so we gotta be fast!"

Hikari was awake, and now everyone wished that she had stayed passed out. Incredibly cheerful, with a hyper streak to give Naruto a run for his money, the Hidden Time ninja hardly seemed like a jounin. She was loud, she was chipper, she was clumsy and she was a drama queen.

She also dressed strangely. Her red hair was tied up in two bunches, what she called her 'mouse ears', and her forehead protector was worn up high on her forehead- more like a hairband. Her shirt was sleeveless, covered only her torso. She wore 'sleeves' that started at her elbows and hid her hands completely, and regular pants that... covered her legs.

Naruto wondered how he'd ever gotten stuck with this mission, and suspected that Tsunade was just being mean to him.

Sakura wondered how someone this cheerful and carefree had managed to survive with the injuries she'd collected on her way to Hidden Leaf.

Sasuke wondered how this idiot girl had ever become a jounin.

Hikari didn't wonder anything at all, and was just walking along, at least three feet in front of Team 7. She kept her dark violet eyes on the road ahead of them, and didn't make any effort to seriously converse with any of them. No, that could wait until they got to Hidden Time village.

The team of four- Hikari, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke- continued on this way for a few days.

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"Stop."

It was the first time they had heard her voice this serious. The redheaded Time ninja had stopped walking, in the midst of a very dark and eerie-looking forest. Both of her hands were extended, and she glanced back over her shoulder.

"Sakura-chan, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun... i'll take care of this one, okay? You just protect yourselves."

Naruto was about to protest, and both Sasuke and Sakura looked irritated, but none of them had a chance to talk because at that moment the ground in front of them exploded. A shower of mud and water rained down on all of them, the source being where Hikari had been standing a moment before.

And now she was gone, and she hadn't simply used a body replacement technique. She had simply vanished, and in her place was a particularly nasty looking beefy sort of ninja, his forehead protector bearing the image of a raindrop, the ninja himself carrying a sword longer and wider than an average human being.

"Heh... three kids? That's all the mighty Kokugen could manage? Three kids. I'm almost... insulted. I guess i'll deal with you three first."

He lifted up the sword, and would have been assaulted by Rasengan and Chidori simultaneously, if he had not split down the middle before they had a chance. Yes, split down the middle. Hikari was suddenly there again, and although she held no weapon, she had somehow managed to neatly slice the beefy ninja in half.

Without even staining her overly-long sleeves.

"Hehe, if we got attacked by someone outta hidden Storm, then that means we're closer than they'd like us to be. C'mon, keep up!"

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It was getting dark by the time the village was visible, and it was pitch-black when they walked into the actual village. Hikari, however, was not daunted by this. She turned around and announced to the three, in a cheerful tone of voice, that the Tokikage wanted to see them.

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I think you all know what comes next.

Stroke my ego and you'll find out what happens next! What's up with Hidden Storm? How did Hikari slice that guy in half? Who's the Tokikage?

Press the button.