DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, Kishimoto does. I don't own Hikari Aino.
A/C: Constructive criticism is warmly welcomed and appreciated, as well as readers' suggestions/ideas (particularly when it comes to Lemons – I really suck at those! :S).
HEART OF GOLD
"What makes loneliness an anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this:
I have only my own burden to bear."
~Dag Hammarskjold
~HIKARI P.O.V~
Knock knock knock!
I jolted awake, listening to the sounds of deep, calm breathing that I assumed was mine.
What the? I thought, thinking I was going mad. I frowned and paused for a moment, waiting to see if the knocking noise would repeat.
Nothing.
I shrugged and then shifted position and relaxed against something that was soft underneath my head and waited for sleep to take me again. The soft thing moved slightly and groaned just before pressure increased around my waist so that heat started surrounding me a little uncomfortably and something started caressing my upper arm, soothingly, bring a comforted smile to my weary face.
Knock knock knock!
Knock knock knock!
The knocks were more insistent now and my eyes snapped open and adjusted to the dark dim bluish light tint of the room I was sleeping in as the knocking noise continued to get louder and louder. I nearly jumped out of my skin when the soft thing I was lying on groaned loudly again in my ear and then swore colourfully.
"Who the fuck is that?"
I sat upright, upsetting something that had been using me as a pillow as it rolled away from my back and promptly fell off the couch we had been 'lounging' on, making a girlish shriek at the same time. I looked and saw Naruto, now wide awake and blinking at me in confusion, wiping away drool from his mouth.
I wrinkled my nose and realised there was a damp patch on my back from where he had been using it as a makeshift pillow. I shuddered in disgust and felt my skin crawl unpleasantly at the sensation.
"Ew, gross! Naruto…" I whined distastefully, frowning at him in disapproval - particularly this early in the morning.
The front door was slid open so fast by Sasuke that it nearly came away from its frame just as Naruto chuckled nervously and started scratching the back of his head messing up his already unruly blonde-hair.
"Sorry, Hikari-chan." He apologised.
I nodded, too groggy to be properly angry with him.
"WHAT!?" snarled Sasuke, scaring the crap out of both Naruto and I.
Sasuke had been the soft thing I had been lying on, and of which had groaned loudly in my ear and cursed - most likely because of whoever was at the door pounding frantically on it. Naruto and I flinched - thankful that we weren't the ones copping our friend's furious wrath, and almost felt sorry for the unfortunate person standing in the doorway.
Naruto and I looked at each other and then at the doorway and saw Sakura standing there looking like a deer caught-in-headlights. She shrunk back the same moment an irate Sasuke bellowed at her for disturbing our sleep and smiled nervously at him, probably reconsidering coming here this early in the morning.
Clearly, Sasuke was not a morning person.
While he was having his unwanted early morning conversation with a half-flirtatious, half-serious, and most definitely scared Sakura, I took the opportunity to stand up and assess the situation of why Sasuke, Naruto and I had been sleeping out here in the Living Room, rather than in the privacy of our separate rooms.
The answer?
Well, not faraway from where the three of us were sleeping was a Wii machine and two Wii controllers. The neglected 90 inch flat screen television across the room from the couch we had been sleeping on was flashing a sickly blue colour.
We must've stayed up all night playing games… I thought, yawning deeply.
I heard more than saw somebody gasp and before I could really comprehend what the hell was happening, I stumbled when something with a sickly sweet scent collided with my back and started squeezing me to the point of cracking every rib in my chest.
Struggling to breathe, and feeling both flustered and extremely annoyed already, I managed to stand up right and turned my head to glare at Sakura, who was staring at me with a worried, sympathetic expression on her face. I groaned unhappily - word must've spread about my Mother's murder.
Well…shit, just what I needed...
I dreaded walking through the village today - but was thankful that both Sasuke and Naruto would be around spending time with me.
"Oh my gosh, Hikari! I've just heard the terrible news! How are you holding up?" shrilled Sakura in my ear.
I barely controlled the desire to deck Sakura, just as Sasuke came forward and assisted me by prying Sakura off my back.
"I'll live… for the most part." I muttered, adjusting my dress which had hiked up during Sakura's impromptu hugging, before yawning again and moving to sit back down on the couch next to Naruto who had beamed the moment Sakura entered the room.
"Thanks for your concern, Sakura." I added politely before slumping tiredly on Naruto's shoulder and shutting my eyes.
I heard him chuckle affectionately and wrap an arm around my shoulder for more support. However, I didn't get the chance to fall asleep again as Sasuke roughly shook me awake again, causing me to fall off the couch like Naruto did.
"Oh no you don't. We're training today, remember?" He snapped at me and I scowled at my crush who ignored me and disappeared down the corridor towards the bathroom.
Groaning, I got to my feet and sauntered into the Kitchen to grab some breakfast, with Naruto following me like a lost puppy. Sakura frowned at me with obvious disapproval reflecting in her sharp, bright green eyes.
"Are you sure that's a good idea, Hikari? I mean, you've only just lost your mother yesterday." she had the grace to remind me.
I flinched and tucked my hair behind my ear, looked down at my feet and tried to stop myself from bursting into tears again. Somebody wrapped their arm around my shoulders and was now rubbing my arms comfortingly as I glanced up to see that Sasuke had returned from the bathroom and had obviously heard Sakura's tactless comment, mostly because he was now glaring at her.
"I think it's safe to say that you haven't mastered the art of Tact yet, Sakura." spat Sasuke.
Sakura paled instantly and clapped a hand over her mouth and looked over at Naruto who was also glaring at her, then back at me with apologetic eyes. I frowned at Sakura before speaking with carefully chosen words.
"Training will keep my mind off my loss, Sakura. Don't worry, Sasuke's already asked me the same question last night, so you're not the only person to say that." I responded quietly.
Sakura nodded, just as I quietly whispered my thanks in Sasuke's ear who nodded, kissed my temple the way a close family member would and moved away. I grabbed a bowl, spoon, milk and some cereal and took them to the low table, before devouring a bowlful - not really tasting the food.
A couple hours later, the four of us ended up heading towards our usual training spot near the Bridge to start our training session, minus Kakashi, who was probably likely to be interrogating me the moment he recovered about my mother's murder.
Our training session was also distastefully dubbed by Naruto in an endearing effort to cheer me up as 'operation: distract Hikari-chan from reliving her mother's murder' which earned him a smack over the head and choice insults from Sakura complaining to Naruto about him making jokes about my tragedy.
To which, I smiled softly and hugged Naruto, discreetly whispering in the pouting blonde's ear my thanks for trying to cheer me up and not to mind Sakura.
This surprised the pinkette completely and earned me a raised eyebrow and a smirk from Sasuke at my random move.
Along the way, we were stopped by random villagers and some of our peers and friends who extended their condolences to me and I smiled thinly and thanked them, whilst wishing I could sink into the nearest hole and not come out again until my mother's murder was old news.
I could've kissed a bunch of Sasuke's fan girls for their perfect timing as the next thing the four of us knew was the loud shriek of:
"OH MY KAMI! THERE'S SASUKE! GET HIM!"
Next thing I knew, Sasuke very loudly said: "Oh shit!" seized my wrist and Naruto's wrist before charging off down the road towards the outskirts of town where the training grounds were located.
I didn't bother mentioning that we had left Sakura behind, mostly because before the mob of fan girls had found us, Sakura was babbling on and on about something important to her into an increasingly irritated Sasuke's ear, and all three of us were about ready to kill the annoying girl. But if Sasuke hadn't noticed this fact, and neither did Naruto (which was surprising - because even he could be just as annoying as Sakura), Sakura CERTAINLY did.
"W-wah? Hey! Sasuke-kun? Wait for me!" she called out and started charging after us.
Eventually, we outran the mob of screaming, swooning and fighting fan girls by hiding in the nearest tree. Breathing hard, the four of us stared down at the ground watching them looking around.
"Hey, where'd Sasuke-kun go?"
"I dunno. I was sure he went this way…"
Sasuke and I exchanged a significant look between us before we both shuddered - remembering a similar situation back when we were eight.
Only it was different for several reasons:
First, because it wasn't just us hiding from the mindless admirers, Sakura and Naruto were also sharing the same frustrating experience as well. And secondly, it was ironic, because one of the girls who had been searching for Sasuke back then, was crouching uncomfortably on a tree branch with us, observing the creepiness for herself.
Oh the irony.
"Isn't it cool how fast he was running?"
The enthusiastic chatter continued and we all rolled our eyes.
"Yeah, but it would've been cooler if that demon; Naruto, that skank; Sakura and that foreigner; Hikari hadn't been following him."
Naruto and I flinched from hurt at the girl's harsh, critical words, while Sakura and Sasuke turned a dangerous shade of red, and Naruto had to restrain Sakura from getting down from the tree branch the four of us were precariously perched on so she could lynch the girl who made that comment.
Thus giving away our position and starting up the chase once again.
Sasuke on the other hand was smarter than that, and instead of attempting to get down off the branch, wrapped an extremely possessive arm around my waist and pulled me closer to his chest. It was really uncomfortable, until Sasuke lowered his lips to my ear and hissed something that stunned me for a moment afterwards:
'Mine…'
Eventually, the fan girls left, having given up searching for Sasuke and plotted to look for him later on.
I looked over at Naruto who still looked incredibly hurt by what had been said, but was now disguising it with a 'soldier on' smile on his face that was heartbreaking to see on the normally up-beat, hyperactive ninja's face. Right now, he was playing scout - trying to determine if it was safe to continue on to the Bridge.
"I think we're safe. Coast is clear." Naruto announced before hoping down from the tree a little clumsily.
"Good. My butt was getting numb." muttered Sakura who followed swiftly but looked like she would punch out the next person who made another derogatory comment about her.
Having recovered from the shock of what Sasuke had just whispered into my ear very intimately, I disengaged myself from where I had been seated between Sasuke's legs and stood up, discreetly tugging down my dress again from where it had hiked up my legs again, avoiding looking at Sasuke.
"Are you okay?" He asked quietly.
I paused in my attempt to jump down from the tree. I smoothed my hair behind my ear, trying to will away the burning in my cheeks before turning to address him. My head tilted slightly before I responded.
"Yeah, fine." I replied.
I smiled a little and then extended a hand towards Sasuke who raised an eyebrow at me before eventually smiling himself and accepting my helping hand. I pulled him to his feet and got flustered at how close we got - so much so that I almost fell off the branch. Sasuke managed to wrap his arms around my waist before I could fall and steadied me.
He smirked, affectionately.
"Be more careful. You're becoming like Naruto in terms of clumsiness." he told me and I scowled at him for the jab.
"Gee thanks." I replied sarcastically before jumping down from the tree branch and landed gracefully on the damp grass. When Sasuke didn't immediately follow, Sakura frowned and moved towards the base of the tree and yelled up at him.
"Sasuke-kun? Are you alright?" she asked concernedly.
She squealed when Sasuke jumped down behind her and rolled his eyes at her.
"Never you mind." He snapped and continued walking casually towards the training grounds, pausing only to look at me with concern and little bit of hurt.
Sakura rushing after him, trying to strike up a conversation with him. I sighed, feeling a little guilty about my sarcastic answer, but realised that I needed to give him some space for awhile, so I could have a breather.
"What crawled up your ass, Teme?" shouted Naruto obnoxiously. I stepped down hard on Naruto's foot, and half-enjoying seeing him yell in pain and bounce around clutching his foot.
"He's probably just tired, Naruto. Don't be so rude." I scolded him before falling into step behind Sasuke, Naruto pouting as he followed, but instantly brightened when I looped an around through his.
When we got to the training grounds, we split off two pairs to spar and alternated so we each got a chance to spar against a different person. Naruto and Sasuke fought together, while Sakura and I sparred together - albeit after listening to her bitch about how she never gets to spar with Sasuke alone.
Two hours later, we swapped again: Sakura started sparring against Naruto, and I sparred with Sasuke (who tried to disguise how excited he was at this concept) and caused another round of bitching from Sakura.
"Chill out, Sakura. You'll get your chance to spar with Sasuke." I growled at the hysterical pinkette.
I strode away and leant against a nearby tree, waiting for Sasuke to come over. I didn't have to wait long before Sasuke stood a good foot away and got into his fighting stance.
I followed suit.
"Don't think I'm going to go soft on you because you're grieving." he said, smirking at me.
I frowned.
"I'm not expecting you to, Sasuke." I replied coolly before charging at him, aiming to hit him with my fist.
He dodged, and retaliated by flinging a kunai at me. I used the substitute jutsu which distracted him long enough for me to get behind him and aim a swift kick which he again blocked with his arm.
"Nice try."
We sprang backwards and he quickly fashioned the hand signs for his fireball technique and I paled slightly, trying quickly to decide what to counter with.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" bellowed Sasuke and expelled an enormous ball of fire right at me.
I paled slightly, before narrowly avoiding the white hot orange-red ball and sliding backwards into a crouch. I fashioned hand signs.
"Fuuton: Hanachiri Mai!" and a shower of flower shaped ice crystals rushed extremely fast towards Sasuke, who dodged and looked surprised.
"Wow!"
The two of us turned and saw Naruto and Sakura gawking at me. Naruto had a giant grin on his face.
"That's so cool! How'd you do that?" He asked interestedly. I scratched the back of my head modestly.
"It's one of my family's signature moves." I replied.
Naruto nodded in approval before frowning and coming over to me with a serious and curious expression on his face.
"Uh…there's something I've been meaning to ask you since we'd been chased by Sasuke's fan girls." He said slowly and I nodded waiting for him to continue.
"Back in that tree, when we were hiding from those girls, one of them called you 'foreigner', why?" He asked frowning curiously at me. I swallowed hard and shifted uneasily from foot to foot before answering.
"Do you remember back when Kakashi-sensei made us reveal our likes, dislikes, hobbies and dreams?" I asked.
Naruto nodded, which drew the attention of both Sasuke and Sakura who were also frowning at me curiously due to my last attack which neither of them had ever seen before.
"You told us that you were born in the Hidden Snow Village." said Naruto.
"And you came to Konoha after your father and grandfather had been murdered by rouge ninja from the Sound Village." Sasuke added, also frowning and obviously interested to learn more like Sakura and Naruto.
I nodded.
"Yep. That's the reason why those girls called me a 'foreigner'." I confirmed sadly.
"See, my dad was the leader of the Aino clan in the Hidden Snow Village and my mom was a Konoha Jounin before she fell in love and met my dad and moved to the Snow Village."
I sat down on the ground Indian-style, using the tree as a back rest and made myself comfortable as I continued my sad life story with my teammates. Naruto and Sakura followed suit, while Sasuke sauntered over to the tree and stood next to me, casually crossing his arms across his chest. But despite the disinterested stance he had against the tree, you could tell that he was listening.
"The Aino clan was one of the most powerful and prestigious clans within the Village. Kinda like the Uchiha clan was here in Konoha, before the dreadful incident." I explained smiling softly at Sasuke sympathetically.
He nodded stiffly, but looked a little resentful when I mentioned it.
"When I was eight, my Village and the Sound Village got into a heated argument. Things ended badly when Sound Ninjas snuck into the Village one night and slaughtered everyone." I shuddered when I remembered what happened next and was unsure how my friends were going to react to it.
"My Mom, my grandmother and I only survived the massacre, simply because my Dad and Grandfather gave us a heads up to run and hide quickly, and let them deal with the Sound Ninjas as part of their duty to protect the women and children who either weren't Kunoichi or Ninja yet or who were retired and were civilians."
Everyone nodded, showing that they understood. I continued.
"So my Mom quickly woke me up from my sleep and carried me to my parents bedroom, where she, Grandma and I hid under my parent's king sized bed."
My voice started to break, but I continued my story, despite realising that Sakura and Naruto had suddenly turned pale and Sasuke had moved from having his arms crossed over his chest like he usually did, to having them shoved deep into his pockets and fixing me with a completely focused, interested look that made me feel slightly awkward.
"I had fully woken up from my sleep just as loud, harsh voices sounded from deep within our house, followed swiftly by the sounds of both my Dad and my Grandpa demanding that the intruders 'leave this house immediately, or we shall use force'. Eventually, the fighting lead towards the bedroom and my Mom had to stifle my cries by cupping her hand over my mouth as the three of us watched in horror as my Dad and Grandpa were cut down right in front of us."
Sakura gasped and Naruto cursed. I saw Sasuke stiffen.
"The Sound Ninja never found us, but none of us left the confines beneath the bed or the room until dawn broke the next day."
A hot, salty tear slipped out of my eye and trickled gently down my face as I turned away, ashamed for shedding tears for my Father and Grandfather's act of heroism that saved my life and the lives of both my Mom and Grandmother.
"We didn't waste time before we eventually fled the Village and started a new life here in Konoha. A couple days later, Mom and I were returning home from visiting my grandmother when I saw… you, Sasuke, sitting on the gangplank." I said looking intently at him as he blinked back at me in surprise.
Then a sign of realisation lit up his face like a newly formed flame on the head of a match.
"That was you?" He asked quietly.
I nodded wiping away my tears and smiling a little when I saw Sakura and Naruto doing the same thing.
"Is that why you looked so sad?" Sasuke asked, walking over to me and placing a comforting hand on my shoulder, I reached up and cupped his hand with mine as I nodded once again.
"That, and what my Mom told me about you and your tragedy." I replied sadly.
Sasuke paled and looked at his feet before nodding in acknowledgement, but not making any further comments. It then occurred to me that the girls also said something about Naruto that confused me.
Looking over Sasuke shoulder at Naruto, I grabbed Sasuke's hand in mine and held it down at my side with intertwined fingers, as I could sense that Sasuke was feeling a little sorry for himself and I felt guilty for being up bad wounds.
"But while we're sharing stories here, Naruto, would you care to explain why you flinched when that girl called you a 'demon'?" I queried in concern when he flinched again and tears sprang to his eyes which he hastily wiped away, probably assuming none of us had seen.
I didn't buy it when he turned back to the three of us with this totally 'fake' grin on his face, as he once again shoved his pain aside – putting on his 'brave face'. I felt my heart clench uncomfortably and wondered what could have caused Naruto so much pain and had given him that empty, almost dead look in his eyes when confronted with his tormented past and being called a 'demon'.
"I dunno why they call me a demon. I mean, I've been resented for almost my entire life – but nobody will go out of their way to come up to me and explain why they hate me so much; why they fear me." He explained quietly.
"I lived on the streets until I was able to afford an Apartment of my own – but even then it was usually the worst place to live ever, and even worse– nobody actually cared. If I were to walk into a store to buy something, the owner would immediately chase me out calling me every mean name under the sun OR if they allowed me to stay in their store, they would try to sell me rotten or spoiled food. That's why I eat Ramen ALL the time. Not because it tastes great, which it does—" he glared at Sasuke who snorted unimpressed at the mention of Ramen.
"—but because it hadn't been spoiled before I had bought it." He said pausing to let all the information he had given us to sink in.
I felt ashamed.
That's horrible – nobody deserves to be treated like that without telling them why… I thought angrily.
Especially, if the victim, in this case Naruto, had no idea why he was so disliked in the first place. But apparently Naruto hadn't finished talking yet.
"When I needed new clothes, particularly when I started learning at the Academy, the clothing store owners that sold me clothes would only let me buy orange clothes – thinking I would be killed because of how bright the colour is." He said bitterly.
"So yeah, my life's fucked up."
I hugged him out of sympathy.
Naruto tensed up before eventually relaxing into my arms when he realised that I was no threat. Why should I be? I've been his friend ever since we met the first day of our lessons at the Academy. I thought back to yesterday, when we had arrived back to Konoha, and we were on our way to see the Third about our 'B-ranked' mission.
I remembered seeing the hatred and fear in the eyes of several villagers and the foul comments that came from their mouths. Now that I knew part of the reason why they had been saying those things to poor Naruto, I felt a corrosive anger brewing within me and I wanted more than ever to protect my vulnerable, blonde best friend.
But I also remembered seeing Kakashi looking very seriously at the Third the moment Sasuke and I had left his office to get Ramen with Naruto.
"I think Kakashi-sensei knows why Naruto's so hated in this Village." I surmised sourly.
"I mean, even he witnessed the Villagers bullying Naruto, I sensed some serious territorial vibes from him as well as the ones radiating from Sasuke."
This caused Sakura and Naruto to look at me incredulously. However, Sasuke nodded as well, which shocked Sakura completely. Naruto looked awkward about being the centre of attention when previously it had been me in the spotlight.
Sasuke rolled his eyes at Sakura's rare stupidity.
"Think about it, Sakura. He was around long before Naruto was born and obviously during the first few years of his life. Odds are, he will know what's pissing the Villagers off about Naruto." Sasuke reasoned in a matter-of-fact voice before letting go of my hand and sauntering away to lean against the banister of the bridge - but still within earshot of our conversation.
Naruto looked touched that we were all willing to find out why he is so hated in this Village.
"I think we should interrogate Kakashi-sensei and get the answer once and for all." I suggested.
Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto nodded in agreement.
"But we should probably wait until he's out of the Hospital. He's still gotta recover from the Battle we had against Zabuza and Haku." interjected Sakura.
"Thanks for stating the obvious. That goes without saying." I pointed out, causing Sakura to glare at me.
The next few weeks, the four of us trained hard together using the absence of our Mentor to our advantage. When Kakashi finally did return, fully recovered and as lazy as ever, he had an unexpected surprise up his sleeve for us that put our plan on hold for awhile… a surprise that would change our lives forever.