As always, I claim no ownership of Naruto or Hikari. Just this story :)
Constructive criticism is warmly welcomed and appreciated. Flames will be noted, but ignored!
So without first ado. Here's the new update. Please enjoy and please review! :D
THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP
"I don't quit, I don't run,
I never go back on my word.
That's my Ninja way!
~Naruto Uzumaki
~KAKASHI P.O.V~
Pakkun lead us to a glade that held obvious signs of a battle taken place here. We were standing in the Valley of the End, and I could feel tension weighing down on my shoulders when I realised why Sasuke's scent had lead us here. It was raining, and it was likely that the chances of locating Sasuke by now would be slim to nil.
"Sasuke, what have you done?" I mumbled, looking at the destroyed landscape and the odd patches of drying blood scattered all over the place.
"Yo, Kakashi! Over here."
I rushed over to where I had heard Pakkun's voice call out. There I found Naruto and Hikari lying huddled together in varying degrees of injury. I was filled with a combination of relief and dread. Pakkun nudged them with his wet nose, managing to coax from them both either a weak annoyed grunt or wince. It seemed both had recently been crying due to the redness of their eyes. Kruibayashi, or Mamoru as he asked me to call him, noticed my distress and looked over at the bodies before rushing over and picking up Hikari and cradling her in his arms.
I paled when I saw a half-healed wound already closing over on Naruto's chest. Sasuke had really done a number on him. Something hard and shiny fell from Hikari's grasp and hit the muddy ground. I stooped and picked it up. It was Sasuke's forehead protector, and somebody had put a slash through the symbol.
So he was already gone then… I turned to Pakkun, filled with faint hope that the rain hadn't yet washed away Sasuke's scent so we could still locate him. But Pakkun shook his head, sadly.
"Sorry, boss. He's long gone."
I sighed heavily and turned to Naruto's unconscious body. It seemed clear that both had put up a brave and valiant fight against Sasuke, and I was deeply proud of them both – a positive consolation prize for this - now confirmed - failed mission.
"Mission: Retrieve Sasuke Uchiha. Status: fail." I mumbled. Mamoru nodded affirmatively, cuddling his niece close. I summoned a shadow clone to help me put Naruto's heavy body on my back. "Thank you, Pakkun. We can take it from here." The dog nodded before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
"Let's go. We need to get these two to a Hospital." Mamoru stated before setting off back down the path we arrived on.
Yeah, Naruto's gonna love that…
We were about halfway home when Naruto suddenly stirred.
"What's going on? What's happening?" He mumbled groggily.
"Go back to sleep, Naruto. You've earned it." I replied gently as Naruto lifted his head and looked around.
"Kakashi-sensei?" He looked around as though searching for something.
"If you're looking for Sasuke, he's not here." I took a deep breath, "He's gone, Naruto." There was silence before I felt Naruto's head fall heavily against my back, and he started trembling badly. He was crying again. I was at a loss as to defuse the situation before Naruto suddenly took notice of Mamoru.
"Who's he?" He asked guardedly.
"Hikari's uncle." I replied, which caused Naruto to suddenly look around frantically for her. "Relax, Naruto. She's in his arms, asleep." Naruto's eyes clapped onto Hikari who was sleeping fitfully in Mamoru's arms, and looked like she was struggling to breathe.
"Is she okay?" Naruto asked in a small voice, looking anxious. I frowned. What exactly happened back there that made him overly protective of Hikari?
"Yes, she's fine. Very cold and soaked to the bone, but she'll live." I reassured him, trying to use soothing words, but I suspected something wasn't right about her. Naruto's face relaxed and he sighed, closing his eyes and resting his head on my back. By the time we stepped through the village gates, Naruto was snoring loudly in my ear.
Almost immediately, we were surrounded by ANBU.
"Kakashi-san!"
"I will speak with Lady Tsunade shortly. Right now these two urgently require medical assistance!" I acknowledged them firmly. The ANBU captain nodded before moving to relieve me of Naruto. But I sidestepped him. "I can manage, thanks." I said indicating with my hand to Mamoru to follow me. By the time we got to the Hospital, word had already reached her ladyship who was there to greet us both the moment we stepped through the Hospital's threshold.
Immediately she strode over to me and examined Naruto.
"Naruto has moderate chakra exhaustion, and a rather nasty looking wound on his chest." She reported before taking him from me and transferring him to a gurney. "Room 205." She ordered the nurse flanking her. He nodded before moving briskly to follow Tsunade's orders. Then her ladyship turned her attention to Hikari, summoning her green chakra to scan her. What she discovered must have been bad, as Tsunade paled and quickly snapped her fingers at another attending nurse. "Oxygen, now!" She ripped Hikari from a frantic Mamoru's arms and placed her on another gurney.
"What's wrong?" he demanded, and I placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him from getting in the way and interfering.
"She's got secondary drowning." Tsunade answered briskly, snapping an oxygen mask over Hikari's face. My eyes widened in fear.
"What the hell does that mean?"
"It means that Hikari at one point had almost drowned and had swallowed too much water. Naruto must have rescued her and performed CPR. But she still swallowed a small amount of water, and it has settled into her lungs." Tsunade explained. "Room 205." This time the nurse hesitated, and I bristled – knowing that she was one of the few who stubbornly believed that my student was that fox and couldn't be persuaded otherwise.
"Are you sure, ma'am?" Tsunade glared at the ignorant nurse, knowing exactly what she meant by that question. I was visited with a desire to punch her in the face.
"Did I stutter?" The nurse 'eeped' and moved to follow her orders, not wishing to incur Tsunade's wrath. She turned to Mamoru, "You may follow her." Mamoru nodded before following Hikari's gurney. "Fill me in on what you discovered." She ordered me.
"We found both of them at the Valley of the End. Sasuke had already left." I explained.
"And how did you find Naruto and Hikari?"
"We didn't. They were in plain sight, with Hikari lying unconscious on Naruto."
"Seems Uchiha does have some compassion after all." Tsunade commented dryly.
When we finally made it to Room 205, we were met with a violently resisting Naruto who was trying to make a bid for freedom. It was common knowledge that Naruto absolutely hated Hospitals and tended to avoid them like the plague. Unfortunately, he was in here more times than not. Thankfully, the fox's unnatural healing took away the worst of the injuries and he was usually out of there within 48 hours tops.
Tsunade slammed open the door.
"Where the hell do you think you're going, brat?" Naruto flashed a guilty smile at her.
"Aw, c'mon. Baa-chan, I'm fine." Naruto protested, but Tsunade seized him by the ear and dragged him back to the bed.
"You've just sustained a fist through the chest cavity, you idiot. You're not leaving this room, until you get the all clear from me!" Tsunade shouted. Naruto opened his mouth to protest, when the door opened suddenly revealing Hikari being wheeled in on a gurney, breathing much better through an oxygen nose tube.
"Hikari-chan! Is she okay?!" demanded Naruto, loudly.
"Lower your voice, Naruto. This is a Hospital!" snapped Tsunade getting increasingly annoyed. "And she's fine, just resting. She was still drowning." Naruto looked stricken at this, something that Tsunade and I picked up on.
"What happened to her, Naruto?" I asked. Naruto's eyes darkened and he looked away.
"Sasuke threw her off that statue of his ancestor. Her hands and feet were tied up and she couldn't get loose." Tsunade reacted in outrage, and I had to hold back Mamoru who overheard the conversation from shaking Naruto in his anger.
"That little punk did WHAT?!" he shrieked.
"Kruibayashi-san, if you do not lower your voice, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Tsunade warned him.
"Dude, are you hard of hearing? I just said that Sasuke threw her off a statue!" retorted Naruto, stupidly. I slapped a hand to my forehead in exasperation. But before Naruto could be completely creamed by Mamoru, Tsunade intervened.
"While I am aware of Naruto's rudeness just now," she threw the idiot a threatening glare which Naruto paled at, "I cannot allow you to harm my patient. Besides, visiting hours are now over. You can come back tomorrow to visit Hikari." Mamoru glared warningly at Naruto before turning and leaving. I decided that as much as I wanted to catch up with my injured students, they needed their rest. So left too. Just hoped that Naruto would still be alive then.
~HIKARI P.O.V~
Finally, I can breathe easier.
That freaked me out a little bit, I literally felt like something was smothering me from the inside out. I dimly remembered hearing an argument before everything just faded away in a cloud of smoke. Sounded like Naruto was up to his usual tricks and Lady Tsunade was shouting at him. I woke up, feeling incredibly uncomfortable and overheated. I was about to open my eyes and investigate what was smothering me when the door slammed open, triggering a headache that I wasn't aware of until just now when that inconsiderate person suddenly started to shriek like a wounded banshee.
Ugh… you suck!
"NARUTO!" Whoever it was lying next to me suddenly flinched, indicating that it was Naruto.
What the? Why was he sleeping next to me? I thought before suddenly he was yanked away and the screaming increased.
"What's wrong, Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto nervously.
Figures… I groaned and turned over, not wanting to deal with her drama. I cracked open my eyes a fraction and noticed to my surprise and delight saw a beautiful spray of flowers arranged in a bright blue vase. A note attached to it read: 'Get well soon, Hikari-chan! Love Ino xx'.
"You lied to me, that's what's wrong!" yelled Sakura. That was when Naruto went deathly silent, and freaked out both Sakura and I.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I never said that I would bring back Sasuke for you."
Sakura protested wildly.
"But you promised—"
"I promised I would bring back Sasuke. That was it." Apparently, Sakura wouldn't accept this. So she started searching for a 'logical' explanation as to why her 'beloved' Sasuke hadn't been brought back to her.
"No, I specifically heard you say that you would bring back Sasuke. But if it wasn't for me, then who—" Sakura went quiet, and the atmosphere in the room took a nose dive as Sakura shrieked again and something hard smacked me across the head, pulling me back from falling to sleep and I struggled as Sakura tried to strangle me.
"Sakura! Leave her alone!" yelled Naruto trying to pull her off me. But Sakura fought savagely to remain where she was.
"You stole him!" This was beyond a joke. "Sasuke-kun is MINE!"
I decided right then to put her right back into her box. I sat up, seized her by the throat and squeezed. Sakura froze and clutched at my hands. Luck was not at my side as Lady Tsunade, Kakashi and an unknown stranger chose to come into the room at that moment. Probably alerted by Sakura's hysterical screaming.
"What the fuck? Release her at once—" started Lady Tsunade, I noticed Kakashi-sensei place a calming, but restraining hand on our leader's shoulder.
"Wait." It was like he understood what I was trying to get through Sakura's thick head.
"Let go of me! You're hurting my throat…" croaked Sakura still scratching at my hands.
"Good!" I sneered, feeling inspired by and embracing a bit of Sasuke's new personality, that I had the misfortune to witness only hours ago. If only he could see me now… "Listen, and listen well. It is extremely obvious that you have a lot of psychological and mental issues, but as of right now I officially do not care." I said, ignoring the stunned looks I was getting from nearly everyone in the room. "It is not my fault that Sasuke doesn't return your love for him, nor is it my fault that Sasuke apparently prefers me over you. It was just a lucky twist of fate. But from now on, you stay the hell away from me, unless I have to go on a mission with you. Any respect I had for you Sakura has gone." I spat with unconcealed venom. I released her throat, watching with contempt as Sakura backed away looking at me with horror, and massaging her throat.
"You crazy bitch!" she snarled, and moved to strike me again. However, Kakashi-sensei reached out with lightning fast reflexes and caught Sakura's fist mid-blow.
"Maa maa, Sakura-chan. You made your bed, now you've gotta lie in it." He said cheerfully before forcibly removing her from the room.
"That was totally ghetto!" Naruto exclaimed as sat back down on my bed. This time, I got the chance to take a good look at him since the last time I saw him. He was bandaged around his chest and a little around the crown of his head, and he winced a little when he moved. Lady Tsunade watched Kakashi-sensei and Sakura leave with a look of disappointment before she shook her head and let out a frustrated sigh, then whacked Naruto over the head for the outburst.
"I'll deal with that later. For now, I'm going to check both of you out and then Hikari," she looked at me with a small smile on her face, "you've got a visitor."
~NARUTO P.O.V~
That was both the scariest and greatest thing I had ever witnessed. Finally, Sakura got what was coming to her. The next question I wanted to ask was: when was I getting outta here?!
"Hold still, Naruto or I'll give you something to squirm about." I gulped, knowing she wasn't bluffing. After a few more minutes, Baa-chan gave me the all clear but I still had to stay at this stupid hospital for another day. Great!
"Now, Hikari." I watched as Hikari who looked very stoic, sat up and allowed Baa-chan to scan her. "Breathe in, and out…" after a few minutes, Hikari was given the okay to leave.
"Thank you." Hikari muttered, then noticed her uncle who had been standing against the wall at a respectful distance. She frowned at him. "Lady Tsunade?"
"Hm?"
"Is he my visitor?" Hikari indicated to him, who looked a little uncomfortable. Baa-chan sat on Hikari's bed.
"Yes, Hikari. This man is … your Uncle." Hikari's eyes widened in surprise before sizing him up.
"You're Mum's brother?" Hikari's uncle looked taken aback.
"Your mother spoke about me?" Hikari shook her head, which caused him to deflate a little.
"Not really. But I did see a lot of old photos of her in them standing with some guy, so I put two and two together." She smiled slightly. "Were you and Mum close?" Hikari asked hopefully. He smiled back.
"Yeah, we were." I couldn't stand it anymore. What was this guy's name?!
"So, what's ya name anyway?" I piped up. The guy turned and smiled at me before replying.
"Mamoru Kruibayashi." He replied gruffly.
"Nice! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage!" I jabbed myself in the chest with my thumb. I saw Baa-chan roll her eyes out of the corner of mine and Hikari giggle softly. Then I felt my face heat up with embarrassment.
"Pleasure. Thank you for taking care of my niece." Mamoru-san smiled a little.
"No sweat, Hikari-chan is my best friend, and I won't abandon my friends ever!" I vowed.
"You really mean that, Naruto?" I looked at Hikari who had lost that smile on her face which had gone into shadow. Concerned, I wrapped her into a hug.
"You doubt me?" I mumbled into her ear. She shook her head.
"Not for a second. We'll bring back Sasuke-kun, together!" She declared. Mamoru then came over and offered his hand to Hikari, who took it and was helped out of the bed.
"Well, then Hikari. Let's get you signed out, and you can go home." Hikari stopped in her tracks.
"Well, that is your ladyship. Before we were assigned to watch Sasuke, I was going to ask for your permission to permanently move into the Uchiha Compound." All three of us looked at her in shock.
"Why on earth would you want to do that?" demanded Baa-chan.
"Yeah, after everything he did to you!" I added. Hikari smiled understandingly.
"But that's just it, that wasn't Sasuke. It was Orochimaru." I was confused, but it seemed like Baa-chan understood.
"But still, I don't understand why you'd prefer to stay at the Uchiha Compound, instead of the home you grew up in with your mother." Hikari's eyes were hooded and it scared me to see that expression on her face.
"It has too many bad memories that I don't want to relive. Plus, there is a strong chance that you'll just sell off Sasuke's childhood home and the homes around it, so it could just get bulldozed to the ground by some greedy, selfish land developer. I don't want that to happen." Baa-chan still looked unconvinced. "Sasuke did also confide that he wanted me to move in with him, since we were both orphans and had nobody to look after us. So we'd look after each other." Hikari added smiling at the memory.
"You're not alone. You've got me." Mamoru-san protested, but Hikari frowned at her uncle.
"Look, no offense. But you're a stranger to me, and I've known Sasuke longer and have gotten to know him enough to understand that when Sasuke wants something, he'll go to lengths to make it come true."
Tell me about it… I thought dryly. Baa-chan smiled sympathetically.
"If it was Uchiha's wish, then it's fine by me." Hikari's smile nearly broke her face in half. But Mamoru-san still looked like he was going to protest. "I can offer you, your sister's house to live in. The cleaners have been and gone months ago." Baa-chan tried to sweeten the deal. Mamoru hesitated, before Hikari pointed out just how far away Sasuke's house was from her old home, then he agreed. But the biggest surprise was after Baa-chan and Mamoru-san left.
"Naruto?" I glanced over to Hikari, who was on her way out of the room with a large vase in her arms. "You're welcome to move in too, you know. I think it would be safer." My mouth dropped open. "Think about it."
On my last day in the hospital, I got an unexpected visitor.
"Yo, kid?" I turned and saw a tall man standing at the door. "How ya feelin'?"
This guy had extremely long spikey white hair, tied back into a ponytail with massive bangs, headgear with a Japanese character written in the centre of it, and a huge wart on the end of his big nose. Underneath both eyes were long vertical red stripes, and he wore green combat pants and a matching yukata top that hid a black fishnet mesh top. He wore matching fishnet mesh shin guards and armguards, and wore a long red jacket with big yellow buttons. Instead of the traditional toeless shinobi boots, this weird old guy wore traditional wooden getas.
"Who the heck are you?" I demanded, feeling strangely creeped out by this dude. He frowned at me.
"Show some respect gaki, I'm Jiraiya – the toad hermit and super-pervert!" and he actually grinned like a lecherous old man and wiggled his eyebrow.
Ugh, that's so gross…
"What do you want?" I asked. Jiraiya grinned again (hold the creepy pervert).
"I wish to train you." He replied.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. A sannin wants to train me?! I had heard about the legendary sannin back at the Academy during one of Iruka-sensei's boring lectures. He got really mad at me when he realised I wasn't listening, but after he repeated himself ("The three legendary sannin, were once the students of the Third. Each had control over a specific animal. The Serpent, the Toad and the Slug") – I got excited to meet at least one of them, particularly the sannin that had control over toads! My favourite animal! However, the excitement died when I realised that that snake-bastard Orochimaru turned out to be one of the three. Then learnt on the search for baa-chan that she was another one (with a really bad rep for drinking and earning the title 'the Legendary Sucker' – which Sasuke later explained to me, meant that she gambled and lost all the time) and had control over slugs (earning the second title of 'Slug Princess' too). That's when I lost interest.
"Are you fuckin' serious?!" I exclaimed, then yelped when he thumped my ear. "OW! Hey!?" I growled, scowling at him.
"First of all, don't swear in front of me." Jiraiya instructed, probably regretting asking me to be his student, "kids your age shouldn't even KNOW what that word means. Second of all, yes I am serious."
Suck it, Sasuke! I've got a sannin teacher too! I thought as I yelled in excitement. Jiraiya chuckled. "I take it that it's a yes then?" he asked.
"You bet!" I agreed, "when do we leave?" I demanded. Jiraiya ruffled my hair, and I fought to free myself from his grip.
"In three days. I've got a couple of … erm, errands to run beforehand." He replied, trailing off towards the end. I frowned. Why do I suddenly get the feeling 'errands' is code for something else? "But I warn you kid, I'll be strict." Jiraiya warned.
"Don't sweat it, I can take whatever you can throw at me!" I vowed. Jiraiya rolled his eyes before getting up from where he was sitting next to me on the bed, and striding towards the door.
"I'll clear it with Lady Tsunade. See ya in three days." He winked again before disappearing behind the closed door.
I was so freaking excited about this opportunity to train with an actual sannin that I needed to tell somebody.
"Hikari! Hikari-chan!?" I skidded to a halt in front of Sasuke's house (Sasuke….) and nearly broke the door down pounding on it. It finally slid open, revealing a confused and slightly annoyed Hikari looking at me like I was nuts.
"Naruto? What's going on?" I grabbed her by the wrist and started dragging her towards the village.
"C'mon, let's get some Ramen. I've gotta tell you somethin'!" I exclaimed. Hikari pulled her arm from my grasp and I turned and looked at her feeling slightly hurt and confused.
"I'll go get Ramen with you, Naruto. But don't grab someone by their wrist and drag them around. It's really rude." She scolded me, before closing the door and placing a protective seal on the house. There were a lot of people who hated the Uchiha's who would've loved to mess with their house now that Sasuke had ditched Konoha and abandoned it. Hikari and Kakashi-sensei decided to place hidden traps and seals to protect the place from getting trashed. When we got to Ichiraku's, we spotted two more people who I wanted to share my news with.
"Iruka-sensei! Kakashi-sensei!" I called. Both looked over at us and smiled back (or at least Iruka-sensei did. We've GOTTA find out what's underneath Kakashi-sensei's mask. It's driving me nuts!)
"Hey Naruto, Hikari. How have you two been? I never get to see much of you now since you've graduated from the Academy." Iruka-sensei looked slightly hurt.
"Sorry, Iruka-sensei. But we've been, uh, busy…" both Hikari and me looked slightly awkward and uncomfortable. A fact that Kakashi-sensei must've cottoned on to as well, since he went quiet and disappeared into one his stupid pornos. It was still a very sore subject between us. Iruka-sensei flushed when he realised what he had asked.
"Yeah, I remember. I'm sorry about that." He replied. I brushed it off, more interested in what I had to say.
"I've got some awesome news!" I yelled, earning curious glances from all three of them. "I'm getting some training from Jiraiya!"
"Did you say Jiraiya?!" demanded Kakashi-sensei suddenly getting really excited. I raised an eyebrow and exchanged glances with both Hikari and Iruka-sensei. She was looking just as confused as I felt, but it was Iruka-sensei who was looking frustrated and annoyed that got me curious.
"Yeah, I did?" I replied cautiously, "what's the deal?" Kakashi-sensei was looking star struck.
"Jiraiya is only the author of the 'icha icha paradise' series. Did you get his autograph?" My new sensei was the author of those books? Hikari looked grossed out and I pretty much wanted to reconsider my decision.
"Of course hasn't, you pervert. He's a child, for kami's sake!" growled Iruka-sensei who was glaring daggers at Kakashi-sensei. "He shouldn't even be reading those!"
"Oh, I see. Fair enough." Kakashi-sensei looked disappointed, but then perked up in about two seconds flat. "Maybe I can go and track him down and ask for one myself!" and with that he disappeared, leaving a blurred image of himself behind. Iruka-sensei rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, you go do that." He mumbled, "Just hope and pray that I don't report your arse for corrupting your student's minds." He sighed before turning back to me and Hikari.
"On a lighter note, Naruto that's wonderful news. I wish you well for your training." Iruka-sensei beamed at me. I grinned and launched myself at him, engulfing him in a hug. "Just behave yourself, and think before you speak or act." He sternly added.
I noticed that Hikari was quiet, even for her.
"Are you okay, Hikari-chan?" Hikari snapped out of the trance she was apparently in and flashed a very false smile at me.
"Oh! Totally. Just distracted by something I gotta do." She reassured me, then embraced me tightly. "I'm very happy for you, Naruto. Train hard, as I will. When you get back, we'll bring Sasuke home kicking and screaming if we must." She vowed.
"Damn straight!" I agreed, and blushed when Hikari kissed my cheek.
"Gotta go. I'll come by to help you pack tomorrow!" She said goodbye to Iruka-sensei and then ran off. I frowned. Distracted my arse.
"Let's celebrate, Naruto. How's about I treat you to some Ramen, huh?" asked Iruka-sensei. My eyes widened.
"Really?! Thanks so much, Iruka-sensei!" Seven bowls later (I wasn't really hungry), I said 'see ya' to Iruka-sensei and walked home.
To be honest, Hikari was worrying me and I was determined to find out exactly what was up, so I decided to confront her when she came over to help me pack.
A/N: Please review! :D