Reaching
LilacLilyFlower © 2009
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Unfortunately.
-O-O-O-O-
Chapter 11
Hikari fingered the kunai in her hand, regarding the missing nin before her with caution and alarm.
Uchiha Itachi, perpetrator of the Uchiha Massacre, the reason why Sasuke's personality completely changed, and Fumiko's murderer.
Murderer.
Killer.
Her adrenaline spiked, and her eyes darted about the room, analyzing the situation. Itachi was between her and the door that led into the living room, and the only window was on the far side of the room.
In other words, there was no way out.
"I assume you're wondering as to why I'm here," Itachi said with infuriating calm, breaking the tense silence that had built up between them.
"No, I'm just absolutely ecstatic that you, a missing nin, is sitting in my room," she muttered. Her eyes widened a second later, registering her words, and she cringed, but thankfully, Itachi didn't react other than quirking his lips up slightly.
I really need to get my habit of talking back when facing shinobi stronger than me under control.
"Have a seat, Hikari-san. I won't attack unless you attempt to call for aid, and even then, I will only incapacitate you," he said, offering her the kunai she had thrown, handle-first.
She flinched away, remaining standing. "Why are you here?" she blurted. "Why me?"
Itachi stared at her, but she got the feeling that he wasn't really looking at her. He remained silent for some time, barely blinking. Hikari shifted uncomfortably, but kept her eyes on him, in case he tried anything.
Although, she doubted that she'd be able to stop him.
"I wanted to know how Sasuke is faring," Itachi said softly.
Hikari felt her insides drop. Sasuke. How could she face Sasuke after this?
"Maybe you can tell me, since you were the one who ruined his life," she bit back.
"I see."
"You should watch out," she said. "Sasuke's going to become strong, and he's going to go after you, and I'm going to help him every step of the way. I'm going to make you regret what you did to Fumiko."
Fumiko's face flashed across her mind, covered in dried blood. It was set in a fearful expression, as if she'd died seeing something frightening, and her eyes, as always, were completely dull.
You should have saved me, Fumiko's voice drifted. You should have stopped Itachi.
Itachi. Itachi, Itachi, Itachi. Fumiko was gone, and it was because of Itachi. Sasuke changed, because of Itachi. Kakashi left her, because of Itachi.
A sick, twisting feeling squirmed into her gut. Itachi was the source of almost all of the misery in Hikari's life. The feeling grew, spreading into all of her thoughts, amplifying that it was his fault, it was all his fault, and she hated him for it, she hated him she hated him. The hate coursed through her strongly, nauseating yet intoxicating. It was so easy to blame everything on Itachi, and she did it with relish.
Hikari was drawn out of the downward spiral of her thoughts by Itachi's next words. "I already regret it. I'm sorry about it." His face gave away nothing, but Hikari understood what he was hinting at.
Don't let Sasuke know. I'm sorry.
And with those words, the hatred was halted in its tracks. It still burned, but she could think clearly. She finally perched on the edge of her bed. "Sorry doesn't change what happened," she said slowly, "whether Sasuke knows or not."
Her eyes snapped to his, pinning him to his seat. "And if you're so sorry, why did you do it in the first place?"
"Sometimes, certain things need to be done in order to attain the most favorable outcome."
What kind of vague answer is that? Hikari thought incredulously. Certain things? A most favorable outcome? The way that he's talking is as if—
Her eyes widened as the horror of Itachi's statement dawned on her.
As if things would have been worse if he hadn't killed his family.
"Then you mean," she began, whirling on him, but she stopped when she noticed she was back in her bathroom, holding a towel in her hand. When she realized that the entire conversation had been the product of a genjutsu, she burst out of the bathroom and ran to the desk that he'd been sitting at. There was no sign that he'd been there, except for a single sheet of paper with six words scribbled onto it:
The silent hunter catches its prey.
Ignoring the dramatic flair that Itachi seemed to possess, Hikari stowed the words away to analyze later and ripped the paper into shreds so tiny that when she finished, it seemed as if she had a mound of snow on her desk. Then, she took a match and set it ablaze.
This made three things that Itachi had told her that pointed towards something.
Don't tell Sasuke. I'm sorry.
Sometimes, certain things need to be done in order to attain the most favorable outcome.
The silent hunter catches its prey.
Something was going on, something that Itachi needed so desperately for her to know that he visited the village he had killed his family in, and she was going to find out. With that resolve, Hikari tamped down her hatred, hiding it in the deepest parts of her mind, and got ready for a visit to the cemetery.
-O-O-O-O-
"It's been a while," Hikari murmured, laying a cluster of poppies tied together with a white ribbon down on Shisui's grave. "Sorry I haven't been here for a long time."
She busied herself with cleaning off the grave. She cleared it of all weeds, pulling each one meticulously until its roots were tugged out of the soil, and wiped the headstone down with a damp cloth. Finally, she lit a stick of incense and stuck it into the ground in front of the grave.
"I'm doing okay, in case you wanted to know. I'm a genin now, did you know? Training is coming along fine, and I made new friends. Their names are Ino and Sakura. I also made a new enemy. He's a Hyuuga, I don't know his first name, and you were right; they're all total jerks. Everything is fine; good, even." She sighed and rested her head on her knees. "My life has been shaken recently. No big deal. Just an old acquaintance dropping by unannounced."
"Hikari?"
She started and turned to see Sasuke making his way over to her. He placed his own bouquet of poppies down, and plopped down next to her. "You came too?" she asked, biting her lip. Sasuke was the last person she wanted to see at the moment.
"Yeah," he muttered. "I already visited, you know, the others," he said, waving his hand in the general direction of the graves of those who had died in the Massacre.
"Funny how we chose the same night," she remarked, fingering the ribbon on Sasuke's bouquet. It was Sharingan red.
"Great minds think alike," he quipped back. "Come on, let's pay our respects."
They knelt in front of the grave and brought their hands together in prayer fashion, bowing their heads.
Please help, Hikari prayed. Take some time out of partying in the afterlife, which you're bound to be doing, and help me with whatever Itachi is hinting towards. Please. And if you see my parents up there, whoever they may be, tell them hi for me. My mom's name is Uzumaki Kushina, in case you wanted to know.
She opened her eyes and saw that Sasuke was done and waiting for her. They walked out of the cemetery, and as they passed by the Massacre graves, Hikari saw that they were all cleaned with a bouquet of poppies and a stick of incense laid in front. "You did all that?" she asked.
"Yeah. I came earlier."
But, she thought, that must be hundreds of graves. "You're very mature, Sasuke."
He snorted. "Says you."
"Yeah, well, we were both forced to grow up fast."
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, but said nothing and extended his hand to her in a rare show of weakness. She took it, understanding his need for human contact at the moment.
"You mean we're being forced to grow up fast. It's not over yet," he said, tightening his grip on her painfully, "not until Itachi is dead."
Right. Sasuke was out for revenge.
Hikari cast her eyes downwards, unable to hide the conflict on her face.
"Yeah," she agreed softly.
-O-O-O-O-
She woke up to someone pounding on her door. "Hikari, wake up!"
She groaned and hid her head under her pillow. "Go away, Takahiro. I got home late last night."
"Hikari," Takahiro whined. "We have to do our missions. If we get ten done this month, Sensei says we can go on a C-Rank."
She bolted upright. Rushing around the room, she got dressed in her gear, pausing in the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. Muttering under her breath, she fixed her hair into its usual halfbun, letting loose some expletives when it drooped limply. She stowed the hairpin into her weapons pouch and barreled out of the door.
Takahiro started at her sudden appearance. "Wha—"
Hikari grabbed his arm, pulling him along. "Come on, hurry up. We need to finish up our D-Ranks."
"That's what I was saying! Hypocrite!"
Hikari rolled her eyes. "This is the first time I've ever slept in, compared to your eighty-three times."
"You kept count? Weirdo."
"It's the mark of a good kunoichi."
"No, it's just weird."
They jumped across the rooftops swiftly, speeding up when Hokage Tower came into sight.
"Sorry," Hikari apologized to Shoumaru as they landed. "I got home late, so I overslept."
"It's your loss," he drawled. "I assume Takahiro has filled you in about mission ranks?"
She nodded. "We have seven more left," she said. "We'll finish it all today."
There was a beat of incredulous silence, then-
"Are you trying to kill us? We don't all have crazy stamina like you!" Takahiro burst out.
"I don't think that's possible," Eisuke softly agreed.
Shoumaru quirked an eyebrow. "You do realize that most of the missions would take hours for a group of ten, let alone three?"
"We'll finish it all today," she stubbornly repeated. "I'll make it happen."
Hikari marched up to the Missions Desk and snatched a scroll from a pile labeled "Not Completed". She opened it and scanned it with her eyes. "Supply transport by the river. They can't use horses because the bank is too muddy, and they don't have the proper equipment to float the supplies downriver." A smirk slid its way onto her face. "Perfect."
Eisuke eyed her warily as they headed out. "Hikari-chan, are you planning something dangerous?"
"She doesn't need to plan something dangerous. She is dangerous," Takahiro butt in.
She flushed, unsure of whether to take that as a compliment. After all, she was a kunoichi. "I just want to try out a jutsu that I learned from the scrolls that Sensei gave us, Eisuke-kun. Don't worry about it; even if it backfires, which it won't because I've practiced, it won't hurt anyone."
They arrived at the riverbank. As Shoumaru talked with the foreman in charge of transporting the supplies, Hikari began running through the handseals for her jutsu.
Rat. Horse. Tiger.
"Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu! (Water Clone Technique)"
Four jets of water rose from the river and splashed next to Hikari. The water convulsed and suddenly, Hikari was staring at four water clones of herself.
"Show off," Takahiro pouted. "But it does make our job easier!"
For the next thirty minutes, the genin worked tirelessly, transporting the supplies down the riverbank. Hikari dispelled the clones after the last one set the final box into place. As soon as the foreman said his thanks, she tore back towards the tower.
"New mission, please!"
-O-O-O-O-
"I can't believe it," Eisuke wondered, steps lagging. "We actually managed to do seven missions in one day."
"I told you that we'd do it," Hikari mumbled, staggering. Takahiro caught her by the shoulder as she stumbled.
"You overdid it," he admonished. "No matter how much chakra you have, you still overdid it." He was the only one upright out of the three genin, although he was walking slower than usual.
Shoumaru merely glanced at them with an amused look. "You three look dead on your feet."
"Maybe we wouldn't be if you helped out, Sensei," Eisuke grumbled, uncharacteristically caustic. The rest of Team One shot him surprised looks, but he ignored them. "Didn't you say that teamwork was important?"
"I did," Shoumaru cheerily enthused. "But I also dealt with my share of D-Ranks when I was a genin, so it's your turn to suffer. Besides, no one said you had to finish seven today."
"C-Rank," Hikari muttered petulantly, leaning heavily on Takahiro.
Shoumaru rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, you've earned your C-Rank. Take a week off, and come with equipment that you deem necessary for a mission that's midlength timewise. We'll meet in two days so that I can teach you a technique that all respectable shinobi should know. Dismissed."
He poofed away, and the genin just sighed and began the trek to Takahiro's house.
"Is it just me," Hikari began, "or does Shoumaru-sensei take joy in our pain?"
"It's not just you," Takahiro said darkly. "He's a sadist."
"Well, he does have to put up with us everyday," Eisuke reminded. "And we're not exactly... well... agreeable."
"You mean the two of us aren't," Hikari interjected, motioning towards herself and Takahiro. The boy in mention huffed and blew straw-colored bangs out of his face.
"Well, yes," Eisuke admitted with a sheepish smile. "You two have stronger personalities."
"As in I'm a perpetual popular guy and Hikari is a stubborn icicle who needs to learn that sarcasm isn't the best defense mechanism," Takahiro deadpanned. Hikari nudged him with her elbow.
"Hey, I take offense to that."
"I don't care. I just want to eat and sleep."
They marched into the house and collapsed at the table. Hikari, in particular, planted her cheek against the cool surface of the table and closed her eyes, relieved that she didn't have to move anymore.
"I shouldn't have made all those clones," she said. "And I didn't know that I looked the way I did."
Eisuke cocked his head to the side. "Don't you have a mirror?"
"Yeah," she replied. "But it's a flip of my face. When I look in the mirror, I'm seeing the reverse of what you see everyday." She slumped further. "And I've decided that my hair is too long. It won't stay in a bun anymore because it's too heavy."
"No haircuts allowed for you," Takahiro ordered, lightly hitting the top of her head with a fist. "It's too pretty for that."
"That's true," Eisuke agreed. "And no one else in the village has red hair. Your hair is pretty special."
"It's my hair, so I'm going to decide what to do with it," she bristled. "And it's not like I was going to lop it all off anyways. Just a trim so I can put it into a bun."
"Why not just let your hair hang loose?"
The question came from Takahiro's mother, who entered the kitchen with a smile. She began preparing dinner for them, but Hikari had frozen upon hearing her question.
No. Her suggestion was unthinkable.
The hairpin was Fumiko's present to her. It was the only connection she had to her remaining. And her hairstyle was the one that Fumiko had always worn. It was a little piece of Fumiko that she kept with her at all times.
Except now, she thought. Because the pin won't stay.
"I just like it," she replied to Natsuko in a measured voice. "It keeps my hair out of the way."
Takahiro glanced at her out of the side of her eye, but she ignored it, schooling her face into neutral features.
-O-O-O-O-
Two days later, Shoumaru met them by their usual training ground.
"Today, I'm going to be teaching you," he said, pausing for dramatic effect, "Treewalking."
Hikari's interest instantly piqued. She'd accidentally used the technique and had blown up a tree, resulting in chakra burns.
Takahiro snickered. "That sounds like we're going to take the trees on walks."
Shoumaru rolled his eyes. "Watch carefully." He placed a foot on the trunk of a tree, then the other, and began sauntering up the tree as if he weren't completely defying the laws of physics by walking up a vertical surface with his body parallel to the ground and his hands in his pockets.
When he reached the first branch, which was easily at least ten meters up, he kicked off and landed in a crouch in front of them. "The trick is to circulate the correct amount of chakra to your foot. Too little, and you'll fall off." He demonstrated, foot slipping easily down the bark. "But too much, and the chakra will overload the tree's cells and backlash onto you." The bark cracked under his foot, throwing it back.
"Master it by the time we meet for our next mission. I suspect it'll take you most of the day, so I'm leaving to spend my time on better things." He waved once and vanished.
All was silent for several moments until Eisuke approached a tree. He tentatively raised a hand and stuck it to the trunk. When he pulled, it stayed firmly put. "I think we should try it with our hands first," he suggested. "Then we'd know how much chakra to use."
Hikari tried to remember how much chakra she'd been using when her hand had gotten stuck before. She planted her hand onto the tree, summoned some chakra, and pulled.
It came away.
Frowning, she input more chakra and scowled when her hand came away again. She snuck a peek at Takahiro and Eisuke, and her jaw dropped when she saw that Eisuke was halfway up his tree.
Chakra sense flaring on, Hikari honed in on his feet. His chakra was suctioning to the tree and releasing when he lifted his feet. It was pouring directly into the tree, not sliding around the bottom of his foot, which was what Hikari was attempting with her hand.
Focusing again on her hand, she applied Eisuke's method, and smiled when her hand stuck. "Eisuke-kun," she called. "Was that your first try?"
"Yes," he replied, calling from a seated position on a branch. "Being a medic requires next to perfect chakra control, and this is essentially a chakra control exercise, so I understood right away."
She blew the stray strand of hair that always rested between her eyes out of her face, puffing her cheeks with frustration. "I hate chakra control exercises," she whined. "Even Takahiro is better at them than I am at this point."
"Hey! What do you mean by 'even?' " Takahiro protested. "My control was good to start with." To prove his point, he made his way about three meters up a tree before pushing off with his feet and landing with a thud.
Hikari's eyes narrowed the slightest sliver and she slapped a seal on the ground, directly beneath her feet. As she channeled chakra into the seal, the ink began to glow in the telltale yellow light of an exploding tag. Takahiro's eyes widened. "Hika-"
The tag exploded.
There was no fire or heat, because she'd adjusted the seal to expel only a shockwave by channeling her chakra through certain points in the design of the seal. To avoid broken bones, she strengthened her muscles momentarily with chakra to withstand the force of the shockwave, and the explosion propelled her straight up the tree trunk.
Hikari smiked as she shot up to about nine meters, grasping a branch and swinging herself onto it. "I beat you," she called.
Eisuke was already leaping into her tree. "Hikari-chan! That was reckless!" He began checking her for injuries as Takahiro stuck his tongue out.
"You cheated."
"I'm a kunoichi."
"But this is something you need to know."
"I still won this round," she replied coolly. Tossing her hair, which had been cut to its original length, over her shoulder, she lithely leapt from the tree and performed several flips and twists in midair. When she was close to hitting the ground, Hikari threw her body into one final somersault to land in a completely crouched position.
"Show off," Takahiro muttered. He ran up his tree and jumped the final meter to reach the first branch. Hikari stuck her bottom lip out and ran up her tree, but she disrupted her chakra before reaching the halfway point. When Takahiro laughed and even Eisuke stifled chuckles, she frowned.
"Laugh it up," she scowled. "I'm still faster than both of you."
-O-O-O-O-
"A C-Rank?" Ino marvelled. "Already?"
"Your team must be really strong to be going on a C-Rank so soon after graduation, especially since you're nine," Sakura admired.
Hikari flushed proudly. "Our sensei makes us train for the entire morning. He teaches us a lot, even though his personality sort of sucks."
"My dad says he's really blunt," Ino said. "And that it's easy to resent him."
Hikari nodded. "That sounds right."
Sasuke gave a quiet snort from his spot against the wall. They were waiting by the entrance of the Academy for Naruto, who was being chewed out by Iruka for yet another prank. From what Hikari had heard, it involved water balloons filled with ink and buckets of glitter.
Lots of glitter.
"But I really love my team," she added, smiling slightly. When she met silence, she looked up and saw Ino and Sakura's surprised faces. "Why are you so surprised?"
Sakura recovered first. "Well, you don't really seem like the type to express your feelings that easily."
"She's not," Sasuke cut in, eyes flickering away. Sakura blushed when he spoke. "So I guess her team is that special."
Hikari heard the unvoiced pout in his words and patted him on the knee. "Don't worry," she reassured. "All of my friends are special to me." But his remark struck a chord within her.
It was true. Her team was special, in both the normal way and in an abnormal sense. It had two early graduates, one of which was a fuinjutsu specialist and chakra sensor with unnaturally red hair, while the other was considered the heavy hitter of their team although he was only ten years old. Their team also had a combative medic nin, which were rare because of the high mortality rate of such nin (although that was mainly in the Third Shinobi World War), and a half-Hyuuga who was an all-rounder. Their chakra natures were different, unlike many other teams that had mainly fire and earth affinities. They, on the other hand, had water, fire, lightning, and earth.
But where Takahiro was aggressive in his attacks, he was cheerful and inherently altruistic. Eisuke mothered everyone and everything, worried and gentle because of his meekness, but stepped into the leadership role with determination and efficiency. Shoumaru, with all his blunt abruptness, was a teacher they could all rely on, stable and unyielding.
And Hikari... well, she was just herself.
"Sasuke, when are you going to graduate?" she asked.
"When the idiot graduates," he responded. "He'd die without someone watching over him, so I'm going to make sure he survives by graduating with him."
"You'd have to be on the same team," Hikari pointed out, ignoring the vicious twinge of malice that reared its head at the mention of Naruto possibly dying. After all, it was a very real possibility with their chosen line of work.
But that's not going to happen, she thought ferociously to herself. Not if I can help it.
"We will," Sasuke returned with confidence. "Because he's the only one who can relatively keep up with me, when he's not being an idiot."
"Then what about the kunoichi on your team?" she queried. Hikari sorted through the girls that she knew were in Naruto's class. She discarded any that weren't from a clan or didn't have any parents who were shinobi, because the village sure as hell wouldn't let Sasuke, the sole Uchiha, be on a team with anyone from a civilian background.
Which was another problem, if he really wanted to be on a team with Naruto. While she and Naruto had shinobi parents (a fact that the Third Hokage had hinted at a long time ago, mentioning how they had died protecting Konoha), Naruto also had the Kyuubi sealed within him. She knew that the village elders would rather commit suicide than allow the village's only Uchiha onto a team with a jinchurikki.
However, if Naruto and Sasuke did end up on a team together, their kunoichi teammate was practically guaranteed to be from a major clan or descended from a significant shinobi. That singled out Ino and Hyuuga Hinata, the firstborn child of the head of the Hyuuga clan, Hyuuga Hiashi. Although…
Hikari turned a critical eye to the pinkette in their midst. Sakura was, most likely, a second generation shinobi. While Hikari had never heard of any shinobi with the surname of Haruno (which meant that her parents were probably Chunin, maybe Jounin, but not special enough for a reputation), Sakura's chakra coils were much more developed than say, a first generation shinobi from a civilian background. Chakra properties were passed down genetically, so clan kids who had generations of a shinobi background had a different base starting point than civilian kids, who were struggling individually.
It was actually almost horrific, the gap between those from a clan and those who weren't. Besides, as Shoumaru had told Hikari, only nine out of twenty-seven graduates became genin, and those slots were almost always dominated by clan kids. Takahiro was an exception, and it was because he built his stamina up so high from physical training; becoming a Taijutsu specialist was common for civilian children who managed to become genin.
Hikari was an Uzumaki. She did her research. She was not only from an old, prestigious (and completely scattered) clan, but one which was famed to have some of the largest known chakra wells, unusual longevity, and insane stamina.
Sakura was a Haruno. She was essentially a nobody, even if she was second generation. She lacked the cutting and somewhat ruthless quality that all shinobi possessed, regardless of personality and rank, and everything seemed average about her. Average build, average height, average ability in the shinobi arts, apart from some very good chakra control, from what Ino told her. Hikari knew someone like that. In fact, he was on her team.
Which was why she bet that Sakura would make it, since Eisuke did.
"I don't care as long as she doesn't get in the way," Sasuke replied while Hikari did her mental analysis.
"That's a bit mean," Ino chided, cautious of overstepping any boundaries.
"It's the truth. I'm the best in our class already, and Naruto is second."
"But Naruto is last," Sakura protested, furrowing her brow in confusion. "Our senseis said so. His grades are the worst, and his practical skills are sort of, well, bad."
Hikari's eyes narrowed at nothing in particular. Those blind cretins, she thought about Naruto's teachers. They're still impeding his progress.
"Regardless of grades, whenever we spar, Naruto can keep up," Sasuke said, crossing his arms over his chest. "He can pull pranks, which is synonymous to setting traps in the shinobi world. How many times has he caught shinobi of the rank chunin or more with his pranks and got away? More than you can count on both hands and feet. Because of his pranks, Naruto can strategize and also has a flair for the unconventional, which is highly prized in shinobi. Our senseis are always telling us that predictability is the number one way a shinobi can be killed."
Hikari's eyebrows had ridden higher and higher on her face while Sasuke spoke, and she now looked at him with open bafflement. "You thought about all that? About Naruto?"
She wasn't the only one?
Sasuke flushed uncharacteristically, jerking his head away before they could make eye contact. "Hn. He declared himself my rival. Of course I'm going to keep tabs on him."
Sure. Like she was going to believe that poor excuse of an excuse.
"Just admit that you two are best friends and give up," she teased. "You two practically orbit each other," she added a little sadly. Since he began spending time with Sasuke, Naruto spent less time with her, not that she had much time to spend with him.
"No," Sasuke blurted. "You're my best friend. He's my rival."
Silence descended upon their little group. Hikari blinked at Sasuke, who scowled at the ground, and Ino tactfully began gossiping about the latest with Sakura.
"Oh," Hikari found herself saying. She'd had no idea.
"You were there that night," he whispered. "How could you be anything less?"
They sat in silence. Hikari was unsure of how to respond, because when she thought about having a best friend, Takahiro automatically came to mind. Sasuke was… he was…
"Hey, guys!" Naruto said as he flounced out of the building. Hikari's eyes landed on him, and her struggle to place Sasuke was resolved.
Sasuke was a brother.
Not literally, of course, but he was what she would tentatively consider family. Naruto had her unconditional love, but she cared about Sasuke just as much as she did Naruto.
"Hi, Naru," she responded, smiling. "How did your talk go?"
Naruto shuddered. "Iruka-sensei was really mad. He kept going on about respecting my superiors and stuff." He brightened easily. "Anyways, what's going on?"
"Hikari is going on a C-Rank," Ino filled in for him. As Naruto began raving and their little group began to migrate towards Ichiraku Ramen, Hikari pulled Sakura aside.
"So, Sakura," she began, ignoring Sakura's slight expression of surprise. "How do you feel about becoming a genjutsu specialist or medic nin?"
-O-O-O-O-
That evening, Hikari finally mastered the treewalking exercise.
She lay under the tree she had completely walked up, content and relaxed. The sun had just set, but there was lingering light illuminating the sky, casting a cooler saturation upon the warm colors she usually saw during the daytime.
A vaguely familiar chakra entered her range, and soon, the sound of footsteps came towards her. Hikari stiffened upon seeing the Hyuuga boy heading in her general direction, visibly upset.
"Oh, it's you," she called, irrationality spiking to the top as she recalled his words about her sensei. "I was wondering who was undisciplined enough to have audible footsteps, and I guess there was really just one person."
He halted mid-stomp, lowering his foot and slowly turning his head to look at her. "I don't have time to deal with you," he dismissed. "I have other things to worry about."
"Like what?" she blustered on, knowing that she was intentionally provoking him. "How to remove the stick up your butt? How to be civil to others?"
He glared at her, anger etched into every corner of his face. "I am perfectly civil," he spat. "It's you who is uncivilized. I'm not a barbarian who lowers herself to be taught by the scum of all shinobi, unlike you. You have no last name, you're a nobody, and yet somehow you're the talk of the shinobi community. You're abnormal; you even look weird!"
Her chakra rushed to her hands, but she merely clenched them into fists. "I may have unusual coloring," she began, "but I'm obviously being taught correctly, since I'm going on a C-Rank in five days."
His shock was palpable, and she smugly got up to walk away from him.
"You're right," she added, reveling in another victory. "You don't have time to deal with me. You have to worry about training yourself to a level that I recognize. You're not even worth my time at your current level. In fact, I don't even know your name, while you clearly know mine."
She continued to walk away, and was nearly out of the clearing when he spoke up, slight Killing Intent permeating the air.
"My name is Hyuuga Neji, and don't you dare forget it."
-O-O-O-O-
A/N: Hello, everyone!
I've finally introduced Neji properly, hooray! The amount of Uchiha is strong in this chapter, which actually wasn't intentional. I wanted to focus on Hikari's developing relationships with people of her age group, and Sasuke's bond with Hikari is the first thing that emerged from my various scribbles and ideas.
I mean, come on. They survived the Massacre together. To paraphrase Rowling: there are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other (in the nonromantic sense), and surviving a massacre is one of them.
Also, the barely-there plot thickens! I'm sure that you've all noticed that Hikari's presence in this universe is slowly making little changes to what would be considered canon. Sasuke and Naruto are closer, Kakashi has someone that depends on him (therefore forcing him to have some responsibility), Neji has a source of irritation and loathing, Sakura has been enlightened to the world of genjutsu and medical ninjutsu, and (SPOILER ALERT…maybe? Just in case.) Itachi is contacting someone inside Konoha about the Massacre (SPOILER DONE).
Next is the hyped up C-Rank mission and more Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi! Stay tuned for more appearances.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, and/or favorited!
See you next time!