Reaching

LilacLilyFlower © 2009

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Unfortunately.

Beta'ed by the wonderful Sanctuaria!

-O-O-O-O-

Chapter 15

(Hikari's POV)

Kitagawa Yukiko was wearing the black clothes of mourning, her blonde hair pulled into a modest bun. Her face was drawn, but she didn't look grief-stricken or angry or anything else. She just looked resigned. Tired.

"Hello," Hikari ventured. "I'm Uzumaki Hikari, and this is Oshiro Eisuke. We're—"

"Shoumaru's team. I know." Yukiko examined them with piercing green eyes. "Where's the third?"

Hikari and Eisuke exchanged guilty glances. "He's, um, not talking to... us at the moment," Eisuke explained. Yukiko raised an eyebrow but beckoned them in. Eisuke shot Hikari a relieved look and followed Yukiko into the house. Hikari took another deep breath and entered.

The house was normal. Typical. But if she looked closer, Hikari could spot traces of Shoumaru. A pair of sandals too big for the woman in front of her. Spare kunai pouches on a stand by the larger armchair. A clutter of miscellaneous weapons.

And pictures. Pictures of Shoumaru, of Yukiko, of the two of them together, of Shoumaru and Kakashi in their early teens, of Shoumaru and Yukiko's wedding, of them making a life together.

"Are you here for the contents of his will?" Yukiko abruptly asked.

"Wha— wait— we're here to ask some questions. We didn't— we're in his will?" Hikari elbowed Eisuke for his question and took over.

"Kitagawa-san, we'd like to ask about the seal and the Byakugan. It's too soon, after—" his death— "after what happened, but we've exhausted all other leads, and we really need to know this because..."

Because they needed closure. Because otherwise, Shoumaru's death was in vain. Because it was a seal, and she was interested. Because it was wrong. Because, because, because. So many reasons, but none of them were right.

"I understand," Yukiko replied. "I would want to know too." She sat down on the floor and motioned for them to sit as well. "Let's see... the Caged Bird Seal. It's a method to both protect the clan, but control it at the same time. The Hyuuga are split into two families: the Main family and the Branch family. The Branch family receives the seal to prevent the spread of Byakugan outside of the clan through nonreproductive means, but it also allows the Main family to control them. The Main family has the power to cause them pain or death through the seal."

"That's barbaric," Eisuke said, horrified.

"Clan politics," Yukiko sighed. "Shoumaru's mother was Branch, and she married a non-clan member after declaring emancipation from the clan. The clan said that she could, on the basis of her future children receiving the seal. Obviously, she agreed."

They were silent, digesting her words. "Here," Yukiko suddenly said. "You might as well have these, since I'm not a shinobi." She handed them the extra weapons pouches, stocked with the standard supply. "Give one to your teammate too."

Hikari blinked and looked over Yukiko's body. Her arms were well-defined, indicating constant strenuous use. Her posture was balanced, providing equal opportunity to lash out offensively or retreat defensively. "But…"

She smiled wearily. "I forge weapons."

Oh. That actually made sense.

"But you should leave now," she continued. "I'm sure you have things to do."

"Not really…?" Hikari said, voice questioning as Eisuke dragged her none-too-subtly to the door. He bowed, forcing her to bow along with him.

"Thank you, Yukiko-san. If you ever need anything, please do not hesitate to contact us," he said. Then, he shoved Hikari out of the door.

"Eisuke—"

"No." He faced her. "The look on her face. She couldn't handle it anymore without crying. We had to leave."

Hikari bit her lip. "I know, it's just…"

"Yeah."

"It's lonely," she whispered. "To have someone you love torn away from you." Because she knew. Hikari knew what that felt like; she remembered when Naruto had been taken away from her. Separated. It felt like the sun had faded from her world, like she would never be warm again. Granted, it was a different sort of love, but it was still love. "So I didn't want to leave her alone."

"That makes sense," Eisuke conceded. "But I think she just needs time right now. Anyways," he said, becoming all mother-hen again, "go home and rest. We have team training tomorrow."

She grimaced. Right. Team training. With Inoichi, their new sensei. And Takahiro, who doesn't believe her. "Goodnight, Eisuke-kun."

"Goodnight, Hikari-chan."

They parted ways, immersed in their thoughts.

-O-O-O-O-

When Hikari arrived to team training the next day, she was faced with an ugly, ugly situation.

Eisuke was apprehensively watching Takahiro pace across a small portion of the training ground. He caught her eye and grimaced, motioning for her to stay put, but Takahiro saw him and spun around.

"Oh," Takahiro said. Then.

Then. He sneered. At her.

"Uzumaki-san," he purred, sickeningly sweet, venom dripping from his words. "How nice of you to join us."

Her mouth ran dry. She licked her lips, once, twice, desperately searching for the right words. "Takahiro," she rasped, reaching out a hand to him, only for it to falter and fall to her side. "Takahiro. It's the truth. I'm an Uzumaki."

"I believe you."

Her eyes shot up, and Hikari felt her heart leap. A smile began to spread across her face. "Really?"

"Oh, yeah, I believe you," Takahiro hissed, stalking towards her. The smile dropped from her face.

Something was wrong.

"I believe you," Takahiro repeated with gritted teeth. "Especially after seeing that bingo book that the Third showed me and Eisuke." He halted right in front of her, leaning in until their noses were nearly touching.

And his eyes. Brown, wide with barely restrained rage, sparking in injury and frustration and vulnerability.

And. It was her. Fault.

"I believe you," Takahiro repeated again, whispering. Then, he drew back as if he were disgusted. Repulsed. By her. And her heart dropped lower. "But what really gets me is that you didn't tell anyone."

"I couldn't," she half-pleaded, half-protested, because Not Takahiro. I can't lose him. Not Takahiro. Not like this. "I was forbidden."

He scoffed bitterly. "You didn't even tell your own brother. What could be more important than that? I guess our friendship didn't mean that much to you."

She recoiled, hurt. And it felt so strange, so foreign, this little bubble of pain that popped in her heart. So she took it and channeled it into her anger, lashing out in the only way she knew how. "How could I have told you? Huh? When the Third ordered me to stay quiet about it? And what does our friendship have to do with this?"

"Well," he bit back, voice rising. "It seems like you've known about it for a long time now. I'm right, aren't I? You've been fooling everyone since day one, laughing about how stupid we all were for not knowing! Family versus the village! Ichirou-sensei taught us at the Academy that we had to choose at times, and that the right choice wouldn't be the same each time!"

"You're not my family!" she screamed. Takahiro suddenly looked shocked, upset, but she didn't stop, because she was hurting and she wanted it to end and the only way she could think of that happening was by making Takahiro hurt instead. It was purely defensive. Selfish. And she didn't care. "You're not my family! Naruto is family! Sasuke is family! But you wouldn't get it, would you? You with your perfect parents and perfect house and perfect family life!"

"At least I have parents!" he roared back. "At least I have a real family and don't need to band together with other orphans to pretend like I have a family! And what do you know about perfect? You don't know what I've been through in that house!"

"Guys, stop it!" Eisuke shouted, coming between the two. "We can solve this! Just stop!"

"Get away from me!" Takahiro shoved Eisuke out of the way. "You don't even understand what's going on!"

Eisuke gaped, then glared at him. "Excuse me? I understand better than you'd think. Don't assume things about me! What would you know about my problems?"

"Leave Eisuke alone," Hikari demanded. "He's not a part of this!"

"Oh, ganging up on me now—"

"Hikari, I'll let you know that I am completely a part of this—"

And it kept on going, nasty and ugly and never-ending. She hated it. She hated it, but she didn't know how to stop the words from pouring out of her mouth, because she kept fighting back, all she knew how to do was to keep fighting back. But it wasn't just her, it was all three of them, using personal attacks, saying hurtful things, and Hikari could feel the shift in their relationships becoming bigger, when all she wanted to do was reach out and grab it to keep it from changing, but Takahiro was yelling and Eisuke was shouting and she was screaming and they were all hurting so so much and even Eisuke, gentle Eisuke, healer Eisuke, didn't know how to stop the hurt.

They'd fought before. Her and Takahiro and even Eisuke. But never like this. Never as if they were outraged with each other, never as if they wanted to hurt the others, never as if the only point was to prod at old wounds and relish in the hiss of pain that their souls cried out with because at least it wasn't them that was hurting, and if they were hurting, then the others deserved to hurt just as much.

Then it happened. The boundary that they had all agreed on silently, unanimously, no matter what, to never, ever cross. Hikari crossed it out of pure self-preservation.

She threw a punch.

Instantly, Takahiro evaded and Eisuke returned to trying to mediate the fight, but it was too late, because she'd crossed the line and there was no going back. So Takahiro punched back, and she dodged and kicked out, but he jumped and landed a blow to her side, and while she was proficient in Taijutsu with her new style, it was his specialty, his claim to strength, so slowly, steadily, he began to overpower her.

But Hikari wasn't about to let that happen, because there was no way she was ever going to lose in a physical fight, so her sealing brush came out and the landscape began to change.

And Eisuke was running between then, hands glowing green, begging them to stop, but they didn't and she drew blood from Takahiro but he cracked one of her ribs and it was just escalating, getting worse and worse and worse and worse—

And then.

Someone grabbed her leg and threw her to the other side of the field while pushing Takahiro to another side. And when Hikari turned to snarl at the intruder, because how dare he interrupt, she saw Inoichi glowering at them.

"What," he asked calmly, voice masking the rage on his face, "is going on here?"

She opened her mouth, about to retort and tell him to stay out of it, when she paused and took in the damage. Around them, the clearing was in ruins. Things were broken and smoldering and damp and destroyed. Takahiro was a mess, his hair in his eyes and grime on his face and cuts all over his body, cuts that she had made. Eisuke was quietly sniffling on a patch of untouched grass, nursing and healing a black eye that he must have gotten sometime during the fight. And when Hikari looked down at herself, she saw that her clothing was torn, the ends of her hair were crumbling into ashes, and there were burns across her hands and arms and legs. Burns from Takahiro.

"I come to our first team meeting expecting some tension," Inoichi slowly said, stiff and disappointed and terrifying. "But instead, I find a warzone. Because you were all fighting as if you were enemies on the opposite sides of a war." Then, he crossed his arms. "I've decided. I'm not going to enter you three into the Chunin Exams. The ones that are three months away."

Hikari's mouth dropped. "But," she began to protest. Inoichi narrowed his eyes further, and she shut up.

He sat down where he stood, patting the ground in front of him. "Sit," Inoichi ordered. "And tell me why you're all trying to kill each other."

The three of them sat down, wincing as their injuries were stretched or bumped. "Alright," Inoichi said, assessing them. His eyes landed on Eisuke. "Eisuke. You seemed like you were trying to mediate. Tell me what happened."

Eisuke cleared his throat, removing his hand from where it was healing his eye. "We got into a fight previously, along with a few other friends, about, um, about…"

"Hikari being an Uzumaki. Yes. I know," Inoichi provided. He sighed at their surprised looks. "My daughter was a part of the fight, if you recall. And I'm a part of the Intelligence Unit. Of course I'm going to find out information about you guys and keep tabs on you."

Oh. Well. Something to note for the future.

"Continue."

"Oh. Ok. Ino and Sakura and Takahiro didn't believe Hikari. And that's why Takahiro and Hikari were fighting. I think. It kind of… spiraled out of control." Eisuke scuffed his toe on the ground, looking down.

"Kind of spiraled out of control," Inoichi repeated, staring flatly at them. Hikari flushed and looked down.

All was silent as the three genin bowed their heads, not daring to meet Inoichi's disappointed gaze. He sighed, and their shoulders drooped.

"I don't know what to say," Inoichi finally said. He sighed again, rubbing his temples. And sighed again. And again. Finally, seeming to reach a conclusion, he addressed them.

"The blame falls on everyone. Takahiro, you should know how important information is. Information is power. There was a reason that Hikari didn't tell you." Takahiro furrowed his brows, picking at the grass. "Hikari. You shouldn't have lost your temper." She grimaced. "Eisuke, you… you tried. But it didn't work."

He dropped his hand from his face and gazed piercingly at each one of them. "Resolve your issues. At the very least, don't let them affect your ability to work alongside each other. We'll begin training in half an hour. Go home and patch yourselves up."

Hikari ducked out from his line of sight, chakra instantaneously flooding her feet to propel her away from the disastrous clearing. She raced through the village, heart pumping from a delayed reaction of anxiety.

Inoichi is scary, she thought, remembering how he'd kept tabs on them. The Intelligence Unit is scary.

She landed. Then took a double-take.

Because she was standing in front of Takahiro's house.

Home. Hikari snorted. The fact that she associated Takahiro's house as home was… slightly bittersweet.

Home. She needed to move in with Naruto. Rather, he needed to move in with her. Or they could find a new place? Enough for two people, and maybe a dog, because Kakashi-sensei had dogs, right? (And she secretly idolized him. Not a lot. Just. A little. She wanted a dog.)

She felt Takahiro's chakra approaching, so she ducked into a side alley and ran to her apartment. As she fetched the first aid kit from the cabinet under the sink, the pin in her hair caught her eyes.

Fumiko had given it to her. Fumiko was her friend. Fumiko died. Shoumaru died.

Hikari had no time to be fighting with her team when they could all die just as easily.

Even if Takahiro was being a jerk. Even if Eisuke still probably harbored some resentment towards her. They all needed to get it together.

So, with that resolve, and newly bandaged limbs (and trimmed hair, because of course Takahiro burned it unevenly), she headed back to the training grounds. Inoichi was waiting, sitting on a large rock and… making a flower crown? I mean, Hikari thought, he does run a flower shop. And knows a lot about poison.

She cautiously picked her way to a nearby spot in the grass, untouched by the havoc that had been wreaked earlier. And she waited.

Soon, Takahiro showed up, with Eisuke following not long after. She calmly stood up, brushed the grass from her pants, and walked right under Inoichi's bemused face to the boys. "Okay," she said, hands behind her back. "Okay, I'm sorry. This isn't enough as an apology, but for the moment, it'll have to do. Because Fumiko and Shoumaru-sensei died, and we can too. So I don't want to be fighting you guys. I'd rather fight the enemies and die alongside you. Well, I'd rather not die at all. But. Um. You get what I mean."

"I agree," Eisuke said quietly. "We can resolve our differences later. We have to prepare for the Chunin Exams, whichever one we take, and the political turmoil that's sure to follow our confrontation with Kumo. So I'm sorry too, for everything that I have to be sorry for."

They waited.

And finally, Takahiro made furtive eye contact with both of them and nodded. "Same. I'm sorry."

And Hikari felt hope blossom in her chest, for the first time in a very long time. Because it didn't matter that the rest of the shinobi world was out to get them because of a stupid bingo book ranking that was obviously over-ranked. It did matter that they all had very serious communication issues with one another, and needed to talk things through. It did matter that they'd just lost their teacher.

But they'd get through it.

Because they were Team One.

-O-O-O-O-

A/N: Long time no see.

Sorry, guys, for disappearing without a notice. Life got in the way, and with test after test after too much homework and college apps, I had no time nor motivation to write.

But now I'm back! And guess what?

IT'S BEEN A YEAR SINCE THE FIRST CHAPTER WAS PUBLISHED!

(Also: I'M GOING TO COLLEGE!)

Well, if we're being accurate, it's been more than a year since the prologue was published. And it's been an incredible journey so far. I made many acquaintances with so many of you reviewers, and the feedback for the story has been amazing. I also like to think that I've grown (even the slightest bit!) as a writer, but correct me if I'm wrong, hehe.

In other news: Strawberry Days will be updated soon. Keep sending those requests!

My Haikyuu! story is also coming along well. And my Kuroko no Basuke, even though I have only one chapter published so far. If any of you are interested, go check it out!

And I'm thinking of starting another story, this time in the fandom of Fairy Tail. Yes, I know, I already have three projects going, but why not start a fourth? It's not as if I have a life or anything, ha ha…ha…

Oh, right, I'm also working on a oneshot for Avengers. It's going to be about our kickass Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow.

But even though I have a lot of things going on, this story will always be my precious, precious child. Naruto was the first story that I'd ever fallen in love with, and the first fandom that ever absorbed me (with no escape. Ever. Once you're in, you can't go out. No matter how toxic the fandom may get).

So, after that long author's note, I have one thing left to say:

See you next time!