_._

The Story of Us

'For those who never gave up'

Naruto x OC

Friendship, Adventure, Romance

Chapter 1: The First Encounter

'Buddhists say, when you meet your soulmate, there is a calm that washes over you.'

"Thousand Years"- Christina Perri

The following events are documentations of a true story. This is the tale of how Naruto Uzumaki became a hero.

But to know him, you'll have to know me.

My name is Hikari Koissui, and while I'm sure you picked up this book expecting to read all about the tragic backstory behind Konoha's hero, you'll have to learn mine as well since they're woven so tightly together.

You see Naruto and I started our journey together. Whether we realized it or not, our paths were long since intertwined on the day of our births. That's right, we were both born on the same day.

We were both children affected by the attack of the nine-tailed fox spirit. The damage it did to Konoha was devastating. The village lost it's Hokage, and many lives in the process as well. Our parents were no different.

I was found in the rubble, supposedly clutched in the arms of a dead woman. She had no identification, no indicator of who she was. And so, I was put into the mass of orphaned children, swept together with the rest.

The orphanage initially didn't expect me to survive. I was small, prematurely born they thought, and my body seemed to have been damaged. My birth mother, in trying to protect me, had also nearly suffocated me by wrapping me tightly in her grip.

They said I somehow managed to survive, the main nurse on staff at the orphanage said she took special care of me, as she had lost her sister in the attack. As such, she had named me Hikari after her. I grew stronger, and eventually didn't need that special care.

This was, of course, supplied to me by the nurses and staff. I was called the runt of the litter by many, and most of the nurses were shocked when I pulled through.

It was because of that earlier illness that I was often overlooked for adoption. Adults would see me, the weak little child that sometimes needed a ventilator to even breath, and look the other way. Nobody wanted a sick child.

Still, I vaguely could recall one person coming back, though the memory had long since faded from coherency.

When I turned three, I was finally stable enough to socialize. The nurses would take me out to the yard, and I would sit quietly on the steps and watch the others play. It was loud in the yard, and most of the time I didn't like being outside.

But this day was different, because this was the first time I ever saw him.

He was off on his own, sitting on a swing. The older kids would sometimes look at him, but mostly they ignored him. I watched the staff herd smaller kids away too.

When lunch was called, I watched him jump up from the swing and trip himself up. He fell, and I watched a staff member yell at him for tripping. They called him Naruto, but the tone left a sour taste in their mouths. Why else would they make those faces?

Aiko, the head nurse, helped me inside, and I tried to look over my shoulder to Naruto. They had left him crying on the ground.

"You stay away from that boy, Hikari. He's dangerous." Aiko told me after she saw me watching him. I didn't really understand why she used the same tone she did when I tried to touch an open flame, but she did.

Aiko said not to go near him, so I wouldn't.

The next few days Aiko encouraged me to play with the kids and move more. I didn't think it was a good idea, but I would try. Kids were loud and talked a lot. I still didn't like the noise, but I put up with it.

I noticed Naruto by himself again, but Aiko had told me to stay away so I never approach. He looked up to me then, and his big blue eyes widened even further when he saw I was looking at him.

A kid threw a ball, it hit me in the back of the head. I ate dirt as the force knocked me over. It hurt so bad tears sprung from my eyes. Then two little feet came to a stop in front of me. I looked up to see Naruto standing in front of me. He offered me a hand.

I stared at the limb, not sure what to do. Aiko wouldn't be mad, right? So I took his hand, and he helped me to my feet. He looked at me, and grinned. I could only stare, wondering why on Earth everyone told me he was dangerous. His hand was too small, too soft, to be hurtful.

The moment lasted all of three seconds before Aiko herself ran over and shoved Naruto away from me.

"I told you! Stay away from that thing! He's not safe!" Aiko told me, and I could do nothing as she dragged me by my wrist away. I tried to look back, but only caught a quick glimpse of Naruto sitting on the ground, alone and crying, before I was dragged inside.

I noticed after that, Naruto wasn't outside with us anymore. I got worried, but when I asked Aiko she scolded me and said it was none of my business. But it was my business, because….. how could something so small be dangerous? How could someone smiling at me like I had given him the greatest gift in the world hurt me?

I didn't understand it at all.

So I decided, after a week of not seeing Naruto, that I wanted to find him. You might think a kid of three years old would forget about that one encounter quickly, but it was kind of hard. After Naruto had touched my hand, the other kids refused to go near me anymore. They said I was cursed for touching Naruto, and refused to let me play with them. Aiko scolded them, but in the midst of it said something that stuck with me all these years.

"That's what you get, for trying to befriend monsters."

So deep down, Aiko thought I deserved this too.

It only furthered my desire to find Naruto, to ask him why everyone was scared of him or hated him. Ask him why he cursed me too.

I went looking for him late at night, long after bedtime. The night staff often just slept in the back room, only being there to give us help if we needed it. And as long as you didn't wake her you were fine. So I searched for Naruto, going all the way down the hall trying to figure out where he could be.

I found him, in a room, all alone. Bathing in the moonlight that seeped through his window. At first I thought to barge in and demand to know what he did to me, why he cursed me. It died on my lips though, as I watched his shoulders shake, watched him cry.

I saw him put his hand around a cut on his knee, and being the sneaky little girl I was, I made it to my room and back again without alerting anyone. The door creaked a little when I opened it further, Naruto spun around to stare at me. I said nothing as he took a moment to gather himself.

Slowly, I shut the door behind me and made my way to crouch in front of him. The blond raised his arm to shield himself, and something inside me cracked when I realized he thought I was going to hit him. I swallowed a lump in my throat, taking in the bruises on him, noting there were more than most of the boys.

I carefully took out a band-aid that was covered in tiny shrunken pictures and put it over the cut on his knee. He lowered his arm and looked to me, then his knee. His eyes widened, and he looked back at me. Hesitantly, I gave him a tiny smile. He gave me a big one back.

"You….. I helped you the other day, right? You're that tiny girl." Naruto said, and despite his loudness, I somehow didn't mind the tone of his voice.

"Yeah, my name's Hikari. You?" I asked politely. Naruto grinned.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" He cheered, but I clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Shh! You'll wake someone!" I hissed, waiting to hear some noise. Nothing came from it though, and so I sat back on my heels and looked to the boy. Naruto looked surprised, but then grinned like a total goofball again.

After that night, I did my best to visit Naruto when I could. Naruto wasn't allowed outside with us, and I wasn't stupid enough to try and go outside when he was since the staff watched him like a hawk.

We would talk at night though, for hours and hours. I lucked out falling asleep and waking up early enough to get back to my room without anyone noticing. My room had 6 girls, so it was a tough one to get out some days.

One day, I went outside. When the kids claimed I was cursed I went to sit behind the trees at the far end of the lot. It was the only place they weren't going to follow me. Apparently I wasn't the only one to think this.

Naruto was hiding behind the trees too. He grinned when I came around them, and I couldn't help the tiny smile that slipped onto my face.

"Kari! I've got a plan! You and me jump the fence and we can go play in the woods! It's quiet there, you'd love it." Naruto half whispered to me while also getting ready to run. I was on my feet, following him without really realizing what we were doing, when someone pushed me over.

"There they are! Two little monsters planning together!"

"Watch out! If you touch one you'll be cursed forever."

Naruto turned to the boy who pushed me and threw dirt at him.

"Don't talk about Kari like that!" He was shouting, throwing more dirt with surprising accuracy at them.

Then Aiko came over.

She smacked Naruto, then me, then told the others to go play while we were dragged off. She tossed Naruto to another staff member, saying to "get that thing out of my sight!"

I fought this time, turning to see Naruto going in the opposite direction.

"Naruto!" I called, reaching for him.

"Kari!" He reached for me too.

We couldn't fight back enough though, and the adults separated us. I was dragged into a new room and plopped down in a chair. Aiko stood in front of me, but she was glaring and angry, but just as quickly she looked triumphant and proud.

"Seems the freak will have to be separated again. I've had enough of this Hikari, this ends today. End of discussion." Aiko said before turning away from me.

"No."

She stopped, turned, and raised a brow. I glared.

"No," I said more confidently, "you can't make me."

Aiko smiled, but it wasn't her usual motherly smile, it was a smile of someone who had won. She bent down to look at me in the eyes.

"Oh but you see, dear Hikari, I can. Because you've been put up for adoption every month, and every month you were rejected. Until now."

My eyes widened.

"No-"

"Yes, Hikari, your new parents are on their way."

My new parents took me the same day from the orphanage. They were an older couple that never got to have children in their youth. I was told my multiple staff members they were 'better that I deserved' and that I should be grateful.

I was, sort of.

I was happy that I was out of that prison, where the kids were jerks and the staff wasn't much better. But I had left my only friend behind in the process, which made me ask myself why I didn't fight harder.

I was just one kid though, what could I do?

"Hikari, do you like your fish?" My new mother asked me. Her name was Kaede, and she reminded me of Aiko before she turned into a monster. I hoped Kaede wouldn't have the same fate.

"Um, I…. I like it." I gave up after a moment, wondering if they would be upset with me if I tried to explain it differently. I didn't really like fish, and I really don't like the seasoning, but I wasn't about to pick a fight. They needed to think I was going to be a good girl.

Because I planned to escape.

"Kari! I've got a plan! You and me jump the fence and we can go play in the woods! It's quiet there, you'd love it."

I needed to get to Naruto.

Kaede took me to the market a few times, and so I saw the position of our house to the forest Naruto was talking about. It was an extra 4 blocks, but that was nothing compared to scaling that giant orphanage wall.

So, after a week of playing the nice little girl, I found my opening when both of them took a nap. Masako, my new father, snored loudly. After a few test runs I learned that you could drop a pot on the floor and they wouldn't move an inch.

I walked quietly out the front door. It was broad daylight, and I didn't think too heavy on it as I went to the forest. Said forest wasn't a true forest, just a large plot of trees with a small slow moving stream running through it. It sat on the edge of the smaller training grounds. A nice quiet place that I didn't hear much of anything else in.

It was were I found my little blond buddy, throwing rocks at a tree.

Naruto had gotten paint, making a crude target on the bark, and I could see it was getting old as the paint chipped away here and there. Naruto hit the target pretty consistently, though the exact location he hit it wasn't.

"You're pretty good."

He freaked out and dropped several rocks on his foot before spinning to yell at me. His eyes went from deadly to happy in mere seconds after he saw me.

"Kari! You're here!" He ran up and hugged me like there was no tomorrow. I couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm. In hindsight, I think it was the first time I had smiled all week. I hugged my friend back, though with much less bone crushing force.

"I'm sorry Naruto, I was taken away." I said, sitting on the ground after he let me go. We sat by the stream, putting our bare feet into the cool water.

"Where did you go? I looked everywhere at the orphanage for you." Naruto paddled his feet in the water.

"I was adopted."

He flinched, his feet losing rhythm for a moment, before he began to vigorously paddle again.

"That's great Kari! You can have a Mom and Dad!" Even though he put on a big smile, I could feel the sadness within him. Naruto had always mentioned wanting to know his parents, and to have parents. I felt awful, and if I could, I would ask to trade places with him. Naruto was such a nice boy, and leaving him with those people made me feel awful.

"Yeah, I don't call them that yet, but I want to try," I confess I was lying to him, but he didn't need to know that. All I really wanted was to be left alone. "So anyway, why are you hitting that target?"

Naruto jumped up at that, pointing to said target aggressively.

"You see that? I'm going to become a ninja one day! I need to keep training!" He shouted. I raised a brow.

"A ninja?"

"Yeah! You see those guys jumping around the village, wearing headbands and looking all cool? That's them! They get all the respect and can walk around like they're top dog!" He spun around so his back was to me. "But the coolest one is the Hokage! The leader of the village! And I'm going to become Hokage one day!"

That was a huge ambition, and to be honest, the odds were…

But just a single reminder of that boy helping me up, me putting a band-aid on his knee…. The smile he gave me both times…..

"Well, you're going to need to train hard." I said, giving a small smile. Naruto turned to me and grinned.

"Believe it! I'm going to become the greatest Hokage ever!" He fist bumped towards me, so I did it back. He grinned, I laughed. While I didn't necessarily think he would become Hokage…..

Deep down, I really hoped he did.

Hey guys!

Wow! I wasn't expecting reviews right off the hop, so a big thank you for those! Touches my heart to hear people liked this story! Personally I find it difficult to find a decent story in the Naruto series. The series is very diverse as it is, you don't need to be adding in really weird plots and OOC characters to have a really cool fanfiction! And to me, personally, that is against what fanfiction is. To me, fanfiction is about learning to write better. Make me believe this could be canon, at least that's always been my goal.

Anyway!

So Hikari is probably the most fun character I'm going to write... too bad my poor baby is going to learn what it means to be a Naruto Character and get her own tragic backstory.

I just rewatched the Naruto, or parts of Shipuuden and all of the original. Anyone else wish Sakura's character was different? Like she has a great story arc, but her personality is just shit!

Also, just a side note, it is so hard to find a Gaara x OC ninja fanfic along with a Naruto x OC fanfic. So please send me your favorites. Preferably finished ones, but if not I'll still check them out! Please don't send me The Obsession, I got suspicious of someone recommending it to make me cry and I just got upset with the ending. Like so upset it was ridiculous. I'm also one of 'those' people that quickly skim the most recent chapter to see if I'll like a story, and I'm sad that the most well reviewed Gaara x OC story would've scarred me for life.

I personally think a story should leave you feeling somehow fuller. A sad ending is not bad, but it should not leave me staring at the bedroom walls at 2am questioning how to get my time back. It should leave me deep in thought about the lesson I learned from the story. That, to me, is the mark of a great story.

Ok, I'm done rambling, Covid has me up and not sleeping for several days at a time since there's no rhyme or reason to my schedule anymore. So yeah, see y'all next time!

Iland Girl