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The Story of Us

'For those who never gave up'

Naruto x OC

Friendship, Adventure, Romance

Chapter 3: Won't Let Go

Sometimes the only way out is forward.

"Wind"- Akeboshi

The sun hurt my eyes.

It was the first time I had shifted in hours.

Just a few inches, then the sun would be out of my eyes for a while longer. The sun would set again, and I could be at peace.

The door behind me opened.

"Has she moved yet today?"

"No, she didn't respond at all when I offered her food. She's no better than the other kid."

The door shut, muffled voices talked as they walked away.

This was all that I heard or dealt with while in the hospital. They would come and check on me, leave, then come back again. Three days and nothing else was mentioned or done. I didn't really talk, or move for that matter.

I laid there, at a loss for what to do.

"I have the sweetest daughter."

"T'skay…. Hi….kari…."

Another person entered the room. They stood at the foot of my bed. I didn't look up as they stood there quietly. Nothing was said, and after several minutes, the person began to leave. Several minutes more and the sun was in my eyes again. I sat up the time, feeling weak as I held onto the bed frame for support.

It was then I noticed there was something resting on the table at the foot of my bed. It was a mask, all white save for red markings around the eyes and cheeks.

I didn't know why it was here, but I didn't really care. So I put it back down and rolled over in my bed.

A week passed.

They kicked me out of the hospital.

I was going back to the orphanage again.

It was the same as before- maybe worse? I couldn't remember. It felt worse. I didn't really have anyone to talk to, so I never spoke. I went back to school, though most days I skipped and wandered aimlessly.

Of my possessions I kept some clothing, a framed photo, and the mask. The photo was one of my parents when they were a bit younger. Their wedding day. Mom always talked about how much she wanted grandchildren. She wanted to be a grandmother so badly.

I was in a room with several girls my age, and one day came back to find my area in the room taped off. A girl standing in the middle saying, "you stay over there and we won't get cursed too."

Oh yeah, the Cursed Child chant started up again. Anytime something weird happened, I was blamed. Aiko didn't help me, claiming it was my fault for befriending that monster.

I hadn't seen Naruto in some time, and frankly I didn't want to. He didn't need to see me like this, see what a disaster I was now. But fate doesn't like me, and one day while skipping school, I ran into Naruto in town. The town, surprisingly, was one of the few places people didn't look at me. The busy village streets allowed me to blend in. People bumped me, but paid no mind. Nobody cared, it was weirdly alluring.

"Kari!"

My shoulder was grabbed, I stopped walking. Naruto spun me around and looked me over. I was a mess, I'll admit. I wasn't exactly looking my best in a ratty shirt with too many holes and shorts too big for me. Naruto tried to make eye contact, but I wouldn't look at him.

"Kari, I was so worried, what happened? Those anbu guys just took you away, why were you covered in blood? Where have you been? I went by your house but nobody was home."

I turned to look at him, but before I could answer I saw the looks others were giving.

"Is that the boy?"

"Whose kid is that?"

"I would never let my kid near that thing!"

"Someone should grab her before he attacks."

"Forget it, even if we complain, nobody will get rid of him."

Why did it have to be this way? Why was Naruto so hated? In the back of my mind, I wanted to hate Naruto, I wanted to yell and scream and say it was all his fault. It was his fault that my father and I had a fight, that I was treated differently.

This was all his fault!

But was it?

Nobody would tell us why, nobody said what was wrong. Nobody had the guts to stand up and tell us why Naruto was hated. These people hated a tiny child, condemned him, and when he so much as helped me off the ground they shoved him away and called him a monster.

"Kari…? You okay?" Naruto asked again, so I finally looked at him.

No, this would never be Naruto's fault.

It was mine.

I was the one who pushed to befriend him. The one who hid our friendship. I was the one to run out that door. Naruto didn't do anything. These were my choices. He didn't deserve the looks, my fury, he didn't deserve any of it.

All he had done was help me up when I fell down.

So I grabbed his hand and took off running for our special place.

When we got there, I was tired since I hadn't eaten in a few days. Naruto was tired because I had literally dragged him the entire way.

"Kari, you've gotten faster huh." Naruto murmured while sitting down in the grass. I fell to my knees next to him. It felt like the weight of the world was pressing down on me.

It hurts

"Naruto, please…"

It hurts so much

"What's wrong Kari? Tell me what to do!" Naruto was at my side in an instant. I tore at the grass and watered the earth with tears as I crumpled into a heap.

"Mom and Dad….. They're dead."

Naruto was shaking, I was crying, but he still held me tightly as I poured my heart and soul out to him and told him exactly what had transpired. I confessed to the fight with my Dad, I told him how I ran away, the man, I told him everything down to the minute detail because describing it like a picture somehow made it easier to comprehend that my parents were murdered right in front of me.

"Naruto, I don't know what to do!"

Neither did he.

So he held me, I cried, and he rubbed his palm roughly over my back. It made me cry harder when I remembered the gentleness that my Mom had when she did the exact same motion.

I'm not sure how much longer later- an hour? Two? Didn't matter. Naruto didn't leave. He held me tightly all throughout my story until I finally moved away to splash cold water in my face to ease the burning in my eyes.

"Do you hate me, Hikari?"

I wiped my face and turned to look at him. He was sitting right where I had left him, his shirt wet with my tears. I couldn't quite grasp what he said the first time, so he continued to speak.

"It was because of me you had a fight with them, right? It was because of me that you almost had to leave the village-"

"Don't you dare!"

Dammit, I was crying again.

Naruto looked surprised when I cut him off. I wiped my face of all the tears, I patted my cheeks with cold water.

"Naruto, don't ever say that again! They were my choices, not yours!" I jumped up and glared at him. "And don't make it sound like you regret being my friend, because you're all I've got now. I-I-"

I've got nobody but you.

"Me too! I mean, well, you're all I've ever had, Kari."

And it broke my heart, that for even a split second, I had blamed Naruto for what had happened. Even I had stooped so low as to point the finger at an innocent child. So I sat down beside him, and leaned against him as we stared at the river. And for a long moment, I imagined it could carry everything away. All the pain and sorrows, everything wrong with us. We could be cleaned.

It didn't.

Naruto and I continued to use the grove as a safe haven, and I did everything in my power to not go to school or back to the orphanage again. At one point I hadn't come back in a week and a rumour started that I was dead. So when I came back to get my things I was called the 'walking dead' or something along those lines.

I instead bunked with Naruto, often having nightmares and preferring to clutch tightly to him instead of having the girls throw things at me to shut up. Naruto may have lost sleep, but he never once complained to me.

I visited my parent's graves for the first time a month later. It was hard to do it, and Naruto said he could come with, but I really wanted to go and do it alone. The cemetery wasn't busy at all, in fact only one other person was there. He stood in front of the grave in front of my parents'. They had wanted to be buried together, and so they were. I sat down, gently brushing a little bit of raised soil from the stone. They had been buried not long after the incident. As far as I knew only their friends attended and no one else.

Not a single one of their friends looked for me.

I told myself it didn't matter, but the fact that I wasn't flesh and blood of Kaede and Masako Sota was proof enough that I didn't belong. I was a nobody again, the Cursed Child with no real last name.

The man in front of me turned around, looking startled to find I was there.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." I said from my spot on the ground. He stared at me, but he was difficult to read with most of his face covered. I stared for a moment before remembering my manners and looking back to my parent's resting place.

"It's no problem, I was… well I was lost in thought." The man said. It grew quiet, but I didn't mind it. It was a little weird without Naruto prattling on to me about several things at once, but I liked the silence every now and again.

"I'm sorry, but were they your…..?" The nosy man began to ask before realizing it was probably a bad choice. I didn't fault him though, not many six year olds were around to stare at their parent's graves these days.

"My parents, yes," I answered shortly, but then remembered that night again. "Can I tell you something?"

"Hm?"

"You don't have to listen, if you don't want." I began, trying to find the nerve to say what I wanted to.

"You can say it, I won't stop you." He said gently. I took a deep breath before puffing the air out of my mouth.

"I told my Father, the night he died? Right before it, we got in an argument. I told him I hated him." It was quiet for a while, and I took the time to center myself again. "Do you think….. he believed me?"

The wind blew harshly across the field, and in the back of my mind I could hear it. The sound of Dad's final words.

"T'skay… Hi…..kari…."

The man crouched down in front of me, and I'm not sure how to word it, but his eye was smiling, the mask shifted, and I believed that he was giving me a sad smile.

"No father ever hates their children."

I looked for lies and found nothing but genuine kindness. A gentleness that reminded me of my mother was in his voice. So I believed him, if for no other reason than I genuinely hoped it to be true.

He stood up then, offering me a hand.

"Young ladies shouldn't stay out after dark. It's not safe," he said while I took him hand. "Would you like an escort back home?"

I hesitated, remembering that masked man. The one with swirls and a dangerous aura. In the time since the attack, I hadn't allowed Naruto or myself to be outside after dark. It definitely wasn't safe.

"Yes please, uh, sir."

So we walked in silence, not saying anything for a long while. I didn't even know the man's name. A quick peak up reminded me that he had on a ninja headband with the symbol for the hidden leaf.

"Excuse me, but may I ask another question?" He looked down to me while we walked side by side. "It's just….. why did you decide to become a ninja?"

He looked ahead for a moment.

"Initially, I had…. Different reasons…. But right now….." He smiled down at me, and I was caught off guard by how kind, gentle, and expressive a single eye could look.

"I have something I have to protect."

Something to protect….

Naruto immediately came to mind, and a small smile spread onto my lips.

"Yeah, I have something too."

Without telling Naruto, I enrolled into the ninja academy. They didn't immediately accept me, and gave me a trial of one month to show an improvement. Kids who wanted to jump years had to perform to the standard of said year.

Seeing as I was almost seven I was technically behind the others by two years. Which meant if I wanted to be in the same year as Naruto I had to get a move on. It didn't really faze me though, considering the fact that I had read all the books Naruto had for study. Mentally speaking I was ahead of the curve. The practical portion though…. I was really behind.

Naruto was a lot more fit than me, even though I would jog with him at the grove, I never did much else while he continued to train. So I started pitching in more during his training sessions. I threw rocks at targets too, and man was it a lot harder than it looked. I did my best to keep up with him, but found I was no where near his stamina.

Still, as I sat in the grove and watched him, there was a strange peace to it. I didn't give up training, but I did try other means. Things like yoga were extremely helpful. Naruto had a hard time finding balance, where as I had been doing yoga since a tot with my Mom. The yoga stretched everything out and allowed me to push harder the next day.

Next was meditation, some Dad did whenever he was stressed out. Empty your mind, empty the emotions that limit you.

There was something calming, and warming, about meditation. I could feel the earth much better, hear the stream, feel the the wind brush over me. Naruto tried doing it too, but he couldn't sit for more than five minutes without having to jump up and get a move on. Understandable, the first time I started with my Dad I lasted two, but now I was content on half hour spurts.

"Kari, I know you said this was training and all, but I'm not sure how…." Naruto said while sitting next to me. Unlike me, he was anything but calm when he opened his eyes. I giggled, then put my hand into his.

"Pretend you're taking a nap, here, I'll help you." I said while adjusting to sit in front of him. "There, now imagine you're getting tired, your shoulders are sagging, the sun feels warm right now, imagine it's your blanket and…."

Naruto slumped against me, and I couldn't help but give a small laugh feeling the boy out cold. I hugged him gently.

"Dummy, I didn't mean fall asleep for real." I laid him back in the grass, but the warmth of the sun was too comforting. I fell asleep too, still holding his hand.

We woke a while later, the sun was beginning to set. Both of us went home, but at the door there was a scroll hanging on the knob. I opened it, surprised to see it was addressed to me from the Hokage.

He wanted to meet with me.

It was a weird feeling I got, as even during the attack I never once saw the village leader. I told Naruto about it, but insisted it wasn't anything major. So I went to the Hokage on my own the next day, half expecting a tongue lashing for how I had been acting.

A few days ago I had begun to openly defend Naruto. After seeing the way the villagers treated him it should've come as no surprise that I was pissed off. Someone pushed Naruto over for looking at his masks, so the man found all his masks the next day with colourful artwork on it. He blamed Naruto and was making him wash each one, until I came over and announced myself as the culprit. Naruto thought it was hilarious, the shopkeeper shoved both of us out.

Then Naruto graffiti-ed the walls by a different shop. He told me the guy called Naruto a beast, so Naruto drew the shopkeepers likeness on the walls. People looked at him, called him 'that thing' and so I again intervened in time to inform Naruto why the shopkeeper was so upset.

He forgot to draw him correctly.

So I drew the shopkeeper with a round belly and a second chin, a big nose and large bushy eyebrows. He cuffed me upside the head, but Naruto and I ran off before he could do anymore.

That was just two instances I could think of right away. Two times I had seen the abuse. Naruto had dealt with so much more before that. I could see it in the way people talked to him, how he reacted when they gave the look. They started giving me the look too, but the feel of Naruto's hand in mine was enough to steel me against it all.

I arrived at the door for the Hokage and knocked gently.

"You may enter," came from the other side of the door. I opened it, finally coming to see the Hokage himself sitting behind his desk.

"You asked to see me? Uh…. Sir?" I asked while stepping into the room and closing the door behind me. There was nobody else in the room as far as I could see, just the old man taking long drags on a pipe.

"Hikari, I was hoping to have a word with you. I apologize for taking so long, but there have been a great many catastrophes this year that I have not had time to completely care for." He spoke in a deep voice that only grandpa's possessed. A voice with wisdom and expectations for the future.

"No problem, I mean I understand…. sir." Being polite was harder than I thought. He seemed to enjoy my floundering though as a smile broke out across his face.

"Every time I hear your name in conversation it is followed by how disrespectful you are, and yet you stand here before me speaking so politely." The Hokage said, and I couldn't help my cheeks puffing a little bit.

"Yeah well, that's because most people see me when I'm defending Naruto. Other than that, I'm pretty invisible." The Hokage was quiet as he watched me, and while I couldn't exactly understand what he gleaned from such an observation, there was obviously something he liked as a warm smile broke out across his face.

"You and Naruto have become close, haven't you?"

"Yeah, he's probably the only person that matters to me right now." I replied without a second thought. He seemed to be in deep thought while looking at me. I swallowed a lump in my throat, not enjoying the scrutiny.

"I hear you want to become a ninja. Is Naruto the reason? Or is it because of what happened to your parents?"

There it was, the reason I was called here. I knew what he was getting at, everyone told me the same thing. They were all concerned that I was too small. Too fragile. I still got sick at the drop of a hat, and when it was cold outside I would often need two jackets just to keep from freezing. I didn't fair well in winter at all to be honest and got sick at least three times per year.

But I wasn't going to give up just because of a little cold.

"I guess you could say that, but…. It wouldn't be a complete answer. I guess…. I mean…. I want to be strong. So that the next time that…. Something like that happens, I can defend myself. I can defend those I care about." After my little speech, the Hokage was regarding me in a different light. He rested his pipe down and laced his fingers in front of himself.

"There are many ways to be strong, Hikari. Not all strong people are ninja, and not all ninja are strong." He said this, but my stance didn't change one bit.

"I know, my Mom-" I took a breath, "she taught me that being strong is learning to understand others, in protecting others. My Dad taught me strong was in helping those around you. And I…. I know, I just know there are others like me and Naruto, who don't have someone else for them. I want to be strong to help them. To protect them."

He stared, I fidgeted, but then he let out a short chuckle.

"It seems your mind has been made up," he picked up a book from his desk. "Inside this is the entrance examination modified for you. You will need to train yourself to this standard to become a kunoichi. I will give you one month to do so, as originally agreed upon by the academy. But also, I want to inform you, that the orphanage has already given away your bed to another, but you would've known that had you gone back once and a while."

I felt a blush creep onto my cheeks as I stepped forward to grab the book from him.

"Having said that, I think it would be appropriate for you to acquire your own place. So, should you pass and enter the academy, I will provide you with your own apartment and a living wage."

That was a surprise, but when I looked up at him he had on a smirk.

"So I expect you to train hard, you have a lot on the line for this, Hikari."

I gripped the book tightly to my chest, bowed, and excused myself. There was a lot riding on this, and I didn't have a moment to spare! Everyone would be going into their third year of the academy soon and I wasn't nearly ready for it.

But I would be soon enough.

Hey guys!

Hi, I'm on a roll, no I don't know how I've done it, but I have.

Anyways, so you might be thinking the pacing is really different from the original story, and yes it is. I had a mild panic attack when it dawned on me this story could've been 100 chapters easily, because their time as kids was initially 20 chapters. I may have freaked out, thinking about writing all of that, and shortened it significantly.

Don't worry, we will still have quite a few cute moments! Initially Hikari and Naruto were supposed to be wedged apart by Hikari's parent's deaths, but the honest truth is I think Hikari would cling to Naruto more because, well, he's all she's got. And vice versa.

We also see a certain ninja a lot sooner too! That's because last time I wrote this story their initial meeting was a bit too messy for my tastes. Hopefully this one makes it a bit better. And yes, they will meet again very soon!

Also, very curious, if Hikari had gone to Suna, do you think she and Gaara would've become friends? Do you think Hikari would've become a ninja? I know the answer (obviously) and was kind of thinking of making an AU where Hikari does good to Suna with her parents. Would anyone be interested in that?

Also, shameless admittance, Gaara is by far my favourite character. Kakashi is a very close second if not tied, and Naruto is right on up there. I could have a series of those three doing simple things all day and be happy as a clam.

So yeah, thanks for reading, and see you next time!

Iland Girl