_._
The Story of Us
'For those who never gave up'
Naruto x OC
Friendship, Adventure, Romance
Chapter 19: Who Are You?
How awful is it? To never know of your other half?
"Hey Brother"- Avicii
Do you remember how I once said I always got sick easily?
Well here was the proof.
The morning after the storm I woke up with an awful headache and even worse cough. I immediately knew the familiar sensation of a cold. A cold in the middle of summer no less, which made me regret the day before it had even began. Instead of rising to my alarm, I curled in closer to Naruto. On reaction he turned from his back to his side to face me and curled his arms around my figure. The waft of heat was pleasant, and while the smell of stale morning breath hit my face I wasn't deterred from curling under his chin for more comfort.
I missed morning training, and when Naruto properly woke to find me still there, I had a bad feeling I would miss the rest of the day too.
"Just stay home Hikari, I'll let your team know." Naruto said while turning the fan on. I shivered as the breeze hit my face, but then Naruto laid another blanket on me. Envy struck me then, since Naruto had only gotten sick a handful of times in his life. Meanwhile I got sick at least once per season.
I hummed a reply, feeling the cough medicine already kicking in. Naruto felt my forehead before comparing it to his own. Something he had picked up from me after I did it the few times he had been sick. Mom used to do it all the time to me when I was ill, and I figured out it was a means to compare my temperature. Naruto ran a lot hotter than myself naturally, so when I equaled the same heat as him one could easily tell I had a fever.
"I'll bring some broth from Ichiraku for dinner. Don't get out of bed unless you have to y'know." Naruto sounded hesitant to leave, so I gave him a smile.
"Love you too." I slurred, feeling sleep slowly take me. I watched him turn a shade of red before scratching the back of his head and grinning.
"Bye Kari, I'll be home soon."
Naruto hurried along, considering he was already late to meet up with his own team and he had to stop by the training grounds to tell Kari's team she wouldn't be there today. He got to the training grounds fast enough to find the team already waiting for her.
"Uh, hi there." Kari's sensei (he didn't actually know his name but Kari said it a thousand times so he should) said, looking a bit confused to see Naruto instead of his student.
"Hey! Kari's sick so she won't be here today, y'know!"
One of the weirder teammates of hers, the one who covered his eyes all the time, tilted his head and looked at Naruto. It wigged him out a lot, especially considering he couldn't understand how the guy was actually seeing him with his eyes covered and all.
"Sick? Will she be alright?" He asked in a soft voice. Naruto nodded.
"She's fine. Kari gets sick a lot, so she tries not to go out in bad weather," he glared over at the jerk from last night (Aki-something, asshole sounded about right….). "Well, except when she has to."
The jerk glared right back at him. Naruto was about ready to start something when he remembered he had to meet his own team.
"Anyway!" He turned and started to run off. "She should be better soon! Believe it!"
Naruto bolted off abruptly, taking to the trees to hurry along through to the southern bridge. He soon found himself jumping past the local dango shop, the bridge only a block away. Naruto slowed once he was within view. Even Kakashi-sensei was already there, so he was definitely late.
"Naruto! You're late!" Sakura scolded. He frowned, grumbling under his breath, but did feel a little bad he made them wait.
"Sorry, Kari's sick so I had to go find her team and let them know, y'know?" He scratched the back of his neck. Sasuke glanced at him but did't say anything while Sakura looked surprised. Kakashi-sensei tilted his head up towards the sky like he usually did when thinking.
"Strange, she looked well yesterday…" He mused to himself, but Naruto immediately returned to the memory of that jerk that made her go out in the rain. He stomped his feet, practically steaming. This caught the attention of all three team members.
"Yeah! Then she had to go look for that jerk in the storm! I'm gunna wring his neck next time! Believe it!" Gosh he was so mad….!
"She went out in the rain?" Naruto looked over to Sakura, who seemed surprised. Konoha had needed the heavy rain, it was practically dry already in just the few hours since the storm had ceased.
Sasuke huffed.
"Whatever," Naruto whipped his head to the Uchiha and prepared a fist. Sasuke looked un-fazed by the reaction. "She gets sick all the time, but it's only for a day. Nothing to worry about."
This caught all three of guard. Naruto lost his threatening stance, instead dawning wide eyes and an almost vacant expression.
Sasuke noticed? Come to think of it, he always did comment when Hikari got sick as an academy student, even if it was just a snide remark about how peaceful it was.
Kakashi and Sakura were also staring at Sasuke, making the Uchiha bristle.
"What? If Naruto's whining all day about her he will slow us down even more." Sasuke added snidely. Naruto wasn't completely distracted by that and simply stared, but that only made the other boy more annoyed until he finally rolled his eyes and looked away.
"Well, if that's all, let's get started for today, shall we?" Kakashi-sensei said.
Naruto was eager to finish missions today and go home, so he told himself he would work extra hard to make that happen.
Well, not like he ever did anything half-assed.
I was starting to get frustrated with not being able to go back to bed.
First I was too cold, then too hot, then I was so sweaty I got a chill when the fan blew air on me. After an hour I cracked and opened the window. The air was hot and humid, making me even more dizzy as I slumped against the frame.
"Uuuuughhhh….!" I groaned, leaning a bit further out in case I did need to throw up. The dizziness had me closing my eyes, trying to find balance. Another long groan came from my throat.
Something hit me right in the face.
I screamed, then flew back, falling onto the bed and flipped over on the floor. My butt hit the floor, jarring me for a moment as I dizzily tried to focus myself again. After a few seconds I opened my eyes and looked around the room for the thing that literally flew into my face. My ears caught the tiniest of noises coming from under my bed. I looked down, but had to get on my hands and knees to see underneath.
A tiny tiny lump could be seen underneath, and I didn't know what the heck it was. After a second it gave off the tiniest, cutest, little sneeze. Whatever it was, it was a living creature, and it sounded sick like me.
"Hey," I called, the lump bristled. "Are you okay?"
The lump reformed, pulling back what looked like a featherless wing from it's body. Two beady black eyes stared at me at the top of a long furry snout. I still didn't know what it was, but when it saw me it slowly unraveled and used it's wings to get to it's feet. I reached out a flat hand in offering, but the tiny creature backed away. It couldn't have been bigger than my hand at this point.
"Oh hey, it's okay, I'm not gunna hurt you." I cooed. It still didn't lean in and instead took another step back. I retreated and stared at it for a little while. We had a small staring contest, and both of us comically broke out in sneezes at the same time. I giggled, coughing a little bit.
"Well, if you're not going to come out…." I got to my wobbly feet and found one of my kimonos. I took my still warm water bottle and wrapped it in the fabric before getting down again and slowly sliding the fabric in. "Here, this should help you. You don't feel good, right?"
The little creature looked from me to the kimono, then back again. It sniffed the fabric, then slowly hopped onto it. I smiled, it stared, so I left it to it's own devices.
A knock could be heard on the door then, so I got up and waddled over.
Imagine my surprise when I saw Akira standing on the other side. He stared down at me, not saying anything and just staring his usual sharpness.
"Oh, hello." I said lamely. He huffed, shoving a bag into my hands. I took it quickly.
"It's antler and a few herbs from the Nara forest. Put it in tea and you'll feel less nauseous." He said this as I peaked into the small bag.
"Oh," I began, but he immediately turned to walk off. "Akira!"
He hesitated a few feet away, his back tense. I smiled anyway, understanding the gesture.
"Thank you, have a good day." I said gently. He huffed again, walking off. I wasn't deterred, and gently closed the door once he was out of view.
If only he had warned me of the taste. Had I two extra cents in my brain to spare, I might've thought he was trying to poison me. I cringed the entire time I drank the cup full of brown liquid, but by the end of it I already felt a little bit better.
The door rang again.
I opened it to find Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino all there. Well, I was always happy to have guests….
"Hi guys, what are you doing here?" I asked. Ino stepped forward right away to look at me.
"You don't look too bad! Shikamaru was saying you look like crap all the time when you're sick." Ino blurted out. Shikamaru sighed, looking away. Choji grumbled, but I just giggled. Shikamaru used to come visit when I was sick from time to time. It was the only way to get Naruto to keep going to the academy every time I got really sick. We mostly played board games and took naps, and to be honest I think Shikamaru jumped at the chance to leave class anyway.
"Shikamaru has seen me look much worse." I paused, raising a brow. "How did you even know I was sick?"
"Ran into Naruto." Shikamaru said, to which both his teammates glanced at him.
"Right!" Choji stepped forward. "He said you would need someone to come and make you dinner!"
Well, that was strange. Naruto mentioned bringing back Ichiraku. I looked to Shikamaru but then figured there was no need to lie. I gave a smile and stepped aside to let them all in.
"Well come in!" I offered, and allowed them to get comfortable. Ino immediately looked around the place, as did Choji. Considering it was their first time in here I wasn't surprised they would be a little nosy.
"You keep this place really clean! Here I thought Naruto's mess would be everywhere." Ino joked. I shrugged.
"Naruto keeps pretty clean if you remind him. He just forgets sometimes." I defended lightly. Choji rubbed his hands together before going to the fridge.
"Alright! Let's make you something to eat!" He declared. I giggled at his enthusiasm, especially when he praised the well-stocked fridge. It had a lot of home-grown vegetables in there as well. He muttered to himself what he should make, Ino jumping in on her own ideas of diet meals. They were squabbling, but I was used to Naruto's noise so this was nothing. Glancing to my right, I noticed Shikamaru quietly sitting at the table with a fruit basket in front of him.
"What's that for?" I asked, noting the array of food. Shikamaru snapped out of his thoughts and looked at me as I sat across from him.
"Oh, Akira's dad wanted me to give you this." Shikamaru explained, shoving the basket closer. I frowned.
"Hm, that's weird, Akira stopped by earlier, why didn't he bring it?" I mused, but Shikamaru rolled his eyes.
"How am I supposed to know? Everybody thinks I'm their errand boy these days. I'm surprised my dad didn't send me out looking for your teammate too last night." He muttered, but I just grinned.
"He probably did but you already fell asleep." I teased. Shikamaru stared for a moment, then sighed.
"You said that guy already stopped by?" He looked to my tea cup and took a sniff. I nodded and showed him the contents.
"Yeah, I guess he felt bad for me getting sick looking in the rain for him, so he gave me some medicine. If I didn't know any better I would say he's trying to poison me." I teased, hating the idea of taking another sip of the liquid. Shikamaru took the tea cup from my hands and stared at the remaining contents. A thin layer of liquid laid at the bottom, but the aroma you could smell from across the table. He stared at it for a while, a slow frown coming onto his face.
"Shikamaru?"
He looked to me when I called him again. This time he just put the tea cup down.
"Nothing." He said, before Ino clasped her hands on my shoulders. I flinched, gripping the table in front of me, before settling down. She didn't notice, so I just looked over my shoulder at her.
"So! Since you're sick and all, I figured I would give you a one time offer and take care of your plants!" Ino informed me. My eyes widened slightly.
"Oh, you don't need to do that-"
"Oh nonsense! Besides, I'll bet that those cherry tomatoes are ripe now, right?" I chuckled at that.
"So you just want my tomatoes then?" I teased, but then quickly added. "Yeah they should be."
"Great!" Ino straightened up. "I'll go get some of them! After watering them all of course!"
She hurried off, Choji calling after her about grabbing the zucchini as well. I observed the interactions before looking over to Shikamaru again. He laid forward on the table, looking exhausted. I doubted that he really was though.
Before long Ino was back with a bag of vegetables and tomatoes.
"Look who I found!" Ino announced, and we all looked over to see Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke coming through the door. "Sasuke, did you want some tomatoes?"
Sasuke huffed as Naruto rushed inside to the table. He put a hand on my forehead right away before touching his own. He grinned then.
"Your fever's gone! That was quick, y'know!" He sounded so pleased as he pulled up a stool.
"See? You rushed us here for nothing Naruto." Sakura scolded. I looked over to her, seeing the exasperated look on her face. She locked eyes with me. "Naruto's been running around all day trying to do everything as fast as he can. Some of us actually like to take breaks though!"
"Why don't you stay for a while then? Choji was making a dinner for us." I offered, getting excited noises from Naruto as he vacated his spot on the stool in order to go and see what Choji was cooking. Sakura paused in thought, then glanced at Sasuke. The Uchiha was removing his shoes and stepping into the house.
"Well, I guess if Sasuke is staying I might as well too." She said while quickly removing her shoes. Ino shoved her back with a free arm.
"Nah! We don't have enough food for you, billboard brow!" Ino snapped. Sakura glared back.
"Shut it! Ino-pig!"
Oh boy…..
"What a drag." Shikamaru mumbled. Sasuke sat down in the vacant stool, the Nara looked over to him. "How do you put up with that all the time?"
Sasuke huffed, annoying Shikamaru even more. I snickered.
"Sasuke, my Sasuke." I mocked, making the Uchiha glare. I was undeterred though and simply stared him down.
"CHOJI! YOU CAN'T USE MY STASH OF RAMEN!"
Speaking of ramen, wasn't he going to stop at Ichiraku's?
"How do you put up with that?" Sasuke countered. I proceeded to slowly bring two fingers to plug my ears and grinned like a fool.
"I'm sorry, you say something?" He just rolled his eyes at me.
"I'm surrounded by idiots." He muttered, but I had known the boy long enough to know he would never admit to enjoying himself.
"Thank you for coming." I instead told him. Sasuke glanced away to the blond still furiously yelling at Choji.
"Naruto practically dragged us here after the last mission." Sasuke replied. Shikamaru snorted.
"Oh yeah, I'm sure he did." The Nara said smartly. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at him, but Shikamaru does what Shikamaru does and is completely unaffected by these things. He lazily stared back.
It soon became apparent that Naruto and I didn't have enough space for everyone at our tiny table, so I excused myself to go to my apartment and drag out a table. I made sure no one followed me so that I could make a larger one along with several extra chairs before calling in the boys for a hand. They did their part before we all sat down around the elongated table to enjoy Choji's meal.
"Alright! It's meal time! Chef Choji is ready to serve!" The Akimichi announced as he presented his meal. It looked like stew, and smelled delicious. I was having a hard time believing that came out of my kitchen considering how amazing it smelled. Everyone dug in, and I was very pleased to find the taste matched the rest perfectly.
"This is delicious Choji!" I exclaimed, beaming at the boy. His cheeks turned red, but after several more praises from the others he pushed on to try the meal for himself. I looked around the table, happy to see some sort of conversation everywhere. Naruto sat next to me, and every now and again he would tap my thigh to get my attention about something, but otherwise we fully engaged with everyone at the table.
It was lovely to see really, not something either of us were completely used to. Under the table, Naruto held onto my knee. He did that whenever he wanted to make sure I was right there. Sometimes when he talked to other people he got so nervous he needed that support without me actually jumping into the conversation. His fingers would squeeze every now and again, and I would get the sense that he got a little nervous with whatever they were talking about down there. Currently Ino was telling me all the different varieties of winter crops I could grow if I set up a greenhouse. It was really tempting to try actually.
The evening ended at sunset, with everyone deciding they had to leave or face their parent's wrath. Shikamaru was the most discrete about it, but Naruto and I knew well enough. I still felt a pang, and found Naruto's hand interlaced with my own shortly after. With a gentle squeeze, I was reminded again that he wasn't the only one who needed reassurance.
Surprisingly, Sasuke was the slowest to leave, but I had a feeling he too wasn't too keen on going back to his lonely apartment.
"Sasuke! Wait!" I called, going back to the kitchen to grab a wrapped up portion of stew. I brought it to him by the door and he stared at me strangely when I offered it to him. "If you want, you can have more. Save it for a day you get back late from a mission."
He hesitated, before reaching out and taking the bowl. Nothing was said, so Naruto scoffed.
"Say thank you, jerk!" Naruto warned, but Sasuke just glared at him. I laughed, feeling like deja vu would be happening a few more times.
"Thank you again for coming, have a nice night!" I said. Sasuke looked down at me, hummed a reply, then left.
"You're way too nice Kari, I'da knocked him one." Naruto plunked down at the table and pulled a piece of fruit out of the basket. He paused then. "Hey, are these chocolates?"
I came over, and saw what he was talking about.
Sitting on the table tucked underneath the basket of fruit was a vaguely familiar tiny bag. I poked it before opening the bag to find it indeed had what looked like homemade chocolates. I popped one in my mouth and was immediately taken down memory lane.
Now who the heck left these….?
Ah, you know what? It doesn't really matter. I smiled as I ate another chocolate.
"Well, glad to see you look better. You always look so frail hen you get sick, y'know?" Naruto said. I paused in my eating and stared at the boy while he bit into an apple.
"Hey Naruto," I grinned mischievously. "Wanna see what's under our bed?"
He froze mid-chew, then raised a brow.
A few moment later, the two of use were staring at the lump of creature that had nested on the fabric.
"What is it?" Naruto asked.
"Dunno, it just flew in the window and hit me in the face." I explained, and at the sound of my voice the creature stirred. It gave a cute little yawn then.
"Man it's ugly." Naruto grimaced, I swatted his head. "Ow!"
"It's so cute!" I defended, then looked back at it to find the creature staring at us. "Hi there."
It slowly slithered behind the fabric, but then it's little nose started to wiggle. The creature then looked at Naruto, and more importantly the apple in his hand. I reached forward and ripped a chunk off and placed it on top of the fabric pile. It stared for a long moment, then snatched the apple piece and inhaled it. I giggled, Naruto looked amazed.
"Oh man, it ate that whole!" He ripped off another small piece and offered it. The creature took it without hesitation.
"It's too cute!" I squeaked.
"Thanks." A tiny voice said back to me. My eyes widened as I stared at the creature. It looked at me with intelligent eyes.
"Y-You talk?" I asked, amazed. Naruto was locked in and just staring back at the little thing.
"I do!" It said, slowly crawling forward again. I smiled.
"Hi there, I'm Hikari, and this is Naruto." The little creature looked between the two of us.
"My name is Ahmya," The little girlish voice sounded more genuine this time. I was thinking it was a girl considering the way she spoke to me.
"So Ahmya, sorry to ask, but what are you?" I asked. The little creature puffed up, opening her wings to look bigger. Her wingspan was the same as my palms though, so it wasn't overly impressive.
"I'm a bat!" She exclaimed, sounding very proud. I tilted my head sideways.
"A bat? I've never heard of those before." I tried to think of where I might've heard of them but came up blank.
"Well we don't like the sun! And we usually hide in the Land of Stone so not many know of us." The little bat defended. Naruto gawked.
"Whoa! You're a long way from home y'know!" He exclaimed. Ahmya wilted slightly.
"I know, I fell off Momma when she was flying in the storm and got swept away in the wind! Now it's so bright and I don't like it here. It smells funny and there's loud people."
"Oh, I'm sorry," I felt bad now, thinking about how scared Ahmya must have felt being left behind. "Well, you're welcome to stay here as long as you'd like. I'm sure your uh- Momma will find you soon."
The bat lifted up slightly and looked at me with her beady eyes.
"You mean it? I can stay here?" She sounded too cute and hopeful. I smiled and nodded.
"Yeah! But not under the bed alright? It's too dusty." As I said this the little creature turned to look at her backside. It was covered in dust bunnies. This made us all chuckle a little.
We ended up putting Ahmya in the closet, and she hung upside down from a coat hanger happily. The door was left slightly ajar for her should she want to leave, but otherwise she nestled in for the night between Naruto's jackets. Then the two of us got into bed. I was pretty sleepy already and happily curled next to Naruto. Not complaining when he pulled me closer for the night.
"Hey… Naruto?"
He hummed a reply, I curled in closer and muttered into his chest.
"Love you."
Training had always been a safe space. Especially right after recovering from a cold.
I enjoyed training most days, even if the murderous feelings I had about getting there clouded my mind for the first ten or so minutes. Training was a time to stop thinking and just let my body react.
My schedule had become more rigorous in the past few years. I would run laps until I couldn't, which meant I had to start waking up even earlier to accommodate my stamina. My speed also became a factor, so on days I didn't have much time I would simply count laps. After laps, I would go through my natures and attempt each one. Now successfully able to create each chakra in my hands. This sometimes manifested as a visual creation if I put enough chakra into it. I didn't need hand signs to mold a nature like others, but I would need hand signs to form the chakra for an attack. Following nature training I would spar with water clones. Sometimes up to four to keep me on my toes.
After all that Kakashi-sensei usually showed up and drilled me for another hour on jutsu, recently it had become specifically about learning Raikiri.
That was where I was at in my morning, with Sensei watching me while I attempted once again to form the jutsu.
Lightning zapped around my fingers, and slowly I began to coil the bursts, a few stray bolts escaping now and again, but overall it was relatively contained. The Raikiri in my hands was not a fully powered one though. It dissipated after mere seconds of holding onto it.
I frowned, staring at my palm. My chakra control had been excellent, but my chakra reserve simply wasn't large enough for such an attack. I looked to Kakashi-sensei, who had yet to say anything. He was just staring at me with a deeply contemplative look on his face.
"Sensei?"
His eyes jumped to mine, realization seemed to dawn on him as he smiled.
"Very good Hikari, I expected you could learn the Raikiri quickly." He said that, but I didn't feel like the praise was warranted. I stared at my palm, contemplating that praise.
"But I can't make one like you, and it can't be maintained…."
Kakashi-sensei walked up to me and patted my head. I looked up to him as he spoke.
"Your reserves are smaller than I expected them to be, what with all the training you've put in, but I have trained you to use as little chakra as possible Hikari." He put his hands on either of my shoulders.
"I taught you Raikiri as a last resort. Should you ever be in danger you have something to protect yourself. Even at the power you can control right now will do enough damage to harm your opponent and you could escape. That of course doesn't mean you can go charging into danger…" He added the last line with a hint of a warning. I nodded, Sensei smiled.
"Good, then perhaps we should start our next type of training." Sensei stepped back, dropping his hands from my shoulders. I titled my head, curious what he meant.
"Alright, what's next?" As I said this, Sensei chuckled and held up his hands.
"This is something I can't teach you unfortunately. No one in this village can." My eyes widened, then I crossed my arms with a frown. Sensei did like to tease and joke around sometimes, but I didn't think he was being entirely sarcastic for once. Still, I was skeptical.
"What does that mean?" I asked hesitantly. Kakashi-sensei pointed at me then.
"It means, the only one who can teach you, is yourself Hikari." My brows furrowed, so Sensei continued to explain as he held a flat hand vertically in front of him, a half sign of prayer. A sign to help him focus himself and my attention.
"You've trained hard these past few years, and while your chakra reserves may not be up to my expectations, that doesn't mean you can't still learn. You've learned jutsu in four of five natures now, and are able to create that chakra. It's time to see what you can do with it."
I thought I understood what he was saying, and Sensei seemed to see it register in my eyes since he smiled.
"Your next assignment is to learn what you yourself can do by combining natures."
I stared for a moment, before I began to understand what he meant. Raikiri required a lot of chakra, it required me to force myself into using more chakra than I had in order to attack. However….. If I made a jutsu entirely of my own, it could be a jutsu that I could control with my amount of chakra.
Not only that, it could possibly be a jutsu that only I could do.
This was a big step, I wasn't stupid enough to think this sort of thing should be taken lightly. Sensei had faith that I was ready for this, and I got the underlying feeling he'd been waiting for this moment.
"Alright, I'll start tomorrow." I looked down to my palms then, at all the tiny cuts and scars. The signs of my training throughout all of my years.
"Good," Sensei paused. "How has training with Tenzo gone?" He asked. I looked up at him, a brief flash of my other trainer coming to the surface.
"It's going well. He's taught me the Wood Clone, the Four Pillar House Technique, and he's also teaching me the Rising Landscape Jutsu, but that last one is really hard for me still. I can create small wooden statues and furniture with ease so far, but to that scale is still very difficult."
The Rising Landscape Jutsu was a technique even Tenzo had a hard time with. It could be performed on different scales, but the objective was to essentially create a tree from the roots of other trees in the earth. It required perfect chakra control, and for you to be able to reach those roots. Easy enough to make a small tree in a forest where roots were plenty, but in an open field? A daunting task.
"I haven't master any of the jutsu that Tenzo uses to turn his body to wood, but I think a lot of those slow me down too much too." I added in. Kakashi-sensei looked pleased as he smiled and patted my head.
"You're doing great Hikari, don't overdo it or you'll send yourself back too many steps." He looked to the sky as a hawk flew overhead, then back to me. "I have to go, we'll end our training early. I'll let Tenzo know you are to focus mainly on your own personal training for the next week."
I nodded, and he vanished in a cloud of smoke.
It was getting to be closer to evening now.
Daisuke dismissed us for the day, and what a weird day it was. Akira was acting weird the entire time, never once getting angry at me directly, but he looked angry all the time. Reiji and Daisuke too thought it was kind of strange. Especially when Akira asked me if I was faking being better.
It threw me for a loop, but I graciously told him I felt a lot better thanks to that medicine. This got Reiji and Daisuke's attention, and then Akira went back to his irritated self once more.
I decided to walk home instead of jumping over buildings today, enjoying the heat and the relative feeling of leisure for the most part. My head was wrapped around what sort of jutsu I could come up with, what elements I could layer together and how. I was having so much fun picturing myself coming up with a ridiculously over-powering jutsu that I almost didn't notice the shorter figure that ran right into me.
I braced at the last moment, catching the small boy by the shoulders. Well, he wasn't much shorter than me, his ponytail making him almost my height.
"Hey! What's the rush?" I joked as others ran up to us. I recognized two of them being Sakura and Naruto. My best friend had a huge welt on his head, and I had a feeling I knew where it came from. If Sakura's fire-breathing rage was anything to go by.
"GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE-" She stopped running when she saw me. I looked up at her, surprised by the energy they all had. The boy squeaked and hid behind me, though it didn't do much for him. Two other figures about the same size hid as well, which was sort of comical considering I was four foot nothing and couldn't hide any of them.
"Uh, that really won't help you…." I said, looking at the three cowering away from Sakura. Naruto walked up to me, a big grin on his face.
"Kari! I'm so glad to see you!" He grabbed my hand and started to pull me away from the three. I let him tug me along for a moment. "We gotta train! Yeah we're super busy ninjas! Right Kari?"
"Uhhh… Right?" I said, but was halted once again as the three kids from earlier jumped in front of us. Naruto slammed on the breaks and I stopped right behind him.
"Hang on! This is the Hikari we keep hearing about?" The boy who ran into me said. I blinked a few times, taken aback. Did Naruto know these kids? He must if he was talking about me to them. The other two stepped around Naruto and began to inspect me. The girl had rosy cheeks when I smiled at her.
"You are really pretty!" She squealed. The third tilted his head and hid behind the girl a bit.
"But your eyes are kinda scary." Naruto swatted him on the head.
"Hey, don't talk about her like that!" I just laughed though, catching them all off guard.
"Yeah, I get told that a lot," I looked to Naruto then. "Want to introduce us?"
"Oh yeah, these are those kids I told you about? The ones that like to follow me around? This is Moegi, Udon, and this brat here is Konohamaru." Naruto introduced with such a lacklustre enthusiasm. I glanced over to Sakura then, who had been quietly observing us. She locked eyes with me, but this time gave a small glare. It surprised me a bit as my eyes widened. All of this of course lasted about four seconds, but it was enough that Naruto to notice something was up and look at Sakura too. He paled then, seeming to have remembered she was there too.
"Ah! Sakura! Uh, eheheheh…" He scratched the back of his head, and the three kids looked super nervous gain. What was going on?
"What happened?" I asked, looking around the group. Konohamaru jabbed a finger to Sakura.
"That mean girl wants to hit me!" He shouted, earning a glare from Sakura. Konohamaru hid behind me then. "She can't be human! She's too ugly!"
Well that was just rude.
I glanced between Konohamaru and Sakura, before stepping aside quietly. Konohamaru looked betrayed, staring at me for a moment while I shrugged.
"You're the one that called her ugly." I didn't really feel sorry for him. One more look from Sakura and Konohamaru had the sense to take off down the alley way. I turned to watch him, but he hadn't made it very far at all. Maybe thirty feet, then he crashed into someone else.
That kid really needed to watch where he was going…..
The person he ran into wasn't as nice as I was though. He grabbed Konohamaru from the ground and yanked him up by his scarf.
"You need something, punk?" The guy taunted Konohamaru looked to be in pain, I tensed when I noticed their Sand Village headbands.
"Hey! Sorry! We were just playing around is all!" Sakura called from beside me. She didn't look all that confident though, and Naruto looked ready for a fight. The distance between myself and Konohamaru was maybe thirty five feet. I had used substitution on closer objects, but I had also done them on faster moving objects. I needed to close the distance, before this got out of hand.
"You better put him down right now!" Naruto shouted, taking three steps forward. The guy just smirked. The girl that stood next to him looked annoyed at her companions attitude.
"Put him down Kankuro, you'll pay for it if you don't." She scolded. Kankuro chuckled instead, gripping Konohamaru tighter.
"Ah c'mon, don't you want to play with 'em a little?" He teased, I narrowed my eyes. Naruto began to charge, but then I could sense chakra movement along the ground along with noticed a minute movement in Kankuro's free hand.
"Naruto! Stop!" I jumped forward, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him to a stop. Kankuro finally looked to me, surprise taking his features and the girl's.
What kind of jutsu was he about to use? Why were these guys aggravating us in our own village? Naruto looked ready to charge again, so I had to do something quickly. To my surprise, both Kankuro and the girl looked nervous when they stared at me.
"H-Hey now…." Kankuro started shakily. I frowned, not understanding the attitude. The girl seemed to realize something then and took a step closer. She scrutinized me heavily.
"Kankuro, that's not her."
"Shut it Temari!" Kaknkuro said through his teeth. Temari looked much calmer now though.
"Look, she's tiny. No way that's her." Temari said confidently to him now. I didn't move a muscle for a moment. Then Kankuro glanced back at his comrade. I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and used my speed to substitute Konohamaru for a log wrapped in his scarf. We landed in the tree shading the whole confrontation, and the smoothness of the movement never jarred Kankuro.
The duo looked around for where I vanished to.
"I might be tiny, but you're pretty slow." I called down. Everyone looked up to see me balanced on the tree, Konohamaru holding tightly on to me. Kankuro then realized my trick and chucked the log and scarf away before yanking the wrapped object off his back. Temari looked surprised.
"You're going to use the Crow? For this?" She remarked, but Kankuro was too busy glaring at me. She sighed before shrugging widely. "Whatever, your funeral when they get here."
I held Konohamaru tightly in case I had to move suddenly, but the guy never got a chance to attack.
A pebble flew between Naruto and Sakura, striking Kankuro in the hand. He dropped the 'Crow' and held his hand carefully. I looked to through he trajectory to see none other than Sasuke Uchiha casually walking up on our group.
"They just keep coming out of the woodwork…." Kankuro commented lowly. I was pretty unimpressed with Sasuke, his intervening wasn't entirely necessary at this point. Regardless, the Uchiha made his way in front of a squealing Moegi and Sakura to stand next to a silently fuming Naruto.
"You let a couple of punks tell you off?" Sasuke taunted to Naruto. My eyes narrowed on him, unimpressed with the sass. Naruto too was pretty done with it at this point and shoving a fist at Sasuke.
"We had it under control! Believe it!" Naruto shouted, but both Sand ninja looked pretty ticked with his yelling now.
"Hey smart ass, why don't you come over here and we'll show you who's the punks." Kankuro challenged. Sasuke turned to look at him, but just chuckled.
"You're way out of your league." The Uchiha said with his usual air of superiority. Konohamaru gripped my shirt tighter, and I glanced at him. He was looking at me with surprise in his eyes, so I just smiled down at him.
"Everything's alright, I got you." I said, a faint blush appearing on his cheeks. Sasuke's gaze had drifted up to me then briefly, then back to the Sand ninja. I could tell a fight was about to break out and was debating how to go about it, when a nagging sensation caught my attention.
I had felt it before, slightly. The element of Earth being used with another nature…. Wind? I hadn't felt these two together before. The chakra was next to me, on the other side of the trunk of this tree. I glanced over at the same time someone spoke.
"Kankuro…. That's enough." A gravelly voice said. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up when I heard another, softer voice.
"Why do you fight unnecessarily?" It spoke in monotone from right beside me. I turned to see that indeed someone was standing idly on the tree branch next to me. My body felt cold when I realized she had gotten through my defences. She easily moved so well I didn't even sense it, and that took a lot considering I was pretty hard to sneak up on when prepared for a fight. It only became more apparent how unprepared I was for this when I got a good look at her.
She was tall, even with me crouching and her standing I could tell she was over five feet tall already. Also rail thin, I could argue she was scrawnier than myself, we probably weighed the same to be honest. It wasn't her build that caught me off guard though, it was her hair. Her pale blonde hair that was free to fall around her face and came past her waist. It was her eyes, her golden eyes that looked scary with the lack of expression. It with the shape of her nose, petite and straight, higher cheek bones and a soft jaw.
She looked exactly like me.
And she wouldn't even look at me.
"Ah, Gaara, Mitsuki…. sorry, I didn't really mean to- You know they started the whole thing and-" I could hear Kankuro stuttering in the background, sounding very afraid. It reminded me back to just before, when they looked nervous to see me.
It hadn't been me they were afraid of….
"Shut up. Or I'll kill you." Gaara said from the other side of the tree. My gaze was broken then from the girl…. Mitsuki…. To Gaara. He had a nasty look in his eyes as he slowly turned his gaze over to me. I watched carefully across, but he seemed to just be staring as the other two had. The only one who didn't seem curious about my resemblance to this Mitsuki seemed to be the girl herself.
After a long moment of staring, Gaara vanished in a cloud of sand, only to return form on the ground. To my shock, Mitsuki was already there when I looked.
When did she….?!
"Let's go." Gaara said, walking away.
"W-Hang on!" I leaped down with Konohamaru in tow, letting the boy go as soon as he was standing, and turned to the Sand ninja. "Just who the Hell are you?"
I stared right at the girl's back, but it was only after her comrades had turned to look at her too that she turned around. It was then that I saw one of the biggest differences between us. It wasn't just her lack of expression, it was her eyes. They were void of life, as though she had nothing to say or think or feel. She stared at me like I was a pile of dirt.
"It's impolite to ask for someone's name without giving your own." She said, her eyes half-lidded and disinterested. I frowned.
"Hikari Koissui."
"Hm, I am Mitsuki, of the Village Hidden in the Sand." She spoke in a monotone again. I could vaguely hear Sasuke and Gaara speaking, but my attention was fixated on Mitsuki.
"Don't…. Don't you find it weird that we look so much alike? I mean, couldn't we be-"
"I could honestly care less." She dismissed me, turning around and began walking. My eyes widened, and I felt a sting of something deep inside of me at her words. Her comrades also started walking.
"Wai-" I was cut off as Sasuke grabbed my shoulder. My gaze whipped to his, and I could see him looking down at me with a strong gaze. He wasn't pitying me, and he wasn't trying to scold me.
"You're a ninja, act like it." He reminded me. I took a deep breath, and Sasuke dropped his arm. He watched me until I gave a nod, before Naruto stepped closer.
"Hikari?" Naruto carefully stepped closer. "You okay?"
I wasn't, but he already knew that. So when I said nothing and just grabbed his hand he gave a gentle squeeze back. I turned to stare down that alley way where the Sand ninja had gone off in.
"What were they even here for?" Sakura wondered out loud. The answer was obvious to me, and gave me hope that I would have to run into that Mitsuki yet again. I gripped Naruto's hand tightly, but he didn't complain.
"The Chuunin Exams."
Well, did anybody see that coming?
I introduced 2 pretty awesome characters in one chapter. How wild of a ride was that? BTW, I LOVE Mitsuki and Ahmya. They are gunna be some seriously cool characters later on! Any guesses on Mitsuki and Hikari's backstory? Cuz, like, it's a wild ride fam. Sorry I'm just super jittery and happy right now and using slang is my medium. Anyway, I would legit love to hear any guesses! It's fun to see what you guys are getting from the clues littered through the story. (there are a lot, you just might not be able to put them together yet) It's also nice because, as an author, I have planned this moment for so friggin' long now, that it kinda feels predictable? So when something happens and I'm not overly impressed with it I love to see you guys say that you didn't see it coming or it was a great curve ball.
Also, have I ever mentioned how much I love Shikamaru?
Anyway, We've done it guys, we're into the Chuunin exams arc! I am so happy right now you have no idea. Big things happening soon!
Review Replies:
Shaomonk12: Thank you! I swear those moments write themselves. Sometimes I think I'm going overboard, but then I remember OG Naruto and how touch-starved he probably was and think "Nah, my boy deserves this". You too! have a great day!
Anime hotty lover.18: I'm doing well! I try to see my illness as a silver lining because I was itching to write this again! Glad to hear you get excited for this story, because I'm always happy to write it.
Guest: Yeah I'm starting to realize this story alone will be 250kish, which is 100k more than I originally wanted, but it's okay. I rather have fewer but longer chapters than a bunch of short ones! See here's the thing about Raikiri, as stated in the chapter it wasn't meant for Hikari to use this as her main attack. It was for Kakashi to teach her how to use it as a last resort. (Similar to Lee learning the Lotus) it would drain all her chakra and she would be exposed, but Kakashi does think she is smart enough to deal with that. Raikiri will not be her go to in future, because Hikari is not really one to show off unless she really has to. She likes to stay hidden a lot, use her size to her advantage. I do have a solution for that blinding speed, though I don't wanna give it away. I will say, when it comes to Hikari's strength, that it's... complicated. There is so much going on we haven't seen yet, and we'll get a glimpse into it close to the end of the arc, but nothing major until the third arc. I will also say that Akatsuki is definitely going to be a very strong group, however, I don't consider them invincible. I think the main issue was Kishi only really showed Akatsuki facing main characters. Asuma was really the onyl one to die from fighting them, and Jiraiya with Pain. So I think part of the issue was actually how he manipulated them for the plot. So there will be a big difference in plot anyway because JFC Hikari is gunna fuck shit up in Shipuuden. I'm not even kidding, right off the hop stuff is very different. Please, say as much as you like, i love your reviews tbh.
Guest: Thank you, I feel great! hope your day is going well too!
Guest: Okay so I probably won't go into it too much in this story but yes. So in my story, the difference in what style of jutsu comes out is dependent of the base layer of chakra. For example, Hikari even says when explaining how the wood release feels, it's earth chakra being overlayed with water chakra. So theoretically if she overlayed water chakra with Earth chakra she could create mud. Much like explosions like Deidara's are Earth then wind based. Earth, being the core element, is weak to lightning, which is why Sasuke's lightning attacks worked in Shipuuden. They wouldn't work as well against Gaara's, which is wind based layered with earth. The base element is more important than what you add to it. Being able to add a second element or third is a kekkei genkai. Hikari just needs to swap base layers to do the same thing. WHich, for her would be pretty easy. She hasn't gotten there yet. Hope that helps!
Crimson G: Akira is slowly coming around. We didn't see much of him or Reiji yet because they will be the center focus for quite a few of the coming chapters. No, I didn't think there would be another mission, there was supposed to be a mini-arc going over Akira's change, but I decided we didn't need 14,000 words to cover all of it.
Thelightestjade17: I know, one of my favourite things is when characters do stuff and don't know that they're doing it. there will be a lot of outsider moments in chapters to come, but I figured a quick peak wouldn't be so bad! Expect more when the actual romance comes into play in Shipuuden!
lovinurbuks: Growth is emotionally satisfying to write and read. Yeah they are getting a lot closer. We won't get a big Reiji moment until following the exams. I don't liek when things feel forced and it felt forced to make that happen right after Akira.
alandasilvarufino: legit the cutest
shadowchaser24: Thank you! I am aiming to be the number one Naruto x OC fic (Not very hard since they're so rare tbh)!
Thank you so much to all the reviews! It means so much to me. Please let me know what you think of this chapter as well, hopefully it came as an early treat for y'all.