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The Story of Us

'For those who never gave up'

Naruto x OC

Friendship, Adventure, Romance

Chapter 20: Prepare

To look back on growth is the foundation of change

"Home"- Naruto OST

I had never put much thought into who my parents were.

My biological ones I mean. The ones I never got to meet. I always assumed they just died in the attack on the village and that was that. I thought that there was nothing interesting to the story. Maybe they were travellers from foreign lands- merchants? Oh perhaps they were simple farmers visiting the big city? I was told once that I was found in the rubble after the fox's attack on the village, clutched in the arms of a dead woman. That dead woman, I always presumed, was my mother. My mother who protected me with her very body, with her life. I was content with that thought, and I moved on from what I knew I would never get answers for.

I had found my family in this village. I had everything I needed.

But the more time that past, the more I had a nagging in the back of my head.

Who was this woman? Was she someone important? Was she my mother, or did she steal me away in the middle of the night? How did a twin of mine end up in Sand if I was here in Leaf? Why was she in Leaf? She had nothing to identify herself. I never even got a physical description of the woman. Did she look like me? Was she taller? Where was my Dad? Did she leave home one day, and never come back? Was there a clan she belonged to, searching for her? Waiting for her to come home?

Was anyone searching for me?

Mitsuki blew that door of question wide open, as I began to wonder just how someone could look practically identical to me and not be related. Identical in every way too, not just a slight resemblance. We looked to be the same age, though she looked significantly taller. A whole foot taller than me to be honest. Though her hair was the same shade, her eyes nearly the same gold, perhaps a shade lighter, and her skin was similar despite living in the desert. She could've easily passed for a twin, a stand in, if it weren't for the dullness of those eyes. Eyes that never held a hint of interest in anything around her.

"I could honestly care less."

I grimaced, throwing another kunai at the tree. It now made a perfect X across the bark when it fell in line with the others. I glared at the tree as though it held answers that we visible if I stared it down long enough. Nothing came to me though, nothing jumped forward with answers to my never-ending list of questions.

Whenever I had a burning question I would go to Kakashi-sensei, but with my training being focused on myself lately, I hadn't seen him in days.

"Dammit." I muttered, throwing my last kunai in the dirt at my feet. The knife embedded itself nearly to the hilt, surprising me.

"Throwing a kunai in the dirt won't help with your aim," I looked over my shoulder to the voice. The young Uchiha was sauntering into view, hands in his pockets with a nonchalance air about him. He stopped a few yards from me, a smirk playing at his lips. "Unless your aim is that pathetic."

I didn't take the bait, instead reaching for the kunai and yanking it out easily from the soft earth. Guess the strike wasn't that impressive after all. I stared at the blade as it glinted in the rising sun. I could see my own reflection around the particles of dirt clinging to it's smooth surface.

"Sorry, I'm having a bad day." I admitted, having gotten up from a restless sleep hours early just to come and train. Having trained since four in the morning today I was more than finished now that the sun had begun to rise. The only reason I had gone to bed in the first place was because Naruto tackled me and swaddled me in our comforter to force me to sleep.

I did sleep, at first.

With Naruto clutching me tightly I had the briefest moments of quiet. Even Ahmya flying around the room didn't make me stir. It was only when Naruto rolled away in his sleep that I awoke. Immediately everything flooded back, and I felt too restless to just lay there.

I trained my wood release, my speed, my accuracy, I even worked on my own technique a little. By a little I mean I contemplated Kakashi-sensei's Raikiri and how I could come up with something better than that, and now I was drawing patterns in the trees with my kunai because I still didn't want to go home.

The thoughts cycled, and I felt like I was just getting nowhere. Without realizing it my grip on the kunai had tightened until my knuckles cracked. I froze, then put it away quickly.

Sasuke hadn't moved from his spot, though his eyes had a far away look in them as he stared.

"How-" My head tilted as the Uchiha cut himself off. He stared, his mouth turning into a flat line as he bit back more words and looked off to the side. It was silent for another beat, before he turned and looked at me.

"Go wake Naruto," he said abruptly. My eyes widened slightly as he grumbled out his next line. "He's going to be late. Dunno what that loser would do without you."

It took a few moments to settle in, and by the reaction Sasuke gave me I guessed my confusion was evident on my face. However, after mulling it over in my brain a few times I finally realized why he was saying it.

"I would be lost without Naruto."

A gentle smile reached my lips, the Uchiha stared, nothing more was said as I stepped closer to him.

"I know you guys fight a lot, but…. You're both a lot alike, y'know?" I looked down to his shirt, smiling to myself as I compared the two in my head.

"I feel like I've been insulted." Sasuke countered. I giggled, and looked up at him.

"Thank you," Sasuke quirked a brow at me, so I explained. "Sometimes I just get lost in my head, and I need someone to set me straight again."

Sasuke looked like he had more to say, but he seemed stuck on how to say it as he looked off to the side again. Like he always did when he didn't want to make any eye contact.

"You can…." He glanced at me from the corner of his eye. "Sasuke, you can talk to me, if you need."

"Hmm, nah," he turned away, "you said you're having a bad day. It can wait."

The Uchiha waltzed off in his usual saunter, but I felt my mood significantly improve after he left. I smiled at the kunai on the tree before going to collect them.

Sasuke was beginning to grow on me, and maybe it was the same for him. He was a lot kinder than one would first think, but he didn't want to expose himself to others often. Whether that was from trauma or just how he had always been, I was unsure.

Still, it was nice to think we were becoming friends…..

"You should know, I nominated you all for the Chuunin exams."

Daisuke dropped this on us shortly after training. We were still huffing and sprawled out around the training grounds. Reiji tilted his head to the side to show his interest, while Akira and I both looked to our jonin sensei with curiosity. He stared at us before pulling out sheets of paper and handing them to us. He hobbled slowly, but we took the time take a longer breath and focus.

I took the paper he handed me, looking it over some more.

"Normally I would ask each of you separately whether you think you're ready, but, I truly believe you three are ready to take these exams." Daisuke hobbled some more back to his comfortable position on the tree.

Akira snorted, staring down at his paper. I looked over to him to see a fire in his dark eyes. He'd been waiting for this moment.

"So, you're done holding us back, huh?" The Nara taunted. Daisuke chuckled as I looked between the two. When neither said anything I looked to Reiji for answers. He simply gave a soft smile in my direction.

"We were held back last year because we didn't have a third team member." Reiji explained. I froze for a moment.

"Wait, but….. I was told you just lost your teammate?" I raised a brow as Daisuke chuckled at me.

"Well, we had a few stand ins…." He looked to Akira casually, but the Nara huffed and looked away. "But none of them lasted very long."

Well, that explained the dismissive behaviour I got the first little while.

"We hadn't honestly expected an academy student to last very long." Reiji added in. Akira laughed.

"Ha! That's putting it lightly." He looked over to me, eyes sharp and a light scowl on his face. Usual Akira, he always looked cranky, so I just smiled back.

"Guess I proved you wrong, huh?" I teased. He hesitated, looking slightly bothered, then away from me without replying.

"Alright guys let's focus," Daisuke looked to me then. "Hikari, since you're the least experienced, it's your choice on whether you want to apply. Don't let these boys bully you into it."

"Oh I feel ready," I confessed quickly. "Kakashi-sensei said I would be ready last week, and frankly I trust is judgement a lot."

Daisuke nodded, not looking surprised, he probably spoke with Kakashi-sensei before he broke the news to us.

"Well, do you boys have any objections?" Daisuke waited quietly, but heard not a single sound from either of my teammates. "Perfect. The exams start in three days. You'll need to fill those forms out and present them at the first exam. You all have to enter together or you won't be permitted. We will skip training and missions so you can all prepare. Oh, and one more thing."

I felt anxious, excited, t think that I was going to be allowed into the Chuunin exams. In the back of my head I always expected to have to wait a year, but they let me through! Was Naruto's team taking the exams? Shikamaru's? Hinata's?

Daisuke cleared his throat.

"You three should know…. I didn't expect any of this to work out."

Well, not exactly a motivational speech…. Daisuke looked to Reiji, who perked slightly.

"Reiji, you're extremely aloof. You don't let on your emotions very often, and you work with others only for the purpose of success. You don't trust your teammates, you always worked without their safety in mind." Reiji shifted slightly, barely showing any reaction. Daisuke glances to Akira.

"I'm sure I don't have to go over your faults too deeply, but needless to say you don't work well with others. You start fights where there is none, and you argue when there isn't a need." Akira grunted once, a deep scowl on his face. I waited for Daisuke to look at me, but when he did, there seemed to be a glimmer in his eye.

"You're no different. Hikari, you're too timid. You try and make people think you wear your heart on your sleeve, but you're more guarded than these two boys. When I saw you, I thought you were too small. There was no way this was the kid Kakashi spoke so highly of."

I felt myself deflate, but didn't move a muscle as Akira glanced back at me. Didn't even look over at him when Daisuke spoke again.

"And yet, all these faults don't matter. Because I've seen honest teamwork and bonding. Reiji, you've started to open up, you show effort in taking care of your teammates. You've impressed me with how you're willing to step up when your teammates need you. Akira, you've put your own personal issues aside to help the team. You've improved significantly since doing this. And Hikari."

He surprised me as he grinned.

"You've proven to me, that even small people make big waves." I had to smile at that, even if it was a shot at my height.

"So when you go in to the exams, always remember that the only way to succeed is by working together. I honestly believe in you three, you've made an old man proud."

And so we were dismissed from training, but it felt like this was more permanent of a goodbye than what would be the norm. I had noticed Daisuke's limping had gotten worse and briefly wondered what would happen if even just one of us became chuunin. Or all of us?

Perhaps I would find out, by making big waves in the Chuunin exams.

I felt odd when I woke up.

There was a lot of movement, more so than usual. At first it felt like Naruto had flipped me over from one side of the bed to the other, but then I realized I wasn't actually in bed and felt a mild dose of panic.

That is, until the familiar scent of my Uzumaki filled my nostrils.

He was carrying me on his back- wait why was he carrying me?

"…N-Naruto?" My tired voice made him look over his should at me. He grinned, eyes lighting up.

"Kari! Good, I was worried you might need to go to the hospital y'know. How do you feel?" He spoke softly, as though whispering to me a secret. Or maybe it was just because I felt so tired that he sounded so quiet? I rested my head against his shoulder, sighing into the fabric of his jacket.

"No… just tired." It was then that all the puzzle pieces began to fit into place. I had probably collapsed at training again, but now that Sensei wasn't supervising Naruto must've gone out looking for me. I felt bad, for making him worry.

"Sorry, I just…. I wanted to get this jutsu to work." I yawned, wrapping my arms loosely around his neck. Naruto giggled.

"You don't have to apologize! Kari you work so hard, I just don't want you to get hurt and all. And besides," he looked ahead, so I could just see the corner of his face.

"I'll always be there to bring you home, y'know?"

It was always a strange feeling, when Naruto said such kind things. A simple gesture, simple words, yet when he said them my heart was fluttering in my ribcage.

"Promise?" I whispered, wrapping my arms tighter around him, leaning my face into the crook of his neck to hide my hot cheeks. Naruto hummed an affirmation.

"I promise."

Naruto carried me home, tucked me into bed, and made some instant ramen for both of us to eat. He insisted I eat, knowing I wouldn't sleep well on an empty stomach. I laughed when he pretended the chopsticks were teeth, and used my own to poke him when he got too cheeky. Naruto even offered to clean the kitchen up while I went for a shower before the two of us got into bed. I was so exhausted, but I kept my eyes open and waited for him while he shut the lights off and locked the door.

When my personal furnace did arrive, I was so ready to sleep that I was the one to yank him closer. Naruto laughed as I feebly tried to pull him to me, and ended up just letting me manhandle the situation until I was comfortable.

Seconds later, Ahmya fluttered over out heads, and looked to both of us. I gently tucked her in my hand before placing her in the crook of a pillow by my face. It was a perfect spot between my head and Naruto's shoulder, and she snuggled right on in.

In the seconds before I fluttered off to sleep, I looked to the duo sleeping next to me, and wondered how I got lucky enough to call this my home.

Because it wasn't home if they weren't there with me.

I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG!

I am gunna confess, I hate my computer. I saved a 9,700 word chapter on my macbook... and it's gone. Like I can't find it and it's just... it's MIA! My computer froze, crashed, restarted, and it just vanished despite me religiously saving all the time FOR THIS EXACT REASON. I screamed to the heavens for an hour, and then sat my ass down and wrote this. I initially wasn't going to post it and was going to work on it more, because these scenes were so much more fleshed out, but I've gone well passed my update date and I'm just getting angry at it right now. I apologize for the late entry, but here is a small bit of fluff to help y'all in the mean time. It'll be a cleaner cut into the chuunin exams at least.

I will likely be a quick hiatus. Looking to buy a new laptop because I am so done with this mac it aint even funny. What laptops would y'all recommend? I don't need a fancy thing, it just needs to do it's job and last.

Anyway, I really really wanna make it clear that this is and always will be a Naruto x OC story. It will never been another pairing. There may be some one-sided stuff here and there but it is a true blue Naruto x Hikari pairing. I don't want anyone getting any wrong ideas anywhere. I also want to make it abundantly clear this isn't an 'everyone is in love with Hikari' thing. I don't see a lot of the guys looking at Hikari that way, but I do see some of them as being attracted to her in a friendship sense, if that makes sense? Kids are confusing and these guys are dealing with blood and gore and junk too lol.

Review Replies

TheSmartOne: You've got some good points. TBH I don't want t try and answer too much because there's some story elements you don't have yet that would explain Hikari's chakra soooooo much better. You'll learn one key piece at the end of the Chuunin Exam arc. You are right though, Hikari has neutral chakra... in a sense. There is a reason she can overlay chakras, and it goes beyond having neutral chakra. You're really getting me think with the burnt wood comment. What you're talking about would be a kekkei Totei, which also would require a kekkei genkai to even pull off in the first place. it's actually something I considered her growing into. To explain her 'sensing' abilities better, think of it as she can see all the elements of a jutsu. She can see exactly how much of each nature is in it, and how the chakra is molded together. While she can't instantly copy it, with time she could theoretically train in that jutsu and mimic it. She doesn't have the Sharingan, which means she can't instantly copy anything (Omg that would be overkill) but the sensory ability isn't to mimic that jutsu, but rather allow herself to prepare a counter attack, or even to understand how a jutsu is being used. (IE, Haku's ice mirrors. Hikari knew it was a water overlay with wind chakra, and she could understand the mirror's better because he used this same chakra to enter and exit the mirrors.) Also, thank you, I always pictured Hikari being trained to be Naruto's keeper, and worked around a lot to figure out how that would happen.

MsWolfGirl: Thank you! I hope to keep you interested in the future! Excuse this update, I honestly debated just tossing my mac book in the rain.

HuHsd: I'm gunna be super frank and say things go right off topic the last arc of this book, and it sets up a list of events that messes Shipuuden up so badly... It's no longer the Shipuuden you know, and Kabuto mayyyy be quite different. NGL it is kinda scary to go off script and just make my own story arc for Shipuuden because it means I could really fuck up if I forget something. However, the exact insterest int he Sound 4 is something I may keep in my back pocket. It's an interesting idea...

Yashaissalvation78: Thank you! I'm trying my bestest! I've got big plans, and even held back some other story ideas because they would make pretty cool spin-offs. Also for your review in chapter 2, don't worry, character development is one of my favourite points to cover.

Guest: IDK, I really like Akira. Maybe he just rubs you the wrong way, but the boy has problems. And yeah, Hikari is a pushover. She has abandonment issues and Daisuke even said in this chapter that she isn't as open hearted as people think. And believe it or not, him and Reiji are very important to Hikari's story.

B33: Well, Hikari's met Guy, and she actually does know Lee! We will get a little flashback on her meeting Lee someday, it was a throw away line in early chapters because I wanted to use the scene later, but Hikari met Lee through Kakashi and Guy! Also, assume nothing in the Forest of death... because there might eb a few changes or surprises... But yeah, shit's heading down stream now.

Guest: Lmao Shikamaru ain't taught in the art of subtlety. I honestly love writing him, because there was a lot going on in those scenes beneath the surface that hikari didn't know about. We'll learn eventually!

Guest: I have to agree about the friendship part, Kishi really stuck to storyline only, and you never got the sense that these kids were actually friends. Guy and Kakashi had the most friendship, and even that was strained. There is so so SO much I want to say about Hikari... but I can't. Like, homegirl is gunna have a lot going on soon. I think the main point I'm trying to make is: have faith in the character, because I promise she is gunna be a badass someday, but today is not that day. Also, Ahmya is so gunna be a recurring character. I think she's cute. She had a bigger role in the inital chapter but I could recreate it for whatever reason and just put a small tidbit in.

Guest: Mitsuki is biologically the same age as Hikari, i will say that. She is definitely too young to be a mom. Mistuki actually came about when I wondered what would've happened if Hikari lived in Sand, and instead i made mistuki! You probbaly won't get a ton of story on her outside of Hikari's interactions, but that's because Mitsuki and Gaara have their own story that will be coming out some day. I also genuinely believe Hikari and Naruto haven't actually realized they're growing up. To them they're still eight year olds who need comfort and have no parents to console them, so they soothed each other. Hikari originally wasn't supposed to be a ninja, she was supposed to be a civilian who cheered Naruto on, but I found this way too fun to not write about. She really is a gentle soul, and if Naruto hadn't become a ninja I highly doubt she would've become one either. She wants, more than anything, to be with Naruto.

Shaomonk12: thank you again! There was definitely a ton of foreshadowing in that chapter. some of it was a happy mistake and I'm just gunna role with it.

Netto: Hikari, as she currently is, is not the 'perfect match' for future Naruto, but she is for current Naruto. They are both going to be very different in Shipuuden.

lovinurbuks: Yup! No secret, Hikari's summon is a bat! I really liked the idea when I first thought it up, but Ahmya won't be Hikari's summon for a little while. I really really like Mitsuki, she and Hikari have a lot to hash out.

Crimson G: Good guess on the chocolates. It was my intention for everyone to dismiss them. Why do you think they're from Sasuke? I'm just super curious and love hearing guesses. Also, hikari's orginal jutsu will be an ongoing theme. Like the Rasengan, it will be perfected quite slowly over the course of the books.

Hdh: Viola! Sorry it's so short, I am genuinely upset about all of this.

FanficTheory: I love theories. Genuinely. Part of what's fun about writing is reading what y'all come up with, even if you think it's super farfetched it's still awesome to read. I would have to say you will find out. Hikari does have her own theories but is a bit preoccupied currently. Expect to see a lot more Mitsuki in the coming chapters. But hey, it's just a theory, a FANFIC Theory! (I thought it had a nice ring)

Anime hotty lover.18: Yeah, I felt the sting and I wrote that lol.

Guest: Yup! I love bats, especially fruit bats. They're so cool tbh. bats in this world are going to be a bit different, and i wouldn't invest too too hard in any theories yet because they do some pretty cool things!

ThebuzzyBee: I actually can't see Orochimaru being too invested in Hikari, but there is a reason for that (I know something you don't know!). We've proven she isn't all that unique, considering she has a literal doppleganger walking around. Hmmmm wonder where Mitsuki's relation came from to Hikari? Well maybe Orochimaru knows? Maybe he doesn't? I might just be messing with ya, it's 330AM and I'm very tired. Thank you for the review.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter. I apologize for the short, weak, late update, but I didn't want to leave you all hanging. I will return with my gusto once I get over my murderous intent for this macbook.

I hope everyone is doing well!

Iland Girl