I meant to work on at least one of my Harry Potter fics,but lately I’ve been captivated by the awsomenessthat is Naruto. This fichas been kind of floating around in my head for a while now, and hopefully bywriting it out I can get back to other important things, like my school work(although whether writing or school is more important has always been up fordebate). Sadly, in writing this, I’ve caught another idea for a Naruto ficlet, but we’llsee how this one turns out first. Most chapters are a bit shorter than Inormally write, and I’m switching between viewpoints a lot, but I thinkit’s easier to tell the story that way, since it’s a bit like howthe anime is presented. Also in this one, you get a sampling of the kind ofmusic I listen to (at least, while I’m writing). For simplicity’ssake, I’ve decide to name each chapter after the song written (at leastin part) at the beginning of it. Obviously, these songs aren’t mine, andif I don’t put down the original writer correctly, I’m sorry, buteveryone should know that I adore and appreciate their work.

Girl’s Not Grey

I’ll lay medown tonight,
Much further down.
Swim in the calm tonight.
This art does drown.
What follows me as the whitest lace of light,
Will swallow whole just begs to be imbrued?
What follows has lad me to this place where I belong all erased?
What follows?

AFI

It was a late summer day, and it was raining in Konoha. By the standards of, for instance, the WaterCountry, it was only a light drizzle, but here in the Fire Country it was morelikely to be considered a torrential downpour. Anyone outside for more than aminute would be soaked to the bone, and there was an unseasonable chill to theair which promised a cold for anyone who did not soon go inside to dry off.

The rain hadn’t stopped MaitoGai and Rock Lee, though. They were running aroundthe village one thousand times with big bags of rocks. If they didn’t, Gai had decreed, they must do five thousand pushups. Tenten and Neji, Lee’s longsuffering teammates, had gone to the Hyuuga house totrain shortly before the rain started.

Now, despite the rain, Gai and Leewere on their final lap. Lee was starting to pull ahead of his teacher.“This is the springtime of youth!” he crowed happily, and wasanswered by an encouraging shout from Gai. A fewseconds later he stopped, however, when he caught up to a third figure on theotherwise empty road. He couldn’t remember having seen anyone on any ofhis previous laps, so this person must just have arrived in front of thevillage.

If he had been asked to describe the person in front of him,Lee couldn’t have done it. The figure wasn’t overly tall -somewhere between his own height and Gai-sensei’s - but even that was hard to tell withthe large farmer’s hat that covered their head and obscured their face.The rest of the person, except for a pair of feet in non-descript brown bootsthat looked like they had be worn a very long time, was covered in a largebrown coat, so that Lee couldn’t even be sure if the person he addressedwas a man or a woman. The figure carried a pack, which might once have been thekind of bag favored by the Konoha shinobi,or might have been any other brown bag.

“Good morning,” he greeted the person ascourteously as he could. Gai-sensei had alwaysstressed the importance of good manners when you were a wonderful ninja.“Welcome to Konoha. Is there something I canhelp you find?”

He had the sensation of being scrutinized by a pair ofunseen eyes. “Where might I find the Hokage,please?”

Cocaine Cowgirl

Looking back on thechapters of your life
Searching for the storyline
‘Cause the one you live now’s doing nothing for you
Say goodbye to your friends and the ones who lover you.
Movin’on.

Cocaine cowgirl
She’s out catchin’eyes
On the other end of the desert skies
Takin’ you down to the dark side of town
Cocaine cowgirl nobody knows

Matt Maes and El Torpedo

Isn’t this justlike Konoha, Kasumi thought, smiling a little toherself. The Hokage’s house was big, withplenty of room to accommodate visitors and all the people that helped run thevillage. It was better kept than the houses of the Mizokageand the Kazekage, whose villages had been decimatedby wars over the years and now struggled to maintain their place in the world.Yet it wasn’t big and imposing, as was the house of the Tsuchikage in the Hidden Rock village, nor a palatial asthat of Raikage, in the Hidden Cloud. Right in themiddle, that was where Konoha always fell. A by andlarge practical people, although she had noticed a tendency towardsthick-headedness that could rival even the shinobi ofthe Hidden Rock.

Still, they were hospitable enough. The door had been openedby a dark haired young woman that the taller of her two escorts - who surelydidn’t wear those ridiculous green outfits all the time! - had called Shizune. Shizune-san had taken asingle look at the three of them, out in the rain, and bundled them inside withthe efficiency that Kasumi had come to associate with nurses everywhere,scolding the taller of her guides the whole time about the dangers of being outin weather like this, “especially in that ridiculous outfit ofyours!” So I’m not the onlyone who thinks those are stupid, she thoughts.

Ofcourse not. Inall my years…

That’s enough.

“Would you take off your coat, please?” Shizune-san asked, handing her a mug of tea that she hadjust brought. Kasumi’s fingers closed around it, and for a moment shelost herself in enjoying the feeling of warmth under her fingers. Itwasn’t really that cold out, and the rain was nothing to what she wasused to, growing up in the Water Country, but it was still nice to be warm anddry.

“Even surrounded by ninja, you’re worried aboutan assassination attempt?” she asked. The tea, when she tasted it, waswonderful. She had never been to Konoha before, butshe remembered the wonderful food of the Fire Country from the few villagesalong its edges that she had stopped in before.

Shizune-san glared at her.“Right now, I’m more worried that you’ll catch your death ofcold,” she snapped. She can’tbe two years older than me, and she’s already as catty as an old woman,Kasumi thought bitterly. What will I belike at that age?

Don’t beridiculous. She’s a good eight years older than you are. And what makesyou think I’d let you have anything other than a sweet disposition?

Don’t evenstart.

With a small sigh, Kasumi removed her coat and hat, feelingas she did that she was removing her armor against the world. She handed themover to Shizune-san, who took them with the sameefficiency she had done everything else so far. Although she was careful not tolook anywhere but into her tea mug, she could still feel the eyes of her twoguides on her. There were times when she didn’t mind being pretty, butmost of the time it was just plain annoying.

There you go again,whining about being beautiful. There’s a fair number who would giveanything to be you.

Somehow, that only made it worse.

“Would you like me to hand over my weapons before I goto see the Hokage?” Never mind that the rank ofKage was never achieved by any but the most talentedof ninja, or that most ninja could kill without weapons, in all countries shehad had to turn over her kunai before going in. And yet, here in Konoha…

“You’re from the Hidden Mist, are you?” Shizune-san’s eyes were understanding, but at thesame time held an edge of suspicion that hadn’t been there before. Kasumiresisted the urge to cover the offending symbol that was etched into theforehead protector she wore tied about her arm. For what seemed the hundredthtime, she wondered why she insisted on wearing the thing. She had forsaken theHidden Mist as much as it had her, but she still felt a lingering connection. I’m not a ninja if I’m not froma village, I suppose. “We don’t require that here. We trust ourguests.”

Kasumi couldn’t think of anything to say, either tothe open hospitality or the implication that, as a guest, she had better be trustworth. “Thankyou.”

“Finish your tea. The Hokagewill be ready to see you in a minute.”

And you’reactually doing what you’re told.

Shut up. It’sgood tea.

I’m not actually sure how well the lyrics compliment the chapterthey go with, especially these earlier chapters, but I think they fit alrightwith the story in general, so they stay.

Big Machine

Now your world is waytoo fast
Nothing’s real and nothing lasts
And I’m aware
I’m in love but you don’t care
Turn your anger into lust
I’m still here but you don’t trust at all
And I’ll be waiting

Goo Goo Dolls

She knew that she was being silly, but Tsunadestill felt better for having Kotetsu, Izumo and Kakashi with her whenthe mysterious visitor was brought up. Shizunehadn’t been able to give her much information: the girl was probably a chunin, if her age was anything to go on, and she seemed toprefer to keep her appearance hidden. Of course, Tsunadethought peevishly, age really wasn’t anything to go on when guessing aperson’s ability. Kotetsu and Izumo were in their twenties, but they were chunin, while Kakashi had beenmade a jonin when he was thirteen. When she’dpressed Shizune for at least a number for that age,the woman had been even less helpful.

“I have to guess from her voice,” she hadconfessed. “I couldn’t even see her eyes.”

She shouldn’t have felt worried about the girl wantedto keep her face hidden, either. Few enough people knew what she really lookedlike - although everyone knew what she had looked like when she was twenty -and she didn’t remember hearing of anyone who had ever seen Kakashi’s face, but there was something about thatdesire to hide that, when encountered in a stranger, set her on edge. Shedragged her mind away from her speculations of what the girl could be hiding -a scar? A well-known and less-liked face? - and focus on the most important piece of information shehad.

Far more worrying than the girl’s unknown level - shemight not even have been a shinobi, but Tsunade doubted that - was the one other thing Shizune had noticed. “Her chakra is odd. I can hardlysense it, but what there is of it feels… funny.” That told heralmost nothing, but she’d had to let it go.

“Enter,” she called, in response to a knock onthe door. The girl that followed Shizune into theroom was not quite what she had been expecting. She was indeed young - twenty,perhaps - but Tsunade couldn’t ever rememberseeing eyes so old. Strange eyes, they were too, a deep grey-blue like theocean, but for a second Tsunade could have sworn theyflashed with golden fire.

The girl herself was beautiful. Tsunadehad the distinct impression that the three men in the room were staringslightly more than was strictly necessary for assessing anunknown ninja. The style of her dress was odd, yet also strangely familiar.

It had been many, manyyears ago. She was a genin, and she and her team hadgone to the Water Country to escort a feudal lord home. It had been a simple mission, so much so that she was surprised she evenremembered it. She had forgotten most of it, in any case, but she rememberedthe feudal lord laughing at the suggestion that a girl was going to helpprotect him.

Then she had met the kunoichi of the Water Country, and Sarutobihad explained why the feudal lord hadn’t thought a girl was any use inprotecting someone. In the last two decades, the female shinobiof the Hidden Mist had grown  almost equal to the men, but backthen, they’d hardly been worth anything. Why, a young, untried genin had been a match for even the most talented of them.

But they had wornthose dresses, with their long skirts slit up to the hip on both sides, and hadworn their hair loose to their waists, no matter how much it got in their way.The kunoichi were just for show, Sarutobihad told her. They might have had the potential to be  talented, but they were nevergiven any training.

This girl was dressed like one of those kunoichi,although Tsunade had never seen one of them, oranyone else so young, with hair that shade of white-silver, although Kakashi’s was similar. Perhaps her memory was fading,but in a way it reminded her of the White Fang of Konoha.Please, don’t let there be aconnection. Kakashi’s team has enough problemswithout that coming into it. Sheglanced at the jonin, noting that he looked a littlestunned. He’d been reading those trash novels of Jiraya’stoo much lately, to judge by his face.

“What brings you to Konoha,Kasumi-san?” Tsunade asked once the girl hadintroduced herself - punctuated with the traditional curtsy of a Water Country kunoichi, Tsunade noticed. And to me. Thegirl didn’t look like a shinobi any more thanthe kunoichi had so long ago, but there was somethingabout her… something about those eyes. Orochimaruhad had eyes like that at times, when they were children together and he wastrying to suppress something, some emotion, that hedidn’t want her to see. Shecan’t be connected with him, can she?

“I’m looking a boy.” It seemed strangethat a shinobi from another village would come to Konoha to request a mission. And asking for a meeting withthe Hokage was not the way to request one. But a boy…

“You could have gone to the office downstairs torequest the mission,” she said.

The girl smiled in private amusement. “Youmisunderstand. I’m on the… ah… mission myself. I was told the boy was a shinobiof the Hidden Leaf.”

Uchiha Sasuke or Uzumaki Naruto?Tsunade asked herself quietly. She as willing to betit would be one of the two. There were many talented young shinobiin the village, but those two always seemed to be at the center of things.“His name is Uzumaki Naruto.”Damn. She would have put money on itbeing Sasuke.

“Why Naruto?”

“I want to meet him.”

Tsunade caught Kakashi’seye. She didn’t doubt Naruto would want to meetthis girl too. Naruto liked meeting people, and hewould probably be thrilled to meet a beautiful girl like this. But still, shecouldn’t shake the feeling that there was something strange about thisgirl. And there was somethingstrange: the sense of her chakra, as Shizune hadsaid, was very odd. Still, there was no way she could stop the girl short offorce, and so far she hadn’t seen anything threatening about the girl. Ifanything, she seemed as innocent as could be. Yet…

“It’s a long way to come for curiosity.”

Kasumi shrugged. “I spend my time traveling in anycase. And there was a young man in the Hidden Sand who thought I might find Uzumaki Narutointeresting.”

“Gaara, byany chance?” Ah, Tsunade thought. So Kakashi can stillthink, at any rate. She didn’t know Gaarapersonally, but his name had come up in several reports of the disastrous Sandand Sound attack on Konoha.

Kasumi nodded. Against her better judgment, Tsunade found herself saying, “Kakashi,Naruto is on your team. Perhaps you would introduceKasumi-san to him?”

And I thought that boywas too old to blush, she thought wryly to herself as Kakashiled the young woman from the room. Lookslike he can, and badly enough that even his mask doesn’t hide it!

Name

Scars are souvenirsyou never lose
The past is never far
Did you lose yourself somewhere out there
Did you get to be a star
And don’t it make you sad to know that life
Is more than who we are

Goo Goo Dolls

He’s kind ofcute, Kasumi found herself thinking as thewhite-haired ninja led her away out of the Hokage’soffice. Although themask hides it.

Don’t you gostarting with that, young lady.

Well, he is, shethought rebelliously. She fought to keep the blush out of her cheeks. If sheblushed, her cheeks tended to burn bright, bright red, and everyone noticed. Just another drawback of paleskin.

Don’t startwhining about that again.

“Why do…”

Whatever the man - Kakashi, Hokage-sama had called him - had been about to ask was cutoff by the arrival of her initial two guides, still in their strange greensuits. “Hatake Kakashi,where are you going with our visitor?”

“Eh?” Was it just that his whole face exceptinghis right eye was covered, or did Kakashi really havevery little expression, Kasumi found herself wondering. He was looking at theman in green with what seemed to be mild puzzlement.

“Showing this fair lady around the village is a jobfor Konoha’s Sublime Green Beast ofPrey!”

“The Springtime of Youth will triumph!” thesmaller one, presumably his student, added. TheSpringtime of Youth? Kasumi wondered. What in the world?

Well, don’t ask me.

I wasn’t.

Kakashi was looking at her asthough expecting her to sort it all out. Being pretty could be so troublesome.“That’s very nice to hear. Another time, perhaps.I’m supposed to be meeting someone.” She took her coat and hat fromwhere Shizune-san had hung them up.

“Ah, my rival has won again!” The man seemedquite anguished by this. Kakashi shrugged. “Howcan you be so cool?” the man was demanding, to which his rival shruggedagain. They’re all insane.

“Are they always like that?” she asked as shefollowed Kakashi out into the rain, adjusting her hatas she did.

“Mostly. Why do you want tomeet Naruto?”

That must be what hewanted to ask before. “Gaara-kun mentionedhim.”

“You said.”

He was obviously waiting for a more complete answer. I wish my teachers had cared as much aboutme.

Maybe if you’dhad any talent.

Maybe if I’dbeen normal.

“I talked to Temari. Shesaid that Gaara-kun has changed immeasurably, andit’s because of Uzumaki Naruto.I wanted to meet him.”

“Nothing to do with Akatsuki, then?”

“Akatsuki?No. Why?” She looked at him. The man seemed to have even less emotionthan before. “Oh dear. I’d rather not getmixed up with them again.”

“Again?”

Well, that workedwell. Now he’s going to start questions, you stupid girl.

It wouldn’t bean issue if I was normal.

“I’ve met a few of them.”  She said it in a way that she hopedwould stop any more questions, at least until she haddecided how much she could trust this man. The trouble was, she found herselfwanting to confide in him, and that could be a very dangerous thing.

The building Kakashi took her tohad ‘Ninja Academy’ written over the door.Kasumi heard young children talking in the rooms off the hallway. She caughtsight of a few children, mostly slumped over desks, as Kakashiled her past a series of classrooms to a small practice room. Three childrenwere seated in a circle, apparently meditating.

Children? You aren’t even ten years older thanthis lot.

There was a girl with pink hair, who Kasumi dismissedimmediately. There was something about the way she dressed which reminded herof the old kunoichi of the Hidden Mist.

It’s the dress, sherealized. It’s like a shorterversion of mine.

Don’t startcomplaining about the dress again. I like it.

Next to her was a blond boy. With strange whisker marks onhis face, Kasumi had little doubt that this was the UzumakiNaruto she had been looking for. It seemed,sometimes, that no matter how a jinchuriki tried tohide what lived inside them, the beast still found a way to mark them so thatthe world could see the monster within. Itlooks like only his face has been marked, at least. Not his soul, like poor Gaara-kun..

Don’t finishthat thought.

“Yo,” Kakashi said. Naruto and the girlopened their eyes. The second boy turned around, and for a moment Kasumicouldn’t even put together a coherent thought.

“Itachi-kun?”

Just Like You

We didn’tunderstand the truth
We were blinded by the eyes of youth
But time kept on moving
And a change has come
You think that I don’t know
Where you’re coming from

‘Cause I feeljust like you
And I cry just like you
But I heal just like you
And under my skin
I’m just like you

Keb’ Mo’

Naruto was on his feet in aninstant, and looked ready to attack. “Who are you?” he demanded.

“Sit down, Naruto,” Kakashi said quietly. “Sakura, I think we’llneed some tea.” The girl, her eyes wide, nodded and hurried out. Kasumicompletely missed the concerned look he sent her. He had every reason to beconcerned, although Kasumi couldn’t have known it: her face was pale as death, and her eyes wide as though she had just seen aghost.

Tea would be good¸Kasumi thought distractedly as she sank to the floor. The boy had not, in fact,been Itachi, but the resemblance was so strong thateven now, when the initial shock had worn off, it disturbed her.

The girl - Sakura - returned with the tea very quickly. They must keep some ready, was allKasumi could think. During the entire time she was gone, both the boys watchedher suspiciously, something Kakashi appeared not tonotice.

When they were all seated, though, it was Kakashi that broke the silence. “Naruto,Kasumi-san has come a very long way to meet you.”

“Why? And how do you know that man?” Surprisingly, it wasn’t Narutothat challenged her, but the other boy, the one that looked so like Itachi.

Kasumi hesitated, sipping her tea to buy time. She’dknown when this journey had first been proposed that it would mean revealingher secret, which she’d only revealed to one person in all her twentyyears. Still, the prospect was frightening.

“Do they know about Akatsuki?”she asked Kakashi. Narutolooked ready to jump at her, and only the firm gaze of his sensei kept himseated. It was answer enough. Perhaps it had been the wrong place to start.

Bestto start at the beginning. Anddon’t you go leaving things out.

“You probably also know that, about thirteen yearsago, the Hidden Sand attempted to create the ultimate shinobiby trapping Shakaku in a baby.”

Naruto’s murmur of “Gaara” was all she needed to confirm that they did,indeed, know the story.

“They weren’t the only ones who had that idea.Eight years before, the Mizokage and the shinobi of the Hidden Mist had thought to try the samething, although with a weaker power. As far as they knew, the experiment was acomplete failure. Four of the shinobi involved in thesealing died, and the child never showed any signs of having the power they hadtried to harness.”

She remembered thetests. They’d put her in unbelievable situations, trying to force thechakra out of her. She’d proven to be weaker than many of the otheryoungsters at the Academy, and after a few months they had stopped for fearthat she would be killed, and a better shinobi wouldhave to die in the Academy’s final exams.

“That is the official story. The truth, although theydidn’t know it for many years, is that the jutsuworked. But instead of a lesser water demon, they had caught the SeaDragon.”

You could have made itmore dramatic. I’m something of a big deal, I’ll have you know.

No, you aren’t.No one even remembers the Elemental Dragons anymore. You’re just a pestwho happened to be too curious.

“It’s power, ratherthan a failed jutsu, is what killed the shinobi. But when it realized what had happened, it wasdetermined not to be used by humans for power, so it hid it’s presencewithin the child.”

Exceptfor its voice. Growing up, shehad never told anyone about the voice in her head. Sometimes, she’dwondered if it wasn’t just her imagination, or if she was crazy, but ithas always been too real for that.

“This would be you, right?” said the boy wholooked like Itachi. He looked bored.

Fool, she thought.

Hardlyworth eating.

“Yes. And you wanted to know about Itachi-kun,didn’t you? Then listen.”

Temper,temper.

You shut up too. Thisis all your fault. If you hadn’t gotten curiousabout all that chakra, the jutsu would have worked,and they would all have been happy.

You’d be dead.

“Hoshigake Kisame was always suspicious of me. I’m sure hesuspected that the jutsu had actually worked, andthat I was just being stubborn. Seven years ago, he called one of his friendsfrom Akatsuki to look at me and try to see the chakrahe was sure I was hiding.”

“Uchiha Itachi,”Kakashi supplied. “The Sharinganwould have been able to see it.”

Kasumi nodded. “I didn’t know that was why hewas there, of course. He came to visit the village, and he watched me a lot,but that didn’t mean anything. A lot of boys watched me.”

“That’s because you’re reallypretty,” Naruto told her matter-of-factly.

Having the Kyubi inside him does not necessarily make him smart.

I noticed.

“Thank you. Except I think that was one of the thingsthat made Kisame-senpai suspicious of me. Iwasn’t always, you know. I was a chubby little kid who always had dirt inmy hair and snot on my nose.” Kasumi smiled a little at the memory.She’d been plain as anything, and no one had thought anything of it.

Because after Motherdied, no one wanted to touch the failed experiment, even if I was harmless. Andeven she only did it out of a sense of duty, in any case. She didn’tsay it out loud, though. Speaking ill of the dead never gained you anything.

“But around the time I turned ten, the dragon decidedif it was going to be stuck in a human, it ought to be a beautiful human likethe ones that used to be sacrificed to him.”

Ah, the good old days.

No more of that out ofyou. You know what I think of that whole sacrificing maidensthing.

It was proper manners.

“So he used his chakra to make me this way.” Kakashi looked a little surprised. The mini-Itachi still looked a little bored, but Narutoand Sakura were both wide-eyed as they listened to the story.

“I didn’t think anything of it until severalyears later, when I learned about Akatsuki. But thatwas how I met Uchiha Itachi.”

After a while he hadstopped watching, and come to talk to her. They were of an age, and she wasbeautiful while he was talented. Some of the older, more romantic ladies in thevillage had thought they would make a good match: if Kasumi didn’t haveany talent herself, at least she could be used to secure some talent for thevillage.

It had suited Itachi to be seen with her, and Kasumi had found peoplewere nicer to her now that they thought she might have some use to the village.The jutsu hadn’t worked, she hadn’t beenborn as the boy they had hoped for, she’d shown almost no talent in theAcademy and they were sure it was a miracle that she had survived the finalexam, but now there was a chance that she could bring a very talented shinobi into the village.

There hadn’tbeen love, or even real friendship between them. Itachiwas incapable of love, and the dragon didn’ttrust Itachi. Still, Itachihad come to trust her enough to tell her how he had murdered his family andleft his village. It had been all Kasumi could do to stop the dragon burstingout and killing the young man on the spot. She had been so afraid that someonewould see, and realize that she had power after all.

But nothing hadhappened, and eventually Itachi had left, and thoughshe had met some members of Akatsuki later during hertravels, she had not seen Itachi or Kisame-san since.

Recollection tugged at her. “You would be his babybrother, then.”

“Uchiha Sasuke,”Kakashi told her.