Hajimari
“Ah, Himawari-chan, daddy will buy it for you, okay. Wait, let daddy search for the ichibi figure…”
Dark, almost black eyes look longingly at the golden strands that were swept by the wind. Clenching at the ichibi and kyuubi figure, she look down at it, before looking at the hokage again.
Her heart clenching. She always want to a least have one of this figure. Even if she have to lifting heavy loads, working tirelessly. But seeing the hokage’s daughter dejected face, she choose to stampede her own want.
It’s useless anyway to buy it. I can save for Mom’s treatment.
It’s okay.
She’s okay. Even if her heart stings and her eyes getting warmer and warmer.
She slowly pulled at the warm orange cloth that so soft, frozen when those striking blue eyes look at her.
“H-Hokage-sama, here’s the Ichibi and Kyuubi figures.” She thrust them into the shocked Hokage’s hands before bolting outside, running as fast as her feet could carry her, ignoring the Hokage’s calls fading behind her.
It’s okay.
She don’t need it anyway. She can just do the usual thing, lit a stick and roast a fish. She don’t need birthday cake, when the price of a slice cost 2 day worth of her Mom’s medicine. It’s fine.
—
She pant harshly, swallowing her tears as the students who broke her bag and burning her book jeers at her then left.
Refusing to let a whimper out of her mouth, she just gather of what’s left, her bag was torn. Biting her lips, she shakily tried to save the ruined books, she’s clutching the pendant in her hand. The last pendant her mom gave her before she’s gone.
Gone to go with her father.
A father that she never met. But was always told that he loved her.
At the sound of warm laughters, she lift her head, and glanced at the bright hair like sun that walk at the other side of academy, hugging a dark haired boy and a blonde that was his copy.
Looking at other peoples, she observed every one of them.
Sarada’s father and mother.
Captain Nara and her wife
She want that also. To be loved. To have a place for leaning. She then looked at her shabby clothes, tears dripping down her scarred cheek and fingers clenching on the ruined fabric that once was a bag. She keep her mouth shut, silent sob shaking her small frame, dark maroon almost black hair strands fall from her braid, she lifted her eyes to look at them once more before she bolted from the spot leaving pile and shreds of what once was her books when sky blue locked with her eyes. Has she look behind, she will see that the hokage walking towards her spot before, where an old swing still attached to a tree. Where the ruined pieces, but readable kanji held slowly from the remaining ashes.
“...”
—
Konohagakure no Sato, 1320 Japanese Elemental Nation Hour, year 1575 Elemental Calendar
Her heart pounded in her chest as the Hokage, cloaked in golden chakra, looked back and smiled at his son while holding a Bijuu Bomb in his chakra hands. The moment before the Bijuu Bomb detonated, their eyes locked. In that split second, the Hokage’s eyes softened, and then, a blinding white light consumed everything, leaving only a deep crater in the aftermath.
Her heart sank. Tears spilled as the raw, agonized scream of Uzumaki Boruto echoed through the destroyed exam area.
The sun that had always lit her sky vanished. A suffocating, gray sky filled her lungs, ripping through her lifeline.
Hikari Kageyama sobbed.
—
Boruto had bolted, leaving Sasuke behind. The latter sighed, looking toward the dark spot in the Forest of Death.
“Show yourself. I know you’re in there.”
A subtle shadow flinched, and slowly, the girl stepped forward. Her eyes were wide with distress, and she clung to the growing vines of the old tree. The three tomoe in her red eyes glowed ominously.
Sasuke’s eyes widen as he slash his katana out, and the girl, hair blood red, painted by the halo of sunset behind her, flinches.
Mokuton and sharingan.
Uzumaki
Sasuke noted from the way her hair shining blood red under the sun.
“Identify yourself.”
The girl flinched again but stepped forward, her Konohagakure headband loosely wrapped around her neck.
“Hikari Kageyama. Chunin, Shinobi ID 15087770.” Her voice was smooth and gentle.
Sasuke’s expression remained unreadable.
“Teme, can you check on her?” Naruto’s voice was almost a whisper, his gaze still on the empty space where the girl had bolted.
“What for, dobe?” Sasuke grumbled, leaning against the tree, still holding the charred piece of paper in his prosthetic hand.
“Hikari Kageyama. I’ve seen her somewhere. I fixed that swing, hoping children could play there, not feel the malice I experienced.” His voice was deep, weary.
“She was crying. And there’s no fucking way she would burn her own books”
Sasuke paused, a flicker of recognition crossing his face. The image of a lone, small blonde child, always watching others with longing, flashed in his memory.
“Alright.”
“Hikari Kageyama. Field-promoted Chunin a week ago. Orphan. Father unknown. Mother, Sayuri Kageyama, died July 10, 1664, from lung cancer…. Naruto?” Sasuke look at the too paled Hokage
"Fuck."
"Oi, Dobe!"
If it hadn’t been for Sasuke pushing him back into his chair, Naruto would’ve fallen to the floor in shock.
“It’s her. Himawari’s kind nee-chan.”
“Nee-chan?”
“Remember when Himawari stubbornly wanted that ridiculous tanuki figure?”
Ah...
The kind 'angel' who gave Himawari her figures.
“It’s July 10, the day the figures launched. I won’t forget, because that’s the day I got into a row with Boruto in the morning.”
Naruto inhaled deeply, signaling for Sasuke to continue, his frown deepening as he noticed Sasuke’s frozen stance, his unreadable eyes.
“Teme?”
“Field-promoted Chunin, killed two Nukenin, lone survivor of her Genin team. Born July 10, 1656.”
Sasuke winced as Naruto’s horrified gaze met his, standing so fast that the chair tipping over in the process.
“What the fuck?!”
“Dobe—”
“Shut up, teme! She’s only eight! Why the hell wasn’t she sent to the orphanage?!”
The orphanage, revamped by Naruto, staffed by Tsunade, Shizune, and Sakura, had become a sanctuary for children. Naruto knew every single name of the kids. But there was no Hikari Kageyama.
“Oi!” Naruto barked, his chakra surging with killing intent.
“When her mother died, she went into chakra overload and blew up the ward, injuring several people, including the orphanage staff. They blacklisted her, fearing she would hurt other children and considered her emotionally unstable.”
A heavy silence filled the office. The air was thick with the weight of the revelation. Naruto’s disgusted glare burned a hole in the floor while Sasuke stood, his hand resting firmly on his friend’s shoulder to hold him back from taking action.
Sasuke blinked as Hikari’s expression suddenly shifted to one of shame. She quickly pulled a porcelain mask from her side and covered the left side of her scarred face.
“I’m sorry if I was spying on your training, Uchiha-sama.” Her gaze dropped to the green grass beneath her feet as Sasuke assessed her once more.
“Why were you spying on us?”
“To wait until you finished, and to give this to you, Uchiha-sama.” She stepped forward, offering him her dog tag.
“What is this?” Sasuke asked, his tone cautious.
“I volunteered for the Hokage-sama’s Heavy Rescue Unit, Uchiha-sama.”
Sasuke’s stomach churned. The reason shinobi going on rescue missions gave their dog tags was to prepare for the worst—the chance they wouldn’t return.
Naruto was going to kill him.
“Accepted.”
Hikari’s black eyes widened, and in a flash of red, she appeared in front of the Hokage. Her hands moved rapidly through the seals.
“Kageyama no Seirei!”
In an instant, a wide, glowing Mokuton barrier blocked the enemy’s attack, while pillars of Amaterasu sliced through them. Screams of agony echoed as the flames consumed them, eating them alive.
At that moment, she freed Naruto, while Boruto landed a giant Rasengan on the tree roots and the villain at the same time Hikari struck with her giant Mokuton spear, coated in Amaterasu flames.
The blue spinning chakra mixed with black flames, tearing through Kinshiki Ōtsutsuki and erasing him from existence.
The silence that followed was deafening, drowning out the victorious cheers. Hikari smiled softly, her gaze falling on Boruto, who was crying and hugging Naruto.
She knew the price she had to pay for the jutsu.
She felt it, even before the blood poured from her mouth, or the gaping hole in her chest widened, spilling her life away. She smiled, even as the last thing she saw before her vision darkened was Naruto’s terrified face, his body and hands reaching toward her.
If she had been awake, she would have heard the frantic calls of the Hokage and her uncle (though he didn’t know), desperately calling her name as Boruto and the medics rushed to her, green chakra glowing around them.
But she didn’t hear it.
And the Hokage held her tight, using Kurama’s chakra to race toward Konoha, hoping against hope that he could save her.
.
.
.
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tbc