Fight (a Naruto reborn fanfiction)

🍄🥀 XIX 🥀🍄

just came back from a school-event I actually enjoyed! I sang so much dude it feels like I'm dying but it was worth it 'cause now I can sing nothing else matters with ~70 people and it sounds divine! Like honestly, the first time I heard the bass I was in heaven. It was really cool.

Enjoy the chapter or else I will come for your left middle-finger. (Props to my sister once again for providing me with the basis of the threat. Love you sis.)

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Orichimaru is sitting at home, reading peacefully when the news reach him. They come with a messenger bird, black parchment nearly not discernible between the feathers of the crow. Everyone in Konoha knows what those scrolls mean and Orichimaru feels like he has to vomit. His parents haven't been home for a few weeks but that's not that uncommon.

He'd held onto a string of hope up until now, wiped away by the names that are written on the paper. Orichimaru doesn't go to team-practice that day.

Himari has had a long day. She has trained, caught a cat, tried to persuade her sensei to teach her Fūinjutsu, painted a big ass wall and tried to keep Kagami from throwing paint at her. Suffice to say that she failed. There's blue, green and red colour all over her beautiful shirt and her hair are a pink mess.

She's in a relatively good mood nonetheless until she feels something. Overwhelming emotions, or rather, the attempt at hiding said feelings. It's concerning in more ways than one, because her summons can block out such things most of the time, so to feel it to this extent makes her panic.

What could've happened? Did she forget something? It's been so long and she hasn't tried to preserve her memories as good as she could've. They were sorted into teams. She remembers Jiraiya and Orichimaru beginning their rivalry around this time and...

A horrifying thought crosses her mind. She has to see if she's wrong, now. She wants to be wrong. She has to be wrong. Himari arrives at Orichimaru's home, shunshins directly into the kitchen. Being careful has to wait.

She sees a black, open scroll on the table. The emotions she can still feel are churning even more now, it's like she's drowning in them. She calls her summoning back, unable to bear it any longer. As she quietly opens the door to Orichimaru's bedroom, filled with books his parents bought him, she can see his silhouette, cowering in the corner of his bed.

He's trying to hold it together, she realizes. He's still young, barely seven, and he shouldn't bottle up his feelings like that.

"Orichimaru", she says, trying to sound comforting.

He makes a noise in confirmation and mumbles something she can't quite catch.

she stands still, not allowing herself to rush towards him and comfort him like she desperately wants to. "Can I come closer?"

A subtle nod after a pause. She slowly approaches him until she reaches the bed, where she once again stops.

"I'm sorry."

He finally turns around, silent tears streaming down his face. She opens her arms, inviting him to hug her if he wants to but not pressuring him. It seems to break something in him and he launches himself forward, grasping at her shirt as he finally allows himself to really cry. They stay like that for a while, not saying anything of meaning, just comforting each other.

The talk that follows after is something that changes things. It's something that Orichimaru didn't have in the original, or at least it wasn't shown in any way. And as Tsunade and Jiraiya arrive at the house an hour later, they find Orichimaru sleeping in Himari's lap, eyes puffy from crying.

Himari is fondling with his hair, brushing her fingers through the strands and quietly humming to herself. They learn more about Himari's past that day, not the one in Kiri but the one she has kept secret from everyone. It's nothing outstanding, just a few songs she remembers and funny stories that keep their minds from wandering and the darkness from festering in their hearts.

And when Orichimaru wakes up the next morning, he does so with three of his closest friends (although he detests calling Jiraiya that) right beside him. It helps him heal.

The years pass and as they grow older, their power grows as well. Exponentially. There are two teams left of their generation, Team seven and Team nine, a group of geniuses never seen before. Usually, such talent appears once every ten years, so to have six of them in one year is rare.

They aren't always treated as such, however, because while the Senju princess, the Uchiha and the Hatake-heir are praised and loved for their achievements, Himari and Jiraiya are mostly overlooked. Orichimaru is still looked down upon, even though now there is a smudge of fear in the eyes of the casual pedestrian who sees him.

They are Jonin now, promoted only a few weeks ago in the first Jonin-exam since the war. Sadly, it will also be one of the last ones, since Kumo is already gathering troops again.

Himari is keeping her heritage a secret from everyone still, afraid that they will hate her for it even though they have been friends for so long. She fights without any indicator of belonging to a clan, with fire-jutsus she has created herself, always holding back that animalistic side of her that yearns for brutal battle.

It's the price she had to pay for survival, but it is getting increasingly harder to keep it in check. That's why she sometimes takes on solo-missions, tears through enemies of Konoha with outstanding cruelty only to reign it in again moments later.

But other than that, she's fine. Technically, their teams are disbanded now, since they are all Jonin, not to mention the fact that Umo died on the battlefield two years ago. Still, they take on missions together, they keep their bonds strong.

Sakumo and Kagami have grown beautifully, still protecting that fluttering of lightness in their chests even after killing. Actually, killing is no big deal for any of them anymore. It's what they were brought up with and the world has normalised it to a point where it just becomes routine.

The Sanin have changed, but their bond is kept strong. To summarize it: They have grown, both body and mind, but their friendship has not broken because of it. Instead, it has only grown stronger. That is what Himari thinks.

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Absolutely hate this chapter but anyways. I just really wanted to get to the big timeskip asap and I could for the death of me not figure out a better way to do this.So here it is, after over a month of waiting time.

I have a latin-exam next week and should probably study but my muse just came back to me, poked my brain and said "Write. Write or I will take away cookie privileges." And since I don't want to have those taken away from me, I  had no other choice.

Naruto is Kishimoto's toy, I'm just playing with it.