Searching For Light (Naruto)

The First Memory

I remember. Just being a five-year-old little girl. Still a kid. Still happy.

I sat behind the counter of a bakery. My light, brown hair was slightly white from some flour. I loved to bake, I loved helping make all types of deserts and pastries. Especially cookies...

That day was special to me. Or atleast used to be... It was the day I met him.

He came inside of the shop, wearing a grey jacket. No older than the age of sixteen.

It was snowing heavily that day, so he had to brush snow off from his shoulders, and head.

I laughed when I saw him brushing off the snow from his head. His hair was white so you couldn't tell the difference. He smiled at me, and I stared at him through curious eyes. His eyes were also the same grey as mine.

"You work with my father..." I noted. It was the first time I actually spoke to another person who I didn't know well, first. I ussually kept to myself, I still do.

"Observant, aren't you?" He said, and gestured towards my hair."And you're the one who everyone refers to as the girl with the flour in her hair."

"They also call her 'the quiet one' and the 'curious little girl'." A laugh entered the conversation. It was a boy with black hair, poking his head out from underneath the counter.

The rest of the conversation was still in my mind. In my heart. I tried to forget as much as I could. But my atempts went to no avail.

Somethings you just can't forget.
Especially because....

That was the day I met the boy who's hair was white as snow.

*****

"Ruri..." A hand was waved in front of my face. I smacked it away, and glared up at Kankuro.

"What's going on it that head of yours?" He asked, chuckling.

"Nothing... Just thinking." Was my answer. We were in the Land of Fire now, and it felt nice. Nice, to be finally away from the desert.

"You should savor the heat while you can." He stated, stretching his arms over his head.

"It's the heat I want to get away from for once." I shrugged, stuffing my hands in my pockets.

"Of course you wouldn't feel the cold much. You're practically a lion with all that hair." He commented, flipping a strand of hair off my shoulder.

I glared at him, and he just laughed. He enjoyed annoying me, found amusement in doing so. This whole trip felt longer than it really was. It was filled with long, boring conversations, arguing, and occassionally, silence.

"Kankuro, I get that you're bored, but will you stop bothering the kid." Baki said, and I knew that as soon as he spoke up another argument will be started."It's making you look more childish than you really are."

Well that did it. "Oh will you just..." I tuned them out, and just stared at the ground as we walked. It'll be a while until they shut up. Then after that there will be a peaceful silence, until either someone else gets on my nerves, or another argument is started.

"How are you holding up, Ruri?" Gaara asked me, as he slowed down his pace to walk beside me.

I rose a brow at him,"What do you think?" I looked at the two grown men, still bickering.

"Well, what else did you expect with those two?" He asked.

"You're right." I sighed. What was I expecting? Two ninja to act like, oh I don't know... Ninja?

"Something else seems to be bothering you." He pointed out.

I stayed silent for a minute or two before saying,"They're not the only thing getting on my nerves... My mind is too..."

"Howcome?" That's one thing I could say I didn't dislike about Gaara. He tried his best to keep his questions simple when we had small, normal conversations.
He didn't want to make me feel like I'm being forced to hold a conversation, he allowed me to answer on my own time, and to say as much as I like. It was hard to not get comfortable being around him.

Another thing that I could see that he easily noticed about me was that I wasn't use to holding conversations with others normally, or without constantly distancing myself. It was odd, he was starting to know me better. The feeling that fact gave was weird to me.

"Is it bad?" I answered with a question."To not want to remember anything... Even good the good memories"

"It's something that can't be helped." He replied."There are things that I wish I wouldn't remember."

"Like what?" I looked up at him, wondering what could he have regretted, or what happened in the past that haunted him.

"Who I used to be." He said, causing my eyes to widen slightly."I wasn't someone who was loved, nor loved. I did things that caused others to look at me like a monster. I learned from it..."

"How did you stop being who you used to be?" He adverted his gaze back to me, and smiled at my question.

"Let's just say a certain idiot knocked some sense into me."

******

Gaara's POV

As we entered the Land of Iron, it began to snow lightly. Kankuro, as expected was shivering from
the cold. He frantically rubbed his arms, trying to bring warmth to them. Everyone sighed and shook his head at him.

"How are you two brothers, again?" Baki asked, and I sighed,
"I don't even know anymore."

"Hey!" The puppeteer barked at us,"Don't act like you're not freezing your a-- off!"

"Language." Baki scolded, "There's still a child present." I almost laughed at that.

"What?!" Kankuro yelled in both aggrivation and disbelief."The 'child' swore like twenty-five damn times since she arrived in Suna!"

"I haven't heard her, have you?" Baki asked me.

"No." I played along, causing Kankuro to become further annoyed.

I looked over to Ruri who seemed to be lost in her own world. She wore a green jacket over her usual attire. She was so small that it went just above her knees. The zipper was only clossed from the bottom. It worried me a bit; she could get sick....

She looked like she blend in well with our surroundings. Like she belonged here in the snow. If it wasn't for the unreadable look in her eyes, I would've been convinced that she wanted to stay here. If anything she wanted to leave, but she pushed through
and kept her emotions at bay.

It wasn't really common to see an eight-year-old be so self-possesed. She took control over her actions so easily sometimes, and made her emotions look different from what they really were.

"Can we go?" Ruri asked, becoming impatient.

I nodded,"Let's go. We should get to that inn before the sun goes down."

They all agreed, and we began walking once again. Ruri walked ahead. I knew that whatever is to come in these next few days, it will be anything but easy.

******

When we got to the inn, we were walking through the hall of our floor when suddenly....

"Hey Gaara! It's been a while, believe it!"

So there you go. Sorry I took a while the second semester just started about a week or so ago. And it was defineltley challenging for me to figure out how I was going to start this chapter.

Yes, the jacket Ruri is wearing is the one in the picture in the part that says 'Ruri'.

Anyways thanks for reading, and I hope that you enjoyed it , because the end of this chapter has got to be one of my favorites.

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