What She Lacked {Naruto X OC}

Juu Kyuu ~ Yumiko

You're not trying to make them regret abandoning you, you're trying to catch up to them, to be accepted as one of them.

This thought started tormenting me lately.

It reminded me of the few fractions of memories I still have of my family.

***

I was a just a dumb girl, my eyes shined at all the darkness of the world and my hair hadn't even properly grown yet.

I was innocent, I didn't understand death.

I didn't understand unfairness.

I didn't understand inequality.

I didn't understand myself.

The poor girl I was had no idea of how unjust life was to her. She grew up around ninjas, real fighters that would put their life on the line to protect their village.

However, she didn't know the only thing that she had in common with those people was the blood.

The closest she could get to being a kunoichi was because she had the blood of the Nakanishi flowing inside her veins.

And it suddenly brought back a full memory.

***

I was walking alone throught some plains, completely lost. The only thing I could think was my mother telling me to run.

She knew they would come, so she sent me away... My clan really believed in me then...

I feel... important. Am I really the one to take such a job of saving the future of my family?

Those thoughts just made my head weight, I had to focus on escaping, otherwise they would come for me too.

It was scary, having no one of my family to locate me and help me. Knowing that professional killers would be behind my back at any time now...

So I ran even faster.

That was the only thing I did for the past week. It made me exhausted.

I was falling apart, my body felt ten times heavier, it was unbearable. My limbs felt uncomfortable, specislly my legs. They were hurting me and I could take it.

But I couldn't give up now... Could I? So close to feeling alive again, just a few minutes away of my salvation...

And I started crawling, like a savage animal that failed to do its job with nature of killing a prey, and when I was just several meters away from the Leaf's foreign gates... I passed out.

***

I was so stupid, thinking I could really honor my clan... But I know better now.

She lied, just like the rest of my family...

She didn't tell me to leave so I could survive the massacre and restore my clan. That escuse of a mother just burried me in lies, making use of my young age, and my stupidness. My innocence...

No massacre is warned about, its impossible to forsee your familiars getting killed by a sudden attack of assassins...

But I still saw blood, something still happened... I'm so confused.

Was I really trying to play the tough girl with a sad past that has a clear goal in life?

I was just making a fool of myself.

My mother would never fake a massacre, why would she put so much effort just to shoo away a powerless girl?

...They really did die, didn't they?

I looked out the window, it was already nighttime. The moon stood out, being the only natural source of light around.

And another evening was spent locked inside my room, just me, myself and I.

Tomorrow is my mission, I have to be prepared. I can't deprive myself from sleep just thinking about what has already happened, and regretting the things I did and didn't do.

I have to forget about all that, it's in the past now, don't suffer in the present.

You're a different person now, a recently officialized Genin ready to fight for the place she calls home now.

Forget about Takigakure... What did they ever give to you? Traumas, that's it. Taki is not a place to be called home, not for Nakanishi Yumiko.

You're a Genin, hours away from your first mission, in Konoha.

And with Naruto, one of the best people ever, if not the best.

Back in the Waterfall village you had no one, not a friend like him, but now... All you can do is thank him for existing, for treating you like a person.

.... Should I train again? Just to make sure I am useful in this mission...

No, Naruto wod take me back home again, and tell me I'm overworking myself.

I guess I'll just cook dinner since Naruto probably ate everything that was left from the last meal.

***

"What will it be today, Yumi-chan?!" And my attention drifted completely from cooking to the excited boy who just seemed to pop out of nowhere behind me.

I turned my head slightly to the side, trying to take a look at him.

His eyes again, always hungry and curious. Pretty blue orbs glimmering at the simple soup I was preparing this time.

"Will this have that narutomaki thing too?" He asked me. So this is what he was thinking of, how cute. I smiled at him and let out a small laugh. Having my brown eyes look back at the soup.

"No, I'm sorry. I never tried putting narutomaki in normal soup." And as soon as he took in the information, his face fell, making me feel bad.

Guilty of the short-term depression he was going to have until I cooked something with narutomaki again.

"B-But if you want I can put some in your soup." I couldn't resist, the smile that crept on his face was adorable. His dull eyes suddenly started shining again, and reflecting the soup he was staring at so attentively.

"I want!"

"Then with narutomaki it will be..."