A young shinobi of sixteen years old was out training with one of his clones at the local training ground, focused on becoming the greatest ninja to have ever existed. He was a tall young man with bright, blonde hair and possessed a pair of bright, friendly, blue eyes. He had the purest of heart, despite the miserable past he had lived through as a child. As much as it pained him, he did not let it affect his training or his dream of becoming the next Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village. In fact, he used it as motivation to pursue his dream. He wanted to gain the respect of his peers. Uzamaki Naruto was determined to never let anything get in his way and vowed to protect everyone that he loved. That was his ninja way.
The young ninja finally took a break from his intense training. His famous orange jumpsuit was all torn up and dirt covered every inch of his tall and muscular frame. He was about to plop down onto the ground when he sensed an unfamiliar presence nearby. He hopped up and pulled out his kunai knives, prepared to attack the intruder when he heard a small whimper and a cry for help. Naruto immediately tracked the owner of the voice and came upon a girl of fourteen years of age.
"Hey," Naruto said. "Wake up."
He gently rocked the unconscious girl, hoping that he could wake her up. As he tried to wake her up, he noticed several bruises on her arms and spotted a poorly concealed black eye. The young shinobi frowned and decided to take this stranger to the hospital. He carefully lifted her up and cradled her in his arms before leaping off into the distance and towards the hospital.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called loudly.
"Keep it down, Naruto." A pink-haired girl scolded. "This is a hospital, you know."
This was Haruno Sakura, the resident medical ninja. She trained under the current Hokage, Lady Tsunade, and gained superhuman strength during her training. The konoichi sported a red top with white stripes and wore black shorts. She wore her ninja headband to hold her bubblegum pink hair up. Her emerald eyes shone brightly underneath the hospital lights but they dimmed when they spotted the unconscious girl in her friend's arms. Naruto explained that she had been attacked by someone, based on the black eye and bruises on her arm. As to who attacked her, he didn't know. Sakura sighed but she was willing to help this stranger. She sensed no danger, but she knew that the girl had to be questioned sooner or later by the Hokage.
"You do know that I have to report this to the Hokage, right?"
The blonde ninja nodded solemnly before handing the patient to Sakura.
Naruto remained in the hospital room with the mysterious girl as he waited for the Hokage to arrive. He admired her silvery blonde hair and he could see through the black eye that she was a very pretty girl. He hoped that the Hokage would let her stay here in the village because he got the sense that she was alone and had nowhere to go. He had no idea why but he did feel that way. It was rather strange. When she woke up, he stared into beautiful violet eyes. However, when he looked deep into them, he found sadness and endless despair inside them. The sadness that he saw very nearly matched his own when he was growing up. He saw trauma and some resentment. It was as if she had been attacked by someone that was supposed to love her. A pang of sorrow rolled through the young ninja's body.
What have you gone through? He wondered.
"So," a voice broke in. "She's waking up. Good."
The blonde looked back and came face to face with the fifth Hokage herself. Her long blonde hair fell down her back in pigtails and her brown eyes had taken a serious look. She was about to scold the young man about bringing potential enemies into the village when she saw the pain and sorrow in his blue eyes as he stared at the girl. That was when she became concerned for the pure-hearted boy. It was unlike the bubbly blonde to be so down. She looked over at her patient and saw the same pain in Naruto's eyes in hers. She still had to interrogate her patient but she sensed that this girl was far from the threat that she had been worried about. In fact, this girl was nowhere near the Akatsuki level. There had been reports of them roaming around the area from Jiraya, specifically one Uchiha Itachi and his partner, Kisame, in search of the legendary demon containers. She sighed before she sat down on a chair and started working on her patient and found more than she expected.
