A/N: I know I shouldn't keep creating new stories but this had been in my mind for a few days now.

When Naru Uzumaki was twelve, she made the biggest decision in her life.

She made this decision as soon as she recovered from her wounds inflicted by Sasuke. As soon as she could move without wincing in pain and saw that most of her friends had recovered from the attack, she decided to leave the village. She wanted to see the countries outside the Elemental Countries, she wanted to travel the world that the merchants used to talk about. There were countries just waiting to be discovered, countries filled with so much more potential and perhaps she would get stronger if she went there.

If she wanted to bring back her best friend, she needed to become a lot stronger.

So in the middle of the night when everyone in the hospital was asleep, Naru sneaked out of the hospital and went to her apartment. She stuffed her backpack filled with her emergency stash of food along with some spare clothes before scribbling down letters to her friends. She knew they would worry if they couldn't find her and knew they might jump to the worse conclusion about what happened to her. Besides, if she said goodbyes to them face to face then they would try to stop her and tell her she could become stronger in the village.

They would not understand the journey she had to make.

So she left the letters on their doorsteps before walking out of the village gates with a backpack in hand. It wasn't the final time she was going to see the village, she would remind herself as she made the journey towards the nearest port that would send her to the first port outside of the Elemental Nations. In three years she would come back home and bring Sasuke back to the village. Everything would go back to the way it was after three years.

Though Naru knew in her heart that nothing was ever going to go back the way it was before because no one was ever going to trust Sasuke after what he did. No one would blame the hickey mark on Sasuke's neck and they might call her insane to bring him back home but Naru was going to keep her promise to Sakura.

It took her a while to find a boat travelling outside the Elemental Nations but when she did find it, Naru wasted no time to sneak into the boat. She didn't know where the boat was going exactly until three days into the journey she heard the sailors talk about going to Whale Island to deliver them some food. When she heard the name of the port, Naru wanted to laugh but held herself back. If she laughed out loud then she would be discovered by these sailors and then they might force her out of the boat before they got out of the Elemental Nations, so she bit her lips until the sailors were gone.

She spent two weeks in the boat, two terrible weeks where the only things she could eat was her wonderful ramen in a small crater with nothing to do but think about her plans. She brought a limited amount of money with her in this journey of hers and Naru didn't know if the people outside of the Elemental Nations accepted her country's currency.

It was two weeks into her journey that the boat finally stopped rocking. At first, Naru hadn't thought much of it until she heard the sound of something hitting the ground and the cries of the sailor crying out land, telling her they had made their destination. So without a second thought, Naru pushed herself out of the crater, breathed in the air and waited till all the sailors were gone before rushing out of the boat to see where she landed.

The first thing which came to Naru's mind when she saw the port was the town was smaller then how the merchants described the cities outside of the Elemental Nations. The second thing she noticed was the fact the people here didn't give her any weird looks if anything they would give her a smile before going back to their work. The third thing which came to her mind was what was she going to do with her life now that she was out of the Elemental Nations.

She knew the merchants talked about the countries being more dangerous but looking around, Naru didn't see how this small island could be dangerous. In fact, it didn't look like it could give her a good adventure or give her good training.

Naru's thoughts were interrupted when she heard the gasps of the people around her. Blinking her eyes, Naru watched as a boy around her age came walking in the streets with a fish four his size on his shoulder. For a civilian the boy was strong, Naru thought, watching as he dropped the fish in front of a pretty orange-haired woman, who looked defeated at the sight of the huge fish.

"Even with five men, we weren't able to catch the pond's master!" A man said, looking at the huge fish in awe.

The old man beside him nodded his head. "I've fished here for ten years, and I thought we would never see it."

The boy beamed at everyone's words, smiling ear to ear as people continued to talk about his achievement. Almost everyone in the crowd was praising him with the only people not giving him compliments was the pretty orange-haired woman who stared at the fish in annoyance. The boy didn't look put out, seeming to be fishing something out of his pockets and grinned even wider when he pulled out a card from his pockets, waving it in front of the woman.

What the hell was going on?

"I fished the pond's master like I promised!" The boy said, handing the woman the card. "Your turn to keep your promise, Mito-san!"

A man laughed and shook his head at the irritated orange-haired woman. "Let him pass this exam!"

"Yeah!" Another man added, smiling widely. "I'm sure Gon will be a very good hunter!"

The woman Mito glared, put her hands on her hips and growled at the two men. "Pay attention to what you say!"

Naru laughed when she saw the two men smiled sheepishly at the young woman before turning their back away from her. The people around them shook their heads before muttering under their breaths about how they were idiots to make a comment in front of the woman. From what Naru could see, the woman was very protective of the boy if she didn't want him to do some kind of exam.

"She's right," The boy said, grinning. "Words are important and wasn't it you, Mito-san that taught me to always keep my promises? Wasn't it?"

The young woman looked defeated at his words and without a second word, the woman snatched the card and started to walk away from the crowd with the black-haired boy trailing behind her. Why didn't she want the boy to do an exam? It was just a paper exam, right? There was no way he could do an exam like chunin exams could he? After all, civilians couldn't do those exams, right? She glanced at the disappearing crowds and then to the disappearing figure of the boy before finally deciding to ask the people of this town in the exam.

Smiling widely, Naru walked to one of the men and tugged their shirt's sleeves. The man turned around, blinked his eyes at the sight of her before giving her a smile.

"How can I help you?"

"What did you mean by Hunter?" The man blinked his eyes at her. "And why doesn't that lady want him to do some exam to become a hunter?"

The man gazed long and hard at her before shaking his head. "I've no idea why Mito-san doesn't want Gon to be a hunter, it's in his blood to become one but then again there're rumors about the Hunter Exams killing people. Knowing Mito-san, she probably doesn't want to see Gon get hurt."

"But what is so dangerous about being a Hunter? They just hunt animals don't they?" Naru asked, furrowing her eyebrows at them.

The man chuckled at her words. "A hunter is a job where they hunt for anything that can be hunted. Hunters hunt not just animals but people and even valuable things as well as information. There are some rumors that hunters have access to information that no human can get. Still becoming a hunter isn't easy, you need to be strong to become one."

"How strong are we talking about?"

"Strong enough to survive the trials of the Hunter Exam," the man answered, gazing at the clear blue sky. "If those rumors are true then if a person isn't careful in those exams then there's a chance they could die...it isn't an easy exam."

If those exams were as hard as the man claimed to be then Naru wanted to join the exams. This might be a way she could get stronger and if what the man said was true then she could get information on long lost techniques without getting into trouble. She licked her cracked lips and wondered if she should take the risk of joining these exams. If she wanted to become stronger then she should take the risk of getting hurt. Maybe, these exams could push her to her limits especially since she wouldn't have her teammates to help her in these exams.

"Do y'know where the Hunter Exams are going to be?"

"Kid, are you crazy? I just told you that these exams could get you killed and you still want to join it? You're just as insane as Gon."

The blonde grinned at him. "Don't judge me! I might look small but I have a mean punch!"

The man stared at her and shook his head before saying, "Was I like this in your age? I can't believe I'm telling you this but the Hunter Exams are rumored to be taking place in Zaban City."

"And how do I get there?"

"There's a boat heading towards Dolle Harbour," The man answered, pointing towards the biggest boat in the harbour.

Staring at the big boat, Naru thought of her promise to Sakura and then back to her fight against Sasuke. If she had been stronger, she would have been able to bring her best friend back home. The only way to bring back her best friend was to break every bone in his body and show him her beliefs was stronger than any stupid idea he ever had. If she wanted to fulfill her promise and have her team go back to being the way it was before, she was going to take a risk.

These exams might be her first step to becoming a stronger person.

A/N: Please review.