Crimson Stained

Chapter 1

The Moment the World Stood Still

Summary-She was cocky, friendly, and cheerful until everything happened. She thought that when she finally found those who she cared for she would be ok. She was wrong because death just seemed to follow her. Who knew that in the future, everything would change."My dream, no my goal, is to protect those I care for, no matter the cost!"-Nikushimi

Kakashi supposed that bringing his students to his apartment, for even the slightest moment, wasn't a good idea. Then, they just had to snoop in his things as he grabbed what he needed.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, who's this?" Kakashi sighed as he realized his students had found his pictures. He didn't have many however he had a few. His students were looking at the three pictures he had on his night table next to his bed. He peered over Naruto to see he was pointing to the middle picture.

The picture on the left was the one of his Genin team. Rin and Obito looked happy while Minato smiled at the camera. Kakashi was brooding.

The picture on the right was of his current team. Naruto was smiling and Sasuke was brooding, Kakashi had a hand on each of their heads as Sakura smiled at the camera.

However Kakashi took in the center picture. He picked it up and smiled at it from under his mask. He placed it face down on the table as memories swarmed him.

"She's an old friend of mine. Let's get back to training." Kakashi led his students out. However Naruto and Sakura both wanted to know more about the picture, and they'd be damned if they didn't find out soon enough.

Throughout their training Kakashi's head was in the clouds. He couldn't get his mind off of the girl in the picture. Memories flashed through his head. Her smile. Her cocky attitude. Her relationship with him, with Obito, with her team, with Rin.

Kakashi looked over to Naruto and remembered the first picture he had seen of Naruto from the Hokage before he became his student. He had been wearing green goggles on his forehead.

'Like Obito, and her….' Kakashi looked up at the sky. Kakashi felt himself blinking back tears, something he hadn't done in years since she had left.

"Oi, Kakashi-sensei! Let's go get ramen!" Kakashi wordlessly nodded and followed his team. But his head was in the clouds because all he could think of was her.

^Seventeen years before ^

Minato was not happy. His two male students, Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Obito were arguing. Again. But that wasn't the problem; the problem was they weren't watching where they were going. And that always caused trouble. Their usually victim was Ms Yui, an older spitfire of a woman who carried around a cane. That she used as a weapon against careless people who ran into her.

"Obito, stop yelling at Kakashi! You know he's right, and Kakashi! Stop antagonizing Obito!" Minato smiled at his peace keeper of the group, Nohara Rin.

"But Rin, he started it!" whined Obito, turning his attention to Rin.

"I'm right Obito." Kakashi stated calmly. Obito glared at Kakashi and was about to retaliate.

"Hey watch it!"

The two tall boys felt something hit into them and they turned to watch a smaller girl, looking to be around the age of eight, fall to the ground. Minato's worry of them hitting Ms Yui was avoided, however now he was afraid that the little girl would start crying and her mother would come out and yell at them.

"Oh sorry little girl!" apologized Obito, kneeling down. The girls face, of what could be seen because dark black bangs with crimson and silver streaks covered the entire top part from just above her nose up, turned red.

"Little girl!?" seethed the girl as she stood up. Obito continued to kneel down, although he stood once he felt the intensity of her glower on him.

"Little girl? I am not little!" she shouted, stomping her foot, "I'll have you know that I am eleven!" Obito was blown away.

"But you're so….small!" he exclaimed. The girl almost growled.

"Shut up! I am not small! I just haven't hit my growth spurt yet! When I do watch out!" she screeched, stomping her foot again and pointing at Obito. Rin pulled Obito back and gave her a sheepish smile.

"I'm very sorry for my teammate's ignorance…."trailed Rin, shooting Obito a glare.

"Humph! And watch where you're going too, you could have ripped my bandages! It takes me forever to redo them when they get ripped for stupid things such as this!" she snapped, gesturing to the bandages that covered her arm. Their eyes followed her body. Every area her skin wasn't covered by clothes was covered by bandages, her legs under her shorts, her arms, her neck, her shoulders, not a single piece of skin showed with the exception of her face. A scar could be seen coming from under her bangs, then it disappeared under the bandages around her neck. No one noticed it except Minato, who was really studying the girl.

"Just chill already." complained Obito. Rin sighed as she saw the girls slowly cooling anger return.

"I will not!" she yelled. Rin sighed.

"What's your name anyway? From your kunai pouch and clothes I would think you're a Shinobi, I've never seen you around." inquired Rin. The girl smirked.

"I'm Ketsueki Nikushimi!" She gave them all a big grin showing slightly sharp teeth, "And don't you forget it!" Obito grinned at her enthusiasm.

"I'm Uchiha Obito!" he replied, stepping forward.

"I'm Nohara Rin, and this is our teammate, Hatake Kakashi. He doesn't talk much." Rin gestured to Kakashi who had his arms crossed and was looking away.

"I'm their sensei, Namikaze Minato." greeted Minato. His eyes trailed over her though.

'Where have I heard that name? Ketsueki…Ketsueki…' wondered Minato.

"Well this was great and all but I have somewhere I have to be! So bye!" Nikushimi rushed around them and took off down the street leaving the ninja curious.

"Huh, she's a bit weird." decided Obito as he started forward, not paying attention. He only made it a few steps though before Minato's eyes widened.

"Wait, Obito!"

Too late.

"Huh, oh!"

A thump.

"You little brat!"

"I'm very sorry Ms Yui!"

Minato sighed. Only Obito would manage to do that.

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Thwack!

Obito stopped at the noise. It had been going on for awhile and he was getting curious.

Thump!

Now Rin stopped, also getting curious.

Thwack!

Kakashi and Minato stopped their sparring now at the noise.

"What is that?" questioned Rin.

Thump!

"Let's go see!" said Obito excitedly.

"It's probably nothing." replied Kakashi, turning back to Minato.

"Or it could be some bad guys trying to invade!" Obito took off at that prospect. Rin went after him yelling for him to stop and come back. Minato sighed and he went after them too, Kakashi following him.

Thwack!

They came upon a clearing and they stood and watched the clearings inhabitant. They watched as she collected kunai and shuriken from targets before stalking to the middle of thee clearing. She took a deep breath before she started throwing the kunai and shuriken again. Obito was fascinated.

"Wow Nikushimi, you're good!" he called once she was done and he noticed she had hit each target almost exactly in the middle. Nikushimi looked over, startled when she heard them.

"Oh it's you guys!" she started collecting the shuriken and kunai again as they walked into the clearing.

"That was pretty good! It's hard to hit this many targets in the center, especially at the speed you were at." praised Obito. Nikushimi grinned at him.

"Thanks but the real challenge," she replied, going through two worn looking bags strapped to each of her thighs. She pulled out Senbon from each and held them between her fingers, "Is using my senbon."

"You can't possibly hit all the targets in the center with those," Obito denied, "Impossible!"

"You wanna bet?" challenged Nikushimi.

"You bet I do! I bet that you can't hit all the targets with the senbon." bet Obito. Nikushimi frowned.

"That's not a fair bet since you don't know my abilities, how about you have to try and hit the targets too? So the bet is that I bet that I can hit the boards and you can't while you bet that you can hit the boards and that I can't. The loser has to treat the winner to lunch, deal?" suggested Nikushimi. Obito nodded.

"Deal." He held out his hand. Nikushimi shook it and stalked out to the center while the others in the clearing relocated to the edge of the clearing on a rock. Nikushimi got in a ready stance.

'And…go!' thought Nikushimi.

Nikushimi's moves were graceful. She didn't make a single unnecessary step and it seemed like she was dancing. The senbon flew from her hands, straight and powerful. Obito watched, entranced by her movements. Rin's eyes widened, Nikushimi's moves were beautiful, if not for the senbon flying from her fingers into the targets Rin would have thought Nikushimi was really dancing!

'Right, left, up, right, left, down, turn, right, left, down, right, left, up, up, right, left, finish!' Nikushimi counted every step, every movement in her head as she moved

Nikushimi ended with her knees bent and her arms out, no needles left. Minato, Rin, Kakashi and Obito's eyes scoured the clearing looking for any empty targets. A few targets were a little shaky with the senbon a little off the center, but for the most part they were mainly in the center.

'That was impressive, especially for someone so young….is she a Genin?' wondered Minato as Obito's eyes widened.

'Crap, now I have to go up if I want to even make it a tie!' Obito slowly moved to where Nikushimi was taking out senbon for him, 'And I don't even know how to use senbon! Me and my big mouth…'

"Here, you can back out now if you want, Uchiha." taunted Nikushimi. Obito grit his teeth.

"No way, I'll show you!"

'I'm so screwed….'

Obito tried his best to hold the senbon like Nikushimi; however he found that it was not easy in the slightest. The senbon refused to stay straight for him and they would slip from btween his fingers.

"C'mon, we're waiting!" called Nikushimi from her spot sitting crisscross on the rock next to Rin who was swinging her legs back and forth, waiting for Obito.

"Oh, I'm going!"

'Here we go, don't mess up!'

Obito's movements were clumsy. He took too many steps and he wasn't graceful in the slightest. His senbon flew shakily and strayed from their set path. The ones that did hit the targets sometimes fell off because they weren't thrown hard enough or didn't enter the board properly. When he was finished he looked at the results and groaned.

He barely hit half the boards, and the ones that did hit were either on the very far outer rim. One senbon was somewhat near the center, but it was quite obvious that it happened out of pure look.

"Hey Obito!" Obito looked to Nikushimi and found her smirking at him, "Looks like you're getting me lunch!" Obito frowned and looked to his team.

"Hey Rin, want to come?" Rin giggled, knowing he was trying to get someone else to pay.

"Sorry Obito, I have a shift at the hospital and you know Kaede-sensei. Bye." Rin waved and took off in a jog through the trees. Obito looked to where Minato had been sitting but found the spot empty. Next he turned to Kakashi who gave him a dead look.

"No." And then Kakashi just walked away. Obito sighed and looked to Nikushimi who had run around collecting all her kunai, shuriken, and senbon that had been discarded on the ground.

"Let's go, I'm starving!" Nikushimi grinned at him cheekily.

Obito led Nikushimi through the village insisting he knew a great place to eat. When they arrived they found themselves at a quaint little café. They slid into a booth and ordered.

"So Nikushimi, how'd you get to be so good at using senbon?" asked Obito curiously. Nikushimi chuckled.

"In my clan before you can even think about using your Kekkei-Genkai you have to learn to use senbon first." replied Nikushimi as the waitress brought their food. Nikushimi grinned and took a large forkful of her cake and shoved it into her mouth. She devoured her cake quickly.

"Geez, you act like you've never eaten before." teased Obito. Nikushimi paused mid bite.

"I usually skip breakfast except for maybe a small ration bar, and I go without lunch and I get a somewhat small dinner later." Obito gave her an incredulous look to which she shrugged at.

"You need a healthy three meal diet as a Shinobi Nikushimi!" exclaimed Obito. Nikushimi gave him another shrug.

"Well, it's how I get by." she replied as she took another bite of her cake. Obito blinked upon realizing something.

"That's why you were so eager to make that bet on lunch! Because you never get any!" realized Obito, he was proud he made that deduction. Nikushimi swallowed her mouthful of cake before replying.

"You're right, I usually train all day." She took another bite right after finishing her sentence. Obito got a brilliant idea next.

"Hey Nikushimi, want to make another bet?" he asked. She smirked as she swallowed.

"Is this one as easy as the last?" she asked.

"No, I bet that if you train me I can learn to use senbon!" exclaimed Obito. Nikushimi blinked.

"What makes you think I'd train you?" questioned Nikushimi. Obit frowned.

"Because if you win the bet I have to do whatever you say for a week! And if I win, you have to do whatever I say for a week!" Nikushimi weighed her options.

'Hm, I suppose Obito looked really clumsy, I don't think he'll pick it up very fast…'

"Ok, so how about we go until the end of February? I doubt you'll pick it up fast, its September now, so it'll probably work." Nikushimi nodded her head to her plan.

"Alright, deal, shake on it?" Obito held out his hand. Nikushimi shook his hand.

"Deal."

And in that moment, it seemed like the world stood still just to watch the beginning of their friendship.

AN

So, first chapter to Crimson Stained. This idea is completely planned out, and I think it will be pretty good compared to some of my other stories. It's supposed to be pretty long too.

So tell me what you think so far, do you like Nikushimi? Is Team Minato out of character?

Tell me your thoughts.

Sayonara