*I don't own Naruto, Final Fantasy VII, or any of their characters.

The little four-year old ran through her family's garden excitedly.

Her mama, pregnant with her future baby brother or sister, had given her the okay to play in the gardens, while her papa had no arguments against it. Considering how her father preferred her to stay indoors where she could be watched and protected ever since that scary man had tried to take her away, this had been a pleasant surprise. While it would've been better if she had some kids her own age to play with her, like her cousin Neji… the gardens were still fun for the little heiress.

She couldn't wait to explore the gardens some more- last time, she had managed to find a crane in one of the ponds! Her mama had been happy to hear that, for she considered cranes to be good luck. Sure enough, not long after that her future sibling started to grow in her mama's belly.

Maybe, the heiress thought to herself, I can find something that Papa considers good luck, and then something good could happen to him, too!

Suddenly, she could hear something ahead of her. Freezing, the girl's eyes widened with a slight amount of fear. Did someone sneak into the gardens?

Her ears straining, she figured out that the noises (which sounded like someone breathing harshly) were coming from beyond a bush that was ahead and to her left- a place she had not yet been.

While the part of her that remembered the scary man simply wanted to run and hide, the part that wanted to become strong like her papa wanted to conquer her fear and investigate. Deciding on the latter, she slowly but surely inched towards the strange bush.

As she peered through the branches, her eyes widened with shock- there was a boy sitting there!

Her eyes widened as she took in his shoulder-length silver hair, the brief glimpses of oddly-shaded green eyes, and the features that were unlike any she had seen before. He looked no older than some of the newly-made Genin she had seen, yet at the same time he seemed to be far more skilled… and it was obvious from the way he was searching his surroundings frantically that he had no idea where he was.

Taking a step forward to investigate more, her foot landed on a twig. As it snapped under her weight, the boy immediately spun towards her.

The eleven-year old boy stared at the little girl that he could see peering through the shrubbery ahead of him, her strange white eyes wide with fear.

Last he recalled, he had been facing one of Hojo's latest experiments- yet another creature for him to test his abilities on. The only upside he could see to the whole situation was that soon he would officially be transferred to the Shinra military and these pointless battles would finally end.

The creature had been enormous, too- almost the size of a Behemoth- and had unknown capabilities, having been a bastard cross between many different monsters. However, it seemed to not be difficult to defeat… at least, until it had, in a last-ditch move, created some sort of dense sphere and hurled it at him. As soon as the strange sphere struck him, his body had stiffened with pain… and then, darkness consumed his vision.

When he came to, he had found himself in this strange place.

It had been with a rare trickle of fear that he sat up started to glance around, trying to catalogue various dangers. However, the more he looked the more he didn't recognize any of the flora surrounding him… which only increased his fear, for Hojo had made sure to include the plant-life of Gaia (which even included rare plants from Wutai and the Nibel Mountains) in his many studies.

Dimly, he had noticed that his breathing had turned harsh in his fear, and was grateful that Hojo was obviously not here to observe this moment of weakness.

Suddenly hearing a branch snapping, he had turned towards the source- leading him to his current situation.

He couldn't help but continue to stare at the little girl- she was the first person he had ever seen that was younger than him. Indeed, she was actually the first child he had ever laid eyes on, for there were no other children in the labs and he had never been allowed to leave the labs before.

A strange urge struck him then- maybe she could become his first ever friend?

Slowly, so as not to scare the girl, he maneuvered himself into a kneeling position similar to what he had recalled the nicer lab techs doing to him when he had been about her age.

"Why are you hiding behind the bush?" he asked, curious about this fact. After all, in many of the stories he had read children her age were generally very curious and thanks to their innocence were often unaware of the danger they foolishly approached.

After a few moments, where he figured that the girl would run away to wherever she had come from, she finally answered, "Because you don't look like anyone I know, and I dunno if you want to hurt me."

"Hurt you? Why would I want to do that?"

At this declaration, the little girl seemed to gain enough courage to fully come out of the bush as she replied, "I dunno… for the same reason that the other scary man tried to take me away?"

His eyebrows furrowed at this. Someone had attempted to kidnap his potential new friend? Looking closer, he noticed that her clothes- an odd style that looked similar to what he had seen in his books about Wutai royalty- were made of silk that was an obvious high quality. It was more than likely that her attempted kidnapping had been for political reasons, he mused.

She watched as the strange boy fell silent. Her papa had done the same thing many times before, so she knew that he must be thinking hard about something.

After several moments of this, (like most children her age) she fidgeted at the silence, and decided to break it.

"So, are you going to try and take me away?" she asked boldly, then blushed as he started slightly and focused once more on her.

Shaking his head, he replied, "I don't even know where I am, let alone how to get back to… to where I normally live. So, how can I take you away?"

"Well, I can tell you where you are! You're in the Hyuuga Clan gardens in the Hidden Leaf Village!" she said cheerfully, so happy by his answer that she took it upon herself to tell him where he was.

She was surprised when a confused look settled on his face.

Hidden Leaf Village? Where was that? He had never come across such a place in his studies.

"What do you mean, the Hidden Leaf Village?" he asked.

The girl, obviously confused by his lack of knowledge, drew her eyebrows together as she said slowly, "You've never heard of it?" As he shook his head negatively, she continued, "Have you heard of the Land of Fire, then? My Papa once said that our Village is responsible for its protection."

Land of Fire? What kind of place was this?

"No," he said slowly, "I can honestly say I've never heard of the Land of Fire. I've memorized all the names of the various towns and villages across the planet, and-" he stopped suddenly. It couldn't be… "Have you ever heard of Shinra Electric Company? Or Midgar?"

Cocking her head to the side, the little girl asked, "What are those?"

Shock coursed through him at that statement. It was obvious that she was telling the truth, for the confusion and curiosity in her eyes was apparent. To never have heard of the company that ruled the planet or the city that was its home could only mean one thing- the monster's attack had sent him to either another world… or even another dimension. After all, didn't summons come from another dimension? His mind whirled as he realized the sheer implications of this.

"Are you okay?" came her voice, breaking through his stunned thoughts.

Focusing once more on the little girl, his voice trembled for the first time since he was her age as he answered, "I don't think I am… for I'm so far away from where I belong that I don't know if I ever can get back."

Hinata Hyuuga awoke slowly, not wanting to leave the dream of a happier time. Eyes staring at the ceiling above her bed, she laid there as she reminisced on her memories of the boy that had appeared in the gardens.

After he had said that curious statement (which to this day still makes her wonder what he had meant), the boy had introduced himself as Sephiroth. She had introduced herself as well, then (like most children) asked if he had wanted to play.

He accepted, and together the two of them had spent a happy afternoon playing tag (which he had never played before- she had been delighted to take on the role of teacher, thanks to the fact that a child her age rarely got to be so) in that tiny corner of the gardens.

All too soon, though, she could hear her father's voice, calling out for her to come back inside. The two new friends had pouted (she more than he) as they realized that their fun was at an end for the day. She had promised him that she would return to their newly dubbed 'secret place', though, with maybe some snacks. He promised that he'd wait, and then they parted ways.

For the next three days, she had managed to convince her parents to let her play in the gardens, and each day Sephiroth had been in their secret place, waiting for her. They would eat whatever she could manage to charm from the cooks, and then they would play everything from hide and seek to cloud watching.

The fourth day, however, when she had arrived at the secret place he hadn't been there.

She had panicked, thinking that the scary man that had tried to take her away had stolen her new friend. As searched and searched, she began to cry, deep sobs of despair. A guard had heard her, and thinking she was about to be kidnapped again had rushed into the secret place thinking only to see her searching for her lost friend with a newly-activated Byakugan.

He had taken her to her father, where once she had calmed down she explained who she had been searching for. At first, he seemed angry that she had been playing with a complete stranger that could've had ill intent towards her. However, once she described Sephiroth's odd eyes, including that strange pupil that she had only seen before in cats, he then assumed that Sephiroth had merely been an imaginary friend that she had conjured up, and calmed down. The fact that the Hyuuga guards hadn't seen such a boy on the property only supported this fact.

However, she knew to this day that those four days with Sephiroth were real. After all, there had been moments when his eyes had filled with a sadness that she knew she couldn't have dreamt up with at that age, and his apparent loneliness that she had glimpsed in his body language long before he saw her. He had been so happy to see her each time, as if he feared that she would abandon him one day. How could a four-year old dream up something like that, especially a sheltered heiress like her?

Shortly after this event, her father had allowed some of the guards to finally escort her into the village proper… where she had seen a blonde-haired boy with eyes as sad as her lost friend's.

Yes, in fact, that was probably the reason she had become fascinated with Naruto long before he had protected her from those bullies- he had been eerily similar to Sephiroth, with the same sadness and loneliness resounding through his being.

When she was with him, at times she felt like she was with her lost friend once again. It was the closest she could get to the happiness she had felt during those four glorious days, even after she had fallen in love with Naruto.

However, she mused as she finally got up to face the day, it was no use thinking of days long past. After all, it was highly unlikely that she would ever see Sephiroth again.

Sephiroth's eyes opened as he recalled the dream he had, the one of the best four days of his life. He dreamed of those days often.

Little Hinata had indeed become his friend like he had hoped, and for four glorious days he had felt like a normal boy, albeit one who could outwit the guards that he had discovered patrolling the first night he had stayed in the Hyuuga gardens. As he stayed one step ahead of them each night, for the first and only time in his life he had been grateful to Hojo for putting him through the hell that was his childhood- it allowed him to continue to see his friend without anyone interfering.

However, on the fifth morning he had awoken to the same pain that he had felt when the monster had hit him with the sphere that had sent him here. As he writhed on the ground, he had become so scared that he would never see Hinata again. He could still remember thinking as darkness once more claimed his vision how he didn't want to lose the only friend he had.

After the darkness cleared, he had found himself once more in front of the monster. From the looks that he gained from glancing around at the scientists, it seemed like only five minutes had passed. He could vaguely hear Hojo ordering the others to catalogue what that last attack had been, and why Specimen S had seemed disappear for those five minutes.

Sephiroth didn't give them a chance to gain more data from the monster, for in a rage matched by none he had ever felt before (or, indeed, felt since) he had utterly demolished the creature. Nothing, not even a speck of blood, had remained once he had finally calmed down.

After all, it had sent him to the Promised Land, where a little girl had been his friend… and then stole him away once more, leaving him back in a friendless Hell where Hojo tortured him in order to learn what had happened to his prized specimen during those five minutes.

Indeed, Hojo was still in the dark about what had happened, for Sephiroth had felt the need to protect his now long-lost friend. He still guarded her memory jealously, for he knew that if he told anyone about what he had experienced they would assume that he would be making it all up, maybe as a fantasy to tide him through his darkest days about a time where he had simply been a boy and not someone bred for war.

He knew, however, that what he experienced in the Hyuuga Clan gardens were real. After all, how else would he have known how to play tag, hide and seek, and the many other games Hinata had taught him? Certainly, no one would've even thought to have taught him in the labs. How else would he have recognized the feelings of friendship when he had started to hang out with Genesis and Angeal, if it hadn't been for a little four-year old girl with strange white eyes that to this day he had not found on anyone else?

Sephiroth figured that the creature's attack had been meant as a tool specifically to confuse its foe, and would use the chance to either flee, or (as in the case of this one) if it couldn't flee then deal a critical blow to the confused enemy once it had returned.

It was a double-edged sword for Sephiroth, though, when Hojo couldn't figure out how to replicate that creature. For, if Hojo had managed to replicate the creature, then Sephiroth (and maybe others) could fight it in hopes that it would use that attack once more and send him back to the place where he had first experienced true happiness, and to the one who had given him that happiness.

As the years passed, and he eventually grew to become the General, he never stopped wishing that he would be able to see Hinata at least once more. Too bad that wishes rarely came true, though.

A/N: I know, I know, I SHOULDN'T be starting another multi-chapter story when I've got so many others not finished! However, this idea just HAD to be written. Updates will be sporadic, though, and to those of you who also follow me on dA this WILL be exclusive to here.