A/N: New story, comin' at cha! In all seriousness though, it does contain an OC. My main objective is to tie this OC in to the original story line as much as I can, which means NO MARY-SUEING. I've tried to follow the Naruto story line, though there are tweaks (the age of the characters being one. Try 16/17 instead of 12. Also the insertion of modern gadgets - phones, ipods, gaming consoles, etc. I've tried not to mention them too much though, so don't run off just yet.) Later chapters will explain the rating, so just hang in there, and be sure to tell me what you think!

Enjoy. :)

Hotaru rolled to her side, feeling the mass of dead leaves and small twigs crackle beneath her sad excuse for a mattress.

It was stuffy inside the tent. It smelt of stale beer, of sweat, of bodies previously covered by one another, of his breath, her breath, everything all combined and mixed and morphed into one peculiar scent. She sat up, exhaling, feeling blindly around the dark tent floor looking for her top. And her panties. And whatever else it was that she had thrown over herself before she had stupidly left the comfort of her room.

"Looking for these?" Alakai's grin was just as shrewd as the glint in his eyes. The dim glow from the fire outside of their tent ignited their color - she was always a sucker for the blue and green haze in which they were. They usually changed from day to day. Green one morning, blue the following night. Some days they were an artistic mess of both. They were killers.

She rolled her eyes, snatching the pair of bra and underwear from his humiliating clutches. She couldn't get them on quick enough.

"Was pretty great, huh," Alakai started once more, his pigmentation-confused orbs scanning her form. "You could have more of that, you know, if you weren't leaving."

Her chest sunk at his entire sentence. You could have more of that, being the first string of words to make her want to throw up. More of what, exactly? An uncomfortable weight lying upon her body, thrusting away painfully in the dark whilst trying to keep as quiet as possible so the people gathered around the fire outside can't hear? Thanks, she thought, but no thanks.
It was the latter of the sentence, however, that made her chest heave. You know, if you weren't leaving.

Stab.

Twist.

Repeat.

The stabbing and twisting had been happening for some time now. At least twice a day, if not more. Right in to the depths of her gut. Every time there was yelling, a distant explosion of a paper bomb, a stray kunai - "You're lucky you wont have to deal with this," they'd say. "You're so lucky you get to move away."

Hotaru finished throwing on her hooded jacket, zipping the zipper all the way to the top. She felt dirty, grimy, like sex suddenly felt like pungent mud, drying out and sticking against her skin, making it itchy and irritated whilst she consciously attempted to scratch it all off. When she made the last minute decision to sneak from the busted up window of her family home and lose her virginity to a boy that semi-paid attention to her, a boy who semi-paid attention to all the girls in the village, to be exact, she had no idea she would leave feeling this messy, this scattered.

"I'll see you in the morning," Hotaru mumbled before unzipping the front of the tent. She braced herself for the hooting, the incoherent wolf whistling and mindless wooing that was to follow.

"So, you've made it quite clear you're not going to say anything the entire trip?"

The red head clamped her jaws shut. It was the only way to contain every foul word, sentence and opinion that was fermenting within the depths of her chest from flying out of her mouth.

"Hotaru, you're being childish. Wake up to yourself."

Again, she swallowed the acrid taste which was her words, following behind her tired parents as the trio made their way through the thick Leaf Village forest. It was late afternoon; the sun had only a few hours left before it finally rested behind the clouds for a well earned repose. Both Hotaru and her parents had small beads of sweat which lined their foreheads, as salty as an ocean itself, only appearing as their bodies began to tire. The air was uncomfortable and muggy, sticky almost, but the three continued to jump from branch to branch swiftly in order to make their scheduled arrival at Konoha.

Her stomach twisted and squirmed with unwanted butterflies as the forest began to thin out in front of her. It only meant that they were nearing a clearing, that clearing being the entry to the Village Hidden in the leaf.

"You know it's the best thing for you, Hotaru, I'm not going through this with you again." Her father looked one hundred feet tall leaping from tree branch to tree branch. She couldn't help but feel as if he had walked straight from a completely different millennium, one where men fought beasts like mammoths, lions, dinosaurs, even. Not other ninja. "You think this is only affecting you? Well news flash kiddo, it isn't."

Again, she was silent. What was the point of arguing, or fighting or disagreeing with every word that left their sorry mouths? She had tried that for months before the group of three had even left for Konoha. She would yell and scream in refusal, abruptly leave at ungodly hours of the night in an attempt to petrify them, make them aware of what it was like to not have her there. She stayed with friends for weeks on end, surrounded herself with campfires, alcohol and people her age to drown out the fact that she would be leaving one day, gone, just like that.

Her father stopped in his tracks, the large man casting a shadow over his daughter as he stood over her. Hotaru, being as stubborn as she was, didn't stand down from staring him in the eye. It terrified her to do so, jaw clenching painfully as she continued to glare up at him, attempting to hold back tears as best as she possibly could.

"Listen, Kiddo. You don't understand that your mother and I are doing this for your own safety. It's too dangerous back home for you to stay there, and going back to the Leaf for a while will be the best option for you. The education system there is incredible - you still have so, so much to learn," His face had softened, for a brief moment, that was. Hotaru absorbed its rarity. "Trains will take you wherever you need to go. There are Sensei's who will teach you marvelous things. You're guaranteed to develop your skills to a greater level, and you'll be safe."

"And it hurts me and your father to do this, to leave you behind," Her mother added. The wind tossed her burgundy hair over her face as her expression melted along with her heart. Hotaru was finding it hard to avoid the tears glistening inside her mothers deep, green eyes.

The red head was trying her hardest to fight back spilling tears. She hated appearing weak, especially at a time where she was trying to prove she was strong. "You can't expect me to just turn up at this arrogant, over-rated village and expect me to be happy."

"What do you know, she speaks after all," he exclaimed. "Do you remember back when you were five years old? Attending the academy there, being happy, smiling all the time?"

"I smile at the Canyons."

His lips pursed together with frustration. "I know, but you once smiled at the Leaf, also, which is what I am trying to get at."

Hotaru swallowed her temper once more before continuing. "You're both ignorant. You have no idea what kind of hell you're about to put me through."

Her mother was the next to approach her, attempting to take her hand gently in to her own. Hotaru pulled it from her grasp almost instantly as her displeasure for the situation decided to flare once more. She could see the hurt in her mother's eyes when she did it, but her anger, raw and bursting at the seams with sadness, held to much pride to apologize.

"Some things just don't work out in certain places, Hotaru. When you're old enough, you'll realize that."

She didn't answer. Hotaru knew she was fighting a losing battle; nothing she said or had been relaying to them for the last three months was convincing them at all.

She trailed a few meters behind them for the rest of the way, thinking of a few hours earlier when she said her goodbyes to her friends. They were all just as confused as she was. Why did they have to stay? Why weren't they offered the opportunity to study within a high prestige Genin Program? Hell, they barely gathered the motivation to attend Suna's Genin program, but they would have jumped at the opportunity to guarantee their safety within a different village.

Again, she felt her stomach muscles quivering.

Stab.

Twist.

Repeat.

The stabbing proceeded as she said goodbye to every single one of them, knowing full well that their fear clung to their scrawny ankles like a spider to its tangled prey.

A soft, familiar wind caressed her face as she followed the track into the opening. The red head glanced up and saw the large, recognizable gates at the entrance of the village, a feeling of DejaVu tightening her stomach. It felt like an eternity since she waved goodbye to those gates, and all of a sudden she was walking straight back through them again.

There were four guards that hovered within the levels of the Villages gates. One stood in the higher tower, motionless almost, his eyes glued to the miles of forest that stretched out behind her. Two more were standing within the gates laughing and talking amongst each other, taking their jobs a lot less seriously than that of the guard before them. Finally, a man wearing a green vest and lengthy, deep brown hair approached the three as they neared, their shoes crunching the gravel beneath them.

"Hotaru, this is Genma. He's a student at the university, and will be accompanying you to your apartment and showing you around Konoha." Her father smiled warmly, his attempts to make her feel better about the situation failing miserably.

"Why do I need showing around? I used to love this place, remember? It was so wonderful and fun, my heart is pounding with so much excitement that I may just find myself bursting through these gates in dance." She folded her arms against her chest and rolled her eyes. She was, at first impression, a typical sarcastic teenager with an intolerable attitude. Sarcasm to the kunoichi became a second language long, long ago.

"Ooh, a feisty one hey? You'll fit in just fine, Red." The Chunin, or Genma, as she now knew him, winked in her direction.

An awkward silence filled the air, and Hotaru noticed immediately that her father wasn't too impressed with Genma's flirting habits. Hotaru didn't mind, however. If something made her father angry, if it was even possible for him to remotely feel the anger, the rage and the inner fury that she was feeling, then she welcomed it.

Goodbyes she was never good at. Her father's attempts failed, her mothers attempts were pushed away. She knew this absolutely killed them, and for a moment she thought she was about to witness their hearts fall from their chests and splatter on to the gravel. But she needed them to feel that way. She needed them to realize they were sending her away for all of the wrong reasons. They needed to know. They just needed to.

Genma watched as the two elder nin retreated in to the forest. "Well, we better get going; I still have to show you where you will be living. Loosen up Red; it ain't all that bad here."

She didn't want to admit it, but there was an immediate likeliness about Genma. He appeared approachable, handsome, and by the look of his vest, talented. But one person wasn't enough to change her opinion. Not yet, anyway, and she was sticking to the angry persona that had inhabited her sense of self only but a few months ago.

Kiba, Shino and Hinata stood around a large tree in the middle of the training ground, waiting on Kurenai's arrival. The sun was almost gone now, the sky a soft grey. A delicate wind gently blew through the village adding to the crisp afternoon air and the village remained alive with a soft hum that could be heard even from their training field.

"Far out, where the hell is Kurenai? That woman can throw around the meaning of urgent as if it was nothing, but has no idea of the definition." Kiba complained for the ten thousandth time in his life, leaning against the large oak tree situated at the side of training field six. His hands rested comfortably behind his head, gazing up at the odd leaf that would fall slowly down from the very top, toppling and falling upon other leaves on its way down. "It better be worth it. I could be beating Naruto's ass at console right now, not standing around doing nothing."

Hinata was never a stone throw away from stuttering her heavily self-debated opinion. 'I-I'm not quite s-sure what it would b-be... but I-I hope it isn't bad..."

"Well I can assure you it's not something too bad," interrupted a voice from behind them. The team of three turned around to see their Sensei standing patiently, waiting for their attention.

Kurenai's expression was serious; her ruby globes each eyeing the three individuals as she gathered her words. "Well, it's not overly bad Hinata. Let your mind rest." She sighed before she continued. "... Last week I was given news from your principal, Lady Tsunade, that a new Genin from Weaponry Canyon's will be transferring to Konoha. I was told this morning in a meeting with the Hokage that she will be assigned to Team Eight as a fourth member."

"Oh come on, you've got to be fucking kidding me," Kiba snorted as he unfolded his arms from the back of his head. "What the hell is this fourth member bullshit? There has never been a Genin team of four. Ever! And there won't be one on my clock."

"I'm sorry, Kiba, but unfortunately the world doesn't revolve around you and your clock. She will be joining us in training within the hour." Kurenai tried to reply as calmly as she could. She knew the Inuzuka had a hot head, and the last thing she wanted was to have him dummy spitting before the Chunin exams. His grades at the high school Genin Program were already looking glum; he needed this practical examination to go as planned if he wanted to continue to become a Ninja.

"But Kurenai Sensei," said Shino curiously, "The Chunin exams are only two days away."

"Yeah, exactly! How are we meant to form a team bond and accept a new team member from a different village within two days?" Kiba was beginning to get mad now, but that was no surprise to the rest of Team Eight. His annoying, spoiled, child-like outbursts were all too common now days.

"If you were a true ninja, you would have the ability to learn and except a team member, and ignore any faults or previous mistakes he or she has made in the past. If you three can't do that, then I'm not sure what kind of future you have ahead of you."

Almost as if the brunette had not absorbed a single word his sensei had just said, he began to pipe up once more. "Not only do I think the idea is stupid, it's also unfair. Having an extra member may slow us down in the Chunin exams; it may keep us all from passing. It will be like looking after a little kid, we'll always have to watch out for it because it's so inexperienced and unproven. It will only drag us down, and I'm completely annoyed at how you and the rest of the fucking people who decide these things don't realize that!"

A sudden silence filled the gaps between the four nin as a figure nearing the field came in to view.

The Kunoichi's short, choppy red hair caught light beneath the rays of Konoha's autumn sun. Her skin held the bronzed color of any Nin who were to come from the Canyon's, slightly tanned however not quite as dark as the Inuzuka opposite her. The girl was quite short for her age, standing the same height as her fellow Hyuga Teammate. Her tomboyish demeanor and slightly curvaceous figure was not to draw away from her pettiness, however it was still worrying to have someone so incapable looking be added to the team so last minute.

It was her turn to catch glance of the four figures standing beneath the tree. Two of them seemed to look like girls, and the other two boys. As she neared, she realized that one of the females was her Sensei. She looked nice enough, but Hotaru was the kind of person who wouldn't go making any positive assumptions of people until she had actually met them.

The other girl appeared shy, withdrawn even, as Hotaru made her way towards them even further. She wore dark blue pants and had long, black hair. Her eyes were very distinctive; Hotaru recognized them almost immediately from the stories that were told back at Weaponry Canyon's. They were the eyes of the Hyuga clan. They were stunning. She had never known a pair of eyes to be soulless yet at the same time so full of soul in her entire life. Hotaru tried to remember seeing this girl back when she was at the academy, but no memories came to mind.

The other team member was a rather tall boy with a light green/grey coat and dark tinted glasses. His hands rested comfortably in his pockets as he watched her walk over, the remnants of his face looking expressionless. From what she could see he held a rather pale complexion, however most of his body was covered head to toe in heavy clothing. Oh, great, her mind and it's attitude had begun to arise. I'm teamed with nun.

The second boy wasn't quite as tall as the other, but still tall none-the-less. He had dark, brown, untamed hair, hair that looked like it had not seen a brush, ever, and sun kissed skin. Two upside down triangles marked either sides of his cheeks. The triangles, surprisingly, were almost as red as her hair. What was left of Hotaru's femininity had began to kick in, her heart pounding with intimidation at his surprisingly good looks, but memories of her last night at the Canyons and how disappointing good looking boys can be struck her thoughts back in to gear.

"Good morning Hotaru, welcome to Team Eight." Kurenai offered her hand, the red head taking it reluctantly. Formal introductions were not her thing. Meeting strangers was not her thing. Socializing in general wasn't exactly her thing. She could think of much better things to be doing with her time, like sleeping. And eating. And watching copious amounts of television.

"These will be the people you will be spending most of your time with whilst you reside here in Konoha. This here is Hinata Hyuga, the boy to your right is Shino Aburame, and the other boy there is Kiba Inuzuka."

Hotaru didn't shake their hands. She looked at each and nodded, trying to avoid the intimidating and scrutinizing stare the good looking one was casting upon her.

He was like Hercules.

A tall, hot, highly intimidating Hercules. With triangles for cheeks.

Kurenai looked at her newly formed team, before breaking the awkward silence that had recently thrusted itself into the surrounding atmosphere. "So you're the quiet type I see," she said, folding her arms.

Hotaru rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "I'm not quiet. There's just not a lot to say."

"Well, a hello wouldn't go astray," Kiba scoffed, folding his arms. "After all, we didn't really get a choice to accept you into this team, so maybe you should try getting to know us seeing that the Chunin exams are two days away."

His voice was filled with annoyance. It was quite clear that he didn't want her in his group, and that he wasn't going to put up with anyone's bullshit.

"Woah, calm down, pooch. I missed the part where I was expected to bow at your feet," Hotaru retorted, eyeing the puppy beside him and folding her arms.

Kiba growled. "Is this girl serious?" he replied, shooting Kurenai a scornful glare. "It wouldn't hurt for you to ask us about how this team works, our abilities, our weaknesses- anything! Just because you're new, doesn't mean this team will revolve around you. Cos' right now, you aren't making a great first impression."

"Kiba," Shino interrupted, trying to calm him down. He looked at the Inuzuka as if to say stop, and fortunately the Inuzuka obeyed, narrowing his eyes to the side.

Hotaru didn't say anything in an attempt to avoid making the situation worse than it already was. It was obvious Kiba didn't want her on his team, and in all fairness, Hotaru didn't want to be on it either. She wanted to go back to her village, to her old friends, to her old life. "Are we done?" The red head snorted at Kurenai.

"Listen Hotaru, the Chuunin Exams mean a lot to these three. They have worked really hard to get here, and they aren't going to let some snotty little kid slow them down."

Hotaru stood there in shock. Ballsy, she thought. Raising her voice at a new student wasn't exactly what the red head expected on her first day. But then again, she hadn't expected Hercules either.

"You won't be leaving just yet; today will also be our first training session. They need to know how you move, your strong and weak points and your attitude towards this whole concept. The training will begin now."

The Weaponry Canyon raised girl didn't bother arguing, but instead nodded. Her anger subsided, and in its place exchanged a sickly smirk. "Fine," she grabbed at her waist, pulling two uneven length wielding chains and gripping them in her hands. The chakra infused metal clashed on the ground beneath her. "Try not to let me embarrass you too much, hey kids?"