Disclaimer: KHR and Naruto do not belong to me

"Kimi-kun, where do you want to go? Iwa, Kiri, Suna, or Kumo?"

Kimimaro held out a hand and let a bird nestle on his finger. His lips were pressed together slightly, a sign that he was thinking.

"What's Kumo like?" He asked.

"Let's go find out." Hikari grinned, Mist Flames enveloping her hands.

Kimimaro sneezed. A white wisp of vapour formed in front of his mouth.

"C-Cold…" He huddled as close as he could to Hikari without impeding either of their movements.

Hikari nodded in agreement.

This had been slightly unexpected.

"Let's go find the nearest town."

"Without freezing?" Kimimaro muttered somewhat snarkily.

Hikari turned to look at him, and contemplated the possibilities.

While using chakra would keep the both of them warm, it might also attract unwanted attention. So that left using Mist Flames to teleport them somewhere else, but that might be seen. Maybe conjuring up clothes or a fire?

Which would be better?

A moment later, winter clothes appeared on Kimimaro. He gratefully sunk his hands into the furry pouches of the jacket, teeth chattering away.

If he was curious about how solid the jacket felt, he didn't ask.

Hikari assumed that he would do that later back in the safety of Wave.

They walked on, leaving a trail of footprints in the snow-covered mountaintop.

Hikari noticed that despite his colouring being awfully suited to the terrain, Kimimaro wasn't exactly cold-tolerant. Fire Country didn't get as cold as Kumo did after all, Hikari admitted grudgingly.

As it happened, the two children chanced upon an inn in the middle of the way down.

Giving into Kimimaro's pleading gaze, Hikari walked into the inn, Kimimaro close behind her.

It was easy to convince the innkeeper that they were two lost kids that had wandered too far away from their merchant parents.

He let them stay and offered to show them down.

Hikari declined.

"You can give us directions, ossan, we'll find our own way down. Papa said that owing people is bad." Hikari nodded resolutely as she passed Kimimaro a few coins to put on the counter that was too high up for her.

"All right then. Stay as long as you like." The innkeeper offered.

"Arigato!" The two children chorused.

In their shared room, Hikari let the winter clothes dissipate into Mist.

"You can go to sleep now, Kimi-kun."

Kimimaro shook his head and looked like he wanted to say something, but his words were slurred. He fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

Hikari sat at the chair, and conjured up a piece of paper and a pen.

'Dear Naruto,

Kimi and I are now in Kumo. We're doing fine. We're doing odd jobs for money, so don't worry about us. What about you? You'd better ace your tests. If there's something that you don't understand, just write to me.

I won't accept anything other than your best from you. You can go a long way; I believe in you. Both Kimi and I do.

Just remember to keep a calm head, and remember that not everything revolves around the power and flashiness of your attacks.

~Kari'

Hikari stared at the letter, and conjured up a raven. She waved a hand as if to send the raven off, but had a second thought.

Another piece of paper was conjured up, but this time, it was a picture of Naruto standing in between his parents. The red-headed woman was beautiful, and her long hair was almost touching her ankles. On the other side was a yellow-haired, Naruto-like replica, but older. He was smiling slightly blandly, a three-pronged kunai in his hand.

Hikari gave the picture another look, and gave it to the raven as well. The raven cawed once and flew off.

Naruto deserved to know his parents. For Kimimaro, it was different. Kimimaro's parents had been cruel to him, they had abused their child. While it might not be entirely uncommon in this world, Kimimaro was now her apprentice, and she would not stand for it.

She wouldn't make him forget the ones who birthed him, but she could give him new memories, and let him have the choice of leaving the past behind.

(No one ever said that she was incapable of changing. But Mukuro would always be surprised at how some humans could affect others.)

Hikari turned off the light and slowly walked to the bed, settling in beside Kimimaro. She stared upwards, noting how the shadows shifted slightly every time a shinobi shunshined past.

Were they careless or-? A loud sound confirmed her suspicions. Probably a genin team.

The chattering of young children filtered through the thin interior walls.

Hikari shifted, getting out of the bed. She wasn't tired anyways. She opened the door and closed it gently. A pause, and she conjured up a man-eating plant that would attack any intruders that tried to take advantage of her sleeping apprentice.

Hikari walked towards the team of four that were seated on a table, drinking what looked like hot chocolate. She sat herself on a chair and faced them, making sure that her eyes were alight with wonder and a slight confusion.

A few seconds passed. Hikari listened to their chatter, and put a slight pout on her lips.

"Whatcha doing?" She asked, tilting her head to the side like a puppy.

It was the kunoichi-in-training that replied her.

"We're just talking, kid. No flashy jutsus here." She waved Hikari off kindly.

"Flashy jutsus? I've never really seen flashy jutsus before." Hikari commented almost-whimsically.

"But there was this really cool jutsu that I saw before, when my parents went to Iwa to sell stuff." Technically, it was true. She was just twisting the facts slightly.

"There was this really cool jutsu that built up a whole mountain!" Hikari threw up her hands like a child would.

"A whole mountain?" One of the genin repeated, sounding disbelieving.

Hikari nodded solemnly. "It was at least two times bigger than me." She whispered.

The ninjas laughed.

"Wanna see something better?" One of the genin asked. Hikari nodded enthusiastically.

The boy clenched his fist. A thin layer of chakra surrounded his hand. The chakra flowed along to the cup, and to the hot chocolate inside. The boy touched the underside of the cup and held it upside down. He showed it proudly to Hikari.

Hikari dutifully clapped.

"That's amazing! But that mountain's still cooler!" Her statement incited a bout of laughter.

"Tough crowd, huh?" The girl grinned. She spread out her fingers. Sparks flew between them. She put her hands together, and electricity flew between her chakra-coated palms. The lightning drew shapes in the air.

Hikari 'wowed'.

"That's the best thing I've ever seen!" She exclaimed.

"Oh please, a beginner could do that! Look at this!" The remaining genin scoffed, and drew water out of the air. It was slowly icing over due to the cold atmosphere. The water spread out and danced around Hikari. Hikari beamed.

An idea struck her.

'Maybe Haku can…' She left that thought for later.

She faked a yawn.

"I'm tired now." She muttered childishly and rubbed her eyes.

"Bye then, go back to your room." The girl shooed Hikari away. Hikari smiled at them and waved.

'How easy to manipulate.' She thought. It didn't escape her notice how their sensei didn't participate. He was more cautious than his students.

"How was your trip?" The Hokage asked Naruto.

"It was great!" Naruto cheered. "Hikari liked Wave. But she wanted to stay there." Naruto pouted.

The Hokage patted Naruto's head gently.

"You can write to her." He suggested.

Naruto beamed up at him.

"We met this really cool guy! He told me that…" The Hokage sighed as he let Naruto's babble wash over him.

For some unknown reason, the Mizukage apparently had a sudden change of heart, and stopped the bloodline purge.

That was reason enough to withdraw Naruto as soon as he had heard of it. It was suspicious.

"…were they following us?" Naruto asked. The Hokage realised that Naruto had asked him a question.

"Could you repeat that?"

"There were two people following us when we got to Wave." Naruto repeated.

Hiruzen felt his blood run cold.

"Are you sure?"

Naruto nodded.

"Did you see them?" Sarutobi frowned ever so slightly.

"Nope. Hikari told me to run away."

The Hokage sighed faintly in relief, and met the eyes of one of the Anbu hidden in his office. The masked shinobi shunshined away. This would be looked into.

Naruto bustled around his apartment, trying to keep it clean. A raven flew in and perched on the kitchen table. Naruto blinked owlishly and held out his hand. The raven dutifully opened its beak and let the papers fall down.

The photograph was the one that he first spotted.

Naruto picked it up and looked at it for a long time. The Anbu watcher looked at the scene strangely, and moved closer for a look. An impossible picture stared back at him.

"Thanks ojii-san!" Hikari shouted to the innkeeper and hurried Kimimaro outside.

"C-Cold…" He muttered, the winter clothing gone.

Hikari glanced around at her surroundings and caught sight of a large piece of bark.

"Kimi-kun, do you think you can smoothen this out?"

A moment later had the two kids sliding down the rocky, snow-covered mountain in a makeshift sleigh.

Kimimaro silently screamed, his hands wrapped around Hikari's waist. The blonde-haired girl wore a smirk as their ride hit a rock and flew into the air.

A few minutes later…

Kimimaro stumbled off the wood and collapsed face-first into the snow. Hikari sat on a rock, watching her apprentice's antics with an air of tolerant amusement.

A/N: So, yep! Here's the other half of the chapter.

So Hikari became so overconfident that she mistook the Hokage's intentions. While he might try to get rid of her or pawn her off when she got too wild for them when she's older, she's still a kid to him.

So yep, that's the explanation.

Constructive critism is appreciated!