Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Claimer: I own Yu.
Nine years before…
A little girl ran as fast as she could, trying to outrun the angry baker that had a rolling pin in his hand. She was an orphan, and had stolen a loaf of bread. Unfortunately, the baker saw her and yelled at her, she ran, and he followed. She let a few tears fall from her eyes. She hated stealing, but it was what she had to do to survive. Ragged gloves hung off her hands, her golden colored hair streaked with dirt. Soft golden/brown eyes looked broken, and she didn't wear anything except a tattered pair of shorts and a tattered shirt. Suddenly, the baker reached her and grabbed her by the shoulder, forcing her to stop. He spun her around.
"You better be paying for that!" the red-faced baker yelled.
The little girl had tears in her eyes as she reached into the pocket of her shorts and looked for any coins that she may have had. Unfortunately, she only had one little sen. She held it out with a shaking hand.
"One little sen?!?" the baker roared. "Child, bread isn't that cheap, especially for someone like you!"
The girl teared up again and she turned to run again, this time able to lose the baker in a twist of alleyways. She sat down, bringing her knees to her chin. She ate the rest of the bread in silence before looking at the little sen she had. She fingered it as it started to rain, but she didn't notice the fact that she was getting wet. She set the sen down before shakily taking off her one glove. She touched the sen with her bare hand. 'Please work,' she thought. At the touch of her bare hand, the sen turned into solid gold. 'It works!' she thought happily. At a touch by her bare hands, she had found before that anything turned to solid gold again. She had no clue why her gloves never turned to solid gold, but then again, she had woken up a year or two before with no memory of who she was and was wearing a nicer version of what she was wearing now. She called herself Yu since she didn't now what her real name was.
"If you stay out here in this rain, you're going to catch a cold."
She snapped her head up only to see a raven haired boy standing in front of her, his hands stuffed in his pockets. He looked about her age, and he had a symbol on the back of his shirt that looked like a white and red fan. Yu just stared at him with large eyes, wondering why someone was talking to a street urchin like her.
"Hi, I'm Sasuke," the boy introduced himself.
"I-I'm Y-Yu," Yu managed out.
She found that when her mind was out thinking about her past, it had been raining and had turned pretty cold. Now her teeth were chattering and she was shivering.
"Where do you live?" Sasuke asked her.
"No-nowhere," Yu replied.
"Nowhere? Nobody lives nowhere," Sasuke told her. "Come on, you can come to my place."
Yu's eyes widened even more. No one had ever invited her anywhere. Timidly, she got up and followed Sasuke to a large compound.
"Y-you live h-here?" Yu asked in awe.
Sasuke nodded. "This is the Uchiha compound."
Yu followed Sasuke inside, where a woman came out.
"Sasuke dear, where ever have you been?" she asked.
"Sorry mom," Sasuke apologized. "Meet Yu. I found her nearby."
The woman sighed before glancing at Yu before looking back at Sasuke. "You know she can't stay here?"
"Just for tonight?" Sasuke pleaded. "It's really cold and rainy outside."
The woman sighed and nodded slowly. "Fine. I'll get her some clothes and have someone draw her a bath."
The next day, Yu found herself waving goodbye to the Uchiha family as she stood outside the gates of the compound. It was a sunny and warm day, the birds singing and forest animals about.
"Bye Sasuke!" Yu called as she walked away. "Thank you for your kindness!"
Sasuke waved goodbye back. Yu kept walking through the city, slightly hoping she didn't run into the baker from yesterday. She wasn't paying any attention to where she was going, and she ran straight into someone.
"Watch where you're going, urchin!" a nearby man hissed.
Yu skidded back, falling onto her behind. She had run into someone who happened to have a few guards around him. 'Great,' Yu thought. 'I'm in more trouble.' Her glove slid off as she struggled to stand back up. Her bare hand touched one of the cobblestones on the ground, and the cobblestone turned into gold. Yu's eyes widened and she quickly put her glove back on. She looked up and saw the one guard starting to walk toward her.
"Wait," the rich-looking man that she had run into commanded the guard.
"Yes, Kazekage-sama," the guard replied, stepping back.
The Kazekage came towards Yu, and Yu had on huge eyes. 'Kazekage-sama,' she thought. She inwardly moaned. 'I'm in so much trouble.' The Kazekage pointed to the gold cobblestone.
"Did you do that?" he asked.
Yu timidly nodded. "Yes."
The Kazekage got a thoughtful look on his face. "Guards, I want her with us."
Nine years later…
"I'll kill you!" Kankuro roared after the raven haired boy threw a rock at him.
A golden haired girl walked onto the scene, assessed it, rolled her eyes, and walked over to Kankuro.
"Oi, Kankuro!" she scolded in a dangerous tone. "No killing on the streets!"
Kankuro glanced at her and slowly set down the kid he was holding. Temari smirked. If anyone could stop Kankuro, it was Gaara or Yu. The golden haired girl, Yu, glared at Kankuro for a minute before turning to the group that was in front of her. There was a pink haired girl, a blond boy, three little kids, and a raven haired boy in the tree. Her eyes lingered on the boy in the tree, feeling like she knew him from somewhere. She shrugged it off as Gaara suddenly appeared in a swirl of sand upside-down on a branch next to the raven haired boy.
"Don't ever do that again, Kankuro," Gaara growled.
"Y-yes Gaara," Kankuro stuttered.
"You're a disgrace to our village," Yu added in an equal tone.
"S-sorry," Kankuro apologized again.
Gaara disappeared in a swirl of sand before reappearing next to Yu. "Let's go."
Gaara started walking, Yu next to him, Temari and Kankuro picking up the rear.
"Hey you two!"
The sand ninja stopped and turned around to see that the raven haired boy had called them.
"What are your names?" the boy asked.
Gaara smirked, and the other three sand ninja could feel the killer intent radiating off him. They all took a teeny step back.
"Gaara," Gaara replied.
"And you?" the boy asked, looking at Yu.
"Yu," Yu answered. "Now what's your name?"
"Sasuke," the boy answered.
Sasuke scanned the girl that claimed to be Yu. She definitely could be the Yu he remembered. She golden colored hair that reached her waist. It was held back by her white sand ninja band, which let some of her bangs fall forward. Her eyes were a golden color. She wore mascara and golden eye shadow, and she also gold earrings. She had on a golden cami with a white long-sleeved fishnet thing over it. She had a golden miniskirt that barely reached about three inches above her knees, and around her one knee were pouches of kunai and shuriken. Also attached to it were several vials, some filled with a golden liquid while the others were filled with a silver liquid. On her feet were white sandals, and her hands had white gloves over them. Yes, it could definitely be the Yu from nine years ago.
"You remember me Yu?" Sasuke asked.
Yu looked confused for a minute, cocking her head and scanning him.
"Nope," she finally replied before turning and walking away with the other sand ninja.
If Sasuke's Uchiha-pride would have let him, he would have been sad. Instead, he just watched her with a bored expression, wondering if she did remember him, but didn't show it. 'I'll find out sometime,' he thought. 'Until then, I need to get stronger to kill him.'
"How about Yu?" Sasuke asked Kabuto as Kabuto showed him the cards on Gaara and Rock Lee. "You have a card for her?"
Kabuto pulled out a card and showed it to him. "Yu, no last name. Age twelve, from the Wind Country. Her teammates are Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari. Sensei is unknown. She's been on an unknown amount of missions, and her ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu are all equal. She has a Kekkei Genkai; anything she touches with her bare hands turns into solid gold. She was adopted by the Kazekage when she was three. He found her in Konoha actually, and since she was a orphan he just took her. She has her own special jutsu collection, and she's very tricky. That's all I have."
'That's definitely the Yu I know,' Sasuke thought.
Yu watched the blond boy she had seen a few days before jump on the desk. She dully listened to the speech he gave, instead trying to remember if she did know the boy named Sasuke. 'I feel like I should,' she thought. 'But for some reason, I can't remember a thing.' Yu didn't have much of a memory of when she was an orphan on the streets. Most of her memories she tried to forget, instead filling her mind with training and things she had picked up. The proctor, Ibiki, finally appeared and told them that the first part of the exam would be a written test. Yu completely drowned out Ibiki's talking, instead thinking. When they finally got to the testing part, she began to do a jutsu to find out information. 'Forget not cheating,' she thought. 'What's the fun in following the rules?'
Sasuke had finished his exam. His Sharingan had proved very helpful in copying the answers, and now he was observing the others. His eyes finally settled on the sand ninja, more specifically, Yu. No matter how much he tried to forget her, she always invaded his thoughts. Now, he was watching her work her own jutsu in the exam. He didn't really know what she was doing exactly, so he turned on his Sharingan again to watch her. She had done some sort of jutsu, a one-handed jutsu at that. Holding a sign in one hand, she was writing with the others. The Sharingan picked up a small thread of gold snaking from her hand, down the table she was sitting at, and over to one of the chunin with all the answers. Underneath the chunin's paper, the thread had formed over all the indentations the writing had made. The thread was telling her what the indentations said, and she was writing them done. 'Smart,' Sasuke mused. 'No wonder Kabuto said that she had her own collection of jutsus.' Finally, the time was up and Ibiki announced the ultimatum about the last question. Sasuke's team passed, and so did Yu's team. 'I have to find a way for Yu to remember me,' Sasuke decided. 'For some reason, I can't stop thinking about her.'
Yu sighed as she lounged around, waiting for the second part of the exam to be finished. The sand ninja had arrived in an hour's time and had completed it already. Her mind wandered to Orichimaru and the deal they had made with him. Then her mind wandered to Sasuke again, and she smacked her forehead. 'STOP THINKING ABOUT HIM!' she commanded herself. She let out an exasperated sigh and flopped down on her bed, deciding to take a little nap.
Yu smiled and ran around with a raven haired boy. They were outside of a compound and were playing with a dog.
"Thanks for taking me here Sasuke," Yu said to the raven haired boy. "No one's ever let me come to their house before."
"You're a nice girl," Sasuke told her. "I don't see why no one wouldn't let you go with them."
Yu stopped playing and sat down underneath a tree, feeling slightly tired. Sasuke sat next to her.
"Nobody wants an orphan," Yu told him in a soft tone. "I'm an orphan."
"Well, I like you no matter who or what you are," Sasuke replied.
Yu hugged him. "Thanks Sasuke. You're a great friend."
Yu snapped up in her bed. 'I remember him!' she thought. 'He's the one who let me stay with his family before I came to live with the Kazekage!' She jumped out of her bed, quickly getting changed back into her normal clothes. She ran out of the room, almost running right into Temari.
"Jeez, what's the hurry?" Temari asked.
"I remember him!" Yu called as she kept running.
Temari stood in the hallway, staring after Yu. 'Remember who?' she wondered.
(1) Sasuke skidded back from the blow Orichimaru had landed. Sakura and Naruto were fending off from Orichimaru's snakes, leaving him to face the snake-sanin by himself. Orichimaru prepared another chakra-enforced blow, a blow that would leave Sasuke momentarily paralyzed. Just before the blow collided with Sasuke, some sort of gold shield shot up. Orichimaru's blow landed against the shield, barely making a dent. Sasuke glanced to the side and was surprised to see Yu with her arms outstretched, palms vertical.
"Back away Orichimaru," she growled.
"Well, well," Orichimaru mused. "Looks like the gold girl showed up."
"Yu?" Sasuke asked.
"Hello Sasuke," Yu replied as she took off her gloves.
Yu did a few hand signs before holding a hand out. A stream of gold shot out at Orichimaru. He dodged it, the stream instead hitting a tree behind him. The tree turned into solid gold. Orichimaru disappeared and reappeared behind Yu, hitting her and sending her flying forward. Yu growled some obscenities before jumping back up and holding her hands in a taijutsu offensive move. Her taijutsu was dangerous, seeing as any blows she landed with her hands resulting in something turning into gold.
"No need to attack me," Orichimaru told her in a sickeningly sweet voice. "I'm just here to deliver a message to Sasuke."
As if on cue, the real Orichimaru appeared behind Sasuke, about to bite his neck. Yu moved quickly, throwing a kunai at the clone she had been talking to and moving between Sasuke and Orichimaru. Orichimaru bit her instead of Sasuke, and she took the curse mark. She let out a small pained scream, and a few tears fell from her eyes. The mark was painful indeed. She crumpled to the ground. The curse mark hadn't been meant for her, so it was slowly and painfully killing her. (2) Naruto and Sakura had finally managed to defeat Orichimaru's snake summons, so they moved to help Sasuke fight Orichimaru.
"I'll be back," Orichimaru hissed before disappearing.
When they were sure Orichimaru was gone, Sasuke hurried to Yu's side. She was barely breathing anymore.
"Yu," Sasuke whispered.
Yu cracked her eyes open. "You k-know, I f-finally remembered y-you." She coughed up some blood. "Or-Orichimaru will b-be back f-for you. H-He's after y-you." She closed her eyes, feeling incredibly tired. "Be c-careful Sasuke."
Sasuke held the limp form of Yu in his arms, refusing to believe she was dead.
"I think I finally found out why I can't stop thinking about you," Sasuke whispered to a dead Yu. He brushed her bangs from her face before setting her down on the ground. "I think I love you." (3)
(1) - Different from the series.
(2) - In this story, if someone gets bit by Orichimaru and wasn't meant to be bit, they die a slow and painful death.
(3) - Even though Sasuke wasn't bit in the first encounter, the team has a second encounter with Orichimaru and Sasuke is bit then.
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