Kagome Uzumaki (On Hold)

Lost Courage

Five year old Kagome was sitting at her desk in the back corner of the classroom. No one wanted to sit next to her. Kagome already knew the reason why no one would. Everyone thought that she was a monster in human form. To Kagome's point of view, they were blinded by fear and hatred.

"Okay class, that's all for today." Iruka said. Everyone packed up their stuff and left the classroom. But Kagome waited until everyone was gone since she had no one to wait for her.

She didn't have training with Asuma-sensei today, so she decided to watch the clouds on the hill with Kirara and Aki. Even though, she had her animal friends and some grown-up friends. She knew that Iruka wanted her to have at least one human friend that was around her age. She sighed at the thought. But she also knew that none of the other kids wanted to go near her. It was mostly because their parents told them to stay away from her. Suddenly, her foot caught onto something, causing her to fall face first onto the ground.

"Ooww." Kagome groaned as she sat up.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Kagome looked over her shoulder and saw a boy, around her age, with narrowed brown eyes and black hair that was pulled up into a spiky ponytail that looked like a pineapple. He was wearing a T-shirt that had a symbol on the front of it: the Nara clan. She knew who the Nara clan was. The members of the clan were able to manipulate shadows and they tend to the deer and use their antlers for medicine.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings." Kagome said.

"Okay." The boy said, "Hey, aren't you Kagome Uzumaki?"

"Yeah, I am. But who are you?" Kagome asked.

"I'm Shikamaru Nara." The boy said.

"Nice to meet you." Kagome said.

"Likewise," Shikamaru replied, "What are you doing out here?"

"I thought I'd watch the clouds for a while." Kagome replied.

"I was doing the same thing." Shikamaru said.

"How about we watch them together?" Kagome asked.

"Sure." Shikamaru replied with a shrug. So the two spent most of the afternoon together, watching the clouds go by. When the sun began to set, Kagome knew that it was time to go home.

"Well I better get going now." Kagome said.

"Can I walk you home?" Shikamaru asked.

"You don't have to if you don't want to." Kagome said, nervously.

"It would be troublesome if my mom found out that I didn't walk a girl home." Shikamaru said with his hands behind his head.

"Sure, if you don't mind, Shikamaru." Kagome said with a smile.

"Not at all, Kagome." Shikamaru smiled back.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kagome felt like her body was full of lead as she began to open her eyes. She didn't think that a water jutsu would tire her out already. Well, if you include using Hiraishin to save your sensei and fighting against a powerful kenjutsu user, then you would be tired out. She remembered that dream. It was a memory of when she and Shikamaru met for the first time. After their first encounter, he walked her home everyday. Well, she met Choji after she met Shikamaru and his family. Later on, she trained with Sasuke Uchiha, Ryouta Hyūga, Kiba Inuzuka, Akamaru, Choji Akimichi, and Shikamaru Nara decided to join them. She also trained with Asuma sensei as well. Somehow, she was able to gain friends as she was taught to become a kunoichi. Kagome looked at her surroundings, she noticed that she was lying down on a futon in a room she didn't recognized and Kirara was resting beside her head. The last thing she remembered was battling against Zabuza, the hunter-nin showing up, and after that everything went black. Then she noticed a woman with long beautiful blue-colored hair and black eyes who was wringing water out of a towel over a small bowl of water. The woman looked towards Kagome.