Naruto/Sailor Moon

"Truth of Those Hidden"

A woman and a boy dressed in black crept into a large house, silent as the night. She lowered her hood and scarf that hid her identity from those she pursued. As she softly walked the halls, the boy lowered his hood and scarf. He looked around the house in awe as he followed her.

"Keep up, my student." The woman told the boy softly. "It's quite easy to get lost around here if you don't know where you're going."

"Ah, yes, Sensei." The boy agreed, catching up to the woman. "Sensei, what are we doing here? Is our new target here?"

"No, my student. Something more important sleeps here." She answered in a low voice as she stopped by a door. The boy was about to say something but his sensei put a finger to her scarlet painted lips, to silence him. He nodded and drew a kunai. She opened the door quietly and let her student see inside the room. He felt surprise fill his brain as he walked into the room a few feet.

Moonlight came through the open window and fell on a thick futon where a child was sleeping under a fluffy comforter. The child was beautiful with black hair and pale skin like his sensei. The woman stepped around her student, lightly ruffling his hair, and walked to the child's bedside. She knelt by the bed as the child's eyes slowly opened with a couple blinks.

"Mama?" The child asked sleepily as she pushed herself off her futon. "Mama, you're back."

"…'Mama'…?" The boy murmured in surprise. "…uh, Sensei…"

"Good evening, my beautiful girl." The woman said, brushing loose hair out of the child's face. "I brought someone home with me. Do you remember the Main Land genin I told you about?"

"Of course, Mama." The child answered with a soft smile. "I remember everything you tell me."

His sensei held out a hand for him to come forward. "My dearest, this is my student. If I remember correctly, don't you have something for her, my student?"

The boy mentally shook himself. "Ah-yes, Sensei." Her student reached into the bag he had on his back and pulled a stuffed toy out from the place he had secured it in his bag. "When we were in a market in the Mist region, Sensei told me it had been your birthday last weekend. So I got this for you."

The child cautiously took the toy, her eyes glancing at his drawn kunai once. He quickly hid the blade behind his back so she couldn't see it any longer. The child looked at the toy then hugged it tight.

"Does this mean you're going to leave me like the Island left us?" The boy had never seen his sensei look like she did now. She hugged the child in a tight embrace, not wanting to let go.

"I will have to be killed by the Sanin themselves for me to leave you in this world alone." She told her child. "If I am taken out by the Sanin, I will still be with you no matter where you are or what you will become. I pledge my soul to your power like those who fell on our Island. I will always be apart of you, my dearest child. Go back to sleep, my darling. I shall return as soon as I am able-I promise on my chakra that I will return."

The child laid down with the toy in her arms. The woman covered her back up and kissed her forehead. His sensei stood and left the room, gripping her arms. The boy turned to follow his sensei but the child caught his wrist. He hadn't even heard her move.

"If the Sanin kill my mother, bring me the news yourself. I don't want to hear the tainted lies of the Council as they twist my mother's reputation." The child's words were sad as if she knew her mother wasn't going to return. "Promise me you'll be the one to tell me and not the Council-promise me as my mother's student."

"I promise…no, I swear a blood oath that I will be the one to tell you. No one will taint her memory while I draw breath."

She released his wrist as he slit his palm. He wrapped his bloody kunai in a piece of his clothing he ripped from his shirt and pressed it closed with his blood. The boy set the wrapped kunai on the floor by his feet and walked out of her room. He closed the child's door as she laid down again, drifting off to sleep.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The floor didn't even creak to alert her to the arrival in her room. She sat up from her bed to see the boy she had met months before kneeling by her bedside. The toy he had given her was in bed with her and his old kunai, still bundled, was hidden under her pillow.

He held out his blood covered hand. She could see his chakra tremble with rage as his body remained still. The child held out her hand, palm up, below his. He uncurled his bloody fingers and dropped a blood-soaked stone in her palm. Her eyes were wide with shock. She clenched her fingers around the stone and put herself in his arms, surprising the boy.

She didn't not cry. She just needed comfort, the assurance that someone was there for her. He put his arms around her and held her against his body. He murmured something to her, pulling her closer to his body. She closed her eyes and laid her head on his shoulder, letting him hold her as she drifted to sleep.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The sun was just beginning to rise when her eyes slowly opened to the ever-familiar ceiling of her room. The familiar scent of roses, orchids and lilies drifted from their vases as she got out of bed. She made her bed and went to her closet as the rays from the morning sun painted the sky. She took a purple overdress, a white polo shirt and a pair of black capris from their respective places in her closet.

She was silent as she got dressed and tied a scarf around her collar for a bow tie. She undid her night braids as she sat in front of her vanity. As she brushed her hair free of waves, a girl with pale skin, long black hair and dark purple eyes looked back at her from her mirror. This girl had healing cut on her check, held closed by butterfly bandages and a white oval jewel on her forehead. Her bangs didn't cover it from view-they were too long to do much else than cover her right eye.

This girl was an orphan named Hotaru Tomoe. Hotaru lived alone, like many orphans, since her family laid under the ground in her family cemetery. And like most orphans, Hotaru kept to herself for the most part, although she did have a few friends. Hotaru was very intelligent for a girl of twelve-for a child of twelve. She was also extremely skilled. Her abilities and her brilliance were in perfect balance. If she learned something new in class, she'd learn a new skill to make herself even more of a survivor.

Putting her hair into braided pigtails and tying purple bows at the ends, Hotaru's eyes drifted to a picture on her vanity, next to a small vase holding 3 lovely dark red roses. It was a picture of her mother and her when Hotaru was quite young and her mother was still alive. The white stone on Hotaru's forehead had once been her mother's. After she died, Hotaru began to wear it in her memory. Though the Council disapproved, they let her wear it anyway, knowing it was one of the few ties Hotaru had left to keep her mother's memory alive.