Chapter Text
She’s seven years old when it happens.
Sitting on a bench in the market with a small bowl of take-out curry, the little girl is content to sit and much and people watch. There’s lots to see. Shinobi leap from rooftop to rooftop, speedy and out of the way. Civilians take the path well-trodden, talking and walking seemingly without a care in the world.
So many scenes, so many people. A genin team bickers overhead as they pass through. A pair of twins beg their father for some candy. A woman gives her wife a kiss on the cheek and heads into a store.
One scene in particular, though, catches the little girl’s eye.
At first glance, it seems normal. A little boy with blonde hair, probably around her age, maybe a little younger, steps up to peek at a stall filled with toys. The only thing worth of note is that he’s alone – but then again, so is she. The shopkeeper turns to greet, automatic, but when he catches sight of the boy, his entire face warps. Twists. “Hey! This shop isn’t for you, demon!” he yells, and he shoves the little child.
The blonde goes down hard in the dirt, but no one runs to his aid. Adults stare with barely hidden hate and fear. Children stare in confusion.
He gets up and glares, tears rising in his eyes. “I didn’t wanna buy from a mean ol’ geezer like ya anyway!” the boy yells, and then he runs away. Flees as fast as he can from the scene of the crime.
It takes a minute or two of awkward tension, but the market returns to life, bussing along as though absolutely nothing has happened.
“A demon, huh?” Higurashi Kagome says, and takes another bite of curry.
Naruto is determined to not leave this swing. Ever. He doesn’t care that it’s getting dark out, that it’s getting kinda cold, that he’s the only one left in the park. All he wanted was to look at the toys, and that man – he acted like Naruto was gonna steal one or something! He’s never stolen something, he wouldn’t, he wouldn’t ever-
“Hey!”
The blonde jumps in his seat, quickly glancing up, and it seems he’s not alone in the park anymore. There’s a little girl here, around his age, maybe a little older, walking towards him. With short black hair and a pretty green dress, she looks awfully familiar, but he can’t place her.
She sits on the swing next to him, and he gapes at her. “Hello,” the girl greets. “Are you really a demon?” That question does all sorts of funny things to his tummy, makes him feel sick, and he thinks she can tell because she starts talking again. “It’s okay if you are,” she says. “My best friend’s a half demon.”
That stops Naruto’s tummy problems in their tracks. “How can somebody be a half demon?” he blurts, and flushes when she giggles.
“His Papa was a dog demon and his Mama was a human,” the girl says, as if that explains everything, and Naruto guesses it does. But he didn’t know there were such things as dog demons…
“So?” she asks, and Naruto stares at her blankly. “Are you a demon?”
For the first time in his life, Naruto hopes that everyone’s right about him. Cause this girl seems to like demons, and maybe if he is a demon, she’ll be his friend. But because Naruto can’t even do this one thing right, he stares down at his feet. “Dunno,” the boy mumbles. “I dunno my parents.”
He squints up sideways at her, kinda hopeful. “Do I look like a demon?”
She takes his question very seriously. “Straighten up,” the girl tells him, and Naruto snaps to attention. She gets out of her swing and walks around him once, twice, three times, looking him up and down, before she plops back in her own swing.
“No, she says, and Naruto droops. “You don’t like a demon. But… maybe you’re half.”
That perks Naruto right back up, and he grins at her. “Really, really? You think I’m half? That my Mom or Dad was a demon?”
The girl grins back. “Yes,” she tells him, nodding. You feel like a demon and like a human, and those marks on your cheeks kinda look like whiskers.”
He’s thought so before, too, staring in the mirror, but hearing it from someone else is really cool. “You can feel stuff like that?”
She hmms. “Yes. It’s something special I can do.”
Naruto considers this with utmost gravity. “Like the one family with the weird eyes?”
“Just like them.”
“Cool,” the blonde says, grinning. “Hey, hey, what’s your name? I’m Uzumaki Naruto, yeah!”
“Higurashi Kagome,” she says, and she offers him a hand.
He stares at it for a moment, surprised, before he clumsily reaches out to grab her hand and shake. Kagome’s hand is soft, and Naruto’s face darkens as he wonders, briefly, if that’s what all girls’ hands feel like. Realizing he’s holding on a little too long, the blonde quickly yanks his hand away, glancing away in flustered embarrassment. “S-So, um, d’ya wanna be friends?” As soon as the words are out of his mouth, he cringes. That sounded really uncool and boring and bad and-
“Okay.” Naruto jerks his head to stare at her; Kagome is smiling. “Half-demons make the best kind of friends.”
His heart swells. Every day of being alone of people hating him and calling him names and no one playing with him – it’s all worth it for this. He knows why they hate him but Kagome wants to be his friend because he’s a demon.
(He’s going to be the best half-demon friend ever.)
Kagome gets up, stretching, and then offers him a hand up. “Come on, Naruto,” she says. “We should get going. It’s late, and you should be in bed.”
He takes the hand, kind of awed that she doesn’t let go and keeps holding on. “Yeah, yeah.” Naruto doesn’t let go, either. “Will I… see ya tomorrow?”
She smiles. “I’ll find you. Promise.”