Chapter Text
Chapter 1
The cool night air blew through the streets of Konaha creating relief for the various residents as they were suffering a blisteringly hot summer. Trying to cool down herself was eight year old Uzumaki Naruto who lay on her back, long blond hair flowing behind her, in the grass of Training Ground 3. She sighed, frustrated as she stared up at the night sky with thousands of stars twinkling back at her.
“Why? Why do people ignore me?” she was of course talking about the villagers and numerous ninja and even fellow classmates at the Ninja Academy. It was very annoying as Naruto was the type of person who craved attention and she had been treated as if she didn’t even exist for her entire life.
Sometimes Naruto wished she could leave the village. “Yeah, that’s right! I could explore the world!” she exclaimed punching her fist into the air. She stood up, brushing mud and leaves from her brightly coloured orange jacket and stretched her legs out before slowly trekking back to the village to go home to her tiny apartment.
I really do wish I could leave…she mused. One day I even want to go see the stars, But the Old Man wouldn't let me. She absent-mindedly scratched at her whisker marks located on her cheeks. They were strange things, that she’d had from birth according to the Old Man; the Third Hokage. People glared at them making her feel very uncomfortable. I just wish I knew why…
About halfway back to Konaha, something happened that would change Naruto’s entire fate. A brilliant shining light shot across the sky. Naruto looked up in awe but as the light got brighter she had to shield her eyes. Suddenly there was a tremendous crash that rattled the forests surrounding her. Wow! The whole village probably heard that! She debated choose whether to investigate the crash site or head home to her cosy bed for a good night’s sleep, before she let out a whine and rushed towards the noise.
She ran through the trees, jumping over exposed roots and ducking under overhanging branches to reach the crash site. After a solid ten minutes she spotted something that caught her eye. She skidded to a halt her sandal heels digging into the dirt as she entered a clearing where giant redwoods were scattered on the ground ripped from their roots surrounding a large crater. Naruto crept closer until she was peeking over the edge. She looked at a strange object that lay in the centre.
It was large and made out of a strange metal Naruto had never seen before and looked like the red and white mushrooms she had seen in the forests before. It was clearly in bad shape as it was dented in places, the glass on the windows cracked and smoke billowed out of it. Then something in the crater moved out of the corner of her eye. Was someone in there? She wondered.
She looked closer at the poor thing lying there. It looks like a star! Albeit a star drawn by a small child and was a soft cream colour. It was struggling to get up and as Naruto peeked closer and lost her balance and with a yelp went tumbling over the edge bruising her bottom as she landed.
“Ow!” she yelled rubbing her sore spots before she realised she was right in front of the strange creature. It seemed to look at her with the weird black spots it had for eyes. She picked her aching body of the ground wincing as she did so and moved even closer gently picking up the small star-like being. It was warm and felt remarkably like a plush pillow.
“Are you okay?” she asked it before she berated herself for such a stupid idea. It probably can’t even speak… but she was surprised when the creature responded weakly. M-Mama? It spoke. Have you seen my Mama? Naruto jumped almost a foot into the air before she stared down at the thing in her arms in amazement.
“That was you?” she questioned as there was no visible mouth upon the creatures face. Receiving a weak nod in return she answered the question. “I haven’t seen anyone looking for a creature like you. Not ever.” The creature looked sad, its eyes shining with unshed tears, so Naruto decided to ask another question. “Who or what are you?”
My name is Luma and I’ve been looking for my Mama. She’s coming for me on a comet! Luma said quite sadly. “Do you know when she’s coming?” Naruto asked. She received a No in return.
“Well…” she mused “We could look together, would you like that?” The Luma nodded happily squirming in her arms. But before Naruto could speak again there was a rustling noise and several figures dropped onto the ground surrounding her and Luma. They wore strange animal like masks and Naruto realised who they were from memories of classes and visits to the Old Man.
ANBU…The elite Ninja of the village who worked in secrecy doing missions regular ninja could not or would not preform. They glanced at the pair some pulling out kunai in case the unfamiliar creature was a threat. After all security had been tightened after the attack of the Nine Tails that devastated the
“Hey!” Naruto shouted, the ANBU looking at her. “Why don’t you leave Luma alone? All it wants to do is find its Mama, it doesn't want to hurt anyone!” She was almost in tears. How could they hurt such a cute creature? Then from behind her she heard a familiar voice.
“How can you be sure Naruto? Couldn’t this Luma be lying to you?” Naruto whirled around to spoke the tall figure of the Third Hokage staring down at her with his wrinkly old face. She glared up at him, tears forming in her eyes.
“Of course it’s not Old Man! Just look at how sad it is “exclaimed Naruto, shocked that the Third could reach such a conclusion. “It’s just lost and confused and looking for its Mama and I’m going to help it!” The Hokage’s eyes widened as he looked at her in shock.
“Why on earth would you want to help it Naruto? It’s not like you to help someone; you usually just like pulling pranks.” He spoke wondering what could have caused Naruto to make up her mind so quickly.
Naruto looked up at him, unusually solemn. “Because, I know how it is to grow up without a mother, and I won't let Luma grow up without one too!” she shouted at him. Luma looked up at her from between her arms obviously shocked.
Naruto…thought the Hokage smiling fondly. “Alright I'll let you take care of Luma. As long as the ANBU can keep an eye on it to make sure there’s no funny business. You understand right?”
“Hey, Luma, did you hear all that?” asked Naruto; Luma peeked out from under Naruto's arms and nodded. “You don’t mind them keeping an eye on you?” she questioned again. Luma nodded a second time. Naruto squealed in joy and began hopping around the crater. “We’ll find your Mama. That’s an Uzumaki Naruto promise!”
Three weeks later
With the hot summer sun glaring on her eyes, Naruto groaned as she woke up, looking to the side and smiling as she saw Luma curled up under the covers still napping away. The Third Hokage had allowed her to take the little star home after promising her that the ANBU would only periodically check in. As the Ninja Academy was closed for a few weeks due to the hot weather she was enjoying the time spent with Luma. She had decided to show Luma around the village in secret so that people didn't need another reason to stare at her.
They had seen the Hokage Monument, the Ninja Training Grounds and she had passed by the complex where the Uchiha Clan lived. She had even been to see her favourite teacher Iruka and gone out for a few bowls of her favourite ramen at Ichiraku's. He had been shocked by the strange being but had quickly warmed up to it when Naruto explained why it was here. But sadly, for Luma, no new comet had arrived and Luma grew sadder and sadder.
“If you stay here with me much longer I’ll look like an old woman.” She had joked but this had only caused Luma to be even more upset. As a frantic Naruto tried to apologise to it she had suddenly had a brilliant idea. She told Luma that instead of waiting for its Mama, they could just go and find her themselves. Luma had agreed to the genius idea and Naruto grew happy. Now I really can see the stars! She had made the decision to not tell the Third Hokage her plan as he would only grow worried and try to keep her in the village.
So she and Luma had started work on the object Luma had arrived in which Naruto coined the Shroom-Ship. Using old bits of junk from rubbish bins outside the Weapons Shop and Luma’s efficient instructions they had made some significant progress on getting the ship running again. Luma had also described how it had ended up on the planet when the ship had been drifting along and a small meteor had broken one of the engines causing the ship to spiral out of control before eventually succumbing to the gravity of a nearby planet.
As she smiled at the memories of the last few weeks, she stretched out her sore limbs and poked Luma awake. “Come on sleepy-head, I want to work on the ship today!” Luma picked itself up rubbing at its eyes as it floated through the air towards the kitchen room. Naruto followed it pulling a cup of instant ramen from the cupboard and placed it into the microwave. For some strange reason she’d noticed that in the weeks she known Luma it didn’t seem to eat anything. When she’d asked it had said something about absorbing the natural energy or something she didn’t understand.
A bleep from the microwave signified the ramen was done, so she took it out, inhaling the wonderful smell and placing it in a bowl and setting it down on the table. She reached for some chopsticks before she hopped into the chair beside Luma and wolfed down her warm meal.
As she hopped into the shower she spoke to Luma who was waiting outside the bathroom for her. “How much work do you think needs to be done on the ship now Luma?”
Well actually, spoke Luma, If we work from now till sunrise we should be able to finish up! Naruto grinned as she rubbed shampoo in her hair before washing it out. She was towelling herself when Luma spoke again.
Naruto… I want to thank you for being there for me. Before I was so alone but now you’re here… Luma sniffled through the door. Naruto’s eyes welled up with tears, so fully dry and towelled up she walked out of the room and hugged Luma almost crushing against herself.
After their tender moment they walked back into the bedroom where Naruto’s suitcase was lying on the bed. She filled it with her orange jumpsuits, a telescope she bought from a junk shop, her stuffed toad (a birthday gift from Iruka) a butterfly net so she could study the strange creatures out there and some food items which included some bread, milk and jam, her favourite apricot flavoured tea and of course some packets of ramen that she could heat in the ships oven. She had decided to leave all her other possessions in her apartment as she didn’t want to pack too much useless things. Besides she knew the Hokage would keep her things safe.
“Alright, I’m all ready!” They headed outside, Naruto dragging the suitcase behind her. They paused for a moment for Naruto to say goodbye to her home and lock the door before they rushed through the village to the forest when the ship had crashed and started work. As they worked hard, the banging and clattering around them echoing into the forest, the sun rose higher into the sky. They took a small break for dinner but continued working until the sun had set beyond the horizon and the stars peeked out of the sky. As the sky turned purple, Luma took a step back in the air.
Right, we’re all done! Luma stated rubbing imaginary sweat from its brow. The Shroom-Ship should work now. It floated to the top of the ship and pulled up the hatch that lay on top floating inside the ship, Naruto scrambled onto the roof and hopped inside. As Luma hit one of the buttons on the big control panel the ship juddered before slowly rising into the air setting into a comfortable hover, ANBU sprung from the trees with the Third Hokage and Iruka. Naruto exclaimed in surprise looking out of one of the windows before she climbed up and poked her head out from the hatch.
“Old Man and Iruka, what are you doing here?” she shouted down at them. How did they know? she wondered. She hadn’t spoken to anybody about leaving.
“Naruto, did you really think I wouldn’t know about you leaving?” announced the Third. “I’m the Hokage and I’ve looked after you since you were a child. I know you.” Iruka stepped forward looking increasingly frustrated with her.
“You can’t just fly off like this! Why are you going?” he cried out. He was worried, who knows what things were out there, and she could get hurt or worse killed!
Naruto screamed down at him “Oh course I can! Luma wants a mother and I want one too so we're going to find one together. I want to find someone for me, no one in the village likes me anyway!” “That’s not true…”said Iruka. “You have me!” he answered.
“It’s too late now, Iruka” spoke the Third Hokage. “Her mind is made up and there is no changing that.” He addressed Naruto next. “Naruto, I want you to know there are things that I have kept secret from you for your safety and I want you promise that if somehow you discover them you will not do anything rash. I want you to promise you will come back one day, even if it’s just to visit you understand?”
“Don’t worry Old Man! I promise and we’ll see each other soon! See you around Iruka!” she shut the hatch behind her and the ship rose higher and higher.
“Naruto!” cried Iruka, but he was too late as the ship had almost risen over the top of the tree line. “Lord Third, do you think she’ll be okay out there?” he frowned.
“I think... she'll be just fine Iruka.” the Hokage said with a smirk on his face. They both looked up to catch site of Naruto and Luma waving through the windows, before the ship blasted away become a twinkle in the sky that rapidly vanished.
''Good Luck.....Naruto'' said Iruka.