Title: Simple Smile
Series: Naruto
Disclaimer: Everything owned by Kishimoto except this spin off idea.

Snow... Always cold and blinding, but because of it, spring shall come and something new shall bloom.

Yawning, Naruto woke from his sleep. Groggily getting up while rubbing his eyes, he moves into the washroom to get through his daily routine. Following is his milk and leftovers from the previous day. Feeling a bit more refreshed, he looks outside as he prepares his things to go to the Academy and notices it snowing. Sighing, he checks that he has all his equipment with him and touching his goggles, he heads out his house.

"Ino! Wake up now! You're going to be late, AGAIN!" Rolling over, Ino reads the time on her clock and rolls back over again. Then it clicked. "NOOOO!"

At the Academy, Naruto surprises everyone by reaching his seat early for once but promptly goes to sleep with his head on the desk. The others return to their previous activities not sparing him another glance. At quarter to nine, Iruka enters the classroom quieting the students and notices Naruto sleeping. Knowing the time of year, he let him off the hook but then the door at the back slammed open.

"I'M PRESENT! I'M NOT LATE!" Ino takes a huge gulp of air before seating herself beside her favourite 'Sasuke-kun!' and glaring at Sakura who along with everyone else tries their best to muffle their laughter.

"Ino, this is the third time this week, which means you've been late each day this week. Just because the holidays are tomorrow doesn't mean that you are allowed to be tardy."

"Sorry Iruka-sensei... No one at ho-"

"No excuses, now returning to our history..."

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

"Bye bye! and Merry Christmas!"'s were chorused throughout the schoolyard as students left with their parents heading back home. Naruto had woken up when the fire alarm went off and as it was always, he was blamed even though he had been sleeping the entire time. He had become immune to the taunts and accusations for the past while or he forced himself to believe it though he was hurt. Of course, he'd never admit that out loud even if he were to become Hokage by saying it.

"Anou... Naruto-kun... M-Merry Christmas a-a-and have a-a-a Happy New Year..." came a quiet voice. Turning around, Naruto noticed Hyuuga Hinata behind him poking her fingers together in her nervous manner and bright red in face. Her head was bowed but he could imagine her eyes shifting about looking left and right. Giving her his biggest grin to hide his frown, he replied, "Aa! You too Hinata-chan! Hope you get everything you want this year!"

If it was possible for her face to become redder, it did. Then saying a quick thank you, she turned tail and headed in the direction of her father. Naruto just followed her with his eyes still in their fox-like look until she left the yard. Dropping the facade, he turned back to his swing, wiped the seat of the snow, and sat on it. Swinging to and fro lightly, he watched as all his other classmates left with their parents, smiling and telling them what they wished Santa Claus would bring them or what they wanted to eat that night or simply telling them how their day went. Trying his best not to envy them, Naruto thought about how he didn't have to worry about family get togethers and needing to buy things for other friends and family members since he didn't have much money to start out with. His monthly allowance from Sandaime gave him enough just to scrape by and it was hard to save any at all. He had seen Sasuke (teme!) leave with the first group of students but as usual, he seemed apathetic to the entire joy and celebratory feel the rest of the body of 'normal' people exuded. The last to leave, surprisingly, was Ino.

Ino was NOT having a good day. Waking up late (stupid mom not waking me up earlier and stupid clock!), forgetting to brush her hair, then arriving to class embarassing herself again, she was glad that the holidays were here. But at this moment, she was fuming. She was the last one in the entire school yard since her mother hadn't arrived yet. Looking around, she finally saw Naruto on his swing but he was swinging and looking up at the sky and that did not interest her in the least bit. It did however start her ranting mood.

"I'm the last one here with no one but the class idiot... Sheesh... I wonder where his parents are though... He's always here on his own. But it doesn't matter! 'Kaasan isn't here yet and augh! If she's gonna keep giving me the same excuse that she was busy at the flower shop or had met an old friend or met 'tousan on her way here, I'm gonna blow!" Either way, she still blew up. Yelling gibberish at the top of her lungs (and scaring Naruto in the process), she calmed down after a few minutes. The teachers had all come out and asked her what was wrong and receiving nothing but a heated glare, they figured it was just another 'Ino thing' as they so called it.

"Mou... talk about annoying teachers. Nosing their way into as many things as they can. Can't they tell that that was a private yell? Sheesh... but man, it's cold outside." Ino looked up and noticed that snow had been falling for a short while but she was too engrossed in her heated self-monologue to see it. Shivering a bit (since she was clad in her purple pants and shirt, and nothing else but bandages), she closed her eyes and promptly reopened them when she felt something warm wrap around her shoulders and warm her back.

Where her bare shoulders were, now there was something tattered, orange, and somewhat fuzzy (was that miso she could smell?). Scowling, since she realized that it was Naruto's (ugly!) jacket, she bent her head back but didn't see him. Looking back at the swing, it was empty. 'So now what? I owe him something? Sheesh... He really IS annoying! Mou, I have to get this back to him. I'd DIE if someone saw me in this.' She hurriedly shoved it into her bag but regretted the next moment as she shivered at double the rate than before. She was about to bring it back out again but she spotted her mom and forgetting about everything else, she ran over and started interrogating (in the most polite and civil manner possible according to Ino) her about where she had been and why she was late as usual. Her mother being sensible gave Ino her jacket that she forgot at home and then proceeded to explain to her why she was late (which happened to be the excuse of her seeing an old friend). As the pair left, neither of them saw or sensed the little boy that had been watching them from around the corner who too was shivering.

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

"Christmas! Christmas! Christmaaaas!" trilled Ino as she raced down the stairs to her family's modest Christmas tree that stood in the back of the flower shop. Of course she never told anyone she still had some hope that Santa Claus was real since she was always sarcastic about it "oh yeah! He's real alright. Pshhh, yyy-erah! (cue eye roll)." She was disappointed with the gifts she received though, pair of gloves and a new headband (must be from 'kaasan), more bandages ('tousan... how original, always something practical right?), a letter of complaint (why in the world did Sakura give this to me if she always complains at school? It's not even a gift!), and a few little tidbits here and there. Nothing was really important to her and she sighed as she remembered that 'Sasuke-kun!' hadn't given her anything or even said a simple Merry Christmas. 'How hard is it to say that anyway? At least say it if you won't write it or something!'

In another house, another blond had yet to wake up, but he'd prefer if he didn't anyway. Nothing good ever came of this day. Sure he got training by running away from angry villagers, but he didn't even get time to plan any pranks so all in all, this day was already ruined for him. By the time he woke up (Ino was already eating breakfast), he sat in bed and didn't bother to move for the following ten minutes. Thinking was a habit that he was slowly starting to hate since it always brought up memories or something of that sort back up. Sighing, he made his way out of bed and did his morning routines. When dressing, he realized that he left his favourite jacket with that pig-headed girl the other day and sighed again. Yep, his day was already ruined. Having nothing else to do, and crossing his fingers that the other villagers weren't up yet, he decided to head out and visit 'oyaji' and Ayame-neechan to wish them a Merry Christmas and see if he could get by with a bowl of ramen since he ran out of it recently. Donning his usual gear (and a cleaner but slightly darker jacket), he left the house.

Absently walking about, Naruto looked about and stopped when he found a clear shot of the Hokage Mountain. Staring up at it, the stale fire rekindled itself, but his eyes were still dulled, following his emotions. A few minutes more and then he kept moving, remembering to go and visit Sandaime as well this day, assuming that he wasn't busy with his family too.

Ino was bored in her house. Her parents refused to wake up (having gone to bed extremely late, but Ino didn't know that) and so she decided to leave and go do something. What that something was, she wasn't sure. Whatever it was though, it had to be better than being here! 'Heck, even hanging out with Shikamaru would be better than staying cooped up here.' With that thought, she left her house and walked into the chilly weather of December before remembering that she needed a jacket. In the next few minutes, she was back out again but cursing herself for having forgotten something so basic as a jacket.

Not really moving in any direction, her feet took her to the memorial grounds. Here, she remembered to pass by her grandfather's and grandmother's grave for they had been killed during the Kyuubi attack. Ino wasn't sure about how she felt, but she realized after a few minutes that she had been crying. Quickly wiping away the tears, she wished the two of them a Merry Christmas and to have a Happy New Year. She also told them about how she was doing at the Academy not knowing whether they would have cared or not if they were still alive. She wasn't sure why she was crying either, she hadn't ever met the two, she only saw their photographs. Perhaps it's because there were just so many that died in the attack, or just because they were family to her. She loved her family to death and would die protecting them (which was one reason why her mother was always worried, not because Ino'd die protecting the family, but because Ino was now more exposed to being in that situation). Getting up from her kneeling position, she smiled and said that she'd come and visit more often. Sobered, she began walking away when she noticed Naruto in the distance. 'Who could ever miss that orange jacket anyway? Even the villagers notice it and glare at it.' Of course, she did not understand Naruto's predicament at that time and neither did Naruto as a matter of fact.

Naruto sensed someone coming and not wanting to talk to anyone just yet, began to speed up towards Ichiraku but halted when he heard the other say, "Stop!" He looked and found Ino running up to him but he really didn't want to talk so trying his hardest to throw her off, he smiled his fox smile and called out as loud as he could, "Oi! Ino! Merry Christmas!" Some of the villagers actually came out and started to yell at him saying that he woke them up, but then they started to yell at each other saying that they were too loud and eventually, they forgot that it was Naruto that they had yelled at first and were making a loud ruckus and missed Naruto and Ino running out of the general area.

"Mou Naruto, you really ARE an idiot! Yelling like that in the middle of a neighbourhood, don't you know that most people are dead asleep at this time of year!"

"Yeah, but what's it matter? You're out, right? Plus, it's so late in the day, almost noon now, so I think everyone should get up (grins)."

"BAKA!" and she proceeded to hit his head multiple times until he almost passed out. When she had calmed down (but Naruto was still nursing his head), she looked at him and again he gave her one of his biggest smiles. But as she studied him, him being nervous, had to ask what was wrong.

"Ne, Naruto..."

"Eh?"

"You... you seem, how do I put it... Really fake today..." Naruto stared at her unbelievingly wondering how he messed up his facade, but she continued. "You always smile like that in class, but you always close your eyes. I can never tell whether your smile reaches your eyes or not."

Naruto continued to stare at her until she felt uncomfortable and hit him once again on the head. "Itai! What was that for?"

"For staring at me and making me feel uncomfortable baka!"

Sighing for the umpteenth time that day, Naruto said, "Na, Ino, if you wanna go somewhere else, go ahead. I'm gonna go grab lunch now so I'll see ya later, 'kay?" Smiling again (with his eyes still closed as Ino noted), he left and went in the direction of Ichiraku once again with more vigor in his step (as he was trying to get away from Ino as quick as possible). When he was a good distance away, Ino recalled that she still had to give him back his jacket.

"Maa, I'll just give it to him another day. Like the first day of school or something like that. Right, I just need to remember."

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

Snow, always snow. White, pure, cold, and well, shiny as he liked to put it. Which in a way is a bad thing, especially when one is running outside but keeps getting blinded wherever they go. Actually, that was happening to him right now as he was doing his best to outrun another ninja who randomly attacked him.

Naruto was at the moment in the Mist country doing a 'mini' solo mission for Godaime which started out as a C-rank mission 'how degrading Tsunade-baachan! For me? Jounin level doing that? Che... and you wonder why our forces are weakening' but as it is with Naruto, it managed to become an A-rank mission with missing-nins and even a few crude hunter-nins joining in. The mission was supposed to be simple. Retrieve a scroll from underneath the "Uzumaki Bridge" (oh how he loved that name, but sadly, Tazuna-san had died. Inari was left with his mom, but they were coping well and Inari had become quite the man since he had last seen him) and bring it back. The bridge was easy to find, but man it was long. Finding the scroll itself took a while (from dawn to dusk) since she didn't specify whether it was underwater, under the bridge posts, etc. Apparently though, this was one of the secret scrolls of the Mist (why they left it out was a complete mystery really) and so not only was Godaime looking for it, but missing-nins. Strangely enough, the Mist-nins didn't care, so that must have meant that it was planned between the Leaf and Mist, but missing-nins somehow managed to get info about the scroll and wanted it.

Back in real time, Naruto narrowly dodged another swipe at his face by a clawed hand and a kick to his abdomen from a foot by two other missing-nins and kept on running. Getting tired of it all, he formed a familiar hand formation and a multitude of Narutos seemed to have magically popped out of nowhere. His kage bunshins were to be used as distractions (as much as possible) and weapons if he needed it. Already quite a few were busy with his clones but he still had to keep moving around to get out of the way of the many attacks aimed at him. He was quite tired by the time dusk came around since he had literally been running nonstop, had created over 5000 bunshins by that time, but he was nearing Konoha which he was sure that he'd get some kind of help. He also knew the area best and was planning on which hideout to move to first to get some strength back and where to hide the scroll while resting. But first things first, 'tajuu kage bunshin no jutsu' and another 20 formed. Forming something akin to a semi-circle behind him, they readied themselves and at his command, they all blew up in a great explosion, hitting most of the missing-nins in the face and regretfully on Naruto's part, a couple hunter-nins. 'If only the hunter-nins were doing a better job at killing those missing-nins, it'd be like they're on my side. 'Course, they're after this scroll too. Geez, what's IN here Tsunade-baachan that's so important?'

Ino, Sakura, and Kiba who had been on patrol duty perked their ears up when they heard the explosion a fair distance away. Well, it was really Kiba who heard it, the other two girls were squabbling over another petty thing again which was their habit. This time, he thought it was something about face masks or something like that. Girls were just too much trouble at times, except Hinata. At that thought, he smiled like a giddy school girl and even laughed a bit scaring the crap out of Sakura and Ino. He got over it though in a couple seconds as he started to sniff the air and concentrated on the scent he was getting.

"Kiba, what is it?" inquired Sakura.

"It's... yeah, no doubt about it. It's Naruto. He's coming back from his mission and it seems like he's in trouble." Akamaru came to his side and barked a couple messages to his master and Kiba interpreted it for the two girls. "He's got about 13 nins after him, most of them strong and why the heck he's not fighting I don't know. But Akamaru and I can sense that he's tired. We should go help him. He's not that far now. About 100 kilometres away or so. We could reach him in a few minutes."

"But, what about patrolling? Plus, it's Naruto. I've known him for forever now, still annoying, but not that bad heh," Sakura said with a smile. "He'll be fine, I'm sure of it."

"Well I'm bored and I want to do something. I say we go help him anyway. What level do you think those nins are at?" asked Ino.

"Jounin level at least."

"Yeah, I say we go."

"But, patrolling..."

"I'm on it," said Ino. She went to the other wall, jumped down and quickly found two other sentry nins who happened to walk by and doing what she does best, she got them/forced them to go on patrolling duty for a short while and then the three left.

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

Naruto was really beginning to get tired, he had actually stopped a short while before, but rather than resting, was desperately fighting off his attackers. His bunshin idea was way past overused and the only thing keeping him going was his reserved chakra. He was somewhat injured, but not badly thanks to Kyuubi's healing. But he could only hang on for so long. He was doing his best not to use the Kyuubi chakra since he did think of this a bit as a training session and tried to restrain his use against it (heck, he still believed it was a C-rank mission). Plus, it burned his body everytime he used it anyway. So why not save the pain as much as he could?

But when he was about to give up and start tapping into the Kyuubi's chakra, he sensed three others nearing and was relieved to find that it was Sakura's, Ino's, and Kiba's chakra signature. Anymore stupid nins and he was sure he'd have gone Kyuubi (as he has coined that term). Slowly sensing that the other missing-nins were being killed off or being knocked out, his vision began to unfocus itself and he was getting mixed signals from his five senses and stumbled till his back hit a tree. At this moment, one nin (from Grass) had found him and with his kunai, stabbed his heart. Or he would have had Naruto not moved enough and have the kunai stab him in his shoulder. He was beyond pissed now, tired, injured, and chakra depleted, Kyuubi's form festered itself round his body and he was animalistic. Clawing at the missing-nin, his or her throat was torn apart with one swipe and wasting no time, Naruto found all the others and killed them in quick movements and sometimes even with nothing but his chakra. The others freaked when he transformed, Kiba and Akamaru the most since they could smell something demonic and his power level seemed to have jumped from zilch to above scales of maybe even sennin-level (of course, Kiba has yet to experience the full power of any sennin since Tsunade was usually sleeping and all).

Sakura was stunned. Nothing else could describe her at that moment. It had been such a long time that she'd seen Naruto in that form. She knew of the Kyuubi contained within him, but it all seemed fake to her when she heard about it when he told her himself. She still regretted her reactions to it that day since she froze on the spot, wide-eyed, and according to Naruto (after they made up) accusatory. This was why she wasn't worried when she and the others were standing on guard at the gate about Naruto getting hurt, but she was glad that she still helped him in tiny ways when she couldn't help Sasuke-kun at all.

Ino's mind was reeling with assumptions when she saw Naruto. She remembered him and this chakra during the Chuunin Examination the first time round, but had completely forgotten about it after a few weeks since she became extremely busy in that time. Seeing him now, she thought that some sort of fire fox demon engulfed Naruto and was eating its way through the skin (and how close she was to the truth). At the sight, she recalled the Kyuubi as she had seen drawn in some old history book back at the Academy and suddenly remembered all the deaths on that day. Her grandparents included. Feeling nauseous, she fell to her knees and did nothing else but look upon the scene.

With the last missing-nin killed, Naruto dropped on top of that dead nin and passed out before he had closed his eyes. The hunter-nins came and took the heads of their prey though they had done squat, looked at the jinchuuriki and left quietly as if they had never been there. 'Good riddance,' thought both girls.

"Sakura!" shouted Kiba. "You'd better get your butt over here and start healing Naruto! He-" He stopped mid-sentence, seeing that the shoulder had almost stopped bleeding and was already beginning to close up. To watch it in real life after having heard the stories, Kiba could still hardly believe that it was true. The rate at which Naruto healed was... impossible!

"Hai, Kiba?"

"N-nothing..."

"Oi, let's get back. I need to wash out my hair again. Bah! Maybe we should have just stayed on guard duty."

"Nyah, that's what I said before, but of course, YOU didn't listen to me."

Ino hmphed and started making her way back, Sakura in tow.

"Oy... What is this? You leave the guy to carry the injured? Thanks girls..."

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

Groaning, Naruto opened his eyes to see nothing but white again. 'Man,' he thought, 'I've seen this colour way too much. Oh, sorry, my bad... Tint or shade or.. oh whatever!' He ran his hand through his hair and noted thankfully that it was cleaned as was the rest of his body. Why he was in the hospital though, he could not understand. Sitting up, he got rid of the kinks in his body by doing a couple light stretches in bed.

"Good to see that you're up," said a girl drily.

"Yep, good to see that you're sarcastic as ever Ino," replied Naruto while still twisting about.

"I come to say hi, and that's how you answer me? I'm hurt."

"Now, now, I hate it when people lie to me so don't."

"Hey!" said an offended Ino, "I did come to visit you!"

"Oh, that's fine. Just the 'I'm hurt' thing bugged me."

"Riiiight... (Eyes rolled at this point)"

"Yeah, I know I am."

"Urusei!" and as if it were deja-vu, Ino hit Naruto on the head.

"ITAI! What's with you girls and hitting people?"

"Baka, you brought it on yourself."

"Did not!"

"Did to!"

"Did not!"

"Did to!"

"Did not!"

"Did to!"

"DID NOT! AND THAT'S FINAL!"

"Sheesh, don't get all hissy fit on me.

Naruto silently stewed in his anger as Ino placed her flowers by his bed table which he then noticed. They were not a terribly bright orange as he'd have liked, but they were orange nonetheless or something like orange. They were desert mariposa lilies and in the middle, there was a daisy. 'That's kind of random,' thought Naruto, 'but ah well. Wait... is she the first to ever give me flowers? I don't recall Sakura ever doing that... It was always for 'Sasuke-kun! Love me because I bring you flowers!' Bah! Traitor...'

As a side note, Sasuke had returned to Konoha after Sound had been defeated by the alliance of the Leaf and Sand. Naruto had been able to convince Gaara, his long time friend, to help them out and also to help strengthen the relationship between the two countries. Sasuke had returned, but only because there was nowhere else that he could go (believe it or not) and after having apologized (though it was difficult for many not to kill him right then and there at the council), was not reaccepted back into Konoha, but was accepted at the moment under the status of refugee. Many found it hard to accept him as he was the one who lead the attack against Konoha during that war, but it seemed no matter what, many others still accepted him and wanted him back under Konoha citizenship since he was 'the last Uchiha' or 'he was misguided' or something of that idiocy.

Back in the hospital, Ino studied Naruto's face again as he stared at the flowers and took in all the slightest changes his face like how his eyebrows raised or how his mouth tilted down when he frowned and again, his eyes that spoke so much about him, how they sparkled or darkened when he remembered something. Details like that. She wasn't sure how long she looked at him, but gathering herself just before Naruto noticed, she said that she had to go and visit Chouji who also came back from a recent mission, but had lost too much weight and that was his reason for him being in the hospital. Naruto nodded, not yet looking at her, but when his eyes fell on hers and said thanks, he smiled at her. A simple, genuine smile, and one that she would never forget even if she wanted to. His eyes, she said to herself, were open this time.

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