This one-shot was a request from xXxKibasxXxGirlxXx from Quizilla. The original character, Hayashi Kiki, is her creation, not mine. I don't own her. The only thing I do own here is the story within the one-shot.
Enjoy and review, please!
Today was the day. Kiki had counted down everyday on the calendar that hung by her bed for three years, and today was it. He was coming back.
She hopped from her bed, eagerly dressing herself in her usual bright clothing. Her hands shook with excitement as she fastened her headband around her neck. Everything was doing to be absolutely perfect. She'd planned this day out in her head multiple times.
Uzumaki Naruto, her closest friend for eight years, would walk through the Konohagakure gates after his three-year training session to find her waiting patiently. He would flash that ridiculously uplifting smile and pull her into a tight hug, spinning her in slow-motion. Somewhere in distance, fireworks would shoot off and confetti would fall from an unknown source in the sky.
Kiki sighed to herself in pleasure as she left her house. It was too perfect not to happen.
As the sun peeked up from over the gates, she picked up her pace, her heart pounding hard in her chest. Almost there.
/\/\/\/\
"C'mon, Kiki," Naruto pleaded awkwardly as she latched onto him. "Its only three years."
"I don't want you to go!" Kiki cried out for the hundredth time that day. She felt as if she was being forced to put her puppy down because it was too sick to continue living. Actually, letting her friend go was harder than a puppy.
She burst into frenzied sobs once again. Instead of Naruto trying to push her off, like she expected, he only exhaled heavily and wrapped his arms tighter around her small frame, burying his face into her long black hair.
"You'll be just fine without me," he whispered. "When I come back, I'll take you out to dinner or something, okay?"
"What if you forget about me?" she whimpered, meeting his sky blue eyes with her pale jade ones. That was one of her worst fears at that point.
Sure, she had other friends beside Naruto. She and Ino always found themselves admiring each other's hair, Lee always complimented how hard she could punch someone in the gut, and even Akamaru followed her around, knowing she usually had some sort of food on her person.
But none of them compared to how close she was to the Kyuubi boy. She never had to go without him for more than a week. Three years? She knew it would kill her.
"Forget about you?" Naruto repeated, pulling away to grab her shoulders. "You're crazy, Kiki. You'll be the first person I come see when I get back."
"Promise?"
"I swear."
/\/\/\/\
Kiki waited near the gates for two hours before a sign of anything happened. A lone rabbit jumped out from a bush near the popular dirt path everyone used to leave and enter the village. She stared down that path for what seemed like forever.
"Naruto!" she hollered, waving her hand to the blonde boy. Even from a far distance away, she could see the noticeable changes about him.
He was taller, no doubt. He had always been taller than her, but now this was just crazy. It seemed that she hadn't grown an inch during the years that passed.
His hair was a bit longer too. Before, it was just spiky, but now, it hung down a tad, giving it a shaggy look. A lot of his childish features had matured, giving him the look of a man instead of a boy.
Kiki ran at him, hoping he'd catch her when she jumped. He did, but it was extremely gawky, like he had just been attacked by a random girl. There weren't any fireworks and the whole slow-motion thing didn't happen. She didn't care, though. He was back and that was all that mattered.
"Naruto," she breathed, "how was it? You have to tell me all about it!"
"Uh," he started, giving her an odd look, "it was good? But, um, do I know you?"
Her arms dropped from around the boy's neck as she took a step back. "What? You…don't remember me?" Her stomach twisted painfully. He swore.
Naruto casually shrugged. "Sorry," he mumbled, and then looked toward the village. "I've got to find Sakura! Bye, lady!"
Kiki stared forward in disbelief long after he had gone. She kept telling herself he was only joking and he'd be back any second to live out the fantasy she'd made up for them. Fireworks and everything.
"Excuse me!" a voice called from behind her. Her heart jumped, hoping it was Naruto, but instead she faced a guard when she turned. "Oh, Miss Hayashi, its you. Is something the matter?"
She shook her head slowly, bowing slightly to the man. "No, sir," she lied, walking past. "Nothing at all."
/\/\/\/\
By the time Kiki reached Ichiraku Ramen Shop, her eyes felt heavy, as if she hadn't slept in days. After ordering a simple glass of tea, she folded her arms on the counter, burying her face in them. Maybe if she couldn't see the world, the world couldn't see her.
"Hey, are you dead?"
"Go away, Shikamaru," Kiki mumbled, slapping the hand that had poked her arm away. "I'm not in the mood."
"Obviously." The stool next to her creaked. "Why are you so down in the dumps? Isn't Naruto coming back today?"
She lifted her head to rest her cheek against her palm. "Yeah. I already saw him." She raised her free hand to brush her bangs back to the left side of her face. "He doesn't remember me."
Shikamaru languidly fondled a stray string coming from his clothes. "Well, I guess you do look a little different than you did three years ago."
"How?" she questioned. "I look the same."
"Of course you'd say that. You can't see it in yourself, but everyone else can. You've cut your hair and changed the style, you don't wear your headband around her thigh anymore, and your face matured. Even your voice sounds a little different."
Kiki groaned and shook her head. "I had this whole scenario planned out for when he came back." She closed her eyes, sadly replaying it in her mind. "There was going to be confetti and fireworks and slow-motion! It wasn't anything like that."
Shikamaru tried his hardest to hide his grin. "You have a hyperactive imagination, Kiki. Why don't you write books for a living instead of being a Kunoichi?"
"That's not the point, damn it!" she snapped. "The point is that Naruto didn't even remember the promise he made me."
"Promise?"
"Well, it was more of a swear. He said I'd be the first person he saw when he came back, but he said he was going to see Sakura." There was a hint of revulsion in her voice as she said the pink-haired girl's name.
/\/\/\/\
"Isn't she pretty?" Naruto swooned, watching Sakura as she leaned over a piece of paper on her desk. Iruka-sensei was busy as his own desk, so almost everyone was talking.
Well, everyone except Sakura. She was too busy writing love letters to Sasuke that she would never have the courage to actually give to him.
"I guess," Kiki replied darkly, rolling her eyes behind her friend's back. "You know, Naruto, there are tons of other girls who are nicer than her."
Naruto was in too deep of a daze to actually hear what she said, though. "Isn't she pretty?" he repeated dreamily.
She decided to chance it. "Do you think I'm pretty?"
"Isn't she pretty?"
"I'll take that as a no."
/\/\/\/\
"Did you even mention your name?" Shikamaru asked after sucking a ramen noodle into his mouth. Kiki had ordered her second glass of tea already.
"No," she told him honestly. "I guess I should have."
"I think you know what needs to be done now."
She nodded and took a quick sip of the tea. After she paid for the drinks and thanked Shikamaru, she turned and faced the rest of the village. Naruto was somewhere in there. She had to find him. That's all she knew. But where to start?
"Lord Hokage's office," Shikamaru muttered behind her, as if reading her mind. "You have the look of being lost on your face, so you should probably start there."
"Right."
/\/\/\/\
"Lady Tsunade!" Kiki called out, almost kicking her door open. The Hokage's head arose from a pile of papers scattered about on her desk to shoot the young girl an annoyed glance.
"What can I do for you, Kiki?"
"Has Naruto dropped by today?"
"He left with Sakura not too long ago," Shizune answered from the corner of the room. Kiki growled to herself and bowed to both of them. She knew this was going to turn into an extremely preposterous game of hide-and-seek.
By the time she left the office, it was almost three in the afternoon. Konohagakure was a huge village and finding the boy wasn't going to be easy.
"Maybe I should ask people to go look for him?" she whispered to herself, walking through the streets. "No, that would make me seem like a stalker."
A desperate moan flew from her lips as she took off running in a random direction.
/\/\/\/\
Dusk arrived much quickly than Kiki hoped. She had searched all day for Naruto only to fail. He wasn't anywhere she looked: the arena, the academy, his old apartment, the Uchiha complex, even Sakura's house. It was as if he disappeared from the face of the earth.
As she rounded a corner to return home in defeat, she froze at the sound of his voice.
"I don't know, Sakura. I'm kind of nervous."
"Why? She's still the same Kiki she was when you left."
Naruto was at her house, looking for her? But he had already seen her. However, like Shikamaru said, she did look different.
Kiki inhaled and hurried past the two, reaching into her pocket to pull out her key. Her hand shook as she tried to get it into the keyhole.
"Hey, it's the girl I saw before," Naruto said. "Do you live here?"
"Yeah, I do," she told him without looking back at him.
"I told you she wouldn't live here anymore, Sakura."
"Naruto, are you stupid?"
Kiki quickly closed the door before Sakura could give her away. She wasn't ready to face him again, not after that morning and all the searching she did for him. She was just too exhausted and decided she would try again tomorrow. Maybe.
"Kiki!" Naruto called, pounding on her door. "Open up!"
"Go away, kid," she whispered, locking the door before heading up to her room. The banging continued for a good half hour before he finally gave up.
Kiki lay on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her stomach kept flipping uncomfortably and even though she felt like she was going to throw up, she knew it wasn't going to happen. She hadn't eaten anything all day.
"You know, you're still a big pain in the butt," Naruto said, causing her to jump off her bed in a panic. Without realizing who it was, she started to form a hand sign, but he tackled her back onto her bed.
"How did you get in here?" she yelled, struggling against him.
"You still leave your window wide open! Stop punching me!"
She calmed down after a moment to stare at him. "You said you didn't remember me."
He smiled widely, causing her heart to beat faster. "You look a lot weirder than before."
"Thanks a whole lot, Naruto," she growled, pushing him off and standing up straight on the floor. "Not even a, 'Hi, Kiki, how have you been?' or anything. You just insult me."
"What?" he shouted, rushing to block her from leaving the room. He stood in the doorway, placing his hands on the frame. "I didn't mean to insult you. I really didn't."
"Please, just leave. I'm not really in the mood-"
"No," he objected, placing his hands on both sides of her face. "No, I will not leave. Do you know how many times I've pictured this little reunion?" Before she could answer, he continued, "No, you don't." Then, he bowed his head slightly and sighed. "You look gorgeous, Kiki."
Kiki watched him closely for a few moments, trying to ignore the heavy blush on her cheeks. "Are you on drugs, Naruto?"
He started to laugh before bringing his head up to look at her face. "No, I'm not. I promise." His right hand left her cheek to run through her hair. "I like what you did with it."
She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Are you trying to cover up the whole forgetting me situation by complimenting me?"
"No, no! Really, you're super pretty now!"
"Are you saying I wasn't pretty befor-" A pair of lips cut her off mid-sentence. Kiki only stood there, in pure shock, until Naruto backed away.
"Will you shut up for three seconds?" he whispered playfully. "You're beautiful. You always have been. I don't know why it took me three years to realize that I'm in love with you, but I'm so glad I did."
"Love," she repeated in a hushed tone, staring into his eyes, still stunned.
He grinned. "Yeah, Kiki. You know that emotion someone gets when they find somebody really special and decide they would like it if they felt the same way?"
A hysterical laugh caused to her move away from him and toward her bed. She didn't know why she was laughing. Everything just felt so great.
"Why are you laughing?" Naruto asked, a hint of disheartenment in his voice.
Kiki stopped short and faced him again. "Catch me when I jump, then spin me slowly, okay?"
"O-Okay?"
She took off running at full-speed at him. Once she was close enough, she jumped toward him and wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, pressing her lips to his. Before closing her eyes, she saw that the room was spinning.
In her imagination, confetti was falling from the ceiling and fireworks were being shot off somewhere outside.
"I love you, too, Naruto. Even though you forgot about me."
"I did not!"