He didn't understand it. Her best friend, who she had spent nearly every hour of her life with for more than nine years, had just died. And yet from the moment her friend had stopped breathing she hadn't even come close to tears.
Naruto had asked kakashi and Yamato about this strange behaviour and they told him that people have different ways of grieving. Some hid their sadness and got angry, some stopped eating, and some even self-harmed. So for a few weeks Naruto had let it pass, thinking she must be doing one of those things to grieve her dearest friend. However, after letting it pass for a month, she still showed no sign of any grief whatsoever. This annoyed him greatly.
A year later Naruto was taking a quiet walk to the grave-yard. The sun was shining brightly down on the heroes of the village. The rays of light caused the gloomy stones to shine as if the soul attached to it was smiling brightly without a care in world. Usually he wouldn't come to this place until evening because of all his training, but today he wasn't in the mood to train seeing as though ten years ago today he lost his teammate Sai along with the girl who had died trying to help out her friend. He missed Sai alot. Much more then you would expect him to. He missed that annoying fake smile of his along with a whole lot of other things.
Suddenly he was brought out of his depressing thoughts when he heard a young girl laugh. He stopped walking and looked straight ahead of. There was a girl with long blond hair and a fringe. She was wearing a pale blue hospital gown and had old looking bandages on her legs and arms. Wait, hospital gown? She must of come here from the hospital. He wandered off into other thoughts for awhile before blinking and realising whose grave she was attending to, it was that girl's. He ran up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, he then spun her around to look at him. At first she had her head down, but when she brought it up to look at him, his eyebrows knitted together in anger and his grip on her shoulder tightened to the extent that he could easily break her bones.
It was her. Those big bright blue eyes, that cute young innocent looking face and that smile that could easily fool anyone. Yes it was most certainly her. Now knowing who she was he shoved her to the ground and stared down at her with killing intent pouring out of him. She was the one that didn't care that her friend had died. She was the one who had watched her friend lying on the ground coughing up blood while she sitting casually in tree. It had taken him years to make friends with everyone and he had promised all of them (including Sasuke) that he wouldn't let them get hurt. Although he had failed to protect Sasuke and Sai, he would still keep his promise to others. And yet this girl, had a friend that acted like a sister and she didn't even try to fight to stop her friend from being stabbed to death! Her heart was so empty he was sure that she the devil herself. He couldn't hold in his anger towards her anymore so the moment he opened his mouth, the emotional torture began.
"How dare you?! How can you come to her grave with that smile on your face? How can not feel guilty or angry or upset for letting her die?!" He stopped for a moment to catch his breath. "How could you be so heartless?!" He now waited for her reply. Expecting it to be some sob story about she was self-harming because she couldn't live without her best friend, but it was nothing like that at all. Instead she looked a bit confused and then she looked like she was in thought. "well, spit it out already!"
She then moved herself into a sitting position on the grave and plainly said with a blank expression on her face "No. I don't feel guilty for letting her die. I don't miss her. What makes you think I would be so upset about her death?"
He was incredibly shocked. "I watched you both for years! You were always with her. You were like her big sister. You would always start silly fights and annoy her and hug her and give her peace out signs. I thought you would feel lonely without having her there with you all the time. I thought you would hate yourself for watching her die. I thought you would be angry that the last thing she saw was you sitting in a tree eating an apple as if nothing was happening."
"Why? I shouldn't have to be sad that my friend was killed. I was just a bit angry with the fact that she won our death glare competition on her death bed. She always won that contest...it was annoying."
"So your not sad or lonely. You don't care that you were a pretty bad friend. I overheard you once, telling her that you would always be there for her. What happened to that?"
"That is what I did. I was there at her death bed. I'm keeping the promise I made to her eleven years ago."
"What promise?"
"When we first met. She was in the middle of a crowd crying her eyes out. They were all telling her that she was making them worried about her. I pushed through the crowd and started laughing when I realised she was fake crying...
Flashback
She laughed like hell as she saw everyone trying to cheer the girl up. They were idiots. Couldn't they see that she was fake crying to get their attention? Her face only had a frown and a few tears on it, which were caused from the pain of having eyes drops from the bottle that was being gripped within her still hands. She laughed even more and the crying girl looked up in shock. Then the laughing girl calmed herself down and glared at the girl below her. "I know you want some special attention so I think you'll be disappointed when I tell you this but... I promise I will NEVER give you the attention you think you need right now, not THAT kind. I'll always ignore you instead. Even when your dead." A smile spread across the crier's face, her tears now gone. She looked up at this stranger who had made her this promise and after the shock of what she had just told her, she got the feeling that this promise of hers wouldn't last long. She reached out her hand and clasped the strong looking hand by the girl's side. Shaking her hand she said "Hi. I'm Chihiro. I promise that I won't leave your side until you break your promise. I'll annoy you as much as I can." At this the taller girl helped her onto her feet and smirked. At the same time the two girls said "LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!"
End flashback
Well. That explained why she wasn't bothered about her friend's death. They were rivals. She is still keeping her promise and is happy that her friend broke her promise first. She can't worry about a friend that she knows is completely fine. He thought. As he smiled at the girl he walked away and stopped to say another thing on his mind "By the way, I've known you for a long time but I still don't know your name. What is it?"
She smiled. Her blue eyes shining brightly with joy. "My name is Siki Sohma. Pleased to finally meet you, Hokage."
Naruto was satisfied with her reply. He turned once more to path in front of him. As he walked away letting his black and orange cloak fall slightly behind him, he said with an almost exited tone "Pleased to meet you to."
