A/N: Well I decided to keep on with this story and because I had a few people who alerted this story, I decided to make it as interesting as possible. I already began to plan in advanced on what Unfinished Business could lead to.
I unfortunately do not own Naruto :(
Chapter 3: Smile
"It's OK," repeats the girl. "I promise," she says with a very calm, delicate, warm voice.
I can't take it anymore. So I run. Run, but not away, but towards the welcoming embrace of the young girl that wraps her slender arms around me when I reach her. I can't take it anymore.
"It's warm," I choke, as I finally let the torrent of not-there tears win this time.
A soft humming wakes me up. I don't know from where it's coming from, but it sounds so heavenly. It is soft and warm but at the same time sad. I don't want to wake up. I just want to sleep, sleep forever. Wait…was I asleep? I thought I was not able to. For the past three years, I have tried to sleep but with no use. The only thing that was close to sleeping is closing my eyes and block out the whole world of its whispers, but I knew I was still awake. And now…I really fell asleep. I thought that was impossible. What the heck is going on? Although, I don't care right now, I just want to listen the soft humming. I think this is the first time I have ever felt so…calm.
I feel safe.
"Ouch!"
The loud feminine voice broke my dreams in an instance. I rapidly sit up and jump away from the voice that was very near to me.
"Who the hell are you and how can…" Wow, I just had to stop. You know, to finally shut up and to really focus for the first time in my life. The person who is in front of me is just a girl of about 15 or 16 years old. She is hunched over. I take in her abundant dark and frizzy hair that appears that it has never being comb in her life. What intrigues me the most is her clothes. Her clothes are just a bunch of rags sewed crudely together with mud and blood marks all over it. For moment I just stared at her, slightly freaked out about her appearance. She looks like a person who killed someone and escaped for her life. I think I should run now before she notices me. As I was about to step back towards the full forest from behind forest, she looks up.
Double-wow and I gasp.
What the…?
The girl who I thought that might've murder someone and ran away, probably has one of the most innocent face I have ever seen! Her big dark-brown almost black eyes stare unseeingly searching around for something. Her cheeks are all sucked in from –I assume –malnourishment. Her face is pale and skinny. Then her eyes focus on me.
"You are awake!" she says excitedly. "Finally, it has been about 5 hours since you fell asleep. I mean it is not a lot, but considering your situation, you did sleep a lot. You know, I can't sleep a lot either, but I don't mind, because I can do more things like that. Just like right now, I could not sleep and decided to sow my clothes because they keep on ripping because there are a lot of branches! But I tried not waking you up because you looked so upset and decided to you let you rest and…Oh no!" OK now, she really is freaking me out. At first I thought that her voice would've been deep like a monster or that it would sound like a screech, but no, well her voice is loud and high-pitched, but it is very sweet and soft. What the heck is wrong with her? And she talks…a lot. How can a person talk so much?
"Oh no!" she repeats again and again. I think I should run now. "Now I woke you up!" The girl stops ranting and looks sad all of the sudden. "I'm so sorry, I woke you up. You were supposed to be resting and I woke you up." She finally stops and puts her hands in her face in shame.
Everything becomes quiet even the signing birds grew quiet too. I don't know what is going on, but looking at her like that, it makes me feel all depressed too. Then I remember.
She is the girl I saw earlier. The one who I ran into and…hugged…and cried in her arms...and fell asleep in them. Oh no! I feel my face getting hot, but not like the time when I was about to cry or when blood was flowing down my face. This was because of embarrassment. By realizing this, it makes me even more embarrassed.
Damn it! I was crying in her arms. I promised myself to not cry again, but by just remembering the conversation of the weird looking kids, it makes me sad once again. Why would the villagers do such thing? I guess my death is not enough for their hungry minds. It sucks. This whole thing sucks. I can't believe it. Was my presence so undesirable? I feel my face get hot and the feel of the warm liquid flowing down my face feeling once more. No I'm not supposed to cry.
I promise myself to not cry.
A small choking sound starts to come out from my lips and can't seem to close my mouth to stop it. The intensity to just let it out hits me so hard, and can't stop.
Suddenly a pair of very skinny arms wraps themselves around my torso. "Let it out," the girl that I had forgotten whispers on top of my head. "I promise that I will stop talking if you let it out. I don't like seeing you sad. So please, tell me your tale. And even if you don't want to talk about it, I'll try my best to at least be useful for once in my life and will try to make you smile. Because you know, a smile makes the whole world smile."
I think that this is the first time that someone holds me like this. It is also the first time that someone talks to me with such sweetness in their voice that it makes my dead heart feel so light. I don't know if I should trust her. She is perhaps just my imagination because of my loneliness. Either way, I think this is my only chance to spill it out. Also I do not want the warmth from her small form to go away.
"I...," I began to say but my mind is blank right now. I know I have so much to say but for some reason I can't. "I don't know…where to start," I decided to say instead.
"Then start from the beginning," she says. "Here I'll help you: What is your name?" I guess that works, but it still takes me a while to answer.
"Naruto," I barely whisper. I wait for another question, but nothing comes. For a second, I believe that she has fallen asleep and left me looking like a fool. My skin begins to feel a burning and prickling feeling by just imagining the girl asleep on my back. I turn around so fast that I make her arms fly away from me and stare at her. She has surprised look on her face at my reaction but later turns into a shameful face. So my guess was right, she was not even paying attention! I start to turn away from her until her soft and sad voice reaches my ears.
"I'm sorry, but my hearing is very bad and I was wondering what you said. I heard "Marto" in which I know cannot be right. So I just stopped and thought about it for a moment if I actually heard right or it was my hearing problem. But then I thought, well his name can be Marto because you come from a different place and I was about to ask you another question along with saying your name, Marto, but stopped again, because then I thought that you might probably get offended if that weren't your real name. I was about to ask you, but then you turned around and stared at me with mean eyes that I even forgot what I was going to ask you…hey but wait, now I remember what I was going to ask you! Ha, seriously I can be so stup…"
"Man, can you shut it," I ask exasperated. "You talk a lot. Besides, didn't you say that you were not going to talk if I tell you my story?" I interrupted her before she began with another of her rants. She just stares at me with those huge eyes of her like an ugly fish with her mouth slightly open trying to breath.
"Oh no! I began to talk again? What is wrong with me?" She then puts her hands in her head and starts to shake her head from side to side, with a probably the weirdest and ugliest facial expression I have ever seen.
"You do look like an ugly fish that I caught a few years ago, and trust me it was hideous," she stops her shaking and stares at me again with another funny face that it kind of resembles a pouting bulldog. The corners of my lips start to lift up making my face stretch in a very unused form, and my face starts heating up again. I weird sensation starts to build up from my chest surging to my mouth and I realize that I am…smiling!
I am smiling!
Then a chuckle escapes my lips and it is as if a-thousand tons were lifted from my dead body. I feel so relived and then another chuckle escapes me and then another one, and then another, until I'm laughing. It feels so good. It feels amazing. I can't believe I kept myself from such treats. The feeling of laughing out loud makes me feel as if my heart beats again. So I just laugh.
I laugh because I feel like it. I laugh because I feel happy. I laugh because I'm not alone. I laugh because the image of the girl as a combination of an ugly fish and a bulldog just makes everything better. A rough, loud screech and weird sound coming from her makes me look at her.
"Dang, is that how you laugh?" I questioned her without malice. She stops and looks at me with laughter in her eyes, it makes me feel warm again.
'"Shut up! I get that a lot," she says before laughing again and I join her. After what probably was like an eternity of laughing. We just look at each other. Then she smiles, a real, huge smile that makes her eyes lit up.
"I told you, didn't I?" she says. I guess my confusion showed on my face, since she decides to explain herself. "I told you that a smile makes the whole world smile, and your smile makes me smile and also makes the darkness and sadness smile."
And in a way, it is true. The sadness and the anger that was inside of me are now overshadowed by the lightness of my heart. I feel so much better now.
"Thank you," I say.
"You're welcome," she replies. "Now, could you repeat your name…please?" she asks shyly.
I can't help but smile. This girl does make everything better.
"Naruto," I say firmly, but a still a little fearful.
"Nice to meet you, Na-Ruu-toe!" she tries to pronounce my name. Really, she does make me feel light and content.
A/N: Fiuu (wipes sweat from her forehead)! I wrote this whole baby in a day. I was going to add a new chapter next week, but I decided to do it now, because many people put my story in Alert! Man, I was so happy when I opened my e-mail and saw the amount of Alerts that I screamed and woke up my neighbors. Haha it was hilarious.
Anyways, I really hope you guys like this chapter. I was planning to be very angsty, but I was in such a good mood that I couldn't. Just earlier, I went to run 6 miles in an hour to prepare myself for a 10km race , in which is next Saturday and I'm freaking out, because this is the first time I run in like forever! Although I do know that 10km is about 7 miles but still that was a huge accomplishment. So, I went with a light and calm way, I felt Naruto deserved it.
Sorry I tend to ramble a lot just like the new character from my story. I hope you guys like her, because she will be in the story all the way!
Please review and tell me how I'm doing, it would make me so happy! And maybe, I'll wake up more neighbors! XD
