Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Chapter summary: Ramen (lol… not really, but that's what connects these two scenes).
Thanks for the reviews: babygurl1012, PhantomGirl94, and Princesa de la Luna
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After returning from another mission to track the Akatsuki, Jiraiya made his way out of the Hokage's office, over to the jonin dorms, where Tsunade had given Itsu a place to stay until she recovered her memories. The legendary toad sage approached the room that had been assigned to his daughter, hoping that it was not too late in the evening for her to accompany him for dinner.
Jiraiya lightly knocked on the door, trying not to disturb the other jonin in the apartment's next door. There was a gentle rumbling behind the door, then the sound of the lock turning, before the silver haired kunoichi answered the door.
"Hello." Jiraiya cheerfully greeted her.
"Hi." Itsu stared up at the sannin, who stood almost a foot taller than her.
"Would you care to join me for a late night snack?" he asked, motioning for her to come out.
"Okay." She followed after him.
The two walked silently through the dark streets of Konoha, until they made it to a brightly lit ramen stand. Though it was not considerably late, the streets had nonetheless seemed strangely deserted, further emphasizing the silence as the pair walked to the Ichiraku ramen stand.
"ERO-SENNIN!" a blond boy sitting on a red stool, in the ramen stand, shouted in their direction.
"Ero-sennin?" Itsu turned to face Jiraiya, whose left eye nervously twitched.
"HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU TO STOP CALLING ME THAT?!?!" Jiraiya shouted at the young boy. His loud shouts vibrated through the empty streets.
"Sorry, I forgot." Naruto sheepishly replied, while scratching his head.
"Itsu, I want to introduce you to my new apprentice." Jiraiya motioned towards the boy, "this is Naruto." He placed his big hand over the boy's head, and ruffled his hair. "And you remember Itsu, from that day at the hospital, right Naruto?" he asked the blond shinobi.
"You're the lady who brought Sasuke back." Naruto broadly smiled at the kunoichi as she sat down on the stool next to him.
"Yes." She eyed the young boy carefully, "you know… you look an awful lot like –"
"Yeah." Jiraiya cut in.
"So…" Naruto continued without noticing the knowing look that passed between the two jonin sitting next to him. "Have you remembered everything yet?" Naruto asked Itsu, while Jiraiya turned to Ayame to place their orders.
"Not everything." She replied.
"But you remembered Kaka-sensei right?" Naruto asked, as Ichiraku handed him a new bowl.
"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Itsu turned to asked Jiraiya, who merely shrugged.
The reason, though, was known to everyone within Konoha. There were three pools running between some of the villagers, concerning the relationship between Kakashi and Itsu. One was to see when Itsu would remember Kakashi, another to see when she would remember how she really felt about him, and finally, the third pool was regarding how she would react when she eventually put all the pieces together. At first it had been a small group of their friends, but eventually the majority of the village became increasingly interested to see how it would all play out.
"Because –" Naruto began.
"We just want to know what you've remembered so far." Jiraiya cut in, before Naruto could ruin the game.
"Ok." She replied, though she wasn't entirely convinced. "But I get the impression that there's something specific about Kakashi I'm supposed to remember."
"I'm sure you're just imagining things." Jiraiya replied as he took the chopsticks in the cylinder to his right; Ayame having placed their bowls in front of them.
"Maybe..." Itsu said thoughtfully, as she too took her chopsticks and began eating.
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The next morning, Itsu woke up early and decided to take a jog around the village. Since she had begun to train with Gai and his team, she had realized that the secret to his success in taijutsu was that he constantly challenged himself and trained his body to endure the craziest of physical exertion. While she admired this about him, she wasn't about to perform any of the insane tasks he set up for himself, but following his advice to better her taijutsu skills, she decided she would start doing laps around the village, though not nearly as many as him.
The morning was looking like it would be a very beautiful day. The sun was shining brightly in the clear blue sky. There was a crisp spring smell blowing in the breeze. Though it was still early out, the villagers were already running around, beginning their daily chores. Itsu had been running for the past three hours and had decided it was time for a break. Her stamina was rather good, but she still had plans to train later on in the day, and didn't want to tire herself out too soon.
She began walking through the streets to get to her apartment, when, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted an orange blur rush past her.
"Naruto?" she called out.
The boy in question abruptly stopped, no more than five yards in front of her.
"Huh?" he turned around, scanning the area to see who had called out his name. "Oh, hey Itsu-chan." He walked over to her.
"Chan?" she arched her right eyebrow.
"I call everyone 'chan'" Naruto impishly grinned. "I hope you don't mind."
"No, not at all." Itsu smiled reassuringly. "So where were you off to in such a hurry?" she asked.
"Oh, Kaki-sensei has us meeting early to train today." He explained, "I woke up a bit late, and I wanted to go eat breakfast before I had to meet my team at the training grounds." He quickly replied; obviously in a rush.
"Oh." Itsu said, after she caught up with what he had said, "Well I was on my way to eat something too, mind if I join you?" she asked.
"Sure." Naruto smiled widely as the two made their way over to the Ichiraku Ramen stand.
"You really like your ramen don't you?" Itsu smirked, as she saw how eagerly the boy rushed to the red stools.
"Yup! It's my favorite thing in the world to eat." He said, before ordering his bowl.
After Ayame brought the two of them their meals, Naruto began to eat as quickly as possible, making small talk about the different types of ramen as he ate, while Itsu played around with her chopsticks and twirled the noodles in her bowl. Finally, after numbering the many types of ramen he loved, Naruto became completely silent; a serious look spread across his face.
"Itsu-chan?" Naruto turned to face the silver haired kunoichi.
"Yes?" she arched her eyebrow, seeing in his face that he had something to ask her.
"What was it like…" he began, unable to bring himself to really ask what he had wanted to ask since that day in the hospital when he had discovered that she, like him, was a Jinchūriki.
"What was what like?" she searched his face for a clue of what he might be thinking.
"What was it like, for you…" he gathered all his courage to ask, "growing up… being a Jinchūriki?" he finally asked.
"Oh." Itsu's face dropped, as she stared into her now, half empty bowl of ramen. At first she was reluctant to relive those memories, but she saw the curiosity, and something else, hidden behind Naruto's eyes, "Quiet." She replied solemnly. "It felt… isolating."
"Quiet. Isolating." Naruto repeated the words, knowing the depth of their meaning, through his own personal experience.
"I felt… alone." She continued.
"Alone." Naruto thought for a second. "But, how's that possible? You were part of one of the biggest clans in the village." He wondered, having always believed that if he had at least one family member when he was growing up, hated by the entire village, then perhaps he would not have felt so alone all those years ago.
"Well, I didn't really grow up with the Uchiha clan." Itsu explained.
"Yeah, Sasuke told us." Naruto replied. "But he didn't say why."
"He probably didn't know." Itsu guessed, "In fact, I didn't know until I was about eight or nine years old. I could always sense the hatred and anger my clan felt for me, but I never understood why; until one day, my cousin Obito invited me over to the complex, and one of the elders called me a name." she explained, in a sad, somber tone.
"What kind of name?" Naruto asked, accepting the bowl of ramen that Itsu pushed over to his side.
"She called me… 'Houkou'" she sighed, "And said I was a demon spawn." She fought back to urge to smash something, at the memory of how hurt she had felt when the old woman called her that, though at the time she had no idea what it meant. "I asked my father what she meant by that, and he explained how the five-tailed demon, Houkou, had been sealed within me, before I was even born, and how my mother had been sacrificed in order for the seal to work."
"…" for once in his life, Naruto couldn't think of a thing to say.
"After that, I did everything possible, to not stand out." She gravely remembered.
"That's funny." Naruto seriously replied, "I did everything I could to be noticed."
Looking down at his brightly colored clothes, Itsu smiled, seeing the truth in his words, "I think the difference is that, with you, everyone knew." She reasoned, "Whereas with me, it was just my clan who knew." She said thoughtfully, "I saw the hatred in their eyes, and that's why I tried to go unnoticed; I didn't want the rest of the village to see me with those eyes. So I did everything I could to not stand out. I did what was expected of me; played the role of the noble daughter. I went to the academy, worked very hard, behaved myself, took medic courses, as was expected of a good kunoichi at the time; I did everything I could to be like any other girl. Anything… to blend in."
"Blend in?" Naruto cocked his head, and then pointed at her hair.
Itsu chuckled slightly at the amused look on the young boy's face, "Yeah." She smiled, "my hair didn't really make it easy, I even tried to color my hair once, but my father stopped me." She smiled at the memory.
Naruto broke into a fit of laughter, "I never would have imaged ero-sennin as the fatherly type." He explained, after Itsu gave him a confused look.
"No?" she wondered, "I thought he took you under his wing." She pointed out.
"That's different." Naruto replied, "He's training me. Plus, it's not like he's all that nice about it." He slouched on his stool remembering the countless times he had tired to get Jiraiya to play with him, or do something other than training.
Itsu smiled, amused at Naruto's frustration. "I image if he'd had a son, he'd probably have treated him much the same way." She said, thoughtfully, "Besides, you should consider yourself lucky. He is, after all, one of the legendary sannin. Not to mention, the last person he trained was the Yondaime."
"Didn't he train you?" Naruto asked, curiously.
"Well yeah, but… I'm his daughter." She stated, "Plus, I had my own sensei."
"I bet that's why he was so good at helping me tap into the nine-tails' chakra." Naruto said, thoughtfully.
"What do you mean?" Itsu asked.
"Well, he already had practice." Naruto smiled triumphantly at his self perceived genius.
"You know kid," Itsu suppressed a laugh, "You're not as dumb as you look." She paid for their breakfast and stood to leave.
"Thanks." Naruto exclaimed, both from what she's said, but also for her paying for his meal, "… hey!" he yelled, as he followed behind Itsu, who had already begun making her way towards the training grounds.
"Come on now. I'll walk with you. Hurry up though, you're going to be late." She called back.
"Why do you want to walk me there?" Naruto asked, once he caught up with her.
"Because I just remembered something." She stated without further explanation.
"Remembered what?" he asked.
"I'll tell you when we get there." She replied.
They quickly walked toward team seven's training grounds, arriving 15 minutes late. Sakura and Sasuke were already present, still waiting for their sensei to show up. Moment's after Naruto and Itsu arrived, Kakashi finally poofed in.
"You're late!" Naruto and Sakura yelled in unison.
Without even looking up from his green book, the gray haired shinobi began his latest excuse, "Sorry, Sorry… You see the universe is expanding, so it took me a little longer to get here." He explained.
At that, Sakura and Naruto merely stared in disbelief, while Sasuke impassively looked out into the horizon, not caring for any sort of excuse; beside them, Itsu giggled at Kakashi's reason, causing Kakashi to drop his book when he realized who the giggling was coming from.
"That was it." Itsu looked over at Naruto.
"What was?" the blond boy asked, confused as to what she was referring to.
"I remembered how much I enjoyed hearing Kakashi's excuses." She replied, before waving good-bye and walking back towards the village.
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A/N: I really love this chapter… lol… I, like most Kakashi fans, LOVE his excuses… my favorite, of course, being "I got lost on the road of life." And the new one, from Shippuuden 21, "I was thinking about the true meaning of life…" but he didn't get to finish, I image he would have said he lost track of time or something… anywho… I love his "deep" and "philosophical" reasons for being late, so I thought I'd add one into this story… worked out perfectly with the shippuuden episode… I'm going to go watch that piece again… lol…