Chapter 11: Time to start forgiving?

July 9th

Three weeks had passed and Yuko got her first mission as a Konoha ninja two days ago, after living in Konoha for a little over a month. It was not a big mission, as she would only be away from Konoha for a day, but it was better than nothing. Yuko had started to get annoyed that she had not gotten any missions when a month had passed, but she could not do anything about it. She was sure that Tsunade was making sure that she could trust her enough to give her mission and lower any suspicious thoughts she may have had against Yuko, so when she got the mission two days ago she felt relieved and happy.

Yuko had just arrived back in Konoha and was heading for Ichiraku's ramen shop to get something to eat before going home. The time was 7:30 pm, she had no food at home to prepare for dinner and she was feeling too tired and exhausted to go shopping for any groceries, so she went with the easy solution and went to buy some ramen instead. She also had to do the report for the mission she just finished, so she could turn it in to Tsunade as fast as possible.

She entered the ramen shop and took in the delicious smell of the broth and ingredients for ramen that was being made. Yuko sat down on one of the stools after ordering a tonkotsu ramen and looked around in the ramen shop. It was a small shop, but she kind of liked that.

Naruto entered the ramen shop and sat down on a stool that was two stools away from Yuko. "The usual ramen old man!" He could not wait to eat his favorite ramen in the village. He stretched a bit while grinning and looked to his left when he noticed someone there and blinked when he saw who it was. "Hey! You're Kakashi-sensei's friend, uhm... Uhh..." Naruto rubbed the back of his head while thinking of her name.

Yuko blinked when the person who entered the ramen shop after her suddenly spoke to her and looked at him. She smiled a bit when she saw who it was, but sweat dropped when he seemed to be thinking hard over her name. She did not blame him though. As far as she knew he had only heard her name twice on the day she interrupted Kakashi's training with Naruto and the two other on the team about a month ago. "Yuko. My name is Yuko. You're Naruto, right?"

Naruto nodded and blinked at bit when she said his name. "You remembered my name?" He asked and moved to the stool next to her instead of sitting away from her.

Yuko nodded and smiled. "I'm good at remembering names and faces." She said and looked at her ramen when the bowl was placed in front of her. It looked very delicious and smelled just as delicious as it looked. She grabbed a pair of chopsticks from the glass, tore them apart and tasted the ramen noodles.

Naruto nodded understanding and smiled. "You moved to Konoha from another village, didn't you? How do you like Konoha? Have you gotten any missions yet?" He asked and waited impatiently on his own ramen after Yuko had gotten hers.

Yuko looked at Naruto and wiped her mouth with a napkin. "I was born here in Konoha. My parents had a shop where they sold weapons and herbs. They moved the shop to Kumogakure because of financial reasons when I was 5 years old, so of course I had to tag along. I lived in Kumogakure for years until I recently wanted to move back to Konoha." She said and ate a bit more of her ramen before answering the other two questions Naruto asked her.

Naruto had gotten his ramen while Yuko had been explaining and had already finished the bowl and ordered another one. "So you're originally from Konoha? Has Konoha changed since you moved away?" He asked and tilted his head.

Yuko sweat dropped when Naruto had put down the empty ramen bowl, which he had just gotten. He ate faster than Kakashi did. She shook her head at his question. "Not much. Of course some things have changed, but not as many things as I thought would have changed. There are more stores now and more buildings in general." She said and looked at Naruto, who just nodded and smiled a bit. "What about missions? Have you gotten any yet?" He asked.

"Yeah, I just got back from my first mission as a Konoha ninja. I've lived here for a little over a month now and I just got my first mission two days ago. It feels great to be out of suspicion, or at least enough to be given a mission."

Naruto blinked a bit confused and tilted his head the other way. "Suspicion? Granny Tsunade was suspecting you of something?"

Yuko blinked a bit surprised when he spoke of the Hokage as a granny. He should have more respect for the Hokage than to call her granny. "Wouldn't you be suspicious if a ninja from another village wanted to move into Konoha? The ninja could secretly be spying on Konoha and send hidden messages about Konoha and its ninjas to the village they're originally from. So the Hokage, or other Kages, are kind of gambling when they're letting a ninja from another village move and become a ninja of their village. I think the only reason I was allowed to move back to Konoha for the Hokage is because I'm originally from Konoha. If I hadn't been born here, I don't think the Hokage would have even considered it."

Naruto blinked a bit at her explanation and rubbed the back of his neck. He had not thought of that. "Heh, yeah, I would be suspicious of that too if it was me who was Hokage. But you don't seem like a person who would betray Konoha. You seem very honest." He said and began to eat the new bowl of ramen that was placed in front of him.

Yuko smiled lightly at Naruto's words and ruffled his hair. "Thanks. It makes me happy to know that you think like that about me, and you're right, I wouldn't betray Konoha. This is where I was born and where I have my earliest memories from. I don't think I could ever betray such memories, even though I'm a ninja and I shouldn't let my feelings get in my way. If anything I'd protect Konoha with my life."

Naruto chuckled a bit and grinned. "I like to know that someone else love this village just as much as I do. I have one last question for you Yuko. You've been away from Konoha for so many years, but you have never once forgiven Kakashi for what he did to you as a kid. Why haven't you forgiven him? You mentioned a month ago that he would tease you about your ninja skills and point out your flaws, but didn't it just make you strive to train harder to sharpen and strengthen your skills as a ninja and become better? Isn't that why you're a weapon expert now? You're friends and friendships are important. You should be able to forgive your friends for the mistakes they made in the past."

Yuko looked down at her ramen when Naruto asked that. He hit the nail right on the head. She had never forgiven Kakashi for what he did to her as a kid and she had never thought about forgiving him, and on top of that he was right when he assumed that it would make her strive to train harder to sharpen and strengthen her skills when Kakashi had teased her and pointed out her flaws. If he had not done that she probably would not have trained nearly as hard. She sighed a bit and looked at Naruto. "It's not that easy to forgive and forget, Naruto. It hurt a lot every time Kakashi would say something our point out a flaw in my skills. I was only a kid and not a genius... But you're right about one thing. Kakashi's teasing made me want to train harder in order to strengthen and sharpen my skills." She said and ate the last of her ramen.

Naruto listened to what Yuko had to say and ordered his fifth bowl of ramen after finishing his fourth. "It's not as difficult to forgive and forget as you might think it is. I've forgiven a lot of people in my life." He said and began to tell her about his own life, but in the short version. That he had no parents and grew up on his own, that everyone in the village would avoid him and call him names and how no one would let their kids near him.

Yuko was surprised to hear all of that from Naruto, but most of all she was surprised that she had gotten a life lesson about friendship and how to forgive and forget what people did to you in the past from a 15 year old boy. She smiled lightly at him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you for sharing that with me Naruto. You're a really nice person and I'm glad I got to have this conversation you, but I have to leave now. I have to go home and make the report of mission, so I can turn it in to the Hokage tomorrow morning."

Naruto nodded understanding and smiled. "Thank you Yuko and you're welcome. It was great to get to know one of Kakashi-sensei's old friends better. See you around!" He said and his smile turned into a grin.

Yuko giggled a bit and got up from the stool she was sitting on. She put the money for her ramen and Naruto's five bowls of ramen on the desk. "This is on me as a thank you for the conversation and for teaching me something about forgiving." She said with a smile.

Naruto blinked surprised but a grin soon spread across his face. "Thank you Yuko!" He said and excitedly and felt somewhat happy that he did not have to pay for all of those bowls of ramen himself. He could save those money for the next time he went to the ramen shop.

"You're welcome Naruto." Yuko said and patted Naruto's shoulder before walking out of the ramen shop and headed back home. The only thing she had to do before going to bed was to take a shower and make the report. Luckily she lived close to the ramen shop, so she did not have a long way home. It would take her about fifteen minutes to get home.

The first thing Yuko did after she came home was to take a shower and once she finished she went to the bedroom and put on some relaxing clothing. She wore a pair of black pants, a grey shirt and a yellow cardigan. She went downstairs to start working on the report for the mission, but it knocked on the front door before she even got to sit down by her table in the kitchen. She looked at the time and wondered who would come to her place at 8:45 pm, so she went to the door and opened it. She was surprised to see an ANBU ninja and the first thing she could think of was that he was either there to get the report, which she had not even started yet, or he was there because Tsunade needed her for another mission already. "Yes?" She asked the ANBU ninja.

"The Hokage wants to see you immediately. It's important, but not mission related." The ANBU ninja said and disappeared in a smoke screen.

Yuko coughed a bit and waved a hand in front of her face to blow the smoke away. "What in the world does Tsunade want with me now at this time?" She mumbled to herself as she slipped on her shoes and grabbed her keys. She walked out, locked the door and headed for Tsunade's office. While she was walking, she could not stop thinking about what could be so important that Tsunade had summoned her at this time in the evening. Could it be that she was still suspicious with her? Yuko found that a little hard to believe, because why would Tsunade had given her the mission after a month if she did not trust her? Nonetheless, she was very curious about what Tsunade wanted.