April 15th, Year 5.

"So were you born with those whiskers on your cheeks?" Ippan asked lightly poking one of the marks on Naruto's face. She'd always wondered about it, but never voiced her question before.

"Yeah, as far as I can remember." He said holding his hands behind his head. "Why, are they weird or something?"

"A little." She said honestly. "But it's goes with everything else about you, I guess."

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, you've got wild blond hair and you wear a lot of orange." She paused as she examined him. "Plus, when you squint your eyes you remind me of a fox."

"A fox? You saying I look like an animal?" He asked in irritation.

"No, just if I had to pick an animal that reminded me of you, I'd pick a fox. Cause you're so sneaky."

He crossed his arms with a pout. "Well your hair is purple, that's weird too and you've got birth marks too." He meant the two freckles on her face.

She wasn't going to deny it. "Yeah it's purple, but it's okay purple is a nice color."

"So is blond and orange, dattebayo!" He defended.

Ippan rolled her eyes. He always yelled over the silliest things. "No need to get defensive Naruto. I didn't say they weren't."

"Hm, if we're gonna talk about animal look a likes, you remind me of a...uh...a panda!"

The girl blinked. "I guess that's fair."

"Oh come on, could you get mad for once?" He said with a sigh.

"Why? That's a pretty good comparison." She reasoned. "Besides I don't see why you'd get mad. Foxes are cute."

"I don't want to be cute! I'm gonna be the Hokage one day! Whose going to listen to someone like that?"

"You'd be surprised how much attractiveness can get peoples attention."

Naruto looked like he was going to argue but stopped mid way. "You...maybe...the girls in school do nothing but look at that stupid teme Sasuke."

"Mm, I'd like to see this Sasuke one day."

The boy looked at Ippan in disgusted. "No way, you might turn into one of his fan girls."

"You saying that is making me more curious." Naruto made a face of disagreement. Ippan smirked before looking down at her watch. It was getting dark and if she hurried she might make it home before her mother. She wanted to avoid being questioned of where she was and why she was out so late. Ippan wasn't going to lose Naruto as a friend, but she didn't want to deal with the conversation.

"I'd better go." She finally decided to say.

"Oh, okay." He said.

She glanced to him as he walked beside her. Ippan ruffled his hair with a smile. "Make sure not to get detention tomorrow, you promised we'd go to the ramen place you always talk about."

He finally grinned. "Okay I'll meet you there!"

Ippan secured her backpack as she walked down the street. It was getting dark but she would get home soon so she wasn't worried about it. As she turned the corner she bumped into something and fell to the ground with a "ouff". When she looked it was a boy staring at her with an indifferent expression. He didn't seem all that bothered that he had knocked her onto the ground.

Well, to be fair she wasn't looking where she was going.

However, he looked like he was going to walk right around her. "Hey, can you help me please?" He paused and turned to stare down at her. "You did knock me over."

He seemed to be contemplating whether or not to even bother. Ippan was about to stand up on her own when he put out a hand to pull her up. "Thanks I guess."

"Hm." He answered.

The girl raised her brow. What was his deal? Why was he so angsty? She wanted to ask, but decided to keep it to herself. Perhaps he was having a bad day.

She watched as he turned around and continued on walking. Ippan then saw the symbol on the back of his shirt. White and red? The girl thought hard. It was a clan symbol for sure. She remembered learning general information about clans in school.

"Oh." She said as she finally remembered. "Uchiha."