A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.
"Are you now going to tell us what the hell happened there? And who the hell is this guy?"
Naruto paced back and forth, hand running through her blond hair as Midoriya, Bakugou and Shouto sat down on the couch in her apartment. Hibiki just sat on the armchair, brown eyes focused on the only photo she had of the Third Hokage, while Bakugou folded his arms against his chest. It seemed like a good idea to bring them here but maybe she was wrong to bring them here.
"What you heard was a government trying to poach Naruto away from her home." Hibiki finally answered, looking at the three boys with thin lips. "And my name is Sarutobi Hibiki"
"I don't understand why you are here." Naruto finally said, swirling her head at the male. Blue eyes fixated on the man that took her in for a week before the Third Hokage gave her a home to live. "Did the Old Hag send you to make sure that I don't betray Konoha? I'm a lot of things but I'm not stupid!"
"Naruto, you blasted your whole face for the whole of the Elemental Countries to see." Hibiki reminded her, not caring one bit that there were two teens staring at them with confusion. Naruto groaned and rubbed the back of her neck. "Japan was supposed to be safe for you but instead you just informed everyone that you were here. You are lucky Kumo didn't try to kidnap you."
Bakugou flickered his eyes from Naruto to Hibiki, eyebrows raising to his hairline and he flared his nostrils. "What the hell is the Elemental Countries? And earlier that hippy-looking guy mentioned that you are a kunoichi! Explain everything!"
Hibiki eyed her and stood up from his seat, striding towards her. Brown eyes flickered from the furious boy before looking back at her with raised eyebrows. He lowered his voice. "We need to make up a cover story, Naruto. We cannot for the good of this country let—"
"We have to tell them," Naruto hissed. "Bakugou isn't an idiot nor is Midoriya. If I don't tell them then they would figure out that we are lying. Unless you know a memory suppression jutsu then we have to tell them."
Hibiki pressed his lips and sighed, looking bothered by what she had just said. Did he honestly believe she was happy to do this? She had no other option but to tell them. Beside Shouto would get confused and maybe even angry if she just kept lying to them…if she used a seal to keep it quiet. Naruto grinded her teeth.
She doesn't want to tell them.
"The Elemental Countries are just another set of countries that this part of the world doesn't know about." Naruto flickered her eyes to the photo of Team Seven, blue eyes lingering on the scowling face of Sasuke. "The place where Hibiki-ojisan and me come from is a world filled with war, blood shed and the most common and popular job is being a shinobi."
"But how come we don't know anything about it?" Midoriya asked, rubbing his chin and standing from his couch. Green eyebrows knitted together and he looked at her like she was a mystery. "It is impossible to hide several countries!"
Naruto chewed on her bottom lip, flickered her eyes to Hibiki and sighed when the man raised his arms. Great. Just great. The man wanted her to explain since she dug this hole for herself. The blond-haired girl rubbed the sides of her head, blue eyes fixated on the photo of Team Seven. Her eyes lingered the most on the scowl playing on her lips before looking at the smiling face of Sakura and then to the scowl on Sasuke.
Three years passed and she still had no idea of what to feel for what happened to her team.
"It isn't impossible," Naruto finally said, tearing her eyes away from the photo of Team Seven. "There are several seals put around the various corners of the Elemental Continent that helps to put a genjutsu barrier and a few more traps. If someone from this part of the world tries to cross through it then they bounce off or would be complied to go somewhere else."
Bakugou narrowed his eyes, leaned his body forward and clasped his hands together. "What about you guys? If we are compelled to go somewhere else then shouldn't it be the same for you? How were you able to get through? And what the hell is genjutsu?"
"Ero-Sennin altered the seals slightly so that we can get through it," Naruto ran her hand through her hair and chewed on her bottom lip. So far there had been no accusations and Bakugou was surprisingly being chilled about it. "And genjutsu is an illusion technique. This is a technique that is created when a shinobi takes control of a person's chakra flow, affecting the five senses."
"You need to be skilled enough to break through the genjutsu," Hibiki informed them, shaking his head. "Since Jiraiya-sama altered the seals slightly, it was easier for us to break through centuries worth of genjutsu."
So that was why he and Gaara had an easy time getting through the barrier. Naruto bobbed her head and inhaled, allowing her ribs to stretch as high as it could be. Now that she understood how Gaara and the other nins had been able to get here so easily, things were now easy for her to connect the dots. She sighed.
Bakugou pressed his lips into a thin line, red eyes narrowing at her. "Chakra? What the hell is Chakra?"
Naruto inhaled and exhaled, chest rising up and down as her eyes focused on the window. The giggles of the children pierced through the windows of her apartment. She paced back and forth, hands over her head as her blue eyes avoided looking at Shouto or her friends. If she wanted to be in control of herself then her eyes needed to be focused on the windows.
"Chakra is the energy flowing inside Naruto and me," Hibiki leaned his body forward and stared at Bakugou and Midoriya. "The way it works is by having our physical energy and spiritual energy together combined and produce a jutsu through the handseals. Whatever you saw Naruto doing in school is the result of that."
Midoriya frowned. "Then is it considered a Quirk?"
"Here? Yes," The blond-haired girl stopped and stared at the photo of her team. "I mean Quirks are things that you inherit from your parents and I inherited from my Mum and Dad. But in the Elemental Countries, Hibiki-ojisan and I will be considered Quirkless since the whole population has chakra. Not everyone can use it since you need to be taught how to use it from a young age."
The blond-haired girl stared at the photo of her friends. Blue eyes fixated on the black eyes of her best friend before moving to the photo of the Third Hokage. Her heart ached as the memories of her childhood flashed before her eyes. Maybe it was time for her to move on, to put away those photos until she could look at these photos without that constant ache in her heart.
"Uzumaki, if you are a kunoichi then how old were you when you became one?" Hesitance colored Midoriya's tone and the blond-haired girl pressed her lips into a thin line. Sorry Naruto, you fail this year. She straightened her back. "And why were you exiled? You don't seem like a criminal."
"I was twelve when I finally graduated from the Academy," Naruto kept her tone strong and focused her eyes on the photo of her friends and her in the Arcade. "I was only a genin for nearly a year before things went to hell for me. Before that, I spent six years studying how to be a kunoichi."
Bakugou eyed her. "You haven't told us why were you exiled. Did you do some crazy shit that even a shinobi couldn't accept? Or what?"
"She was exiled for her own good," Hibiki replied and Naruto swirled her head, eyebrows raising to her hairline. Did the Old Hag tell him? She chewed her tongue, stopping herself from asking him. The blonde took several deep breaths before looking at the brown-haired male. He stared at her, brown eyes silently telling her that it was up to her to tell them. "But she hasn't done anything that we considered irredeemable."
"Uzumaki, what did you—"
"I failed to bring back my teammate and best friend," Naruto steadied her voice and kept her lips pressed into a thin line as harsh words from the past echoed in her ear. Just for a moment, black eyes flashed before her eyes alongside their childish laughter. "Failing to bring back my best friend and teammate fucked me up really bad both emotionally and mentally. The Old Hag—"
"—Hokage-sama," Hibiki reminded her.
"—Decided that I needed to be removed from Konoha," Naruto rolled her eyes and clicked her heels together before looking at the three boys before her. "The original plan had been for me to train six years with Ero-Sennin…that didn't happen obviously. I just wanted to forget everything so Ero-Sennin brought me here, deciding to take a risk of some rumor he heard about but never really confirmed."
The three boys bobbed their heads, frowning and looking at her with concerned eyes. Well, Midoriya and Bakugou looked at her with wide eyes while Shouto seemed to be clenching and unclenching his fist. He is going to explode soon. She hunched her shoulders, gulping down a lump and looking straight at the shelf of books hanging just to the side.
"Those shinobi called you a jinchuuriki," Shouto said softly, leaning his body forward and mismatch eyes focused on her. No emotions shone through those eyes and Naruto faltered at the reminder of her status. Hibiki pressed his lips into a thin line while the others just stared at her with frowns. "What is a Jinchuuriki?"
What is a Jinchuuriki? That was the one question Naruto had been dreading since they made their way out of the theme park. A monster. Her throat clogged up and for a brief moment, she doesn't feel like a fifteen-year-old but a six-year-old girl again. Lying to them was no longer an option, not when they heard what Killer Bee had to say to her. She gritted her teeth. This wasn't how she wanted them to know.
She wanted to trust them with this secret and have the faith that they wouldn't abandon her for the beast inside of her.
She doesn't want to be abandoned again.
"Naruto, you don't have to tell us—"
"No, I will tell you." Naruto took a deep breath. "It is better to rip the band aid now."
She was going to prove to everyone that she didn't have trust issues.
"A Jinchuuriki are humans that have the Bjuu sealed inside of them," Naruto whispered softly, her hand rubbing her stomach as she recalled the explanation that the Third Hokage gave her. "The Bjuu are monsters that are created entirely of chakra. There are nine Bjuu with each tail to represent their number. I'm the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi."
"How many Bjuu are there?" Midoriya asked, knitting his eyebrows.
Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line and closed her eyes. "There are nine Bjuu which means that there are nine jinchuuriki. The more tails they have, the stronger the beast."
All three eyes widened, jerking their heads back as they realized the depth of her statement. Naruto avoided looking at their eyes, focusing more on the smiling faces of her teammates and wishing not for the first time to have Hinata by her side. She couldn't predict the reactions of her friends but Hinata was always easy to predict. If Hinata knew about the Kyuubi then Naruto was certain she would accept her.
But she doesn't know about these people.
"How many jinchuuriki are here in Japan?" Shouto asked, fixating his eyes on her.
Naruto took a deep breath. "Four, including me."
"Four? But we only saw three." Bakugou snapped. "Who is the fourth?"
"Gaara." They blinked and Naruto rubbed the back of her neck, uncertain of what to tell them. She looked at the ticking clock, noticing how as each second passed that those ticks seemed to get louder. Was it broken? Or was it because of something else? She couldn't be certain of anything anymore.
"How old were you when you became a Jinchuuriki?" Midoriya asked softly, looking at her with curious green eyes. He flickered his eyes to Bakugou before looking at Shouto. Both boys had their eyes fixated on her before flickering their eyes to the quiet shinobi on the armchair. Midoriya cleared his throat. "Y-You don't have to answer—"
"Since I was born," everyone blinked and Naruto curled her lips into a frown. "Before I became a jinchuuriki, the previous holder was my mother. On the day I was born, she lost control of the Kyuubi and it caused so much destruction throughout Konoha. Due to this, the Hokage sealed the Kyuubi inside of me. Only an Uzumaki and their descendants can keep a leash on this beast."
Her friends stared at her, their eyes not revealing their emotions and Naruto could chew on her lips. Should she ask them about how they feel about this? Did they have all the information that they needed? Because if that was the case then they should just leave her. She wasn't going to break down in front of them.
"Whiskers, why were they making an offer to you?" Bakugou stared at her with lips pressed into a thin line. His red eyes did not reveal his emotions, not even a speck of anger or annoyance coloured his eyes and it only made Naruto tremble. Because she doesn't know how to deal with a calm Bakugou. She hunched her shoulders.
"I'm a weapon of war," Naruto kept her tone light and easy as her classmates and friends looked at her with wide eyes. She forced herself to smile at them, trying to make sure that her lips did not wobble slightly. Three years had passed since the bomb was dropped on her but it still hurt for her to know. "They want to be more strong and having three jinchuuriki is a good idea to them. Knowing the type of childhood that we have, they think I will accept whatever they offered."
Bakugou narrowed his eyes and pressed his lips into a thin line. "Explain to us."
"Jinchuurikis are usually isolated and have a difficult childhood growing up," Hibiki flickered his eyes at Naruto and then to the boys. "Because most people don't understand how seals works and thinks that people like Naruto are their monsters. They just keep it contained, they are only the box and not the cargo inside it."
Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line, looking down to the floor before looking at the photo of the Hokage, Team Seven and then finally landing on her mother. For the first time in her life, Naruto wondered who her father had been. Did he immediately accept what her mother contained? Or was he kept in the dark? She would never know.
She only knew that her father was dead.
"Guys, if you want to stop being friends with me because of this…I can understand." Naruto cleared her throat and stared at the three boys right in front of her. She steadied her trembling hands and looked out to the window, curling her lips as the laughter and giggles of the neighborhood kids echoed in her ears. "Just don't tell anyone what I told you."
"Uzumaki, we will keep it a secret but we need time to process everything," Midoriya cleared his throat and stood up from his seat. "This won't break my friendship with you but I just need time to understand everything you had told me."
"I'm just going out now."
Hibiki eyed the two boys. "I will walk you two boys out, I have some groceries to get for my apartment."
"We don't need a babysitter!" Bakugou snarled.
"I'm going out in the same direction." Hibiki rolled his eyes and offered them a smile, earning a frown from Naruto. He could go anytime but why does he want to go now? She knitted her eyebrows and looked up at the ceiling. Maybe he really did need to go to the supermarket but her stomach stirred with unease. Or was it because she didn't want to be left alone with Shouto?
She had no idea.
"S-So do you have more questions to ask me?"
Shouto looked away from the photos on the shelf and stared at Naruto. The blond-haired girl was biting her plump bottom lips, a habit that she always do whenever she seemed nervous and a habit that made him feel uncomfortable. Whenever Naruto bite her lips, all Shouto wanted to do was kiss her lips and bite it for her. It really made him question his behavior towards Naruto.
"Why did you hide it from me?" Shouto kept his eyes focused on the bright blue eyes of his friend, never allowing it to dip back down to her lips. This was the time to focus on understanding things. Does looking at her lips fix anything? If anything it made his mind wander to dangerous territory. "I thought you trusted me."
The mismatch boy hunched his shoulders and looked down at his shoes. Why was he upset about this? Why does he want to shake Naruto for keeping it a secret? They made a deal to reveal things slowly so it made sense for her not to tell him. But his heart ached at the thought of her not trusting him. They were friends, good friends and he told her about Touya. No one knows about Touya or what his father did to him.
"I trust you, Shouto." Naruto cleared her throat but Shouto could hear the wobble in her tone. His heart throbbed when he saw a single tear streaming down her face and the blond-haired girl focused her eyes on the photo of her and two other kids. "But this wasn't about trust. This was something else entirely."
Shouto stood up from his seat and took several deep breaths. Even though he couldn't see Naruto's expression from his seat, the trembles and growing whimpers in her voice told him she was terrified. Why was she terrified? He strode to stand right in front of her, mismatch eyes looking down at her hunched shoulders. He knelt down slightly, lowered his tone and stared at her. "Then what was it about?"
Silence hung between them as Naruto stared down at her hands before fixating her blue eyes at him. It looked so misty, ready to burst into tears and Shouto hovered his hands over her shoulders. In all the months that he had known her, this was the most vulnerable he had ever seen her. Taking a deep breath, Shouto wrapped his arms around her.
"It is about me being terrified." Her voice trembled and Naruto clenched her hand around his shirt as if trying to keep herself in reality. Shouto blinked and couldn't stop himself sniffing the blond-haired girl's hair. It still smells like oranges. He rubbed circles around her back, trying to get her to calm down.
Finally when Naruto stopped shivering, Shouto looked down at her blue-eyes. "Why were you terrified?"
No words passed between them and Naruto looked up at him. Blue eyes wavered slightly as if it worried her to admit to him of what her fears had been. He wasn't a shinobi. He couldn't even begin to understand what she went through, but he wanted to understand her. He wanted to get to know Naruto. He just needed to know why it had been a big deal to keep it a secret to her.
"Because I didn't want you to abandon me," Shouto blinked as tears began to stream down Naruto's eyes. He pushed her slightly off of his chest and placed his hand on her face. He rubbed the tears and was it weird that even though she was crying, he still found her beautiful? He pressed his lips into a thin line. "I s-spent half of my life being rejected by people and I just didn't want to go through that again."
Oh. Shouto stared down at her, heart aching at the sight of the tears and dryness in her voice. He took another deep breath and hugged her. Something must have possessed him to push her closer to his chest. Maybe he wanted to reassure her by making her listen to his heart. He just wanted to calm her down. He wanted her to stop being terrified.
"Do you honestly believe I would abandon you?" He whispered, looking down at her wide blue eyes. Her lips parted slightly and Shouto looked down at her lips. He doesn't know how long he stared at those lips but he knows that this was not the time to concentrate of thinking about her lips. He took a deep breath and looked at her. "Because I won't abandon you or any of my friends."
Naruto exhaled and stared up at his mismatch eyes. She chewed on her bottom lip, pushing her lips back and forth as if contemplating about something. "I know you won't abandon me but every time I think of telling you…I was afraid of losing you. You are my first friend here and I didn't want to lose you."
The blond-haired girl gulped and pushed herself off of him. She rubbed her eyes, hiccupping slightly and Shouto gazed at her. He took another deep breath, knelt down slightly and tipped her face up. Teary blue eyes looked up at him and the mismatch boy blinked, realizing that even though her nose was red and had some snot, she still looked pretty. "You won't lose me, Naruto. You will always have me, I promise you that."
"Promises are a big thing," Naruto hiccuped. "I will keep you to that."
Shouto nodded. "I will keep that promise to you but you need to open up more to me…I will do the same. We will try harder with that promise, Naruto but please don't keep secrets from me. I was terrified when those people went after you…I was in the dark and I didn't like that."
"I didn't know they were going to come," Naruto admitted. "I thought it was over but it seems like there might be people after me."
Shouto nodded and looked down at the blond-haired girl. Blue eyes shone with honesty, pleading with him to believe her and the funny thing was that he did believe her. Doubt should stir around his stomach because this was not the first time Naruto kept secrets from him, but she always had good reasons for her actions. So maybe that was why he believed her words.
"Shouto, do you still want to be friends with me even though I have a powerful monster inside of my stomach?" Shouto blinked and stared down at the curious, hesitant eyes of Naruto. Why wouldn't he want to be friends with her? Naruto had always been there for him. Sure, she might keep secrets but they were for good reasons. She might slurp her food but it was adorable at times.
Most of all, she always made him smile and had always been there for him.
His lips curled as something dawned on him but he could never tell Naruto of what he realized, instead he chose to say the words that he knew Naruto wanted to hear from him.
"Yes because even if you carry a monster, you are still Uzumaki Naruto and you are my friend."
That day was when Shouto realized he did have a crush on Naruto, that he had it bad for her and he doesn't know if he wants to stop these feelings inside of him. He won't tell her because he doesn't know if Naruto could ever love him…if he really deserves it.
A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter. Did you expect this to happen? The next chapter would be the last chapter.