Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the original characters.
Author Note: I would like to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter alongside anyone who added this story to their favourites and follows.
Why must it be so damn hot?
Naruto curled her lips into a tiny scowl as she leaned closer to Shouto's right side. The coldness from his right side made her shiver but it was better for her to deal with the cold then to deal with the glaring sun's gaze. She darted her eyes to her classmates. All of them had smiles on their faces as they talked about what they were going to do during the camp. Their excitement rolled off in waves but it was not enough to excite her.
She yawned and rubbed her eyes. Shouto frowned and knitted his eyebrows together into one line as he looked down at her with eyes shining with concern. "Did you spend the whole night training again, Naruto?"
Naruto rubbed the back of her neck but did not move her eyes away from him as she shook her head. The idea of training before a week-long trip had been tempting but she was not that addicted to training. Her boyfriend must have realized it because he frowned. The younger boy tilted his head and his eyes shone with a question that Naruto knew was very easy for her to answer.
"I spent the whole night packing," the blonde patted her backpack and let out a small yawn. "I kept packing and unpacking my bag, trying to figure out what would be a good idea to bring."
From right in front of them, Hagakure twisted her whole body around to look at them. Even though her classmate was invisible, the whiskered teen bet that the invisible girl was staring at her bag pack with disbelief. It was not as big as the bags brought in by her classmates. It was an orange backpack that could be used for hiking, not the one meant for a whole week but the kind of backpack used for weekend hiking.
In her experience as a kunoichi, Naruto learnt that most of the time that half of her stuff wouldn't be used.
"Are you sure you have enough stuff for a whole week of training, Uzumaki?" Disbelief colored the girl's tone and the other members of their class turned around to look at them. Their eyes widened at the backpack and Bakugou raised a single eyebrow at her.
The whiskered teen shrugged and patted her backpack. "Yup. It might not look like it but I'm pretty good with packing for week-long trips."
Everyone nodded and turned their heads away from her. Letting out a small sigh, Naruto rested her head against Shouto's right arm as her blue eyes drank in the sight before her. The various bags were stacked up in a nice pile, no doubt the doing of the robots that were now probably eyeing her with annoyance for not giving her bag to them. While her classmates trusted them, Naruto did not trust the robots.
"Everyone line up!" Aizawa barked from behind them. Naruto twisted her head around and offered a sheepish smile to her teacher, who stared at the dark circles around her eyes with concern. He would be happy to know that it came from packing and not pushing herself to the limit again. She opened her mouth to tell him, only for her boyfriend to begin dragging her to the line-up of students.
Naruto slumped her shoulders as she took her spot between Shouto and her cousin. Her blue eyes darted to her scowling cousin before moving back to Aizawa, who began his lecture by reminding them that they weren't getting any rest during the holidays. The whiskered teen sighed and then frowned as her eyes rested on the empty spot beside her teacher.
Tilting her head to the side, Naruto allowed the frown to deepen as her teacher continued the speech. If Aizawa-sensei was going to come with them on their trip then who was going to take care of Eri-chan? The young girl might have come a long way from her rescuing her but Naruto still did not have complete faith that the girl could be left alone. It would be only her in that small apartment and she knew how easy it was for a person to overthink in that situation.
"You look concern," Shouto commented quietly. The blonde blinked but did not allow her gaze to move away from their teacher, not when the man would realize quickly that neither of them were paying much attention to them.
"I'm worried about Eri-chan," Naruto whispered, flickering her eyes from their teacher to the boy standing right beside her. Her throat dried up as the memory of her very first day with Eri flashed through her mind. The girl had been so worried that she would leave her alone, clinging to her like she had been her lifeline. "If Aizawa-sensei is here then who is going to take care of Eri-chan?"
The mismatch boy frowned and looked absolutely at loss on how to comfort her. He darted his eyes at their classmates, who all seemed to be very much focused on Aizawa-sensei, and then back to her. The knitted eyebrows told the blonde of how her boyfriend was trying to figure out what to tell her. She opened her mouth to reassure him, only to close it when Bakugou grunted.
"Sensei isn't an idiot," the blonde blinked and stole a glance at her cousin. Her fellow blonde scowled and glared at them like he didn't know why the two of them were even discussing the topic. "He probably has Hizashi-sensei watching that munchkin."
Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line. To a certain point, the girl did agree with him. Their teacher was definitely not stupid and was perhaps one of the most observant people that she knew, but the whiskered teen honestly doubt that the man had given such a huge responsibility to their English Teacher. Present Mic did have a terrible habit of giving into Eri-chan's demands for chocolate.
That was the reason why Aizawa-sensei preferred for her to babysit the girl over her other teacher.
"Yes, sir!"
The scream of her fellow classmate made Naruto jerk her head as everyone else scrambled away from each other. What happened? Well it did not matter either way when she thought about it. The fact that they uttered those words meant that they were now free to roam around until it was time for them to enter that large bus.
Letting out another small yawn, the whiskered teen stretched her arms. A little moan escaped her lips as she began stretching her body for what could be a very long trip. It felt really good whenever she heard that little crack coming out from her body. The tension would just fade away if you asked her whenever she did such things to her body.
She must have look weird or why else would Midoriya, Bakugou and Shouto stare at her? Her boyfriend and Midoriya looked flushed, almost as if they took a rather long hot bath, while her cousin scowled. He looked at her like he wanted to smack her and that only made the whiskered teen scowled. What the hell was wrong with him?
Before Naruto had the chance to demand what his problem was, Uraraka came charging straight towards them. A bright smile played on the girl's lips and her brown eyes lit up with so much excitement that the scowl on Naruto's face faded. It was rather difficult for her to scowl when someone looked so happy.
"I'm so excited!" Uraraka clapped her hands together and leaned closer to Midoriya. The older boy flushed a deep shade of red and looked almost like a red train with all that steam coming out of his ears. "It seems like only yesterday that we were all talking about the trip and now here we are!"
"Y-Yeah, t-that's right," Midoriya stammered. His green eyes avoided looking at the brown-haired girl while his hands waved around like the boy didn't know what to do with his hands. Naruto allowed a tiny smile to grace her lips as everyone else from their class looked at the two teens with amusement shining through their eyes.
Uraraka frowned and knitted her eyebrows together before leaning even closer to the dark-haired boy. "Is something wrong? You look so red, Deku-kun!"
The smile on Naruto's lips widened as Midoriya swirled his head at her. Those green eyes pleaded for her to help him but the whiskered teen only shrugged her shoulders. What did he want her to do? There was nothing she could do for him and even if he wanted her to drag the girl away, she wouldn't do it. The whole thing was way too entertaining if you asked her.
Shouto tugged on the sleeve of her shirt, forcing her to look away from their two friends. His mismatch eyes flashed with concern at the sight of a flailing Midoriya. Those eyes moved away from their train wreck of a friend before focusing on her. He lowered his head until his lips were only a few centimetres away from her ears. "What is wrong with Midoriya?"
"He is flustered over the fact that there is a cute girl so close to him," Naruto replied with a casual shrug. From beside her, Bakugou grunted and the blonde frowned at the knitted eyebrow that appeared on his forehead. She raised a single eyebrow at the younger boy, who seemed to have understood her silent question.
He sighed. "But you are also cute and he doesn't seem to get flustered when you get close to him."
Naruto felt her cheeks burned up at the compliment coming out of her boyfriend's lips and she placed her hands on her face. Why must her legs wobbled at the compliment? She knew she should get used to the compliments especially from Shouto, but her heart would always race like it was the first time for her to be complimented.
Once she was certain that her heart was not going to come up to her mouth, Naruto finally answered. "He doesn't see me as a girl."
That answer only served to make her boyfriend even more confused because he knitted his eyebrows together. The blonde rubbed the back of her neck, cheeks flushed an even brighter shade of red as her boyfriend fixated his eyes on her chest. She cleared her throat and chose to look the other way.
"You are a girl," Shouto finally said without any emotion in his tone. But Naruto knew if she just turned her head around then the younger boy would be just as red as a cherry tomato. She inhaled and exhaled to calm down her nerves before focusing all of her attention on both Midoriya and Uraraka.
Both teens looked as red as cherries and were definitely not looking each other in the eyes. Naruto was not certain but if she did not know any better, she would believe that Uraraka was starting to develop a crush on Midoriya. She could be wrong because love was still an emotion that Naruto struggled to identify.
If it was not for the fact Shouto unintentionally confessed to her, she would have never known he liked her in that way. When it came to Hinata-chan, Naruto only knew about the crush because the girl confided to her. It probably did not help the fact she was confused on why the Hyuga Heiress reverted back to being the shy little girl that she met whenever Kiba was around.
"What? What's this? There are people in Class A who are taking extra classes?" A maniac voice called out from right in front of them. Naruto felt the smile playing on her lips dropped at the excited tone coming out from Monoma. She inhaled and forced herself to smile tightly as Monoma shoved his hair back. "Does that mean you have people who actually failed their exams? I thought you guys were supposed to be better than us!"
The smiles on Kirishima, Ashido and Kaminari's face dropped at the reminder that they failed and Naruto balled her hands into a fist. Itsuka took a step forward, hand ready to give the boy her usual chop but the whiskered girl shook her head. If anyone was going to put him in his place then it would be her.
She clicked her tongue together and allowed the rage that made her infamous in Konoha to come out.
"Aren't you a little piece of shit?" The chatter died down as the members of her class stared at her in shock. It was rather rare for her to swear right in front of them but Naruto was well-known for having quite the mouth in Konoha. She smiled sweetly and cracked her knuckles together. "You must be proud that your classmates passed their exams better than us but you are the only one who failed. How does that feel, asshole!"
The smile on Monoma's face faded and the maniac glee in his eyes was replaced with irritation. Naruto only offered him a triumphant smirk as her classmates gawked at her. Maybe in these last few months, she had never showed them that she cared a lot about them. She wouldn't even deny the fact that she had been pushing them away in the beginning of the semester, but they grew on her like a pair of plants.
"If I cut our bond, I will become much stronger."
Cruel black eyes flashed through her mind again alongside the smirk that played on his lips. That had been the reasons for her decision not to get close to people but the loneliness that Sasuke thought of…it did not make her strong. Naruto stared at her smiling classmates and felt her lips curled into a tiny smile as her eyes fixated on them.
"You really shouldn't have picked a fight with Uzumaki," Setsuna commented, flickering her eyes at Naruto. The girl patted Monoma on the shoulder as Kendou wrapped her hands around the boy's collar. A bright smile played on the green-haired girl's lips and the whiskered teen shrugged. "You are lucky that she didn't punch you for that comment."
Naruto curled her lips into a bright smile as her eyes flickered from her smiling friends from Class B to her classmates and boyfriend, before landing her eyes on Aizawa-sensei. The black-haired man stared at her for the longest time like he did not know what to make out of her smile before shaking his head at her.
I still believe that our bonds make us stronger.
She would never get better if it weren't for the people around her.
He must be tired too.
Naruto ran her hand through Shouto's hair as her classmates chattered with excitement and bounced in their designated seats. Most of them were busy of talking of ways to pass the time until they reached their destination while a few of them were playing games. Very few people noticed the fact that the youngest son of Endeavour was now resting his head on her shoulder.
The only people who seemed to have noticed were Ashido and Hagakure. The two girls kept sneaking glances at them from across the aisle, giggling and whispering something to them. If this had been Konoha then Naruto would think those two would be spreading terrible gossip about her and a tiny part of her believed it. But warm yellow eyes glinted with excitement, telling her that there was nothing cruel in her words.
"Uzumaki-chan, why don't we put our sleeping bags right next to each other?" Uraraka twisted her head around with a wide smile playing on her lips. Her brown eyes blinked at the sight of Shouto sleeping on her shoulder but if the girl found it strange then she made no comment.
The whiskered teen blinked at the request and looked down at her hands. It was rather odd for a girl, who was not Hinata-chan, to make such a request to her. Sakura only slept beside her because it was economical for them, not because she wanted to sleep beside her and get to know her. But Uraraka looked eager to have her in the same room.
A strange warmth tickled into her stomach and the blonde swallowed down the lump that suddenly formed in her throat. Slowly and hesitantly, Naruto nodded and winced as the girl let out a shriek of excitement. If it was not for the fact that Aizawa-sensei would scold them, she was certain her brown-haired classmate would have hugged her.
Taking a deep breath, Naruto finally asked. "So, do we have sleeping arrangement that I'm not aware of?"
From the aisle across her, Yaoyorozu pulled out a booklet from her handbag. The black-haired girl flipped through the booklet, eyebrows knitted together as she scanned through the pages that could have given them the answer to the question. After a couple of minutes, the black-haired girl shook her head.
"From what the booklet tells me, the only sleeping arrangement that is mentioned is the fact that we aren't going to share a room with Class B," Yaoyorozu informed her.
It should be fine with her since Naruto was used to such arrangements, but she felt oddly disappointed with the fact that she wouldn't be also sharing the room with Setsuna and Itsuka. Then again it was the first time that the blonde had a lot of female friends. Temari could be considered but Naruto felt closer to Gaara then his sister. Hinata-chan was her best friend but it felt different. This time Naruto could really feel her heart sinking in disappointment.
It must have shown because Ashido reached forward and patted her leg.
"We still have an opportunity to talk to them Uzumaki!" Ashido reminded her, offering her a grin. "We are going to have so much fun with our dares and our girl talk!"
A sense of dread crept up in her stomach when those cheerful yellow eyes flickered from her to Shouto. Naruto knew the girl had huge plans when it came to her and her boyfriend. It was clear from her mischievous eyes. She should tell the girl that Shouto and her were together but the blonde couldn't bring herself to do it.
Not because of shame but because Naruto didn't want to be the subject of gossip again.
She cleared her throat and looked at Jirou, who sat right beside Yaoyorozu. The girl had her whole body turned around to look them, being so silent when it came to the topic at hand. However what interested the blonde was the pale look on Jirou's face at the mention of the dares. From the front of the bus, Kirishima shot her a look that told her that he didn't want to be in any of the girl's shoes.
"If we are doing our training in the middle of the forest then how will the terrain affect us?" Midoriya mused from the seat behind her. Naruto did not need to turn around to know the boy had that crazed look in his eyes. He sounded like he was knee-deep in his theorizing. "We might have to do rescue training and there is a possibility that we might have to fight in the forest."
Naruto grunted. "I hope not. The trees always hinder my line of sight and it is a pain trying to make sure that I don't fall off from the tree."
The words came out unintentionally. It was supposed to be kept inside of her mind but the way the chatter died down in the bus, alongside the fact that everyone turned around to look at her told her that they heard her thoughts. She rubbed the back of her neck as their eyes glinted with an eagerness that told her that they were now more interested to hear her talk then to discuss of what to do when they got there.
"You know Uzumaki, you sound like you are talking from experience," Kaminari commented from the seat right behind Yaoyorozu. His voice sounded excited and Naruto wondered if she turned around if the boy would be bouncing in his seat. "Did you ever get into a fight in the middle of the forest?"
If you considered fighting bandits during one of their few missions then yes, but Naruto would never told him this. She should have kept her mouth shut because now her mind shot blanks of how to answer him. Lying would be the most logical choice but what kind of lie should she use? Well there was always that lie. It was the truth and well it wouldn't bring too many questions.
"I was born in a village that is in the middle of the forest," Naruto replied. Kaminari and the others blinked at this piece of information while the blonde darted her eyes to the window of the bus. Trees flew passed them alongside a couple of cars. She sighed. "So I know from playing in the forest what might be difficult."
All of them accepted her answer without much question, looking at her like that might be a plausible reason. It should be a good reason because if you played in a forest then you know what could be considered difficult. The only people who did not believe her answer were all the people who knew the truth about her actual occupation.
Midoriya looked at her like he wanted to hear all the possible difficulties while Bakugou scowled at her. His red eyes gleamed with irritation and the whiskered teen forced herself to look away from him. Even though the two of them were now cousins, Naruto still did not know what the boy felt about this revelation.
The fact he scowled could mean he hated the reminder that it had been Konoha, who took her father away from his family, or hated that she was the more experienced one between them.
"So you are going to be at home, won't you?" Sero asked, offering her a smile.
Home. That would be a reasonable thinking but Naruto could only stare blankly as memories crept back up into her mind. The Matron's cruel eyes alongside those hurtful words from Sakura. Ami was there too with the reminder of how she was an ugly little fox while Ino's words about her parents echoed in her ears. Those memories made her heart twist in pain.
"What a pretty name for a pretty girl."
"Hyuga…Hyuga Hinata but you can call me Hinata, Naruto-chan!"
"No! You are getting the hand seal wrong, Idiot!"
Those memories made her stomach flutter and Naruto forced herself to smile at Sero. There had been a lot of bad memories in Konoha but there had been some happy memories. Mikoto-obaachan made the pain inside of her fade away. Hinata-chan stuck through her even when the whole village hated her. Even when members of her own clan warned her.
"I don't wanna hear about Whisker's shitty home!" Bakugou growled. His red eyes flared with irritation and anger and his nostrils flared, which earned frowns from everyone but Midoriya. The green-haired boy only looked at the blond with understanding and the whiskered teen wondered what was the real story behind the growl.
Kirishima frowned and looked almost baffled over Bakugou's anger. His red eyes flashed with an apologetic glint but the whiskered teen shrugged. A part of her wanted to think the teen was upset over the injustice faced by her but Naruto knew better. They might be related but it did not mean he had to concern himself with her.
"Y'know you shouldn't treat your cousin like that, Bakugou!" Kirishima darted his eyes at her before looking back at the scowling boy. "Don't you wanna know more about her home?"
Aizawa twisted his head around and his black eyes fell on Naruto, who kept her expression blank as everyone became quiet at the reminder that the two blonds were cousin. Naruto knew why the man looked at her with surprised eyes. Neither her nor Bakugou thought it would be a good idea for them to tell the man about the revelation.
She really did not understand what the big deal was, after all.
"Where's the bathroom? I gotta pee!"
Naruto watched with blank eyes as Mineta zoomed through the alcove, black eyes looking frantically for a bathroom that was clearly not there. All around her, her classmates stretched and looked out to the rails. All of them released sigh of relief since they had been glued to their seats for a whole hour now.
While her classmates walked closer together, eager to continue on with their conversation from the bus, Naruto made her way towards the rails. She placed both of her hands against the wooden rails, feeling the rough edges of the wood before staring down from the rails. Thich miless of forest and trees stretched out from below them. The leaves were of a lush green that reminded the blonde of the trees back home.
Laughter tickled her ears and for a brief moment Naruto forgot she was on a trip with her classmates. Right now, all she could see was her seven-year-old self trying to hide in the tree hollow from Sasuke and Hinata-chan. That was a game the three of them played often. Sasuke used to grumble that it was a terrible idea for them to play that game.
"You are just a sore loser because Hinata-chan is amazing at finding me!" That had always been her answer whenever Sasuke grumbled over how it was not fair that they played hide-and-seek so often. She curled her lips into a tiny, bitter smile as her heart cried out in pain from the bittersweet memories.
"What are you thinking about?" Shouto asked, snapping the blonde out from her train of memory. Naruto blinked as her boyfriend placed his hands against the rails, mismatch eyes flashing with concern. A small frown played on his lips as those mismatch eyes never strayed from her. The crease on his forehead told her that he was really trying hard to think of what could be on her mind.
She curled her lips into a smile and looked down at the trees. "I was remembering how I used to play hide and seek with Hinata-chan."
Her boyfriend pressed his lips into a thin line but chose not to call her out for the omission of another person in her life. He never did call her out for it when Naruto thought about it. Fear was probably not the reason the boy never called her out. Not once in her memories could she recall the boy's eyes flashing with fear. Maybe the closest Naruto had ever seen Shouto being terrified, had been when he told her not to do anything reckless.
The fact he did not call her out for the omission simply meant he knew that she was not ready to talk about him again. It would just put a damper in his mood. He would probably get upset and misunderstood their relationship like everyone back in Konoha did. The love she felt for Sasuke had been different to the feeling she had for Shouto.
With Sasuke, the two of them would insult each other and compete. There was always that intense desire for her to show him that she was better than him. She wanted him to acknowledge the fact they were equals. But with Shouto, she did not have this intense need to compete or have him to acknowledge her in that way. She never wanted to insult him or say anything to hurt his feelings.
"Where is Class B?" Kirishima asked. Naruto twisted her head around and watched as the boy scanned the alcove for the other class joining them on their trip. They should have been here by now since they departed at the same time and were going to the same location. Except now that the blonde thought about it, they made a different turn in the highway.
She curled her lips into a deep frown as dread began to crept up in her stomach. Her eyes darted to Aizawa-sensei, who did not frown or look even remotely concern by the other class lack of presence, and the dread inside of her stomach intensified. The palms of her hand began to sweat as her mind came up with a possibility.
The fact that Aizawa was not one bit concern told her that the male knew where they were and that this simple stop might not be a simple stop at all.
"Can this place even be considered a rest stop?" Sero asked, putting his hand on top of his forehead. He squinted his eyes and a small frown played on his lips. "I don't see anything but trees."
Naruto placed her fingers together and channelled chakra to her eyes, hoping to increase her line of sight. There was nothing but lush green trees alongside a small river to the side of the mountain. She could make out a little building but it was too faint for her to determine what that building could be. The blonde dispelled the chakra and pressed her lips into a frown.
"You are right and I think that the actual rest stop is right there," Naruto pointed to the foot of the mountain. That building could either be a place where people could buy souvenirs or it was nothing really important. Either way, it felt like it would have made more sense for everyone if they had stopped over there to rest.
She darted her eyes to the car that was conveniently parked right next to them. Even though the glass was tinted, the whiskered teen could make out three figures. It seemed like they could be here for a family trip because there was a tiny figure on the backseat. That tiny figure could either be a kid or a really short person.
But the fact that they stopped here and did not come out of the car could mean a lot of things. None of which made that dread inside of her stomach fade. If anything, Naruto could feel her whole body sweating as a possibility crept up to her mind. The man wouldn't do this to them, would he? Except Aizawa-sensei could be tough when needed.
He could be cruel enough to start their training even before they got to their destination.
"There is no point stopping here without reason," Aizawa informed them. His tone carried no emotion and his hands were inside the pocket of his pants but the lack of emotions in his eyes made her heart stop. Those words topped with those kind of eyes meant that her line of thinking could be right.
She gulped down the lump and looked at her classmates. Every single one of them began to sweat but their eyes mirrored the exact feeling creeping up in her stomach. Denial. They were all in denial of what could be happening. The only person, who did not look like he was in denial was Mineta.
No, her classmate kept squirming and running around the alcove in a desperate attempt to find his non-existent toilet.
At that moment, the doors of the neighbouring clicked opened and Naruto watched with horror as bright, fur lined boots hit the ground in succession. It was not that the blonde had anything against fur, not when they could keep a person warm but the fact that there were two women wearing a costume that looked very similar to cats made her want to run.
It brought back memories of when her team had that mission with those stupid cats. Her lips twitched as she recalled how Sasuke trembled and looked at those white cat ears with horror. If it wasn't for the fact she goaded him then the bastard would never wear those cat ears. Sakura thought praising him would have gotten him to wear the ears.
"Oi Whiskers, pay attention!" Bakugou hissed in her left ear. Naruto blinked and raised a single eyebrow, only for her cousin to growl and turned her to look at the two ladies who were now in poses. What the hell just happened? And why were they beaming at them like that? Also, did they not feel ridiculous posing with their hands together?
She flickered her eyes to her cousin. "Who the hell are these people?"
"Why the hell should I tell someone who has the attention span of a toddler?" Naruto kept quiet and raised a single eyebrow at the 16-year-old boy. Her classmate growled and folded his arms together. "They are the wild, wild Pussycats."
Naruto nodded and looked at them with a frown playing on her lips. "Do hero teams do something as silly as posing? Cuz I ain't doing that shit."
"It isn't normal," Shouto reassured her from her left side. His own mismatch eyes looked like he didn't know what to make of the fact that there were two ladies in their thirties, who were making cutesy poses. They were pretty ladies especially the woman with brownish-red hair but they were way too old to do these kind of stunts if you asked Naruto.
Bobbing her head, the whiskered teen shifted her attention on the only person in the alcove that did not fit with the group. He looked young and if she had to guess his age range then Naruto would put him around the same age as Eri-chan. Except his eyes did not hold the same childish glint of wonder like her little sister-figure had.
"Hero? You sure sound stupid! There is no such thing as a hero!"
Her eyes faded as furious black eyes flashed before her. Gato took away Inari's step-father and made him believe that anyone who tried to be a hero was a fool. She inhaled and exhaled, forcing a smile to play on her lips as that little boy directed his gaze at her. Anger radiated from his eyes but the emotion that made her take a step back had been an emotion that Naruto knew all too well growing up in Konoha.
Hatred radiated from his eyes and Naruto felt the acid in her stomach crept up.
"This whole area belongs to us," the red-suited woman informed them, pointing one clawed finger towards the base of the mountain that stood far off into the forest. "All of you will be staying at the foot of that mountain."
The words hung in the air as everyone processed what the woman informed them. Naruto kept flickering her eyes at her classmates, who all began to pale as if realizing what the implication could be. Not a single one of them was stupid enough not to have heard what the hidden message behind her words but they still wanted to vocalize their suspicions.
"Why did we stop here if our lodge is right over there?" Uraraka asked, robotically turning her head to Asui.
Asui placed her finger against her chin and gulped. "Could this mean—"
"—That they want us to get there by foot? Sounds like it," Naruto commented.
The whole class grew quiet and swirled their heads at their teacher and the heroes. Aizawa-sensei showed no expression but the whiskered teen bet the man was pleased at the fact that they quickly figure things out. The two female heroes smirked and no mercy shone through their eyes, telling the blonde that they weren't going to make things easy for them.
In the words of Nara Shikamaru, they were now in a troublesome situation.
"We should run back to the bus!" Kirishima ordered.
With a sigh, Naruto strolled right back to the rails and put one foot on the rail while most of her classmates screamed and dashed straight to the bus. She knew she should follow them but it was a pointless endeavour if you asked her. Aizawa-sensei was not the type of teacher who would allow his students to run and that maniac glint in the other female heroes eyes told her that they wouldn't let them escape anyway.
The blonde took a deep breath and looked down at the rails. If they were actually going to do this then she would rather do it on her terms. No one was going to make her jump off a cliff if she had any say on it. Oh no. No one could force her to do something that she was quite willing to do and taking this jump meant that she did things on her terms.
"You aren't going to try and run?" Shouto asked, turning his body around to follow the others. Naruto twisted her head away from the rails and looked at the tilted head of her boyfriend. Amusement crept up to her lips and the whiskered teen allowed a smile to grace her lips as she gave him one simple reason.
"Do you really believe Aizawa-sensei is going to let us run?"
Shouto sighed and twisted his whole body towards her, telling her that her boyfriend knew the answer the question was a big, fat no. He followed right behind her and the whiskered teen held her hand out to him. If they were going to jump then she would rather hold his hand or have him make a slide.
Either way, she would rather not see him get hurt.
"By the way, Kitties who don't make it by 12:30 won't get any lunch!"
Well now that definitely solidified her desire to get this whole thing over and done with.
Author Note: So the Forest Training Camp Arc has officially started. Please do let me know of your thoughts on this chapter and if there is anything that you think that could be improved in this story.