A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourite and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.
Of all the things that my hand grabs, it has to be a skirt instead of a pants.
Naruto smoothed the wrinkles of the orange skirt, a gift from the Hokage's daughter-in-law and kept a smile plastered on her face as several of the girls looked at her with such cold eyes. They kept focusing on her skirt or maybe it was just her imagination. Maybe they thought she looked kind of nice in a skirt.
She looked at the clock and wished the clock's hand would just move a little bit faster. Just ten more minutes before Iruka-sensei could come in and class would start, stopping all those girls from staring at her. She forced herself to smile even wider when Ami looked at her, lips tugged into a scowl while Sakura and Ino frowned at her.
Ami stomped over her and Naruto stiffened, lips tugged into a tight smile as brown eyes looked at her like she was a prey that she wanted to consume.
"Is the little boy trying to act like a girl?" Ami sneered and like a pack of hyenas, the other girls that belonged to Sasuke's fan club approached her with cruel smiles on their faces. Their eyes glinted with so much cruelty and children were such cruel people.
(Their cruel words would always affect her)
Naruto grinded her teeth and narrowed her eyes as her throat burned at those words. Her hair was long and it might not be combed and tangle free like their hair, but she was a girl. Just because her clothes were constantly dirtied and the fact she enjoyed rough housing with the boys…it does not mean that Naruto was not a girl like them.
She was just different.
Taking a deep breath, Naruto's hands stopped trembling and the smile on Naruto's lips became wider. Blue eyes glinted with cruelty because if Ami wanted to bully her then Naruto would hit her below the belt. Unlike her lapdogs or Sakura, Naruto could make her words drip with as much cruelty as the next person.
"Why the hell are you smiling, Uzumaki?"
Naruto laughed. "I was just thinking that at least I don't snatch other people's homework and try to pass it off as my own."
Ami grinded her teeth as the other girls took a step back as the smiles on their faces trembled. Some of them avoided Naruto's eyes while others looked at the purple-hair girl with nervous smiles playing on their lips. It was funny how all of them claimed to be Ami's friend because Naruto knew none of them liked her. But Ami's parents were rich merchants, potential people that their civilian parents could work with.
She doesn't hate them for not standing up to her…she despises them for acting like they were better than her.
"So whose homework did you steal, Stupid?" Everyone gawked at her, looking at her like she was insane as Ami growled at her. Naruto leaned forward as her blue eyes flared with cruelty, the same cruelty that reflected back from Ami's eyes. Her words were cruel, she knew it but Naruto was not going to act like a wallflower. "Was it Sakura? Ino? Or one of your lapdogs?"
Ami snarled. "At least I look pretty and have thin legs when I wear a skirt. You look like a monster even when you wear a skirt and nothing you ever do will make you look pretty. Face it Uzumaki, you are just an ugly fox that would be lucky if someone loves you."
Silence reined as the other girls stared at Ami with wide eyes and horror. The purple-haired girl narrowed her eyes at them, earning nods from the other girls and Naruto grinded her teeth. What happened next was not her brightest moments, but even when Naruto looked back…no regret lingered on her. Ami deserved what happened next because Naruto would ruin that pretty face Ami claimed to have.
Like a fox, Naruto pounced on Ami and tugged her hair as the girls screamed and cried for her to get off. They grabbed her arms, trying to pull her off of the purple-haired girl but Naruto swatted them and pulled out Ami's hair. Chucks of her hair flew to the side and the purple-haired girl scratches and screams but she does not stop.
"Why don't I ruin that face you love so much?" Naruto snarled, scratching Ami and punching her in the face till blood dribbled down her face.
The door slid open and Iruka-sensei charged in, brown eyes growing wide at the sight in front of him. He flickered his eyes from the unscratched Naruto to the bleeding, crying purple-haired girl. Naruto straightened her back, flipped her hair and got off of the girl as Iruka-sensei grabbed her by the collar of her shirt.
He pulled her up until they were at eye-level. "Naruto! Explain yourself! We don't attack our classmates!"
At that time, Iruka's eyes did not hold any warmth to her. They were just as cold as the other people in the village, but Naruto liked him better than compared to the other teachers in the Academy. He was just indifferent to her, just ignoring her while all the other teachers picked on her.
It was his indifference that made Naruto decide not to give him an explanation, not when experience taught her that no one would ever take her side. So instead Naruto grunted, shrugged her shoulder and allowed Iruka-sensei to think she was acting like a trouble maker.
After that day, Naruto avoided wearing anything feminine and preferred to wear her clothes a size bigger.
"She told me that she couldn't stand the sight of my left side."
Naruto pushed and swirled her ramen, blue eyes staring blankly and taking a deep breaths in the hopes of calming down her heart. It had only been twenty minutes the information overload and her heart still ached. Her usual adoration for ramen was not even enough for her to perk up and gobble down her food like there was no tomorrow.
How could she even eat when her friend seemed to be living in self-guilt?
"Uzumaki! We finally found you!"
Blue eyes blinked and Naruto looked up, eyebrows shooting to her hairline at the sight of Yaoyorozu and Jirou wearing cheerleader outfits that really seemed to be intent of highlighting their assets. It looked cute on Jirou but for Yaoyorozu, she looked almost like one of the new characters that Jiraiya planned to introduce in his next novel. Naruto forced herself to smile at them.
"Were you searching for me? Do you need me for something?"
"Yes, we were just informed that the girls from every class would be participating in a cheer battle," Yaoyorozu explained. "We've gathered up all the others and you are the only one left! I've already got them in their uniforms so if you don't mind I'll get your measurements and—"
Naruto shook her head and crossed her arms together into a cross. "No way in hell are you going to make me wear a cheerleaders outfit!"
Uzumaki Naruto was well known to avoid wearing anything girly! If the school would allow her to rock pants to school then the blond-haired girl would be going to Yuuei High everyday in those dress pants that the boys got to wear. If her boss wasn't so insistent that her job required her to wear a skirt then Naruto would work everday in jeans. If it were not for the fact that it was compulsory then Naruto would never wear skirts to school.
There was a reason that she avoided dresses and skirts.
'You look like a monster in a skirt!"
She clenched her hands into a fist as Yaoyorozu and Jirou glanced at each other, eyebrows knitted together as they glanced at each other with sweat dripping down their faces. They shifted from side to side before Jirou clapped her hands together, lips clapped together as her eyes looked at her like she was begging her to just comply with this.
"Please Uzumaki!" Jirou tugged her cheerleader's shirt down. "We are all being forced into this."
So what? Everyone in the world would see her in a damn skirt and shirt and would make comments about how fat she might be or how ugly she looked in a cheerleader's outfit. Her heart pounded against her ribs and sweat coated in her palms as a pair of cruel brown eyes flashed in her eyes along with her cruel smile. If that bitch see her in a cheerleader outfit then she would laugh at her.
'An ugly fox.'
Her throat burned at the memory and the tears began to build around her eyes, but Naruto blinked it away and grinded her teeth. "You will have to drag me and change me yourself if you want me to wear that outfit!"
"Uzumaki, I know you don't feel comfortable but—"
"Yaoyorozu!" Her voice raised and several of the teens swirled their heads at them, eyes locked onto them and Naruto inhaled again. One step at a time. She unclenched her hands and swallowed down a lump before lowering her voice. "I am not going to make myself look like a fool for the whole world to see!"
'Is the little boy trying to act like a girl?'
Her throat dried up and Naruto wanted to punch someone. The desire to yell and scream at them was great but she swallowed it down because making a scene was not a good idea now. Instead her jaw clenched as her blue eyes stared at them with resentment, causing the two girls to glance at each other. Yaoyorozu took a seat beside her, hand patting her shoulder.
"We are going to look like fools together."
Naruto shook her head and chewed her tongue from spatting at Yaoyorozu, because her classmates stared at her with kind eyes. Maybe she was acting kind to make her wear it but Naruto was not going to chew her out for this, not when Yaoyorozu looked at her like this. Jirou took a seat right beside her and patted her other shoulder.
"We are in this together," Jirou insisted with a grimace. Her dark eyes flickered from her own cheerleader's outfit to Yaoyorozu's outfit, her eyes lingering on the way that the shirt clung to Yaoyorozu's chest. She sighed and frowned at the sight of her own smaller chest which almost made Naruto wonder if the girl wished to have just a slightly larger chest.
The blond-haired girl flickered her eyes at the matching uniforms and took a couple of deep breaths, forcing her shoulders to relax. "Who the hell was the asshole that came up with this stupid idea?"
She pulled down the zipper of her gym jacket and she stared down at her hands before flickering her eyes at Yaoyorozu and Jirou. The two girls glanced at each other, lips pressed into a thin line and rubbed the back of their necks as if they were not certain of telling her about the culprit of this stupid idea
"Aizawa-sensei."
Naruto pressed her lips into a very thin line, rubbed either sides of her head and took a couple of deep breaths. If he learnt that she refused to wear these stupid cheerleader outfit then he was going to accuse her of some other type of fear, which was stupid. But would he understand of just how uncomfortable she felt to wear it in public?
It was not like she feared the way those male eyes would try to gobble her up or anything, nor did her legs tremble at the thought. Naruto was taught as a kunoichi about the power of her body, about the importance of confidence but she always felt comfortable and confident in the clothes that she liked.
"I'm going to burn it after the competition is over and the moment anyone laughs at us, I'm out."
This was probably the worst lunch that Naruto had ever been forced to experience.
"You will surpass me."
The cheers and laughter of his fellow classmates and competitors seemed muffled as Todoroki leaned against the wall with his eyes fixated on the crowds mingling with each other. He darted his eyes to Midoriya and then looked at the stands, where his own father stood with a blank expression. If Todoroki continued to keep his distance from Uzumaki then his father probably would leave her alone.
If he just beat Midoriya then his father would get the message that he didn't need to use his powers.
"We've even brought real cheerleaders from America to liven things up! But wait—"
Todoroki forced himself to look up from the ground as the cheers and chatter died down. Knitting his eyebrows together, he followed the eyes of his fellow male classmates and felt his throat tightened at the sight of all the girls, including Uzumaki, wearing a cheerleader outfit. Mismatch eyes fixated on the flushed cheeks of Uzumaki as a gentle breeze swoop in, giving almost everyone the slightest glimpse of her underwear.
His cheeks almost burned red as his left side of the body began to heat up while his eyes could not stop itself to look down to where her cheerleader's shirt seemed to clung to her chest. He rubbed the back of his neck as a strange feeling in his stomach grew as a few of the boys openly stared at Uzumaki and the other girls.
Practically one purple-haired boy, who seemed to be salivating at the sight in front of him.
"What's going on Class A? What kind of fan service is this? We already had one in the Obstacle Race!"
From right in front of him, Kaminari and Mineta shot each other looks and gave each other a thumbs up. Yaoyorozu narrowed her eyes, roughly waving a pom-pom in the air and let out a gasp of indignation. "Kaminari-san, Mineta-san! You tricked us, didn't you? Do you know I had to beg Uzumaki to do this!"
"Do you know how hard it was for us to convince her?" Jirou yelled, waving her pom-pom.
Mismatch eyes widened and he focused on Uzumaki. A small frown played on his lips as blue eyes flared with annoyance and anger, looking like she might just murder those two boys. Todoroki forced himself to focus on his friend's eyes when the girl looked at him, daring him to say something about the outfit that she was being worn.
I have a feeling if I say anything, she might just chew my head off.
He just kept quiet as Uzumaki grabbed Yaoyorozu, lips curled into a smile but it was not her fake smile. The smile on her lips was not even that mischievous smile that she makes when she planned to annoy someone or play some kind of underhand trick. No, the smile looked like the kind of smile that the devil would make when offering someone a deal.
Yaoyorozu's eyes brightened up as the girl whispered something with her eyes occasionally darting to the boys. Black eyes glinted with joy and the older girl clapped her hands together, bouncing in her spot before darting straight to the tunnels.
Uzumaki nodded and stomped straight to the grinning two boys, whose grins slowly faded and their faces growing paler and paler by the second. Understandable when the girl looked like she was the predator just ready to tear down her prey into tiny pieces. The other girls just stood back, eyebrows knitted together and hopeful smiles playing on their lips.
"Oh Boys!" Uzumaki's tone was laced with sweetness as her blue eyes glinted with rage that even made a couple of the members of the crowd squirm in their seats. Uzumaki's Guardian (he had to be her guardian from that conversation he heard) gulped, paled and stared at the two teens with a sad smile playing on his lips. "You are going to be wearing the same cheerleading outfits."
Mineta and Kaminari balked. "Uzumaki, aren't you being a little—"
"Okay," the boys relaxed as the blond-haired girl flashed them a sweet smile. "Let me make it clear: you have two options for your punishment. Either you wear the cheerleading outfits that Yaoyorozu is going to prepare or I will crush your ribs, tear your balls out and feed them to the wolves. Now take your option."
Mineta and Kaminari whimpered and clutched his crotch. "Aren't you being a little bit cruel?"
"I mean you used that technique! Surely you must be comfortable with this!"
Blue eyes darkened. "That was a move which exaggerates my body proportions and is used as a trick to get myself ahead of a couple of people! This does not mean I want the world to see me in my normal body proportion!"
Uzumaki clenched and unclenched her hands as her breathing got more and more rapid, almost telling him that in any moment that the girl might actually knock them out. Todoroki does not understand what he did next because the plan was to ignore Uzumaki. The plan had been to show everyone that Uzumaki and him did not have any kind of relationship.
But Uzumaki always had a way to make him forget of the original plan.
He pushed himself off of the wall, strolled straight to Uzumaki and the girl blinked, looking almost stupefied by his actions. Todoroki took a deep breath, placed his large lands on her shoulders and lowered his body slightly till they were at eye level. Puffing her cheeks, Uzumaki raised her eyebrow at him.
"Relax."
Uzumaki lowered her head as her shoulders tensed up while Kaminari and Mineta scooted away from the furious blond-haired girl. "You can't make a scene here."
'If they thought I was a monster then why don't I become one?'
He did not want Uzumaki to lose sight of herself.
"They made us look like fools, Todoroki!" she hissed. "Now the whole world is going to see how ridiculous I look in a cheerleader's outfit? Oh and I bet you that there is going to be a lot of comments about how ugly I look in this outfit and—"
"You don't look ugly," Uzumaki blinked and Todoroki focused his eyes on her. "You look pretty in the outfit."
Uzumaki blinked and blinked as her whole face burned up to a bright shade of red. Her lips opened and closed, almost like a fish before she jerked her head up to look at him. He nodded, patted her shoulders while everyone just stared at them with raised eyebrows. Shouto felt himself growing even more uncomfortable when Uzumaki's Guardian stared at him with blank eyes.
It must have been his imagination but it felt like the man was glaring at him.
"Thank you, Todoroki!" Kaminari and Mineta rushed towards him, hands grabbing his pants and mismatch eyes flared with annoyance at the antics of his two classmates. He inhaled and exhaled as Yaoyorozu glided towards them, lips curled into a smile as she brought out two cheerleading outfits.
"Wear the outfit that Yaoyorozu prepared for you two. You owe the girls and Uzumaki this much for putting them through this shitty stunt."
If wearing a couple of cheerleading outfits would help calm Uzumaki and the other girls down then Todoroki would help them. Beside, it really made him want to freeze those two for forcing Uzumaki to be wearing something that she did not feel comfortable with and in an outfit that made all the other boys ogle her.
It had nothing to do with the fact he wanted to see Uzumaki cheer up and see one of those real smiles that her Guardian talked about.
A/N: What do you think of the last couple of flashbacks? And of the pace that Naruto and Todoroki's relationship are going?