The Little Mute Girl Chapter 2
The crossing of paths with Arrietty and Naruto occurred purely by chance.
One day Arrietty was finishing up gathering a brand new batch of starwort plants. She was bent down on her knees digging the plants up by their roots and placing them in a cloth sack. Arrietty had just tied the top of the sack shut as she put the last one in when she heard a scream coming from close by. Her head had snapped up to listen to it. Initially Arrietty thought it might've been an animal, but she heard it again and this time she could tell it's a child in distress.
Arrietty immediately went to investigate. She ended up finding a little boy stuck in a tree. He had climbed up too high and had absolutely no idea how to get back down. In fact he was dangling from a branch by his arms. He'd slipped and couldn't recover. Arrietty ran to try and help at the same time he couldn't hold on anymore.
It's fortunate for the kid that Arrietty managed to position herself directly under him at the same time he lost his grip. Arrietty caught him in her arms, making them both fall onto the ground. Luckily neither of them was hurt. Only slightly bruised from the impact of the collision.
Out of concern for the boys welfare Arrietty took him back to her hollow to get his cuts cleaned and healed with herbs.
It was here that Arrietty learned his name to be Naruto.
Naruto is an orphan living in the Village Hidden in the Leaves. He lost his parents very soon following his birth and has been an orphan, living on his own ever since the moment he became old enough to fend for himself. Naruto is currently attending the Konoha Ninja Academy so that he can one day become the Hockage himself when it's time for Konoha to choose a new one. He received a monthly allowance from the Hockage so he never went hungry or homeless on the streets.
But none of this took away the loneliness that came with not having a family to go home too or friends from school to lessen it at all.
Being able to relate somewhat to Naruto's circumstances Arrietty felt drawn towards this precious little one in her eyes.
So from that day forth the two of them became almost inseparable. Naruto sneaking away from the Village almost every single day just to visit and keep her company after his classes at the Academy were done for the day.
As the days turned to weeks and weeks turned into months the two of them just kept on getting closer and closer.
They quickly got over the setback regarding her lack of speech. Naruto was quite perplexed as soon as he discovered that his new friend couldn't talk back to him. Even the large magnificent swans that came by Arrietty's home twice during the year. She showered then with as much affection as they did her. Naruto was very surprised when they took to him very quickly. They had a lot of fun those days and were saddened when the swans left at the end of each one. That's when Arrietty really needed Naruto most. He even stayed with her on those nights just to make her smile.
Along with those he had to guess her name. So he spoke random names out loud until he picked the right one. Naruto was so happy when he got it right, but he got very confused when he saw what she was going with the starwort plants. He voiced his objections with how much the stinging nettles hurt her. He tried to get her to stop insisting that he'd pick the plants for her, but Arrietty made it very clear even without her speech that he's not to do so. Only she is to pick the plants. Instead she and Naruto made a compromise. She'd permit him to help, but only to find new spots to locate different cashes of the plants whenever her usual haunts ended up running out.
Naruto didn't like it, but he eventually grew to accept it along with the promise Arrietty urged him to make that he'd not tell anyone she was here. She wished to not be bothered by any other visitors. He quickly agreed for fear of losing his new friend should he not.
Naruto soon found other ways to make Arrietty's life more comfortable in her stay.
Naruto made it a regular routine to bring her plenty of food and other commodities she might need. Arrietty didn't put up any sort of fuss with this. Arrietty knew it made him feel better so she wouldn't call it charity. She still made she to limit these gifts to small necessities. Nothing even close to being extravagant.
Arrietty presumed Naruto was buying these supplies with part of the allowance he received each month for his own essentials. Arrietty couldn't have been more wrong, further from the truth.
Naruto was careful to keep this from her. He's stealing stuff from stores around the Village whenever he got the chance. After he paid off everything he needed to for himself every month there was barely anything left over. He wanted to make things easier for her so in his mindset he was doing what he had to.
Some Shinobi and shop owners did try to chase him, but they never caught him. For a kid he's too fast for them. This is something he always taunted them with.
This arrangement seemed to work very well for a good length of time.
Unfortunately when one gets drawn into an illusion of serenity and peace the reality can return with a big smack to the face.
One day, almost a year after Arrietty's family became cursed and the very first shirt was complete, that horrible habit Naruto has developed for her would seriously come back to bite them at a time when he gets sloppy.
Authors Note:
Merry Christmas!
Hope this is a good present for you guys! ;D
Also, which shinobi should be the ones to trail Naruto back to Arrietty's hollow tree? I'm a bit torn between them being certain well known shinobi in the show or just Anbu. I've been bouncing back and forth on this for weeks now, more or less since I posted the prologue, and I still can't get it right at this point in the story's developmental progress.