Chapter 9: All the Things She Said
Dear diary,
Kushina-chan got detention with Minato-kun again and I don't get how she can be so lucky. She doesn't even like him back, so why can't he like me? I'm not like the others, laughing at him at his dream of being Hokage or beating him up!
I think I'm more upset that tousan and kaasan said I would be betrothed soon, to a proper Uchiha man. What's wrong with Minato-kun? One day he'll realize that she's just crazy in general. Lots of fun, yeah, but she's not here for anything good. She even said she's here for the treaty, for Mito-sama and not because she wants to be here. She even rubbed it into his face that she still talks to other Uzumaki's and that she doesn't want a pretty boy like him.
Flipping the diary shut, Sasuke looked in the direction of his own Uzumaki neighbor's apartment and wondered if they were related at all. There were too many similarities he had to admit, too many coincidences. Scrunching his face up and remembering his mother's insistence on her coming over, he wondered if Naruto knew.
The chills among her arms had her nervously adding a bounce into the blonde's step. Sliding the door open, she grinned at the fond memory of today finally repeating itself. Just like before the class was full of rowdy, roughhousing and verbally vicious genin wannabes. Marching up the steps and sitting in her usual seat beside Sasuke who had arrived much earlier than her, it took a second take for him to see her properly.
Ninja and all, she grinned and pointed a thumb up at her forehead protector. The suspicious gleam didn't erase from his eyes - but Shikamaru walking up the stairs disrupted whatever he was going to say to her.
"Naruto, today is for those that graduated.. what are you doing here?"
Flipping up her bangs and leaning forward over her desk to show it off in the morning sunlight, her excited laughter left him shaking his head and continuing up the stairs. Feeling like something was missing, the sound of a herd running up the hall filled the room with everyone swinging their heads over and whispering, the door slamming open with Sakura and Ino fighting over who got there first.
Cringing at an image long forgotten of who she lost her first kiss to, the two teens racing up the stairs left Naruto leaping over them. 'I won't listen to them argue about him again!'
Ino pausing at the sight of who it was left Sakura taking the middle seat of the bench, her speechless before Shikamaru at the desk behind Sasuke's answered her unasked question. "She passed, somehow.." he trailed off with a bored yawn.
Leaning into her face, Ino observed the headband up close. Ignoring Sakura's teasings on being the winner, it caught the attention of others that had never picked up on the Yamanaka's odd relationship with the dead last - including Sasuke.
"I'm glad, Naruto."
Nodding respectfully, their grins couldn't be contained at each other. Since the incident with the rose, they had never really spoken to one another. But Naruto knew she wouldn't be so good with flower arranging, the odd makeup classes, and the first aid classes if not for her note cards and cheat sheets. It was Ino who showed her to be more subtle, to push her to go further where she could, not that she'd ever tell her outright.
"Shoulda known me by now, with how much you've helped me," Naruto said. Watching the fellow blonde mouth words she was too excited to say with people watching at the acknowledgment finally, she held out her hand instead. Taking it and pulling her in for a hug instead, they ignored the questions from Sakura and the curious stares from Shikamaru and Sasuke.
Hearing Iruka enter the classroom and begin to hush everyone, the Yamanaka practically pushed her into the seat next to Sakura to be harassed with the questions and took her place between her soon-to-be teammates. Making a show to shush people, especially the Haruno with her mouth still moving, Naruto held onto every word this time of her big brother's speech. Scrunching her face up at trying to remember who was teamed up with who, she was gripping the edge of the table when Iruka paused before announcing Team 7.
He was prepared to argue with them, to explain why them three.
But she had no qualms this time.
"And Team 7.. is Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno -"
"No!" Tugging at her own hair as she slammed her head into the desk, the Uzumaki couldn't hold back the snicker at the pinky's stress.
"And Sasuke Uchiha."
His hands falling from what she called his classic brooding pose and hitting the desk felt louder than it sounded, his eyes widening as Sakura began whining on why Naruto had to be on their team. The answer of the dead last evening out the two best and creating a balanced team connected too many dots that the Uzumaki began to regret when his head swiveled to her with a glare not used against her in this timeline.
Ignoring it to ensure that Team 8 and 10 turned out the same, when they were released for lunch, she was relieved but scared. Not planning on sticking around this time to cause trouble, she found herself squashed between the water fountain and him just as lunch was about to end anyways. There were questions she wasn't sure she wanted to answer truthfully, either because she was sloppy or because she wasn't as upfront as she should've been, she wished Itachi was there to throw him off.
"Dobe, did you know this entire time that if you were the dead last, we could be on the same team?"
"Uhhh, kind of? I did fail two exams before and kinda was friends with kids in the other classes and knew who they got teamed with and kinda why." He accepted that answer, the shouts of trying hard heard from the other classroom she was in last year were from that ones Dead Last, who he learned was named Lee through the walls of their apartment.
"Your mother, what was her name?"
Eyes widened and jaw dropped at the daring question, confusing anger spiked and she pushed him far away. "You know I don't know, don't use your pissed off mood to remind me that I will never get to know who should've been making me dinners and checking my homework! So what if I wanted to be close to my - to my brother!"
It was a lie, she knew who her mother was. But she didn't know why he wanted to know at all, especially all of a sudden. Seeing Sasuke open his mouth with an angrier expression, they both froze in place at the sound of footsteps of jonin that were eager to pick up their teams. Recognizing Kurenai, Naruto quickly spun and finished the short walk to the classroom. Knowing Team 7 was going to be waiting hours was going to be awkward, but at least she had an hour before the room would be left empty and she'd be alone with her curious teammates.
Not bothering to prank Kakashi at this moment, she daydreamed about how she could throw him off guard tomorrow during the test. With her lucky streak, the daydream was even completed by perfecting her technique to practically fly over his head as he finally dropped his mask to gasp at her. Ridiculous, oh most definitely, but she could damn well dream.
Finally hearing the familiar creaking wood of someone loudly - and her imagination filled the blanks of it being lazily - of their teacher coming, all three sets of eyes flicked to watch the door, Sakura stopping her marching of frustration to gape wide with hope and surprise at the sight of someone finally arriving.
It was a welcome one for Naruto's sore eyes, the smile unable to be contained at what never changed. "Hm.. you're a boring bunch, huh?"
Eye lazily observing them, he waited a long moment before he sighed and told them to meet him up on the roof, then disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Following the other two up to the roof quietly, she sat in her original spot and laid across the wide steps. The air was probably awkward, it definitely was on the way up without her filling the silence with noise, but now three students stared up at their teacher expectantly as he waited for them to say something.
"Aa, now I believe we should be getting to know each other," he finally decided to start with a rub of his masked chin.
"How do we do that, sensei?" Sakura perkily asked, same as last time. Still keeping quiet as she felt the broodiness of Sasuke in powerful waves, Naruto would rather not draw any attention from him.
"Oh you know, your name, your likes, dislikes.. hobbies and whatever dreams you may have."
"Why don't you show us how it's done, you go first!" Sakura said and Naruto tried to contain the eye roll at what was coming.
"Well, alright. My name is Kakashi Hatake.. I like things, dislike other things. My hobbies and dreams? Maa..." trailing off as he pretended to lose himself in thought, the blonde filled in everything he wasn't saying.
'You like eggplants and us, dislike traitors and liars. You like reading and visiting the memorial stone, and the only dream you really had.. is to stop people you know from dying, probably.' Snorting in her head, she was trying so hard to stop the smile from growing on her face.
Missing him telling Sakura to go next, she definitely couldn't contain the eye roll this time.
"My name is Sakura Haruno! I like.." eyes shifting toward Sasuke, she blushed. "My hobbies and dreams are -" somehow blushing even redder, she must have lost track with her thoughts because Kakashi spoke once more.
"And your dislikes?"
"Ino-pig and Naruto!"
"Ah.. well, broody's up next."
All turning to look at Sasuke, he had his hands folded before his face in his signature pose. Eyeing Kakashi before staring at Naruto, he seemed to have to think for a moment. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I like my brother Itachi and training. I dislike murderers and liars. My hobbies are reading and training. My dream.. no, my ambition, is to get revenge. To kill the man who massacred the Uchiha clan."
Squinting her eyes at him, she felt as though he was referring to her with the liar comment - over what, she didn't know, though she couldn't help but see the irony. After all, it was Itachi who murdered the family and lied about it to him. Ignoring it while she turned back to the team leader, he nodded at her last. "And now, little miss blondie."
Sticking her tongue out at him, she threw her arms behind her head. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, not little blondie and don't you dare forget it you old fart! I like ramen, making my precious people happy and hanging out with my precious people like Itachi!" Feeling the glare on her back from Sasuke, she couldn't fight the big grin at annoying him, even if he was already pissed about something. "And, I think I like roses? I don't know, they're just.. pretty. Like a sign, ya know?" She couldn't stop the slight rambling that trailed off as her own thoughts began to wander, roses having never meant anything to her other self, but now? The name alone reminded her of the first flower she had ever received. Shaking her own head wildly to get back on track while everyone looked on with some form of surprise, she grinned again. "But I really dislike the 3 minutes it takes to make instant ramen, traitors, and.. people who don't know what they did wrong until it's too late."
Seeing an odd glint in Kakashi's lone eye, it was only years of knowing him from the old Naruto that told her that it struck a chord in him. "My hobbies are training and pranking! And my dream is -" cutting herself off before she realized it, her grin fell as she felt lost. Blossoming in her chest despite being beaten down repeatedly, her hands lowered from her head as her jaw slightly hung open. Eyes losing focus, everyone turned their eyes back towards her, wondering why she wasn't repeating her dream like every other time - even when someone didn't ask.
The old Naruto was Hokage and the defeat in her chest was too much. Itachi was right, sitting behind a desk was the worse kind of job for someone like her, who needed to be out fighting instead of stuck in the past - becoming outdated when the world still needed them. Being on autopilot when she'd shout that she wanted to be Hokage, it wasn't her real dream anymore and hadn't been for a while.
How do you tell people that you want to save their lives from what's coming? Those can't be dreams because it's coming no matter what and failing wasn't an option, especially knowing she survived against it all before.
But what was missing before, was a family of her own to make becoming Hokage worth it. Sure she had the Uchiha brothers now, but they were their own family first, especially in the eyes of Sasuke still. A family of her own though..
"I - I want a family." Eyes rising to her teacher, she felt her face become determined even though she said the words shyly and quietly.
She will find someone who was - is alone. She will love them with all her heart and then their children. Even if she became the Hokage once more, she would fix at least that from the old life.
Even Sakura was silent, jaw dropping at the sudden change.
Tuning out the short speech of what the test will have tomorrow, it took the Uzumaki a moment to pretend to be surprised like Sakura over not eating. To nod determinedly at when to meet and where, to make huffs and puffs that made her sound over-confident and that it would be easy, she dodged the future medic-nin's fist after laughing at Sasuke's rejection and in an attempt to dodge her questions about Ino, accidentally started a race with Sasuke on who could get home first.
Bursting through the door together just like his two fangirls did this morning and shoving at each other to decide who should tell Itachi first about how team assignments went, she tried to hide just how funny it was to see Sasuke arguing and pointedly trying to hog his brother's attention, but she called a truce when they began to complain about Kakashi's lateness together.
Another night of enjoying the Uchiha's company, of sitting next to two formerly homicidal missing-nin.
