A/N: Hello, people! COVER ART BY: Niyuu_Trickster_Kat!

I don't own Naruto.

I have no beta.

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TAGS for this Chapter: SWEARING.

Sunikkaduru - Snickerdoodle. I just put the word into Google Translate and
saw how the Japanese would pronounce it.

-This was late because my sleeping schedule is out of wack. Sorry.

"Happy birthday."

Hyuga Hinata flushed the moment she was presented with a gift from Yuuki. The orphan looked a bit bashful as she stated, "I realized that most people celebrate their birthdays. As I'm an orphan, I never got to do that so I'm desensitized basically, but I wanted to get you something to prove that I value your friendship and that I'm sorry for missing the past few."

The Hyuga Heiress shook her head in mortification, feeling terribly now that she was reminded. "I never got you anything either, Yuuki-chan! It's fine. Thank you for your consideration!"

Yuuki gestured to the bag she'd set on Hinata's desk. "Go on then."

The bag was purple and had a long, dark purple ribbon tying the handles together. Everyone had come to associate the color with Hinata after the few years they'd known one another, because it was all she'd wear. Inside was a box filled with Yuuki's sunikkaduru. The name was difficult to say but she knew she loved them because of the cinnamon in them. Under the box was something rectangular, wrapped in a purple, silk handkerchief.

She gasped. Naruto! Well… a photo of Yuuki and Naruto together, but still! Naruto. In a photo. That Hinata could keep in her room. Her heart was pounding and she didn't know if she could breathe!

"I thought that'd be the kicker," said Yuuki with a smirk. "I hope you like the gift. I tried my best."

"Nnnnnn!" was all Hinata could get out.

She had a nice snack and a photo of her friends. She'd put it on her windowsill and it would be one of the first things she'd see every morning!

"This is going to be your last survival exercise before graduation," Iruka told them that morning when they got to school. "We're going to put everything we have into this to make it the most difficult exercise your class has ever participated in, so I hope you came prepared."

She could hear Shikamaru's groan before it even began, and almost cackled at his dismay. Seeing him emote was one of the funniest things she could do in her spare time. It was kind of weird how much fun staring at him was. And maybe a bit creepy. She vowed to dial back on it in the future just to be safe.

Yuuki never really had a problem with their survival exercises because she usually ended up with a job that required her to sit the whole time, which was totally fine for her! And she never had to do something she didn't know how to do! So in her experience, it was fine!

"You will be split into teams of three, like real Genin teams are. The objective is simple. Find this flag in the village. This is it," their teacher said, holding up what had to be a copy of the flag in question. It was black and white checkered and in the center was a blue dolphin with a headband on that was supposed to represent Iruka no doubt.

"When you say 'the village' did you mean like, the whole village?" Haruno Sakura asked, looking horrified. "As in, even out to the walls and the mountain?!"

"Of course!" Iruka agreed with a cheerful grin. "We wanted it to be as difficult as possible to let you know that we are taking you seriously and want to help you to the best of our ability!"

The class whined in response. Yuuki didn't like capture the flag all that much. The flag was usually deep underwater or high above their heads and it sucked having to get to them.

"Some notes for you all. There are many fakes planted all over. All of us have done our absolute best to evenly spread our scents around the village so the trackers won't have it easy. No buildings outside of public domain contain the flag as we don't want you to get into any legal trouble. The winning team will be exempt from participating in the next class-wide assessment and receive a free day where they don't have to come to school at all."

That was a nice surprise for the winning team. Yuuki could imagine all the designing she could get done for her board games in that time. She already had some basic sketches done and wanted to finish them so she could get working on crafting the prototypes. The more games they had by January, the more money would be coming in soon after the launch.

"You will have until four. Meet back here by then whether you have the flag or not."

They were then separated into teams. Yuuki found herself with Shino, who was at the top of the class just behind Sasuke, and Naruto who was somewhere just below the middle, making her the one directly in the middle. And she was only in the middle because she wanted to be.

A Tracker/Infiltrator Specialist, a future Iryo-nin, and a Trap Specialist/Chakra Nut on a team. It was a good mix of talents in her opinion.

Shikamaru ended up on a team with Haruno Sakura who he really didn't like, and Puppy. Sakura was pretty high in the class rankings, swapping on and off with Blondie and Hinata for first place a lot in terms of theoretical work. She had book smarts and Knowledge on her side. Shikamaru was a Strategist. And Puppy was the muscle capable of Tracking basically.

Choji was on a team with Sasuke and Fangirl #4 whose name was forgotten every time she learned it. So maybe she never really learned it.

Hinata got stuck with Fangirl #5 and Fanboy #1.

It was an unfair amount of separation.

The teams got together awkwardly and waited for further instructions.

"On my mark… GO!" Iruka yelled, and the students vanished on all sides, leaving Yuuki's team still in the yard.

Yuuki had looked to Naruto immediately for direction, but noticed that he hadn't moved an inch. In fact, he'd been very quiet the entire time Iruka had been talking. His eyes were narrowed on the flag in Iruka's hands instead of bragging about finishing the exercise before anyone else.

"Call me crazy all you want, but I think that's the real flag," he said with a nod of the head in Iruka's direction.

Both Shino and Yuuki's heads snapped around to look at the Chunin was staring at them with a very blank face all of a sudden. His open personality seemed to just drain away the moment the class was gone.

"He said 'this is it'. He didn't say it was a copy of it. He specified there were copies, but not that the one he was holding was one of them. Therefore, that has to be the flag we have to get."

Iruka smiled then, eyes glinting mischievously. "Well done. I am an enemy holding hostage the item you dearly need."

He was right?!

"But just because you figured it out doesn't mean it'll be easy to capture. I said this was the hardest exercise you'll have had in the Academy for a reason. You have to get me to give it to you."

Meaning they had to fight him for it. The Genin-to-be all shared a look. Iruka had only been a Chunin for five years and he seemed to have no interest in moving up in rank. He liked where he was at in life and felt he was at his most useful helping children grow and learn. With his attention on the students, he probably didn't get enough time to train himself every day, so the chances of him being that strong were low.

Yuuki pulled both boys a good distance away and used Shino's bulky coat to block Iruka's line of sight as she signed to her team. They couldn't risk speaking out loud because who knew how well he could hear?

[Naruto, it's time to reveal the Kage Bunshin. Shino, Naruto can make hundreds of physical clones of himself to serve as a diversionary or info-gathering unit. You and I will Henge into Naruto when he makes his clones, using the smoke to hide where we are. Your Kikaichu need to get on Iruka to drain him, so I suggest covering all of the nearest clones in them so they can get in close. So long as I land one good punch I can probably knock him on his ass for the rest of the day.]

The boys both nodded and they all turned to their teacher with determination.

"Are you ready?" the Chunin asked.

"Now, Naruto!"

The blond's hands came up in the familiar cross seal. "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Iruka's look of shock when at least a hundred orange-clad pre-teens appeared and Shino and Yuuki successfully disappeared from his view to blend in with them, was great! The element of surprise was the best thing ever!

They attacked in a hoard. There were Kikaichu flying every which way. Clones were tossed from side to side, but thanks to their training, they didn't pop quite so easily anymore and could take more damage. Naruto's chakra control had improved even if it would never be great. But when he had so much chakra anyway, did that really matter in the long run?

It was easy to tell that Iruka was overwhelmed not only by the number of attackers, but their skills. There were beetles crawling all over his face and arms, sucking out his chakra in hopes of weakening him. The best boy in Taijutsu engaged him in combat as he tried to keep the blobs of orange away so they couldn't dog-pile him.

Yuuki, in the form of Naruto, slinked her way forward with an attacking group, mimicking their movements almost perfectly and swinging a fist back. The chakra flew down her arm faster than ever before as she snapped it forward and into their sensei's gut.

"Oof!" the man grunted as he went flying back and into the wall of the Academy building. There was a small crack revealed in the stone when he fell to the ground.

"Okay! Okay!" the man said through a wince, cradling his middle and waving his other hand urgently. "You win. This was an unfortunate grouping on my part. Kage Bunshin of all things? How?"

He held up the flag and Yuuki took it from him and tossed it to Shino while she knelt beside the man, asking him the standard questions expected in the medical course. Could he breathe? Could he see how many fingers she was holding up? Was he seeing any colored dots and if so, what color? Was there a ringing in his ears? Could he register scent? That sort of stuff.

"I think you'll have to see the nurse. She might want you to go to the hospital though, sorry."

"No, it's fine. I knew the moment your team stayed that I might get hit by you personally but I wanted to test you fairly. My ribs are killing me though."

"Can you stand?"

"Yes."

"Good, otherwise I would've had Naruto Henge some clones into a stretcher and made them carry you."

"Where did you learn that jutsu, Naruto?" the man asked the blond, who was watching in concern but beamed when receiving attention from one of his favorite people.

"Yuuki! She described it to me and I was able to do it after some training! -ttebayo!"

Iruka's gaze turned to her in confusion and she shrugged. "I dreamed about it so I probably saw someone do it once. I don't remember that happening but I know I didn't come up with it."

"Well I'll be damned." He smiled at them. "Congratulations on your victory. I'm going to get my ribs checked. You can do what you like until four."

"Alright!" cheered Yuuki, wrapping her arms around both boys' shoulders. "Let's all go out for lunch that isn't ramen related!"

Naruto's little huff left her cackling with glee.

Naruto had suggested that their temporary team take their lunch up on the Hokage Monument. That way they could see the whole village and watch the rest of the Genin-to-be as they ran around like chickens with their heads cut off. And considering they had the best possible view, he knew it'd be good!

It had been a devious plan, but both had agreed to it easily, even if Shino was less enthusiastic over it.

While Naruto was often known to be bad at paying attention or picking up on social cues since he hadn't been taught about them, he wasn't stupid. He could tell that Shino really liked Yuuki. He could also tell that Shikamaru was starting to like her the same way even if he didn't realize it. Shikamaru wasn't very knowledgeable on romance or women.

As such, Naruto wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. They were all his friends and he didn't want anyone's feelings to get hurt or any friendships to be ruined. And he doubted Yuuki would be at fault if something did happen.

Still, what to do? Should he leave it alone? Should he ask Choji and Hinata for some advice? There was no way they hadn't noticed anything going on.

"Look at poor Shikamaru!" Yuuki laughed suddenly, pointing somewhere below where they were seated on the head of the Nidaime Hokage. "He looks like he's being harassed! Just that look of begrudging acceptance has made this day even better! I feel so bad for the poor guy!"

From where they were sitting, they couldn't hear anything going on, but it was easy to tell with the stance Sakura had taken, that she was yelling at Shikamaru over something. And Shikamaru was doing his best to ignore her while Kiba was stuffing his face with a piece of steak he was sharing with Akamaru. They had stopped for a lunch break it seemed.

All humor faded from Yuuki the moment Sakura hit Shikamaru over the back of the head. Immediately, both Shino and Naruto moved to hold her down, knowing full well that she was defensive of her friends and getting physical was a big no-no in her book. Naruto was practically laying across her thighs and Shino had wrapped his arms around her waist to keep her in one place.

"No! I'm gonna go fucking deck her, lemme up!"

"Shikamaru can fight his own battles, Yuuki," said Naruto, feeling like the mature one for once. "He doesn't need you to always save him from everything. He needs to stand up for himself."

And he was proven right when Shikamaru retaliated by copying the movement exactly, leaving Sakura looking shocked that he would dare lay a hand on her. It seemed that Shikamaru had finally grown out of his weird belief that men should never hit women ever.

No one knew where he'd come up with that but he'd always been hesitant in Taijutsu when up against girls because it 'wasn't classy for a guy to clobber a girl'. As if there was anything classy about the shinobi profession. However, they were shinobi-in-training and there would be many enemy kunoichi he'd have to fight so Iruka warned him to get over it soon.

He finally had.

Yuuki calmed down some and blew out a long breath of air. "No wonder he didn't invite her to his birthday party."

Naruto had to agree. He still found Sakura really pretty, because she really was, but she was just… mean. He didn't like mean people. He hoped she'd change some day. It would be sad if she never went anywhere in life because of her poor attitude.

Shino was very much aware of Yuuki's infatuation with the Nara Heir. However, she hadn't done anything about it. At all. She simply walked up to him, told him she fancied him, and then did nothing more. Even after a year she had done nothing else!

Yuuki did not act like most people did whenever they were interested in someone. Ino and Sakura constantly harassed Uchiha Sasuke for dates, like all the other fangirls and went to unmentionable levels to get his attention, though they'd had to stop in recent weeks for some reason. And Naruto had asked Sakura out at least once a month for years despite her refusals being abusive and rude, and just getting refusals in general should have made him stop. Hinata longed to ask Naruto out but didn't have the courage to as of yet, but she still followed him around a lot and looked at him when he wasn't paying attention.

The most subtle crushes in their class were Yuuki, Sasuke, and Shino. As in to an extent the rest of the class knew there was interest save for the person of interest themselves. But they never did anything to make it more obvious. Naruto was unaware that Sasuke was obsessed with him and maybe that was for the better at present. Yuuki had no clue to Shino's feelings. And while Shikamaru knew Yuuki liked him, he never once looked harassed or annoyed in her presence meaning she was either stealthy or just preferred to keep to herself.

As she sat with the Nara all the damn time, Shino only really got her attention at lunch and some days she'd be all over the yard, eavesdropping on various conversations because she liked to know everyone's business in case it was useful knowledge later on. And honestly, if they were going to talk about personal problems outside in the schoolyard where anyone could come upon them, they shouldn't be angry that she was info gathering.

He had a plan. February 14th was a big day for romance in their village. He wasn't sure about other villages, but in Konoha the couples and potential couples exchanged gifts and candy with the one they most admired. It had been changed in the past decade from two days, one for girls and one for boys a month apart, because no one liked the pressure of having to return a gift to someone who gave you something. It made people anxious and the anxiety had gotten to too many people.

So now people just did everything in February and no one was expected to accept anything or reciprocate anything if they did not want to. And these days friendly gifts were included because friendships were just as important relationships as romances, so friends also deserved to be appreciated. Basically, it was a nice way to show people that you cared about them to some extent.

Yuuki hadn't ever participated in the event before. She never bought anyone anything and no one bought her anything. Of course that could just be because she didn't want to spend money she didn't have, but he didn't really know and hadn't ever asked her about it as bringing up someone's financial situation could be considered rude no matter how open they were about it with others.

Shino was going to give her something on February 14th. He wasn't exactly sure what it would be or what he would even say. He wasn't on her level yet with the courage to just announce his feelings. As Shino was often used to being turned away as a child, he'd become a bit sensitive to rejection and often mistook everything as rejection immediately before his mind caught up with the actual answer he'd received.

How she could come out with her feelings with a straight face and not fear judgment, he'd never understand. He might also be slightly jealous over it too.

Yuuki liked food more than anything else. It didn't matter what kind of food just that it was food. His mind ran through possibilities between sweet and savory options and wondered which would be easier to transport to school and which would last longer and leave a better impression.

Having a crush was so difficult! He didn't know how these things worked and he didn't want to talk to his parents about it because whenever he brought up Yuuki, even if just casually mentioning his friends, they'd get all giggly about it and it was embarrassing and very not Aburame-like!

Maybe watermelon? Yuuki liked fruits and often complained about produce being so expensive but still being a necessity.

Maybe Naruto could help since he lived in the same building as her?

Yuuki groaned a placed her head on the desk, gaining his attention immediately.

"What's wrong?" he asked, sitting up a bit since she rarely did things like this without reason.

"It's nothing important, it's just that time."

"Huh?"

"You know, the time of the month!"

"Oh." Her menstrual cycle. While it was still a bit awkward to think about, he had to ask, "Is something wrong? Like out of the ordinary kind of wrong?"

She shook her head and he felt a little bit better then. "Nah, I've gained several kilograms, I'm bloated, the PCOS makes me bleed more than normal, the pain is ridiculous, and my hormones which are wackier than normal because of the PCOS, make me irritable. So I've avoided talking to people all day to avoid lashing out at them. That's why I get more quiet at a certain time every month."

That made perfect sense. And to think he hadn't realized it ever. Yuuki had revealed boldly that she'd been menstruating for years already yet he never picked up on it. He'd well and truly believed she was a boy.

Wow. He needed to work on his powers of observation or something.

"Do you need me to get you anything?" he offered, unsure of what to do.

She smiled, almost beaming but not quite with the pinched look on her face still present. "If you could acquire some meds to stop the pain and cramping from the nurse, that'd be much appreciated."

As Shikamaru moved to get up, he saw Choji hand over a small bag of chocolates. "My mom says chocolate helps her out when she's sick."

Yuuki giggled, which he was certain he'd never heard he do before in the few years he'd known her, and said, "Cocoa can help an upset stomach. This isn't that kind of upset, but thanks anyway. I love chocolate and having something I like does make it a little better."

Somehow, Shikamaru willingly walked all the way to the nurse to get medication, received a pat on the cheek for 'being such a helpful young man' and came back with a pill and a glass of water.

Befriending Yuuki changed even little things. Years ago he would never have bothered to do this for someone and would have complained about it while doing it. But now... he'd volunteered. That was a big deal.

He wondered what else had changed in the past few years.

A/N: Another chapter is done!

How was it? Let me know.

Ja ne! :D