Well, here's the next update. It was faster then the one before, so... Yeah. You can insert a smiley here. Haha.

Warning: There will be manga spoilers from now on. If you don't want it to be spoiled, please hit the back button.

Enjoy!

United We Shatter

Chapter Two - Differences Between Now and Then

Sometimes he wondered how it would be to be normal. Not normal as in average, but normal as in not having a demon sealed inside of you. Before he had come, Naruto hadn't known what it was like to not be stared after with looks of hatred, to be insulted without knowing why, to be humiliated in front of everyone. It had all disappeared when he took him in. And now, now he was back at the place where he was born.

''Class, this is Naruto. He is our new student and I expect you to be nice to him.'' Iruka pointed at an empty seat beside a girl with blue-ish black hair and white eyes. ''You can sit there, Naruto.''

While walking towards his seat, he noted that a girl with pink hair was staring intensely at him with large green eyes, but when she noticed he'd caught her staring, she quickly averted her gaze to someone else.

Naruto shrugged and sat down. The girl next to him blushed and shyly looked his way. The blond academy student grinned at her and then whispered: ''What's your name?''

''Hinata,'' she whispered back and then she smiled at him. ''It's nice to meet you, Naruto-san.''

''Just call me Naruto. Naruto-san makes me feel óld,'' and to add some effect he made some fictional wrinkles in his face with his hands, which made Hinata giggle.

At the front of the classroom, Iruka gained everyone's attention by knocking on the blackboard and then the lesson started.

Two hours later, they had a break and Naruto and Hinata sat together under a tree outside. For October, it was still lovely weather. While they ate lunch, Naruto told the girl all about his 'sister' and 'father'. His enthusiasm seemed to inspire her and soon after that she told the blond something about herself, what she liked; her favourite flower; her favourite kind of food.

Too soon, the break was over and they went back inside, where Iruka taught them the differences between ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu.

''Well, I'll see you tomorrow, ne, Hinata-chan?'' The girl shyly nodded and watched Naruto's retreating back. When she could no longer see him, she turned around and walked home herself. She felt really happy that she'd finally found a friend. Maybe Father would like him, too. With those words in mind, she smiled and walked inside the mansion.
''And? How was your first day?'' was the first thing Kasumi asked when Naruto came in.

''It was great!'' he said. ''I made friends too!''

She smiled and ruffled him through his hair. ''Good job, kiddo. Did you get any homework?''

Naruto frowned. ''Um… I don't really remember.''

She laughed when she saw his expression. ''Don't worry about it, I forgot my homework all the time too. Just don't make a habit of it.'' Kasumi winked.

''So, um, where's dad?'' Naruto looked questionably to her.

''Currently he's in Cloud, to check out how Yugito-neechan is doing. Don't worry about it, he'll be back soon.'' Naruto nodded.

''Do you want to train with me?'' he then asked.

''Alright, just this once.'' She followed him outside to the training grounds. On the way, Naruto enthusiastically told her all about jutsu and what he liked about them. When she asked him if he had a favourite one, he blushed and mumbled they hadn't gotten to that part yet.

A few minutes later they arrived at the training grounds, but there were already a couple of jounin training. ''Sorry Naruto, but I don't think we'll be able to train today.'' Naruto pouted and then huffed. He wanted to train too! It wasn't fair! ''You know what,'' Kasumi then said, ''we'll train tomorrow, and I'll teach you a new move. Is that alright with you?''

Naruto was about to respond when two of the jounin noticed them. They raised a hand and smiled. Naruto could barely keep his mouth from falling open. Exactly why were they smiling? He thought everyone hated him.

When he'd been gone, he'd forgotten for a little while about the nasty looks he used to get, and when he got back he had to get used to it again. Kasumi had once said you should never get used to glares and hateful words. But what if it was the only thing you knew?

Until Father had come, Naruto hadn't known what it was like to be cared about. The only thing that came close were the irregular visits of the Third, but even those… Even those had often been awkward.

Naruto was glad he was back, of course, he'd missed his house, his bed, his daily cup of ramen. But he knew, somehow, that it would never be the same again. Kasumi was there. Father was there. He was no longer alone. The villagers had continued to hate him, though, as if he hadn't been gone at all – Naruto suspected they'd practised on someone else, just out of daily habit.

So it was no surprise Naruto was flabbergasted by the sight of two people he didn't know smiling at him. To be honest, he couldn't believe his eyes and blinked a couple of times to be sure they weren't cheating on him.

And as Naruto still tried to figure out why, the two Jounin walked up to them, Something even Kasumi hadn't expected. ''Ah, we're just about to leave,'' she said, turning slightly red.

''It's no big deal, really,'' the tallest guy said, ''you two can train here.''

''You really don't have to…'' she blushed.

''Are you kidding, neechan? Come on!'' Naruto tugged on hand, his eyes wide with excitement. Willingly she let Naruto pull her with him. Just before the two jounin turned around, Naruto flashed them a grin and yelled ''Thanks!'' They nodded, and disappeared into the trees.

Kasumi's mind was still with one of those jounin, she thought he was kind of cute. Unfortunately, she didn't even know his name. She didn't really know a lot of people here, which was kind of sad. She liked having people around her.

''Neechan?'' Kasumi looked up. ''Are you still gonna teach me that move?'' Naruto grinned.

Later that afternoon, Naruto and Kasumi just came home from training, and they found their Father in the living room, unable to move a limb.

So, there we are, at the end of the chapter. I've finally gotten a hold of the plot (it came to me!), and some of the pairings (you can expect some OCxSomeone).
Thank you for reading. ...there's this tiny blue button at your left. Please click?