"Oh, you're awake" said the nurse changing the IV "good morning"
He nodded tiredly..how long had he been asleep? It felt like a decade
"How are you feeling?"
'Crappy' "better" he said in the deep morning-voice
"You had a visitor this morning" she said conversationally
What?! Did the Hokage's tongue slip in front of Guy?! He closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed "who?"
"Lord Hokage" she said coyly
He sat up with a perplexed expression..that was worrisome, the Hokage wouldn't visit for nothing..was there something wrong?...Hiromi!
"What did he want?!" He asked urgently
"Gee, I don't know...he said he was looking for some little girl that he thought was here"
His eyes opened widely..of course he would look for her himself..he wouldn't risk sending anyone for fear of spooking her
He removed his blanket and looked at the nurse who looked surprised "what a-"
"Please remove this..I have to go"
She wasn't sure that refusing was the right thing to do..she hesitated for a while then nodded
"What's going on? Something is the matter?" She said hurriedly, doing as he asked
"Nothing you have to worry about" he said getting up and picking his vest and headband before jumping out the window
The nurse gasped in surprise before making a poker face 'typical'
"Hey... up" the boy said worriedly
Hiromi was mumbling in her sleep and her cheeks were flushed..also, she wouldn't wake up
He was freaking out...was she dying?
" ..wake up" he shook her gently
"What do I do?" He said, hands holding his head...it's not like he had anyone to go back to
He couldn't leave her in order to go get help..so he decided to carry her to the village
Before he could do anything..she started acting..weird..well, weirder
Her face was scrunching for a couple of seconds before relaxing into a worried expression, then hurt..etc
He was about to ignore it before noticing the lake...the water was as if it was..not boiling, something like it was being pulled upwards..some drops even elevated in midair
And not just the lake..even the puddles of water nearby..
"What the.." he said slowly in astonishment
Tree leaves and branches bowed up..it was but for a second before everything went back to normal..
He heard a sound and looked down to find her awake
"Y..you're awake!"
She looked at him "you're still here" She said lowly in surprise
"I..couldn't leave you alone, y'know..t..there are some creepy people around" he said nervously with a grin, his hand on the back of his head
"Thank you" she said in a low tone then added after some time "y..you should leave" she said in an urgent tone
"And why is that?" He said, sitting down stubbornly
She did a double take..surprised...why didn't he leave?
"It's...I'm not..safe" she said guiltily, looking down as her eyes started to flood
"And why is that?" He said in the same fashion
"J..just leave!" She exclaimed
"Nope..I'm staying...besides, I always come here, so you can't order me to leave" he said laying down with his hands under his head
"Fine...then I'm leaving" she said getting up and stomping her foot
"Woah!" He got up after her "where are you going?" He said following her
"It doesn't concern you" she said stubbornly, crossing her arms and pouting
"Fine...you asked for it" he said crossing his arms too
She kept walking and he was hot on her tail...she looked at him sideways and noticed that he was following her..her pout changed into a surprised expression before it changed back into a stubborn one as she sped up a little
Noticing him doing the same she sped up more then more until they were both jogging
"What do you want with me?" She asked
"I don't know" he said with a grin
She furrowed her eyebrows...this kid was weird, she sped up more so she was running but he could easily keep up..she wasn't surprised, he was bigger and older than she was..
But she was flexible..she took some hard routes and ran between trees..he had a bit of trouble but could keep up nonetheless
"Hey are you okay now?" He yelled
"What do you mean?" She yelled back
"You were doing some weird faces when you were asleep..your cheeks were really red and you were mumbling some stuff"
Well..now that she thought hard about it..she remembered having a bizarre dream..more like a nightmare..some colors and memories..all in all, it wasn't pleasant
"And what was up with the lake?..I've been there a lot..it'd never done anything like this"
"What?" She called
"The lake..well, the water did some freaky stuff just before you woke up..you missed it by less than a second..believe it!"
She didn't remember doing anything...this was bad "you really should leave" she said, almost pleadingly
"Na-uh" he shook his head
"Darn it!" This was the closest she got to cursing..she was changing..beginning to become a bad person..she looked down as she remembered..a worse person
"Cheer up will ya!" He yelled
He got her attention, tears in her eyes, she lifted her head to look at him
He got nervous seeing her tears "I..I mean you shouldn't cry.." he got a bit more confidence "no matter what happens...be strong, believe it!"
Hearing what he said, she thought...she knew that he had experienced a good deal of pain from what he told her the night before about how peoples' eyes despised him..and him talking about strength.. "don't you ever cry?" She asked in a whisper..hesitant about weather she wanted him to hear her or not
"No..never" he said in his enthused manner of speech "I get sad sometimes..but I never cry..because..because.." he thought about his wording before continuing "because when you cry..it means that you are okay with losing"
Crying meant accepting defeat..that was something she would think about for a long time to come..
She stopped running..then so did he, looking at her with a surprised expression before it was replaced with a smug one "hehe..I wo-oah" he exclaimed as she collapsed, unconscious
He caught her before she hit the ground "damn it!" He said worriedly before gently placing her with her back to a tree "what is wrong with you?" He said sadly, sitting beside her, hands around his knees as he rested his chin on them
..a couple of minutes later..
She slowly blinked to see a pair of worried eyes staring back at her "you're awake" he said with a warm smile
She unconsciously smiled back "sorry" she looked down
"For?" He asked, hands behind his head
"Worrying you"
"Don't be silly" he waved her off "why did you faint anyway?" He looked down "'m sorry if it's because I made you run"
She smiled a closed-eye smile "no, you don't have to worry about it..it's nothing, happens all the time"
It was supposed to reassure him..or at least she thought so "you pass out all the time?!" He said in worry/astonishment
"Well, not really..it's different stuff"
"What do you mean? Did you see a doctor?"
She felt a stab in her heart...why did the subject have to come to that? Her eyes flooded again and her lips wobbled...she bit them in an attempt to hold tears in
His expression immediately changed to that of worry..he really panicked when seeing her tears
"I..I didn't mean t..to make you cry"
Crying means accepting defeat? Well what had she to fight for? She was already defeated...she'd already hurt enough people and she wasn't about to fight to hurt even more
She leaned forward..needing some warmth..something to hang on to, she found nothing but the boys chest..on which she leaned, silent tears soaking his clothes..
He didn't know what to do...by instinct, he hesitantly wrapped his arms around her..the gesture was completely foreign to him
She didn't move, she just stayed still, wishing that nothing happens past that...that she didn't have to worry about anything anymore
In a couple of minutes, she broke the silence "thank you" she said in the lowest tone possible
His response was to hold her tighter, resting his chin atop her head as she closed her eyes
He'd never felt this warm before..all his life until that point was being attacked by others, if it was by words or other means..but she, she was the first person to ever get close to him, the first one to give him warmth the way he was giving her
..
"Why didn't you run away? You saw what I did back there" she said after some time
"What? You mean you did that!" He said in amazement holding her by the shoulders to look at her "awesome" he said slowly
She was surprised, she blushed upon the look he was giving her and how close his face was
She sat up and put some loose hair strands behind her ear "how can you say that?"
"Because that's what I think" he shrugged and took his usual stance, hands behind his head
"But what...what i..if it hurts people?" She said somberly
"What is it?" He put both hands on the ground, looking it her with interest
She scratched her head "I don't know what it's called..charka or something"
He giggled "ch..chakra"
She blushed and looked away "yeah, that"
"What about it?"
"It's..different, It's dangerous" she looked down
"Chakra isn't dangerous!" He said
"How is that?"
He took a deep breath then sighed, thinking about his words carefully "well you see, chakra itself is just a power..y'know like weapons...some people use it for bad and that's when it's dangerous..but some people use it for good and protect people they care about..." he said then added enthusiastically "that's why I'm gonna become a Hokage and protect you and the village..Believe it!" he said with a toothy grin
She looked at him with sparkling eyes, believing every word he said...she nodded quickly with a smile of her own
Roar..and a blush
He laughed "I'll catch us some fish, I'm pretty good at that" he said, his grin never leaving his face
She blushed more and nodded before getting up after him
They walked a few meters until they reached a stream, he easily climbed a tree and got a branch
She watched carefully as he made a makeshift fishing rod "how do you know how to do this?" She asked
"I live by myself so I have to learn a couple of things" he said with a shrug, not taking his eyes off of his task
After he was done, he threw the bait into the water and they sat nearby, waiting for a fish
They looked at each other for a second before he spoke "sooo...what do you like to do in your free time?"
She swallowed and looked down before looking up again with glowing eyes "Draw...read, I read a lot"
"Nerd" he said with a pout "no wonder you talk like grown-ups"
She pouted back "and how is that a bad thing?"
"It's not...I just don't like reading that's all" he said, laying back and looking at the sky
"Why?" She asked, doing the same
"It's boring, I like to do fun stuff...like throwing a shuriken..or playing hide and seek.." his tone got lower "I don't play that a lot though"
"What are those?" She asked with interest clear in her voice
"You don't know what a shuriken is?!" He looked at her with surprise
She looked back and shrugged
"It's a ninja tool, looks like a star"
She looked more clueless than before
"I thought you read a lot!" He whined
"I don't read about shu-whatever!" she defended
"Anyway, I can't have one until I graduate the academy..I'll show you one then"
"Academy?"
"Yes, that's where we learn to become ninja"
A clueless face again
He grabbed his hair into fistful out of frustration "aaah, you really don't know what a ninja is? Shinobi?"
"I've heard the last word before.." she was thinking
He sighed "I'll show you what a shinobi is when I become one" he said optimistically
She nodded with a closed-eye smile
"And hide and seek is..y'know what? Let's play!" He beamed and got up "get up" he offered his hand which she took and he helped her up
She looked at him for further instructions
"Now, I'll close my eyes and count and you go hide..then I'll look for you..okay?"
She nodded "'kay"
He did as he said while she sneaked past him..
She looked for a spot to hide..a spot behind a boulder seemed as good as any so she hid there
She sat down with her back against the boulder and waited..
She felt a tiny tickle on her left arm and when she looked at where she felt it, she found a ladybug
"Hey there!" She said gently in a whisper..she carefully put her finger in front of it and the insect crawled on it
"Woah! Pretty" she heard the boy's voice say in a slow, amazed whisper
She jumped in surprise causing the ladybug to fly away
She turned to find him laying on his stomach atop the boulder, his chin resting on his hands
"You scared me!" She whined
"Found ya" he said then jumped down "your turn" he added with his usual toothy grin, hands behind his head
She did the same as he did before, and turned her face towards the boulder, closed her eyes and started counting
She didn't know when to stop, but judging by the time it took him to find her..she decided to count to thirty..
When she finished, she started looking around..
She walked around for some time before noticing the same colors he was wearing, standing behind a tree, giving her his back
She wanted to scare him the way he scared her..so she grabbed him by the shoulder and quickly turned him around
The first thing she noticed was that he was abnormally light..
All color drained from her face as she unconsciously shrieked..he was a boneless, white-eyed, doll-like..thing
A laugh, then something attacked her tickling
She didn't know how he did it, but he was okay and was now engaging her in a tickle fight..
"S..s..stooop" she said laughing and trying to get him off
He was laughing his heart out too..
He finally stopped after she started shedding tears and laid on his back laughing
It was a while before they finished laughing..
She sat up and tried to regulate her breathing and he did the same
"F..found..y..you" she said, breathing heavily
After they both calmed down..they got up and he started counting
She hid on a tree with lots of branches, so many that she could hardly fit there..but she could take anything in order to get revenge..
He looked for sometime before reaching the spot under the tree where she was hiding..
She waited for him to give her his back then jumped atop him, she hung to his back piggyback style and started ruffling his hair so it became more of a mess than is already was
"Monsterrrr!" She growled doing so..
"Aaaaah" he tried to get her off...and like before, they ended up laughing on the ground
She opened her eyes and noticed something "a fish!" She said, noticing a movement in fishing rod
They got up and hurried to where the rod was, he took it and pulled..the thread came out of the water with a fish biting on it..
"Yaay!" She exclaimed jumping and clapping...soon, her enthusiasm dulled and she looked at him with furrowed eyebrows "we...are going to eat..it?"
"Um..yeah?" He said with an innocent look
"But then it'll die, won't it?" She asked
"I guess" obviously
"We can't do that!" She said sadly
He thought about it for a while "but that's what fish are for, right?"
"I don't know, what if it was bringing food back home and now it's the food..." she said sadly then smiled "I think we should give it food and let it go" she nodded, proud with her idea "what does it eat?"
"Worms"
"Ughhh" she sat down with a frustrated sigh "then the worm will die too" she laid back
He thought for a second "well then let's just leave it...I'm sure it'll find food on it's own"
"Okay!" she sat up with a goofy smile
He put the fish back in the water and they watched it swim away
Hiromi gave a little goodbye-wave before turning towards him
"Now we have to find something else to eat" he said tiredly but then his face lit up as he said "Ichiraku!"
She gave him a clueless expression causing a sweat-drop to appear on his head, together with a look of disappointment as he lowered his head..she furrowed her eyebrows, did she blaspheme or something?
"I can't believe you" he said from where he was sulking in the corner
She tilted her head "I've only been here for about a month..if that changes anything" she said unsurely
"Well then it's my duty to introduce you to the greatest place in the whole world!" he said, hands on his hips as an imaginary cape flapped in the wind
"But...I can't go back to the village" she said, holding one of her hands with the other, looking at the ground
He sulked back in the corner of sadness..
"Sorry" she placed a hand on her head and forced a laugh "you can still tell me about it"
"If you say so" he said, sitting next to her "where can I even start" he said in a mixture of fake-frustration and excitement "the place is kinda small...you have to wait for a couple of minutes after you order, which...I don't like, then you get your ramen..my favorite is miso ramen, when I have extra money...old man Teuchi puts me some barbecue porc slices and they're awesome...I eat quickly so the noodles don't have the time to become soggy..and then I drink the soup..I always end up eating more than two bowls and finish my money before the end of the month" he said the last with a laugh, a hand behind his head
"Oh man, now I'm even hungrier" he laid back, when he didn't get a comment from Hiromi, he looked at her to she that she was fighting tears..not again!
He yet again, panicked..what was up with her and tears?!
"'M okay" she said with the world's most fake smile "it's...I'm pretty sure I've been there before"
" you didn't like it...is that why you're crying?" he said quickly
She chuckled, reliving him a bit "n..no...I loved it, and I'm not crying" she wiped her eyes, even though she didn't shed any tears
He was curious for the reason she cried, the reason she didn't want to get back to the village and the reason why she faints "w..what is it?" He said hesitantly..he was partly eager to help too
She dropped the act "what is what?" And tried to act ignorant
"What is wrong?"
She didn't speak for a while and he thought she wouldn't but.."everything" she said in a choked-up voice and a shrug
He felt a tug of sadness, furrowed his eyebrows in sympathy and listened..
"I've...I've made someone..someone I love..go away...the only person that loved me, I hurt him beyond repair" she said in a more choked voice
He was silent for a while then said "Man you really can talk like grown ups" he said with a sad chuckle before going silent "I don't think I know how you feel" he added after sometime
She turned to look at him
He shrugged "I don't have anyone..so I don't know what it's like to lose them" he said matter-of-factly
She watched him as he spoke..seeing the deep sadness and pain behind his seemingly nonchalant words...to any eye that saw that goofy cheerful kid, it was impossible to predict such deeply rooted feelings
Just like whoever saw her before, could never imagine her hellish history...they both bore feelings they shouldn't
"But there's one thing I do know" he said in a different tone "you can never run" it was as if he wasn't speaking to her alone "the more you run, the harder it becomes to accept what's real"
It was clear that this wasn't the first time he said those words, or maybe thought about them
"But when you stop and face what's real...you learn to live with it..in time, it becomes...less painful...maybe you can even find an answer"
She remained quiet, thinking of his words carefully "you too can talk like grown ups y'know"
He grinned with a chuckle, one hand on the back of his head shyly "y'think!" And just like that, he went back to being the goofy idiot
She chuckled distractedly..thinking about his words more..
..
They sat there for some minutes before he broke the silence "we still haven't had breakfast y'know"
"Hm?" She snapped out of her thoughts
"I said we're still hungry" his stomach voiced it's agreement
She chuckled "yeah" she hadn't had food since the day before
"Well, let's look at our options...we can't fish..we can't go back to the village.."
She looked at him "I didn't say we couldn't..I said I can't"
"Yeah, yeah..nice try, I'm not leaving you, now am I?" He said in a bored tone
She smiled and they went quiet before she spoke "why?"
"Hm?" He turned to look at her
"Why didn't you leave..you've gotta have something to do?"
"Yeah, I have...I'm watching over you" he said with his usual grin
"No, really..why?" Did he always stick around strangers? Not that she minded him..she was just curious
He sobered and looked down...was silent for sometime before speaking "it's...you..." he didn't know how to word it, unlike the words he said before, the ones he practiced..said multiple times..to himself "..when I ask kids to play..they tell me to 'buzz off' or 'go away'...in the village, whenever I walk by..people look at me like..like..I don't know...they don't look at me the way they look at everyone else...no one is ever nice..." he paused and remembered something "well there is Shikamaru and Choji..they're okay...but they don't know..how it is to be...like...like this" he gestured himself
"they're best friends..I think there parents are too..and people don't look at them differently...but last night at the lake..I saw someone with the same eyes as me, it was strange...and you didn't tell me to go away...well you did, but I know it was because you thought you will hurt me, y'know" he gave a small chuckle
"..I saw that you were like me, and...I know how it is...so I felt like I should..help? Maybe?...I think..I didn't want you to be alone, because I know how it is?" He himself wasn't sure of the reason "and we played hide and seek, so there's that" his grin spread across his face, lighting his childish features
He jumped as he was pulled into a hug..she didn't say anything and when she pulled back she gave him a closed-eyes, heartfelt smile..it was both: out of appreciation and sympathy..and because of the confused/surprised expression and blushed cheeks he had
(A/N)
Sorry for the delay guys, but there it is *grins like Naruto but doesn't look half as cute*
I literally love this chapter, I put my heart in it so I really hope you like it
As always, comment your reactions/opinions about the events and what you think of the chapter as a whole and vote if you think it's worth voting for