Naruto slowly walked back to his apartment. He was deep in thought and walked calmly, which was unlike his normal self. He was thinking about Fern. He had seen her eyes before, he was sure of it. And why was Justin so protective of her? And what kind of an answer is 'whatever you want' to a question of do you want to be my friend?

'But her eyes...' He thought. 'They were too lonely for someone to even look at. Why do I care about someone's eyes? I just feel...that I need to help...they almost beg me too...'

He opened the door to his apartment, closed the door and threw the keys on the entrance table before going to bed without even bothering to change.

'I want to help her...but how? I can't do anything. She's always around Justin, God...he's even worse than Sasuke. Smug attitude thinking that he can do anything. He snorted. But Fern...she's a different story. I can't figure it out...she's...an angel...a saddened angel...I wanna help but what do I do?'

(Naruto's dream):

Naruto stood in what seemed like empty darkness. Alone. In darkness.

You wish to seek the truth? A male voice asked. Naruto searched desperately for where it came from, but couldn't find the speaker.

"Who are you?!" He screamed into the darkness.

You wish to find the secret behind these eyes? The image of Fern's emerald eyes came into his view, in fact the view of her whole face. Her saddened and pain filled eyes and face. Her blank stare staring right through him.

"Fern? What have you done with her? Who are you?"

I haven't done anything to her. However, you can help her.

"How?! How do I help her?!"

Her past is dark with a terrible burden and if you wish to help her you must find her heart...

"Her heart? What do you mean?!" Naruto did a spin to desperately see if someone, anyone was there. "Come back!"

(Dream end)

The presence that he had felt before left him and he awoke with a start, jerking up in his bed and looked at the clock.

Get up it's time to go... The male voice from his dream whispered. Just then his alarm clock fired into action.

'But it's Saturday...' He thought. He lazily turned the alarm clock off and pulled the covers off before making his way to his balcony, rubbing his sore eyes in the sunlight. His apartment over 





looked the whole of Konoha, the statues of the Hokages and the mall, the parks, academy and all of the training grounds. He sighed and stretched his aching muscles begging for movement.

He did his usual routine and then walked outside his front door, lingering on the doorstep for a moment. Naruto looked down into the town's many pathways, his eyes skimming across the many doors of apartments, right until he saw Fern, the girl with the emerald pained eyes, walking down the road silently along with Hinata, who was also silent.

He refused to look at her eyes and watched them as they steadily came towards him. He stood in front of them just before they passed him and Hinata grew bright red as he gave her a goofy smile.

"Hey Hinata!" He greeted cheerfully. Hinata blushed harder and then looked at Fern next to her, who didn't seem to have noticed that Naruto was there, but to only stop when she did.

"Hello Fern." Naruto whispered quietly and looked at her eyes as they moved to him.

"...Hello..." There was no change in her voice.

"Where's Justin?"

"...He's at the Hokage's..."

"Fern, you can talk later okay? Come I said I would show you around. See yah Naruto."

"Bye." Whispered Naruto.

"...Goodbye..." He continued to watch their retreating backs as they carried on walking.

It seems that no one notices that she is in pain...Hinata didn't seem to comfort her or even notice, Justin doesn't care...but someone must know...right??

"TRAINING!" He realised that Kakashi-sensei would kill him if he wasn't there even though Kakashi was always late.

He ran down the path until he saw Justin and immediately scowled at him. Justin stopped him from moving any further, and gave him a cold glare of his own. He stopped him from moving by sticking an arm in his way.

"Naruto, where's Fern?" He practically growled impatiently. Naruto pouted and crossed his arms over her chest.

"How am I supposed to know?" There was no way he would tell Justin where Fern was because of the way that he treats her. Justin didn't seem to hear him.

"Foolish girl. Going out without my permission..." Naruto stood taller and strode passed him.

"Stupid teme..." He muttered under his breath. Justin heard him but, heck, he couldn't hear himself, yet Justin heard him.







"Fuck off. Mind your own bullshit." He smacked him into the ground by the head with his foot, and held his face into the ground for a few moments, ignoring the muffled cries of protest from Naruto. He let go and he jumped up to find that Justin was already walking off.

"I'm not finished with you!" He shouted at him, wagging his clenched fist at his back but struggled to keep himself calm. He was about to move forward when he realised...

"TRAINING!" He sprinted to the usual meeting place to find Sasuke sitting with her girlfriend, Sakura, underneath the tree, his arm wrapped loosely around her waist as she sat on his lap, both of them in their own world. Sasuke was the first to realise that Naruto was there, and glared at him.

Am I a magnet for disapproving eyes? Naruto panted, his hands on his knees.

"Took you long enough." Sasuke told him.

"Shut...shut up... teme..."

"Naruto?" Sakura groggily looked at him. "Where's Kakashi?" He silently shrugged, still panting. He regained his breath.

"He's always late...-forget that." He saw Kakashi leaning on the edge of the tree trunk next to Sakura and Sasuke." When did you get here?!"

"Just a moment ago. Anyway, you're free to do whatever you want for a while because I have been assigned for a special mission by the Hokage so no missions or training." Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke and there was silence until they heard Hinata's voice.

"-And this is the training grounds, what do you think of Konoha so far, Fern?" Everyone turned around and looked at Fern and Hinata. Hinata was smiling at Fern, who was half-heartedly looking around, seeing right through Team 7.

"So, what do you think?" She repeated.

"...Who knows..." Hinata seemed a bit disappointed by this answer and when she saw team 7 looking right at them she jumped.

"H-Hi Naruto...Sakura...Sasuke..."

"Hi!"

"Hello Hinata."

"Hn."

"Oh Hinata, Fern! Did you see KakAAAA-"Naruto took a step forward and Sasuke took this as a time to act cool and stuck his foot on front of Naruto's and tripped him up so he fell forwards. Out of reflex, Naruto's eyes closed tight but instead of hitting the ground he felt two soft arms wrap around him, one underneath the back of his knees and one around his back he opened his crystal blue eyes to meet pained emerald ones staring right at him.







It took him a moment to realise that it was Fern who caught him from hitting the sorry ground. He felt a blush creep onto his cheeks at their proximity and at the fact that her sullen eyes were screaming at him to understand something. Naruto felt one of her black strands of hair fall into his face but he couldn't take his eyes away from hers. She was trying to tell him something.

Do you want to know the truth behind these eyes? Naruto remembered his dream and shuddered.

He noted that Sasuke looked away disapprovingly, clutching Sakura tighter which made her look at him in confusion. He had never been one to be clingy...but she shrugged it off. Fern's eyes closed as she put Naruto down on the ground. It felt weird to be caught...by a girl... He continued to gaze at the girl until she was yanked away by an arm.

"There you are!" A deep voice growled, turning Fern to face him.

"Justin..."

"You know that you're not allowed to leave without my permission!" His gaze fell to Naruto who was lying next to Fern who was sitting on the floor, being held by the collar by him and if he were to let go she would fall to the floor. Sakura stared at him and Sasuke kept his gaze the opposite way. He then noticed what Fern did for Naruto. He tried to calm himself and almost, ALMOST failed.

"Baka. Saving him like that. These are capable ninja's that can protect themselves from falling. You know that you shouldn't do things so meaningless. So worthless. It doesn't do any good to anyone. Get back to the house, I'll deal with you later." His voice became dark and his eyes narrowed at the last sentence. He dropped Fern who only seemed to hesitate slightly about getting up. "Did you twist your ankle?" His voice still hadn't changed. She looked down at her leg before slowly nodding.

"Baka."He picked her up bridal style and began to make their way home. "See how much trouble you cause?"

"Yes Justin."

"Don't let me catch you doing that again." He calmed down slightly.

"...Yes Justin."

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The Hokage watched them through his glass orb with Kakashi at his side.

"Will you accept this mission, Kakashi?"

"I will, Hokage-sama. But I don't know who I will report back."

"Don't worry, Kakashi. You just need to earn her trust then we can work from there...Have you noticed it too?"

"I think it's strange too, Hokage-sama." The Hokage let out smoky breath from his pipe.

"No, not strange. But saddening. She shouldn't be living here. Not like that anyway, having her life ruled without her own say. Anyway, tell your team about your previous discovery already."



"I'll report back by the end of next week." Kakashi bowed before the Hokage and then left.

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"Naruto..."

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