"Hey, Fern!" The black-haired girl turned around to meet Sakura. "Would you like to come to the mall? It's me and Ino but I managed to drag Sasuke along. You can bring Hinata too if you want."

Fern and Hinata have always been hanging around before, during and after school. When Justin wasn't around of course. They had become best friends it seems.

"Okay. But I won't be able to come home late." Sakura beamed.

"Of course! I knew you wouldn't say no! Come on their waiting!" Sakura took Fern by the arm and dragged her to her car along with Hinata.

"Hey guys!" Sakura said. "I brought Fern and Hinata along!" She said with a smile.

"Hi!" Ino greeted. Sasuke 'hn'-ed and folded his arms.

"Hello."

"H-hi."

With that they drove off to the mall. Ino was singing happily to herself and was sitting next to Sasuke for she had gotten over him long ago. Sakura was driving and Hinata was staring out of the window along with Fern who Sasuke was giving hateful glances too. Once they arrived Sakura practically dragged them into the shopping centre.

"Get out!" Sasuke snapped angrily at Fern who was deep in thought. She jumped and non-the-less got out when she realised she was dawdling. They all began to walk past the row of shops. Sasuke had his hands in his pockets, Hinata was walking shyly next to Fern and Ino was bouncing along next to Sakura who was happily smiling.

"Oh my god, I need to wash my hair tonight." Sakura whispered as she stopped to look at herself in a shop window that they passed and she stopped and looked closer.

"You know Sakura, you're hair is so nice!" Ino said touching a pink strand of hair. "If only it were blonde...Fern yours is so soft!"

"Oi!" Sakura said, ignoring the blonde. She realised that the shop window she was looking into was a hairdressers. "Let's get our hair done!" Ino squealed happily before dragging Hinata and Fern inside. They didn't bother with Sasuke because they knew he would wait outside.

"Hello, how may I help you?" The woman said.

"Yes, we would all like our hair done!" Sakura said.

"Oh yes, we will give you wash out high lights?" They all nodded their heads.

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All of the girls walked out giggling happily. Sakura had blonde highlights. Ino had black low lights. Hinata had different shades of blue and Fern had red streaks and it was layered all thanks to Sakura.



"Thanks Sakura. That was fun!" Fern giggled along with Ino. Hinata gave a shy thank you but she just waved it all off.

"No problem. My parents had given me extra money because of my birthday coming up."

"Oh yeah, are you having a sleepover as usual?" Ino asked.

"Definatly!"

"Well you tell us when and where and we will be there!"

"Hey Sasuke! What do you think?" She said while striking a pose before breaking into fits of laughter as he took their new hairstyles in one by one.

"You look...nice..." He managed to get out. Ino giggled mentally but knew better than that because he was Sakura's boyfriend! Besides, she had gotten over him ages now. Most of Sasuke's fan girls had given up and moved onto Justin.

"Hey Fern!"

"Hello Naruto!" She waved back at the blonde who was making his way over to her.

"What are you doing here? – What happened to your hair?" Fern laughed.

"It's washable! Don't worry!"

"It looks nice on you..."

"H-Hello Naruto kun..."

"Hey Hinata."

"I need to get home." Fern finally said.

"Do you want me to take you home?"

"That would be nice, thank you. Goodbye, everyone."

"Bye!"

"See ya!"

"G-goodbye..."

"..."

There was silence until Naruto decided to speak up.

"So how was your day, Fern?" She chuckled, obviously seeing his nervousness.



"It was good, how was yours?"

"I loved it! I even-"

POOF!

"Yo."

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"That's me. I was just telling you that I will be in the academy for all your lessons but there will be no missions." Fern giggled as Naruto groaned.

"How loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong?!"

"As long as it takes."

"For what?"

"...Would you look at the time!? I need to go!"

"Wai-"

POOF!!

"..Uh...let's keep moving..." He summarised. "Hey, Fern, don't you think Kakashi-sensei has been acting weird?"

"He's had a mission from the Hokage."

"How do you know?"

"Justin told me."

"That teme?"

"...Yeah."

"Why doesn't he want anyone to know about your past? Why can't you even tell me?"

"Justin says it's too dangerous, and that it will be the downfall of every village. He says I shouldn't remember because of what happened to the Uchiha clan. He believes that I had something to do with it."

But she can't because she would've only have been what...8?

"...We're here." He whispered and walked her to the doorstep.

"Uh oh..."



"What?"

"Justin doesn't look happy. You better go." Naruto turned and looked into the window. Jerk...He cursed.

"I'll see you at school, right?"

"Yeah," She whispered and sighed with relief as Justin walked into the next room. They stared at each other for a while.

Her eyes are so beautiful now she can feel. But come to think of it there are still things that she can't feel...

Just as the blonde turned to leave, she whispered. "Naruto,"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you..." He turned and smiled, wondering if she was thinking the same thing.

"I'll see you in school!" She smiled back at him.

"Alright, bye!"

"Bye." Once Naruto was out of sight, she sighed and walked into the house where Justin was waiting for her with his arms folded.

"Fern..." He spoke in a dangerous tone. She remained silent. "What are these?" He asked, pointing to the bouquet of flowers on the entry table with Fern's name on it. She looked at the flowers, and then back at Justin.

She slowly walked over to them. They were very nice flowers of every kind. But, there wasn't a name on the card, but she read it again anyways.

Fern,

I cannot yet reveal myself. I don't even know why I am sending these goddamn flowers. You have captured me from the first moment I saw you. I try to convince myself otherwise and I have come to the conclusion that I hate you. I want you near me but I also want to push you away. I can't get you out of my head. You are distracting me from my goals in life. So why do I love it?

Fern looked up. They both knew it wasn't from a fan boy.

"I don't want this happening again." He said, slipping three knew braids around Fern's neck. Emotion was removed from her eyes as he turned her around to face him.

"These braids are to protect you from any harm. So why do you always put yourself in danger? You know you are not to socialize with people like that. Let alone make enemies. Do you know who sent these to you? No? Answer me!" She quickly shook her head in fear. He stood up straight. "Keep it that way. Things have become more complicated, people are after us and we must both be extra careful. Stay here, take a shower and go to bed. I'll be back in the morning. I have...some business to take care of." With that, he left.



XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto walked down the streets of Konoha in silence. He caught a glimpse of a murder scene. He stopped and examined it. There was yellow tape around the area, the building was in ruins and all of the people inside it were lying on the ground dead with white lines around their bodies that the police had put there. It was strange, because that building was the very same building that held everyone's personal files in Konoha and other various criminal information. He could overhear the news reporter nearby:

"-The police say that each and every one of these 25 innocent people was killed with a 2"5 katana. All members of staff and guardians of different information on criminals all over Konoha were killed. This is the second incident in the same night as Marcus Rankin was also murdered an hour before, by what the police believe by the same person also with a 2"5 katana. Suspicions say that both murders are linked somehow, but the police haven't been able to justify it-"

Weird...Marcus Rankin is also a guardian of very valuable scrolls. But...his scrolls were on voodoo. What would a person want with that?

Naruto walked on, not wanting to be part of the crowd that was gathering around the scene, girls grimacing and muttered at how the sight of blood made them nauseous.

He let out his breath in boredom and tiredness as he entered school. Everyone was talking about the two murders that was on the news this morning, or in other words the murder scenes that he passed. His mind was practically buzzing by the time that he sat in his seat for class. As usual, Justin and Fern were there. He greeted Fern with a smile and Justin a glare.

His mind was on nothing as the day went on...

Review please. I need inspiration to carry on going!