DISCLAIMER: I do not own the 'Naruto' or 'Naruto: Shippuden' series or characters.

BUDDING ROMANCES

Love: defined by some as a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. Others would define it as a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child or friend.

For me, it's a dangerous emotion that frequently gets me in trouble – particularly if my love is directed towards several different people at once. For example: when I turned my anger on Sasuke, which threw him across the room. I was angry at him. But it was because I loved him deeply, and a case of being cruel to be kind. Unfortunately, I had unintentionally used too much cruelty and my anger flung him across the room like a rag doll which didn't completely dissolve the anger I was feeling and consequently made me feel horrible. So I ran for it. Cowards way out, obviously. But I still ran.

And I'm still running. But I wasn't getting any momentum, so I climbed up the first tree I saw and bound my way across them, finally going faster. But after a few near misses where I stumbled because my mind was preoccupied and distracted with my troubled thoughts, I decided to stop before I wiped myself out on a tree branch.
Suddenly, I realised I was being followed and briefly stopped to find out who the person was. It was Naruto, he had picked up on my chakra and was speeding towards me like a bullet. I grinned happily. This was probably the only moment alone we ever had together, besides the day we first met. Too bad I was trying not to be found by any of them.

Eventually, I stopped on a tree branch and slumped down on it, dangling one leg off it and resting my head on my knee.

The tree branch bounced slightly as somebody landed on it directly in front of me. I didn't have to look up to know it was Naruto.
He sat down across from me and placed a hand cautiously on my shoulder – probably fearing I'd shrug it off or send him flying like I did Sasuke.

"Akima? Are you okay?"

Am I okay throwing my cousin across the room in a fit of rage I didn't even know I possessed and never want to possess again? Uh? No!

I looked at Naruto with a sarcastic expression on my face as I yawned and stretched.

"That's a stupid question, Naruto." I replied, shortly. I flipped off the branch and landed gracefully among some evergreen bushes. Naruto followed suit, but landed rather clumsily.

"Well, you kinda freaked us out back there." he said, sheepish grin in place as he got to his feet and dusted himself off. I looked away from him, my lip trembling from remorse. Naruto reached out and smoothed back my fringe from my face as he tenderly said:

"It's okay to be angry, Akima. I'm still pissed off with Sasuke for leaving us."

I looked at Naruto's feet because I was still ashamed of my actions towards Sasuke and I didn't want to see the sympathy and concern on Naruto's face. It was his boisterous humour that finally got me to look him in the eyes.

"I'm just glad it was Sasuke who got hurled across the room and not me." he grinned, trying to look me in the eyes. I raised my head and smiled sweetly at him.

"Finally, got you looking at me!" he exclaimed and I laughed. Somehow his words filled me with comfort.

"That's the thing that makes me really happy about you, Naruto. You somehow manage to find the right words to say."

My voice broke on the word 'say', and I burst into tears, turning away from him. I felt Naruto's hand touch my shoulder and I turned and folded myself into his arms, sobbing into his jacket as Naruto's chin rested on my head. We both sank to our knees as Naruto comforted me.

A few minutes later, Naruto and I were sitting at the base of a tree, listening to the wind rushing through the leaves in the trees and the creak of an old swing that hung nearby. I was sitting in the space between Naruto's legs and leaning my back against his chest. While Naruto absently fiddled with a strand of my hair - something he did back when we were younger.

I decided to tell Naruto, off the record, why I had attacked Sasuke involuntarily.

"Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"You wanna know why I attacked Sasuke?" I asked, knowing I'd have to spill the beans eventually to Sasuke and Sakura too.

"Yeah, of course. Like I said, you freaked us out back there." Naruto replied. I sighed unhappily.

"Remember when I grabbed the older Sasuke's hand?"

Naruto nodded.

"Well, when I did I instantly got a premonition of the future. " Naruto stopped playing with my hair and looked at me with a slightly mystified expression on his face.

"Is there anything you can't do?" he asked, teasingly. I shrugged, nonchalently.

"Probably. It's bound to happen any day now. Anyway, in the 'future' Sasuke kills Itachi and then he goes on to become an Akatsuki member."

Naruto's face screws up in outrage.

"You're joking!"

"Wish I was." I whispered and started playing with Naruto's fingers nervously, while he resumed playing with my hair.

"Why would he want to throw his life away, Naruto?" I asked, not expecting an answer from him. I felt him shrug.

"Beats me. I don't live in Sasuke's head. And I bet it would be a scary place." he joked, then absently or not started slowly stroking my cheek with his thumb.
I chuckled bitterly.

"That was a rhetorical question, you idiot." I sat up and looked at Naruto, who looked slightly offended when I called him an idiot.

"But thanks for trying, anyway." and then I did the riskiest thing possible: I kissed Naruto on the cheek.

Sighing, I moved away from Naruto and went to stand up, but felt Naruto wrap his fingers gently around my wrist and pulled towards himself sharply. I stumbled and fell heavily on my ass. I turned on Naruto.

"Naruto! What are you...?" I yelled, but Naruto placed a finger on my lips to shut me up.

I stared at him in bewilderment but was also half hopeful that what I wished he had in mind for years was actually about to happen. I blushed as Naruto smiled at me tenderly then hooked his finger underneath my chin and tilted my head up. My heart pounded so fast I thought it was going to break my ribs when Naruto's lips closed over mine and he passionately kissed me.

At first I was taken aback and I gently pulled away from from him. I looked into his blue eyes searching for answers but found that his eyes only read love.

Love meant only for me! I realised and I smiled in happy triumph and returned his kiss, kinda urgently.

I wrapped my arms around Naruto's neck and started unzipping his black and orange jacket. I kissed very slowly down his neck and felt him shudder from pleasure. Grinning mischievously, I pushed Naruto down onto his back and straddled him whilst still kissing down his neck.

Suddenly, Naruto flipped us over so that I was lying on my back and he was hovering over my body with his, balancing most of his weight on his hands. Giggling, I pulled gently on the jade green necklace Lady Tsunade had given to him when he was thirteen and pulled him down again to kiss him. But Naruto stops after a few moments of making out and frowns down at me in a puzzlement. He rolls away and sits up with his back against the tree. I could see that something was bugging the hell out of him.

"What's eating you?" I asked him, sitting up and frowning. Both because he had broken off the embrace so abruptly just as I was enjoying it, and at his distracted expression. Naruto smiles sweetly at me and takes my outstretched hand in his.

"Sorry, Akima. It's just, it seemed like you really knew what you were doing when we were making out just now." I settled myself back down in the space between Naruto's legs and he wrapped his arms automatically around me as I tried to decipher his random observation. I was not prepared for what Naruto asked me next.

"You've had a boyfriend before me haven't you?" he asked, curiously. I nodded, slightly taken back by his direct question. Naruto winced.

"Do I know him? Just so I know who to avoid when we get back to the village." I laughed, kissing his cheek.

"Yeah, you know him. But don't worry, I've threatened to castrate him if he laid a hand on any boyfriends I might've had after he and I had split up."

Naruto flinched and covered his groin with his hand.

"Nice threat. But seriously, who is he?" I chewed my lip before answering my new boyfriend's question, hesitantly.

"Gaara."

I held my breath as I waited to see Naruto's reaction. But was surprised when he didn't react the way I had fully expected him to.

"Aww, man! Even he's had more action than I have." he whined. I rolled my eyes and decided to ignore his typical response. At least for awhile.
But after a few moments, Naruto decided to learn more about my previous relationship.

"Why Gaara?" I smiled at the memory.

"I have no idea, it was kinda weird. But I guess an acceptable reason would be that he was there for me when I really need somebody to comfort me. But that was two years ago – back when Sasuke split after beating the crap outta you, breaking Sakura's heart and put a strain on my relationship with him."

"What happened?" Naruto asked, curiously.

I turned to look at him with a freaked out expression on my face. Normally boys tried to avoid this kind of conversation.

"It's a long story. How much time have you got?" Hoping that Naruto's sudden curiosity was just him being polite. Apparently, I was wrong.

"What are we doing at the moment?" Naruto pointed out. I sighed.

"Touche." I shrugged. I didn't mind telling Naruto my love life, since he had been a large chunk of my secret hopes and wishes for several years.

"It kinda started a few weeks after Kakashi returned with you badly wounded in his arms after that fight you had with Sasuke."

I deliberately chose not to tell him that I happened to be there during his showdown with Sasuke at the falls.

"You, Sakura and I decided to have private tutoring with separate teachers. I found out that you were going to train with Master Jiraiya and that Sakura was going to train under Lady Tsunade as her apprentice to become a medical ninja." Naruto nodded to show he was following what I was saying.

"I went to Lady Tsunade before she started devoting her time between her busy schedule as the Hokage and training Sakura, and asked if it would be possible to be privately tutored as well. My request was granted when I was assigned to be trained under Anko Mitarashi." Naruto's face jerked in shock.

"You're kidding? That psycho? No wonder your skills are the way they are! You're lucky you made it through the first training session." I nodded gravely.

"Believe me, I reacted the same way you did just now when I heard that she was training me."

Naruto shuddered as he remembered his memories of Anko. I smirked a little at this, something that Naruto noticed.

"What?" He asked, apprehensively. I pulled a kunai from my pack and balanced it sharp tip down on my index finger, while Naruto watched suspiciously.

"Anko told me that when she taught you she accidentally scratched your cheek with a kunai and licked your cheek to remove the blood..." I giggled at the horrified expression on Naruto's face.

"Yeah. Good times..." Naruto replied, unenthusiastically. I threw the kunai in the air and caught exactly the same way I did back when I was thirteen.

"But it turned out that Anko-sensai and I have something in common." I continued as I put the kunai back in my pack and zipped it up.
Absently, I sucked away the blood on my finger as Naruto watched in disgust.

"What was it? Bloodthirstiness?" He asked, indicating the way I was tending to my pierced finger. I looked down at my finger and shook my head.

"Nah. Although she did tell me before my training finished that Sasuke and I were almost identical to her in skill though." Naruto nodded, scowling distastefully at Anko's opinion.

"But what we had in common was that we were both branded with the same curse mark called the 'cursed seal of heaven'. When my training had started, she hadn't been informed of this – so I was pretty much treated the same way as her previous students, until one day when I did something unusual. That was when she changed her tune."

Naruto smirked.

"What did you do?" He asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipation and looking diabolical.

"Nothing evil, Naruto. If that's what you're thinking. But I was being insolent, which would piss off anyone and Anko retaliated by chucking a kunai at me while my back was turned. Somehow, I deflected it as easily as swatting a fly away." I laughed.

"Then what happened?" asked Naruto, eagerly.

"Akno just stared at me with this stunned look and then I blacked out. The next thing I knew I woke up and saw her staring down at me with a kind, but ambitious smile on her face. That freaked me out, considering what I already knew about her and her past, and I backed up big time. I asked her what happened and she told me that I had a powerful boost of chakra that I had just awoken, and that it tapped into the psychic, fire and sharingan chakra that I already possessed and gave me a serge in power that I couldn't control just yet. I learnt later on that I had unknowingly tapped into the curse mark on my neck. When I was threatened, I used it against her."

"Nice!" Naruto high-fived me.

I frowned at how he cheered when he thought Anko would get hurt.

"You really don't like her do you?" I asked. Naruto looked at me cynically.

"Did you miss me shudder?" I rolled my eyes, but understood his dislike.

"Long story, short. She and I got on well afterwards." Naruto gave me the thumbs up but added an extra serve of confusion on his face as well.

"That's a first. But what does this story have to do with Gaara?" he asked, patiently.

"Wow. You're really persistent." I said, dryly.

"It turned out my training didn't take too long to complete as I was an extremely fast learner. Anko was really impressed and suggested to Lady Tsunade that I was ready for a high ranked mission. Lady Tsunade granted this and I got assigned to an A-level mission to protect and escort some highly paid 'windbags' to a faraway village."

"Sweet." said Naruto. I smiled at him.

"Apparently the mission required more than one ability, so the Sand siblings were assigned to the mission as well. I was stuck with Gaara, Kankurō and Temari for the duration of the mission. But it wasn't all bad, I've always gotten on well with Temari." I said, grinning.

"Now we're getting down to it!" said Naruto, punching the air.

"One night, I was keeping watch and I was feeling homesick and missing my best friends. I was also missing Sasuke, who by now was probably with Orochimaru. Gaara came to take over the watch and he noticed that I had been crying. So he tried to comfort me. But at the time I thought he was a jerk – mostly because of the way he was acting during the chunnin exams – so I was hostile towards him and completely blew him off."

Naruto nodded.

"Understandable. Gaara does act like a total dick at times." explained Naruto. I nodded.

"But after working with him for awhile, I warmed up to him and that turned into friendship and later on he gave me my first kiss, and we started going out."

Naruto's face dropped like a stone. "Oh. I see."

I smiled, sympathetically at him. But he wanted to know. He could've stopped me at any time if he didn't like what I was telling him.

"Gaara is actually really nice when he's not threatened. But our relationship didn't last very long as I realised that I had stronger feelings for somebody else. Even Gaara could sense that, which was why he wasn't upset when I decided to break off our relationship a year later." Naruto had looked up when I had mentioned that I had stronger feelings for somebody else.

"Who?" he asked, I frowned at him.

"Who what?"

"Who did you have the strong feelings for?" he asked, hopefully. I chuckled at the adorable blonde ninja who blinked at me, waiting for my answer. I leaned over and kissed him.

"You, dummy!" I responded, pretending to be annoyed.

"When you returned from your training with Jiraiya (and got punched in the face yet again by Sakura), I was so excited. But then we got word that Gaara got kidnapped. I had to put my personal feelings for you aside so I could focus on helping you, Sakura, Kakashi, Team Guy, Kankurō and Temari save and rescue him."

"But it's definitely over between you?" Naruto was totally fixated on that fact. That was good enough for me. I nodded and grinned happily.

"You've been all that I've thought about for ages." I admitted. Naruto blinked at me in surprise.

"Ever since we first became friends, you've totally fascinated me – despite your annoying habits that sometimes deserved Sakura clonking you over the head for (Naruto pulled a face at this) – and you pretty much saved me from the next five years of complete boredom, before we enrolled at the Academy."

The bushes we were sitting behind suddenly rustled, snapping us out of our intimate moment.

"What the hell was that?" asked Naruto.

I crawled forward and pulling a kunai from my pack, inspected the surrounding bushes but could not find the source of the rustling. The only other explanation would be that the wind blew, disturbing the bush. I turned back to Naruto and shrugged.

"Dunno. That's weird." I checked one more time to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Still nothing.

"Where were we?" I asked, coming back over to Naruto and cuddled up to him. The leaves rustled more insistently this time and instantly Naruto and I sprang to our feet, kunai in hand and got into defensive positions.

"Who's there?" I called, all business. Beside me, Naruto had narrowed his eyes and was poised to attack at moment's notice. There was no response to my order. I tried again.

"Show yourself, now!" Still nothing happened. I looked over at Naruto who nodded and both of us edged closer to the bush and started looking for the enemy we presumed was there thinking all of this was a funny joke. Instead, I see a little boy of approximately five years lying unconscious on the ground. My face twisted in shock.

"Oh My God!"

Naruto turned and came over to me.

"What's wrong?" I waded my way through the bush towards the little boy, forgetting for a moment that we were in another memory again.

"Oh, crap." he said, as he saw the little boy. But I stopped when I realised how familiar the little boy was.

"Wait, Naruto! He looks familiar. What do you think?" Naruto takes a more careful look at the boy and gasps when he realises who the boy was.

"Hey! That's me."

"We must be in another memory. But whose memory is it?" I asked, out loud.

On cue, a twig snaps causing Naruto and I to spin around, excepting some weapon welding enemy. But instead, we saw a familiar little girl with black hair and bangs stepping through the foliage of an evergreen bush. Although, the little girl is more appropriately dressed for bed than a casual stroll through the woods.

I smiled, recognising who the little girl was and whose memory we were currently observing.

"That's me." I announced to Naruto who was frowning and trying to place where he recognised the little girl from.

"And this is my memory. I love this memory." Naruto frowned and sat down not very faraway from where the five year old Naruto was lying. The memory hadn't clicked for him just yet. I rolled my eyes and taking the hand he held out for me, sat down beside him.

We watched as five year old Akima approached the stirring five year old Naruto and sits down behind him, patiently waiting for him to sit up.
Naruto, who had me in his arms suddenly looked like a light bulb lit up above his head.

"Oh wait! Now I remember. This is the day we first became friends." He grinned from ear to ear, happily.

"I love this memory too!"

Young Naruto sat up and rubbed his head unhappily as he recalled exactly what had happened to him. The last thing he remembered was two bullies picking on a girl with black hair and lavender coloured eyes. He had come over to defend her by summoning shadow clones, but because he hadn't learnt how to control this jutsu yet they were weak and kinda pathetic looking. Which, as a result, gave the bullies the opportunity to beat him up.

He remembered hearing a male adult's voice calling the girl's name:

Hinata, wasn't it?

And then that voice angrily telling 'Hinata' to stay away from him because he was cursed.

Oh, great! Yet another person who doesn't like me.

Young Naruto yawned dispiritedly and got to his feet. He turned and saw Young Akima staring at him owlishly. Instantly, he sprang away from her.

"Who are you?" he demanded. I watched as my younger self grinned at him weakly.

"My name's Akima Kimura. Did I scare you?" Young Naruto crosses his arms and scowls at her.

"No! I'm not scared of anything." Young Naruto appraises what Young Akima is wearing.

"Why are you dressed in pyjamas? Are you sleepwalking?"

Young Akima giggles at Young Naruto's comment. She shakes her head.

"No. At least I hope I'm not. I needed to go for a walk without my Aunt Mikoto, Uncle Fugaku and my cousins tagging along with me." Young Naruto frowns at the bitterness in her voice.

"What's wrong with that?" Young Akima realises how catty and ungrateful her comment sounded. She immediately backtracked, laughing slightly.

"Nothing. It's just sometimes it's really annoying. I feel like a baby when they do that." Young Naruto seemed to think that Young Akima was harmless as he had sat down on the ground again and scooted closer to her so that he could hear her soft voice more clearly.

"What's your name?" Young Akima asked. Young Naruto jabbed himself in the chest with his thumb as he grins somewhat obnoxiously at her.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" Young Akima giggles appreciatively at Young Naruto's loud and boisterous mannerisms. Although, the older Akima seemed to think her boyfriend ought to have toned it down a notch. I believed that Naruto shouldn't have had to be overly enthusiastic when he was growing up just to gain friends. If people had gotten to know him, instead of seeing the fox demon they would've seen the kind, innocent if somewhat obnoxious at times little boy he had been.

"You're funny!" Young Akima's words startled him a bit and he perked up. But then Young Naruto's face dropped sadly as he remembered his predicament.

"The villagers don't think so."

Young Akima's face drops in astonishment. "Why?"

Young Naruto put his face into his hands as the bad memories of a life of loneliness and shunning washed over him.

"You tell me. I don't know why they don't like me. They think something's wrong with me."

Young Akima pointed over at where he had been lying and then at the large bruise forming on his cheek.

"Is that why you were lying on the ground like that? Did they hurt you?" Young Naruto scowled.

"No. Some bullies did this to me after I tried to help this girl with weird purple eyes. They called me 'that cursed boy'. Then this older man stumbled out of the wood and took the little girl away saying for her to stay away from me."

Young Akima looked upset about this and a flicker of red flashed in her eyes before she stumbled slightly and looked a little afraid after it happened. Young Naruto didn't notice this.

"I used my curse mark again. Did you see that?" I asked Naruto, who nodded.

"You must use it when you get pissed off." observed Naruto, as Young Akima got up and went over to Young Naruto and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"I don't think you're weird or cursed." Young Naruto looked up at her. Surprise and hope were in his blue eyes.

"You don't?" he asked, dubiously.

Young Akima shook her head firmly.

"No. You seem normal to me." And she smiled sweetly at him. I turned my head and kissed Naruto softly on his cheek.

"I still mean that by the way. Despite knowing you're a jinchūriki, which I don't have a problem with because I've dated one before." Naruto smiled at me.

"Thanks!" shouted Young Naruto, a huge grin on his face. Naruto hooked a thumb in the direction of his younger self.

"What he said."

Young Akima suddenly yawned and stretched to the point that her purple dressing gown fell off her shoulder and revealed the dressing previously seen in Sasuke's memory (of which the 'cursed seal of heaven' curse mark was) on her neck which Young Naruto instantly notices.

"Ouch! How'd ya do that?" Young Akima reaches up to her neck and feels the dressing there. Young Akima smiles innocently and shrugs.

"I don't remember. It was there when I woke up."

Naruto turns to me incredulously.

"You're telling me that this memory happened after Orochimaru attacked you?" I nodded, which sends Naruto off the deep end.

"Naruto, calm down. This is the 'happy hour'. 'Angry, pissed off hour' isn't for a couple of hours." I joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Naruto, sensing me shutting down completely about the topic, took a couple a deep breaths to calm himself down just as younger me started speaking again.

"What do you want to be when you grow up, Naruto?"

Young Naruto pretended to seriously thinking about his answer before finally getting to his feet, grinning somewhat obnoxiously and yet again jabbing himself in the chest.

"I'm gonna be Hokage and the greatest ninja in the world!"

Young Akima beams up at her new friend.

"Yay! That sounds so cool!" This comment caused Young Naruto to blush, but Young Akima doesn't notice this because she had started to yawn again. She gets to her feet and Young Naruto's face falls when he realises what she's about to do.

"I need to go home now."

Young Naruto nodded sadly and watches as Young Akima turns and walks off towards the Uchiha household, but yells out in pain when Orochimaru's curse mark flares up and temporarily cripples Young Akima as she topples to the ground, freaking out Young Naruto. I could feel Naruto starting to shake again, but I took his hand and started stroking it in a calm, soothing way.

Young Naruto comes over to Young Akima and helps her into a seated position, allowing the cowering little girl to lean on him for support.

"Are you okay?" Young Naruto asks. Young Akima shakes her head no. She is understandably scared because she doesn't know what's going on and has started to cry.

"I want to go home." she sobbed.

Young Naruto looks around helplessly looking for another person to help, but realised that if he tried looking for help any person he might find would probably accuse him of hurting Young Akima. Instead, he smiled sympathetically at Young Akima and tries to comfort her by giving her a hug.

"It's okay. I'll look after you." Young Naruto soothed kindly and helps Young Akima to her feet, but she instantly topples over. Thinking quickly, Young Naruto assists Young Akima onto his back and stands up supporting her weight.

"Hold on tight, Akima. I'm gonna take you home." Naruto turns to the bush Young Akima had appeared from, but realised that he had been unconscious when she had actually appeared.

"Uh... which way to your house?"

Young Akima giggled weakly and raised a shaky arm to point towards where Young Naruto needed to go. Naruto and I stood up and ran after the ambitious blonde ninja-to-be. We ended up outside the backdoor of the Uchiha household and Naruto and I watched as Young Naruto helped Young Akima off his back and guided her towards the back door.

"Thanks, Naruto!" said Young Akima, weakly. Young Naruto smiles for a split second before returning to unhappiness.

"You're welcome." he muttered and turned to return to the wood.
But Young Akima unexpectedly stops him.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Naruto!" Young Naruto almost trips over his own feet. He turns and looks at Young Akima with wide, shocked blue eyes.

"You will? Why?" He comes back to where Young Akima is standing. Young Akima takes Young Naruto's hand in hers.

"Because you're my friend, silly!" Young Akima giggled at the shocked expression on Young Naruto's face. He almost smiles but thinks that this is a set up for a painful let down.

"I've never had a friend before." He admitted. Young Akima yawns, this time longer than usual before speaking to Young Naruto again.

"Well, now you do! See ya tomorrow!"

She waves and slowly and with difficulty slides the bamboo wood door closed. The memory fades away.

When I was growing up after my parents' murder, I became cloistered by my Aunt Mikoto and Uncle Fugaku, who became very protective of me after learning what Orochimaru had done to my parents and the plans for me that he hoped to make a reality someday. From that day I first came to live with my family, I never went anywhere without an escort, which was usually either Sasuke, Itachi or both.

I am the niece of the patriarch of one of the famous founding families of Konohagakure, and the Uchiha's were not only well respected and popular, but also extremely powerful and the creators of the powerful Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique. When Sasuke and I were finally old enough to attend the Academy to become trained ninjas, Aunt Mikoto and Uncle Fugaku made us adhere to strict rules regarding homework and having responsibilities for not only our actions, but also the way people viewed us.

I hated this, and to a point so did Sasuke.

However, it all proved to have paid off because both of us became exceptionally fast learners as I had previously explained during my Anko-sensai story and both of us were very intelligent.

"I wanted to break free and to stop being constantly protected against something I had no memory of. And when we became best friends, it was probably the first time I ever felt free and was allowed to experience things for myself. I wanna thank you for that." I explained to Naruto, who looked touched.

He stepped away from the tree we had been leaning up against and pulls me into a tight hug, kissing the top of my head affectionately.

"What was that for?" I asked, pleasantly surprised. Naruto pulled back from the hug and looked me directly in the eyes as he answered.

"Because I'm grateful. You became my very first friend that day." I grinned.

"Yeah. And then you got Master Jiraiya and then Sasuke and Sakura." I added to the list of friends he got after me. Naruto chuckled at the mention of Yiraiya's name.

"Yeah. Ha ha! Pervy Sage..." I playfully smacked him.

"You know, that's not very nice, Naruto." I pretended to be cross with him but then I smiled fondly at him and Naruto happily kissed me again. Both of us safe and happy in this little private memory.

Suddenly...

"Oh. My. God. I think I'm gonna hurl!"