In a way of honoring, Seraph's Embrace, I'll be continuing his author's note traditions:

redlox2: Yeah, that's basically the plan. I'll be putting these first 6. one a day. And once i run out of the old stuff, it'll be a week (maybe slightly longer) in between the next updates.

The Failing Shadow: I'll send him your regards and after reading your comment, I've decided to continue this little tradition of his. I'll also be responding to the reviewers such as yourself and if you have anything you want to PM me about. Feel completely free to and I'll respond as soon as possible.

friaku & Tyber Zahn: I'm glad I am able to bring back something enjoyable for you guys! Just a bit of information, the first arc (9 chapters) was actually done by Seraph back when he was writing it, so I'll be following the outline for the 3 chapters I myself will be writing(6-9). Chapters 10 and ongoing will be my ideas.

Thanks to all of you that have returned to Worth Protecting and I appreciate the kind words and the time you took into reviewing a chapter you've probably already seen quite a few times

Thanks once again, and I enjoy the refresher.

Worth Protecting

Chapter 2: Yugito Nii

Yugito awoke to the bright light streaming in through the window. Her eyes fluttered open briefly before shutting them again when the midday sun's rays hit her eyes and burned her retina. She rolled over onto her face, away from the light, then opened her eyes again. A few moments later, after letting her eyesight adjust, Yugito Nii pushed herself into a sitting position.

She looked around the room, remembering that this was Naruto's bedroom. Thinking along those lines brought a bit of a blush as she had never been in a males room, or anybody else's for that matter. The bedroom was very basic, aside from the bed she was resting in there was a large poster of the Konoha Leaf symbol behind it. To her immediate left was a potted plant, a small palm tree that was bred indoors. A glance off to the side she saw a window that showed a perfect view of the famous Hokage Monument, the mountain that had the four Hokage's carved onto it. On the other side was a basic night stand with an old, orange alarm clock. Over on the opposite side of the room was a large dresser made of a lighter wood then the night stand, and next to that was a full body mirror leaning against the wall. There was also a sliding glass door on the opposite side of the door leading out of the room that led to a balcony. She could see the steel railings bordering it and a pair of slippers sitting off to the side.

The room itself was made up of light green walls, worn and faded with several cracks on them. A calender was hanging on one side of the wall, and there were a few small posters with various kanji on them, she even saw one next to the palm tree with a cup of steaming ramen on it. How weird was that? The lower third of the wall was made of up tiled wood, there were a few stains that came with age but other then that it looked well kept. The ceiling, like the walls, were green in color and the floor was made of wooden paneling in a light red color. Yugito thought the place looked kind worn and aged, but it was obvious that Naruto took decent care of the place.

Letting the sheet fall off of her body, she got off the bed, bare feet touching the floor as she stood up and stretched for a moment. However, as she stretched a retched stench hit her overly sensitive nose. Her nose crinkled in disgust, and it took her a moment to realized that the smell was coming from her. This was something Yugito realized she should have expected. Having been on the run for nearly three months, she'd had very few chances to bath, the last time being about three weeks ago. Obviously, she was going to be dirty and smelly.

'Naruto said he had to go speak to someone, and since he didn't wake me up he should still be out.' Despite this thought, Yugito decided she would check to make sure Naruto was really gone. Walking over to the door, the blond-haired female opened it and walked out into the small hallway. She quickly checked the dining room and the kitchen. When she was sure Naruto was not in the apartment, she made her way to the bathroom.

'I'm sure he won't mind if I take a shower,' she thought to herself. He had been very kind to her thus far, and she was sure he would be fine with her using his facilities to get clean. Who knew, he might even be appreciative that she wasn't smelling like she hadn't bathed in weeks when he arrived home.

The bathroom was very basic, and small, not that Yugito expected it to be large or anything, her bathroom back in Kumogakure had been even smaller. It had all the basics, a toilet and sink situated next to each other. The sink was pressed up against a wall that stuck out of the room and stopped about one-third of the way in, revealing a small entrance where the bath most likely was. On the wall opposite the toilet was a towel rack with several fluffy orange (?) towels hanging off of them.

Yugito moved across the floor, passing through the small entrance to reveal her earlier assumptions had been right. There was a small bath, large enough to fit one person comfortably. Unlike most baths, the heating device was on the side, and a large pipe was sticking out from the top, curving up and out of the room via through the wall. Off to the side was a small stool over a drain with a wooden bucket.

Walking up to the bath, Yugito turned on the facet until a steady stream of cool blue water began pouring out. Then she turned on the heating unit, cranking up the small dial to start a fire inside of it that would heat the water. With that done, Yugito quickly made to get undressed.

The first thing she took off was her shirt, the tight black shirt with a purple patch that ran along the lower part of her torso and half of her chest, slid off as she grabbed with it both hands by the hem and lifted it up. Looking at it, she noticed that it was very dirty as well. Her pants were too, and she realized that her clothes would need to be washed as well before she could wear them again.

Steam soon began filling the room. Yugito hiked her thumbs under her pants and panties, and slid them down the lower half of her body. Stepping out of them, the now nude Yugito folded her clothes, quickly walked out of the bathroom. It took her a while, but she was able to eventually realize that this apartment did not have a washing machine, meaning, much to her displeasure, she would need to wash them by hand. Sighing, she went back the bathroom and decided that could wait until after she was clean.

After setting her clothes on the toilet seat, she grabbed the bucket and went over to the bath tub. Sticking her hand in the water first, she deemed it hot enough and quickly filled the bucket with water. After looking around for a moment, she saw a small rack hanging on the wall filled with soap and shampoo. Both were for men, but considering this apartment belonged to a guy and she hadn't bathed in weeks, she wasn't going to be picky.

Grabbing a bar of soap and a bottle of shampoo, she walked back over to the stool and drain. Setting the cleaning supplied down, Yugito picked up the bucket and unceremoniously dumped the water over her head, drenching her from head to toe. After refilling the bucket with water, Yugito sat down and began washing herself.

As she worked the shampoo into her hair, Yugito found herself hoping that Naruto would be out for a while so that she could get cleaned and dressed before he came home.

Naruto arrived at the front door to his apartment when a thought arrived to the forefront of his mind; Yugito might still be asleep. With this in mind, the blond wanna-be Hokage cautiously and quietly turned the handle, opened the door, tip-toed in and closed the door behind him. Naruto continued to take a couple of light steps into the room just as the bathroom door swung open.

Naruto was then gifted by the sight of Yugito, wrapped in nothing but a towel. Naruto was able to see a good amount of cleavage and her flawless, peach colored skin which was now clearly visible after all the impurities had been washed away. This also brought out her beautiful, long blond hair that came down to her mid back and a little over each shoulder and down to her fairly well-endowed chest.

A droplet of water rolled down her neck, leaving a wet trail as it moved over her clavicle, then moved slowly along the upper swell of her cleavage and disappeared down into the towel as it moved between the valley of her breasts. If Naruto's brain had been working properly, he might have gulped. Had his brain been smart, he would have looked away as well.

While Naruto was treating himself to the spectacular view, Yugito turned her head to see him gawking at her. As soon as Naruto was seen, his position went from enjoyable to precarious. Yugito's face went through several different emotions: surprise, mortification, embarrassment and finally, it settled on anger. Once her emotional disposition had settled on a single emotion, that being of righteous female fury, she acted out of instinct that all women are born with and did the one thing her mind told her to do; start throwing things.

Whoever the moron was that came up with the idea that woman were fragile, sweet creatures must have been completely insane at the time...

The blond male of the duo was soon forced to dodge the many items and objects that were being thrown at him by his female counterpart. Bars of soap and shampoo bottles soon escalated into chairs, then a mattress... and finally, a sink! Naruto cursed under his breath just before the sink collided with his chest, knocking the air out of his lungs as he burst through the closed door, over the safety railing and plummeted down to the ground below.

Naruto groaned in pain as he pushed the sink off of him, cursing under his breath, again. Who do you think would be tasked with fixing that?

Naruto ignored the astonished spectators that had stopped walking when he was unceremoniously thrown out of his own apartment by, of all things, a kitchen sink and stood up. Tentatively, he walked up the steps of the apartment and edged to the door. He needed to tell Yugito about his discussion with the Sandaime Hokage, but he had no desire to have anything else thrown at him. If he stepped in, he might have to deal with a stove or refrigerator flying his way next!

Naruto looked down at the caved in door and cursed yet again. Who do you think would be tasked with replacing that?

Naruto sighed out of self-pity, but he wasn't one to wallow in it for too long as he quickly recovered. Normally, he would have just walked in and demanded some respect in his own abode. After all, this was his apartment, and he was letting Yugito stay there. Honestly, she shouldn't have been so angry, it's not like it was his fault she had walked out of his bathroom covered in nothing but a towel. Still, there was something about an enraged woman that made him think twice. Some form of self preservation instincts that told him waltzing in and demanding respect would be more troublesome then it was worth.

Within the Nara compound both Shikamaru and his father, Shikaku, sneezed. They rubbed their nose, simultaneously muttered troublesome, then went back to their game of Shogi.

Naruto cupped his chin, closing his eyes as he contemplated what his next course of action should be. His objective was to be able to enter his own apartment with having to endure the least amount of physical damage to himself and his wallet.

Naruto, who could be considered mentally inept during the best of times, came up with a complete blank. So he did what he did best: he winged it. Naruto closed his eyes and held his hands in front of him as he slowly walked in. "I'm not looking! Just please! Don't throw anything else!" Naruto instantly pleaded as he felt a blast of killing intent hit him as soon as he entered the apartment.

"Don't you knock before you open doors!" Yugito shouted as Naruto heard and partially felt a knife just nearly embed itself in his skull, but instead punctured the wall just behind him.

What Naruto felt like saying in response was, 'This is my goddamn house, so I don't need to goddamn knock! Dattebayo!' However, even the small-spec processor he called a brain knew that would be a bad idea. Instead of saying what he wanted to say, he said, "I thought you were sleeping and I didn't want to wake you up! I didn't know you were taking a bath!"

Yugito had to admit that his defense was reasonable enough. Truthfully she felt a small amount of shame and gratitude towards him. It wasn't exactly his fault that he had come in just as she was getting out of the shower. Not that she would tell him that. Sighing, she slowly placed the set of sharp kitchen utensils on a nearby table. "I'll let you off this time, but next time you won't be so lucky. Just wait outside and let me get dressed. It'll only take a minute," Yugito stated, Naruto gulped at the threat from the blond-haired girl as he scurried out of the door and did as he was told, leaning against the wall as he waited for Yugito.

Shikamaru always said that women were a drag...

'Point proven,' Naruto thought to himself as he sighed, leaned against the wall and slid down until he was on his butt. He looked up at the sky and shuddered, somehow feeling as if he just escaped the Shinigami's grasp.

Naruto learned something else about women that morning: They take forever to get dressed! Naruto was kept waiting outside so long that he actually fell asleep and was snoozing like a baby by the time Yugito finally walked out.

"Naruto! You wanted to talk to me about something?" Yugito inquired of the boy, lightly shaking him.

"What? What! What is it!" Naruto's shouting got increasingly louder as he jumped out of his sleep, a kunai in hand, acting as if they were being ambushed before Naruto got a clear grasp of where he was and he recollected what happened before he dozed off.

"Took you long enough!" Naruto complained, replacing the kunai in his holster. Yugito looked at him with a raised eyebrow, then looked at the holster that he had placed the kunai in, then back to him. For once, Naruto understood the look, but he just sighed and made a gesture that told her to forget it.

"I went to Jiji..." he trailed off when he noticed her blank stare. It took him a moment to realize that she probably didn't know who jiji was. Thus, he quickly elaborated with, "he's the Hokage, and I told him about you. I asked him if you could stay and he said somebody was going to come and interview you and then you could stay! Isn't that great!" Naruto explained, exclaiming the last part in joy of having his new friend stay in Konoha, despite her seemingly violent nature.

Yugito knew of the rather troubled relationship between Konoha and Kumo, so she was both relieved and ecstatic to hear that she was not being instantly expelled from the village like she had believed would happen if the day came that far too many ninja of this village found out that she was from Kumogakure. She had planned on telling Naruto to keep it a secret, but it was too late and it apparently didn't matter anyways. She was being given a chance to settle in a new village and all she had to do was answer a few questions. How hard could that be?

"How about we go celebrate with something to eat? You're still hungry, right?" Naruto inquired of the girl for the reason he had verbally stated. There was also the small fact that he was hungry, having not eaten much for breakfast since he gave most of his food to Yugito, and if he didn't get a few bowls of ramen in his system now, he just knew he was going to die.

"I am pretty hungry. Do you have a place in mind?" Yugito questioned calmly, but that didn't stop Naruto from giving a loud response.

"HELL YEAH I HAVE A PLACE IN MIND!" Naruto shouted victoriously, pumping a fist into the air with child-like enthusiasm. He grabbed Yugito by the hand, eliciting a very small blush from the girl who was not all that used to human contact. However, after a few moments of being pulled along by the enthusiastic whisker marked blond, she got used to, and even enjoyed the small amount of physical contact. She moved her legs quickly to catch up so she wasn't dragging along behind him, laughing a bit at the expression of childish joy on her fellow blond's face.

It only took a minute with Naruto's insane hunger to arrive at the small, opened eatery. Ichiraku Ramen was a very small wooden stand with a flap hanging over the entrance. Despite it's old and semi worn look, the heavenly aroma that wafted from the place negated any reservations Yugito might have had about the place. Without pausing, Naruto walked in and took his seat. Yugito followed close behind, taking the seat right next to him just as the owner of Ichiraku Ramen turned around to see who had entered his establishment.

The man – who looked to be in his mid to late forties, wearing a faded white shirt, blue jeans and a slightly dirty apron with a chefs hat on his head – was pleasantly surprised to see his favorite customer sitting in his usual seat, but what caught the shopkeeper's attention was the blond-haired girl sitting right next to him. Was Naruto making friends after being alone for so long?

A warm smile came upon Teuchi's face as he greeted the short, blond boy, "Naruto! It's good to see you again!"

Soon after this greeting, which was returned by an equally happy one from Naruto, the chef questioned Naruto about his new acquaintance. "Who's your new friend, Naruto?"

"Oh yeah! This is Yugito Nii. Yugito, this is Jii-san," Naruto introduced Teuchi to Yugito and vice-versa.

Yugito had instantly wished that Naruto told her the elderly man's real name since she didn't feel comfortable with referring to this friendly stranger as 'Gramps'. It sounded rude and disrespectful to call an older person by that, but it seemed that the ramen-maker did not mind at all and perhaps even enjoyed being spoken to in such a familiar name.

"It's nice to meet you, Yugito," Teuchi spoke to the young, blond-haired girl in a warm voice. It was the kind Yugito would have expected in a grandfatherly figure, something she had not experienced. She quickly gave him a similar greeting as the man began preparing a couple bowls that he would pour ramen into. Naruto visited the ramen shop so frequently that it was no longer necessary for him to tell Teuchi what he wanted as it was the same every time.

"What is it that you would like to eat? This may be 'Ichiraku Ramen', but we don't only serve ramen," the shop owner explained shortly to the girl who thought about it for a moment.

"Do you, by any chance, serve tekkadon?" Yugito asked politely, not even bothering to bring her hopes up as she knew that a ramen shop most likely did not contain the rice, raw tuna and special spices that were in the dish she liked.

"I'm sorry, but we don't serve tekkadon here," Teuchi apologized, but also made a small mental note to possibly begin making it. If this girl was really Naruto's friend, then she would possibly be visiting Ichiraku Ramen frequently and it would be a wise choice to begin making tekkadon.

Yugito looked to her left to see that Naruto had gone through already two bowls of ramen and was still going strong as Teuchi placed fresh bowl after fresh bowl in front of him. If Naruto was eating it like that, than the food must have been something special. "Can I get what Naruto is eating?" Yugito questioned the old man who nodded with a smile.

Nobody could eat ramen as passionately as Naruto, but Teuchi's ramen was delicious. Yugito was at first hesitant to try it before the hunger that she had felt through those weeks of travel came to her like a slap to the face and she began to chow down at a speed that rivaled Naruto's.

No matter how hungry someone was, they could not eat ramen of all things, faster than Naruto could. Heck, it was nearly impossible to eat anything faster than Naruto.

At the end of thirty minutes, forty bowls of ramen were piled high. Fifteen were Yugito's and the other twenty-five belonged to Naruto. "How much do I owe you, Jii-san?" Naruto questioned the old man who told Naruto that it was all on the house. Teuchi was happy to see that Naruto was making friends and decided not to have Naruto pay this time around. His income would take a somewhat sizable decline, but Naruto was almost like a son to him.

"REALLY? THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU, JII-SAN!" Naruto thanked the man ecstatically to the point where it could most likely be heard throughout Konoha. Yugito thanked the man as well, but a lot more politely and quietly than Naruto, though she couldn't help but giggle slightly at her fellow blond's rambunctious and overly enthusiastic way of thanking someone. Teuchi, who was pretty much used to Naruto's way of acting just chuckled and waved the thanks off.

Walking out of Ichiraku Ramen, the two blonds took a couple steps before Yugito stopped them with a question, "Where are we going now?"

"That's a good question!" Naruto stated loudly causing Yugito to sweatdrop. He didn't really have any plans on where they should go, reacting more on impulse then any logical thought process, or thinking period... how... Naruto-like. Meanwhile, Naruto was deep in thought as he closed his eyes and made a face as he began to think of an idea on what they should do. Yugito giggled as Naruto's expression went shortly from a calm thinking one, to a straining look that made Naruto seem as if he was constipated in his crouched position.

It was only a minute later when Naruto finally had his eureka moment, jumping high into the air as he pumped his fists, shouting, "I got it!"

"Since your going to be living in this village, I should show you around, right?" Naruto stated in a voice that showed he was praising himself, causing Yugito to laugh laugh. Naruto looked at her for a moment, wondering if she was laughing at him. But seeing the smile on her face that she was sending his way made it so that, even if she was laughing at him, it wouldn't have mattered. The number of people who smiled his way could be counted on one hand. The smile she was giving him – which he absently noted made her more beautiful then ever before – made his world that much brighter then it had been minutes before.

"Alright!" He determined, grabbing Yugito's hand, which this time was grabbed back as the girl was getting used to him acting on what was most likely instincts. "Let's go!"

Yugito couldn't help but mirror Naruto's grin as the whiskered blond began dragging her off to their first destination.

The first place Naruto thought important to tell Yugito about was the Hokage Residence, which was probably the most important building in all of Konohagakure. It was where missions were assigned, where orders were given, where the Hokage stayed and where other important operations were carried out. The central hub of Konoha, as it were.

"This building here is where the Hokage stays," Naruto explained rather vaguely despite its actually importance as he instantly moved, Yugito lingering a step behind as she looked at the massive red structure with the kanji of Hi no Kuni inscribed in the middle of a large circle that protruded out of the building.

"Let's go, Yugito! We're burning daylight and there's still a lot of stuff to see," Naruto remarked in his usual, loud way. Yugito snapped out of her awe and caught up with him as they walked towards Naruto's next destination.

"And this is my least favorite place in the entire village," Naruto spoke in complete disgust about the next building, emphasizing the word 'entire'.

"But it's a hospital," Yugito responded without having to be told what the building was used for. Hospitals were pretty much universal in how they looked; white walls, lots of windows on the side where patient rooms would be and a large glass sliding door. The fact that there was a large sign with the kanji for hospital on the front simply made what the place was used for all the more obvious.

"Exactly," was Naruto's only reply as he began to leave. Yugito followed right behind and sweat dropped as she caught his silent murmurs of white-clad devils, stone-like beds and thousands of tools that would be the death of him.

As Naruto and Yugito walked through the streets of Konoha, the blond young boy pointed out a couple stores and convenient department stores that catered to every shinobi's and villager's needs, from clothes and food, to weaponry and scrolls.

As Naruto continued talking about some of the more important department stores, he almost did not catch on to the fact that Yugito wasn't paying attention anymore. Something else had caught her eye, but Naruto decided to just continue with the tour until he decided she needed to be snapped out of it.

What had caught Yugito's eye, however, was not an item of the many department stores, something in the sky above, or something on the ground below. What had caught Yugito's attention were the villagers that surrounded her and Naruto.

The eyes of these villagers were fixated in one direction and they carried an overflowing amount of anger and disgust, while some villagers' eyes held fear and worry, as if their life could be in danger at any second. Those eyes full of fury, wished their target a thousand painful deaths, while those with fear, wished his very existence away. Those eyes scorned and feared their target at highs that she had never before seen.

Yugito was but only a second from cowering behind Naruto. Back in her village, she was treated much the same way, but what she was experiencing here was ten times worse. This exceeded anything she had ever experienced. Was she wrong about Konoha being a safe haven?

It took a minute or two before Yugito finally managed to note that the scornful glares were not aimed at her, but at the blond-haired boy in front of her, who was still calmly walking through the streets and talking to Yugito as if he didn't have every single villager they passed staring at him with hateful and distrusting glances. How could he ignore the stares he was receiving like that?

A storm of questions instantaneously brewed within Yugito's mind. Why did they hate Naruto? What did Naruto do? Why were they afraid of Naruto? What did Naruto do? Why hadn't Naruto noticed those eyes yet?

Yugito's efforts to answer all of these questions were in vain as they only multiplied and succeeded in frying her mind from overuse. This was quite the puzzle and one that she wanted to solve. She had come up with one possible solution, but the chances that it was the answer were extremely slim to the point where it was nonexistent.

Yugito was finally snapped out of her silent contemplation by the tone of Naruto's worried voice, "Are you okay, Yugito?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. What were you saying?" Yugito assured Naruto who had a worried look in his eyes. The male of the group frowned as he looked at her, trying to see if something was wrong. Yugito squirmed a bit, his eyes could be surprisingly piercing when they wanted to be. However, after a moment or two the whiskered blond couldn't seem to find anything wrong with his new friend. He nodded, then got back to the topic he had been trying to discuss with her.

"I was just telling you about the Academy and asked if you wanted to be a kunoichi?" Naruto repeated as the memories of what happened early that afternoon came to him. Yugito had really good aim with that knife, and those bottles of shampoo, the soap, the mattress... the sink... he shuddered. Naruto sighed, once again in self-pity as he remembered he had to make a couple home improvements when he returned that day.

This moment of regret caused Naruto to miss Yugito's answer and therefore give the blonde the wrong message. "Is there something wrong with that?" Yugito inquired of Naruto upon hearing him sigh, with a voice of slowly building anger that showed she was offended.

"Wait! What? Huh? I'm confused?" Naruto babbled like an idiot at Yugito's seemingly spontaneous fury in both fear and confusion at what had brought it on.

"I just told you that I do plan on becoming a kunoichi and you sighed!" Yugito accused vehemently, wondering why that got Naruto upset. Did he think she was incapable of becoming one? Did he think she was too weak, because she wouldn't think twice about proving him wrong! Even if she was not in her home village anymore, she would still become a strong and proud kunoichi and nobody was about to take that away from her!

Naruto shook his head vigorously as he waved his hands in front of him, trying to show his innocence. "You got it all wrong! I was just thinking about something else and I wasn't paying attention to your answer!"

Naruto's mood went from fearful to bright and cheerful upon remembering her answer, "That's right! You said you were going to be a kunoichi! That's great! That means that we can go to the same school and I think there's an open seat in my class! That means we could be in the same class! That would be so cool!"

Naruto's cheerful attitude only increased as he began hyping himself up even more. Yugito sweat dropped for a moment, almost not believing it was possible for someone to be as happy as the spiky-headed blond. Still, she couldn't help but find Naruto's happy-go-lucky attitude to be both comical and relieving after being on the road for so long. Almost like a nice refreshing breeze on a hot summer's day.

Yugito could not remember a day she had ever laughed so much, or had ever felt this happy and at peace. Naruto was someone special, she was beginning to realize, and Yugito knew that she was extremely lucky to have met him.

As Naruto slowly began to calm down, the two blonds noticed that the sun had begun to set, turning the sky a brilliant orange mixed with reds and purples. "We should go back home, it's getting late," Yugito suggested to Naruto, who had a contemplative look on his face.

Yugito was slowly reaching over to Naruto to check if he was okay when, after several more seconds, the blond still had yet to respond to her question. Considering he had just been shouting like a hyper active little kid, the silence was beginning to get disturbing. Yugito stopped her progress when she heard Naruto speak in an almost uncharacteristically calm, cool voice, "I want to show you my favorite place in Konoha before we go."

'Favorite place?' Yugito couldn't help but wonder where her new friends favorite place was, and how it could bring such a calm look to the normally hyperactive blond.

Naruto held a firm hand down to Yugito to help her up a rather large climb, grabbing the hand she held out and pulling her up to the final ledge. Yugito lightly dusted herself off upon completing the hike. She didn't know why they went through all this trouble to get to one place, but when she looked up, her expression went from one of idle curiosity into one of sheer awe.

Naruto let a small smirk grace his lips when he saw the expression on Yugito's beautiful and glowing features. Naruto remembered when he first decided to come up to this spot and when he had finally succeeded in making the climb, he had the same expression on his face as Yugito did.

They stood on top of the Hokage Monument, which was the highest point in all of Konoha. More specifically, the were standing on the head of the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, who had led the village for quite some time till his death in which the position was once again occupied by the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. He looked out at the horizon, the orange, reds and purples set the sky and treeline below on fire. A beautiful sight, and one of the reasons Hi No Kuni had been given it's name, the Land of Fire.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Naruto commented in that same, strange, calm tone that grabbed Yugito's attention. She looked over at him, noting the peaceful look on his face. What was it that made Naruto so different from how he usually was? Was it the scenery that made Naruto look like a man at peace, or just the situation? Probably a bit of both.

"It's amazing!" Yugito said in an almost silent gasp, her eyes going back to the sky. Naruto's small smirk turned into a warm smile as he lightly held her by the wrist and led her till they were right on top of the head. Naruto proceeded to lay on the ground as he looked over to see Yugito's eyes were still firmly planted on the sky. Grabbing her hand, he directed her attention to him with a gentle tug. She looked down at him and he tugged again. It took her a second, but she soon got the hint and laid down next to him.

"One of these days, I want to have my head right next to this one," Naruto remarked slightly off-handily, Yugito looking back down at him in slight amazement. She remembered Naruto mentioning that the monument had the heads of all the Hokage imprinted on it.

"You want to become Hokage?" Yugito asked in amazement at the seemingly impossible goal. Out of the thousands of ninja in the village, only a select few were ever even considered for the position. The Kage of any one of the five Major Ninja villages were the most powerful of their respective home. To get to that position, you had to become stronger then anyone else in your village. Gaining such a prestigious title required more work and dedication then most people were ever willing to give.

The whiskered blond's response came in the form of a nod and a warm smile on his face that Yugito found very comforting. "I know you saw how the villagers treat me here and to be honest, I don't know why they hate me," Naruto began, an astonished look appeared on Yugito's face. Had he always been this perceptive and just acted ignorant? Or was there something more to the blond's ability to read the situation?

"But that's why I want to become the next Hokage. I want to be somebody, somebody important that everybody respects and acknowledges as someone great. I want everybody to think of me as important to the village," Naruto explained his goal with a certain air about him that made you want to believe that he would accomplish that goal one day. Listening to him, Yugito couldn't help but hope he did eventually become Hokage.

"Jiji always told me stories of how the Yondaime Hokage was one of the greatest Hokages and about how he was so widely respected and known throughout the village and the world. Jiji told me that he died for Konoha the day I was born," Naruto commented with a strange, sad smile as silence overcame the two, Yugito hanging on every word that Naruto was saying. To see Naruto acting so mature when he had acted like a child on a sugar high the entire day made this a rare and interesting event.

"I want to become just like him one day," Naruto finished with a smile as he took one last deep breath and relaxed against the fourth's head, looking up at the sky as his eyes slowly closed and he dozed off into a peaceful slumber.

Yugito, however, was still awake and was looking down on Naruto's peacefully sleeping form as she supported herself on one elbow, watching as the moonlight seemed to dance on his features with a soft smile on her face.

'I couldn't have met a better person, I'm sure of it now... He's so different and special in his own way. He's brash, loud and childish, yet can be calm, quiet and mature. He always manages to make me laugh and despite how hurt he is by how everybody treats him, he manages to keep a smile on his face and ignores it. I was never that strong,' Yugito thought as she unconsciously brought a hand up and began running it through Naruto's golden blond locks. His hair was soft, she mused, almost like fur.

Laying down on her side, so that she could still look at Naruto's sleeping face, Yugito said, "I'm really glad I met you, Naruto." Her voice a mere whisper that was lost on the wind. Soon, the peaceful atmosphere that had overcome the area began to lull Yugito into a sense of security. Her eyes slowly fell closed, and her breathing evened out, as she too, fell asleep.

I also want to end this off by apologizing for the delay in releasing this chapter. I'm a little ill with bronchitis, nothing to serious, but I had a bit of a fever yesterday. My sporadic fever seems to have stopped so I'll be sure to be on time tomorrow. Sorry again.

Till tomorrow, see ya guys.

-Reprise