After Akito's little panic attack, Naruko went back to showing him around the village along with introducing him to her friends and comrades. After a couple of hours Naruko finished showing Akito around and introducing him to her friends and comrades they went back to her apartment.
When they got back to the apartment Akito said "thanks for showing me around and introducing me to everyone. I had fun." Naruko looked away blushing and said "y-you don't have to t-thank me I'm just g-glad you had fun."
"It was a lot of fun although I don't think that Sasuke guy liked me all that much" Akito said. "Don't worry about Sasuke. He's like that to everyone. He's just being a bastard like always but everyone else seemed to like you" Naruko said. Akito nodded his head and said "yeah I'm glad that I made a good first impression and that everyone liked me, especially that Ino girl." "Ino" Naruko growled.
When Naruko was showing Akito around they passed the Yamanaka Flowershop. Ino was helping her parents with the shop when she saw Naruko and Akito pass by. She went over to them wanting to know who the guy was.
After Akito introduced himself Ino started to flirt with him because she found him cute but she stopped when she saw that Naruko was angrily glaring at her with a look on her face that just screamed back off. Ino knew that she better not make Naruko mad ever since the chunin exams, especially watching her practically pummel Kida to a bloody pulp in the preliminary rounds. She swore not to get on her bad side.
Akito placed his hand on Naruko's shoulder and said "is everything ok?" Naruko quickly snapped out of her thoughts and said "I'm ok." Then she suddenly remembered something. "Oh wait a minute, stay here, I'll be right back" Naruko said leaving the room.
After a bit Naruko came back into the room with a sword in her hand. She held it out to Akito and said "h-here." Akito took the sword and ran his fingers across the blade. Naruko started to play with her fingers and said "y-you know Akito y-you can keep it if you w-want."
Akito looked at her surprised and said "really? You're gonna let me keep it." "Y-yeah I know how m-much you like weapons plus I d-don't use it nor do I l-like using it so you can h-have it" Naruko said. "Thank you that's really kind of you" Akito said with a big smile making Naruko's heart race.
A couple of days later Akito had been doing well adjusting to his new life in Konoha while Naruko had been trying her best to not make a total fool of herself in front of him. Even when she did he would just call her cute.
One day Naruko and Akito were at a part of the back hills where Naruko would usually practice her blood jutsu. Naruko was watching Akito practice using his sword. He had been practicing for a while and from what Naruko could tell he was pretty good at it. He even managed to cut down a tree.
When the tree fell down Naruko smiled and started clapping. "Well done Akito. You were great" Naruko said. Akito scratched the back of his head, bushed a bit, and said "come on I wasn't that good." "Trust me you did great. I mean how many people can say that they managed to cut down a tree with a sword" Naruko said.
Akito looked away blushing. "Hey there's something I wanted to ask you" Akito said. "What is it?" Naruko asked. "Why do you come here to train?" Akito asked. "Well I only come here to train on a specific type of jutsu" Naruko said. "What type of jutsu?" Akito asked.
Naruko sighed and said "I'll tell you but you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone else." "I promise you that I won't tell anyone else. You have my word" Akito said. After Naruko explained her blood jutsu to him Akito said "geez, those jutsus sound really dangerous." "They are if they're used to much or incorrectly. I don't have much information on them but I've been using the blood jutsu for a long time so there is no need to worry. I just wish that I had more information on the blood jutsus so that I can improve my blades of blood jutsu and get better at the blood bend jutsu" Naruko said.
"Then why don't you go to the library and find a book on the blood jutsu?" Akito asked. "I can't. The library doesn't have any books like that" Naruko said. "Well maybe you can try asking someone else or go somewhere else to get some information. After all you told me that someone else taught you those jutsus so maybe you can ask them for help" Akito said.
Naruko thought about it for a minute and realized that he wasn't entirely wrong. She couldn't ask the person who taught her the jutsu because well… he died but she could go back to the village of light since she remembered that the library did have a book on the blood jutsu. Naruko pulled Akito into a hug, wrapped her arms around his neck, and said "thanks Akito." She then left and made her way to the hokage's office.
When Naruko got to the hokage's office she asked Tsunade if she can leave to go and find something. It took a while to get Tsunade to agree to let her go but Tsunade eventually caved and told her that she could leave but the thing is she wanted Naruko to take someone with her.
While Naruko was walking through the streets of Konoha she thought 'I still don't understand. Why does grandma Tsunade want me to take someone with me. It's not like I'm going on a mission for a long time. I'm just going to get something then come right back but she's still the hokage so I have to or else I won't be able to go at all.'
"Let's see who should I take? I can't take Kakashi-sensei he's on a mission, Iruka-sensei is at the academy teaching so I can't take him, Pervy Sage is probably spying on some women, if I ask Shikamaru he'll just declined saying that it would be to much of a drag, I don't think Choji would want to walk for that long just to come right back, Ino is helping her parents with the Yamanaka Flowershop today, I know that Hinata would be willing to help me but she is training with Neji so I can't take either one of them, I don't know where Tenten is, Kida is to busy training with Akamaru, I don't think that Shino would wanna come, Lee is still recovering, and I obviously can't take Konahamaru, Udon, Moegi, or Akito they're not ninjas nor can they defend themselves if something happens" Naruko said.
Naruko looked at the ground and sighed, then she remembered Sakura. "Oh wait maybe I can take Sakura. I mean she never really has anything going on when we don't have any missions to do so maybe she'd be willing to help me. After all she's been a lot nicer to me since I saved her and Sasuke from Gaara" Naruko said.
Naruko stopped walking and thought about what she just said. "Oh and there's Sasuke to. I remember that there was a lot of books in the library with interesting and useful techniques and if I tell him that then maybe he'd be interested in coming along but then again…" Naruko said thinking about what Kakashi told her a couple of day after she got Tsunade to heal Sasuke.
Flashback
Naruko was taking a walk around the village. When she was at one of the training grounds she saw Sasuke there training. She was about to walk over to him but she stopped when she heard someone say "hey Naruko." She looked behind her and saw Kakashi sitting on a bench. "Hey Kakashi-sensei" Naruko said walking over to him.
Kakashi stood up and said "so what brings you here?" "Not much, I was just taking a walk to stretch my legs. By the way, I wanted to ask how have you and Sasuke been feeling?" Naruko said. "We've been fine why do you ask?" Kakashi said surprised. "Well to be honest I've been pretty worried about you both. When I heard about what Itachi did to you two, I wanted to know if you two were doing ok" Naruko said.
Kakashi smiled and said "there is no need for you to worry, me and Sasuke are alright. I'm just glad that you made it out ok." "Oh that reminds me I should thank Pervy Sage for saving me from Itachi and Kisame" Naruko said. "What about Sasuke? Aren't you going to thank him to? After all he left the village to try and save you" Kakashi said.
Naruko rolled her eyes and said "oh come on Kakashi-sensei, you're just exaggerating. Sure me and Sasuke are friends and we get along better than we did before but you can't seriously think that Sasuke did that to save me. We both know that he did that just because he wanted to fight Itachi." "I'm telling you the truth" Kakashi said surprising Naruko.
"From what I've been told the moment Sasuke heard that Itachi was after you he left the village and headed straight for the town you were at. He may have not been able to get to you before Itachi and Kisame did but he tried his hardest to protect you even if it meant getting badly injured both physically and mentally. He didn't go through all of the trouble of leaving the village and finding where you were to fight Itachi. He did because he wanted to protect you" Kakashi said. Naruko was extremely shocked and surprised at what Kakashi just told her. She honestly couldn't believe what she was hearing.
Naruko looked at Kakashi with her eyes widened in shock and said "Sasuke tried to…" She then looked at Sasuke in awe and said "save me." Sasuke ran towards one of the wooden stumps with a chidori in his hand striking the stump, shattering it into pieces, and Sasuke fell to his knees exhausted.
Sasuke stood up and tried to use another chidori. Kakashi quickly stopped him telling him to not push himself saying that he should go home and rest but Sasuke as stubborn as he is said that he wants to stay and train some more. Unfortunately this ended up making the two argue causing Naruko to smile and giggled at the both of them.
Flashback End
Ever since that day Naruko has been more comfortable with being on the same team as Sasuke. He's proven to her that no matter what happens she can depend on him to help her and keep her safe when she can't do that for herself. Along with every time they're on a mission she would stand a bit closer to him because strangely enough she would fell safer when she was around him.
Standing there with a big smile on her face Naruko said "you know what, I'll ask Sasuke first then I'll ask Sakura if Sasuke can't join me." She quickly left to go find Sasuke with the same smile on her face and a bit of a funny feeling in her chest.
