Here's chapter 7, everyone! I'm really sorry it's so late, and for the fact that it's been so long since my previous update! . I've been trying to get ahead with the amount of chapters I have written (it's not been going so well).

Anyway, my apologies once again! Now, on with the show! (As with the previous chapter, sorry for the continuation of the sucky fight scene! ^^;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto; should be obvious by this point.

Chapter 7

Ami and her two friends had decided not to get involved in the middle of all the clashes between Kasumi and the rest of them. They had been quite content to sit back and watch as blows were exchanged and blood was shed.

But when they noticed that she had taken down all of her opponents, even if only temporarily, they knew that they had two options: run away, or step in.

Somewhat foolhardily they chose the second (or rather Ami chose for them) and they all stepped forward, making their intention clear.

Kasumi whirled on them, still growling. Her hands moved in an imperceptible blur. Next thing the two lackeys knew, they were pinned to the wall by their clothes; shuriken had been thrown at the areas where their clothing was loosest, had pierced the material and finally stabbed into the wall.

"You want to have a try?" Her voice was guttural and harsh, top lip curled back in a snarl. She spat bloody saliva out to one side, never breaking eye contact once.

And, without waiting for a reply, Kasumi was on her. She jumped up and snapped her right foot out in a head height kick. To avoid the kick making contact, Ami threw her head backwards just in time but the move was too violent, and she lost her balance. As she fell, Kasumi grabbed a fistful of her top and then kneed her in the stomach.

The air went whooshing out of Ami's lungs, leaving her gasping and panting, trying to clutch at the ache in her middle. But just when she started to curl up, a fist was waiting for her and struck – once, twice, and thrice. Kasumi let go as her hand connected.

Next thing she knew, her ribs were being introduced to the unforgiving ground. Having already been unbalanced and only held up by Kasumi, she was sent crashing down after the last punch. A weak whimper sounded in her throat, her eyes clenched tightly shut in her efforts to ignore the pain.

Kasumi looked down at her coldly, wanting nothing more than to grind her face into the dirt and stone or kick her in the ribs whilst she was down. Her breath was coming in harsh, rasping pants, chest heaving with each lungful of air. Despite the numbness that was gradually spreading through her body, her face still bore a pained grimace.

"Anyone else?" She ground out. She was fed up of the pain and the exchanged blows, and wanted nothing better than to relax somewhere.

Relax, huh…? Oh, a trip to the onsen would be lovely, she mused drowsily.

Not only was she ridiculously late for helping out the Sandaime Hokage but she was also in an absolute state. If she went to him now he would know that she had been in a fight; on the other hand he would also know that something was amiss if she didn't turn up without previously notifying him that she wouldn't manage to make it.

No one made a move towards her. Backing away from them, keeping her eyes trained on each of them as much as she could, she reached the exit of the alley and was out onto a quiet and almost empty side street. If the fight had taken place in one of the lanes off of one of the main boulevards, there would have been a crowd of people gathering within a minute and at least one shinobi patrol would have shown up to break them apart.

Instead, Kasumi thought rather bitterly, some stupid fan girls beat me up. I don't know whether I should go straight to Hokage-sama – I am late after all – or whether I should nip into the hospital to get cleaned up.

She walked onwards, lost in her thoughts and not noticing the strange, disapproving looks people were throwing at her. She did after all look a complete mess: her hair was mussed, her lip was split, one cheek was swelling up and it seemed as though she had the makings of an impressive black eye.

If I go to the hospital, Sandaime-sama will find out about it anyway; maybe not the circumstances, but he will hear about my going in and why I needed to go there. Better, I guess, to get it over and done with, she let out a heavy sigh, shoulders slumping slightly.

A lance of red-hot pain stabbed through her shoulder and neck, causing her to grit her teeth as she tried to continue on despite it.

If only that d-damn painkiller would kick in just a bit quicker; she gritted her teeth against the pain, but couldn't stop herself from wincing.

Kasumi was rather disappointed in herself: there had been several strikes that she could've easily avoided or blocked, and she could see the scenes repeating over and over in her head.

When she did that, I should've… And then I could have countered with that. Ugh, this isn't helping. I was sloppy; I need to train harder. If that had been a battlefield, I honestly would've been dead in seconds. If she were being perfectly honest with herself, she had been worried that she might have come out of the fight in an even worse state that she had. After all, those girls obsessed over Sasuke: if she had angered him as greatly as they had implied, she wouldn't have been surprised if they had gone rabid on her.

Whilst lost in her thoughts, she was steadily approaching the Hokage Tower, which also meant that she was wandering into some of the busier streets. And people were still out and about, doing chores or meeting friends in one of the cafés – normal, everyday occurrences.

She wasn't blind to the peculiar looks or the disapproving ones she was getting from some adults.

Maybe they think I'm some troublemaker who likes to get into fights. I probably look like one right now; she snorted lightly, amused by the notion.

It was when the shadow of a large shape fell over her that she finally looked up, beforehand having been most interested in studying the ground for any secrets that it might divulge. Apprehensively she approached the main entrance and made her way inside, nodding in greeting to the Hokage's secretary as she passed.

"Yuhara-san, what happe—?" Her voice trailed off into oblivion, both due to her shock at seeing the condition of the small, blue-haired girl and also the fact that she walked straight past without even acknowledging her presence.

"'M fine," she muttered.

She knocked timidly on the door to the Hokage's office and slurred, "Yuhara Kasumi, Hokage-sama."

"Come in." The door opened and, before he looked up from his paperwork, his mouth started to run on autopilot. "I'm glad you could make it. I was getting a little worried when you didn't show up on time."

Then he diverted his attention from the documents in front of him. He paused momentarily, taking in her dishevelled and beaten appearance with a carefully bland expression, before he asked in a soft voice, "What happened?"

Kasumi trembled slightly; she didn't want him to know about the fight as the reason behind it was rather petty – she didn't want to see the disappointment in his eyes, or the hardened and cold look that meant much the same.

She gulped, uncomfortable under that expectant gaze and it wasn't long before she broke eye contact with him.

"I-i-it's g-good to s-s-see you as well, Sand-d-daime-s-sama. Y-your work hasn't been t-t-too stressful I h-hope," she knew it was a blatant and pathetic redirection of the conversation, and one quick glance at him proved the point that it hadn't worked and he was most certainly not impressed. She couldn't help but shrink away from him slightly, the fear and apprehension she felt worsening her stutter to levels that she hadn't been at for years.

"Kasumi," he sighed. "You can tell me; I won't get angry."

She flinched and immediately looked down, "A-ano… It-it's n-nothing t-to worry about, Hokage-sama."

"Kasumi, why did someone do that to you? Who did it? Was it some of your classmates? People you bumped into with Naruto?" He had a feeling that it certainly wasn't the last one; she wouldn't have been so reluctant to tell him if Naruto was possibly getting beaten.

"Iie. I'm al-alright, honestly – I just fell, th-that's all. I've t-taken some pai-painkillers…" She trailed off, looking uncertain and dithering about something. Then she took her report card out of her pocket and handed it to him, "I, ano, w-wanted t-to give this to you S-Sandaime-sama."

He sighed again. "Don't think I've forgotten about it – I will be asking you again later, and I expect you to answer me." He then took the document from her grasp and smiled at her, "Ah yes, Iruka told me that it was nearing this time again. Have you done particularly well this year?"

It was something that she had gotten in the habit of doing a year previous. She looked upon Hiruzen as a surrogate grandfather and had started to show him the report that she got each term. However, their final year was rather unusual in that they received their progress and ranking information the term before they had the genin test. It was the only one they were given, and was a both a review of the previous years and of their development through the current academic year.

He had felt particularly touched the first time that she had, since it proved to him how much she trusted him. He never failed to feel proud of her achievements either, knowing that even when she sometimes slipped up, she would no doubt have been trying her best.

And it's not as if her father cares about her progress at all, unfortunately.

She, to his surprise, looked very uncomfortable and bashfully scuffed her feet against the floor, "Ah w-well, you see… I thought that there m-may have been a mistake."

Sarutobi looked down at her curiously, one eyebrow raised. She indicated that he should see what she meant and so he obliged her. He opened the booklet and slowly scanned the information presented. She bit her bottom lip and fidgeted, waiting for his reaction. When he placed it down on his desk and turned his attention to her, the nervousness that she had been feeling seemed to increase tenfold.

But the radiant smile that he gave her cleansed her of the ugly, uneasy emotion and she found herself smiling shyly in response. He praised her for her progress and she squirmed from the compliment, feeling awkward.

"So why did you think there's been a mistake?" He was rather interested in finding out the reason why.

"Ano, that is… Uchiha-san has always b-been first in our y-year. I c-can't believe that—"

"You had improved beyond his level in some aspects?" Her fiery blush confirmed his surmise. "Surely it shows that you have tried harder to better yourself, no? Is that not something to be proud of?"

"Yes, y-you're right, Hokage-sama. I'm s-sorry," she bowed her head, ashamed.

In response, he sighed and then let out a tired chuckle, waving away her apology, "Kasumi-chan, there is absolutely nothing you need to apologise for. I understand why your results may be hard – for you – to believe, but it only proves how much you have improved."

She nodded, biting down on her bottom lip. How could she be such a fool? Evidently she had been working hard the entire past year. Thus she had earned the academy ranks. So, why do I feel that Uchiha-san would've been the better person to get it?

She couldn't think of an answer. And her temples were starting to throb and her whole face ache, the painkillers she had taken fading.

The Third Hokage seemed to notice her slight wince and frowned, "So Kasumi, ready to tell me who it was that made such a mess of you?"

Kasumi couldn't bring herself to look him in the face, "I… I-it doesn't matter, Hokage-sama."

"Yuhara Kasumi. I won't ask again." His voice was stern and held a hard edge. It made her realise that he was her leader and that, if and when she graduated from the academy, he would be giving her orders that she had to obey. It was a tone that brooked no argument – she had pushed her luck as far as he was willing to let her.

So she summoned up her courage and looked at him. She bowed low and then, swallowing hard, stuttered, "I b-beg your forgiveness, Hokage-sama. It was s-some girls from my class a-and the year above: Yamanaka-san, Ami-san and f-four others. Th-they were not happy about my marks, believing that I m-must have cheated or bribed my way into having higher marks than Uchiha-san. They think that no one could be his superior in s-skill, and so t-took it upon them to 'teach me a l-lesson.' I, ano, I h-have to admit that I am n-not blameless," her cheeks heated up, "I-I said some things th-that egged them on, and I also r-retaliated... G-gomen nasai."

Sarutobi interlaced his fingers and rested them against his mouth as he listened to her explanation. He then groaned and, pinching the bridge of his nose between two fingers, said, "I see… Well, whilst I cannot admit to being pleased with your conduct in this matter – both in here and with them – I am far angrier with them. Six against one, over such a petty thing? Tell me, was Sasuke the one who recommended they take action like this?"

She shook her head and, without realising, straightened to attention in front of him, arms behind her back. "No, sir – in fact when I suggested that they were fighting Uchiha-san's battles for him, they got quite upset. I d-don't think he knowingly had anything to do with it."

He sighed again, "Very well. I'm glad to hear that, at least." He gave her a tired smile, and Kasumi was suddenly struck with just how old he was. "Let's take you to the hospital, shall we? And then we can maybe go and find Naruto at Ichiraku ramen."

She nodded and walked out of the room with him, trying to hold back a grimace. She glanced upwards and met the Hokage's gaze, which was back to normal, as kindly as ever.

Only I've seen the steel, the leader, behind it, she thought with awe and newfound respect.

"There, now," the Hokage smiled down at her, "you almost wouldn't think that you had been in a fight at all." He ruffled her hair fondly and then turned to the iryō-nin who had healed the damage. "Thank you for helping out, even though I'm sure you have a busy schedule."

He waved the Hokage's thanks away, "It's no problem. Even if it weren't my duty, I would've been happy to help." The medic looked down at Kasumi and grinned. She was surprised by the fact that he seemed quite young. "Take care now, and try not to get in trouble anymore, 'kay?"

She nodded, looking down at her feet and feeling ashamed of her actions all over again; "I'm s-sorry for troubling you."

"Nah, it's okay. Just take care of yourself, you hear me?" He started to walk away and suddenly Kasumi was reminded that she wanted to ask something.

"Ah, please wait!"

He paused and looked back, "Yes? What is it?"

She fidgeted slightly, noticing that even Hiruzen was looking at her, interested. She hadn't wanted him to know about this but she needed to be sure that no permanent damage had been done. "The-the thing is I, umm… I dislocated my sh-shoulder over half a year ago – I had some physiotherapy sessions to make sure n-nothing was wrong with it, but I l-landed on it hard once or twice. I just w-wanted to be sure nothing's wrong, b-because it was giving me a bit of trouble."

The iryō-nin frowned and then replied, "Well, I can always run a diagnostic jutsu on it if you want. I'll be able to tell right away if anything's wrong." She nodded gratefully. "So which shoulder was it?"

"It was m-my left shoulder."

He nodded and his hand hovered over her shoulder blade, the glow surrounding his hand indicating the commencement of the jutsu. His eyes fluttered shut as the frown marring his face deepened. He moved his hand around the area, carefully checking.

"Well," he said finally, "you have no need to worry. Apart from being bruised, there is no indication of the joint having weakened again. The physiotherapy, and the fact that you're young and fit, completely solved the problem."

Kasumi sighed in relief and then smiled shyly at the man, "Th-thank you very much. I appreciate y-your time."

Once he had walked off and out of sight, the Sandaime Hokage turned to her and asked, "How was it that you dislocated your shoulder?" Outwardly he merely seemed curious, but he was worried about the implications of such an occurrence.

She looked rather uncomfortable at his question and mumbled, "It, ano… W-was just a t-training mishap." Not wanting to linger on the subject any more – and hoping to deter him from asking more questions – she jumped up out of her seat and exclaimed, "Anyway Hokage-sama, d-didn't you say something about getting ramen? It'll be great if Naruto's at the stall."

With that she bounced away and out of the hospital. Hiruzen just frowned as he watched her back disappear through the doors. It couldn't be, could it…? He hoped not; he didn't even want to think such a thing possible. Well, it seems like I'll have to keep a closer eye on Kasumi, he thought grimly as he followed her out of the building.

The smell that wafted down the street as the two of them approached the ramen stand wrapped itself around their hearts like a hairy worm.

I'll never get tired of Ichiraku ramen, Kasumi thought dreamily. It was fairly strange that she felt that way, considering she had never been there before she met Naruto. Now, although she didn't eat quite as much as him, she was pretty much considered a regular. I can definitely say that my life – up until the moment I was first taken here – was lacking.

A familiar loud and energetic voice emanated from inside the booth; Kasumi shared a significant look with the Hokage.

"S-seems like we will find Naruto-kun here."

Hiruzen smiled a smile that seemed to say, "of course, did you ever doubt it would be so?"

They ducked (or rather the Hokage did; Kasumi was small enough that she didn't need to) under the drapes of the stall and sat down next to a fair-haired, orange-clad boy whom they both recognised very well.

Said boy was in the middle of inhaling a large bowl of ramen and didn't notice them as they came in; too distracted was he by his food.

"Hello, Naruto-kun;" quietly she greeted him as she took the free seat to his right.

He looked up from his meal, surprise evident on his face; it was replaced by a searching gaze as he looked at her. Then, slowly, his face was bisected by a huge grin. "Kasumi-chan!" He cried happily, "You here for some ramen? It's really, really good today!"

Teuchi, the owner of the stall, heard him and light-heartedly huffed, "You mean it isn't good normally? Brat!"

Kasumi giggled a little at that and Naruto laughed too, relief momentarily flashing across his face. She's okay then – that's good. I was worried when she looked down. I wonder if something happened…

"No, no!" He sniggered, trying to placate him. "The ramen from here is the best; it's always the best! But it's just… It's even better today!" He gesticulated wildly with his arms.

That had Kasumi and Teuchi laughing again, and even the Hokage joined in with a low chortle of his own. Naruto laughed along, enjoying the moment. Hearing the people important to him in high spirits made him feel content – especially knowing that he was the one who had amused them so.

He grinned cheekily, screwing his eyes up, "Oi, Sandaime-jiji! You have to treat Kasumi-chan to a bowl of ramen. I mean, have you heard how awesome her marks were?"

Hiruzen smiled indulgently and replied, "Yes, actually, I did see her report card. I was very impressed." Kasumi blushed upon hearing the praise and ducked her head, trying to avoid the attention. He just chuckled before asking, "And how did you do, Naruto?"

Naruto pulled a face, "Meh. Same as always, I guess."

"I see…" The Hokage spoke softly and then reached over to ruffle the boy's blonde locks. "Don't worry about it. It's your last report. Before you know it, you'll have graduated and you'll be a genin."

"Ha! As if I'd let it get me down, jiji. It's not long until our graduation exam, and I'm gonna ace it!" He exclaimed enthusiastically.

The aged man nodded ponderingly. "So I presume that confidence means that you're all set for the exam. Have you improved on your jutsu? You didn't manage so well with bunshin no jutsu the last times you tried for the graduation exam."

Naruto scrunched up his nose and said, with a dismissive hand wave, "Details, shmetails… Jiji, there's no need for you to sweat the small stuff. I'm going to be Hokage after all; there's just no way I'm gonna fail!"

Kasumi decided to speak up in Naruto's defence, seeing the dubious look on the Hokage's face; "H-he has been t-training h-h-hard, Sandaime-sama. Iruka-sensei has b-been tutoring us a-after classes. We w-were even taught h-how to do shunshin no jutsu. I w-would say we've b-both improved."

The boy frowned whilst listening to her talk. She's stuttering much worse than usual. Something did happen to her. The question is what? He studied her whilst there was a lapse in the conversation and his eyes picked up dried blood around the collar of her top, the grit and muck in her hair and on her clothes. Could it have been a fight? He considered that for a while. But she's not really the type to get into fights.

"Kasumi, you okay?"

Her whole body jerked to a halt and slowly she turned her head to look at him, eyes wide in surprise and— wait… Was that fear? His blue eyes narrowed.

"I-I'm f-fine," she gulped. "Wh-why d-do you ask?"

Uh huh… "No reason!" He chirped, hiding his suspicions behind a bright grin. "Just you're not eating your ramen, so I was kinda worried."

Her tense body posture relaxed, not obviously but still enough for it to be noticed if someone was watching her closely – which was exactly what Naruto happened to be doing.

"Ah! O-of course. I-I'm sorry." She turned her attention towards the steaming bowl in front of her, and broke her chopsticks with a murmur of, "Itadakimasu."

I wonder what happened. It wasn't her father again, was it? He continued to scrutinize her whilst she was busy eating. No… He concluded. If that had been the case then I don't think she would've wanted to risk the Hokage seeing her. And she'd also be more withdrawn; apart from her stutter, she's just like she always is.

Very slowly, so as to not attract the Hokage's attention, he sidled over to her. "Kasumi," he said, his voice a low, almost inaudible murmur, "you know you can tell me anything, right?"

She looked at him from the peripherals of her vision, not turning to face him. Warily she nodded her head once, disguising it by bowing her head to cough into her hand.

"Then why don't you just tell me what happened?" She looked as if she was going to protest (She'll probably say nothing happened, he supposed) but he interjected, "You know, there's blood on your collar." Kasumi gasped, and her hand flew up to her neck; then she realised that she'd put her foot in it.

His tone had been light and conversational, but it became hard-edged, "Something happened, Kasumi. What was it?" His last sentence was ground out, emphasised with a pause between each word of his question.

She glanced over at Hiruzen and, upon seeing that he was engaged in a conversation with Teuchi, allowed herself to sigh, her body slumping.

"I- it was Uchiha-san's fan girls."

"What about them?" Naruto queried mildly, informing her that she wasn't getting away without giving him some details.

She scowled lightly at him; "They— somehow th-they found out about m-my s-school report, and they…" She couldn't bring herself to say the rest, and instead let her broken sentence trail off into silence.

But Naruto wouldn't stand for that. "Yes, Kasumi? They what?" He verbally nudged her.

She found herself gritting her teeth, her jaw tight. "They felt the need to teach me a lesson."

"I see." His voice was dark. There was a pause where neither of them said anything and she was just turning back to her bowl of soup noodles, when he prompted, "And?"

I hate you for being so insightful, sometimes; she griped bitterly, the feelings of humiliation and anger coming back tenfold. She hissed, her expression filled with self-disgust, "And they beat me up. Thankfully I managed to return the favour to some of them. But I was pathetic! I w-would've thought that with all of the extra training I've been doing, I would've managed to keep them at bay, but no... And then, then I ran away like a cowar—"

"Kasumi." He had placed his hand on her arm and was looking at her warningly. She was about to ask him why he had interrupted her (especially since he had been so pushy in the first place) when she noticed that Teuchi, Ayame and the Hokage were looking at her, the same strange look shared on all their faces.

She ducked her head again, mumbling her apologies and proceeded to finishing her ramen. Obviously I got louder than I meant to be.

When the adults' attention ceased to be trained on her, Naruto spoke up again. "Kasumi-chan, how many of Sasuke's fan girls were there?"

"Six."

"And you fought them off?"

She hesitated, shrugged; "If you can call what I did fighting them off."

"That's impressive. You might be disappointed 'cause you got battered a little, but you defended yourself against six opponents.

"Of course you're not going to be untouchable with such odds against you – we're not even genin, for goodness' sake – but I think the fact that you held your own is worth keeping in mind. You shouldn't be so harsh on yourself; just train harder for next time, ne?"

She nodded again, biting on her lip in an effort to hold back the tears that had sprung to her eyes. She didn't even know why they had; she felt she had no real reason to want to cry.

"Hai…" You're right, Naruto-kun. "Thank you."

I'm not entirely sure that there's much that people won't know, in this chapter... If I've missed anything out, feel free to give me a shout! ... Hey, that rhymes! Ha ha!

Glossary

iryō-nin: medical ninja

Well, until next time! I would love to promise that it won't be so long until my next update... Well, hopefully it shan't be. ^^;