Chapter Nine

I sighed and tilted my head up to the sky. Why couldn't every day be like this one? The sun was shining and there was a pleasantly refreshing breeze. The only problem? The rest of the world didn't seem nearly as happy as I was.

It had started this morning. It had taken a good twenty minutes to drag Luke out of bed, but this was nothing new and neither was his grumpiness. The only thing slightly off was that his grumpiness hadn't subsided in the least by the time we were ready to leave.

However, I tried not to let this bother me. Using the weather as my horoscope, I had decided that today was going to be a good day. The only person I ran into on the way to Ichiraku's was the the Third Hokage, which was hardly a bad thing. He also seemed to be out enjoying the sunshine, not far from our apartment. He was pleasant as ever. He asked after Luke and wanted to know if we'd settled in all right. It was nice to see someone who genuinely cared about my answers, even if they were just small talk.

Again, there was just one off thing, nagging at the back of my mind through our whole encounter. I'd kept up my end of our small talk and asked after his plans for the day. And of all days, he'd chosen today to pay a visit to the memorial stone. I supposed there was no bad day to pay tribute to a deceased loved one... but it did seem like a dismal decision for such a bright day.

My ever-cheerful boss was looking a little glum today, too. When I asked, Teuchi answered that there were some days that just seemed to drag by, you know? I did know, but I never would have pegged this particular day as one of them. I was starting to wonder, what was wrong with everyone? I often wasn't exactly on the same page as the rest of the world, but this hadn't seemed quite so prominent now that I'd left my world, and thus my old standards, behind.

I grabbed the handle of my ramen wagon and set off, maintaining as much of my good mood as I could. After another interesting chat with Mrs. Five Kids, I set off for Naruto's house. My first delivery hadn't left me with something I wanted to discuss with him.

When I got there, I knocked once before letting myself in. This had become routine. I brought a new stock to Naruto's house once a week or so. But today, unlike most others, I was pleased to find he was still there. So as I was unloading cups and packages I asked him, "Hey, Naruto, have you ever seen the ocean? 'Cause there's this lady down the street who says she never has."

At first I hadn't been able to believe this. In the summer, Luke and I would go to the beach almost every week. I'd almost commented on that before I remembered that we weren't supposed to ever have seen it either. It was moments like these that made me think I probably should have crafted our backstory to more closely reflect our actual lives. But I hadn't let anything slip today, and Naruto wasn't exactly the most observant even if I had.

"No, but I'm going to soon!" he exclaimed gleefully.

"Huh?" I turned to look at him and saw that he was packing, haphazardly grabbing weapons and articles of clothing and stuffing them into a large backpack. "What's going on?"

"My team has been assigned a new mission," he said importantly. "We're going to the Land of Waves!"

"Wow, that sounds… exciting." Of course! The Zabuza Arc! How could I have forgotten? Naruto didn't seem to notice the hesitancy in my reply.

"It's gonna be great! I've never been outside the village before."

"You'll have to tell me all about it when you get back," I said, already edging out the door. I was out of there a second later, walking much more slowly than I had been before I'd seen Naruto. Strange. I'd paid almost zero attention to the storyline since I'd gotten here. Maybe it was because the only person I'd really befriended other than Naruto was Lee, and he didn't come into the main storyline until later on. Whatever the reason, it made me reconsider Luke's question... What did I really want from this world.

After a moment, I realized that I must have subconsciously been drifting towards the field where Gai's team trained. It was a welcome realization, to know that I was already familiar enough with the village to be able to walk and space out at the same time. I was here a little earlier than when I usually came to watch them train and talk to Lee. Good. I needed some time to think. Lee and I made eye contact for a brief second before he resumed training. I sat back and tilted my face up to the sun.

…

It felt like no more than a minute had passed when I felt someone staring at me. When I reopened my eyes, I was dismayed to find that it was not Lee who'd come over to talk to me, but Neji.

He watched me for a moment, his expression a blank mask worthy of a shinobi, as I stared dumbly back. I opened my mouth to say something a few times, but the words never made it out of my mouth.

Neji got a disgusted look on his face. "If you've got something to say, say it!" After another failed attempt at speaking, he snapped at me. "What do you expect to get from hanging around here every day? From what I've seen you're not trying to do anything with your life. So what are you achieving in staring at us? You know, Lee used to train right through his breaks." With a sneer he finished his little rant with, "You remind me of my cousin."

I bristled. Everyone seemed to be questioning my intentions lately. And while Luke may have had that right, I refused to let myself be bullied by Neji. Getting to my feet, I shouted, "Well, I'm not your cousin, and I refuse to be your victim!"

"Hey, hey, calm down."

Huh? I hadn't seen Tenten come over, but she was here, putting a restraining hand on Neji's shoulder. It didn't look like she dared to put her other hand on my shoulder. Good. Neji had put me in a rotten mood. The look on his face was infuriating. What gave him the right to make assumptions about me? And why the hell did he look so damn triumphant?

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Gai and Lee had stopped their conversation and were watching us. Neither seemed about to intervene, but even just their innocent curiosity was suddenly scalding, making me heat up with embarrassment from the inside out.

And suddenly I felt awful. Who was I to be making such an obnoxious, embarrassing scene? I realized how intrusive I must seem to Gai. He worked so hard to make sure his students were the best they could be. And Lee. Was I really holding his prized student back?

I couldn't look at Neji as I walked away. I couldn't bear to see his expression as he acknowledged that I was backing down from his challenge.

…

When I returned the cart to Teuchi for the day, he seemed to be in a much better mood. He'd misjudged the day, he told me.

Tell me about it, I thought. It was like we'd swapped mindsets.

I almost felt like continuing my rotten streak and rubbing it in that his favorite customer was leaving and wouldn't be returning for a few weeks. But I couldn't do that. Not to Teuchi. He was always so- oh my god! Naruto was leaving!

Suddenly I couldn't bear the idea of not saying goodbye to him before he took off on the first really big adventure of his life. Sure, he wasn't as big a part of my life as I'd once hoped he'd be, but we were still friends. I wasn't sure how long the Zabuza Arc lasted in real life. Naruto and I may not have been close, but at the very least, we were a constant presence in each other's lives. And this was a big step for him. He still had a long way to go, but he would grow up a lot over the course of this mission.

I said a hurried goodbye to Teuchi and began running towards the exit/entrance to the village. The crowd parted as well as they could as I barreled past, but the village entrance was still quite a ways away. Konoha was a big place, and Teuchi had cleverly located his stand as close to the bustling center as possible. My thoughts grew more and more anxious as the minutes passed. How long had it been since I'd left Naruto's house? Had they left already? How long had my little spat with Neji taken?

I was almost there when I ran into something hard and fell back, hitting something harder- the ground. I looked up and saw a familiar shock of silver hair, a mask, and a book held in the hand of someone that I most definitely recognized.

I was disappointed to learn that I was still getting that little jolt that blew all my words away whenever I met a character that I recognized for the first time. I was delayed for a moment before I leaped to my feet and stuttered, "I-I'm so sorry!"

"Not a problem," he responded nonchalantly. Thankfully he wasn't looking up from his book; I could feel my face growing red. Awkwardly, we resumed walking. Awkwardly, because we had not been each other's companions before. But we were heading to the same place. At any rate, my anxiety was subsiding. If Kakashi was still here, then I couldn't have missed my chance to say goodbye to Naruto.

When he noticed that I was not only still there, but walking alongside him, he turned a page and asked, "Are you, by any chance, one of the new residents?"

I was surprised. Partly because I hadn't expected him to address me again, and partly because I never would have thought the news of my arrival would have made it to Kakashi. I wasn't sure I wanted to analyze that. "Yes. How did you know?"

Never taking his eyes off his book, he replied, "This is the only path out of the village."

"I know."

"Really?" He sounded vaguely amused, but not altogether concerned. "Are you authorized to leave?"

"Oh, I'm not going anywhere. I want to say goodbye to Naruto before he leaves."

"Is that so?" For the first time, he looked genuinely interested. His eyes even drifted over the page and came to rest on me.

Oh, right. At this point in the storyline, Naruto didn't really have any friends. (I mean, if I stopped to think about it, Kakashi and Iruka didn't really count- they were his teachers. He hadn't found the middle ground between rival and friend with Sasuke yet. He and Sakura didn't really get along, and Hinata had yet to work up the courage to talk to him. That left me who saw him roughly once a week…) This realization left me feeling a little sad. Naruto was always so cheerful. Spending time with him in person, it could be surprisingly easy to forget all that he had been through- all that he was still going through. I was aware of Kakashi watching me work this out, but I didn't really have time to respond to his words because we had arrived.

"Kakashi-sensei! What took you so- oh, hey, Carly. What're you doing here?"

My blush returned as all eyes focused on me. I averted my eyes from Sasuke and Sakura, fearing I'd lose my voice again.

"I… just realized that I… forgot to say goodbye earlier!" I chirped.

Naruto didn't seem to notice the pauses in my speech. He began to go on and on about how awesome the mission was going to be- how great he was going to be while Sasuke just smirked. While he talked, my eyes drifted to Sakura, who I'd noticed was watching me. She appeared to be deep in thought. I could just see her miscalculating my awkwardness. I would've bet anything she was hoping that I'd fall in love with Naruto and get him off her back.

Too bad for you, I thought. And then the time came when they inevitably had to depart. Not one of the five turned to look back as I remained in the entryway.

"Good luck," I murmured to my loud, excitable friend as he walked away.

…

I had one last stop to make before I returned home. I'd seen the field where Gai's team trained, but I'd never been to the one where Kakashi's team had become a team. What I really wanted to see was the memorial stone. When I got there, I found someone already standing in front of it- the Third Hokage. He must've come back. As nice as the old man was, I realized I didn't know him all that well... Who was it he was missing so much that he'd made his way out here twice in one day?

I slowly approached the stone, and as I watched the Hokage as he ran his eyes over all the names, I felt a sharp pang in my chest. I'd figured the Zabuza Arc only lasted two weeks or so. And then the Chunin Exams would begin… The old man had been so kind to us. I couldn't believe he was going to die soon. A lump formed in my throat.

"Do you ever think about death?" I blurted out. He turned to look at me with kind eyes.

"Not too often," he answered. "I have too much in this life to spend time thinking of any other."

I couldn't look at him. I gazed sadly at my feet. "One time," I told him, "my mother said that no matter how you die, if it's not of old age, it's too young."

He looked at me sympathetically. "I'm sorry your brother's grave is elsewhere."

I hadn't been thinking of Tylor, but now my heart hurt for him, too. "He was only fifteen," I murmured pitifully.

"Do you think he was ready for death?"

I paused. I'd gotten many responses to the news of my brother's death, but I'd never gotten this one. Tyler was only fifteen. He'd spent the majority of his life in a hospital or various treatment centers. But had he always been cheerful or calm? Yes. Tyler had been ready for anything. Even death.

I brushed away the forming tears and smiled back at him.

"Yeah. I think he was."

…

When I got home, I was glad to see that both Luke and I were in better moods. To top off what had remained a fairly good day, Luke and I decided to go to Ichiraku's for dinner. On the way there, I laid out the events of my day in detail to my brother. What particularly interested him were all the new people I'd met today.

"I've heard you talk about the teacher before; what about the other two?"

"I've told you a little bit about Sakura. She's the one with the pink hair. She's still pretty useless right now, but she's really smart."

"And the other one?"

"That's Sasuke," I sighed, rolling my eyes.

Luke grinned. "What's that tone for?"

"Ugh… Sasuke is…" I tried to think of a word to describe the young Uchiha. I knew he was in a lot of pain, but I couldn't bring myself to let that excuse the way he treated people. "Let's just say this- he's the type of guy every girl and her brother is in love with."

Luke's face twisted into a strange expression. "That doesn't include us… right?"

I laughed. "No. Of all the characters I've obsessed over, Sasuke was never one of them." For some reason my favorite characters were never the popular ones.

Luke was laughing, too, at least a little from relief, I was sure. "Come on, let's go get some dinner."

Review please!

I don't own Naruto. I know Neji was a little OOC, but that will be explained in the next chapter. (Well, one of the next chapters…)

Revised June 2, 2016.