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The Story of Us
'For those who never gave up'
Naruto x OC
Friendship, Adventure, Romance
Chapter 6: The Greatest Asset
Some of the most powerful chess pieces are the ones least noted.
7 Years: Lukas Graham
"Naruto, running at me like that isn't going to help." I said while dodging another attack. Naruto had initially been hesitant to properly spar with me, but after I dodged him several times his inhibitions dropped as he furiously punched at me. I was faster though, much faster, which made up for my lack of strength.
Naruto aimed another punch at me, but I caught his fist and yanked him off balance before kneeing him in the gut. He wheezed and dropped to his knees while I made space.
"You get too frustrated, think a bit more. You're really smart when you want to be, just don't let your temper get the best of you." I said while lowering my stance again. Naruto stood up, getting ready to come at me too. He rushed forward, and right when I was thinking he would be caught in the same trick he instead let me grab his fist before yanking me towards him and kneeing me back.
One big difference between Naruto and I? His blows hurt a lot more. I was KO'd with that one hit, collapsing in the dirt. Naruto immediately dropped to his knees and checked me over.
"Kari! You okay? I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you!" He continued to ramble, but I wheezed out a laugh to stop him.
"Man, that wasn't a real blow? I'm scared how bad a real one would hurt." I teased. He blushed while helping me to my feet.
This training had been prompted because of an….. incident at the academy a few days ago.
I'd been at the academy for six months now. It was the middle of winter and very cold. Naruto often handed me his jacket while walking home from school because I was shivering with even my winter coat on. It also made a great time for cuddles as he was a furnace.
Anyway, I had been training with Kakashi for four months now. So far he had been getting my stamina up, explaining the amount of chakra I could endure using was directly proportionate to my physical and spiritual capacity. This also meant that I would need to learn how to control my chakra in order to gain a better understanding of the proportions needed for jutsu. He had me climbing a tree, without my hands.
Hey it sounds silly, but it was working.
I still couldn't get very high, but I had made it several feet up the tree by now. The first few days I couldn't even get up three steps, small victories and all that.
So with this training came a new found cockiness. I was feeling good about myself, I had speed under my belt, and I also had a target for that cockiness.
Sasuke Uchiha.
I didn't understand why the girls liked him so much, frankly the kid was kind of annoying with how rude he was. He kept to himself though, so that was nice.
He and Naruto were often set to spar, mostly because Naruto would leap out and give little chance for someone else to pick a fight. Well today, Sasuke laid Naruto out pretty hard. It wasn't the physical blows that made me mad; we were ninja after all. Physical injuries were going to be very common unfortunately and getting used to them was important too. It was what he said afterwards that got me.
"Why don't you stay down for once? Loser." Sasuke began sauntering away. I was livid, and in the span of three seconds I tossed a rock at the back of his head. It hit him with surprising accuracy. He winced, then spun and glared at me.
"Don't talk to him like that." I warned. The Uchiha narrowed his eyes at me then, but I refused to back down. He took a step towards me.
"Losers protecting losers. Typical." Sasuke said while I gave Naruto a hand up. He had a mean bruise on his cheek from where Sasuke kicked him. I scowled at the black haired boy.
"You wanna go?" I growled. We stared each other down until Iruka-sensei cut in.
"Alright, that's enough you two. Hikari, you'll be facing…."
That was one day, another, Sasuke and I were chosen to spar. I was ready, I was excited.
I also got kicked in the face.
Now I will say it wasn't as quick of a fight as Naruto. I managed to block and dodge several of his attacks before he tripped me up and got one hell of a kick in. It went straight through my guard and hit me in the face. Thankfully my guard was up or I would've been out. Sasuke stood over me, hands in his pockets.
"Hmph, like a said. Just a bunch of losers." He turned his back to me and sauntered off. I growled, throwing a rock at him again, but he spun and caught it. Embarrassment flooded me, and while Naruto helped me up I had to sport that bruise on my face for the rest of the day.
My mood was sour after that.
Kakashi took note, so I explained what happened. He was unimpressed with me, which took me by surprise.
"Don't compare yourself to others. Don't act cocky or it could get you killed in a real battle. Respect your opponent, even if you hate them. You may have the same capacity or more than another, but they may grow faster than you. Don't compare yourself. Focus on yourself and you'll grow at the right rate."
It prompted me to refocus myself, and let that flub go. I then told Naruto we needed to start training more together.
In the morning, I did my training with Kakashi. Then I went to the academy, before either playing with Naruto and the others or training with him in the grove. We often didn't go home until the sun was almost set. At which point I would get nervous and yank him along.
Naruto was impulsive as all get out, but even he had his reservations now and again. Namely, his supposed crush on Sakura Haruno.
I could see it, she was pretty cute, but her attitude was awful. I had pointed it out a few times, but Naruto ignored those comments. He insisted she wasn't that bad, but I witnessed her screaming at Naruto for sitting in her spot one day and had a few choice words. The girl had gone from shy and nervous to a cocky brat over winter. This all came with the territory that many of the girls were squealing over Sasuke at all hours of the day too. I had to agree with Shikamaru when it came to these things, they were just a drag.
Another month passed since the Uchiha debacle and meeting Hinata. It was beginning to warm up, but I was still frigidly cold all the time. Kiba would laugh at me, prompting Naruto to pick a fight with him. It happened a lot, sadly. At least it gave us a show while we ate our lunches. Shikamaru would say it was such a drag to have two loud mouths as friends, but never really made an effort to get up and leave.
I was sitting with Choji and Shikamaru on my right while watching Naruto and Kiba argue and scream, still shivering with Naruto not snuggled up next to me, so Choji offered me his jacket in exchange for a rice ball. I happily agreed and was soon enveloped in warmth.
"H-Hikari… may I sit next to you?" The soft voice of Hinata flitted to my ears. Hinata Hyuga was a very shy yet kind girl that I had made friends with during flower arranging. I was at a loss, and ever since throwing a rock at Sasuke Sakura had abandoned me. She would give me the side-eye in class, along with several other girls, but Hinata had noticed my struggling and walked up to help me. I would forever be in her debt, but when I told her as much she nearly passed out.
I smiled at Hinata and scooted over to make room on the bench.
"Sure thing Hinata. How are you today?" I asked, nibbling on the rice ball I had left. Hinata glanced at the other two boys nervously, but they both didn't do more than nod at her as they continued to watch the show in front.
"G-Good….. Um… I wanted to ask you something….. I saw you training with Naruto yesterday. You got hit pretty hard in the ribs….." Hinata trailed off, but I understood.
"Oh that! Don't worry, Naruto didn't even put half his energy into that punch. I'm bruised, but not broken." I confessed, plenty aware that Hinata came to watch us spar. I didn't know why, but she wasn't doing anything bad by watching, and I got the feeling someone as shy as her needed to see two people who were friends sparring to get stronger. Maybe it was helping her somehow, since she had become a lot more vocal with me since then.
She still passed out if Naruto came by, and I had no idea why.
Hinata looked up at me, but shied away from looking into my eyes. I didn't take offense though, and simply waited. She definitely had something she wanted to ask me.
"O-Oh, that's good. Um…. I was wondering….. you and Naruto always have the same lunch everyday…. Is it your…. Or is it his…. Favorite?" She asked slowly, delicately saying each word. I looked down to my rice ball and chuckled.
"Definitely not, Naruto loves ramen, but I make him eat it only at home or else he'd only ever eat that. I make us rice balls everyday because they're easy to make and I don't know how to cook much. Naruto's pretty handy with making fish, but that stuff's gross." I explained before taking another bite of my rice ball. The last bite. Choji and Shikamaru looked at me then.
"What about your mom? Doesn't she make you anything?" Choji asked. I froze, my chest tightened, but then forced a smile as I busied my hands by starting to pack away my bento.
"Oh, she and my father….. they passed away last year. I live in the apartment next to Naruto, so we just share everything." I explained. Hinata gasped.
"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-" She cut herself off, but I did my best to smile.
"It's okay! You didn't know! Besides, I've got Naruto. So it's not so bad." I said, looking out at my goof ball who was now nose to nose with Kiba arguing. I laughed at them before calling them over. "Hey! You two gunna kiss and make up already? Naruto, your food's getting cold!"
The two boys broke apart at my first comment. Naruto immediately came running afterwards with a sour look on his face, complaining I was going to get a weird rumor started with comments like that, while Kiba stood dumbfounded for a moment before following. My best friend slid into the seat right next to me, asking why I was wearing Choji's jacket before he said hello to Hinata. She squeaked a reply back, but it was drowned out by Kiba stomping in front of us. He scoffed when he noticed I had taken Choji's jacket, staring at me with a frown.
"I don't get it, why are you so popular?" Kiba muttered. I quirked a brow, then laughed.
"Popular? Kiba you realize half the girls glare at me for throwing a rock at Sasuke." I reminded him. Hinata was probably the only girl who didn't hold the same grudge. Kiba crossed his arms.
"That's another thing! Why aren't you all over the Uchiha kid? Both of you are really weird." Kiba muttered, I barked with laughter.
"Ha! Down boy, should I go get the spray bottle?" I countered. Kiba turned red, glaring down at me. Shikamaru sighed.
"What a drag, you really do cause too much trouble." He muttered. Naruto stuck his tongue out at Shikamaru, only getting another eye roll from the Nara. Hinata sat quietly next to me, but when I looked over to her she was smiling. I grinned back, getting back into an argument with Kiba while encouraging Naruto to eat some more.
Lunch was unfortunately over pretty quickly, so Hinata and I had to continue on to Kunoichi class. We were learning how different lands wore their clothing, and what was appropriate for women in other nations to dress in. Not just limitations, but the fashion fads new and old had to be known as well.
I was helping Hinata do the tie meant for Sand village obi's when Megumi, another classmate, sauntered over to us. I looked up at her, surprised she was here. Megumi and her friends spent more time fawning over Sasuke and keeping the other girls 'in check' that she often overlooked me. I didn't really have anything against her, but I didn't know anything about her either. Well, I knew that several girls were scared of her, and that she probably wasn't the nicest egg in the basket.
"Hikari Koissui, we need to talk." Megumi crossed her arms and looked down at me from my crouched position in front of Hinata.
Oh boy.
I excused myself from Hinata and followed Megumi away from the group. She and her buddies brought me around the building, which I was confused about. The boys had extra classes about leadership in the main building. I was really confused when they stopped me by the classroom the boys would be occupying. I glanced in, noticing Iruka-sensei stepping out of the building.
"Why are we here?" I asked, not understanding why these girls were dragging me all this way. Well, I guess I did walk over myself but….
"Because Hikari! We wanted to talk where none of the girls would be." Megumi said. One of her friend clasped me on the shoulder.
"Don't worry! The window's shut! They can't hear anything!" Her friend said. It was a lie though, I could see the upper window open. If nobody was talking inside the class they probably could hear me. The friends gently pushed me against the wall next to the open window. I had only noticed it because of hours and hours of training Kakashi instilled into me of being aware of my surroundings. I probably wouldn't have noticed otherwise.
"We just want to know who you like in class is all!" Megumi teased. I raised a brow; what was she getting at?
"Well, I like a lot of people. I think we've got a dynamic group." I confessed, knowing full well she was looking for specifics.
"No silly! I mean who do you have a crush on?" Megumi insisted with a giant smile. My eyes narrowed. There it was.
About a week ago, I noticed Megumi had been sidling up to any girl with long hair in the classroom. She too had long hair, and I had a feeling it had to do with Kiba starting a rumour that Sasuke liked girls with long hair.
Well, this should be interesting… what should I do? If I tell her pass, she'll keep on bugging me. If I tell her a name I'll have to live that down….. Saying Naruto's name might not be a bad idea, but I didn't want to burden him with more stupid crap when he had enough on his plate. So who would I name?
Or maybe…..
"Ah, you caught me!" I said, holding up my hands in surrender. "The truth is I'm head over heels for Sasuke!"
"WHAT?!" Megumi yelled, but I swear I heard something from inside the class too. I just laughed it off.
"Oh yeah, he's a real heart throb calling me a loser and kicking me in the face. I'm totally in love with him." I jeered, but Megumi caught on.
"Quit jerking me around! You little brat!" Megumi grabbed my jacket, pulling me closer. "Stop lying to me!"
I dropped my laugh and narrowed my eyes, grabbing her hand back.
"Of course I'm lying, just like you're too busy trying to humiliate girls." I frowned, pointing up to the open window. Megumi looked surprised. It was pretty high up, she likely thought I wouldn't notice. "You've been doing this for a while, making girls confess when the window is open, haven't you?"
Megumi went to punch me, but I did the substitution jutsu with her friend. Megumi slapped her friend, and I winced from behind her.
"You really wanted to lay me out there." I commented. It took her a moment to realize I was behind her. She screeched, lunging for me, and immediately Kakashi-sensei's training came to mind.
"If your enemy is bigger than you, use their size to your advantage. They'll naturally take longer to move."
I stepped out of range of another punch, but felt the need to look behind me. Sure enough, the other girl was there. She grabbed my jacket and held me in place as Megumi aimed a punch for my face.
"Don't let your enemy get behind you."
I dropped down, sliding out of my jacket and falling into the snow. Megumi in turn tried to stop her punch, but tripped over me. Both girls went flying from the force into the snow behind us. I got up and looked to see all three girls collapsed around me.
"Ummm….."
"Kari!"
I looked up to the open window to see Naruto half hanging out of it. Kiba was trying to yank him down as Iruka-sensei yelled for them both to stop. When did sensei get back?
"That was so cool! Iruka-sensei! Did'ya see that?!" Kiba yanked Naruto back in, which made them fall in a heap. I could help but laugh a little at Naruto and his antics.
One of the girls on the ground groaned. I looked over to see the first girl still out cold, while the other two were starting to get up. I shivered, sliding my jacket back on before offering a hand up to the girl next to Megumi. She looked at my hand and took it before really realizing it was me. I hauled her to her feet, and she jumped back after a moment. I didn't say anything, and just helped Megumi get up as well.
"You both might want to help your other friend. She's still out cold." I said, gesturing to the one against the building. Megumi screeched, but then looked like she was about to attack again. The other girl got her attention though, and soon both were dragging their friend away.
"Ahem."
I looked back to the window to see Iruka-sensei standing there and waved.
"I was…. I was just heading back to class…?" I offered. Iruka-sensei nodded.
"That would be best." I turned to leave, but he spoke again. "I would also like to see you after class for detention."
"What?" I asked, frowning. "But I didn't do anything this time!"
Iruka-sensei stared me down, I eventually caved and waddled back to class grumbling.
After school I did my extra chores for detention. I was also supposed to write an apology note to each of the three girls that I never even hit. Apparently putting that in the letter itself was not a good point to bring up, as Iruka-sensei made me write it all over again.
I got over it quickly, and by the next day it was well worth it to see Megumi and her buddies with black eyes that she gave them. Megumi glowered at me when I entered with Naruto, but I didn't say anything as I sat between Hinata and my best buddy. I didn't have to, because when she spun to yell at me she tripped a wire and a water balloon fell and hit her in the head.
Naruto jumped up laughing.
"Ha! Believe it! That's what you get!" Naruto jeered. I couldn't help but giggle as well while Megumi screeched.
"I'm going to wring your scrawny neck!" She threatened, but I pointed over to the quiet Uchiha.
"Hey, Megumi, I thought you would sit next to Sasuke. Y'know, since the seat is open and all."
Megumi abandoned her rampage and immediately went flying over to the Uchiha. He glanced at her, his nose wrinkling.
"Sasuke! Can I sit next to you?" Megumi asked in the sweetest tone she could probably muster.
"Get lost, you smell like sewer water." He said, turning his nose up at her. Naruto and I high-fived while Iruka-sensei walked in. He told Megumi to take her seat, she screeched, so he gave her a warning before she returned to her original spot. My nose wrinkled too.
"She really does smell, where did you get that water?" I asked Naruto quietly. He leaned over.
"The koi pond."
I slapped a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing too much. Iruka-sensei looked up.
"Naruto, Hikari, is there a problem?"
"No sensei!" We answered in unison.
"Focus more on your breathing." Kakashi-sensei instructed. I took deeper breaths, trying to control my heartbeat. Sensei told me if I was in battle, being able to slow your heart rate down could help you hide and also keep you head in a stressful situation.
Although I had been training with Kakashi-sensei for nearly eight months now, we hadn't done anything extremely fancy. He said I had to master the basics first, and so for the past eight months he had me doing unorthodox training.
For starters, he would blindfold me, then change something in the environment and get me to figure it out. Sometimes he didn't touch anything, and I had to confidently figure that out. It was really hard, but that training made me catch a lot of tricks and traps that people sometimes set. Even Naruto had a hard time hiding his pranks from me and he was really good at it.
Then we worked on my stamina. Kakashi told me he wasn't going to work on my speed too much yet since I was only seven and anymore intense of training would seriously affect my growth. For stamina he had me run for an hour, and every time I needed to walk I had to perform one jutsu or an exercise of his choice. Only if I was ready to collapse within that hour did he let me stop and even then it was just to get back up and breathe.
The other training was this chakra control. Let me describe how bad I was at it. It was like a fish trying to climb a tree. Maybe more of a snail crawling up it. There was a slow and steady rhythm to it, and in the past eight months I had manage to climb twenty feet to the first branch.
The last training we did was in taijutsu. Again, Kakashi-sensei wasn't keen on overtraining me yet, but that worked in our favour since most of my taijutsu would be based on dodging and counter-attacks.
I was small, a hair shorter than Naruto, and very scrawny no matter how much I ate. A lot of my skills laid in my speed, which I relied on to save myself in the case of sparring at school. So Kakashi taught me mostly moves to dodge and counter-strike my opponent. I wasn't how these moves would help me defeat an opponent, but I guess my opponent can't win if I never got hit.
All this training was great for helping Naruto too. He was a bit faster than me at climbing the tree, but not by much. He had his own stye of taijutsu that helped me learn to defend against someone who didn't have the control to completely pull their punches yet. Naruto really sucked at paying attention to his environment too. It was nice to see improvements, however small they were, and see that things were going pretty well.
People in the village still glared at us, Sasuke still had something stuck where it shouldn't be, but school was pretty fun. Naruto was still my best friend, and I had made some more friends at school.
It was really nice.
After class, Hinata stopped me in the hallway. I waited for her to get some courage before she handed me a book. It had a whole bunch of tabs sticking out, and when I took it and opened it to a random page it dawned on me that it was a cook book.
"Y-You said you and Naruto don't have a lot of recipes…. S-So I made this to help you learn to cook. I…. I picked recipes that didn't require a lot of prep time for you." Hinata said, her face turning pink.
"Hinata…." I was so touched my eyes were tearing up. I gave her a huge smile then, wiping my tears a bit. "This is so sweet, thank you so much!"
I paused, then motioned for her to come with.
"Come on! I'll walk you home! Naruto's waiting for us." I said. Hinata turned red again.
"Oh no, I don't want to impose-" I grabbed her hand and pulled her along.
"Nonsense! You're our friend!" I said, gripping the cookbook tightly. Naruto was arguing with Choji and Shikamaru about something. "Naruto! We're walking Hinata home!"
Naruto immediately turned to look at us both, confusion evident on his features.
"Uh…. why?" Naruto asked. I knocked him on the head once.
"Because she's a friend you jerk! And she did a super awesome thing!" I held out the cookbook. "Hinata made us this!"
Naruto took the book from my hands and flipped it open. Shikamaru and Choji nosed their way in too.
"It's a recipe book! This means no more rice balls for lunch!" I was so excited…! Naruto cottoned on too and grinned at Hinata.
"Really?! Awesome! Thank you Hinata! Hikari complains I eat too much ramen, and, well, I don't eat that much ramen-"
"Naruto you went through six cups in two days!"
"-but it would be so great to eat something other than rice balls and takoyaki for lunch!" Naruto giggled while I felt my stomach growl in anticipation.
Hinata was nearly fainting on the spot. I caught her before she fell over.
"I-It's noth- It's nothing! Really…!" She said, turning to hide in my shoulder. I giggled.
"Well regardless, Naruto, we better go shopping for some good food!" I said, helping to guide Hinata while Naruto walked with his face in the book. I waved to Shikamaru and Choji, who were planning to go to the park instead. Meanwhile I was trying to explain to Naruto that I needed to start with something easy since the closest to cooking I had gotten was stir-fry, which was hard to mess up.
We walked Hinata home, she said her goodbyes while bolting into the compound, before heading home. On the way we came across Sasuke and his gaggle of girls following behind him. He didn't even glance at us, which was favourable since the girls were glaring daggers. Naruto spun to say something, but I grabbed his shoulder to keep him walking.
"Don't worry about it, Naruto. Besides, getting into a fight right now means we can't get to the market." I explained, my stomach giving a perfectly timed growl. Naruto realized what I meant as his own stomach grumbled too.
"Good point!"
The market itself was always rough. I usually did the shopping for both of us alone so that Naruto didn't get shoved around too much. He always got glares and nasty comments, and I was so sick of it already. Sometimes people were mean to me, but most of the time they just didn't look at me.
Naruto bore witness this time though, watching the way people sneered at me, and I had to put up with it if I wanted the food. They made comments at Naruto, we would both retaliate normally, but today I pulled Naruto from the shop after gathering the ingredients. Naruto was not happy, and I didn't blame him.
"Hikari…. Do they always talk to you like that?" Naruto asked on our march home. I said nothing, which was probably more incriminating than saying yes. "Did they only start doing that…. Because of-"
"Don't you dare." I spun around to look at him. He looked surprised. "You. You are not doing this whole pity party thing. We have a mission to do."
His brow quirked as he leaned away from me.
"A… mission?" He asked, to which I nodded firmly.
"Yes! Now….. do you know where we can find fifty pounds of chicken feathers?"
An elusive prank of making a balloon set to explode and toss chicken feathers and wet paint everywhere in the office of that store from the other day was all it took to keep Naruto off the topic again.
I didn't, and wouldn't, talk to him about us being separated. I avoided it like the plague, because the idea of losing someone else, even if it possibly made things better for me, made me sick to my stomach.
So I acted like an adult and ignored it every chance I got.
More time passed by, it was fall, I would be nine this year. Making it 2 years I had been at the academy, and almost 2 years I had trained with Kakashi-sensei.
Kakashi-sensei was gradually increasing my work, but he was also going on a lot of missions so I was left to my own devices for longer periods of time. He did have one favour to ask of me, and that was when I was introduced to his ninken.
"It costs a lot to get someone to come in an take care of them or put them in the kennel, but if you wouldn't mind coming by twice per day to make sure everything is alright that would be favourable." He had told me, and I happily complied. There was something about taking care of animals that was just so emotionally rewarding. Of course they weren't cute little civilian dogs and were trained extensively.
So Kakashi laid out some pretty strict rules for them. If I caught any of them misbehaving I was to note it and report it to him when he got back. However, I found most of the time the dogs were relatively lax. I would swing by in the morning, check that they had food and water, then head to school. Same thing at night after training. I just sent Naruto home to prepare dinner while I went here and bolted home before dark.
Sometimes Pakkun, the littlest dog, would accompany me on my way home. It moderately freaked me out that the puppy had a deep voice, but I digress.
Kakashi would give me a little extra money for doing this, which encouraged me to save up and buy my own kunai and shuriken set. Sensei had also been mentally pushing me now.
"I need you to consider something," he had told me the last time we trained, which was last week. "When I get back from my mission, I hope you have the answer for me."
I looked up at him, and was curious what he could possibly be alluding to. He smiled.
"I want you to tell me. What is a Shinobi's greatest asset?"
The question ticked and ticked away in my brain for days, but still I didn't have a definitive answer. I suppose I could have just asked someone like Iruka-sensei, but that would be cheating.
In the middle of class, I had completely zoned out thinking about the question. Naruto poked me, making me jump.
"Kari, you've been staring at Sasuke's head for the past hour." Naruto informed me. I blinked before realizing the Uchiha was indeed sitting in front of us.
"Oh, I zoned out." I muttered, looking back to see Iruka-sensei talking about something to do with projectile weapons. He noted us talking then.
"Hikari, would you mind explaining the answer?" Iruka-sensei called. I looked up to see that it was a diagram of projectiles. Which pathway was the best route to take?
"A, D, E." I answered. Iruka-sensei paused, then nodded.
"Very good, glad to see you can pay attention and talk at the same time." He said smartly. Naruto giggled next to me, so I poked him back. I did lull back into a zone again, trying to figure out what was the Shinobi's greatest asset.
At first, I wanted to say, versatility, but that seemed too contrived. Some ninja had no flexibility in strength. Others had a lot. Was it their will? Their strength? That seemed too easy. So maybe it was what made ninja different from civilians?
At the park today, I opted just to watch the boys play, not really interested in running around while I thought it through. The kids were playing kick the can, and I only joined in if the can fly near me, but otherwise I tried to think.
Sensei would be home now, I would need an answer soon.
But the more I watched the can fly around, the more I watched what the guys were doing. Calling to each other, communicating.
No but it was more than that. Shikamaru would call out who he was sending the can to. Naruto would shout that he would catch it. Kiba would dive to keep the can up in the air. They were working together.
Teamwork.
"That's it!" I jumped up, scaring the boys so much they let the can drop. I started racing off, before turning back to yell at Naruto. "I've got something to do! Naruto! I'll meet you at home! Bye guys!"
I took off to Kakashi's compound. The dogs were out and about, letting me know Sensei was definitely home. Pakkun was pawing at the front door, waiting to go inside.
"Oh, Hikari, you've come back." I smiled, climbing the steps.
"Hey Pakkun, Sensei is home, right?" I asked, but my answer was given when Kakashi-sensei himself opened the door.
He must've been fresh out of the shower, since he had thrown a robe on and was towel drying his hair still. I had never seen his other eye before, but noted quickly that he kept it closed with a long scar going vertically through the middle.
He looked surprised to see me, though that was easy to see since he wasn't wearing his mask. Droplets of water were falling from his face, and by my guess he didn't realize I was on the other side of the door until he saw me. He looked stumped for a moment, but then smiled, and I had to stare for a moment...
I had one good looking sensei.
"Hey there, is there a reason you're at my door? The dogs are all fine, you did well. I did tell you I would be back tonight, didn't I?" He asked. I made my hands into fists trying to control my excitement.
"Teamwork! The answer is teamwork!" I spilled out. Kakashi was taken aback for a moment, before he gave a full smile. I couldn't help a small blush coming to my cheeks.
"Well, very good. I suppose tomorrow we should start with the real training then." Kakashi said. I nodded vigorously before turning tail to run home.
"Goodnight, Sensei!" I threw over my shoulder. Kakashi waved, before shutting his door.
Now came the real test.
Hey guys!
Well my view count says 1,000 people have read this story in the past week, so I think I'm doing something right. Right?
Thank you for the reviews! Means a lot. Also, I hope this wasn't too hard to follow along as there were several time skips. All you really have to know is Hikari and Naruto are turning nine in a few months! We won't have too many more chapters in their junior years, just 3 I think. I'm really excited to get to the main plot soon enough.
Also, Kakashi's face? Yeah, I originally wanted it to be just that Hikari tells the others off hand she's seen his face, but I couldn't resist. Obviously Kakashi has shown his face, considering Gai has seen it, and probably others. And he's been shown going around without it on before.
I just thought it was cute.
Do anyone have an predictions for what will happen in this story? What her backstory will be about? Do you think that she'll become a chuunin? genin? Do you think her and naruto are going to be bffs for life? Lovers? I seriously would love to know. It's my favorite part to writing; reading your predictions and breaking your hearts.
I mean-
Reading your predictions and turning you into a sobbing mess-
Ok nevermind.
Also check your inboxes if you reviewed! I'm replying to every new review to this story!
Anyway, hope you're all doing well! Wash your hands, and stay safe!
Iland Girl