_._

The Story of Us

'For those who never gave up'

Naruto x OC

Friendship, Adventure, Romance

Chapter 8: I Love You

There is nothing more pure than someone who loves you because they can.

Perfect: Ed Sheeran

After a burning two more weeks I was finally, finally done that stupid scarf. I nearly teared up when I cut the yarn for the last piece of it. Naruto was circling me like a hawk though, wondering who I would give the scarf to. I offered it to him, but Naruto was completely unfazed at my diversionary tactic. It was a fail, so I ended up presenting it to Sensei. He looked pleased at the work, then drilled me on my hand-signs.

I was nonplussed to see that the dexterity in my hands had drastically increased. This prompting Kakashi-sensei to teach me a different knitting style, which I then had to copy.

"Sensei….. how do you know all these patterns?" I asked him while trying to mimic the newest one he had taught me. He was quiet for a moment, so when I looked up at him I hadn't expected the solemn look on his face. He knelt down, correcting my hands while he spoke.

"My father taught me, because my mother died when I was very young." He said softly. I stopped looking at my hands and glanced up at him in surprise. Sensei had never revealed much about himself to me, though he had asked me many questions.

It felt like there was a wall up all the time with him, but he wanted to help others. Otherwise he wouldn't be training me, right? I felt like there was a lot more to Kakashi Hatake than meets the eye, but maybe I would one day find out.

"He sounds like a good Dad." I encouraged, but immediately regretted it when that sad look crossed his eye.

"He was."

I bit my lip to keep an apology from spewing out. Sensei didn't like when people said sorry, he thought it was pity. That much I had learned from being trained by him. He stepped away, but I could see Sensei was trying not to react to what he had just confessed.

"Ah! Sensei!" I ran around to the front side of him. Kakashi-sensei looked up at me. "I saw you training the other day with the ninken, can I learn how to work with them?"

Sensei smiled gently.

"I've been chatting with them about it. They would prefer to know you better first." Kakashi-sensei confessed. I felt jittery.

"Does this mean I can come and see them more?" I asked, getting excited to see Pakkun again. The puppy was too cute. Kakashi-sensei chuckled.

"Perhaps. I will be leaving on another mission in a few days. Come by tonight and I'll help you work on a few dynamics with them." Sensei said while looking up at the sky. He paused, then looked back down at me. "You should go to class."

He disappeared.

I huffed at the suddenness, but decided not to focus too much on it. I had to wake Naruto and get changed still.

After school, I decided that maybe I didn't need to give my scarf away. I could always just wear it as it was getting colder outside. I had just been leaving kunoichi class when some of the girls ran up to me.

"Hey, Hikari." I stopped at the call of my name, looking to the half dozen girls running up to me. I recognized Ino and Sakura from the group, along with Maya, but that was all.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked. It was a bit unusual for them to talk to me, normally I flew under the radar while they chased after Uchiha. Sakura smiled at me, looking excited. Ino did the same.

"We don't really get to talk! How are you? You doing okay?" Ino asked in a forced tone. I raised a brow, not sure what was going on. Maya grabbed my arm.

"We just want you to chat with us! Have a girl's day." She insisted while going to tug me. I was caught off guard and let them pull me. We ended up walking out of the academy in a weird gaggle, and I was dragged right passed the boys. Naruto looked confused, but soon started cooing to Sakura.

"Sakura! Hi Sakura!" Naruto called. Said pink haired girl whipped around to growl at him, but Ino smacked her shoulder.

"Ha ha ha! Sakura don't get so worked up remember?"

Well that wasn't suspicious at all.

"Hey where are you taking Kari?" Naruto asked. I looked over at him and shrugged, not sure what these girls were getting out of this, but I was sort of curious where this was going. I simply waved to my friends and said my farewells. Naruto gave a confused wave back as he stood there watching us flit down the steps and out of the yard.

The girls ended up taking me to Ino's house, which was attached to the flower shop. It made sense how she knew so much about flowers, now that I thought about it. We went inside, and I struggled to keep up with the cheerful chitter for the six girls. I was feeling pretty overwhelmed about it all to be honest. I hadn't been this close to so many girls before without at least one person snapping at me for it.

Ino dragged us up to her room before clasping her hands together and turning to me.

"Okay! What should we do? Oh, how about we paint your nails?" Ino asked. I looked to the chipped mess of nails that I had.

"Oh, that won't do, they break every time I train." I confessed. Sakura looked surprised.

"What are you training for?" She asked, taking my hand to inspect them. I felt a bit lost at that comment, considering she too should've been training to be a ninja.

"Uhhhh….." I was ignored though as Ino called another girl to bring a nail file. "Really, it's not necessary-"

"Oh don't be silly! We'll just leave them without any colour." Ino insisted. I gave in, sitting on her bed next to her silently as she and Sakura worked on my hands.
"Wow, Kari, your hair is so soft! What products do you use?" Maya asked while brushing the long locks out of my ponytail.

"Uh, it's Hikari…. And, well I don't really use anything special. Just shampoo and conditioner once per week. Twice more if I got tossed in the lake." I said, remembering the walking on water training Kakashi-sensei had me doing. Ino and Sakura both paled for a moment, but quickly recovered and continued their work.

"Oh that's…. interesting…. So, you must work pretty hard right? I can see some scars on your hands." Ino said, and I think it was supposed to be a compliment. I smiled.

"Yeah, I got these when I failed to do the Head Hunter jutsu and got stuck in the ground. S- a friend had to dig me out." I confessed, turning a bit pink at the memory. Sensei ended up yanking me out by a leg, and it wasn't very fun to deal with.

"Oh, you know a lot of jutsu then?" Maya asked, starting to part and braid my hair.

"Nah, I just know maybe four." I said, watching Ino paint my nails with a clear coat of nail polish.

"So tell me Hikari, what's it like being stuck with those boys all the time?" Sakura asked, a teasing tone in her voice. I was hesitant in answering her, not trusting her tone. Was this what they wanted? Somehow I just knew it looped back to Sasuke.

"It's not so bad, most of them are really nice, plus there's Hinata. She's super sweet." I said. Maya sighed. I noted the three girls playing with each other's hair nearby. One clicked her tongue.

"She's so quiet! I forget she's there sometimes!" One girl confessed. I frowned, but said nothing for now. I got the feeling they were going to start digging for something soon, I just didn't know what quite yet.

"She's… quiet yes, but so very kind and sweet." I said in a mild tone. The girl glanced at me and rolled her eyes.

"Girl's like that are only looking for guys to protect them." Another girl said. Ino snapped her head to them.

"Ami!" Ino scolded before turning to me. "I'm sorry, she runs her mouth a lot."

I said nothing, but Ami pouted a little and kept to herself. Sakura glanced at me, looking a little uncomfortable. It was awkward for a moment before Ino spoke up.

"I know! Hikari, tell us what you think of all the guys!" Ino said. My eyes widened, thinking of all eighteen boys.

"A-All of them?" I asked, thinking that the discussion would be difficult considering Hibachi's crew hated my guts.

"Well not all of them. How about your friends?" Ino revised. I thought for a moment.

"Well, Kiba's really loud and grumpy, and he picks a lot of fights…. But he's a big softy once you get through to him, and he's actually really sweet when he likes you. Choji is always the first person to defend me, well after Naruto, and he sometimes shares his snacks so that's a bonus. Hmm, then there's Shikamaru. He's always super lazy, but the guy is really smart. He could probably trick Iruka-sensei into giving us a nap period instead of practical applications if he actually applied himself to something. And then there's Naruto, who's my best friend. I guess you could say I know him the best."

"Wow, you know them pretty well huh?" Ino blew on my freshly painted nails. I like them like this, short and cleaned up properly. My hands looked softer too as they rubbed lotions onto them.

"Say, what do you know about Sasuke?" Maya asked, finishing my braid. She held it up to show me, a fishtail braid that went to my mid-back. She used my white ribbon to tie it at the bottom with a few inches of hair left free.

So, it did come back to Sasuke. I had to admit, this was a lot of work just to try and butter me up and talk about him. But…. I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.

"Truthfully? I don't know much about him. All I knew is he has a mean kick and is from the Uchiha clan." I watched Maya go over to Ino's hair to braid it. This was beginning to feel ritualistic as I waited for my nail polish to dry.

"Oh you didn't know? Sasuke's the only Uchiha left," one of the girls said from their group. "Yeah, his brother apparently killed every single one of them two years ago. Everyone but Sasuke."

I hadn't known, and was definitely left stunned by the statement. Ino was watching me, but when I looked to her she laid a delicate hand on my shoulder nearest her.

"It's why we want to help Sasuke, you know…. Befriend him and all? He's so lonely all the time." Ino sounded sincere, and part of me wanted to believe that they really were just being kind. But the bad part of my brain, the cynic, said not to trust a word they said.

I ignored that part, because….

This really was nice.

I had never really had female friends save for Hinata. And Hinata was always so shy, she never seemed to want to do anything either. Half the time I invited her over she ran away. It was so of frustrating sometimes, because I did want friends that didn't clap me over the back with insane amounts fo force everyday.

So I pretended to believe them, I learned how to braid hair and clean up nails. It was expected this was a one time thing, to garner information, so I pretended this was normal life and giggled at funny things kids did in class and gossiped with them.

When it was time to go, Ino said her goodbyes and said, "we should get together again tomorrow!" I was blown away.

"Can Hinata come?" I asked, to which she grinned.

"Yup! More the merrier!"

There's always that moment when you conquer a jutsu that makes you feel…. fluffy…. Light, over the moon? There were so many words for it, but these were just some.

My Head Hunter jutsu was coming along so well, that I finally managed to capture the Kakashi clone flawlessly. There was great satisfactory in seeing the jonin with his head sticking out of the ground like that. Even if it was just the clone with the actual scarecrow watching me from the tree he was leaning against.

"Very good Hikari, your execution of the jutsu has drastically improved. I think you're ready to start learning another." Kakashi-sensei said while shutting his Make Out Paradise book, his clone disappearing at the same time. I turned to face Kakashi-sensei with a bit of excitement. My Body Flicker Technique was going smoothly, having gotten significantly faster at it.

Although my accuracy was still off by a solid 10 feet. It was a tough thing to go those speeds and know exactly where the stopping target was.

Sensei glanced to the forest then, I looked over too noticing his attention was taken.

"Alright, you can come out now." Kakasi-sensei said. I tilted my head to get a better look around him and saw Iruka-sensei coming out of the trees. A smile lilted my features as I waved.

"Oh! Hi Iruka-sensei." I greeted. The chuunin smiled back, waving as he stepped closer to us.

"I was getting curious about how your training was going. I overheard from your classmates that you were training early in the morning and thought I could come by and give a hand, but it looks like you're well taken care of." Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei were staring at each other before the jonin smiled.

"No need to lie, Iruka," Kakashi-sensei looked to me. "I asked your homeroom teacher to come by today to see your training."

"Oh, okay, but why?" I asked, looking between the two. Iruka-sensei looked a bit uncomfortable, but he answered anyway.

"There's an even number of students in the graduating class this year. They were hoping to fast track another lower level academy student. Kakashi here nominated you." Iruka-sensei explained. I looked between the two, surprised.

"I figured it would be better for him to come and see your talents instead of explaining them." Kakashi-sensei then stepped closer and patted my head."I think you'r ready, and if you graduate this year you'll be on my squad as well."

That's if you want to!" Iruka-sensei cut in. "You aren't required to graduate this year. You're still only nine after all."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed at Iruka's, and I got a feeling Iruka-sensei had wandered into a bad territory.

"When I was her age I was promoted to Chuunin. She is fully capable of making her own choices." Kakashi-sensei defended. I looked up at him in awe; Sensei had been a chuunin at my age? Wow, he definitely was a skilled ninja. The tension was getting thicker though, as Iruka was getting a tighter stance and Kakashi looked to be warning him with his body. I stepped in between them.

"Uh, can I have a few days to consider this?" I asked, not wanting to decide right now if it meant these two going for a fight. Both looked down at me and nodded.

"You'll need to answer in three days." Kakashi-sensei explained. I nodded, bowing to him, then to Iruka-sensei and dismissing myself for the morning.

A quick run home cleared my head a little as I tried to instead focus on the rest of the day for now.

One hot shower later and I was stepping unannounced into Naruto's apartment. He was usually still sleeping, but surprised me today when he was sitting at his little table eating some toast.

"Morning, sleepy head." I greeted while sitting across from him. Naruto grumbled something unintelligent, watching me carefully. I ate my own breakfast quietly. After a few minutes of him just staring I finally caved.

"What is it?"

Naruto grumbled, I frowned. He looked away, then back at me.

"Kari, tell me the truth, who is that scarf for?" Naruto asked. I realized then that I hadn't given said scarf to Kakashi-sensei, rather I had simply shown it to him before putting it back in my bag. It was still there, staring back at me.

"Okay, I wasn't lying about it being for dexterity. A jonin told me it was how they practiced their hand-signs." I revealed, holding out the scarf to Naruto. His lip jutted as he looked away again. Always the strong tough guy look.

"So…. You're really sure you don't like someone?" Naruto asked. I took a deep breath and let it out before smiling. The golden blond looked back at me, and once again I felt trapped in those eyes.

My gosh, I had never seen something so….

"I have people I like, but not like that." I said, though even I felt the words fall a bit short of truth. Naruto watched me, and I hung my head. "I swear it's nothing Naruto."

My face was turning red, I felt caught even though there was no way he knew.

"It's just…." Naruto began, I listened. "You…. You just….. You make people want to know you, y'know?"

I looked up at him, surprised by the admission. He looked sad though.

"You're so nice, even to that Kiba! And you always push me. I just…. why?" Naruto gripped his glass tightly, looking down at his lap. "Why do you waste time with me? I know about the villagers, Shikamaru told me how they treat you. I know you smile everyday and tell me it's okay, but it's not Hikari. It's not. Why would you…. Ugh I don't even know the words, y'know?!"

I stayed quiet, watching him shake.

"Why are we talking about this first thing in the morning?" I tried to joke. Naruto shook his head.

"I… had a bad dream." Naruto confessed, lip jutting again as he looked off to the side. I waited for him to continue on. He sniffed, then spoke. "I had a dream you left, and you…. You didn't come back."

And it all fell into place.

Naruto thought I was drifting away from him. He thought that by getting other important people in my life I was slowly leaving him behind. I had many positive relationships, but Naruto? He had me, and I couldn't think of anyone else that he had a positive relationship with that was more than a classmate. I really was all he had, and that still broke my heart. I wanted him to feel as full as I did, feel that love and completion of having friends and people to call family.

I smiled, leaning on the table across from Naruto.

"Hey Naruto," he looked at me while I gave him a gently smile, "I love you."

He looked taken aback for a moment. I put a finger to my lips in thought.

"Hmm, I don't think I've ever told you that, have I?" I thought out loud. Naruto started to blush. "But it's true. I love you a lot. You're the most important person in the entire world to me, okay? So I'm not going to disappear."

His face was beat red as he trembled lightly. He was so uncomfortable with the admission, but he also looked extremely pleased as a shaky smile slipped onto his lips.

"Promise?" He asked, and for the first time in a long time I remembered we were just kids. Not even ten years old yet. I reached my pinky across the table to him. Naruto looked up, reaching out.

"I promise to tell you I love you every single day, just so you know I haven't forgotten." He looked to me, and my gosh if those eyes got any bluer-

He linked his pinky with mine.

"Then I promise to be somebody you can be proud of, someone you can believe in."

My heart felt so full at his words, the fasted that he cared so much about my opinion touched me.

"I believe it." I teased. Naruto grinned.

I still had the dilemma of who to give the scarf to. Initially I thought to actually give it to Naruto, but then thought of our birthday coming up in a few weeks and opted to give him my next project.

Who to give the scarf to though….?

It sat in my bag all throughout school as I once again found chocolates at my desk. It had become a weekly occurrence, and I openly exclaimed they were amazing. During lunch I finally caved and allowed the others a small piece each. Shikamaru and Kiba did a hard pass, not interesting in chocolate, while Choji nearly chewed my hand off for a second.

"So, any ideas who the mystery giver is?" Kiba asked with a wolfish grin. I shrugged.

"I don't know, and honestly? If they keep leaving these babies I don't want to find out." I confessed, enjoying the melt in your mouth texture and the perfect orb shape that rolled around perfectly in my mouth.

Delicious.

"I never took you for a glutton." Shikamaru said. Naruto burst out laughing.

"You kidding? Hikari can eat twice as much as me!" He started, garnishing everyone's attention. "One time, we had an eating contest. She ate six bowls of ramen in the span that I ate five! She didn't even get sick that time!"

Choji and Kiba looked at me like I was some type of God while Hinata giggled and Shikamaru was regarding me with a new light. I think it was fear.

I then paused and grabbed the smaller box in my bag before handing it to Hinata. She really liked senzai, and I had recently learned the recipe after reading it at the back of the book. I promised her to give a small sample when I gave it a try.

"Here, it didn't turn out as good as I was hoping, but I think that it's not too bad for a first try." I said, watching with curiosity as Hinata opened the container. She smiled, blushing softly.

"Thank you…. Hikari." Hinata said. I grinned.

"Thank Naruto, he helped me." I admitted. Naruto stopped his slurping and smiled too. Hinata turned pink then and bowed her head.

"Hey, you still have that scarf." Choji said pointing to said scarf in my bag. I shrugged it off.

"And?"

"I thought it would be for Naruto." Kiba jeered. I didn't bite though and continued eating.

"Nah, I was going to give him something else. Our birthdays are coming up and all." I explained, earning a curious look from Naruto. I puled out the incomplete gift and shower it to him. A dual coloured scarf with red and yellow stripes. He looked at it, before touching the fabric.

"Ah, thank you, Kari." Naruto said with a huge smile. I didn't see the point in hiding it, considering he'd been watching me work on it this whole time. If anything it made him more interested in how I was weaving it. Naruto leaned over my shoulder, watching me work, for the rest of the lunch period, asking questions about how I was doing the knit and why it looked so different from the last one.

I did my best to answer him, and when lunch was over we went off our separate ways to the gender-specific studies. Ino invited me to sit with her and her friends, so I dragged Hinata with me over.
It was nice, to be part of a group like this. Where I could giggle and not be teased for being a girl.

Yet I kept in the back of my head that they must want something else.

After classes, I told Naruto to head to the grove without me as I would need to talk to Iruka-sensei about something. The others said goodbye, and I had to insist Ino not try and drag me off. I swapped myself for Hinata, giggling when they pulled her instead around the corner.

My feet took me to the class I knew Iruka-sensei was still in, cleaning up, and I knocked gently despite the door being open. Sensei looked over to me, smiling.

"Oh, Hikari, did you need something?" Sensei asked as he stopped washing the board. I said nothing, and instead reached into my bag to produce the scarf and held it out to him. Only after a moment where he looked at me awkwardly did I understand the implication.

"Hikari, you're a good student, but you really shouldn't-" Iruka looked uncomfortable, so I waved my free hand to quell the thoughts.

"Ah! No! No this isn't a confession or anything! I swear! Nothing like that!" My face turned pink for a second before I shook the embarrassing image from my mind. "No this was a thank you!"

"A… thank you?"

I straightened myself up and looked to my homeroom teacher. Iruka-sensei looked curious, so I took a deep breath and began to explain myself.

"The adults…. They don't treat Naruto well," Iruka-sensei immediately relaxed. "They always look at him, at us, like we're a bother. It's always like we're the trouble makers even when we haven't done anything. Shop owners threaten to teach me manners, they push him out of the shop literally or verbally….. It's always been like that…. Or they simply don't acknowledge us."

Another deep breath.

"But…. I've been very fortunate," I said, thinking of my adoptive parents, of Kakashi-sensei. "I've had people look at me like I'm worth something. I've had people acknowledge me."

I looked up at Iruka-sensei and could see a gentleness in his eyes.

"But Naruto….. you're the first person who hasn't looked at Naruto like he's a monster. You're the first adult who looks at both of us with the same eyes you give your other students. I've never…."

I cleared my throat, feeling a bit awkward as I thrusted the scarf forward.

"So, treat this as a peace offering, for anything that we may have ever done to offend you. And thank you, Iruka-sensei. Thank you for…." Tears were coming to my eyes, my voice was cracking, so I did my best not to make a noise.

The scarf was slowly lifted from my hands.

I looked up, and a tissue was pushed near my face. Iruka-sensei was smiling down at me, and I took the tissue to clean my eyes up.

"You're a good kid Hikari, Naruto is very lucky to have you as a friend." He said while patting my head. I felt a small tad of embarrassment cross through me, not entirely agreeing with that statement but too shy to say otherwise.

Iruka-sensei gave me a moment to regroup, then he stood up and cleared his throat too.

"While you're here, I was wondering about your decision, for the fast-track option? I was thinking about it, and if you feel you're ready, I think you should do it." Iruka-sensei said. I was surprised, immediately looking down at my feet.

"Oh, well in that case….."

I wandered into the Hatake compound. It was at the edge of the village and very quiet, which is something I always liked. Pakkun and Bull greeted me. Bull urging me to scratch his ear, probably the only ninken who was unashamed to treat me like a kid petting a puppy. That and Pakkun with his love for treats.

"So, you've made a decision already." Kakashi-sensei called. I looked over to see him hauling a bag of kibble over his shoulder. He paused, then sighed. "You're not leaving the academy then?"

I felt a bit nervous, because while I didn't want to insult Sensei, I also didn't know how else to explain it.

"No, I…. I don't think I'm ready." I said instead, but that got Kakashi-sensei in one of his challenging moods as he stepped closer.

"Do you doubt my judgement?" He narrowed an eye at me. I shook my head.

"No! No it's not…. It's not because I doubt you….. It's…." I felt another blush come to my face. My entire day had been filled with blushing!

"I…. I don't know my new teammates and…. well, I already want to be…" I looked up and saw Sensei smiling at me. Even with his mask on I had grown accustomed to recognizing his emotions from just a glance at his one eye.

"I see, so you want to be on a team with Naruto, right?" Sensei teased. I turned red, embarrassed I was caught and he was laughing at me. When I turned away to pout with my arms crossed though, Kakashi-sensei patted my head again, catching me off guard.

"It's alright Hikari, I should've known you wouldn't leave your friends behind so easily."

That comment caught me off guard too, so I looked up at him to see the taunt he wore. It dawned on me then. "This was a test?!"

Sensie chuckled.

"Not exactly, I do think you're ready, but I was curious how important it was that you left the academy early. From the looks of it, you want to enjoy yourself for a little while longer." He looked at me with a gentler gaze then. "There's nothing wrong, with enjoying a good thing while you can."

My thoughts brought me back to Sensei telling me what he'd lost, and I immediately jumped into a rant about how he might've been a chuunin already but I needed more work.

I played the part of a child distracting an older sibling, and it worked for the most part. That is until I offered to help and Kakashi dropped the giant bag of kibble into my arms. I collapsed under the initial weight before forcing myself to get up. There was a solid chance if the ninja training didn't kill me Sensei would do it himself.

But the mirth he gave off while I was struggling?

Worth it.

What's up my dudes? Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!

WE JUST CRACKED 40,000 WORDS! I haven't written this much this fast in a very very long time and am so proud!

A huge thank you to Spazster for literally reviewing all of my work and new chapters. If i could give an award for most motivating reviewer it would be to them!

Also, Guest reviewer: no shade, i'm just happy people are enjoying the stories, and honestly reviews push me to keep going, so thank you for sticking this far, hope you feel the need to keep reviewing and reading ;)

So there is going to be one more Academy chapter, and then we've got to jump into the Genin phase of things. I don't wanna spoil too much, but let's just say Hikari is gunna have an interesting ride as a Genin. There are a lot of characters I haven't introduced yet that I am so excited to show you! Also please tlel em what you think of Hikari's relationships thus far! I always thought Iruka needed to get a good old pat on the back for being the first person to acknolwedge Naruto. Seriously, I get how hard it is to distinguish that pain, his story arc may have been left to filler, but naruto really needed someone like him.

I love writing Kakashi and Hikari, it's so cute.

And frankly, the story is going to pick up in about two chapters, there will be significant time skips following the next one. I'm kinda scratching my head on a few choices, but this is fanfiction, I'm winging a lot of this.

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