Chapter Text
“Tonpa! We got you this drink!”
Naruto flashed a wide smile to Tonpa and held up the glass of laxatives for the man. Her original plan had been to put the whole drink into the glass and give it to the deceitful man, but Killua offered her a great suggestion. Instead of simply handing him the drink, her new friend suggested that she mixed the drink with some soda so that the man would never noticed the difference.
Tonpa blinked and the smile on his face widened as his eyes focused on the glass. “Really? And why are you giving me this drink?”
Because you tried to play dirty with us. She was so tempted to spit those words to him, but she swallowed it down. The only thing she did do was widen her smile and flickered her eyes to Killua and Gon. The white-haired boy had a large smile plastered on his face while Gon looked almost hesitant as if he wasn’t certain about the whole prank.
“We just wanna show how much we like you,” she chirped, smiling widely at him. Tonpa inspected her for a brief moment as if he was trying to figure out whether she was being honest or not. The world around them grew quiet, and her own heart began to race with excitement as she waited for the man to take the bait. “Seriously, Tonpa! You’re the only guy willing to help a newbie like us!”
The man lowered his shoulders, offered them a shameless smile before accepting the drink in her hand. She maintained her smile and focused all of her attention on the man, gulping down the drink like there was no tomorrow. Was she being a horrible person by giving him the drink? Yup. Did he deserve to drink this horrible drink? Most definitely.
“Aren’t the three of you going to drink?” Tonpa asked, flickering his eyes between the three of them.
She giggled. “Killua, Gon and me had too much soda to drink! I only managed to calm down now!”
Her laugh echoed throughout the corridor, and the middle-aged man relaxed his shoulders. The happiness inside of her began to grow when the man continued to drink his drink. I hope you’re in a real world of pain because no one tries to hurt me and gets away with it. She hoped his insides burned with an increasing need to go to the toilet.
She hoped that he was disqualified from doing the exams.
“Well now that we showed you our gratitude, we should get going!” she declared, wrapping her arms around Killua and Gon’s arms. The man blinked wolfishly and Naruto proceeded to drag her friends away from the man. If the bastard knew what they did to his drink, then he was forever going to make their lives hell. “We aren’t done exploring this whole airship!”
Her voice rippled through the air, and Naruto could almost sense Tonpa’s eyes staring at her. It was like a pair of daggers flying her way, and the desire to flinch had never been greater than this. With a deep breath, she looked down at her feet and then glanced at her friends. Killua raised his eyebrows at her, almost questioning her for her behavior, and she offered a small shrug.
Once they took the turn to the other corridor, Naruto dropped her arms from the two boys. She clicked her heels together and focused all of her attention onto the two boys. There was a subtle troubled look on Gon’s face while Killua looked at her with faint curiosity. Silence filled the whole corridor, and finally she gathered the courage to talk to them.
“How long do you think it will take before old Red Nose needs to go to the bathroom?” she curled her lips into a smile and focused her attention on the sparkling lights in front of them. “I bet it will be 10 minutes before he hurl his guts out.”
Killua snorted. “5 minutes.”
“I kinda feel bad that we did that to Tonpa-san,” Gon admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. Naruto and Killua exchanged glances before swirling their heads at the dark-haired boy. Both pre-teens raised their eyebrows at him. “It wasn’t a very nice prank.”
None of her pranks were nice. There had never been a time when she recalled that she had given a nice prank to someone. If anything, all of her previous pranks had been harmful in some way or form. Did that mean she felt guilty for her actions? Absolutely not. Every single person deserved that prank whether they wanted to admit it or not.
“Gon, he isn’t a nice man either so he deserved it,” she explained, shrugging her shoulders. Gon’s frown deepened. A wrinkle formed on top of his forehead, and the girl focused her attention onto the window. The lights from the building below them flickered, almost reminding her of a falling star. “I wouldn’t have poured that drink if it wasn’t for the fact I was certain that the bastard tried to do something nasty.”
Killua hummed. “It won’t even kill him.”
“The worst it can do was disqualify him,” she agreed. “And that is what he wanted to do to us! So doesn’t he deserve to get a taste of his own medicine?”
Gon furrowed his eyebrows together and considered the question for a moment before nodding his head. Naruto flashed him a grin and closed her eyes as her head began to throb. I need to get some sleep. A yawn threatened to escape from her lips, but she swallowed it down. There was still so much for her to do before she went to bed.
Now that she was done with the first two phases, she should begin writing her letters to Hinata-chan and Sakura-chan. After all, she promised her friends that she would keep them updated with her travels. They won’t believe the adventure that I’m having, but I shouldn’t tell them about the bet. Sakura was going to demand if she was so cocky that she could believe that she could do this.
Shaking her head, Naruto froze as a sinister sensation washed over her. A shiver of dread ran down her spine, and without a second thought she glanced at her friends. Sweat dribbled down the side of Killua’s face, bringing almost a strange shine to his skin, while Gon’s eyes had grown just a little bit bigger. It seemed like they felt the same sensation.
A couple of light, barely louder than a raindrop, footsteps echoed in the background, and Naruto took a deep breath before turning in the direction of the sound. She blinked at the sight of Netero standing before them. The old man had a warm, friendly smile on his face. His eyes rested entirely on them, lingering the most on her.
“Did something happen?” Netero asked.
She tilted her head and scratched the back of her neck. “I thought I sensed a cruel intent being directed at us, but I guess I was wrong.”
The smile on the man’s face didn’t widen, but it didn’t turn smaller either. It must have been my imagination. Naruto slid her hands into the pocket of her pants and glanced at Gon and Killua. The dark-haired boy seemed just as clueless as her while Killua narrowed his eyes at the old man. It was almost like the boy was trying to shoot daggers with his eyes.
“Perhaps you were wrong,” Netero agreed. “Who would want to hurt you kids?”
Suspicion settled inside of her stomach, and Naruto thinned her lips. Was she wrong? Now that the old man said those words to her, she couldn’t help but think that the old man was hiding something from them. She shook her head and glanced down at her friends. There was a strange look on Killua’s face while Gon looked like he accepted it.
“You know you can walk really fast,” Killua observed.
Netero twirled his finger around the beard. “Really? I just walked without haste.”
Naruto blinked and placed her hands behind her neck before looking to the ground. “Really? I didn’t know an old guy like you can walk that fast.”
The old man maintained a bright smile on his lips, not looking one bit annoyed by her comment, and Naruto tilted her head to the side. Why wasn’t the old man making any kind of comment about her words? Didn’t old people hate it when she mentioned that they were old? She knew that old people wanted to continue to believe that they were still capable of doing a lot of things.
“I still have a lot of energy for my age,” Netero laughed.
She beamed. “I hope that I’ll be just as springy as you when I reached your age!”
Killua coughed. “Kiss ass.”
She threw an annoyed look at her silver-haired friend before focusing her attention onto the old man in front of them. The smile on the old man’s face didn’t wobble, if anything it almost twinkled with amusement as if he found their interaction to be hilarious. She supposed if Jiraiya was here, then he would have the same kind of reaction as well.
Shaking his head, Netero took a step forward and offered them a warm smile. “Would the three of you like to play a game with me?”
“What kind of game?” Gon asked, perking up.
Naruto frowned and tilted her head. A game? It was so tempting for her to try and play a game with the old man, but this was the first time in days that she had time for herself. Time that would allow her to convey her feelings and experiences to her friends. Was she really willing to play a game with an old man and risk the chance that she couldn’t communicate with her friends?
She exhaled and weaved her hands behind her neck before shaking her head. “You can explain the game to those two because I’ve got some letters to write.”
“Can’t your letters wait?” Killua grumbled.
Naruto raised her eyebrows at her friend before darting her eyes to Netero. The Chairman made no attempt to convince her to play whatever game he had on his mind, instead he seemed to be curious about her. She supposed that the old man must have heard or figured out her origins because his eyes lingered on the Hitai-ate on her head.
“Sorry, but my letters can’t wait,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders. “I don’t even know when I’ll have the free time to write my letters.”
“Naruto, where are Gon and Killua? I thought you would be with them.”
Naruto looked away from her letter and focused her attention on Kurapika and Leorio. The two males had decided to take a seat beside her, their legs sprawled in front of her and their eyes focused on the people around them. Most of the participants didn’t seem to be focused on them, instead they seemed to be either intent on either sleeping or staring at Hisoka, who seemed intent on making a tower of cards.
“They are playing with the Chairman,” she replied, putting down the borrowed pen. Kurapika blinked and raised his eyebrows up to his hairline, almost hiding behind his bangs, while Leorio offered her a frown. “And since I don’t know when we’ll have free time again, well I decided that this is the perfect time for me to write letters to my friends.”
Kurapika picked up one of the letters, scanned through the contents, and asked. “How do you plan to send the letters to your friends?”
“Oh, I’m going to summon Gamakichi,” Naruto grinned and scribbled down some more sentences into her letter. She nibbled the end of her pen as her mind wandered back to the letter. Should she mention to Sakura-chan about the bet with Jiraiya? No, her teammate was going to maul her if she knew she was risking the chance to save Sasuke. “He knows to give these letters to Hinata-chan, Sakura-chan and Shikamaru.”
Leorio picked up the letter addressed to Shikamaru, and offered her a frown. “Summon?”
Right. It was easy to forget that people from this part of the world, did not know about the whole summoning thing. Clicking and unclicking her pen, Naruto focused her attention on her friends. Should she explain things to them? It would be better for her to explain the whole thing, but how did she explain the idea of summoning to them? She scratched her head.
“I bring my toads here, and they will just send it,” she replied.
The man blinked wolfishly and waved his hand up in the air. “You talk as if I should understand the whole thing!”
“Well, I don’t know how to explain the whole idea to ya!” She barked. “I don’t fully understand it myself!”
Leorio twitched. The vein on his forehead budged, looking ready to explode at her comment, and Naruto lowered her head. She should just summon Gamakichi and just have the damn toad explain the whole concept to them. But I also don’t wanna have these people keep looking at us. Attention was amazing if you asked her, but she didn’t like it when there was a chance for them to use her ability against her.
She had to do whatever it took to pass the exam.
“Do you bring toads with you?” Kurapika asked, scratching his head as she scribbled down her events to Sakura. Naruto rubbed the back of her neck and gazed at her letter before poking her tongue against her cheek. Not once since she learnt how to summon, did she ask Ero-Sennin on how it was possible for the toad to be with her.
The contract made sense to a point if she really thought about it since her blood was used to make the contract.
Shaking her head, Naruto lowered her head down until her cheeks kissed the cold, hard ground. “No, I use chakra to bring the toads here. I think the fact that I used my blood to sign the contract allows me to summon the toad.”
Leorio paled. “B-Blood?”
Why did the man look at her like he couldn’t believe she used blood to bring toads? Did he think that she had to use a lot of blood to summon the toad? She closed her eyes and ignored the stabbing sensation of her forehead. Just thinking about how to explain the concept, made it seem like there were tiny explosions inside of her head.
Yeah, thinking wasn’t her forte if you asked her.
“I don’t understand how to explain the whole thing,” she repeated, yawning. The soothing mumbles of her fellow participants echoed throughout the room, and her eyelids began to grow heavy, heavier than lead. Naruto rubbed her eyes and stared at the warm, befuddled eyes of Leorio. “If ya really interested, then you can ask Ero-Sennin when he picks me up in the end of the exam.”
Kurapika nodded and handed her back her letter. “Naruto, you mentioned that Ero-Sennin is strong, but how strong is he for a Shinobi?”
“Ero-Sennin is one of the strongest shinobi in the world,” she answered. The 13-year-old girl glanced down at her letter, and pushed herself up until her lower back demanded for a break. Lowering her letter onto the ground, Naruto turned her whole body around until her back rested nicely on the ground. “I bet if you asked Baldy over there about Jiraiya, then he would tell you that Ero-Sennin is one of the best shinobi in the world.”
But he probably wouldn’t mention that Jiraiya is one of the worst perverts, and that he wrote the book that Leorio has in his hands. She pulled her bottom lip back and turned her body around until her eyes focused on the orange book peeking out of Leorio’s bag. Taking a deep breath, she rolled back onto her back and stared up at the ceiling.
“He’s that strong?” Leorio asked.
She yawned. “Yeah, he would pass these exams without blinking an eye.”
A silence fell upon them as her friends processed her words. The only sounds that could be heard inside of the room were the sounds of her fellow participants talking to each other, and the only scent she could smell was the lingering rust scent on Hisoka. It didn’t overwhelm her senses, but it was enough for her to wrinkle her nose.
“There is something that has been bothering me since you mentioned your goal,” Kurapika stated. The frown on his face deepened, and the blond-haired boy focused his gaze on the people in front of them. “If you wanted to bring back your best-friend, then why are you doing the Hunter Exams? I don’t see how doing the Hunter can help you bring back your best-friend.”
She tilted her head upwards and raised her hand up, groaning when her bone hissed out another crack. Her own ears rang with the sound, and Naruto stared up at the ceiling. As always, her mind flashed through the good times with Sasuke and her hand reached up to her lip before a tiny scowl formed on her lips.
“Jiraiya dropped me off here and told me that the Hunter Exams is a good test for me,” she explained, holding her hands up in the air. Another tired sigh clawed out of her mouth, and Naruto turned her body around until she faced her two friends. “If I pass the exams, then Ero-Sennin promised me that he would teach me some strong jutsu.”
Leorio frowned and scrutinized her. “And what happens if you fail the Hunter Exams? Because it sounds like your teacher made a bet with you.”
Pain erupted inside of her heart, and grief began to grip her around her neck. It threatened to choke her, and Naruto took several deep breaths to allow the emotions to die away. The possibility of her failing the exam was not one that she didn’t want to consider. She darted her eyes to Kurapika, who looked at her with veiled concern.
“I have to give up on my dream,” she admitted, turning around until she rested her bottom on the floor. Taking a deep breath, Naruto cracked her knuckles and stared at the fragile tower of cards that Hisoka made. One gentle breeze could destroy the man’s hard work, and that almost reminded her of how fragile her own dream was.
Kurapika inspected her. “Is there a reason why your teacher wants you to give up on your dream?”
“He believes that there is no hope for Sasuke,” she confessed. They furrowed their eyebrows together and Naruto licked her dried lips as her heart began to grow heavy. “He likes to remind me that Sasuke chose to abandon me, and that he will never change…but he doesn’t know Sasuke. He thinks I’m a fool for trying to bring him back.”
It still stung to say those words out loud, and she would be lying if she didn’t say that her mind hadn’t been tempted to do it. But Sasuke was her friend. Her very first friend, and there was no way she could leave him with someone like Orochimaru. If only he just chose a path where I won’t have to worry about his life. The whole revenge thing? She didn’t care about it.
But the fact that he abandoned her and was choosing a life of solitude? That wasn’t something she could accept.
“And why does your teacher think you’re a fool?” Leorio quietly asked. “What is wrong with a friend trying to save another friend?”
Look at your injuries and tell me that this is something a friend would do to another friend!
Even now, she could see the fury in Jiraiya’s eyes as he pointed to the bandages around her neck and chest. She could still smell the lingering scent of blood on her, and even now there was a phantom of pain around her head and arms. I know what Sasuke did to me was unforgivable, but I can’t abandon him. That wasn’t her way.
Even if Sasuke abandoned her, she was never going to abandon him in his hour of need.
“There’s nothing wrong with saving a friend,” she smiled and focused her attention on them. “I don’t understand why Jiraiya wants me to give up.”
She could never confess the truth to them.
“Where’s Gon?”
Naruto took a seat beside Killua and stared at the twinkling lights before them. From where she sat, it looked like there was million of stars floating below them and not for the first time, she wished she could put those stars in the window. The 13-year-old girl inspected the silver-haired boy, noting the blood that soaked his hand.
Was it his blood? Gon’s blood? Or was it the Chairman?
She couldn’t tell the difference.
“He’s still playing,” Killua answered, leaning his whole body forward. There was a large smile on his face, but her friend trembled and quivered with an emotion that she knew all too well. Rage and irritation. Naruto released a deep breath and leaned her whole body forward until her back cracked and released a little groan. “I decided to give up on a stupid, pointless game that none of us can win.”
Something is definitely bothering him. Naruto rubbed the back of her neck and curved her lips into a smile. A huge part of her wanted to probe him and asked him why he gave up so quickly, but the darkness in his eyes made her decide not to question him. She inhaled and rubbed her knuckles as the faint footsteps echoed in the background.
“Wanna talk about why you’re upset, Grandpa?” she turned her body around until her face met Killua’s bright blue eyes. Surprise lit up his expression, and it wasn’t long before the expression faded until her friend’s expression was filled with a joy. He is a really good liar, isn’t he? Bitterness gnawed at her, and Naruto took a deep breath.
He snorted and placed his head on top of his hand. “What makes you think I’m upset?”
“It might surprise you, Grandpa, but you aren’t that amazing when it comes to hiding your emotion,” she retorted. The amount of times that she managed to hide her emotions from her teammates and friends was probably more than her friend had to hide his emotions from his family members.
There was a thick layer of silence between them as Killua stared at her with wide eyes. Without a second thought, Naruto flashed him a bright smile and stared at the twinkling lights before them. It would be nice if she could just capture those lights and placed it in a jar for her to protect, but enjoying the memory was going to be enough for her.
With a sigh, Killua lowered his shoulders. “I couldn’t get the stupid ball from the Chairman and I really wanted to get it!”
“So you’re acting like a big baby because you couldn’t get a ball from a strong old man?” she retorted, shaking her head. Killua shot her an annoyed look, a deep scowl plastered on his face, and the 13-year-old girl released another yawn. “I’m sorry, but I don’t get why you’re annoyed at the fact that you can’t get a ball from a man, who is clearly stronger than us.”
The silver-haired boy frowned. “You knew?”
Well, she didn’t know but she did hear the rules and she could remember the rumors about the Third Hokage. While Netero acted like a feeble man, he had been way too confident and cocky when he mentioned the game that they were going to play. If I didn’t want to write those letters, then I would have tried. She hummed and looked at the scowling boy.
“Usually whenever someone makes a bet, they are usually cocky enough to win,” she pointed out with a smile. “But you shouldn’t be upset over the fact that you couldn’t get a ball from a sneaky old man.”
He huffed. “I really wanted that ball!”
“You can’t always get what you want,” she exhaled and shook her head. “Seriously Killua, you should be pleased with whatever you managed to do.”
Killua kept quiet and stared at her for the longest time before looking away from her. The air around them tingled with tension, and Naruto waited for the boy to scream at her. But there was nothing that could be said between them. She wondered for a moment if she chose the wrong thing to say to him because the silence threatened to choke her.
Finally after ten minutes of silence, her friend asked. “You don’t have a high standard for yourself, do you?”
“I’m used to failure,” she explained with a grin. “Once you’re used to failure, you know the only way to get past it is through learning your mistake.”
The tremble in Killua’s body faded, and she waited for the cocky boy to make some kind of stupid comment to her. Yet the younger boy made no comment to her, he only offered her a blank look before staring straight at the window before them. The scent of blood began to claw its way up to her nose, threatening her sense of smell as the footsteps around them began to fade away.
There was a brief moment of silence until the blue-eyed boy asked. “So you finished your letters?”
“Yeah,” she answered, cracking her knuckles. It had been a couple of hours since she finished those letters, but there was no denying the fact that her fingers ached from writing all those letters to her friends. “I didn’t realize that I had so much to say to them until I began to scribble down everything that happened so far.”
The boy bobbed his head. “And are all your friends ninja?”
“It’s kinda expected that everyone in my village becomes a ninja,” she admitted, crossing her legs together. “I mean I met all of my friends in the Academy, and it is expected that we are all going to become a ninja.”
In a village filled with ninja, it was encouraged for them to become a ninja. Even the civilians in their village encouraged their own children to become ninja because of the pay. Naruto exhaled and crossed her legs together before looking up at the ceiling. The lights flickered for a moment and then it remained still, never blinking ever again.
That was a good sign if you asked her.
“It must be nice to have friends,” Killua commented with a bitter smile. Naruto blinked and swirled her head around at her friend. What did that mean? Did he think that they weren’t friends? Because that was what it sounded like to her. She curled her hands into a fist and stared at the smiling boy beside her.
For one wild moment, she considered questioning him about his feelings but she decided against it. Emotions weren’t her thing. If anything, the emotional crap was all Sakura and Sasuke’s thing. No, it was more of Sakura’s thing than Sasuke. The only boy of her team was well-known for not showing his emotions to them. She shook her head and stared at the boy beside her.
“You know I think that you’re my friend,” Naruto informed him.
Killua blinked and scoffed. “You just met me!”
“Doesn’t matter to me,” she explained, rolling her eyes.
There was only a thick blanket of silence as the boy processed her words. She waited for the boy to announce that they weren’t friends, but the silver-haired boy didn’t deny their friendship. Instead his whole expression lit up with confusion as if he didn’t understand how she could easily call him a friend. He looked away from her and focused his eyes on the window in front of them.
The silence threatened to choke her, and Naruto wondered if she should just leave him to consider her words. For a brief moment, she contemplated about taking her words back and apologizing for jumping to conclusion. It was so easy for her to claim that they were friends, but maybe Killua didn’t think the same way as her.
“How do you know if you’re friends with someone?”
She smiled faintly.
“I’m still figuring that out too, Killua.”
Friendship was still a topic that she needed to figure out.