"My existence will never be extinguished."
Naruto grinded her teeth together and forced herself to crawl towards the boy that pushed her to her limit. Even though they fought for a good twenty minutes, it was only after a good pummel to Gaara's face that she could beat him. She paused, blue eyes widening as she took in what he had just said and the desperation in his voice.
Despite what both Sakura and Sasuke believed, Naruto was anything but stupid. The fear and desperation coming from Gaara wasn't because of the fact that he was afraid he could die. It was the fact that she had been able to defeat him, destroying whatever perception he had about himself. She smiled bitterly. No, her beating him meant that he thinks his existence had no meaning.
She knew that feeling all too well.
We don't give money to beggars.
Tears burned through her eyes as her fingers dug through the soil, pushing herself forward. No one gave her money because of the monster inside of her. Those cold eyes looked at her, always making her wonder if she was even human to the villagers. Do I even exist? It was a question that haunted her even when she got that headband from Iruka-sensei.
She chose pranks to prove her existence, to leave her mark in this village and she understands now that Gaara chose murder and chaos. I can't blame him. If people believed that he was a monster then why not become the very thing they thought he was? She sucked in a deep breath as her heart throbbed from those terrible days.
A monster.
The soil clung to her nails as if to remind her that she was twelve now, not five. Blue eyes locked onto the terrified boy right in front of her and a part of her felt her throat dried up. Naruto? What a pretty name for a pretty girl. Mikoto had been the second person to acknowledge her, reminding her that she was a girl. Not a monster.
Did Gaara have that?
Why won't anyone look at me? Naruto wondered if hat question keeps haunting him. Am I a monster? Or am I human? Even now as she crawls to him, she asks herself this question because she doesn't know any more. She doesn't know because no matter how hard she tries to be good, no one really seems to acknowledge it. No one ever looks at her and tells her from the bottom of their heart that they don't think she was a monster.
To them, I'm simply a relic of the past that they want to get rid of. Why am I alive? Why do I even exist?
She narrowed her eyes and doesn't even cry out when her head slams down to the ground. Her blue eyes closed and a pair of sad eyes appears right before her. Oh, it was Haku. She remembers him so well because he understood her pain so well. Naruto looks up to the blue sky and the floating clouds as Haku's voice echoed in her ear along with his sad smile.
I realize that the most painful feeling is the realization that no one wanted your existence in this world.
Her throat burns when Gaara looks at her with fear in his eyes. She remembers how much those words resonate with her and she realizes that those piercing words also applied to this terrified boy right in front of her. The world around her becomes blurry and she thinks that she only had a couple of more minutes before she will pass out.
Maybe she was trying to be a hero or maybe she just wants to make a change in the world. She thinks that if it was the loneliness that destroyed Gaara then she wants him to know that there was another way to live. Gaara was terrible but he was like her. No one saved him but Naruto wants to save him.
She wants to help him even if he was her enemy.
"You know what is the most painful thing in the world? It is the pain of being ignored," Gaara stopped screaming and he looked at her with wide eyes. He parted his lips and her eyes began to tear up. "It is the pain of being lonely and I understand that pain so well."
Blood dribbled down her mouth and sweat clung to her skin as her blue eyes locked onto him. She still feels loneliness but it wasn't bad like when she was four. Hinata-chan, Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei and hell even Sakura made that empty feeling inside of her fade away. But she doesn't want to tell him that she still feels lonely because it won't help him.
"I have been kicked around and I have been called a monster," Teal eyes widened and Naruto inhaled, feeling her ribs stretched out. "But I have people that are important to me now...who don't think I'm terrible. For those people, I won't let you hurt them."
She thinks of Hinata-chan and the laughter shared between them. The teasing she would give to Hinata-chan whenever she looks at Kiba. She thinks of Sakura and how the girl will explain the concept of puberty to her. She thinks of how Sakura asks her on how to deal with Sasuke. She thinks of Sasuke and how he will train with her, always telling her that she was just a little bit slower than him.
Blue eyes narrowed.
"If you even think of killing them then I will stop you!" She screamed out those words to him. Naruto has never killed anyone before but she will do it for them. Teal eyes looked at her like she was insane and maybe she was insane. This village hurt her, made her question her existence but she loves this village in a way.
"Why would you go so far for other people's sake?"
A laugh almost escapes from her lips because Naruto doesn't know which truth to give him. Maybe she wants to show these villagers that she was a hero like the Fourth Hokage claimed she was. Maybe she would go this far because saving people was a better way to prove her existence then killing so many people. But Naruto doesn't think that it was the right answer.
"They eased this painful feeling inside of me," she admits. "I used to think that I was a ghost but then I found someone that acknowledge my existence. When that happened, they became important to me. I want to become stronger to save them...to protect them."
She waited for Gaara to scoff at her and to tell her that she was foolish. He just looks at her with wide eyes and she sees the subtle change in his eyes. She feels her body trembling and hope stirs inside of her because maybe she did make an impact on him. Naruto blinks when Sasuke kneels down, black eyes shining with concern at the blood coming out of her mouth.
"Stop moving! And stop talking!" He grumbled, grabbing her arm. "Sakura is fine now! So worry about yourself!"
Well that was good because even if sometimes Sakura can act real mean to her, Naruto doesn't want to see her dead.
(A month later)
"So many kids are going missing now."
Naruto looked up from her doodle and stared at Uraraka, who flipped through the newspaper. The smiling face of a little boy was plastered on the front page alongside the crying faces of his parents, who seemed to be begging for anyone with information to come forward. Those images had been happening a lot for the last few days with poster of missing children plastered on the walls of shops and cafes.
Most of the children that seem to be missing were young children. Why would someone take such young children? Why rip them away from their families? From their missing posters, Naruto understands that most of these kids were just kids going to their nursery. They didn't have many things in common except for their ages.
"That is the third case this week, right?" Kaminari asked, twisting his head away from Jirou to look at Uraraka. He rubbed his chin and frowned when the brown-haired girl nodded, brown eyes still locked on the headlines of this morning's newspaper.
Ashido frowned. "Third case? I thought that this was the first case!"
"From what my parents have been reading in the newspaper, a lot of little kids had been going missing for the last two weeks," Kaminari pulled out his phone and showed them some of the headlines from one of the smaller newspaper. "It seems like on their way to school, these kids would be snatched away. Their phones would be toss aside and the cameras will show nothing."
Naruto frowned and eyed the headlines on Kaminari's phone as a nagging feeling set on her. How could cameras show nothing? She could understand their phones being tossed away because of GPS but how couldn't a camera spot anything.
Something didn't make sense.
"The cameras can't even pick up anything?" Ashido muttered, nibbling her bottom lip and looking at the headlines with raised eyebrows. Most of the teens sweated at this revelation with the only exception being Bakugou. The oldest boy in the class grunted, jumped off from his seat and stalked to Ochako. Everyone blinked when the boy snatched the newspaper from her hands.
He growled and knitted his eyebrows together as his red eyes jumped through the words frantically as if the newspaper could give him some clue. I have never seen him like this. Naruto chewed on her own bottom lip and looked at Izuku, hoping and praying that the boy could offer some explanation for this weird behaviour.
Her friend frowned and slid off from his own seat. He made his way to Bakugou and he leaned over Bakugou's shoulder, his own green eyes skimming through the article. Both teens glanced at each other and Naruto couldn't help but observe how Bakugou seemed to have tightened his grip on the newspaper. Bakugou slammed the newspaper down, causing everyone to jump up.
"What the hell, Bakugou?"
"Don't break Uraraka's table!"
Izuku furiously shook his head and shot a look to Bakugou, who grunted and looked away. The green-haired boy slumped his shoulder, nibbled his bottom lip before straightening his back. His green eyes seemed to be locked onto the newspaper on the table. "Kacchan, do you think that what is happening is the same—"
"Shut the hell up, Deku!" Bakugou snarled, red eyes flashing with rage and irritation at Bakugou. Izuku flinched and hunched his shoulders but did not try to say anything to the boy. His green eyes just shone with understanding as if he knew what exactly was causing Bakugou to become so irritated. Izuku just sighed and walked back to his seat, green eyes fixated on his friend.
Asui chewed on her bottom lip and turned her head around, green eyes fixated on the newspaper on the table. Her green eyes flashed with concern and fear as if she knew exactly what would be the potential problem if no one found those kids soon. Her classmate rubbed her chin. "My little sister's friend went missing a couple of days ago too."
"Is there a pattern of what kids that are going missing?" Satou asked, knitting his eyebrows. Mineta hummed and for the first time since Naruto met her classmate, he didn't seem to be focusing on trying to sneak a peek on any of the girls. Instead he seemed to be scrunching his eyebrows as if he was trying to recall something.
Finally, the boy bobbed his head. "Most of them seem to be younger than six but older than four."
"The age where children discover their Quirks," Asui commented lightly.
Naruto nibbled her bottom lip and took out her phone, touching the newspaper app. She knew from what Asui had just said was true but why would someone from this side of the world take children with Quirks? 80% of this part of the world had Quirks so they wouldn't have much use for taking it. If someone took a person with Quirk then they would show up on camera.
There was a missing piece to this mysterious occurrence.
"Do you think maybe the government is taking away kids to train them as soldiers?" Kaminari asked, tilting his head at them. The other students turned to look at him with frowns on their faces and the boy raised his hands as if trying to tell them that it was a joke. "C'mon it is not the most insane theory."
"What you just said would be a plot for a manga," Todoroki deadpanned. The electric-Quirk user hung his shoulders at those words while the other students nodded in agreement. Naruto chewed on her bottom lip, blue eyes fixated on the newspaper as a nagging feeling washed over her.
She looked down at her phone again and read through the article again, hoping and praying for another clue about the disappearance of those kids. Just like Kaminari had just said, these kids were children that seemed to have been on their way to school when they went missing. The only thing left behind had been their phones and bags while everything else had disappeared.
DNA tests had been conducted through the database and there had been no links onto who had taken those children.
"Todoroki, has Endeavour talked about what the heroes have been doing to counteract this?" Naruto closed the app and looked at her mismatch friend. Todoroki pressed his lips into a thin line, mismatch eyes locked onto his own phone and she wondered if he would tell her anything.
"He has been working overtime to try and get clues on the whereabouts," he grimaced and stared at her bright blue eyes. Todoroki clasped his hands together and let out a sigh. "But he hasn't found any clues on where those kids disappeared to and he can't pinpoint who took those kids. The fact that the cameras had shown nothing means that this is a hard case for him."
The cameras had shown nothing. Naruto knitted her eyebrows together and darted her eyes to the window, where the sound of birds chirping and the bright sunlight seemed to be shining down upon them. What would happen if those kids weren't found on time? What if those kids were found and they end up like her? Her throat burned at the thought.
"What about the other heroes?"
Shouto pressed his lips into a thin line. "I will tell you what I know from the newspaper and from Endeavour. I know that heroes like Endeavour and All Might seem to be focusing on finding those kids. Other heroes are more focused on trying to take Stain to custody since they believe that he is a bigger threat."
How the hell is Stain a bigger threat? Those kids should be more important to them! She grinded her teeth together and clenched her hands together as her blood boiled at his words. What if the people that took those kids made their lives hell? What if they were being experimented on? She willed herself not to smash her hand against the table.
"They should focus on getting those children back to their parents! Who gives a shit about Stain!" Todoroki regarded her and Naruto looked away from him as her blood continued to boil at the concerns of the heroes. Yeah, she understood that Stain was a problem for the heroes. He had been injuring and killing heroes left to right but those kids were more important.
What if they felt abandoned by society? That no one gave a shit about them. Naruto doesn't want them to end up like her or Gaara or even Sasuke. She wanted a world where children could walk the streets with a smile on their faces and didn't have to wonder if someone would care about them.
The door to their classroom slid opened and everyone took it as their signal to scramble back into their seats. Aizawa stepped through the door, his black eyes darting everywhere as a small yawn escaped from his lips. All of the members of Class A looked at each other with wide eyes, but dared not to make any comment to him.
The man walked up to the podium and dropped a stack of papers before flickering his eyes at them. His black eyes seemed to linger on Bakugou the most before darting his eyes to the other students. The man hunched his shoulders and cleared his throat. "Before I pass out your overall scores for the mid-semester exams, we will need to talk about your behavior in these internships that are going to start on Monday and what will happen."
Everyone straightened their shoulders and stared at their teacher. Aizawa rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the newspaper on Uraraka's table, a small frown playing on his lips. He shook his head and clenched his jaws but then the man schooled his expression, not revealing to anyone about the emotions going through his head.
"When you enter your respective internships, you will conduct yourselves in a behavior suiting this school." He informed them, flickering his eyes at them. "This means that you will listen to the orders given to you by your respective charges and that you will not show them any disrespect."
Everyone bobbed their heads.
"Those of you that will be travelling out of the city will have housing provided for you," Aizawa locked eyes on Tokoyami and her before darting to Jirou. "On Monday when everyone starts to head for their internships, All Might and I will accompany those of you travelling by train to your respective cities."
Whispers broke out at the announcement and Aizawa just stared at them with hunched shoulders. He waited till all of the students calm down before continuing on. "These internships are no joke and this is an opportunity to learn more about what type of hero that you want to be. So don't mess it up."
Naruto felt like that last part was directed at her but Aizawa-sensei shouldn't worry about her.
She doesn't want to mess this up.
"You seem tired, Nejire!"
Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and sat down beside her senior, whose eyelids seemed to be dropping every five seconds. The periwrinkle-haired girl opened her mouth to protest and a small yawn escaped from her lips, causing the girl to slump her shoulders at her. The older girl rubbed her eyes. "I was working with Ryuku until a couple of hours ago."
"What were you guys working on?" Nejire frowned and looked at her. Her eyes seemed to waver as if she was almost uncertain about whether or not to tell her. Naruto slumped her shoulders as Itsuka and Setsuna took their seats right beside her. Both of her friends dropped their smiles when they caught sight of the frowns playing on their faces.
"The two of you look like someone just died." Itsuka twisted her head to look at Setsuna with raised eyebrows and the green-haired girl shrugged, not caring one bit about being blunt with the two teens. Naruto was grateful that the green-haired girl could be brutally honest, because it kind of made it hard for her not to doubt the girl and her intentions.
Naruto looked down at her ramen. "I just asked Nejire about what she was working on with Ryuku."
Setsuna and Itsuka frowned and looked at each other before swirling their heads at Nejire, their eyes widening and they tilted their heads at her. Both teens leaned forward and the periwrinkle-haired girl smiled, relaxing her shoulders and Naruto noticed that the smile seemed fake. Whatever she is about to tell us is really troubling her. The blonde chewed on her bottom lip.
"We have been trying to find clues on where those missing kids are," Nejire admitted, pushing her chicken cutlets back and forth. She inhaled and exhaled as her eyes seemed fixated on the food. "All of the sidekicks and me have been doing follow up and asking around about those kids while Ryuku searches through the sky for them. Nothing came up."
Itsuka frowned and looked at the slumped girl. "I read about it in the newspaper this morning. The fingerprints can't even be trace back, right?"
"It is like that person doesn't exist," Nejire confirmed, darting her eyes everywhere. Like that person doesn't exist. Naruto chewed on her bottom lip as a nagging feeling washed over her. It was practically impossible for there to be fingerprints and not find the person that have been taking these kids. No fingerprints and no appearance of someone taking those kids. Why does she feel like she should know the signs?
It felt like she had the answers but did not have a clear picture of what was happening.
Naruto furiously shook her head and looked at her friend, who seemed to be hunching her shoulders and looking at her food like it was the most disgusting thing. The blonde forced herself to smile even though a part of her felt like frowning alongside her friend. She inhaled and exhaled as her mind tried to come up with something to tell her.
"You are going to find her Nejire, believe it!" Nejire blinked and looked up at her. Her eyes softened at the sight of Naruto's smile and the blonde blinked when her friend hugged her, squeezing the girl until Naruto felt like there was no air in her lungs. The blonde rubbed circles around her friend's back, blue eyes closed as her mind tried to think of a reasonable explanation for the events happening right now.
"Thank you, Naru-chan."
Naruto froze at the mention of that nickname and her throat tightened as the voices of those mean children echoed in her ear. Only Granny, Mikoto-obaachan and Third Hokage can call me this! It was a childish voice chanting in her ear but Naruto shoved the voice into the dark corners of her mind. As much as she wanted to yell and tell Nejire that she shouldn't call her this, her friend doesn't deserve this shit now.
Maybe if Nejire call her this then maybe Naruto could associate Naru-chan as something else. Maybe Naru-chan didn't need to be that weak girl who constantly cried, who constantly wished that someone could save her.
"I just hope that we can find those kids soon!" Nejire declared, unwrapping herself from Naruto. She smiled widely and her eyes twinkled with renewed hope. The older girl puffed her cheeks. "Ryuku didn't let me skip school to help and Tamaki and Mirio had permission from their respective heroes to do it! I wanna be of help! I hate not being able to do anything."
Itsuka and Setsuna looked down at their own hands and Naruto looked out to the window, blue eyes focused on the green leaves of her tree. Useless. You couldn't bring him back! Why didn't you bring him back? Her head throbbed as the memory of three years ago washed over her. She inhaled and exhaled as her body began to tremble from the memory.
Useless.
Naruto understood how her senior felt.
A tray of food smashed into the table and Naruto looked up, blue eyes widening as Bakugou grunted and take a seat right beside Setsuna. The green-haired girl flickered her eyes between the two of them, lips curling into an amused smile and Naruto knew that she was probably going have to clear things between them. Todoroki slid into the seat right beside her and Izuku took a seat right beside Bakugou.
Uraraka and Iida followed suit.
"Whiskers and Bouncy look like shit," Bakugou declared, flickering his eyes to Setsuna. The green-haired girl hummed and took a bite of her meal, green eyes focused on Naruto and Nejire before darting her eyes back to the blond-haired boy. He scowled but his red eyes flashed with concern and Setsuna sighed.
"Don't you know a better way to show concern, Explosive Head?" She asked him as Naruto jerked her head at Bakugou. Todoroki bobbed his head while Izuku just blinked at the girl. Uraraka knitted her eyebrows, looking almost taken aback that the green-haired girl seemed to have been able to read his voice.
He scowled. "Don't put words in my mouth, Lizard."
"I ain't putting words if it isn't true," she argued back. "And to answer your question, they are upset because of those kidnapped kids. Hadou-senpai have been helping the heroes find those kids."
Silence hung between the group of students as they processed what had been said. Bakugou dropped his scowl and locked eyes on the two females while Izuku clenched and unclenched his hands. The green-haired boy shook his head, straightened his back and looked at the two girls. "You know the case that everyone is talking about is similar to the case of Kacchan's uncle."
Everyone blinked and blinked before swirling their heads at the blond-haired boy. Bakugou twisted his head and looked at Izuku, blond eyebrows twitching and red eyes flared with irritation. Izuku steadied his arm and glared back at his childhood friend, causing Naruto to blink and lean back. I didn't think he was capable of doing that. She kind of liked the change because it meant that Izuku was trying to make himself his equal.
Equals were better than enemies.
Nejire perked up at this information and looked at Bakugou with bright, hopeful eyes. "Did they ever find him? How is it similar? Did your family ever had any leads?"
Bakugou pressed his lips into a thin line and looked down at his food. No emotions shone through his eyes and the blond-haired teen looked out to the window before looking back at Nejire. He really looks like a normal person when he doesn't scream. It should be a relief that Bakugou was not acting childish but it made Naruto's stomach turned.
"They never found him," Bakugou informed them with a small scowl. "And the whole situation is different from what happened to my shitty uncle, Deku! My Gran thinks that it is my uncle's father was the one that took him away since they had been arguing over custody over him!"
Izuku frowned. "Yeah but your grandmother couldn't prove it! It is the only case that All Might had never been able to solve!"
Todoroki frowned and looked up from his soba noodles. His mismatch eyes stared deeply into the two teens, who stared back at him, and Todoroki tilted his head at them. "But why did your grandmother think it was your uncle's father? Wasn't there also a possibility that he was taken by the Quirk Rings?"
"Because that man was Quirkless," Bakugou replied with a scowl playing on his lips. He hunched his shoulders and looked out to the window, where birds chirped their songs and the laughter of the students bounced off the walls. "A Quirkless kid is useless for a Quirk Ring. These kids seem to have Quirks, which is why they have more media coverage. It wasn't until All Might took on the case that the whole of Japan found out about my uncle's disappearance."
Those kids seem to have Quirks.
Naruto doesn't know why this stood out to her. Maybe because as a Kunoichi, she knew that Kekkei Genkei were important to a village. Maybe if she was in Konoha then she would accuse Kumo because Kumo tried to pull a stunt in their village. They tried to take away Hinata-chan because of her Byakugan. She grinded her teeth.
It was because of that incident that Hinata-chan kept being bullied by her clansmember.
But this isn't possible here.
Bakugou rubbed his arm. "Those kids being taken away are more likely to be going to the Quirk Rings than my uncle!"
Nejire chewed on her lips and shook her head. "With Quirk Rings, it is possible to find traces and hack into websites that are selling those kids. From what I know from Ryuku and Mirio, Sir Nighteye tried to go through that method and he found nothing. There just doesn't seem to be a pattern that they can use to trace the culprit of these kidnappings."
Naruto frowned and she clenched her hands into a fist as she come to a decision. She knew that everything had a pattern and when she begins her internship, Naruto was going to figure out the pattern and bring those kids back home. She did not want to see a child go through hardship or to live with a fear that no one seemed to care about them.
"Whenever Endeavour is annoying the crap out of you, you should send me a message! I will straighten him out for you!"
Naruto flashed Todoroki a smile as the two of them walked out of the gates in the school. Most of their classmates were taking their sweet time in packing their bags and the blonde had no desire for Bakugou to act like a guard dog again. Honestly, she could protect herself. She was a strong woman that was capable of breaking a boulder with her fist so a couple of teenage boys were of no issue to her.
Todoroki quirked his lips. "What? You are going to give him a personal phone call and tell him to stop acting shitty?"
She bobbed her head as her blue eyes locked onto him. Todoroki smiled slightly, looking almost faintly amused at the fact that she was very much willing to give his father a personal scolding. He paused and his eyes locked onto her, staring intently on her whisker cheeks and the blonde flushed red. "What? I'm telling the truth."
"You look cute when you look like that," Naruto spluttered and Todoroki bobbed his head. I don't know how he can say such things. There was nothing about her that could be considered cute. She swore like a sailor at times and whenever someone really pissed her off, she went off like a deranged animal. Nothing about those two things were cute.
Maybe Todoroki should be a drama actor instead. He will make a lot of money from the things that he is saying to me. She paused and quirked her lips as images of fangirls charging up to a clueless Todoroki about his autograph. Yeah, she could imagine her friend being the type of hero that would have a lot of girls chasing after him. The thought kind of made her tummy feel strange but Naruto pushed it to the side.
She shook her head and lowered her voice. "Jokes aside, are you really sure that you can handle a week of seeing him 24 hours? He is the man that abused you."
"If I want to become a good hero then I should take advantage of him, Uzumaki." Todoroki paused and cleared his throat as his mismatch eyes looked everywhere. "He is a good hero and that is what I'm choosing to focus on. As a father, I want nothing to do with him. I'm just waiting till I'm eighteen so that I can move out from the house."
Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and looked at the students that were laughing together. Till I'm eighteen. She knew he was unhappy in his home and the thought that it was the knowledge that the law wouldn't allow him to live alone unless his guardian gave permission made her stomach turn. She took a deep breath.
"You know if your house ever becomes unbearable then my door is open," he blinked and Naruto smiled. "What? Ero-Sennin won't mind and it will be nice to have a friend live with me instead of a man that is always one-sigh away from being pummeled by a couple of girls."
Todoroki looked at her and raised his eyebrow. "Uzumaki, as much as I like the offer...I think your guardian might not accept the idea of a boy and a girl living together even if they are friends."
Yeah, I have a feeling that Ero-Sennin might kill you but I can try. Todoroki gazed down at her and Naruto flashed him a small smile, causing him to blink. She frowned when the boy turned his head away, cheeks growing slightly pink and she wondered what could be the cause of his blush.
She opened her mouth to question him, only to close it when she caught sight of a familiar shade of red hair standing before the gates. Naruto halted as the world around her seemed to froze. No, why was he here? Why were they here? She thought no one from the Hidden Villages would come here.
Naruto always hoped that they would dismiss the Sports Festival as some silly TV show.
"Uzumaki, do you know him?"
Naruto felt her legs trembled as a sinking realization dawned upon her. Stupid. It was always stupid of her to think that Gaara would think of the Sports Festival as nothing but a TV show. It was foolish of her to believe that maybe someone would be smart enough to realize that Japan was real. A sense of dread filled her and Todoroki looked from her to Gaara, mismatch eyes narrowing at him.
"Yeah, he is a friend." Todoroki blinked and Naruto looked at Gaara. The teal-eyed boy looked at Todoroki, his eyes focused on the way that her friend seemed to be steadying her. Her friend blinked and looked down at his hands, uncertain of what was the big deal of him holding her. "He is a dear friend to me."
She doesn't understand too.
"Why are you here, Gaara?" She tried to keep her voice calm as several thoughts occurred to her. The two of them were friends even though their friendship had a strange beginning, but Gaara was to be Kazekage. He was a jinchuuriki just like her and his movements were as restricted as her movements.
She knew that something was up.
Gaara regarded them and his teal eyes seemed fixated on the way that Todoroki seemed to be holding her hand. He cleared his throat and Todoroki released his grip on her. "We need to have a talk, Naruto."
A talk.
Dread pooled into her stomach because even though those teal eyes seemed stoic, Naruto could feel the concern rolling off of him. She knew from the way that Gaara kept darting his eyes everywhere and the fact that she could sense his siblings off in the side that this was no catching up. She knew that this was not going to be a good talk.
She just hope that maybe her suspicions were off.