Fanfiction: Simple Smile

[ryoko-nee.livejournal.com]

Miya, been a while since I've posted anything, so being bored, I went and posted this up on ff.net. Spur of the moment, and first kind of 'fan' thing I've done in a long time. I've only done doodles xD and I might do another story if I'm really bored kekeke xP.


Title: Simple Smile
Series: Naruto
Disclaimer: Everything owned by Kishimoto except this spin off idea.

Part 1

[Snow... Always cold and blinding, but because of it, spring shall come and something new shall bloom.]

Yawning, Naruto woke from his sleep. Groggily getting up while rubbing his eyes, he moves
into the washroom to get through his daily routine. Following is his milk and leftovers
from the previous day. Feeling a bit more refreshed, he looks outside as he prepares his
things to go to the Academy and notices it snowing. Sighing, he checks that he has all his
equipment with him and touching his goggles, he heads out his house.

"Ino! Wake up now! You're going to be late, AGAIN!"
Rolling over, Ino reads the time on her clock and rolls back over again. Then it clicked.
"NOOOO!!!"

At the Academy, Naruto surprises everyone by reaching his seat early for once but promptly
goes to sleep with his head on the desk. The others return to their previous activities not
sparing him another glance. At quarter to nine, Iruka enters the classroom quieting the
students and notices Naruto sleeping. Knowing the time of year, he let him off the hook but
then the door at the back slammed open.

"I'M PRESENT! I'M NOT LATE!" Ino takes a huge gulp of air before seating herself beside her
favourite 'Sasuke-kun!' and glaring at Sakura who along with everyone else tries their best
to muffle their laughter.

"Ino, this is the third time this week, which means you've been late each day this week.
Just because the holidays are tomorrow didn't mean that you were allowed to be tardy."

"Sorry Iruka-sensei... No one at ho-"

"No excuses, now returning to our history..."

-------------------------------------------------------

"Bye bye! and Merry Christmas!"'s were chorused throughout the schoolyard as students left
with their parents heading back home. Naruto had woken up when the fire alarm went off and
as it always is, he was blamed for it even though he had been sleeping the entire time. He
had become immune to the taunts and accusations for the past while or he forced himself to
believe it though he was hurt. Of course, he'd never admit that out loud even if he were to
become Hokage by saying it.

"Anou... Naruto-kun... M-Merry Christmas a-a-and have a-a-a Happy New Year..." came a quiet
voice. Turning around, Naruto noticed Hyuuga Hinata behind him poking her fingers together
in her nervous manner and bright red in face. Her head was bowed but he could imagine her
eyes shifting about looking left and right. Giving her his biggest grin to hide his frown,
he replied, "Aa! You too Hinata-chan! Hope you get everything you want this year!"

If it was possible for her face to become redder, it did. Then saying a quick thank you, she
turned tail and headed in the direction of her father. Naruto just followed her with his
eyes still in their fox-like look until she left the yard. Dropping the facade, he turned
back to his swing, wiped the seat of the snow, and sat on it. Swinging to and fro lightly,
he watched as all his other classmates left with their parents, smiling and telling them
what they wished Santa Claus would bring them or what they wanted to eat that night or
simply telling them how their day went. Trying his best not to envy them, Naruto thought
about how he didn't have to worry about family get togethers and needing to buy things for
other friends and family members since he didn't have much money to start out with. His
monthly allowance from Sandaime gave him enough just to scrape by and it was hard to save
any at all. He had seen Sasuke (teme!) leave with the first group of students but as usual,
he seemed apathetic to the entire joy and celebratory feel the rest of the body of 'normal'
people exuded. The last to leave surprisingly was Ino.

Ino was NOT having a good day. Waking up late (stupid mom not waking me up earlier and
stupid clock!!), forgetting to brush her hair, then arriving to class embarassing herself
again, she was glad that the holidays were here. But at this moment, she was fuming. She was
the last one in the entire school yard since her mother hadn't arrived yet. Looking around,
she finally saw Naruto on his swing but he was swinging and looking up at the sky and that
did not interest her in the least bit. It did however start her ranting mood.

"I'm the last one here with no one but the class idiot... Sheesh... I wonder where his
parents are though... He's always here on his own. But it doesn't matter! 'Kaasan isn't here
yet and augh! If she's gonna keep giving me the same excuse that she was busy at the
flower shop or had met an old friend or had met 'tousan on her way here, I'm gonna blow!"
Either way, she still blew up. Yelling gibberish at the top of her lungs (and scaring Naruto
in the process), she calmed down after a few minutes. The teachers had all come out and
asked her what was wrong and receiving nothing but a heated glare, they figured it was just
another 'Ino thing' as they so called it.

"Mou... talk about annoying teachers. Nosing their way into as many things as they can.
Can't they tell that that was a private yell? Sheesh... but man, it's cold outside." Ino
looked up and noticed that snow had been falling for a short while but she was too
engrossed in her heated self-monologue to see it. Shivering a bit (since she was clad in
her purple pants and shirt, and nothing else but bandages), she closed her eyes and promptly
reopened them when she felt something warm wrap around her shoulders and warm her back.

Where her bare shoulders were, now there was something tattered, orange, and somewhat fuzzy
(was that miso she could smell!?). Scowling, since she realized that it was Naruto's
(ugly!!!) jacket, she bent her head back but didn't see him. Looking back at the swing, it
was empty. 'So now what? I owe him something? Sheesh... He really IS annoying! Mou, I have
to get this back to him. I'd DIE if someone saw me in this.' She hurriedly shoved it into
her bag but regretted the next moment as she shivered at double the rate than before.
She was about to bring it back out again but she spotted her mom and forgetting about
everything else, she ran over and started interrogating (in the most polite and civil manner
possible according to Ino) her about where she had been and why she was late as usual. Her
mother being sensible gave Ino her jacket that she forgot at home and then proceeded to
explain to her why she was late (which happened to be the excuse of her seeing an old
friend). As the pair left, neither of them saw or sensed the little boy that had been
watching them from around the corner who too was shivering.

--------------------------------------------------

"Christmas! Christmas! Christmaaaas!!!!" trilled Ino as she raced down the stairs to her
family's modest Christmas tree that stood in the back of the flower shop. Of course she
never told anyone she still had some hope that Santa Claus was real since she was always
sarcastic about it "oh yeah! He's real alright. Pshhh, yyy-erah! *cue eye roll*." She was
disappointed with the gifts she received though, pair of gloves and a new headband (must
be from 'kaasan), more bandages ('tousan... how original, always something practical right?),
a letter of complaint (why in the world did Sakura give this to me if she always complains
at school? It's not even a gift!), and a few little tidbits here and there. Nothing was
really important to her and she sighed as she remembered that 'Sasuke-kun!' hadn't given her
anything or even said simple Merry Christmas. 'How hard is it to say that anyway? At least
say it if you won't write it or something!'

In another house, another blond had yet to wake up, but he'd prefer if he didn't anyway.
Nothing good ever came of this day. Sure he got training by running away from angry
villagers, but he didn't even get time to plan any pranks so all in all, this day was
already ruined for him. By the time he woke up (Ino was already eating breakfast), he sat in
bed and didn't bother to move for the following ten minutes. Thinking was a habit that he
was slowly starting to hate since it always brought up memories or something of that sort
back up. Sighing, he made his way out of bed and did his morning routines. When dressing, he
realized that he left his favourite jacket with that pig-headed girl the other day and
sighed again. Yep, his day was already ruined. Having nothing else to do, and crossing his
fingers that the other villagers weren't up yet, he decided to head out and visit 'oyaji'
and Ayame-neechan to wish them a Merry Christmas and see if he could get by with a bowl of
ramen since he ran out of it recently. Donning his usual gear (and a cleaner but slightly
darker jacket), he left the house.

Absently walking about, Naruto looked about and stopped when he found a clear shot of the
Hokage Mountain. Staring up at it, the stale fire rekindled itself, but his eyes were still
dulled, following his emotions. A few minutes more and then he kept moving, remembering to
go and visit Sandaime as well this day, assuming that he wasn't busy with his family too.

Ino was bored in her house. Her parents refused to wake up (having gone to bed extremely
late, but Ino didn't know that) and so she decided to leave and go do something. What that
something was, she wasn't sure. Whatever it was though, it had to be better than being here!
'Heck, even hanging out with Shikamaru would be better than staying cooped up here.' With
that thought, she left her house and walked into the chilly weather of December before
remembering that she needed a jacket. In the next few minutes, she was back out again but
cursing herself for having forgotten something so basic as a jacket.

Not really moving in any direction, her feet took her to the memorial grounds. Here, she
remembered to pass by her grandfather's and grandmother's grave for they had been killed
during the Kyuubi attack. Ino wasn't sure about how she felt, but she realized after a few
minutes that she had been crying. Quickly wiping away the tears, she wished the two of them
a Merry Christmas and to have a Happy New Year. She also told them about how she was doing
at the Academy not knowing whether they would have cared or not if they were still alive.
She wasn't sure why she was crying either, she hadn't ever met the two, she only saw their
photographs. Perhaps it's because there were just so many that died in the attack, or just
because they were family to her. She loved her family to death and would die protecting
them (which was one reason why her mother was always worried, not because Ino'd die
protecting the family, but because Ino was now more exposed to being in that situation).
Getting up from her kneeling position, she smiled and said that she'd come and visit more
often. Sobered, she began walking away when she noticed Naruto in the distance. 'Who could
ever miss that orange jacket anyway? Even the villagers notice it and glare at it.' Of
course, she did not understand Naruto's predicament at that time and neither did Naruto as
a matter of fact.

Naruto sensed someone coming and not wanting to talk to anyone just yet, began to speed up
towards Ichiraku but halted when he heard the other say, "Stop!" He looked and found Ino
running up to him but he really didn't want to talk so trying his hardest to throw her off,
he smiled his fox smile and called out as loud as he could, "Oi! Ino! Merry Christmas!"
Some of the villagers actually came out and started to yell at him saying that he woke them
up, but then they started to yell at each other saying that they were too loud and
eventually, they forgot that it was Naruto that they had yelled at first and were making a
loud ruckus and missed Naruto and Ino running out of the general area.

"Mou Naruto, you really ARE an idiot! Yelling like that in the middle of a neighbourhood,
don't you know that most people are dead asleep at this time of year?!"

"Yeah, but what's it matter? You're out, right? Plus, it's so late in the day, almost noon
now, so I think everyone should get up *grins*."

"BAKA!" and she proceeded to hit his head multiple times until he almost passed out. When
she had calmed down (but Naruto was still nursing his head), she looked at him and again he
gave her one of his biggest smiles. But as she studied him, him being nervous, had to ask
what was wrong.

"Ne, Naruto..."

"Eh?"

"You... you seem, how do I put it... Really fake today..." Naruto stared at her
unbelievingly wondering how he messed up his facade, but she continued. "You always smile
like that in class, but you always close your eyes. I can never tell whether your smile
reaches your eyes or not."

Naruto continued to stare at her until she felt uncomfortable and hit him once again on the
head. "Itai! What was that for!?"

"For staring at me and making me feel uncomfortable baka!"

Sighing for the umpteenth time that day, Naruto said, "Na, Ino, if you wanna go
somewhere else, go ahead. I'm gonna go grab lunch now so I'll see ya later, 'kay?" Smiling
again (with his eyes still closed as Ino noted), he left and went in the direction of
Ichiraku once again with more vigor in his step (as he was trying to get away from Ino as
quick as possible). When he was a good distance away, Ino recalled that she still had to
give him back his jacket.

"Maa, I'll just give it to him another day. Like the first day of school or something like
that. Right, I just need to remember."

----------------------------------------------

Snow, always snow. White, pure, cold, and well, shiny as he liked to put it. Which in a way
is a bad thing, especially when one is running outside but keeps getting blinded wherever
they go. Actually, that was happening to him right now as he was doing his best to outrun
another ninja who randomly attacked him.

Naruto was at the moment in the Mist country doing a 'mini' solo mission for Godaime which
started out as a C-rank mission 'how degrading Tsunade-baachan! For me? Jounin level doing
that!? Che... and you wonder why our forces are weakening' but as it is with Naruto, it
managed to become an A-rank mission with missing-nins and even a few crude hunter-nins
joining in. The mission was supposed to be simple. Retrieve a scroll from underneath the
"Uzumaki Bridge" (oh how he loved that name, but sadly, Tazuna-san had died. Inari was left
with his mom, but they were coping well and Inari had become quite the man since he had last
seen him) and bring it back. The bridge was easy to find, but man it was long. Finding the
scroll itself took a while (from dawn to dusk) since she didn't specify whether it was
underwater, under the bridge posts, etc. Apparently though, this was one of the secret
scrolls of the Mist (why they left it out was a complete mystery really) and so not only
was Godaime looking for it, but missing-nins. Strangely enough, the Mist-nins didn't care,
so that must have meant that it was planned between the Leaf and Mist, but missing-nins
somehow managed to get info about the scroll and wanted it.

Back in real time, Naruto narrowly dodged another swipe at his face by a clawed hand and a
kick to his abdomen from a foot by two other missing-nins and kept on running. Getting
tired of it all, he formed a familiar hand formation and a multitude of Narutos seemed to
have magically popped out of nowhere. His kage bunshins were to be used as distractions (as
much as possible) and weapons if he needed it. Already quite a few were busy with his clones
but he still had to keep moving around to get out of the way of the many attacks aimed at
him. He was quite tired by the time dusk came around since he had literally been running
nonstop, had created over 5000 bunshins by that time, but he was nearing Konoha which he
was sure that he'd get some kind of help. He also knew the area best and was planning on
which hideout to move to first to get some strength back and where to hide the scroll while
resting. But first things first, 'tajuu kage bunshin no jutsu' and another 20 formed.
Forming something akin to a semi-circle behind him, they readied themselves and at his
command, they all blew up in a great explosion, hitting most of the missing-nins in the face
and regretfully on Naruto's part, a couple hunter-nins. 'If only the hunter-nins were doing
a better job at killing those missing-nins, it'd be like they're on my side. 'Course,
they're after this scroll too. Geez, what's IN here Tsunade-baachan that's so important?'

Ino, Sakura, and Kiba who had been on patrol duty perked their ears up when they heard the
explosion a fair distance away. Well, it was really Kiba who heard it, the other two girls
were squabbling over another petty thing again which was their habit. This time, he thought
it was something about face masks or something like that. Girls were just too much trouble
at times, except Hinata. At that thought, he smiled like a giddy school girl and even
laughed a bit scaring the crap out of Sakura and Ino. He got over it though in a couple
seconds as he started to sniff the air and concentrated on the scent he was getting.

"Kiba, what is it?" inquired Sakura.

"It's... yeah, no doubt about it. It's Naruto. He's coming back from his mission and it
seems like he's in trouble." Akamaru came to his side and barked a couple messages to his
master and Kiba interpreted it for the two girls. "He's got about 13 nins after him, most
of them strong and why the heck he's not fighting I don't know. But Akamaru and I can sense
that he's tired. We should go help him. He's not that far now. About 100 kilometres away or
so. We could reach him in a few minutes."

"But, what about patrolling? Plus, it's Naruto. I've known him for forever now, still
annoying, but not that bad heh. He'll be fine, I'm sure of it," said Sakura.

"Well I'm bored and I want to do something. I say we go help him anyway. What level do you
think those nins are at?" said Ino.

"Jounin level at least."

"Yeah, I say we go."

"But, patrolling..."

"I'm on it," said Ino. She went to the other wall, jumped down and quickly found two other
sentry nins who happened to walk by and doing what she does best, she got them/forced them
to go on patrolling duty for a short while and then the three left.

----------------------------------------------

Naruto was really beginning to get tired, he had actually stopped a short while before, but
rather than resting, was desperately fighting off his attackers. His bunshin idea was way
past overused and the only thing keeping him going was his reserved chakra. He was somewhat
injured, but not badly thanks to Kyuubi's healing. But he could only hang on for so long.
He was doing his best not to use the Kyuubi chakra since he did think of this a bit as a
training session and tried to restrain his use against it (heck, he still believed it was
a C-rank mission). Plus, it burned his body everytime he used it anyway. So why not save
the pain as much as he could?

When he was about to give up and start tapping into the Kyuubi's chakra, he sensed three
others nearing and was relieved to find that it was Sakura's, Ino's, and Kiba's chakra
signature. Anymore stupid nins and he was sure he'd have gone Kyuubi (as he has coined that
term). Slowly sensing that the other missing-nins were being killed off or being knocked
out, his vision began to unfocus itself and he was getting mixed signals from his five
senses and stumbled till his back hit a tree. At this moment, one nin (from Grass) had found
him and with his kunai, stabbed his heart. Or he would have had Naruto not moved enough and
have the kunai stab him in his shoulder. He was beyond pissed now, tired, injured, and
chakra depleted, Kyuubi's form festered itself round his body and he was animalistic.
Clawing at the missing-nin, his or her throat was torn apart with one swipe and wasting no
time, Naruto found all the others and killed them in quick movements and sometimes even
with nothing but his chakra. The others freaked when he transformed, Kiba and Akamaru the
most since they could smell something demonic and his power level seemed to have jumped
from zilch to above scales of maybe even sennin-level (of course, Kiba has yet to experience
the full power of any sennin since Tsunade was usually sleeping and all).

Sakura was stunned. Nothing else could describe her at that moment. It had been such a long
time that she'd seen Naruto in that form. She knew of the Kyuubi contained within him, but
it all seemed fake to her when she heard about it when he told her himself. She still
regretted her reactions to it that day since she froze on the spot, wide-eyed, and
according to Naruto (after they made up) accusatory. This was why she wasn't worried when
she and the others were standing on guard at the gate about Naruto getting hurt, but she
was glad that she still helped him in tiny ways when she couldn't help Sasuke-kun at all.

Ino's mind was reeling with assumptions when she saw Naruto. She remembered him and this
chakra during the Chuunin Examination the first time round, but had completely forgotten
about it after a few weeks since she became extremely busy in that time. Seeing him now,
she thought that some sort of fire fox demon engulfed Naruto and was eating its way through
the skin (and how close she was to the truth). At the sight, she recalled the Kyuubi as she
had seen drawn in some old history book back at the Academy and suddenly remembered all the
deaths on that day. Her grandparents included. Feeling nauseous, she fell to her knees and
did nothing else but look upon the scene.

With the last missing-nin killed, Naruto dropped on top of that dead nin and passed out
before he had closed his eyes. The hunter-nins came and took the heads of their prey though
they had done squat, looked at the jinchuuriki and left quietly as if they had never been
there. 'Good riddance,' thought both girls.

"Sakura!" shouted Kiba. "You'd better get your butt over here and start healing Naruto! He-"
He stopped mid-sentence, seeing that the shoulder had almost stopped bleeding and was
already beginning to close up. To watch it in real life after having heard the stories,
Kiba could still hardly believe that it was true. The rate at which Naruto healed was...
impossible!

"Hai, Kiba?"

"N-nothing..."

"Oi, let's get back. I need to wash out my hair again. Bah! Maybe we should have just
stayed on guard duty."

"Nyah, that's what I said before, but of course, YOU didn't listen to me."

Ino hmphed and started making her way back, Sakura in tow.

"Oy... What is this? You leave the guy to carry the injured? Thanks girls..."

------------------------------------------------

Groaning, Naruto opened his eyes to see nothing but white again. 'Man,' he thought, 'I've
seen this colour way too much. Oh, sorry, my bad... Tint or shade or.. oh whatever!' He
ran his hand through his hair and noted thankfully that it was cleaned as was the rest of
his body. Why he was in the hospital though, he could not understand. Sitting up, he got rid
of the kinks in his body by doing a couple light stretches in bed.

"Good to see that you're up," said a girl drily.

"Yep, good to see that you're sarcastic as ever Ino," replied Naruto while still twisting
about.

"I come to say hi, and that's how you answer me? I'm hurt."

"Now, now, I hate it when people lie to me so don't."

"Hey!" said an offended Ino, "I did come to visit you!"

"Oh, that's fine. Just the 'I'm hurt' thing bugged me."

"Riiiight... (Eyes rolled at this point)"

"Yeah, I know I am."

"Urusei!" and as if it were deja-vu, Ino hit Naruto on the head.

"ITAI! What's with you girls and hitting people!?"

"Baka, you brought it on yourself."

"Did not!"

"Did to!"

"Did not!"

"Did to!"

"Did not!"

"Did to!"

"DID NOT! AND THAT'S FINAL!"

"Sheesh, don't get all hissy fit on me.

Naruto silently stewed in his anger as Ino placed her flowers by his bed table which he
then noticed. They were not a terribly bright orange as he'd have liked, but they were
orange nonetheless or something like orange. They were hyacinths and in the middle, there
was a daisy. 'That's kind of random,' thought Naruto, 'but ah well. Wait... is she the
first to ever give me flowers? I don't recall Sakura ever doing that... It was always for
'Sasuke-kun!!! Love me because I bring you flowers!!' Bah! Traitor...'

As a side note, Sasuke had returned to Konoha after Sound had been defeated by the alliance
of the Leaf and Sand. Naruto had been able to convince Gaara, his long time friend, to help
them out and also to help strengthen the relationship between the two countries. Sasuke had
returned, but only because there was nowhere else that he could go (believe it or not) and
after having apologized (though it was difficult for many not to kill him right then and
there at the council), was not reaccepted back into Konoha, but was accepted at the moment
under the status of refugee. Many found it hard to accept him as he was the one who lead
the attack against Konoha during that war, but it seemed no matter what, many others still
accepted him and wanted him back under Konoha citizenship since he was 'the last Uchiha' or
'he was misguided' or something of that idiocy.

Back in the hospital, Ino studied Naruto's face again as he stared at the flowers and took
in all the slightest changes his face like how his eyebrows raised or how his mouth tilted
down when he frowned and again, his eyes that spoke so much about him, how they sparkled or
darkened when he remembered something. Details like that. She wasn't sure how long she
looked at him, but gathering herself just before Naruto noticed, she said that she had to go
and visit Chouji who also came back from a recent mission, but had lost too much weight and
that was his reason for him being in the hospital. Naruto nodded, not yet looking at her,
but when his eyes fell on hers and said thanks, he smiled at her. A simple, genuine smile, and one
that she would never forget even if she wanted to. His eyes, she said to herself, were open
this time.

------------------------------------------------------

If it's any good, I'll probably come back with the next half that's done already. It's also up on ff.net if anyone wants to go there first ^^" Comments/Criticisms are always good ^-^


~Ryoko-nee ^-^

Comments

[kitsukikun.livejournal.com]

This was very good. Your writing style conveyed the emotions of the character beautifully. I'd like to see you draw this one into a full blown story. I've never been one for the NaruIno pairing (though it doesn't have to be a love story) but I really like what you've got. It'd be nice to see Ino's reaction to learning about Naruto's family, (or lack thereof) and about the Kyuubi...