I DO NOT OWN NARUTO

Hope everyone's staying safe and healthy out there, no matter where in the world you are. 

Also on a completely unrelated side note: Isn't that picture cute? 😍

"You just had to drag us out here, huh," Sasuke grumbled as he and the rest of Team 7 waited for their respective ramen. Sakura and Naruko had both gone for the classic miso ramen, while the Uchiha had ordered, unsurprisingly, tomato ramen. But what the surprising thing about the order was that Ichiraku's even had tomato ramen on their menu. And Naruko had never tried it.

"Well where else did you want to go — the Akimichi BBQ?" Naruko shrugged. "It was the first place that came into mind. Besides, all the other teams are most likely going to be there and I figured you'd want to eat your lunch first before socializing."

Sasuke grunted and picked up his chopsticks, hungrily eyeing his order as it was placed down in front of him.

"Itadakimasu," Naruko smiled as she picked up her chopsticks as well, Sakura and Sasuke echoing her statement before all dug into their lunch. After the first mouthful, the Haruno and Uchiha dropped their chopsticks and simply stared at the steaming bowls in front of them.

Naruko stopped halfway through her lunch and tilted her head to look at them, a fountain of noodles still hanging from her mouth. "Why aren't you guys eating?"

The moment their heads turned to face her, Naruko nearly fell off her stool laughing. And that never happened unless she was wearing her "mask".

Sasuke and Sakura both had stars in their eyes, and Naruko thought she could even make out some drool.

"Thank you for enlightening us to this beautifully delicious ramen stand, Naruko-sama!" Sakura squealed, launching over to hug Naruko and nearly sending them toppling over had Sasuke not grabbed Sakura's shirt to prevent that.

Naruko giggled and gently patted Sakura's shoulder. "It's no problem, really. I'm glad you like it."

"Well someone's acting rather out-of-character," an amused voice said as three people entered the stand as well.

"I-Ino-chan," Sakura stuttered as she immediately pulled back, a blush rising to her cheeks due to the teasing comment the Yamanaka heiress had just uttered.

"Aw, come on Sakura-chan, you've got to admit you don't normally do that sort of thing," Ino grinned, reaching over to pinch her cheeks. "And I would know, since you're my sister."

Sakura smiled and turned back to her lunch. "Is your team here for lunch as well, Ino-chan?"

Ino nodded and moved along the line to sit next to Sasuke. "Yep. A kind of celebratory lunch. All the other teams are at Choji's BBQ, and it was so busy so we decided to go somewhere else. We saw you here and thought we'd join. I hope you don't mind the intrusion."

Naruko smiled from where she was talking to Shikamaru, who was seated beside her. "I'm glad you came," she called over to the other blonde, who grinned and waved back.

Choji, Ino and Shikamaru ordered pork, miso and shoyu ramen respectively. Naruko lifted an eyebrow at the Nara's order, but said nothing about it.

To Sasuke's chagrin and Team 10's amusement, Naruko kept dragging him into a conversation, regardless of whether he wanted to participate. And if he refused to say anything but "hn", then Naruko would proceed to answer for him in the most detailed way possible. So Sasuke learned that if he didn't want people to know his secrets, he had to participate in conversation.

"Good duckbutt," Naruko patted his head after Sasuke spoke one full sentence to the endlessly amused Nara. "You're learning."

Sasuke scowled and swatted her hand away, but that only got him a flick on the forehead.

Naruko stopped eating when she felt the surprised gaze from her emo-teammate. "Why are you staring at me like I'm an alien from outer space?" she asked a little warily.

"Sasuke's older brother, Itachi Uchiha, used to poke his forehead all the time," Kurama explained. "I'm guessing that flick reminded him of Itachi."

'And exactly how do you know this, furball?'

"Don't forget I was sealed within your mother, who was a Konoha kunoichi. She liked to go out a lot, and was best friends with your little boyfriend's late mother."

'H-He is not my boyfriend!' Naruko spluttered indignantly.

"Uh-huh, whatever you say."

"—just reminded me of him," Sasuke's low, somewhat uncomfortable voice drew Naruko back into reality. Sasuke was shifting a bit on his stool, staring at his ramen bowl.

And, being the intelligent child she is, merely replied, "Oh. Are you going to eat that, or can I finish it?"

Sasuke looked up in surprise. The jinchuuriki's eyes were fixed on his ramen bowl, and he noted that hers was empty already. He shrugged and pushed it towards her, watching with a small smile as she eagerly finished the rest of his lunch. Sakura was raising an eyebrow at her, but then turned to her adoptive sister who was asking her a question.

"What are we doing after lunch?" Choji asked as he finished what looked like, due to the stack of bowls beside him, his sixth bowl.

"I guess we could go around the village pranking everyone, or we could paint stuff on the Hokage Monument," Naruko said nonchalantly.

"No!" all of them cried. Well, Sasuke "hn"ed. Naruko pouted but promptly forgot about her suggestion's quick shot-down as she downed the broth happily.

"So... what are we going to do?"

"I know one thing we definitely are not going to do," a soft voice entered Ichiraku's. "Whatever you have in mind, make sure Naruko doesn't get bored. A bored Naruko leaves devastation in her wake."

"Hina-chan!" Naruko exclaimed happily as she launched herself at the Hyuuga heiress. "What are you doing here?"

Hinata giggled as she hugged her first ever friend back. "We graduated, and knowing you and Sasuke-kun, Team 7 graduated as well. So, I wanted to celebrate with you. Kiba and Shino didn't mind tagging along."

Naruko looked over Hinata's shoulder at Shino, and whispered conspiratorially to Hinata, "He and Duckbutt would get along very well together, don't you think?"

Hinata giggled again. "Shall we seat them next to each other and see what happens?"

Naruko's eyes gleamed maliciously. "Let's." And without further ado, she grabbed a dango stick from literally nowhere and shoved it into the poor, unsuspecting Uchiha's mouth.

Said Uchiha immediately spat out the tri-coloured balls of sweetness and started gagging, his hands coming up to wrap around his throat as he coughed and hacked and gagged so hard he fell off his stool. 'The sickly sweet taste... it's in my mouth! I can't get rid of it!' He started crying internally. 'Naruko, how could you betray me like this?'

'Sorry Sasuke, but this had to be done!' Naruko thought determinedly.

Not particularly wanting her good friend and teammate to die, she grabbed the cup of water Teuchi was offering her and dumped Sasuke back onto the stool before helping him drink. It took only a minute for Sasuke's senses to come back to him, and when they did he grabbed the cup himself and practically inhaled the liquid.

At the same time, Hinata grabbed a surprised Shino's hand and sat him on the stool next to Sasuke's before she and Naruko, who was done helping Sasuke, yanked the rest of the Genin out of the stall, somehow twisting hands and using their own to muffle cries of surprise and pain.

When they were hidden safely in a hedge that was a little far from Ichiraku's, Hinata and Naruko nodded at each other before letting go of their hostages.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?" Ino whisper-yelled angrily. At least she had enough sense to know to be quiet.

"Shh!" Naruko grinned, the gleeful smile never leaving her face. "We're just watching to see how an interaction between Shino and Sasuke will go."

Ino's mouth fell open. "I always knew you were, Naruko, but Hinata? I never thought I'd say this but: you're crazy, the both of you," she said at last. "They're probably going to go separate ways and come looking for us."

"Aha!" Hinata squealed joyfully, causing her remaining teammate to stare at her in shock. "They're talking! Although I don't know if you can count a "hn-hm" exchange as a conversation."

Naruko shrugged. "Why not? I do it with Duckbutt all the time."

"Let me see," Sakura squeezed between her teammate and the Hyuuga heiress, eagerly peeking out at the two "emos" who were apparently conversing.

Sasuke's onyx eyes were flickering around uncomfortably, as he responded to Shino's "hm"s in likeness. At last, he spoke a sentence. "Do you know where they went?"

Naruko was immediately tackled by both Hinata and Sakura to stop her squealing from giving away their hiding place. Beneath Hinata's palm, muffled words that sounded suspiciously like, "Duckbutt's first words!" were cried out as the rest of their former classmates sweatdropped.

"Yes, I do have an idea of where they are now," Shino's monotone answer came unexpectedly. "Why? Because one of my bugs is on Hinata's sleeve."

Said Hyuuga glanced down at her sleeve in surprise, and saw the spot that she had previously dismissed as a speck of dirt. Internally facepalming at her rookie mistake, she gently blew on the bug and it landed on a nearby leaf.

"Move, pronto!" Sakura ordered the rest of them and they quickly rushed towards the training grounds.

"How long are we going to be doing this?" Choji asked a little nervously.

"Until they find us, I guess," Sakura shrugged. "All I know is that I want to see them interact a little bit more. It's not often you see an Aburame and an Uchiha together."

"That sounds so wrong on so many levels," Ino muttered under her breath. Sakura shot her a look, but the Yamanaka shrugged it off. "Well, we are quite far from Ichiraku's so, unless the two of them are here or something extremely interesting concerning said boys is happening, do not disturb me." With that said, Ino plopped down under a tree's shade and pulled out a particularly thick book.

"Whoa!" Kiba exclaimed in surprise, wide-eyed. "How many pages is that?!"

"980," was the simple reply. "Unfortunately, it's not 1000. That really gives me severe OCD."

"What chapter or part are you up to?" Sakura asked once she saw the title, sitting down next to her blonde sister to read over her shoulder.

"Chapter 11, with the ungrateful vegetable and his beautiful, wondrous, amazing wife. But I do have a strong suspicion she has a bun in her oven, if you know what I mean," Ino smirked.

"She's cooking?" Naruko guessed.

Sakura's cheeks turned pink as Ino laughed. "Oh Naruko... dear dear Naruko... you have yet to learn the true ways of this world."

Naruko tilted her head, not understanding, but chose to wave it off as she bent down to read the cover. "Kingdom... of Ash? What a morbid title."

"It is an amazing series by the most wondrous author in all of the galaxy!" Sakura proclaimed. "It is a marvellous story about... I know that look, Naruko. Alright, in short it was about an assassin trying to win back her freedom with a bit of romance thrown in, but now..." she drew in a sharp breath, stars literally lighting her eyes, "now, it's about a group of badass women who don't wait around for men to get sh-t done and save the world!"

Naruko pursed her lips. "Sounds good. Lemme take a look."

"Nothing can be so badass about a bunch of women," Kiba commented snarkily. He instantly regretted that, however, when four pairs of glaring eyes were turned upon him.

"Care to repeat that, Kiba-kun?" Hinata asked sweetly, though malice was woven into her tone.

Kiba started to sweat in fear, and not too long after, Sasuke and Shino looked up at the terrified, high-pitched scream. The two heirs exchanged a mutual look of understanding and immediately started towards the source of the scream, the Uchiha heir knowing all too well what had most likely caused it.

It took a while for them to figure out exactly which area in the vague direction they figured out, and another ten minutes to check each training ground in the vicinity. When they finally reached Training Ground 7, Sasuke kicked himself for not checking this place sooner.

But truthfully, he wished he hadn't found them. The scene in front of him and Shino was just... it was point-blank out of this world. Period.

Poor Kiba was twitching as he lay on his back with bumps on his head, red prints on his face, bruises and scratches all over his body as well as a terribly swollen eye. He was only a little ways away from the group, with two members engaged in a particularly fiery discussion. (1)

"You know what—" Sakura's exclamation was cut short.

"I was in the middle of the first book!" Ino exclaimed defensively.

"No no no no no!" Sakura shook her head.

"Yes yes yes yes yes!" Ino countered.

"You are always going to be on Tamlin's side!" Sakura snapped, throwing her hands up in the air.

"That was only based on ACOTAR!"

The noise level suddenly dropped, and everyone except the arguing sisters turned to face Shino and Sasuke, who had conveniently been forgotten about.

"Welcome to the world of fangirls," Naruko smiled tiredly. "They first started off arguing over the one Aelin Ashryver-Galanthynius belongs to: Dorian, Chaol or Rowan. Then they moved onto this other girl called Feyre and how Ino once shipped her so much with Tamlin, when she clearly belonged to Rhysand, as Sakura put it."

"I don't want to know," Sasuke sighed as he sat down next to Naruko and peeked at the page. "When did you start reading this?"

"Only when they started arguing. So about one and a half hours ago, give or take a few minutes."

Sasuke's eyebrows shot up. "And you're already up to page 798?!"

"Yeah, my family always said—"

"You're always going to be on Tamlin's side!" Sakura spat. She was evidently not a big fan of the shapeshifter Lord, as evidenced by the hatred darkening her green eyes, despite the fact that the person they were arguing over was fictional.

"—not that," Naruko finished before burying her face back into the book.

"That was based on ACOTAR!" Ino cried defensively, despite how futile it was becoming. All the Genin then learned to never argue with Sakura over her precious and beloved ships, because you will lose. Sakura would never give up when defending her OTPs of Rowaelin and Feysand.

"ACOTAR yes I'm on Tamlin's team, ACOMAR I don't even know because I'm halfway through it and you, put that book down now!" Ino pointed at Naruko, who stared at her blankly. "I don't need another person giving me spoilers!"

"By the way, you are always going to be on Tamlin's team, okay?" Sakura looked done with the entire thing, but she was not going to give up until Ino conceded defeat.

"No, not okay," Ino retorted. It only took Sakura's stare to blow her up again. "That was based on ACOTAR and now I know he's an overprotective bastard, I know!"

Sakura was walking away with her palm facing Ino. "Yes, I know, but you didn't take my advice and—"

"Yeah but you were killing me and—"

Their words turned into incomprehensible screaming, fingers flying and glares a-blazing.

"I told you—"

"Yes I know and that's exactly why—"

"I told you—"

"Shut up!"

"Naruko how do you feel about this, watching our usually shy teammate have a screaming match with her sister?" Sasuke asked lazily.

Naruko glanced up briefly at the screaming demons, and then quirked a lip. "No comment."

It was incomprehensible screaming once more, and it only finally ended with Sakura shouting, "You are going to hate him so much!" at the same time Ino cried, "Shut up!" 

Silence once again descended upon the area, and both girls stalked to their respective teams, refusing to look at each other.

"So... that went well," Choji tried, but was immediately on the receiving end of two glares.

Shikamaru sighed and draped his forearm over his eyes. "Troublesome women." He was saved from the attack by Naruko, who had immediately reached over to grab Ino's arm, all the while her eyes never leaving the book she was engrossed in.

Ino's eyebrows rose as she took her arm back. She was not the only one to note the instinctive reflex; Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the blonde who had settled back against the tree trunk. He guessed she was used to diffusing fights between her siblings, so it would've been like second nature to her now. Naruko probably wasn't aware she had moved, given her current absorption in the object in her hands.

Truthfully, Naruko wasn't as absorbed in her book as she appeared to be. Instead, when she felt the instinctive need to block a descending arm, she had thought herself to be back in the JA Base, sitting on her beanbag with a new book with Fuu and Gaara around doing their own thing, and Utakata and Yagura bickering about their latest mission in front of her. The tentative voice she heard was Gaara's, the snarky remark to be Utakata's (though with different wording), and the arm she had stopped she pictured to be Yagura's staff.

"Naruko."

"Not now Fuu-chan, I'm almost finished," Naruko muttered.

Sakura blinked in surprise. "Um, Naruko? My name is Sakura."

Naruko glanced up and blinked. "Oh... sorry Sakura," she said quietly, cursing herself for letting the longing for her childhood home overwhelm her and fool her into thinking she was back in the one place she truly belonged, where her heart yearned to be.

"We're leaving now, it's around 7:30," Sakura said quietly from where she was crouching in front of Naruko. Sasuke and Hinata were on either side of her, and the rest of the Genin were a little bit away from Team 7, waiting for them patiently.

Naruko closed the book softly. "Thanks for waiting," she mumbled, accepting the hand Sasuke offered her.

Sakura looked at her worriedly, enveloping the suddenly-somber girl into a gentle hug. For some reason, Naruko was upset, and even if she didn't know the cause of it she was willing to do whatever it took to cheer her up. Even if she only started to get to know her for the last few days, she was already fond of the blonde fox and knew Naruko would do the same for her if she was the despondent one.

"Thanks Sakura," Naruko muttered as she buried her face in the crook of the taller girl's neck. "I needed that." The hug lasted a minute more before Naruko reluctantly pulled away, giving the older girl a small, albeit forced, smile. "I'm okay now. Thanks again."

Sakura frowned a little, but she and Hinata wordlessly took each of the blonde's hands and led her over to the group. The pinkette and Hyuuga exchanged concerned glances over the top of the blonde head, the latter shooting a look at Sasuke.

The Uchiha was also frowning at the sudden change in his teammate's attitude. But unlike his pink-haired teammate, Sasuke had an actual idea of what was causing Naruko to be so forlorn.

'She's probably thinking about her family... I guess the sisterly banter between Sakura and Ino triggered some memory or something,' Sasuke thought. 'I know it did for me, with Shisui and Itachi-nii always going at each other, but on a way lower scale and over less trivial things. But if I could so easily be reminded over something that happened when I was seven, what of Naruko, when she lost her family not so long ago?'

The Genin made small talk amongst themselves until one by one, they peeled off to their homes. Each of them took the time to hug Naruko or say something nice to her, which she accepted with an unsettling amount of listlessness.

Sasuke didn't care that they had passed the Uchiha Compound a few blocks back, he ignored the looks the Genin sent him. He continued walking with Naruko, even as the others all left for their own homes, until they reached the apartment she shared with Kakashi, and then they bid goodbye to each other.

Sasuke stood and watched as she climbed the stairs and opened the door, the warm light that made his chest tighten with longing escaping through before it was closed with a soft click. He turned and walked away back to the Uchiha Compound, hoping Naruko would've cheered up by tomorrow.

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Naruko slid against her bedroom door, closing her eyes and finally allowing her tears to slip down her face.

She missed them.

She missed them so much it hurt.

She had so many wonderful friends, and an awesome older brother who loved her, and she, him. But it could never replace the eight people who had made her childhood the best memory out of her entire life, the eight people who would love and care for her no matter what happened. It hurt so much more when she realized she had fooled herself into thinking she was back where she yearned to be.

With a heavy heart, Naruko pulled open a drawer and opened a tattered notebook. It was a gift from her big brother, Blue B, on the last birthday he was there with her, before he passed away.

Opening it, her pen started to scribble across the lines, her dull blue eyes sparkling a little more with each word. With each word, more memories started to visualize in her mind, causing her to feel both sorrow and comfort.

So when her new big brother knocked softly on her door, his voice soft and concerned as he told her dinner was ready, Naruko smiled and tenderly laid the notebook on her bed before opening the door with a genuine smile.

My world has changed, and so have I.

I've learned to choose, and even learned to say goodbye.

The path ahead's so hard to see,

It winds and bends, but where it ends depends on only me.

In my heart I don't feel part of so much I've known,

Now it seems it's time to start a new life on my own...

《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》《》 

(1) I actually had this argument with my "dear" friend while it was being filmed by our mutual, oh-so-lovely [not] friend

Okay, so that was probably the worst chapter I have ever written in my entire fanfiction-writing history. It's short and such bad quality! Yep, sorry 'bout that, I kinda hit a block with the whole "team bonding" thing. Couldn't think of a thing that I haven't already used in my other stories