voices high-pitched with a growing fear. “Come on guys!” Sarada said and they pelted toward their class. Fear pulsed through Aohokiba as her friends ran ahead of her, not to mention the reason she chased after Minato. An ear splitting cry sounded near her. It was Mikoto. “No!” she screeched and pushed Aohokiba to the side. Aohokiba couldn’t see what Mikoto had blocked as she heard the metallic clash of kunai against distinct zip of a shuriken when she landed heavily on the ground. The land around her erupted as multiple battle cries broke out. Shock pulsed through Aohokiba and she almost screamed as a hand grabbed her roughly by the back of her hoodie and covered her mouth, pulling her behind the back of a building. “Shh! It’s okay i’m a student.” the boy clearly older than her said. Aohokiba looked at him. It was Sasuke, the boy who nearly caused her to be hit by a kunai on her first day at the academy. Sasuke held a finger to his lips, though breathing shakily Aohokiba nodded and Sasuke released her, taking her arm. “Come on, we have to get to the shelter.” he said and pulled her alongside him. She didn’t move, trying to see where Mikoto had disappeared to. A certain fear forced tears to threaten to rise in her eyes. “I need you to close your eyes okay.” Sasuke said hurriedly. Aohokiba searched franticly, her breath getting more and more panicked. “Hey!” Sasuke said, grabbing her chin. “You’re going to be fine, so is your stepmother, she is a jonin after all.” he finished. Aohokiba nodded, then gasped as she heard fighting in the distance. “Come on.” Sasuke said and lifted her, covering her ears and eyes as he laid her head against his chest as he ran. “Sensei!” someone called. “Iruka-sensei! I found a kid!” Sasuke called after a minuet. Aohokiba leaned into him, trying to escape the undoubtable sense of danger she felt rise within her. “Aohokiba your okay!” someone said. Aohokiba, still shaking, opened her eyes to see Naruto beaming at her. “Guess you're pretty lucky Sasuke found you huh?” he said and lifted his thumb. “Come on we have to go.” Iruka said and they ran inside the shelter. It was underground in deep tunnels that twisted in every direction. Ituka seemed to know exactly where he was going. “This way!” he would say from time to time. Aohokiba walked silently in between Naruto and Sasuke, she was shaking and gripping her arms. Her hood was low and casted a shadow over her tightly closed eyelids. “You okay?” Naruto asked. Before Aohokiba could respond Sasuke sighed. “Stupid she’s going through a lot. This is her first time dealing with something like this and it doesn’t look like anyone's explained it to her.” he said. “Jerk, i was asking her.” Naruto pouted, crossing his arms. “Uzumaki, Haruno!” Iruka snapped. Aohokiba found herself sitting in a small room, cramped and filled with people. Naruto’s entire class of thirty six from the ages of twelve to thirteen, the others were elderly and disabled/wounded adults. Four jonin including Iruka stood guard around them. The lighting was dim so Aohokiba barely saw the fearful or alert faces around her. She kept to herself,staring at her hands in her lap. Quiet whispers were the only sounds down in the shelter. “I can’t stand this! It’s like we're sitting here just waiting to die!” a retired chunin with a permanently damaged leg muttered in annoyance. “Oh, hush there are children here!” an elderly woman said and the man scoffed. Aohokiba was squeezed up against the wall in between Naruto and Sasuke, there was barely any room and if she moved even the slightest she feared she would kick the back of an elderly man in front of her. She began shaking uncontrollably which made Naruto place his hand on her shoulder. “Hey, it’ll be okay. The ninja protecting us are strong and no one will get down this far.” he smiled warmly. Aohokiba felt no comfort but trembled more violently. Her eyes unfocused as she stared at her lap. “Hey, snap out of it-!” Naruto said, aiming to lightly grab her chin. He stopped when she pulled away, nearly hitting her head against the wall. “Why do they do it?” she said, her voice high-pitched as she fought to hold back tears. “Why do people help each other?” she questioned. Naruto was stunned for a moment. “...Well because...people need others i guess. Don’t you know what a bond is?” Naruto chuckled in questioning. His smile faded when Aohokiba Aohokiba didn’t answer him and laid her head on her lap. Naruto was more experienced with being social so he knew not to press her any further. He sighed heavily and leaned against the wall, then proceeded to stay quiet for several minutes. After a few minutes he noticed something off about Aohokiba’s behavior. “Hey.” he whispered. “How come you keep looking at Iruka sensei?” . “...well...you said people need others...I never got the chance to thank him for something. I don’t know why but i feel like i need to.” Aohokiba muttered her thoughts. Her voice held a sense of guilt
the same fear that wasn’t relevant to her answer. “Oh well...if you're to shy to thank him up close and personal, i can thank him for you...if you don’t mind. Oh, but you shouldn’t have to be afraid to thank him, he’s a nice guy and he’ll understand.” Naruto grinned. ...How and...why is he so positive?Aohokiba thought, recalling the numerous times Naruto had grinned brightly when assuring her or trying to give some kind of comfort. In comparison, his classmate Sasuke Haruno sat, leaned against the wall staring straight ahead, his deep black eyes were near to expression and emotionless when narrowed ever so slightly. He gave off no signs of showing his true feelings in his eyes and Aohokiba didn't sense any emotions she knew of coming off of the older boy. It was strange, their differences. Naruto talked to others fluently and smiled often. On the other hand Sasuke spoke only seriously and Aohokiba had never seen him smile. The way his eyes narrowed told her his mind was at work. Aohokiba had no idea what to say to Naruto and unconsciously scowled. She hadn’t meant to scowl at his offer, more so what she thought to be her stupidity. She stopped herself quickly. “..! uh, I guess you can...if you want to.” she said and looked back at her lap. “O-...kay… ...alright then i will if you can’t then! Heheheheheheheh!” Naruto laughed. Despite the fearful atmosphere rising in the room he laughed. He laughed. And it was intentional. Full of joy, something Aohokiba didn’t know the meaning of. Why was he laughing at a time like this?!?!. Frustration grew in Aohokiba at the fact she knew nothing about human emotions other than knowing the darkest of them all. She wanted to scream at him to shut up. She wanted to pull her own hair. She was clueless and she hated it Why am i so stupid!!! she screeched in her mind. Then memories flooded through her as she began trembling again. ______________________________________________________ “Little red-headed thief!” Obito Hyuuga. “L-Let go of me! P-Please! You’re hurting me!”. “My partner and i, were both Jonin so there’s no way a stray like you can steal from us and get away with it. So i’ll be taking this back”. “You know, I do have some medical skill. So how about i fix that little act of yours” Kakashi Hyuuga. She remembered her pain and her own screams. The pain of Kakashi Hyuuga’s tonto piercing her skin. Minato appearing, cleaning her wounds. Aohokiba remembered everyone who discriminated against her. She remembered the kids laughing when she first came into the classroom at the academy. “I heard that the small explosions three months ago were caused by this kid, who’d want to be on a squad with this weirdo?” a girl had said, Aohokiba would find this out later that this comment belonged to Ino Yamanaka. “HAHA what’s up with the mask on her face, is she trying to be mysterious?! What an idiot!!!” Kuromaru Nara had said. The way Kuromaru later drove her away, pushing her to the ground saying “Oh sorry new kid, guess you’re clumsy huh. Why are you even here?...No stupid! I mean why’d you come to the Academy. You’ll never be a ninja, you’re a freak!-...Exactly and no one wants you to. You’re a monster! GET OUT OF THIS ACADEMY!!”. Aohokiba remembered the way he pushed Ichigo to the ground at kunai practice saying “Move it, I’m a pro at this!” and later, when he had caught Aohokiba who had ran off, said “This worked out perfectly ...Your friend? You’ve got a lot to learn here kid-...Don’t interrupt me!...It’s rude... but if you need to know that badly little fox?...I want you” before capturing her. “Heh! So what! Just because your brother is in the ANBU Black Ops team doesn’t mean you got what it takes weirdo!!” Hebigato Yakushi. “Yeah right! She’s just a crybaby! Can’t even handle Kuromaru. If she can’t handle that how’s she going to be able to fight? That is, if she even makes it out of the academy alive-...Make me Sarada!. I thought the Uchiha clan was wiped out five years ago so why are you here too!!. Oh, maybe you’re here for this stray kid who also doesn’t have a main clan, much less a family at all!!!” he had said at the academy before Itachi had spoke to the whole class about the importance of family. “It’s true! The main branches have more power than the side branches!...That’s so unfair she deserved it! She comes in here and causes Ichiraku and this place to be blown up then comes to this academy and gets Kuromaru banned. Then she runs away in a split second in some weird flash and ends up all the way outside the training grounds! She isn’t human, she’s a freak-!!!” he had said before Itachi demonstrated the Yellow Flash technique, to prove a point it was used for protection of oneself and others. “Yeah right!. This is exactly what Kuromaru did to the new kid and he wasn’t hurt at all!” Takakono Yuu. “Question. How can you work with some who’s strange and you can’t understand them?” he had asked Itachi as a genuine question. “Hi,
