A Hatred That Will Never Bloom Into Friendship

His question took me by surprise. Of all the possibilities of the questions that he could've asked me, he never crossed my mind on the slightest.

Lloyd didn't even appear to have noticed my faltered expression. "I mean, I know Sasuke can be a jerk sometimes." I snort loudly. "But it seems that it's something more that's going on, but if you don't want to tell me than that's fine. I don’t really care…"

I hesitate, trying to douse some of the irritation and anger. "No, that's alright. You'll be the first person I tell this to, so you better feel very grateful," I tell him with an amiable smile.

He smiles back. "So, what happened? And I'll give you my word as a ninja that my lips are sealed."

"Good." I laugh whole-heartedly. The whole thing of him telling someone else didn’t really matter to me though, the word just flew out of my mouth. Hopefully this was going to be a very manageable thing for me to admit. I decide to start at the beginning, when I first came to the Academy.

I avert my gaze from his, and stare up at the night sky. "You remember my first day at the Academy? A year later after you guys?"

"How could I forget? That was the day Chouji got some major indigestion from eating those slices of corn beef for lunch! Haha!" Lloyd throws his head back in forceful laughter, nearly hitting his head twice on the tree trunk he was leaning against.

"Yeah, who could forget that?" I say amused, trying to hold back laughter of my own. By this point, Lloyd manages to control himself for me to continue on with my story.

Flashback

"Alright, class. That will be the end for today, you are all dismissed. See you guys tomorrow," Iruka sensei declares. He then sits down at his desk, and begins rummaging through a huge pile of papers stacked upon it.

"Alright!" a boy with brown hair and a small white puppy atop his head yells happily, obviously in a cherry mood that the school day was over. I stray my eyes away from the boy and look at two girls who were walking up to me from the front of the room. The two of them were the same size, one with pink hair and the other a blondish-white. They were both really pretty to me.

"Hello! My name is Ino Yamanaka, and this is Sakura Haruno," the blonde of the two pronounces perkily, gesturing towards the pink-haired girl standing beside her; very perky indeed.

"Hi," I reply back, noticing that part of Sakura's body was crouched slightly behind Ino's. She was shy, I guessed.

"So your Kimina Fujimaru, huh? Nice to finally talk to you," a voice proclaims behind me. I turn a bit in my seat to see who it was. It was the boy with the brown hair, with the puppy now resting in his arms. "Name's Kiba Inuzuka." He smiles a big grin.

Another boy then walks up beside him. He was the same height, with very short blonde hair, and brilliant green eyes. "Hi. I'm Lloyd Yukohama," he states a bit profoundly, his expression cocky. And it when on like this for a while; everyone introducing himself or herself. The boy with the short, black ponytail and the lazy demeanor was Shikamaru Nara. His short and stubby friend, apparantly; Chouji Akimichi.

And the girl who I sat beside for class was Hinata Hyuuga. She always smiled so kindly when I looked at her, and I always smiled back. She was also very pretty to me, and I liked the way she didn't talk nearly as much or ask questions like the other girls. This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

"Hmm?" My eyes wander then to the front of the room, near the exit door. A boy was walking out, his hands shoved deeply into his pockets, his facial appearance unreadable. "Hey, Ino. Who was that? The boy who just walked out."

She seemed to be a bit reluctant and unwilling to answer. "That was Sasuke Uchiha." Her eyes, along with all the other girls, appeared to have sparkled at the name. "Ew. Their goes Naruto Uzumaki." The sparkle went away just as quickly as it had come.

I stare at Ino. Her tone and attitude changed completely, happy and fantasizing to cold and uncaring. I look around her to catch a small glimpse of the boy who she was talking about. He wore an orange jumpsuit, his hair was a tangled mess of yellow, and his eyes were exactly like Lloyd's except they were a gleaming blue. But his features were very gloomy and discouraged. Why did he look so sad?

"You don't have to worry about him," a girl with red pigtails, who's name I forgot, explains.

"He's a nobody." All of the girls, surprisingly besides Hinata, laugh in unison.

"He's so weird, that Naruto!" Some of the boys, this time, even laugh along with the girls.

End of Flashback

"Wow. I forgot how cruel some of the girl's were... especially Ino," Lloyd says, a bit sarcastically to me.

"Yeah." I sigh out heavily. I decide to skip to the part where I met him.

Flashback

"Hey... hey!" I shout loudly, waving my hand back and forth over my head, trying to get the attention of the Sasuke kid Ino had been doubtful to tell me about. "Hey, hey!" I shout again, running a little faster to catch up. He slows down to a halt, a few feet still ahead of me. He turns around towards me deliberately, his hands still shoved in his pockets. I stop a few inches from him.

"Hi," I say breathlessly. He doesn't respond, only stares at me with annoyed eyes. "I'm Kimina Fujimaru," I tell him, finally catching my breath. "We didn't get a chance to talk at the Academy, and I..." I trail off, the uneasiness starting to rear its ugly head. The expression on his face scared me. But I force a smile to my lips, and hold out my hand for him to shake.

He glances at it for a split second, before returning his irritated gaze to my face. Without a single word, he turns away with the same pestered look and takes a step forward.

"Umm... hold on. Where are you going?" I ask, my voice hesitant and flustered.

He answers with his back still turned. "Just leave me alone, got it?" His tone was very unfriendly; he meant what he had said. He walks away, not waiting for a response. Even if he wanted one, he wouldn't get it. I couldn't speak; I was stunned. What was that about? Why did he say that? I didn't even know him past his name. The astonishment was slowly beginning to turn into resentment. Why the hell was he so mean?

End of Flashback

"And that's when I met Naruto," I tell Lloyd, going back into the story.

Flashback

"Hi, Kimina. Umm... I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he shakily says, rubbing his forehead.

"Hello, Naruto. I'm sorry again for running into you like that. I should've been watching where I was going," I apologize yet again.

A small smile plays at his lips. "It's okay. I'm fine. It's just a little bump." At his words, his little bump enlarges almost to the size of his head. I place my hand over my mouth, trying to contain the laughter building up in my throat.

"Wow. Sorry about that. But umm... I have to be getting back home now. My mom wants me home early. And plus she's making ramen for dinner, so I... hmm?" I stop, looking at Naruto perplexed. "What...? Was it something I said?" His character had changed from shy and dispirited to cheery.

"No. I just really like ramen," he admits, still smiling.

An idea then forms in my head. I completely knocked this kid down; I had to make it up to him somehow. "Well, it's nothing like Ichiraku's ramen, but it's good! Hey, why don't you come over and have some. She always makes a lot and she wouldn't mind the extra company."

"Umm..." --his features turn saddened again-- "I don't think I should."

I smile. "But I want you to. Come on!" I grab a hold of his hand, and ignore his doubtful remarks.

~~*~~

"Hi, mom! I'm home!" I close the door behind Naruto and I. "And I want you to meet someone. It's a friend I met at the Academy." Naruto's eyes brighten up at the word friend.

"Oh, that's nice, Kimina," I hear her say from the front room. "Who is it?" Her voice sounded closer now. She emerges from the room, but stops short in the doorway. Her mouth was slightly agape, and she was staring at Naruto standing beside me.

"Mom, this is Naruto Uzumaki and--"

"You get out of my house! Get out!" she yells, nearly running down the hallway to us. She scurries past us, and flings the front door back open, still looking at Naruto. "Get out!"

Naruto brushes silently past her, without a single word. I caught a glimpse of his face, and heartache pounded in my chest. My mom closes the door behind him. "Mom! Why did you do that?" I demand furiously.

"I don't want him anywhere near this house again. And I don't want you to speak to that boy. Okay?" She raises her hand, when I was about to argue. "Just go to your room. Go."

~~*~~

Knock, knock.

"I've brought up your dinner," my mom announces in her usually calm and caring voice. She opens the door and walks in, carrying a bowl of the ramen. She sets it down on the table bureau beside my bed.

"Eat up, sweetie." She moves a piece of my hair from in front of my face and kisses my lightly on my forehead. I cringe away at her touch. “Oh, sweetheart.” She gets up and walks out the room, without giving me an explanation for why she did what she did.

I glance over at the food, too worried about him to eat. Too worried how he was. I didn't know Naruto well, but I couldn't help but still worry. I glance at the food again, another idea coming to mind.

~~*~~

"Naruto! Naruto!" I call out, holding the bowl of ramen tightly in my hands. "Naruto?” I spotted him. He was sitting by himself, on a bench near the park.

"Hi, Naruto," I say, panting, sitting beside him.

"Hmm? Kimina, what are you doing here?" he asks perplexed.

"Here." I hand him the bowl of ramen." I said I was going to get you some ramen, didn't I?" He takes the bowl from my hands hesitantly.

"You came looking for me to give me this? Wow, you carried this all the way from your house?" he says, his happy smile returning. I nod. The passersby were staring as if I was handing the bowl of ramen to an invisible person. He takes a chopstick full of noodles and slurps them down noisily. We sit in silence for a few minutes.

"I'm really sorry for what happened earlier with my mom..." I apologize after awhile, breaking the silence.

"No, it's alright. It's happens to me all the time. People wanting me to go away." He sets the
bowl down on his lap, his eyes on the ground. Why though?

"That's just... awful," I say, the heartache coming back.

"I'm kind of used to it by now though," he states, barely above a whisper.

"But why? Why do people treat you that way?" I ask, baffled.

"I don't know." His tone was sincere and honest. How come people treated Naruto with so much dislike? Naruto was a very okay and normal person to me.

"Well, honestly, I think that it's completely wrong. You are a very nice person to me," I admit, every word true.

"Really?" he asks, his eyes brightening up again. "Thanks Kimina."

"Don't mention it. And hey, you should start finishing up that ramen. I need to get back home before my mom notices that I'm gone."

End of Flashback

"And after that, me and Naruto became good friends. I still spoke to him, obviously, even after my mom told me not to." I then notice that Lloyd was looking up at the sky, thinking about something. "Other people still treated him with the same animosity and dislike. And I hated it. I even stopped talking to my mom for awhile after that incident."

"You know, I kind of wondered why they treated Naruto that way. I never talked to him like that to find out." 'Besides the fact that he's a helpless klutz, who shouldn't be called a ninja.'

"But I don't think I get it." He frowns. "What, exactly, made you hate Sasuke?"

"Have you been listening?" I ask, my eyebrows raised, and my tone diverted. "I hated the way people treated Naruto... treat Naruto, and Sasuke, he…"

"I get it now. The things he says to him... yeah, Sasuke has a nice way of showing his feelings," he mockingly says the last part.

"And basically, I just hate his attitude. I mean, what could have possibly happened to him to make him that way? Nothing, that’s what," I state, crossing my arms.
Lloyd nods his head. "But you know what? I wonder why do they treat Naruto that way?"

"I know why. I was told a little after. It was when--"

Rustle, rustle, rustle...

Lloyd and I both jump up at the sound, a kunai knife already in his hand.

"Don't worry. It's just me," our sensei's voice reassures us. Lloyd puts his kunai back into its holster. Sure enough, Naria sensei steps out from behind a tree on our left; her features weary but alert.

"What are you two doing out here anyway?" she questions, not sounding angry but concerned.

"We couldn't sleep," Lloyd claims honestly, scratching the back of his head.

"Well, let's head on back to the inn. You two need to get some rest for tomorrow. You both
should be tired by now," she says with a little laugh.

"We're sorry, Naria sensei," I apologize.

"It's alright. Truthfully, I can't sleep that well myself." That last statement sounded as though it was not directed to either Lloyd or me, but to herself. "Come on."

Wait a minute. Did I just imagine it? Or did Naria sensei's gaze linger for a split second past Lloyd and I, into the trees behind us? Oh boy. Something was telling me that tomorrow; something terrible was going to happen.