Barely Holding On (OcxOC Naruto story)

3~ Shrugging It Off

TW~ Character Death in this chapter

6 days later.

~Julo POV~

I saw Rino walking down the road just sulking around like they normally did, but they seemed slightly different than usual. They noticed me, and avoided eye contact, so I could tell something was definitely wrong. 

I started walking over to them and noticed their left eye looked completely different, but as I got closer it looked like the normal green and teal color, so I just shrugged it off, thinking I was just imagining things. I saw Ash on their head, looking like his normal happy self, smiling and flapping his wings. I looked over at Rino, and saw that they just had their head hanging low, not wanting to look at anything. 

I tried to say something to make them mad like I always do, but they just shrugged it off. After being on teams that worked together for so long I started to be able to notice the small details of when something was off, and something was way off. 

They usually look so cute when their mad it's always fun to watch, but they weren't mad just kinda depressed. I started to think about what I just thought about. What am I saying they aren't cute they're just funny when their mad, I guess. I definitely don't have a thing for Rino. Yeah. We're just friends.

My thoughts were soon interrupted by Ash hissing at me as his way of saying 'hello'. I looked up to see Rino right in front of me, and I think I blushed a little, they were just so cute with their pink hair, beautiful eyes and- Wait stop Julo, you definitely don't think they're cute. I then decided to say something to interrupt the awkward silence between us.

"Hey Rino."

"Hey Julo," they said with a very emotionless tone.

"Are you ok you seem kind of off, and you know like depressed and all."

"Don't I always seem a little off to you?" they replied. 

They did have a point, ever since that day 3 years ago, something's been really different about them. They barely ever smiled, or laughed anymore, when that's the only thing they ever used to do. For some reason no one else seemed to care, except for Orini, me, sensei, and Jayra. The four of us had tried for the first year to figure out what was going on, but gave up after that, it being evident they really didn't want us to know. I assume it had something to do with that day.

Team 22 was there that day. It was supposed to be just a simple intel collection mission. It should have been easy for one jonin, and three chunin. That's what everyone thought. In the end they were all attacked by a lot of powerful rogue hidden stone shinobi. During the battle, Kailo jumped in front of a fatal attack meant for Rino. Kailo fell into Rino's arms as he died, and after that Rino went completely berserk. 

I realize how other people look at them, like they slaughtered everyone's dogs or something, and as far as I know they haven't done anything to deserve those cold glares. It wasn't their fault that they were ambushed, or that everyone else was killed by those sound shinobi. I've even seen a lot it escalate past just glares, there's been harsh words thrown at them. "Boyfriend Killer." "monster." "Trash." "Lame excuse for a ninja." "Go kill yourself already, you abomination."

And somehow they just let it happen as they get harrassed by the villagers.

Hello! Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed :D Have a great day/night. Make sure to take care of urself u deserve it :)

~Z

Total word count~ 623