𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐒𝐮𝐤𝐢 | ɴᴀʀᴜᴛᴏ

An Unwanted Team

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✧˖*°࿐

The early morning's cool breeze sobered Kazumi awake. After doing a small training workout—under Sanjiro's watchful eye, she stood outside her compound gates with an energised Sakura. Any onlooker would assume Kazumi was being held captive.

"I was thinking of wearing it like this, what do you think?" Sakura asked, awkwardly placing the red Leaf protector atop her head like an actual headband.

Kazumi held a hand to her chin. Without even realising it, she spent the last five minutes watching Sakura wrap her headband in all kinds of places. That was until the blonde girl eventually snapped her fingers.

"I prefer the first version." She quickly spoke when Sakura suddenly had second thoughts and decided to begin wrapping it around her arm.

It... just didn't look right.

"Really?" Her brows lifted, halting her action.

Sakura didn't hesitate in placing the protector back on the top of her hair. Kazumi kept hers tied around her right thigh instead. She assumed enemy ninja would be distracted by the placement in time for her to take tools out of her pouch from her left thigh.

Sakura didn't comment on this 'unusual' decision of hers and went along to skip ahead as they reached the academy entrance. The classroom was a lot more lively than before, mostly due to the joy of students becoming officially genin ranked.

"If only you were a boy... it could've been me, you and Sasuke-kun." The kunoichi sadly sighed as she mumbled, though her mood flipped when her eyes landed on a certain raven-haired boy from across the room.

Kazumi's face contorted into conflict when catching her words.

"What do you mean by —"

Her processing was interrupted when Sakura abruptly pulled her wrist to drag Kazumi along with her. She then let go of Kazumi's hand when she stopped in front of a specific desk.

Kazumi's eyes landed onto light blue irises. It was Uzumaki Naruto. She gazed at him with a mixture of shock and confusion. His face was slightly chubby, highlighting the three-whiskers on both his cheeks. Till this day, Kazumi still couldn't tell whether the whiskers were a tattoo or he had just been born with the strange characteristic. 

It didn't make his reputation as a 'monster' any better. 

Alas she was sure the tanned-boy failed; it seemed like her previous observation with her uncle was wrong. Albeit it was strange. Not only was he incredibly weak, but he was incredibly stupid too. Like all others, Naruto was a mystery.

A mystery you could hardly call a monster.

The two blondes stared at each other for a few more short seconds before Naruto was the first to turn his head away from her and back towards Sakura, his whiskered-cheeks flushed a deep red upon seeing Sakura's face.

Kazumi exhaled out of her nose, stiff. It was then she recalled the Uzumaki's open crush on Haruno Sakura, making her deadpan at the unnecessary and confirmed rumour. She'd believe a shinobi had no time for love, which was why she always cringed at her lonely uncle's unusual taste in books.

Romance books.

"Naruto! Move your ass!! We want to sit here!" Sakura shouted with a rude index finger pointed at him and her other hand thrown out, pointing her thumb to Kazumi's chest.