Naruko Uzumaki

Chapter 4

Naruko was sitting at the table with Akito and Yuno, eating dinner. "I like your new outfit and hair style Naruko. I really suits you" Yuno said. "Oh umm... thanks" Naruko said. She had always had her hair down until recently that is, looking at her reflection in a plate, studying her new outfit and hair style. She wore an orange and blue jacket as well as baggy orange pants. There were a couple of loose and misplaced stitches along with some mistakes here and there. They weren't the most well made but she still loved them nonetheless. As for her hair, instead of her hair being down as it usually was, it was styled into two high ponytails both held together with a red ribbon that are neatly tied into a bow. Naruko couldn't help but scoff at how much trouble her hair caused her when she was younger.

In the beginning, Naruko used to keep her hair in a short spiky bob. Because of how short her hair was and how it was styled some of the kids didn't know that she was a girl and they didn't believe her when she told them otherwise, even causing some of the kids that knew she was a girl to tease her.

One day she has had enough of the teasing so she let her hair grow out though she was reluctant to do so. She kept it short so she wouldn't have to take care of it. If she let her hair grow out then she would have to wash and brush it almost everyday but she was so fed up with the other kids thinking that she was a boy and calling her a boy she did it.

She would never forget everyone's faces when she walked into class one day with her hair grown past her shoulders. Ever since that day Naruko had kept her hair long so she wouldn't be mistaken or called a boy again. Although letting her hair grow out solved the boy problem it created another problem. Apparently the girls in her class that had a crush on the class heartthrob and the lone survivor of the Uchiha massacre Sasuke Uchiha had heard a rumor that Sasuke liked girls with long hair. Naruko frequently butted heads with Sasuke so when she walked into class with long hair it greatly pissed them off. They started to think that she was doing all of those stunts on purpose to get his attention because she also had a crush on him even though it wasn't true.

"Naruko is everything ok?" Akito asked. "Yeah of course I'm ok" she said. While what she said was true, her mind was all scrambled. Things had been really strange for her this past week. It all started when a new student joined her class.

One week ago, Naruko was sitting at her seat looking out the window without a care in the world. "Good morning everyone" Iruka said walking into the classroom. "Good morning sensei" everyone minus Naruko said. As Iruka was walking towards the front of the classroom he slipped, landing on his back causing everyone including Naruko to look at him.

"Naruko! I thought you were over this!" He shouted getting up. "Wha! I didn't do that!" she protested. "Can it you liar! We all know that was you! It has your name written all over it!" one of the students said. "I didn't do it! I've been in my seat the whole time, looking out the window!" Naruko said. "Well if it wasn't you then who was it?" Iruka asked in a stern voice. A part of him was convinced that Naruko was lying since she was the only student in his class that did stuff like this but another part of him believed her. Whenever Naruko pranked someone she always made it obvious that it was her because she would laugh at the person and take credit for it but this time she didn't laugh at him when he fell and said that it wasn't her.

He remembered the talk he had with the third hokage. He had asked Sarutobi to talk to Naruko since she hadn't been acting like her usual self and he had begun to worry about her. Sarutobi had told him that she was growing up and had found something else she wanted to spend time on instead of pranks. He honestly wanted to believe that she had grown up and moved past it but who else would have done it besides her. His questions were answered when he heard someone laughing at the door. Standing in the doorway was a girl wearing a long, flowery, purple and black kimono. She had pale skin, green eyes, and black hair that reached to her chin, with her bangs pulled back and pinned to the top of her head.