You're not the only one.... ×Book 1×

67. I love you

'It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves'

-William Shakespeare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~3 days later~

It's been three days since Naruto has been in the hospital. The only reason I knew this is because Gamabunta had told me he had passed out from Chakra depletion. I should have known he would do something so reckless.

It's just in Naruto's nature.

To keep myself occupied, I had decided to train with Jiraiyia. Who, after a lot of explaining, I had began to trust again. He taught me how to manage my Chakra and he noticed I was good at water Jutsu so he taught me different ones as well. I'll admit it was very difficult at first, but as the days passed I gradually improved.

During that time, I had also decided to get caught up in everything seeing as I hadn't had the chance to after waking up from the hospital. I learned that Lee was sadly in the hospital after his match against Gaara during the preliminaries. I had visited him, and when he told me he may never be a ninja again I felt such anger towards Gaara.

I couldn't explain why I was so angry.

If anything I suppose I was disappointed in him, Lee has always wanted to become the strongest ninja in the world using only Taijutsu. Now Gaara has selfishly ripped that opportunity away from him. It angered me to the point where I had to excuse myself from Lee's room and go home.

After that, I went to Granddad who gave me the list of the people fighting against each other in the final round. I saw on the list was:

Naruto vs. Neji

Shikamaru vs. Temari

Shino vs. Kankuro

Gaara vs. Sasuke

and Ruka vs. Yuri

I had no idea who Yuri was so I asked Granddad and he said she was a skilled Chūnin coming from the Earth village to fight me. I couldn't help but think how unfair that was. Why do I have to fight a Chūnin?

*****

Now, after three days all I did was sit on my bed and hug my teddy bear which I usually do when I'm in deep thought.
Naruto had sent a letter from the hospital saying that he was coming home today, and all I could think about was the promise I made to myself. When he comes home I'm going to tell him....I just don't want to imagine his reaction.

Will he be surprised?

Happy?

Disgusted?

I clutched my teddy bear tighter and closed my eyes. Naruto is my best friend. The only person who made my life feel like there was some purpose to it. He related to my past and did everything a good friend should do and more.

He's my shoulder to cry on.

He's the one I could always talk to.

He's that voice in my head that told me never to give up.

He's everything to me.

If he were to look at me with disgust then....I would be nothing.
The friendship we had would crumble. Our tight bond would loosen to nothing. Can three words really do all that? In my heart I know they can, deep down in my heart I know that I'm risking so much by doing this.