Stranger Fantasies

Chapter 39: Amends

After the last of the matches, a new board was shown again of the final matches for the chunin exams. Which would be held a month later, they were all to train or prepare. Sasuke would be up against Gaara, Mito against Neji, and Sakura was scheduled against who ever won between Shikamaru and Temari.

Team 7 would have wanted to train as soon as they could but Mito had a lot of explaining to her academy classmates since they grew up with her. Well, also the fact that her old classmates had surrounded them and Kakashi immediately abandoned his team when they did.... Coward.

Sasuke pulled Mito, who now had her hair pulled up in a ponytail and dressed in her favorite orange shorts and jacket. A white shirt underneath the jacket so she could keep it open because of the heat outside.

"Naru- I mean Mito! What is the meaning of this? Did you lie to us so you could get to Sasuke?!" Ino yelled.

Sakura also stepped in front of Mito, shoulder to shoulder with Sasuke so they formed a wall between their friend and the angry Yamanaka.

"No, she did not Ino! Before you run your mouth, get all the facts! I made my mistake and fixed it so fix yours." Sakura snapped.

Mito quietly stood behind her friends, utterly shocked to silence. Sure they were her friends and teammates... and she loved both of them to death. Yet, she didn't expect to be protected so vehemently by them.

Ino turned her anger onto Sakura, "And you! You knew about this, you let it happen! You let her take our Sasu-"

"He's not ours, Ino!" Sakura interrupted, causing Ino to shut up. "He chose Mito, I had to convince Mito to even give it a chance because she was so god damn worried about my feelings. Besides, that's not even the point of all this."

"Sak'ra-chan..." Mito mumbled, pulling on her friends shirt sadly.

Sakura smiled at Mito, "Don't worry about me Mito, I'll protect you." Sakura said bringing happy tears to Mito's eyes.

Mito nodded, "Mm, thanks Sakura."

Sakura turned her attention back on her old classmates.

"I know some of you might be mad, but Mito never intended to lie to you guys. She was forced to be Naruto under the order of the Hokage, all she ever wanted was to be herself and friends with all of us... Despite us treating her like shit, so please try to understand." She explained.

"I ain't mad, I was just confused how she got past my nose. Guys and girls have distinct smells." Kiba said.

"Yeah... we were just curious. I never even knew she was a girl." Choji chimed in. The rest of their classmates nodded in agreement, except for Ino.

She growled in frustration, "I don't care who she is! She lied!" Ino yelled, then pushed past her teammates and stormed off.

"Troublesome woman." Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "She'll come around later, she's just mad about something as she always is."

Mito nodded. "Well," the blonde stood between her teammates, squeezing Sasuke's hand for comfort. "I'm Mito Uzumaki. I'm still the same person... I'm just not as stupid as you all think I am."

Kiba chuckled, "Hell yeah you aren't. You kicked my ass in that arena."

Mito put her hand on her hip, leaning over with sass. "I could have kicked your ass even if I were stupid, Kiba!"

The group laughed, asking questions as Mito answered politely. After a while, Mito invited them all to her favorite ramen place in the world.

"Hey! Teuchi, I brought more friends!" Mito called as she walking in the ramen shop. She smirked, "You owe me seven bowls on the house, dattebayo."