Naruto Age Regression

Chapter 2

Naruto sat down in the art room, excited at the thought of meeting another one of Flower girl's friends. He opened his coloring book and carefully picked out which color he wanted to use on the ducky on the front page. Goldenrod or Sunny yellow? He picked Goldenrod. Steadily, Naruto made a dark outline, staying inside the lines, pushing down hard with the crayon. Then, very lightly he filled in the rest of the parts he wanted to be yellow. This was how Flower girl had taught him to color. His counselor, Miss Martha, came over to him and checked to see how he was doing.

"I'm really excited!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Naruto, we use our inside voice during group time." Miss Martha chided, Naruto blushed. "May I ask why you are so excited?"

"Flower girl is bringing a new one of her friends to visit me today!"

"Oh, did she say which one of her friends she was bringing?" Martha smiled at the thought.

"She didn't tell me his name. But she said he just came home a few days ago from a very long trip and that he was excited to meet me." Naruto noticed as he explained the circumstances that Martha's face darkened a little. What was so terrible about Naruto meeting this friend of Flower girl's? Even Flower girl herself had made that face, yet at the same time she wanted him to meet this mysterious friend. It was so confusing.

"Ah, I see. I think I know the one she's bringing."

"Is he nice, Miss Martha?"

"I think you'll like him." Martha winked at him before strolling off to check on the other kids.

Naruto frowned at her retreating back. He didn't like surprises, unless they were coloring books. He liked coloring book surprises. But when it came to everything else, Naruto very much liked plain, normal, the same. It made things easier. Just as he was putting the finishing touches on the ducky's bill (he had colored it with his 'Rose' crayon), the door to the art room opened. All of the children, especially Naruto, looked up at the doorway. Flower girl was standing by the door, yanking in a tall man behind her. He seemed familiar to Naruto. He couldn't decide if it was the pale skin, the dark eyes, or the even darker hair. Everything about him made Naruto wiggle in his place on the floor, wondering if maybe he'd met him before. He smiled brightly and called to Flower girl, waving excitedly for her to come over. She did so, pulling her friend behind her.

"Hi Naruto, this is my friend Sasuke!" Flower girl sat down, forcing her friend 'Sasuke' down as well.

"Hi Sasuke, Flower girl told me about you at lunch today." Naruto put down his crayon (it was a very pretty shade of blue called 'cyan' that he was using for the water the ducky was swimming in) and offered his hand to Sasuke for him to shake. Miss Martha had told him when Flower girl had started bringing all her friends over that it was polite for him to shake hands with people he didn't know.

Sasuke took his hand and shook it. Naruto wondered at how Sasuke had shaken his hand. He did it stiffly, as though he had something grown up and important to do somewhere else. This was probably the case. Flower girl sometimes dragged her friends over to see Naruto when they clearly had other things they needed to do. Sometimes Naruto found this frustrating, but it seemed to make Flower girl happy so he usually left it alone and didn't mention it. When Sasuke turned to Flower girl and said her name questioningly Naruto tried to keep himself from blushing. The way Sasuke said it made the name sound stupid. Naruto didn't like feeling stupid. He went back to coloring. But as Flower girl began to explain to Sasuke about the nickname, Naruto couldn't contain himself.

"I wanna tell the story!" He interrupted. He knew it was rude, but he loved telling this particular story to people. The day when he first woke up in the hospital, and met Flower girl, was very important to him. It was one of his most favorite days that he could remember.