Looping, oh the fun! (Naruto)

Ch12 Hachiko

Kakashi stood before the classroom door. Mentally preparing himself for the upcoming view of his sensei's son. It's a lie to say he's not nervous. In fact, he's beyond nervous, especially after what Sarutobi had told him last night. Naruto? Suspect? Lie? Acting? Forbidden Scroll? Contradicting memories? Just what had Naruto being involved with?

Taking a deep breath, Kakashi slid open the door, preparing to say 'my first impression of you guys is...I hate you.' Why? Because it's fun! He wondered how the three graduates would react!

"My first impression of you guys is-"

He stopped when he heard sobbing and sniffing.

His gaze dropped onto the pink-haired girl.

It's the fangirl. He remembered. Haruno Sakura, one of the two lead fangirls of Uchiha Sasuke. Did the boy reject her again? But when had his rejection ever made her cry?

"Hachiko continues his daily walk to the same spot in front of the train station to wait for his master, till his final day. That day, he saw Ueno coming out of the station and the two greeted each other. Hachiko is last seen lying on the snow, alone and still." (1)

Naruto finished, his eyes dry of tears. He had read this story too many times to cry about it, but it was different for Sakura. For a girl, especially an animal-loving girl, such a story like this where a puppy died was the best weapon to strike her heart.

"W-why...why does Hachiko have to die!" Sakura sobbed, hiding her face in her hands. Her whole body was shaking. Sasuke was patting her back comfortingly, knowing she'd punch Naruto if he did it. "What did he do wrong? What had he done to you! Why do you have to kill him, Naruto!"

"It was just a story, Sakura-"

"It was not! Hachiko is real and alive, in my heart!" Sakura cried, hands covering the spot where her heart was. "Why do you have to kill him! You made that story up didn't you? So you could change the ending and make him alive! Why don't you!?"

"Sakura, if Hachiko had lived, then what's the whole point of this story? If he had lived, then the feels would be gone." Naruto explained. "The main point of this story is to make the readers see Hachiko's loyalty to his master. If Ueno had returned, though the readers would be happy, but this story won't be as powerful and heart-striking as it is. Imagine it, if this story is a happy ending, I bet you'd forget about it in a few hours. But because this story is a tragedy and had made you so emotional to the point to even cry, you wouldn't forget this story for days, or maybe even weeks."

Sakura wanted to deny him, but found she couldn't. Wasn't it the same with Daughter of Evil? If the girl wasn't so evil to destroy an entire country just because she's pissed, maybe Sakura wouldn't be so emotional after reading the poem and become so captivated with the story. The same goes for this story, Chuken Hachiko (which means 'Faithful Dog Hachiko'). If Hachiko and Ueno hadn't died, the most she'd do is like the story and forget about it in a few hours. But because Hachiko had died, Sakura wouldn't be able to forget about him. Whenever she sees a dog, she'd be reminded of Hachiko. Whenever she thinks of Hachiko, she'd want to cry. Hachiko would stay in her heart and her life forever, just like Daughter of Evil.

"Well..."

All three heads turned to the foreign voice (for Sakura that is), and saw a strange man wearing a mask covering his nose and mouth, and a slanted headband covering his left eye.

"My first impression of you guys is-"

"And why do you have to be so late?" Sakura's sudden question stopped Kakashi from finishing his sentence. He stared at her in bewilderment.

"W-what?" He spluttered.

"I said why do you have to be so late!?" Sakura cried. She couldn't rebut Naruto, so she could only vent her anger on her jounin sensei who was late for over three hours! If Naruto hadn't decided to tell them a story, then she'd be bored to death!

"I-I-...I'm sorry?"

"No! You're not sorry! If you're sorry then you wouldn't be late for three hours! And because you're late, I have to listen to Naruto's tragic story and cry and make my eyes all red and puffy and ugly! It's all your fault!"

"I-I-I...see you on the roof in five minutes!" Couldn't find anything to say, Kakashi shunshin-ed away.

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged eye contacts. Well, that had never happened in any loops before.

"What're you two waiting for? Let's go!" Sakura yelled at both Naruto and Sasuke and quickly left the room, shutting the door loudly.

"And now she's mad at me." Sasuke glared at Naruto. "It's all your fault. Couldn't you have told her other stories? If you want a character to die so badly, then even Little Red Riding Hood would work."

Naruto deadpanned. "Honestly? She's not a child, Sasuke. She's a pre-teen."

"Well, she is a child to me."

"Yet you still dream about her sometimes." Naruto smirked.

"I dream about my last wife Uchiha Sakura, who died at 74 years old! Not this child-Haruno Sakura!" Sasuke argued, face reddening.

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say."

"Hn."

"And even after hundreds of loops, you still couldn't lose this Uchiha-habit."

"Hn!"

(1) Hachiko: This is a true story. There's a movie version of it, but I decided to use the true, original, Japanese story of it. It's about a dog named Hachiko waiting for his master Ueno at the station every day, waiting to greet his master when he steps out of the train after work. But one day Ueno died and did not return, but Hachiko obviously didn't know. So he waited there, and waited, in the cold winter snow. When his family dragged him back home, he escaped and continued to wait there, until the day he died in the snow, alone and cold.