Painfully Aware with So Much to Learn

Chapter Eight: Assessment

Previously:

"I-I'm gonna run ahead to make sure the foxes are all right, d-don't want a repeat of yesterday" Naruto chuckled, a hollow sound and it was obvious that something about the kyuubi terrified him. He took Hikari and ran ahead in a flash of yellow and orange.

Now:

♡ Naru POV ♡

I left before Shikamaru could tell what was going on in my head, it's the Yamanaka's that are good with emotions, but Shikamaru is far from stupid and if he saw the anxiety I couldn't hide he would know something was up. Exactly how does one explain to their closest friend/crush that they are a jailer of a giant demon that could flatten all of Konoha without breaking a nail. Oh and the prison happens to be their own body. This would probably be a predicament even if said friend acknowledged you as more that a random kid before yesterday. How does one broach the subject without getting abandoned and possibly beaten up again?

Exactly.

One doesn't.

I'm also still reveling in the hug Shikamaru gave me, being the first physical affection I've received since Iruka ruffled my hair 2 months ago. Excluding Sakura's frequent assaults on my head, but I'm starting to think that isn't actually affection and she's just hitting me all the time. But who's to say, girls are a mystery.

I look down at the tiny blue blanket firmly coddling Hikari, and I think back to what Shikamaru said.

'I bet he'll get along well with Kage'

I was walking the rest of the way to the burrows, I was running at first, but I didn't wanna completely leave Shikamaru and Sasuke in the dust. Plus it was hard to run with my arms in front of me holding Hikari.

After about another 3 minutes of walking I found the clearing, sitting cross legged with the bundle in my lap. And it took another 30 seconds for the foxes to recognize and charge at me, thankfully they stopped at the notice of Hikari.

I spent the next few minutes explaining Hikari's situation and that I was with Shikamaru and Sasuke who were lagging behind. Kage seemed happy with Shikamaru returning, picking him as her favorite place to nap. And I gave the now awake Hikari to Kage.

'Shikamaru was right' was my first thought as Kage completely wrapped herself around Hikari. Kage was only a few months older that Hikari,but Hikari was quite small, which was one of the reasons I wanted the Inuzuka's to check up on him. I took of the tiny blanket so the kit could interact more with his new family, but he seemed content on being swallowed whole by Kage's thick black fur.

I made sure all the other foxes in the group were okay with adopting the foreign blue eyed fox, which thankfully they were, before lying on the grass and waiting for my two raven haired companions.

Nara POV

Sasuke was burning holes into the back of my head with his glare. But he wasn't acting on any of the gruesome deaths for me that he was obviously planning. Which means I won the fight, now for the war. Naruto's love.

Not only a war against Sasuke, after reflecting on it there were actually five competitors for said prize; Gaara, Kiba, Hinata and Neji were also my competitors. And Shino was suspicious, considering how high on a pedestal he puts Naruto after the blonde found that endangered species of poisonous beetles when he 'fell' into the forest of death and gave said beetles to the young Aburame. But that was neither here nor there. Back to the topic, from what I know of Naruto, from mild observations of the blonde:

Kiba
•acquainted since first year at the academy
•Naruto sees him as a brother figure
•Kiba's always sparring with Naruto to interact with him because of social skills on par with Naruto's
•Deepest in the friend zone

Gaara
•both have a secret that apparently leaves Naruto in the same situation that drove a kid to insanity-okay
•Gaara probably only has romantic feelings toward him because of trauma twisting his relationship views and his immense admiration for Naruto-because of said secret that I am in the dark about
•Very cool in Naruto's eyes, and a serious competitor considering how close Naruto's become with Gaara out of solidarity-for a secret that's starting to annoy me with how much of Naruto's life it hides
•Nice hair, Naruto really likes red hair for some reason (hair was one of our chatting topics yesterday, luckily he didn't bring up mine, I'm kinda insecure about it but cutting it is troublesome and tightness in my hairline helps me focus).

Neji
•Obvious admiration for Naruto after the chunin exams
•Also cool
•Wasn't in the academy with Naruto, so that puts his relationship with Naruto a leg behind the others

Hinata
•From what I can tell, she's been stalking Naruto since before the academy -considering how well he survives in the forest of death, I'm sure he's aware of this.
•Shy and far too flustered to approach Naruto
•I'm sure Naruto is off put by her stalking

Sasuke
•Naruto's teammate
•Naruto's rival
•Naruto's first kiss
•Bullies Naruto to get his attention-I am against this
•Is head over heels for Naruto-not as much as me though
•Has been subtly stalking Naruto since the academy
•knows more about Naruto then what he lets on
•kinda cool, but the jerky personality puts Sasuke off Naruto's list of admirers (I wonder if he thinks I'm cool, I mean he's always complimenting me on my intelligence but does he think that's cool?)

Shino
•possibly Aro and definitely Ace
•considers Naruto a 'precious comrade'
•rather quiet but Naruto never really minds quiet people
•can come of as harsh
•cool in a weird way
•Naruto's number one bug referral
•a part of me thinks he knows Naruto's potential

Shikamaru
•He showed me his foxes
•We both like cloud watching
•He said that wonderful description of me yesterday
•We both like forests
•He thinks I'm smart and always compliments me on it
•As a Nara's fixation, he's probably the only thing keeping me sane, yet somehow I'm crazy about him
•He's very confusing, like a very hard puzzle, and I wanna solve it
•We kinda adopted Hikari together
•he inspires me to be a better person and chunin
•my parents seemed very happy when I talked about him
•he's the good kind of troublesome

After I finished my mental analysis and came to the conclusion that I should probably look for outside sources of information on the blonde and the secrets he shares with the sandy creep. Duckbutt and I then arrived at the clearing.

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