Naruto #2

Classes had ended, and as always afterwards those who attended filed out to mix and mingle in the yards and alleyways, emptying out those cloistered rooms where subject material was taught like blood flooding from a pierced wound. It suited him usually to be among the first to disappear, to blend into the crowd and sometimes even wear a different face in order to get out from between the mass of people his own generation.

He stuck his hands in the pockets of his almost too tight jeans, casting his gaze about as he strolled out of the room alongside of all others in their rush to leave, to go home to families which he didn’t have.

Not even that Onii-chan had stayed in the end.

He sighed.

No use lamenting. He shook his head. Hell not even all of the students had parents. He could personally list off the rest of the orphanage brats who, like him, were part of the program. But they, unlike him, lived together… saw each other as family, friends, and peers.

It got real tiresome being the outsider looking in most days.

A smile pulled across his lips, the thought of heading out tonight and finding a good john fill himself up and maybe push back some of the more angsty feelings induced by the onset of oncoming examination doom was nothing less than appealing. A chance at stretching his legs, and some other things in proper relaxation. But that would mean giving the subtle watchers who kept a peripheral eye on him the slip again for the second time in only a week, he doubted that he could bypass their more active diligence if he tried it so soon again.

Instead, almost at a whim he decided on something which he didn’t often try.

To talk to one of his fellow potential ninja before their separate odyssey’s to the places known as home.

His eyes drifted to the cute blue eye’d blonde girl, Ino, one of the few others he’d ever met who actually looked so much akin. He’d always wondered about that, whether they were somehow related, or if it was just another one of those freak accidentals of birth that he came out this way, so different from everyone else around him. His brilliant yellow hair just one more degree of separation from the regular pack.

These similarities, though admittedly superficial drew his eye to the outgoing and vivacious girl. Though as another one of Sasuke’s fangirls he had been forced to roll his eyes at her and her clique of friends as often as not.

A slight nervousness stayed Naruto’s normally confident stride for a moment as he stood at a corner watching in as unobvious a manner as he could the girl who’d caught his eye. It was a strange feeling, almost akin to the first time he’d decided to try to go out and find a John on his own accord after that Onii-chan had vanished from his life. For the moment he’s wait, at least until most of the people whom she’d been enthusiastically greeting drifted away, and she herself began to leave.

Naruto took his chance right then, walking over to the girl.

“Hey. Uh, hi.” Naruto greeted almost nervously, catching the girl’s attention and presenting a slightly bashful smile.

“Oh, hey.” Ino replied a bit surprised at the source of the greeting, but recovered quickly enough to give a small smile and a personable glance to the side. “Oh, hey you’re Naruto right? Did you need something?”

“Ahh… haha, not really. I just figured… I just wanted to talk a little is all.” He smiled hopefully, still a bit unsure as he walked beside the girl. It was strange... talking to girls like this was surprisingly hard, as he wracked his brains on something, anything to say.

The girl quirked her eyebrow in a skeptical glance. “Oh really?”

Ugg… did he say something wrong already? Was there some trap he’d stepped in? Something that wasn’t right?

“Um yeah… you know. I just figured… I mean… I really like your hair.” Naruto blurted, his face turned away for the moment as tried to think of something clever to say.

“My hair?” The girl replied with a quirk of her lips, her eyes saying plainly that she’d figured out just where this was going.

“Yeah… I mean I really like it… what do you use to make it stay down like that? I mean my hair… I can’t even get it to stay tame without a ton of hair gel, but I don’t really like the way that stuff feels when it clumps up you know?” Naruto started, almost momentarily lost in the topic which he’d broached. “I try everything to take care of mine, but it’s just so naturally… ugg…”

Ino stopped for the moment and blinked. Ok, that did not go where she thought that it would.

“Uh... did I say something wrong?” Naruto asked, just ahead of her, his eyes casting nervously towards her own as one hand reached to rub behind his head.

“Uh… no. No. I just… I was just caught a little off guard you know. I don’t know many guys who stop a girl to get hair tips.” She smiled, her bright eyes finally focused directly on him.

Naruto sniffed indignantly, discomfort cleared as he laughed. “Hmm… that’s cause most guys don’t have a clue how to take good care of themselves. A little soap and water isn’t the end all to making yourself presentable you know.”

Despite herself Ino couldn’t help but giggle, her hand slapping down against the boy’s back. “Good lord, I wonder how many other boys actually realize that. A little deodorant afterwards or some herbal dusters go a long way.”

“Amen! Preaching to the choir… believe it!” Naruto intoned with a grin, then shrank back a bit between his own shoulders. “So would you mind helping me out?  I mean I’ve tried all sorts of things, but I only have limited funds and I could use some good advice.”

It was strange just how much his gloomy day brightened with the smile from that girl as she began to rattle off her own personal care tips and tricks, practically dragging him along once at her family flower shop, and plying his arms full all manner of skin and hair care products and herbal extracts which she solemnly swore by.

It was… nice.

A little strange, but nice.

The only dip being the momentary run in with her father, his eyes cold as they crossed paths.

Sometimes he wished he knew why the adults disdained him so...

Sometimes he felt glad he did not.

“So try these out and then tomorrow you can tell me how they all worked out after the test right?” Ino grinned. It was pretty dizzying just how quickly the girl had decided that not only was he to be a friend, but that in the process of a hour or two of talking Naruto’d suddenly become some kind of personal project in the process.

“Uh… yeah… the test...” He’d been avoiding that a bit. Naruto didn’t really like the idea that he was headed to yet another failure on that one, bunshin was simply not something which seemed to be coming to him no matter how much he pushed and pushed and pushed for it.

“Not feeling confident about that one huh?” The girl asked in a pitying tone. Naruto scowled.

“… not really.” He admitted, shoulder slumping as he sighed. “Bunshin… I just can’t seem to make them happen. It always come out as a horrible mess no matter how many hours I spend just doing nothing but bunshin.”

“Wow… that sounds pretty terrible.” Ino grimaced then bit her lip. “Maybe… maybe I can help?”

Naruto frowned,