It was a dark cloudy day when Hyuuga Hanabi found Uzumaki Naruto in the park. He was sitting under the protection of a tree, just... staring out into the air.

Most of the people normally in the park had gone home, fearing for the rain, but she didn't mind the rain. The smell it made when it hit the hot ground on sunny days, and the way she could get drenched in under three seconds...

Even if she was all grown up inside, she still demanded to live her kid life as much as possible.

Making sure there weren't any dumb adults around who would try to warn her to stay from that 'trouble boy', she sneaked up behind the tree where he was. It was pretty easy to do so, having been trained the moment she could walk. It was the same with most members of the Main House where it was decided from birth that they were born to be ninja. Any which were decided as such would be trained from the moment they could form the concept of 'ninja'.

But then, she wasn't exactly complaining. It was the only life she had really known, so...

Regardless, the idiot blond boy hadn't even noticed her. Maybe he was getting old or something.

"Hey."

No response. She frowned.

"Hey, stupid!"

"WHAT? WHO'S CALLIN' ME STUPI- oh, hey Hanabi-chan." He moved slightly to let her sit next to him. It wasn't really required, seeing as it was a big tree, but the thought counted. A bit. She sat down next to him, and looked up at his face. Pensive. Wistful. It meant he was doing really deep inner thinking. Like the old adults did sometimes. She had often wondered why adults slowed down in their minds instead of living moment by moment like her and Naruto. And now it seemed Naruto was slowing in the head too. She envisioned a picture of a decrepid Naruto playing shogi with her father and shuddered at the image.

"You're going old in the head, Naruto," she said, with a hint of dismay. She received a smack in the back of her head for her comment, and promptly returned a punch in his face.

"I ain't getting old. I was just thinking."

"See? Like those old people who think too much."

"Idiot. I was just thinking of stuff that happened in my last mission."

Her interest was piqued. She would be doing missions when she was old enough. She had sometimes listened to Hinata-neesan, but that was rare, because she felt sometimes that her elder sister was... well, scared by her presense. It made her chest inside feel funny and heavy, and it didn't feel nice at all, so in return, she would avoid her sometimes, just to avoid the weird sensation.

"Then what happened? You told me before you left that it was a simple bodyguard position, right?"

"Mm. Don't tell anyone, but the mission turned into a super-A class mission, because we found out that the guy we were meant to be looking after was being hunted by other ninja."

"That sounds exciting..."

"Missing-Nin even showed up and everything. And then... well, they both ended up dying, but it wasn't fair at all. He was just like me..."

There were things she wanted to ask, but she let Naruto finish.

"... In the end, I learnt a lot of stuff. Dreams. Hopes. Shinobi. Tools. The pain of living... the reason to exist... bloodlines... hey, Hanabi, I never asked, but you're a Hyuuga. You got some sort of bloodlimit, don't you?"

"I... yeah. How come?"

"Do... do people get scared of you because of that?"

She couldn't help but wrap her arms around her knees. She had noticed how most of her classmates seemed to admire her dispite being a year younger than everyone else, but underneath all the things they said, there was a underlining amount of fear. Her white pale eyes, always visible in every clanmember of the Hyuuga.

"Sometimes."

"That's just stupid."

"I know."

A moment passed before he reached over to put a hand on her head and ruffled her hair gently. "I made a promise to myself to live my own ninja way, you know. I won't die without a dream." he said, with a fierce grin on his face. She could tell it was a bit forced though. One of these days, she'd get the full story from him.

She leaned into him, and rested her head on his arm. It was warm.

"Hokage, right?"

"Of course!"

She watched the rain fall underneath the shade of the leaves above with a pitter-patter sound. It was a nice feeling, being here like this. She sighed softly, and pulled away.

"You smell of sweat. You need to get a shower."

"Oh, shut up, brat." he muttered, trying awkwardly not to go ahead and sniff himself. He watched her stand up and push the dry leaves and loose dirt off her clothes. He got up himself and stretched, before watching the rain clear up a little. Perhaps there might be a rainbow.

"You'd better go now before any adults see you with me."

"I know, I know, you already said whatever about not wanting me to get in trouble. I still don't understand why they call you trouble..."

She started to walk away, before turning her head back. "But Naruto-nii..."

Naruto looked back from the direction he was walking in. "Hmm?"

A mysterious smile was on her face. "What if I told you I like trouble?"

Naruto blinked as the small girl jumped off. "Crazy brat," he muttered to himself, as he started jumping through the trees, unaware that a smile was growing on his own face.