From Darkness to Light (The Little Senju Series Book Two): A Naruto Fanfiction

Izumi and a Nickname

Izumi's POV

I don't remember much of what happened after that... Orochimaru and Kabuto showed up not long after and Sasuke got away. It was another failure of a mission. Why does life feel the need to repeat itself in such cruel ways?

It was strange to be in my old room again. The one that I'd shared with my aunt three years ago. If I wanted to try opening up to people again, she was certainly the person to start with. Geez, I made a fuss about her leaving me before, and I go and do the same thing... I sighed as I finished arranging my bed. There was no use being upset about it now. All that mattered was trying to get myself better.

"Izu!" Auntie Tsunade knocked on my door before coming in. She paused a moment staring at me silently. "I'm so glad to have you back here." Without so much as a warning, the woman took me tightly into her embrace. I gasped at first before growing used to the feeling. There was something calming about being held like that. My hands slowly moved and hugged her back. "I'm heading to work." She pulled away but left her hands on my shoulders for a moment. "Are you going out today?"

"Yes," I nodded curtly. "I'm going to meet up with Kakashi Sensei and the others at the hospital in a little bit." Her smile was almost relieved. Not that I could entirely blame her. Aside from slowly moving my stuff over from my apartment, I'd been holed up inside since our last mission. "In fact," I looked at the alarm clock on my bedside table. "I should probably get going."

She ruffled my hair as though I were a child. "Good luck."

. . .

"Naruto!" The blond boy didn't look up at me as he sat on the steps outside the hospital. He seemed deep in thought... More than likely he'd been thinking about the same things that I had. Thinking about our last mission. "Hey, Naruto!" I shook his shoulder gently and leaned over so that we could make eye contact. "Are you alright?"

"Ah, Izumi!" He smiled, but it was clear that the action didn't quite reach his eyes. "I'm fine!"

"Yeah, I'm sure... And the sky is a lovely shade of red today..." I said. His somber expression caught me off guard as I plopped next to him on the stairs. "Hey, about Sasuke..." I rubbed the back of my hand nervously as he jolted at the change of subject. "He looked into your head too, didn't he?" I met his eyes again. "I can't stop thinking about..." I wrapped my arms around myself and threw my head up toward the sky. "I don't know what he said to you, but he told me I was scared and... Hah, I can't even deny it... There's so much that I'm afraid of right now. Sounds pretty lame coming out of my mouth, huh?"

Naruto placed a hand on my shoulder awakening me from my thoughts. "There's nothing wrong with being scared, Izumi." I shifted uncomfortably on the step. "I'm scared too, Izu." He was quiet again and smiling for real this time. "Is it alright that I call you that? I heard Grandma Tsunade call you that so."

"Hm, that's perfectly fine." I squeezed Naruto between my arms. I had really forgotten how nice it was to be close to people. The boy seemed a bit surprised at first, but his hand was soon on my back. "I think you've earned it after being my friend all this time, Naruto..." As our arms released, I leaned against him and sighed in relief. "I'm sorry for how I acted when I first got back to the village." I clenched my fist remembering how cold I had been with all of them. "A lot happened when I was gone... Thanks... Thank you for not giving up on me."

"Izumi!" Sakura's voice said from across the street. "Naruto!"

I really hope she didn't hear that... "Ah, Sai's with you?" After what happened before I wasn't expecting them to be so close.

"I bumped into him at the library," Sakura explained.

"Eh?" Naruto groaned as he threw his hands behind his head. "How can you guys even go to a stuffy place like that?

"Oh, come on...." I smacked the back of his head lightly. "The library isn't so bad!" I placed my hands together as my heart throbbed. "There's nothing like getting enraptured by a good book~"

Sakura chuckled as her eyes passed between the two of us. "You should train your mind, and not just your body, Naruto." She retorted. "You're really an idiot after all."

"That's harsh, Sakura..." The boy complained. His body slumped over as he pulled himself from the step.

"N-Naruto... S-Sakura... I-Izumi..." Sai's voice was almost a stutter. He scratched nervously at his face as we looked up at him. "Could you guys include me in the conversation too?" We were silent as Sai went on to explain himself. "Oh...! Well, I read in a book... About how to open up to people right away, and in the book, it said to call people by their first names and to use nicknames and terms of endearment." When I first met Sai, I never imagined he would turn out to be such an honest person. "It said if I did that there would be a sense of friendliness and we'd be able to get along right away." He lightly blushed the shade of red obvious against his pale skin.

Crap... I placed a hand over my mouth covering the goofy grin that had surely appeared. What am I doing thinking he's cute...?

"Oh," Naruto grinned at our dark-haired teammate. "So, you're concerned about stuff like that, huh?"

"Ah? So, that's what you were doing in the library..."

"Yeah," Sai said. "And... I was thinking about nicknames and terms of endearment for you guys." He was smiling his face still slightly red. "But I couldn't really come up with anything good... So, I'll just call you guys by your first names for now."

"You don't need to think about stuff like that." It was in times like this that I realize how much I missed Naruto's cheerful personality. It was nice to have someone who could always look ahead by my side. "It just happens naturally."

"For nicknames or terms of endearment," Sakura added. "You should just say that person's character trait." She looked at Naruto almost smirking. "For example, if you're talking about Naruto... Idiot Naruto! Or Moron Naruto! Or something!" The girl gave a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Sakura you're taking things too far with that...!" His body slumped over again at the pink-haired girl's teasing.

Sai pinched his chin seemingly thinking about what my teammates had just told him. He looked over Sakura's body carefully to which a slightly flustered expression fell over her face. Sai nodded as though the perfect thing had just come to mind. "Thank you. I've got the hang of it now. Ugly."

Oh, shit! "Well..." I started to sweat as Naruto struggled to hold the pink-haired girl back. "Would you look at the time? I'll meet you all upstairs. Hahaha..."

Have I been going overboard with the updates....? I suppose you folks don't mind all that much, hm? I'm feeling a bit inspired again, so I'm just going to run with it.

Until next time!

--Amy