Forest Child (Sasuke Love Story)

Targets and Friends

Targets and Friends

Under the tree near the Academy was Moriko eating her lunch of fruits alone, again. She has been here for a few weeks and so far everyone pretty much ignored and avoided her. The only ones who didn't was the Hokage who somehow became her legal guardian and came to check on her a few times and Iruka-sensei who was her teacher and had to pay attention to see how she was doing. Even Naruto, who seemed to bother everyone seemed to avoid her.

She doesn't seem troubled by it but deep down she feels lonely. She never tried to approach them which led them all to believe that she wants to be left alone, but the real reason she hasn't was simple. She doesn't know how. She's never had an actual friend before and has no idea how to act around them.

She finished the tangerine she was eating then went back in the classroom for the rest of the lesson where the students were all taught things that Moriko already knew and never bothered to listen to.

Moriko sat on her usual seat at the back left. She once again stared out the window like its the most interesting thing in the world and tune out Iruka-sensei's voice.

That is until he said something that caught her attention. "We're going to practice throwing kunai knives and shurikens. You will all be in groups of threes eccept for two teams who will be in pairs due to the amount of students." and they all went outside to the training ground where all the targets are.

Moriko was grouped with Shino and Naruto. There were five targets placed on the trees surrounding them. That way they had to move around when they throw the kunai knives and shurikens.

"We should start with the kunai knives first." Moriko told them.

Naruto went first. He made a stance focusing on one target. He threw the kunai knives while quickly turning to face each target. Only one kunai hit the target and it was nearly at the edge, the rest hit either the trees or the ground. More specifically, he only hit the target he aimed at first.

Shino went next and managed to get all five kunai hit the targets. One of them hit the bulls eye while two almost were close to the bulls eye. The other two kunai knives were near the edges.

Moriko threw all five kunai knives in less than 10 seconds. Four hit the bulls eye while the other one was only slightly off. Naruto's eyes widened. Then he got a determined look on his face as he got ready to throw the kunai at the target.

Naruto and Shino practice for a couple of minutes but didn't get much progress. By that time, Moriko has already hit all five bulls eye. Naruto was getting really frustrated. "Why can't I get this stupid kunai in the target?!" He yelled in frustration.

"When you turn to face the next target you lose your stance." Moriko decided that she should at least tell him what he was doing wrong. "And your stance isn't very good in the first place."

"Oh?" Naruto said and made a stance and looked at himself to check his stance. Moriko went over to him and moved his position into the right stance.

"There, now throw the kunai at the target and try to keep your stance as you turn to face each target."

Naruto did what she told him to do and managed to get four kunai knives hit the target, one of them only a few inches away from the bulls eye. Shino asked her for advice, figuring that would be best if he wanted to improve. For the rest of the lesson, Shino and Naruto practiced throwing kunai knives and shurikens while Moriko told them what they were doing wrong and also practicing herself.

***
The next day Iruka-sensei told them to keep practicing with their previews teams. He noticed that Moriko's group was making excellent progress. Moriko hit all five bulls eye with the kunai and shuriken. Naruto managed to get two kunai knives hit the bulls eye and the rest still hit the targets, and he hit three shurikens at the bulls eye and the other still hit the targets. Shino get the same amount of shurikens hit the bulls eye as Naruto and got three kunai knives hit the bulls eye while the other two were only inches away from hitting the bulls eye.

"You three are making excellent progress. Especially you Naruto." Iruka-sensei said to the three of them.

"Thanks Iruka-sensei! We wouldn't have done it without Moriko's help, though." Naruto said in his usual happy and carefree but idiotic voice. "She told us what we were doing wrong and told us exactly how to fix it."

"Well, Moriko you've done an excellent job helping them. Do you mind helping your other classmates?" Moriko shook her head to say that she didn't mind. "The two of you can go and take a break if you'd like or you could continue practicing."

Moriko first went over to Sasuke, Kiba and Choji. Sasuke was doing really well. He got five kunai knives and four shurikens hit the bulls eye and the other shuriken was very close. Kiba and Choji however weren't doing so well. They have both managed to hit three or four targets but they were all near or at the edges, none of them even close to the bulls eye.

"Hey what are you guys doing here?" Kiba asked Moriko and her group for this exercise. Naruto decided to take a break for the day and watch his classmates practice while Moriko helped them and Shino just tagged along because he had nothing better to do.

"We're done practicing. Iruka-sensei told us to help our other classmates." Naruto said obviously twisting what actually happened. Sasuke raised his eye brow at this and Kiba and Choji had a surprised and slightly incredulous look on their faces.

"He told Moriko to help you and told us that we could take a break." Shino told the three. Sasuke then gave an understanding nod and Kiba and Choji has a look on their faces as if to say 'oh that makes more sense'.

"Can you guys show me how you throw the kunai and shuriken?" Moriko asked. They all did and Moriko proceeded to tell Kiba and Choji what they need to improve or what they were doing wrong. After a while even Sasuke asked for her help seeing how much progress the two had made in just a few minutes.

She came to each group and helped them. Of course she received glares from some of them because of jealousy. More specifically the girls and Ino at first was stubborn and refused to listen to what she was telling her but saw how much improvement the people in her group has gotten, she finally gave up and just listened to her advice.

When Moriko got to Shikamaru and Sakura, Naruto who was still tagging along told Sakura, well more like yelled that he was there to help her. Of course she would have none of it.

"Why would I need help from you of all people?!" She yelled, her right arm clenched into a fist in front of her chest.

"Actually he's doing better than you." Moriko said seeing as Sakura has only managed to get one kunai hit the bulls eye and the rest if the kunai knives and shurikens were near the edges of the targets and that one kunai that hit the bulls eye was obviously a fluke.

"What?!!" That comment just angered Sakura more. 'Impossible! There is absolutely no way that Naruto could have done better than me. The worst student can't be better than me!'

Moriko signaled Naruto to show her what he can do. Naruto did and Sakura's eyes widened when she saw how Naruto did. He got three kunai knives and shurikens at the bulls eye while the other two shurikens were near the bulls eye.

"How?" Moriko noticed Sakura's voice quaver a bit though it seems she's the only one who noticed.

"Moriko helped me." Naruto told her. At that moment, Sakura grabbed Moriko's shoulders and asked for help. She refused to be worse than the worst student.

***
Everyone was very thankful for Moriko's help. Though at first it seemed like she was insulting them in a way, it really did help them. The next day they instead of ignoring her, they actually started talking to her. Ino even sat next to her and tried to become her friend.

"Hey. Moriko, right? Listen, I know we haven't been very friendly to you when you got here but you seem cool. We should be friends."

That sentence itself didn't seem very friendly to Moriko but there was no way she was going to pass up the chance of getting a friend. "Sure." Her face kept its emotionless state but there was a hint of happiness in her voice that could go unnoticed by most people.

"Why don't you come sit with us at lunch later?" It wasn't a question, Ino expected her to sit with her at lunch.

So during lunch, Moriko sat with Ino and a bunch of her friends, listening to their conversations. Most of them about Sasuke which annoyed her a little, but she didn't mind because for the first time since she came to Konoha, she didn't eat lunch alone.