The Milk Drinker Ninja (Naruto/Skyrim Crossover)

Chapter 2: Secret Friends

"Do you see that boy over there? He's the only one that didn't pass." One of the nearby mothers next to Nia asked towards her friend.

"I suppose it's lucky that he didn't. Could you imagine what would happen if he became a ninja?" The friend replied, and while she'd seen it before, Nia didn't know why the other villagers continued to hate and harass Naruto. And the worst part about it was that she couldn't even ask seeing as she'd been specifically told by her parents not to, and they wouldn't give a reason for that either!

"Hey Naruto, you alright?" Nia asked as she sat on the ground beside him while in the shade of the tree. "I think that this is the most depressed that I've ever seen you."

"Yeah, don't worry about me. I'll be fine." He attempted to assure her, though Nia didn't believe him for a moment seeing as the smile was obviously forced.

"Come to think of it, I've never seen your parents pick you up from the academy..." Nia thought out loud. "Are they like mine and always working?"

"N-no... I don't really have parents." Naruto's false smile faltered even more as he spoke.

'And I don't think that he really has any friends either...' Nia thought furiously as their conversation continued. "Hey, Naruto... Have you ever done something bad to the village? Like, something really bad that would make everyone hate you?"

"No... Not that I remember, at least." Naruto sighed. "I've been trying to find out why they hate me ever since I was really little."

"Well alright then, that settles it." Nia declared before standing and dusting off her mesh leggings. "I don't know why, but for some reason, my parents told me to avoid you ever since they first heard that you were in my class. But I don't care about that anymore."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"What I mean is that I'm going to be your friend from now on, whether they like it or not." Nia declared. "You're not a bad person and the only thing dangerous about you is your pranks, so I see no reason not to!"

"But... If your parents said to avoid me, then won't you get into trouble for that?" Naruto asked cautiously.

"Probably, but I already said that I don't care." Nia shrugged.

"But I do care! You shouldn't get into trouble just for me!" Naruto seemed to be worried.

"Alright, then how about this?" Nia adopted a mischievous smirk as she looked at him. "We'll be secret friends."

"Huh?" Naruto looked at her as if she'd lost her mind.

"We won't openly meet or greet each other in public, but we'll set up meetings so that we can go out for ramen or train sometimes. Sound good?" Nia asked.

"Heck yeah it sounds good! So long as you're buying the ramen..." Naruto agreed enthusiastically.

"There's no way in heck that I'm paying all of the time though." Nia chuckled to herself before Naruto suddenly started digging into his pocket. "What are you doing?"

"Friends give each other gifts, right? Or, at least, I think that they do..." Naruto explained in a conflicted tone until he finally withdrew what looked like a frog wallet from his pocket before he emptied it out and handed the empty frog to her. "Here! I'll leave Gama-chan to you!"

"I... don't think that friends are supposed to give each other stuff. It's purely optional." Nia attempted to correct him and shy away from the frog at the same time as seeing as, since it was empty and  looked like just the frog's skin, she found it creepy.

"But I still want you to have him." Naruto insisted.

"A-alright then..." Nia hesitantly reached out and took it. "So friends give each other stuff, is it? What do you want in return?"

"Hmm... I bet your wallet is girly, so I don't want that." Naruto thought out loud, and Nia couldn't help but become slightly irked.

"Well sorry for that." She harrumphed.

"How about a kunai?" Naruto asked. "That way, not only will I have something of yours, but it'll be practical too!"

"Well, I guess if you're fine with that, then I have no room to complain." Nia replied before withdrawing one of her kunai from her pouch with one hand and taking one of the bands that was holding her hair up in a ponytail with the other.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked as she started wrapping the white band around the hilt of the kunai.

"Making it different so that you don't get it mixed up with your own kunai." Nia explained before she finished and held the weapon out in the palm of her hand so that he could take it. "Here."

"Thanks, Nia-chan! I'll be sure to always keep it with me!" Naruto thanked her eagerly as he took it out of her hand. However, while Nia was wondering how to end the conversation without it sounding like she was attempting to get away from him seeing as she still had to go help her mother at the hospital, their instructor thankfully solved that problem for her as the man suddenly appeared.

"Sorry Nia, but can I talk to Naruto alone for a little bit?" Mizuki came up to them and asked while standing behind Naruto.

"Sure thing." Nia replied before beginning to back away from the two. "Bye Naruto, and be sure to keep training hard!"

"See ya later, Nia!" Naruto waved towards in her reply, and she turned around and left the academy by herself seeing as she knew that there wasn't anyone there to walk her home. Though unlike Naruto, it was simply because her mother was the head nurse at the hospital and was swamped with work, her father was busy helping her friend Tenten's family weapon shop fulfill an order of paper bombs and her elder brother was a chuunin who's shift of patrolling Konoha's outer wall wouldn't end until the afternoon. And while thinking about the fact that she could be joining him soon, she cut through an empty alleyway so that she could save time in getting to the hospital as her earlier excitement returned to her.

"I'm a ninja now..." Nia couldn't help but grin as she spoke to herself. And as she felt a rush of pride enter her, she couldn't help but to take off her headband and turn it around so that she could look at it again. Though as she did, Gama appeared again as well seeing as the frog wallet was still in her hand since she'd accepted it. And as she saw it, she couldn't help but to feel like kicking herself seeing as she'd been in the same class as Naruto for years and only now realized what a terrible life he'd been living.

Lifting both her headband and Gama up to the sun so that the light shined behind them, Nia forced the thoughts about her ignorance out of her head. Because whether due to pity or the desire to actually help him, she promised herself that she would be there for him if Naruto ever needed help again. And as she was finished with standing idle on the subject, and no matter what the 'rules' were in regarding to his treatment, she wanted to be someone that treated him as a normal person. She wouldn't hate him, she wouldn't avoid him and she would act as if he were just like any of her other friends even if she would have to do it in secret now.

"You won't be alone anymore." Nia chuckled happily to herself before tying her headband back around her forehead. However, before she was able to put Gama in the small satchel that she carried at her side which held the majority of her ninja tools, a sudden flash of light from above blinded her as she shielded her eyes from what she thought was the sun falling from the sky. Though while it'd been falling directly downward at first, once it reached a certain point in the sky, the shining orb suddenly flashed again before seeming to grow brighter until she was being blinded even despite clenching her eyes closed. And once Nia finally realized what was happening as the increasing heat of the surrounding air indicated that the strange light was getting closer to her, there was nothing she could do to escape it as the light consumed her completely.