<One Month Time Skip>
(Natalia's POV)
After a month and a half of living in Konoha, I had realized something. I was undeniably in love with this place. I was so happy here. It's seriously never boring in this village.
Let me give you an overview of how my life has been for the past month and how it was going:
Whenever Itachi wasn't away on missions, he always took Sasuke and I out for dango, which obviously resulted in me embarrassing him. Since Sasuke doesn't love dango like us, I always made sure to get Itachi to let us stop by the market first to get a small container of cherry tomatoes for him. I didn't really get his obsession with tomatoes... I actually thought it was extremely weird, but eh you do you, ya know?
Omg, speaking of "ya know?", I met Naruto! I ended up bumping into Shikamaru again and he invited me to hang out with him and two of his friends, which I of course, happily accepted. I already had my suspicions on who those "two friends" were, but I still ended up getting overly excited when I actually saw that it was Choji and Naruto. I remembered from the anime that they used to play together as kids but then for some reason stopped at some point during their academy days. I was always confused about that. Plot armor? Haha, probably.
Naruto was a little hesitant at first when he met me, but he warmed up to the idea that I ACTUALLY did want to be friends with him. He feels the need to be so cautious when someone is nice to him, and I hate seeing that. I told myself to put in extra effort into our friendship, but I didn't even need to. He was so fun! Although extremely loud and obnoxious, he was so enthusiastic about everything and made it all just so.. happy! I literally thought of him as a ray of sunshine that never dies down. It was honestly so astonishing to me how "bright" he was, especially in his situation. Of course not "bright" like smart, because well..you know..
Moving onto Choji, he was exactly how I expected him to be. He was so freaking nice and incredibly sweet and always shared his chips with me! And he somehow always had the best flavored chips too. I could tell he was happy to have another friend, and that made me happy as well.
I think Shikamaru was my favorite. He's just so relaxed all the time and it's refreshing. Watching the clouds with him was one of the many things I always wanted to do when watching the anime, and when we did, it was so nice. It made me forget about absolutely everything happening in the world around us. It made me forget about all the bad things that are bound to happen in the future...
That was another thing. The future...
For the past month and a half of living here, I was growing closer to the people around me, and it worried me. I was starting to think that I was getting too attached to the Uchiha family. When I first started living there, I figured it was inevitable, but I really started loving them as my own. Mikoto was just so caring and perfect. I always helped her around the house whenever I wasn't training and I would always help her with the cooking after she taught me how. Itachi was obviously already like a big brother to me and I loved him very much. Sasuke was practically my best friend and we were inseparable. Heck, I even loved Fugaku! The man I used to be so scared of? Yea, him! Even though he was so strict and formal, he would lighten up around me when telling me stories of the Uchiha clan and my father. He rarely spoke of my father, but when he did, it was so heartwarming. I could tell how close they were from the way he spoke of him.
Someone else I'd grown to love was Gramps. I had been visiting him every single day. We'd drink tea and talk about how I was doing with my training and living conditions. He really felt like a grandfather to me, and he even took me to meet little Konohamaru! He was THE CUTEST LITTLE THING EVER OMG. I've never seen anything cuter than an anime baby, and I'm completely serious about that. I can't wait for him to start eating solid foods and you know, develop a couple more brain cells, so I can take him out for dango like Itachi does with me. I already know Konohamaru is going to be like my baby brother as he grows up. Gramps noticed how much I care for him already and he told me he'd start taking me to visit him more often.
But yea, MY POINT is that I love them too much and it scares me. It really scares me. I don't want to lose them, but I know I can't stop it from happening. I just don't know how to prepare for it either... I guess I'll just figure it out when the time comes around.
Now, let me tell you about my training:
I've been training 3 days a week with Kakashi (2 alone and 1 with Tenzo), 2 with Guy (they last for like 5 hours though), 1 with Itachi (and Fugaku if he's not busy which is rare) and I have one free day a week to just hang out with whoever I want.
Kakashi's mainly been training me in ninjutsu and copying it. Tenzo's training has obviously been in wood style, which I really enjoy because I still think it's so bizarre that wood can just come out of my hand like it's normal or something.
Guy's training is absolutely... HORRIBLE. HOLY HECKERBALLS HOW DOES LEE DO IT IN THE FUTURE?! I ask myself that question about 10 thousand times throughout training with Guy (one for each rep). I'm not joking, he actually makes me do sooo many reps and sets of every workout known to ninjas!
On the days he trains me, the Uchiha family literally say GOODNIGHT to me when I leave, because they already know when I get back, I'm going straight to bed. That's how bad it is. But at the same time, I really shouldn't complain because as hard as he makes me work, it really has strengthened me a lot and it's only been a month since I started training with him.
Itachi obviously trains me in fire style jutsu and the sharingan. We haven't started on genjutsu yet, but I'm definitely excited for that. Just the idea of playing mind games on people is so intriguing. That sounded a little sadistic but whatever. He's actually such a great teacher. Because of his naturally calm demeanor, he's very patient and thorough with his teachings. If he wasn't gonna go rogue, I'd force him to become an official sensei.
Anyways, enough of my little "life update".
Today, Itachi's supposed to train me. He woke me up this morning telling me to just meet him where we usually train, because he has to prepare something for me. Whatever the heck that means. But then he told me we wouldn't be training so I could just wear my casual outfit, and then he left and said nothing more. He's a very vague man, ya know. Oh no. That "ya know" thing has seriously been sticking to me. It's kinda annoying. I don't really say it out loud much though, it's mainly in my head, but still!
I got up from bed and started getting ready. I took a quick shower, brushed my teeth and hair, and got dressed in my casual outfit (Picture^). You can probably tell I like wearing mostly black and a little bit of pink, huh? I just really like wearing darker colors, but pink's my favorite so I have to incorporate it into my outfit no matter what. I noticed from both of my outfits I ended up getting into the whole "Uchiha high collar" thing..but I was living with them so it was kiiiiinda inevitable.
I walked into the kitchen and saw Mikoto preparing breakfast for Sasuke and I. Sasuke was already sitting down and I sat next to him. The three of us ate together and had small talk. I finished quickly because I was curious to see what Itachi was "preparing". I said goodbye to them and left in the direction of Itachi's makeshift training grounds.
When I got there, I noticed nothing was different. At all. Itachi was just sitting on a rock, waiting for me.
I walked up to him. "Uhh so what were you preparing for me? Because everything looks the same." I said looking around.
He chuckled, "that's not what I meant by preparing". I tilted my head at him like a puppy. He continued, "I remembered the first time we met, you seemed to be my best friend's number one fan. You mentioned you wanted to master the body flicker technique..." he trailed off with an expectant facial expression.
My eyes widened immensely. "No way" I muttered with a huge smile.
"But first I have to ask you something," He said. I nodded for him to continue, still smiling. "Do you trust him with TBK?" He asked.
You see, I came up with an acronym for The Burden of Knowing and told Kakashi, Gramps, and Itachi about it. We would use it whenever we brought the topic up, I somehow knew something bizarre that I shouldn't, or I knew that something was gonna happen(which we haven't used it for yet). It's pretty clever, if you ask me.
"Three hundred percent." I replied.
He smiled, "Shisui, you can come out now". Shisui then walked out from behind a nearby tree that was literally only a couple feet away from me.
My eyes widened IMMENSELY once again. "HOLY HECKERBALLS HE WAS ALREADY HERE?!" I asked Itachi incredulously. Itachi just smiled in response.
Shisui's jaw dropped and his eyes widened, "WAIT. You say heckerballs too?!"
"Yes I do, and what about it? Are you gonna judge me t—wait. Did you just say TOO?! You say heckerballs too?!?!" I exclaimed gleefully. He nodded rapidly with a big smile on his face.
I then turned to Itachi and pointed at him saying, "So THAT'S why you reacted that way when I said it back at the Hokage's office!" He nodded in an annoyed manner.
"Wait why do you look annoyed?" I asked.
"Because it's such an idiotic word" He answered bluntly.
At the exact same time, Shisui and I defended ourselves saying, "no it's not, it's an awesome word".
Our heads snapped towards each other with semi creeped out faces. That was weird.
Itachi then muttered, "I have a bad feeling that I'm gonna regret introducing the two of you".
'Why do you say that?" Shisui and I asked innocently at the same time..again.
With an eye twitch, Itachi bitterly said, "just a hunch".
"Oh but you still love us" Shisui and I said at the same time again.
I turned to Shisui, "Okay dude, you gotta stop doing that."
"Me?! You're doing it too!" He counteracted.
"Oh right.." I muttered. "Well then WE have to stop that!"
"How?" He asked.
"I..don't know. Oh wait. I think we stopped!" I smiled.
'Huh, you're right. I think we're good now" He replied with a smile too.
Then we sighed in relief at the same... exact... time.
We snapped our heads back to each other again, and then Itachi said, "Okay! Both of you just..please, stop." We looked at him and his eye was twitching like crazy. Shisui and I had to hold in our laughs because of how funny he looked when he was annoyed.
I then realized something and decided to question Itachi. "Wait, what would you have done if I said I didn't trust him with TBK?"
"I honestly don't know. I just had a feeling you would say yes from the way you acted when talking about him" He replied. I sweatdropped.
Shisui spoke up, "Alright, now can someone please explain to me what TBK means?"
I looked to Itachi, "go ahead. You know I don't like explaining things." It was very true. Especially when it came to explaining who I am. Ugh it's such a...sorry, but for lack of a better term, DRAG. Itachi rolled his eyes but started explaining nonetheless.
While waiting for Itachi to finish explaining to the flabbergasted Shisui, I was walking up and down trees and occasionally doing some cool flips when jumping off of them that Guy taught me how to do.
Itachi took FOREVER to explain, but once he was finished, hilariously, Shisui fell onto the floor on his back exclaiming, "Oh my gosh my brain hurts!"
Laughing, I walked to his collapsed body and said, "yea, imagine how I felt when I was told all of this."
He replied, "No way. I don't want to imagine that. Heck, it made you awaken your sharingan!"
I snorted. "True." I looked at Itachi, "okay what's next on the agenda?"
"I think Shisui should start teaching you the basics of the body flicker technique for a bit and then we can go out for some dango for the two of you to get used to each other. Not that you need it." He replied.
"Okay, sounds good!" Shisui and I replied.
"My point exactly." Itachi said. We sweatdropped.
After teaching me the basics and explaining how the sharingan helps increase the effectiveness of the body flicker technique in combat, we left for dango!
After the first time we walked home together, I had developed a habit of holding Itachi's hand everywhere we went. So there I was, walking between the two guys and holding Itachi's hand. I actually looked like I was their little sister. This obviously would confuse anyone who saw us, but we ignored them. Another thing, you'd think I would be worried about being with the Uchiha because I didn' want anyone to find out who I really was, but there was no possible way someone could figure it out. I didn't even technically exist for six years.
Me being the number 2 dango fanatic, I kept talking about how I was excited for the delicious colorful treat. Shisui kept laughing at me and making jokes about how he couldn't understand why Itachi and I were so obsessed with it. I tried to defend our love for it, but it just made him laugh even more. Which resulted in me glaring at him, but he said my glare was adorable. The heck.
Shisui looked like he wanted to tell/ask me something the entire walk there, but he didn't for some reason. I assumed it was about TBK, but preferring not to talk about what usually depresses me, I chose to ignore it. I was actually glad that Shisui knew the full truth though, because I wanted to be there for him when he couldn't tell anyone about the Uchiha coup d'etat, and because I obviously completely trusted him. I really needed someone else to know the full truth about me, and I think Itachi sensed that and figured Shisui was wise and trustworthy enough to tell.
When we got to the dango place, we ordered (while I was jumping up and down) and then sat down.
Out of nowhere, Shisui decided to ask me the most random and stupid question ever, "So like are you a fangirl or just a normal fan?" I gave the most confused facial expression in the world. He added, "the way Itachi told me about how you thought of me, made it sound like you were a fangirl." I gave Itachi a death glare and he just smiled, making me scowl at him.
I then diverted my attention back to Shisui, "I am not a fangirl. I hate fangirls." I stated bluntly.
He sighed in relief and said, "thank god, I seriously didn't want or need another one."
I raised an eyebrow at him and Itachi, "is that like an Uchiha thing? I've noticed you guys always seem to have a fan club." They just shrugged in response. They must be really used to it by now. Makes sense though because Uchiha's are for some reason really hot. Why is that?
Shisui started laughing out of nowhere which snapped me back to reality. I noticed he was looking outside of the shop, so I followed his gaze and I was so confused.
"It must be a birthright since you're technically an Uchiha too" he whispered to me, still laughing. Itachi was smirking. Bastard.
I didn't even know how to react. There were like 8 boys my age who were out there STALKING ME! I couldn't believe it. There's no way this is happening to me. No. Way.
"Oh god, please, no." I said completely horrified. Apparently it was evident how horrified I was based on my face, because both Itachi and Shisui started laughing at me.
"What do I do?" Asked them eagerly.
Shisui laughed AGAIN, "there's nothing you can do about it. Just ignore them. We know Natalia, it sucks being attractive." He shrugged. That entire last sentence was laced with pure cockiness. Itachi nodded in agreement. Why am I surrounded by such cocky bastards? Sure they all may be hot, but STILL!
I merely rolled my eyes in response. I was about to continue eating my dango, which had been served to us during the middle of that whole little fiasco, until someone caught my eye who just happened to witness all of that and was now silently chuckling to himself.
I jumped up out of my seat, ran straight at him, and bear hugged him.
"Kakashi! I didn't even see you there!! Also, stop laughing at me. It's not funny. You obviously deal with fangirls, so you have to know how this feels!" I pouted at him.
"I do?" He inquired with his brow raised. My eye twitched. I just had to give him an ego boost, didn't I?
"Ya I've seen them" I lied. He snorted. I rolled my eyes but then noticed he wasn't alone. I froze.
So many reactions were going through my brain at once. I was excited about who I was seeing. I was worried that I'd say something stupid. I was also so confused/surprised that Kakashi was actually hanging out with others. And I really wanted to burst out in laughter at their faces. It was absolutely priceless, they were in complete and utter shock and confusion that a little girl was hugging Kakashi...and that he didn't even seem to mind! HAHAHA I loved this way too much.
I decided to be stupid.
"Oh, hi! You're Asuma Sarutobi and Kurenai Yūhi, right?!"