I walked back home as I thought about Sasuke.
How could have I had fallen for that jerk? Why would he kiss me and disappear? Why did I have to fall for him, the guy every girl is after?! Why did he break my heart...?
Tears welled in my eyes as I walked past the Uchiha residence towards the Hamasaki residence. I walked into my apartment and slumped down onto my couch.
Idiot, idiot, idiot. Sasuke's an idiot...he's stupid and a jerk.
As I finished muttering profanities to myself, I stood up from the couch and made dinner. I made rice and fish. Once I finished eating, I went straight to bed.
-Time Skip to the next morning-
When I woke up, I blushed at the thought that I had lost my first kiss to Sasuke, but then I frowned when he abandoned me. I sighed as I got out of bed and fulfilled my morning necessities. I ate leftovers from last night for breakfast and went outside. I didn't realize what time it was, as I was almost late. My slow walk became a sprint as I made my way to the bridge we usually meet up at.
Kakashi was late, as usual, and I sighed. I greeted Sakura and Naruto with a shy wave. I completely ignored Sasuke, but I felt his eyes glued to my back like daggers. After greeting me, Naruto started glaring at Sasuke, and he glared back. I exhaled deeply in annoyance. I was in a foul mood and didn't feel like dealing with their rivalry. Sakura felt the same way as she was growling and muttering insults at Naruto and Kakashi-sensei for being late under her breath. After sitting on a bench waiting patiently for more than an hour, he arrived. I felt his presence and my eyes opened.
"Hey guys, good morning. Sorry I'm late, I got lost on the path of life," he greeted with a lazy look on his face and a wave. I laughed a sarcastic laugh under my breath as Naruto and Sakura growled and yelled, "WHAAAA?"
After a conversation between Naruto and Kakashi about having a "real mission" we started our usual D-ranked ones. We started pulling weeds from an old lady's home and I slowly, but efficiently, pulled them. Naruto, on the other hand, was pulling every plant in sight until there were none left. He smiled bashfully and I sweat-dropped.
He pulled out the lady's herbs...
The lady beat Naruto to a pulp after yelling at him for pulling all of her "special herbs." I had taken a look at a few, and they were nothing special. They weren't medicinal herbs, but plain ones to eat. Afterwards, we started picking up trash in the river. Naruto, with his black eye from the lady, fell into the stream. He couldn't swim his way back, and my eyes widened as he fell down the waterfall.
"Star Style: Levitating Platform!" I yelled and a star-shaped platform that was floating appeared next to me. I hopped on and went to go rescue Naruto, but Sasuke beat me to it. He tied a rope to a tree and was holding Naruto by his foot.
"You're such a loser," he insulted, making Naruto growl. I glared at him.
"Don't call your teammate a loser, you arrogant brat," I insulted, losing my cool that I had been able to maintain for a few hours. I grabbed Naruto and let him stand on my platform. We floated away, leaving Sasuke to climb up his pathetic rope up to safety.
Finally, our last mission was to walk a few dogs. Of course, Naruto had to choose the the biggest one and was getting dragged around by the dog.
"What a loser," Sasuke muttered and I glared daggers at him.
Sakura sighed heavily. "Of course, he just has to choose the biggest dog!"
I mentally agreed with her since it's his fault for trying to outdo Sasuke. The dog kept dragging him, and we kept watching. The dog pulled Naruto in the direction of the minefield and he activated ALL OF THEM. We all sweatdropped at our hopeless teammate and made our way home. We all walked together, but Sakura and I helped Naruto walk, his arms wrapped around our shoulders. Sasuke was too arrogant to help out and was still mad at me for my comment. Thankfully, he didn't mention it or talk to me.
"Look at you, you're hopeless, Naruto," Sakura scolded and I nodded in agreement.
"You really are just one big problem," Sasuke insulted with a smirk from behind. Naruto growled and an irk mark appeared on my forehead. I let go of Naruto and faced him.
"You're such a jerk! Do you even understand what teamwork is? All you do is call Naruto a loser! He has been working harder than all of us, and he will most definitely get stronger! He's already strong, and he will grow. So stop with all the 'you're a loser' crap and leave him alone! You know what? I wish I had never saved you at the bridge!" I yelled. I had completely lost my cool. I didn't care if he insulted me, ignored me, kissed me and ran away like a jerk. No, you've crossed it when you insult my teammates and my friends, those who even had a party for me that you didn't even attend! He, along with everyone else, stared at me with their eyes widened. I looked down and scoffed.
Kakashi sighed. "I guess we're not making a lot of progress on the teamwork thing, huh..."
"Naruto, Sakura, sensei, I'm sorry you saw me like this. But Sasuke...I don't regret a word I said," I mumbled and I could sense Sakura fuming.
"Hotaru! How dare you talk to Sasuke like that! He's much better than you and Naruto, so don't insult him!" she yelled. I faced her and raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? Is that so? Well, in that case, he's better than you too? And you know, all you do is defend him because you're obsessed with him, but you don't even know that your 'oh so loyal Sasuke-kun' kissed me yesterday!" I almost screamed and looked down again, tears brimming my eyes. Her eyes widened and she faced Sasuke hopefully.
"Sasuke! That's not true, is it?" He simply scoffed and looked down. I started walking and I could hear Naruto yelling at Sasuke for doing something to me, and then Sakura retaliating by defending Sasuke. Some things will never change, will they? I continued walking slowly until I heard more screaming and yelling, but this time it seemed like it was for help. I turned to the direction I was coming from and started sprinting towards the sound.
There were two people I've never seen before, one was a girl with blonde hair in four spiky pig tails and had a fan on her back. The other was a boy that wore a onesie that had cat ears, purple face paint smeared on his face, and a large object wrapped in bandages that was strapped to his back. He was holding a little boy by the hem up his shirt. I furrowed my eyebrows and squinted, trying to remember who he was. Naruto was yelling at the two, while Sakura was trying to apologize. Two other kids, a boy and a girl who I assumed were the little boy's friends, shivered in fear. My eyes widened as I realized who it was.
That kid! Isn't he the Third Hokage's grandson?
I stood hidden for a while until I felt Sasuke's chakra coming in the direction I was in. I panicked and jumped sloppily into the trees. The blonde girl looked at the trees and raised an eyebrow in suspicion, but luckily she ignored it. I concealed my presence so no one would notice me and watched intently.
I felt Sasuke's chakra appear beside me and my eyes widened. I turned my head slowly to see him looking at me with an eyebrow raised. However, he didn't even start conversation and his attention drifted to our teammates and the foreign shinobi.
That's when I realized their headbands. They were Sand shinobi, which peaked my interest in why they were here and why they thought it was okay to be messing with people of our village. I distracted myself from Sasuke and watched the scene unfold.
"Put him down!" Naruto yelled and charged at kitty boy. The Sand shinobi put up his hand, and for some reason, Naruto stopped running and was thrown back. I raised an eyebrow and activated my Hoshigan. Intrigued, Sasuke stared at my new orbs. I saw chakra strings connected to his hands and realization came over me. Sand shinobi were well known for puppetry Jutsu, and it seems this was this boy's specialty.
"Konahamaru!" Naruto and the two little kids called out.
"Hey! Cut it out! It hurts!" the little boy squeaked.
"That's it! Drop him or I'll tear you apart! You heard that, fool?" Naruto yelled and Sakura grabbed him in a headlock.
"Fool? You're the fool! Making threats isn't going to help anything!" she scolded and kitty boy smirked.
"You're annoying. All of you, and I don't like weaklings like you. And when scrawny weaklings open their mouths, I just wanna break 'em in half," he said threateningly.
"All right, but I'm not involved in any of this," the blonde girl commented and I raised an eyebrow.
Kitty boy was about to punch Konahamaru, and Naruto charged a him again, but before he could reach him, a rock was flung at kitty boy's hand. He dropped Konahamaru and glared in my direction. Sasuke had made his appearance and was tossing a spare rock in his hand. He was sitting on the branch while I stood next to him.
"You're a long way from home and you're way out of your league," he said with power in his voice.
"Sasuke!" Sakura squealed and I rolled my eyes. She was starting to get on my nerves. Kitty boy glared at us and held the hand that had been hit.
"Great, more wimps to tick me off."
Sasuke crushed the rock in his hand. "Get lost." Sakura and the other little girl stared at Sasuke in awe. They squealed and you could see the hearts in their eyes. I scoffed and rolled my eyes again.
"Boys, enough with the 'Macho man' crap. Grow up," I mumbled and they both glared at me darkly, especially kitty boy.
"Hey, punks. Get down here," kitty boy called and I raised an eyebrow. "You're the kind of pesky little snot I hate the most. All attitude and nothing to back it up." He pulled out the object from his back and let the bandages start to unwrap.
"What?! Are you going to use the crow for this?" the blonde asked and I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Kankuro, back off," a voice said from behind Sasuke and I. Sasuke's eyes widened and I crossed my arms. He was quiet and extremely stealthy, but I was able to sense and see his chakra with my Hoshigan. I was waiting for him to make his appearance. The boy had red hair, dark circles or eyeliner around his eyes, I can't tell which, and a gourd on his back.
"You're an embarrassment to our village," the redhead told kitty, which made my eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Everyone looked up fearfully, even the two other sand shinobi.
"H-hey Gaara," kitty boy, who was all high and mighty just moments before, quivered in fear.