„journey and exhaustion"

"Are you ready Mia-chan?", Sakura asks the anxious girl in front of her.

They have gotten ready for the mission. Neji instructed that Mia should be wearing a hooded cloak since her hair catches attention easily.

Both of the girls planned to meet up before going to the gates of Konoha.

"I'm alright now Sakura-chan.", Mia says calmly.

Mia made sure to turn off all the lights and that she locked her apartment door before going out completely. With that, they were off to go.

Shinozaki clan, what are they like? No one knows their personalities, skills, or hobbies. Well, that's because they have isolated themselves for how many years. But is it really possible to locate a well-hidden place?

"We're here!", Sakura announces to the two guys waiting in front of them. Turns out they were the last ones to arrive at the meeting place.

"Alright", Neji grabs their attention, "This mission is not that dangerous in particular, but we will still be careful and prepared if ever danger comes along the way. We surround Mia-san as much as possible."

Naruto and Sakura nodded in response.

"The way to the supposedly located shelter of the Shinozaki clan is about three days far. There are two villages that we can get supplies from.", Neji continues to say, "However, there are paths that are hard to cross. One of us will just have to carry Mia-chan so that we can get by smoothly."

"Understood?"

"Hai!"

—

It's been five hours since the group was traveling with no breaks. This may be normal to the three ninjas but it is new to the blue-haired girl with them. Resulting for her to become very tired from the journey. After all, they were walking for so long.

Neji was walking in front of Mia, Sakura was at her left side while Naruto was at her right. She carefully grabs Naruto's sleeve and proceeds to catch his attention.

"Hm?", Naruto looks at her, she blushes in embarrassment but she couldn't take it anymore, her legs were killing her.

"C-can we please take a break? My legs are a few moments away from giving up.", Mia says shyly, looking away from Naruto's blue eyes.

Meanwhile, the blonde boy in front of her had a softened expression, understanding her request.

"Neji! Let's take a break for a bit, we've been walking for straight hours.", Naruto says in a cheery tone.

Neji looks behind him to face Naruto and automatically understands that Mia is probably tired. She thinks he doesn't notice her quiet panting as she hides it well, but not good enough to be left unnoticed.

"I agree. But Mia-san, it is alright with you to sleep in sleeping bags? The village that I was talking about is another five hours away.", Neji turns to her.

"Of course, I am in no position to complain.", Mia explains, "Thank you for asking, Neji-san.", she says as she bows to him. Neji was slightly taken aback by the politeness of the girl in front of him.

"Alright, we'll take a 20 minute break and walk for another two hours, then we can camp."

The finally sits down as she inhales deeply then exhales all of the tired air out of her.

"I'll go refill our water, I saw a nearby river earlier. I'll be quick.", Sakura says before taking off to get some water.

Naruto sits down with Mia as he rests his back at the tree behind him.

"Well, how's your first ever mission Mia-chan?", Naruto asks with a grin.

"More like my first and last ever mission. I'm no ninja like the three of you Naruto-kun.", Mia responds with a low voice.

"But still! It's—", Naruto stops talking as he hears light snores from the girl sitting next to him. He peaks a look and saw that she is indeed fast asleep. He chuckles in response to the girl.

She falls asleep so fast.

He thought as he carefully places her head on his shoulder for support.

"She must've been tired from all the walking. I'm guessing she never travelled that far.", Neji comments out of the blue.

"Yeah, she keeps on saying that she's an ordinary girl from an uneventful town. Maybe she didn't get any big adventures ya'know? This is probably her biggest adventure yet.", the blonde informs Neji.

Neji nods as he concludes that their 20-minute break will extend for another 20 minutes for the sake of the tired girl they were protecting.

—

"Gomen, I slept too much.", Mia said as she rubs her eyes.

The girl was having a hard time sleeping back in her apartment, especially after Tsunade assigned them in a mission. She didn't sleep at all last night, and just by how they travelled so far by foot, it made her body give up and forced her to go to sleep.

"It's okay Mia-chan.", Sakura says.

"Yeah! I really enjoyed that you slept on my shou—", Naruto was cut off by receiving a painful punch from Sakura.

"You idiot! You're going to make her feel embarrassed!"

Neji and Mia sweat-dropped with the pair's usual antics.

I almost forgot they were this loud and violent. When they were at my house, they were actually holding back.

"Alright, let's get moving."

The group once again traveled for two hours until Neji finally said they were done for the day. They set camp and got ready to rest.

Sakura was fast asleep while Neji and Naruto was doing a final check around before going to sleep.

Mia tossed and turned around her sleeping bag. Anxiety and thoughts were not letting her sleep. She sighs in defeat and sits up.

She walks around and spotted a certain long-haired shinobi. She carefully approaches him.

"Neji-san?"

"Hm? Why are you still up? We have a long day tomorrow."

"A-ano, I just want to say thank you.", Mia says while blushing.

This is so embarrassing but I can't help it. I've been wanting to thank him since this morning. I just never got the chance to approach him and.... he looks so intimidating.

"No problem, Mia-san. I'm just doing my mission.", Neji says politely. This made Mia smile.

Well, that wasn't so bad.

"If you're looking for Naruto, he's over there.", Neji points to a direction.

"Oh, okay. Arigato!", Mia said cheerfully.

She spotted Naruto walking while having his hands wrapped around the back of his neck. He looks around and saw Mia approach him.

"Oi, Mia-chan. Why are you still up?"

"I can't sleep."

"Eh? Why?"

Mia sighs sadly.

This is Naruto-kun, I guess I could tell him what I feel, right?

"A-ano, it's just because I feel really bad. I feel like I'm bothering the three of you.", Mia says sadly.

"That's ridiculous Mia-chan. This is the easiest mission we've been through. Ya'know, some missions have dangerous enemies and some of us end up injured. You're really not bothering anyone, dattebayo!", Naruto says with a smile.

"You really make me feel better Naruto-kun, thank you.", Mia admits to the blonde in front of her.

"No worries Mia-chan!", Naruto smiles back at her.

"Is it bad though? I really want to see you and Sakura-chan in action. Plus Neji-kun too! You guys seem really strong."

Naruto sweat drops.

I thought she didn't want to bother us, now she wants to see us fight enemies?

"You're so odd Mia-chan.", Naruto says out of the blue.

"Is that bad?", Mia asks as her cheeks turn red.

Did I say too much? I knew it, I should've kept my mouth shut.

"No, not really. I like it when you ask questions and talk about anything. It makes me feel like my life is interesting ya'know?"

It's true, the blond never had this kind of attention showered for him. Even though it was the same for Sakura and other ninjas that Mia would meet, it still made him feel special about himself.

There is a big difference on being recognized as someone special or amazing and being recognized as a monster.

Mia sighs in relief of Naruto's answer. She was always conscious of the words coming out of her mouth. This was caused by her hair color that should be kept a secret. She would always be alarmed that no one should ever suspect her. This resulted to her having zero friends at all, just acquaintances, which slowly turned into strangers the moment her hair color was exposed.

She had no personality. She was just an ordinary girl who had an ordinary future. She also predicted that she would probably die alone.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence between the two teens, Mia finally speaks up.

"Thank you Naruto-kun. It's been a long time since I feel like myself, and that's because of you."