„what the past holds"

"I was the one who inherited the bright blue hair of my father, who was the leader of the whole clan.", Hanako points her hair to emphasize.

"Those who inherit the hair is given the power of a massive amount of chakra in their body. The only problem with that is the weak body of a human can't handle it that well. Our body can only handle so much chakra. So basically if we use a lot of it making powerful jutsus, our bodies will be hit with exhaustion that slows us down. We can train to have stronger bodies by pushing our limits but still, it's really a big disadvantage when we fight enemies."

"I was training since I was young, so my body is capable but I remember one time I used too much chakra and passed out. I felt like shit when I woke up three days later."

"D-did you just cuss?", Sakura looks at Hanako with a shocked face.

"I'm sorry", the girl chuckles a bit, "Yeah, you aren't probably used to it but I cuss a lot."

This is totally not the Mia we know. I don't know what to feel. She gives off a really confident and intimidating aura. That was the complete opposite of what she was.

"Well, that's all. I guess you can say I'm a bit dangerous but as of now, I'm rusty as fu— sorry. It's been two years since I had proper training", the girl says to the group, in hopes that they would trust her still.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your clan exactly?", Neji asks the weirdly calm girl in front of him.

Hanako thought very hard but she can't seem to remember what happened. It was like a blur in her mind.

She grabs ahold of her necklace, a habit of hers when she gets nervous.

"I don't remember.", she speaks up.

Tears spilled from her eyes. The girl didn't even notice that she was starting to cry. It hurt in her chest. It was like someone was stabbing her a million times.

The longer she tried to remember everything that happened, the more that it got harder to breathe. She was panting, like the time she was in the hospital.

"Mi— Hanako-chan! Calm down! You don't have to force yourself!", Sakura exclaims as she notices the girl in front of her was having a panic attack.

"Naruto! Hold her down!", she commands the blonde.

Naruto quickly moved from his position. He grabs Hanako's shoulders like he did before.

I know you're hurting Hanako-chan, but please, don't leave us.

—

I have no purpose. The clan that I was trained to lead and protect are buried six feet under.

Naruto stayed behind when Sakura and Neji left to rest. All of them were processing and absorbing what Hanako just told them.

Hanako-chan is probably the one who's feeling the worst right now.

The blonde stares at the sleeping girl. He brushed off the strands of her hair that were covering her face.

Minutes later, he heard shuffling and saw that Hanako sat up from her bed.

"Hanako-chan! Are you okay?", Naruto asks the girl immediately.

This guy will always care, will he?

"Yeah, I'm fine Naruto-kun, just a bit tired."

"Good."

"Will you come with me?"

"Where?"

—

Naruto never expected that the girl who was calm and polite would come to a place where she can drink alcohol.

"Hanako-chan, you're drinking too much.", the blonde points out as the girl in front of him chugs down the second bottle of alcohol.

"C'mon Naruto-kun! Just drink with me, it'll be okay!", Hanako persuades him.

"B-but wai—", Naruto didn't get the chance to reject her offer as she forcefully slams the bottle into his mouth, letting the sinful liquid flow down his throat.

"There we go!", she continues to torture the poor boy who never drank.

Naruto finished the bottle, letting out a sigh. He never expected his first time drinking was with the innocent girl.

"See? Isn't it nice? You just drink and let all of the problems go away.", she sways her arms upwards.

"Hanako-chan," Naruto says with a serious tone, "are you really like this?"

The girl he was with stopped her movements as she looked into his eyes.

"Is it disappointing? I remember looking at myself and thinking that I was lacking personality. Little did I know the only thing that I lack are the memories that will forever leave my whole being with a void."

"I'm sorry that I didn't remain the same. You probably liked Mia more than me right?"

"No! That's not what I meant! It feels good that you're finally confident to speak long enough."

"Yeah right, maybe you wanted someone who scream 'sugoi!' every time you said something about getting in action."

"That's not true, I'm glad you're finally back to normal ya'know? I really want to get to know you.", that statement shocked the girl a little bit, "It would feel extra special when it's the real you who'll compliment me.", Naruto blushes a little bit from his statement.

"I don't even know what to feel about myself. I never expected I have this much of a burden in my life."

"Hanako-chan it's okay to cr—"

"Yada yada, whatever! We're going to have fuuuun", the girl rolls her tongue as she says that.

Hanako's cheeks were burning, her world was spinning. It wasn't that long until Naruto felt the same effects. He didn't like it that much.

"Hanako-chan, let's go back."

—

Hanako had a hard time walking straight so Naruto had to help her. He had his arms around her waist and helped her walk properly to her room.

They finally arrived at the front of her door, causing Naruto to let go of her.

"Goodnight Hanako-chan, rest well.", Naruto says to the girl. She looks at him. Naruto was a few inches taller than her, so he was looking down at her.

Hanako notices how close the both of them are, causing her cheeks to flush even more. She didn't know if it was another effect of the alcohol that she drank but she was captivated by Naruto's features.

She never got to think how the boy was always there for her, even if he didn't need to. All he needed to do was to watch over her, but he got to know her and did his best to make her smile.

She remembers the time when he insisted on helping her find what she can do so that she didn't feel like she was an empty shell. He tried his best to make her feel happy, and she appreciated that so much.

Can someone that kind and helpful actually exist?

"Naruto-kun," she says as she looks down and grabs his wrists, "don't leave yet, please."

Naruto looks at her once more, he was confused. Why would she want him by her side? He wasn't doing pretty well on making her happy. This mission brought her mood down even more. He felt so useless on not being able to help her.

He walks in the room with her slowly, not knowing what the girl really planned to do.

"Wha—", the boy was cut off by Hanako's sudden kiss. She pressed her lips on his, not planning to stop.

His eyes were wide open, not knowing what to do. He slowly leaned and gave in to the kiss. He wrapped his arms around the girl's waist and he felt the girl pressing her body to his.

Naruto felt something wet on his face, he opened his eyes and saw Hanako crying. He pulls away as he caresses her cheeks and wipes the tears rolling down.

He didn't know a lot about girls. He didn't know how to even kiss properly. This was definitely the first time a girl wanted to kiss him.

"Gomen, Naruto-kun, I didn't mean to—"

"No worries Hanako-chan. "

"Naruto-kun, this is really embarrassing to say and I'm not used to being this close to someone.", Hanako breathes in, gathering up the courage to speak, "I really appreciate you, I know many people might have told you that already but you're a really nice person. I thought I should just mention that."

"I don't know if it was a mistake to, uh, just kiss you all of the sudden but it didn't feel like it was wrong.", Hanako rubbed the back of her neck, her cheeks flushed in red.

Naruto smiles at her, feeling good about what she said.

It really feels this nice to get good attention huh?

"Thank you, Hanako-chan. Let's just get you to sleep."