Childhood days [Part-9]

Veronica glanced at Naruto sitting beside her with his head down. Iruka was very busy today and didn't have the time to even listen to Naruto's request. She hadn't seen get sad for long before.

He told Veronica how he could only visit his father rarely because Iruka was usually very busy and how he was used to it by now. He tried giving her a smile but Veronica knew he was about to cry. She had seen kids do this a lot back when she was in the orphanage. She had even seen Lily and her husbands do this.

Sighing, she gave him a hug and tried her best to comfort him.

Her throat was aching while talking and comforting him but she couldn't bear to see the boy cry. She felt like a mother hen trying to make her child stop crying. Well, she wasn't opposed to the idea of being mother hen if she could live happily with her family in this life.

*Family: where life begins and love never ends.*

'This is gonna take a toll on my throat. But I really do wanna see Minato or whoever it is whose posing as Naruto's dad. *Sigh* I'm so tired...

I wish she was here. I bet she wouldn't even think of what would happen if this world doesn't go exactly as canon does and fearlessly-

There I go again. I need to stop this now. This is getting too childish. I have to grow up and see the world for what it really is.'

A small voice whispered in her head asking if she were not still a child however. It asked if wanting to stay a child was bad. She thought she was going crazy now. She was even starting to hear voices. Ignoring it as she usually does, she focused back on the crying child in her arms.

"I... could ask... Kaka-san... He could take... us... to... Your dad..."-Veronica

She was holding down her coughs and hoped that Naruto wouldn't notice her pain. She didn't want his pity.

"He would? Lets go then!"-Naruto

Seeing him cheer up, Veronica gave a big smile. Although she did still sweat drop at how quickly he became a bright ball of sunshine again.

[A/n: Time skip. Obviously I'm not gonna write the two of them heading to Kakashi. I'm lazy. Wait didn't I just write that tho-]

"Kaka-san...! *Cough cough*"-Veronica

"Don't speak."-Kakashi

Kakashi rushed off to grab her a glass of water as Naruto looked worriedly over her friend. Veronica could practically see his thoughts hanging above his head. He was blaming himself for her pain.

'Idiot.'

She stood up and hugged him again. They both she didn't like hugs very much so to give two to Naruto in a day was a surprise.

"Vero-chan!"-Naruto

She patted his back and he seemed to have understood what she meant when she gave him a reassuring smile.

However, Kakashi and Naruto were both still very worried seeing her cough so much. Kakashi sighed thinking about having the medics take a look at her again. It was clear that speaking more than three full sentences would put a lot of pressure on her throat.

Veronica continued coughing. Kakashi gave her the glass of water and she seemed to have calmed down from that. Immediately after though she started writing on her notebook.

<Take us to see Naruto's dad!>

Kakashi was surprised to say the least. He had only visited his teacher a couple of times. The guilt of letting down his teammates seemed to have been eating him up from the inside. Seeing the look on both the children's faces however, gave him no choice but to say yes. He didn't have to see his teacher, he could just take the children there.

Although Veronica could see him almost blowing his cover and letting the sadness show, she kept quiet. She knew she would have to force Kakashi to face this or wait until team 7 was formed.

However, she also knew she would break apart seeing him like that before then.

'Idiots. This whole world is just... full of idiots. How can these people even be so kind? I don't understand. They have been fucked up by so many people and they still ca-

Ah. Weren't just like them though?'

For a moment, Naruto saw empty eyes that didn't suit Veronica before she went back to normal. He didn't like that look. He didn't want to see that face on anyone.

*Your still breaking my heart and you don't even know it.*

Sighing, she remembered her conversation she had with Naruto a while back.

--- --- --- --- ---

"Hey Naruto..."-Veronica

"What is it Vero-chan?"-Naruto

<How do you not feel anything bad over all these people saying so much stuff about you?>

"That's easy!!! I'm just gonna have prove all those people wrong one day! I'm gonna be the Hokage someday so this is nothing! Believe it!"-Naruto

"Yea...!"-Veronica

Veronica had a small smile etched on her face. Her face showed happiness and a bit of admiration but only she would know the turmoil inside her mind. She still couldn't understand how Naruto could be so kind to others. How he could still smile even after getting treated like dirt everyday. How could he still care about those people? How could he still pretend like nothing's wrong?

Shaking her head, she tried to distract herself by thinking of her training from now on.

'I should get Kaka-san to teach me some Taijutsu. I'll get Naruto to join too. I don't think he's as dumb as people think. He just probably never had anyone to tell him things. Well, Iruka-sensei did a good job at it but even he didn't have enough time, and he couldn't openly show that he favoring one student, it would make the other kids have a bad impression on Naruto more than they already did. Besides he was a shinobi too. He couldn't just hang out with Naruto all day. Or maybe I'm just making excuses so I don't have to hate on anybody.

Who am I even telling this to?

Oh right, my lovely readers.'

Kakashi also was in a good mood seeing the two children happily walk in front of him. Maybe it was the feeling of having younger siblings to take care of. He wouldn't know, but he knew something and that, was that he liked this feeling very much. It reminded him of his own team and he wondered if this was how Minato must have felt with them.

Guilt could be seen in his eyes when he thought of this. Immediately covering it up with a smile he lead the two kids outside.

'I should probably ask Kaka-san to have Naruto move in with us. Then again, he isn't that old yet so the Hokage might refuse. Already having me under his roof is something for which I practically had to beg for, I don't know if anyone would agree to having a jinchuriki as well with him. Actually, scratch that, if I'm even a tad bit suspicious then they would get me out of Kakashi's house and into a place full of ANBU.

The reason they even put me with him was probably because he would be able to keep an eye on me and make sure I wasn't a threat to Konoha and the fact that I showed that I trusted Kakashi. If I were to be a threat then... I'd rather not think about that. Or maybe it was just because I begged too much... But I did see the Hokage smirking at Kakashi before we left so the hokage could just want to mess with him. Yea, it's probably just that.

Also, I didn't want to think about this before but isn't Danzo at least keeping some people around Naruto to keep an eye on him? It wasn't shown in the series but... I guess I shouldn't tell Naruto he's a jinchuriki right now considering some people could be watching us.

There's that and... The fact that I've become too close with Sasuke too... I knew I should've stayed away from him. Now if something were to happen to him then... *Sigh* What a pain...'