Naruto's POV

I slowly opened my eyes as the morning sun poured through my window. I sat up in bed and looked around, noticing I was in my bedroom. "Just another day." I mumbled. Where was Haru? Did she go home? Probably.

I yawned and lazily got out of bed, then walked to the kitchen to fix me some breakfast. 

But when I got to the kitchen, I smelled breakfast alredy being made. "Huh?" I stood there dumbfounded when I saw Haru by the stove, humming  soft tune. She glanced back as she spotted me and smiled before turning to face me. 

"Ah, you're up. Good morning, Naruto." Haru greeted. "Good morning..." I greeted back. "Breakfast is ready. Have a seat." She said. "Sure..." I walked over to the table and took a seat. I noticed the place looked a bit different.

What I mean is, this place wasn't in the mess I left it in last night. "Haru, did you clean?" I asked. "Mm-hm. I hope you don't mind." She said. "Not at all. I just... I've never had this place cleaned before." I admitted. 

Haru smiled at me and set down a plate of pancakes, bacon, and eggs in front of me. "You made this for me?" I asked. "Of course I did, silly. Eat up and tell me what you think." Haru said, smiling. I ate some of the pancake and eggs, and my eyes lit up. 

"This is delicious!" I cheered, and began wolfing down my food. Haru giggled at my behavior. "I'm glad you like it." She said. I stopped eating as tears started to come to eyes. I dropped my fork and knife and pressed my hands to my eyes as I could feel myself about to cry. 

"What's the matter, Naruto? Why are you so sad?" Haru asked. "I'm not sad. I'm just really... really happy." I admitted. I heard Haru walk over to me and wrap her arms around me from behind. I continued to cry as she held me.

"It's okay, Naruto." Haru comforted me. "You're so nice, Haru... I wish everyone in the village was like you." I said. Haru giggled. "I think you said something like that already." She mentioned. 

*****

"Huh? Where are you going, Miss Haru?" I asked. It was 1 in the afternoon and Haru said, she had to go somewhere. "Don't worry. I'm going to run a little errand. I'll be back soon." She said. I looked at the floor with disappointed because I didn't want her to leave.

Haru's POV

The reason why I was leaving because I got a message from Iruka, saying he wanted to speak with me. I'm not sure why he wants to see me. I looked at Naruto and gave a sad look. I hate to see him like this.

"Hey, why the long face? I'll come back," I said as I walked over to him. I crouched down so I could see his face. "Come on, and smile for me. I promise I won't be long."

"Promise?" He asked. I smiled warmly at him and entwined my pinkie with his. "Promise," I confirmed. "I'll be back as soon as I can." I rose to my feet and petted his head. 

I walked over to the door, then stopped to look back at Naruto one last time. I smiled at him and he smiled back. I left his house and walked to the Memorial Stone. "I'm here, Iruka. Now show yourself. You have three seconds and then I'm leaving." I informed. 

I glanced to my right as Iruka came walking over to me. "What do you want, Iruka? I'm very busy at the moment." I said, impatiently. "I'll make this quick. I got a complaint yesterday about how you threw money at some man at a shop." He informed. 

"Yeah, I did it. So, what?" I asked, casually. "Why did you do that?" Iruka asked. "Because he was being disrespectful to Naruto, and he wasn't doing anything wrong. He was just looking at a mask." I explained. "Even so, you should apologize to him." He said. 

I gave him a blank look. "I knew it. You're just like the rest of them." I mumbled. "What?" He asked.

"You and the rest of the people in this village are just horrible. You'll never understand what Naruto's going through." I said. "What are you talking about?" Iruka asked, totally clueless

"Yes, the Nine-Tails killed your parents and attacked this village. I understand. But that's not Naruto's fault. What makes you even more horrible is that you're blaming him for something he didn't do. If you wanna blame someone, blame the fox. Not the boy. He's just a child, Iruka. Do you have any idea what he goes through every day? Of course you don't. You're so busy hating him, you don't know even know how hard he has it. Do you know what it's like to have an entire village hate you? How would you feel if you were blamed for something you didn't do? How would you feel if you had some kind of beast inside you that you couldn't control? How would you feel if you had everyone scold at you? Despise you? Reject you?"

Iruka didn't answer as he stared at me with shock.

"Maybe you should think about that the next time you scold Naruto, Iruka." I said before walking away. I took a few steps forward, then stopped. "You know... I honestly thought you, of all people, would understand Naruto's pain. I guess I was wrong. I can't even look at you right now." I said before heading back to Naruto. 

I hate every person in this village. Every single one of them. They have no idea what Naruto's going through. They don't even know what he's had to endure. All of them can go to hell for all I care.

"Naruto, I'm back!" I called as I closed the front door behind me. "Haru!" Naruto ran over to me and hugged my waist. "You're back!" He said, happily. I smiled down at his adorable, smiling face.

"I told you I would. Ne, Naruto. What would you like to do today? We can do anything you want." I said as I placed my hands on my knees. "Anything I want?" Naruto repeated. 

"Yes. Just name it." I said with a closed-eye smile. "Can we go to the playground?" He asked.

"Of course." 

"Really?"

"Mm-hm."

I took Naruto to the playground and played with him on the swing as I pushed on his back so he would go up higher. "Ne, Naruto? When's your birthday?" I asked as I gently pushed him. "My birthday? It was a week ago," He answered. "Why?"

"Aww. I missed it." I pouted. "That's okay. It's no big deal." Naruto assured me. "Did you do anything special for your birthday?" I asked him. "No... Not really. I didn't really do anything special." He said. 

"Why not?"

"Well... There's no point in doing anything special on your birthday when you have no one to celebrate it with you." 

I noticed Naruto looked a little sad when he said that. "Then, why don't we do something special for your belated birthday? We could play games, do some training, go places. Anything really." I suggested. 

"Are you serious?" Naruto asked, excitedly. "Yep." I said with a closed-eye smile. I opened my eyes to see Naruto jump off the swing and then run towards me. He hugged my waist as his cheek rested against my abdomen.

"You're the best, Haru!" He cheered. I giggled and hugged him back. "And you're the greatest." I replied, closing my eyes again with another smile.