After a good night's sleep, the day had finally arrived when he would spar against Menma. Making sure he had all of his equipment that he would need he headed to Minato's house. When he arrived in the back garden of Minato's house he saw Menma, Naruko, Lily, Minato and Kakashi waiting for him.
"Good now that you're here, that means we can begin with your spar against Menma," Minato said.
"This will be a piece of cake," Menma said arrogantly but Haruto simply ignored her causing her to get annoyed at him.
"If you two would take your places we can then begin the spar," Minato said. Haruto and Menma moved to the opposite side of the field.
"Come on Haruto, kick her ass," Naruko said earnestly. This action earned her a disapproving look from both of her parents that she ignored them.
"Begin," Minato said.
Menma started the match by throwing multiple shurikens at Haruto who dodged them by jumping to the side. Haruto retaliated by throwing a dozen kunai and shuriken at Menma who managed to dodge some of them and block the rest with a kunai. Haruto then threw a smoke bomb on the ground to hide from Menma's sight. Menma seeing the smoke disappear and Haruto nowhere to be found searched the training ground for him.
"Earth Style: Hidden mole Jutsu," Haruto said coming out of the ground from behind Menma. Menma was surprised by this but quickly turned around to defend herself but was to slow and got kicked in the chest sending her flying backwards. Menma, while she was flying backwards, went through some hand signs.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu," Menma said shooting a fireball at Haruto. Seeing this Haruto went through his own hand signs.
"Wind Style: Devastation," Haruto said creating a gust of wind which overpowered Menma's fireball and headed straight towards her. Menma surprised by what she had just witnessed barely managed to dodge the gust of wind in time.
Haruto then engaged Menma in Taijutsu and was holding his own against her. He managed to kick her leg forcing her to kneel from the pain. Before she could even move Haruto raised his arm towards her.
"Striking Shadow Snakes," Haruto said causing snakes to shoot out of his sleeve and bind Menma tightly in place. Menma tried breaking free of the snakes but there was too many for her to accomplish this.
"Yield, you can't escape, you've lost, I guess you're not as good as I thought you were," Haruto said tauntingly.
"There's no way I will lose to the likes of you," Menma said angrily with her eyes turning red. Giving her the strength she needed to break free of the snakes binding her.
Well it looks like the taunting backfired and what's with her red eyes and extra strength, either way, I need to be careful, Haruto thought.
"Poison her with your venom," Haruto said in Parseltongue to the snakes. At the same time, Menma looked confused, not understanding what he was saying. She then suddenly let out a yell of pain from the snakes that were biting her and injecting her with their poison.
Menma then proceeded to kill all the snakes by throwing her kunai at them. She then started throwing kicks and punches at Haruto who returned in kind. While they were fighting Menma managed to withdraw a kunai from her weapon pouch and then slashed upwards cutting Haruto's left eye blinding him in that eye. Haruto let out a scream of pain and jumped backwards.
Haruto, Morgan shouted, worried about his wellbeing.
I'm fine, Haruto replied in pain.
No you're not, Morgan said.
I can continue, it's not that bad, Haruto said Morgan let out a sigh.
I can tell you're going to carry on no matter what I say, so I don't want you holding back any longer to completely destroy her, Morgan said angrily, thinking of Menma.
Will do, Haruto thought viscously. Haruto then went through some hand signs.
"Wind Style: Devastation," Haruto said the gust of wind this time was much stronger. Menma couldn't completely dodge it being so close so it caught her on her arm, ripping her sleeve and leaving a massive cut that was bleeding.
Not giving her a chance to recover from the jutsu Haruto started punching and kicking her leaving various bruises all over her body, she barely succeeded in blocking any of Haruto's attacks. After the assault was over Menma didn't look very good, she had cuts and bruises all over her and she was barely standing.
"Is that all you got, I guess I should have expected this level of power from someone whose friends with that demon," Menma said weakly refusing to back down. Haruto angry over having his friend called a demon shot wandless lightning from his right hand towards Menma, who screamed in pain from the lightning.
Ultimately the pain was too much for Menma and she fell unconscious with the red fading from her eyes not able to endure the pain anymore. Making sure Menma was actually unconscious and not just acting Haruto turned around and walked towards his audience.
Out of the group watching his spar; Naruko was extremely happy and bouncing around excitedly telling everyone she knew he would win, Kakashi was still reading his book making it impossible to tell what he was thinking, Lily was disappointed that Menma had lost the spar and Minato was angry about the fact Menma had lost and the state she was in. When Haruto was close enough Naruko ran towards him and gave him a big hug, swinging him around.
"I knew you could do it that was awesome the way you kicked her ass, you have got to show me how you shot lighting from your hand without using hand seals," Naruko said happy and excited for Haruto's victory.
"Thank you for the support and could you let me down I'm still a bit sore from the spar," Haruto said making Naruko gently put him down and smiled sheepishly at him.
"Sorry. I got a bit excited seeing you knock Menma down a peg, she'll never live this down," Naruko said.
"Glad I could help knock down her ego a bit," Haruto said.
"I'm sorry about what happened to your eye," Naruko said sadly tracing her finger over his scar. She blamed herself for his injury, seeing as she had encouraged Haruto to fight against Menma.
"Its fine it's not that bad and don't blame yourself, I went into that spar knowing there would be risks," Haruto said. It doesn't hurt that much and I can heal it later with the talisman so it's not permanent.
"If you say so," Naruko said doubtfully.
Haruto and Naruko then turned their heads when they heard people approaching them. It was Minato carrying Menma in his arms looking angry while Lily was fretting next to him worrying about the state Menma was in. Kakashi was eye smiling at them.
"Well done. An impressive match, you even have a scar to match mine, are you trying to copy me," Kakashi said, chuckling at his joke.
"Not in the slightest. I don't fancy becoming a pervert like you in the future," Haruto said deadpan. Kakashi stuttered while Lily let out a laugh at Haruto's response.
"I'm not a pervert," Kakashi said indigently.
"Naruko tells me the books you read in public are porn, which makes you a pervert," Haruto said dryly. While Kakashi tried to come up with a response Minato decided to interrupt their bantering.
"Was it really necessary to use lightning on Menma during the spar, you could have taken her down another way," Minato said, still angry at Haruto.
"It was the heat of the moment that I instinctively used lightning, just like when Menma went to cut me with her kunai and instead blinded one of my eyes," Haruto said. They both knew that wasn't the case but if Minato called him out on it. He could bring up how Menma deliberately went for his eye just because she was losing.
"Very well and how did you become so strong in just several days?" Minato asked still annoyed about Menma but knew he could do nothing about it.
"Simple Naruko trained me," Haruto said smiling.
"Naruko did," Minato said surprised.
"I would spar against her regularly and she would give me tips on how I could improve, I wouldn't have been able to beat Namikaze if it wasn't for her," Haruto said proudly thinking of Naruko.
"I see, I didn't realise you were so strong Naruko," Minato said in an unknown tone of voice.
"Yep because of me Haruto was able to kick Menma's ass," Naruko said happily not picking up on Minato's tone.
"I presume you will be leaving the village now that you've learnt plenty about chakra then?" Minato asked pleasantly but Haruto knew that it wasn't a question, it was an order telling him to leave the village for defeating his daughter.
How petty can you be, Haruto thought in distaste. "Yes, I'll be leaving in a few hours once I've collected enough supplies for my journey."
"See that you do, I don't want you in my village come nightfall," Minato said annoyed before using a body flicker to disappear with Menma and Lily.
"It was a good match I hope to see you again in a couple of months," Kakashi said before walking away.
A couple of months, does Kakashi mean that's when Minato's anger would have calmed down, Haruto thought.
"You're leaving then?"Naruko asked sadly.
"I'm afraid so, I've overstayed my welcome here as it is," Haruto replied equally as sad to be leaving his first friend.
"But I don't want you to go, you're my first friend," Naruko said with tears gathering in her eyes.
"Hey none of that now we'll see each other again I promise," Haruto said wiping her tears away.
"You promise?" Naruko asked.
"I swear by the Triple Goddesses we'll see each other again," Haruto said swearing earnestly.
"Good. I'll hold you to that," Naruko said with a chuckle.
"Plus I've still got a few hours left in the village seeing as I need to gather supplies for the rest of my journey, why don't you join me," Haruto offered.
"It would be my pleasure," Naruko said happily.
So for the next few hours, Naruko accompanied Haruto while he bought his supplies from various stores. They decided to enjoy the remaining time they had left together by talking about happier things. It was during this time that they passed the deserted district from a few days ago and Naruko explained about the Uchiha massacre.
Once Naruko was finished explaining Haruto changed the topic to a lighter conversation, not wanting his last conversation with Naruko to be so depressing. Before they knew it, it was time for Haruto to leave and carry on his journey. So they were standing at the village gates saying their goodbyes to each other.
"So I suppose this is goodbye then, I don't think I like goodbyes that much," Naruko said sadly.
"Me neither but we'll see each other again," Haruto said before giving Naruko a hug which she returned.
"Thank you for the last week, it's been the most fun I've ever had," Naruko said whispering into his ear.
"Thank you for becoming my first friend," Haruto whispered in Naruko's ear. Naruko then gave him a kiss on the cheek earning a small blush from Haruto. Naruko smiled seeing his blush before ending the hug. Haruto smiled at her before walking away.
"THE NEXT TIME YOU SEE ME! I'LL BE A KICK ASS KUNOICHI! YOU'LL SEE!" Naruko shouted once Haruto was quite far away.
"I LOOK FORWARD TO IT!" Haruto shouted back both of them smiling at each other before he disappeared from Naruko's sight. Naruko smiled sadly seeing her friend gone before she then heard sniffling. Turning around she saw the two Chunin guards Izumo and Kotetsu crying.
"That was so sad," Izumo said using his arm to cover his tears.
"It's like something out of a romance novel a kunoichi in love with a Lord," Kotetsu said bursting out into more tears. Naruko blushed hearing this.
"I'm not in love with Haruto," Naruko said blushing. This caused Izumo and Kotetsu to look at her with deadpan looks.
"Yes you are," Izumo and Kotetsu said at the same time.
"I am not, we're just friends," Naruko said defensibly.
"The kiss says differently," Izumo said smirking.
"That was a sign of affection not romantic love," Naruko said with her face fully red from embarrassment.
"I bet in a few years we'll be hearing the wedding bells," Kotetsu said.
"If you two don't want to be pranked again, I suggest you stop trying to embarrass me," Naruko said with a smile that promised eternal embarrassment for them.
Izumo and Kotetsu quickly moved in front of her and got on their hands and knees and begged for her forgiveness, while Naruko promised nothing, making them beg even more. The hidden ANBU could only sweat drop wondering why they had to watch something so weird and not someone else.