Kapitel 168: Chapter 168

"Hey!" Tenten shouted as she stood up, and Naruto noticed she was quickly gathering attention to them. "Are you listening to me!"

"No I heard you." The woman said, turning around, "However, we don't serve…his kind here!" She hissed as she pointed at Naruto, spitting out the word his like it was some kind of vile toxin.

Naruto winced as he noticed the attention that had now been turned onto him, which all became glares as soon as they realized who he was. Tenten had not yet noticed this however as she glared at the woman, "What do you mean his kind! Do you have some kind of problem with him!"

"Tenten," Naruto said in a low voice, hoping to get her to stop drawing attention to them.

However Tenten was not listening at the moment, being far too incensed that some bitch was being an ass to her friend, "Because if you do have a problem then I'll-"

"Tenten!" Naruto said a little firmer as he grabbed her hand. Said girl looked down at him to see him shake his head, "There's no need to cause a scene. Just let them give you your food and we can go somewhere else."

Tenten frowned as she looked at him, "But Naruto-ku-"

"Tenten please," Naruto said, his eyes no longer showing the confident borderline cocky person he had become. Right now they were pleading, "Please don't get worked up about this over me… I'm used to this."

That last statement, said in such desperation made Tenten grit her teeth, "No, if they're not going to treat you, then I don't want to waste my money with this establishment." She reversed their grip so she was no grabbing his hand and pulled the blond up, "C'mon we're leaving."

She did not leave any room for argument as she handily dragged Naruto away, slamming the door open on her way out.

"The nerve of those people!" Tenten huffed as she pulled the blond along, "I can't believe they would so blatantly refuse a customer! What kind of idiots are they!"

Naruto did not speak up until Tenten had finished her rant, "I'm sorry Ten-chan…"

Tenten looked at him with an odd expression in her eyes, "Why would you be sorry? None of this is your fault."

Oh it is, you just don't know it. Naruto did not voice this out lout and instead asked, "Maybe we should just head home."

"You want to cancel our date?" Tenten asked in surprise, "Nothing's been ruined, we just have to go to another establishment."

Naruto winced, "No…it wouldn't matter if we went to another establishment. They would do the same thing, some might not even let me in…"

"What do you mean?" asked Tenten, confused.

"I mean it's like this everywhere I go," Naruto spoke, keeping his head down so that his hair covered his eyes. "Haven't you ever wondered why the only place I ever took you was Ichiraku's? Or why I always meet you there instead of pick you up? Or why whenever we hung out after our spars I would just find a spot in the training field to sit at?"

Tenten frowned. Truthfully she had never thought of that, in fact, she had not even noticed. But now that he had brought it up it was easy to see he did do all those things. As she began to replay all the times she had spent together with the blond, she began to notice another thing.

The people around Naruto were giving them a wide berth. She cast a discreet glance towards one of the people who were passing and frowned at seeing them glaring at Naruto. Because her dad had never hated the blond, she had never been subject to the prejudice that had been raised against him. Oh she had noticed that he was not well liked in the academy, no matter what grade you were in everyone had heard of the prankster king from hell, Uzumaki Naruto. But she had always thought that the whispered mutterings when academy instructors would talk about him or when the civilians would occasionally talk about him were for a prank he would pull.

Naruto had not done any pranks since he graduated. And yet the people here were glaring at him, not just glaring at him, but glaring at him with enough hate that it made her shiver and it wasn't even being directed at her.

She looked over at Naruto who had not moved since he had spoken. He looked extremely vulnerable right now. She wanted to ask him why he was hated but decided a more private place would be better suited for a talk like this.

Grabbing his hand again she pulled him along until they were well enough from the more crowded streets. Sighing she stopped and turned around to face Naruto again.