Chapter Text
He doesn’t really quite know why he’s here. Something Sakura pushed into his hands with a wink and smile this morning, having shown up to his new place at breakfast unannounced. What he had thought to be a friendly get-together under the pretext of stale, dry cereal ended up being a very serious conversation about the importance of planning ahead. Her insistence that he take a certain Hyuuga out.
“Like, to train?” Naruto had said, not quite picking it up. Sakura would have slapped him for that, had he not so expertly dodged her.
“Ramen! Ichiraku! Does that ring a bell?” She had said, pointing a finger dangerously close.
“Yes?” He had said. This hadn’t been sufficient to convince her, unfortunately. Don’t make me spell it out for you, she had said, only to relent when he offered her a favor for saying it in plain words. A date, idiot . Sakura had left with a huff, leaving an untouched bowl of cereal behind, and the words, don’t disappoint me . He had sat at the table for approximately six minutes, taking as much time as was possible to finish his cereal. Once he had noticed the note Sakura had left, time and location neatly printed, the reality of the situation had become clear.
It’s the unpainted and mostly unfurnished wooden shack currently replacing Ichiraku that he’s sitting in, joined by a Hyuuga Hinata. Hinata, who taps her foot against the leg rail and stares into her bowl of ramen with a longing even he himself would never affix it. Excitement, sure, or gratitude, but not something so private and yearning.
If Sakura is watching over him, and chances are she is , then he’s well on his way to getting jumped sometime today. Maybe after dropping Hinata off this afternoon. Today he must’ve woken up on the wrong side of the bed. Not knowing what to say is settling in his bones. It digs at his ribs, like an itch he has to cut his whole chest open to reach.
He busies himself with the final piece of chashu left in his broth.
And oh, how he hates that Ayame has chosen this moment to make herself scarce, exiting the dining hall with a pointed giggle. So it’s just the two of them sitting closely together, he watching her stare into the tepid bowl.
Hate is a strong word, he amends. He is grateful to Ayame and Teuchi for the food. They don’t deserve the word, which, for years, the village reserved for him, alone. No, he will never use that word towards anyone else. Nobody deserves that feeling. The alienation. Something bitter-tasting and achingly familiar pools in his gut.
“N-Naruto?”
Ah. That’s right. He’s supposed to be on a date right now. He smiles sweetly at her.
“Do you think you’ll be able to finish that, Hinata?” Naruto inquires impishly. She turns pink at her name.
“Mm. Maybe not?” Why is she asking him ? A fraction of a pause--Hinata gestures to the bowl-- and he understands, if only somewhat. Naruto takes the bowl, now mushy and no-fun, and a moment later it’s like it was always empty. Somehow she looks grateful and apologetic. He sticks enough crumply bills under his bowl and they leave the shop without saying goodbye to its keepers.
Last time he was here, two shinobi branded with the Konoha emblem had asked him for autographs and Teuchi had given him free ramen. He had found himself unsettled by the old man’s gesture. So he ignores it today.
“I need to see the Hokage,” he tells her as they walk. She’s looking dead ahead, eerily straight like someone’s holding a kunai to her throat. Her hand closest to him is bent slightly, and he ignores how it inches closer with each step. Their hands don’t brush.
“Mm.”
“What are you doing for the rest of today, Hinata?” Turns out it is quite easy to fluster her.
“I’m-I’m going home, and then, well, nothing.”
“Nothing at all?”
“Nothing.” He doesn’t quite have anything to say to that. At the makeshift tent, Naruto puts on his best smile.
“Well, I had a real fun time today, Hinata! See ya later!” He’s about to turn away when she suddenly grabs both his hands. Her hands are cold. He tries not to flinch.
“Me! Too!” she squawks. And then-- “I meant what I said. The day P-Pain invaded.”
What…did she say. On that day? He doesn’t even remember talking to her then. Though he doesn’t remember much of that day before the kyuubi took charge of him. Afterwards, he doesn’t remember seeing her, granted he was very busy being tossed around by the village people. But truly, he can’t remember the last time they even spoke. Was it before… no, it doesn’t matter. He has no real way of recalling.
Everything Madara said that day occupies his mind, threatening to spill over at any moment. And what he said to Sasuke by that bridge. The fact that he really meant it. f*ck, she’s looking on expectantly.
“Um, okay!” he finally says. Hinata’s eyes swell up, impossibly alarming.
“Do you want to return them, Naruto?” His smile must crack a little because Hinata suddenly looks more like she might pass out. sh*t, Naruto himself might just croak.
“For sure!” Naruto says, bringing it back to full luminosity.
What the hell could he possibly have borrowed from Hyuuga Hinata on the f*cking day Pain blew the village to f*cking---? Never mind. He’ll figure that part out later. Sakura, all-knowing deity, must know. He hopes his confusion isn’t showing on his face. Team 7 once had a habit of pointing out his dumb expressions whenever he made them, which was quite often at the age of twelve. Either Hinata is too dense or too kind to point it out. He kind of hopes it's the latter, but the glazed over, deflated, and somehow relieved look in her eyes says otherwise.
“I’m so glad.” And with that, she lets go and takes off in the opposite direction and Naruto takes a short breath before he makes his way inside the wooden structure, instinctively patting his hands down against his sides.
The nice thing about Granny is that she has long outgrown pretending to be anything less than fond of him. And she’s the one who had called him anyway.
Shizune greets him as soon as he reaches the door. He’s expecting a private meeting, so the sight of Yamato takes him by surprise. Well, this explains why all of the rebuilt structures in Konoha are a little too nice to have been hastily put together by a civilian construction team, if the hellishly dark circles under Yamato’s eyes are any indication of it. Granny’s in the middle of devouring an entire barbecue roast with a massive decanter of sake aiding her. She doesn’t even notice Naruto sitting next to her, until he covertly tries sneaking a bit of meat. She snatches it from him with precision Naruto’s never seen from someone as ancient as her. When Naruto tells her as much, she sighs. Yamato smacks his hand, still outstretched.
“Try that again and I’ll banish you for treason,” she says through a bite of pork. It’s nice to see that despite her diminished state, the humor’s still there. Unlike the rest of the village, Tsunade’s open dislike of Naruto has always hinged on his reliability to annoy her, rather than the whole jinchuuriki thing. He can respect it.
“You’d do that to Konoha’s hero?”
“I can do whatever I want.”
“I thought your chakra reserves were fully stocked already.”
“Well, kid, you see, recovery,” she gulps down some sake, “takes time. Not all of us have a bijuu taking care of that for us.”
And because he loves riling Granny up, he says, “Or maybe that’s just an excuse.” Granny rolls her eyes and stops eating for a second.
“Actually, nevermind. Maybe I won’t send you on the S-rank I was about to assign you.” Now this catches his attention.
“Wait--what?” Granny smiles triumphant while Yamato sighs, ever suffering. It makes a painful amount of sense that he once worked under Kakashi.
“Well, to keep you from getting too bored right now, I have a cute little D-rank for you to complete, only if you’d like, of course. Apparently the sewage system was incorrectly installed in the new Nara compound, and they’ve had some, well, explosive accidents. So they’re in need of a handyman.” Granny must still hate him for forcing her to become Hokage. Surely that is a sound explanation for this. Surely!
“Shikamaru can fix that himself! Please, please, please , tell me about the S-Rank.” He’s so cramped in this dusty f*cking village, and since nobody will actually let him help rebuild after Pain blew it up, he’s stuck with the same, stiff routine. Lunch was supposed to be a fun diversion, but considering just how vivacious his conversation with Hinata ended up being, he just feels more drained by it.
Tsunade seems to take pity on him.
“Yamato is going to esco--erm-- join you on the mission to this island, just off the coast of Kumo. You leave on the twenty-first. You’ll be gone between three weeks and three months.” He knows S-ranks can often be time-consuming, but even he’s never heard of one this long.
“Why the fu--” he steels himself. “ Why right now, of all the times? I mean, I’m glad! Of course! But you know I could help rebuild everything after--”
“Naruto! We have gone over this repeatedly!” Tsunade roars suddenly. “You are not to exercise excess power with the imminent threat of attack! Save it for your mission.” She resumes biting into chunks of barbecue.
“This doesn’t make any sense!” Naruto shouts. “What use am I if I’m away while the village is this vulnerable to attack? No infrastructure and you want to send away the guy that prevented the damage from getting worse!” She doesn’t look up. “People could die !”
“The village will be too grateful for the lives you do end up saving to care,” she says. Yamato doesn’t even flinch.
“The village.”
“Or the world. Whatever stage you prefer, kid. You know better than I do just how loved you are right now. People are easy that way.” He takes back any positive mental note he’s made of her. His face must have fallen, because Tsunade’s harsh expression softens ever so slightly. She’ll never say sorry, no, so she instead offers him one of the infinite skewers in front of her. He takes it, though his appetite has diminished greatly. He decides to move the subject anyways.
“Tell me about the mission.” Tsunade looks relieved, and he wonders what exactly he could say that would unravel the uneasy adoration the village has only just now bestowed upon him. It might be less difficult than he thought. Then again, all he had to do to win their hearts was save them from a violent death at the hands of the head of an international terrorist organization’s ringleader. Never mind Nagato’s reasons to succumb to pain. Naruto is an optimist, he’ll always strive to be, but Nagato’s words resonate with him more nowadays.
“Yamato will inform you once you arrive. You are to follow his instructions.” God, why doesn’t anyone tell him anything ?
“Why’s it taking so long?”
“It’ll take as long as it needs to take.” It seems that they’re going to use the same vague language they’ve always utilized to keep him from asking too many questions. It worked in the past, plenty well. He was too scared to invoke the wrath of a people who hated his existence, after all. But now, now that they love him, it feels like the floodgates against his own restraint have cracked slightly. Konoha’s always feared him, he now understands.
“Are you going to tell them about Danzo?” he interrupts. No point asking her if she even knows about it. “Or Itachi ?” Maybe the last part is a bit risky. Only a bit , he sneers to himself. Tsunade’s expression hardens. So Kakashi did inform her.
“It’s a bad time,” Tsunade says. “Right now is about boosting morale. Can’t have that get marred by something this acute.” He knows this, but the confirmation stings nonetheless.
“Will they ever know?”
“With time, maybe. But till then, not a word.”
“If people know then it’ll be possible to pardon Sas-”
“Enough about that,” she waves the thought away. “That’s not important right now.” A state-sanctioned massacre against its own citizens doesn’t matter. For the good of the village. He stands the hell up.
“Why do you even wear the hat if you don’t do sh*t with it?” Tsunade scoffs at this. Maybe almost dying caused Tsunade some restraint, because he can see how her jaw tightens, like she’s stopping herself from jumping him. Not like she can do much right now, given her current wisp of a chakra signature. Or maybe Tsunade’s learned to fear him too.
“Great question, remind me again what you’ve aspired your whole entire life for?” It’s an immature dig, he knows, but it feels like a punch to his stomach nonetheless.
“To be seen by the village, Godaime ,” he lets out, emphasizing each syllable.
And he leaves the Hokage mid-meeting. Tsunade, though heated, doesn’t shout after him.
He’ll obey her even if he doesn’t want to, in the end. For the good of the village. Naruto’s grown too comfortable with accepting whatever the grown-ups hand him. And somehow arguing this feels futile.
But it’s not the first time he’s getting strung along by someone else’s plan without getting told what’s happening. Old Man Sandaime had done it better than the rest, of course. And the man who was his father. And now Granny too. Are they all dumb to assume he’ll just go along with it?
It occurs to him that he actually has gone along with everything the village heads have thrown at him. He wonders why he does it, and the memory of getting tossed in the air by townspeople tickles his ribcage. It felt nice then. Now, months after the fact, that love is starting to feel hollow. In any case, he’s glad he has friends who give him the genuine deal of affection. At least the villagers aren’t denying him entry into their businesses.
Naruto almost runs into Sakura, who immediately grabs his shoulders and shakes him. He steels himself under her grip to avoid getting crushed.
“Why the hell didn’t you hold Hinata’s hand today! After all the trouble I went through this past week?” Her words jerk Naruto out of his thoughts. Sakura has a way of doing that, of distracting him from those things that pull at his brain the most. He only noticed it for the first time in Iron. He wonders how long she’s been doing it. He wonders if she even thinks his brain can handle these things. Thinking back to his rash decisions every time Sasuke’s name is mentioned, maybe she doesn’t think so. Maybe she’s right. What the hell is she even talking about right now?
“What?” he says.
“And you didn’t f*cking walk her back either!” He just continues to look at her stupidly.
“Um, hello? The date?” Right.
“She seemed really nervous,” he placates. “I didn’t want to freak her out even more!”
“Since when have you been so considerate?” Sakura pinches her nose bridge. “Still, you won’t ever get anywhere with that attitude. Just go for it!”
“Can you do me a favor,” Sakura’s smile fades. “And remind me what I borrowed from Hinata on the day Pain invaded? I don’t remember what happened before the kyuubi took over, and I can’t, for the life of me, remember.” She looks on impassively at him. “She said she hopes I’ll return them.”
It’s really unnerving, how she’s looking at him. Naruto tries to do the bashful, laughing, hand to the back of the head gesture, but since her iron grip is still holding his shoulders in place, he’s stuck still as a statue.
Sakura’s eyes, deader by the second, seem to droop, and he realizes her entire face is falling forward. But her grip doesn’t loosen at all, and his stomach drops. He’s had plenty of near-death instances, but it really feels like this could be it. Sixteen years old and he’s never been kissed. Except that one time. Sasuke--
“Are you,” Sakura begins. “f*cking JOKING?” With the last word, she drives Naruto’s back into the dusty path beneath him, shoulders first. First, a crashing pain near his neck, and second, the air from his lungs getting forcibly pushed out. The ground must’ve cracked with the amount of force she used. Did she use chakra? Likely not, because even a small chakra charge would’ve surely killed him at this angle. He’s a coughing mess long enough for Sakura to lose her grip on him and calm the f*ck down. When Naruto is alive enough to gingerly sit up, massaging his neck, Sakura speaks.
“Right before the kyuubi took over your body, Hinata confessed to you,” says Sakura. “Her love,” she adds, like it wasn’t obvious. He doesn’t fault her for it. Hinata’s constant hovering the past few weeks makes a little more sense, though he thinks he is fair to assume it is Sakura’s insistence at which the girl even does it. Sakura’s become pushier in recent years.
“Oh,” is what he says.
“Pain shot her down right after. She almost died. And then, well, that’s what caused you to transform.”
“ Oh. ” And that explains her question. “I don’t remember that happening.”
“Well I do, seeing as I had to patch her up after.” The aftermath of the attack on Konoha remains so scattered in his mind. The vignettes include people he speaks to regularly. Kakashi revived, Sakura tearful, Shikamaru and his broken leg. Tsunade’s broken body. He remembers the cheers in his name, he remembers the bright sun beating down on them. It all pales to the conversation with Nagato. Hinata isn’t there at all in those memories. Where could she be, except among the sea of a hundred other villagers celebrating their survival?
“She asked if I returned her feelings.”
“Which you do. Obviously.” Sakura’s a lot smarter than him, so she must be right, he tells himself.
“You need to confess properly, now that you know.” He doesn’t think he knows, but it’s the thing about Sakura. Her ability to completely bulldoze any other train of thought. He decides to play it safe, play it dumb.
“Yeah.”
“Don’t go too overboard. She might actually die.”
“Yeah.”
“And don’t be too subtle either. She’s a little slow to pick up hints. You two are a match made in heaven.” Okay, now she’s just adding insult to injury, so he lets her hoist him up. Naruto brushes some of the dirt off his ass and grins at Sakura.
“You got it! I’ll blow Hinata’s socks off!” It doesn’t sound quite right coming out of his mouth, but Sakura seems convinced enough.
“You better,” she sighs. “Especially since I heard she’s up by Hokage Rock. Alone.” Sakura winks, and slips past him, in the direction of the tower. What business could she have there. Naruto shrugs his shoulders as she leaves, and Sakura either does not take notice, or chooses not to.
He remembers when Kakashi taught them how to channel chakra, how Sakura managed to climb that tree on the first try and how he, Naruto, failed miserably at first. Of course, such a trivial lesson matters very little now. Still, the memory sticks itself to the forefront of his mind, stretching itself across the canvas of his brain.
Today’s date with Hinata has not quite worn a space in his mind. Still, he resolves to be like Sasuke. Even learning the lesson halfway is better than not at all.
He walks the path too familiar to him, until the mostly unmarred Hokage Rock peers down toward him. If he squints, he can make out a small speck at the top. Naruto jumps up to Hinata, startling her even though it is evident she has been waiting for him.
It’s quite windy at the top of the hill, so he can’t hear what she’s saying.
“Huh?” He says, moving a step closer. And he’s a decent enough human being to not get annoyed at how her voice somehow quietens even more now that he’s suddenly less than five feet away from her.
“Hinata, I can’t hear you.” But maybe Hinata’s daftness works in his favor because he’s less than a foot away, and she’s stopped talking. sh*t. He’s blanking, so he tries a less vulgar move he had read in one of Ero-Sennin’s novellas.
It’s a rough touch of lips, a slight clacking of teeth, and it reminds him of his very first one. This memory is what gets Naruto to press a little gentler, to help her enjoy it. Hinata, for her part, has gone deathly still. So he pulls away.
Hinata is tomato-red, so Naruto flashes what he hopes is a bashful grin.
“Today’s lunch made me realize that I’m in love with you,” he says slowly. “Hinata.”
And at this, Hinata somehow grows even redder, a small smile forming at her lips.
“N-Naruto,” she says. “I’ve loved you for so long.”
Her eyes are blown wide open, and the lightness of them takes him aback slightly. Naruto finds himself recalling a pair of dark, abyss-like eyes that could pull him in without room for struggle. Not that he would even bother doing that. Unlike now.
To avoid her pale, soulless eyes, Naruto invites Hinata to a nearby rock where they can sit and kiss some more, the privacy of the hill protecting them from whatever activities strike the village below.
He decides he likes kissing, because of how easy it is. Unlike channeling chakra, which took countless hours of practice with Sasuke, Naruto is immediately successful at kissing. He moves his mouth slowly and softly against hers, planting firmer pecks until he finds himself growing impatient. Hinata is definitely kissing back, but her idea of it is just a consistent, close-mouthed pressure against his tirade on her mouth. She’s still as a statue, not quite getting the hint he’s trying to open up her mouth. So he leaves it be.
Hinata’s mouth tastes medicinal, kind of like clove, and it reminds Naruto vaguely of a childhood spent nursing himself to health alone with his own home remedies. Naruto must have had a cold or a fever as a child, surely.
He’s kissing Hyuuga Hinata right now, because Sakura told him to. And he’s having a pleasant enough time that he has no reason to stop himself. Naruto suddenly remembers to snake his arms around her, holding her shoulders with a strangely paternal stature. Should he pat her head afterwards? He moves a hand up to the base of Hinata’s skull, pressing their faces even more together. Finally, she opens her mouth and he feels victorious and hollow. Naruto sticks his tongue inside of uncharted territory, and Hinata lets him. It’s kind of weird, but he digs it.
The movement of their mouths fascinates him a little. It doesn’t feel as gross as he imagined it to. On those occasions as genin when he would decide to annoy Sakura by licking his hand and chasing her with it, he had always disliked the smell of his spit once it dried on his skin. Naruto can’t smell much right now except for a faint, sort of flowery scent. It actually does kind of remind him of Sakura. Maybe they use the same perfume? Or maybe Hinata borrowed it from Sakura? He kind of likes it because of the familiarity it poses. Maybe he’ll come to associate the scent with her. Sakura will probably like that. All her efforts to set them up, or whatever.
Sasuke always smelled sensible, like a bar of soap. After a spar, maybe sweat, dirt, blood. As genin, the two would point fun at each other for it. Or, at least Naruto would laugh at him while Sasuke glared menacingly, threatening him with a kunai.
That day on the bridge, Sasuke smelled like death. Maybe he had been imagining it after hearing about Itachi from Madara. Can death even have a scent? He does not know. He does not know to believe Madara. He does not know whether to believe whatever he’s learned from the village. Jiraiya never told him sh*t. Neither does Tsunade. They’re very clearly the Sandaime's protegees.
Hinata bites his lip sharply, yanking an “ow!” from him. Pulled back to reality, he realizes he’s digging really hard into her arms, so he lets go gently. He tastes iron.
“Naruto,” she says somewhat dreamily. “What’s on your mind?” While he’s eternally grateful she did not apologize for cutting his lip (what a fun story to tell Sakura later!), he’d rather fight the Six Paths of Pain again than tell her the truth. Quick, what’s something they both have in common?
He gives her what he hopes is a private smile. Hinata laps it up, practically glowing in the moonlight. Naruto is a very lucky man. He swallows.
“Um, Sakura!” He says triumphantly. When the smile wipes off her face he realizes he f*cked up.
“I mean--like, do you have the same perfume as her!” This stops Hinata’s frown from deepening. Instead, she blushes and mouths something he can’t f*cking hear .
“Hinata,” he kisses her. “You’ve gotta speak up.” She honest-to-god giggles. Damn, he’s good at this. It brightens up his mood considerably to feel liked.
“Uh, um, well,” she begins. “Sakura lent me her fragrance for today. She said… she said, well, that it…attracts…” she’s descended into a blushing mess so he gives up on asking her the rest. Talking has never been this hard. It must be the attraction.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Hinata. Same time, same place?” He pecks her on the cheek to be nice. She nods, surer than he’s ever seen her. He kind of likes this. With her eyes closed, brows furrowed, she looks more like Neji. A cold shock runs through him when he remembers all those years ago, their fight in the chunin exams. Those things Neji said to Hinata. To Naruto. Suddenly the last few minutes of kissing seep into his skin like grime. He needs to get clean.
So he’s gone like a flash, racing down the rock fast enough to create a small cloud of dust in his wake. He’s sure Hinata stays rooted to the spot, but he’s too far away to check now. Hopefully Sakura won’t kill him for it.
He skids down the Hokage Rock, only pausing briefly to inspect the slope of a nose belonging to his father’s portrait. Upon reaching his apartment, he flings himself into the shower, dusty clothes still on, and muffles a scream into his hands. Someone thumps his wall. Oh, right. He should shut the f*ck up.
A rustle of the wind. So ANBU probably bore witness to that whole debacle. Great.
The rigidness from his back loosens up as the water heats up. He strips and begins scrubbing his hands with ferocity. His clothes pool at his feet. The mesh top especially feels odd against him. It helps him forget about the Hyuuga clan for a moment. The meeting with Tsunade was a f*cking disaster. Perhaps he shouldn’t have sprung Sasuke on her. Granny has way too much on her plate to care about a missing-nin who has avoided the village like the plague for the past three years. Yet the way Tsunade said the subject was of no importance reminds him of Sakura. Hm. Makes sense Tsunade’s her master.
Sakura herself had dismissed him with the fake confession. Forget about him , she had said. He has yet to forgive her for it. They both just pretend it never happened. If today was any proof.
A part of him wants to agree with Sakura, to give her actions of that day validity. That giving a faux confession and doubling down on letting Sasuke go was a good idea. That it still is. He’s still not sure it’s true, that Sasuke’s life is hardly a sacrifice for the village. What does that mean for his own life? Though it’s different, since Naruto saved Konoha and all. He’s not a criminal.
God, what the hell was he thinking asking Tsunade to pardon Sasuke? He f*cking killed Danzo! A village elder! This makes him enemy number one in the eyes of Konoha. Naruto himself must be the idiot for continuing to want to bring the bastard back. Never mind that Danzo was a dick who deserved it!
He ignores the phantom sensation on the side of his neck, where Sasuke’s breath had ghosted just over a year ago when they met for the first time after years. He ignores how Sasuke had responded to the reunion by drawing his blade, and how he would have killed Naruto had Sai not intervened. He ignores how he would’ve let it happen. He ignores the questions he’s had since meeting his father, and meeting Nagato, and meeting Madara, and the new things he’s learned since those conversations, and how last time he encountered Sasuke, the desire to drag him back felt lessened. It’s almost like he wants to be dragged himself.
He instead focuses on tonight, and the soft press of Hinata’s lips against his, and how it might feel to touch more than her shoulders and hair. He likes her so much, he feels it in his grin after a healthy dose of ramen. One day, after he brings Sasuke back, he’ll probably marry her and start a family of his own. He imagines their children will look like a mixture of the two of them. His blond hair, and her black, sometimes red, piercing eyes.
His heart jolts when he realizes his mistake. He quickly ends his shower and dresses in a lilac matching pajama set. The same color as Hinata’s eyes. Maybe their kids will inherit the Byakugan. He must have been dozing off in the shower. He’ll see her tomorrow. They can figure out baby name logistics then.
✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩
They do not do that. Instead, he recounts last night’s dream he had as a result of training up in Mount Myoboku. They’re sitting on a bench a few yards away from the training grounds. He can see some genin in the distance. They might be the age he was when he first made genin. Or younger.
“I was really missing Ichiraku, so Gamakichi told me about a place up on the mountain, right?”
“Yes?”
“And he said it served the best ramen for miles around! And I really believed it for a second. And you know how in dreams you walk miles and miles but it feels like it only took a few steps and a few seconds?”
“Yes.”
“So that happened, except, like the opposite. He said the place was right where we were standing, but it took me SO long to get there! And when I finally got there, guess what was on the menu?”
“Yes?”
“Worm stew!” For some reason Hinata blushes at this.
“Oh.” And that feeling gnawing at his core makes a reappearance.
“Isn’t that so stupid?”
“It is, Naruto.”
“Did you have any dreams last night?” She turns even redder.
“No. I rarely ever dream at night.”
“And during the day?” He doesn’t know why he’s struck with the question. She looks up at him.
“Depends on what you count as a dream. Is it a thing, or a person?” He scratches at his nape all flustered. Maybe she got him this time.
“Yannow. Things you want for the future! It could be a goal, or a person, or even how you hope things turn out. Like my goal to become Hokage!” He doesn’t bring up the specific person. For some reason, it feels impertinent to do so.
“Well,” she begins. “Then I guess my dream is you, Naruto.” The hand in his nape grips tighter, pulling at straw-colored strands. He closes his eyes until a giggle erupts from within him. When he opens his eyes, he’s relieved to see Hinata chuckling along with him. After the moment passes, he lets himself lean against her shoulder. Hinata lets him do it too, in a weirdly brother-like gesture.
“I guess dreams do come true then, Hinata.”
“I have no doubt yours will too, Naruto.” It’s comforting to be seen like this. Hinata’s liked him for so long, and now he’s finally feeling it from her. Maybe if she’d confessed sooner, they could’ve had more time.
“I’m going on an S-rank in three weeks. The Hokage says it could take weeks, or months.” Now seems like better a time to say it than ever.
“Oh!” Her face looks sad to him, but still resolute somehow. “I’ll wait for you to come back, Naruto.” It should feel nice, and maybe it does. He’s unused to this.
“Maybe if I’d confessed sooner, we could’ve had more time together,” he says. It doesn’t sound right at all, but the implicit why didn’t you say anything sooner hangs in the air for her to answer nonetheless.
“Seeing you from afar, it helped me feel good,” she says after a minute. “Seeing you made me strong.”
“How?”
“I-- well, I guess I liked seeing you always try. To do better.”
“Like in class?”
“Well, that, yes. But also around the village. I’d see you sometimes.”
“Why didn’t you ever talk to me?” He finally says, tired of beating around the bush.
“I was forbidden from speaking to you.” Her weight against him seems a little heavier.
“Oh.” Was she scared of him back then? A part of him wants to excuse her for it. Everyone was. At least she never ostracized him herself. Did she? No. No. He’s unreasonable to wish otherwise. He knows this.
And still he lifts his head up from her shoulder, ever so slightly. He hopes she doesn’t notice.
✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩
He knows the approaching training grounds are where Gai’s team practices because Lee’s mentioned it to him often, as if in hopes he’ll pass the information off to Sakura. He has, because he’s a decent friend, yet each time Sakura has mysteriously gone deaf to his words.
Gai himself is nowhere to be seen, and so he walks in on a thoroughly thrashed Lee jumping and dodging Tenten’s various weapons while Neji looks on, still far enough to be a blot in the landscape. He is, of course, the first to notice Naruto’s appearance. Damn Hyuugas and their kekkei genkai. He nods from fifty feet away and calls to his teammates. Lee, ever the enthusiastic, bounces over to him without losing an ounce of exhaustion.
“So you’re here!”
“I am,” he grins at Lee, feeling bouncier already. Lee, perhaps in part to that weird friendship he’s struck with Gaara, is easier to talk to. He doesn’t sense the awkward posture within Lee that he’s getting from the other two. Although Neji’s impassive face and lightly curled fists probably have more to do with Hinata than with Naruto saving the village. He understands, offers Neji a clunky, shy smile, and not much more.
“Let’s do teams, since we’re an even four now,” Lee says as he approaches them.
“Where’s Gai?” Naruto asks.
“Around,” Lee says easily.
“He tends to do that,” Tenten adds.
“Indeed,” Neji finishes. Naruto puts his hands on his hips, looking at the odd trio.
“Huh,” he says.
The spar begins with the two teams actually sprinting far away from one another. He’s hiding behind a large rock with Tenten, while Neji and Lee scale the trees just beyond the clearing.
“So, um, there’s this technique I used on an S-rank once,” he begins.
“You’ve been on an S-rank?” Tenten asks, bewildered that a genin ever did. He could feign something incredulous, but he doesn’t know Tenten that well, and somehow shyness creeps into his throat. So he ignores her question.
“I used a henge to disguise myself as a boomerang. It helped me get close to the enemy. We could do something like that with your weapons.” She thinks over his words for a moment, chin in hand, leaning against the boulder.
“Mm. But with his Byakugan, Neji will be able to sense you.” Dammit.
“What if I try using my shadow clones?”
“It might work as a good distraction from my weapons. In any case, we need to keep this fight from getting close range, so it could work, potentially.”
“Great!” He claps his hands together. “Let’s do this.”
They don’t move from their rock, at least, not at first. From where he’s hiding, he can see the first clone a few yards away, sitting cross-legged against the base of a large tree. He’s kind of proud of his idea. The other clone, out of his line of vision, has already amassed enough natural energy to set their plan rolling in action.
“There!” points the first clone, in Sennin Mode, as expected.
Tenten unseals a barrage of kunai in the direction, as a hyper Lee jumps from tree to tree, dodging them. She’s able to keep up with Lee, who has to change his course of action mid-jump, only to get caught by a stray kunai. It pulls him away from their hiding spot. Naruto summons several regular clones while the first clone suddenly gets dispelled. He’s found Neji. Perfect.
He jumps out from behind the rock, throwing an exploding tag Tenten had at hand towards Neji. He dodges it easily, turning to the small army of clones. Naruto throws shuriken with the intention of getting close enough to him to do the substitution jutsu.
“Naruto, look out!” He’s not expecting to get punched to the ground by Lee, who’s somehow escaped Tenten’s slew of attacks.
“sh*t!” Naruto summons even more clones to overwhelm Lee, but he knows it’s for naught. The punch had thrown him off guard, and all he knows to do is brace himself for Neji’s Gentle Fist. Neji mercifully only punches him once, else he might have to visit the newly built hospital. He collapses on his side, groaning. With all the shadow clones dispelling at once, he is fed about a million different angles of the short-lived match. He can hear Tenten in the distance saying something along the lines of this spar had to have been fixed , while Lee giggles something silly. All he can see right now are Neji’s shoes, a couple feet away from him.
“That was pitiful,” Neji says. “Konoha’s savior.”
“Something like that,” Naruto groans into the ground. “I didn’t even get a chance to warm up.”
“Hmph.”
“Did you have to use Gentle Fist for a spar though? I don’t think I can move now.”
“I am not particularly afraid for you. The kyuubi will heal you soon enough.” He forgets how much of his life is publicly known information.
Lee helps him up after a few minutes of gloating. He brushes off the dust and looks at the trio.
“Dinner?” He asks. “On me.” This round ended quicker than he anticipated, and he’s surprisingly not in the mood for a rematch.
“Ah, I see you are threatened by extraordinary taijutsu.”
“It’s unfortunate,” he blushes. “I never got as good as you all did.” A silence. It seems Team Gai has misplaced their words somewhere he can’t quite reach.
“Come on, guys,” he urges. Lee nods furiously while Neji sighs, withdrawing half a step.
“I’ll decline.”
“Aw Neji, come on!” Lee says-shouts.
“Can’t be seen dining with someone whose taijutsu skills are beatable by genin. Who relies on being a jinchuuriki for power.” Naruto turns red. It’s true, he can admit, but the words sting nonetheless. Neji nods at them and leaves in the direction of the Hyuuga compound.
✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩
He has eighteen days until the S-rank, so he resolves to spend them doing as much as possible. He visits Ichiraku every day, sneaking bills underneath his bowl when Teuchi or Ayame aren’t looking (although it’s becoming harder each day). He bothers Sakura with requests to hang out specifically during her busiest hours. He takes Hinata wherever he goes. Hinata, who never seems to have conflicting plans with his own. He’s got to lay the foundations for this love story before he goes so it’s perfect and waiting for him when he returns, he’s decided. She seems more than happy to join him.
Today is sunny, though less warm than the torrential heat that’s been pouring down on them for most of the season. He holds his breath when he asks her if she’d like to practice taijutsu with him.
“You’d want to spar with me?” Hinata asks, surprised.
“Sure!” he says. “It’ll be a lot of fun!” When Hinata nods, excitement rushes down his back. He beams back at her. He needs to understand the Byakugan better if he’s ever going to beat Neji in taijutsu.
Just as he thinks of him, Neji’s familiar face appears among the various people walking along the dusty path. He hopes Neji will ignore the two and continue on his way, but alas, it seems they are exactly who he is looking for. Neji completely ignores Naruto’s polite grin and looks directly at Hinata.
“Here you are, Hinata. Your father sent for you.” Naruto’s smile twitches as he looks back and forth between the cousins. Hinata’s face, normally so expressive and hopeful, seems to retreat into a shell he cannot quite understand.
“Okay,” she says. Neji leaves without another word, not sparing Naruto a glance at all. Weird behavior.
He raises his hands to the back of his head as he walks her home, Hinata apologizing the whole way for being unable to spar today.
“No, I totally understand!” he insists, but she shakes her head. It’s a thing he’s noticed about her often. Hinata tends to brush away the reassuring parts of any conversation. He’s not quite sure their new relationship has sunk in for her yet. He’s not quite sure how to break it to her properly. But then again, it hasn’t quite sunk in for him either.
It occurs to him to hold her hand as they walk, and so her hand shakes the rest of their way. When they reach the compound’s gated entrance, she jerks her hand away from his.
“How come Neji didn’t come with us?” he asks.
“He doesn’t spend much time in the compound, except at night, or when Father calls for him,” is her answer.
“Huh.” It throws him off so much he forgets to say goodbye. He just absently turns on his heel and walks away, tripping on his own feet an embarrassing amount of times.
✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩
Kakashi’s half an hour late to dinner, so Sakura starts doling out steamed cabbage and curry to the two of them. They’re at a more upscale restaurant than he’s used to, in the civilian district. He had been second to arrive, Sakura having had a shorter journey from her house. He takes a bite of cabbage, pretends to grimace, and talks with his mouth full. Sakura rolls her eyes.
“You know, I think this is my first time in the civilian district since they made the repairs,” he says casually through the food. “It looks good.” It does. That day Nagato blew it all to smithereens replays in his dreams. It’s a wonder that now, only a few months later, the new wooden structures litter the place. He wonders if being a Hokage entails planning the city structure. He should ask Granny. He should ask Yamato about it too. Sakura waits to finish her bite before responding.
“Naruto, when did you ever even come here in the first place?”
“D-ranks.”
“It’s been years!” she laughs. He actually used to pick them up from time to time for some extra cash. Rescuing stray cats and watering old women’s gardens is simple and rewarding in its own way. Granny’s put an embargo on that particular venture for the time being due to his sudden rise in popularity. When he had complained about being broke to her, she had responded with a note scribbled with the details to his parents bank account, gathering dust (and lots of interest) for the past nearly seventeen years.
“I’ve never actually been to your house,” he says instead.
Sakura is the one to barge into his rickety living space, though it’s been years since she bullied him for the state of his baseboards. Her home and her parents are an enigma defined only by Sakura’s steady train of thought. She has people who care for her at home and therefore killing Sasuke is a justifiable thing. He’s not sure how to broach it, even though it tickles the back of his throat every time they’ve interacted since.
“There’s no way that’s true!” He’s glad she goes along with his words. A familiar swoop of silver hair butts between the two. Kakashi puts his whole weight against their chairs, causing them to slide slightly.
“What did I miss, brats?”
“Curry’s gone cold, sensei.”
“Ah. I see.” Naruto suspects that despite calling the meal ‘his treat,’ Kakashi has zero intentions of picking up the check. He can tell by the way his former teacher looks at the dinner with piqued interest, headband coquettishly balanced over his left eye. It’s a kind of reliability he finds trouble seeing endearingly recently. Maybe he’s reading too much into it. Kakashi being a cheap bastard has little to do with his willingness to bend for the village elders.
“Well you can sit down,” Sakura says. Kakashi slickly pulls a chair, placing it between the two. Naruto decides to feign their easy dynamic together. Three-quarters of the old Team Seven settles against the sleek bar, and everything seems normal. If only it would last.
“You do anything special today?” he asks, trying for normal. Sakura focuses on her dinner, uninterested in the matter. Kakashi manages to finish his bowl in the time it takes Naruto to glance at his own meal. He answers matter of fact.
“I spent three hours racing Gai along the perimeter of the village, I spoke with the Hokage for maybe an hour, I ate lunch at the Hokage Tower, I spent a brief amount of time reading. And then I made my way here.”
“What did you talk about with Granny?” he asks, normalcy be damned.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Kakashi wrinkles his nose infuriatingly and squints at him. He knows the answer would never have been given so easily, yet the rejection stings annoyingly.
“I would, seeing as she assigned me to an S-rank in a few weeks,” he says. Sakura raises her eyebrows, but Kakashi just looks bored.
“I am aware of that, Naruto.” Because of course he is. Sakura is either a fantastic actress or just knows to butt out, because she just looks between the two of them, completely nonplussed by the situation.
“Then do you possibly know what the mission is about? Because Granny won’t tell me.” Kakashi does not look directly at him when he answers.
“You’ll learn about the mission when you arrive there,” because of course he knows it. All he knows to do now is sulk about it.
“Nobody’s telling me anything at all! sh*t pisses me off, yannow!” Kakashi does not care, clearly.
“Who saved the village from Nagato? Me! Who are they sending on an S-rank? Me!”
“You are not the only one taking missions right now, Naruto--” Kakashi tries, but he’s hardly listening.
“And yet any time I try and ask just what the hell is going on, everyone clams up! I can’t even suggest bringing Sasuke back without someone telling me to--”
“Shut up, Naruto,” Kakashi says mildly. Sakura’s eyes are darting all around the restaurant, somehow terrified someone will look at them for the mention of Sasuke. He wants to remind her they’re on her turf. Shinobi politics only touch this side of town when civilians need someone to do their dirty work. Sasuke is not a name they’ll need to concern themselves with. Well, unless Sasuke decides to blow the village up one day. But Sasuke’s dojutsu doesn’t blow sh*t up, as far as he knows.
“See? f*ckin’ see?”
“There is hardly much to see as there is to hear , Naruto, you are disturbing other patrons.” And sure enough he is, but he just cannot bring himself to care much.
“Tell me about your new girlfriend,” Kakashi says suddenly. “I hear from your friend Sakura that she’s a very sweet girl.” The diversion throws him off, even though he has known Hinata would be woven into the conversation somehow. Just not like this, thrown in his face. Does Kakashi really think him that stupid?
“Kakashi.”
“Naruto.”
“I don’t want to do this.” Sakura chooses the moment to conveniently interrupt. He kind of hates it when she tries placating others. It has nearly always ended up becoming way worse as a result.
“So I told Naruto to take Hinata out for lunch, and then afterwards, he confessed to her! Isn’t that sweet, Kakashi?” she says, overly enthusiastic.
“Sure is,” Kakashi grins wide. Naruto gives up trying for civility. He stands up.
“I think I’m done here. Goodnight Sakura. Kakashi.” The abruptness of his departure spawns a look of surprise on Sakura, but Kakashi just looks on, bored as per usual.
“Well, let’s just say your little love story plays out less elaborate than any installment of Icha-Icha, so your embarrassment is kind of unwarranted, Naruto.” His teacher can be so damn predictable.
“Get your mind out the gutter, sensei.” He tries for the least amused expression he can muster. Feigning monotony is very difficult for him.
“It was never there. I don’t know what you are talking about.” Kakashi stands up too.
“In any case, I should walk you back to the shinobi district. I’ve heard scary stories about town at this time of night. Boo.” The last part trails out his mouth with reluctance. Sakura squawks indignantly at the both of them.
“You assholes! What’s the point dragging me all the way here if you planned to leave within five minutes?”
“Sakura, you live around the corner from here.”
“Still! We never hang out, ever! And I know both of you have all the free time in the world.” He feels a little guilty for ditching her, but if the last five minutes have taught him anything, it’s that he can’t stand being at the butt of Sakura and Kakashi’s little jokes. They have this impenetrable little circle he’s not sure is blocked off to him for his status as Konoha’s jinchuuriki, or because of his personality. Or maybe Naruto is just extra easy to tease.
“I’ll make it up to you, Sakura. Promise.” She pouts.
“Sure you will.” Her frown lessens when he drops down enough bills to cover their dinner, and she gathers herself enough to wave goodbye when they finally go. He wonders how long it’ll take to spend his inheritance money.
Outside, it’s a little chillier than it has been, so he’s underdressed. His outer jacket does little against the biting wind, so he shivers as they walk. Kakashi refuses to slow against the wind, so they trudge forth.
“I asked Granny today about publicly releasing the truth about Danzo and Itachi. And pardoning Sasuke.” Kakashi acknowledges this with a quick nod. Clearly this bit of news is not new nor surprising to him.
“It would be unwise to do it right now. With the village in shambles and Tsunade’s position only just reinstated, this could cause havoc.” He scoffs.
“She said the same thing to me. But I still wonder if she would have been more open to it, if the village were safe.”
“One never knows.” He doesn’t quite know what Kakashi wants to happen.
“Funnily enough, she never said anything about it possibly being untrue,” he says. Even in the dim light, he can see Kakashi’s masked smile.
“The village is known to keep secrets,” is what Kakashi ends up saying.
“Like when nobody told me I was the jinchuuriki.” He doesn’t expect to say it. It’s a thought that’s been clawing at the edges of his mind for a while now. Kakashi only smiles wider.
“I suppose so, yes,” is the reply. Naruto’s heart races in the dark. Kakashi, forever known to him as the least reliable of ninja, might still redeem himself as a teammate. Kakashi had forbidden him from talking about this with Sakura or the others, so he hasn’t. But there’s still so much to dissect there. Danzo, the Sandaime. Itachi’s fate, and the cogs of the machine that permitted it to happen. He breathes in the crisp air with certainty.
“Naruto,” Kakashi interrupts his thoughts.
“Mm?”
“Give up on Sasuke.”
The light feeling comes crashing down. He is such a fool to cling to hope, when Sakura herself has tried to pull him away from this fight. He can feel his face and stomach tighten in response.
“What happened to never leaving a teammate behind?” It spurs the reaction he expected. Kakashi’s face becomes stiff as a board, unreadable even to someone like himself, who has known Kakashi for so long. When Kakashi speaks, the taxing weight of his words seem to slow him down.
“Sasuke hasn’t been on our team for years. It’s time you accepted that--”
“I’m impressed,” he interrupts. “That you’re actually saying outright that you want me to quit it. But I won’t.” Kakashi snorts.
“A man can try, every now and then.” An endless chasm seems to have formed in the three or so feet distance between them. He doesn’t say anything else for the remainder of the walk home. By the time they reach his apartment, Naruto realizes he doesn’t know where Kakashi lives.
“Don’t be a stranger,” Kakashi says, “and think about what I told you.” He disappears with a puff of smoke. Naruto grumbles to himself all the way to bed.
