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dayseternal-blog · 5 years ago

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Summary: She knit a red scarf for him. She never gave it to him. Days turned into months, months turned into too late.

Naruto starts dating. Hinata decides to move on.

A sickness takes root in the heart.

Inspired by SasuSaku fanfic “Medicine” by @grimmjowkurosakidrake

Rating: Mature

Read Chapter 1: Smoke on her tongue

Read Chapter 2: He’s not a ghost

Read Chapter 3: Weeds

Read Chapter 4: Leave himself behind

Read Chapter 5: She’s always (still here)

Chapter 6: Much more than friends

The bustling activity of the hospital fades away as soon as they step outside. The silence between them magnifies in the bright sunlight.

She feels anxious, a small excitement fluttering about, as she follows him toward the road. Naruto has always done the unexpected, and with today, she thinks he’s really lived up to that reputation…

She has no idea what’s coming next for them.

It leaves her hopeful, so, so hopeful, that she doesn’t dare speak. Out of fear of disturbing this dream, any wrong word could turn all of it into a terrible joke.

Naruto stops.

She freezes behind him.

He turns around, looks directly at her, and feels his stomach drop straight to his feet. The question he wanted to ask forgotten.

She’s blushing so much, and it’s adorable.

He stuffs his hands into his jacket pockets, a reactive heat rising to his own face. The sudden onslaught of nerves makes him feel warm, as if someone just complimented him, and at the same time, he feels incredibly scatterbrained.

He feels like he can do anything or nothing.

Two steps away from remarkable or lost...

“Soo,” he regrettably starts, immediately and unfortunately finding himself weakly at her will, but he manages to continue, “...what are you doing now?”

“Oh, I, I guess I should meet up with my family...at the...cemetery. It should be about that time.” She sounds so soft, even to her own ears, she’s not sure if he could hear her.

But he nods. “Right...right.” Since the moment Hinata entered his room, he pretty much forgot what today was. So much happened just this morning, it’s a surprise that it’s still afternoon.

She peers up at him, trying to gauge his expression...muted, thoughtful. She decides against telling him that she went without him earlier. She knows the reason now why he didn’t show up, and she doesn’t want to make him feel bad about something that wasn’t in his control.

His disease, his explanation for it, it’s all something she still can’t quite wrap her mind around. And she’ll dedicate time to mull over it later, but for now… “Would you like to come with me?”

“With your family?” he asks, a hand swinging up to work the uncertainty from his neck.

“Mhm,” she quietly affirms. “They won’t mind. I’m sure they’d love to see you.”

He didn’t get a chance to go earlier, and he really does need to pay a visit. Maybe without the flowers, he’s seen enough flowers for awhile...Neji would understand...Neji probably doesn’t actually care about the flowers, right? And if Hinata’s family won’t be bothered by him... “Sure, yeah, thanks.”

She hums a disagreement at his appreciation. He doesn’t owe her that, it should be a matter of course that he would be invited.

He smiles at her.

And with the way his gaze lingers on her as they start walking once more, fluffed cotton fills her legs, her stomach, her head, and she feels she may be nothing more than a cloud in the sky. Any slight breeze from him would send her clear in any direction he pleases.

It’s headying.

It’s frightening.

Though no one gives them much of a passing glance, she wonders, what others must think of them together? How much distance between them is appropriate? How much distance was there before today?...Are they now more than friends?

So whenever thrust into an unexpected, socially nerve-wracking situation, her hands find each other, clasping together tightly.

His fingers interlace behind his neck, cradling his head, walking as if lying back in the grass. It’s always been a tried-and-true way to appear as relaxed as possible, even if he feels far from it. “You…” He frowns at the sky. “...didn’t go this morning, did you?” he finishes quietly.

“Ah...I did.”

She went. Of course she did. It’s Hinata, and she’s always been reliable like that. And he...he didn’t go. His guilt darkens even the blue sky above. “Sorry...I wasn’t there.”

“Oh no. You were in the hospital after all.”

“Yeah but still. Sorry, Hinata.”

She hums another disagreement quietly, trusting that the nearing view of the cemetery will lighten the air between them with shared purpose.

Murmurings from somber crowds carry over the field. Families pray around headstones. Little gifts and flowers decorate every grave across the field.

But despite the numerous people, Naruto sees that no one pays him any mind. It’s a welcome surprise.

And their presence seems to be a welcome surprise, too, for the rest of her family.

Hanabi’s eyes widen. “Oh, Nee-sama, we would have waited for you, but none of us knew where you went!”

“I’m sorry, I was helping Sakura-chan at the hospital. Naruto-kun was there, too, and I invited him with us.”

He takes this as his cue, slightly dipping his head in a bow, awkwardly, to her stoic family.

In the following beat of silence, his eyes draw directly to the only reaction...Hanabi’s expression: brows arched high, a quick glance at her older sister, mouthing a silent ohh. A look that sends self-conscious warmth to his cheeks.

“Thank you for coming today.” Hiashi is as serious as usual, but the words sound genuine.

He nods, for lack of anything else to say. In front of all of her family, some he knows by name, some strangers, all of them in quiet appreciation of the moment, he can’t help feeling a little out of place, like their collective pressure on him just forces him to shut up. Unlike other families, noisier in their prayers and conversation, the Hyuuga are quiet. Silently cleaning and visiting graves of others besides Neji who were lost in the war.

Hinata has always been quiet.

And as he expected, this is the quiet family she’s grown up in.

The people who raised her into the person she is today.

Like Neji.

Hinata mentioned to him in passing the things Neji had done for her. Helping her perfect a move, build stamina, assist her when she strained her eyes. When he asked why she calls Neji “Nii-san,” she explained that he was more of a brother to her than a cousin. She said she understands why it might sound silly to others, since during the chuunin exams, in front of everyone, he so vocally demeaned her. How maybe to others, it might sound silly that even through that difficult part of their relationship, she still saw him as her brother.

He quickly reassured her that “No, it’s not silly. I get it, believe me.” He understood. Perhaps better than anyone else ever could.

She looked at him, eyes, usually so pale, shining warm. She smiled. Her head tilted, her bangs sweeping over, the white skin of her forehead peeking through. “Sasuke-san?”

He smiled, too. “Yeah.” That asshole of a brother.

She nodded, her gaze drifting back to Neji’s grave, her smile muting to something lonely.

He remembers he wanted to hug her, words failing him when he could imagine what such a loss would feel like. He can still remember back on that time when he was afraid that he really did lose Sasuke. He turned his fear into determination to get him back...but Hinata can’t do the same. And in that moment, he wanted to hold her tight.

But he didn’t hug her, didn’t touch her. The very ache in his limbs to feel her weight solidly against his body, to squeeze her and never let go, made him freeze up. He couldn’t gather the courage to do it and he didn’t know why that would be so, when he’s touched her before.

He knows why, now. Aware of the heaviness in his heart, of how her loss felt like his own loss, of why standing next to her now makes him feel obscure, fuzzy, eclipsed by her.

The immediate thought that follows, each time, and he thinks he’ll never get over it, that it could have been her. It could have been her, and he always sensed that that loss would have left him utterly, terribly helpless, a million times worse than losing Neji.

“Thank you” will never be enough.

But he prays it over and over. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Neji.

It’s endless, a prayer never meant to find closure or be restricted by time.

Yet the sun begins to burn low, and Hiashi approaches their quiet vigil. “Naruto. If you are available, please join us for dinner. We would be honored to have you.”

Her father’s kind offer is surprising, and it brings her so much happiness to know that his attitude toward Naruto has changed with the rest of the village. “Yes, Naruto-kun, please join us,” she quietly adds, hoping he can hear her sincerity.

He gapes at their invitation. No one’s parents ever invited him over. None of the adults liked him, maybe except Iruka-sensei, but his old teacher claimed once that he’s not much good at cooking, so they always just ate out.

Hinata watches his hesitation, wondering.

Naruto studies the man’s stoic expression. Does her father really want him for dinner? He’s probably just asking out of courtesy... “That’s really kind of you, Hiashi-san, but I need to head to the Tower before it gets too late.”

She tries not to let her disappointment show. He had been saying since earlier that he wanted to get back to work.

“Sorry, Hinata.”

“Oh, no...” She supposes she was never any good at hiding her feelings from him.

Hiashi nods. “You must be busy. Thank you for joining us today.”

“No, thank you for allowing me to join your family today, Hiashi-san.”

Her family starts heading off down the street, away from the cemetery gates, but she lingers behind.

Everything that Naruto said to her at the hospital was clearly direct, leaving no room for confusion. So why does she feel unfinished?

“Your family is leaving-” he starts.

“I know.” She looks up at him, as if his face will clarify her incomplete thoughts.

He takes in her soft gaze and soaks her attention in. He doesn’t really want to go. He doesn’t want her to walk away, either. “Hinata…”

“Naruto-kun?”

He reaches out uncertainly, his hand folding with hers, his grip light. He held her hand in the hospital. But suddenly, out here, it’s just...different. As if the soft connection is a thin thread, gently tugging at his heart, pulling it toward their entwined fingers.

It’s a familiar warmth. She never got used to holding Susumu’s hand, probably because she was always comparing it to this. Naruto’s warmth almost feels natural against her. She dares to think that it’s meant to be. It’s where she always wanted to be, after all.

“...Let’s meet up again.”

She nods, her gaze leaving their hands to look into his eyes.

Her earnest expression makes his heart squeeze, his grip on her smaller hand tighten. “I don’t know when, though.”

She nods again. That's just how mission schedules are. “Then, I’ll see you soon?”

“Yeah.”

She lets go of him reluctantly, backing away to rejoin her family, when she remembers. “Um, Naruto-kun?”

He perks up. “Yeah?”

“Happy birthday."

He shyly grins. “Thanks.” He’s not exactly sure if “happy” is the most accurate way to describe today, but it’s certainly been an unforgettable one.

She smiles a little more, taking in his warm expression, before reluctantly starting to turn around. She holds his gaze for one last second, then steps away to catch up to her family.

Naruto slowly turns toward the Tower. Some steps forward, though, has him glancing back, catching her looking back at him, too. Warmth rises to his face, as pink visibly tinges her cheeks. He smiles through it, widely, and turns around fully to wave at her.

She reddens even more. She waves a little, too, shyly, before turning around for good, dashing away.

She’s so cute.

And he’s so happy.

Kakashi puts him right to work.

He’s thankful for it. It’s such a relief to stretch out his muscles, to move, to get his chakra circulating and working in a healthy, normal way, to finally feel like his body is his own and not a victim to a force larger than himself.

That force being...death.

Missions remind him that he’s young and...not dying. Work makes him feel like he’s a functioning adult, doing what he’s supposed to do.

He remembers how he felt before. That month of confusion that led to anger, that spiraled into depression. A month of...kind of just...getting worse and worse and worse, and it was so completely unlike him. No energy. No direction. No sense of self-worth. He didn’t recognize himself.

He doesn’t even really know how to reflect on the whole thing.

Thing. He really doesn’t know what else to make of it.

The descent seemed to happen so slowly, and suddenly he was in the thick of his disease before he realized it.

Then as quick as a snap, he was fine.

...That, too, his cure…

He never gets too far in his reflection on everything he’s been through because he always pictures her soft, pink smile when they parted ways at the cemetery. She has the softest smile he’s ever seen, and he can’t wait to see her again, he just, can’t, wait.

He needs to verify her feelings again with his own two eyes and ears. With his hands, too. He’ll hold her hand again and maybe he can hug her. Maybe he can hold her.

He wants to hug her.

The thought always leave a vacancy he can feel against his body, like she should already be there in his arms but isn’t.

On a mission like this, even with a fun teammate like Shikamaru, he finds himself thinking about her in a moment of downtime. Thinking about when they’ll meet again and what it will be like.

It’s real.

His feelings for her are an excitement and distraction quite apart from anything he ever felt for his past girlfriends.

...He pretty much never thought about Rumi while on a mission.

...Rumi…

He tries not to think about her at all. The memory of her makes him feel like a piece of shit.

He really sucked. He couldn’t even be a decent person, he really…

Anyway, he should just focus on his mission.

He’s been really busy, and she knows she needs to be patient.

But she can’t help but wonder if she’s just his next girl. She knows that just a week ago, when he told her that he loves her, she thought that he didn’t need to prove anything to her. She knows that she’s supposed to trust him, after all, Sakura told her so, too.

She knows that she needs to not make any assumptions and just put her faith in him.

But...wasn’t it fast? Between his breakup with Rumi and his confession to her, wasn’t it...just...fast? She’s not sure exactly when he broke up with her, but Sakura would have told her something, probably, or the rumors would have traveled before Naruto would have gotten a chance to tell her. She thinks at the most, maybe a week passed since they broke up?

And, and! Between Kanae and Rumi! A little over one month. She thought that was fast, too…

She thought a lot of things.

She wondered if Rumi, a girl he seemed to hardly know, might be a quick relationship, like Kanae was. But Naruto and Rumi went out all the time. They seemed effortlessly happy together, going out on so many dates. They were seen all over town, eating meals at trendy restaurants, looking...cute...as everyone said.

And Naruto tells her now that dating Rumi was a mistake?

What exactly did he mean by that?

Is it because he was...jealous…...that she was with Susumu? And he got sick because of that? He...got...sick?

She even asked Sakura on a day-off what Naruto’s illness was really all about.

Sakura said almost the same things Naruto had said, just with more technical language.

That should be “proof” enough for her, right?

Somehow, it’s not enough.

...She needs to be patient.

She’s heading out on a mission with Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino when she notices Naruto with Shikamaru, making their way toward the Hokage Tower.

She doesn’t have time to wonder how to react when he completely stops in his tracks, obviously assesses that she’s leaving the village, and then runs right up to her. “Hinata! How long?”

She can sense Kiba’s and Shino’s curiosity. She wonders, too, at how obvious Naruto is making himself. But it’s also incredibly reassuring to know that he was hoping to meet up with her. “It’s just a one-way escort mission, estimated at nearly a week long.”

He nods, frowning, disappointment clutching his gut. “Alright.” He looks up to finally acknowledge her teammates. “Be safe, guys.”

Kiba smirks. “‘Course, man.”

Shino nods his appreciation.

“I’ll see you guys around when you get back.” Naruto’s gaze pauses on her, and she senses that he wants her to do more than just nod in agreement.

She tentatively smiles, hoping that he’ll smile back.

He does, a gentle one that she’s seen before from him on rare occasions.

It’s always made her heart flutter. She bites her lips, then responds, “We’ll be back soon, Naruto-kun.”

“‘Kay.” He takes a step back, knowing that he’s holding her team up from leaving.

She reluctantly turns around, waving goodbye as he waves a bit, too.

Kiba and Shino have the strangest look on their faces, like they’re thinking about a lot of things.

They don’t divulge their thoughts to her, but she knows their worry.

It’s her own concern, too, after all.

Be careful. But I can trust myself, too. And I can trust him...and be careful.

She wants to hurry back home, but as soon as they were ready to leave the Land of Water, a typhoon hit. All ships are docked until the typhoon passes and clears the surrounding waters.

So as rain lashes at the windows, they stay holed up in their accommodations, drinking tea and waiting out the storm.

Shino’s been unusually quiet.

She herself has had her own troubles, but both her teammates seem to already know that it’s regarding a certain old classmate of theirs (nothing new). However with Shino, who so rarely seems to have a problem he doesn’t already know how to deal with, she’s been wondering what could possibly be bothering him. So she asks directly, “What’s on your mind, Shino-kun?”

“Yeah, buddy, what’s on your mind?” Kiba and Akamaru jump onto a bed to listen in.

Shino adjusts his sunglasses. He takes a breath. “I have a decision to make.” He looks at them and sees that they’re listening. “I’m thinking of applying for the education program.”

Kiba’s eyes widen. “To teach at the Academy? That’s awesome!”

“...The application deadline is in two months.”

In two months?... “Good luck, Shino-kun. I know you’ll make a great teacher!”

“You’ll make a fantastic teacher! They’ll call you ‘Shino-sensei!’ like that,” Kiba cheers.

Shino looks between them, a tiny, amused smile on. “But I am hesitant. The reason is it would mean that I would not be able to go on regular missions with both of you anymore.”

Hinata and Kiba exchange looks, knowing that they both had already thought of that.

Kiba moves beside him, swinging an arm around Shino. “Listen, you’ll make the greatest teacher, even better than Iruka-sensei! Of course I’ll miss working with you, but, this is a great opportunity. And Hinata and I would never want to hold you back.”

Hinata is thankful for Kiba’s encouraging tones. It’s putting her in the right mindset, too. “Kiba-kun is right. We would never want to keep you from reaching for your goals. Do your best! We’ll be cheering for you all the way!”

“Thank you. I’ll miss both of you,” Shino says.

She shakes her head. “We’ll never be far away.”

“We’ll come and be guest instructors!” Kiba offers.

“Yes!” Hinata agrees. “We’ll always be your team.”

“Thank you.” His voice is heavy, emotional.

They smile together, and she feels tears coming on, but she doesn’t let them fall. She supposes they all knew this would eventually happen. The possibility of disbandment as they entered adulthood only increases with new responsibilities, new windows of opportunity, and challenges presented.

She just didn’t know it would happen so soon.

Sometimes she feels like it was only yesterday when she was selected for Kurenai’s Team 8. Sometimes it feels like a forever ago when the four of them were tasked with finding Madam Shijimi’s cat.

For the entire way home, they reminisce on their trainings and missions together and make promises to continue meeting up whenever they can.

It’s bittersweet.

To realize, not for the first time, how wonderful her team is. To hold so much excitement for Shino’s next stage in life. To hear Kiba’s plans for the future. To wonder about her own.

Maybe become a jounin sensei?

Maybe eventually work at the Academy, too?

To see that…

So much time has passed. She really has grown.

And she still has so much of life ahead of her. There’s no rush at all.

It’s a stroke of luck to see her coming out of the Hokage Tower. She’s smiling, looking well. She bends over to pet Akamaru.

She straightens and looks toward him, despite the distance.

So she knew that I was-- He bites down on that memory and runs forward to meet them. “You’re finally back!”

“We got held up in the Land of Water due to a typhoon,” Kiba answers.

“Good thing you guys didn’t get caught in it.” He nods at Kiba briefly before turning his attention back to Hinata. “How was the mission?”

She almost wants to shrink away from his obvious, directed attention. It’s almost too strong. But no, she wants this. She really wants this. “It went well. There was one scuffle along the way, but they weren’t a problem for us.”

“Yeah, I bet you beat them up easily.”

She blushes at his confidence in her. It’s almost like from before...It reminds her of those times before he started dating.

Shino clears his throat. “Are you hungry, Naruto? The reason is, we’re going out to get lunch together.”

“Oh yeah?” He was planning on trying to get Hinata alone, but this is almost just as good. “Can I join?”

“No! No, no.” Kiba leans forward, his voice cutting Shino off. “We’re doing Team bonding, and if you come along, you’ll just ignore us and try to hog all of Hinata’s attention!”

Naruto frowns. Yeah, he probably would’ve but… “The three of you were together for the past week! More than a week! Isn’t that enough bonding time?” he protests. “Plus, Shino was about to invite me!” He looks at the quiet guy for affirmation.

But Shino suddenly looks as silent as a rock.

Naruto’s jaw drops in disbelief and betrayal. “Shino!”

“The reason is that Kiba is right.”

He rolls his eyes and looks at Hinata. “Hinata? You’re just going to let these guys treat me like this?”

She’s still absolutely red from Kiba’s sudden and shameless words. It’s the first time he’s verbally acknowledged Naruto’s attentions toward her in almost a year, out of consideration for her feelings. “Oh, I would like to, Naruto-kun, but…” She looks at Shino. “We’re not going to be Team 8, officially, for much longer. Shino-kun is going into education.”

Naruto looks at the usually stoic bug boy. This guy? With kids? A sensei? “What?! No way! Shino?!”

“He’s going to be a wonderful teacher,” Hinata states solidly, not leaving any room for him to not believe her any further.

He nods, getting used to the idea. Certainly unexpected, but has Shino ever been anything other than surprising? “That’s really awesome.” And he means it.

“Thank you, Naruto.” Shino looks like maybe he’s smiling.

And so he takes a step back from them, now completely understanding what’s going on. What wouldn’t he do to have just one more meal with his team, as if time never happened? “Hinata.”

“Yes?”

“Tonight? Dinner?”

She tries not to feel Kiba and Shino’s stares boring into her as she gives a quiet hum of affirmation.

“I’ll see you at your place around 6, then.”

“Okay.” She tries not to look as shy as she feels because Naruto doesn’t seem shy at all. And she needs to do her best to keep up with him.

“Great! Have a good lunch then, guys.” He waves his goodbye and heads off.

And then it strikes her.

She’s having a date with Naruto.

She’s really having an actual date with her longtime love.

He simply asked her out like no big deal, like this was the idea all along, and that the two of them are really, actually--

“So the two of you are a thing?” Kiba bluntly asks.

She turns to look at him, blinking out her disbelief. “I think so.”

Kiba seems to hold back a frown. “What do you mean, you ‘think so’?”

“I mean, he…” Self-consciousness floods her, but Kiba and Shino are both waiting expectantly for her explanation. So she quietly continues, “...said he loves me.”

Kiba and Shino exchange looks, nodding.

“Well, that’s what we’ve thought for a long time,” Kiba states before leading them away from the Tower.

Hinata stares at them, finding their simple acceptance incredible. She really wasn’t the only one who felt there was something between them. But she can’t help needing that affirmation even more. It’s still something she can’t wrap her mind around. “You both thought that?”

“Yes, the reason is that Naruto has always paid more attention to you than any of us.”

She looks away, shyness warming her face. So it wasn’t her imagination? “...but…” Self-doubt rears up, making her feel suddenly slightly nauseous. “He dated others.”

“Oh yeah, Hinata,” Kiba starts, the roll of his eyes practically audible, “You could’ve…” His hands turn up in a shrug. “I dunno...tried to save his life a couple of times. Hold his hand in front of the enemy and the entire Shinobi Alliance. Eat out with him all by yourselves.” He gives her a pointed look. “And he wouldn’t have the faintest idea that any of it was romantic. Hm. I wonder why...maybe because he’s an idiot?”

She stares at him, processing his sarcasm, and Shino lets out the quietest cough of a laugh. She pouts at both of them for making fun of Naruto, but Shino clears his throat, obviously ready to launch into a long explanation.

And she really does want to hear it. Because, if anything, she has always interpreted Kiba’s list to mean that Naruto simply never returned her feelings.

“The reason is Naruto does what feels right, and if the outcome is fine, he will continue to move forward without reflection. Unless you force him to stop by questioning his actions, he will articulate neither his reasoning nor his purpose outside of the obvious goals, and he will not consider or care about how others might perceive him, so long as he was able to manipulate the situation to meet his ends. The reason is--”

“Naruto’s a gigantic idiot,” Kiba interrupts.

“--because Naruto thinks he has nothing to lose,” Shino continues, unfazed. “Therefore he acts accordingly, always behaving as rashly as possible, not realizing that anyone might value him as much as he values others.”

“Or that,” Kiba tags on in agreement.

“The reason for that is,” Shino says with a sense of finality, “not very many people have stopped him to ask for his opinion.”

“What? He’s always airing his opinions.”

Hinata shakes her head at Kiba’s denial. “No, I...I think I understand.”

“Did you ever ask him why he held your hand in the war?”

Her eyes widen at Shino’s question. Of course she hadn’t! How could she ever ask a question like that?!

“Did you ever ask him what he thought of your self-sacrifice?”

“No!” she defends. “That’s embarrassing, I couldn’t have asked something like that! And...and I didn’t do any of that expecting anything from him.”

Even with his dark sunglasses on, she can see Shino’s measured look.

Kiba lets out a big sigh. “Hinata...those exes were pushier than you. And, I don’t mean this in a bad way or anything, but, well, it’s not like, uhh, well, I mean, Naruto’s an idiot, so, anyway, I get what Shino’s saying, y’know, Shino’s right, like, Naruto didn’t know you value him.”

She blinks at him, feeling inexplicably hurt, recognizing that they’re putting some amount, however small, of blame on her. “But...I didn’t know he values...me…”

They pause outside of Yakiniku Q.

“And that’s why we didn’t say anything about this when you were dating Susumu! He’s ‘pushier’ than Naruto! You knew for sure that he at least valued you, it was obvious to you, and we thought it was good for you! Both you and Naruto are the same!” Kiba’s voice had risen enough that other pedestrians glance their way.

But she doesn’t take much notice of them. Their words are putting all of her decisions, all of her choices to back away, to give Naruto space, to listen instead of probe, to watch instead of interrupt, into a different perspective. She did that because she respected his decisions. So are they saying it was wrong of her? “I...didn’t know…”

“Yeah. We know. ‘S not your fault, Hinata, Naruto’s an idiot after all.” Kiba leads them into the restaurant, and the hostess takes them to their table.

When they’re seated, Kiba continues, “And anyway, the two of you are together now, so it doesn’t really matter anymore.”

She tilts her head, wondering if it’s true that it doesn’t “really matter”...

“I’m happy for you, Hinata.” Shino smiles at her.

She gratefully returns his smile.

“Yeah, we’ve all been waiting for this,” Kiba jokes. “Hinata, you have no idea, but this has been a long time coming between the two of you. Good luck with him.”

“Thank you,” she murmurs. Maybe Kiba’s right. Maybe it doesn’t really matter what happened before, who they dated, and what they thought the other was thinking. Because the truth is that...they love each other?

It’s a truth she’ll be able to experience later, and she’s left breathless in anticipation of the unknown. Logically, she shouldn’t feel nervous because she knows him so much better than she ever knew Susumu...but still…

Kiba snaps his fingers in her face. “Hey, focus on us.”

Her expression pulls down in an embarrassed frown. “I’m sorry. I’m just…” She shakes her head.

Shino nods. “You’re just happy.”

She ponders that for a second. She was thinking, more nervous or worried, but… She agrees. “I am. But not just because of Naruto-kun. I’m so happy that I have you two as my teammates.”

Hinata knows that they feel the same way as her by their surprised yet pleased smiles. They were and are lucky to have each other. She couldn’t have asked for a better team.

Kiba huffs out a breath. “Before I start crying, let’s order some food.”

“Agreed,” Shino states, unfolding the menu.

She laughs, so, so, so appreciative.

No matter what happens to them in their futures, she’ll always have Team 8.

He restlessly waits outside, arriving much earlier than acceptable.

He’s been waiting for this for almost exactly two weeks. And he’s readier than he’s ever been for a date.

Because he knows exactly what to do to make her happy. He has a lot of money in his wallet. He’ll compliment her when she comes out. He’ll hold the door to let her in first, he’ll pay, and he’ll walk her home. And at the end of it all, maybe he’ll get to hug her, hold her, like he’s been yearning for, but only if she seems open to it.

Only if she wants to.

He won’t rush this.

He’ll make sure she understands how serious he is.

Because despite the break-ups, he’s learned. And he’s not going to mess this up with Hinata. He completely understands what he’s doing with her and what this means for them, and, he’s not just doing this for fun, or because she asked him to, or to have a girl flatter his ego.

He’s doing this because...

He hears quiet footsteps coming from beyond the wall.

The gate pulls open.

And she steps out with a tentative expression that lights up into the shyest, cutest smile he’s only ever seen on her.

He takes a deep breath, grinning, unable to contain his excitement.

“I’m sorry to make you wait.”

“Oh no,” he dismisses. “I got here too early. I hope I didn’t rush you.”

She shakes her head. The truth is, she had gotten ready really early, too. It was a surprise to see him outside when she thought she was just being too impatient.

He feels giddy, like they have so much to do, but he knows now that dates need to be taken at the girl’s pace. That, in general, his ideas aren’t the most reliable, and that he should just let the girl pick. He tries his best to calm all of the adrenaline dancing in his veins. “Anywhere you want to go?”

She blinks at him. “Oh. Um…” She hadn’t thought about it at all. She had assumed that since Naruto asked her to dinner, he had someplace in mind? Like Ichiraku?... “I don’t really know...”

“Anywhere is fine, Hinata!” he encourages. “Don’t worry about me, I’m up for anything.”

She bites her lips, still surprised, not ready to think of a good place for their first date. “Um…”

He watches her smile slip into a look of discomfort. And he realizes just as quickly...he fucking forgot. In his excitement, he forgot to compliment her. Kanae always wanted to see if he noticed her efforts. Is it too late to say something?... He looks her over to see if he needs to comment on her fashion choice. She’s wearing her comfy-looking jacket, appropriate for a chilly night. He remembers what she wore with her old boyfriend...how she looked...different...yet tonight, she looks like she normally does. Jealousy pinches his gut, but he forces that down. It doesn’t matter. It’s not like he dressed any differently.

Just in case, he should say something, especially if that’s why she’s being so hesitant. And, anyway, it’s not a lie, either. No matter what she’s wearing, no matter if she’s clean or dirty from a mission, no matter if her hair is up or down, it makes no difference to him. “Hinata, you’re beautiful.”

She pulls out of her worries at the compliment.

His gaze is focused on her so intently.

Warmth seizes her face faster than anything else. How could he say something like that to her so casually without warning? Isn’t that too much? She wasn’t even paying attention! Embarrassment has her shaking her head, shrinking back a step, refusing to look him in the eyes again.

Her reaction isn’t what he expected. Instead of a coy, pleased expression, she looks like she honestly doesn’t believe him! “You are beautiful, Hinata.” Maybe she doesn’t believe him because she didn’t dress up? “You’re always beautiful.”

She gapes at him. Naruto has never lied to her. She has no reason to not believe that he actually feels that way. She squeezes herself together, trying to gather her wits about her. It’s hardly two minutes into their first date, and she’s already falling apart like she can’t handle him. Naruto deserves better from her.

She takes a deep breath and forces herself to really face him. Kiba told her that Naruto never knew how much she values him. And right now seems to be the time to start making amends. She steadies her gaze on his openly warm expression and finds the sparkling blue of his eyes. “Naruto-kun, you’re the one who’s beautiful.”

He squints at her. “What?” he can’t help bluntly asking, a weird grimace cracking open.

“I mean it,” she quietly asserts, trying desperately to keep her blush at bay.

He shakes his head and lets out an awkward laugh. “Don’t joke like that with me, Hinata, that’s not nice...so anyway, is there anywhere you want to go?”

She blinks, jarred by how quickly he dismissed her heartfelt confession. “I...I guess...Ramen Ichiraku would be nice.”

His brows furrow. Why would she want to go there? Is she just saying that because she knows it’s his favorite? Why won’t she tell him where she wants to go?

She doesn’t trust him enough?

She didn’t like that he called her beautiful, and then she turned it into a joke, too… Excitement begins to fade into worry. Why… “Hinata...we eat there all the time, it’s not special to you. You don’t have to choose that for me,” he awkwardly mumbles out.

She tilts her head and frowns, realizing the way she worded her request. “I do want to go to Ramen Ichiraku,” she repeats, simply and clearly. She knows for certain that they’ll both like it.

“Uh, okay,” he relents. And then unwilling to risk making more mistakes, he starts leading them away from the compound.

They walk together, and he tries to find words for conversation, but suddenly, he doesn’t know what to say. He’s already somehow messed up because of course he would mess up. So he shoves his hands in his pockets and keeps his focus on the road.

After a few streets of unusually discomforting silence from him, she can only conclude that he’s bothered. She gathers her confidence together. “Naruto-kun? Do you not want to go to Ichiraku?” Maybe he actually wanted someplace fancier? Maybe his tastes have changed?

He shrugs. “You know I always want to go there,” he admits. “I just don’t want us to be going there if you don’t actually want to go.”

She...she was clear wasn’t she? She stated very clearly that she wants to go, didn’t she? “I want to go, Naruto-kun. I like their ramen a lot-” She recalls his earlier hesitation. “-And I think Ramen Ichiraku is special.” She smiles at him. “It’s your favorite. That makes it a special place to me, too.”

He processes her explanation, the reasoning almost too simple to accept. “So...I’m not, like, forcing you or anything, right?”

She smiles wider, unsure of where he’s getting the silly idea that he might be forcing her. “Of course not. If I didn’t want to go, I wouldn’t have chosen them.”

She’s saying that like it should’ve been obvious to him… It should’ve been. He forgot that Hinata’s always been easily uncomplicated with him.

“We’ve eaten there together before, like you said, Naruto-kun. And we’ve always had a good time there, right?”

He nods, recalling the same memories that she’s referring to. It’s sudden, a soothing balm over his nerves. Those times back then...she enjoyed them, too.

“It’s a good place,” she summarizes happily. “It’s a special place for me.”

Not that he wasn’t certain before, but he’s even more, completely, totally sure.

He really wants this to go well. Not just nicely, either. He wants Hinata to have the perfect date with him.

But he has no idea now how he’s supposed to make that happen. The date didn’t start off the way he thought it would. It’s not going the way he thought it would.

Hinata’s not acting the way he thought she would…

Instead, she’s acting the way she’s always been.

Has it been so long since he hung out with her? That he forgot how easy it is to just be with her...no need for plans or strategies...that whatever he thought, well, Hinata makes it so much better than that? “You’re really amazing,” he sighs out.

She shakes her head, believing him to be exaggerating over nothing. “Everyone knows how much you love their ramen, Naruto-kun.” She peeks up at his gaze, glad to see that he seems slightly more relaxed than earlier.

The storefront comes into view.

“I really did expect that we would be going here tonight,” she continues. “My heart’s been prepared, I was thinking about this all afternoon,” she laughs, breezing over the fact that it wasn’t really Ichiraku, but spending time with Naruto, that was on her mind.

He perks up at her giggle. “My heart never even needs to get prepared, I could walk here in my sleep!”

She nods, knowing full well that he probably already has. “Have you come in the middle of the night before?”

He raises his brows, grinning a What do you think?, and she laughs as they take seats at the counter of the familiar establishment. “Hinata, I’ve come here at every single hour, if not every single minute, on the clock.”

She considers that his obsession sounds a little worrisome, but it’s also just so him. “That’s impressive!”

“Yeah, it is,” he brags, proud of being a round-the-clock customer.

Ayame comes over to them, cheerily smiling. “Naruto, Hinata, welcome!”

“Ayame-neechan, long time no see!”

“It has been a long time, hasn’t it? Now, what shall I get for you two?”

“I’ll get the large miso ramen with extra char siu.”

“I would like the same thing, please.”

His eyes widen, and he turns to stare at her.

“Got it! Please wait for just a moment,” Ayame promises before hurrying off.

Hinata notices his shock, understands that it probably has to do with her order, but she still asks, “Ah, yes?”

He clutches his jacket over his heart, incredibly thankful to be here with her. “You’re really amazing,” he reiterates, not knowing how else to articulate himself.

She hesitantly explains, “I had all afternoon to think about what I’d want.”

He nods, recalling the last time they ate here together, just the two of them. “I almost forgot how much you can eat.”

She blushes, knowing it’s not exactly the most ladylike thing, but to the utmost of effort, they came all this way here, she might as well take the opportunity to eat. “I-I thought it would be better if I just get the large serving this time instead of smaller servings.”

“Yeah, Hinata, I love it,” he bluntly states. Then repeats as realization hits him, “I love it.”

Shyness freezes over her, and she timidly looks up at him. She can remember the last time they came...

He expressed enthusiasm about her order for another serving, saying, “Wow, you’re eating a lot, Hinata!”

And she fumbled out in excuse, “I guess I’m just hungry…” She actually just wanted to extend their time together.

He smiled widely, bright-eyed, excited, and eagerly ordered more for himself, too.

But this time, he carries that serious expression from earlier and leans down, ducking his head to be eye-level with her. “Hinata, I love you.”

She can see vulnerability there, a precious, precious balance of uncertainty and trust. Bare and unaffected. He really means it. Even at such a sudden moment as this, or maybe because it’s in such an inconsequential, unplanned moment, she knows he means it. He really wants her to know it. Emotion wells up, leaving no room for air, she can’t breathe, she can’t speak.

He straightens, starting to wonder at her silence, beginning to notice that he was expecting a response.

What he was expecting...the lack of anything empties him. “So uh Shino wants to become a teacher?”

She blinks at the sudden topic. She can’t let this happen again. Kiba was right. She hesitantly pulls on the sleeve of his jacket and draws herself closer.

Otherwise he won’t be able to hear her over the hammering in her heart.

She averts her eyes, feels the blush spreading over her face, and whispers, “I love you.” She squeezes her eyes shut for a second and lets an easing breath out.

This somehow felt so much harder than her confession two weeks ago at his bedside, but the accompanying fluttering warmth here is much, much nicer.

She settles back in her seat. Her gaze flicks up to his.

He smiles shyly, his pulse resetting double the pace as color floods his being.

He didn’t quite realize it, he had no idea how wonderful it would feel to hear those words returned to him.

He just carelessly tossed a part of himself out to her, expecting something, not knowing he expected those words, that exact piece of her given in exchange.

And it glows in him.

She can see it, just as much as she can feel the same blossoming within her. She thinks that if only he could see himself, he would see how beautiful he really is. She realizes she can’t let him get away without knowing she was being honest. If she needs to work on letting him know how much she values him, she’s the one who needs to prove herself to him, not the other way around... “Naruto-kun,” she whispers. She can feel herself growing even warmer. “I really do think you’re beautiful.”

Sudden self-consciousness grips him, and he focuses on her.

But she doesn’t let his puzzled expression deter her, not this time. “Your smile is beautiful. Your determination is beautiful.” She looks away, down at the counter, as her bashfulness fights against boldness. “Your laugh, and your bravery, and how you treat everyone...I think everything about you is beautiful.”

She timidly looks up to see his reaction, but he’s looking away now. A hand works obvious discomfort from the back of his neck.

It reminds him of Rumi’s blind admiration. Hinata doesn’t set him up on a pedestal, too, does she? She’s always been kind to him, built him up in ways that others haven’t, but still...

“You are,” she whispers again, wondering now if she was too forward.

Certainly she thinks so...she actually wasn’t joking earlier...but he knows better about himself. He shines a quick smile at her. “Thanks.”

She can tell he’s deflecting. After all the times she’s done that with Susumu, of course she would know. She tries to think of a way to respond when a cry of “Oh, isn’t that Naruto-senpai!” and hushed murmurings behind them catch her attention.

“I haven’t seen him in so long!”

“Should we go over and talk to him?”

“It looks like he’s with someone, though?”

“That’s not Rumi.”

“Didn’t they break up?”

“I think so--”

She shuts them out, second-guessing how “hushed” they’re actually trying to be. They want him to notice, don’t they...

He hears them, and Hinata’s uncertain look doesn’t quell his worries. Bringing up Rumi? Here? Now? The last person he wants Hinata to think about? “Sorry,” he mumbles out.

“Oh, no,” she denies. She should’ve expected this. Like they said, she’s not Rumi…someone who successfully made her status very public in a short amount of time...approved by the general crowd for her cute and bubbly demeanor...

The girls continue talking, his anxiety climbing as their voices get louder with their approach. He makes to stand. “Maybe I should...” deal with them?

Hinata’s eyes dart to him, silently wishing that he wouldn’t pay them any attention.

It strikes him through. “I’m not leaving! Hinata, I just don’t want them to bother us!”

She nods, biting her lips, surprised that he overreacted. “I understand.”

He hesitates, looking closely at her. “I’ll be right back, I promise.”

Once he catches the renewed faith in her eyes, he smiles, sealing his word. He hurries out past the curtain, to the group of girls’ great excitement, and he recognizes them...

“Good evening, Naruto-senpai~” Ahh, he should know her name.

“Are you busy?” That girl..he’s supposed to know her name, too.

The four gather around him, and he can’t quite establish any personal space. “Yeah, I’m busy right now.” They frown and sigh, then try to invite him out with them anyway.

In the past, he’s given in, having nowhere better to go necessarily. That’s not close to the case now. “I’m sorry, I’m on an important date.” He angles his body back toward Hinata.

They immediately quiet as their eyes dart to the girl, amongst each other, back up to him with much less giddiness in their gazes.

“I see, so sorry to interrupt!” one apologizes, and he thinks that’s pretty nice of her.

“We just wanted to say hi,” another says.

He smiles and nods, tries to steadily back away from them. “Good seeing you guys!” He gives a wave, hopefully finalizing the end of this exchange.

As soon as he sees them nod, hears them mumble out goodbyes and next times?, he blasts an appreciative grin and completely turns around.

Slipping into the seat next to Hinata has the same sense of completing a mission. He did it, and hopefully that didn’t take too long. He studies her...she’s not looking at him.

“I’m sorry...” she murmurs apologetically.

Sorry?

“Maybe you would’ve liked to-”

“No!” he interrupts, catching on almost too late. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry for all of that, for making you wait.”

She shakes her head firmly. “No, you were really fast, but you could’ve talked to them for longer if you liked.”

It seems he also forgot how stubborn she is. “...I didn’t want to talk to them. I just want to talk to you.”

Her cheeks pinken. She frowns, brows furrowing.

“This, our date, it’s really important to me, okay?”

She turns even redder and nods. “This is important to me, too.”

He smiles, satisfied. “So tell me about Shino! He really wants to be a teacher? What made him start thinking about that?”

She sees how much he’s trying to reassure her, and how easily he does it, too, never holding back, even in a moment like this. He leaves no room for her to doubt herself.

So she’ll stop thinking about other girls. She’ll focus only on him. “Have you seen Shino-kun with Mirai-chan?”

“Your sensei’s baby? Mmm...no, I don’t think so...”

“He’s really, really good with her, and he’s found that he likes kids a lot. Shino-kun's always been very empathetic, very understanding, so I think he relates to them easily.” She goes on to tell him about Shino’s expectations for the education course, and Naruto tells her about the times he’s visited Iruka’s class to assist or demonstrate. The kids he’s met and their terrible antics.

The conversation is easy, interesting, and Hinata marvels at how none of it feels forced.

She doesn’t have to count his good points.

She doesn’t have to add up everything she admires about him.

It’s so easy to talk with him, it’s so, so cute to see him joyfully eat his ramen, and it’s just so incredible to smile at him and receive his smiles in return.

His soft gaze is indescribably warm. Happy. The way she’s looked at him for so long…

To feel that from him, directed at her, it’s almost too much…

But she wants this. She wants all of it. To feel so free to look at him. To let her affection for him show in her gaze. To not have to put a cap on her love, bottle it up inside and hope none of it spills.

“Be careful,” she had told herself. But how? How can she possibly be careful? How can she possibly withhold all the love she’s been hurting to give him for so long?

She doesn’t want the night to end.

But eventually, they’re walking side-by-side back to her place, slowly, slowly, until there’s no more distance left to keep.

She faces him and smiles with as much appreciation as she can show. “Thank you for walking me home.”

“Yeah, no problem.” He has no idea how the night ended so quickly when all they did was eat. Usually at this time, rather than only just finishing dinner, he’d be seeing Rumi off after all of the fooling around at his place-- Simply spending time with Hinata is even better than any of that perverted stuff. “Did you have fun tonight?”

She nods and hums her affirmation. “I did. Thank you for everything.”

His hands ache in his jacket pockets to hold her, but he’s going to be considerate even if it kills him.

“Did you have fun, Naruto-kun?”

He nods. “Yeah, I can’t believe how fast the time passed. It already got so late.”

“Mhm.” The fluttering feeling she’s felt all night continues unrelenting. “I didn’t notice how late it got, either.” Only now does the dark silence of the late night seem to close around them. Only the chilling wind creates a stir, but she failed to notice that, too.

He studies her cute, shy smile, can hardly believe that she enjoyed herself as much as he did. “Can we meet up again soon?”

“I’d really like that.”

“I don’t have a mission tomorrow.”

“Me, neither.”

“Then, tomorrow? I can come by around 11?”

“Okay.”

They both realize that the night is over. The only thing she has left to do is turn around and head inside.

But she wonders if that’s not good enough.

She knows this was never good enough for Susumu. And is this good enough, perfect enough, for herself?

She casts her eyes down, unwilling to let him see the wavering of her nerves.

She takes two steps, closing the space between them, and mercifully, he doesn’t back away. Carefully, she leans into him a bit, his body warmth flushing her entire system hot.

He only just gets his hands out of his pockets to touch when she backs up, his hands left mid-air.

She’s staring at him with the funniest, shyest expression he’s ever seen. “Good night, Naruto-kun. Thank you for tonight.”

But he’s still trying to process the one-second hug. “That’s not fair,” he accuses before his brain can catch up with his mouth.

“Hm?”

“You-” He bites his lip, remembering that he wasn’t supposed to rush her. But what’s he supposed to do with this? How could she do something so cute and innocent?

...How innocent is she?

And with that wondering burning a small pit of jealousy in his gut, he turns his hands, showing her how she left him hanging. “...Will you let me?”

She fidgets but nods, not making eye contact. She takes one step forward, and that warmth surrounds her, his hands at her back, gentle. She thinks she’s never felt anything nicer, warmer, so intimate.

To be so close to the one she loves, it’s different.

To touch the person she’s longed to touch, it’s unreal, a waking dream. The slight rise and fall of his chest as he breathes--isn’t that alarmingly amazing? She’s too happy. This is what she’s wanted for so long, what she didn’t want to share with anyone else. How could she have dared to force herself to touch another man?... Well, she didn’t know this would ever happen. “Naruto-kun…”

“Hinata?”

“I love you.”

He squeezes her a little closer, the intimacy of her words and body turning his face hot. Three times now, "I love you", and each time feels sweeter than the last. “I love you, too, really.”

“Mm.” It’s impossible for her to distrust his word. She tightens her grip, savoring him for one more second, breathing in his warmth, before letting go and stepping back.

She can barely look at him for how happy she is, but he’s smiling with a softness that’s as smushed up as her feelings.

He’s so beautiful.

“Good night, Naruto-kun,” she manages to breathe out.

“Good night, Hinata.” He watches her step away, give him a final, gorgeous smile, and then disappear behind the gate.

And suddenly, he’s left alone with only his heartbeat thudding out the slipping memory of her form.

It was too perfect.

He somehow messed up at the beginning, and then those girls interrupted the start of their dinner, but everything after, everything, just being with her, and then holding her, it was all perfect.

She was perfect.

When he was with Rumi, every moment was new and strange, and so he thought that’s how it must be.

Yet with Hinata? Familiar. Warm. Easy.

So comforting.

The whole night was dazzlingly wonderful. He could sprint the rest of the way home with how great he feels, give outlet to the elation jumping beneath his skin, and exclaim his delight to the stars in rushing breaths.

But he walks, choosing instead to wallow in his happiness and count his blessings quietly. The last thing he wants to do is tempt fate to twist up his fortunes and slide him backwards like he so rightly deserves.

One wrong move, and the universe might find him unworthy of its favor.

So he makes sure to arrive on-time again the next day.

When she steps out to meet him, she looks completely different, something about her demeanor, something about her smile. It’s not the clothing or her hair. Something softer? She’s not quite the daring warrior who stood at his side in the war, who protected him in battle, who’s sealed his tenketsu in spars or had dirt streaking her arms and legs after a mission. She’s not guarded at all.

She’s just...

This Hinata is somehow...

Still, warm familiarity flutters and warms him all over. It’s still Hinata, but this Hinata is only for him. He just wants to protect this. Rather than selfish, this feeling is purer than a kiss from the sun on a breezy day.

He used to feel a kind of self-gratification, a proud slickness that settled in his gut, when he walked around with Rumi. Each date felt like an accomplishment, each step closer to her an affirmation of his growth.

The comparison is a sickening damper on his mood, and he doesn’t dwell on his ex as they head onto the shopping arcade. “Have you tried that new game center people have been talking about?” he asks.

She shakes her head. She doesn’t mention that she assumed it was entertainment for kids, but they are not too old, yet, right? She can see some young teenagers crowding around machines inside the center. “Have you?”

“No…”

“It looks fun,” she observes aloud, noting machines filled with plush toys, screens with small dancing visuals, and the obvious tension stringing groups of friends to stay glued to their games.

He grins. “Shall we go in?”

And she nods, pleased that she read his hidden curiosity correctly.

They investigate one of the machines that advertises its mission simulation in neon lettering. A pixelated little man jumps around the screen, dodging what they imagine must be flying kunai and leaping across trees. Naruto tentatively hits a round button and the screen changes, names of people scrolling upwards. He taps a different round button and the screen shifts to instructions.

“How do we play this thing?” He jabs at a few more buttons randomly, and the words Insert Coins flash at the top.

“Um…” Hinata looks down at the rest of the machine. “Over there.”

They peer at the slot.

“Okay…” Naruto opens his wallet and slips coins in until the machine makes a startling amount of music. He stands up straight, suddenly realizing he has no idea how the game works. He hits a button, and the man jumps.

“Maybe these buttons make you move forward,” Hinata guesses.

He presses it and the man starts running.

“Oh, jump!” Hinata exclaims as a gap in the trees appears.

He hits the button to jump, and the man leaps up…

And falls in the hole.

Game Over flashes obnoxiously red on the screen.

They stare at it for a second, dumbfounded.

“What?!” Naruto argues. “Why did he jump in the hole?! Let’s try again.”

“Yes, try again,” Hinata encourages.

On a second try, he gets the timing of the trees, but only makes it to the flying kunai. “Whaaat!” he groans. He fishes out more coins and feeds them into the machine. “You wanna try this? Maybe you’ll be better than me,” he laughs.

“I think I know what to do.” She takes over and manages to get past the obstacles.

Naruto cheers her on throughout her play, then goes silent when she comes up against another little figure. He watches her throw shuriken at it, and eventually, the figure disappears. In its place poofs out a scroll, which her character seems to collect.

The game alerts them that she made it to level 2, where she promptly gets knocked out by a swinging log.

“Ah.” She watches the screen mock her in giant lettering and hears the intense music fizzle out. “Oh well,” she sighs.

“You made it to the next level!” he congratulates her. “Do you want to try again?”

She considers it for a second. She gets the feeling that she could be really good at this game if she kept playing, but then Naruto might get bored. “Maybe let’s look at the other games?”

“Hmmm.” He scans around the room and sees one that two people seem to be playing. “Maybe we can try something like that?”

“Oh, we can play together!” she happily observes.

“Yeah, looks like it.”

They settle on one that’s much simpler and less realistic, playing as two mice trying to collect as many blocks of cheese as possible without getting eaten by cats in a maze-like setting. It’s surprisingly harrowing, living the life of mice, and they both cry out in horror, then laugh, when a cat finally corners them.

He watches the smile bunching her cheeks and honestly feels relieved to see that she’s enjoying herself as they try out the different games. The new game center was a spur of the moment idea, and he didn’t actually think she would be interested. He’s pretty certain that Kanae and Rumi would not have been too keen on playing games that seem to be marketed for children.

When they finally decide to stop and get lunch at Ichiraku, they discuss the new experience, marveling at the technology.

“It’s like a television, but you can interact with it!” Hinata considers aloud. “I wonder how they did that?”

Naruto nods with equal fascination. “They had all kinds of games, too. Technology’s really changed in the past couple of years, hasn’t it, like people can have their own video recorders now. Makes you wonder what they’ll come up with next, you know.”

She blinks in surprise. Because actually, she hadn’t wondered about what will happen next. “Hmm…”

“Like that video game we played with the ninja character. Maybe they’ll make technology for shinobi.”

She tries to imagine what they could possibly need, but comes up empty. “...Like what?”

He shrugs. “Maybe different tools or medic-related things? I have no idea,” he laughs.

“Hmm… Technology that could make our work safer somehow would be nice.”

“Yeah. Or make communication faster when we’re on the job. There’s a lot of things we can do to ensure more safety for shinobi. Technology might be the key to that.”

She hums in thoughtful agreement. “You’ll be a great Hokage, Naruto-kun.”

He draws out of his musings and looks at her. His lifelong dream is more believable to the general public than it ever was before, but it’s still surprising to hear that kind of simple confidence in him.

She just took a mouthful of ramen, so she can’t do much to address his look. She tries to give him a closed-lipped smile and swallow as quickly as she can. “You’re always thinking about the future for us.”

“Oh,” he murmurs, inexplicably shy when usually he'd be peacocking at the recognition. Dazed, he slurps up more of his ramen to fill the silence.

She watches him eat through his blush, and she’s glad that at least this time, he’s taking her compliment without argument or deflection.

She sees that slowly but surely, they’ll grow more comfortable in each other’s presence. She looks forward to the day when he’ll acknowledge all that she sees in him. When that day will be exactly, she doesn’t know. Around 10 years worth of admiration and love would be a lot for anyone to take on, but she’ll do her best to convey all of it to him. In words and action.

So she lets herself enjoy his careful hug at the end of their date. It’s still daytime, and anyone could see them, but it’s still just as amazing as the night before. “Today was fun, Naruto-kun. Thank you.” She readies her heart for the separation, committing his warmth to memory, and steps back.

“Thank you, Hinata. I had a lot of fun, too.” He already misses her. He can’t wait for the next time, but… “I’ll see you when I come back from my border patrol.”

She nods. “Be safe.”

His heart grows heavy, the knowledge of a perfect date coming to an end disappointing. “You, too, if you get called for a mission in the meantime.”

“Of course.” She smiles to make her promise with confidence, and she can see his promise to return safely in his eyes, too.

In any downtime, he finds himself musing on Hinata. He’s eager to see her smile, hear her laugh, and hold her again. And supposedly she’s returning from a mission today after another week apart.

So he weaves through the busy throngs of people as he heads to the Hokage’s Office. He’ll be helping with some administration duties, and if he’s lucky, he’ll get to see her while he’s there.

He enters the spacious lobby, and instead, his hopeful look around lands on a small brunette.

Rumi with her team.

He hasn’t seen her since that awful night. Eyes averted, he walks past them with as normal a rushed gait as possible to the stairs.

“Naruto.”

And he stops, her voice, once so intimate to him, freezing him in anxious guilt. He turns back to see her.

Her gaze is steely, slightly pinched with a look akin to anger, but he’s not sure. Distrust? Hatred? Any of those is what he deserves.

But he doesn’t have any idea as to why she would call out to him. “Rumi,” he murmurs.

And she grimaces. She strides forward, leaving her teammates sides, who are both in unfriendly stances toward him. She takes an obvious breath as she looks up. Her brows furrow, and he realizes, he’s the enemy. “I want to hear it from you.”

He waits for clarification.

She takes another breath. “You’re dating...Hinata-san.”

He watches how she doesn’t cry, she doesn’t look at all broken like that night. She’s hard, defenses up, prepared for his blow. It’s relieving, while simultaneously condemning him even more on his folly. He misjudged her strength. “...Yeah,” he quietly affirms.

He hears the doors open, and he looks up.

It’s Team 8.

He sees Hinata’s bewilderment at the situation, how her eyes widen, her pace slows.

“You’re the worst.” Rumi’s voice, scathing.

He looks back to her, alarmed by such an unfamiliar tone from her.

Her eyes squint with obvious scorn. She shakes her head. “I can’t believe you. I really-” She takes a step back. “You disgust me,” she gasps out. She turns around, rejoins her team, and walks out without hesitation.

He stands there stunned. He can’t bring himself to acknowledge Team 8’s uneasy presence, he can’t look at Hinata.

“We’ll go turn in our report,” Kiba murmurs.

Kiba and Shino leave.

He wishes she didn’t see that. Then he could at least try to pretend this never happened, suppress this memory like everything else he does when it comes to Rumi. He just wants to do better, be better. Move on. He doesn’t want Hinata to see what a disaster he’s been in the past.

She draws closer, though unsure of what to say. She can make a good guess as to why Rumi said those things to him. From what little Naruto told her at the hospital and what Sakura told her after, it seems like he broke up with Rumi so that he could be with her. If she didn't know that, then of course Rumi would be hurt to find out… “Naruto-kun?” she whispers.

He finally glances at her, surprised to see only concern in her eyes. “Sorry…” He doesn’t know what he’s apologizing for, he just feels like he should.

“No…” She tries to dig for words to set him at ease. It’s obvious his break-up was bad, much messier than her own. And as far as she knows, he broke up with Rumi only about a month ago, or even less, for about the time that they’ve been together. Was their relationship just too soon? What can she say?

“...I’ll talk to you later, Hinata…”

“Oh, okay.” She watches him run up the steps and disappear. Is it her place to follow? Or is this where she needs to give him space?

She decides to do what she must do. First, she goes to report in with the Hokage and help her team. Then after she’ll go looking for him, at least to tell him that she’s available.

He hurries to the Analytics Office to log data with Shikamaru. He can bury himself in work, be productive at the same time, and hide from humiliation.

He was such a fool to date Rumi. If he had never dated her, he would have never made such stupid mistakes, hurt her, wasted her time, wasted his own time, made Hinata wait, made Hinata date that guy, made himself sick and jealous. If he had just figured out Hinata’s feelings sooner, or if he had figured out his own feelings sooner.

If he had been smarter or more mature.

If he hadn’t been so foolish...

She hovers in the doorway, hesitant to bother him, when he seems to be ignoring her. But she finally steps in, making her presence obvious.

He looks up, surprised. “Hinata...Sorry, I can talk to you later…I need to help Shikamaru with all of this.”

She nods, wondering if she should have given him more space. He already promised to talk to her later after all, and so maybe she didn’t need to go looking for him.

“How annoying,” Shikamaru groans, looking up from his journal. “I don’t need help.” He looks pointedly at Naruto. “No need to put on a professional front, you missed her, right? You can thank me later.”

Naruto gapes at his friend. His excuse from confronting his stupid life taken away, just like that. “There’s still a lot left.”

“Just go.”

“But I’ve only helped for less than a hour.”

“You can just come back after.”

“I-it’s okay, Shikamaru-san.” Each of Naruto’s protests tears at her a little. If he needs more time away from her, then she should give that to him. She didn’t realize that she’s been getting spoiled by the last two dates. “I didn’t mean to bother, I just wanted to tell Naruto-kun that I’m free this afternoon.”

He can feel the emotional distance he’s putting between them, but it just feels like the right thing to do for now. His mind is so scattered with regret. He wishes he never dated Rumi. He wishes he never got so full of himself. He wishes he wasn’t so stupid, so disgusting, the worst. “...Sorry, Hinata, I don’t want to leave Shikamaru with all of this.”

“I understand.” She smiles to show that she really does. “Both of you are working really hard. I’ll be checking in at home, then, okay?”

Her smile cuts him. He’s obviously not doing the right thing, but what is the right thing in this case? “Alright, I’ll see you later, Hinata.” He watches her turn away, disappear from view. But for now, just for now, he can’t talk to her. She said she understands, right? Can she tell that he doesn’t know what to do or say?

“What a drag. If you’re going to look so forlorn, then why the hell are you staying here?”

His gaze darts to his friend. “I’m not ‘forlorn’!”

Shikamaru presses his hand to his forehead, like he might have a headache. “I don’t want to ask. I’m asking anyway. What happened? You missed her all week, didn’t you?”

“...Yeah.” He frowns at the desk, not wanting to talk about this at all.

“...And?!”

“...And I saw Rumi downstairs.”

“...So?”

“Hinata saw us.”

“........So?! Isn’t that more reason to make sure that Hinata didn’t get the wrong idea?”

Naruto sits up, confused.

“Or are you thinking of breaking up already and going back to Rumi. Is that what happened?”

“No!” He stands, indignant at the suggestion. “Of course not!”

“Then why didn’t you want to talk to Hinata? She just came back from her mission.”

All of the fight drains out of him. “...I don’t know what to say.”

“That’s not like you,” Shikamaru intones. “Out of all of the times to choose to think first and act later, you’re choosing now to hesitate?”

“What do you mean? I just don’t know how to act! Rumi said some stuff in front of everyone, and it was really bad, embarrassing. I’m not hesitating!”

“What did Rumi- No, it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to say or act anything special, Naruto. You should at least just greet Hinata properly.”

“...You’re right.”

“Of course I’m right. Get out of here already,” he sighs.

“Yeah. Sorry, Shikamaru.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he says carelessly and waves him off.

He runs out of the building, and it doesn’t take long at all to catch up. “Hinata!”

She turns at his voice, surprised, but glad. “Naruto-kun!”

He walks in pace with her, energy falling just as quickly. “I’m sorry.”

She frowns. “No? There’s nothing to apologize for. I-I’m sorry for bothering you, I didn’t mean to be impatient.”

“No, I’m sorry for...earlier, and just now...”

The sight of Naruto and Rumi’s confrontation bothered her, but she doesn’t think she should push him about it. She’s not sure it’s her place to ask what happened. But she does want to know if… “Are you okay?”

He shrugs. “Yeah.” He still feels shitty about all of it, but it’s not like Rumi said anything untruthful. He already knows he’s the worst. And at least there’s some reprieve in knowing that...that he disgusts her…

She tries to assess his serious expression. Should she ask? Should she give him space? Do people talk about their exes with their new partner? In the past, he just talked about Kanae without any curiosity on her part, so she’s never had to ask before. “...Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”

She nods silently.

“Ah!!” he shouts in realization. “I didn’t go up to her myself or anything like that, Hinata! She asked me if I was dating you, and I said yes, and then..yeah.”

She stares for a second, surprised by his sudden outburst, but she nods even harder. “I...I kind of thought so.”

He lets out a quiet sigh of relief. He realizes that Hinata could have interpreted everything differently. Like Shikamaru said, she could have suspected he approached Rumi first. But she didn’t. She trusted him. Out of her forgiveness, he somehow didn’t ruin the faith she’s putting into their new relationship. He can't take her patience for granted. He needs to try harder. He needs to do better for Hinata.

He stops in his tracks.

Noticing that he’s not keeping up, she turns around. “Naruto-kun?”

“You know that I’d never cheat on you, right?”

The thought hadn’t occurred to her at all.

“You know that my...previous relationships...don’t compare to this, how I feel for you?”

She feels a blush rise. “...Naruto-kun...you said something similar before…” Of course she didn’t forget!

“I’m sorry I dated them, I wish I never dated them. I wish I realized my feelings for you earlier, and I wish I only had had you this whole time.” The regrets that clamored about his mind rush out, and in his vulnerability, he watches, afraid that he’s only reminding her of his mistakes. Where does she draw the line in her patience? In her forgiveness?

“N-Naruto-kun,” she stutters out, flustered, “I didn’t think you were cheating on me.” It’s true that at the start of their relationship, she told herself to be careful, but he’s since given her the same concentrated attention that he would to a mission. She hasn’t once felt like his affection is a lie.

“Hinata…”

She nods. She swallows down the butterflies. “I get to be with you now, and I’m very happy. I’ve never been happier. So, don’t worry about me.”

Her warm smile sets him at ease. How fortunate is he to have someone like Hinata willing to deal with him? And on top of that, be happy about it? “I hope I can keep you happy. I’ll make sure you’re happy all the time.”

Her expression scrunches up. She doesn’t know whether to smile or reprimand him for such silly yet earnest promises. She can’t handle it. She shakes her head, and looks down. “Naruto-kun, that’s too much.”

Too much? “No, it’s not. It’s my job as your boyfriend.” If she’s not happy with him all the time, then she’ll leave. It’s the very least of his duties!

She meets his gaze again, slightly perplexed. “This isn’t your job, please don’t think of this as your job. When it’s us, it’s just us. Of course, I want to make you happy, too, Naruto-kun, but happiness is something we do together, right? We’re a team?”

“A team…”

“If we have bad days, or if we ever disagree on something, we work through it together, and we come out happier together.”

“Bad days? I’ll never let you have a bad day, Hinata!”

“W-what!” she laughs.

“I’ll protect you from everything bad, and we’ll never fight or argue or anything like that!”

“Naruto-kun!” she protests.

He knows it sounds silly, but he means it. “I never want to make you sad or mad.” ...It strikes him that he’s made this promise before, truly believing he would hold his end up. And he didn't, his words far lighter and more easily broken than he could have ever realized of himself. Now, a heavy shame he doesn't even know how to hold.

“I never want to make you sad or mad, either." She wonders at his sudden downcast expression, if he's still thinking about Rumi, and if he always puts so much pressure on himself for his relationships. She doesn't want to be another weight on his shoulders. She just wants to see his smile. "If you’re happy, then I’m happy.” She gazes up at him, hoping he sees that she needs nothing else.

Before her, his past guilt is forced back so easily. Everything with Hinata is so easy. He would have never known. He hurt Rumi for a reason, he broke that promise because they both have better things to move on to. Each moment with Hinata affirms his decision. No matter how selfish it was, if Hinata's happy, then it was worth it. She makes everything worth it. “I’m happy if you’re happy, too.”

Pink fills her cheeks as her smile brightens.

“Thank you for being my teammate, Hinata.”

She can’t help fidgeting from his sweetness. “Thank you for being my teammate, Naruto-kun.”

He lets her returned affection settle in, calm the vestiges of his anxiety. He’s constantly afraid that he’s going to mess up, but Hinata makes it seem as if he’s been doing fine this whole time.

It makes him hopeful that they will last. Past one month, today, tomorrow, next month, next year. This is only the start, but he’s already made so many promises to make up for everything he's lacking.

At the very least, he needs to prove his word is worth her faith.

That he has love, the real thing, behind each of his pitiful apologies.

He wants to start giving, not always receiving. Even if she says she's already happy, he knows he can do so much more. But how?

#white lilies #naruhina fanfic #naruhina angst #romance #canon divergent au #hanahaki #no the last #naruhina fanfiction #finally #only one more chapter of this fic and i'm done #thank you for reading!!

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britishassistant · 5 years ago

Text

But I Like One Piece (14)

Of course, it’s hardly as simple as that.

“He’s so annoying.” Uchiha says, leaning on the kitchen counter.

It’s a beautiful summer’s day. The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming.

And for some reason only Robin knows, Uchiha’s in her kitchen.

“I tried to keep training last night, and do you know what he said?” Uchiha’s face twists into a sneer. “He said I had to go to bed. At eight-thirty.”

Naruto nods sympathetically as Uchiha waves his arms about in indignation. “I wasn’t even tired! I haven’t gone to bed that early since I was seven!”

“That’s nice.” She says, conscious of the fact that she goes to bed at eight. “Why are you in my house.”

Uchiha flaps an arm at her. “Not important.”

“Get out of my house then.” She tells him.

He shoots her a poisonous look, then sighs.

Uchiha heaves a large bag onto the counter and pushes it towards her. Or tries to anyway. The bag only budges an inch or so.

She steps forward tentatively and looks inside.

And promptly chokes on air.

“Uchiha.” She says seriously. “Do you have any idea what this is?”

Naruto perks up at her tone, craning his head to try and see inside as well.

He shrugs, as though the contents are somehow uninteresting to him. “The label says it’s lamb.”

“I see that.” She says. “But do you know how much a single lamb chop costs at the market? And not even the ones that’ve been freshly imported from Kusagakure.”

Naruto’s brow furrows. “Is it as much as the beef steak?”

She shoots him a wide-eyed look, remembering the cheap, thin cuts that had ended up costing almost a month’s worth of Otou-sama and Okaa-sama’s combined salary. “More.”

Naruto’s mouth drops open, and he stares at the bag with a newfound sense of reverence.

Uchiha shrugs again, with the self-assured air of a child who’s never had to deal with being told that something he wants is too expensive. “I don’t know. It was just outside the compound this morning. I don’t know any recipes for it yet, so I figured you’d get more use out of it.”

She takes another moment to goggle at the huge leg of lamb sitting in the bag, cellophane wrapped and surrounded by ice.

She hasn’t eaten this meat since the Sunday before she died.

She covers her face with her hands and inhales deeply to regain her composure. “Right. Okay.”

She wonders if it would be easier to roast it all before carving, or if she can get away with cutting it up raw and freeze some of it for later use.

Sasuke looks up from griping when she pulls out one of their sharper knives, running a whetstone over it to make sure it’s as sharp as it possibly can be.

She’s decided to chance it on doing the cuts raw—roasting it all in one marinade would limit the types of dishes whose flavors it could be combined with, and Sanji would never stand for that.

She places the meat onto a chopping board, with multiple plates for different cuts and gristle.

Sanji, she prays silently. Please don’t let me make a mess of this.

She carefully begins trimming off the excess fat and gristle off the piece of meat, trying to keep her cuts as neat as possible. She keeps the fat separate from the rest of the refuse for potential use as lard or flavoring.

It’s only once she begins following the sinews to carve a bit of meat away from a bone that’s shaped a bit like the letter “h”.

She deposits one of the filets onto a plate and sets about trying to carve the h-shaped bone out of the joint so she has more room to work.

She ends up with a bit more bone than she’d anticipated, by which she means all of them. The meat that had formerly been attached to them now sits in various unattractive gristle-and-artery-filled lumps.

She sighs, puts the bones to one side for stock or to roast their marrow, and begins her attack on the gristle and arteries.

“How did you do that?” Uchiha asks, leaning away from the counter.

“Do what?” She frowns, looking up.

He waves at the bones. They’re vaguely pinkish from the fluids of the meat, but have been scraped clean of every last scrap of flesh, she’s proud to say.

She shrugs. “I don’t know. I’ll be honest, I barely have any idea what I’m doing.”

Uchiha purses his lips, calculating. “So...could you do it to an opponent?”

She shoots him an unimpressed look. “Sure, because a squirming person is gonna lie as still as this and let me carve them up. All that’d happen is my knife would get nicked, and I’d have to get it repaired.”

She adopts the same reprimanding tone the teacher uses to tell her off. “Kitchen tools are for the kitchen, Uchiha. We don’t play around with them.”

Naruto snickers at Uchiha’s put-out expression as he groans. “Don’t. You sound just like him.”

“Is living with him really that bad?” Naruto asks, as the gristle begins piling up on the plate.

Uchiha’s face does something complicated. “...He’s better than Anko.”

“So is a goldfish.” She replies. “That’s not really a high bar to clear.”

“He’s better than the others too.” Uchiha allows, grudgingly. “At least he pays attention to me and asks me what I want. And doesn’t talk to me like I’m three.”

Naruto nods encouragingly while the lumps turn into neatish little cubes and filets.

“But he keeps telling me to do stuff.” Uchiha whines, before he tries to drop his voice to imitate the teacher’s. “Sasuke-kun, take a break. Sasuke-kun, cook something without tomatoes. Sasuke-kun, put your clothes in the laundry instead of the garbage. Sasuke-kun, take a bath this week. Sasuke-kun, stop training so hard. Sasuke-kun, be careful with that kunai. Sasuke-kun, go to bed.”

“Do you do all the cooking?” She asks, curious.

Uchiha shoots her a flat look. “Iruka can boil rice and grill mackerel. He said it was an achievement, because he used to make it blow up when he was younger.”

Naruto squints in confusion as most of the food goes into plastic containers and into the fridge while the waste goes into the bin. “The rice or the fish?”

Uchiha pulls a face as sweet potatoes, a red pepper, and several tomatoes appear on the counter. “I didn’t ask.”

She finds herself pulling out a large wok and filling the bottom with olive oil, less cumin than she would’ve liked, plenty of rosemary, and salt and pepper.

She heats up the oil and herb mixture, then drops in the cubed lamb that was left out. “Well, he’s probably just trying to keep you strong.” She says diplomatically, tossing the sweet potatoes and a peeler to Naruto.

He dutifully begins peeling.

“How is me going to bed at eight-thirty making me stronger?” Uchiha stresses, nose wrinkling.

She catches the potato that Naruto tosses back, cubing it and dropping it in the wok before turning to catch the second. “Well, sleep helps your brain develop. If you don’t get enough now, then you’ll be dumb later in life.”

Uchiha gives her a glare that’s truly withering. “You’ll be dumb too if you keep shying away from chakra.”

She frowns, flicking some juice from the pepper at him and snickering as he recoils. “Good meals and good rest make your body stronger. It helps with growth, muscle and brain development.”

Uchiha still looks disbelieving so she adds, “It’s why you’ll be stronger than that man when you get to his age.”

There’s no sounds other than the hiss of diced tomatoes hitting the pan.

“How.” Uchiha hisses, eyes alight with obsession.

She briefly contemplates that that may have been the wrong thing to say as she places a lid on the wok to let the ingredients simmer and puts the rice on.

“Well, he’s a war criminal now, right?” She says.

“Missing nin.” He replies.

“Whatever.” She says. “Point is, nobody wants to work with somebody who’s done what he’s done, not even criminals. So he probably can’t get work, and doesn’t have a steady income. And Konoha has a bounty on his head, so he’s got to evade bounty hunters looking to collect on the reward constantly.”

“And?” Uchiha interrupts, eyeing her disdainfully.

Naruto tilts his head as the meal is stirred and tasted. “Wait.” He says. “How’s that guy gonna get food then?”

“Ex-actly.” She says proudly, nodding to him. “He can’t. He can hardly sleep either, because, y’know, bounty hunters. And I don’t care how good a ninja someone is, no one functions well on continuous food and sleep deprivation. Especially not compared to someone who’s been getting plenty of rest and three square meals a day.”

“That man doesn’t need any of that.” Uchiha’s voice is coated in scorn. “He’s too strong!”

She raises an unimpressed eyebrow. “No matter how strong he is, he’s still mortal. He needs to eat like everyone else, Uchiha.”

“No he doesn't!” Uchiha’s voice cracks on the last word.

Her mouth snaps shut, a reassurance about his brother potentially lying dead in a ditch somewhere suddenly seeming very unwise.

Uchiha stares at his clenched fists, minute tremors shaking his form.

Naruto reaches out slowly and grips his shoulder until the trembling stops.

Wordlessly, the rice and the lamb dish is plated up.

She places one plate in front of Naruto and one in front of Uchiha, putting a lid on the rest for Otou-san and Okaa-san, and Gai and Lee if they end up dropping by for lunch.

She rummages around for chopsticks, tossing two sets to the boys and grabbing one for herself.

There’s a quiet murmur of “itadakimasu” before they all begin eating while standing up.

Naruto’s eyes light up. “This is really good Mayu-chan, believe it!”

She smiles bashfully as she chews. The lamb goes nicely with the spicier flavors, unsurprisingly, but she hadn’t known that it would work this well with the tomato.

Uchiha doesn’t look at her when he asks, “What’s the recipe?”

She’s about to rib that he just watched her make this in front of him, he should pay more attention to what’s happening under his nose—

But she’s suddenly drawing a blank.

What did she put in this?

There’s tomato and lamb and sweet potato and pepper, yes, but there are also some other browned pieces of meat that taste spicy-sweet when she bites into them. It compliments the lamb very well, and she’d be proud of that if she could remember cooking it.

The sauce is far too liquid for the ingredients she recalls putting in the wok to have produced it, and the flavors are too complex for the few spices she added—she’s heard of foods working well together, but not to the point of carrying hints of things that weren’t in the dish in the first place.

Her chewing slows and she wonders if it would count as wasting food if she stops Naruto and Uchiha from eating any more of it.

“I’m back!” Okaa-san calls.

Naruto burbles a “welcome back!” through his stuffed cheeks, while Uchiha just ducks his head and grunts quietly.

She shoves her moral dilemma to the back of her mind to avoid worrying her mother.

Okaa-san goes to hug Naruto, but pauses in the middle of the action.

She sniffs the air, inhaling deeply and wrinkling her nose. “Mayu-chan, are the windows open?”

She shakes her head. “No, Okaa-san.”

Okaa-san goes and tries the windows and the door to the back garden, and then leaves to do the same in the living room, and then upstairs.

She comes back into the kitchen frowning hard.

“None of you let anyone enter or leave while me and Otou-san and Gai-sensei were out, did you?” She asks, looking deeply troubled. “Naruto-kun, Uchiha-san?”

The two boys shake their heads in tandem.

“What’s wrong, Okaa-san?” She asks, absent-mindedly chewing another bit of lamb.

“It’s just—” Her mother shakes her head. “It stinks of cigarette smoke in here.”

It’s probably a good thing she’s swallowed her mouthful.

Otherwise her sudden coughing fit would’ve ended up wasting the mystery food and she’s suddenly pretty certain she does not want to do that, even on accident.

The smell’s faded a bit by the time Gai-sensei and Otou-san get home, but not enough to be unnoticeable.

Because apparently there’s an undercurrent of brine to the scent that has her sweating nervously, wondering about the power of faith and its effects on reality and whether or not she’s finally snapped and is hallucinating the whole thing.

Thankfully, no one aside from Naruto seems to notice her silent panic, because they’re all too busy discussing the possibility of ninja from Kiri infiltrating their house for reasons unknown.

Okaa-san is especially worried, because she apparently hasn’t heard from her family since they moved to Konoha.

This is strange, considering that her mother’s family is a merchant group that does business on nearly every shore of the continent, and one of them was bound to have figured out where they were by now.

Okaa-san and Otou-san debate softly over whether they should try contacting their maternal relatives to see if something’s happened as they all wait outside.

Meanwhile a ninja in a green jacket like Gai-sensei’s and one dressed in black that steers clear of Uchiha go through their house, looking for an intruder that seemingly appeared from and vanished into thin air.

Iruka-sensei quickly arrives to take Uchiha home, with some of the lamb in plastic containers and instructions on what herbs it would be good to roast the meat with.

She would’ve demonstrated, but she doesn’t quite trust herself not to break down crying at the scent yet. Plus, you know, home investigation. Sort of puts a dampner on that kind of thing.

Even Kiba’s mum and her dog come along to join the fun.

The dog ducks his head to her and Naruto in greeting while Kiba’s mum flashes a toothy grin that’s a lot like her son’s.

That grin doesn’t last long.

A lot of growls begin coming from the house, and she thinks she might hear the sound of something breaking, before the dog slips out the front door and over to them.

Gai-sensei seems to know what’s happening, because he leans down a little so he’s on the dog’s level, holding his hands out, palm-up.

The dog sniffs his hands, his arms, and his chest, then moves on to Otou-san, who’s a little befuddled, but mimics Gai-sensei.

The dog is very careful around his bandage-less hands.

Then the dog moves onto Okaa-san, then Naruto, where he pauses and sniffs her best friend a little closer. Naruto giggles a little at the press of the dog’s wet nose.

She presents her own palms next.

The dog leans in and sniffs.

Then he whuffs and tells her, “Inhale through your nose and out through your mouth.”

She blinks in confusion, glancing at Gai-sensei, who nods encouragingly.

So she does as the dog asks, watching as he sniffs the air again.

His doggy brows draw down over his doggy eyes, and he lopes back towards the house.

She shifts nervously, feeling several pairs of eyes boring into her.

Kiba’s mum storms out after her dog within a few minutes. The woman inhales in front of her, nose twitching in a manner not dissimilar to her ninken’s.

“Welp.” She says. “Kid, you reek of that shitty scent. But you haven’t been smoking, or near any bodies of saltwater recently. Kuromaru can easily tell that.”

“That’s right.” Otou-san says, glancing warily between her and Kiba’s mum.

Kiba’s mum sighs. “Well, until Aburame gets here to do his shit, best we can tell is that this fucker somehow infiltrated and stuck to your daughter like creepy, perverted glue before vanishing like a fucking spirit.”

Okaa-san reaches out to grab her shoulder, face twisted at more than just Kiba’s mom’s profanity. “Should we consider alternate lodging for the night? Just in case the—the intruder comes back?”

Kiba’s mum shrugs. “Got anywhere that you can stay?”

Okaa-san bites her lip. Otou-san rubs the back of his neck as he thinks.

“I would gladly lend my living quarters to you should you need it, Chie-san, Jirou-san!” Gai-sensei exclaims.

Both of her parents go dark pink and begin stuttering about how they couldn’t possibly intrude on his living space like that, they wouldn’t want to cause any trouble—

“Gai, you live in the Jounin Quarters.” Kiba’s mum says, one eyebrow raised. “You can’t even keep a dog in those apartments.”

Gai-sensei pouts at that, so she volunteers, “I could always sleep over with Naruto so there’s more space, or we could see if Sakura and her parents could have us?”

Okaa-san looks considering, but Otou-san purses his lips. “Would they be able to defend themselves and escape unharmed if the intruder followed us?”

“But what if it wasn’t an intruder?” Naruto pipes up. “What if it was Sanji?”

A cold sweat breaks out on the back of her neck.

Kiba’s mum looks over to her so fast she’s surprised the woman doesn’t get whiplash.

“That name mean anything to you, kid?” She says, far too casually to really be casual.

She shifts under the sensation of eyes again. “‘S a character from a comic I like. One Piece. He’s a pirate chef.”

She hears the smack of a hand meeting a face, and her mother muttering, “of course he is”.

Kiba’s mum raises an eyebrow. “Never heard of that comic before. And I coulda sworn that Kiba has copies of damn near every series in Fire Country. Know where he could get a copy of this one?”

“No.” She says, trying to make her voice smooth and confident like Robin’s would be, and stop it from quivering like Usopp’s. “It’s been a long time since I last read it. I haven’t been able to find any copies in recent years.”

Kiba’s mum nods, like this is perfectly reasonable. “Shame. And this Sanji character—you like him?”

“He’s my favorite.” She mumbles, cheeks flaming.

“Yeah! He’s really strong, but he only fights with his feet because he needs to protect his hands, believe it!” Naruto enthuses. “And he smokes cigarettes all the time, and he can cook a ten course meal with barely any ingredients, and he’s super smart and sneaky. He’s kinda useless about girls though, believe it.”

She grimaces, commiserating. “Yeah, he falls in love with every pretty girl he sees and refuses to hurt them, even if one’s his opponent. It’s kinda annoying, but he’d be too cool if he wasn’t dumb in some way, so, eh.” She shrugs her shoulders.

Then she makes the mistake of looking up at Otou-san and Okaa-san and Gai-sensei.

The expression on their faces can only be called knowing, and it makes her want to run inside and curl up in her bed and never come out again, ever.

She almost doesn’t hear it when Kiba’s mum asks, “You’ve never met anyone who matches this description in real life?”

She shakes her head. “Of course not. He doesn’t exist here, after all.”

Then the adults stiffen, and she gets the vague impression that she’s said something she shouldn’t have.

She and Naruto are sent back into the house with Kuromaru-san.

She turns back and sees Kiba’s mum discussing something very seriously with her parents and Gai-sensei before Kuromaru-san whuffs and shepherds her into the house with his wet nose.

It feels very ticklish, and she has to stifle slightly hysterical giggles.

“Hey Mayu-chan.” Naruto mutters as they climb the stairs. “How come you said Sanji doesn’t exist here?”

She blinks.

Ah.

Um.

“Be-because he doesn’t. He exists in the world of One Piece, but that world and this world are two separate things. That’s all.” She’s momentarily thankful to all those essays she had to write for her major which allowed her to BS on her feet like this.

There’s a snort from the dog behind her. “It’s not a question of existence if he’s a comic book character. He’s fictional, he’s not alive.”

She does not point out that technically Kuromaru-san and Naruto are also fictional comic book characters and therefore should not be alive by the dog’s logic.

They end up sitting in her room, safely out of the way of the investigation, waving at the ninja who walk past the door and occasionally pulling faces at them when Kuromaru-san isn’t looking.

The ninja in green with something in his mouth pulls faces right back, and it becomes a sort of challenge to see who can go the longest without getting caught.

Kuromaru-san bares the whole ordeal with remarkably good grace, all things considered.

They soon grow tired of this game and of waiting with nothing to do, and end up curled up on her bed to doze in the late afternoon sun.

Nothing is found.

Even Shino’s dad is stumped, his insects buzzing aimlessly around the house in search of something that’s not there.

It’s decided that they may as well stay in the house for the moment, because there’s nothing to suggest that whoever-it-was is limited by geographic location.

For some reason, everyone keeps looking at her when they say that.

Gai-sensei takes the time to set up lots of traps around every window and doorway to ensure the house is well protected before he walks Naruto home.

Otou-san and Okaa-san insist on her sleeping with them in the big bed that night.

She waits until she can hear them breathing softly in sleep.

Sanji, she prays silently. If that was you helping me out earlier, then thank you very, very much for your assistance. The meal was really, really delicious and I’m honored I got to cook with you. But, maybe, if it’s not too much trouble, could you maybe be a little bit sneakier if you honor me with your help out again? Like when you were Mister Prince, because Otou-san and Okaa-san and Gai-sensei got really freaked out when they thought someone broke in. Thank you for everything again. I think you’re amazing, no matter what Zoro says.

She could swear she hears a gentle chuckle as she falls asleep.

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thegizka · 6 years ago

Text

Lazy Evasion (fic)

Shikamaru would rather jump out a window than pay attention during lessons.

Written for Shikamaru Week 2019 Day 7: Free Day.

Read it on Ao3.

School was such a drag. They honestly expected kids to sit in one spot for hours while Iruka-sensei droned on about chakra control and not fall asleep? Yeah right! Obviously they didn’t understand the attention span of the average twelve year old. But that wouldn’t stop his mother from yelling at him when she found out he had to stay after class for detention.

“What am I going to do with you four?” Iruka-sensei sighed, rubbing his forehead.

“You could just do nothing,” Shikamaru mumbled. He earned a hard look in reply.

“Come on Sensei, just let us go home,” Kiba whined, Akamaru echoing his tone.

“I can’t do that. You are all falling behind because you’re not paying attention in class, and it’s my job to get you to graduation with the rest of your peers. So we need to find a solution.”

Shikamaru exchanged a glance with his best friend Chouji who was munching on some peanuts he had stashed in his pockets during lunch. It seemed awfully silly that their sensei thought the same solution would work for all four of them. He was nothing like Naruto, who blatantly disrespected authority and acted out for attention, or Kiba, who had difficulty sitting still and focusing on anything he didn’t find interesting. He wasn’t even like his best friend whose insatiable hunger was often a distraction. Shikamaru simply didn’t care enough to put in the effort.

“Look, we have a practice test at the end of next week to see whether you’re on track to graduate. As it stands, you four are almost definitely going to fail.”

“Hey!” Naruto cried, indignant. “I’ll pass! I’m going to become Hokage someday. Believe it!”

Iruka-sensei looked about as tired as Shikamaru felt. He sighed heavily.

“Leading up to the exam, you four will stay after class an extra half hour every day for additional lessons and review.”

“You’re kidding!” Kiba glowered. “There’s no way you can do that!”

“Unless you can prove to me that you’re actually learning what I’m teaching, yes, I can and I will.”

“I can prove that I already know everything important about being a shinobi!” Naruto declared, moving over to the window. “Watch me disappear!”

“Come on Akamaru, we’re out of here,” Kiba cried, following him out the window.

“Wait for me!” Chouji scrambled to follow. With a sigh, Shikamaru followed, Iruka-sensei shouting at them to come back. There was no way he was sticking around to listen to the lecture alone. That would be such a drag.

Since none of them had any plan when they escaped, they ended up sticking together, moving as a tiny mob tearing through the village.

“Iruka-sensei’s going to come looking for us,” Chouji panted.

“We should find somewhere to hide!” Shikamaru suggested, hoping that would mean an end to the running. He didn’t like using so much energy.

“Got any suggestions?” Kiba asked, slowing his pace.

“The Hokage faces have all sorts of hidden corners and things,” Naruto said.

“He’d catch us before we got there,” Shikamaru disagreed.

“We could go to my house,” Chouji offered.

“Your mom would ask too many questions and then yell at us. Besides, Iruka-sensei will probably check our houses if he can’t find us in the village.”

“Well do you have any ideas?” Kiba challenged.

“Where is he least likely to look for us?”

“His house!” Naruto cried excitedly. That idea hadn’t actually crossed Shikamaru’s mind.

“You know where he lives?” he asked curiously.

“No, I figured you did.”

“I meant the academy,” Shikamaru admitted.

“That’s a great idea!” Chouji beamed, always ready to back up his best friend. Kiba grinned, too.

“We just ran away from there. He’ll never expect us to go right back.”

“Then let’s go!” Naruto redirected their charge, leading them back towards the academy. They slowed as they approached, remembering that a lot of the senseis would still be cleaning up and preparing for tomorrow’s lessons.

“Where exactly should we go?” Kiba panted. “The roof?”

“No, we’d be too easy to spot.”

“A classroom?” suggested Chouji. Shikamaru shook his head, turning over options in his head. What space was rarely used and far enough away from the main halls to minimize the possibility of detection?

“The training room,” he finally decided. “I doubt anyone would look for us there.”

“Let’s go!” Naruto began heading into the school yard, but his companions pulled him back into the bushes where they had paused to formulate their plan.

“We have to be careful not to be detected, or we’ll be back to square one,” Shikamaru hissed. “Kiba, can you and Akamaru stay alert and let us know if any of the adults are around?”

“Leave it to us!” Akamaru barked in agreement. Both raised their noses to sniff the air, picking through the different scents permeating the school yard. “We should be clear to the doors.”

“Alright, go quickly but don’t rush, and try to keep stuff between you and the windows. Someone might glance outside and spot us.”

They approached carefully. It was common for village kids to hang around the school yard and play into the evening while their parents finished work, so hopefully they wouldn’t look particularly suspicious sauntering over to the academy building. Naruto, ever impatient, sped to their destination and had to wait for the others, trying to subtly encourage them to hurry. Shikamaru wondered if he could actually do anything subtly as his efforts were earning several weird looks from some of the other kids. If he blew their cover, it would be a huge drag.

“Dude, knock it off,” Kiba growled when they caught up. “What if one of the senseis spotted you?”

“Well obviously they didn’t!” he shot back. “If you guys had moved faster, we could already be in the training room.”

Kiba rolled his eyes. “Out of the way.” He cracked open the door so he and Akamaru could stick their noses through, sniffing to see if the coast was clear. With a nod to the others, they slipped inside.

The halls were quiet as they tiptoed through them, passing closed doors to classrooms from which senseis could spring and catch them. They let Akamaru lead the way, trusting him to alert them of any approaching adults. They did have to duck into a bathroom and wait for a pair of senseis to pass once, but they reached the training room without any major hiccups.

“All right!” Naruto whooped, racing around the large, empty room.

“Quiet down! Just because we made it here doesn’t mean someone won’t hear us and come investigating,” Shikamaru cautioned.

“Kiba will just warn us if anyone comes near, right Kiba?”

“I’m not a walking shinobi detector. Why don’t you stand by the door and keep watch?”

“As long as we don’t do anything obnoxious, I think we should be fine.” Shikamaru slumped onto the floor and closed his eyes.

“Wait, are you taking a nap?” Kiba asked. “Don’t you sleep enough in class?”

“No. Chouji, pass me a chip.”

Chouji had snagged a potato chip bag from somewhere while they were in transit and now offered one to his friend. He seemed to make snacks appear out of thin air. Shikamaru liked to believe he had secretly mastered the teleportation jutsu and summoned food when he was hungry.

“Ooh, can I have some?” Naruto asked.

“Sure.”

Soon they were all gathered around the snacks, relaxing and chatting. Shikamaru only half paid attention. Naruto and Kiba bickered loudly, Chouji tried to keep the peace, and he just thought about what a drag this was. Lounging around not having to worry about lessons or chores was great of course, but he was fairly certain Iruka-sensei would visit their parents and tell them about his escape and the extra lessons. His mother would come up with an incredible scolding for him that evening. His father would have to take her side. He’d be forced to put in enough effort to pass the test. The next few weeks were going to be a HUGE drag.

“Hey Shikamaru,” Kiba interjected, nudging him with his foot. “I don’t get it. You’re decently smart, right?”

He cracked open an eye and raised an eyebrow.

“I mean, you figured out where we could hide and thought about how to avoid the senseis. So why do you sleep through class? Why not do the work so you don’t have to bother with Iruka-sensei’s lectures?”

“Because it’s work,” he drawled.

“Shikamaru’s the laziest person I know,” Chouji told them. “He hates work.”

“But isn’t it more work to have to do extra lessons?” Naruto asked.

“You tell me,” Shikamaru grinned. “We’re in the same position, aren’t we? Besides, as soon as you start putting in a little effort, they heap more and more responsibility on you and expect you to put in even more effort. I’d rather not bother with any of it.”

“You know, that makes a lot of sense,” Naruto mused.

“Does it now?”

“Iruka-sensei!” Chouji cried, grabbing up all of his snacks as they jumped to their feet.

“Get back here you hooligans!”

They dodged around his outstretched arms and careened down the halls, shouting and laughing as their sensei gave chase. The few senseis who were still in the building poked their heads through the doorways to watch them tear through the halls. A few joined Iruka-sensei, but by the time they burst through the academy doors, the runaways had split up and were disappearing into the village.

Shikamaru ran a few blocks before dropping back to his usual saunter. Iruka-sensei was probably already tired of chasing them for the day and unlikely to follow them. He felt a little bad for giving their well-meaning sensei the runaround, but spending the afternoon relaxing had been much more satisfying than extra lessons. He just hoped his mother wouldn’t be too angry when he arrived home. Maybe he would wander around for a while longer to put that off. He just knew it was going to be a real drag.

#shikamaruweek2019 #gizka #my words #nara shikamaru #akimichi chouji #uzumaki naruto #inuzuka kiba #akamaru #umino iruka #iruka definitely says hooligans unironically #also sometimes I forget shikamaru was a terrible student #I love it #slacker squad #naruto

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sufferthesea · 8 years ago

Note

Can you do some headcanons for Kakashi, Iruka, and Gai and if they started getting love notes from a secret admirer?

asdfghjkl you’re like the sweetest person ever!!! I love you!! 🍓 Also this is so me, you have no idea.

Hey guess who can’t write short stuff? It me. These always turn into headcanon-scenarios. But it’s not going under the cut, sorry! Please forgive misspellings and errors. I started watching Death Note on a whim while editing this.

KAKASHI, IRUKA AND GAI GETTING LOVE NOTES FROM AN ADMIRER

KAKASHI

I feel like Kakashi isn’t a stranger to randos fawning over him. Either they’re in awe because “it’s Kakashi, the Copy Ninja!”, or they somehow sneak a peek at him maskless, or they spend 30 seconds around him (let’s face it, he’s that cool) but he doesn’t think about it much because it’s all very shallow to him. He doesn’t like the attention and most people don’t know the “real Kakashi”, so he feels that most people’s idea of him is very false and inaccurate. His mindset is, “They love me for who they’ve made me out to be, but they would hate me for who I actually am.”

When Kakashi first finds a love note from a secret admirer, he’s not sure what to do about it. He’s gotten confessions of love before but he’s always ignored them because - as stated - they’re seemingly shallow and only confess to loving the person everyone thinks he is. But this letter seems different - it doesn’t gush about his abilities, or how sexy he is because of the air of mystery around him, or simply fangirl because he’s Kakashi of the Sharingan. The letter doesn’t try to explain away his issues (”I know you’re like this because of what happened, but …”) and it doesn’t come across as someone with a savior complex (”I know that if you let me, I can heal you with my love!”) so he’s pretty intrigued. Who is this person? How do they know him, and how have they managed to cut through all the nonsense the village praises him for?

It kind of scares him if this person seems to know a truer version of Kakashi. He’s afraid of being found out, afraid of people seeing he’s scared and weak and royally messed up. But he’s also drawn to this mysterious writer - how did they manage to see right through him? Does he know them? And he’s really curious depending on where he finds the letter. If it’s delivered to him through the post, he’ll figure it’s just someone who’s seen him on his walk home/has known him for a while and knows where he lives. If it’s given to him via a teammate or by the Hokage during a meeting, he’ll be kind of suspicious. (”How do they know who I’m working with? Is it … one of them?” Then he’ll study all the people he’s working with or that passes in and out of the Hokage building and see if any of their eyes linger a bit too long on him.) If he finds it in his book or his gear, he’ll be bound and determined to find out who it is because how the heck did they get into his stuff without him noticing?!

After a couple of notes (and failed attempts to figure out who it is), Kakashi has 2 tactics he goes for. The first is to enlist Pakkun and the rest of his ninken into sniffing out the culprit. He’ll give them the letters to pick up the scent and then send them off into the village. The ninken try to pick up clues in the note (if there is any perfume or lotions, or certain smells that’d only be present at a particular shop or area of Konoha - such as ramen or varnish or flowers). (But I imagine the letter writer is too scared about being discovered, so each and every letter smells different and the ninken can’t figure out who it is for the life of them. How many different perfumes and lotions does this person own? Do they write these at restaurants and cafes? “LISTEN KAKASHI, FIVE PEOPLE HAVE HANDLED THIS LETTER BEFORE YOU GOT IT, OKAY? THE ORIGINAL SCENT IS GONE. SO UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO CHASE DOWN THE MAILMAN LIKE SOME KIND OF COMMON DOG, YOU’RE NOT GOING TO FIGURE THIS OUT.”)

His other tactic is to leave his own notes where he’s found the love letters. If they’re in his stuff, he figures that the person will find his notes when they go to hide theirs. He’ll tuck some into his scroll pouches, pockets, in the pages of Icha Icha, wherever he found them. (But he’s kind of nervous about it and doesn’t want the person to miss his letter - so he’ll leave another piece of paper that says something like “Check front left pocket” or “Go to page 138”, asdghjkl Kakashi that defeats the purpose of “finding” the letter on your own!!)

If it’s delivered through the post, he’ll hand over his own letter to the mailman and say, “Give this to the person who sends me these notes.” (But that’s super vague and Kakashi gets a lot of mail from people - even though he hardly reads it, and it sits in a pile on his table - so the mailman is like “??? Sure??” and there’s a 100% chance it ends up going to someone like Kotetsu or Gai or even Tsunade and everyone is really confused and Kakashi is horrified because they’ve just read his love letter?!?!? It happened like once, and Kakashi is now so paranoid and embarrassed that he either stops this idea altogether or gives the mailman the most serious, deadpan look and says, “GIVE THIS TO THE PERSON WHO SENDS ME THESE *flips love note*, OKAY?”)

(Or he’ll write a note and give it to Lady Tsunade and just say, “This … goes to whoever’s been leaving me notes …” And she’s like, “Uh-huh … You know, you’d think with all of your capabilities, you’d have found out who it is by now.” And he’s like, “?? Wait, do YOU know?” And she’s like, “Hello? I give you these letters all the time; I sit in this office all day and see who comes in and out of the building from that window. For a guy who can copy every jutsu with his Sharingan, you sure aren’t all that observant. Maybe if you uncovered that half of your face for a while you’d be able to see who it is. But it’s none of my business …”)

Kakashi is basically just a huge dork and tries to play it cool but inside he’s freaking out because there’s somebody out there in the village who is leaving him love notes and it’s driving him insane because he DOESN’T KNOW WHO IT IS. He knows he tells a lot of people to “let things go”, but this is something he needs to know and he probably won’t stop until he finds his secret admirer. (And when he FINALLY finds them, he’s so flippin’ nervous he’ll mess things up and that once they spend time around him they’ll realize he’s a loser and give up, so he almost wishes he hadn’t figured it out.)

IRUKA

Iruka has had his fair share of women flirting with him. Usually single moms, aunts, or grannies of the kids in his class that show up during Parent-Teacher Conferences/school events (like graduation), but that’s about it. He is pretty oblivious with most of the flirting tactics the women employ, but a few of the more bolder ones make him a little nervous so he tries his best to brush them off. (”Dinner? Oh, aha ha ha … I’m sorry but I’m incredibly busy grading homework tonight … and for the rest of the week. But I’ll see you at the next Parent-Teacher Conference!”) What a dork. (He hates this memory, but half of his coworkers will randomly bring up the time a drunk obaasan was having a good time at one of the village’s summer festivals and followed him around all night, pinching his face, grabbing his butt, and playing with his ponytail. Genma volunteered him to “walk the poor woman home” at the end of the night and Iruka was horrified to find out how strong such a small and old woman was, because he had to basically fight her off when she tried to drag him inside. RIP.)

When Iruka first gets a love note from a secret admirer, his first thought is, “Oh, please don’t let it be a student.” He’s very likable and personable and more than one student has developed a crush on him. It’s always a little awkward for him but he does his best to discourage them and let them down gently. So when he reads the note and sees that the handwriting and the level of skill the writing took, he gives a huge sigh of relief because oh my gosh, it’s not a student, thank goodness. But now he has a new question - who IS it from? Another teacher? A parent? (Urck, he’s not sure how he feels about dating a student’s mom tbh.) Someone else? His list of suspects narrows depending on where he found it - in his desk drawer, hidden between a stack of ungraded homework assignments, or delivered to his classroom by a teacher’s aide.

The note makes him quite flustered, ngl. Whether it’s super articulate and poetic, or just a short and blunt note, he’s blushing like mad because someone out there took the time to write it and leave it for him to find. (For a moment he thinks it’s a mistake and it’s meant for another teacher but - nope! His name is on the front, it’s definitely for him. He also wonders if it’s a prank by his co-workers since they know how he feels about women flirting with him but something about this seems genuine.) He hides his note somewhere close - either on his person or in his bag - and thinks about it for the rest of the day until he can do some investigative work.

Iruka is, like, 10000x more per perceptive now and he pays attention to everything and everyone. He needs to know if his admirer left the note themselves, or if they had someone else drop it off. He’s almost suspicious of anyone who comes by his classroom and even briefly thinks that one of the kids was employed by their parent to hide the note in his desk. He has so many wild conspiracies running through his head, and he seems a bit like a madman. (Like … imagine the Pepe Silvia scene from It’s Always Sunny.) So anyway, he mostly watches intently and keeps track of who comes into his classroom, who has access to his papers, and who seems to be acting strange. (It drives him absolutely bonkers if he finds ANOTHER love note and didn’t even see anyone leave it!! How could he miss it?!)

People at the Academy notice how weird he’s acting and he finally breaks down and confesses to one or two close friends that he’s been trying to figure out who’s leaving him notes (he may or may not leave out the “love” part). They agree to help him figure it out, but they think this is really funny because of how stressed and flattered he is. Mostly they’re not much help because they end up delivering a few love letters to Iruka hidden between copies of assignments, shrug and say, “Oh I don’t know, I got this from so-and-so in the break room. Must’ve been stuck in there earlier.” They have their own suspicions but don’t say anything because it’s more fun to let him figure it out.

Finally Iruka is near his breaking point, so he ends up stalking around the Academy, practically harassing everyone there as he watches their every move. He hangs around the break room and copy room, watching with eagle eyes to see anyone shuffling love letters into his mailbox or papers. 90% of the teachers have no idea what’s going on, and the people who do know think it’s hilarious and terrifying.

Lord help the person Iruka catches hiding the love notes in his papers. He runs over to them, grabs the note, shoves it in their face, laughing hysterically as he says, “I CAUGHT YOU! FINALLY! IT WAS YOU THE WHOLE TIME!” If the person he caught is only the delivery person for the secret admirer, they’d probably quit right then. (”Are you sure you like this guy? He’s so weird. You should’ve seen him when he saw me with your letter! I’m never doing that again!!”) They’d also straight up tell him, “Yeah, I left them for you but I didn’t write them. And I took a vow of silence so I can’t tell you who they’re from.” And after a lot of confusion and begging on Iruka’s part, the delivery person would give up and say, “OKAY. I can’t tell you who it is but if you write a letter, I can get it to them …” (Cue the fastest letter writing in the history of the world and Iruka frantically saying, “Here! Take it! Let me know what they say!”)

If it IS the secret admirer he’s caught, they’re probably horrified - especially since Iruka wasn’t very subtle and there were other people in the room with them … and now they’re all staring … and now they all know they were writing love notes … to Iruka … It’s so embarrassing omg. But once he’s calmed down, he’s blushing again because this is the person who was writing love notes to him oh my gosh they’re so cute !!! and he gets enough sense in him to talk to them in private and ask about the letters, and about themselves, and he’s still so confused why they like him but he’s happy he found them - and everyone else is happy too because HE FINALLY STOPPED FOLLOWING THEM AROUND AND WATCHING THEIR EVERY MOVE, THEY’RE FINALLY FREE!!! Iruka gets a little overzealous sometimes …

MAITO GAI

First reaction: crying about how youthful it is to receive love notes. Second reaction: a hearty chuckle of success because he realizes no one can resist the Green Beast of Konoha. Third reaction: he shoves the letter into Kakashi’s face and asks, “Did YOU receive such a youthful and lovely letter, filled to the brim with kind words and compliments, signed anonymously - too shy to reveal their true selves?! There is something so wonderful about the unsure confession of love by a secret admirer.” Everyone is in shock that not only does someone like Gai, but they’re actually writing him love notes.

Gai is probably the type to make an assumption about who wrote the letter, find himself around them, give a “knowing” laugh when they say/do something contradictory to liking him, wink, give a thumbs up and say, “Don’t worry about it … We both know the truth. There’s no need to be shy!” And they ?? have no idea ?? what he’s talking about ?? (Tenten looks on in secondhand embarrassment, trying to gingerly break the news, “Gai-sensei … I don’t think it was them …” Gai is confused because, no - he’s sure it’s them. Right? It’s obvious. They’re just shy! Gai they’re not shy, they’re wondering why the Green Beast of Konoha is trying to make the moves on them when they have done absolutely nothing to indicate that they’re interested.)

Rock Lee is just as invested in this as Gai because he thinks it’s so lovely; Neji is wondering who in the world would send a love note to his teacher; Tenten very surprised but also intrigued; they all end up helping Gai find his secret admirer because they’re all curious (and Gai definitely sees this as an opportunity to turn it into a training exercise in information gathering, stealth tactics, and teamwork - as well as trying to one-up Kakashi by proving that he too has hoards of fangirls). (”Gai-sensei, it was ONE note …”)

Gai’s secret admirer would have to be pretty creative and sneaky to get the notes to him if they didn’t want to get caught, especially now that he’s looking for them. They probably do something ridiculous like tie the note to a bird, set the bird off towards the training fields, train the bird to steal something/pester the genin or Gai until they can’t take it anymore so they’ll grab the bird and find the note (all the while the secret admirer watches from a distance as Gai reads the letter). Or they tack love letters on the trees all along the path Gai takes when he jogs in the morning, so that only he can find them. He is both in awe by their dedication, and really impressed because only he and Rock Lee get up that early to train - so this person knows his schedule pretty well. (Is it really a crush if you haven’t stalked them a little bit?)

Gai respects boundaries and he understands some people are more reserved about their feelings (he’s been friends with Kakashi since forever), so he won’t try to do anything to embarrass or publicly out his secret admirer. As stated above, he may get a little ahead of himself and start hinting towards someone that he knows it’s them - even if it’s not. But as soon as he understands that’s not the person, he backs off and apologizes, saying, “I’m sorry - I thought you were the person I’d been corresponding with.” (He doesn’t want so many other people to know this person has a crush on him - it’s not his secret to tell, so he tells little lies like that they’re a penpal or something.)

He isn’t super perturbed if he can’t immediately find this secret admirer. There are some moments when he clenches his fist in frustration because he just wants to meet them - but he also enjoys the surprise of finding a new letter for him on the training field, waiting for him at the counter of a weapons shop, or even slipped under the door of his apartment. (He cried once when he got a poem instead of a letter, and it compared his green jumpsuit to the “comforting forests outside the village”, his hair to “the blackest of starless skies, still aglow with the halo of a new moon” and his smile to “the most radiant beam of sunshine to warm the hearts” of those around him.) He saves all of these and keeps them where he can read them every day. The poems he tacks to his fridge door, and the very first one he received he keeps in his vest pocket.

Since this secret admirer knows Gai’s schedule pretty well, they’ve been watching him to make sure he doesn’t catch them leaving notes - and they’ve seen him mistakenly think a few other shinobi/civilians were writing the love notes. They can see that he isn’t turned off or weirded out by it all, so they gain some confidence and decide to reveal themselves. They show up to the training grounds at 4am (when Gai shows up to start his morning routine) and Gai is there alone, already training. He notices them right away but doesn’t say anything so he won’t scare them off. When they get close enough, he stops his training and looks at them, giving them a gentle smile. Nervously, they approach and shove a final letter at him. He reads it and then grins at them, “So it’s you. I’ve been waiting for you to show up. Would you like to take a walk?”

Gai totally walks them down the same path he jogs every day and he points at every tree that used to have a love note attached to it, recounts which note it was, and he’ll tell them his favorite part about the note, and when they get to the end of the walk he’ll pull out the very first letter he got so they could see he kept it “close to my heart, where it belongs!” And then, in a final act (with his genin watching from the bushes), Gai pulls out another piece of paper, unfolds it, and proudly starts reading a poem that HE wrote for his secret admirer. Rock Lee cries, Neji shakes his head seemingly in resignation (but he’s secretly happy for his teacher), and Tenten is honestly surprised at how talented Gai is (”Who knew he would write like that? Do you think he ever did a writing competition with Kakashi-sensei?” Don’t give him any ideas, Tenten). Of course, after all of this Gai would ask his secret admirer if they were okay with other people knowing who wrote the letters. If yes, then he’d proudly tell everyone so he could brag about their talent and their kindness. If not, then he’d quietly keep the letters to himself and when people asked about it, he’d just say he hadn’t figured it out yet but he would eventually. (Way too sweet, 10/10 best person ever.)

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avenger-hawk · 8 years ago

Note

Had Naruto or Itachi the saddest and tragic past?

Sasuke’s past is the saddest, also because it has a traumatic impact on his present, that the ending didn’t solve at all.

Back to your question (thanks for asking btw), Naruto and Itachi’s pasts are very different so their personal tragedy is different.

(Long post ahead. some anti-Naruto rants because of how he’s written in the ending, anti-Konoha)

I explained Itachi’s tragedy, or better, what it represents, here and here.

Naruto never got to know his parents, who sacrificed themselves, Kushina to protect him, Minato to protect him and the village. They both trusted Hiruzen to protect their son, believing that the old asshole would keep him safe from the villagers’ hate. He was shunned and hated, he asked Hiruzen about their parents but received no answer, he craved for a family, or friends, or just a little attention, for which he pulled pranks and did anything even to get scolded. It’s a terrible, sad and lonely childhood, with no one around to tell him what’s right or wrong, to teach him stuff, to cook and care about him.

Such life surely affected his personality, making him incapable of paying attention at the Academy, this incapable of being a decent shinobi at first (probably because he was too excited about being around other people, kinda like puppies), incredibly self-centered, only able to relate to those in which he sees a little of himself, because he has been his only reference, literally, for years. Such things affect him forever, even when someone actually was there for him, like when Iruka took him under his wing (but still he wasn’t always around), and then Kakashi (but most of his attention was for Sasuke, and even more of it was for his own struggle) and then Jiraiya, who loved him dearly, and who should have been there for him since the start.

Like the average shounen protagonist, he’s all talk and no real ideal beside lots of nakama and proclaimed bonds, becoming Hokage and random “let’s all be friends” (which is more like “y’all be friends with me”) and “I’ll make things better when I’ll be Hokage”. Which he didn’t do, despite having promised Sasuke.

My in-universe explanation (besides the shitty writing of the ending and everything after) is that he craves attention so much, because he has been deprived of it for so long, that he is addicted to it, and he’s incapable of taking unpopular decisions that would make him look bad in people’s eyes, be it villagers or comrades. After all, he wanted to become Hokage because it’s the one who has the most respect and attention, because it means finally being acknowledged, not being ignored or shunned or looked upon anymore.

He’s a victim of the system, whose way of coping was to be accepted by the people and the very system. It’s a very common thing actually. Many of those who are bullied prefer becoming part of the majority who bullied them, instead of getting revenge over them. Sasuke is another victim of the system, but being an introspective person and an independent thinker, he didn’t chose to be assimilated and accepted into the system, instead he chose revenge first, then he chose to learn about it, and then to change it. If only he succeeded, instead of being manipulated and belittled because of it.

Naruto had a chance to change it when he became Hokage, even before, having become a hero admired by everyone, instead he used the old coping mechanism, being accepted by everyone. And in doing so he is no longer a victim, but part of the oppressing system that fucked up his life and Sasuke’s, and many others’.

Itachi’s path follows the opposite direction instead. He’s born in an elite clan, son of its leader, he’s a prodigy whom everyone praises and admires. He could have had everything, but he was caught between the Uchiha and the village, he became a tool for both and his life became a living hell, with only his little brother as his ray of light, but also the one he needed to protect at all costs, for whom he sacrificed the clan, his honor, his future.

Looking closer, he was born in an elite clan but he was exposed to war at 4, he was horribly traumatized by it, so much that he dreamed of peace and he studied the past of the village in order to understand how to achieve it, and being the genius that he was, he had a Hokage-like mind already during his childhood. (I mean, looking at Hiruzen’s shitty ruling, Tsunade’s initially promising but then weak one, Kakashi’s canon nothingness and Naruto’s crap, maybe some past Hokages had childlike stupidity but yeah). Despite his entering Anbu at 10 and becoming captain at 13 he was still young so Danzo took advantage of that, and of his love for Sasuke, manipulating him into slaughtering the clan or he would have had it done himself, killing Sasuke first. Itachi trusted Hiruzen, so he was completely lost after Shisui’s death and the old fucker not doing anything to stop Danzo.

So he took that mission and killed the Uchiha clan and ensured Sasuke’s safety in the village, being branded as a criminal and losing his honor, joining Akatsuki and still protecting the village from afar, since, without him inside it, they’d have attacked Konoha earlier.

Itachi was a victim of the system indeed, he suffered for years, both in Konoha and outside, after the massacre, only living with his resolve, to be alive until Sasuke would kill him and have his revenge. He was willing to never tell Sasuke the truth so he’d only hate him and not the village, so that he wouldn’t have a negative image of the clan. Unlike Naruto, who chose to side with the majority, he stood alone, to defend the greater good (not the shitty village ruled by assholes but the concept of the village and world peace, and the future) but most of it all to protect his beloved brother. He stood alone even when he defeated Edo Tensei by himself, even though Naruto and Killer B, and then Sasuke, fought by his side. He was a victim even though he was very active and he took his decisions well knowing their consequences and meaning.

In this aspect Itachi’s story has more in common with Minato’s than Naruto, whose story has more in common with Sasuke’s, both boys being victims of a system they knew nothing about, while Minato and Itachi acted actively within it, and even though they wanted peace, they had to do what they had to do, sacrificing themselves and the one they loved the most, thus putting them in a painful future even though they would have never wanted it.

#itasasulove #uh this was long. guess my pattern is writing the general context first then going into detail and replying #anti/konoha #not really anti but still I'll tag it as #anti/naruto #vivalarevolution #vivalarevolution: a love that is more than love #vivalarevolution: not crazy but desperate #vivalarevolution: in his defense

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i-am-made-of-memoriies · 7 years ago

Text

Trapped in Konoha (pt. 2)

Niva walked through the gates of the village and wandered the forest outside the gate. After five minutes, she found a familiar clearing. She recognized the trees and sitting right in the middle was her request flyer. Niva tried putting her hand on the trees and ground in order to open the portal but none of those methods were working. She closed her eyes and tried to search for the telltale ethernano signature that an anima portal gave off. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find anything. Niva was beginning to panic. There was no way that she was in the wrong spot and anima don’t just close like that. She couldn’t afford to be stuck in this world with no way of communicating with her friends, no way of telling them where she was. Niva hurried back to the village hoping to find someone who could help her. She ran into the Hokage’s office, bursting through the door.

“Lord Hokage!” She started, “The portal, it’s closed! I can’t get back! Do you know how to re-open it?!”

The Hokage stood up and looked Niva in the eye.

“The only people that would know about dimensional travel are the Uchiha. Unfortunately, they were all massacred years ago. Sasuke is the last one but he doesn’t know anything about dimensional travel.”

“Then who can I ask?!” Niva cried, “If no one in this village knows, can I ask other villages?!”

“Niva,” The Hokage said calmly, “You’re too young now. Wait until you get older then you can go search for answers.”

“Lord Hokage you don’t understand! I have friends waiting for me back home! They’ll be so worried!”

“I understand how hard this is for you but there is nothing we can do at the moment. I promise to take care of you while we wait for your strength to grow. Then you can go find the answers you need.”

It wasn’t the answer Niva wanted, but at least there was a chance. Niva bowed respectfully and stepped out of the office. On her way back home, she thought about what Erza and Natsu must be thinking. She’d been gone for longer periods of time, so a day wasn’t a problem but what about a week or a month or a year? They would probably be panicked by then.

Niva stepped into her apartment and took the note off her bed. She’d be staying there for a while. She probably should make the best of it. Niva quickly made some rice and steamed some vegetables. She owed Naruto a dinner so she knocked on his door. Naruto opened the door quickly again.

“Hey!” Niva said sweetly, “I made dinner for two! Wanna come over?”

“I’d love to ya know!” He said closing the door behind him, “Let’s go now!”

Naruto and Niva walked into her tidy apartment and sat down at the table. Niva picked up two piping bowls of rice and vegetables and placed them in front of Naruto and herself.

“It was really cool how you beat up Sasuke today ya know.” Naruto said in between bites, “You need to teach me how to do that.”

“I’d love to.” Niva said sipping her tea, “More people need to be able to beat up that stuck-up little brat.”

“Yeah!”

The two of them talked throughout dinner. Niva learned a lot about Naruto. About how he grew up without parents and about how the whole village shunned him for some reason. Niva could guess that the reason had something to do with the incredibly dark energy surrounding him. It was getting late so Naruto went home without helping Niva clean up. Niva picked up both the bowls and cleaned them out in the sink before placing them in the cabinet. She walked into the bathroom and took a shower. The water felt heavenly and the warmth was so soothing. Niva stepped out of the warm chamber and brushed her hair. She put on her pajamas and lay in bed. Who knows how long she’d have to stay in this world. It would be best if she made friends. After all, they could help her find what she needed.

Niva woke up the next morning at seven on the dot. She threw on her burgundy tunic, shorts, socks, sandals, and grabbed her bag of equipment. She walked down the street, munching on an apple. The morning was warm and the shops were already bustling. On her way to the academy, she caught up with Sakura.

“Hey,” Niva said walking beside her, “Sorry about yesterday, I see how much Sasuke means to you.” Even if it’s an unhealthy obsession with that brat. She thought.

“It’s okay.” Sakura replied, “Let’s just be friends from now on.”

“Okay.” Niva said. She’d try her best to get along with the fangirl but stuff happens.

“Oh yeah,” Sakura started, “The exam’s today by the way.”

“What?!” Niva exclaimed, “No one told me this!”

“Actually Iruka mentioned it, you just weren’t paying attention.” Sakura said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Agh! Don’t lecture me! Damn it!”

Niva sprinted to the academy and burst through the classroom doors, taking a seat before anyone had even entered the classroom. She pulled the books out of her bag and started speed reading them. I’ve always had a good memory. She thought, I really gotta use it now!!! The rest of the students came ambling into the classroom taking their seats. Instead of Sasuke sitting next to her, today it was Hinata.

“Hey Hinata!” Niva said, still staring at her books.

“H-hello.” Hinata said tentatively, “Are you ready for the exam?”

“Probably not.” Niva said, desperately trying to cram, “I’ll try anyway.”

Iruka-sensei walked into the room. “Today you’ll be taking you ninja exams.” He said, “These exams will decide your futures as shinobi. Take them seriously. You will be going into the exam room one at a time and will be tested on ninjutsu, taijutsu, ninja history, and battle formations. Choji Akimichi, you’re first. Follow me.”

“Oh god.” Niva said, panicking, “I’m next!”

The fifteen minutes that Choji was gone went by like seconds.

“Niva Dhari, you’re next.”

Niva walked into the testing room. There were several ninja sitting at a panel waiting to evaluate her. Iruka-sensei handed her a sheet.

“You may now begin the written portion of this test.” He said, sitting back down at the panel.

The questions were easy. She expected far more complicated things for a test deciding your future as a ninja. She answered all the questions in a few minutes and handed her sheet to Iruka-sensei.

“Next is the ninjutsu portion.” Iruka-sensei said, placing the test on the table, “From what I hear from the Hokage, you have no chakra and cannot perform jutsu.”

“I can replicate any jutsu you want me to.” Niva replied.

“Okay,” Iruka-sensei said. His voice was unsure, “Do a clone jutsu.”

“Yes sir!”

Niva quickly formed a clone out of water.

“Good job.” Iruka looked surprised, “Show any other ninjutsu-or whatever you do techniques that you know.”

Niva showed Iruka what she had shown Kakashi and Lord Hokage minus the incineration, burning, and destruction of trees and other items.

“That is impressive!” Exclaimed one of the proctors, his eyes wide.

The rest of the exam went by without a hitch. The proctors gave her the highest possible scores in everything but ninjutsu, handed her her forehead protector, and sent her out of the room. Niva walked back into the classroom with a spring in her step. I’m officially a ninja! She thought. One step closer to getting home. She entered the classroom and saw Choji showing off his forehead protector. Niva decided to hide hers so that she could brag a bit later. Sakura ran over to her, looking concerned.

“Did you pass?” She asked, scanning her body in hopes to see her forehead protector, “Oh gosh. I mean you were only here for a day… I’m sure you’ll pass next exam!”

Niva frowned, playing along with Sakura. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s just-” She whipped out her forehead protector, “I passed with top scores!”

“Oh!” Sakura’s eyes lit up, “Good job!”

“Heh. You’re so gullible Sakura.” Niva went to go sit back down at her desk. Sasuke was sitting across the aisle from her looking uninterested and cold as usual. He probably wasn’t worried about the test. Apparently, he was the top student before Niva arrived. Niva sat back and spaced out for who-knows-how-long. By the time she snapped back into reality, the test was near over.

“If you’ve finished your test, you may go home.” Iruka-sensei announced.

Niva grabbed her bag and headed for the door. Her arm was grabbed by Sasuke.

“What do you want?” Niva sighed.

“What were your scores?” Sasuke asked, almost angrily.

“Perfect on everything but ninjutsu. I don’t have chakra so I use another form of jutsu-esque techniques. It does the job though.” Niva answered, not paying attention to Sasuke’s quickly angering face.

Sasuke turned his back, replied with a quick “Hn”, and left.

Niva arrived at the Academy right on time. They were going to be assigned their three man teams today. She heard from Iruka-sensei that there would be one group of four given the abnormal number of graduating shinobi.

Niva took her usual seat with Hinata sitting next to her again. She sat full of excitement. She wouldn’t mind anyone on her team as long as it wasn’t Sasuke. Or even worse, Sasuke and Sakura together.

Iruka-sensei walked into the room holding a clipboard.

“I understand that all of you are excited to find out what team you’re on.” He said, glancing at the practically bouncing Naruto, “Remember, these teams were designed to bring out your best qualities and find people you work best with. Nothing more.”

“Yes sensei.” The class replied in unison.

“Okay I will begin.” Iruka sensei started reading off the group lists. Niva wasn’t paying attention until she heard Naruto’s name.

“The 7th team will be: Naruto Uzumaki,” Naruto grinned, “Sakura Haruno” Naruto grinned more but Sakura cringed, “And Sasuke Uchiha.” Sakura’s eyes lit up but Sasuke looked like he had just been forced to drink spoiled milk, “Oh and this is the team of four.” Iruka-sensei added, “Niva Dhari is the fourth.” Niva smiled for a second then realized what had happened. She was stuck in a love triangle. Naruto liked Sakura, Sakura liked Sasuke, and Sasuke, well, it was more of a demented love line. Not to mention, her worst fear had come true. She was in a group with Sasuke and Sakura. God this was going to be tough.

“You may go home for today.” Iruka-sensei said after reading all the groups, “Be sure to be back early tomorrow so that you can meet your sensei.

Niva was the first to arrive in the classroom. Next was Sasuke, then Sakura, then Naruto. Even though Naruto was rather late, their sensei still hadn’t arrived.

“Hey!” Naruto exclaimed, “Let’s put the chalkboard eraser above the door so that when sensei walks in, he’ll get chalk all over himself!”

“Well he was late,” Niva replied, grabbing the chalkboard eraser.

Sakura ended up helping them. After the eraser was successfully placed, the three sat back down at their seats, anticipating their sensei’s entrance. Time went by and soon he was at least an hour late. At about one and a half hours after their assigned meeting time, the classroom door slid open. The chalkboard eraser fell perfectly on top of their sensei’s head. Then Niva realized, her sensei was Kakashi. The guy who had found her outside the village.

“Ah!” Niva exclaimed, “Kakashi-sensei, I’m so sorry! This was my doing, I didn’t realize you would be our sensei!”

Naruto looked around guiltily, not knowing what to say since Niva had taken the blame.

“Did anyone else help with this?” Kakashi-sensei asked, looking not angry at all.

“Yep.” Naruto answered, “Good prank huh?”

Sakura turned a deep shade of red and looked away, “I didn’t do anything!” She exclaimed, “It was Naruto’s fault.”

Kakashi already looked exasperated, “Meet me on the steps by the Hokage faces.”

The four ninjas nodded and set off to meet Kakashi. By the time that they had arrived, Kakashi was nowhere to be found.

“He’s probably late again.” Niva muttered, molding her kunai into different shapes, “We should find some way to entertain ourselves.”

“Ooh!” Naruto exclaimed, “We should spar!”

Sasuke and Niva nodded.

“I’ll referee.” Sakura responded, glancing at Sasuke, “Alright. First match, uhhhhh, Naruto versus Niva!”

Naruto and Niva stood across from each other. Naruto looked determined to win but Niva wasn’t going to go easy.

“Begin!” Sakura jumped out from in between the two and watched the fight commence. Naruto began by attempting to throw the same punch he had at the beginning of his fight with Sasuke. Niva decided to block it then deal a kick to the stomach. She stopped her foot right in front of his stomach, not wanting to deal serious damage. Instead of that, she tackled Naruto and pinned his arms behind him.

“I won.” She said, letting Naruto go, “Sasuke you’re next.”

“But I’m the referee!” Sakura cried, “I decide the matches!”

“Just ‘cause you don’t want to see Sasuke get his butt kicked doesn’t mean you can interfere with me challenging him.” Niva replied, “Fight me Sasuke.”

“Fine.” Sasuke said, stepping in front of Niva, “I’m not going easy on you this time though.”

“Tch. I’ll still beat you.” Niva said, smirking.

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed. Sakura started the match and Sasuke got into a fighting stance. Niva decided to beat him with speed. She went in for a punch so fast that Sasuke wouldn’t have time to knock her off her feet. Sasuke barely blocked it and reeled back slightly, a bruise forming on his upper cheek. Niva took this moment to jump behind him and tackle him, pinning his hands behind his back.

“I thought you weren’t going to go easy on me.” Niva taunted, still pinning Sasuke to the ground.

Sasuke was going to retaliate when Kakashi-sensei walked up the stairs to see Niva viciously pinning Sasuke on the ground.

“What is going on here?” He sighed, “Niva please let Sasuke go, let’s get to know each other.”

Niva pushed herself off Sasuke’s back, shooting one last scowl at him before sitting down.

“Now that none of us are trying to kill each other,” Kakashi-sensei started, “Let’s get to know each other. Tell me what you like, what you dislike, and what your goals are for the future. I’ll start.”

Kakashi said that he rather not say much about anything and let Sakura go first.

“I like or who I like-” Sakura started. She glanced at Sasuke and blushed furiously, making Niva groan roll her eyes. “I dislike, Naruto! And my goals are to be with-” Sakura looked again at Sasuke, this time making Niva dramatically collapse.

Naruto was next. He liked ramen. And wanted to become Hokage. That seems pretty cool. Ramen is incredible after all. Next Sasuke. He doesn’t like much and hates a lot of things. Gosh, could he be any more emo?! Niva thought, disliking him more every second. He didn’t have a dream because it would become a reality. He would avenge his clan and kill a certain someone. And apparently he could. Niva was so done with him and his emo antics.

“I’m Niva. I like ramen, training, and cats. I dislike some things and a lot of people. Especially those who are stuck up and unwilling to make friends because of their severe superiority complex. I also dislike zucchini. My dream is to become strong enough for people to respect me and give me the answers I want. I also want to leave a mark on this world by becoming the strongest shinobi ever!”

“That’s good.” Kakashi-sensei said, “I’ve learned a lot about all of you. Meet me in front of the training grounds early tomorrow. Don’t eat anything, trust me, you won’t want to.”

Niva wondered what Kakashi was up to, she was also worried for her poor stomach. What was he going to do?!

Niva arrived at the training fields a little late, not expecting Kakashi to be there. When she arrived, Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto were all sitting there looking bored. Her assumptions were correct.

“Why don’t we spar again!” Niva suggested, “This time Sasuke versus Naruto since that was the only combination we didn’t get last time.”

Naruto and Sasuke stood across from each other, ready to fight. Niva told them to begin, and they were off. Naruto tried to kick Sasuke but Sasuke grabbed Naruto’s leg and dropped him straight on the ground.

“The winner is Sasuke!” Sakura declared happily, trying to hug him.

Kakashi came walking towards the four kids and saw them happily talking. Maybe they figured out a way to get along. He thought.

“Alright.” Kakashi announced, “I have an exercise for you. If you can get a bell from me, you succeed and can officially become part of my team of genin. If you fail, you go back to the academy. The catch is, I only have three bells meaning one of you will definitely be going back. You have until noon. It’s guaranteed that you will not win unless you try hard enough to kill.”

“I’ll win!” Naruto announced, “I’ll get a bell for sure ‘cause I’m gonna be Hokage one day ya know!”

Naruto ran at Kakashi but was quickly stopped.

“I haven’t even said start yet.” Kakashi said, “Now you may begin.”

Niva ran at Kakashi so she could get a good idea of his strength before making any real plans. Niva pulled out a kunai and began attacking Kakashi. She attempted to slash at him with her kunai but he dodged. Niva wasn’t done though. She elongated the kunai trying to catch Kakashi off guard. Instead, he ducked under it and kicked Niva away. She rolled over backwards, breaking her fall and went to hide in a nearby bush. While Kakashi was busy fighting Sasuke, Niva had an idea. Metal. She peeked through the bush and saw the bells wiggling on Kakashi’s belt. If she were to extract them, she would have to be extremely careful not to let them jingle or Kakashi would be on to her. Niva steadied her hand and went to work. She chose the steadiest bell and began gently tugging it. The bell was on the verge of jingling when Niva quickly stopped it. She decided to take a different approach. The quick way. She took a deep breath and jerked her hand backward. The bell came flying toward her. She caught it in the palm of her hand and squeezed it tightly.

“Kakashi sensei!” she exclaimed, “Look at what I’ve got here!”

Niva held up the bell in front of her face.

Kakashi looked down at his belt. When did she grab that? He thought. Then it hit him. That slight jingling I heard, she must have used her metal magic.

“Niva you may go sit down by the stakes and eat one of the bentos.” Kakashi said, still surprised, “I suppose you pass.”

“Thanks sensei,” Niva started, “but I think I’ll help my teammates get the other bells. I’ll eat later.”

Kakashi thought for a moment then tentatively nodded. Niva jumped back into the bushes knowing that Kakashi was expecting her to use her metal magic. She saw Sasuke sparring against Kakashi. Sasuke was fast but his movements were too obvious. Even she could tell what he was going to do next. Niva decided to go check on Sakura. Hopefully their brains combined with Niva’s taijutsu knowledge could get Sakura somewhere. Unfortunately, Sakura couldn’t live up to Niva’s expectations. There Sakura was, consumed by a rather weak genjutsu. It seemed as if she was having some existential crisis in there. If Niva were to help Sakura, she would give her presence away and possibly harm both of them. She had no choice but to watch Sakura suffer. When the genjutsu was released, Sakura whispered Sasuke’s name and collapsed. If she wasn’t such a fangirl, she might actually be strong. Niva thought, dragging Sakura’s limp body into the bushes with her. A few minutes later, Sakura’s eyes fluttered open then closed again as she smiled.

“Sasuke!” She cried, “You saved me! Thank you!” Sakura embraced Niva tightly, still closing her eyes.

“Eh, Sakura…” Niva started, “I’m not Sasuke.”

Sakura pulled away from Niva. “Oh.” She said, disappointedly, “I suppose I’ll go find him now.”

“You probably shouldn’t.” Niva advised, “Kakashi’s onto you. He knows you’ll probably go running to find Sasuke.”

Right on cue, Kakashi peeked into the bushes. “Found you.” He said, attempting to kick Niva.

Niva jumped out of the way and began sparring with Kakashi. She summoned a large sphere of water and began attacking Kakashi with her signature ice needle move. Kakashi easily flicked the cold and deadly needles away and returned to using taijutsu on Niva. She breathed deep and shot bright fire out of her hands aiming right at Kakashi. He used him mud wall jutsu to deflect the fire, emerging unscratched. He threw a barrage of kunai at Niva but she attempted to blow them away with her wind magic. All but one were blown out of Niva’s way. The last impaled itself in Niva’s upper shoulder. Niva cursed under her breath and prepared to escape.

“Why are you fighting me?” Kakashi asked, “You already got a bell.”

Niva grimaced in pain, “I was giving Sakura time to escape.” She said as she summoned water in one hand and fire in the other, making a smoke shield.

It was getting extremely close to noon and Naruto had just gotten himself disqualified by attempting to eat a bento.

“It’s noon now and only one of you has retrieved a bell.” Kakashi announced, “Eat your bentos, and we’ll talk later. Unless you’re Naruto.” Kakashi tied Naruto to a wooden stake and handed everyone their bentos before leaving.

“Kakashi can’t see us right now.” Niva started, “We can give Naruto some of our food.” Niva picked up her chopsticks and began feeding Naruto.

Sakura and Sasuke finally gave in and began hand-feeding Naruto. Suddenly, Kakashi appeared right in front of them, looking rather terrifying.

“You broke the rules.” He announced, “You weren’t allowed to feed Naruto, yet you did. Because of that you all-” He stopped menacingly. All four of the genin were bracing for the impact of his next word. “Pass.” Kakashi finished, smiling.

“WHAT?!” The four yelled in confusion.

“You pass.” Kakashi repeated, “Good job. You may go home now. Our first mission is tomorrow.”

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sufferthesea · 8 years ago

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Ooh if you've got time could you do Kiba, Shino, and Iruka for when they first realize they love their s/o? I love reading your HCs❤ thanks for all you do!

Ahh!! Thank you so much!! You’re so sweet! Thank YOU for being so faithful and requesting stuff 💗 It’s been a lot of fun!! Hope you don’t mind me tagging @pyroinquisitor because she’s a Shino Hoe. A Shinhoe? idk she just really loves Shino. (Sorry this took so long!)

Am I just a huge dork?? I was doing yard work earlier this week and I was thinking about how Iruka would confess his love to somebody…then I went inside and saw I had this message.

Under the cut because I don’t know how the heckle deckle to keep things SHORT. These headcanons turned into mini scenarios, smh.

FIRST REALIZING THEY LOVE THEIR S/O

Kiba

Kiba seems like the type to jump headfirst into a relationship. He doesn’t want to tiptoe around the whole, “I think I like you? Do you like me? What are we?” kind of thing. If he likes you, he’ll probably say it pretty quickly after he realizes it. But liking someone and loving someone are two different things, and Kiba learns that later on.

Kiba’s dad is out of the picture, and he says his mom is the one who scared him off (honestly? I can see it; that woman can be terrifying) but Kiba understands deep bonds, loving relationships, and loyalty because of his clan’s practice of raising and using ninken. They aren’t just dogs to them, they’re family. So he probably thinks that when he feels the same way about his s/o as he feels about Akamaru, then that’s when he knows he’s in love. Buuuut he’s surprised when it’s different.

Kiba and his s/o are out and about doing their own thing - probably taking Akamaru for a walk, snacking on food, taking in the sights of the village. They come across a group of young teens hanging out by the river and they’re making a commotion. Kiba thinks they’re being obnoxious, but his s/o notices something is wrong. They head over to the teens and see that there’s a small animal clinging to the bank down below - probably something like a squirrel or another small mammal - and it’s obviously struggling to stay out of the fast current. The teens are trying to figure out what to do (can they do anything?) when Kiba’s s/o leaps over the guardrail to get to the bank and scoops up the animal, cradling it in their clothes to keep it warm. They make it back up to the road and, without even stopping to tell Kiba, head to the nearest vet clinic to get it checked out.

Kiba follows them with Akamaru and he catches up just in time to find his s/o handing over the tiny creature to the vet who takes it into a room to look it over. His s/o also says they’ll pay any medical bills to take care of the poor thing, and wants to wait at the clinic until they know the animal is okay. Kiba is floored. He waits in the clinic with them, but he’s wondering the entire time why they did that. Finally, it bugs him enough that he turns to them and asks, “Why did you save that creature? I mean, you risked yourself falling into that river just to save it - and it’ll probably just go back out there and get stuck again, or get eaten by something bigger. It was nice but - I just don’t understand.” Because even though Kiba understands the value of life, he’s always just been a “dog person” and hasn’t really considered other animals.

His s/o calmly turns to him and says, “No life is too small or insignificant to save, Kiba. Even if that animal goes back out tomorrow and falls back in the river, or gets eaten by something bigger, or anything else like that - I was able to help it today, right now. I was able to save its life. It may not make a difference to you or to the vet or to those kids out there who found it; but it made a difference to that animal. That’s all that matters.”

Kiba is taken aback by his s/o’s statement, and he suddenly realizes that he doesn’t just like them - he loves them. Not because of their looks or because they get along with Akamaru and his family. But because of their spirit and their gentleness, and because they can see the value and important in even the smallest of animals - animals that Kiba wouldn’t even give a second look to. Suddenly Kiba realizes that he wants his s/o to be the person he creates a family with - whether it’s made up entirely of dogs, squirrels, insects, or even cats. That’s when Kiba realizes he’s in love.

Shino

Shino isn’t too concerned with finding an s/o or falling in love. He isn’t opposed to it happening, but that’s not his main goal in life. He also isn’t going to just fall for the first person who doesn’t freak out that his entire body is filled with insects. So whoever Shino ends up dating is pretty special. I can imagine them either being the person the other shinobi think is kind of strange and is a bit of an outcast, or somebody that everyone else goes, “THEY’RE DATING SHINO?!”

Shino would be the type to realize he was in love with his s/o but not tell them outright. He believes that you should tell people you love that you love them, but he doesn’t think it needs to be said immediately or all the time. He may be taken a bit by surprise when he realizes he loves his s/o, and he probably puts off telling them right away so he can be absolutely sure. Most of everything he does is slow and methodical - thought out and precise. He doesn’t make a grand show of things and doesn’t waste energy doing unnecessary things. He’s not lazy like Shikamaru, he’s just more careful of how he expends his energy (social and physical) and is rather picky about who or what he uses that energy on. Because of this, he would wait until probably a few months until after he realized he loved his s/o to finally tell them.

To be really honest, Shino’s first and foremost love is his insects. He takes care of them, talks to them, studies and collects them, and mourns when any one of them get killed. This may seem strange to many others, but to the Aburame Clan, insects are just as much family members as the ninken are to the Inuzuka Clan.

How he figures out he loves his s/o is probably some time after they started dating. (He’s known them for a while now, and he’s decided they’re worth the time and energy to be in a relationship.) Their dates consist mostly of collecting, studying, and categorizing insects inside Konoha Forest. It’s often very quiet without much conversation; they just enjoy each other’s company as they capture bugs and take notes on them.

The first words to come out of his s/o’s mouth all day is probably frantic noises as they try to identify the insect they’ve just caught in one of the catalogs they have on hand. When they can’t find it in any of the books and can’t immediately recognize it, they take it (in a plastic container) over to Shino and excitedly exclaim, “I think I’ve just found a new insect! It’s not in any of my books!” At first Shino is a little bit skeptic (a new insect? That easy? In this forest? Sure, okay) so he sits down with the bug to study it, but he can’t identify it from looks alone. He decides to scour through the catalogs and encyclopedias as well, but even he can’t identify it. He’s starting to get a little excited about it, but doesn’t want to get his hopes up.

“We’ll take it into the village and see if someone else can identify it. Maybe my dad’s seen it,” Shino says, trying to sound calm and collected. They take the insect back to the village but no one else is able to tell him what it is, and it’s decided that it must be a previously unknown insect. Shino hands the container back to his s/o and tells them, “You should name it, you found it.” His s/o’s immediate response is, “I’m going to name it after you!” Confused, Shino says, “Typically, in situations like this, the discoverer names it after themselves. You should really do that. You’re the one who found it.” His s/o shakes their head and says, “Nope! I wouldn’t have found it if it weren’t for you taking me out there. It’s only because of you! So it has to be named after you.”

That’s when Shino realizes he’s in love with his s/o. Not because they put up with his hobbies; not because they named their discovery after him; but because of their passion and genuine love of insects and their love of being with Shino. They aren’t just pretending to like bugs to get close to him, and they aren’t trying to purposefully be excluded by the other shinobis by being “weird”. They truly care about these tiny little creatures that most people crush underfoot with no remorse, and they are authentic in their interactions with him. Being true to yourself and being true to other people is really important to Shino, and this situation revealed his s/o’s true self, as far as he’s concerned. (But, again, he doesn’t tell them right away.)

If he’s still not 100% sure, he is totally convinced he’s in love when his s/o accidentally kills an insect (probably a larger or more rare one, but even a tiny common bug) and is so distraught about it, they mourn for it, hold a tiny little funeral for it, and refuse to see Shino for like a week afterward because of the guilt. Seeing them so upset about something he’s also passionate about cements the idea in his mind that he loves his s/o. (The next time he sees them, he would comfort them and tell them it was alright. That’s probably when he’d tell them he loved them.)

Iruka

IRUKA IS SO SWEET OH MY GOSH. He also isn’t the type to get into a relationship “just because”. (Although he would absolutely love to be married and start a family of his own!!)He is very busy and his work is his life; he is so dedicated to teaching and to helping his students, so having the distraction of an s/o would only be worth it, in his opinion, if it was someone he could see a future with. He’s also very loving and has such a soft, gentle heart that he is very cautious of who he gives it to so it won’t be broken. Plus he’s also fairly shy when it comes to his crush, so by the time he’s confident and comfortable enough to ask them out on a date - let alone ask them if they want to be in a relationship - it’s probably been a few months and he has a good idea of how he feels about them (even if he doesn’t know them super personally yet).

Iruka’s entire life purpose is probably divided into 2 important things - taking care of his students to make sure they grow up to be the best shinobi the village has to offer, and taking care of Naruto. This may seem like it’s the same, but it’s not - Iruka is basically a father to Naruto, so his relationship with him is far different from his relationships with the other students. This means that it’s so, so, SO important for Iruka’s s/o to not only care about the students, but to care about Naruto as much as he does.

By now, Iruka knows that he cares very deeply about his s/o and he may even think he’s in love, but one event is when he first truly realizes he’s in love with his s/o. There are lots of little things his s/o does that he appreciates: coming in to help him teach, staying late to help him grade papers, assisting with the outdoor history lessons, even substituting, and offering an ear to the students who need more assistance. But all of those things doesn’t quite equal “love” to him. (And it’s not that he expects his s/o to do this stuff, but he does kind of expect them to be willing to at least listen to him talk about his classes, so having them actually help out is super cool and a major plus for him.)

So one day, Iruka has his s/o in to help teach a class and they’re practicing jutsus and all the students are expected to perform them perfectly (since they’ve been learning them for weeks). All the students but one line up and Iruka is kind of annoyed. (If you can’t tell, Iruka really hates it when kids disrespect authority figures and he can have a pretty short temper when it comes to kids acting up.) He asks the student to come to the front and the boy refuses, or even outright ignores him. Iruka is piiiissssed.

“Fine,” he says. “You get to go first! Stand up and perform the jutsu where you’re at if you won’t come to the front.” Iruka thinks this is pretty smart on his part, because - ha! You thought you’d get away with that? Nice try. You still have to do the jutsu! But this kid isn’t having it. Either the boy continues to refuse or pulls a Naruto and does some outrageous jutsu that has the entire class laughing and Iruka even angrier than before. He’s absolutely ready to tear into this kid for their lack of respect but his s/o stops him.

“You take care of the rest of the class,” they say, “I’ll talk to the boy.” They gently and kindly lead the boy out of the classroom into the hallway, where they talk to him. They don’t return until every one of the other students has finished the jutsu and sat back down. Iruka’s s/o walks the boy back into the class and waits with him by Iruka’s desk. “Do you have something to say?” his s/o asks kindly and the boy nods and sheepishly gives a deep bow to Iruka. “Sorry,” the boy says, “for disrespecting you. If you would let me, I would like to try the jutsu now.” Iruka is genuinely surprised, but he allows the boy to perform the jutsu (and he does it pretty well) and then sends him off to his seat.

After class, Iruka waits until everyone’s gone when he confronts his s/o. “Why did you talk to him?” His s/o says, “You have to remember where these kids are coming from, Iruka. You of all people should know that sometimes the troublemakers have the hardest time. Besides, he reminded me of you … and Naruto. Of course I know talking won’t fix everything but I wanted to talk to him first and see if it, you know, helped.” Iruka is fairly embarrassed but he knows his s/o is right - he can be too quick to anger when dealing with unruly students. He asks them, “What did you say to him?” They kind of shrug and say, “I tried to think of something you’d say to Naruto. I mean, outside of the classroom. I think it helped some … although, I may have caused a slight inconvenience for our date tonight!” Iruka asks what they mean and they cheerily respond, “That boy is going to be joining us at Ichiraku tonight! So we’d better get there early enough to save 4 seats - I also invited Naruto this morning on my way here.”

In that moment, Iruka’s heart feels like it’s going to burst. He’s always known he’s cared about his s/o but right now oh my gosh, is this what love is like? Is this actually love itself?! He’s rarely met such a gentle soul, especially in a shinobi. But it’s more than that. His s/o has pointed out one of Iruka’s flaws and reminded him that, Hey, you were in the same place as this kid and you shouldn’t treat them the way you were treated. You know what you needed then, and you can give it to this kid now. Just the fact that his s/o was willing to talk to this student and understand them, and recognizes the struggles that he himself and Naruto went through (as well as acknowledges the importance of having someone to talk to and be there for you) is so amazing to him. He is definitely sure now that he loves his s/o and is so thankful he has them.

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