Title: Conversation Under A Canopy
Summary: Why does it always rain on me? Is it because I lied when I was seventeen?
Note: Summary lyrics are borrowed without permission.
Naruto shook the water briskly from his mop-messy hair. Sure he was under an umbrella now, and yes it was mostly shielding him from the rain, but in the short period of time where he had been cover-less, the wetness had managed to persist enough that he was thoroughly soaked. Part of him was still wondering what was the point in all of this.
He was griping internally though, and nothing sounding anything like a real complaint had left his lips since yesterday evening. He had a purpose today, something too important, rain or shine he was going – nothing would stand in his way to stop him.
He was only being temporarily deterred for a few minutes; this was nothing. Rain wasn't really so bad.
But he would have thought twice if given the second chance to. This morning, even before the sky had decided to open up on him during his walk, he should have grabbed that stupid little plastic contraption on his way out.
But he was too preoccupied to have been paying close enough attention at the time... regret was pretty pointless for someone like him after all these years.
It had only been overcast and cloudy when he'd first started out. Just brooding, not quite ready to downpour.
Halfway through his stroll though, about then was where he frowned down upon his own badly mistaken judgment.
So wonderful... Just perfect.
Everything he needed to make today even better had all but decided to chip in and make itself known. This date was marked heavily on the cheap noodle calendar in his kitchen, tacked to the wall tastefully, with black bold marker circling it, highlighting it, and underlining it for his own tormented reasoning.
But that had been this morning, and now the weather was here to hinder him. So under an awning he stood with a glare on his face and the sourest look of all to top it off.
His Chunnin vest was soaked all the way through, right down to the cotton fabric of his real clothes. Even the long ties at the back of his hitae-itae were hanging limply at the sides of his ears. This was really uncomfortable to say the least.
Initially he'd been planning to wait it out, just stand there as long as it took for the rain to die down some, but then something had come up unexpectedly...
"Ah, Naruto-kun?" she called out to him softly, voice sweet and sincere. Just the thing he wanted to hear right now.
"H-hinata?"
He turned to see her glancing up at him shyly. How funny meeting her here, he gave her his best forced smile.
"Heh, what are you doin' here Hinata-chan?"
Most of this was taking place on his autopilot brain, him not entirely being up to the mood of actually having honest feelings, but he was still thankful for her sudden and rather charming company.
She smiled softly in return and merely shrugged. "Just out at a bad time I guess." Her fidgety fingers held the silver handle of a wiry umbrella down by her left side.
"You got caught here too then?"
He chuckled gently and rubbed at the back of his head in a sheepish manner. This girl had long since gotten over her nervous habits and here he was picking up some of his own. "Yeah... kinda."
He looked down at the puddles forming around the edges of his sandaled feet. The deep blue color going beyond navy and into something much darker, he couldn't quite form the words to describe what it reminded him of.
"But that doesn't mean you gotta suffer right?" He pointed meekly down at her umbrella, still clutched tight to her person, so tersely that she nearly dropped it when he motioned in her direction.
"Oh ha ha..." she recovered quickly, reflexes more than just an extension of her training, "I guess you're right."
They both mumbled off into silence. Naruto seemed content to bite his lip and look away; this was plenty awkward. And Hinata was a smart girl; she probably knew why he was here. And if she didn't, it was only a matter of time until she did.
They were all Jounin now; reading beneath the underneath shouldn't be too hard.
There was only one place he would be going to today, only one possible answer to just where he was headed...
"Here Naruto-kun."
He looked up out of his thoughts to see her handing him her salvation. She was giving him her umbrella.
"Please take it, I don't need to be anywhere soon."
He made to open his mouth, object to her kindness, but she would have none of it. Thrusting the object with a strength that commanded attention into his hands, she repeated her earlier words more surely, "Take it. Go on, please, it's no big deal."
Confusion disappeared and his eyes softened. Naruto reached for the handle and grasped it tighter than she had before him. It was still warm from her touch.
"Thanks Hinata-chan..." She smiled knowingly and turned to stare off into the rain. It hadn't lessened much at all since their meeting under here. The loose fabric of the awning rippling quietly with each drop's descent; she let herself get lost in the nature of it all.
Naruto took this moment as his cue to hurry up and leave.
He popped open the plastic catch and watched the metal frame spring out, unwinding the slick material as it did so and coming to stretch it far out and wide in a bowl shape. The color was black, just like the rest of his day.
Stepping forth from under their makeshift hideout, he began to resume his direction of travel, long since abandoned by every other living soul in Konoha's village. He only stopped when there was a distinct puddle splash of something following along behind him.
Hinata had moved to join him as well, right out and under the falling rain.
"I thought you said you weren't going anywhere?"
He felt so stupid. It only made her giggle.
Peeking out from the corner of his eyes he watched her gracefully flip up the hood that had never served a real purpose until now. Her teeth were shining through the upturned crack of her lips.
"I have a hood," she pointed up at her fabric savior, "I'll be fine."
Naruto just shook his head and removed the umbrella from covering himself to offer it back to her. He did not face her as there was no need. This gesture was simple. A gentleman did not let a lady suffer so easily.
"No," she settled into the recess of her moderately sized sweatshirt, watching closely for the reaction her next words.
"Tell him I say hello too."
His back muscles tensed and he went rigid. Spinning on his heel, he opened his mouth to ask why - how she knew – but there was no one there to address anymore.
She had long since left... sometime before he could react and sometime before he had noticed her too sudden absence.
So here he was, standing in front of a monument he'd seen set-up and built little less than two years ago, something just waiting at the outskirts of Konoha Village... so far away, could it even be considered a part of their home anymore?
No, nobody wanted to remember this day, this place, that time. Nobody wanted to acknowledge what had really come to pass.
It was only him now, just him and no one else.
It would probably go on being only him for a long time as well...
"It didn't have to be like this you bastard..."
Naruto continued to hold the umbrella tightly in his hand, up high and overhead, stopping any new rain from falling to rest in the finely chiseled words on the gravestone.
And yet a light mist had still managed its way down and around the engraved letters spelling Sasuke. A glint shone off and brightly into the dirty dank haze from the water's reflection, Naruto could have laughed at the irony of it all.
"She says hi too..."