Title: Temporary Home

Rating: T for language

Author: TGOMO (Anju)

I finally posted it! YES!! -shot-

Gah! Another song inspired story!? Yes. I love country music. So shut up. –smiles-

Okay, okay, so I haven't really come up with anything original yet, BUT I'M TRYING! Gosh. Anyhow, yeah, I just really love the song and, to me, it really fits with some of the characters in here (in a totally fluff-tastic sort of way). And since I'm going by the verses and trying to make the chapters as long as I can, this is going to be a 3-shot.

As for the implied SasuNaru… that was to be expected. You know me! –tard grin-

Summary: Life is adventure, a temporary stop for us until we reach our true home, wherever that may be. So that's why we must live for it. Light fluff, cliché emotions, and implied S/N.

Warnings: Light language, OOC-ness, some slightly religious themes, very light shonen-ai.

Ages: 13+

Disclaimer: Me, own Naruto? Pfft. No. If I did, Naruto would be on some sort of hentai channel with no evil censor bars. –shot-

Enjoy!

Beta: MonsterKeys


With a Smile Upon His Face

"Ms. Sannin, would you mind stepping over here? I just need you to sign Naruto's adoption forms and you're free to go."

"Of course. Thank you."

The boy in question fiddled with the handle on his suitcase, watching the two women talk over the documents with bored, monotone eyes. The large breasted, blonde haired woman was to be his new adoptive mother. Naruto gave it three months, tops, before he returned.

Had he been any normal orphan, he would have been bouncing around in his seat, saying goodbye to all his friends and feeling excited to finally have a family. But in Naruto's case, he was much too used to being in this position to bother with all that.

Naruto was six years old, an orphan who had already been adopted and re-adopted by more families than he could count. Naruto's mother had passed away during child birth and when the boy was only three years of age his father, who had been on the police force, had died in the line of duty.

Since then Naruto had been tossed from foster family to foster family, and each time he came back the feeling of anguish dulled a little more. He'd given up on any hope that he could truly have a family, and his happy-ball-of-sunshine personality had been worn down to almost nothing.

They were all temporary anyway. Naruto smiled secretly before putting on another passive face.

"Thank you very much, Ms. Sannin." Naruto looked up to see the director of the Konoha Orphanage stuffing the papers into a folder before looking at him with that timeworn smile. "We're going to miss you so much Naruto."

Naruto put on the best grin he could muster, but he failed miserably and it just ended up looking like a forced grimace. The woman flinched slightly.

Suddenly, he felt a strong, yet gentle hand take his and he looked up to see the blonde woman looking down at him. Tsunade Sannin, was it?

"Alright, anything else you need?" she asked. Naruto shook his head. He had everything he needed and didn't have many friends to say goodbye to. He loved having friends, but he learned long ago that the other kids wouldn't be coming back after they were adopted. It was too painful to see them leave for good while he always came back. Plus, being the eldest orphan there made forming friendships a bit difficult.

"'Kay then, come on, kid. Let's get going," she clipped. Naruto looked up at her, confused, when she started to pull him from the building and out to the car. He took one last look at the building before walking towards the car.

Upon opening the backseat door, a few empty bottles of sake spilled out onto the pavement. Naruto stared at her with a worried look.

Tsunade stared at the rubbish and laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head. "Well, this doesn't give a good impression, does it?" She chuckled before scooping up the bottles and pushing them to the other side. "Sorry… This is awkward. But I promise; I don't drink while driving. I actually went out last night, and some friends of mine left their shit in my car."

Tsunade wasn't sure if he understood what she was talking about, but lying wasn't her cup of tea. The swearing was probably a bit overdoing it, though. But hey, she was nervous, and when she was nervous, she rambled.

Naruto, still a bit apprehensive, climbed into the back of the car and set his suitcase between his feet before closed the door. He slumped against it as watched the elder woman walk around the car, slide into the front seat and start the car before driving off.

The young boy glanced out the window as they drove through the city, watching all the people walking up and down the street. He watched as a mother walked down the street, her daughter trailing close behind, their hands clasped together and he sighed.

Tsunade glanced at the boy in the rearview mirror and sighed herself. This kid looks like he would rather be anywhere else but here. This worried her.

Living alone meant many things. You never have to clean pick up after yourself, unless you felt it necessary, you could eat whatever you wanted, when you wanted, in quantities you wanted, and you never had to sleep with the same person twice. That was what Tsunade's life was like. She was happily unmarried, meaning that she could go out whenever she chose, and drink when she pleased, let alone be able to down about eight bottles of sake in almost six minutes, thank you very much.

Okay, so maybe I shouldn't be too proud of that accomplishment.

But, about a week ago, she woke up and felt like something was missing. As cliché as it sounded, at almost forty two years old, she felt very unaccomplished. She had yet to have a child, or even a steady relationship of any kind whatsoever. Sure, she had flings every now and then but again, those were exactly that; flings, one-night-stands.

So one morning she had woken up feeling, dare she say it, lonely. She felt tired of waking up every morning to nothing but a bottle of alcohol and her pet pig, TonTon.

This is why she wanted to adopt. She refused to have a child with one of her flings; that would mean having them stick around. And besides; kids - she could handle. Babies on the other had were a very different story. She would never be able to handle changing a diaper. Ew.

And now she had known this kid for all of ten minutes and it already seemed like he wasn't going to be happy.

"Hey, kid – er, Naruto?"

The child looked up and Tsunade immediately winced when she realized she didn't know what to say to him.

"So, um… Tell me a little about yourself."

"…"

"Not much of talker, are ya'?"

More silence. Great, this was going along very smoothly.

For a moment Tsunade actually wondered if the child had fallen asleep, so when she looked back to check on him her eyes widened at the sight of light and silent tears run down his scared cheeks. If there was one thing the woman couldn't handle, it was a crying child .

"Hey, look kid, don't cry…" She said, unsure of what to do, "I… I just…"

"What's the point?"

These were the first words spoken by Naruto since they left the orphanage. Tsunade blinked before continuing the conversation.

"What? What do you mean?"

Naruto continued to stare out the window as he spoke. "I don't really see the point," He tried to make his voice sound uncaring, but it ended up coming out as quiet and pathetic, "this is just going to be just like all the other times."

"Other times?"

"You're just going to take me back again when you get tired of me, aren't you?"

Tsunade suddenly swerved the car a bit at the statement before getting back onto the road. Of all the things she was thinking he was upset about, that was the last thing she expected.

"Take you back? What the hell are you talking about?!"

Naruto sighed again, and Tsunade noticed his shoulders shake and more tears fell from his bright blue eyes. "It's happened before, and it's going to happen again and again until I'm grow'd up and I can live by myself."

Looking back at him, she felt her eyes soften. "You've been given a lot of grief over this, haven't you?" The blonde haired boy looked up, confusion evident in his eyes.

"What'cha mean?"

"I mean, this seems to be a normal thing for you, isn't it?"

Naruto looked down, and nodded slowly. "I've never had a real home before. Why should this be any different?"

She knew he didn't mean to, but everything that he said indicated low self esteem and lack of trust in adults. Tsunade was nervous as it was, and his sadness and negativity wasn't really helping any.

Silence took over the car for several minutes; the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Eventually it became suffocating and Tsunade had to end it.

"Look, kid. I… I know this going to be awkward for a while. Hell, this will be the first time having to take care of anything other than myself and my pet pig, TonTon." She smiled to herself when she saw the boy crack a small grin before it fell back into a frown. "But… but maybe we can work something out."

Tsunade met Naruto's eyes and she could've sworn she saw what could've been a dull spark of hope.

"So, how 'bout we try this again. Naruto, tell me a bit about yourself?"

The car ride lasted another hour and a half, and already it wasn't long enough. Naruto, whom at the beginning of the drive was closed in and quite, was now yelling and smiling. He laughed as he told a story about when he and a friend of his, Konohamaru, went to try to catch the Boogeyman in their closet.

Tsunade watched in amusement as he seemed opened up more and more as the story went on, eventually adding voice affects when necessary and flailing his arms around wildly.

"So then, we walked over to the closet and Konohama'u told me that he could hear him inside, breathing and stuff! So, since I was older, I walked in front of him to open the door first, and then…" Naruto used another one of his "dramatic pauses."

Smirking Tsunade asked, "And then what happened?"

"And then… I opened the door and… BAH! I'uka-sensei scared us from behind! We weren't supposed to be awake, but I'uka-sensei is nice and stuff! So he asked us what we were doing, and we told him 'We're looking for the Boogeyman! We heard him!' Then he laughed and said it was only the vents and pointed to the big metal box in the closet!"

Naruto's laughter filled the car and Tsunade relaxed at the sound.

They were now far out from the city, arriving closer to Naruto's new home. Of course, this would never be his real home. Naruto smiled at the thought.

Tsunade noticed the boy had gone quiet and when she looked back, she noticed that the boy had visibly relaxed and was smiling out the window. That comforted her thoughts and she was glad the tension from earlier had evaporated.

Soon, a small white farmhouse appeared in the distance. A few other houses were scattered close by, and Naruto discovered that a couple houses had stables or barns.

Tsunade gripped the wheel a bit tighter. The moment of truth, she thought. She glanced at the rearview mirror only to be caught in Naruto's soft gaze.

Taking a deep breath as they approached the small neighborhood, Tsunade asked "So… What'cha think? How do you like it?"

Naruto looked back between the approaching house and the woman in the front seat. Suddenly he looked up and said with a smile on his face, "This is my temporary home."

Tsunade felt confusion and rejection all rolled into one and it hurt. "W-What do you mean, Naruto? Don't you like it here?"

"I do, but it doesn't matter where I go. It will never be home; not my true home." He was still smiling.

"I still don't understand."

Naruto closed his eyes while his head remained pointed upwards. "This is just another stop on the way to where I'm supposed to go."

Tsunade watched him with a look of shock. She understood what he was talking about now; she was just amazed that a child his age could speak so deeply about a topic such as this.

"Naruto… Where did you learn to talk like talk that?"

"I'uka-sensei told me. He said that it doesn't matter where I am, as long as I know where I'm going. Cool, huh?" Naruto smiled a cheeky grin, lowered his head, and opened his eyes.

Staring at him for a few more seconds, Tsunade shook her head and smiled gently. "Yeah, it is cool, isn't it?"

Naruto smiled and nodded before looking back out the window, finally reaching the neighborhood.

Outside, Naruto saw two other children; one about his age, and the other about a few years older. A small smile tugged at Naruto's lips and giggled as he caught the eye of the younger raven haired boy.


FINALLY!!!

Are you happy now, Keys?! Are you?! Yeeeeess. Yes I am.You better be, I stayed up 'till three trying to write this and slept most of my day away! (Though this isn't uncommon for me) Sure, keep blaming me.

Seriously though, I'm just kidding. ^^; I probably would've done this anyway. :D ... Or you can stop blaming me, whatever works best for you.

Part 2 should be up soon, but my spring break is over so it might be getting up later than usual. I dunno. –shrugs-

Now remember kids; flames will be used for roasting marshmallows and reviews are my brain-food!

So review, yesh? 83

-TGOMO/Anju

P.S. RANDOM POLL! –points to profile- LOL I picked "POST A FREAKING FANFIC INSTEAD OF THESE STUPID POLLS!" I figured as much. XD –brick'd-