Naruto's arms were stretched out still seeking something - someone - despite years of experience. Even back at the orphanage no one wanted to tuck him into bed like the old lady Asuna would do for the younger orphans and like Inoue would do her younger brother Kyoya. Naruto had learned early on that the older kids hadn't cared if he had a nightmare like Inoue did when her younger brother had one. He wasn't allowed to climb in their beds. Despite this when Naruto slept one of his arms was always stretched to the edge of the bed to hold onto someone. But to hold onto someone so they wouldn't leave him there had to be a person there to begin with.
Dirty fingers twitched at the sound of running water. It takes longer than it should for Naruto to realize his sink is on and that can't be happening because than his shower going to be cold. Naruto is used to cold showers (he gets them when he uses water before a shower or when he's not in and out of the shower) but they're not really fun. Blue eyes snap open in alarm; the plan of sleeping in was forgotten as Naruto stumbled out of the bed only to stare at the sight before him. It's one of them that stood in front of the sink and was running water in it. The mask doesn't move but Naruto knew that they knew he was up. The masks were good like that. They weren't slow like the ninjas that chase after him when he pulls a prank. Briefly, Naruto wondered how fast they could catch him if they were ever to stop just staying in the tree outside and the shadows. His heart started to race because maybe he'll get to know now that a mask wasn't attempting to hide as they watched over him. Who knows maybe the other kids will see the mask and finally believe him. The kids at the orphanage and the ones at the academy never believed him despite how Naruto had yelled at them to believe it.
The mask turned around and began to walk. They didn't say anything but Naruto knew they could see him standing there. Naruto was still silent and frozen in shock. Normally Naruto wasn't one for subterfuge despite, you know, being a ninja and that apparently was important to be one, but despite that, he wished he had just stayed in his bed. Maybe if he pretended to be asleep instead of jumping out of bed then the mask would have stayed long- expect the Mask didn't climb out of the window or even walk out of the door. No, they had walked to his little scraped up table that was littered with stacked up bowls and emptied ramen cups. The mask still didn't say anything to him but Naruto got the feeling he was suppose to be watching. Briefly, Naruto wondered if the mask was a teacher like Iruka when they weren't being a mask. Mask took the chopsticks out of the ramen cups and left them in the bowl that was stacked up on the other bowls. They threw the ramen cups into the trash before working on the dirty bowls. There wasn't any food left in them to grow moldy. Naruto ate everything he wasn't given despite preferring ramen. Naruto was almost always hungry (Old lady Asuna use to tell him he wouldn't be so hungry if he didn't waste so much energy on pranks but that wasn't true. But she didn't believe Naruto. She thought he was being a selfish pig like how others thought he was stupid too to be Hokage or that he was too imaginative because there were no such thing as masks that watch over him.) and sometimes he didn't have enough food so when he did have food you better believe he would eat it even if he admittedly preferred ramen.
The mask put the bowls in the sink that was filled with bubbles. How did they get dish soap? Naruto couldn't get anybody to sell him any after he ran out the first bottle that had been left in the apartment and it wasn't just because they thought he would pull some prank that needed soap. People didn't like Naruto even before his pranks. Sometimes they were ugly and most of the time they avoided him like people did when you were sick. That - no one but the old man Hokage paying attention to him after Asuna kicked him out the orphanage - was why Naruto had started pranking. Yeah people got annoyed at him but they actually paid some attention to him and had a reason to be upset at him instead of just not liking him to begin with. Finally, Naruto found words to speak, "What are you doing mask?"
If Naruto's voice was for once an inside voice neither one of them pointed it out.
Mask pulled a bright pink sponge from one of his pockets instead of answering. It still had a plastic wrapper on it; the kind they only have on when you buy it from the store. They ripped open the wrapper and put the sponge in the sink to soak with the dishes. And then they just left without a word.
"Hey!" Naruto screamed. They didn't even talk to them and tell him what they were doing in his apartment. Okay so maybe it wasn't his at first but he had been kicked out of the orphanage and when the Hokage had found him then it was Naruto's apartment. The chunin who owned this place before hadn't survived the jonin exam. Apparently, he had been an orphan too since there was no family to scream at Naruto or take some of the stuff away. Later that night after the old man had left Naruto had wondered what would happen to his stuff once he died. Maybe he would be a Hokage then and have a family but what if he died before then? Would anyone want anything of his to remember him by? Or would it be left in the apartment like the chunin's stuff had been: just waiting for another orphan to make use with it? Naruto desperately wanted to have someone to want to remember him just like he desperately wanted to be Lord Hokage so then the village would have to acknowledge him but, you know, he was okay if what was left of his property was used by another orphan.
A/N: Originally posted on ao3 under the pen name youngjusticewriter. Part one of the Spring Cleaning series.
