"This is it," Tazuna announced. "My home."
"Cozy," Naruto commented.
"Nice," Sakura added.
"…I got nothin'," Sasuke said at length.
Kakashi snorted in laughter.
Sakura rounded on Naruto.
"Alright. Are you going to explain what the hell all that was?"
"No."
"Say WHAT?" she screeched.
Naruto winced and cleaned his ear.
"Damn, woman, do you ever talk in a normal volume?"
Sasuke, Kakashi, and Tazuna chortled as Sakura turned beet-red.
"You!" she growled, taking a swing at him. It connected but had no visible effect, so she swung again.
Naruto batted her strike aside like it was nothing and placed her in an armlock.
"Here's the deal, Sakura-chan," Naruto growled softly in her ear. "The first one is free. Anything after that will cost you. Dearly."
"H-Hai…" Sakura whimpered.
Naruto released her.
"Good girl." He seemed contrite. "I…didn't hurt you too badly, did I?"
Sakura shook her head.
"Okay then. Shall we?"
"This is my daughter, Tsunami," Tazuna introduced, "and my grandson, Inari."
"Why did you drag them into this?" the boy said softly. "They're just going to die. You can't beat Gato."
Naruto smirked.
"Whatever. Don't underestimate me, kid."
Inari just turned away.
"Idiot," he muttered.
Naruto woke the next day, feeling quite refreshed. Kakashi was apparently up, and planning on supervising their training. They swiftly ate breakfast and headed out. Kakashi smiled as he told them what they would be doing.
"Your exercise today is going to be climbing trees." Kakashi explained. He paused for their moment of 'righteous indignation' and explained further.
"Without your hands." He added, and eye-smiled at their responses. But was surprised to see Naruto looked bored out of his mind.
"Well Naruto, since you're so bored, why don't you go first?" Kakashi asked. Naruto just shrugged nonchalantly and walked up the tree with no apparent problems. Kakashi's eye widened.
"Naruto is using chakra to do the exercise, what others do you know Naruto?" Naruto smiled and listed them in a distant tone that basically said 'You're wasting my time, sensei.'
"Tree climbing, water walking and running, senbon balancing, and kunai balancing. I am currently working on an entirely new exercise, you wanna see it Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, jittering eagerly. Kakashi's jaw dropped at the list; the kid had to have low jounin level chakra control. He grinned a second later; this new one sounded interesting.
"Maybe later Naruto. Sakura, Sasuke, I want you to keep running up and down the tree for practice." He gave Sakura and Sasuke a kunai to mark their progress, and watched them attempt to run up the tree once before ambling off. Naruto walked away a short distance, hid himself, and watched.
Sakura ran up the tree perfectly the very first try.
"Hey Sasuke-kun I did it on my first try! Isn't that great?" the pink-haired bint squealed. Sasuke just ignored her and continued the exercise. Sakura ran back down the tree, and then up again. She watched as Sasuke made it up a distance and then fell back, having obvious difficulty with the exercise. Sakura stayed down the bottom of her tree as Sasuke tried once again. He landed at the bottom and glared at the tree as if it was its fault he was failing. She approached the fuming Uchiha with a mild blush and her hands clasped behind her back. "Umm, Sasuke-kun?" she tentatively asked, avoiding meeting Sasuke's gaze.
"What is it now Sakura?" the Uchiha huffed out, annoyance and impatience evident in his tone.
"I was wondering... if you'd like my help...?" she timidly asked, trailing off and quieting.
Sasuke turned towards her, and for a second her hopes were raised. But then they were dashed by the fierce glare sent her way by Sasuke.
"I don't need your help" Sasuke spat. His voice held such venom that Sakura took a step back in fear. What came next utterly crushed her.
"You're pathetic Sakura. The only reason your control is so high is because your chakra reserves are incredibly small. That and your book smarts are the only things going for you. Otherwise, you are slow, weak, and utterly disgusting. I will never go out with you, even if my life depended on it. So stop asking me on dates all the time. Just leave me the fuck alone. You're beneath me. Even if you weren't weak and annoying, you'd still be a commoner. I deserve someone far better than you, you shallow bitch." Sasuke snarled. He took a breath and continued to glare and rant at the stunned and hurt pink-haired kunoichi
"You're nothing but hindrances to this team. So piss off and drown yourself for all I fucking care." Sasuke whispered spitefully.
Sakura took a few seconds to absorb all this. She looked at Sasuke's face and saw only contempt as he turned away and tried to climb the tree again. Tears began to stream down her face as her heart shattered as she ran.
Naruto grimaced; that had been harsh. Before he went, he stealthily cast a small Katon jutsu and set the Uchiha's hair on fire. He trailed Sakura, leaving behind a fuming Uchiha behind. Said avenger knew even more than before that he had a hairstyle resembling a chicken's ass, as the entire back part of his head except for the hairs that stick up had completely burned away.
Sakura eventually came to a stop, not really being able to run anymore. She just sat down and cried and cried great heaving sobs of the broken hearted. She flinched and cried out when she felt a pair of warm arms wrap around her. She struggled at first, but froze when a familiar voice attempted to soothe her.
"Shhh, I'm here for you Sakura." at first, the only thing that registered was the comfort and caring the embrace produced. She then she managed to place the voice as Naruto's. The embrace shifted; instead of holding her from behind, he slipped around in front of her. She looked up into his whiskered face; her first thought was an odd one.
'He has beautiful eyes...' and then the events of the last few minutes came rushing back to her mental eye. She buried her head in the crook of his neck, and sobbed her heart out.
Naruto had always had a soft spot for crying women. He hated it when they cried, and he always did his best to comfort them. This was when a woman actually wanted to be comforted by him, so he didn't entirely know what to do. He had comforted Hinata a few times after her father had verbally abused her; he guessed this was the same thing. He just held Sakura until she ran out of tears. She finally cried herself out, but stayed where she was. She said something, but it was muffled in his shirt and neck. He pulled back a little, and looked into her eyes which where red and swollen from crying.
"What did you say Sakura?" Naruto asked her while tilting his head to the side and arching an eyebrow, making him look extremely cute.
"Why are you here for me Naruto? You must have heard what Sasuke said to me, right?" Sakura managed to choke out, wiping one of her eyes.
"Yeah, I did. What he said was wrong." Naruto answered, stroking her silky hair gently.
"Then why are you here?" she was beginning to tear up again, thinking he was going to leave her alone.
"Because I think he's wrong." he saw her shock and smiled a little "Yeah you can be a little moody... well actually you can be a little bitchy sometimes," he admitted, and frowned when a few tears escaped her eyes "you have bad taste in men," Naruto continued. Sakura hung her head beginning to cry again "but you didn't deserve that. You're nothing of what he said. I'm not gonna say anything corny like he doesn't deserve you, even though its true." she looked up at him again smiling slightly. Naruto's face lit up when he saw her smile.
"Prove the bastard wrong Sakura; become strong. Sasuke was right when he said you are weak, but that doesn't mean you can't become a whole lot stronger. And you know why he thinks you're a hindrance?" he frowned at a mumbled 'I'm weak' "No, its because..." he looked around shiftily, gaining her attention "because he wants to be alone on this team with me and Kakashi-sensei. No girls if you get me." he smiled in triumph when she giggled slightly
"Frankly, I know I always do my best when there's a beautiful girl around." Naruto softly admitted to her. She smiled again, and blushed crimson when he softly cupped her face with both hands and wiped away her tears with his thumbs. He gently kissed her forehead, which made her go into an even deeper red.
"Now come on. I'll teach you some stuff that teme over there won't learn for ages." He stood up and held out his hand. Sakura took it slowly, noticing how warm it was. Her inner self was strangely quiet since Sasuke's attack.
She followed him while blushing the whole time. But she was also slightly disappointed as he was holding her hand, but it didn't seem to register with him.
"Okay this is the technique I'm going to teach you." Naruto demonstrated this technique by walking out onto the water. A couple steps out, he turned back to the shore.
"Okay Sakura, this is basically the same as the tree climbing exercise but it needs more control and constant flow of chakra." he grinned at her mildly shocked expression. "Since you have very little chakra, and I doubt you want to get wet, go one step at a time and I'll catch you if you fall."
Sakura nodded, trying not to blush at the last part as she gathered her chakra and placed one foot on the water. Once she was sure she had it right, she put the other foot on the water. She wobbled, but stabilized quite quickly. She had done it, and on her first try no less! Sakura pumped her fist in the air, but lost her concentration, and stopped the flow of chakra to her feet.
Sakura cried in fright as she fell forward, but two arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her upright. She clutched onto the arms as they pulled her against something very warm. Sakura took a few seconds to realize that it was Naruto she was clinging to. And for the past few seconds since she had been caught, she had been greatly admiring the chest and the arm muscles she could feel. She felt the hands loosen slightly, and her grip tightened. Naruto noticed, and tried to console her.
"It's okay Sakura, I've got you. Now try again, we don't want you falling in again." Naruto joked. Sakura nodded, her face a bright crimson as she concentrated again. This time neither on the hands now supporting her at the waist, nor on the seemingly chiseled chest she was being held against. She managed to find her footing on the water, and turned around to face a smiling Naruto. Unfortunately her inner self kicked in and started to talk about trying to get his shirt of and feeling his chest up. She lost it again. Sakura fell forward, only to be caught again. She held onto his arms and righted herself, only this time her face was mere centimeters away from his.
Naruto was a little stunned; not that she'd fallen again, not about how close she was, but mostly about how good she felt in his arms. She felt as good in his arms as Hinata. The thing about sharing him that she had said came back to haunt him at this very moment. Unfortunately, Sakura lost control of her inner self for just a half second. The inner self, now partially in control of motor functions, moved Sakura's head forward about half an inch, causing their lips to meet.
Naruto's eyes widened. 'She's kissing me!'
Sakura's eyes widened. 'I'm kissing him!'
'Ah, fuck it' was Naruto's last thought as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer. His eyes drifted shut and his lips began to move in a soft, tender kiss.
Sakura's eyes widened even further when he pulled her closer, closed his eyes and began to kiss her instead of just having their lips touching.
"Respond already girl, you can slap him later!" her inner self shouted. Sakura nodded inside her mind, and began to kiss him back.
Kakashi's visible and covered eyes widened.
'Hot damn that was unexpected. Well, maybe not after what Sasuke said. Such a fool' he thought as the two teens kissed. He had really been hoping to see that technique Naruto had talked about. He frowned quickly; he could have sworn for a split second Naruto's coat 'shifted' and a demonic-looking face appeared to stare at him. He shrugged it off and watched as they continued kissing.
'I wonder how far they'll go, hehehe…NO! BAD KAKASHI! BAD KAKASHI!' he slapped himself and pulled out his book…bad idea.
Naruto broke the tender kiss and took a couple of breaths. He stared at Sakura, her eyes were still closed and he face was the same color as her hair. Her eyes opened and they stared at each other for a few seconds. "Wow..." he heard her whisper and couldn't contain his smile.
"That good, huh?" Sakura heard him say through the haze. She felt heat rush to her cheeks, and looked down as she nodded, not wanting to look him in the face. Her first kiss might not have been with who she imagined, but it was all she had imagined it to be.
"H-how?" she asked as she looked up into his facing, obviously wondering why he was so good. She was a little shocked to see a fleeting glimpse of shame of his face, then slight confusion and fear, then a gleam of hope. Somehow her woman's intuition told her exactly what was going on.
"You have someone already, don't you." She stated. He nodded his head and looked down, but he didn't let her go.
"Hinata" he whispered so quietly that she almost didn't catch it.
"What are we gonna do? We could just drop this... I guess something between friends?" she offered half-heartedly. She didn't voice it, but she didn't like this idea.
To her surprise he looked at her and shook his head with a small smile.
"Well the thing is Hinata likes you, doesn't like you going after the Uchiha, but she's always admired your confidence and brains; something she's always believed she lacks even though she doesn't. And well, she kinda once said…" he paused not sure how to go on. Sakura frowned.
"She said what?" little did she know that Kakashi was now listening in, and had a slightly perverted idea about what she had said.
"She said that she would be willing to share me with other girls as long as she liked them." he sighed, waiting for the inevitable slap or a scream. None came however, and he looked at Sakura who was staring at him suspiciously.
"She really said that?" Sakura breathed softly, her emerald eyes wide. He nodded while looking her in the eyes.
"... I guess I can talk to her about it when we get back. We'll find out what to do then, but nothing until then Naruto." She warned him with a dangerous glare. He nodded vigorously, wanting to avoid a potential beating at all costs. He helped her for a few more minutes, then went a few feet away and sat on the lake.
Neither of them heard the perverted giggle that came from the red-faced Kakashi. 'Oh Naruto, I'm so proud of you.' He thought with a snicker.
Kakashi had been watching Naruto training Sakura. It was interesting Sakura's taijutsu technique was text book academy style; absolutely flawless, yet also almost useless. Sasuke had the Uchiha style of taijutsu down almost perfectly, but Naruto was a bit of a mystery: His main style-he was a brawler. His style of fighting was fluid and random. There were no set stances. It was mostly attack, then attack again, and repeat. It was essentially a useless style for most shinobi, but shinobi like Naruto who used it to perfection almost made it a taijutsu style in itself; completely adaptable, completely unpredictable, and absolutely the worst kind of taijutsu style for a Sharingan user to face. He sighed; even if he told Sasuke, which he had admittedly tried to, the arrogant little shit believed that just because he was an Uchiha he could beat anyone eventually by copying their jutsus. However that wouldn't work against Naruto. Kakashi hadn't mentioned it, but he had noticed that not only did Naruto have incredibly physical speed and strength; his clothes somehow blocked the Sharingan from copying his moves.
He sighed again. Naruto was evasive and good at it too. Sasuke had been tailing him in the hopes of learning something, but each time he had either gotten lost and been found and brought back by Kakashi, or tied up in a complex and ingenious trap that took him several hours to get out of. Kakashi supposed that life as a prankster had taught him good trap making and stealth skills. It was easy to see who else, but a damn stealthy son of a bitch could have painted the Hokage monument in broad daylight. He sighed again and went to find Sasuke who had no doubt been tied up by now.
He created several hundred Kage Bunshins to practice different techniques while he sat and did a rather simple yet hard task. The simple part was the idea seal-less jutsu. He could make Kage Bunshins with some concentration and thought. It only took about five seconds now, but he still couldn't do it in a split second. Those five seconds could cost him his life. He also figured if he got this simple jutsu like Kawarimi and Henge, fighting would be a snap. He practiced, and practiced, and practiced some more. It was only when he was nearly collapsing from exhaustion that he got it down. He managed to drag himself back to Tazuna's place in time for dinner.
He sat down, looking utterly exhausted. It didn't really help that Sakura was smirking into her plate as her foot glided up and down his thigh (sitting opposite him obviously). She however, didn't get the desired reaction; he was simply too tired. However, luck wasn't with him and a demon had decided to fuck up his life…its name was Inari.
"Why do you train so hard, you're just all going to die!" Inari stated. His tone was angry, but you could almost see the desperation and pain coming of the kid in waves. Naruto smirked.
"Yeah, whatever kid. I'm not going to go out like that until I achieve my dreams." Naruto answered calmly. Inari looked at him, the corners of his eyes were becoming moist. Soon the tears would flow.
"I would hate to be like you! You don't know anything about this country, yet you're being so nosy!! What the hell do you know about me?! I'm different from you, you're always clowning around and acting so cheerful, you don't know how hard life can be! What do you know of pain you idiot? What do you know of suffering?" Inari ranted. He was about to continue, but almost fell of his chair as Naruto, who had been lounging back and looking up at the ceiling with his hands behind his head, snapped forward and slammed his hands into the table with a snarl. Not the normal human kind of snarl which is a warning but still kind of pathetic. This was a deep, menacing, feral, snarl. In a word: monstrous.
"What do I know of suffering?" the Konoha shinobi blinked as Naruto's voice deepened, and for a split second, seemed to have another voice overlapping it.
"You know nothing of my pain kid. You had parents, and you still have them. I've had no one. Until recently, I've been alone my whole FUCKING LIFE!"
"You think you have it bad?!" the raw emotion in his voice shocking the members of the room, "You have everything compared to some people! You have a family that loves you, you have food on the table, you have a home! Have you ever had to forage for food on the street because you haven't eaten for a week?! Have you ever had to live on the street because you've been kicked out of the orphanage?! Have you ever had to run from people who're out to kill you, for something you can't control? Stop whining, kid, I envy your life!!" he seemed to get control of himself as his voice lost its growling quality but was replaced by a deep, cold, calm that had Inari shaking even more than the growl.
"You're pathetic you runt. I've suffered more pain than you can imagine, all for something I couldn't control. And you know what? Did I turn out like you; a sniveling little brat? No, I didn't. I picked myself up, I stopped crying, I became strong, and I found a reason to be strong. And if you still think I'm an idiot and that I'm going to die, you can go fuck yourself." and with that he stood up. "I'm sorry, Tsunami-san. I'd better leave before I do something I'd regret later."
"Where're you goin', kid?" Tazuna asked gruffly.
"Hunting. If I don't kill something, and soon, I'm gonna kill your grandson." With that, he ran outside.
Inari stared at where Naruto had been for almost twenty seconds before he broke down crying and ran to his room. The others sat stunned. The silence was broken by Tazuna, who asked in a quiet subdued voice:
"Is it true what he said?" Kakashi sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Yes it's true. Naruto has been through things that would drive adults mad. It's incredible that he's still sane. It's utterly amazing that he's turned out to be the person that he is; so forgiving and caring. Unfortunately, this has also led him to despise people who wallow in their own suffering and believe they are the only ones who've suffered, as you can see." Kakashi explained. Tazuna sighed, and held his head in his hands while both Sakura and Tsunami cried quietly.
"About seven and a half years ago, my ANBU team and I were given a very special S-rank mission. It was to be completely secret, and carried out within the village walls. It lasted about ... four months before the council caught wind of it and scrapped it as a 'waste of resources'. It was to protect a four year old boy. Naruto."
"Why would Naruto need an ANBU team to protect him?!"
"I ... can't answer that. Only the Hokage and Naruto himself can tell you why. But I can tell you that he needed protection from the innumerable number of death threats and physical beating he was receiving from about ninety-five percent of the village. Naruto ... has probably had the worst life in twelve years that nearly the whole village put together, ninja and all."
Sasuke scowled, and Kakashi could tell what he was thinking as he nodded lowly in his direction, "Yes, Sasuke, what Naruto has been through would be numerous times worse than what happened even to you. Imagine living that day of your life almost every day. Then you might have an idea. In fact, more than once in our mission when I intervened on the attacks, I had to physically resuscitate him because his heart had stopped and he'd stopped breathing."
Sasuke sat deep in thought, before he asked coolly, "How could he forget if it were that bad? I should know, you never forget your worst memories."
"His memories were so bad that his mind locked them away so they wouldn't kill him from the inside out. He doesn't remember a thing, and when asked he states that everything's hazy since about eight and a half ."
"That's just the tip of the iceberg." all heads snapped towards Kakashi. "When the Kyuubi died, many people had so much hate and grief unspent with no where to go. And Naruto was born that day, shortly after the fox had died and he had those whisker-like birth marks. That was enough; he became the village scapegoat. They tried to have him killed multiple times." Kakashi looked down at his plate to avoid the horrified looks. "Not even the Hokage rightly knows how many times people have tried to kill Naruto, villagers and shinobi alike. He heals at a phenomenal rate; minor wounds take seconds to heal. He would survive anything not immediately fatal without so much as a scar. However, this gift is a curse, just one more piece of evidence that he is the Kyuubi for the villagers. All I know for sure is that he's been living by himself since he was six." Kakashi paused to inhale.
"He was kicked out of the orphanage when most orphans are given homes of their own at age 12. I do however know he was almost killed five times in his first month of life." Tsunami and Sakura where now openly sobbing, and Tazuna had tears leaking out of his eyes. Sasuke however just sat and stared straight ahead, paler than usual a look of utter shock on his face. "There have been people looking after him, and there are those that tried to help him. I myself tried to adopt him, but by the time I knew of his plight he was eight and liked living on his own. That boy knows strength. He is truly strong to suffer so much and come out with a smile, ready to protect a village which has shunned him all his life. No one else I know could have done it."
With that said, Kakashi stood and went outside, leaving four very shocked people behind. Sakura did the only thing she could; she got up and ran to Naruto.
Naruto was very shocked to see a sobbing Sakura throw open the door, rush out, tackle him to the ground, and start crying into his chest. He comforted the crying girl as best he could by hugging her, stroking her back, kissing her hair and forehead, the works. He knew he would get his answers soon. She finally stopped crying but didn't move.
"Sakura-chan, why where you crying?" Sakura looked at him and this seemed to bring fresh tears to her eyes.
"Kakashi-sensei told us-us a-a-about how the villagers thing you're the K-K-Kyuubi, even though it's dead." Sakura choked out. She started to cry again, not noticing the fear in Naruto's eyes. She had to know.
"Sakura," he said sharply, bringing her head up "sensei didn't tell you the whole truth." she looked confused and even more concerned "The Kyuubi never died. No mortal man could kill it. What the Yondaime did was seal it away." Naruto swallowed at her fearful look. "He sealed it in me; that's why the villagers hate me." Sakura stared at him for so long, he thought she was going to run. But just when he was about to start crying, she kissed him.
The kiss didn't deepen into anything passionate; it was just a sweet, tender, comforting kiss. When they broke up, Naruto uttered a single sentence that made Sakura kiss him again: "Thank you for not hating me." The couple kissed for a while but eventually settled down, and fell asleep in each others arms.