(A/N): This is the updated version of chapter three. All chapters after this should be up to the same standard as the previous now and won't need updating. Thanks again for the support that people have given this story! Cheers!
Chapter 3 – An Afternoon in Light and Dark
Naruto stretched out on his favorite hilltop park bench and basked in the sun, waiting to meet up with Hinata for the afternoon. He was hoping she would take him shopping and help him pick out a new outfit, as part of his orange and black outfit had been ruined beyond repair on his last mission. Hinata was actually spending the morning at the hospital visiting Rynn, the girl who had nearly died in front of him on the same occasion that wrecked his favorite outerwear. He scratched his head and frowned a bit at the thought of that day. He still couldn't figure out who the silver-haired man was, despite the familiar voice. It was driving him mad! He also hadn't puzzled out exactly what those vibrations that had made him feel so sick had been either.
Shikamaru and some of the other ninja of the Konoha intelligence sector had a theory about it, something about charka from other dimensions. Shikamaru had tried to explain the theory to him, but the majority of the complicated details had escaped Naruto's attention and in the end, his friend gave up on trying to explain what he thought had occurred. Of course, there was no way to test the theory since the girl's chakra was sealed now, and she hadn't even been cleared to leave the hospital yet.
He shook his head, sending spiky blonde locks into his eyes. Naruto had wanted to clear his head today of recent events not dwell on them. Channeling his genius friend, he watched clouds go past, enjoying one of the first truly warm days of the summer. It was incredibly peaceful to gaze at the fluffy clouds, and he almost fell asleep by the time Hinata arrived at their prearranged meeting spot.
Naruto watched as his friend walked up toward the bench he was spread out on. She was wearing a loose purple t-shirt and navy knee-length cargo shorts. The outfit was overly baggy, but Naruto thought that Hinata looked kind of pretty in it. In fact, he thought she looked sort of pretty most of the time. A blush and a smile simultaneously crept across her face as she noticed him on the bench.
"Hi Naruto! Sorry to have kept you waiting. I lost track of time at the hospital and Master Tsunade wanted a few words with me before I left."
"It's alright Hinata," he greeted her with a brief hug that made them both blush a little, "it's a nice day to relax in the sun anyways."
Naruto ran his hand through his wayward blonde hair as they both awkwardly stood apart post-hug. "So, uh, want to come help me grab a new jacket? I probably need a girl's help finding new clothes but I'll pay for shopping help with some ramen after?"
"N-Naruto, I think you might new pants too," Hinata pointed out, looking down at Naruto's over-exposed ankles. "I'd be happy to help though! You don't have to bribe me with lunch for it." She smiled, and he resolved to buy the raven-haired girl lunch regardless of the outcome of their combined shopping efforts.
The duo walked at a comfortable pace toward the center of Konoha's shopping district, with Naruto noting that Hinata seemed slightly shorter than before. He had only been slightly taller than her for the duration of the Fourth Shinobi War, but now she was several inches shorter than him. His throat grew a little tight at the thought of the war, and what had happened after it. Hinata had helped him out so much around that time, especially when she had helped him keep his resolve while fighting the Ten-tails host. It was the third time in his life he had felt truly appreciative of her support. And yet, he was plagued by guilt every time he thought about her confession of love to him because he hadn't really given her a clear answer yet. After the war had ended, they had talked and decided to spend more time getting to know each other better before any hasty decisions were made. They had definitely spent a lot of time together since then, but he still hadn't figured out whether he returned her feelings or not.
He knew how she felt about him, yet he found himself still racked with indecision. Naruto knew he cared about her a great deal, and that he had fun hanging out with her. But was that love? He wasn't sure. And he couldn't say anything to her until he was, it just wouldn't be fair treatment to someone he considered a close friend.
"You're very quiet today, Naruto," Hinata spoke, looking up at him with a timid smile, "Is something on your mind?"
"Um, not much. I guess I'm just worried about that girl in the hospital, ya know?" he lied, feeling embarrassed but a little proud of his quick thinking.
Hinata's smile faltered a little bit. "She's healing pretty well physically, but she's very upset about finding out she can't easily go home. She's got a boyfriend and a family there that she really misses."
This made Naruto think back to his own childhood, and to the fate of his best friend Sasuke. "That's rough. She must be very lonely."
Hinata nodded. "That's why I've been visiting her. I mean, at first I started visiting because," Hinata's voice dropped to a near-whisper, "I thought she was going to die. I couldn't stand the thought of that poor girl dying alone in a hospital room. Once she pulled through, I thought it would horrible to go through something like she did and wake up alone. Now that she's awake and we know what happened, I just can't help but feel like I should try to help her adjust. Besides, she seems like a nice person, definitely not an enemy."
Naruto couldn't help but smile upon hearing Hinata's story. "You're the kindest person I've ever met, Hinata," he told her, still grinning. "Hey look! That store looks pretty promising; it's even got some orange stuff in the window! Come on!" Naruto headed briskly toward the store, gentle pulling Hinata by the arm behind him.
"You're the kindest person I've ever met, Hinata," he told her, still grinning. "Hey look! That store looks pretty promising; it's even got some orange stuff in the window! Come on!"
Hinata blushed furiously at the high praise just given to her, and the blaze on her face intensified as Naruto grabbed on to her arm and gently pulled her towards a clothing store. Naruto opened the door to the clothing store roughly, causing the bell to loudly declare their presence inside.
"Well, Hinata what do you think? I'm not really sure where to start…" Naruto's words trailed off as he pushed his way through the packed racks of the clothing store. If she was honest, Hinata was somewhat unsure herself. A lot of her clothes ended up being picked out by Sakura or TenTen, with Ino always pushing her to wear more revealing outfits that showed off her body.
She moved toward a rack of pants that looked similar to what Naruto had on already. Picking through the different styles, she found a black pair that had an orange stripe down the side of each leg. It took her a moment to find her long time crush in the crowded store, but she finally did, near the back. Naruto, who had already gotten distracted from the task at hand, was wearing a white bandana paired up with some very Shino-like sunglasses. When he saw her following him to the back of the store, he stuck a pose.
Hinata giggled a bit. "Pretty awesome looking, right?" Naruto said with a laugh. "I gotta pick out a winning outfit for when I finally become Hokage!"
Hinata smiled one of those wide smiles that seemed to only spring from Naruto's antics. "Now all your outfit needs is pants that actually fit!" She held out her find from earlier. He took the pants and headed to the change rooms at the back of the store while Hinata hunted for a matching top. It took a few minutes, but she managed to find a jacket that matched the pants. It was cut almost identically to Naruto's old jacket but coloured slightly differently. It was black with orange sleeves and an orange stripe running along the bottom of it.
Grabbing the jacket and a couple tank tops she figured would go well underneath, Hinata moved to the back of the store to pass off her finds to her friend, feeling suspiciously Ino-like. She had her own reasons for picking tank tops over normal t-shirts…
"So Hinata, what do you think? I think these fit a lot better than my old pants, don't you?"
Hinata turned to see that Naruto had come out of the change room, and her face turned a dark shade of red as she realized that he wasn't wearing his t-shirt. She immediately noticed that he hadn't just gotten taller; he had actually filled out all around, particularly in his chest and shoulders. His build was impressive, but Hinata forcefully made herself inspect the pants. "T-they fit g-great Naruto. I t-think they look r-really good," she stammered.
Looking with dedication toward his now-covered ankles, she mentally beat herself up for getting so flustered. It wasn't anything she hadn't seen before, after all, she had spent the previous summer training with Naruto. On really hot days, he rarely wore a shirt.
She looked up to see his blue eyes on her face with obvious concern. "Are you okay? You're looking really red. It's really warm in here," Naruto asked before fanning his face with his hand in the stuffy heat of the store.
Hinata nibbled slightly on her lower lip. "Y-yeah, I'm completely r-roasting in here," she agreed, maybe a little too quickly. "I found some matching shirts!" She passed him the garments, torn between him remaining bare-chested or trying them on.
"Thanks! I think these will work great, ya know!"
Naruto pulled a white tank top over his head and at a look at himself in a mirror.
"I guess this looks fairly good with the pants Hinata, but don't you think it's kinda tight?"
Hinata smiled before answering, making a mental note to thank Ino for teaching her how to shop.
Far, far away from Konoha, a dark haired man watched closely as two cloaked figures made their way over the difficult terrain to get to the bottom of a river valley. It was a remote area; in fact, the last settlement the mysterious due had even come close to was several days travel behind them. And a pair of startling red eyes had observed every move.
One figure turned abruptly, causing long silver hair to erupt from the cowl, and gestured to his companion. They exchanged words that the hidden man couldn't hear and then immediately began to paint an intricate seal on a space in the middle of the valley. Shrouded in the shadows of the forest surrounding the valley walls, the lone shinobi took in all the details of the seal that was forming before him. Even as far away as he was, it was easy to absorb the details. Nothing escapes the notice of one who has their brother's eyes.
Painting the seal took nearly three hours and by the time it was done, the sun was setting, casting long shadows over their painstaking work. The pair made their way to opposite sides of the massive circular seal and began in unison to go through a complex series of hand seals. Well concealed in a dense patch of underbrush, a pair of eyes seemed to glow red as Uchiha Sasuke committed the pattern of hand seals to memory: Ne, Tatsu, Ni, Ushi, Tori. These were followed by three hand seals that Sasuke had never seen before and thus couldn't name, although memorizing them wasn't difficult.
The figures before him repeated the hand seals continuously for the better part of an hour. The ninja tracking them has grown bored with the repetitive display but his attention sharpened as he noticed something odd happening in the space above the seal. It seemed to be shimmering almost, but even with his Sharingan he couldn't shake the fuzzy quality of the area. With a concentrated sigh, he released his eyes to next level of Sharingan.
His interest peaked further as with his vastly improved vision he noticed tiny blotches that were giving the space its strange appearance. Peering more intently, he noticed that they looked like small tears in the air, opening up to something else entirely. Over the course of the next few minutes the tears got wider and began to meet each other, resulting in massive holes that showed a scene that could only be described as foreign. Soon the area had opened up to the full size of the paint on the ground. As the strange hole reached its maximum size, both figures did the hitsuji seal. With a blinding flash of light, the hole was gone and in its place was a chunk of a log structure. Its architecture was nothing like Sasuke had ever seen before. Stranger still, the entire painted seal was obscured by snow.
Intrigued, the village-less nin watched as the figures went into the shelter and dragged the body of a young man dressed in animal skins out. The man's face was covered in blood from what looked like some sort of nose bleed, but with his highly powered eyes he could see the man's pulse points fluctuating with signs of life. The silver-haired man and his small-statured companion carried the unconscious kid along the length of the valley, leaving muddy footprints in the dirt as the unseasonal snow melted off their shoes.
Sasuke blinked, and his eyes returned to their normal onyx colour. He began to follow the pair, but stopped short and hid as he noticed the approach of three ninja. He slipped back to his previous hiding spot and watched as the team of ninja bounced past him. He felt a familiar thump in his chest when he realized the team was made up of Konoha ANBU. In actuality, it was a perfect distraction. The pair of rogue ninjas he had been tracking was far more likely to catch on to the ANBU coming after them than Sasuke himself. Giving the ANBU team adequate space, he began his pursuit as well.
His relatively emotionless face worked itself into a frown as he followed the Konoha ninja and his targets. 'Even this far from civilization,' he thought bitterly, 'I can't escape reminders of my past.' He wondered idly if any of the ANBU in front of him were people he would recognize were they unmasked.
"Hn. Better off not knowing," he mumbled under his breath. He pushed thoughts of Konoha, and his last conversation with a certain medic-nin out of his mind and focused on the pursuit of his enemy, where living in the darkness was an asset.
