Legends Live Long, Idiots Die Young
Chapter 3
Sakura woke to the morning. Her room was dimmed in shadow, someone had closed the blinds to eliminate the light flowing through the window from the outside, and the bright light she woke up to the first time was turned off. She looked around the room, as if she was trying to find something, or rather someone. Empy, to her dismay.
She heard a knock on the door, and it was a specific knock that she knew wasn't Tsunade's, only one person could knock like that.
"Come in, Naruto", she said loud enough for the person on the outside to hear, and there the blonde was, poking his head into the room and looking right at her.
"How are you feeling?", he asked her lightly, stepping in and closing the door quietly behind him.
"Like a vampire, with how dark it is in here", she tried joking, laughing at it herself, but all she got out of him was a single half-hearted chuckle, and that disappointed her.
"I didn't want anything to disturb you while you slept, so I came in last night after talking with Tsunade to make sure of that, and just waited outside your door for you to wake", Naruto said, opening the blinds to light up the room, and everything outside looked white with the snow that was still falling.
"How did you know I was awake?", Sakura asked him, sitting up with a stretch and a yawn.
"The crystal told me. I felt your chakra spike", the blonde said, pulling up a chair and sitting in it next to her bed.
"O-oh…", she said, feeling a little sheepish at that, and looked up at the window, eyes narrowing a little before adjusting to the whiteness outside. She sat there silently without a word, staring into space.
"What's wrong?", he asked, breaking that silence, and when she looked back at him she saw that dull empty coldness in his cerulean eyes that she didn't like, and his expression was no better.
"It…It's nothing", she shrugged it off with a chuckle and a smile, but looked down at her hands in her lap. "Is he still good at detecting lies?...", she asked herself in thought.
"Don't try lying to me Sakura, I already know when you're not telling the truth", Naruto said, leaning a little closer to her.
"Damn", she thought. "Really, I'm fine", she looked back up at him, still holding her smile, but the corners of her lips furrowed, betraying her.
"Something's up. You know you can tell me anything still. Just because it's been a while doesn't mean I won't still listen", he said, lightening up his mood a little to that she didn't feel awkward.
"Well it's just…", Sakura had a hard time trying to spit it out, so she looked down again, afraid of his reaction. "You're not the same Naruto from before. You're different, distant, and…", she was trying not to cry, making her visibly shake.
"And?", Naruto encouraged her to continue, taking one of her hands in his softly, and waiting patiently.
"Cold", finally she said it, and let the tears go, squeezing his hand tightly without trying to break it. "You're not the Naruto I knew four years ago", she said. "Or the Naruto I fell in love with", she thought to herself, feeling it too soon to admit such a thing.
"I know", came his answer, which surprised her and she looked up, meeting with his steady gaze, trying to stop the sobs that were soon to come.
"People change Sakura, for better and for worse. I know I'm not that same guy you last saw, and to be honest, I don't think I ever will be from now on. That me you knew is long gone. He died and this me took over, and I've been like this for almost all four of the years I've been away. I buried my emotions, I matured, so I'm not a hyperactive knucklehead loudmouth anymore", he explained.
She sobbed, as much as she couldn't stop it from happening. "I was hoping you'd be a little different when you came back, but not like this", she said shakily.
"Come on Sakura, don't cry. I still can't stand to see you cry", he said, showing a bit of a saddened frown, which since it was an emotion he was fighting hard not to.
"But I missed you! I missed your laugh, your smile, your warm gaze. I missed everything about you! And I was hoping to see it all again someday! Now that you're finally here I see none of that!", Sakura bawled, taking her hand away from his grasp and putting both of them to her face, leaning forward.
Feeling bad, the blonde moved to sit on her bed and wrapped his arms around her gently, bringing her into an embrace to try and comfort her, in which she cried in his chest. "I'm sorry…", he whispered.
She tried to stop her crying and wiped her tears away, knowing she must look like a total idiot right now, but she didn't give a damn.
"What do you say, we get you checked out of here and, head on down to Ichiraku's? My treat", he asked, looking down at her and lifting her chin up so that she was looking at him, his gaze soft with a slight sideways smile.
"I-I'd like that…", she nodded with a sniffle, and tucked her messy hair behind her ears.
"Ok. I'll wait for you outside the door, you go ahead and get changed and whatnot, take your time", he said, giving her another hug and then standing up, handing her her folded clothes, and then heading for the door and stepping out.
She sniffled a few more times and dried her tears, before detaching herself from her IV, and getting dressed. She went to her room's bathroom to gussy up her hair best she could with what little to nothing she had, and then headed straight for the door. As promised he was right there waiting for her.
"Well that was fast", he gave a small chuckle as he looked up, stepping away from the wall he was leaning on.
"I didn't want to take too long. I didn't want you to leave me behind", she said to him, giving him a slight, small punch on the arm, but not nearly enough to hurt him or knock him over like the night before, which she now regretted.
"I wouldn't do that, that's just plain mean. I may be cold and different, but I'm not mean", Naruto said, shoving his hands into his pockets, looking down at her while she had to look up at him to look him in the eye, instead of being nearly eye level with him like four years ago.
"Damn, when did he get so tall? I can barely reach his lips now! Wait, did I just think that…?", she thought.
"Sure did girlfriend! Cha! And I bet he's hot underneath that clothing, because there's no way he would of gone four years without training!", said her inner self in her thoughts.
"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go!", she said as she smiled, half at him and half at Inner's words, slightly hoping to herself that they were true. She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him along down the hall and out of the building into the snow covered streets. The air was crisp and cold, it felt nice to breathe it in instead of stuffy warm hospital air.
The two walked together down the street towards Ichiraku's in silence, while all the passersby stared at them, not recognizing the blonde stranger that walked with Sakura. She payed them no mind, but Naruto on the other hand watched them back, being reminded what life was like before; being hated and stared at with fear or anger, sometimes getting rocks thrown at him, or insulted. That was one thing he didn't miss, and someone was bound to recognize him at some point, and stir up trouble. But he didn't say a word, only glanced from the ground to the people and back every so often as they walked along, the snow crunching beneath their feet as they left foot prints behind. They passed by a group of children having a blast in the white stuff, and by the looks of it, they seemed to be playing ninja, which told Naruto that they were roughly around nine or ten years old and in the Academy. He remembered only watching the other kids play back when he was that age, but was never invited to play with them.
Then came three teens, probably about seventeen years of age by Naruto's judgment, running out from separate hiding places yelling out their declares of war on the younger ones. They were plowed with snowballs by the younger kids, while they fought back with the same thing, laughing all the while. One in particular caught the blonde's eye, a kid of about his height when he was only fifteen, with spike brown hair and a long blue scarf. He recognized this kid for certain, and stopped to watch them.
One of the little kids was running and laughing, having a good time, until he ran into someone carrying a bag of groceries.
"Hey kid! Watch it!", growled the man.
"S-sorry!", the kid shrunk down in utter shame and fear.
"Uta!", the spikey haired kid Naruto was observing came running towards the smaller child.
"You should be! Next time I won't be so nice! I aught to tell your mother about this!", the man said.
"Leave him alone!", the seventeen year old growled, stepping in between the man and the child, holding out a kunai.
"Stay out of this kid, this doesn't concern you!", the man growled again, about ready to push the older one out of the way.
Naruto wasn't going to allow it, he knew who the seventeen year old was, and he wasn't about to let any harm come to him or his friend. Suddenly he was from where he was standing to between the boy and the man in under a second, almost in a flash, like Minato.
"He said, leave him alone", Naruto growled back at the man, looking down at him with ice in his eyes, having been taller than him.
Sakura had stopped only when she realized Naruto was not with her, and turned to see where he went. When she spotted him he was watching the children, and now she was watching him defend them.
"M-my apologies!", the man shrunk back, obviously only a villager, as he picked up his groceries and hurried off. With that, Naruto turned to the children.
"You two alright, Konohamaru?", he asked, addressing the seventeen year old who was crouching next to Uta, making sure he was ok.
"Yeah, we're f- Wait…You just called me Konohamaru. How do you know my name?", asked the spikey haired kid, looking up at the blonde.
"What? Don't you recognize your big brother?", Naruto asked with a small smile as he crouched down too, so he was somewhat eye level with the teen, who's eyes widened and frown slowly grew into a wide grin.
"Naruto!", the blonde was tackled and he lost his balance, falling in the snow with Konohamaru wrapped around him in a vice grip. "You came back! I knew you wouldn't break your promise!", he said excitedly.
The moment was enough to make Sakura melt a little, as she smiled sweetly at the reunion between the two. She knew Konohamaru missed Naruto almost as much as herself did, and often he'd talk to her when he needed someone, given they were closest to the blonde, and together they shared each other's hope, from the note Sakura had and the pinkie promise Konohamaru forced.
Naruto was actually laughing, another thing he hadn't done in too long of a time, but it felt great. "Alright Konohamaru, you can let me go now!", the blonde said in his laughing.
"No! Never again! I don't care what you say I'm not letting you go, ever!", Konohamaru yelled, but he was still happy as he held his grip firmly around the blonde.
"But I'm here to stay, I promise I won't leave again", Naruto said, still laughing a little.
"Promise?", the teen asked.
"Pinkie promise. You can count on it", chuckled the blonde.
"Well, in that case then", Konohamaru said as he let go and backed up, so that Naruto could get up from the snow, which the blonde did so.
"Sakura and I were just heading to Ichiraku's, want to tag along?", Naruto asked as he brushed off the snow from himself brought on by Konohamaru's tackle.
"No thanks, I'm gonna stay here with the guys, we've got a snow ball fight to win!", said the teen with a determined look that mirrored Naruto's from back then, and it was scarily identical.
"You've taken after me…Haven't you, Konohamaru?", thought the blonde, he couldn't help but smile at the teen. "Alright then", he nodded, getting to his feet.
"See ya around big brother!", Konohamaru waved while running off with his younger friend Uta back to their game of snowball war.
Naruto waved back without a word. "That was so sweet of you! I've not seen him that happy in a long time!", he heard Sakura's voice say to him, as she joined him at his side, grinning from ear to ear.
"What can I say? I couldn't stand from the sidelines and watch him get hurt trying to defend someone", Naruto shrugged, his expression returning to its now usual appearance.
"He really looks up to you, you know that?", Sakura said after looking towards Konohamaru and the others, then back to the blonde.
"Yeah", Naruto nodded, smirking a little, while still watching. "I know".
That was one of the many great things she loved about him, that he was good with kids, and when she had first realized that about him she had thought he'd make a wonderful Hokage and even better father.
"Well, shall we go on?", she asked him.
"Of course", he nodded, and began walking with her again.
"By the way, I saw you appear in front of that man faster than I could track you, like last night. How did you do that?", she asked, curious.
"It's my father's space time jutsu, he called it the Flying Thundergod, it's what gave him the name of the Yellow Flash, like how Kakashi is called the Copy-Cat ninja. Although unlike his, mine is modified, so I don't need a seal to appear wherever that seal may be, and instead I can appear anywhere I set my mind to", he explained.
"Really? I always thought the Fourth's jutsu as unattainable by others", Sakura said.
"Well, I learned his rasengan, and perfected it further than he could, didn't I?", Naruto chuckled with a small shrug.
"Point taken", Sakura gave her own chuckle. She couldn't remember that last time she had a good conversation with him, the last couple weeks of being around him before he left weren't anything like this. She felt more enlightened then she has in the years.
They reached Ichiraku's and walked inside, taking their seats at the counter.
"Welcome to Ichiraku's! How may I he-", the old man that worked the shop said and turned to greet his two customers, but he stopped in mid turn when he saw a sight he never thought he'd see again; his old favorite customer. "Is that really you, Naruto?", he asked the blonde, rubbing an eye in case he was hallucinating.
"It's me alright. I'm pretty sure the only other person to exist with this kind of hair is Lord Fourth", the blonde nodded.
"No kidding. You look just like ole' Minato", chuckled Teuchi. "Hey Ayame! Get out here!", he called his daughter.
"Yes father? What is it?", asked the young woman as she stepped out from the back room.
"Look at who it is!", Teuchi pointed at the blonde, who gave a brief wave.
"Oh my gosh! Is that Naruto?!", Ayame screamed as she nearly jumped over the counter at him.
"Yes, it is", Sakura said, a little…Jealous. "And he's mine, so back off!", she thought as she clenched her fist that hid under the counter. However her tension didn't get passed Naruto, he could feel it come off of her in waves, not just the spike of her chakra through his crystal.
"Calm down", he whispered to her.
"So what'll it be sport? Anything's on the house to celebrate your return!", Teuchi said, turning back to his cooking, while Ayame quickly went to go get more supplies.
"Just one bowl for myself, and anything Sakura wants", said the blond, shocking the three others there.
"Really? Normally you'd go all out and eat all the ramen you can?", Teuchi said.
"Yeah well, I've not had ramen for the years I've been gone, so sort-of-speak I've lost the interest", Naruto said.
"Oh, well ok then, if you say so. And for you Sakura?", the old man asked.
"Same thing", she said, a bit absent-mindedly as she stared at the blonde next to her. "This is so not like you…", she thought with worry.
"Maybe we can…Turn him around? Bring him back to that Naruto, so he's not this Naruto?", Inner spoke up.
"Perhaps…", Sakura thought back to Inner. "But…How?".