Lean on Me Chapter Ten
What's up with me, two updates in the same month, am I sick or have I just regained interest? Everyone I recommend reading the fiction: He had no idea SasuFemNaru by xXHaneliXx if you like FemNaru fiction, well that's all.
Hanging out (Part Two)
"Husband?" Naru asked in astonishment, gaining a questioning gaze from the cashier.
"You're not?" the woman asked slowly, slightly in disbelief gaining a fervent shake of the head from Naru. "Oh I'm so sorry, it's just you have that family vibe I see once in a while" the woman explained nervously with a small smile.
"Oh..." Naru said in a daze, smiling slightly "is that so" Naru commented as her thoughts drifted from her current conversation towards the woman who'd been speaking with Sasuke. "Who is she?" she wondered.
"So who's child is it, if you don't mind me asking" the cashier asked as she continued to scan the vast amount of clothing.
"His" Naru said as she turned to watch the father and daughter closely, the man seemed to be speaking with Rei whilst the little girl hung on her dad's every word. "Cute isn't she" Naru stated the woman sigh wistfully.
"I miss when my own were like that, they grow up so fast" the woman said sounding slightly upset, Naru felt slightly pained, after all she'd never really experience that. "Geez why am I speaking of mine like this, I must sound like an old woman" the cashier joked making Naru laugh.
"It's fine" Naru said as Sasuke and Rei began to walk over to her.
"Done picking stuff out now?" Naru asked in a fake impatient tone making Sasuke's eye sharpen slightly, amusing Naru. As he placed his chosen underwear onto the counter Naru grinned "I'll take that as a yes" Naru said mockingly.
"Tch" Sasuke grunted making his daughter laugh. "I'll be waiting outside, I don't think I want to hear how much this is going to cost" Sasuke said as he headed to the door. Rei however decided to stay behind with Naru, clinging to her leg.
"Naru, Naru!" she chimed happily making both Naru and the cashier to gush at her cuteness.
"Yes sweetie?" Naru asked as she knelt down to look at her at face level.
"Umm, bad lady, like you better" Rei said as she tried to formulate her thoughts into a sentence with her limited vocabulary.
Naru thought of this for a few seconds and assumed she was talking about the other red haired woman who was speaking to Sasuke. "Is she really a bad lady sweetie?" Naru asked sounding slightly concerned, though she was mainly humouring her.
"Uh-huh" Rei replied with a nod and a slight pout look, making Naru smile before getting to her feet.
"What was that about?" the cashier whispered to Naru in confusion making Naru smile slightly.
"Little Rei here doesn't seem too fond of that woman you pointed out" Naru said with a small proud smile. "She claims she likes me better, isn't that cute" Naru said as she got one of her credit cards out.
"Wow you've won his daughters heart" the lady said as she told Naru the cost, it was expensive for a normal person but for someone like Naru it wasn't much of a big deal. "You've done the hard part already" she then said as Naru handed her the credit card.
"What do you mean?" Naru asked, feeling genuinely confused, after all she hadn't ever dated anyone before, let alone a single father.
"You'll see" the woman said as she handed Naru a receipt. "That one may look grouchy, but he's a keeper, yum" the woman said with a little laugh.
"Thanks... I guess" Naru said unsurely as she shoved the receipt in her pocket and picked up the three shopping bags with one hand and linked hands with Rei with the other. "This is so heavy" Naru complained as she walked to Sasuke who was holding a card in his hand.
As Sasuke stared at the card he smiled, most people wouldn't recognise it because it still looked like a normal expression, but Naru could tell. "What you reading?" Naru asked as she walked over to the man with Rei.
Sasuke feeling no need to hide it from Naru held the card out for Naru to grab, but she had her hands full so she couldn't take it.
"Are you trying to tease me with your twisted sense of humour Sasuke?" Naru asked as she scrambled for the card, making Sasuke smirk.
"Trust me, it wasn't intended this time" Sasuke said in a bored tone. "Hand me the bags it's painful to watch" Sasuke stated with a smirk.
"Oh, such a gentleman you are" Naru said sarcastically and held the bags out for Sasuke who grabbed them all with one hand.
"Damn you're weak" Sasuke taunted as he handed the woman the card.
Naru deciding not to respond to his jibes stared intently at the card, disappointing the black haired man slightly. "Taka Modelling Agency" Naru murmured as her eyes went wide, "modelling... you?" Naru asked in disbelief, it wasn't that she thought he wasn't cut out for it; she just wanted to deflate his ego slightly.
"Yeah, why are you so surprised?" Sasuke asked, slightly annoyed by her disbelief.
"No reason" Naru said with a smile and handed back the card. "I've done some modelling before you know, it's harder than you'd think" Naru stated making Sasuke raise an eyebrow.
"Really, you?" he asked, this time it was his time to tease her.
"Yep, can you blame them?" Naru asked nonchalantly.
"Not really" Sasuke said honestly making Naru flinch slightly. "So where are we going next?" Sasuke asked changing the subject.
"Well some more stores obviously, we can't stop at just one you know!" Naru said in shock at his attitude.
"You've become such a girl Naru" Sasuke sighed as she ranted.
"Well duh" Naru said, leaving Rei clueless.
Sasuke spotting the look of confusion on Rei's face decided to urge Naru to get moving. "So are you going to stand around all day making a fool of yourself or are you going to take us around?" Sasuke asked impatiently causing Naru to huff slightly.
"Fine" she said and led the father and daughter down the street.
As the morning continued Sasuke found himself being drawn into shops which he could honestly say meant nothing to him. He was starting to gradually get frustrated at Naru asking him what he thought of the outfits she was trying on. At one point he considered telling her it looked bad so he didn't have to go into massive details about why it looked good but he just couldn't.
"Beautiful" Sasuke whispered as Naru stepped out of a changing room in an orange coloured sundress, he was planning to say it was bad, but it took his breath away.
"What was that?" Naru asked finding it hard to hear him over the sound of murmurs, these came from spectators.
"Nothing, it looks good" Sasuke said as he looked away, to see his daughter giggling at his behaviour.
"Daddy called you beau-"Rei started before Sasuke grabbed her and put his hand over her mouth.
"Shh!" Sasuke told her making her want to say it more.
"Hm, why do they even have these on sale, it's nearly winter" Naru said in disbelief. "Nah don't like it" she said before walking back into the changing room making Sasuke face-palm.
"Rei honey, don't tell Naru what I think like that!" Sasuke whispered fearfully, he didn't want his childhood friend and current landlord to get the wrong idea.
"Why?" Rei asked as she walked over to him, Sasuke noticing she was looking slightly worn out put her on his knee.
"Adult reasons" Sasuke said making Rei confused.
"Adults are weird" Rei claimed childishly as Sasuke bounced his knees slightly, rocking her.
"Yep we are" Sasuke agreed as Naru exited the changing room. "Hello there, finished yet?" Sasuke asked hopefully.
"Actually I am, I've picked some clothes. So you're going to have more to carry Sasuke" Naru claimed with a small smile and headed for the counter with Sasuke and Rei following behind.
"Carry your own stuff" Sasuke told her making her smirk.
"I'm just too weak for it" Naru replied in a playful, yet sarcastic tone. "Isn't that what you told me?" Naru asked the man, leaving him defeated.
"Sure, weakling" Sasuke agreed, resigning himself to his fate, but not without getting a chance to tease her.
"Great" Naru said happily, ignoring his little jab at her, once again leaving him disappointed.
As the trio left the shop Sasuke felt his stomach rumbling, apparently it was loud enough for Naru to hear. "Who's hungry?" Naru asked hopefully, hiding her own hunger pains.
"Me I guess, what about you Rei?" Sasuke asked the little girl who was looking like she needed to rest, as her response was a tired nod.
Naru hearing this beamed, she wasn't the sort of person who liked to make her hunger known, so when she was around others she'd wait until they were hungry, which sometimes became a problem when others like Ino were as stubborn as her.
"How about we stop somewhere to eat, I know this great place" Naru told the two.
"Sounds alright with me" Sasuke said warily. "Oh god it's definitely ramen, but beggars can't be choosers" Sasuke thought as he saw Naru smile.
"Ok then let's go" Naru said before turning to Rei who looked like she was about to collapse. "You tired sweetie?" Naru asked kindly making the girl moan slightly.
"That's a yes" Sasuke told Naru with a whisper. "She has so much energy that she expends it too easily when excited" Sasuke told her, preparing to hand her the bags so he could carry Rei. "Carry these will you?" Sasuke asked the woman.
"Can I carry Rei instead?" Naru asked hopefully causing Sasuke to shrug.
"If she lets you then its fine I guess" Sasuke told the woman before shivering, the cold was really getting to him.
Naru wasting no time ducked down to look at Rei directly. "Sweetie, are you getting a little tired?" she asked the girl who nodded, wiping her eyes slightly. "Do you want to be carried for a bit, until you are less sleepy?" Naru asked the girl hopefully who seemed to try her best to say no, but her tiredness wasn't letting her.
"Ok" the little girl surrendered and stumbled into Naru who picked her up, instantly beaming a big smile this didn't go unnoticed by Sasuke.
"You seem to enjoy that, isn't she heavy to you weakling?" Sasuke teased, making the woman blush slightly.
"Let's just say it's something I've always wanted to experience" Naru said cryptically before walking down the street with Rei in her arms, half-asleep.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sasuke muttered to himself before following her, noticing that Rei and Naru seemed to look as if they were mother and daughter, something that actually upset Sasuke slightly. "Sakura" Sasuke thought painfully as he watched the two from behind.
Walking through the town took longer than expected. Usually it would take Naru only ten minutes to reach her favourite ramen shack from the last boutique, but the weight of the little girl was slowly getting to her, slowing her down considerably.
By the time they actually reached the place, it was past mid-day, this little fact was quite surprising to Naru who suddenly came to the realisation that all her plans wouldn't be possible. Despite this she was having a great time, something that didn't happen very often due to the fact that she spent a lot of time on her own.
"Ichiraku Ramen" Sasuke said quietly trying to make it sound slightly enthusiastic but failing tremendously. "Looks like I guessed right" Sasuke thought before sighing slightly, secretly wanting to put the bags down as his arms were starting to get a little numb.
"Yep, best place in all of Konoha!" Naru chimed happily, ignoring Sasuke's discontented grunt which came shortly afterwards. "Wake up sweetie" Naru whispered to the little girl in her arms, shaking her slightly making her moan.
"Where we?" Rei mumbled half-asleep, messing up her sentence in the process, but it was understandable enough for Naru who smiled at the little girl.
"It's time for food" she told the girl whose eyes started to open much faster than before, when Rei wriggled, Naru assumed that she wanted to be put down, so with much reluctance Naru put the little girl down gently who stumbled over to her father's side, latching onto his leg for support.
"Did you enjoy your nap?" Sasuke asked the girl as Naru walked into the shack, the little girl who was still not fully awake, nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah" she said tiredly rubbing her eyes slightly as she spied her father's hand which she placed hers in. "Naru feels like mummy" Rei said in her semi-conscious state making Sasuke jerk uncomfortably. Regardless of how much he liked his friend, no-one could replace Sakura as a mother. Yet despite this, Sasuke didn't protest to Rei's comment, keeping his thoughts to himself.
"Is that so" Sasuke said quietly as he guided his daughter into the ramen shack whilst at the same time, trying his best not to get annoyed at Rei's comment.
After dinner the trio found themselves outside once more and Sasuke being the 'gentleman' he was picked up the bags. Once more sacrificing himself to the torture of carrying bags, it wasn't just because they were fairly heavy, but it was freezing which made it harder to carry.
The time was about 2pm give or take; this meant that if they wanted to get the bus back to 'their' apartment then they only had a maximum of three hours left. "So what are we doing now?" Sasuke asked as he adjusted his position.
"Park?" Naru offered mainly to Rei whose hand she was holding.
"Park, park!" the now fully awake Rei chimed happily making Sasuke smile slightly. After all he hadn't taken her out much as he had bigger things on his plate at the time. Now that things seemed slightly more stable he guessed he could give her the fun that she'd been lacking for so long.
"Sounds great" Sasuke said honestly making Naru smile slightly, Sasuke noticed this but decided not to take her up on it.
"Then let's go!" Naru said enthusiastically, raising her arm in the air, exciting the little girl who imitated her.
Walking to the park didn't take nearly half as long as the trip to Ichiraku Ramen. The park was extremely spacious; it possessed a small lake which lots of ducks swam in, countless plants which were slowly looking worse for wear in the winter air, a small fountain at the centre of the large park and finally a playground area which was their destination.
As it was winter there weren't many people around, in fact the only person around was an old man who was feeding the ducks with a solemn look on his face. The playground had no-one around which was slightly upsetting for Rei who pouted slightly.
"No-one's here" she said sadly obviously wanting to play with some other children. Naru noticing her disappointment tapped her on the shoulder making the little girl turn around "Huh?" she questioned cutely.
"Why do we play together sweetie" Naru offered with a smile, when Rei didn't reply Naru added "if you don't mind" making the girl giggle before pulling her arm to try and drag Naru to the playground.
As the two played, Sasuke sat himself down on a bench, gratefully placing the bags on the floor to relieve his arms. Watching the two play together he suddenly felt very uneasy. Rei was becoming very close to Naru at a frightening rate. He didn't mind them being close but he was still hung up on his wife.
He slightly wondered if Naru really wanted to try and replace Sakura as Rei's mother but he decided he was just being overly paranoid. "Naru wouldn't" Sasuke thought, however the nagging feeling returned. The way the two acted, the way Naru acted towards Rei. They had only known each other a week but they were already close.
"Why did you have to die?" Sasuke thought painfully as he exhaled loudly making his breath visible due to the cool air. He didn't want to think about it as it always upset him when he did, but November was close and that was always a bad time of year for him.
Before his thoughts got the chance to run rampant in his mind he shook his head. "Being depressed won't change anything, besides I decided I wouldn't act like that anymore, for Rei's sake" he chastised himself, but he knew as the date of his wife's death approached he would slowly get more and more depressed.
"How did I even get onto this in the first place?" he asked himself before remembering. "Oh yeah, Rei and Naru" he thought as he looked up to see them laughing together making him smile, it was quite the sight. "Wait I don't want to see this" he remembered before looking down. After a few moments he decided it was just some strange form of jealousy, manifesting itself as other fears.
"As if Naru would try anyway" he thought as he got up and went over to them so he could join in, to remove some of the 'jealousy' he was feeling.
After a few hours the three decided to return to the apartment, after the bus trip Sasuke had completely forgotten about what he was thinking about in the park. As they stood in front of the large complex, Rei walked in stride with Sasuke, who'd slowed his pace slightly for her.
"Did you have fun today?" Sasuke asked his little girl who giggled.
"Yeah!" she said happily, raising her arm like she had earlier. Sasuke didn't notice this and smiled at her joy, if Rei was happy that was enough.
After that they entered the building and slowly reached the room since walking around with lots of bags was quite the challenge. As they entered Naru's apartment, Sasuke quickly got to the sofa and placed all the bags down before sitting down in the leather chair.
"So tired" Sasuke complained slightly making Naru laugh.
"Now who's the weakling?" Naru teased with a small grin as she removed her coat and sat down on the free space on the sofa.
"Still you dobe" Sasuke stated in a matter-of-fact tone which made her pout.
"You're no fun at times you know?" Naru complained playfully making Sasuke laugh, but only slightly.
"If you didn't know that already I'd think you were an imposter" Sasuke said as he got to his feet.
"Where you going?" Naru questioned the man who stretched slightly.
"If I don't make dinner who else will?" Sasuke asked, when Naru was about to reply Sasuke interrupted with "and I mean real dinner not just ramen" making Naru close her mouth quickly. With a small mocking laughter Sasuke said "thought so" before walking into the kitchen.
Now that Naru was alone with Rei in the living room she decided to start teaching her how to play the piano like she promised. First of all Naru walked over to the piano and lifted the top so the keys were visible and then played a simple tune drawing the little girl over like she was a moth to a flame.
As the girl watched in wonderment Naru increased the tempo exciting her in the process and by the time Naru was finished Rei was practically begging her to have a try.
"Will I be able to do that?" Rei asked Naru as she sat next to her on the low chair.
"One day if you practice a lot" Naru said with a small laugh making the girl's eyes light up. "Do you want me to teach you?" Naru offered.
"Yes please!" Rei said excitedly making Naru smile.
"Ok then" Naru said as she patted Rei's head slightly making her giggle. "Do you mind me getting removing this wig first though?" Naru asked the girl who said that she'd wait in the cutest way that Naru almost aww'ed.
After less than a minute Naru returned from her bedroom, having removed her coat and put her wig in the closet and sat down next to Rei. "You ready?" she asked the girl who nodded. "Ok then, first of all."
After about ten minutes in the kitchen Sasuke returned to the living room to see Naru slowly teaching Rei the basics, the sight made him smile slightly. Rei genuinely looked interested, much more than she had by the 'magic box' which was the T.V.
As he watched them from the door he couldn't help but think slightly about what he had in the park but he shrugged it off when he heard a knock at the door. Naru hearing this looked like she was about to stand but Sasuke stopped her.
"Don't worry I'll get it" Sasuke told the red head as he walked to the door opening it to see someone with long platinum blonde hair and green eyes.
(End Chapter)
Wow long time since I updated, I genuinely have a reason folks. University has been dragging me down, beating me into submission, I managed to write for another story because when I got free time my attention span wasn't long enough to write chapters for this.
I'm very sorry and I will try to release another chapter this week, since I have a week off now because my tests are over.
Reviews are fuel to me and will get me to write, so don't be stingy? Lol.
-Aquilon.