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Title: Floodgates
Chapter: 25/26

Chapter 25

The house was quiet, so quiet he could almost hear the falling of leaves outside. They had turned brown and red and orange and gold, beautiful but dead. Though all the windows were open and sun streamed in, the house seemed dark.

It was empty.

Naruto sat at the kitchen table and looked around the room. He could count off all the things Hinata had bought to make the place their own. It had become cozy and personal, alive with a future and she had made it that way.

He knew he was cornering her, but he also knew he had to do this now, before he lost all momentum.

He should have done it months ago.

As he sat there, his nerves began to shake with the waiting. He sat still, but he couldn't sit still.

He folded his hands, leaned his sore head on them and closed his eyes. But when he did that, he saw Sasuke again with Na-chan in his arms, saw it all, and understood. He forced his breathing to even out.

The door opened.

Naruto's head popped up.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata sounded surprised yet pleased and something Naruto couldn't place. "I didn't know you were coming back today." She walked over and gave his cheek a little peck.

It felt soft and damning on his whisker marks. "No, neither did I." Naruto tried to smile and failed.

Hinata placed a bag on the counter and looked at him curiously. She began sifting through it for something she couldn't find.

"Um, Hinata-chan?" Naruto said, barely restraining a squeak from his matured vocal chords. The woman's attention abruptly turned to him. "Could you just leave that? There's something I need to talk to you about."

Hinata laughed nervously while her hand gripped the handle tight. "I can hear you just fine from here."

"Hinata, please," he urged. "Sit."

And it was probably as much the use of her name with no honorific as it was the pleading tenor of his voice that made her stop and slowly make her way to the table to sit across from him. She gave him a brave, if weak, smile. But try as he might, Naruto couldn't return it with any sort of credibility.

And now that this hurried moment was upon him, he balked. He looked at his wife, so beautiful in the light spilling from the windows, her milky eyes full of sweetness and promise, and he balked.

So in lieu of words, he pushed a pile of papers towards her. Hinata's eyes questioned him and she gave another little smile. Naruto didn't acknowledge this, all his attention focused fully on the papers. After a moment, Hinata cleared her throat and lifted the first page.

The first thing to show on her face was confusion. Her eyes scanned the sheets rapidly, her thumb riffling through the few papers quicker than she could have actually read them. Then as she stared at the bottom line of the last page, fear set in.

"Divorce papers?" She asked, her voice small but echoing. "W-why? What did I d-do? Is it because of . . because I didn't have a baby?"

"No!" Naruto said and automatically covered her hands with his. "No, of course not." He rubbed his fingers soothingly over hers and looked at her, her face a mask of guilt and worry, immediately taking the blame onto herself.

It should have been his first clue.

Then Naruto did find the smile in him. "They're not for me," he said, not entirely the truth. "They're for you."

"M-me?!" Hinata pulled her hands free and shoved the papers away from her as if they were poisoned. The chair squealed against the wood floor as she stood up. "I don't want a divorce!"

Her expression was panic-stricken but there was also an understanding of something she didn't want to know.

Naruto pursed his lips, fighting to keep the smile, and took a deep breath.

"You will after you hear what I have to tell you."

--

There was very little to show for his twenty-four years of life. With care, he pried up the corner floorboard and put the last of what could be considered his into his pack. The replacement of the wood back to its corner felt final.

The house felt the loss of warmth now that Hinata was gone. It had come as a shock when Naruto told his story, but one she'd been expecting.

She had looked at him, fought back the tears, and nodded.

She had known.

She had not known.

Then she'd left.

The house would be hers of course; it had always been more hers than his. The sun continued to shine in through the windows, stubbornly declaring that the day was fine when it seemed to Naruto that it ought to be raining. Dust motes floated in the beams, glowing down all around him, sparkling and sad. He took one last look around.

The bag in his hand weighed light and heavy at once.

There was a knock at the door.

Naruto looked at it but didn't answer.

It sounded again, more demanding this time.

Naruto still continued to stare as though he didn't realize this sound meant someone wanted to come in.

Then there was a reverberating bang, followed by the shout of a voice he knew all too well.

"I know you're in there, Naruto! Open up or I'll smash the door in!" Sakura yelled. There was a short pause. "You know I will."

Another minute passed during which Naruto didn't respond so she hit the door again and there was a horrible cracking sound. Naruto winced and swung the door open.

Sakura's soft expression didn't match her actions.

She smiled helplessly. "I heard what happened."

Naruto only nodded and when he didn't invite her in, she simply shoved him out of the way and invited herself. She paused at the threshold and took in the surroundings. "It's a nice house," she said.

Naruto nodded.

She took a more in-depth glance around the room and noticed the bag, packed and ready to go. Her eyes stayed glued to it a long time.

"So you're going to him?" Sakura didn't turn around.

Naruto emitted a weary sigh. "Hinata told you?"

In an instant, Sakura whirled and leveled a first class glare at him. "You think Hinata would talk?"

Naruto pouted and guiltily shifted his eyes.

Sakura heaved a breath and crossed her arms. "Hinata isn't saying anything. But as big as Konoha is, it's pretty small."

His hand scratched nervously at his chin. "Then how?" He didn't look at her.

Rolling her eyes, Sakura cast her head up to heaven. "It wasn't exactly hard to figure out, was it?" But it wasn't a question intended for an answer. Naruto blinked at her and she groaned. "You never really gave up looking for him, did you? You think I didn't know? You were so jumpy, alone so much of the time. It wasn't like you. Then suddenly you start taking all these traveling missions, not all of which were real?" Naruto flinched. "Yes, I checked. And then I catch you translating a tenji book when we knew Sasuke could have gone blind? C'mon," she said with exasperation. "Give me a little credit. I'm not stupid, you know."

"Sorry," Naruto mumbled and looked to the floor.

"Yeah," the pink-haired woman mused. She drew her finger leisurely along the top edge of the sofa. "I knew you were visiting him. I just didn't know you –" She stopped, twisted her nail into the fabric. "Are you in love with Sasuke?"

Naruto's hangdog expression answered that question for her.

"Oh, God. Naruto!" She scolded.

"It wasn't supposed to happen." Naruto defended feebly. "It all just sort of . . . got out of hand."

"Out of hand?" The woman asked incredulously.

"You know what I mean." Naruto shuffled towards his couch - not his, not anymore - and dropped himself right into the hole in the center. "One thing led to another and then another and suddenly I couldn't stop."

He began to sink down; they never did get around to replacing this couch.

Sakura walked by, her nail scraping across the upholstery just behind Naruto's head. She stared out the window. "He's always been an addiction for you."

Naruto looked at his hands.

Sakura tilted her head towards him. "So that's it? You're leaving Konoha and all your friends." Her eyes turned toward the spiky mess of his hair. "And what about becoming Hokage? You giving that up too?"

The blond looked sharply at her. "I'd never forget my friends! And I'm still becoming Hokage," he asserted. "Baa-chan was gone for like a hundred years before they brought her back to be Hokage. And I don't think Kakashi's stepping down anytime soon. I will be Hokage." He paused and stared at his hands determinedly, open palms facing him. Finally, his gaze returned to Sakura, a strange sort of expression on his face. "I will be Hokage. But right now," his voice was oddly calm and assured. "I need to be with Sasuke."

His blue eyes were so intense and pleading that Sakura couldn't hold his gaze for more than a few seconds. Naruto grinned at her encouragingly, but she didn't return it.

Naruto turned away again, to the floor and walls and ceiling that no longer belonged to him, if they ever did. "Do you hate me?" he asked quietly.

Sakura didn't reply.

There was nothing to be done now.

Naruto pursed his lips painfully, closed his eyes, and took a deep swallow. He opened his eyes, spared one last look for Sakura then picked up his bag.

He was halfway out the door when she stopped him.

"Hey!"

Naruto turned, his eyes wide and worried and hopeful. Sakura closed her mouth and took in a quick breath, her face serious when she at last spoke. "When you see Sasuke," she said, "Tell him 'hi' for me, would you?"

Naruto gaped at her, still and silent and dumbfounded.

Slowly, a sympathetic sort of smile stole across Sakura's lips.

Then, almost as an explosion of all their unspoken words, the two of them laughed together like they hadn't done in years.

--

Naruto had made a hasty retreat out of Konoha, narrowly missing any further altercations, one of the first things to go according to plan in a long time.

The house in the hills was empty when he arrived, but it continued to feel warm and comfortable all the same. He plopped himself down heavily on the pristine bed.

Before long, Na-chan sauntered out of one of his many hiding places and meowed up at him. Naruto smiled but didn't try to pet him, knowing that such an action was not always met with goodwill. But Na-chan leapt up onto the bed next to him, sat down and proceeded to rub his furry head against Naruto's arm, purring with deep contentment.

Naruto looked inquisitively on Na-chan, but let the fickle creature do what it wanted.

He scanned the room and mentally decided where all his things should go, envisioning what it would be like to live here.

His.

Really, truly his.

It was already late, so Naruto made some dinner for himself and the cat, and soon after went to sleep.

--

A soft sound and Na-chan's insistent pawing on his leg woke Naruto before he was fully rested.

Bleary-eyed, he got up, stretched, and peeked out the side window.

From the bed, Na-chan hissed, baring every last one of his little pointed teeth.

Naruto's eyebrows pulled together and he took another look outside. There was nothing in his line of sight, but had the strangest sense something was there. There was a sort of creepy feeling at the base of his neck. Plus Na-chan was acting more than a little odd.

To reiterate this point, Na-chan hissed again, rearing his head back.

Naruto took one last look out the window, pulled a kunai to the ready, and went to the door.

When he opened it, he saw someone he wouldn't have expected. He quickly hid the kunai behind his back, tilted his head to the side curiously, and smiled. "Hello," he greeted.

Na-chan arched his back and rumbled low in his throat, his claws digging in to the crisp, clean bedspread. Alarmed, Naruto turned to him and the cat launched himself into space, sharp nails flashing and cat roar booming.