35. Hero
Naruto awoke to the smell of cigarette smoke, he opened his eyes and realised he was in hospital, in his direct line of sight was the large window showing Konoha below, the village was going through rebuilding, it appeared to have been okay. Naruto turned his head and saw the old hokage sat with one arm holding a book. The other was simply a folded sleeve; Naruto felt his heart catch in his throat.
"Old Man" whispered Naruto, Sarutobi looked up from his book and smiled at Naruto.
"Naruto-kun, welcome back" said Sarutobi with a smile; he noticed Naruto's tearful eyes locked onto his arm.
"Ho…how" whispered Naruto, Sarutobi sighed.
"I grew complacent, I am old Naruto, I couldn't keep up with my student." Said Sarutobi, Naruto sighed and attempted to sit up.
"How is the village" asked Naruto softly, Sarutobi smiled slightly
"Very good actually, many ninja have been visiting, anbu have sent you a request" said Sarutobi with a chuckle, Naruto opened his eyes in shock.
"R…really?" questioned Naruto, Sarutobi laughed and pulled a scroll out from his pocket.
"Yes and you have been promoted to Chunin, congratulations" said Sarutobi, Naruto looked at the scroll in shock and happiness.
"This is so cool" said Naruto with a laugh; Sarutobi looked at Naruto with a smile.
"What about the anbu, are you going to take them up on their offer?" asked Sarutobi, Naruto looked thoughtful
"You know what I think I might" said Naruto, Sarutobi smiled at Naruto
"Good choice, you aren't the only one though, Shikamaru is also going with you" said Sarutobi, Naruto looked shocked slightly.
"Shikamaru? I am surprised he didn't say that it was too troublesome for him" said Naruto with a laugh.
"Don't laugh just yet, Jiraiya has a mission for you both, he will meet you and escort you back, he wants you to go find Tsunade Senju, she is to become the next Hokage, you are to convince her. Your first mission as a chunin" said Sarutobi, Naruto frowned
"Just the two of us" he questioned, Sarutobi nodded. Naruto sat thoughtful, Sarutobi perked up.
"Naruto you have a visitor, go easy on him" said Sarutobi, Naruto motioned for Sarutobi to come closer, Naruto wrapped his arms around him tightly, Sarutobi patted Naruto on the head and left. Naruto heard Sarutobi greet his guest. Sasuke walked through the door, covered in bandages, his right arm in a sling. His dark eyes looked at Naruto sadly.
"Naruto, I am…"started Sasuke, but Naruto cut in first.
"Are you stupid, letting yourself be consumed like that" said Naruto animated, Sasuke recognised the change in Naruto, the calmness instead of coldness.
"I was lost to the curse seal…"started Sasuke once more, but Naruto cut in again.
"So now you are going to blame your reaction on the curse seal, please be quiet, I want to hit you" said Naruto honestly. Sasuke fell to his knees and placed his forehead to the ground.
"Please let me finish what I want to say, I am so sorry, my jealousy and confusion was fuelled by the curse seal and Orochimaru's training. I hated that you were far more advanced at the sharingan that I was, and when my sharingan didn't help me fight you, I grew even angrier. You were like this perfect person, the person I should be." Said Sasuke, Naruto shook his head.
"I was not, Jiraiya-sensei taught me a lot of things about people during my month; he told me that I should stop acting like I was better than everyone, to stop pushing people away. I was foolish, I am still a child, I am still growing up, and I honestly believed that my body had made me become colder, even the…well let's just say other sources told me it was. We were both wrong my body calms me indeed so we were right about that, but I was the one shutting out the world" said Naruto, Sasuke was sat up now, looking at Naruto's sad eyes, Naruto was looking at the bed.
"We are still children" said Sasuke, Naruto nodded.
"But I can't still help but think I have upset my parents with my display so far" said Naruto sadly, Sasuke sat wide eyed.
"I feel the same, when you said about nobody said I had to do it, I realised Itachi did. And I don't want to do anything he tells me" said Sasuke, Naruto smiled sadly
"Sasuke, your personal goal is not a foolish one, I too would have wanted revenge" said Naruto, Sasuke blinked in shock.
"But you said it was foolish" said Sasuke forcefully, Naruto nodded
"Yes, but shutting out friends, not making bonds. That was your mistake, an example would be, I want to protect this village, when you went into that curse seal mode and were almost killing civilians, I protected them, and still beat you. There is no weakness there" said Naruto, Sasuke nodded.
"Naruto, I was angry. You didn't tell me you had the sharingan, and when you said your mother wasn't an Uchiha, I grew angry even more. Why would you lie to me kept running through my head" said Sasuke
"She wasn't an Uchiha, Sasuke she was an Uzumaki, a pure blood Uzumaki, you know who my dad is so that wont explain it." said Naruto, Sasuke sat frowning.
"I realised, sat in my hospital bed that it didn't matter" said Sasuke, Naruto looked at Sasuke confused.
"It didn't matter?" questioned Naruto, Sasuke nodded seriously.
"Yeah it didn't matter who your family was, I have a living breathing relative, if by distance only. I was beyond happy to know I wasn't alone" said Sasuke, Naruto blinked in shock, not expecting this revelation from Sasuke.
"Sasuke…I" started Naruto.
"You know, when you came back from that month training, I knew you were strong. I was jealous even then. You are always a step ahead of me, you are smart, just know one day I will beat you, and when you make hokage, I want to be your personal guard." Said Sasuke, Naruto felt his eyes widen, Sasuke had a small smile on his face, but it looked like a weight had been taken off of his shoulders.
"Sas…Sasuke" stuttered Naruto, Sasuke stood and hugged Naruto tightly. Naruto was sat in shock. Sasuke walked towards the door, he turned and looked back at Naruto.
"One day, I will give you the full story of my little epiphany. Just know, my dream for the future is to see my brother become hokage, and I stand next to him as his guard" said Sasuke; he smiled fully at Naruto, his face lightening the room. Naruto smirked.
"My smiles are supposed to brighten rooms, stealing my thunder ay Sasuke" said Naruto, Sasuke's smile dropped to a frown.
"That was the only smile you are ever going to see" said Sasuke, his lips pulling into a smirk, this time Naruto's face broke into a large smile. Something Sasuke hadn't seen since Pre-training Naruto.
"Sure Sasuke, get better soon, we need to start proper training" said Naruto. Sasuke nodded and closed the door. As the door slid to a close, Naruto's face cooled and his eyes shifted into the three tomoed sharingan.
"I should have known you would have sensed me" said the monotone voice of the red head. He appeared in a swirl of sand, he was wearing his usual outfit, minus the giant gourd that was usually on his back.
"Gaara" said Naruto simply. Tension laced the room, Naruto cursed the fact he was in the hospital bed, and his chakra reserves were still filling.
"I am not here to fight you Naruto Uzumaki, I am here because Shukaku does not want me here, he is frightened of those eyes" said Gaara, Naruto blinked in shock. He felt Kurama stir.
"He does not have to fear, I would never use these to enslave him" said Naruto honestly, Gaara stood with his arms crossed in the corner of the room.
"He seems pleased with that…he is struggling less" said Gaara, Naruto nodded.
"Was there something you wanted Gaara" questioned Naruto, Gaara looked at Naruto dead in the eye.
"I had to know if you were serious" said Gaara, Naruto looked confused.
"Serious about what" questioned Naruto, Gaara made sure to keep eye contact with Naruto.
"About being my friend" and then Gaara saw it, something he hadn't seen in many people's eyes, Naruto's eyes softened, they looked friendly and inviting like they wanted to understand him.
"I was very serious" said Naruto, Gaara's face didn't crack, but his eyes too softened slightly.
"Then we shall meet again Naruto Uzumaki, I have to leave for the hidden sand, my jonin sensei is very upset I lost control." Said Gaara, Naruto nodded seriously.
"If you ever need a place to hide, you know where I am, you can find me" said Naruto, Gaara nodded. He bowed his head to Naruto and disappeared in a cloud of sand; said sand fell to the floor. Naruto sighed and led back, his head hitting the pillow. His mind going over everything that had happened, his eyes were sliding closed when there was a knock at his door. Naruto grumbled under his breath.
"Come in" called Naruto, Naruto watched as the door was threw open and an old man walked through the door, he had an x-shaped scar on his chin. He wore a white shirt, with a black robe over top of it covering from his feet, to just over his right shoulder; the robe concealed his right arm. He was glaring at Naruto hotly.
"Naruto Uzumaki, or would it be more fitting to call you Namikaze" said the old man, Naruto raised an eyebrow, his face going blank.
"Should I know you" said Naruto, the old man ground his teeth.
"My name is Danzo, and I have a few questions for you" said Danzo with a growl. Naruto smirked, looking every bit as deadly as he could be.
"Ah Danzo, yes, my sensei warned me about you." Said Naruto, he was nervous, hearing about Danzo's strength. Thankfully, Sarutobi and a few genin seemed to turn up at the same time.
"Ah Danzo, harassing Naruto already" said Sarutobi, Naruto kept his face blank.
"This isn't over brat" said Danzo at Naruto quietly, Naruto shrugged and watched as Danzo left.
"Here is Naruto's room" said Sarutobi, giving Naruto a wink. Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Ino and Choji walked through the door.
"Sakura will be here soon, she is just going to check on Sasuke" said Ino, Naruto shrugged.
"How are you guys" questioned Naruto, he noticed that each of them looked like they had fought an enemy, Hinata looked like she had fought a lot of people, his eyes zeroed in on her bruises, she squirmed beneath his stares.
"I told you he would notice them first" said Kiba, Naruto was about to ask what he meant when the genin held out a box.
"What is it" questioned Naruto, the genin smiled.
"Your promotion present, we got one for you and Shikamaru. Hinata helped pick out this one" said Ino, Hinata blushed and Kiba smirked.
"You guys didn't need to do that" said Naruto softly, his head turned to look at them, the sun lighting the back of him making him look like a red haired angel. Hinata flushed brighter and Ino also gave a blush.
"You didn't give it to him yet did you?" said Sakura angrily as she stormed through the door.
"We were about to forehead" said Ino, Sakura ignored Ino.
"Hey Naruto, feeling better?" questioned Sakura, Naruto nodded.
"Yeah, a lot better now thanks" said Naruto, Sakura smiled and gave Naruto a hug.
"You don't know how worried we all got when we saw you teleporting all over the place." Said Sakura, Kiba laughed boisterously.
"A sight to see I tell you, it was like there was more than one of you" said Kiba, his voice turning awed.
"Cheers guys." Said Naruto, Ino placed the box onto his lap, Naruto's gauze wrapped hands moved to the lid. Lifting the lid he smiled happily. Inside was an expensive sealing kit, with different ink types, Brush types and paper types. There was even a golden ink, which caused Naruto to widen his eyes.
"It was pretty pricey, Hinata covered most of it" said Shino quietly; Naruto gave Hinata a wide smile.
"I…it was nothing" said Hinata, Kiba looked at her.
"You all but demanded the gold ink, which made it even more expensive" said Kiba, Naruto frowned slightly, Hinata shook her head vehemently.
"No its, okay, I didn't mind" said Hinata
"I'm glad we spent a bit more on Shikamaru as well" said Choji, Naruto nodded.
"What did you get him" questioned Naruto, Choji smiled slightly.
"A travel shogi board with magnetic pieces and some black kunai, cause you know, the whole shadow thing" said Choji, Naruto nodded.
"Well thanks guys, know that this will be put to a very good use" said Naruto, after a short talk with all of them, they left, Naruto had asked Hinata to wait behind. Hinata closed the door and turned to see Naruto struggling to stand up.
"Naruto-kun" said Hinata, she ran forward and caught him as he went to fall.
"That didn't go as planned" mumbled Naruto; he shakily wrapped his arms around her.
"N…Naruto" gasped Hinata, Naruto sat back on the hospital bed.
"Tell me, how did you get those bruises" asked Naruto seriously.
TU
Naruto sat looking at the sleeping figure, his forehead clear for all to see, the caged bird seal clear as day. Neji was stirring and he sat up quickly, his eyes zeroing on Naruto. It was dark and the moon was the only thing illuminating the room.
"Naruto" muttered Neji, his body still aching from their battle, or more precise Neji's easy loss. Naruto smiled at Neji.
"Looks like I owe you an apology" said Naruto.
A Lighter chapter, now a few of you guessed that Naruto would be invited into ANBU, I think that is okay within the leaf rules, I am not sure. I will explain more about Sasuke's epiphany later, but I think it was a good impact for Sasuke to bow for Naruto's forgiveness. Tell me what you think.
Next week, Naruto Meets Itachi and Kisame