Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the O.C mentioned.

A/N: I would like to thank everyone who added this story to their favorites and follows as well as everyone who reviewed the last chapter.

"Naruto, are you okay?"

Naruto dropped her hand from the doorknob and turned around when Aizawa called out to her. She kept her expression completely relax as several sets of eyes looked at her with concern. Her homeroom teacher, her genin instructor and her relative all stared at her with a frown playing on their lips. Well she presumed Kakashi-sensei was frowning behind his mask.

Why is he asking me now? Does he think I'm in a fragile state now? She crocked her head to the side and inspected her teacher. His black eyes did shine with concern but his hands laid firmly on either sides of his body. No balled fists. Okay, so maybe Aizawa-sensei wasn't asking because he thought she was an emotional piece of glass that needed coddling.

"I'm fine." She paused and regarded her teacher with curious eyes. "But why are you asking me?"

Her teacher stared at her for the longest time, almost as if he was trying to gather his thoughts, and then replied. "Because I noticed that you looked pain when you asked if it was Todoroki's brother that Uzushiokage captured, and I know that you and Shouto share a special bond even before the two of you started dating."

She dropped her shoulders and stared out at the window. Touya-niisan would come back from high-school, see me and then he would eat with me. Her boyfriend's words echoed in her mind as a pair of thoughtful, sad heterochromatic eyes flashed before her eyes. Her heart tightened with an aching pain but the only reason she felt like that now was because she knew how much Touya meant to Shouto.

They weren't close but from what she deduced, he had tried to get closer to Shouto before he ran away.

"Shouto is going to be so upset when he finds out about this even if this idea of Eisuke works," Naruto replied. She took in a deep, excoriating breath and continued on. "He is going to find some way to blame himself for what happened to his brother."

He always blame himself even when it isn't his fault. She closed her eyes and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. Every bad thing that happened to him was his fault or so Shouto would believe. When Shouto's mother was hospitalized for her mental breakdown, he blamed himself and his father when the only culprit was his father. When she got hurt in USJ, he blamed himself for getting close to her when she was the idiot.

There was no way her boyfriend wouldn't find a way to blame himself for what happened.

Eisuke cleared his throat and offered her a frown. "You are going to tell him tonight?"

Should I tell him tonight? She tilted her head to the right and probed her bottom lip. She made a huge deal about Shouto keeping Sasuke a secret from her and now she was in the same position as him. If she didn't tell him then it would make her the biggest hypocrite in the world but if she told him after their fight then it would just make the whole thing worse.

How are you any different from Endeavor?

Her words echoed back in her ears as her stomach began to churn with guilt. How the hell could she tell him after saying those hurtful words to him? She didn't even apologize for those hurtful words and to just break the news like that? No, there was something she had to do before she had to tell him about his brother.

"Tomorrow," Naruto rubbed the back of her neck and looked down at her feet. "If I tell him tonight then Shouto will never get any sleep. He tends to overthink things."

Eisuke nodded and stared at her for the longest time. It was like he was trying to see if she had another reason for putting it off and that nearly tempted her to squirm in her spot. But she didn't do that. Instead, Naruto kept her gaze fixed on him as her heart continued to race with a speed that could put the hummingbird's heartbeat to shame.

"Let me break the news to him," Eisuke requested. She blinked and the red-haired man turned his whole body away from her. "You already have a lot on your plate when it comes to your mission, and I promised Touya and Tomoyo that I would break the news to him. Besides, if he want answers on his brother's actions then I'll be the best person to answer—well second best."

She frowned. "Who is the best?"

"Tomoyo," Eisuke grimaced. "Between the two of us, she always understood Touya in ways that I can never comprehend. She always had some idea that he might go down this path."

Naruto nodded. Her cousin's tone held no bitterness over the fact that Tomoyo had the knowledge and foresight that Todoroki Touya knew about the dark descent that the man had taken. It was odd. When Sakura knew about the path Sasuke had taken and about the cursed mark, a part of her felt betrayed that her former teammate never told her about it until it worried her.

She shook her head and stared at Eisuke. I shouldn't think about what happened but about Shouto! If Eisuke tells him then he might just find a way to blame himself and close himself up. She didn't want that from her boyfriend. Shouto needed to move forwards and for him to find out this piece of information might be the thing that make him go backwards.

But he needed to know because Touya was his brother.

"I want to be there when you tell him." The only thing she could do for Shouto was just be there and support him.

Eisuke offered her a small smile and ruffled her hair. "I was actually going to ask you to be there when I break the news to him, god knows that boy needs support when I break the news to him."

Naruto didn't smile or beam at the implication that Eisuke believed that she was the best support system for Shouto. Maybe a couple of hours ago, she probably would smile at her distant relative but now it was hard to muster a smile. She hadn't been at all supportive when she threw that accusation to Shouto. If anything, she might had been overdramatic when she told him about the Chidori.

This news right now makes the whole thing with Sasuke, not a huge deal when I think about it. She bit back a groan and turned her head away from Eisuke's probing eyes. Yes, he hurt her with his actions but it didn't mean the chidori thing was true. The whole Endeavor thing was a bit too much even by her standards so maybe it was time to apologize to him about those actions.

Besides, she didn't want Shouto to go to bed with the belief that she actually had those thoughts and feelings about him.

"Naruto."

Naruto jolted and turned her head to Kakashi. Her genin instructor gazed at her with unreadable eyes but there was almost an air of discomfort around him like he didn't know how to interact with her. And if she was being honest with herself, she didn't even know how to interact with him because Kakashi-sensei was still her superior officer.

She couldn't badmouthed him even if she wanted to do it, nor could she give him the cold shoulder. She could mimic but that was the best thing she could do right now because a stupid part of her still gave a shit about the man. Even though he never gave me the acknowledgment I needed at the time. Maybe that attention-seeking part of her would never die away because of how ingrained it was to her personality.

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei?" She tried her hardest to keep her tone and eyes cold and impersonal, which was harder than it looked when her former genin-instructor flinched at her words.

"You don't have to call me Kakashi-sensei, Naruto," Kakashi reminded her. I'm no longer your genin-instructor was left unsaid but Naruto heard it as clear as day either way. He cleared his throat as several eyes locked onto them. "And I want to ask you if we can have a little talk after your first meeting with those villains?"

Naruto furrowed her eyebrows together. What did her former teacher want to talk about that he needed to wait two days to talk about? Was he going to start worrying about her mental state like the others? Because she was definitely not in the mood to be coddled. No but if he was worried about her then he wouldn't look uncomfortable, besides when did her teacher ever care about her own feelings?

The only thing that could make him uncomfortable to talk to her about must be that.

"If this is about my decision on making Sasuke a missing-nin then I'm not retracting my request." She straightened her spine and took a deep breath as the single black eye widened. "The only thing I will consider is informing Tsunade-sama that Sasuke should be only wanted alive but that is it."

Kakashi didn't react. There was no furious gaze or hurt in his eyes that she made his favorite (because Sasuke had always been everyone's favorite) student into a criminal. If anything her teacher winced like he didn't expect that had been her presumption, as if her words stabbed him but that was doubtful. There was no reason for her words to hurt him.

Everything that came out of her mouth was nothing but just cold, hard facts.

"I wasn't going to talk about Sasuke and I know you well enough to know that this wasn't an easy decision for you," Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck and continued on with a slight apologetic tone. "I'm sorry that you had to be the one to make the decision."

C'mon Naruto, we are going back home! Itachi-niisan is here to take us!

A smiling six-year-old Sasuke appeared right before her eyes and then it faded to reveal Sasuke grabbing her hands as they dashed towards his older brother. Her heart twisted with pain and her throat tightened up from the grief like it always did when that particular memory decided to play in her mind. It hurt so much because she knew her smiling, innocent friend had died on the day that Itachi took everything from him.

The current Sasuke was a mockery to his childhood self.

"Someone had to make the decision." She swallowed down the lump inside of her throat and looked to the windows. "You and Sakura would never ever make that decision despite knowing full-well of the message that his future actions might send to the world."

Kakashi stared at her for the longest time with unreadable eyes while Eisuke and Aizawa exchanged worried glances. They probably thought she was in agony for making that decision because everyone seemed to believe she was an emotional bomb that was just ready to explode. It wasn't wrong for her to be emotion, it was what allowed her to know she was human but she tried to be logical.

"It seems like now you are the most mature one." His tone was light and easy but his eye looked almost uncertain of what to make of this newfound side of her.

Naruto glanced at Kakashi and then stared at the window, where she could now see owls sitting on the trees instead of crows. Thank god, those creepy birds weren't watching her anymore. "I might have been super obnoxious in everyone's eyes but I have never been a kid. Acting like an immature brat was my coping mechanism but if we aren't talking about Sasuke then what is it about?"

"Can you wait till after your first meeting with those villains?"

She paused and considered it for a moment before bobbing her head.

"If you have something big to tell me then I would rather not have any distractions when I have my first meeting with them."

The delightful miso aroma was the first thing Naruto smelled when she entered the common room of the dorm. As soon as she closed the door behind her, the whiskered teen began to follow the scent as her stomach let out a howl of hunger. Why was she even hungry? Even though ramen was the most delicious food in the world, she shouldn't be this ravenous for food.

But it had been a really long, stressful day when she thought about it and that might be the reason for her hunger.

Naruto stopped right in front of the counter, where a whistling metal pot sat comfortably on the counter. Naruto leaned forward and blinked when she caught sight of an orange sticky note on the lid. She tore the note off the lid and inspected it. The cursive writing was familiar to her and there was only one person she knew with that handwriting. Shouto. He was the only person that she knew who wrote in that handwriting.

Her gut fluttered just a little bit at what was written on the note.

I know you are angry but I don't want you to go to bed angry or hungry.

It might had been barely legible and maybe only a sentence but it was enough to make her drop her shoulders with guilt. Because despite the horrible things she had said to him, Shouto seemed intent of calming her down and making things right with her. It surprised her but then again he had that habit of surprising her. But he really outdid himself if you asked her, because she certainly didn't expect him to make a whole pot of ramen just for her.

Naruto only looked away from the note when the door clicked open. Midoriya strolled in with a small yawn coming out from his lips and a towel dangling on his neck as well as a notebook tucked between his armpit. There was some dirt on his shoes and if the blonde had to deduce from the sluggishness in his steps, the older boy must have been training again.

"N-Naruto, when did you get back?" Midoriya asked when his eyes finally caught sight of her standing in front of the kitchen counter.

Naruto shrugged. "Three minutes ago."

"So I guess you just saw what Todoroki-kun made for you?" The green-haired boy pulled out the chair from one of the nearby dining tables and sat down. He looked almost vividly curious to know whether or not she had taken a look at the pot of ramen that her boyfriend had made for her, and for a brief moment she was tempted to tell him that he should mind his own business.

Of course that would be very rude of her to say and she was trying to be a better person for everyone.

"I'm surprised he made it and that it smells this good," Naruto cleared her throat and pulled open the drawer. Various shining utensils greeted her eyes but it was the sparkling ladle that caught her attention. "Shouto barely knows how to cook."

Midoriya let out a nervous laugh and wiped the sweat off his forehead with his towel. "Well Kacchan helped him because Todoroki-kun was messing up the whole process of making your favorite food."

"You knew about it?" She blinked and stared down at the bowl of ramen. If Katsuki and Midoriya knew about Todoroki making her food then who else knew about it? Did the other girls know about it too? Did everyone know about it? And if they did know about the cooking then did her boyfriend told them about their disagreement? She hoped not.

The boy bobbed his head. "We caught him trying to make the ramen and when Kacchan saw that Todoroki-kun was messing things up…"

"He tried to do it himself?" Her friend nodded and the frown on her face deepened. "Did Shouto allow him? Because I can't see him allowing Katsu-niisan help him make food."

Midoriya shook his head and stared at the kitchen counter with a frown tugging on his lips. He looked almost thoughtful like he was trying to figure something out but what did he need to figure out? The reason Shouto took the incentive to cook? Or the fact that Katsuki tried to take things into his own hands? Because that was something she was trying to wrap her head around.

"Kacchan only managed to convince him to let him supervise him when he pointed out that you could get food poisoning." Midoriya sighed and almost wrinkled his nose while Naruto stared down at her pot of ramen. The noodles laid there with so much innocent and had such a delicious aroma but her stomach churned at the knowledge that it could be poisonous.

She shook her head and slid the ladle down to the bowl. "It must have hurt his pride to finally allow Katsu-niisan to at least supervise him, you know how much Shouto loves doing independent work."

"Kacchan is a perfectionist and he hates it when someone messes things up," he reminded her. "Todoroki-kun is amazing when it comes to anything hero-related or even school-related but give him anything housework related then—"

"—He doesn't know jack shit." She chuckled and shook her head as Midoriya blinked. He crocked his head to the side and stared at her for the longest time with green eyes probing her for answers. "I lived with him during the break and his sister has told me that Shouto is practically hopeless when it comes to household work."

Her friend blinked. "But he managed to remodel his whole room in just a day!"

"It beats me how Shouto can be amazing at those things but struggle when it comes to housework too," Naruto shrugged. "But we all have strengths and weaknesses so it is actually reassuring to know that he isn't completely perfect."

Midoriya paused and furrowed his eyebrows together. He looked like he was actively contemplating whether there was some truth behind her words before he finally decided to nod in agreement. She didn't even know why he had to actually consider it. It was tiny details like those that should reassure a person that they weren't with a robot.

Shouto makes mistakes and that mistake might have been a bigger deal than I made it to be. She lifted up the ladle. Miso broth almost spilled out the ladle and the whiskered teen lowered it down once again to the bowl. This was done two to three more times until the bowl almost spilled with her ramen.

"So did the fight between the both of you got worse?" Naruto jolted and frowned at Midoriya. The green-haired boy flinched, wiggled in his spot and then poked his fingers together. "Well I'm only asking because Todoroki-kun looked really determined not to mess up your food and he seemed almost like he was beating himself up over something."

A cricked chirped in the distance as the blonde inspected her friend for the longest time. She looked down at her steaming bowl of ramen with a tiny frown. There was no need for her to tell him the full details, but the fact her friend noticed that many details about Shouto meant she had taken things too far earlier with the comparison of his father.

"I said some really hurtful things to Shouto," she confessed. "He did something I didn't like and I thought I was able to control myself but I lashed out in a very bad way."

Midoriya looked concern and opened his mouth but she waved off his upcoming question. What did you say? And what did he do? Those two questions seemed to be the questions that were going to come out of his mouth. It was the logical kind because that was the only things which could be asked after such a confession.

"Do you even want to give me a hint on what happened?" Her friend pried with a frown playing on his lips. "You have never lashed out when it comes to Todoroki-kun."

Naruto snorted. "No, I have lashed out, but the last time I lashed out was when he tried to pull that stunt during the Internship."

Green eyes continued to stare at her but she wasn't going to elaborate about the fight between them. Relationships were messy and it would get even messier when she spilled their problems to other people. This was definitely something they had to figure out for themselves. This was something she should never dragged her friends into because this was between them.

"Can you at least tell me if Todoroki-kun's idea of giving you ramen worked?" Izuku asked with a sigh.

She rubbed her hands against the bowl of ramen and replied. "Oh, Shouto knows I can't stay mad when I have a bowl of ramen but he didn't have to go that far when it comes to the bowl. He actually had valid concerns and if anyone should be apologizing then it should be me."

Midoriya nodded and placed his notebook on the table. He didn't say anything and didn't look like he was going to probe her for anymore answers when it came to what happened between her and Shouto. That was good. She had already told him too much when she considered the fact that she had given him enough clues to connect the dots.

With a tired sigh, Naruto lifted up the bowl of ramen and walked to the empty seat sitting across Midoriya. She kept her eyes locked on the wall as little droplets of her miso broth dribbled down the side of the bowl. It stung, almost tempted her to drop the bowl on the ground but she steadied her hands and straightened her spine.

"I know you don't want my help and I know you don't want to talk about it, but can I at least share one observation?" Midoriya asked when she kicked the chair back.

Naruto paused and then put down the bowl of ramen on the table. "Go ahead and tell me your observation."

"Todoroki-kun really cares about you," her friend reminded her. He looked almost uncomfortable and seemed ready to squirm in his seat but the green-haired boy kept his composure. "I have never been in a relationship, but I know Todoroki-kun well enough to know that he wouldn't do this if he didn't care about you."

The whiskered teen took a deep breath. That was something she didn't need him to point out, because it was the fact that he worried too much about her that was for the reason for this whole mess. She might had been fragile but she wasn't an emotional ball of mess. There were only four days when that happened, and that was it.

The rest of time she could keep herself in check.

"I know he cares about me and I care about Shouto too," she looked down at her bowl of ramen and picked up her chopsticks. "The reason this whole fight began is because he chose an action that he thought was protecting me. I get his actions and when I think about it in the long term, well it seemed like a stupid fight but he can't coddle me."

He frowned. "I don't completely understand but don't girls like being pampered?"

"I don't like being treated like I'm an emotional bomb," Naruto admitted. Midoriya blinked and the blonde shook her head. "I'm not going to tell you the complete context but Shouto and even Hinata seem to believe that I'm fragile, when I'm not fragile. I was discriminated, bullied and neglected but that was not enough to break me. Just because I crash one time, doesn't mean I'm fragile."

Midoriya regarded her for the longest time and then inspected her bowl of ramen. His green eyes looked like they were deliberating between themselves as if her friend had no idea of what to say to her. While he took his sweet time to say something to her, she was going to try and eat her bowl of ramen.

"You might not be fragile but Todoroki-kun and Hinata might be worried that you haven't reach back to your mental strength," Izuku mused. Naruto slurped her ramen and blinked wolfishly at the green-haired teen. He looked down at his notebook. "No one could crash and just completely jumped back to their normal state, just like that. Maybe they thought that this news might hurt you."

She sighed. "But isn't that what makes you human? You can't avoid things because that isn't healthy in the long run either. It is better to confront things then to avoid them because you can't just avoid everything."

"But not everyone believes in confrontation and there are just certain things that you can't confront by yourself." Midoriya observed. He frowned and stared out at the window. "

"But not everyone believes in confrontation and there are just certain things that you can't confront by yourself, Naruto." Midoriya observed. He frowned and stared out at the window. "Sometimes, you need friends when it come to confrontation and I know I'm a hypocrite but please consider that."

"And if they decide to make a decision on your behalf?"

"That is wrong," Midoriya acknowledged. His tone turned hesitant and his green eyes looked at her with concern. "And while I have no idea of what they did, you know very well that they didn't have bad intentions—and isn't that the most important thing right now?"

She looked down at the ramen, which had miso fumes coming out like a steam engine. When her friend put it in that way then there was only one answer that she could give him.

"Yeah, I guess you are right because intentions matter more but I'm still going to have a talk with them about this."

Definitely not now because they had a big day tomorrow. Shouto was going to find out about his brother and if they resumed talking about what happened, then it might either become messy or it wouldn't resolve itself. If her boyfriend was going to learn the truth then it was better for him to learn with a calm mind.

Also, she had to give him an apology gift and she had the perfect apology gift.

"Naruto, what brings you here?"

Shouto crocked his head to the side and knitted his eyebrows at the sight of his flushed girlfriend standing outside his bedroom door. She had her hands behind her back as if she was hiding something behind her back. From the way the muscles of her hand kept tightening, he guessed the blonde did have something behind her back.

"I ate your ramen." Naruto admitted, shifting backwards and forwards. Her tone held hints of happiness and Shouto felt his lips twitched into a tiny smile when the blonde offered him a smile. It was difficult not to smile when there was a personal ray of sunshine smiling upon you. A smile that could just filled you with so much warmth.

A smile that he nearly destroyed because he didn't think of considering the idea that Naruto could handle the news without having a meltdown.

He darted his eyes around the empty corridors and then looked back at his girlfriend. "Was it good?"

"It was amazing!" Naruto chirped. Her eyes lit up with sincerity and Shouto's cheeks began to burn up. Did she really find it that good? Bakugou made it seem like he would be lucky if his girlfriend could stomach his food. Then again, he supposed his classmate did have a habit of being overdramatic just like a certain someone he knew.

Shouto cleared his throat and rubbed his back. "You loved it that much? Bakugou made it seem like I was doing a crappy job."

"I love it," she confirmed. Her smile broadened and whatever moisture inside of his throat seemed to have dried up from the brightness that was Naruto's smile. "But I didn't love it because it was ramen and maybe you could have laid off the salt, but I love it because of how sincere the gesture was."

Those words hovered between them and whatever sounds that played in the background seemed to have faded into oblivion as those bright, beautiful blue eyes looked at him with so much infectious happiness. He wanted to look away because if he looked at it any longer then he might just go blind from her smile, but he couldn't look away.

That smile was directed at him and it held none of the sadness he saw a couple of hours ago. If he hadn't looked up on what to do then would Naruto still direct that smile at him? No, was it just enough for her if he gave her ramen? This wasn't the best that he could do. It might be words that he had never vocalized but she deserved to hear those words from him.

"Naruto, I'm sor—"

"—I don't want to talk about what happened earlier and I don't want to hear the verbal apology now," she shook her head. He frowned and the whiskered teen glanced around the empty corridor before continuing on. "If we are going to apologize to each other and fully talk about this then I want to wait this out a few days, because it really isn't a huge deal when I think about it."

He raised his eyebrow. "It seemed like a huge deal earlier when you compared my actions to chidori."

"I was being overdramatic about the whole thing," Naruto confessed. She looked down at the ground and pushed her leg back and forth in a circular motion while Shouto kept his eyes focused on her. "I had some time to think about it and I realized—with some help from Midoriya of course—that I might have not considered whether or not you had good intentions, and the thought process that you guys had."

Shouto frowned. "You told him everything?"

"No but I gave him context," she offered him a cheeky smile and leaned forward till her eyes were only a few inches away from him. "And he was the one that told me about how Katsu-niisan supervised your cooking session. Was he being a dick to you while he watched you?"

"He insulted my intelligence a couple of times when it came to the measurement," he mumbled. Naruto thinned her lips but did not look one bit surprised by what her half-cousin had done, then again would anyone be surprised when they got to know Bakugou? The male was intelligent but Kirishima already warned everyone about how Bakugou liked to be violent while he tutored people.

His girlfriend was stern but at least she knew better than to insult him.

"You wanted to throttle him, didn't you?"

Shouto cleared his throat. "A little bit."

"He gets result or else Kirishima wouldn't have passed all of his theoretical exams with flying colors," Naruto let out a tiny chuckle and glanced at the corridor. He followed her line of sight. There was still no one in the corridor and there seemed to be no footsteps heading towards the door. No sign of a door being turned which meant they were still in the clear.

But even though there seemed to be no one coming their way, it was still better to be safe than sorry.

"You should come in before someone has the wrong idea of why you are in here." He kept his volume low and soft as he snuck a glance to the door to his right. Satou was never going to pose a problem for them, his dorm room neighbor kept to himself mostly and did not have a habit of causing trouble. But it was Sero, who was his concern.

Naruto must have the same concern because she had her eyes fixed on Sero's door. "You know I'm surprised that no one else has caught on to the fact that he is the one that spills the beans that will get someone into trouble and then just disappear out of the blue."

"You're upset with him for loudly pointing out to Bakugou, Kaminari and Mineta about the hickeys during the Provisional Hero License Exam, aren't you?" The whiskered teen flushed a brighter shade of red and dashed straight into his room without even giving him an answer. Not that he needed an answer because that response was all he needed to know the answer.

Shouto shook his head and closed the door until a barely audio thud echoed in his room. He slid his hands into his pocket and turned around to face his entire room, only to gulp when he saw Naruto sitting on his futon with her legs crossed together. There should be nothing admirable about her just sitting on his futon bed but there was something about the image that screamed home.

Maybe it was the fact that the image of home was starting to become a person, rather than a place.

"There is another reason that I came here besides telling you that I liked your cooking," Naruto admitted. She patted the empty spot beside her and Shouto stared at it for a couple of minutes. There was nothing wrong with sitting there but it had been a couple of days since they had been alone together. A couple of days since they made any form of physical contact because of school and other things.

He smacked his cheek and ignored the questioning gaze of his girlfriend. It was going to be awkward if he confessed that he wanted to do more than just talk. Not that he wanted to do anything like those books she edited. That feels really too soon. It would be so strange and awkward to bear his whole body to her.

But he missed the little stuff like her kisses and hugs

"What is the other reason that you came here?" Shouto crocked his head to the side and sat down right beside Naruto.

His blond-haired girlfriend did not answer him immediately. She only inspected him with uncertainty as if she didn't know how to come out and say whatever had to be said. Seconds passed before Naruto pulled out what she had been hiding behind her back. It was a sketch but it was no ordinary sketch if you asked him.

It was a colored sketch of himself but it didn't really look like himself. Every time he looked at the mirror, he would never find that kind of softness in his eyes and did his turquoise eyes look that mesmerizing? But what really stood out to him was the lack of harshness to his scarred face. Everything about the image seemed soft, almost gentle even because there didn't seem to be much shadows in his sketch.

"I drew this a couple of weeks back," Naruto rubbed the back of her neck and cleared her throat as she placed the sketch onto his lap. "And well I want you to keep it as a gift."

He arched his eyebrows up to his hairline. "Why am I getting a gift?"

"Because I was being an absolute bitch when I compared your actions to your Dad," Naruto replied. He jerked his head and the whiskered teen took several deep breaths before placing her hand on top of his own hand. "I know I shouldn't have said that because you aren't your Dad and that sketch should show you what you look like in my eyes."

He glanced down at the sketch and smiled faintly. "Are you sure that you drew me? Because I look good."

"Oh you always look good, Hot Stuff." He blinked when the whiskered teen slid closer to him. She was only a couple of inches away from him but he wanted the gap to be gone. Those pink lips were really begging to be kissed but it might not be so appropriate with what happened just a couple of days ago. "And you aren't just good-looking if you asked me."

"What else would you use to describe me?" He was genuinely curious to know what Naruto had to say for herself.

She grinned and inched closer to him. "Sweet. You're definitely one of the sweetest guys I know."

"Am I really that sweet?" Naruto frowned and inched away from him as he looked down at the sketch. Even if his girlfriend seemed to have no problems with him now, he could never stop but wondered if maybe he had truly hurt her like her childhood friend hurt her. Emotional wounds were just as bad as physical wounds after all. "You can't truly think that even though I hurt you."

The whiskered teen chuckled and pried the paper away from his hand. She slid it beside the futon and then proceeded to push him down onto the futon. He arched his eyebrow and blinked when the whiskered teen straddled his waist. This was not what he thought was going to happen when he opened the door, but he definitely was not going to complain about this.

"I was being overdramatic," Naruto declared. She pressed a soft kiss against his lips and then pulled away from him. "Really overdramatic about the whole thing hurting more than chidori anyway, and the whole Endeavor thing was way too much."

He scowled. "I really don't want to hear my father's hero name coming out of your lips."

"Got it," Naruto chuckled and pressed another kiss against his nose before placing another one on his scarred cheek. Once she was done kissing both sides of his cheek, his girlfriend continued on with a smile. "I will never ever say your father's name while we are on your bed for the rest of our lives."

"The rest of our lives?" It sounded like a promise but a lifetime of them being together was a huge deal.

The whiskered teen only offered him a slight smile. "It has been what? Two months since we started dating and around three months since I came to the realization that you dug your way into my heart and each day that passed is another day that I find myself liking you even more. My feelings aren't going to go away that easily if you asked me."

The world around him seemed to almost blur when Naruto declared those words out loud. It wasn't a love confession. No, that was way too soon for either of them especially with their past, but it was probably the closest thing he would ever get to a love confession from Naruto until they figured out what was love.

Naruto stared at him and her eyes almost became hesitant as if she didn't know what to think of the lack of silence. Right, he should say something but he didn't know what to say to her. He couldn't say it even though his heart felt the exact same thing as her. There had to be a better way for him to tell her that he shared the same sentiments as her.

"Maybe I should have just waited—"

He slotted their lips together, drowning away whatever Naruto had to say for herself. His hands dragged the girl closer to his chest, roamed her back and the citrus scent of her shampoo erased away all of his other senses. He could only smell her now. The citrus scent alongside the lingering miso aroma of her favorite food burned through his nose.

Air was probably important. It was a necessary but their lips kept on dancing away with the unspoken emotions. This should be enough for now. If he moved his lips lower and begin to mark her neck again then neither of them would hear the end of it from everyone. But he also wanted her to know that he really had all those feelings for her.

Those soft lips moved away from his own and began to trail down his neck. It was hot and yet somehow gentle, so much gentler than all the previous kisses that they ever had. It had an unspoken promise to it as if she was telling him that he was stuck with her whether he liked it or not. Dimly, he realized whimpers were echoing against the walls but was he the one whimpering? Or was it Naruto?

Heat coursed through him, growing and growing as Naruto slid her lips back into him. He pushed himself up and tangled his hand against her hair as her tongue played with his bottom lip. It pleaded to go in and it had definitely been so long since they had done this. With everything that happened, they needed this.

Well they needed another date too.

Disappointment flooded him when Naruto pulled away from him. He wanted to grab her and to take the lead, instead of having her reassure him but there was almost a cautious glint to his girlfriend's eyes. She slid off of him and to his complete mortification, his girlfriend's eyes seemed rather fixed on his now very-prominent crotch that seemed intent on sticking out like a sore thumb.

"I didn't mean for that to happen!" He flushed red.

Naruto coughed and offered him a sly smile. "Well you're a healthy, young boy and I would be concerned if I didn't excite you."

"You know you have always been able to get this kind of reaction from me, don't you?" He tried to keep his tone neutral and fought off the urge to blush. This was definitely not the first time he got excited from her kisses. They already had a couple of incidents when his girlfriend had stopped kissing him because the Kyuubi wanted them to keep it in their pants.

The blue-eyed teen giggled and then flushed a bright shade of red. "I know and if it wasn't for the fact that we haven't discussed about boundaries then I might have gotten a little bit further."

"What do you mean a little bit further?" He furrowed his eyebrows together and inspected his blushing girlfriend. His curiosity grew more and more as his girlfriend's cheeks grew to an even intense shade of red. It was an adorable color on her but it made him want to know what was going through her mind.

As soon as the blush died down, Naruto replied. "I mean I might have allowed you to feel my chest."

His mind went absolutely blank at those words coming out of his girlfriend's lips. That is a really big deal. He gulped down a lump as his hand began to moisten. He should definitely now focused on his girlfriend's eyes and not move it down to her chest. One wrong move and he would be no different from Kaminari and Mineta.

"Are you sure that you want to go that far?" He would definitely be happy but this was still Naruto's choice and he certainly didn't want her to do anything that she wasn't ready for them to do. Besides, she had seen him without a shirt on and so it wouldn't be a big deal if he took off his shirt. The pants was still a whole different story.

Naruto nodded. "I feel comfortable with the idea of you touching my chest but if you wanna see me without my pants then you are going to wait a while for that."

"I wouldn't feel comfortable with removing my pants either," he admitted. "Your godfather's books can really make a guy feel inadequate."

The blonde gawked at him for the longest time and then shook her head. She crossed her legs together and looked out to the window before glancing back at him. A tiny amused smile played on her lips. "If you think he makes a man feel inadequate then what do you think it makes me feel? He makes female characters have this perfect body proportions and act in such unrealistic ways that I worry that I'm not doing the whole thing correctly."

"Well we can mess up, can't we?" Shouto mused. "We are still teenagers."

Naruto smiled.

"Yeah, we messed things up whether we realized it or not." The whiskered teen stood up from his futon and glanced at the clock. It was close to 11pm and that was definitely an hour later, then their curfew. "It seems like I won't have enough time to talk to Hinata and tell her that I know about the fact she hid Sasuke from me."

Her voice didn't hold any lingering bitterness but there was a tiny grimace playing on her lips. Shouto knew that he should let his girlfriend go and tell her about the news tomorrow, but he also knew that Nejire might tell Naruto if she decided to come by and visit her. There was no way that he could hide this from her.

His stomach churned and Shouto shook his head.

She doesn't need to hear it before she goes to bed.

He would tell her in the morning when she was fully rested.

A/N: So Eisuke is still the one to break the news to Todoroki and Naruto requested that they waited till the morning. Izuku pointed out that Hinata and Todoroki's motivations weren't bad. Naruto and Todoroki had partially made-up. Those two still had a long discussion ahead of themselves.

I actually considered having the anguish between those two extended but in the context of how their individual characters were, it felt like that it would have been forced and conflicted with the people that they were currently becoming. Also I want to literate that there would be no smut until the time skip but there might be some spiciness but not to that level.

Please do tell me of your thoughts on this chapter.