Author's Note:
This one's just a little three-chapter fic. Has some angst towards the middle but ends at a pretty decent note. I'm doing another cross-post from ao3 because my backlog seems to never end, lol.
Anyway, read on! Hope you enjoyed and as always, any constructive feedback is welcome! :)
Kiba enters the training ground 23 on Akamaru's back, waving his hand at the group of his friends gathered at a corner. He smiles sheepishly as Akamaru slows down and comes to a halt beside Ino.
"Ah, sorry guys for being late. My mother had a fucking last minute errand. Had to clean out the kennels with Hana."
Shikamaru rolls his eyes, as he plops onto the cold ground, "No, it wasn't last minute at all. From what I recall, Hana was out buying cleaning supplies last goddamn week. So really, you stalled on your chores, didn't you?"
Kiba gets down from Akamaru's back, dropping down next to his boyfriend and throws an arm over his neck, "Alright, alright, you got me. Atleast I'm here before Naruto. That counts for something."
Sai, sleeping on Ino's lap, turns to look around the small circle of jounins, "Well, weird. That dickless is always punctual if nothing else."
"Yes, Naruto-kun is never late to our get-togethers. This is a first," Hinata chimes in.
"Well that dumbass is on a solo mission apparently, a minor C-rank. He'll return tomorrow," Sakura says, looking up from her hushed conversation with Sasuke and Tenten.
"Ah, what's it this time? He's been off on a lot of C-ranks these past few months," Ino asks, carding her fingers through Sai's hair.
"It's all prep for becoming the Hokage," Sasuke joins in, stealing a chip from Chouji's chip bag, "Tsunade said–"
"Tsunade-sama," Sakura gently corrects.
"Right," Sasuke huffs, "Tsunade-sama said that going on solo missions and connecting with small villages will help Naruto in administration later on."
"That is a fair point, my friends. And Naruto, being capable of befriending even the evilest of enemies, is surely building bonds with the villagers in the land of fire. Why? So, that one day, when he's Hokage, these people won't have anything against him. Rather, they'll love it and him," Shino mutters in such a flat tone that Sasuke wonders why he is the one called emotionless all the time and not Shino.
"You know," Chouji speaks up. "It's a good thing he's not here today."
"What do you mean?" Tenten asks.
"I mean that it's a perfect opportunity for us to plan a suprise party for his birthday next weekend."
Sakura frowns, "Birthday? I... didn't know."
"Neither did I," Sasuke says and everyone else hums.
They didn't know his birthday because he never explicitly told them about it.
"How do you know though Chouji?" Ino enquires.
Chouji shrugs, "I ran into Iruka sensei yesterday. He was buying ingredients for a cake. I asked why and he said he wanted to make a home made cake for Naruto's birthday."
"Well as pained as I am to admit it, we've been blinded by our youthful energies and pursuit of goals and looked over our dear friend Naruto! How can we call ourselves the youth of Konoha when we don't even know when Naruto's birthday is!" Lee exclaims, getting up. He looks on the verge of tears.
"Lee, calm down," Shikamaru tries to reason. "We feel like shit too. So let's make up for it. Alright?"
Lee nods enthusiastically, sitting right back, "So will we plan a party full of youthful decorations and let our spirits burn with the fire of–"
"No. Stop. Not another mention of the Y-word," Sasuke cuts him off. "But yes. We'll throw the idiot a party. I bet he'll love that."
Sakura hums, "Yes. But honestly, I can't believe how we missed all his birthdays before this."
Ino nods along, "I guess we've all just been too busy since we became genin and before that, um, we didn't really know each other to even wish him on his birthday."
"Okay will you two stop fretting over it?" Kiba complains. "Let's decide what gift to get him. That's way more interesting."
"Ramen," Chouji offers.
"Ramen," they all agree.
All except,
"Ah, I don't think we should give him ramen," Hinata says. "I mean he can get it easily from Ichiraku's. It'll just be a low effort gift if we give him that."
"Well, when you say it like that, yeah. I agree." Kiba mumbles.
Sai sits up, "So what does Naruto like? I mean, besides ramen and... orange shit?"
Sasuke looks intensely at Sai, concentrating. The rest focus on him, because whether they admit it or not, Sasuke is infact, the closest to Naruto amongst them.
A minute passes and Sasuke sighs, "I've no fucking idea."
Sakura grips Sasuke's arm, "That's awful. Like we two are supposed to know him. We're his teammates."
"That's true," Shikamaru agrees dryly. "You two are supposed to know him best but we're his friends too."
"Weird," Shino comments. "Naruto is oddly secretive now that I think about it."
Tenten chews the inside of her cheek, "Well, then. If that's the case then let's get to know him and what shit he likes, right?"
"How do we do that exactly?" Hinata asks, "We could ask Tsunade-sama or Iruka sensei?"
Tenten smirks, "Nah, I was thinking more along the lines of let's-tail-Naruto-for-a-day, because I just realised, apart from missions and his regular ramen eating visits, we have no idea what exactly he does in a day."
"I can't believe we know this little about him." Sakura says quietly.
Ino hits her on her head, "Don't get upset right now. Besides, I don't know but I've always found Naruto sneaky. He hid his jinchuuriki status quite well."
Sasuke glares at her, "Don't bring that up. That's totally different."
Ino raises her hands in a placating manner, "Hey, hey. I'm just saying. I mean well, like Naruto may not look it but he's capable of keeping secrets."
"What if–" Hinata speaks up, for the first time uncertainty evident in her voice. "What if Naruto-kun doesn't trust us to share his life with us?"
Kiba snorts, "You're giving him way too much credit Hinata. For all we know, he might just be spending all his time sitting and lazing around at home. Maybe, we don't know any of his interests other than being a shinobi because he doesn't have any."
Hinata frowns but says nothing.
Shikamaru claps, "Can we focus again? I say let's do what Tenten suggested. Tail him for a while? We're all trained in stealth and if we're careful enough, we can pull this off."
"My, my," Ino throws an empty chip bag at the Nara, "Agreeing to do hard work Shikamaru? You're so damn curious, aren't you?"
Shikamaru shrugs, getting up, "So what if I am?"
Ino stands up too, pulling Sai on his feet, "Nothing, nothing. Let's just meet day after tomorrow? He'll be back right?"
"Yes, he will." Sakura confirms.
"Then let's all hope to succeed in this youthful endeavour!" Lee cheers and just like that, the Konoha 11 disperse, each contemplating how they know so little about Naruto when they're absolutely sure that the blond knows so much more about each of them.
"Shhhh," Sakura whispers furiously. "Lee, shut the fuck up before Naruto hears your voice because you might as well be announcing our presence on a loud speaker right now."
Lee sobers up, and nods solemnly, "Understood, Sakura-chan. This isn't the time to fan my flames of youth, but rather to dim them."
Sasuke and Shikamaru chuckle while Sakura rolls her eyes.
From their vantage point on the unoccupied flat opposite Naruto's, the group of 11 follow Naruto's movements as he gets up. They'd assembled here at 4 am, just to be cautious. None of them were expecting Naruto to wake up by 5 am, especially on his day off. Nevertheless, that's exactly what is happening.
After a brief visit to the bathroom, they see the blond enter the kitchen and make himself a small meal. Hinata tells them that it's something with eggs. Ino and Tenten are a little surprised, considering that they didn't know Naruto was capable of cooking.
He is an orphan. What did they think? He'd get take-out for each meal?
After eating his breakfast at the small table in the living room, Naruto goes to change his clothes.
"He probably trains on his day off too. Typical Naruto," Shikamaru makes a guess.
To everyone's surprise, Naruto steps out, and he's not dressed into shinobi garbs. Instead, he's in civilian clothing.
Naruto doesn't leave his house though. It's 6 am when he starts watering the plants in his balcony. Sakura and Sasuke know about his little garden, they'd glanced it when they'd visited his house a few times but the way Naruto waters each plant with something so tender and loving, it makes them wonder how they'd miss noticing Naruto's love for gardening.
Naruto goes around, tip toeing on his little balcony as he sprays water on the roots of small plants and pours water on the larger ones. He spends atleast a minute with each, muttering something.
"You think he's talking to the plants?" Sasuke asks to no one in particular, tone showing his incredulity.
"This is Naruto we're talking about so that's exactly what he's doing," Kiba answers for all of them.
When Naruto reaches the edge of the railing, he bends down and smiles at a creeper. Ino gasps,
"Kami, that's the plant I gave him for his house warming last year. As a joke. I didn't think he'd manage to take care of it properly."
Hinata says, "Naruto-kun seems so at peace right now. And– and his smile, it's... genuine. He hardly ever smiles like that around us."
A few frown at that. No one says another word as they silently observe Naruto. It's not until the door of the blond's apartment clicks shut till Chouji says,
"So guys. Naruto just went somewhere and unless we follow him right now, we're going to lose him."
Sakura nods, "Lose him. Right. Let's go."
And so the Konoha 11 follow Naruto Uzumaki.
Just like countless times before.