Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Gotoubun no Hanayome.

Chapter 10:
Indecisive, but Determined

When Ichika got back to the apartment, she was expecting to find everyone fast asleep. It was already past two in the morning, after all. She hadn't meant to stay out this late, but her audition had gone on far longer than she had expected. Mostly because of all the extra takes they had asked from her and some of the other girls. Apparently they were looking to shoot the commercial as soon as possible, and there was another producer on sight who was looking for people to fill in some extra roles for his film.

Ichika was more than determined to show that could be in both, and her agent was ready to expose her to as many people as possible to get it done.

It was exhilarating for her, if she was being honest. For once, Ichika felt focused on what she was doing. Like she could actually get somewhere. It was a feeling she never got at school. That's one of the reasons why her motivation towards her grades was so lacking.

'Ah, but the new tutor…..'

Ichika was going to have to figure out a way to get out of that. Maybe convince him that he only had to focus on the other four? It would make his job easier, so Ichika doubted he would have a problem with it.

'I don't think Naruto-kun will appreciate that, though.'

Knowing the blond, he was probably going to convince her to try harder, or something along those lines. Ichika felt she knew Naruto well enough to guess that much.

And speaking of said blond.

"Naruto-kun?"

To say Ichika was surprised was an understatement. When she walked into the apartment, she didn't think she would find Naruto sitting in the sofa in the living room. He was idly going through his phone. Probably trying to find an app or something. Emphasis on "trying." The guy failed miserably when it came to technology. He could do many things, but work out a phone was not one of them.

It was cute.

Naruto looked up at her with relief and set his phone down.

"You're finally here. I was starting to get worried."

Ichika looked a bit sheepish as she joined him on the sofa. "Yeah, sorry about that. Things got hectic in my audition. I didn't think you were going to be here, or I would have called."

"You should have called regardless." Yikes, he was mad. "Why did you even stay out this late? You know you have school tomorrow, right?"

"E-Eh, well yeah." Ichika set her bag down and laughed awkwardly. "To be honest, school wasn't on my mind at all. If I nap in some classes, it won't be so bad."

"Do you really think your grades can afford that?"

"That's just mean, Naruto-kun."

"I'm just being the responsible adult here."

"That's funny. You, responsible."

"Now who's being mean?"

"Ehehehe."

Ichika tried to play the "cute character," but it didn't work as Naruto simply flicked her on the forehead.

"Stop it. Only Yotsuba can pull that off now."

Ichika had a more sexy appeal, but that was not something Naruto was going to admit to her.

"Jeez, you're still so forceful." Ichika rubbed her forehead and pouted. "Delicacy, remember?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I don't have the patience for that right now. Not when you're staying out this late on a school night."

"Oh wow, you're taking this seriously, aren't you?" Ichika started to stretch out her arms, a wave of fatigue hitting her. She would have liked if Naruto's eyes wondered south, but the blond didn't budge.

Party pooper.

"You didn't try to stop me before, though."

"I was preoccupied with your troublesome sisters. Now it's your turn."

"You don't have to be so blunt about it." Ichika then blinked. "Wait, did you manage to bring Nino back?"

"Yep, sure did." Naruto gave her a peace sign. "She's sleeping in her room as we speak. She and Itsuki made up too. I'm pretty sure they understand each other better now."

Ichika was taken back. She knew Naruto would solve the problem, but she never thought it would be this quickly.

'I guess I can't buy more time for myself.'

It was another sneaky ploy from her, to try and get the attention away from her. But looks like it didn't end up working. Damn this blond and his determination.

"I am curious, though. How did you get Nino to come back?"

Knowing her, she would be kicking and screaming before she came back peacefully. Not after that fight.

"Ah, that." Naruto scratched his cheek. "It's the same thing I wanted to talk to you about."

"Me?"

"Yeah. I think it's about time I was honest with you."

The fatigue left Ichika when she heard this. What was Naruto talking about? Being honest about what?

"You've asked me before, about my past." Ichika felt her heart start to beat faster. Was this going where she thought it was going? "I think I've blown you off enough. If you don't mind listening, I'd like to tell you everything about me."

Ichika was not going to say no to this. Not after all these years.

So she listened, just as Nino had listened before her. She made sure to memorize every detail that Naruto told her. About his world, about his coming here. It was a story that defied all expectations.

If it were anyone else, Ichika would have dismissed them right away. But she didn't do this. Not with Naruto.

She believed every word.

Naruto was sure it was past three o'clock when he and Ichika went outside to the veranda for some fresh air. Well, Ichika needed it more than him. He was just following her, to make sure everything was okay.

Ichika believed him, though. It was just too much to take in all at once. Ninjas, chakra, a goddess, gigantic monsters, and so much more. It was a lot. It totally sounded other-wordly. Or the stuff a demented person might come up with.

But still, Ichika believed him.

"I've wondered for so long what you were hiding, and to know now…."

"Underwhelming?" Naruto teased.

Ichika almost snorted with laughter. "Pfft, I wish. If you told me you worked for the mafia, that might have been easier to handle. Or that you were some deposed prince."

That last one would have been really romantic. Her, marrying a prince. How many girls could claim that? Not that they were getting married or anything, but still.

The future was still undecided. So maybe?

No, wait. She was getting embarrassed just thinking about it. Better let it be for now.

"It certainly would have been easier." Naruto ran a hand through his hair. "I might have been more honest with you then. But I took my sweet time and lied to you. I'm sorry."

It was an honest apology. Especially since it looked like he had nothing to worry about. He really dropped the ball on this one.

"Hmm, but you're not asking me the most important part." Ichika held up her finger and smiled. "Do I believe you? Or is that not important to you?"

"If you didn't believe me, I'm pretty sure you would have called the cops by now. Or kicked me out. So I think my chances are okay."

He wasn't wrong.

"And." Naruto hesitated for a moment here before coming out with it. "I already talked to Nino about this, and she told me she believed in me. That's why I feel more comfortable talking with you about it."

As painful as it would be to have Ichika reject him, Nino was still there for him. That's why his heart and mind were at ease. Just having that one person who was there for you was enough.

"I see." Ichika felt a bit disappointed by that. Nino had beaten her again. She had gotten the truth before her. Ichika knew it was circumstantial, but….

'No, that's just another lie.'

Another lie to try and comfort herself. But Ichika knew. With the way Nino approached things, it was only natural that she was able to get ahead so easily.

It didn't make it easier, though. It almost felt hopeless. Did she have a chance at all?

"But man, it has been a long day." Naruto suddenly felt tired, very tired. It was probably because of the emotional roller coaster that he went on today. "I feel like everything's work out for the best, though."

Ichika saw the exhaustion in Naruto's eyes.

"You've worked hard, haven't you?"

"Yeah, but when it comes to you I'm always doing that. So it's no problem."

Ichika pouted. "That just makes it sound like we cause you a lot of problems."

"Obviously."

"Sheesh, why are you so mean!"

"I like to call it honesty."

"Some things are better left unsaid."

"Ahahaha, yeah but not this."

"You're terrible. You probably don't deserve this, but I'm going to give you a reward just for tonight."

"What-"

Naruto wasn't able to finish as Ichika started to pull him back inside. Naruto could have easily overpowered her, but he allowed Ichika to guide him.

Ichika sat back on the sofa where she made Naruto lay his head on her lap. Naruto was very surprised by her actions, but he didn't stop her.

"What is this?"

Ichika smiled down at him and began to gently stroke his hair. "Like I said, it's your reward. You helped my little sisters out. Of course I'm going to be grateful."

A reward, huh. Sure enough, Naruto felt very comfortable in this new position. It was the first lap pillow he had ever experienced.

"It's so soft and squishy."

Ichika's face went redder than a tomato. "Y-You didn't have to say that!"

"But it's true."

"Again, s-some stuff doesn't need to be said! Don't make me regret doing this for you!"

Naruto wisely kept his mouth shut. He didn't want to lose this privilege.

Ichika sighed and tried to calm her beating heart. That had really caught her off guard.

"You're really hard to understand sometimes."

"Am I really?" Naruto didn't see himself that way. He thought he was pretty straightforward, his past notwithstanding. "I'd say it's you guys who are the confusing ones."

"I think that's only natural." Ichika beamed down at him. "I don't think there's a single girl on this planet who isn't confusing."

Was that so? No wonder Naruto had had girl problems all his life then. There should be a manual on this stuff or something.

Ichika's lips thinned. She was enjoying this moment between them, but there was still something she needed to know.

"Say. Do you ever…..think about going back? If you had the chance to, would you take it? Would you leave?"

Would he leave them? Leave her?

Naruto wasn't facing her way, so he couldn't see what face Ichika was making. But knowing her, she was probably worried and anxious for his answer.

Silly girl.

"That's a hard question. If you had asked me this five years ago, I would have said yes in a heartbeat. But now….."

It wasn't so straightforward now. He definitely wanted to know what happened to everyone back home. To know of their fates. To know if Sasuke, Kakashi, and Sakura were alive. About Kurama. He definitely still had that desire within him.

However...

"I don't think I could just up and leave," Naruto said at last. "Not when you're all here. And Nino….I still need to respond to her feelings properly. I could never leave things unfinished between us."

"Nino….." Ichika started to poke his cheek with a pout. "Why only her? What about me?"

"Ah." Naruto closed his eyes and smiled in defeat. "Does that mean your answer is the same? Your feelings haven't changed?"

"What? Do you want them to?" Ichika felt a wave of dejection at the thought.

"Honestly, it would make things a lot easier for me," Naruto said, his eyes still closed. "I don't want to hurt either of you."

But that's where things were headed. One of them heartbroken, because he chose the other.

"Well, you just have to put up with that." Ichika huffed. "You fought in a war, right? I'm sure you can handle two girls having feelings for you."

Except Naruto would rather stare down the Juubi again than do this. Ichika and Nino were both incredible in different ways. Trying to come to a decision was going to be hard, especially when he didn't fully understand how far his feelings went. That's why he couldn't take this decision lightly.

"Ugh, you two are such a pain. And idiots too. You need to pick guys better. Didn't your mother tell you to not get hooked on bad guys?"

Naruto had been swept up by Nino's acceptance earlier, but now that he had time to think he could see just how stupid Nino and Ichika were being. There were better guys out there for them, and yet they chose him. Someone who was like a toddler when it came to romance. Not to mention all the baggage he was carrying.

Ichika giggled, her eyes twinkling in fondness. "Yeah, she used to tell us that all the time. Warning us about the dangers of bad men. But." She leaned down to whisper into his ear. "I'm pretty sure she would approve of our choice."

"Heh, you sure about that?" Naruto finally turned and looked up. He found Ichika staring intently at him. She didn't look away even when their eyes met. "I'm the person she had to help more than once. I was probably nothing more than a failure to her."

It was a harsh sentiment, but that's how Naruto felt about himself during that time. Back then…..

"You two talked about a lot of stuff, didn't you?" Ichika recalled the incident at the hospital, and then she knew about their second talk a week or so after that. It was only because of that second incident that Naruto started to open up more to them.

"Yeah, she's the one who made me stop brooding."

"To be fair, I don't think anyone can blame you for feeling like that. Not after losing everything you know."

"Maybe, but feeling sorry for myself wasn't going to change anything. She helped me remember that."

The way Naruto spoke of her mother….Ichika could hear the clear admiration in his voice.

"You really looked up to her."

Naruto chuckled. "Yeah. I grew up an orphan, so I never knew what it was like to have a mother. But Rena was definitely the kind of mother I would want."

She was certainly very similar to Kushina in many ways. Both beautiful and strong. They had a charm that wasn't easily duplicated.

Ichika's cheeks turned puffy. "You're making me jealous over here. Gushing over my mother like this."

Ichika had looked up to her mother as well. As had the rest of her sisters. But she still felt some sense of jealousy to hear how smitten the blond was with her.

Naruto snorted at the idea. "It was never anything like that. Pretty sure your mother only saw me as a brat she needed to help. Her duty as a teacher made her like that."

"Maybe, but I don't think she would have gone that far for just anyone," Ichika argued back. "Maybe she saw something in you."

The same thing she saw.

Naruto wasn't convinced, but if there was any merit to that idea at all, then it came from that day.

It was in the afternoon. Or so Naruto thought. Time was just sort of meshing together by this point for him. It had been eight days since his recovery and departure from the hospital. In that time, he had moved in with Rena and her daughters.

Maruo had been opposed to the idea very strongly. In his words, it was bad enough she was covering the cost for his hospital bills, but now she was going to support him too? It was beyond foolish in his mind.

Rena hadn't cared, though. She had made up her mind, and Naruto had followed her. Well, it was more like she had brought him here. Naruto hadn't agreed or disagreed with the idea. He just didn't care anymore.

Why should he? There was no point to his existence here. He didn't belong in this place, but he had no idea what to do. How could he even get back home? How had he arrived here in the first place? The only lead he had was the alley Rena had found him in, but that had been a dead end.

Kurama wasn't here either. Naruto had no one. He might as well have failed. He failed everyone who had ever believed in him. The weight of that was more than enough to crush him spiritually and mentally. He wasn't eating much either. No point to it. At this rate, he was fine dying where he lied. It's practically what he deserved anyway.

"You know, I didn't help you only to have you lying around like a bum. It's a bad image to my daughters."

Rena entered his room. Well, it was technically the living room. She stayed in the only actual bedroom with her five daughters.

Naruto didn't much care either way.

Rena was coming back from work. It had been a bit difficult to transition back after being in the hospital for so long, but she was learning to handle things as usual. Most of all, she was happy to see that her students had welcomed her back with open arms. It was one of the greatest feelings as a teacher.

"You know you can't continue this, right?" The graceful woman headed to the kitchen. "If nothing else, you have to go to school."

"There is nothing for me there."

"And how would you know that if you never go?" Rena started to look for something to drink in the small refrigerator that they owned. "There are two other troublemakers like you in my class. I have a feeling you might hit it off with them."

In a good way of course. The last thing Rena wanted was for more problems to arise.

"You don't have to do all that for me." Naruto's voice was low, and it was defeated. It conveyed exactly how he felt right now. "I'm not worth it. It probably would have been better if you left me to rot in that alley."

That way, he might not have had to live with this guilt.

"A person's worth isn't measured by others. It comes from how you see yourself. And right now, you're right. You aren't worth anything." Rena turned to him with a stern glare. Naruto couldn't see it, but he could still feel her eyes on him. "However, you're mistaken if you think I'm just going to let a person in need such as yourself wallow in pity forever. I may not know what kind of life you've had, but I know that behaving the way you are now won't help anyone. Especially yourself."

That still didn't answer Naruto's question. Why? Why was she doing all of this for a stranger? It just didn't make sense.

"Your potential is yours to do as you see fit. However, right now you're only squandering what talents you have." Rena shook her head. "There are many others who have less, but they're still willing to keep fighting every day. How can you not do the same?"

"Because I've lost too much."

Replacing what he lost….it just wasn't possible.

"Perhaps. Or perhaps you're not looking hard enough." Rena gave her back to him. "Remember. If what you've lost is too big to replace it with a single thing, then find a hundred or even a thousand little things. I'm sure that can fill the hole in your heart."

It was a simple piece of advice, but those words managed to cut deep through Naruto's heart. It was a sentiment he should have been familiar with, and yet he had failed to uphold it. It was a frustrating moment for him, as well as an embarrassing one.

But it was also a moment he wouldn't soon forget.

After that, it didn't take long for Naruto to take Rena's advice and start going to the high school she worked at. It was meant to be a first step in trying to find his "something" in this world. It was there where he met Asagi and Ken, the two idiots he was still friends with to this day. Back then, the three of them got into all sorts of trouble and only became friends due to those hectic times. A lot of which had to do with that club he visited earlier.

Fun times.

"Well, regardless of the reason, I'm glad things turned out the way they did." Ichika was more positive about the situation. "You've been able to find your way in this world, right?"

Yeah, but he had stumbled a lot. Even today, he saw just how much he had still been clinging to the past.

'You'd probably scold me again, Rena.'

Which he would deserve.

"Why are you looking so grumpy now?" Ichika started to poke his cheek again. "You're on a beautiful girl's lap, but you're not even enjoying it. You're making this big sister want to lose her confidence."

"Well, it's not like you're suffocating me with them either."

It was funny for Naruto to see how Ichika's face went from teasing, to shocked, to downright embarrassed. He was sure steam was coming out of her ears too.

"S-Since when did you get so perverted, huh!? I'm ashamed to know you!"

"Ha, you're really cute, you know that?"

"Flattery won't get you anywhere now!"

She was complaining, but she still wasn't kicking him off her lap. Was she secretly enjoying getting embarrassed like this?

'God, I'm starting to think like Ken.'

A sure sign that the world was coming to an end.

"Ah, this is bad." Ichika wanted to hide her face right now. "I'm not good with this stuff. I want to get closer to you, but I'm also scared. I've never been in a situation like this before."

"Then don't sweat it." Naruto smiled. "I'm the idiot who froze when you confessed to me. Compared to that, I'd say you're more brave."

Ichika shook her head. "I was only able to do that because of Nino. I try to act like the more mature one, but I can't hold a candle to her."

"Maturity comes in different forms, Ichika. You shouldn't beat yourself up for that. Regardless of how it happened, you still made my heart stop. That counts for something, doesn't it?"

"And now you're getting bolder too." Ichika began to smile again. "A lot of stuff has happened since this morning, hasn't it?"

That was an understatement. It wasn't that Naruto was knowledgeable or anything like that. Really, it was the total opposite. At this point, he was just going with the flow. He wasn't going to stress over the details. Whatever happened, happened.

"I think I should take a page out of your book." Ichika tapped her cheek, looking as if she was thinking deeply about something. But she already knew exactly what she was going to do. "You still owe me that favor from earlier, after all."

Naruto grimaced. "You still remember that?"

Ichika shot him a fake glare. "You forgot about something important, so of course I'm going to remember."

Naruto didn't see the logic there, but he still went with it. Easier that way. Less bloodshed too.

"Fine, fine. I did say I was going to make it up to you. Did you come up with something?"

"Mhmm, a date!"

It was still frustrating in a way, that she couldn't just ask him out. Ichika was sure Nino would do things differently, that she would be more straightforward than this. Ichika wasn't like that, though. This was her path for now. But if she kept going like this, then maybe one day…..she could take that leap forward.

No, she had to. If she was going to win this.

"Heh, well, if that's what you want. I have no problem with it." Naruto looked up at her with a one of his famous grins. "Sure, let's go on a date."

The way Ichika's face lit up was more than enough of a treat for Naruto.

It was definitely going to be tough, and there was no knowing where his heart was going to lead him. But there was no denying that there was something there. For these two girls who were able to still look at him like a normal person, to still be able to claim that they loved him.

Naruto was ready to take his next path down this future.

Ichika has the squishiest thighs. There, I said it.

So who's ahead? Nino? Ichika? Depends on how you look at things. The ending has already been decided, though.

Next chapter we get started with Fuutarou and his journey down his romance, and more bromance too of course.

That's all from me.

Till next time.