If there was something Hanabi had recently realized, it was just how much of a burden she had become to Naruto, at least that's what she thought. She came to this conclusion when she saw Naruto early in the morning.
As usual, she was already awake and was cooking breakfast by the time he woke up, but when Naruto came into the kitchen, she had noticed something different about him. His posture when he walked was slightly crooked and he had begun to slouch. Hanabi presumed this to be because he'd been sleeping on his couch since she'd begun living with him, and it made her feel guilty.
It also made her think, would Naruto be better off without her living there? Sure, he was nice to her and never seemed displeased about her presence there, but maybe he was only doing that for the sake of being nice. Hanabi hoped that wasn't the case, but just in case it was, Hanabi wanted to remove the odds of her being a burden.
Her solution to that was to take on more missions. She didn't often go on missions, but she needed the money, so she kindly asked the teacher of her team to accept more missions on her behalf. Missions were rare, but she figured most Chuunin would be happy to stay in Konoha and be with family and friends.
Hanabi needed the money because if she wasn't at Naruto's place, Naruto could sleep in his bed again and wouldn't end up with a crooked back. Naturally, the only way for this to happen would be for her to stay somewhere else, and she currently didn't have the money for that.
Most people would just swap positions with Naruto so that he could be on the bed and they would be on the couch. But from what she had learned about Naruto, he would be too stubborn to let her sleep on the couch.
When she tried asking him about the problem, he just waved it off, saying that he was fine. Immediately after saying that, he fixed his posture and had a face of displeasure for the rest of the morning. Hanabi thought that what he was doing was sweet, but it had also made her worry, thus her doing this.
She was currently training using the training grounds located in the back of Naruto's house. It wasn't big, but it was enough for her. Nonetheless, she didn't want to be rusty just in case she got a mission that required her to be out of the village. After all, the world was a dangerous place even with peace.
About an hour or two after she had finished training, her teacher had informed her that they had gotten a mission, she was told that it would be outside of the village, which made her glad that she had trained earlier. Hanabi left to get changed and to let Naruto know, and she was happy that he would be able to sleep comfortably tonight.
His reaction was something she hadn't expected.
Hanabi had expected Naruto to be at least accepting of the change, but his reaction surprised her.
She found him in the living room, resting on the couch with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. He looked peaceful, but she didn't want Naruto to worry if she didn't come home tonight, so she woke him up.
"Naruto-kun?"
"Huh?" His eyes slowly opened, revealing light blue eyes.
"I'm going on a mission, I won't be back tonight." Hanabi informed him. His reaction was a face of uncertainty, which Hanabi didn't expect. It's not like she expected him to be happy that she was leaving, it's just that he looked as if he wanted her to stay with him.
Nah, she was probably overthinking it.
"Alright then, good luck, and be safe." He said, his face still uncertain.
It was only two words, but Hanabi was happy when Naruto told her to be safe. It was more than she ever got from her father, who either said "Don't fail." or didn't say anything at all. Hanabi nodded and went to meet her team, a small smile was on her face as she left.
Naruto wasn't happy.
When Hanabi told Naruto of her going on a mission, Naruto didn't like that. It wasn't like he was afraid for her or anything, he was sure that she was a capable shinobi. It was just that he wanted her to stay.
It was a bit embarrassing to think that he wanted someone to stay with him, but he had recently discovered that he very much preferred if Hanabi was included in his day. He found that her not being present made for a pretty boring and uneventful day. Whether it be her bad cooking or the weird feeling he had started to get when he was around her, Naruto couldn't help but acknowledge the fact that Hanabi made his day, every day.
Naruto tried to eat something to take his mind off of her, but seeing the dishes in the sink had made him think of her cooking breakfast, and how it wasn't good, but she had started to improve. His appetite was lost, so he tried to be happy about the fact that he got to sleep in his bed for the first time because he had to admit, his back hadn't been holding up well.
Though he found even that hard to do since the bed smelled like her, and the warmth of her was not yet lost in the bed. So as he lay down, his thoughts were filled with her. Naruto figured that the universe must hate him since not long after he realized he cared about Hanabi being there, she leaves, even if not permanently.
He didn't get much sleep that day, but at least his back pain had disappeared.
The next day was good but bad at the same time.
Good because Hanabi was coming back today, but bad because he discovered yet another thing about himself, he depended on Hanabi way too much. Upon waking up, Naruto headed to the kitchen, forgetting that Hanabi was gone and expecting there to be breakfast waiting for him. As a substitute for breakfast, Naruto decided to have ramen, since it'd been a while since he'd had it for breakfast. Sitting down at the stall, he was greeted by Teuchi and Ayame.
"Naruto! It's been a while since you were here this early." Teuchi said, happy to see his favorite customer again, though he did notice that he looked a bit down.
"Yeah! I decided that it's been a while and I wanted to catch up with you guys." Naruto said, plastering a smile on his face. The two noticed this, but figured there was a reason for it, and decided not to push him to tell them what was wrong.
"I was starting to think that you'd forgotten about us!" Ayame joked. This evoked a genuine chuckle from the blonde.
"I could never do that." He said, a more genuine smile on his face.
"So, how have you been doing lately?" That question sent him right back into a bad mood.
Naruto was silent during the rest of his meal.
Once he arrived home, the next few hours were uneventful, Naruto just did anything he could to pass the time. By the time Hanabi came back, it was about 6 PM, and there was a very noticeable difference in Naruto's mood once she got back.
Naruto was eating some Instant Ramen he had bought for dinner when he heard a knock on his door. He knew that it was Hanabi because not many people knew where he lived and the people who did know where he lived probably didn't have any reason to visit him this late.
He opened the door to see Hanabi, no different than how she looked when she left the day prior. A smile formed on his face and his heart warmed at the sight of her. It felt so relieving having her back.
"Hanabi! You're back!" Naruto was so relieved to see her again, that he engulfed her into a hug. He knew that it was a bit forward, but there was no other way to express just how much he missed her.
"N-Naruto-kun?!" Hanabi hadn't expected this from him.
"Sorry, I'm just relieved to have you back, welcome home." He said, the two of them still embracing each other.
Hanabi's thoughts narrowed on that one word, 'home'.
Did Naruto think of this place as her home too? Hanabi had only thought of herself as a burden, and that Naruto would be better off with her gone. But if he thought of it as 'their' home, did that mean Naruto enjoyed her company, did it mean he wanted her to stay? She realized that Naruto seemed to think of her in a pleasant light, and she wondered if she felt the same.
She hadn't really thought of herself during these past few weeks, only about how she could help and repay Naruto for letting her stay here. But she never asked herself a very important question.
Did she want to continue staying with Naruto?
Naruto on the other hand, was wondering something. He discovered that he liked the fact that Hanabi was staying with him. He was well aware that one day Hanabi would most likely get her own place to stay, leaving him alone again.
But he didn't know if he was ready for that yet. If he was being honest, he wanted Hanabi to stay.
It made Naruto wonder about their friendship. For some reason, something about calling Hanabi a friend felt wrong.
Did he want something more? Was it wrong for him to want something more? If there was one thing Naruto was sure of, it was this; Naruto didn't think of Hanabi as a friend, but as something more. What that was, however, was unknown.
A/N: Naruto finally realizes that he sees Hanabi not as a friend, but as something more, while Hanabi starts to think about what her next steps will be in regards to her situation. Only about 4 or 5 chapters until the story will end, there will be an epilogue, but I'm not sure about a lemon, let me know if you'd like another lemon.