An Admirer's Gifts

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Slight spoilers here and there, Very Lewd Humor (R-rating, but listed as PG-13), and OOCness (but I try to explain the OOCness :p).

Quick Facts: Characters are older, around 15-16 in this fic.

Chapter 1: The eating of funny Chocolates

Naruto unlocked the door to his apartment and walked in. He tossed his keys on a side table, looking right over a present box wrapped in a bright pink ribbon. Instead of eating some instead ramen and showering, he kicked off his sandals and fell into bed; falling asleep the moment his sleepy head hit the pillow.

As of late, Team 7, 8, and 10, were holding daily joint scrimmages. The scrimmages were savage little affairs where each team is given an objective and then was let loose to achieve it by any means possible.

To make prevent any life threatening injuries, their Jounin teachers kept a watchful eye on every fight. Not to say there was not any close calls, because there was.

Thanks to Hinata, Sakura had taken a chakra blow that nearly snapped the inner coils around her right lung. Shikamaru had come within a hair of splitting his skull open, and Kiba took brunt of Naruto's adaptation of Kakashi's 1000 years of pain. Everyone had experienced at least one critical injury, but thanks to the Jounin teachers, they were able to recover and rejoin the practice as soon as possible.

The scrimmages were exhausting and even Naruto, who almost always begged for new challenges, felt like collapsing the moment the practices ended.

But it was working.

Everyone felt stronger, faster, healthier, and smarter. Not only did they get better physically, but mentally as well. Hinata, who seemed to lack any self-esteem whatsoever, became bolder and more confident—although still shy, but now much more self-assured.

And on days when the teams were exempt from practice, they still spent time with each other. Naruto, the outcast since forever, grew closer to each member of the rival teams. He learned Chouji is quite a talented artist, and of all people, Shino likes watching soap operas, taping them whenever he could not be home. Ino owns a flower shop, and Hinata makes a mean miso ramen. Sasuke is absolutely terrified of clowns and Sakura reads mountains upon mountains of books.

Naruto slept in bed, a large tired smile tugging at his mouth. The others were his friends, and they liked him, respected him - they acknowledged him.

**

The following day, Naruto and probably all of Team 7, 8, and 10 slept in.  After a week of missions, immediately followed by brutal scrimmages, Saturday – a full day of rest and relaxation – was a god send.

Naruto slept well past noon and would have stayed in bed if not for a knock at his door.

"Go away! I'm sleeping!" he yelled grumpily.

The knocking turned into banging and Naruto became aware of someone, probably the person banging on the door, was yelling for him to wake up. He stuck his head underneath his pillow hoping it would muffle the sounds.

If possible the sounds grew much louder. It sounded as if his door was being pounded with a seven-ton sledgehammer.

"I'm up, I'm up!" Naruto yelled, swinging his feet off his bed and walking toward the door. "Will you stop banging-- fuck!" he hissed in pain as he stubbed his toe. "I swear-- if that's you, Konohamaru... I'm gonna--" He opened the door and was surprised to see Hinata and Sakura standing on the other side. The sight of the two drove the tiredness from his face. "Good morning!"

"Morning, Naruto," said Sakura.

"Good morning, Naruto-kun," said Hinata, still shy on the inside, but now able to talk face to face.

Naruto opened the door fully. "Come in, come in," he glanced a look around his apartment; scattered food wrappers, technique scrolls, piles of clothing. His eyes widened when he saw his underwear with little ducky designs sticking out on top of a clothing pile. "Umm... don't mind the mess. I'll clean up real quick."

He rushed around the house scooping up his most embarrassing things - every article of embarrassing clothing, soap opera tapes from Shino, the paradise series of books loaned from Kakashi, and the little stuffed puppy animal he slept with every night – and threw it into his closet.

Hinata and Sakura had already pulled up seats around his kitchen table and were waiting for him. He glanced around and despite his efforts at quick cleaning; his apartment was still a sty.

He looked at both Hinata and Sakura, apologetically. "I'm sorry," he said, "if I'd known you two were coming, I would have cleaned up more..."

"Do you need any help, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked helpfully. "With cleaning, I mean. Because if you want, we could give you a hand..."

"Excuse me, we?" Sakura stared at Hinata, then visibly winced (ahem, kick under the table from Hinata). "Right then, of course. We'd be happy to help you. But you better do your share, Naruto. Cause if you make me and Hinata do all your work for you... " she trailed off warningly, finishing instead by sending a pointed glance at Naruto.

"Right..." Naruto gulped visibly. "Umm, Hinata would you mind if you rolled up those scrolls? Sakura-chan, help me with the dishes?"

"You have dishes?" Sakura raised in eyebrow. "Why would you have dishes? You live by yourself, you shouldn't have any dishes!" she glanced at the huge pile in the sink. "At least, not this many..."

"How should I know why I have this many, I just do. And they definitely need to be washed." He shrugged his shoulders. "I guess they just piled up over time."

And Naruto was more than right. Even if he was living alone, Naruto never washed his dishes, and over time they just began to stack up. Plates and bowls from 5 months back were still sitting untouched at the bottom of the sink.

Naruto and Sakura stood side to side, he was washing and she was drying.

"What is that?" she sniffed one of the plates and handed it back to him. "Do you smell that?"

"Smell what?" he asked, smelling the plate then shaking his head. "I don't know what're you talking about. I don't smell anything--"

"How can you not smell anything? It's one of the most foul things I've ever smelled..." she looked at him. "You don't have a stuffy nose do you?"

 "Nope."

"Then why don't you smell anything? It's pretty vile--" she scrunched her nose at him. "My god. It's you, Naruto!" She sniffed his shirt for good measure, and then visibly recoiled as if he'd hit her. "It is you! The smell's coming from you!"

"I don't smell!" he yelled, indignant.

"You're probably just used to your own stench, either that or you just have a really strong nose..." said Sakura, her fingers pinching her nose close. She looked at him and saw he was still wearing the clothes he had on during training last night. "Naruto, you did remember to take a shower last night, right?"

"Hmm... Now that you mention it," he smiled sheepishly. "I think it kind of slipped my mind. I was too lazy to change my clothes, too."

"The smells probably embedded in your skin now..." she pushed him away from the kitchen and toward his bathroom. "I'll happily do your dishes, as long as you would just go and take a shower. Oh, and take a long one too—and make sure you don't skimp on the soaps and shampoos. God only knows what it'll take to get that smell out."

He stepped inside the bathroom and closed the door. He ran the shower and was undressing when he heard knock. "Oh, and Naruto... hand me your clothes."

He cracked open the door and tossed everything through, then asked, "Why?"

"Someone needs to wash them," Sakura gagged. She must have smelled the clothes again. "Or burn 'em if need be..."

**

Sakura and Hinata were busy cleaning up the rest of the apartment.

Hinata was dutifully rolling up all the technique scrolls and Sakura was using Naruto's spare kunai to pick up dirty clothes and toss them into a laundry basket.

"Now this is absolutely disgusting," said Sakura, who was holding up a black sock.

Hinata rolled her eyes at Sakura, "I know it's probably been on Naruto's feet, but really Sakura, it's just a black sock."

"Wrong, here-- look at the inside," Sakura opened the open end and show it to Hinata. "See, it's a white sock. All that stuff on the outside is dirt and who knows what else..." she smirked. "Here Hinata, catch!"

The sock flew threw air and landed on Hinata's face. She made a spluttering sort of sound as she tossed the sock aside.

She looked at Sakura with mild annoyance. "Was that really necessary? What if it had gotten into my mouth?"

Sakura laughed. "Well, that gets you back for volunteering me to clean Naruto's apartment in the first place. I mean really, Hinata, what were you thinking?"

"I don't know," said Hinata, her voice suddenly serious. "It's just that sometimes... I feel sorry for Naruto, you know? He's so strong and I admire him for having learned to take care of himself, but that's so sad in a way. He has no one too really take care of him; to worry and fuss over him like a real parent does... And I figured that... I was thinking... I don't know, maybe..." Hinata sighed, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what I was thinking. I just thought it would be a nice thing to do, that's all."

"Hinata..." Sakura looked at the girl sizing her up shrewdly and then asking, "You still like Naruto, don't you?

Hinata looked at Sakura in alarm. "No, I don't think I like Naruto anymore. At least, I think I've moved on... But the issue is kind of moot since he never noticed that I liked him to in the first," she laughed uneasily, "But that's Naruto for you – absolutely clueless..."

"Hmph. You're right about him being clueless." Sakura said. "I bet if you wrote 'I like you, Naruto' on a brick and beat him over the head with it every hour on the hour, he still wouldn't get the hint--"

Hinata giggled. "Well you are beating him with a brick after all. Not exactly the most romantic way to say 'I like you'."

"It depends on the person really," Sakura threw back. "Some people say I like you with chocolates. Others say it with flowers or love letters. But there are those special people where it takes nothing short of daily brick beatings--"

Hinata didn't need her Byakugan to see whom Sakura was really talking about. "Sasuke, huh?"

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura looked at Hinata, surprised.

"About the brick smashings. You were talking about Sasuke..." Hinata trailed off, thinking she might have re-opened up a closed wound with Sakura. "I'm sorry, Sakura. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything..."

"No, no, it's okay. You should feel free talk to me about stuff like this..." Sakura reassured. "You just threw me off a little, that's all-- what's this?"

Lifting a black shirt from Naruto's clothes pile on the floor, Sakura's had uncovered what looked to be a orange book with the name 'Hatake Kakashi' labeled in dark blue letters on the spine of the book.

"Hinata, come here quick! You have to see what I found!"

"What did you find?" She knelt next to Sakura and read the title out loud. "Come Come Paradise?" she looked at Sakura. "You're the bookworm, have you read this before?"

"I would never," Sakura spluttered, looking very much offended. "ever read these kind of books..."

"What kind of book is it anyway?" Hinata took the book from Sakura, and filliped through it, her eyes widening as she went. "Oh, so it's that kind of book."

"Hinata!" Sakura yelped, shocked that Hinata was reading the book and even more shocking, she was still reading it. "Put that down! These kind of books are disgusting and incredibly degrading to woman," Sakura made a failed grab for the book. "Give me that!"

Hinata rolled deftly out of the way. "Prude," she said, smirking then sticking her tongue at Sakura. "Aren't you just the least bit curious?"

For some reason, Sakura's face turned a shade of pink. "Of course not!" Sakura denied, "It is disgusting and--"

"-- And degrading to woman." Hinata interrupted, finishing for Sakura. "I heard you, I heard you. But are you sure you don't want to sneak a peak?"

"I'm sure!" Sakura said firmly.

"Really?" Hinata asked. "Cause you're kind of missing out. Whomever drew this has quite an imagination..." Hinata turned the book sideways, "I'm pretty sure some of these, um, positions, aren't humanly possible-- ever for nins like us."

The truth was, Sakura was curious and Hinata only had to prod Sakura a few more times before she finally broke.

Sakura and Hinata, both having completely forgotten to clean, were kneeling on the floor taking turns flipping through.

Both girls gasped and shaded red as they flipped to a particular phallic image stretched over both left and right pages.

"Is that a--"

"Yes, I think it is." Sakura said.

"Are they all that--"

"I don't think so. It varies from guy to guy."

"Because this one's pretty freaking--"

"You're telling me."

**

Naruto wrapped a towel around his waist and was greeted with the girls' laughter as he stepped out of the bathroom. He ran to his room and dressed into a pair of dull orange shorts and a large, clean black shirt.

He walked into the living room and saw both girls kneeling on the floor, keenly interested in something.

"What are you two doing?"

 "N-Naruto!" Hinata exclaimed, her face a deep scarlet. She hid the book behind her back. "Out of the shower already? That was rather quick--"

"I was in there for an hour," Naruto said, looking at each girl suspiciously; Hinata was fidgeting a little too much and Sakura face was as pink as her hair. "Okay, 'fess up. What did you two do?" His eyes focused on Hinata. "And what exactly are you hiding behind your back?"

"N-Nothing!" Hinata said, "See?" Hinata held out her now empty hands after slipping the book to Sakura. "I'm not hiding anything."

With a sense of self-preservation, Sakura slipped the book into her side pocket and then held out her hands just like Hinata had. "See, Naruto? Nothing."

"I could have sworn you two were looking at something--"

"We weren't looking at anything," Sakura said, slightly defensive.

"Then what were you two giggling about?"

"If you must know, me and Hinata were talking."

"And what exactly were you talking about?"

"Ha, wouldn't you like to know."

"I would!"

"Well, too bad! Cause I'm not going to tell you!"

Hinata jumped into the conversation. "We were talking about underwear," she said with a smile.

"What?"  Both Naruto and Sakura exclaimed.

"Sakura told me Sasuke wears heart shaped boxer shorts, and then she asked me if I knew what Kiba and Shino wore. I told her I didn't know what Kiba in particular wears, but then I said I knew for a fact that Shino doesn't wear anything at all: you know, all natural. And that was pretty much the entire conversation."

Sakura was laughing, but Naruto looked absolutely disgusted.

"Shino goes all natural? That's just wrong..." He said.

"Could be worse," Sakura said pleasantly. "She could have said Kiba wears bright pink thongs."

Naruto shuddered. "I think I'm scarred for life."

Hinata and Sakura shared a good laugh at Naruto's show of exaggerated misery, until Sakura noticed the clock on the far wall.

"Wow, It's already almost two. We should hurry if we still want to catch a lunch." Sakura said. "Hinata, would you mind going ahead and waking your team and Ino's?"

"Sure. Everyone's probably up already, so it won't be a problem. But where are we going to eat?" she asked, "The same place as last time?"

"Yeah, I think the same, since it is the only place we all could agree on in the first place."

"Oh, I assume you're going to pick up Sasuke?"

"Yeah," Naruto answered, "we'll get him. But he's probably training right now, so it might take us a bit to find him." He turned to Sakura. "We really should get started."

Hinata left and the two members of team 7 were about to leave as well, until Sakura, claiming to have a parched throat, decided to go back to the kitchen and pour herself a glass of water.

While Sakura was off in the kitchen, Naruto finally noticed the package on his table where he had tossed his keys the night before.

"Hmmm, what's this?" It was an ordinary present box with a pink ribbon wrapped around it. After untying the ribbon, Naruto looked inside and found what looked to be a pinkish white camellia flower on top of a tin of chocolates. But there was no letter or anything.

He thought briefly on who might have given him the chocolates and a flower, but forgot, opting instead to open the tin and start eating. He popped in a light brown minibar into his mouth: caramel.

Sakura had come back while Naruto was in mid-chew. "What are you eating, Naruto?"

He tried to say chocolates, but his mouth was too full for anything coherent to come out.

She looked at him uncertainly, "Are they good?"

He nodded very enthusiastically.

"Really?" She grinned, amused.

He swallowed visibly, his mouth clear enough to talk. "So far, yeah," he said. "Haven't run into any bad ones either..."

Naruto popped another chocolate into his mouth. It was a familiar flavor and he couldn't quite place it. He swallowed the chocolate and handed a similar piece to Sakura.

"Sakura-chan, taste this real quick. Can you tell me the flavor?"

Sakura bit into the chocolate, only taking her a second to identity it. "Oh that's easy, this one is coconut."

"Co-coconut?"

"What's wrong with coconut? It's a perfectly good flavor; one of my favorites."

"Sakura-chan, It's just that, I'm a little allergic to coconut..."

And Sakura caught him in her arms as he collapsed.

Tbc

So, how'd you like it? Good, bad, too lewd, not lewd enough? Got any constructive criticisms, feel free to leave a review or send me an email. Oh and difference between a flame and a constructive criticism is that flames don't give a reason. Oh and my 2 cents about the yaoi war, I strongly believe in free speech and if people decide to flame that's their right just as much as it is someone's right to write a shota/yaoi/lemony, yaoi fic.