BIG THANK YOU to Watermelon Gal... my 400th reviewer... my god... four
hundred?! *has a heart attack*
To Dark Mimiru-chan... lmao... I could barely get past that first sentence, I was laughing so hard. Yes, I want Naruto to be Sasuke's bitch... but I also like the idea of Sasuke being Naruto's bitch... *grins* Of course... if I had the chance, I'd be Naruto's bitch any day... lol... I'm still upset with Sasuke right now. (*Cheers for the Drunken Fist*)
Thank you for the review Ookima, and don't worry. There's more broken Naruto in this chapter, and he ends up making the biggest mistake of his life just to get away from Sakura.
Chapter Title: 34. Mother Dearest
It had been a couple of weeks and still the tension was thick between Sakura and her other two team mates. Sasuke had been ignoring her altogether, but he would always have at least one eye watching her every move when ever she came within a few feet of his rival. Naruto, on the other hand, tried to keep going on as though nothing had happened and everything was normal, ignoring the strain that the break up had caused, rather than the girl herself. He didn't blame her, but try as he might, he couldn't get around the fact that things wouldn't be the same and internally he felt it was somehow his own fault.
Kakashi was taking them to the Hokage tower to see what sort of mission he could get out of Tsunade, muttering under his breath as he walked ahead of the trio who refused to stand near each other.
"This is yet another good reason why I shouldn't get involved with my colleagues." He told himself, suddenly stopping them all outside the front door.
"There is no point in us going any further if you three can't work together." He told them sternly.
"We can work together just fine." Sasuke growled under his breath. "We proved that the first day you met us. There's no rule that our team all have to be friends with each other."
"Good point." He smirked inwardly at the boy's sharp tongue and led them down the hallways to the main office where Tsunade was just emerging. I her office they just barely caught a glimpse of a woman in a blood red kimono with shock white hair before the Hokage closed the door behind her.
"What a coincidence." She muttered bitterly to herself before putting on a smile for the team. "I was actually just going to come looking for you four... well actually Naruto specifically. Please stay out here." She told the others while pulling Naruto back into the room with her. If it hadn't been for Kakashi ordering them to wait in the waiting room and stay seated on the bench, they would have had their ears pressed to the door like little children. They weren't too far from the room as it was, but they could only vaguely hear voices and nothing clear enough.
Some noise from around a corner began to interfere with the noises coming from the office and the academy class rounded it, with Iruka. He was leading a tour for the younger generation of Shinobi.
An icy look passed between Kakashi and Iruka, but nothing was said. Though they had nothing more to go on, Sasuke and Sakura turned to each other mutually confused. They could feel the electricity between the jounin and the chuunin prickling their skin.
Then, as soon as the class appeared, they disappeared down the other side of the hallway as if nothing had ever happened, though with Sasuke's sharp eyes, he noticed the slight slouch and general dark cloud that hung right over his sensei's head. They were able to pick up the talking from the other side of the closed door again.
***
Inside the room, Naruto was able to get a better look at the ethereal woman. She had hip-length white hair, clipped together in the front and an exquisitely detailed crimson kimono that seemed to flow around her. He turned his gaze from her and back to Tsunade, who had returned to behind her desk.
"How have things been lately, Naruto-kun?" he was asked. He was still slightly unnerved by the stiff and silent woman beside him, but decided to ignore her for the time being.
"Not good, Tsunade-sama." He whispered, wondering how formal he should be. "I would like to request a number of solo missions."
"I've heard about what happened to end your relationship with Haruno-san." Tsunade eluded his request for a moment. "How are you dealing with that?"
"We've come to an understanding and talk occasionally." It wasn't a direct lie.
"I don't think it's quite that easy. You must me very uncomfortable around her and Rock Lee in order to request missions that would separate you from them. Why are you running away from your problems?" Naruto narrowed his eyes dangerously.
"I'm not running away." He spat. "I just enjoyed being on my own."
"And yet when I assigned you that mission with Sasuke you wanted nothing more than to stay behind with your Sakura-chan."
"I didn't say that, Tsunade-baba!" He shot back, wincing when he heard the woman beside him clear her throat. "Gomen, but you deserved it." He muttered in response. The woman laughed softly. It wasn't anything capturing, but it had a quiet melodious feeling to it.
"This woman is here to help you 'run away' from your problems." Tsunade spoke up, standing from her paper cluttered desk, and it was obvious that she wasn't quite fond of the beauty that stood before her. She continued before he could react to her words. "She's your...... mother." Naruto snorted and had to clamp a hand over his mouth to keep from bursting into tears from the announcement. The chuckles were just barely repressed.
"Have you forgotten already that I'm an orphan?" He replied when he found his voice again. "I have no mother."
"She's not Naruto's mother. She's the mother of the Kitsune you hold inside of you." He frowned for a moment, wondering how it was even possible for the beast to have a mother, when he felt a surge of longing forced from the Kitsune into his consciousness, followed by homesickness. "She'd like you to go with her as you are holding the soul of her son, however, it is ultimately your own decision to go with her or not."
"How can she be the Kitsune's mother if she's a human?" He asked, voicing one of many questions clouding his mind.
"Kitsune are known to take these forms to bring misfortune on those that are fooled by their disguises." She replied.
"I took this form so that the people of the village wouldn't be frightened of me." The soft soprano of the woman added, taking no obvious offence to the Hokage's words. "I know I'm not your real mother, but I love my child, and since you are his vessel, I know I can learn to love you as well. I will try to be as good a mother to you as I can be."
Naruto nodded deftly, tears coming to his eyes as he saw a way to get away from the stress the village had been pressuring him with; an escape; a mother. She was his mother, although indirectly. As a tear slid down his cheek, he leapt forward into the arms of the ethereal woman, and hugged her as tightly as he could. Even though she was not really his, he didn't care. He had a family. For once in his life, he had a family.
***
Nearly an hour later, Sakura was sitting on the floor, Kakashi had gone through his Icha Icha Paradaisu book three times, and Sasuke was pacing in front of the door. They'd finally given up listening in on the conversation on the other side, but the peculiarity of the occasional noise that slipped out made them anxious to learn of what was on the other side of the door. The soft click of the opening door brought their attention back to the room, as Naruto came out looking exhausted in every way possible.
"The fifth will give you guys the mission now." He said, not looking up from his feet. The woman followed behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Please think about my offer; I know you will make the right decision." She whispered, loud enough for his friends to hear. Nodding curtly to the other three she walked down the hall gracefully and disappeared around another corner.
"What the hell did she want?" Sasuke interrupted the silence. Naruto looked up for a second.
"She's my mother and wants me to return home with her."
"But that's stupid, you don't have a mom." Sakura burst out, glaring at the corner the woman passed around. "It must be a trick to lure the demon out of Konoha."
"I know I don't have a mom; she's the Kitsune's mother." They were all startled into silence for a few moments.
"I never knew the Kitsune even had a mother." Sasuke spoke up.
"Me neither, but apparently he does." Naruto replied. "The Kyuubi wants to leave with her-"
"But that's too dangerous!" Sasuke interrupted. "We can't let him out of the village like that."
"She also wants ME as her son. The Kyuubi has no body. I am it's body, and therefore I am her son. Don't you understand, Sasuke. For the first time in my life I might have something of a family. Don't you dare try and take this away from me. You at least had one for a short amount of time." He narrowed his eyes at his rival. "I'm going home. I need some time to think this over, before I give her an answer." He turned his back on his team mates and walked away. Kakashi stepped up and placed a hand in front of Sasuke's chest to stop him from going after the boy.
"He needs time. Let him make his own mistakes."
***
They hadn't been into their mission thirty minutes when Kakashi dismissed Sasuke from his duty.
"I'm fine, Kakashi-sensei." He protested, but the truth was his mind was totally preoccupied with thoughts of the blonde haired ninja.
"Go talk with him. Convince him to stay, if it will help you focus." The jounin nodded understandingly. Sakura came up to them and was about to run after the boy but Kakashi held her back.
"Let them sort this out on their own." She frowned at him, but stayed behind to finish up their gardening mission.
***
Sasuke went straight to Naruto's apartment, only to find the boy packing away all of his things.
"Naruto, stop." He commanded, grabbing his rival by the wrists to stop him from folding another shirt. Flinching in surprise, the boy turned his head slowly, a sad smile on his face.
"You're missing the bigger picture. You've had something I've always longed for. A mother. Now I have a chance to have one."
"She's not your mother."
"That may be true, but she's willing to treat me as her own. It's better than nothing." Failing to think of an argument to counter this, Sasuke frowned.
"Stop." He repeated. "Don't go. What about becoming Hokage?" He was grabbing at anything he could use to keep his friend in the village.
"I can always come back. This isn't a permanent decision." But this wasn't enough for Sasuke. He didn't believe those words.
"You're just being a coward." He spat. "You're running away with your tail between your legs."
"Why do you care so much?" Naruto retorted, becoming angry himself.
"Because I don't want you to leave me." Sasuke whispered. "I want you to stay."
~~~~~~~
Well then. That was originally supposed to be two separate chapters. It's amazing how short it is when you type them all up. I think I'm going to have to combine a lot of chapters in the future... yuck. Who knows... the next one may end up being three chapters combined.
To Dark Mimiru-chan... lmao... I could barely get past that first sentence, I was laughing so hard. Yes, I want Naruto to be Sasuke's bitch... but I also like the idea of Sasuke being Naruto's bitch... *grins* Of course... if I had the chance, I'd be Naruto's bitch any day... lol... I'm still upset with Sasuke right now. (*Cheers for the Drunken Fist*)
Thank you for the review Ookima, and don't worry. There's more broken Naruto in this chapter, and he ends up making the biggest mistake of his life just to get away from Sakura.
Chapter Title: 34. Mother Dearest
It had been a couple of weeks and still the tension was thick between Sakura and her other two team mates. Sasuke had been ignoring her altogether, but he would always have at least one eye watching her every move when ever she came within a few feet of his rival. Naruto, on the other hand, tried to keep going on as though nothing had happened and everything was normal, ignoring the strain that the break up had caused, rather than the girl herself. He didn't blame her, but try as he might, he couldn't get around the fact that things wouldn't be the same and internally he felt it was somehow his own fault.
Kakashi was taking them to the Hokage tower to see what sort of mission he could get out of Tsunade, muttering under his breath as he walked ahead of the trio who refused to stand near each other.
"This is yet another good reason why I shouldn't get involved with my colleagues." He told himself, suddenly stopping them all outside the front door.
"There is no point in us going any further if you three can't work together." He told them sternly.
"We can work together just fine." Sasuke growled under his breath. "We proved that the first day you met us. There's no rule that our team all have to be friends with each other."
"Good point." He smirked inwardly at the boy's sharp tongue and led them down the hallways to the main office where Tsunade was just emerging. I her office they just barely caught a glimpse of a woman in a blood red kimono with shock white hair before the Hokage closed the door behind her.
"What a coincidence." She muttered bitterly to herself before putting on a smile for the team. "I was actually just going to come looking for you four... well actually Naruto specifically. Please stay out here." She told the others while pulling Naruto back into the room with her. If it hadn't been for Kakashi ordering them to wait in the waiting room and stay seated on the bench, they would have had their ears pressed to the door like little children. They weren't too far from the room as it was, but they could only vaguely hear voices and nothing clear enough.
Some noise from around a corner began to interfere with the noises coming from the office and the academy class rounded it, with Iruka. He was leading a tour for the younger generation of Shinobi.
An icy look passed between Kakashi and Iruka, but nothing was said. Though they had nothing more to go on, Sasuke and Sakura turned to each other mutually confused. They could feel the electricity between the jounin and the chuunin prickling their skin.
Then, as soon as the class appeared, they disappeared down the other side of the hallway as if nothing had ever happened, though with Sasuke's sharp eyes, he noticed the slight slouch and general dark cloud that hung right over his sensei's head. They were able to pick up the talking from the other side of the closed door again.
***
Inside the room, Naruto was able to get a better look at the ethereal woman. She had hip-length white hair, clipped together in the front and an exquisitely detailed crimson kimono that seemed to flow around her. He turned his gaze from her and back to Tsunade, who had returned to behind her desk.
"How have things been lately, Naruto-kun?" he was asked. He was still slightly unnerved by the stiff and silent woman beside him, but decided to ignore her for the time being.
"Not good, Tsunade-sama." He whispered, wondering how formal he should be. "I would like to request a number of solo missions."
"I've heard about what happened to end your relationship with Haruno-san." Tsunade eluded his request for a moment. "How are you dealing with that?"
"We've come to an understanding and talk occasionally." It wasn't a direct lie.
"I don't think it's quite that easy. You must me very uncomfortable around her and Rock Lee in order to request missions that would separate you from them. Why are you running away from your problems?" Naruto narrowed his eyes dangerously.
"I'm not running away." He spat. "I just enjoyed being on my own."
"And yet when I assigned you that mission with Sasuke you wanted nothing more than to stay behind with your Sakura-chan."
"I didn't say that, Tsunade-baba!" He shot back, wincing when he heard the woman beside him clear her throat. "Gomen, but you deserved it." He muttered in response. The woman laughed softly. It wasn't anything capturing, but it had a quiet melodious feeling to it.
"This woman is here to help you 'run away' from your problems." Tsunade spoke up, standing from her paper cluttered desk, and it was obvious that she wasn't quite fond of the beauty that stood before her. She continued before he could react to her words. "She's your...... mother." Naruto snorted and had to clamp a hand over his mouth to keep from bursting into tears from the announcement. The chuckles were just barely repressed.
"Have you forgotten already that I'm an orphan?" He replied when he found his voice again. "I have no mother."
"She's not Naruto's mother. She's the mother of the Kitsune you hold inside of you." He frowned for a moment, wondering how it was even possible for the beast to have a mother, when he felt a surge of longing forced from the Kitsune into his consciousness, followed by homesickness. "She'd like you to go with her as you are holding the soul of her son, however, it is ultimately your own decision to go with her or not."
"How can she be the Kitsune's mother if she's a human?" He asked, voicing one of many questions clouding his mind.
"Kitsune are known to take these forms to bring misfortune on those that are fooled by their disguises." She replied.
"I took this form so that the people of the village wouldn't be frightened of me." The soft soprano of the woman added, taking no obvious offence to the Hokage's words. "I know I'm not your real mother, but I love my child, and since you are his vessel, I know I can learn to love you as well. I will try to be as good a mother to you as I can be."
Naruto nodded deftly, tears coming to his eyes as he saw a way to get away from the stress the village had been pressuring him with; an escape; a mother. She was his mother, although indirectly. As a tear slid down his cheek, he leapt forward into the arms of the ethereal woman, and hugged her as tightly as he could. Even though she was not really his, he didn't care. He had a family. For once in his life, he had a family.
***
Nearly an hour later, Sakura was sitting on the floor, Kakashi had gone through his Icha Icha Paradaisu book three times, and Sasuke was pacing in front of the door. They'd finally given up listening in on the conversation on the other side, but the peculiarity of the occasional noise that slipped out made them anxious to learn of what was on the other side of the door. The soft click of the opening door brought their attention back to the room, as Naruto came out looking exhausted in every way possible.
"The fifth will give you guys the mission now." He said, not looking up from his feet. The woman followed behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Please think about my offer; I know you will make the right decision." She whispered, loud enough for his friends to hear. Nodding curtly to the other three she walked down the hall gracefully and disappeared around another corner.
"What the hell did she want?" Sasuke interrupted the silence. Naruto looked up for a second.
"She's my mother and wants me to return home with her."
"But that's stupid, you don't have a mom." Sakura burst out, glaring at the corner the woman passed around. "It must be a trick to lure the demon out of Konoha."
"I know I don't have a mom; she's the Kitsune's mother." They were all startled into silence for a few moments.
"I never knew the Kitsune even had a mother." Sasuke spoke up.
"Me neither, but apparently he does." Naruto replied. "The Kyuubi wants to leave with her-"
"But that's too dangerous!" Sasuke interrupted. "We can't let him out of the village like that."
"She also wants ME as her son. The Kyuubi has no body. I am it's body, and therefore I am her son. Don't you understand, Sasuke. For the first time in my life I might have something of a family. Don't you dare try and take this away from me. You at least had one for a short amount of time." He narrowed his eyes at his rival. "I'm going home. I need some time to think this over, before I give her an answer." He turned his back on his team mates and walked away. Kakashi stepped up and placed a hand in front of Sasuke's chest to stop him from going after the boy.
"He needs time. Let him make his own mistakes."
***
They hadn't been into their mission thirty minutes when Kakashi dismissed Sasuke from his duty.
"I'm fine, Kakashi-sensei." He protested, but the truth was his mind was totally preoccupied with thoughts of the blonde haired ninja.
"Go talk with him. Convince him to stay, if it will help you focus." The jounin nodded understandingly. Sakura came up to them and was about to run after the boy but Kakashi held her back.
"Let them sort this out on their own." She frowned at him, but stayed behind to finish up their gardening mission.
***
Sasuke went straight to Naruto's apartment, only to find the boy packing away all of his things.
"Naruto, stop." He commanded, grabbing his rival by the wrists to stop him from folding another shirt. Flinching in surprise, the boy turned his head slowly, a sad smile on his face.
"You're missing the bigger picture. You've had something I've always longed for. A mother. Now I have a chance to have one."
"She's not your mother."
"That may be true, but she's willing to treat me as her own. It's better than nothing." Failing to think of an argument to counter this, Sasuke frowned.
"Stop." He repeated. "Don't go. What about becoming Hokage?" He was grabbing at anything he could use to keep his friend in the village.
"I can always come back. This isn't a permanent decision." But this wasn't enough for Sasuke. He didn't believe those words.
"You're just being a coward." He spat. "You're running away with your tail between your legs."
"Why do you care so much?" Naruto retorted, becoming angry himself.
"Because I don't want you to leave me." Sasuke whispered. "I want you to stay."
~~~~~~~
Well then. That was originally supposed to be two separate chapters. It's amazing how short it is when you type them all up. I think I'm going to have to combine a lot of chapters in the future... yuck. Who knows... the next one may end up being three chapters combined.