Standard Disclaimers Apply:D
Ah... I miss writing in the Naruto fandom anyway, Naruto is seven here in this fic... and... yea, I think that's about it... :p Much chibi cuteness and affection headed your way:D By the way, this is a one-shot!
8 hugs
It was about 4 in the afternoon when Umino Iruka returned to his classroom carrying a bundle of papers he still needed check. Much to his surprise, a certain blue-eyed, whiskered blonde was still sitting in his seat, listlessly staring out the window with his head on the table.
"Naruto?" the teacher asked, leaving his papers on a nearby desk and walking up to the aforementioned blonde.
The blonde didn't reply, but instead blew a raspberry—tongue and cheeks and all—much like any 7-year old child would do.
"Is… anything wrong?" Iruka reached over to pat the unruly mop of blonde hair.
"Iruka-sensei!" wailed Naruto suddenly, abruptly lifting his head from the desk and startling the beejeezes (ok… I don't know what that means, but please work with me here… XD) out of his teacher. He was, as a silver- haired jounin would 5 years later aptly put, the number one ninja in surprising people.
"I don't feel like doing anything!" the blonde burst out, surprising Iruka even more. Surely this couldn't be Naruto; the boy was always up to something.
"What do you mean?" Iruka asked, having switched to "mother-hen" mode in the 3 seconds of silence that had passed.
Naruto sighed dramatically. "I feel lonely today…" and in an even sadder tone, "No one's waiting for me at home."
So that's what this is about… The teacher thought, looking half-sadly and half-fondly at his student.
He'd always known that Naruto's hyper-ness and bouts of mischief were usually masks he hid behind… To cover up loneliness, frustration and so many other feelings of turmoil. Iruka himself could understand perfectly, having felt the same way as a child. But sometimes… sometimes, it was easier to see the blonde boy as his mask, just another trouble-maker; just another student who would get into mischief and perhaps get a scolding from his parents when he got home.
But he wasn't, Iruka reflected sadly. And no one deserved to be over-looked—no one.
Naruto stared down at his desk, cheeks flushed with embarrassment at his sudden outburst. Surely Iruka-sensei would reprimand him now?
But, to his surprise, a pair of warm arms came over his shoulders and pulled him forward, to be snuggled safely on a warm chest.
"Iruka-sensei…" called Naruto in a muffled voice from under the embrace.
"What are you doing?" he hoped his teacher wouldn't stop, though—he hadn't felt this warm for a good, long time.
"I'm giving you a hug." Iruka replied simply.
"Eh? Ano sa, ano sa, what does that mean?" and Iruka was glad to hear some spark of "Naruto" in that voice.
"Well," the teacher paused, frowing thoughtfully. How could he explain a hug? It was something given out of so many emotions. Finally, he came up with an answer.
"Well, Naruto. 8 hugs a day keep you emotionally stable." he explained, smiling down at the boy.
Wide, awe-filled blue eyes stared right back at him as Naruto asked, "So if I get 8 of these… 'hugs', I'll be emo- emon- em… stable?"
"Emotionally stable, yes." Iruka beamed down at him.
"And I've already got one!" the blonde 7 year-old freed himself from Iruka's grasp and started jumping up and down.
The teacher smiled at his student's response. "Indeed you do."
"So I need to go get 7 more, ne? Ne?"
Iruka started to say that he didn't really need to get 7 more, but the blonde had already gone before he could even reply. Shaking his head, Iruka went back to his desk to check papers. He really hoped that the blonde would find 7 people kind enough to give him a hug. Heaven knew he deserved it…
Now where could one 7-year old blonde get a hug? With his adorably large sky-blue eyes, soft, tanned cheeks and messy blonde hair, it was hard to imagine anyone who wouldn't hug him. But, as it happened, he wasn't just any 7-year old—although Naruto had yet to know that.
Instead, he spent the rest of the afternoon looking for 7 people to hug and wondering why it seemed as if people were avoiding him even more today.
After what seemed like hours and hours wandering around the village—well, more like 15 minutes, really—Naruto finally found a likely candidate for a hug.
"Shikamaru!" the blonde called, running up the hill to where his lazy friend lay watching the pink afternoon clouds.
"Shikamaru, teba yo!" Naruto repeated, when Shikamaru barely moved an eyebrow.
"Nani?" the Nara child looked at the Uzumaki with one lazy eye.
"Ano sa…" Naruto blushed suddenly, conscious of what he was about to ask. "Can I… can I have a hug?"
"…"
"…"
Finally, Shikamaru spoke out loud. "Che… so troublesome… what do you need a hug for, anyway?"
"Well, Iruka-sensei said… 8 hugs a day keep you… emo- emon… uhm… emotically stable!" the blonde announce proudly.
Shikamaru sighed and looked away. Being the smart little kid he was, he'd already guessed exactly why their chuunin sensei had given the blonde a hug, but he wasn't about to say anything.
"8 hugs a day… how troublesome…" he said, closing his eyes.
Naruto sat quietly beside his friend for as long as he could—about 20 seconds—then got impatient.
"Na, Shikamaru, are you gonna give me a hug, or not?"
His friend didn't reply to this, and the blonde found himself sighing dejectedly and getting up to leave.
"Mendokuse, na…" and Shikamaru reached up and pulled the smaller boy in for a very quick hug.
In a moment, he was lying back down on the grass and staring up at the sky again. Naruto was still sitting beside him, looking half-stunned and half-elated.
Finally, the blonde gave his friend his widest grin and said, "Arigatou, Shikamaru! That was my second one for today! I'll go look for 6 more, teba yo!"
When Shikamaru nodded in reply, the blonde bounced off in search of his 3rd hug.
"Che… 8 hugs indeed…"
The next candidate he found was Hinata-chan.
"Hinata-chaaaaaaaaaaaan!" Naruto ran towards his classmate, waving enthusiastically at the shy girl.
Hyuuga Hinata looked up from staring down at her knees. She had been sitting quietly outside her family's compound and enjoying the serene atmosphere when her blonde friend broke the silence.
Not that she minded, of course. "Hinata-chan!" Naruto beamed at her, causing her to blush to the roots of her hair.
"Can I have a hug?"
Hinata almost fainted from shock. Naruto-kun… wanted a hug? But what could that mean? She'd always watched him; admired him from afar. But for him to actually come close, to ask for a hug, even! It was almost too much for her to take.
"Naruto-kun," she whispered.
The blonde leaned closer, trying to hear what Hinata said, but this only caused her to turn even redder.
And just then, a voice came from inside the compound.
"Hinata-chan! Are you outside?" a woman's voice called.
The smaller girl's pale eyes widened. "Please excuse me, Naruto-kun! Mother is calling me!" and she was gone in the blink of an eye.
Naruto blinked, confused at what had just happened. Still, he had no time to spend thinking; he still had 6 hugs to go before the day ended!
With that thought in mind, he headed in the opposite direction.
"Who else can I hug…?" Naruto pondered. He was rounding the corned when—"Itai!"—he crashed into someone.
"Ite, ite, ite…" Naruto rubbed at his sore bottom which had made rather enthusiastic contact with the ground.
But who had he run into anyway? He looked up to see a very pale boy, with even paler eyes and long dark hair glaring down at him.
"Your eyes are just like Hinata-chan's!" said the blonde. He felt a spark of hope. Maybe this relative—he assumed that the boy was a relative— of Hinata's would give him a hug.
"What do you know about Hinata-sama!" the pale boy demanded, grabbing him by the neck of his shirt. Naruto squinted his eyes at the boy who'd grabbed him. Well, whoever he was, he certainly wasn't as nice as Hinata-chan.
"Hinata-chan? She's my classmate, teba!"
The pale boy let go of his shirt, but continued to glare at him.
But Naruto, being Naruto, decided to try his luck anyway.
"Ano sa, ano sa, Hinata-chan's-cousin-kun! Can I have a hug, please?"
"… What?"
Naruto sighed impatiently. "Well, Iruka-sensei said you needed 8 hugs a day to be emo…emotionally stable!"
Neji, who believed himself to be perfectly emotionally stable (yea, right… XD), and highly insulted at the fact that he'd just been called "Hinata-chan's-cousin-kun", merely glared at the blonde again.
They stood, staring at each other for a few moments until Naruto did something that shocked the bejeezes out of Neji. (again, I don't know what that means, but please work with me here. XD)
He jumped at the taller boy and glomped him.
Neji, utterly surprised at the blonde, didn't even know how to react. But instead of shrinking back in repulsion, he found himself enjoying the warm growth that had attached itself to his body. And then his arms unconsciously snaked around the younger boy's back. How long had it been since he had last embraced someone?
When they'd both let go, Neji glared again, but this time, only half-heartedly. "What was that about?"
"You looked like you needed a hug." Naruto beamed at him.
When the older boy didn't reply, the blonde decided to look for his next hug.
"Well, I guess I need to find 5 more hugs, huh!"
Neji watched as Naruto went his way, still feeling partly surprised.
I never did get his name. The Hyuuga mused.
Well, that didn't matter. Fate had allowed them to meet, allowed him to receive that hug; maybe fate would allow them to meet again one day.
After all, fate had been kind to him today.
Hatake Kakashi walked along the dirt path with his head buried in a book and a blush covering his cheeks. It was about dinner time and he was heading to the Ichiraku for a bowl of ramen before finally going home.
What he didn't expect, though, was a certain blonde boy who was on the hunt for hugs.
"Ano sa, ano sa!" Kakashi looked down to see what or rather who was tugging at his pants, and found a pair of bright blue eyes that reminded him of very similar ones he'd been accustomed to seeing so many years ago.
"Ah?"
"May I have a hug?"
The silver-haired jounin squatted till he was at eye level with the boy and reached out to ruffle the unruly blonde hair.
"Why are you asking me?"
"Well, Iruka-sensei said that 8 hugs a day kept you emotionally stable. And since you were the only one who didn't move away when I came closer, I decided maybe you wouldn't mind if I hugged you!"
Kakashi felt his mouth curve in a smile. Emotionally stable, huh? In that case, he probably belonged to a loony bin.
"So, can I have a hug? The day's ending already and I only have three!" the blonde said impatiently.
Naruto's future sensei's one visible eye crinkled in a smile, and, with one arm, swept the blonde into a firm hug.
"There."
And after ruffling the blonde hair once more, the man was gone.
The sun was almost setting, signaling the end of that day. Well, Naruto thought, if he wasn't going to get 8 hugs, he might as well get one from the one he liked.
She was sitting on one of the park swings, having an argument with Ino.
Naruto waited until there was a brief silence in their argument, then spoke up. "Ano sa, Sakura-chan… Can I have a hug?" he said this very quickly, blushing 7 shades of red as he did so. After all, Sakura-chan was someone he like liked, as he'd often told Iruka-sensei when they ate ramen together. And he really wanted one of his 8 hugs to be from her.
Both the pink-haired girl and her blonde friend stared at the whiskered boy for awhile, until… Smack! Sakura hit Naruto on the top of the head. And none too gently, either, as Naruto seemed to see flying bowls of ramen circling his head.
"Naruto no baka! Why should I give you a hug? Even mother told me to stay away from you! I'd much rather hug Sasuke-kun anyway." Sakura said standing up from her swing, and she started to walk away.
Ino followed her, looking sorry for the blonde who was still holding his head in pain and looking like a kicked puppy.
Naruto stared at the ground for a bit, then raised his head. The sun had already set.
It was getting dark; it was more reasonable to go home, Uchiha Sasuke reasoned, than to train when he really couldn't see anything. He packed his kunai and shuriken into their respective pouches and headed for the empty Uchiha mansion.
Splash!
Sasuke jumped at the sudden sound. He frowned. (hey, I rhymed:D I'm a poet and I don't even know it… XD) Now who could be out in the woods at this time of the day…? Aside from him, of course.
Splash!
The brunette boy followed the continuing sound until he reached a small pond at the center of a clump of trees. He could just barely see a small figure crouched at the edge of the pond, absently tossing stones into the water.
Splash!
A closer look told him it was someone familiar, though he couldn't quite place it. Finally, he risked stepping from the shadows and into the dim light.
Splash!
The first thing he saw was blonde hair. Then the blue eyes, and tanned, whiskered cheeks. Sasuke felt his eyes widen in surprise. It was that loud-mouthed idiot from Iruka-sensei's class. What was he doing here?
Splash!
"Iruka-sensei told me today that you needed eight hugs a day to be emotionally stable." The blonde suddenly spoke out loud. Sasuke froze, thinking he'd been discovered. But Naruto just went on talking, not even looking at the Uchiha boy.
"I got one from Iruka-sensei, Shikamaru, a strange boy with pale eyes and a silver-haired man who was reading a book. But I'm still lacking four!" the blonde said ruefully, looking into the water.
And then Sasuke realized that Naruto was actually talking to his own reflection. He remained silent as the blonde began speaking again.
"I wanted a hug from Sakura-chan, but… I got hit on the head instead. She said… she said she'd rather hug that stupid-head, Sasuke! But I'll get a hug from her next time! Na?" Naruto said this with such a dejected voice that Sasuke felt he had to say something.
"Who'd want to hug a baka like you anyway?"
Hn. Trust Sasuke to say something tactful.
Naruto's head snapped up from his one-ended conversation and glared at the dark-haired boy.
"What are you doing here!"
"Training."
"Well…" the blonde was at a loss for words.
Sasuke walked over to where the blonde was sitting and stood there, looking down at him. He sighed.
"Naruto… Do you even know what emotionally stable means?"
The blonde thought about it for a moment. "It means…" Well, he didn't really know what it meant. But maybe it was close to feeling whatever it was when you were hugged.
"It means happy!" Naruto announced, looking triumphantly at his classmate.
"So… you said you only got four hugs today. Does that mean you're depressed?"
"…Depressed?" what did that mean? Jeez… he really needed to ask Iruka-sensei for vocabulary words.
Sasuke sighed. "Are you sad?"
"Well… I was; earlier today," Naruto blinked. "but then Iruka-sensei gave me a hug, and then Shikamaru, and then—"
"I know." Sasuke cut in. "but you only got four, right?"
"…well, yea. I guess no one else wanted to hug me." The blonde was looking down at his hands.
The brunette sighed again, and turned to leave.
"Na, Sasuke…"
"What?"
"Can I have a hug?"
"…"
"Well, it's ok if you don't want to, you know," Naruto was saying, and Sasuke looked down at him again.
Without warning, he pulled the blonde up and wrapped his little arms around the other boy as best as he could. Naruto was so surprised that he didn't even react at first. Then he relaxed and put his arms around Sasuke as well.
They stood like that for quite awhile, until both pulled back at the same time. Naruto was blushing and looking down at his feet, and Sasuke was looking sideward with a tinge of pink to his cheeks.
"Sasuke," Naruto looked up smiling goofily at the brunette.
"What?"
"I think… I think I just got my last four hugs."
"…baka."
fin
Whee! finished! heehee:D Well, what did you think? drop me a line, please! ;p haha! I hope none of the charas were too OOC... I know it got a bit sappy at some parts... but I couldn't help it! I'm suck a sap... XD
Haha! Cheers! Something sweet for the new year:D
-kyria-chan