Betrothal
A Naruto fanfiction.
Chapter 9 - Family.
"Haaaaaa." The room was quiet apart from the soft sound of Sakura's breath as she meditated. Her upper body moved slightly with each breath as the pink-haired girl continued with her highly important trance. The room was a small one that the Haruno household kept reserved for one purpose - which explained the hundreds of intricately carved marks and seals that covered the walls ceiling and floor.
This, after all, was the room of the Haruno's Tree.
Or, to be more specific, it was a meditation room designed and enhanced in order to aid in the preparation of the Haruno family secret jutsu. The seals and marks that covered everything were wards of various types that had been placed there to absorb or nullify dangerous jutsu should the technique go out of control.
Quite a few of the older families had rooms like these in their homes. Places in which their children could practice jutsus that the family didn't want practiced in public. The reason for this, of course, was paranoia. To be more specific, it was the fear that another family would copy the jutsu or worse - discover how to counter it.
Haruno's tree.
A tree that soon, within Sakura, would come into bloom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ugh." Temari opened her eyes slightly and immediately wished she hadn't done so as the light in the room practically blinded her with it's intensity. Not that the room was in any way bright, it was just that her eyes had grown so accustomed to being closed during her period of recovery that they just weren't used to being open right now.
"Oh." Whispered a quiet voice from somewhere off to the waking ninja's right. "You're awake. uhm."
'Who is that?' Wondered Temari, as she searched her mind for any memory that linked the voice she heard with one of the ninja she knew as being a leaf villager. Whoever it was, she was female - and sounded somewhat shy.
Wait. There was whats-her-name. The one with the funny eyes.
Hikaru? No.
Hinako? No.
Hinata? No- wait. Yes. Yes, that sounded right. She was the one who had fought a relative in the chuunin exam wasn't she?
Temari nodded to herself a few times as she replayed the memory of watching that fight in her head. The image she conjured up in her mind was, literally, identical to the actual event she had watched all that short time ago. Temari, like all Sand-nin, had an almost photographic memory - a trait that had been instilled in her and then trained from a very young age.
"Hi." She began to say, then paused as a sudden pain flared up from her dry throat and lips. Almost immediately a hand slipped under her head and lifted her up slightly as a beaker of some strange sweet-tasting liquid was put to her lips. Taking a sip, Temari was somewhat happy to discover that the liquid was some kind of medicine - one which dulled the pain in her throat as well as helping to remove the awful heavy-headed feeling she had.
. All that and it tasted quite good too.
"Naruto-kun." She heard, the words echoing through her still somewhat dimmed mind. Almost immediately her imagination conjured up an image of the blonde fox-like youth. He stood there, in her mind, with all his pride and confidence wrapped around him like a cloak. This was the Naruto who had defeated Hyuuga Neji and had then gone on to defeat Gaara - the boy previously thought to be unbeatable.
This was Naruto, the strongest genin Temari had ever heard of.
And yet. He wasn't full of himself like most exceptional genin were. In fact, he seemed to go out of his way to try and be friendly - even when he could see that it wasn't working.
What kind of man would Naruto grow into?
What kind of.
What kind of husband could he be?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hinata stared at Temari's face. She sat upon a small yet comfortable stool next to the low bed that the older girl had been laid upon. In her hands she clutched a small wooden beaker of a pale blue liquid - a medicine to dull and sooth throat pains.
It was, in fact, one of her own creations.
"Naruto-kun." She whispered, as a tear formed in the corner of one pale eye. "Why. why does this have to be?"
The Hyuuga child had hoped, from the very depths of her heart and soul, that Naruto would be his usual rebellious self and find a way out of the arranged marriage. After all, since when had Naruto ever let anyone decide his place in life?
Never, that's when.
Yet. He didn't seem to be fighting this arrangement and that particular fact scared Hinata. Naruto had been a central point in her life for, oh, almost as long as she could remember. Every day she woke up for him, every day she studied medicine away from the watchful eyes of her family - so that she could give him aid if he got hurt.
But not once had she ever told him how she felt.
So, in a way it was her own fault that Naruto didn't know how she felt about him. Perhaps she'd expected him to be able to see her feelings, like all the heroes and dashing young men in the many romance novels she had stashed under her futon in her room. It had been stupid of her really, to expect Naruto to know enough about peoples feelings to be able to guess how they felt.
Who could blame him, really? It wasn't like he chose to be raised without anyone to guide him in such matter.
.
Well, okay, so maybe he did run away from the various carers he was handed to when he was much younger. That said, if his foster-families treated him like some kind of crazed demon or something - which was quite a silly notion really - then he would have been bound to run away sooner or later.
Hinata had always wondered why all the adult treated Naruto as dirt. It wasn't as if they had any real reason to hate him - well, no reason that she knew of anyway. Heck, she'd once asked Kiba and Shino why everyone hated the blonde-haired boy and while Kiba had simply laughed and said it was because he was a screw-up, Shino had stated that he had no idea why, only that some kids hated him simply because their parents did.
Sighing to herself, Hinata slipped off of the stool and rose to her feet. It had been almost an hour since she had offered to keep an eye on the unconscious girl. Still, she had spoken - or attempted to - and taken a small drink of medicine before slipping back so it was quite obvious that her condition was improving.
Besides, someone else had already arrived to take over the task of watching Temari sleep.
As the Hyuuga child walked silently out of the room, her eyes met with the person who had come to replace her. For a brief moment she felt a warm feeling in her chest - one she knew well.
She ignored it as she brushed past and out through the door.
It was, quite possibly, the hardest thing she'd ever done.
Hyuuga Hinata had, for now, given up on Naruto.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Would he be the sort to make her sit at home while he went out and did all the work?
No. no. That didn't seem like the sort of thing Naruto would do. Granted he would need someone to look after him - but only in the sense of reminding him to do things he often forgot or to do things the poor boy had no idea about. Like shopping. And proper cooking.
Hmm. Better not forget dressing himself in good clothes for fancy occasions.
Heck, did Naruto even have any good clothes? For that matter, did he have any other clothes at all? The only thing Temari had ever seen him wear was that somewhat grubby orange jumpsuit that he favored.
As her mind bounced from one thought to another in a seemingly random pattern, some tiny little voice - the cynical side of her - decided to put in it's views.
'What the hell are you doing!?' It screeched, which was a particularly difficult thing to do for something that existed only as an imaginary representative of Temari's upper consciousness.
'Thinking about the future. That's all.' Replied the still somewhat fuzzy core of Temari's personality - the part she usually hid from contact with the outside world.
'With a guy? With a younger guy? Need I remind you that he's at least two years younger than you!?' Yelled her pessimistic cynicism. 'Besides, who would want some crazy psycho girl like you anyway!?'
The sensitive part of Temari stayed silent. After all, it couldn't really argue with the truth now, could it? She was a crazy psycho girl.
A useless, crazy, psycho girl.
A useless, crazy, psycho girl that her home village didn't even want around.
"Temari?" Came a voice, a soft one that made her hidden side swell slightly. She knew that voice and, though layers upon layers of cynicism, pessimism, angst and anger were in the way it was still a voice that somehow reached to her center.
That was because.
"Temari, please wake up." it asked. That was all, no more, no less.
Because.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Naruto was staring. He knew he was staring, he knew how rude it was for him to be staring.
Heck, he knew it was ruder still for him to be staring at a girl, in bed, wearing nothing more than a thin medical tunic.
And yet, he wasn't staring at her chest. Nor was he staring at her legs or any other part o her body for that matter. For, you see, Naruto was staring at her face - waiting for some sign that the girl would be waking up. Properly waking up that is, not just a brief moment of consciousness which would quickly fade away as had happened many times previously.
Who was this girl to him anyway?
If he wanted to look at technicalities, she was his fiancee forever.
Well, okay, maybe not forever. Until they were married or one of them died anyway.
Married.
Ma-rri-ed.
Naruto blinked a few times as he racked his brain in thought.
What, exactly, was marriage anyway? He knew it was when a guy and a girl decided to live together and have kids and be a family.
Yeah. A family.
That was something Naruto didn't really know all that much about - families that is. After all, he'd only ever looked at them from the outside, never knowing what it was like to actually be in one. Now, here he was, eventually going to start one of his own. Granted, it wasn't by his choice exactly. but. well. he did wonder what it would be like.
The young fox-like ninja had always dreamed of going out with his number one crush, Haruno Sakura. Beyond that, however, he'd never really thought about it. Being boyfriend and girlfriend was one thing, being husband and wife - no matter who the wife was - sounded. well. scary.
Scary, but at the same time so desirable. A family was something Naruto had, in many ways, craved all his life. Perhaps it was the lack of a family who cared for him that first set him onto his path in life - his will to become acknowledged by everybody.
After all, most children were acknowledged by, at the very least, their families.
Naruto never had this final buffer between being acknowledged and being hated.
"What would it be like?" He murmured as tears started to trickle down his cheeks.
The blonde-haired boy stood up and glanced at the sand-haired girl on the bed. "What would it be like?" He asked, somewhat louder, "To be with someone like you for all my life? Someone. someone who I'm only going to be with because I've been told to be with you."
"What would it be like. To have a family?"
He grit his teeth slightly and stalked out of the room, passing Iruka on the way out of the small medical-nin complex. Iruka, who knew that it had been Naruto's turn to watch Temari started to stop the younger boy but, as he saw the look on Naruto's face, paused and let him pass without comment. Instead, the Chuunin instructor made his way to the room Temari was in.
Just in time to see her sit up in bed, completely awake.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sakura stood staring ahead, her hands fiddling with the small zipper that was used to keep her dress closed. After a few moments the red and white material fell into a small pool around her feet, a pool which Sakura slowly stepped out of and gently kicked to a far corner of the room. After all, it was a relatively old dress - one that she would care about if it got accidentally ripped, shredded, crushed, soaked, incinerated or dissolved.
All things which, given what she was doing, were distinct possibilities.
The pink-haired genin shivered slightly as the cool air washed against her skin - the parts that weren't covered by almost skintight black shorts and halter-top. Along her arms and down the small of her back - upon the area of skin that was uncovered by her remaining clothes - were inscribed the weaving and undulating tattoos that made up well over half of the technique.
Tattoo-based Jutsu, whilst being much more complicated than a regular Jutsu, were much desired by many families. Mostly because of the fact that no matter what skills or bloodline abilities another ninja may have, it would be impossible to perform the Jutsu unless they had the correct seals and symbols tattooed permanently into their skin with special inks. As an added bonus, certain inks could be made to fade away without a trace should the bearer of the tattoos die - thus preventing anyone from copying the patterns after killing the user of them.
As Sakura stretched her arms out to her sides and slightly upwards, forming a shallow 'Y' shape with her body, the marks upon her flesh began to writhe about slightly like tree branches swaying in a gentle summer breeze.
What was actually happening was that Sakura was pushing a little chakra into the skin where the marks were in order to activate them. Suddenly her arms snapped down and around to being her hands together in front of her chest and her elbows against her sides. Her fingers burst into motion, forming all of the required six hand seals in less time than it took her to even name the technique she was going to use.
Of course, this was only part of the technique, the next step would be harder, and more tiring too as she intended to use almost her maximum amount of chakra. Then again, that was more or less one of the reasons this technique had been created in the first place.
"Hananoki no tenju." She whispered, using her voice to focus herself as she guided the chakra within her into the form it needed to be in for the technique to work. Her hands blurred again, this time performing totally different seals, lots of them too, almost twenty-three in total. This time, however, Sakura took her time in making sure that each seal was done perfectly. After all, right now time was not a concern that she needed to pay attention to.
Finally, the female genin tagged a series of three quick seals onto the end of those she had just completed and blasted her chakra out and around the pathways her hand-seals had created.
"Hosoku!"
As she screamed out the phrase which, in this case, was mostly there as a reminder as to what she was trying to do with her chakra as well as yet another focusing aid in order to help her with the final stage of this part of the technique.
She felt the energy get pulled out of her with a sensation that felt like, for lack of any other description, being pulled through wet mud.
And then.
Then.
There was silence.
Sakura looked around, her face and skin covered with tiny beads of perspiration due to the effort she'd put into the technique. She took deep breaths, well aware of the horrible empty tired feeling that signaled an incredibly low amount of stamina left to her.
"Did i. succeed?" She asked the empty air, moments before her incredibly exhausted body decided that enough was enough and gave up on trying to support her, instead letting her collapse, boneless, onto the carved wooden floor of the room.
"I. I did it." She mumbled, as her eyes closed and she fell into a light snooze which quickly became the deep slumber her body demanded in order for it to get it's energy back.
Within the room nothing had changed.
Everything was as it had been before.
Except.
Except for a single tiny little change upon the tattoo that covered Sakura's back.
For one of the lines that represented branches was, apparently, in flower.
Or at least, that was how it appeared.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Iruka sighed as he watched Temari's face move through a variety of emotions. The chuunin was pretty sure that the only reason that Temari was even showing these emotions was simply because she was still somewhat groggy from waking up.
First had been a look of, well. anticipation would have been a good way of describing it. The sandy-haired girl's eyes had been wide, and her mouth slightly open - as if she had been prepared to say something because she was expecting to see something.
'Or someone' thought Iruka, who was carefully heeping his own emotions - mostly irritation at Naruto - in check.
Next had come confusion as Temari had realized that the person she had been expecting wasn't present. This had quickly become a look of mild annoyance, then serious irritation before finally changing to the haughty and aloof 'I don't give a damn' look she was wearing upon her features now.
"I see you're awake at last." He ventured, then steeled himself against the glare Temari shot in his direction. Obviously she was quite unhappy that the person she had expected to see wasn't there. 'Damn it Naruto', he though silently, 'When I find you I will personally kill you!'
The Female ninja stared at Iruka for a few moments longer before she looked away and spoke in quiet tones. "Naruto was here. Wasn't he?" She asked, "I heard him as I was waking up."
"That boy." Grated out Iruka, "Left just as I came in - which was just as you were sitting up."
"Oh." Temari seemed slightly downcast. It was nothing very obvious, but there seemed to be a slightly disappointed tone in her voice. This mood, however, didn't last long as it was quickly replaced with an almost icy demeanor before Iruka even had a chance to register that Temari had sounded depressed. "Well. That's fine then. It's not like I would want someone like him in the same room as me - Especially if I was out cold at the time!"
"Is that so?" Iruka sighed to himself as he felt a fresh wave of irritation well up in him. Granted, Naruto was a complete and utter idiot - one that wouldn't be getting any ramen tonight - but Iruka was fairly sure that he wasn't the pervert Temari sounded like she was accusing him of being.
. Then again, he had been training with Jiraiya - the legendary lecher.
And, hell, he had Kakashi as his sensei. Iruka knew too damn well what Kakashi considered appropriate reading material and, in that respect, he was as bad as Jiraiya.
Who knew what sort of notions could have rubbed off on Naruto?
Ugh. It just didn't bear thinking about really. Still, Iruka had an obligation to Naruto, one that probably involved defending him from false accusations.
At least, he hoped that they were false.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The boy in question, Naruto, was hiding. Not in a ninja sense either, he was hiding because he didn't want anyone to see how bad he looked - and felt. At present his hiding spot was simply a large tree with an interesting hollow part way up it's trunk. It was within this hollow that Naruto sat, curled into a ball, and cried.
Family.
It may have been Naruto's dream to become Hokage, but that was merely a means to an end. What the boy really dreamed of was being accepted - as Hokage the entire village would be forced to accept him, whether they liked it or not.
Mothers, fathers, children.
There were so many things he would do when he became Hokage, he'd try and make peace with the sand and, by extension, Gaara. After all, Gaara was like him, only it was a him who had never had an Iruka around to accept him. Sometimes Naruto thought about what things would be like if Iruka had not been there for him. Those dreams usually had him waking up in the middle of the night covered in a cold sweat.
He watched them sometimes, as they played together in fields or went out for meals together.
Changing the Hyuuga was also near the top of his list of priorities. Granted he wasn't too sure exactly how he would change them but getting rid of that creepy bird-in-a-cage seal would be a start. Of course, he would have to learn how to undo it himself, or at least grow strong enough to force the strongest member of the Hyuuga clan to undo them all.
Brothers and sisters argued with each other about who would play what, whilst their parents sat nearby either having a moment together or playing with children too young to play with the others.
Then maybe he would go visit the wave country, to see how everyone there was getting on. Perhaps he'd even take gifts with him for everyone he had met there. Of course, he'd also offer them a special contract with the Leaf, one that would make sure that the Great Naruto Bridge, wave countries lifeline, would always be theirs no matter who tried to take or destroy it.
A father would teach his son a jutsu that the son would someday teach to his son or daughter. A mother would step aside to let one of her children perhaps help cut vegetables for the night's meal. They'd smile and laugh and love each other.
Most of all, he would be accepted by the village.
Love each other, accept each other.
He would show them.
He wanted to be like them.
He pulled himself into a tighter ball.
He buried his face against his knees.
He cried and cried and cried.
After all, Uzumaki Naruto felt, right now, ever so alone.
And when Naruto felt like this, there was only one place he could go.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"He's. fragile." Temari stayed silent as Iruka spoke in a slow voice that occasionally paused as he thought about how to phrase his words.
"Granted, Naruto always seems to be so full of energy and strong but inside. There are emotional scars that I don't think will ever heal." Iruka leaned back on the stool he sat upon and stared at the ceiling. "He's always been lonely because everyone has shunned him, even me at first. Of course, since I had been ordered to look after him I began to see him as something other than the boy the village shunned."
"Why?" Asked Temari, her voice quiet. "Why did the entire villiage hate him so?"
Iruka merely snorted and turned his head to look at her. "Can't say. Well. More like I won't say. Not to you or anyone else who doesn't know." He sighed and turned back to stare at the ceiling. "Either way, it's something bad and, well, if Naruto wants to tell you what it is then fine, but I'm not going to ruin his privacy by spilling his secrets."
"The chuunin exam." Came a quick response, one that caused Iruka to swing himself upright. "The power he had when he fought the Hyuuga boy."
Iruka glanced at her, then at the floor. "I heard about what happened then and, well, that's part of it but not the whole story - so don't go jumping to conclusions just yet."
"The worst part of it is," Continued the older man, "That Naruto himself didn't even know this secret, the reason why everyone hated him, until he was told by someone who was a traitor to the village."
'Yes, Mizuki,' he thought, 'If it wasn't for you, Naruto would have never known about the demon within him. Then again. if he didn't know, would he have become as strong as he is now?'
"So," Whispered the bed-ridden kunoichi, "he was hated, and didn't even know why?" 'Just like Gaara, at first anyway,' she added within her mind.
"That's pretty much it, yes. Although. I accepted him. I didn't know he was listening at the time, I was too busy trying not to die of blood loss." Iruka let out a short barking laugh at that memory - especially the look on Mizuki's face before he was pummeled by thousands of Naruto-clones. "Either way, he heard that I accepted him. That I was the first person who didn't hate him."
'Whilst we were always afraid of Gaara - we always saw the monster, not the person it was in.' Thought Temari. 'Maybe that was one of the things that made him so unstable. Then there is Gaara's change of personality. after fighting Naruto. Maybe he learnt what Naruto had learnt then.'
"Naruto affects everyone." Iruka said, as Temari suddenly realized that she had voiced her thoughts out loud. "But no-one seems to realize that everyone affect him too."
"Iruka-san." Began the sandy-haired girl, "I. I want to talk with Naruto." She stared at the sheets of her bed with fierce concentration.
The chuunin blinked and shrugged. "Well, there could be a little problem with that actually." Shrugging again he pulled himself up off the stool and glanced at Temari. "I think I know where he's headed, but he'll probably want to be alone for a while first."
The chuunin walked slowly to the door and paused to look back for a moment. "I'll be back a little before sunset, be ready by then and I'll take you to where he probably is."
Temari, sitting in her bed, just nodded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As sense came back to her, the heir to the Haruno family technique giggled. It worked! It worked! It must have worked! After all, nothing had happened - which mean that her jutsu had worked!
Wait. That didn't make sense. Aw. Who cared! It had worked!
Finally she had a move which would make Sasuke jealous at her skill! Especially since, due to the fact that many of the seals were tattooed onto her body, he had no hope of ever being able to copy it!
Now. if only she could stand up.
Careful, careful. move one arm under herself and then push!
On shaky feet, Sakura managed to get herself into a standing position before staggering towards the door of the room. The movement, painful as it was, bought life back into her still somewhat tired limbs and by the time she reached the door, she felt better. Not in tip-top condition, just better.
Pulling the door open she staggered out of the room, barely noticing the presence of her mother and grandmother - along with her father, which was unusual as he was usually the one off on missions. Nodding at their words of congratulations, Sakura wove past them and grabbed a dress that her mother held out to her. Even in her weird state, Sakura's body knew instinctively how to put on that style of dress and in moments she was wearing her usual red outfit over her black underclothes.
" 'm... goin' out f'r air." She mumbled in the general direction of her family, who responded with nods of agreement. A few unsteady steps later she was fumbling with the front door handle. Gritting her teeth in semi- frustration she tugged hard and was quite happy to hear the click that signaled the unlatching of the door.
Sliding it open the pink-haired girl stepped out into the cool late- afternoon air. A quick glance at the sky told her that it was approaching sunset, nothing particularly important but - Her train of thought was suddenly thrown off course like a boat striking a rock.
Being knocked flying by a crying, running Naruto had that effect on people.
"N-naruto?" Sakura stared in disbelief at the diminishing figure of Naruto as he continued, heedless, on his mad run. Now, in Sakura's mind there were two things that were very, very wrong - and neither of them was Naruto's dress sense.
Firstly, Naruto hadn't even noticed her. He always noticed her! Every time he saw her it was 'Hello Sakura-chan!' or 'Oi! Oi! Watch this Sakura- chan!'. Whilst she wasn't particularly happy about the continued attention from the weird boy, she had admitted to herself that she would miss it if Naruto ever left. After all, it wasn't much but it was still proof that at least someone found her attractive.
Secondly, the scruffy genin had been crying. Specifically he had been crying and appearing to be upset. Very upset. More upset than that one time when Kakashi had snagged and eaten Naruto's ramen by mistake, or so he had claimed. Normally Naruto was bouncy, hyper and generally the complete opposite of how he had looked so. what was wrong with him?
Sakura didn't like Naruto. She thought he was loud, annoying and had a dress sense worse than Ino-pig's. But still. she was somewhat worried about him. After all, he was her team-mate.
"Wait up!" She yelled after the retreating orange figure before half staggering, half running in the direction he had gone, hoping that Naruto wasn't going to do something stupid.
Well. stupider than usual at least.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Naruto's path wound around the village almost randomly. Occasionally he would stop, then double back and duck into a turning he had passed by previously. Sometimes he would run around a building before heading off in a completely different direction once he completed a circuit of it.
He knew Sakura was following him, which was why he was doing all these ridiculous things in an effort to throw her off track. After all, where he was heading was so secret that no-one knew what he kept there.
Okay, so it was inside his own home - but that didn't diminish the secrecy of the room at all. Normally he kept it locked and had the key hidden so well that no-one would ever find it. In fact, that was another reason that he had been hiding in a tree earlier - after all, no-one would expect the key to have been hidden so far away from the lock it opened, right?
Choosing to enter his home by the alternative route, Naruto gathered chakra in his feet and leapt. His jump ended somewhat messily on the roof of his home, just a short distance away from the skylight that opened above the upstairs hallway. Slipping his fingers under the rim of the skylight, Naruto felt around until he heard a slight click - the sound of the skylights latch springing open - and pulled the giant glass panel out of his way. Glancing around beforehand, he hopped down through the open skylight and landed on all fours in the hallway.
". It's nor fair." He mumbled, reaching out with key in hand to unlock the single locked room in the building. As he slipped inside, he reached up and flicked on a light switch to illuminate the room. "It's just not fair."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Temari, you ready to-woah!" Iruka yelled in surprise as a strong feminine hand dragged him into Temari's hospital room. Specifically, the hand belonged to a rather antsy-looking female genin who technically should have still been in bed in this very room.
"Where is he?" She asked, her voice low, as Iruka pulled away from her grip. "You said you'd show me where he is."
"Aha, I will! I will!" Iruka waved his hands and laughed somewhat nervously. Granted, he had more combat ability in one arm than a genin like Temari had in her entire body but. well. Iruka knew when it was a bad time to provoke anything. Being face-to-face with an angry female, he had learnt long ago, was always a bad time.
"Then lead on." Growled the younger girl, who was still feeling the aftereffects of several of the medicines that had been pumped into her whilst she had been unconscious. As a result she was forced to place one hand on Iruka's shoulder for support as the two of them ran and leapt out of the hospital and through the village towards Naruto's home.
Temari was slightly puzzled about their destination, but she wisely kept silent, assuming that Iruka at least knew what he was talking about.
"We'll have to be quiet." Iruka warned as the alighted outside the front door. "If Naruto hears us coming he'll probably lock himself in, it may not seem much, but the room he'll be in is a warded room - so I doubt even a Jounin would be able to break in without difficulty."
As the two begun to open the door, a pink head of hair popped into Iruka's field of vision. "Iruka-sensei. Has something happened to Naruto?" At last haruno Sakura had managed to track Naruto down. Not that she was worried. No. Nope. She was just. interested. That was all.
The chuunin instructor recoiled away from the Haruno girl, upon his face a look of surprise. Glancing around in an effort to find some sort of excuse, he realized something important.
Temari had gone inside.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Naruto sat there, cross legged, upon the floor. In his hands he held a small wooden figure whilst all around him were strewn various odd little things - wooden toys, tiny hand-knitted clothes, even a small painted cot.
To either side of him, covering the walls of the room were shelves and cabinets filled with a vast variety of trinkets.
"I know you're there." He muttered, "The floorboards shake whenever anyone walks outside this room." Carefully he placed the figure - a carving of a man in robes and lacquer helm - down upon one of the lower shelves nearby.
"Naruto." The speaker stepped into the room, her voice quiet. Before she could say anything else, Naruto cut her off with a whispered command.
"Shut the door." He stated, "I. I don't want anyone else to know about this room. Iruka-sensei knows about it, so I guess he told you about it, huh?"
"Well, he did say he was going to lead me to you." Replied Temari as she sauntered over and, after moving a few tiny shinobi figures out of the way, sat down next to Naruto. "What. is this room?" She asked, looking around with curiosity.
The short blonde-haired boy bowed his head and sniffled slightly. "Memories. memories I was never able to have." He replied, his voice low and choked. "Everything in here is. is something from my parents - toys they made for me, clothes my mother supposedly knitted. Things. things from a family I wasn't allowed to be a part of."
Temari cocked her head to one side and looked around, her eyes eventually landing on a tiny - rather blurred - picture of a young man and woman. Underneath was some writing, which was burnt or water-soaked like the image. In fact, only two words could be made out 'Uzumaki family'.
"My parents. I think. I like to believe they are anyway." Whispered Naruto, who was looking over he shoulder at the picture. "No-one's ever told me what they were like, and Iruka-sensei says he was too young to remember most of the people he met back when they were alive."
Sitting back down the young boy stared at various things around the room. "I. sometimes I imagine, about what it would be like if they were alive. a- about." He sniffed, tears running freely down his face, "a-about wh-what it would be like to ha-have had a-a. a family!"
Naruto would have collapsed in on himself if it wasn't for the arms that wrapped around him. Without thinking her turned and buried his face into Temari's shoulder, his tears soaking into her jacket like raindrops onto cloth.
"Shhhh.." One of Temari's hands reached up and, although she had never expected to ever find herself doing this, she gently stroked Naturo's hair. "It's okay."
"N-no it's not!" Came the muffled voice of Naruto, "Wh-why did I nu-never get a chance!?" His arms wrapped around her waist, like a drowning man clinging to a life-belt. "Why did I have to live wi-without any fu-family! D-Didn't they care about me?"
"It's okay." Repeated the older girl, "Let them out, let your tears out." She held the boy close as she continued to whisper reassuring little phrases to him. She looked so confident and knowing when, in reality, she had no clue whatsoever as to what she was doing. But hey, it worked in the theater right? Besides it looked like Naruto really did need to let this out, after all, who knew how long he'd been sitting on this growing depression which he hid under his crazy grin.
Temari didn't know much about psychology, but she did know that bottling all of your feelings up was something that eventually led to self- destruction. Idly she wondered how she was going to stop Naruto's tears because, frankly, her shoulder was getting soaked.
Well. there was that one way which also worked in the theater.
She would probably have had to do it at some point anyway.
Besides, Naruto was quite good looking for a younger boy.
And he really did seem like he could need it.
"Naruto." She whispered, slipping one hand between them and pushing the shorter boy away from her slightly. Inwardly she steeled herself as Naruto looked up at her with a tear-stained face.
"Yu-you." he began, but was cut off by a sudden warm sensation as Temari darted forwards, pressing her lips to his in a kiss. The male genin's eyes widened and his breath caught as his mind tried to process exactly what was happening.
Temari, on the other hand, was mentally recoiling from the kiss.
But then, there was just that one tiny part of her.
That little voice in the back of her skull.
The one telling her about the kiss.
Telling her. that she liked it.
Very much.
Chapter 9 - Ended.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Authors notes -
WHOOO HOOO! Look! It's early! Early I say!
Well, no, it took ages - but considering that I didn't expect to be able to upload this until December, well, it's damn early!
So, this is an extra special extended length chapter - to make up for the pitifully small chapter 8 (As well as the wait). Granted there isn't much action, but I'm hoping that the end of this chapter made you all go 'awwwwwwww'
. and I can suddenly sense the OOC flames looming in the distance x.x Temari, being nice to Naruto? Well. He has been nice to her, so it's only likely that she can be nice back.
(poor, poor Naruto)
Sooo. quick status report on my writing in general - 'To Be Strong' I gonna be completely re-written, so that'll be going down then coming back sooner or later. Also, I have another fic that I've recently begun which (as a working title) is called 'Getting to know you' so you may see that show up here eventually.
Aaanyway. My fingers are tired from all this writing, so I'm gonna go get some rest.
See ya next chapter ^.^
Lackey H - wishing he was the one being kissed by Temari there.
Translations (which are probably wrong, but dammit I hope they're correct) - 'hananoki no tenju' - 'flowering tree's natural gifts' 'hosoko' - 'Capture / seizure'
Chapter 9 - Family.
"Haaaaaa." The room was quiet apart from the soft sound of Sakura's breath as she meditated. Her upper body moved slightly with each breath as the pink-haired girl continued with her highly important trance. The room was a small one that the Haruno household kept reserved for one purpose - which explained the hundreds of intricately carved marks and seals that covered the walls ceiling and floor.
This, after all, was the room of the Haruno's Tree.
Or, to be more specific, it was a meditation room designed and enhanced in order to aid in the preparation of the Haruno family secret jutsu. The seals and marks that covered everything were wards of various types that had been placed there to absorb or nullify dangerous jutsu should the technique go out of control.
Quite a few of the older families had rooms like these in their homes. Places in which their children could practice jutsus that the family didn't want practiced in public. The reason for this, of course, was paranoia. To be more specific, it was the fear that another family would copy the jutsu or worse - discover how to counter it.
Haruno's tree.
A tree that soon, within Sakura, would come into bloom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ugh." Temari opened her eyes slightly and immediately wished she hadn't done so as the light in the room practically blinded her with it's intensity. Not that the room was in any way bright, it was just that her eyes had grown so accustomed to being closed during her period of recovery that they just weren't used to being open right now.
"Oh." Whispered a quiet voice from somewhere off to the waking ninja's right. "You're awake. uhm."
'Who is that?' Wondered Temari, as she searched her mind for any memory that linked the voice she heard with one of the ninja she knew as being a leaf villager. Whoever it was, she was female - and sounded somewhat shy.
Wait. There was whats-her-name. The one with the funny eyes.
Hikaru? No.
Hinako? No.
Hinata? No- wait. Yes. Yes, that sounded right. She was the one who had fought a relative in the chuunin exam wasn't she?
Temari nodded to herself a few times as she replayed the memory of watching that fight in her head. The image she conjured up in her mind was, literally, identical to the actual event she had watched all that short time ago. Temari, like all Sand-nin, had an almost photographic memory - a trait that had been instilled in her and then trained from a very young age.
"Hi." She began to say, then paused as a sudden pain flared up from her dry throat and lips. Almost immediately a hand slipped under her head and lifted her up slightly as a beaker of some strange sweet-tasting liquid was put to her lips. Taking a sip, Temari was somewhat happy to discover that the liquid was some kind of medicine - one which dulled the pain in her throat as well as helping to remove the awful heavy-headed feeling she had.
. All that and it tasted quite good too.
"Naruto-kun." She heard, the words echoing through her still somewhat dimmed mind. Almost immediately her imagination conjured up an image of the blonde fox-like youth. He stood there, in her mind, with all his pride and confidence wrapped around him like a cloak. This was the Naruto who had defeated Hyuuga Neji and had then gone on to defeat Gaara - the boy previously thought to be unbeatable.
This was Naruto, the strongest genin Temari had ever heard of.
And yet. He wasn't full of himself like most exceptional genin were. In fact, he seemed to go out of his way to try and be friendly - even when he could see that it wasn't working.
What kind of man would Naruto grow into?
What kind of.
What kind of husband could he be?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hinata stared at Temari's face. She sat upon a small yet comfortable stool next to the low bed that the older girl had been laid upon. In her hands she clutched a small wooden beaker of a pale blue liquid - a medicine to dull and sooth throat pains.
It was, in fact, one of her own creations.
"Naruto-kun." She whispered, as a tear formed in the corner of one pale eye. "Why. why does this have to be?"
The Hyuuga child had hoped, from the very depths of her heart and soul, that Naruto would be his usual rebellious self and find a way out of the arranged marriage. After all, since when had Naruto ever let anyone decide his place in life?
Never, that's when.
Yet. He didn't seem to be fighting this arrangement and that particular fact scared Hinata. Naruto had been a central point in her life for, oh, almost as long as she could remember. Every day she woke up for him, every day she studied medicine away from the watchful eyes of her family - so that she could give him aid if he got hurt.
But not once had she ever told him how she felt.
So, in a way it was her own fault that Naruto didn't know how she felt about him. Perhaps she'd expected him to be able to see her feelings, like all the heroes and dashing young men in the many romance novels she had stashed under her futon in her room. It had been stupid of her really, to expect Naruto to know enough about peoples feelings to be able to guess how they felt.
Who could blame him, really? It wasn't like he chose to be raised without anyone to guide him in such matter.
.
Well, okay, so maybe he did run away from the various carers he was handed to when he was much younger. That said, if his foster-families treated him like some kind of crazed demon or something - which was quite a silly notion really - then he would have been bound to run away sooner or later.
Hinata had always wondered why all the adult treated Naruto as dirt. It wasn't as if they had any real reason to hate him - well, no reason that she knew of anyway. Heck, she'd once asked Kiba and Shino why everyone hated the blonde-haired boy and while Kiba had simply laughed and said it was because he was a screw-up, Shino had stated that he had no idea why, only that some kids hated him simply because their parents did.
Sighing to herself, Hinata slipped off of the stool and rose to her feet. It had been almost an hour since she had offered to keep an eye on the unconscious girl. Still, she had spoken - or attempted to - and taken a small drink of medicine before slipping back so it was quite obvious that her condition was improving.
Besides, someone else had already arrived to take over the task of watching Temari sleep.
As the Hyuuga child walked silently out of the room, her eyes met with the person who had come to replace her. For a brief moment she felt a warm feeling in her chest - one she knew well.
She ignored it as she brushed past and out through the door.
It was, quite possibly, the hardest thing she'd ever done.
Hyuuga Hinata had, for now, given up on Naruto.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Would he be the sort to make her sit at home while he went out and did all the work?
No. no. That didn't seem like the sort of thing Naruto would do. Granted he would need someone to look after him - but only in the sense of reminding him to do things he often forgot or to do things the poor boy had no idea about. Like shopping. And proper cooking.
Hmm. Better not forget dressing himself in good clothes for fancy occasions.
Heck, did Naruto even have any good clothes? For that matter, did he have any other clothes at all? The only thing Temari had ever seen him wear was that somewhat grubby orange jumpsuit that he favored.
As her mind bounced from one thought to another in a seemingly random pattern, some tiny little voice - the cynical side of her - decided to put in it's views.
'What the hell are you doing!?' It screeched, which was a particularly difficult thing to do for something that existed only as an imaginary representative of Temari's upper consciousness.
'Thinking about the future. That's all.' Replied the still somewhat fuzzy core of Temari's personality - the part she usually hid from contact with the outside world.
'With a guy? With a younger guy? Need I remind you that he's at least two years younger than you!?' Yelled her pessimistic cynicism. 'Besides, who would want some crazy psycho girl like you anyway!?'
The sensitive part of Temari stayed silent. After all, it couldn't really argue with the truth now, could it? She was a crazy psycho girl.
A useless, crazy, psycho girl.
A useless, crazy, psycho girl that her home village didn't even want around.
"Temari?" Came a voice, a soft one that made her hidden side swell slightly. She knew that voice and, though layers upon layers of cynicism, pessimism, angst and anger were in the way it was still a voice that somehow reached to her center.
That was because.
"Temari, please wake up." it asked. That was all, no more, no less.
Because.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Naruto was staring. He knew he was staring, he knew how rude it was for him to be staring.
Heck, he knew it was ruder still for him to be staring at a girl, in bed, wearing nothing more than a thin medical tunic.
And yet, he wasn't staring at her chest. Nor was he staring at her legs or any other part o her body for that matter. For, you see, Naruto was staring at her face - waiting for some sign that the girl would be waking up. Properly waking up that is, not just a brief moment of consciousness which would quickly fade away as had happened many times previously.
Who was this girl to him anyway?
If he wanted to look at technicalities, she was his fiancee forever.
Well, okay, maybe not forever. Until they were married or one of them died anyway.
Married.
Ma-rri-ed.
Naruto blinked a few times as he racked his brain in thought.
What, exactly, was marriage anyway? He knew it was when a guy and a girl decided to live together and have kids and be a family.
Yeah. A family.
That was something Naruto didn't really know all that much about - families that is. After all, he'd only ever looked at them from the outside, never knowing what it was like to actually be in one. Now, here he was, eventually going to start one of his own. Granted, it wasn't by his choice exactly. but. well. he did wonder what it would be like.
The young fox-like ninja had always dreamed of going out with his number one crush, Haruno Sakura. Beyond that, however, he'd never really thought about it. Being boyfriend and girlfriend was one thing, being husband and wife - no matter who the wife was - sounded. well. scary.
Scary, but at the same time so desirable. A family was something Naruto had, in many ways, craved all his life. Perhaps it was the lack of a family who cared for him that first set him onto his path in life - his will to become acknowledged by everybody.
After all, most children were acknowledged by, at the very least, their families.
Naruto never had this final buffer between being acknowledged and being hated.
"What would it be like?" He murmured as tears started to trickle down his cheeks.
The blonde-haired boy stood up and glanced at the sand-haired girl on the bed. "What would it be like?" He asked, somewhat louder, "To be with someone like you for all my life? Someone. someone who I'm only going to be with because I've been told to be with you."
"What would it be like. To have a family?"
He grit his teeth slightly and stalked out of the room, passing Iruka on the way out of the small medical-nin complex. Iruka, who knew that it had been Naruto's turn to watch Temari started to stop the younger boy but, as he saw the look on Naruto's face, paused and let him pass without comment. Instead, the Chuunin instructor made his way to the room Temari was in.
Just in time to see her sit up in bed, completely awake.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sakura stood staring ahead, her hands fiddling with the small zipper that was used to keep her dress closed. After a few moments the red and white material fell into a small pool around her feet, a pool which Sakura slowly stepped out of and gently kicked to a far corner of the room. After all, it was a relatively old dress - one that she would care about if it got accidentally ripped, shredded, crushed, soaked, incinerated or dissolved.
All things which, given what she was doing, were distinct possibilities.
The pink-haired genin shivered slightly as the cool air washed against her skin - the parts that weren't covered by almost skintight black shorts and halter-top. Along her arms and down the small of her back - upon the area of skin that was uncovered by her remaining clothes - were inscribed the weaving and undulating tattoos that made up well over half of the technique.
Tattoo-based Jutsu, whilst being much more complicated than a regular Jutsu, were much desired by many families. Mostly because of the fact that no matter what skills or bloodline abilities another ninja may have, it would be impossible to perform the Jutsu unless they had the correct seals and symbols tattooed permanently into their skin with special inks. As an added bonus, certain inks could be made to fade away without a trace should the bearer of the tattoos die - thus preventing anyone from copying the patterns after killing the user of them.
As Sakura stretched her arms out to her sides and slightly upwards, forming a shallow 'Y' shape with her body, the marks upon her flesh began to writhe about slightly like tree branches swaying in a gentle summer breeze.
What was actually happening was that Sakura was pushing a little chakra into the skin where the marks were in order to activate them. Suddenly her arms snapped down and around to being her hands together in front of her chest and her elbows against her sides. Her fingers burst into motion, forming all of the required six hand seals in less time than it took her to even name the technique she was going to use.
Of course, this was only part of the technique, the next step would be harder, and more tiring too as she intended to use almost her maximum amount of chakra. Then again, that was more or less one of the reasons this technique had been created in the first place.
"Hananoki no tenju." She whispered, using her voice to focus herself as she guided the chakra within her into the form it needed to be in for the technique to work. Her hands blurred again, this time performing totally different seals, lots of them too, almost twenty-three in total. This time, however, Sakura took her time in making sure that each seal was done perfectly. After all, right now time was not a concern that she needed to pay attention to.
Finally, the female genin tagged a series of three quick seals onto the end of those she had just completed and blasted her chakra out and around the pathways her hand-seals had created.
"Hosoku!"
As she screamed out the phrase which, in this case, was mostly there as a reminder as to what she was trying to do with her chakra as well as yet another focusing aid in order to help her with the final stage of this part of the technique.
She felt the energy get pulled out of her with a sensation that felt like, for lack of any other description, being pulled through wet mud.
And then.
Then.
There was silence.
Sakura looked around, her face and skin covered with tiny beads of perspiration due to the effort she'd put into the technique. She took deep breaths, well aware of the horrible empty tired feeling that signaled an incredibly low amount of stamina left to her.
"Did i. succeed?" She asked the empty air, moments before her incredibly exhausted body decided that enough was enough and gave up on trying to support her, instead letting her collapse, boneless, onto the carved wooden floor of the room.
"I. I did it." She mumbled, as her eyes closed and she fell into a light snooze which quickly became the deep slumber her body demanded in order for it to get it's energy back.
Within the room nothing had changed.
Everything was as it had been before.
Except.
Except for a single tiny little change upon the tattoo that covered Sakura's back.
For one of the lines that represented branches was, apparently, in flower.
Or at least, that was how it appeared.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Iruka sighed as he watched Temari's face move through a variety of emotions. The chuunin was pretty sure that the only reason that Temari was even showing these emotions was simply because she was still somewhat groggy from waking up.
First had been a look of, well. anticipation would have been a good way of describing it. The sandy-haired girl's eyes had been wide, and her mouth slightly open - as if she had been prepared to say something because she was expecting to see something.
'Or someone' thought Iruka, who was carefully heeping his own emotions - mostly irritation at Naruto - in check.
Next had come confusion as Temari had realized that the person she had been expecting wasn't present. This had quickly become a look of mild annoyance, then serious irritation before finally changing to the haughty and aloof 'I don't give a damn' look she was wearing upon her features now.
"I see you're awake at last." He ventured, then steeled himself against the glare Temari shot in his direction. Obviously she was quite unhappy that the person she had expected to see wasn't there. 'Damn it Naruto', he though silently, 'When I find you I will personally kill you!'
The Female ninja stared at Iruka for a few moments longer before she looked away and spoke in quiet tones. "Naruto was here. Wasn't he?" She asked, "I heard him as I was waking up."
"That boy." Grated out Iruka, "Left just as I came in - which was just as you were sitting up."
"Oh." Temari seemed slightly downcast. It was nothing very obvious, but there seemed to be a slightly disappointed tone in her voice. This mood, however, didn't last long as it was quickly replaced with an almost icy demeanor before Iruka even had a chance to register that Temari had sounded depressed. "Well. That's fine then. It's not like I would want someone like him in the same room as me - Especially if I was out cold at the time!"
"Is that so?" Iruka sighed to himself as he felt a fresh wave of irritation well up in him. Granted, Naruto was a complete and utter idiot - one that wouldn't be getting any ramen tonight - but Iruka was fairly sure that he wasn't the pervert Temari sounded like she was accusing him of being.
. Then again, he had been training with Jiraiya - the legendary lecher.
And, hell, he had Kakashi as his sensei. Iruka knew too damn well what Kakashi considered appropriate reading material and, in that respect, he was as bad as Jiraiya.
Who knew what sort of notions could have rubbed off on Naruto?
Ugh. It just didn't bear thinking about really. Still, Iruka had an obligation to Naruto, one that probably involved defending him from false accusations.
At least, he hoped that they were false.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The boy in question, Naruto, was hiding. Not in a ninja sense either, he was hiding because he didn't want anyone to see how bad he looked - and felt. At present his hiding spot was simply a large tree with an interesting hollow part way up it's trunk. It was within this hollow that Naruto sat, curled into a ball, and cried.
Family.
It may have been Naruto's dream to become Hokage, but that was merely a means to an end. What the boy really dreamed of was being accepted - as Hokage the entire village would be forced to accept him, whether they liked it or not.
Mothers, fathers, children.
There were so many things he would do when he became Hokage, he'd try and make peace with the sand and, by extension, Gaara. After all, Gaara was like him, only it was a him who had never had an Iruka around to accept him. Sometimes Naruto thought about what things would be like if Iruka had not been there for him. Those dreams usually had him waking up in the middle of the night covered in a cold sweat.
He watched them sometimes, as they played together in fields or went out for meals together.
Changing the Hyuuga was also near the top of his list of priorities. Granted he wasn't too sure exactly how he would change them but getting rid of that creepy bird-in-a-cage seal would be a start. Of course, he would have to learn how to undo it himself, or at least grow strong enough to force the strongest member of the Hyuuga clan to undo them all.
Brothers and sisters argued with each other about who would play what, whilst their parents sat nearby either having a moment together or playing with children too young to play with the others.
Then maybe he would go visit the wave country, to see how everyone there was getting on. Perhaps he'd even take gifts with him for everyone he had met there. Of course, he'd also offer them a special contract with the Leaf, one that would make sure that the Great Naruto Bridge, wave countries lifeline, would always be theirs no matter who tried to take or destroy it.
A father would teach his son a jutsu that the son would someday teach to his son or daughter. A mother would step aside to let one of her children perhaps help cut vegetables for the night's meal. They'd smile and laugh and love each other.
Most of all, he would be accepted by the village.
Love each other, accept each other.
He would show them.
He wanted to be like them.
He pulled himself into a tighter ball.
He buried his face against his knees.
He cried and cried and cried.
After all, Uzumaki Naruto felt, right now, ever so alone.
And when Naruto felt like this, there was only one place he could go.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"He's. fragile." Temari stayed silent as Iruka spoke in a slow voice that occasionally paused as he thought about how to phrase his words.
"Granted, Naruto always seems to be so full of energy and strong but inside. There are emotional scars that I don't think will ever heal." Iruka leaned back on the stool he sat upon and stared at the ceiling. "He's always been lonely because everyone has shunned him, even me at first. Of course, since I had been ordered to look after him I began to see him as something other than the boy the village shunned."
"Why?" Asked Temari, her voice quiet. "Why did the entire villiage hate him so?"
Iruka merely snorted and turned his head to look at her. "Can't say. Well. More like I won't say. Not to you or anyone else who doesn't know." He sighed and turned back to stare at the ceiling. "Either way, it's something bad and, well, if Naruto wants to tell you what it is then fine, but I'm not going to ruin his privacy by spilling his secrets."
"The chuunin exam." Came a quick response, one that caused Iruka to swing himself upright. "The power he had when he fought the Hyuuga boy."
Iruka glanced at her, then at the floor. "I heard about what happened then and, well, that's part of it but not the whole story - so don't go jumping to conclusions just yet."
"The worst part of it is," Continued the older man, "That Naruto himself didn't even know this secret, the reason why everyone hated him, until he was told by someone who was a traitor to the village."
'Yes, Mizuki,' he thought, 'If it wasn't for you, Naruto would have never known about the demon within him. Then again. if he didn't know, would he have become as strong as he is now?'
"So," Whispered the bed-ridden kunoichi, "he was hated, and didn't even know why?" 'Just like Gaara, at first anyway,' she added within her mind.
"That's pretty much it, yes. Although. I accepted him. I didn't know he was listening at the time, I was too busy trying not to die of blood loss." Iruka let out a short barking laugh at that memory - especially the look on Mizuki's face before he was pummeled by thousands of Naruto-clones. "Either way, he heard that I accepted him. That I was the first person who didn't hate him."
'Whilst we were always afraid of Gaara - we always saw the monster, not the person it was in.' Thought Temari. 'Maybe that was one of the things that made him so unstable. Then there is Gaara's change of personality. after fighting Naruto. Maybe he learnt what Naruto had learnt then.'
"Naruto affects everyone." Iruka said, as Temari suddenly realized that she had voiced her thoughts out loud. "But no-one seems to realize that everyone affect him too."
"Iruka-san." Began the sandy-haired girl, "I. I want to talk with Naruto." She stared at the sheets of her bed with fierce concentration.
The chuunin blinked and shrugged. "Well, there could be a little problem with that actually." Shrugging again he pulled himself up off the stool and glanced at Temari. "I think I know where he's headed, but he'll probably want to be alone for a while first."
The chuunin walked slowly to the door and paused to look back for a moment. "I'll be back a little before sunset, be ready by then and I'll take you to where he probably is."
Temari, sitting in her bed, just nodded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As sense came back to her, the heir to the Haruno family technique giggled. It worked! It worked! It must have worked! After all, nothing had happened - which mean that her jutsu had worked!
Wait. That didn't make sense. Aw. Who cared! It had worked!
Finally she had a move which would make Sasuke jealous at her skill! Especially since, due to the fact that many of the seals were tattooed onto her body, he had no hope of ever being able to copy it!
Now. if only she could stand up.
Careful, careful. move one arm under herself and then push!
On shaky feet, Sakura managed to get herself into a standing position before staggering towards the door of the room. The movement, painful as it was, bought life back into her still somewhat tired limbs and by the time she reached the door, she felt better. Not in tip-top condition, just better.
Pulling the door open she staggered out of the room, barely noticing the presence of her mother and grandmother - along with her father, which was unusual as he was usually the one off on missions. Nodding at their words of congratulations, Sakura wove past them and grabbed a dress that her mother held out to her. Even in her weird state, Sakura's body knew instinctively how to put on that style of dress and in moments she was wearing her usual red outfit over her black underclothes.
" 'm... goin' out f'r air." She mumbled in the general direction of her family, who responded with nods of agreement. A few unsteady steps later she was fumbling with the front door handle. Gritting her teeth in semi- frustration she tugged hard and was quite happy to hear the click that signaled the unlatching of the door.
Sliding it open the pink-haired girl stepped out into the cool late- afternoon air. A quick glance at the sky told her that it was approaching sunset, nothing particularly important but - Her train of thought was suddenly thrown off course like a boat striking a rock.
Being knocked flying by a crying, running Naruto had that effect on people.
"N-naruto?" Sakura stared in disbelief at the diminishing figure of Naruto as he continued, heedless, on his mad run. Now, in Sakura's mind there were two things that were very, very wrong - and neither of them was Naruto's dress sense.
Firstly, Naruto hadn't even noticed her. He always noticed her! Every time he saw her it was 'Hello Sakura-chan!' or 'Oi! Oi! Watch this Sakura- chan!'. Whilst she wasn't particularly happy about the continued attention from the weird boy, she had admitted to herself that she would miss it if Naruto ever left. After all, it wasn't much but it was still proof that at least someone found her attractive.
Secondly, the scruffy genin had been crying. Specifically he had been crying and appearing to be upset. Very upset. More upset than that one time when Kakashi had snagged and eaten Naruto's ramen by mistake, or so he had claimed. Normally Naruto was bouncy, hyper and generally the complete opposite of how he had looked so. what was wrong with him?
Sakura didn't like Naruto. She thought he was loud, annoying and had a dress sense worse than Ino-pig's. But still. she was somewhat worried about him. After all, he was her team-mate.
"Wait up!" She yelled after the retreating orange figure before half staggering, half running in the direction he had gone, hoping that Naruto wasn't going to do something stupid.
Well. stupider than usual at least.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Naruto's path wound around the village almost randomly. Occasionally he would stop, then double back and duck into a turning he had passed by previously. Sometimes he would run around a building before heading off in a completely different direction once he completed a circuit of it.
He knew Sakura was following him, which was why he was doing all these ridiculous things in an effort to throw her off track. After all, where he was heading was so secret that no-one knew what he kept there.
Okay, so it was inside his own home - but that didn't diminish the secrecy of the room at all. Normally he kept it locked and had the key hidden so well that no-one would ever find it. In fact, that was another reason that he had been hiding in a tree earlier - after all, no-one would expect the key to have been hidden so far away from the lock it opened, right?
Choosing to enter his home by the alternative route, Naruto gathered chakra in his feet and leapt. His jump ended somewhat messily on the roof of his home, just a short distance away from the skylight that opened above the upstairs hallway. Slipping his fingers under the rim of the skylight, Naruto felt around until he heard a slight click - the sound of the skylights latch springing open - and pulled the giant glass panel out of his way. Glancing around beforehand, he hopped down through the open skylight and landed on all fours in the hallway.
". It's nor fair." He mumbled, reaching out with key in hand to unlock the single locked room in the building. As he slipped inside, he reached up and flicked on a light switch to illuminate the room. "It's just not fair."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Temari, you ready to-woah!" Iruka yelled in surprise as a strong feminine hand dragged him into Temari's hospital room. Specifically, the hand belonged to a rather antsy-looking female genin who technically should have still been in bed in this very room.
"Where is he?" She asked, her voice low, as Iruka pulled away from her grip. "You said you'd show me where he is."
"Aha, I will! I will!" Iruka waved his hands and laughed somewhat nervously. Granted, he had more combat ability in one arm than a genin like Temari had in her entire body but. well. Iruka knew when it was a bad time to provoke anything. Being face-to-face with an angry female, he had learnt long ago, was always a bad time.
"Then lead on." Growled the younger girl, who was still feeling the aftereffects of several of the medicines that had been pumped into her whilst she had been unconscious. As a result she was forced to place one hand on Iruka's shoulder for support as the two of them ran and leapt out of the hospital and through the village towards Naruto's home.
Temari was slightly puzzled about their destination, but she wisely kept silent, assuming that Iruka at least knew what he was talking about.
"We'll have to be quiet." Iruka warned as the alighted outside the front door. "If Naruto hears us coming he'll probably lock himself in, it may not seem much, but the room he'll be in is a warded room - so I doubt even a Jounin would be able to break in without difficulty."
As the two begun to open the door, a pink head of hair popped into Iruka's field of vision. "Iruka-sensei. Has something happened to Naruto?" At last haruno Sakura had managed to track Naruto down. Not that she was worried. No. Nope. She was just. interested. That was all.
The chuunin instructor recoiled away from the Haruno girl, upon his face a look of surprise. Glancing around in an effort to find some sort of excuse, he realized something important.
Temari had gone inside.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Naruto sat there, cross legged, upon the floor. In his hands he held a small wooden figure whilst all around him were strewn various odd little things - wooden toys, tiny hand-knitted clothes, even a small painted cot.
To either side of him, covering the walls of the room were shelves and cabinets filled with a vast variety of trinkets.
"I know you're there." He muttered, "The floorboards shake whenever anyone walks outside this room." Carefully he placed the figure - a carving of a man in robes and lacquer helm - down upon one of the lower shelves nearby.
"Naruto." The speaker stepped into the room, her voice quiet. Before she could say anything else, Naruto cut her off with a whispered command.
"Shut the door." He stated, "I. I don't want anyone else to know about this room. Iruka-sensei knows about it, so I guess he told you about it, huh?"
"Well, he did say he was going to lead me to you." Replied Temari as she sauntered over and, after moving a few tiny shinobi figures out of the way, sat down next to Naruto. "What. is this room?" She asked, looking around with curiosity.
The short blonde-haired boy bowed his head and sniffled slightly. "Memories. memories I was never able to have." He replied, his voice low and choked. "Everything in here is. is something from my parents - toys they made for me, clothes my mother supposedly knitted. Things. things from a family I wasn't allowed to be a part of."
Temari cocked her head to one side and looked around, her eyes eventually landing on a tiny - rather blurred - picture of a young man and woman. Underneath was some writing, which was burnt or water-soaked like the image. In fact, only two words could be made out 'Uzumaki family'.
"My parents. I think. I like to believe they are anyway." Whispered Naruto, who was looking over he shoulder at the picture. "No-one's ever told me what they were like, and Iruka-sensei says he was too young to remember most of the people he met back when they were alive."
Sitting back down the young boy stared at various things around the room. "I. sometimes I imagine, about what it would be like if they were alive. a- about." He sniffed, tears running freely down his face, "a-about wh-what it would be like to ha-have had a-a. a family!"
Naruto would have collapsed in on himself if it wasn't for the arms that wrapped around him. Without thinking her turned and buried his face into Temari's shoulder, his tears soaking into her jacket like raindrops onto cloth.
"Shhhh.." One of Temari's hands reached up and, although she had never expected to ever find herself doing this, she gently stroked Naturo's hair. "It's okay."
"N-no it's not!" Came the muffled voice of Naruto, "Wh-why did I nu-never get a chance!?" His arms wrapped around her waist, like a drowning man clinging to a life-belt. "Why did I have to live wi-without any fu-family! D-Didn't they care about me?"
"It's okay." Repeated the older girl, "Let them out, let your tears out." She held the boy close as she continued to whisper reassuring little phrases to him. She looked so confident and knowing when, in reality, she had no clue whatsoever as to what she was doing. But hey, it worked in the theater right? Besides it looked like Naruto really did need to let this out, after all, who knew how long he'd been sitting on this growing depression which he hid under his crazy grin.
Temari didn't know much about psychology, but she did know that bottling all of your feelings up was something that eventually led to self- destruction. Idly she wondered how she was going to stop Naruto's tears because, frankly, her shoulder was getting soaked.
Well. there was that one way which also worked in the theater.
She would probably have had to do it at some point anyway.
Besides, Naruto was quite good looking for a younger boy.
And he really did seem like he could need it.
"Naruto." She whispered, slipping one hand between them and pushing the shorter boy away from her slightly. Inwardly she steeled herself as Naruto looked up at her with a tear-stained face.
"Yu-you." he began, but was cut off by a sudden warm sensation as Temari darted forwards, pressing her lips to his in a kiss. The male genin's eyes widened and his breath caught as his mind tried to process exactly what was happening.
Temari, on the other hand, was mentally recoiling from the kiss.
But then, there was just that one tiny part of her.
That little voice in the back of her skull.
The one telling her about the kiss.
Telling her. that she liked it.
Very much.
Chapter 9 - Ended.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Authors notes -
WHOOO HOOO! Look! It's early! Early I say!
Well, no, it took ages - but considering that I didn't expect to be able to upload this until December, well, it's damn early!
So, this is an extra special extended length chapter - to make up for the pitifully small chapter 8 (As well as the wait). Granted there isn't much action, but I'm hoping that the end of this chapter made you all go 'awwwwwwww'
. and I can suddenly sense the OOC flames looming in the distance x.x Temari, being nice to Naruto? Well. He has been nice to her, so it's only likely that she can be nice back.
(poor, poor Naruto)
Sooo. quick status report on my writing in general - 'To Be Strong' I gonna be completely re-written, so that'll be going down then coming back sooner or later. Also, I have another fic that I've recently begun which (as a working title) is called 'Getting to know you' so you may see that show up here eventually.
Aaanyway. My fingers are tired from all this writing, so I'm gonna go get some rest.
See ya next chapter ^.^
Lackey H - wishing he was the one being kissed by Temari there.
Translations (which are probably wrong, but dammit I hope they're correct) - 'hananoki no tenju' - 'flowering tree's natural gifts' 'hosoko' - 'Capture / seizure'