Here is the prequel to prompt 4: Forbidden.
Warning! Includes angst and horrors of war!
Prompt: Enemies To Lovers
Casualties of War
Naruto hated war.
He hated the senseless violence and chaos that followed.
He hated the scent of death and despair that clung to every battlefield and wasteland.
He hated that innocents got caught in the crossfire.
He hated stumbling upon a destroy village littered with bodies…
…and he despised when many of those bodies belonged to children.
Jaw clenched, whiskers jagged, wood groaning beneath his tightly clenched hands, Naruto stabbed his shovel with far more force than warranted, breaking apart the hard, compact earth as though it held the consistency of butter. Crimson eyed, he glared at the mess he'd made, the overly wide grave that was ten times the size of the little girl he was about to lay to rest, sickened all over again by his noble task.
The handle snapped in his fist.
He tossed it in the heap with the other two and snapped his head to a nearby Uzushio shinobi.
"Nanako," he rumbled, "need another shovel."
The emerald haired kunoichi hurried over, carrying an extra shovel, sending him a worried look.
She handed it to him and scurried back to her place amongst the line of gravediggers.
He knew that Kurama was stoking his rage, that his unit were eying him wearily and searching for any sign that the beast locked inside him had breached it's seal.
They were worried for nothing.
As enraged as he was, as much as he'd loved to tear the culprits of this atrocity limb for limb, there was no one around for him to brutalize. He had no target to release the full brunt of his anger on and thus, was completely in control of himself and the bijuu.
This massacre was weeks old.
The animals responsible had long since moved on to new victims.
Otherwise they'd be dealing with one of his monstrous meltdowns.
"Kaori!"
Naruto turned, gazing in the direction of the shout.
A group of children were running towards town, their clothing raggedy and hemmed to death, their skin dotted with grime and dirt.
There were three of them; two young girls and a boy.
The youngest looking amongst them was a girl that couldn't be much older than ten. Her silver hair was a messy mop atop her head, her brown eyes a gentle shade of honey.
Next to her, another girl he estimated to be two to three years older. A fiery redhead with sharp gray eyes.
Leading the way, a boy that looked to be aged somewhere in between the two girls, though his fierce face held a boldness and hardness that was well beyond his years. His short locks were a lime green, his black depths dark as the night sky.
Turning, he shouted for the girls not to follow him, and though the redhead looked ready to argue, she dutiful held onto the silver-haired girl, staring suspiciously at the surrounding adult.
The boy continued charging towards him, makeshift weapons in his hands, fire in his eyes.
Naruto waved his fellow shinobi away as they neared the scene.
Soon as he was in range, he caught the boy in his arms.
"What did you do to her!" the boy shouted, fighting feebly, "what did you do to Kaori?!"
Wrestling carefully with the little demon, Naruto knocked the frying pan from his hand, and wrapped his arms around his little form, lifting him clean off his feet.
The boy smelled like he hadn't bathed in weeks, and there were little bugs crawling in his hair.
"Listen kid, your friend she-" his jaw clenched briefly before he continued as softly, "she was like this when we got here, she's…she's gone."
The words tasted like shit on his tongue.
His chest clenched, that rage returning, though sadness and pity for this kid that had known this girl, cared for her, and now had to learn about the finality of death at age no kid ever should, eclipsing the burning emotion.
"She's not gone, let me go!" he growled, though his voice was choked, "oiii, Kaori!"
Deep down, the boy knew his friend was dead. Though her pale body was mostly unbruised, the dent at her temple, a collision with a support beam, stood out in stark relief, uncovered by her unruly chocolate hair. And if he missed that fatal wound, if he didn't realize the severity of it, her stillness and blue lips were a dead give away.
Naruto had seen a lot of displaced children just like this boy.
He recognized that hardness in his eyes.
Young as he was, living in this war torn land, this boy knew death.
Deep down, he knew Kaori was long gone.
"Let me down!"
Naruto exhaled sharply as the boy kicked his foot back, grazing the family jewels but distracting the blond by the near bullseye long enough to shrug from his arms.
He ran to the young girl lying beside the patch of dirt, falling to his knees beside her.
"Kaori!" he called tearfully, grabbing her hand only to recoil, his brown eyes wide, face slowly growing deathly pale.
Naruto had carried the girl to this flat land, he knew she was cold as ice…
Stiff with rigor mortis…
It was a sensation one never forgot.
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They were orphans that had sought shelter in this village, only to be turned away over and over again. Homeless, having lost their parents as casualties to the war, they'd set up a small shack in the woods and made trips into town whenever they needed food or supplies.
One of the kids had gotten sick, and Kaori volunteered to steal medicine from a drug store only for a battle to erupt not thirty minutes following her departure.
A fight so dangerous, so destructive, the other children had had no choice but to shelter in place despite their desire to locate the missing girl. Days dragged by, and when it was over, when the shinobi had moved on to their next disaster zone, they went searching for Kaori. They'd been searching the debris for weeks, looking for any sign of their friend.
Naruto knew why they hadn't found her.
Kaori's body had lay crumpled beneath the collapsed roof of the town pharmacy.
They would never have been able to dig her out.
He escorted them to their little shack in the woods, angry and appalled with their living conditions. It was a dilapidated box hanging on by a very, very thing thread. The wood was old and rotted, the roof leaky and barely able to insulate them from the elements.
Determined to take them to a orphanage in less hostile land, he told them about the little population of orphans and their caretakers, offering to escort them there, only for the stubborn children to refuse.
This was their home, they didn't want to leave.
He tried reasoning with them.
He tried coaxing.
He tried bribing.
He tried bullying.
In the end, it was bargaining that won out.
And that's how he became an unofficial sensei to three shinobi in training.
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They taught him patience.
Naruto was a hothead, his lack of patience legendary, but when one dealt with children, especially tough as nails, war raised brats, patience was an essential skill if one wanted to make any form of progress.
Lani, the youngest girl, was a natural, she took to chakra control exercises like a fish to water.
Aiya, the oldest was surprisingly not as short tempered as her bright red hair suggested, and though she made semi-reasonable headway in learning the ways of a shinobi, she picked things up extremely slowly.
Akira, headstrong and opinionated clashed with his sensei the most, he worked hard and grasped each concept put before him fairly quickly, he just had a habit of wanting instant gratification, he wanted to, had to be stronger now.
Though they tested his temper, Naruto grew to love the ragtag group and by the time he dropped them to the orphanage, he knew he'd be back as soon as he could arrange.
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He visited them as often as his busy schedule would allow, bringing them gifts, teaching them new moves, measuring how much they'd grown while he was gone.
He was happy to see them thriving and safe, clean and well cared for.
Content in the cheerful little orphanage.
However, as the war continued to rage, spreading it's taint to the children's once idyllic home.
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His heart seized as he hurtled through the forest, his blue eyes searching for a specific signs of life.
The orphanage was in shambles.
There weren't many bodies, however, leading him to believe they'd evacuated the children during the attack, and not a single body had belong to a child.
His students had left alive, they were out there, somewhere.
Finding them was difficult, he was several weeks behind and most of their foot prints had been worn away by the elements.
He tapped in to his sensory ability, searching for their unique chakra.
Long hours passed before he got a hit.
He kicked up speed, heart pounding in his chest.
There was a signature he didn't recognize near them. This area was littered with enemy shinobi, heartless ninja that had no problem carving little kids into pieces just for fun.
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He found one of them.
Aiya lay in a crumpled heap, a shinobi stood over her, bloody kunai in hand.
He saw red.
Whiskers jagging, canines lengthening, baby blues flashing crimson, Naruto shot across the forest floor, hurtling towards the assailant like a homicidal comet. The woman was quick on her feet, back flipping out of range of his strikes, before taking off into the forest.
He sped after her.
He caught up to her in the blink of an eye, his speed boasted by Kurama's rage fueled chakra. She spun, blocking his bone jarring blow with an forearm, gritting her teeth as the force of his fist sent her sliding back several feet, carving deep groves in the earth below.
His furious gaze landed on the headband tied around her throat.
"Konoha scum," he spat, his voice rough and a touch animalistic, "shoulda known you lowlife's were behind this. Attacking a defenseless orphanage, sounds about right for the Allied Forces, dattebayo!"
That group of Elemental Nations and lesser hidden villages were a ruthless coalition was largely dominated by Konoha and Kiri shinobi, and everywhere they went, chaos, anarchy and death followed.
"I did not participate in the attack on the orphanage," the kunoichi replied calmly, her pupiless lilac orbs eerily steely, her pale face impassive, "nor have I-"
"You were standing over Aiya with the fucking blade in your hand!" he thundered, enraged all over again.
Reaching into his tool bag at his spine, he launched a hail of kunai that were repelled by her own. He leapt forward, unsheathing another blade from his sweatshirt sleeve, meeting her in the middle of the forest, steel against steel, the clash of their metal resounding ominously in the forest.
A fierce battle ensued.
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This woman was a fucking Hyuuga and a highly skilled one at that.
She shut down his limbs more times than he cared to count, her taijutsu made him look like a slouch, and her mastery of fire techniques had left him scorched and charred, fairly mild thanks to Kurama.
She was a worthy opponent, but there was no escaping the reality that he was a full blown Jinchuuriki.
As he held her by the throat, ready to crushed the life from her slender form, familiar voices shouted at the pair. Distracted, he glanced over to see his students running towards him, Aiya among them, hand cupped over a wound in her arm.
The wily woman in his grasp gripped his forearm, brought her dangling sandaled feet up and kicked him full force in the face and torso, freeing herself and bloodying his nose.
"No! Naruto-sensei!" Lani shouted.
The midnight-haired woman made a hasty retreat, jumping from tree branch to tree branch and bounding away out of sight.
He glared at her retreating back, holding his gushing, most definitely broken, nose.
He grimaced, palpitating his ribs.
And maybe a cracked rib or two.
"She helped us!" Lani blurted the moment they reached him.
"Yeah!" Akira chimed in, arm in a sling, "Shiru-san evacuated the orphanage and we were all running but the ninja's came after us. We got separated from the group when a bunch of Uzushio shinobi came and started fighting the ninja chasing us-"
"Akira fell down and hurt his arm!" Aiya inserted.
Glaring at the girl, Akira growled, "there was an explosion! I didn't really trip!"
"You fell before it happened!"
"Yeah because-"
"Enough," Naruto snapped, wiping crimson from his nostrils, "explain what the hell you guys are doing with that Konoha shinobi when I specifically told you all to stay away from them!"
"She helped us, Sensei!" Lani piped up, her innocent eyes earnest.
"Yeah!" Akira chimed in, "Hinata-san hid us in some brush and protected us until the fighting stopped! She's totally badass! Then she took us somewhere safe!"
"Then why the hell was she standing over you with that kunai?" he demanded, mind reeling over this new highly unusual development.
"She didn't hurt me! I…" Aiya blushed, "I um…I was training and um…had an accident…"
"She keeps trying to do this really hard kunai technique she saw Hinata-san do and every time she tries to change the blade's trajectory with another kunai she ends up getting stuck like a pincushion," the boy snorted, "Hinata-san keeps trying to stop her but she never listens, she wants to be an assassin just like Hinata-san-"
Lani and Aiya covered the boys mouth with a hard slap.
"She told us not to tell people that, you idiot!" Aiya shouted.
Too late.
The cat was out of the bag now.
OoOoOoOo
He followed his students to a small, but sturdy cabin out in the forest, the safehouse 'Hinata-san' had installed the orphans in.
It was comfy and well cared for inside.
Homey with little touches of each of their presence lying around, what gave him pause were the signs of the woman's place among them.
Once he'd cleaned up his bloody parting gift from 'Hinata-san', he sat them down and forced them to tell him the story again, sparing no detail. It was as they said, the woman hid them away while battling the incoming shinobi. She hadn't been apart of the attack on the orphanage, though they had seen attackers wearing the same headband as her.
They'd nearly been discovered by a Kiri shinobi but again, 'Hinata-san' intercepted the man, redirecting him away from the brush, and during the interaction, 'Hinata-san's' status of assassin had been remarked on.
Knowing they'd overheard, she'd sworn them to secrecy.
For good reason.
Because he knew without a doubt exactly who she was now.
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He knew she'd be back.
It took a few weeks of staking out his student's little hovel, but she showed up as he predicted.
She was crouched in a high tree branch overlooking their cabin in the dead of night. He knew she was aware of his presence, the Byakugan made sneaking up on any Hyuuga damn near impossible, but she didn't retreat, she didn't run when he crept up behind her.
She didn't flinch when he stuck his kunai against her spine.
"Hinata Hyuuga, Konoha Heiress," he remarked, "the legendary assassin Death Touch."
"Naruto Uzumaki, only son of the Uzushiokage, next in line for the title," she replied, her airy voice a soft whisper in his ears, "Jinchuuriki of kyuubi."
He wasn't surprised she knew who he was considering he was the only whiskered cheek shinobi in the world.
His birthmarks were a dead giveaway.
Introductions out of the way, he pressed on to what he truly wanted to know.
"Why are you helping citizens of your sworn enemies?" he questioned, digging the sharpened point into her back, just shy of piercing flesh.
"They're children," she replied.
"Since when the fuck does your side care about that?" he scuffed, "far as the Allied Forces are concerned, anybody on the wrong side of their battle lines are fair game, 'ttebayo."
"With all due respect, the same can be said for your side as well-"
"With all due respect you're full of shit. I know you Konoha scum don't know shit about decency but Uzushio shinobi don't use innocents as meat shields and target practice."
"There's bad apples in every organization," she countered.
The statement made him uncomfortable, made him wonder, briefly, about the validity of her ominous words.
His jaw flexed.
He knew his people, he knew Uzushio's allies and he knew his enemies, he knew where the 'bad apples' were, and it wasn't on their side.
"Bet you'd know all about that huh?" he taunted, "you Hyuuga are famous for raising some really shitty batches of apples, dattebayo."
She didn't reply, merely gazed off into the distance.
"Cat got your tongue?"
"I only wish to care for them," she murmured quietly, "If you worry for the children's safety, then strike me down, but I'll not abandon these children of my own will."
Firm and resolute, leaving her back open freely for that attack she welcomed, Konoha's most lethal weapon waited.
There were thousands of reasons to kill her, none of which had anything to do with her potential danger to his students. Disposing of her would be a huge blow to the Allied Forces, to Konoha personally, and yet, he refused to drive his blade any deeper.
He would never stoop so low as to repay her act of mercy towards his students with death.
However…
He leaned forward, pressing his lips close to her ear, "If you do anything to hurt them, accidentally, indirectly, on purpose, I don't give a shit, I won't hesitate to kill you."
Threat delivered, he sheathed his blade and melted into the surrounding darkness.
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I only wish to care for them
That's what she said.
He didn't trust a damn word that came out of her mouth.
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He watched her.
For days, weeks, he observed every interaction that passed between her and his students.
It took a while for the impulse to reach for his blade any time she made a move that made him nervous, like the times she stood close to his students with weapons in her hands, or reached for them with her Byakugan active, however, overtime, his heightened paranoia ebbed.
It was then that he began to…enjoy watching her laugh with them, smile at them, and smoother them in a motherly love they hadn't experienced in years.
He'd chuckle silently along with them from his vantage point in the surrounding trees and huff impatiently during their training sessions wondering how in the hell she could remain so calm and serene and patient the entire time when he was frustrated as all hell within the first fifteen minutes! He'd drool like a waterfall when the scent of her cooking filled his nose, his stomach rumbling whether he was hungry or not.
She started leaving little boxes in the trees…leftovers for him to enjoy…
…then he stopped waiting for her to leave before he visited his students.
He should have kept his distance.
He should never have entered her company with anything less than hostility and suspicion.
He should never have let his guard down.
The moment she smiled at him, genuinely, happily…beautifully, setting his heart aflutter, he knew he was in trouble.
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He was in too deep.
He knew he was.
But it was easier to pretend he had it under control.
That his love for her could remain his dirty little secret he kept not just from the world, but from her too.
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Trouble found them again, his beloved students…
…but for the very last time.
It wasn't the war directly, but a byproduct of it.
Rogue shinobi looking for a convenient hideout.
Hinata slaughtered the missing nin, leaving their bodies in pieces out in the woods for hungry animals.
In the back of the cabin, she buried his students side by side, together as they had been in life.
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He'd never known despair such as he had that rainy day he returned to the cabin and learned what had happened.
He was a shinobi that dealt with death of every age group known to man, yet he felt like it was his first time being exposed to the harsh realities of the world.
He blamed her for not being here.
He blamed himself too.
He blamed every Elemental Nation, including his own, for his loss.
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They visited the gravesites often, leaving flowers and pulling weeds.
They didn't really speak on the off chance they ran into each other.
That all changed on the one year anniversary of their passing.
Hinata Hyuuga was a reserved woman, the polar opposite of his emotional temperament, and yet, that day, she broke down, wailing an awful sound of pain, grieving like the mother she'd been, and he'd found himself holding her close, his own tears flowing.
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Inside the hut, they drank sake and cried, then laughed tearfully over past memories as the alcohol took effect.
It was a cathartic moment.
He'd reached over, chuckling softly and wiping a stray tear from her eyes. Time had slowed, their gazes met and she listed towards him, head tilted.
Heart pounding in his ears, he hadn't moved an inch to avoid it.
She kissed him, fusing their mouthes together, her kiss hungry and distraught, her clinging hands shaking.
He was on her faster than he should have been, wrapping his arms around her slender body, tonguing her mouth and sharing his soul crushing grief and that secret yearning that'd bloomed in his chest during those happy days long passed.
Distantly he knew he was making a mistake, but he couldn't stop himself.
He bore her to the ground, impatient hands fumbling with his sweats, panting harshly as she yanked down her shorts, lifting her hips and awkwardly pulling them off along with her panties. She tossed them across the room, then wraped her legs around his waist as he freed himself.
Fisting his aching cock he guided it to her moist opening, pressing his lips to her mouth as he sank through the vice-like grip of her pussy.
A harsh curse tumbled from his lips, indescribable pleasure blasting his insides.
Aroused, he surged forward, lodging himself inside what could be only be described the Pearly Gates themselves, chest heaving as sopping flesh squeezed him unmercifully.
She cried out as their groins kissed, fingernails gripping his sweatshirt, face contorted with pain.
Realization pierce the haze of lust, his mind sluggishly putting together her reaction and the nearly unbearable tightness of her, apparently, un-plundered sex.
What the actual fuck?!
Stormy blue orbs snapped to hers, golden brows crinkling, "Hinata-"
She reached for him, tugging his mouth to hers, muttering against his lips, "it doesn't matter, keep going."
She arched, wet walls flexing hard enough to clench his buttocks and crank the intensity on the painful throb engulfing his engorged genital.
He hissed bliss between his lips, eyes falling closed as his hips jerked involuntarily.
He had so many questions but he couldn't put together a single coherent thought.
It was killing him slowly, but he kept his thrusts as gentle as his horny body would allow, gritting his teeth as he watched the passing expressions fluttering across her beautiful face, nearly weeping relief when bliss seeped into her eyes.
Cupping her face, he thrust his hips faster, watching as that trickle of bliss bloomed, melding into pleasure then exploding into ecstasy.
Her insides dampened, coating his cock in hot sticky honey.
He panted harshly, slapping their wet groins together, filling the small living room with the lewd sounds of their union, tension building in his abdomen as she lifted her hips in time to his strokes. Meeting his hard, untamed pace with her own, clawing at his sweatshirt as she humped him back.
He closed his eyes as he began to crest, jaw clenching as the ache in his balls grew unbearable.
He pounded her pussy frantically, fighting a coming tide.
His name on her lips rang in his ears, her delicious cunt milking him repeatedly, a tidal wave of fluid bathing his cock and he was gone, lost in a world of endless rapture, pumping his hips desperately, chasing the explosive high note of his coming orgasm. He wrapped his arms around them, pressing their sweat slick bodies together as close as humanly possible, clinging to her small form as he shuddered alongside her, cursing the clothing keeping them from being completely skin to skin.
"Hinata" he puffed, burying his face in her shoulder, mindlessly fucking, his heart unguarded, his lips reckless, "I love you," he groaned brokenly, shuddering as he surrendered to climax.
She stiffened beneath him but it barely registered in the midst of his sexual high.
Smashing their sexes together, Naruto painted her insides in hot, sticky ropes of ejaculate, muscles hard as granite as the delicious, near agonizing rush of semen coaxed a deep throated, guttural sound of completion from his throat.
He lay limp and sweaty atop her, twitching in the aftermath of an incredible orgasm, humming contently as their combined fluid oozed between their joined sexes.
For long moments, they breathed together.
Their slowing gasps the only sound in the stillness of the cabin.
He swallowed a lump in his throat as the storm inside him began to calm.
He felt worn out not only physically, but emotionally, yet the pain in his heart felt the most bearable it had ever felt since he'd said goodbye to the children that'd been like his very own, the orphans he'd given a home deep inside his heart.
It hurt, and he knew, it would always hurt, however, he felt like he could finally draw fresh air into his choking lungs.
That his cloudy sky was still gray and dreary, but the pouring rain had finally ebbed a bit.
He sighed shakily, then lifted his head, propping his torso up on his elbows.
She was staring at him wide eyed when he met her gaze, as though he'd grown three heads as they basked in the afterglow of the best sex of his life.
She was probably realizing the consequence of their actions, the reality of their situation setting in.
They were enemies, and somehow, they'd crossed the line into lovers.
He heaved a resigned exhalation.
He opened his mouth, about to reassure her that he wouldn't tell anyone what they'd done tonight, that, just like their orphans, this would be their little secret.
"You said you loved me!" she blurted out, blushing furiously, her pretty doe eyes getting even wider, a feat he would have thought impossible.
His own eyes were probably twice her size.
Fuck!
He had confessed!
He remembered those words tumbling from his lips clear as day.
Mind working overtime, he searched for a response that wouldn't make him a liar or leave his heart completely unprotected and vulnerable to her.
He never planned to tell her his feelings.
What purpose would it serve when they were on opposing sides.
"D-Did you mean it?" she asked, stifling his attempt to form a believable explanation.
He looked away, jaw ticking.
Soft hands cupped his cheeks, turning his head back to hers, her eyes strangely watery and churning as she asked, firmly, "Naruto, do you love me?"
What was the point of denying it when he'd already opened his stupid mouth and told her, and this bewitching assassin always had a way of reading his emotion, of seeing right through him without her Byakugan.
He braced himself for pain, but looked her straight in the eyes as he replied, "yes."
She got the wide eyed expression on her face again, and he found it too adorable for words despite the unease churning in his gut.
"I love you too," she mumbled as she smooched his mouth.
It was his turn to be shocked.
He pulled back, disconnecting their lips with a loud smack, staring at her as though she'd grown six heads.
She stared back at him, her eyes alight.
Soft and tender yet burning with the same intensity in his own.
A slow smile curved his lips.
Wrapping strong arms around her waist, he pulled her to his chest and kissed her.
He had no goddamn idea what they were going to do. His mother would never approve of her, and Hinata's father would as soon kill them both than let his daughter be dishonored by Jinchuuriki trash.
They'd figure it out.
Somehow.
They would have to, because now that he had her, he was never letting her go.
He'd lost three very important pieces of his heart, he refused to lose her too.
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I had two ideas for their meeting in my notes, this was one of them, so I might use the other one when I write the actual story.
Hope you enjoyed!
The next prompt is one of the first ones I started for this fair, and I had a good time with it so I hope you all like it!
Laters!
Sessakag~