The Promise of Tomorrow
A/N: Not letting up yet! Just to mentioned it, I am not bashing anyone here! Loud and intrusive is just Sakura's personality. Not to forget violent. Though Sasuke is a bit OOC here. He is, after all, in the village now.
"Naruto!"
Sakura's voice echoed through the trees back at them in a still far to loud volume. Tayuya shook her head and glared in the girls direction.
"Geez pinky!" she shouted back to the girl, "We fucking heard you the first time! Shut up already!"
The pink haired girl seemed to ignore Tayuya completely as she zeroed in on Naruto. "You're out of prison!"
Naruto fought the urge of a snarky remark. Wow, Tayuya really rubbed off on him. "Yeah, just got out of the tower."
The pinkette nodded. "Lady Tsunade told me she'd set up a trial for you, but not that it was today!"
Tayuya scoffed. "Why would cow tits tell you in the first place?"
Sakura jumped, as if she had just realized that Tayuya was there. She turned to her with something akin to loathing in her eyes and a sneer on her lips.
"Who the hell even are you?" she questioned, hands in her hips and chest puffed out.
Tayuya's left eyebrow twitched. What was this girls problem? The pink haired bitch had no business with her Naruto anymore. Tayuya knew that she and the damn Uchiha had been the only ones of the genin to not send a letter or something to him. Even the stuck up Hyuuga sent him a book, even if it was about proper etiquette.
"I'm Tayuya and-"
"Great, great," Sakura snapped and waved her hand dismissively at her, "then can you go and bother someone else?"
"Now listen here, bitch," Tayuya fumed, a fierce scowl etched into her features, "Either you leave us alone or I'll see to it that you fucking wish you'd never walked up to us in the first place!"
This wasn't going towards anything good and Naruto was well aware of that. But why did it have to be Sakura? Even Sasuke would have been a better encounter than this. How did he even have a crush on her? He honestly couldn't remember how that happened. Was it because her pink her? Well, she did stand out and wasn't that what he always wanted? To be recognized? Had he met Tayuya any earlier, geez, that stupid crush would never have happened. Because she saw him as Naruto. As her Naruto. Not as some troublemaker, not as the jinjuriki, not as an annoyance. And he loved her for that.
Still, as entertaining as a catfight might have been, seeing Tayuya claw Sakura's eyes out was not the first thing he needed after leaving their three year long incarceration.
So he grabbed the red head's hand, spun her into his arms and smiled at her bewildered expression. "Come on," he said and kissed her atop of her brow, "we have a bed to christen."
Sakura's expression was absolutely priceless. If her jaw would have dropped any further it would have surely hit the ground, her eyes widened to a comical size and the only sound that escaped her gaping mouth was a numb "Huh?"
She didn't miss the smug smile on Tayuya's face however and shouted after them. "Naruto! Who even is that!?"
Naruto turned around, a hand still grasping Tayuya's, and smirked. "She's mine!"
The street their house was supposed to be in was in the outskirts of the village and yet quite sophisticate looking. The forest was thick around them and it was like walking through a park all over again. The streets were laid with cobblestone and every way to go appeared to be a tree lined alley. There was a stream going right through most of the neighborhood, snaking around big trees and some of the houses they could spot through the thick green. The streetlights they passed seemed positively ancient in comparison to those in the center of the village. All in all the neighborhood seemed really old, but to Tayuya and Naruto it was nice enough.
"Brim Water Alley 12?"
"Yep, that's what it says."
"Fuck me..."
"Sure, but we could go inside first."
"Oh shut up, you!"
The house is by far bigger than they had imagined. Naruto half expected another mostly vacated apartment building but this? That was more of a mansion than a house. Three stories tall, a huge double front door with a porch carried by four pillars and what appeared to be a small tower on the left edge of the house.
"I get the tower!" Tayuya shouted and snatched the keys from Naruto's hand.
As Tayuya bounded up the paved way towards the few steps that led up to the doors, Naruto still stared at the house as if he'd been dreaming. Only the sound of Tayuya bodily throwing herself against the apparently wedged doors broke him out of his trance.
"Fuck! These hinges are rustier from disuse than pinky's private parts!"
Naruto snorted a laugh. "I don't wanna know that! Oh geez I'm gonna have nightmares with that image..."
Tayuya kicked down the left door, whirling up an incredulous amount of dust from the floor behind it. "Only if you sleep tonight, lover boy!"
The house was big, like seriously huge. If it looked big from the outside it was like twice the size on the inside.
"We have a fucking chandelier!" Tayua exclaimed as she hopped up a grand staircase over which a humongous silver chandelier was residing on a golden chain as it swayed gently in the wind that came in through the shattered windows he could spy upstairs. "It's huge! Look at all the space we have! I bet we even have a sauna in here!"
"But aside from that," Naruto said, "This place is a dump." He kicked away a tree branch that must have fallen in from-
"There's a freaking tree in our bathroom!"
And true to Tayuya's word, out of a room, obviously the bathroom, a tree branch extended into the house. It nearly reached all the way to the chandelier and as he stepped inside the dusty and leave littered bathroom he saw that the whole ceiling was covered by the crown of the tree. Apparently,m the ceiling was made of glass, so the tree thrived in here.
Tayuya was already climbing up the part of the tree trunk that had broken trough the floor of the balcony and up into the crown. A few squirrels and birds angrily left their nest as Tayuya disturbed it. An apple flew down at him and he caught it without flinching.
"We have an apple tree in our bathroom!" she laughed, swinging from a higher branch. Tayuya was laughing and bouncing like and excited child and it was infectious. Neither of them had ever got to be a child. Carefree and all that. "And look at that bathtub!"
Bathtub was really stretching the word. It was more like a small pool that was let into the floor. Metal pipes - golden metal pipes - ran up the cream colored tile wall and formed several shower heads above it which were woven into intricate, shiny patterns of hundreds of smaller tubes.
"Damn," Naruto muttered. "That's hell of a lot kitsch in here..." He jumped up to Tayuya and together they climbed through the dirty skylight.
The view was breathtaking. They were probably farthest away from the Hokage mountain as possible while still in the village and with all the trees around them that were so high grown the village disappeared beneath the leaves. It was funny, Naruto had never understood why they would call Konoha the village hidden in the leave but seeing this, it didn't seem all that far fetched anymore. The only building he could truly make out was the Hokage's tower and maybe, if he squinted, the white roof of the hospital with the laundry swaying in the gentle breeze.
"Shit," Tayuya whispered and grasped his hand, squeezing it tightly. Naruto turned and looked at her disbelieving expression. "This," she said almost reverently, "This is our home!"
Naruto smiled, so wide he felt like his face might just split. It was the same shit eating grin he had always faked back then. Only this time it was real.
"Yeah, home," he whispered into the wind. "And all it took were three years of incarceration."
Tayuya snorted. "Way to ruin the moment, shithead!" She flicked his forehead and jumped down into the house once more.
"I fucking hate cleaning!"
"Or so you say," Naruto laughed as he and Tayuya sat on their newly erected bed, "but in the end all the clones are working while you sit here and throw apples at them."
With another POOF a clone was dispelled as an apple nailed him in the crotch. Naruto winched as the memory came in. Her aim was deadly. From man, that is. "But it's so fucking boooooring!"
Naruto rolled off the king sized bed that stood proudly in the dead center of the otherwise barren room they had chosen to be their master bedroom. "Let's go out then! It's been three years and I'm sure there's a lot of new stuff! Plus, you haven't really been around the village, aside from infiltrating it."
Tayuya rolled around on the bed, humming thoughtfully as she rolled from one side to the other and back again. "Sure," she said," Why the fuck not!"
She jumped off the bed and landed not an inch away from him. "We need some clothes anyways!"
Looking down at himself Naruto found himself agreeing. The deep green shirt he wore was a size or two too small and his pants could be a little longer. Like Tayuya, he didn't wear shoes, they had become too small about half a year into their imprisonment. The hoodie Tayuya wore was his to begin with and the shirts she still had were too small, showing her belly and hugging her chest uncomfortably tight. That said, some undergarments were desperately needed, though Tayuya wasn't the type to wear bras. Simple chest bindings or a tight undershirt was enough for her. Or just nothing at all. Naruto wouldn't complain either way.
"So," she asked as they sauntered down their staircase and outside over the kicked down door, " Where are we going?"
He grinned at her. "No idea!"
Turns out that "No Idea!" was exactly how it went. Even after three years and a considerable growth spurt, people still noticed him. But their glares were different. It weren't even glares anymore. They looked at him as if they were unsure how to react to him, afraid that they could say something wrong. While he pondered on this Tayuya stared each and everyone of them down with a death glare that would have Anko shiver in her probably non existent panties. How dare these fuckers look at him like that!? If not for another prison sentence she'd have her doki maim their puny asses!
She took hold of his hand. "They don't matter," she told him. "We have each other. They don't matter."
Naruto squeezed her hand in return and smiled slightly, a weight slipping of his shoulders and the looks became more bearable.
Eventually though, Naruto and Tayuya stumbled upon a shop, at which they weren't met by such strange and barely concealed contempt. Instead, they were met by a familiar face. The surprise was written all over her but it passed soon enough for a wide grin as she approached them.
"Tenten," Naruto said as a greeting, still hesitant for another "oh-shit-what-to-do" reaction.
The girl waved enthusiastically. "Naruto! It's been years! Seems like prison did nothing to dull you down! Aside from your clothes, that is." Her eyes drifted over to Tayuya and their joined hands. "In fact," she grinned, "It seems you got on just fine!"
He laughed sheepishly. "More than fine, if we take the incarceration aside!" He motioned to the red head. "Tenten, this is Tayuya. Tayuya, Tenten."
Tenten grinned and extended her hand in greeting but Tayuya was far less enthusiastic.
It wasn't that she didn't want to kiss the girls feet for the by miles better attitude, it was just that she frowned (and nearly sneered) upon the initiation of some sort of physical contact. Her time with Orochimaru had - unfortunately - taught her that it is better not to be too trusting. She had made the mistake of trusting, and in the following, touching Kabuto when she had been wounded. The poison had been in her system for weeks. The pain was unbearable. And all because she had trusted him far enough to let him touch her. It was, of course, different with Naruto. His touch brought her warmth, comfort, happiness. And love.
But everybody else? They'd better keep their hands to themselves.
The disdain was visible on Tayuya's face like the sun on a clear day. Tenten couldn't have missed it. But she said nothing and simply took her hand back and offered a polite and surprisingly understanding smile.
"Anyways," she said, "What brings you here? Oh! Let me guess!" Her cheerfulness returned and it was as if nothing had ever happened. Still, Tayuya stood noticeably closer to Naruto who fixed her with a piercing gaze that told her not to worry.
It was Tayuya who answered. "Me and lover boy her need some new clothes. These rags won't do anymore."
Nobody could ever claim that Tenten was stupid. Far from it, in fact. After Naruto went into jail, his "case" was made public. Naruto didn't know it, but everyone in the village was aware of the fact that he was a jinjuriki. And thus, Tenten was sure why he had come here. The villagers must have looked upon him with a mix of fear and uncertainty, something that after three years of isolation was far from comfortable. So she just smiled and nodded.
"Of course!" she said, gesturing to the storefront, "Come on in! We'll find you something fitting."
Naruto smiled. "Thank you."
She waved a hand dismissively. "Nothing worth mentioning!"
As they walked in, Tayuya remembered something of utmost importance. Something she wouldn't ever forget. Had she forgotten... it would have been unbearable!
"And no fucking orange!"
Naruto pouted just the slightest bit.
Leaving with scrolls full of clothes and in a new attire altogether, the pair made their way back to their abode. Judging from the memories of his clones, Naruto suspected the house to be mostly clean, safe for the basement which the clones hadn't entered yet. Fixing his new, deep green, jacket over the black shirt Naruto with Tayuya, a cone of ice cream in her hand, in tow came once more into their neighborhood. Clad in a nondescript leather jacket and a shirt as green as Naruto's jacket Tayuya hummed a tune she intended to try out on her flute later. She smirked whenever she felt Naruto's eyes on her. On her legs, to be precise, which were clad in tight black pants. Very formfitting black pants.
On their way past a particularly large thicket, Naruto spied a wall that apparently surrounded a compound he hadn't noticed before. He stopped dead in his tracks, frozen as if hit by Haku's ice (bless his soul).
It was the Uchiha compound.
Tayuya, still holding onto his hand, nearly dropped her strawberry ice cream when the blonde suddenly halted. "What the fuck!" she exclaimed as she oh so barely saved her cold treat. "Why did you-?" But the question died away in her throat when she saw the symbol Naruto was staring at.
She remembered. Remembered how he came first into her cell, this gaping hole in his chest, and it scared her. It terrified her that the one who did this was here, probably not far from them. She remembered how he had nearly died not half a meter from her. How she had by a hair's breath never even met him. And it burned in her, burned at her mark, burned alive the hate, the rage she had lost over the years. The hate for the Uchiha. The hate for Orochimaru. It fueled her, drove her as she reached into a holster at her thigh and pulled out a long knife. It caused her to lust for blood. His blood.
The blood of Sasuke Uchiha.
With an anticlimactic snarl she ripped forward, her ice cream long forgotten, through the underbrush and towards the compound.
"Come one out, you little fucker! Come here so I can gut your boy-toy ass!" she spat at the walls as she sprinted alongside them to find a door to flatten.
She hadn't gone far when Naruto managed to move. He didn't think twice and took off after her. She was about to do something stupid, something that would ruin their new life before it had even fully began. Naruto saw her stop in front of a green wooden gate, could see, and more so feel, the malice roll of her in waves. The seal had activated again.
With an overpowered kick the gate caved in and was sent flying all over the courtyard and tore the front door down with it. Tayuya was about to finish what Itachi had started and slaughter the last of the Uchiha when Naruto tackled her to the ground.
"Let go!" she snarled, the curse mark creeping further and further on her skin, "Let me kill him! Let me kill the fucking bastard!"
She struggled against him, kicking out her legs and swiping the knife uncontrollably. "Tayuya!" he implored, "Tayuya, listen to me! If you do this, I we will go back into prison!"
The knife scratched his cheek as his hold on her wrist failed. With a grunt he pushed her down with his upper body, both her arms flailing helplessly overhead.
"I don't fucking care!" she screeched, eyes tearing up, "He tried to take you form me! He tried to kill you! I will fucking torture him! Murder him!"
He pressed his forehead against hers and her darkened eyes cleared a bit. "But I'm here! He failed, Tayuya! I'm here! I am here! He can't take me from you. No one can!"
Naruto leaned down to her ear and whispered. "No one can take me. Because you have me. Because I love you."
His lips hit the seal and they nearly burned up. An audible hiss and the feeling of kissing glowing hot steel was all that Naruto could feel for a second before he could hear Tayuya's scram of agony as the seal tried to stay active. But he didn't let up, kept his lips on her skin even as the smell and taste of burned flesh flooded his senses and the bile began to rise at the back of his throat. After an agonizingly painful minute, Tayuya stilled, still breathing heavily.
"Fuck...," she breath as her arms managed to wind around Naruto, "I hate this seal."
Naruto just groaned into her hair. His lips hurt by far too much to speak. He could feel the already heal but he wasn't about to strain them anymore than necessary. They laid there for a while, trying to calm down until they heared a groan coming from the house. The door that had been catapulted inside the house was slowly pushed upwards and kicked away. Underneath it, with a sufficiently bloody nose, was none other than Sasuke Uchiha.
"Holy hells, what was that...?" he moaned as he sat up, rubbing his head and blinking lazily against the setting sun. His eyes fell on a mop of familiar blonde hair. He went as pale as a ghost. "Oh come on..."
A/N: Chapter 4 is already in progress!