After the police had cleared up the mess, Dai, Kiba, Akamaru, Soba and Naruto headed back to Konoha to submit their mission report. Technically, Dai and Soba could have gone directly back to the village they called home, but the kunoichi had come up with a halfway convincing reason for dragging her twin all the way back to the Hidden Leaf. Dai knew well enough why she wanted to head back, but he pretended to be oblivious. Naruto's face nearly fell off from smiling when Soba told him they were going back with them, but he, too, tried to act like this was the most logical course of action.
The four of them were a lot friendlier on the way back. Dai and Kiba had apparently become best friends over the past week, and even Soba had warmed up slightly to the Uzumaki. She and Naruto had traveled back side-by-side the whole way, although the blonde had been on the receiving end of some heated words on numerous occasions. Kiba had assumed his fellow Leaf shinobi had said something accidentally offensive, and Dai knew that Soba had probably been slightly offended and largely attracted. Soba flirted like a 10-year-old boy, and he knew this well.
After coming up with a reason to go back to Konoha, Soba concocted yet another 'devious' plan to stay there for several weeks. Her brilliant and completely un-subtle idea was to use the opportunity to hone her skills with different opponents. She was hoping to be able to train with Sasuke Uchiha, as she knew he was a very proficient fire style user. Nobody in the Hidden Grass had ever been able to help her develop her fire jutsu, so she decided to ask an Uchiha to guide her. The only problem was the fact that Sasuke would have to agree to train her first, which would involve both finding and speaking with the elusive man. Naruto had turned into a demon to locate his friend and rival, as he was really looking for an excuse for having Soba around for a few weeks.
"Sasuke." The black-haired shinobi turned to face the voice, his facial expression suggesting boredom.
"Teme?"
"Don't embarrass me in front of her!" Naruto hissed, gesturing to Soba. Sasuke gave the kunoichi a once-over before looking at his friend.
"What do you want?" He demanded quietly.
"Soba-chan want-" Naruto began, but Soba took over.
"I'm a shinobi from the Hidden Grass, but I am a fire style user. Nobody in my village was ever really able to teach me how to properly use my skills, so I created some jutsus and got by with those. I would really appreciate it if you could train me, even for a day, because I want to achieve my full potential as a shinobi." She bowed slightly in Sasuke's direction. He arched an eyebrow.
"Sure. We start the day after tomorrow, training field 8, 7 am." With that, he walked off.
"Thank you." Soba was ecstatic on the inside, but managed to keep calm and collected on the outside.
"What an idiot. Doesn't say bye or anything." The blonde shook his head. He was really expecting to have to goad Sasuke into it, yell at him, or maybe beat him into submission, but sadly, Naruto was left without any way to impress Soba. Though realistically, Soba would have been more amused than impressed if the two friends would have gotten into a fistfight over training her. Naruto still couldn't get over how easily Sasuke agreed to it.
"I like that he doesn't feel the need to talk a lot." Soba mentioned in passing as the two walked down the street, and the blonde raged with jealousy.
Later that evening, after Dai and Kiba had gone out to do who-knows-what in town, Soba and Naruto were sitting in Ichiraku, waiting on their meal.
"Soba-chan?" The brunette turned her head to look at her dinner date. His eyes always looked so innocent and kind, and that just wouldn't do. Soba felt all her senses flying away when he looked at her.
"Mm?"
"I'm glad you're staying for a little while." She saw what appeared to be a faint blush cross the man's cheeks, but she could have been mistaken.
"Well, it'd be silly to turn down such a great learning opportunity." What inner Soba wanted to say was so am I, Naruto, but she just couldn't make herself do it.
Dai and Kiba were likely going to be up all night engaging in sake-fueled shenanigans, so when Naruto asked Soba if she wanted to go for a walk with him, she said yes. She was actually surprised that she managed to agree instead of running for the hills; maybe she was finally starting to relax. What was it about this man that broke her down so much? The two wandered around Konoha, eventually finding their way to the Hokage monument. Naruto hopped up onto the carved head of Tsunade-sama, plopping down, cross-legged. Soba sat down right next to him, legs stretched out in front of her.
"Granny Tsunade's head is the easiest to sit on of all the Hokage," Naruto offered. "But she's also by far the angriest. She yelled at me a lot…Kakashi-sensei doesn't. Well, he doesn't really yell. He just makes that face." Naruto looked over at Soba, who was gazing at him, smiling.
"I feel like they only do that because they care about you."
"I guess they do!" He flashed her a grin and Soba melted. She dragged her eyes away from him and looked over the town. The sky above them was an inky black, but the lights in the buildings beneath them glowed warmly. Soba watched couples walking together in the center of town, holding hands. Her stomach bunched up in knots just thinking about possibly, maybe, perhaps trying to pursue a relationship. She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them. Naruto was looking over at her, bright-eyed and at a loss for what to say. It's not often that the blonde was rendered speechless, but every word that he wanted to pull out of the air flew out of his grasp when he was looking at Soba.
"I knew you were nice, deep down!" Soba turned her head to face him.
"Was I not nice before?"
"…uhhhh." Naruto grinned and scratched the back of his head. "You were a little…um-"
"Okay, I guess I was a little mean."
"A little?" He looked like he regretted that the moment it had come out of his mouth. "I MEANT-" His face relaxed when he saw her smiling at him.
"I know. Dai's told me that I'm as pleasant as a kidney stone sometimes. I just get really intense when I'm working because it's really important to me to do things right. I hate disappointing our elders and I hate disappointing myself."
"I don't think you're the type to ever disappoint anyone. I don't know how you could! Your family must be so proud of you." Soba scoffed at the comment.
"I know you're trying to butter me up now."
"I'm not." He looked into her eyes and she felt heat rising to her face.
"Anyway. It's a lot easier to do my best work when I have no distractions, and I guess that's why I'm abrasive. I keep people at a safe distance. I only work well with Dai because he's like an extension of me, and I don't really need to evaluate our relationship. Also, he's the only family I have, so there's that." Naruto looked saddened.
"Isn't it lonelier like that, though? If your family's gone…"
"Hm."
"See, I don't really think that's the right way to do it."
"Oh, really?" Soba screwed up her face.
"I think friendship is so important. I wouldn't be where I am today without my friends…when I was little, all I wanted, more than anything else, was to be wanted. For someone to notice and acknowledge me, you know?" Naruto was looking down at his feet and playing with a loose thread on his pants. "And when it finally happened, it was the absolute best thing in the world. I had no parents, but I had someone to keep me going. Now this," He gestured to the village, "is my family."
Soba was silent, not really knowing what to say. She felt the slow burn of his presence by her, but could bring herself to do anything. She knew so much about him, like his fighting style, major battles, even his age, but she realized that she didn't know him at all.
"I used to be so angry all the time, just angry at everything and everyone around me, and I think that's why I really felt drawn to you. I feel like you're like I used to be and you could be so much happier with-"
Soba snapped back at him, "Did I ever say I was unhappy? I'm sorry, but you're making a lot of assumptions about me!" Naruto looked taken aback, but more afraid of the fact that he may have offended her. Her brow furrowed and she looked away from him.
"I didn't mean-" He looked really crestfallen. A deep silence fell over the two as they stared out over the rooftops. Soba made to stand up and had hardly gotten to her feet when Naruto grabbed her wrist. He was gentle, but it had startled her regardless. "Please don't go."
He looked so genuinely sorry that Soba just sat right back down, letting him hold her wrist a little longer. At the same time, Naruto thought that he would push his luck and see how long he could get away with keeping his hand looped around her thin wrist. Soba noted that his hands were surprisingly soft, albeit sweaty. They were now back to sitting right next to each other, only now they were staring awkwardly away from each other, neither one wanting to acknowledge the tension between them. The silence was long, but not entirely uncomfortable.
"I-" Soba began.
"So-" Naruto opened his mouth to start but shut it right back when he realized he she had started talking.
"Oh no, you go ahead!"
"No, it's okay!" The brunette started laughing at the awkwardness, and was soon joined by Naruto. Their laughter rang out in the darkness, and before long, they were inexplicably in hysterics. Soba was the first to start calming down, taking deep breaths to slow the tears of mirth running down her face. Both blushed an aggressive shade of red when Naruto looked at her wrist and realized his hand was still there. He snatched it away quickly and offered a self-deprecating smile in exchange. Soba fought to suppress a flutter in her chest.
"It feels really late, but I don't want to call it a night yet – want to go get a drink?" Naruto nodded fervently in response.
"I've got some at my apartment, or we could go find Kiba and Dai?"
"I wouldn't have pegged you as the type to have booze at your apartment."
"It's only sake that I got as a birthday gift, but I've been waiting for a special occasion to drink it. To be honest, I forget it's there!" Another smile from the blonde.
"I think taking down a drug ring counts as a special occasion, and to be honest, I can't handle Dai after he's been drinking. Love him to death, but he becomes Captain Personality after a few glasses. He also usually tries to find me men, which is awkward at best." Naruto started laughing at the mental image and Soba shook her head. "His heart's in the right place, but…yeah." She chuckled and got to her feet.
"KIBA!" Dai bellowed, his decibel level completely inappropriate for the distance between him and the man he was calling out to. Kiba shoved him, rubbing his ears.
"OW, Dai! I'm right here! What?!" Dai threw out an arm, pointing in the direction of the crescent moon. "That's the moon."
"I know it's the moon, Kiba. Look below the moon, on the monument." Kiba squinted.
"Where on the monument?"
"The lady-hic-lady's face!" Kiba squinted more, now directly at Tsunade's head.
"There are people on it?"
"NOT JUST ANY PEOPLE!"
"How do you know who it is?!" Kiba jabbed an accusing finger into Dai's chest and paused. "Since when are you so muscular?" He continued poking the taller man. Dai swatted him away.
"You're missing the point. That-" He pointed again. "-is obviously my wonderful sister AND the glorious Uzumaki Naruto."
"Again, how do you know?"
"I just do. Soba likes weird places that are up high and kinda creepy, but she is also my twin."
"Waitwaitwait, they're going somewhere. DAI, I NEED TO KNOW IF YOU'RE RIGHT. What if you're wrong?"
"Then we're going to be stalking two random people. OKAY, KIBA. FETCH YOUR DOG, WE'RE GOING HUNTING!"
"And if you're right?"
"We find Soba and HOPEFULLY, she will have remembered that she is a woman and Naruto is a man."
"Uh."
"LISTEN. WHEN YOUR SISTER IS THE WORLD'S ANGRIEST HUMAN, YOU WANT HER TO BE HAPPY AND OBVIOUSLY, SHE HAS BEEN FLIRTING OVER THE PAST WEEK. SO."
"Your sister scares me."
"That makes you a member of an exclusive club which boasts 99.999% of the world as members. Okay, let's go stalk them!"
"This is a terrible idea."
"No, it's not."
"It really is."
"You're still coming with me."
"Hell yes, I am."
The two stumbled off.
Thank you for reading! Comments & constructive criticism are appreciated :)