As wonderful as Soba and Naruto looked before the food arrived, they were equally alarming after. The kunoichi had done everything short of licking her bowl clean, and the blonde man sitting next to her had somehow managed to get sauce on his forehead. She licked her finger and rubbed the smudge clean.
"Really. On your forehead?" Soba grumbled.
"Do you need a face-bib?" Kiba commented from across the table, and Naruto made a few choice threats. Soba watched the lanky blonde Ino eat her food daintily, taking small, measured bites, and wondered briefly if she should try to eat like a lady in the future. Yeah, if you want to die on the battlefield because someone skewered you while you were cutting and peeling your precious lady apples, supplied the practical voice in her head. There ended her desire to be dainty.
The din of the restaurant had nothing on the sheer volume and giddiness radiating from the table of young shinobi. Soba noticed a mini-Guy-sensei a few chairs down, dramatically reenacting a scene from one of his missions, she presumed, while everyone around him giggled.
"Who do you think trained Lee? You get one guess." Naruto leaned over to Soba and whispered out of the corner of his mouth.
"Gee, that's a hard one."
Next to Lee was a pretty, reserved girl with shoulder-length dark purple hair and pale lilac eyes. Soba hadn't really seen her say much over the course of the evening, but she seemed to be enjoying herself, if the bright smile on her face was anything to go by. The brunette had noticed, however, that the girl was stealing glances at Naruto at any opportunity she could get. Soba felt a twinge of something she couldn't yet identify.
"SAKKEEEEEE!" Dai and Kiba were already beyond reproach, doing celebratory dances around the very busy bar. What they were celebrating was anybody's guess. Someone asked the latter where Akamaru was when he had stopped shimmying for a brief moment.
"Akamaru is very judgmental of my drinking, so I leave him at home to hang out with my sister's ninken."
"He came with us the first time, though!" Dai supplied.
"I think it might have been the stalking that really made him draw the line, actually." The rhythm-less dancing continued.
Soba was sitting on a bar stool next to Sasuke and Shikamaru, both of whom looked like they would rather be anywhere but there. Everyone else seemed to already be occupying prime real estate around the square bar, in varying states of sobriety. The kunoichi pivoted around, bought three beers, and shoved one into each of the two men's hands. Shinobi and civilians alike milled around them, chatting and drinking. Though there was music going in the background, the establishment was much too low-key for dancing.
"At least be doing something bar-appropriate if you're going to be here." She muttered, taking a long drag from the bottle.
"Why didn't you girls go dancing? Isn't that what girls do?" Shikamaru was new to Soba, so she wasn't about to beat him senseless, but she narrowed her eyes to slits to express her displeasure. "Ooooor not."
"I don't really do...dancing."
"You don't really do much but eat and fight." Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her while taking a sip of his drink. "You actually are Naruto." The two men laughed at her expense. She could only mutter darkly into the opening of the bottle in her hand.
"There is more to me than that, thank you."
"Hn."
"What is that sound? Are you allergic to words?" Sasuke nodded, throwing a glance Shikamaru's way. The kunoichi tried to get comfortable on the stool. So much for having enjoyed Sasuke's lack of verbiage in the beginning. "Ugh, I can't even sit properly in this skirt." Soba was mostly frustrated because Naruto was talking to other people. Women. People. Definitely people.
"Turn around quickly, Ino's coming, and she looks ready to gossip." Shikamaru swiveled in the stool and attempted to look extremely interested in the wood grain beneath his hands. Sasuke followed suit, but poor Soba was caught by the wrist. The blonde's grip was surprisingly strong.
"Come on! You don't need to be sitting with these boring boys. All they do is sulk." The brunette sent pleading looks at the two men, but all they did was wave goodbye, smirking.
"But-but-Ino, I don't-"
"Shush. Do you know hard it is to get quality information from these people? I need to talk to you." Soba focused all of her energy on trying to look as dull as possible when Ino planted her in a corner of the plainly-decorated room. "Okay, so, what's happening?"
"What do you mean?"
"Don't play coy. Spill!"
"About...?" The pretty blonde face was scowling at her. Were all the kunoichi in Konoha good-looking?
"You and Naruto, jeez."
"Oh-uh-there's nothing to say?" Soba could tell that Ino's patience had worn out.
"Listen. There hasn't been any good gossip in this village in awhile, and I don't really know what to do with myself."
"I'm serious! I don't have anything to tell you!"
"How about we do this instead? I'll tell you what I've heard, and you tell me if it's true or not!" The din in the room was almost too loud to hear Ino, but Soba got the gist. It seemed like she wouldn't be escaping her clutches anytime soon. "Item number one! You were seen looking all disheveled leaving his apartment, wearing his clothes. TRUE?"
"Well, yes, but that's because I fell asleep on his couch in gross mission-dirty clothes." Ino looked put out.
"Hm, that's not nearly as juicy as it seemed. Why were you at his apartment, though?"
"Hanging out?"
"Hmmmm." A suspicious gaze scanned Soba's features. "Okay, item two! You got into a catfight over him! A friend of mine saw you with some nasty cuts and bruises."
"That was from training with Sasuke."
"Ugh, this is no fun." Ino crossed her arms huffily across her chest. "Well, what about this? Supposedly-" While the gossip hound prepared to continue her investigation, Soba felt a hand slip around her waist and pull her away and around the corner into a dark alcove. She had the presence of mind not to panic and to identify that she was near the bathrooms, but she was still startled. The seemingly disembodied arm turned her around bringing her nose to nose with a significantly more masculine blonde.
"Hi." She squeaked, almost crossing her eyes to make eye contact.
"Ino isn't really the type to give up. I figured you could use an out!" Soba nodded, becoming more and more aware of how hot the room was, and how Naruto was ever-so-slightly leaning over her.
"While I appreciate that, I feel like what we're doing right now might make great gossip fodder. Just saying." As though that had only occurred to him at that moment, Naruto loosened his grip and took a step back from her. They inwardly cursed the increased distance between them, but acted nonchalant.
"Wanna dance?" Soba extended both hands and waved the splayed fingers at him.
"Noooo, I don't dance. And this isn't a dancing kind of place."
"Come oooon. I don't either, and that doesn't matter!"
"Then why do you want to dance?" Naruto shrugged noncommittally, but he really just wanted to have an excuse to be right up against the kunoichi without seeming like a creep. Maybe he was one. His mind jumped back a few days and remembered the dramatic reading of Icha-Icha and stopped. Maybe there was some sort of jutsu in the pages that turned me into a pervert! That would explain everything!
"I need to talk to you right now." He yanked her behind him, walking out onto the street through a side door.
"What is it? Jeez, it's freezing out here! What happened?"
"Okay, so I think I've figured it out."
"Figured what out?"
"Kakashi-sensei must have put some sort of seal or something in that Icha-Icha that made me and maybe you- I guess, it would have to be you too - really, uh, hmm. How do I say this?" Soba was looking at him like he had lost his marbles while rubbing her arms up and down with her hands to keep warm.
"If you could share your great epiphany soon, I'd appreciate that. I may or may not be experiencing the beginnings of hypothermia."
"Uh, okay, well, after we read that silly chapter, did you notice something weird?"
"Aside from baffling acrobatics?"
"Maybe it was just for me. Maybe he wanted to punish me if I got curious, or tried to take the book from you. Hmm." The blonde paused again, tapping his finger against his cheek. Soba slapped her hands on either side of his face and shook him.
"Uzumaki Naruto. I will freeze all of my extremities off if you don't spit it out right now!" She had squeezed his face hard enough to make his lips purse comically, but Soba was not in a laughing mood; the temperature had plummeted after dinner, and she was nowhere near dressed enough.
"Never mind! It doesn't make sense." He laughed, the sound faltering when he saw the look of death on the kunoichi's face. "I just thought that would explain how I'm feeling right now, but I think that it might just be me."
"Feeling what?" Soba immediately regretted asking another question when a gust of wind chilled her right to the bone. Her teeth chattered. She hoped the answer would be what she was feeling, but was fully prepared for it not to be. Regardless, her gut churned uncomfortably.
"I...okay. This is how we are right now." Naruto lifted his two hands and put the open palms a foot apart.
"Ooookay?"
"And want us to be like this." He brought his hands together, pressing tightly.
"Is there a reason why you explained that to me like I'm a toddler?" Soba wanted to vomit, her stomach was so far in knots, and her mouth had started running on its own. Stop talking. Stop. Just stop it. She repeated it like a mantra in her head to stop the nervous blabber. The blonde standing opposite her looked like he was debating whether to stay or run away. "I-uh-"
"I don't know! I mean, I dated Sakura, and sure, she was pretty and I was attracted to her, but you-it's like fire. Every time we're near each other, I can't think, I can't just be because I feel like my insides are burning up. Every time you do anything at all, I'm just-it's like-I can't even describe it. And when Sasuke hurt you, I wanted to-I-pain. Just pain."
"So, I make you physically ill?" Soba closed her eyes and pressed her lips together, wishing that slapping herself was an appropriate thing to do in public.
"No! It's just not like anything I've ever felt and it makes me feel weird because I just want to be next you and closer and I feel a little perverted." The last few words fused into one and Naruto looked both guilty and frustrated, his eyes pleading and unsure and expressing everything that Soba had been feeling since the moment she had set foot in this village. "And that outfit...please say something." The verbal vomit that was threatening to exit the kunoichi died in its tracks. She stood, now oblivious to how cold her bare skin was, and just stared at the man. She kept wondering why it was so hard to reply with me too or reach out or do anything, especially because he looked more and more crestfallen with each heartbeat. He looked like he was beginning to droop. Say something, her mind pleaded her mouth, anything, you're losing him. His eyes dropped to the ground and his body pivoted back towards the door. "I see." Soba's mind was yelling itself hoarse by this point.
"Don't!" She reached across the distance to grab him, balling the soft cotton of his shirt in her fist. "I mean, you are a pervert for reading Icha-Icha with me, but not for the other reasons." Naruto didn't quite look relieved, but his mouth had turned up minutely. "That took me by surprise, and I don't really do well with those. I don't really do well with feelings." Soba prayed that what she was saying was helping salvage the situation. "Or people. I'm good at stabbing things and not being dead, so I am just trying to continue on that path because it's easy and you have confused my poor mind into thinking that-" Her mind went blank as he overwhelmed her senses. One of Naruto's arms wrapped around her waist almost possessively, and the other had found its way through her hair and to the back of her neck, pressing her to him. Their lips collided with an urgency that only shinobi could know, yet with a gentle uncertainty. Soba finally relaxed enough to use her free hand to grasp his back, nails digging into the taut muscle. Not even the night wind could draw away the sandalwood scent of Naruto's skin and the absolute blaze roaring through the kunoichi's insides. As swiftly as the kiss came, it went, and Naruto pulled away from a stupidly blinking Soba, looking sheepish.
"Well." The kunoichi couldn't summon enough brain cells to say much else.
"You talk when you get nervous." The blonde quirked up the corners of his mouth, fidgeting nervously. "And you were all silent before, when I was telling you...everything, so I thought you didn't want me, but then you just started talking so muuuch, that I-" Afraid that he'd further remind her of just how awkward she was, Soba leaned in and pecked him again quickly. It was then his turn to look both baffled and pleased. Naruto's hands were gently gripping Soba's hips while she continued to add wrinkles to the shirt that didn't belong to him. They stood, face-to-face, grinning stupidly and blushing.
"I don't really feel like going back in, do you?" Naruto shook his head.
"I thought you were cold?"
"I was, but I'm okay now." Soba willed the heat to recede from her face and go anywhere else.
"Do you want to maybe, just go hang out? The two of us?" The blonde still looked a little nervous, but his face relaxed when he saw the kunoichi nodding fervently. She really wasn't keen on sharing his attention with anybody now that they'd had some time together.
"Won't people notice that we're gone?"
"I don't think so!"
"Dai better not come a-stalking."
Naruto let his hands slip off her waist and made to jump onto the nearest rooftop. While disappointed that she could only feel the ghost of his skin on hers, Soba was not-so-subtly delighted when he grabbed her hand instead.
"We should leave before anybody catches us!" The blonde chuckled and they leapt off.
Though extraordinarily far from lucid, Dai had noticed a certain lack of his sister's presence in the bar. He stopped dead, halting Kiba with an outstretched palm, and looked around for his twin. His brain, which had been marinating for the better part of the evening, began to pull some logic together, and noticed the absence of a certain other blonde as well. Dai smirked.
"Why did you stop?" Kiba inquired, genuinely disappointed by having to stand in one place.
"Looking for Soba and Naruto." Dai's eyes narrowed and a devious grin possessed his features. He brought his face down closer to Kiba's, "They're the only people that aren't here."
"They could have to gone to the bathroom?" Dai scowled at his friend.
"Your imagination needs some work, Kiba."
"What? Where do you think they are?"
"To-geeee-ther."
"I have no idea what you just said."
"To. Ge. Ther. Together."
"Oh." A pause. Recognition dawned on the shorter man's face. "OHH."
"I swear, you're so slow sometimes." Kiba shoved him. "Wanna go stalk my sister again?"
"No! Isn't she going to go twice as crazy with her revenge if she catches you again? And I am not sleeping in bushes twice in two weeks. I have an apartment! And a bed!"
"So, that's a yes?"
"No, that's a NO. NO. Dai, I am not stalking-" And Kiba was dragged out of the bar by his collar. "She's going to murder me after she gets through with you, isn't she?"
"Probably, yes. Don't worry, though! It'll be quick and painless, I promise."
"Great."
"Kakashi?"
"Yes?" A slightly shocked tone.
"What are you doing?"
"Being an excellent shinobi." The eye roll to end all eye rolls.
"What are you actually doing? It looks an awful lot like stalking."
"I am taking a stroll-"
"In the shadows. In the middle of the night. Upside-down."
"As I mentioned, being a shinobi. In case you've forgotten, I am the Hokage, and that means I am particularly excellent at being one."
"That's why a chuunin caught you?"
"Maa, Iruka, I let you catch me. Besides, what are you doing here?"
"I was walking down this road to go meet a few of our friends for drinks. I thought you said you were coming when Genma asked you earlier today!"
"I have important shinobi-"
"I know you have important Naruto and Soba stalking to do, but don't you realize how weird that is? Following your former student around?"
"I am not stalking. It is called surveillance. And no, it is not weird because I am merely concerned about his safety."
"Safety."
"Iruka, you act like you're not remotely interested in finding out if our former charge has managed to woo the delightful Soba-chan?"
"Woo? You've lost it. And you only think she is delightful because she just might be as perverted as you are."
"You act like you don't like her fiery personality."
"I think she's wonderful, yes, because she indulges your ridiculousness, and if anything, I think she'll make the first move."
"Iruuuuuka."
"I should really supervise you to make sure you don't do anything to embarrass the title of Hokage." Kakashi knew that Iruka wouldn't require a whole lot of wheedling. Or any, really.
Thanks for reading! I am a little nervous about how this turned out, so comments & constructive criticism are appreciated :)