'Promise'

Chapter 3: The Last Hope

It was getting late. The sun had already begun to set, casting a fiery glow across the Hinata Apartments.

Naruto found himself sitting in the main lounge of the Hinata, with the front door only metres away from him if things became hectic. He ran his hand through his blond hair nervously, trying not to look at all seven of the girls currently staring at him. "Now's the time to explain, brat." Naru glared at him. "What are you doing here? This is an all-girls dorm and except for the apartment manager, no guy is supposed to come here!"

"You don't say anything when Kentaro comes around, Naru." Keitaro sipped on a cup of herbal tea, trying to soothe his nerves. It had been one long day. "Well we couldn't get Kentaro to leave, even if we wanted to." Naru pouted. "But there is a limit to how many boys I can put up with here!"
"That's true but..." Keitaro looked at Naruto, who looked uncomfortable. "I don't think he came here to cause trouble."

"Well then, what did he come for?" Kitsune had been staring at the poor boy for a while now. He seemed pretty interesting to her. And her intuition hadn't failed her that many times in the past...
Naruto shuffled on his chair uncomfortably. Truth be told, he had no idea what to say. Originally, he'd been thrown into this situation without any idea how he got here. He knew for a fact that this was certainly not Konoha.
The only reason he had stayed behind was because of Sakura, and Hinata. They belonged in his world, not this one. And until he found out why they were here, and why they didn't remember him, he wasn't leaving.
But in order to stay he was going to have to come up with an ingenious back story, something that would hold up to scrutiny and wouldn't cause him trouble for the future...

"I have amnesia." He grinned sheepishly. If all else fails, feign ignorance and pretend like you can't remember anything...

"Amnesia?" Sakura said slowly. "But how is that possible?"

"I don't believe him." Naru glared daggers at him.

"It sounds a bit fishy to me." Kitsune muttered.

"It's true, I swear!" Naruto shook his head. "I can't remember much. I don't know where I came from, or even how old I am. I can remember my name, but I can't remember who my mother, or my father was..."
"At least that bit wasn't made up." He thought gloomily.

He continued. "The only thing I seem to remember other then my own name, is them." He pointed at Sakura and Hinata. The two girls looked at each other in surprise. "I can remember who they are. That's the reason why I'm here. I saw Sakura in the street earlier on, and seeing as she's one of the only things I can remember, I thought I'd follow her, to see if she could give me any more clues about who I am."
Naruto hung his head. "Although once I got here, I realised that they couldn't remember me at all. So now I don't know what to do."

All the girls looked at each other, and then all eyes turned to Naru and Keitaro. "Well, the decision is yours as for what we do with him." Motoko said, nodding towards Keitaro. "You are the apartment manager after all." Keitaro nodded slowly. "You're right. As the apartment manager, I do have that decision to make." He looked up at all the girls. "I can't make any decision until I know what you think of him. Personally, I would like to keep him here until he can figure out what to do from now. We can give him a job with Haruka, and we'll get another barrel bath like mine."
Surprisingly, most of the girls nodded at this, noticeably the younger ones like Shinobu, Su, Sakura and Hinata. "I think he seems like a nice guy." Shinobu said timidly. "I agree with you Keitaro, he should stay for the moment."

Keitaro nodded at her. "Thank you Shinobu." He looked at the others. "We'll have a majority vote. If Naruto gets more than half, he can stay at the Hinata Apartments. All who want Naruto to stay, please raise your hands."
The youngest ones put their hands up first, followed after some thought by Motoko. "I'm interested in your fighting skills, Naruto. After this is over, I would like to see what you can do." She cast a stern look his way. He laughed nervously. "That's fine by me, I'll be happy to show you."
Kitsune also slowly raised her hand into the air. "There's something about you kid that's got me interested. And seeing as its probably not going to be a permanent thing anyway, why not?"

Naruto nodded gratefully. He turned to face Naru who seemed like she was in a bad mood. "ugh..." She groaned. "I guess if the others can agree with it, I guess I can bear with it." She slowly raised her hand in the air too. "But I'm warning you. Anything else fishy that happens around you and I'm gonna make sure you regret it!" She glared daggers at him whilst subconsciously rubbing her bum. Naruto smiled at her. "Thank you very much, Naru."
Keitaro looked around, and smiled at the girls. "Alright then, its decided. Naruto gets to stay due to an unanimous vote. Welcome to the Hinata Apartments, Naruto Uzumaki!"

There was a soft round of applause for him. "Congratulations, Naruto!" Shinobu smiled, making him blush. "Thanks guys, this means a lot to me." He grinned idiotically. He'd never quite experienced anything like this before. People had never clapped for him, much less welcomed him into a group like this, save for Squad Seven back home.

There was a knock on the door. Everybody turned to face the front of the room, where they could see the front door. There was a silhouetted figure standing there, her appearance hidden due to the glare from the dying sun. "Who could that be?" Kitsune asked. "I don't know, lets go see." Keitaro stood up and walked over to the door, sliding it open.

Standing in the door, was one of the most beautiful girls Naruto had ever seen. She had fiery red hair, in two long pigtails, kind of like how his sexy jutsu form looked. This girl also shared the three whisker-like scars on his face, just underneath her crimson red eyes. She bowed politely in the doorway, looking up at Keitaro. "Good evening. Are you the guy in charge of this place?"
Keitaro nodded slowly, dumbfounded. This girl's beauty was mesmerizing, he couldn't pull his eyes away long enough to form a sensible greeting. Eventually, he pulled himself out of his chance and bowed too. "Yes, I am the apartment manager for the Hinata Apartments. How can I help?"

The girl stood up, smiling. "Good. I'm looking for somebody. He's got spiky blond hair, bright blue eyes and wears a blue headband with a metallic plate on it. And he's about this tall." She made a gesture with her hand, holding it up so it was as tall as she was.
Everybody in the room behind Keitaro simultaneously gasped. All eyes turned to Naruto, who looked utterly baffled. "I don't..." He began to protest that he'd never seen this girl in his life before.

The girl looked past Keitaro, noticing that the boy she had just described was sitting there, trying to explain himself to the other girls. She walked past the confused apartment manager, and headed towards the group. "Is that you...Naruto?" She murmured.

Naruto flinched. How the heck did she know his name? He turned to face the girl. "um...yes, I'm Naruto." He said. "Nice to meet you." He held out his hand, intending to shake the girls hand. He didn't expect the girl to completely ignore the hand and jump on top of him, arms wrapped around his neck. "I finally found you!" The girl was beside herself, nuzzling into his neck. Naruto quickly went bright red from the feminine contact.

"Naruto! I've been looking for you for such a long time!"

He didn't know what to do. He had never met this girl in his life before, and here she was, hanging off his neck. But something about her seemed familiar. "You've been... looking for me?" He asked. The girl pulled herself away from his chest and looked up into his eyes. Her crimson ones looked beautiful. She nodded. "I've been looking for you, Naruto Uzumaki. We've been together for so long now, I just couldn't bear to be apart from you." She buried her face back into his chest, leaving him more confused then before.

"So Naruto, anything you want to tell us?" Naru looked at him, fury in her eyes. He noticed some of the other girls in the room were giving him strange looks. Sakura looked upset, as did Hinata, Shinobu and Su. He shook his head. "I'm sorry guys, I don't know any more then you do."

^^^

"Where do these weirdo's keep popping up from?" Naru muttered to herself as she cleaned a few dishes in the kitchen. Naruto and the strange girl was still in the living room, with the boy still battling to get the girl off of him. "I swear, we're going to be overrun if this keeps up." She sighed.

She heard footsteps come into the kitchen. "um... Naru?" Shinobu's timid voice called out her name fearfully, as though expecting the older girl to turn round and bite her head off. "Yes, what is it Shinobu?" Annoyance crept into her voice as she dried the dish she had just cleaned. She couldn't help it. She was born with a short-temper with a fuse soaked in aviation fuel.

"I was just wondering... Is that girl related to Naruto, do you think?" Shinobu sounded worried. What was she even worried about? "I don't know, Shinobu." Naru shook her head slowly, her mind still processing through the most recent events.
She was curious about this new girl though. "How about you find out?" She asked simply.

"W-what!?" Shinobu's startled reaction almost got a grin out of her. She was glad she had her back turned to the blue-haired girl. "Oh come on now Shinobu! It won't be that hard, just spy on the two of them for me."

"Spy on them!? But that's... well... Spying!"

"No kidding. Listen, what's the worst that could happen? And before you even think of that, think about what's the best that could happen! You get to find out all about Naruto and that fire headed girl."

Naru turned around to face the girl. She noticed a slight blush on the younger girl's face. Grinning to herself, she put a hand on Shinobu's shoulder. "They should still be in the living room, if Naruto hasn't managed to get that girl off him yet. Keep an eye on him, then we can find out what's going on around here."

With a small nod, Shinobu walked out of the room slowly.

^^^

This is so not my day...

Naruto and the strange girl were still in an entangled mess on the living room sofa. He'd given up ages ago trying to get the girl to let go of him. It just wasn't going to happen, she was incredibly strong.

She was softly nuzzling into his chest, making a soft, purring noise. He opened his mouth to try talking to her again, but closed it again. He just couldn't talk to her, his mind was slightly more occupied with how beautiful she looked.
Stirring softly, the girl looked up at him. Her eyes opened up, and he got to see the beautiful crimson that lay within. Looking into her eyes was like looking at the sky, just as the sun was setting. It reminded him of the beautiful sunsets he used to watch sitting on top of the Hokage's monument.

"Naruto...?"

Her voice was so soft, but ever so slightly aggressive too. It reminded him that she had a playful side to her as well. "What is it?" He was beginning to get lost in her eyes.
She began tracing the contours of his chest with her finger. "Do you really not remember me at all?" He could hear sadness in her voice. But no matter what, he couldn't remember for the life of him where he might've seen this girl before, no matter how hard she tried. He shook his head sadly. "I honestly can't remember. All I can say is that I feel as though I know you."

The girl sighed. She moved so that she was leaning on his chest with her elbows. "Well that's something at least..." She muttered to herself. She looked down at the young ninja, who looked a bit uncomfortable. He wasn't used to girls lying on top of him. It felt nice, and something he'd definitely want to get used to.
She grinned slyly. "You don't get many girls on top of you, don't you?" He shook his head slowly. His voice had stopped working. "Well, I intend to change that while I'm around." She winked playfully at him. "And only me. If the other girls around here start running after you, they'll be hell to pay." She smiled sweetly. She was like a mix between Anko and Sakura. Aggressive, but extremely attractive at the same time.

"It's times like these that having Jiraiya as a sensei really does help." He thought. "Now if only I'd actually paid attention when he talked about girls..."

"Can I ask something?" He was curious, and surprised he hadn't asked this already. The girl nodded at him. "Sure, you can ask me anything, my precious Naruto." She smiled a genuinely sweet smile. He looked into her eyes softly. "I know I can't remember you well. And I really wish that I did. But until my memory gets itself out of the clouds, could you tell me your name?"
The girl was surprised. "My name...?" Naruto nodded. "I don't know you're name yet. And it's not fair, because you already know, or remember my name." The girl nodded. "S-sure..." She sounded worried. "My name is..." She stuttered for a moment.

He waited patiently. "You're name is...?" He said softly. "It's..." Her eyes suddenly lit up. "Kyoko!" She nodded. "My name is Kyoko."

"Kyoko... You have a very nice name."

"Why thank you, Naruto." She leaned into his chest again. "That's a nice thing to say." She closed her eyes.

"So, Kyoko... What are you going to do now that you've found me?"

She looked up at him again. "What do you mean?" He looked back at her. "Well, now that you've found me, what's going to happen?" She thought about it for a moment, her eyes crossing in thought. "I don't know." She said happily as she leant her head back onto his chest. "I guess I'll figure it out when the times comes that I have to."
He sighed, giving up once again. He leant his head back onto a pillow and closed his eyes. "Now what do I do?" He thought despairingly. He sighed and tried to doze off.

He was woken up a few minutes later, by something soft pressing on his lips. His eyes flew open, waking up to Kyoko gently kissing him, her eyes closed. It didn't last long, but it felt like an eternity.
When she eventually drew back and opened her eyes, she smiled. "I finally get to kiss you, Naruto." Her voice sounded a lot more sensual. It was beginning to turn him on.
"I've waited such a long time, Naruto..." She closed her eyes and leaned in for another kiss. Naruto could only watch as her lips crashed onto his. This kiss was a lot more aggressive then the last one...

^^^

Shinobu gasped as she stepped back from the peep hole. Naruto and that strange girl were making out on the sofa in the living room!

With the images of what she saw racing through her mind, it brought about a startling realisation to the teenage girl.

"Am I jealous?"