Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
"Windows to the Soul"
by Chronos Astral
Chapter 4:
'Dull Day'
Yamanaka Ino was bored out of her mind. Today was going to be a dull day, she was sure. With her best friend, Haruno Sakura, unavailable for the day, she was left with nothing to do. Though she did note the evident changes in her friend's demeanor, like how she rarely cries anymore and has actually built up the courage to fight back against her bullies. When inquired, she would only mention a boy named Naruto, whom she says is responsible for the change. Ino would also notice that her friend would carry around an odd looking handkerchief, but decided not to ask about it.
Her father, Yamanaka Inoichi, had just recently come back from a mission and was sporting terrible muscle pains and stress. Having picked up an ad for a masseur, he had called for their services and asked Ino to wait at the door while he rested his aching back on the recliner. They had yet to arrive though.
Ding! Dong!
Not getting up from his seat, Inoichi addressed his daughter. "Ino-chan. Please answer the door."
"Hai, Otou-san." With a sigh, Ino complied.
Upon opening the door she was greeted with the sight of two men. One was the taller of the two, with blue hair tied into a ridiculously long ponytail garbed in a blue worker suit. The other was a good deal shorter and looked no older that six years old, dressed almost identically with a worker's hat shadowing the most of his face.
With a smile, the taller man greeted them. "Ohayo-gozai-" He was cut off by an elbow to his hip, courtesy of his younger counterpart. "I mean, Konnichiwa. We are the masseur services here for one Yamanara Inoishi-san. Is he home?"
"It's Yamanaka Inoichi, and I'm right here." With some difficulty, the older Yamanaka got up from his seat, feeling the tear of his muscles with each exertion.
The young masseur went up to his side. "Don't exert yourself so much, Yamanata-san. I'll get you to your room so we may start the session."
"It's Yamanaka..." He corrected again, before letting himself be led to his room by the man.
"Otou-san, can I have a massage too?" Ino inquired, having nothing else to do with her time.
"I don't kno-"
"Sure! My apprentice is capable enough for the job." The masseur cut him off and smiled at his smaller assistant who nodded in affirmative.
As the two older men left, Ino turned to regard the boy. "'Apprentice'? You're around as old as I am." She said incredulously.
The boy chuckled in response. "Well it doesn't matter. So, you want that massage?"
"Yeah. But it better be good."
The boy went over to one of the couches and set aside its pillows to clear space for the blonde Yamanaka to lie in. "Now I need you to take off your shirt."
"What!?" Ino burst a vein while reflexively putting her arms around her. She maybe too young to have a mature body but she still held insecurities of being half-naked around others. "I can't take off my shirt in front of a boy!"
"Don't worry. I'll turn around so I don't see, then you lie down on the couch." He assured her.
"Are you sure you won't look?"
"I promise." He turned his back to her, looking the other way while waiting for her to finish.
After a few moments of hesitation, Ino managed to undress herself of her shirt and had settled herself on the couch, with her back exposed to the boy. "I'm ready."
The boy removed his hat, revealing his unruly blond tresses, deep azure eyes, and unique fox-like whiskers. With a friendly grin he introduced himself. "Uzumaki Naruto. At your service."
Naruto? Ino thought for a moment, before two small hands came in contact with the skin on her back. She yelped in surprise.
"Relax. Just let me do my work." Naruto began working his magic on her shoulders, earning a sigh of contentment. Expertly, he worked his hands into her muscles, knowing which point and area felt most soothing.
"Mmmm... That feels really good..." Ino felt herself relax into his touch, enjoying the slow lulling ministrations that tenderly caressed her body. She erased all insecurity and let herself drift into a peaceful trance that bordered a dream-like state and reality.
"Can you keep a secret?" He asked the girl. She nodded absently. "We're not real masseurs. We're only doing this for training and money."
"You and the other guy?"
Naruto nodded and shifted his hands to her feet. "That was my nii-san. He said that I will better understand the muscles of the human body if I were to experience it. I'm going to be a ninja after all, so I need to understand how the body works."
"Wow..." Was all she could say before the feeling of his hands knead her feet put her back in her half-lidded glaze.
Naruto smiled as his work procured excellent results. His 'nii-san' had taught him how to apply chakra into one's hand to manipulate the tendons in one's body. It was a basic medical jutsu taught to most chuunin that helped greatly in missions that required much exertion that would eventually lead to pulling or cramping of muscles. After much painful practice with his own hand and foot, he had nearly perfected the art, and was given the test of applying the same principle on another person without hurting them. He would have used it on the nameless man himself, but he had planned the more profitable method of temporarily selling their services to others. This was their eighth customer to date, and they were earning quite the keep.
Drifting away from his current musing, his mind had wandered to the thought of a certain pink-haired girl that was one of the first to have consider him a friend. They didn't see each other since their initial meeting, but he hoped that she had changed for the better with his departing words. He recalled the girl's conversation with whom he assumed was her best friend. He decided to query the blonde on Sakura.
"How's Sakura-chan doing?"
Ino perked at this. "So you're that boy Sakura keeps talking about? The one who wants to be Hokage?"
Naruto grinned sheepishly and itched the side of his face. "Yup. That's me."
She looked at him with a bit of scrutiny, sizing him up and down. "From the way Sakura talks about you, I thought you'd be taller and cooler-looking."
The blond boy grumbled and narrowed his eyes. "So you want me to stop?"
"No! I'm sorry! I'll be good!" Ino frantically begged.
"I'm just kidding," Naruto made a playful grin and resumed his work and the girl gave a relieved sigh. "So, how has she been doing?"
"She's changed a lot. She doesn't cry a lot like she used to and she doesn't call me when she's being bullied. She actually stands up to them now."
"That's good." The blond boy smiled to himself, proud of bringing about a positive change in his new friend. Returning his focus on the girl before him, he noticed a slightly dejected look on her face. "What's wrong?"
Ino closed her eyes in thought, trying to find the words to best express her thoughts. "It's just... I don't feel like I'm important to her anymore. Because whenever she cries and stuff, I always want to be there to make it better. But now that she's trying hard to stand up for herself, I don't know what I can do for her anymore."
Ino slowly recalled the events of her life that lead to her friendship with the pink-haired girl. "Before I met Sakura, I was sorta bossy and nobody liked me for it. I didn't have many friends, so I felt a little lonely. Then when I saw some bullies picking on Sakura, I yelled at them and told them to back off. That was when we became friends. I would always be the one to protect her, and she would be there for me."
"Now, I feel like I have nothing else to do for her. It's weird. And it makes me feel a little lonely." She finished with a long sigh, letting the boy's caress soften her mood.
"I think you're a good friend, Ino-chan, and I'm sure that Sakura-chan won't abandon you," He told her, rubbing the back of her neck gently. "She wants to be strong, because she doesn't want to feel weak anymore. To do that, she'll need your help though."
"My help?"
"Yup. Cuz she's not just doing this for herself. She's doing it for you too, Ino-chan," He lowered his head for her to have a better view of him. "Sakura-chan needs you to support her, because she gets stronger from you. She still needs you, Ino-chan, and I want you to help her too."
She eyed the boy curiously, baring into his blue eyes. "You want me to help her?"
"Yup. She's my friend too, y'know? And I think that if you help her, you will also help yourself."
"You want to help me too?"
"Of course!" He grinned. "I consider you my friend too."
At that, Ino couldn't help but blush and buried her head in her pillow. "Sh-shut up and keep going..."
"Alright then..." Naruto beamed, unaware of the small trickling of tears that snaked their way from Ino's face and onto the pillow.
Sandaime smiled softly as he gaze into his crystal ball, keeping track of both Naruto and his new guardian. From what he's seen, the man has done quite a lot in progressing Naruto's training. Many of his methods and lessons were clever and informative, almost enough to have Sarutobi convince the man for a job as chuunin teacher or maybe even a jounin instructor if he met the standards.
What he was most impressed by was how Naruto was gaining more and more friends with his guardian's teachings. The wisdom and kindness the man had exhumed and taught his young ward made it hard for the elderly Hokage to believe that this was the same man who had done that terrible act.
His smile faltered slightly at the recollection, but continued in his viewing of Naruto's session with the young Yamanaka. A poof of smoke erupted briefly in his office, revealing the presence of his former student, Jiraiya.
"How's he doin' sensei?" The sannin asked in a serious tone, cautious of his students behavior.
"He's doing fine, Jiraiya. He has made exemplary work in teaching young Naruto. Already, the boy has made great bounds in his progress and has made a few more friends along the way. He makes quite a better teacher than both you and me." Sandaime elaborated while smoking his favorite pipe.
Jiraiya narrowed his eyes but let that comment slide. "From what my information has told me, since the Kyuubi attacked six years ago, he had been wandering from village to village, not doing anything in particular. He had come to this one just a few months ago, on the anniversary of the Kyuubi's attack no less. That's all I've gathered so far."
The Sandaime nodded and told him of his own report. "From what I've gathered in his activities with Naruto, he has been using very little chakra and only small shreds of his strength in comparison to what we've seen of him the last time. I can't tell if he's suppressing his power, but it looks more like he's gotten weaker over time. Much weaker."
"I highly doubt that. For someone who could have been stronger in power and potential than the Yondaime, he couldn't get weaker than he was unless he wanted to be." The Toad Hermit thought scornfully.
"True..." The old Sarutobi mulled for a moment. "But what if he really did get weaker on purpose?"
"And for what reason would he do that?"
"Regret?" The answer made sense, for that would have been a viable reason for his former student to care for the boy. Maybe he felt guilt over what he's done?
"Maybe..." Jiraiya walked up closer to his former teacher, eyeing the scene that was displayed in his crystal ball.
... That girl will fill in quite nicely when she grows up... Jiraiya thought with a perverted smirk.
"So Naruto..." Said the azure-haired man as he walked in stride with his younger counterpart. "How did it go?"
Naruto smiled fondly at him. "It went great, Nii-san. I think I did really well and I even made a new friend."
The man beamed knowingly. "I thought so." He then switched to a lecturing tone. "So what advantages does this give a ninja?"
"When using the right amount of chakra on the right muscles, it triggers a sense of relaxation that completely drops the target's guard, thereby making it easy for quick assassination. Also, in their dazed state, it is also possible to easily extract information from them." He stated in the same tone.
"Very good, Naruto. But what did you learn?"
The blond's smile went wider. Looking 'underneath the underneath' was something he was slowly growing adept at. "When I massaged those people, they felt really calm and peaceful, letting their troubles wash away from them. From what I've learned of others, they all have something to worry about, big or small. What we just did, helped them cope a little with those things like what I did with Ino-chan."
"And?"
"It felt... nice, to see other people happy from what I do. It gives this really warm tingly feeling." Naruto closed his eyes and gave a smaller serene smile, an almost perfect imitation of his guardian's. "It's better than any payment I've ever felt."
The man ruffled the boy's head fondly, proud of how the boy was progressing. To him, it was no longer just redemption. Not anymore. "Come on. Let's go get some ramen. From the tip we've received, we can eat our fill."
"YATTA!" Naruto cheered and reached for his hat to throw into the air in jubilation.
Wait... He felt around his head, only for his hands to brush against his scalp. Where's my hat?
Ino felt ridiculous, looking at her reflection in her mirror. The hat was too large for her by a few inches and it didn't really suit her that well. It made her look a little boyish as well.
The junior masseur had left the blue cap by accident, serving as a small reminder of the blond. Strangely, she felt compelled to wear it. When it was loosely nestled onto her head, her first thought was that it looked goofy, but after being reminded of its previous owner, a warm feeling would envelop and caress her, almost similar to how she felt when he gave her that massage. With his words, she felt that she was wanted, and the funny-smelling headpiece reminded her of it.
Shaking her head, she gently removed the hat, and placed it on the desk next to her bed. Maybe she didn't need to throw it away. After all, it would have been a waste of a good hat, right?
Whoo...
Slowly progressing methinks.
A little lacking in the reviews. Need more...
