The courtship of Naruto Uzumaki
XIII. A night at the theatre
Happily, she watched him eat the meal she'd so lovingly prepared. He ate like a little kid intently concentrating solely on his food without pause until he'd eaten a good portion of it. Then, he stopped took a breath, and smiled at her.
She smiled back, and wished she could pat his head, stroke his hair or smooth down his unruly blonde curls. She had so much love to give, but when would she feel free to show it without feeling shy or embarrassed? When could she completely demonstrate her love for him without reservation?
After he'd arrived at her door with flowers, she'd naturally gone into the arms held out to her. She'd been enfolded in a close embrace, and instinctively lifted her face for his kiss. She'd wrapped her own arms around his waist. They'd stood in her doorway like that for several long, delightful minutes. After his mouth released hers, she rested her head against his shoulder for a minute, before reluctantly disengaging herself claiming a need to check on dinner, and put her flowers in water. She'd ducked her head, blushing, not meeting his eyes. She didn't want to appear like a brazen hussy by clinging so readily to him, but truly she'd only wanted to stay right where she was happiest—in Naruto's arms.
He'd followed her into the kitchen, offered to help, wouldn't take no for an answer so she gave him whatever small tasks she could think of until she was able to serve dinner. He was always there near her, but never in the way. He just seemed very interested in her dinner preparations as if he'd never watched anyone cook for him before. Very soon they'd sat down, and she'd watched for his reaction to her meal. She wasn't disappointed.
"What is this Hinata? It's really tasty," he told her after he'd eaten almost an entire bowl full.
"It's yaki soba. Would you like some more?"
"Oh, yeah."
"Try the sunomono while I refill your bowl," she suggested as she took his bowl into the kitchen. She knew her Naruto so she'd made plenty.
"Okay," he told her helping himself to a plate of cucumber salad.
She handed him another full bowl of yaki soba then sat down to finish her own bowl of sunomono. She was a much slower eater than he was, and she didn't eat as much. Once she'd finished her salad, she ate a small portion of the yaki soba.
"Hinata, that was great," Naruto patted his stomach as he finally pushed away from the table. He would have eaten a third bowl, but the salad had taken the edge off his hunger. "Yaki soba is really good. It reminds me of ramen."
She smiled. "I thought you'd like it since you like noodles. Did you like the sunomono?"
"Yeah, that was good, too even though I don't eat salads very often. You're a really fantastic cook, Hinata."
"Thank you. I'm happy you enjoyed everything." She stood up, and began to gather the dirty dishes.
Naruto jumped up. "Let me do that for you."
"No, no, you're my guest."
He shook his head. "Nope. I invited you on this date. You cooked so I'll do the dishes."
"Naruto—"
"You can't stop me so you'd just better show me where to wash everything up," he stubbornly insisted.
Helplessly, she led him to her small kitchen, and showed him the sink, the soap, and a wash rag. "If you're going to wash up then let me mend your jacket."
He raised his elbows, and looked from side to side. "What? I didn't manage to pick an untorn one?"
"It's just the pocket. Right here on the corner. If I mend it now, it won't tear further." She tweaked his left pocket.
"Okay. You win." He took off his jacket, and handed it to her.
While he washed the dishes, she mended his jacket. She examined all the seams carefully, and reinforced a few while she had it in her hands. With his back turned to her, she shamelessly held it up to her face, and breathed in the scent of Naruto lingering amidst the fresh laundry smell. She loved the way he smelled even when he was all sweaty. There was simply nothing about Naruto that she didn't love. She really had it bad.
After he finished washing the dishes, he began to dry them. This time she helped despite his protests putting everything away in its proper place when he handed it to her.
She thought that this was how it would be if they were married—cooking together, eating together, washing dishes together. Or if he never helped her wash up again, she wouldn't care. She just wanted to share her life with Naruto. That was a dream that seemed to be coming closer and closer to a reality every day. She'd never felt so happy in her life.
"I guess we're done," he said looking around, and giving the counter one last swipe before folding the cloth over the edge of the sink.
"Thank you for your help, Naruto. I didn't realize you were so domestic," she gently teased.
"Do you mean I'll make someone a wonderful wife one day?" he asked with a grin.
"Well, cleanliness is an excellent quality for either a husband or wife."
"I don't usually have many dishes to clean at my place. I eat out a lot. You know, I'm usually not the neatest guy in the world, but even I've learned what happens when you leave dirty dishes or food lying around for too long. There are some insect and animal life I'd rather not share my room with again." He gave a fake shudder.
"You've always impressed me with your ability to learn from your mistakes."
"Hinata, you say the nicest things to me even when I don't deserve 'em." He took her hand in his, and swung it between them. "So are you ready for the rest of our date?"
"Yes. Are we going to the theater?"
"You betcha. I've already bought the tickets. I didn't want to risk having it sold out before we got there. That little theater only seats 100. If everything I've heard about this show is true—it's really popular, and has been since they came to town a month ago."
"I'm looking forward to it."
"Great. The show starts at 7. We can get started now, and not hurry. It won't matter if we're a little early."
He dropped her hand to put on his jacket while she retrieved hers. When she met him at the door, he put his hands on her shoulders, bent down and gave her a quick kiss. "Thank you for fixing my jacket. Thank you for a wonderful dinner. Thank you for going out with me," he whispered in her ear.
"Oh, Naruto. It's I who should thank you," she said in a choked voice, hiding her face against his shoulder.
"If you want to fight about it, I'll win." He kissed her ear. "Come on, sweetheart we'd better go."
"Okay," she raised her face to give him a teary smile.
He had to take a minute to dry her eyes, and kiss her again before they could set off.
He held her hand all the way to the community theater building. They didn't talk very much on the way. Mostly they just smiled at each other with goofy expressions. At least Naruto wondered if he looked goofy. Hinata just looked adorable. He couldn't stop smiling, and his smile broadened every time Hinata blushed or shyly met his eyes. He wanted to kiss her every second. Maybe that thought was obvious enough to cause her to continually blush. Could this be love?
The community theater building had been rented out to the traveling theater troop for the run of their appearance in Konoha which was posted as two months. He'd taken the advice of the ticket seller, and purchased tickets in the middle of the center section. He thought the front row would be the best seats, but the ticket seller had told him they'd be too close to the stage, and wouldn't get the best view of everything. He hoped the guy was right.
They were only twenty minutes early so they took their seats, and watched while the rest of the audience meandered in. Naruto recognized a few faces in the audience, but there were a lot of people he didn't know. Sometimes he had to remind himself that the ninja weren't the whole village. There were shopkeepers, restaurant workers, hotel workers, construction workers, and many others who made up the village of Konoha. There were even tourists. Not every villager's life revolved around the ninja complex though he found that idea hard to believe.
As they waited, they read over the program.
"Look, Hinata, there's a play first. The doomed lovers. That doesn't sound like a happy story. At least it's short."
"Naruto! Don't you like drama?"
"I like action—lot's of fighting. I bet there's no fighting in that play."
"What about singers? The second act on the bill is a singer. Lady Chiyoko Maeda. Her name is printed in larger type than many of the other acts. I wonder if that means she's famous."
"Everyone I've talked to says she's really good so she's probably well-known. I like singing. Do you sing, Hinata?"
"I'm not really sure. I'm always too shy to sing very loud," she admitted, and quickly changed the subject. "Let's see, after Lady Chiyoko Maeda is another play. You might like this one better, Naruto. A falling out. It's described as an action comedy."
"Yeah, that sounds more like me—plus the act after that—a dog act. The Wonder Dogs. I wonder if Kiba's seen it yet?"
Hinata didn't want to talk about Kiba. She changed the subject again. "Acrobats are next. The Super Tanaka Brothers. That should be interesting."
"I'm really interested in the last act. The magician. The Amazing Iwao. I've seen a lot of amazing things in my life. It'll be pretty hard to amaze me. We'll see what he can do."
"Naruto, you sound like you don't want to enjoy the show."
"For the price of these tickets, I better love it," he said darkly.
"You're so silly," she said, and playfully slapped his arm.
He grabbed her hand, and held it. "I better hold on to this. You could do me some damage."
"Naruto," she whispered, and squeezed his hand back.
Before they could do any more talking the house lights blinked in warning that the show was about to start.
The doomed lovers was more interesting than he thought it would be. The acting was good, and it was just long enough to stay interesting. It was about a pair of teenagers in love, but their families were enemies. The girl faked her death by taking a drug that made her seem dead so she could run away with her love, but the boy didn't get word that the death was fake. He stabbed himself to death falling onto of her body. She wakes up, finds him dead, so takes his knife, and kills herself. The parents were sorry for their stand against the young lovers in the end. The deaths were bloody, and agonizing which seemed to appeal to the younger members of the audience. Naruto thought that was the best part, too.
Lady Chiyoko Maeda came on next. She wore an old style costume consisting of three layers of kimonos. The first was purple, the second was green, and the third gold. Her blue black hair was arranged elaborately atop her head with two gold-tasseled hair ornaments. Her makeup was very theatrical consisting of white face paint, red lipstick, and black drawn arched brows giving her a surprised look. As she sang, she used hand gestures, and a fan to act out the songs. Her voice was a clear, bell-like soprano with at least a seven octave range. She sang sad songs, happy songs, and epic songs. Naruto was definitely mesmerized by the beauty of her voice as was rest of the audience must be because the theater was completely silent during her singing until the time for the applause—then it was loud and long. It wasn't surprising that her name was emphasized in the program.
The second play A falling out was a complete change of pace. It was the story of two drunks in a bar who have a stupid argument then pull out swords and start to fight. They performed some miraculous feats stumbling, falling down, and narrowly missing sword thrusts. It was a beautifully choreographed, and funny fight. They finally ended up knocking each other out, and being thrown out of the bar. Naruto laughed heartily along with the rest of the audience. Glancing over at her, he was happy to see that Hinata was enjoying it, too.
It was during the dog act that the tenor of the evening changed.
A pretty girl in a skimpy glittering blue outfit ran onstage from the left. She blew a whistle, and six white dogs ran onstage to circle around her. They each wore a glittering blue cap buckled under their chins with a spray of colorful, glittering, stiff strings bobbing on the top. She whistled and gestured, and the dogs all stopped running and rose up on their hind legs around her. She tossed each of them a treat from a pouch at her waist. The dogs ran in a line in front of her, and stood up on their hind legs to the audience. They were very cute as they performed so the audience clapped each time they did a trick.
Someone backstage tossed the girl a large hoop. She whistled and gestured for the dogs to line up facing the hoop. Just as she brought the whistle to her mouth to begin a new trick, five men in the audience, three rows down and to the right of where Naruto and Hinata sat, stood up en masse. They were all dressed in dark blue robes, and had shaved heads. They looked like monks. The one in front blew on what looked like a wooden whistle. Although his cheeks filled with air, and he expelled it into the whistle no sound emitted from the end. However, the dogs on stage began to run around in disorder barking frantically.
The girl tried using her own whistle, but the dogs didn't respond. They barked frantically every time the man in the audience seemed to blow his whistle. Several men came out from the stage wings, chased down the dogs and carried them off the stage. The girl bowed to the audience, and helpless followed.
Once the barking became faint as if the dogs were being taken outside another man came out of the right stage wing and strode to the front of the stage. The house lights came up just as he reached the edge of the stage. He had long, white hair tied back from his thin, aesthetic face, and wore a brilliant blue jacket and pants. He appeared tall, and commanding. He addressed the men standing up in the audience.
"What do you mean by disrupting our show?" he demanded in a deep, authoritative voice that projected well across the room.
"We are from the Order of the Way of the Horse. We protest the cruel use of animals in your show." A man beside the man with the whistle yelled back. He was not as well trained in voice projection.
"No animals in our care are abused. We use reward not punishment as a training tool."
"I don't believe that. I have heard rumors to the contrary."
"Then you've heard wrong. If you have any concerns with our show your proper course would be to discuss it with me privately not disrupt the show for everyone else."
"Who are you?"
"Who are you?"
"I am Yuu Higa. I am the abbot of our traveling temple. We are dedicated to the humane treatment of all creatures under the sun on this earth. We abhor the use of animals in such materialistic displays."
"Well, Yuu Higa, I am Leiko Iseki, the manager of this troupe. I don't really care what your opinion is if your intention is to disrupt our performance. For the courtesy of the rest of this audience, I must ask you to leave now. If you do not do so I will have my people bodily remove you."
The abbot folded his arms implacably across his chest, and his fellow monks followed suit. "We refuse to leave until you have proven to our satisfaction that you have not abused any animals in your care."
The director gestured to the stage wings, and a half dozen large men, the same ones who'd retrieved the dogs earlier, came out, jumped down into the pit below the stage, and climbed the stairs up to where the monks stood. Fortunately, the protestors were sitting on isle seats so the rest of the audience didn't have to budge. The monks kept their arms folded, and stood firm. The men from the theater troupe finally threw the monks over their shoulders, and carried them out.
Once the disruption had been removed, the director bowed and apologized to the audience. He then bid them enjoy the rest of the show.
Naruto had been ready to jump in to help, but Hinata had stopped him. She asked him to wait to see if there would be any trouble before he became involved. She thought it would be better for the theater group to handle it then for Konoha residents to become involved. Since the evacuation of the monks was carried out bloodlessly, he wasn't disappointed to have stayed out of it.
"Who are those monks? Have you ever heard of them before?" he asked her as they watched their removal.
"No. I didn't realize an order of that nature had come to Konoha. I wonder if Lady Tsunade knows of it."
"She will now. I saw several chûnin in the audience. Someone's bound to tell her."
"I'm glad they didn't fight. Apparently they're a peaceful organization."
"Too bad they had to mess up our evening."
"It isn't messed up. There are still two acts to follow. I've enjoyed everything so far."
The lights began to dim again. The murmuring audience quieted down, and the show began again with The Super Tanaka Brothers. They performed tumbling, throwing each other, balancing on large balls, and tight ropes, as well as juggling at the same time as doing their acrobatics. It wasn't really anything a ninja couldn't do, but they did it with dramatic flair, superb coordination, and flashy costumes. It was a good spectacle. Naruto was impressed by their performance.
The last act was The Amazing Iwao. Naruto had been looking forward to this act mostly because he didn't think the guy could amaze him. Like he'd told Hinata, he'd seen a lot of amazing things just as she had in their business. It would take a lot to impress them.
The man who came on stage was dressed all in black with a black hood, mask and gloves. Accompanying him was a pretty girl in a skimpy outfit of glittering red and gold with an elaborate headdress to match. She introduced him, and spoke for him, explaining each of his tricks. He performed a number of sudden appearances and disappearances of kerchiefs, flowers, birds, a rabbit, and his assistant with dramatic colored smoke as emphasis. He accepted objects from the audience, seemed to break them then they'd appear intact in his assistant's hands, and sent back to the owning party. He produced fireworks from nothing with brilliant colors and noise. He was tied up by someone in the audience, and untied himself in record time. He was locked in a cage, and escaped almost effortlessly. He levitated his assistant as she lay on the ground to several feet in the air. It was all stuff, Naruto had heard about in magic shows before, but it seemed more interesting when seen live. The guy used elaborate, understandable gestures that barely needed his assistant's explanations. His appearance was enjoyably mysterious and suitably dramatic. The audience was completely spellbound as they watched. Naruto was more impressed with his skills then he'd thought to be. It didn't occur to him until later to wonder if the guy knew genjutsu techniques. He decided it didn't matter. It was more fun not to figure out his secrets.
He'd clapped as long and hard as everyone in the audience when the performance was finished. It had been a great show. And he decided—worth every penny.
"You want to walk awhile," Naruto asked as they left the theater amidst the rest of the crowd. He tightly held her hand so they wouldn't be separated. They were jostled against each other in the mass exodus, but stayed walking closely together as the crowd dispersed.
"Don't you have to be up early for guard duty in the morning?"
"It's okay. I don't need much sleep."
"Let's walk," she agreed. She didn't want the evening to end. It had been magical.
"Why don't we walk towards the river not the park this time?"
"Okay."
They walked slowly towards the boardwalk near the river before either of them spoke again.
"I'm sorry about what happened tonight, Hinata. I guess my bad luck is showing again. We can't seem to get through a date without something weird happening."
"It wasn't your fault, Naruto. I enjoyed the show very much. That little interruption couldn't change that. We could always go again before they leave so we can see the entire show without interruption," she suggested putting her free hand comfortingly on his arm.
He stopped walking, and turned to look down into her sweet face. "Hinata, do you know how wonderful you are?"
"Me? No, not me. You're the wonderful one, Naruto."
He took both of her hands in his. "Hinata, you make me feel the way no one has ever made me feel before. You make me feel special, and wanted."
"Oh, Naruto, of course, you're wanted. I've told you that."
He shook his head. "That's not true. I've only been tolerated most of my life. Until Iruka sensei nobody liked me. Until you no girl liked me."
"Oh, Naruto, of course I like you. I've always liked you. I'm sure lots of people like you. Kakashi sensei. Sakura. Lady Tsunade. Lord Jiraiya. Shikamaru. Choji. Lord Gaara. Lady Temari. More people like you than like me."
"I don't think that's true. I bet all those people would like you better, and more besides. All the people who think I'm a troublemaker and show-off would like you."
"As long as you like me the others don't matter," she told him bravely.
"Yeah, I like you. A lot. I'm still trying to figure out how much I like you. This is all new to me, Hinata. You'll have a little patience with me, won't you?"
"Yes, Naruto."
"There are a lot of things I want to tell you about myself. The Fifth gave me permission. I don't know how much you already know."
"I know quite a bit about you, Naruto," she confessed. She'd studied him more than she'd ever studied any subject in school. But it wasn't as if there was a book entitled Naruto Uzumaki that she could read every night. Her knowledge had been gathered slowly, a little at a time, and there were many gaps in that knowledge that she'd love to fill.
"Is that right? Do you know that I'm a jinchūriki? That the nine-tailed fox is inside me?"
"Yes. I know that. All of the ninja are age and older know that much."
"Well, I guess that's no surprise to me considering all trouble I had with the Atasuki in the past. Did you know that the Fourth was my father?"
"No—that is I suspected something like that, but I didn't know for sure."
"Yeah, Minato Namikaze was my father. Kushina Uzumaki, a kunoichi from the Land of the Whirlpool was my mother. My father saved Konoha from the nine-tailed fox by sealing it inside me using the Dead Demon Consuming Seal which killed him in the process. If the Atasuki had been able to steal Kyuubi from me, I'd be dead. I'll always be a target for those who wish to possess a demon. I'll always be feared for what's inside me. I'll have that threat over me for the rest of my life. I wanted you to know this, Hinata, before—before—well, before we—you know—before anything else happens between us," he told her earnestly.
She took his hand, and held to her cheek. "Naruto, none of that matters to me. I'm only sorry that you never knew your parents, and that your part in saving the village isn't universally known. I think the villagers should have always been praising and respecting you not avoiding you. You're truly wonderful that you don't hate everyone."
"Naw, I couldn't do that. I was angry for a long time when I was a kid, but when I decided to become a ninja I put all that behind me. I want to be Hokage one day—the best one I can be. That means I have to take care of every person in this village no matter how they feel about me."
She turned her cheek in his palm and kissed it. "Naruto, you are so good," she said in a choked voice.
He put his arms around her holding her tightly against him. "No, I'm not, but I try to be. Don't cry for me, Hinata. Life is pretty good for me right now. You're still my girl, aren't you?"
"Y-yes, I am."
"You're not having second thoughts now that you know all the problems that come with me?"
"No, no, never."
"Then I'm still the luckiest guy in the world."
"Oh, Naruto," she whispered crying in earnest now. She didn't care how much he denied it, she thought him to be the most wonderful man in the world. She was his girl now and forever—no matter what.