"Speech"
"Thought"
"Demonic Voice"
"Bijuu thoughts"
Justu
XXXXXXX = Flashback
(A/N: Author Note)
Disclaimer: All rights reserved by the original creator this is a fan production.
It's a bit late but that's better than never. And if yould would be so kind to give a round of applause to my beta's
Otakufangirl101: This is the first chapter she's beta'd and she did a great damn job.
Kid Buu 619: Thanks for the feedback helps me to realize I'm on the right track.
And to everyone who reviews thanks for all that feedback, my ego chomps all that good shit up and uses that to fuel my creativity.
XXXXXXX
Chapter 25: Functional
"Thirteen? Seriously?" of all the things she had been expecting for him to share this definitely wasn't it. Tayuya shook her head as she jotted down more information about the operations in Rice country, Orochimaru might've already locked down all the important things but a country doesn't run on fear alone; supplies had to be paid for and people had to eat. Cutting those lines would skin a few scales off the snake. "Damn I know live fast and die young is the motto of a couple shinobi, but popping you're cherry at thirteen? Why?"
"I don't really know by that time I had Tomoko and Mei but I guess I was still working through some childhood angst, the hormones were just starting to kick in," Naruto explained as he really put some thought into the why, "and somehow my thirteen year old mind thought having sex with a hooker would make me feel better."
"A hooker? Fuck, don't know if I should laugh or give you a hug," she settled for her usual method, "Was it magical?"
"Oh yeah, that whole night was magical," he said quite sarcastically, "she humped me for a couple minutes until I came and then I felt so dirty I took a shower. When I came back out lo and behold my moderately attractive escort took all my shit; cash, gear, my clothes; just, poof, made it disappear."
"Hmm, I still don't whether to laugh or hug you," Tayuya said honestly.
"You could do both," Naruto said as he sat down next to her, "hell I want to laugh at me a little to."
And that's what she did, she wrapped an arm around him and both of them laughed at Naruto's screwy little life.
"You ever wonder why we're not complete fucking messes?" Tayuya asked as they sat there together. "I mean if anyone heard half the shit we've been talking about they'd probably try to get us committed."
"I don't think so, I think we're just like most other shinobi out there," Naruto replied, "We're just functional messes. Now come on and finish filling out those papers, this cage is getting musty." Tayuya nodded in reply and got back to her task eagerly, excited to have her life change for the better.
"Don't blame me for that. It's fucking hot out today."
XXXXXXX
Tayuya's life wasn't the only one that was changing. Sakura stood in the training room of the hospital, her mind wandering as she waited for Tsunade. Things finally seemed to be settling down since her return and Naruto's recovery. Her aunt had offered to take her in which she refused at first, unwilling to leave her mother's home. However, Sakura realized that even with her mother's inheritance she'd olny be able to keep the house for a couple months. After paying her aunt, Yuki, a visit they packed everything that mattered, sold what didn't, and, with a little hassle and a very pushy realtor, sold the home for a tidy little sum that both decided Sakura would keep. If only her relationship with Naruto could go as smoothly but that was mostly her fault since she refused to talk to him.
"Sakura!"
"Huh? Oh Lady Tsunade," Sakura hastily bowed to her new sensei "I'm honored to be your apprentice!"
"So what's got your head wandering?" Tsunade asked, "Must have been something important if you didn't notice me walk in."
"Oh uh well I was thinking about, Naruto."
"That brat seems to be giving me nothing but migraines recently," Tsunade said as she scanned the bookshelf, "first that big secret of his, then I catch him with the Suna ambassador Gaara, and now my new apprentice. I swear that kid is trouble on two legs."
"A girl from Suna?" Sakura felt rage burn in her heart. Her mother's death still fresh in her mind, "I still can't believe we're giving those backstabbers another chance."
"I see there's no love lost between you and Suna," Tsunade said as she found what she was looking for.
"Of course," Sakura replied bitterly, "those bastards killed my mother."
"Well that has to change," Tsunade held up a hand to stop any lip from Sakura. "You're my apprentice now, that means I'm going to throw important assignments your way. Those assignments might mean working with Suna shinobi and I have to trust in your ability to carry them out regardless of your prejudice. Can you do that?"
"Ye-"
"And before you answer let me make one thing clear, I am the Hokage. This village has been entrusted to me and if you do anything to endanger it, apprentice or not, I will personally oversee your punishment. Understand?"
"I-I understand Master Tsunade," Sakura answered, "I won't allow my feelings to interfere with my duties."
"Good, now with that out of the way," Tsunade said placing a book and scroll on the desk. "This book contains the first set of exercises you'll need to perform to get down the basics of medical justu, when you can bring a fish back to life we begin the next stage of your training. Get to it."
"Yes Master Tsunade," Sakura cracked open the book and began diligently studying the material.
"Sakura," Tsunade placed a firm hand on Sakura's shoulder, "I know the wound is still fresh, I know how much it hurts and I know keeping your hate back won't be easy, but I don't want to see my new apprentice haunted by bad memories like I was. If you ever need to talk to someone that understands, I'm here."
"Thank you Master Tsunade," Sakura replied shakily then Tsunade left leaving her with a lot to think about.
XXXXXXX
"Alright here's everything she knows," Naruto said as he handed over all the information right into Shizune's hands.
"Good I'll tell Lady Tsunade and get these to Ibiki," Shizune said and then added, "and yes Naruto I'll do this immediately so Tayuya can get processed and released."
"Thanks Shizune," Naruto replied happily, glad to hear that Tayuya would be getting out soon. He really needed good news after the whole debacle with Gaara, and Haku, and he and Tomoko hadn't talked about his leaving. Luck, however, had always been good to him which is why he bumped into someone, who had been avoiding him, as he left the Hokage's Tower.
"Haku."
"N-Naruto…" Once again, she wished life would care just a little instead of kicking her around, and then she wondered when this would become awkward and painful. "It's warm out today."
"Yeah, it sure is," Naruto answered, "So how's avoiding me been going?"
There it was. Rather than make uncomfortable small talk like a socially attuned person, Naruto got straight to the heart of the matter. "I haven't been avoiding you." Just because he wanted to talk about it didn't mean she had to.
"Oh you haven't?" Naruto said following her as she walked away. "Because whenever I've gone to the hospital to find you, you're always busy. And I've gone to your apartment; you know, the one that's in the same building as mine and you never seem to home either. Oh, and my favourite; whenever we see each other in the street, you walk in a completely different direction or just leap onto the rooftops."
"Those were just coincidences," Haku replied adjusting the satchel on her shoulder. "Like right now, I've got something important to do and I'd like to do it in my air conditioned room so goodbye."
XXXXXXX
Today had actually been pleasant for Gaara; the sun was scorching, the birds weren't making those obnoxious chirping noises, and best of all no meetings with that pain in the ass council. It's these kinds that always get ruined by that one person who just insists on being a nuisance. Which is why Gaara now wished to know the reason Kankuro had suddenly grown the nerve to stand up to her because then she'd be able to find and stomp that reason out of existence, ending her brother's streak of overbearing nonsense. "Kankuro I'm going to speak with Naruto whether you like it or not."
"You're damn right I'm not going to like it, but speaking is as far as it's going to go," Kankuro shot back. "The council would have a stroke if they found ou-omph"
FWISH!
Kankuro was starting to realize that he was approaching the threshold of his sister's patience. Now trapped against a wall by her sand, he wished that he'd realized that sooner.
"You know, dear brother, I've been doing my best to act in a more normal less homicidal manner," Gaara said sweetly, "but now I'm starting to think I should be a bit more honest with myself. So here's what going to happen: I'm going to see my friend and you are going stay here with the wall." With that the red head took her leave.
Kankuro struggled against the sand shouting after his sister, "Gaara! Gaara! Let me down!" Of course once Kankuro realized that Gaara wasn't coming back the shouting died down. "Damn it Gaara."
Kankuro didn't know if he preferred having another normal-ish sister or the homicidal sociopath that his sister had been. At least the sociopath was easy to read, this new Gaara he didn't know what she was going to do.
"You couldn't just give her her space could you?" Kankuro sighed turning his head to meet his other sister's disapproving gaze. "How did you honestly think this was going to turn out."
"I just don't want her to get hurt," Kankuro said gazing honestly into Temari's eyes, "We haven't been a family in a long time and I wasn't a big brother when I should have been. Now I'm just trying to look out for her."
"I know," Temari said leaning against the wall next to Kankuro. "This is new for all of us, I mean I never thought in a thousand years that Gaara would ask me about boys and I couldn't tell her much."
Temari chuckled to herself gaining Kankuro's attention, "What is it?"
"I guess I just never thought that trying to be a functioning family would be so hard," Temari replied.
Kankuro chuckled with her, "Tell me about it. My little sister just pinned me to wall."
"…At least the weather's nice."
"Yeah, it is."
XXXXXXX
"We have to talk," Naruto said for the umpteenth time trying to break the wall of ice that Haku had become. So far his constant badgering proved no match for her unending silence and blatant ignorance. And in no time at all Naruto found them standing in front of her door, "Haku please just say something."
Haku knew she was being cruel and unfair to him, but how did her expect her to react? Was she just supposed to be fine with this? When she heard his pleading tone though, she decided to give him a break, but whatever she was going to say next died on her tongue when she opened the door.
"Oh fuck Zabuza oh oh fuck your little bitch!"
"You love my cock don't you bitch!"
"YES!"
"Why don't you bark like a bitch?"
"Ruff Ruff!"
Naruto recoiled from the doorway because there, before their eyes, was Zabuza bare ass naked fucking Anko, who was wearing what appeared to be a choke chain, high heels, and nothing else, up against the wall. And he was apparently giving it to her pretty good because neither of them seemed to notice him and Haku standing in the doorway. Speaking of Haku, Naruto looked over to see that poor girl was completely shell shocked. Reaching over he quietly shut the door to spare her anymore more embarrassment and psychological trauma.
Click.
Now both of them stood there in uncomfortable silence; he, trying to erase the horrible memory of Zabuza's toned ass, and she, trying to process the horror she'd just seen. Eventually one of them succeeded, and it wasn't Naruto because it isn't easy to remove the image of another man's ass from your mind without a lot of liquor.
"Oh my god…" Haku cried burying her head into her hands, mortified beyond belief.
"Hey, I'm sure they we're just uh...wrestling," Naruto lamely replied.
"Really," Haku said angrily, "because I'm sure I just basically saw my father having weird kinky sex! And why the hell didn't we hear them doing it from a block away?!"
"Yeah," Naruto replied scratching the back of his head, "that might be my fault."
"What?"
"Well your apartment's got a privacy seal, I put them in all the ones that have got tenants."
"Why would you do that?"
"Well there's only one other guy living here besides you guys and Tomoko and Mei. His name's Chang and he requested that I put one in for him since I'm the landlord, so I did. But in retrospect, I'm starting to see why it's really necessary to hear what's going on. Come to think of it, Chang hasn't paid his rent, that can't be good." While Naruto was pondering the fate of his tenant, Haku was trying to deal with what she saw.
"Oh god," Haku said to herself leaning against the rail. Why couldn't life care just a little today? First Naruto, and now this it was too much. Wait, Naruto. "You!" Haku accusingly pointed a finger at him.
"My fault?" Naruto said as he point a finger at himself.
"Yes you, this is all you fault!"
"What? How is that," Naruto pointed at the apartment door. "My fault."
"If you had just left me alone, I wouldn't have rushed over here, and I would've never seen that!"
"Really?" Naruto spat back. "If you had just talked things out with me, we would've never seen that!"
"Talk about what Naruto?" Haku hot back. "That you asked me to join your little harem?"
-"No," Naruto looked her dead in the eyes. Haku's breath caught in her throat as she met the intensity of his gaze. "No, that I mean it when I say I want to be with you; that we understand each other; that I want to make you happy. That I'm starting to fall in love with you. That the thought of some other guy making you happy drives me up the fucking wall."
"How can I be sure that's how you really feel?" Haku nervously asked, taken aback by the feeling welling up inside of her.
"You can't," Naruto answered, "I could tell you this a thousand times over and you'll never be sure unless you give us a chance." They looked deeply into each other eyes and Naruto felt himself being drawn in, a deep need to-
"I just saw my father having sex a couple of minutes ago" Naruto stopped awkwardly. "And I don't really feel like making this any weirder by kissing you."
"Right," Naruto said pulling back. "That would be weird."
Haku sighed rubbing her temple feeling the troubles and heat of the day getting to her, "Naruto, I'm sorry that I've been avoiding you. I guess I'm just a bit scared of how this could end, but you're right. Just, just give me a day to think about this." Seeing the skeptical look on his face, she added, "I promise this isn't me avoiding you again. Meet me at Ichiraku this time tomorrow, okay?"
Naruto nodded reluctantly, "Alright I'll hold you to it."
"Good," Haku looked down at the satchel and shook her head. "The hospitals going to have to wait for the report on these, I think I just found a great reason to indulge in the shinobi vice of drinking." Naruto watched Haku walk away hoping that she had good news for him tomorrow.
"Oh man," Naruto stared up at the son high in the afternoon sky. "The days not even over yet."
XXXXXXX
That's all you get for now but don't worry part 2 is coming. A fiar bit of warning I think I'm going to wrap this story up in the next 2 chapters and start work on book 2.
And once again because my ego loves the limelight and my wrting is masochist for criticism leave a review after your read.