I do not own Naruto series, I only own my OC.

"True Blue" is rewrite of my previous story. I was inspired by the cigarette scene from 'Malena' movie, where the crowd of guys started practically fighting each other just to lit up a cigarette of incredible beaty, and it made me wonder how someone like that would live in a crueler world than ours.

So here I am.

I always welcome constructive criticism, so let me know if you dislike something.

Also one of my inspirations:

So what is beauty then? Why is it deified?
And why do people give it their blessing?
Is it a vase, with emptiness inside?
Or else — a fire, shimmering in vessel?

-Nikolay Zabolotsky
'Plain girl'

English isn't my first language, so you can inform me about mistakes.

Please enjoy~

Chapter 1

In a dimly lit room sat a beautiful woman who was gently cradling her slightly protruding stomach and looking down at it with warm smile on her face. "I love you so much," she said affectionately.

The man's breath hitched at those words. There was flash of disappointment in his eyes, when he realized that her gaze was not directed at him, but it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

"I can't wait to see him already," she said and looked up at him with the most blinding smile the man has ever seen. His heart was beating so loudly in his chest that he was afraid she would be able to hear it despite the significant distance between them.

Motherhood suits her, if only that child was his- he cut this thought off before it could fully form.

Images of them hugging each other looking down at the crib, where their child was peacefully sleeping flashed in his head swiftly like a dream. He quashed down his wayward thoughts and feelings.

It was not appropriate. He was married man now and it was never meant to be, even if he was not.

The man with polite demeanor was sitting on the opposite side of the woman in a shabby and shacky chair, the smell from the tea was wafting toward his nose.

Jasmine.

It reminded him of her. Flowery elegance that quickly warms your soul but disappears as swiftly only leaving a hint of bitterness on one's tongue.

He held his breath inwardly cursing himself for being so affected just by her mere existence. Once again. He has not seen her in six years, he thought he was over these nonsensical feelings long time ago, but one smile from her was enough to shake his entire world. Surely those who say that everything fades away with the time are lying liars who simply never felt something so wonderful themselves.

"I am truly glad to see you, Tori-chan." She gently took his hands into hers and squeezed. "I missed my dear friend."

Warmth filled his chest. "I wonder about that, more like you missed someone to clean up the mess after you," He huffed and rolled his eyes.

"Hey! I have no idea what you are talking about," she batted her eyelashes innocently. "I will inform you; I am a paragon of virtue and integrity. I have never created any mess for anyone to clean up," she haughtily glanced at him giving him her best impression of stuck-up rich lady.

"Even Old man Ki would have given me that good student stamp for my exemplary behavior if he could." Never mind the fact that all those years during the school she has never received it even once. The only things she received were disciplinary punishments for her endless pranks.

She was not able to keep her act for too long and soon dissolved into laughter. So unrestrained and boisterous. So like her. His heart ached from how much he missed this sound, missed her silliness, missed her.

Shimizu Hana was very peculiar woman with whom you cannot help but be taken with. Back then the line of her suitors could stretch from Hokage Tower to the Land of Rain, but she never noticed them, never noticed him. Gaze firmly set on something beyond the walls surrounding the Village, on something only she could see.

She finally stopped and plopped ungracefully on the back of her chair. Her long inky black hair spilled over her shoulders gently framing her face.

"It is good to be home," she whispered slowly caressing the rim of her cup of tea in circular motion causing slight ripples on its surface.

Hana tried to cover up her fatigue and distress, never one to worry others. But as someone who paid close attention to her for a good chunk of his life, he could see little tell tales from how her smile was just a little bit too wide and her laugh a little bit too loud. It hurt that after all this time she still hid her worries away from him and did not want to rely on anyone but herself. Her resoluteness that may come across as unruliness was one of her strongest suits. That insufferable trait that made her who she was, the one that made him fall in love with her, it was in equal parts admirable and maddening at the same time.

"I am glad you are back, Hana-chan," he smiled at her and thought that maybe it was enough. Just to be near her. As her friend. The lie on his tongue felt bitter.

Questions of how someone who professed their undying desire for freedom and marrying only for love or not at all wind up pregnant, alone, visibly tired, and without the one who got her in such state died down on his tongue like a smoke. To be honest, he did not even know himself what kind of answer he wanted to hear. Any conjecture he produced was worse than the other. He was not masochistic enough to ask.

At least not today.

When the thought of someone being intimate with her like that will stop feeling like a stab wound to his heart.

Maybe then.

His level of concern should be that of a little brother or childhood friend at best, anything more than that was unseemly and unbecoming of a man who already had a wife and two children. His second child was born only a month ago.

Nohara Tori was many things, but cheating husband was not one of them. But at the end of the day, he was just a man, and he could not control his feelings. If he could, he would've have turned some of them down long time ago. Having inappropriate thoughts for the woman who was most definitely not his wife and actually acting out on them were two separate things, at least he could control his body if not heart. Not that anything would have happened, she rejected him quite decisively years ago and he had too much respect for his wife and love for his children to ever hurt them like that.

He sipped his tea and thought of stormy black eyes of his lady who was waiting for him at their home and felt twinge of guilt when he compared them to ocean blue eyes of a person in front of him. Both were beautiful in their own way. If he were asked right now whose he would prefer he would not be able to answer it without feeling like the lowest of the low.

Good thing no one will ever ask him that.

If he closed his eyes for a second, he could imagine them being sixteen again unburdened by the heavy responsibilities of an adult world spending time leisurely together and being full of youthfulness at their secret hide-out. To the time when he felt like he could conquer the entire world only if she asked him to. Pretend that there are no stress lines on their faces and aches in his bones from hardships he went through. He was only in his twenties, but he already felt like an old man.

He slowly got up from the chair and bid farewell to his old friend.

It was time to go home.

The streets of Konoha were as always bustling with activity. He was in a fairly good mood. Hushed whispers of possible upcoming war almost could not sour it. Almost.

Only the thought of those twinkling with mischief eyes could bring him back from his worries about his future income and protection of his loved ones in these troubled times.

"Ah, he truly was scum of a man" he mused humorlessly.

He sighed and looked up at the peaceful sky with no clouds in sight, at the sun that shone so brightly and cheerfully that it felt particularly unfair to the people whose emotions were in turmoil at that moment.

"Mum, mum. Where is our pink dye?" Kaito asked seemingly just in passing.

Hana was folding first batch of their clothes and ironing the second one with her leg on the floor while whistling to some bizarre tune at the same time. "Hmm, I think I put it on second shelf in my room," she answered absentmindedly.

"Wait… What are you planning?" she turned around and narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. "How come you aren't including your old ma in your grandiose plans?"

She gasped laying a hand on her chest in mock offence. "Is it –" she comically made face full of horror. Kaito giggled and rolled his eyes at her theatrics. He could feel fond exasperation welling up inside his chest. "Is it that you think your ma is too old for fun stuff?! Oh no! I lost my sparkle." she dramatically wailed and ran around the room trying to find her 'lost sparkle'.

"No! I refuse! That can happen only after my death," she abruptly stopped and slapped her forehead. "So that's how it is!" she immediately plopped on the ground pretending to be dead. Not a five seconds later she cracked one eye open wanting to see her son's reaction.

Kaito tried to suppress his giggles but did not manage it. "Oh no. Whatever shall I do now?" he made a pondering face and then hit his thigh in realization. "As a filial son I must distribute the songs my mother wrote to the whole Village. So her genius would be forever etched in the historical records of the Land of Fire -no, in all Elemental Nations," he circled around the room and took tattered notebook from some random pile then playfully waved it near her face. Beautiful blue eyes so much like hers were filled with mirth.

Hana immediately jumped and snatched it from him. She crouched down and hid it in her shirt. "How do you even know about it?" her face was red and there was genuine panic in her eyes.

He shrugged his shoulders. "You always leave your stuff everywhere."

"Betrayed by my own son!" she clutched her chest and pretended to wipe her tears away.

"I will forget about this, if you forget that I took a dye?" he asked with wide grin on his face stretching his hand towards her.

"Deal!" she shook his hand muttering about how she did not remember being half as devious as him when she was his age. He laughed and launched himself at her almost knocking her on the floor from the momentum. "After all I learned from the best."

"Of course," she gently ruffled his blue hair.

Not that she would ever stop him if she knew why he needed it. For someone so young he was quite responsible kid, and his mischievous pranks were directed more towards cheering someone up rather than maliciously harming anyone. She felt proud as she looked at him.

'Maybe…she actually did an alright job at this whole being responsible adult thing, if she was able to raise someone as wonderful as him.'

She certainly felt like one giant clusterfuck, like one blind person explaining to another what he sees. Which meant she didn't know shit, didn't have a clue about what she was doing, just fumbling in the dark only having the vaguest theoretical concept and knowledge and trying not to lead her son and herself in a ditch.

She didn't know how her son turned out to be so precious and good, because he certainly didn't inherit it from her.

Kaito started helping her folding the clothes. It made her proud but also distressed. She did not see any barely out of toddlerhood kids like him being so thoughtful and understanding.

Another issue was his appearance.

Maybe she was too biased as his mother, but Kaito was really a beautiful child which didn't lessen her worries at all. As someone who considered to be at least somewhat attractive she knew how much trouble something like that could bring to anyone. if you have something valuable but not the power to protect it will only lead to your own ruin. Unpleasant memories of countless men and some women who did not seem to understand the meaning of word 'no' flashed in her head.

She looked at pile of bills on the table and inwardly grimaced but then Kaito gave her the sweetest smile in the entire world and the weight on her shoulders significantly lightened.

"She can only try her best," she thought. "The only thing she needed was to make sure that he would never lose his beautiful smile."

The sound of continuous strikes of a ruler meeting the flesh kept ringing in the room. The child kept silent; his clenched hands and bitten lip were the only indications of the fact that he was currently in tremendous amount of pain.

He found out early on that if he gave any reaction to them like crying or begging it would spur them even more. Most caretakers were sadistic sickos who liked to inflict pain on someone weaker than them. With the war ongoing everyone was high-strung and snapped from the slightest provocation, they didn't need any valid reason to punish them. Not all of them were like that, of course, some genuinely wanted to take care of the children or just simply did not pay much attention to them at all only thinking about getting their paycheck. But unfortunately, they were in the minority.

Matron was looking at him with cold indifferent eyes over the documents that were laying on her table.

This time it was his mistake. He was playing hide-and-seek with others and decided to take a hiding place at the matron's cabinet, when the seeker got too close to the previous spot. Only he did not expect for Matron to return so soon.

The back of his legs was stinging so much he wanted to cry. He took a deep breath and held it in. He would not allow them to get satisfaction out of his misery.

He looked at her documents only for a minute because he became a bit curious, when she suddenly came back. There must have been something bad in them if she immediately snatched them out of his view and hollered with red face for caretaker to punish him.

Kaito was almost unrecognizable from the sunny boy he was previously. He looked like a dirty street urchin disheveled mop of blue, hair hiding his face away from all eyes, tattered rugs that could hardly be described as clothes, and guarded look in his eyes.

War hit everyone hard, the Orphanage could barely provide for so many children with new arrivals every day. Some of them were already shipped away in different places in the Land of Fire or who knows where exactly they disappeared.

"Do you understand what you did wrong?" Matron asked him in loud voice.

'Found out her disgusting secrets? Turned up in the wrong place and at the wrong time?

He did nothing wrong.'

The reason did not really matter to them, he was just victim of today's beating instead of someone else- the punching bag to relieve their stress.

With the most apologetic look he uttered, "I was a bad child. Forgive me, Matron!" Kaito bowed down hoping they would not demand more.

"You can go now. Do not do anything like that again," she waved her hand in the air shooing him out like he was some bug irritating her.

Outside of the door stood a group of children waiting for him. No matter where Kaito went, he always had that mysterious charm about him that pulled others in. And now too he made friends pretty fast at the Orphanage.

They all gave him understanding, sympathetic looks and didn't ask about anything, too used to such treatment.

Kaito laughed and put his hand around someone's shoulder. "Did you all miss me that much? I am touched. You really can't have fun without my majestic self."

Some of them snorted, others shook their heads.

"Like we ever would, idiot," Anko huffed.

"Are you alright? You had been there for quite some time," one of his roommates threw concerned glance at him.

"I am fine, I am fine," he grinned widely and scratched the back of his head.

He twirled around him. "See? I am all in one peace," he made teary expression. "But I didn't know you loved me so much, Daiki-chan," He tried to jump-hug him, when the other took a step to the side and successfully avoided him.

Kaito put cheerful mask back on his face hiding away his true thoughts and feelings from prying eyes.

"Haha, let's go to the playground," he grabbed someone's hand and ran off to the playground.

If anyone noticed that he was slower than he usually was no one said a word.

"How dare you! How dare you do that to me!" woman with short bob of brown hair and black like abyss eyes threw another plate at the man who did not even flinch from the cuts, he could feel appearing on his skin. "You want us to adopt that whore's son?!" her expression was fixed into scowl promising nothing but retribution to those who crossed her. "Or right…-" vicious smile cut across her face. "Should I better say your illegitimate spawn?"

Tori Nohara stood in front of his fuming wife, deep dark circles were adorning his eyes, grief was almost palpable on his face. "You know it yourself that he isn't mine." How much he wished contrary to be the truth he will never admit to anyone, even to himself.

"I didn't see her for years before she came back to Konoha," his voice was laced with exhaustion. "He is a son of my dear friend. I am sure that if our situations were reversed, she would have done the same for me," he looked levelly at her reminding once again that he was the head of their household not the other way around.

Sometimes it was easy to forget that for all her husband's gentleness and easy-going personality it didn't mean that he was a weak person. He could be surprisingly stubborn and headstrong with matters that were important to him. She knew there was not a way to change his mind once he decided on something.

She was beyond herself from rage. Hushed shuffle of the feet brought her out of her state. She glanced at her children; they should not have witnessed something like that, she inwardly cursed at herself, her husband, and that damn woman.

Rin, her eldest, was peeking from around the corner of the wall while simultaneously tucking her brother around her stomach and covering his ears, so he would not see or hear the screams of their parents. She herself looked terrified, little Kaizen* was crying on her clothes, if growing wet spot on them was any indication.

She took a deep breath trying to calm herself down and glanced at her husband. Of course, he did not notice his own children. When that wench and her spawn were mentioned, he could focus only on them not paying attention to anything else, his legal wife and children weren't exempt from that.

Even from her fucking grave she still manages to mess up her marriage.

It was wrong to curse at the dead, but she really did not care at this point.

Her husband who looked like he aged ten years in a span of a day concluded, "I will be going tomorrow to the Orphanage. Kaito-kun will stay in the empty room the one that is closest to the children's rooms."

The protest that she wanted to make it into playroom for their children died down on her tongue after she had seen his expression. "This matter is settled."

His eyes looked so lifeless like the only thing he ever cared about in his life was her and now that she is gone, half of his soul if not all also left with that woman. She wanted to scream herself hoarse- 'How dare he look like living corpse when she, his wife, was still alive and very much in love with him?!' Those words never left her mouth, because she was afraid to see his reaction, or she thought bitterly, total lack thereof. She still had pride, damn it.

He crouched down to the eye level of their children. "Rin, Kaizen, do you remember Kaito-kun from your aunt Hana?" he asked slowly smiling gently at them, some of the light returned to his eyes. Rin nodded her head while the youngest child looked confused with his red puffy eyes.

"From now on he will be your little brother. He suffered a lot when he was at the Orphanage, so you must be gentle with him. Do you understand?" both slowly nodded their heads which he patted. "He will be the youngest in our family, so as his elder siblings you will have to protect him. Okay?" Rin glanced at down at her brother and her eyes were filled with understanding. Kaizen puffed up his chest like he is brave ninja who took mission to protect some princess.

He fondly shook his head at them. "Now it is time to sleepy sleep." He took their hands in his and led them upstairs to their bedrooms.

Akimichi Nora never wanted to get married, she was a proud woman with prickly personality who only had her career in her heart. Poisonous Viper, her patients and some colleagues secretly called her.

When someone thinks of Akimichi, they immediately imagine one of the four noble clans of Konohagakure whose members all have warm charming personalities, large physic and even larger eating habits, big chakra reserves, and their immense love for food. Nora was nothing like that, one might have mistaken her with an Uchiha rather than member of her own clan.

She was born with the scowl firmly plastered on her face, which she did not lose throughout her life. Her birth was difficult prosses with many complications, the result of which was concluded in her inability to converse calories for body expansion technique and many other health issues that cut off the road to shinobi career.

Still, she did not want to inherit her father's business and became medic instead which many found unbelievable because of her less than gentle disposition. Despite everything she succeeded, and she was damn good at her job!

But she was the only child of her parents, and someone had to accept the mantle. So, they compromised; the conclusive decision was to let her marry someone who will continue their trade in her stead. She loved her parents and did not want to see their life's work thrown away because of her, so she agreed.

When they first met, she was not impressed with him at all. He looked like a total pushover minute away from outright crying. She did not believe that she was that scary.

It was not like she had particularly high expectations but when Nora saw someone like that, someone who would pass out just from one glare from her, she secretly despaired in her heart.

They were just too different.

Still, it was not like they had to love each other. Just give birth to an heir and coexist under the same roof. She never loved anyone romantically and did not expect anyone to love her prickly self in return.

After couple of months of meeting with him proud Nora admitted that she was wrong. He was nothing like his first impression. For once he was extremely caring. No one had ever made her feel like she was someone for others to cherish, and at the same time he did not make her feel weak like someone who needed constant protection (her worrywart parents always hovered over her like she could die any minute, even though she was very much healthy adult already). He was respectful with her boundaries but made sure that she knew she could rely on him.

One time she was just casually complaining about tight schedule at the hospital and how no one had enough time to buy food. Next day he personally brought her packed meal that can be eaten on foot and made sure that she never missed her lunch ever again. Gradually her walls crumbled, and she fell in love with him.

As far as arranged marriages went, she really lucked out with a such caring spouse. Tori never abused her in any way, never broke a promise. Even if it were not exactly love, it was respect; with the time it could become something more, she thought hopefully.

He never made her worried about any stuff her friends and colleagues always complained about. Cheating, gambling, constant fights, and laziness to help with chores or looking after children. When she professed her husband to be perfect, they always exchanged weird glances among themselves which she could not decipher.

They could be jealous all they wanted, she thought smugly.

Nora heard some rumors about his supposed love for his best friend but didn't take them to heart. She scoffed after hearing them, that woman ran away from Konoha long time ago and how can some childish crush compare to affection laced with responsibilities of a married man.

It felt like a dream. Their marriage was without any troubles or quarrels whatsoever.

Until she came back…

She realized the reason they never had quarrels when she witnessed screaming match between him and that woman. She had never seen him angry. Frustrated and sad. Yes. Plenty of times. Never angry. Not like that. With red face and bulging veins. She realized her husband, always the gentle peacemaker, only made compromises with her or just simply allowed her to have her way.

'Just like…just like with his client's,' dark voice in her head whispered.

Suddenly it dawned on her- He just simply did not care and only wanted to resolve conflict as soon as possible. It was like he was going through the motions of loving husband but if one dug a bit deeper, the only thing they would discover would be total indifference.

If she were asked before she met him how she felt about such marriage. She would've answer without hesitation that this was perfect for her. Always having her way and husband who halves her responsibilities and respects her. Who needed love?

Right?

When did she start hoping for something more?

She was beyond happy for years. She truly was.

Until she came back… and she realized that she will always be number two in his heart.

She realized that she irrevocably fell in love with him.

When …when he never did the same.

He promised her life with no worries.

He never promised her love.

She felt like a fool.

And now… now she will have to raise a constant reminder of ghost whose place in her husband's heart will never be given to her.

Note

*Kaizen. A Principle of Conduct—Striving for Perfection. In its first use, Kaizen means the pursuit of perfection in all one does.

There is a lot unrequired love in naruto. Team 7 through all generations pretty much.
So i couldn't pass it too.