Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does. *sob* I also don't own any of the songs used.

Chapter Two

Naruto came back into the his father's room with two milkshakes for the two of them. Minato's favorite was vanilla and Naruto's was chocolate. He'd bypassed the whole "get the houseworkers to do it" thing and just made the beverages himself using the shake maker in the kitchen. The kitchen was a mess now, but at least he didn't feel snobbish.

Minato was released from the hospital three days after Bowling for Ramen returned to Konoha. They hadn't been back to school yet since Naruto wanted Minato to be comfortable back at home for a while. He was on bed rest for a week, and then he could return to work and be annoying again.

Minato sat in bed, looking much healthier now that he was back at home. He didn't have any bags beneath his eyes or any real signs that he was feeling ill. His eyes were their usual bright blue and he actually looked normal. Naruto breathed out in relief, but otherwise didn't show any other signs that he'd taken notice of his father's appearance. He sat down on the bed beside Minato, sitting cross legged as his dad drank his milkshake.

Minato's face curled up. "Naru-chan, this milkshake is chunky," he complained. "Who made this?"

Naruto could feel his cheeks light up like reddened tomatoes. "I made it. Don't you like it?"

"No."

"Tou-san!"

"It's gross, Naru-chan. No milkshake should be chunky in some places and watery in others."

Naruto crossed his arms. "Then don't drink it!"

"I won't." And with that, Minato set the milkshake down on his nightstand with a resounding thud.

Naruto rolled his eyes at him, but didn't move to grab his own milkshake. He left it where it was in case it really was terrible. But to keep his dad from noticing that he wasn't drinking it, he decided to start a new conversation. "I go back to school today. Tsunade's already put me back into the system. Until you're better, Ero-sennin is listed as my temporary guardian."

Minato nodded. "Are you excited?" he asked.

Naruto shrugged. "Not entirely. I mean, it won't be my first year there. I'll be a junior and-"

"My little Naru-chan, a junior! You grow up so fast..."

Naruto rolled his eyes but continued as if his dad never said anything. "It's just no big deal, dad."

Minato sniffled and wiped at the tears that were beginning to flow from his eyes. Naruto rolled his own eyes yet again. He'd forgotten how blissful it was to not be around his dad's emotions while he was on tour.

The older blonde man seemed to get himself under control. "So um," he wiped at his nose as a tiny driplet of snot threatened to slip down, "How did the band take it that you were quitting?"

Naruto rubbed his forearm. He hadn't exactly told his dad that he hadn't stopped making music completely. He didn't want to give up on his dream, it would kill him. But he didn't want to disappoint his dad and make him believe that he wasn't taking any of this seriously enough. A little lie wouldn't hurt him, right? "They took it... pretty well," he lied shamefully.

Minato nodded. "That's good. I'd hate for them to be angry with you, Naru-chan. I know how much your little friends mean to you."

Naruto let his chin fall to his chest in shame. "...Yeah..."

Naruto stood in front of Konoha about two hours later, the school day already about halfway through. Despite what he said to his dad, he was nervous. He hadn't been to school in a year. What if his old friends didn't remember him? What if they changed? What if he'd changed? He'd only been around the band in the last year, he had no idea how fame had really affected him. He could be a total jackass now and not even realize it!

He bit his lip, wondering if this was worth it. Yes, he was doing this for his dad but... It was like standing outside of elementary on his first day of first grade again. He didn't know anybody and nobody knew him, and he could have held onto his mother's hand all day if she let him. He smiled slightly at the memory of her, but still didn't make a gesture to go up to the doors, even as his mind replayed the words she'd said to him to give him the confidence to step forward.

"Naruto… you're going to be great. Remember who you are. I believe in you."

Naruto almost jumped at the words, thinking at first that his mother was really behind him saying all those things. It was almost a carbon copy of what he remembered, with the words replaced and shifted here and there. But the voice was, unfortunately, too deep to be his mom's, and he turned to see who it really was. His blood boiled.

"What are you doing here?" he seethed.

"Seeing you off on your first day back," Jiraiya answered, grinning his sly grin at the younger boy. Well, he was more of a man now. He'd seen the world already when even some adults twice his age could never say they'd done so. He was experienced in more ways than one, and it showed in the way that he now held his shoulders and chin up, staring into the eye of anyone he encountered rather than staying in the shadows like a child. He had conversations and put himself out there. He was growing up, which was why Jiraiya felt that it was finally time that Naruto learned his father's trade, especially with Minato's condition.

Naruto grit his teeth and pretended that Jiraiya never answered his first question. "You betrayed me."

The older man looked confused. "How did I do that?"

The blonde's fists clenched and unclenched tightly at his sides, the whites of his knuckles and the blues of his veins on display. "How could you convince my father that I should quit the band!? You never even discussed it with me, you just smiled in my face every day while you were going behind my back!"

"Look, kid..."

Naruto shook his head. "I used to think you were cool, Ero-sennin. But now..." He turned his back on his Godfather, heading up the stairs with a new confidence that he didn't have before. He just wanted to get away from the man that had helped to kill his dreams.

"Naruto. Naruto! Kid, it wasn't even my idea! Naruto!" He heard Jiraiya call behind him. But he just kept walking. He didn't want to hear any of it.

Naruto sat in the old practice room strumming the guitar Sasuke got him for a random gift when the tour was getting started. He'd said that it would be a good idea for him to get started with learning in case Kiba or him got sick or something and they needed somebody to take over their part. It wasn't anything too serious, and Naruto never had to use it, but he found solace in running the pick over the strings and feeling the vibrations rumble through him. He hardly noticed it when he began to sing.

"The weekend's finally here
And it's me and my bestest friends
Hit the town, put the week behind us
Rocking the same spots again and again
Feels like nothing will ever stop us
No rain or sleet or snow
Tonight there's not a cloud in the sky
While we cool outside on the stereo

We're always on a mission to finally get it right
The life of the party comes in bottles, cans, and pints
We talk about it, sing about it, sneak it onto planes
And every single week someone says the same thing

This has been a great night
No one got into a fight
Met some girls, saw a band
Everything went just as planned
The only thing that we forgot
Was stocking up by 12 o'clock
We'll never persevere
We've got friends, chicks, guitars, and no beer

We've been in this band
Longer than most of our fans have been
We get started up about 6 O'clock
And we go until most of us just can't stand
And it never ceases to amaze me
Just when things start to get good
Is this record on repeat right now?
Whoever hit the store must have misundersto-"

"N-Naruto-kun?" A voice called from the hall.

Naruto jumped and stopped strumming. Instantly, the feeling of peace he'd had while making music drained from his entire being. All of a sudden he was reminded of how upset he was with everything. He looked towards the door, frowning slightly when he saw who it was at the door.

"Hinata-chan?"

The timid, shy girl stepped awkwardly into the room. She wasn't dressed in her uniform but was wearing a black and white striped T shirt that hung off her shoulders loosely but hugged every other inch of her torso just right. Every other inch. Her legs were clad in a pair of black tights that accentuated the length of her legs and the curve of her bottom, which Naruto could swear wasn't that round when he last saw her. Did Hinata actually have curves? He remembered her not being as slim as maybe Ino or Sakura, but he'd never known her to be shapely.

"W-When did you get back? Is Kiba-kun here?" she asked him softly. With a little trepidation, she walked fully into the room and sat down in the chair beside him, their shoulders almost touching. Nothing about the distance was particularly strange. Naruto always felt that he and the raven haired girl were close to one another. They had been friends ever since they first met in grade school.

[Flashback]

Naruto sat on a little makeshift swing hanging from a tree that some kid had made before Naruto even existed, he thought. It wasn't a very good swing. It was made out of a single plank of wood and some type of tough yarn or something. He wasn't sure. But it hurt when he sat on it for too long and more often than not, he found himself falling off of it. It was pitiful, honestly. But it was the only swing that the other kids let him near. No one allowed him to set foot on the playground.

He sniffed and wiped at his eyes as fresh tears fell down his cheeks at the reminder of how cruel the other kids were to him. They were hot and shameful against his face, and he knew that if his dad saw them, he'd be disappointed. Namikaze were strong. They kept their chins up. They didn't allow bullies and mean kids to make them sit on hard makeshift benches and cry. But right then, Naruto would gladly say that he was an Uzumaki, like his mom. Uzumaki were kind and soft and compassionate. Uzumaki cried, because he sometimes saw his mom cry. So he'd be an Uzumaki for now.

"N-Namikaze-san?" A small voice called out to him from his left. Naruto jumped from the swing and rubbed furiously at his cheeks until the sting suggested that they were very red and scratchy. He pulled his fists away from his face to see who had called him and almost gasped at who it was.

"Hinata-san?" he breathed in awe. And then that awe turned into fear. The Hyuga were some of his worst tormentors. One look at him with their steely grey eyes was enough to make Naruto quiver in fear of the pain that may ensue. One of the worst of his tormentors were Neji, Hinata's first cousin who was a year older than the both of them. Whenever he saw the younger Namikaze, he would always sneer and make it a point to humiliate him in front of everyone while he taunted, 'Not so tough are you, Namikaze-san?' Today, he'd twisted his arm until he fell onto the sand on the playground and kicked the grains into his face until he retreated to the swing he was just sitting on, away from them. "I-Is this your swing, Hinata-san? I'm sorry! Here, you can have it, I'm done!" he proclaimed, ready to apologize profusely in case the Hyuga heir decided to turn out to be twice as cruel as her older cousin. After all, she was from the family's man branch. That had to mean something.

The little girl shook her little six year old head. "N-No, Namikaze-san, it's not my swing. But... But why are you crying?" she questioned him. Naruto watched her gaze fall to his arm. "W-What happened to your arm?"

Naruto bowed his head in shame. "Neji," he muttered, a pink blush forming on his cheeks at having to admit to a girl that he had gotten beaten up.

Naruto watched as Hinata's expression went from timid, to shocked, to determined in a matter of two seconds. "I-I'm going to t-talk to h-him," she stammered, but Naruto could tell from the look in her eyes that she was far from sure if she wanted to approach the older boy. She looked like she feared that she was going to be beaten up, too. And Naruto couldn't allow that to happen to her on his behalf.

"Hinata-chan, wait-!" Naruto interrupted her, grabbing her sleeve.

Hinata looked at the hand grabbing her, then at the boy that had just used the unfamiliar honorific on her. She felt her cheeks grow hot in a way they never had before, despite having a permanent blush on her face regardless. "Yes, Namikaze-san?"

"D-Don't," Naruto pleaded. "I don't want you to get involved in my troubles. I'll find a way to deal with him myself, without you. Okay?"

She hesitated. "Okay, Namikaze-san. If you say so..." She sounded unsure.

"And Hinata-chan?"

"Yes?"

"C-Call me Uzumaki. Naruto Uzumaki."

[Present]

Naruto smiled, knowing Hinata had been the very first person to call him by the name he chose, rather than the cursed name he was given, even if she did forget what his real name was over the years. And it had helped that she did. After she started calling him Uzumaki, the other kids caught on and everyone seemed to forget that he had once been the privileged Namikaze heir. The jealousy and need to tease him vanished. For every friend that Naruto made, he owed it to Hinata for helping him do it.

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata squeaked.

Naruto shook his head, snapping out of his daze. "Yes?"

"Kiba-kun," she repeated slower. "Is he here as well?"

Naruto chuckled sheepishly and stood up. He head to his guitar case and set his instrument inside, figuring he had better show up at some point for class or else Tsunade would come looking for him. And it was never good for her to come looking for him.

"Yeah, he's here. Come on, I'll help you find him," he offered, slinging the guitar over his back and putting an arm around Hinata's shoulders as they walked out of the room together.

A/N Thanks to: Pokemonmaster5769, roselie0601, Minato 0077, and kidloco for reviewing last chapter. Reviews make me update faster :]

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