Confluence
By Violet Garnets
Chapter Ten: Collecting Fractions
o-x-o-x-o
Naruto groaned, awakening from a haze of burbling dreams, full of names and faces scattered in his mind. He blinked his eyes open slowly to find Sakura pulling away from him, her hands shifting his pillow around.
"Naruto? Are you awake?"
He blinked again and everything came into better focus. But he was so tired… "Yeah," he moaned and yawned loudly.
She smiled and tilted her head to the side, and a few of the delicate strands of hair in her face moved out of the way. "Really now," she said simply. "How're you feeling?"
"Ti~ired," he whined and turned over to the side. "Hospital beds make me sleepy."
She scoffed, and Naruto could hear her flip the pages on a clipboard. "You know, it's a little pathetic that you've been in here enough to make that a reliable statement. But you're free to go when you feel like it, Naruto— and you'd better be out of here by the end of the day."
"But I'm si~ick, Sakura-chan. Take care of me!"
"All you did was pass out from fatigue, you moron. You've been sleeping for a day and a half already anyway."
Well, there went that act. He gave up and sighed loudly as he sat up in bed. Room 331, as far as he could tell by the stain on the wall across from him and the crack in the bedside table. The hospital had a tendency to assign patients to the same room, especially for the chronic ones. It made life a little more…normal. "Ne, Sakura-chan? Have you heard…about the decision? Am I good to go?"
She finished penning something down before she looked up. Her eyes gave away the answer before she even spoke, shining bright like summer leaves in the daytime. "I think it'll be fine, Naruto. Don't worry about it."
He smiled back.
"Besides, Kakashi-sensei should be here in a few hours to let you know anyway. They're on their third meeting already— as if it was really that hard to decide…" Sakura fell into an incoherent mumble, and Naruto just sat there watching her as she methodically clenched and unclenched her fist. God, she was beautiful, even when she was pissed off. He remembered why he used to have a crush on her, although he learned that her fiery personality was worth far more than her slender form and pretty lips. But then he discovered the kindness and strength of someone else, and that his crush for Sakura was traded for two things far better: a perfect friendship with her…and love, for someone else. Perhaps not a mutual love, but it certainly felt nice to have.
"You've had some visitors, you know," Sakura's voice broke through his musing. She pointed to the windowsill and he followed her gaze. The table underneath had an array of little tokens, mostly cups of ramen and little messages…and a ruler. He raised an eyebrow at the ruler and pointed to it.
Sakura giggled. "That was Sai. He thinks you might actually have balls now, so that would come in handy."
Naruto choked.
"And Kakashi-sensei's been here, a lot."
He fell silent and stared at her, his eyes wide and unblinking. "Really?"
"Yeah," she responded softly. "It's sweet, really. I'm kind of jealous."
"What do you mean by that?"
She rolled her eyes and scoffed lightly. "You'll figure it out."
"No, really, Sakura-chan—"
There was a knock at the door and for a moment Naruto thought he saw a tall frame in the doorway. But it was only another medic-nin, disheveled-looking with his glasses askew and his hair ruffled.
"Ah, Haruno-senpai? There's an ANBU holding onto his severed arm downstairs. I think he's still under a genjutsu, and—"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it." She sighed and ran her hand up her arm, as if rolling up a sleeve. "Kick the guy's ass so we can save his life. Same old, same old. Go get some anesthetic."
"Yes ma'am!"
She turned to look at the patient, her hair flicking back into place. "Get some rest. I'll come back in an hour or two."
Naruto flashed her a thumbs up. His curiosity could be quelled, for now. As she stormed out of the room, and he felt a little empathy for the guy she was going to pummel. The sucker would be in the hospital far longer than necessary. And she'd probably be the attending too. He snickered. The poor bastard.
There was a knock at the door, three sharp raps. "I'm decent!" He yelled, grinning.
"As if you've got any reason to be naked due to fatigue," Kankuro scoffed as he entered the room. Temari and Gaara followed him in, all of them looking a little more tired than usual. Gaara's circles seemed even more pronounced, if that was possible.
"Kankuro! Gaara! Temari!" Naruto cried jubilantly. They all gathered at the foot of his bed.
"None of us would be surprised if he did it anyway though," Gaara added.
Temari smirked at the comment. "Hey, Naruto-kun."
"Is the meeting done yet? What'd they say?" He sat up straighter and leered at the three siblings. They were all unfazed by his attempts to be intimidating.
"You might want to stay away from Interrogation, Naruto-kun. It's not your thing," Kankuro said with a grin.
"Shaddup, Bruises." He ignored the older man's protest at the makeup jab and stared Gaara down instead. "Are they gonna leave me alone?"
The Kazekage stared back for a moment, blinked his glassy green eyes, and then slowly shook his head. "I don't know. We were there to offer our opinion about Danzou's story, but the final decision is left to your people."
The blond groaned and flailed back into bed, his arms outstretched.
"Danzou still wants you out," Temari supplemented. "He says that now you're too powerful and you would be a threat to the town."
Kankuro walked to the window and opened it, sighing with appreciation when a breeze wafted in. "That old man is just scared though, I can tell. He's afraid you actually might have enough strength to kill him and quash his stupid plans."
"He better be scared."
"Is it true though? That you could summon the demon power immediately? And you avoided the six-tails' attack?" Gaara crossed his arms and just slightly quirked an eyebrow.
Naruto shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. I had this crazy conversation with the Kyuubi, and then it called me Eien no Akira, and then I was in front of a buncha people, and— "
The blonde woman held a gloved hand out and cut him off. "Wait…we never heard this from Danzou. Was it part of the genjutsu?"
He shook his head. "Danzou didn't even notice that it happened. It was, all in my head, but…not in a part Danzou could access, I guess."
The Sand siblings looked at one another, curiosity and confusion on all their faces in different manners— a raised eyebrow from Gaara, a pursing of the lips from Temari, and a crinkling of the nose from Kankuro.
"Does Eien no Akira sound familiar to you guys too?" Temari asked.
The brothers nodded.
"But, how would you guys know 'bout this guy?" Naruto sat back up again, confusion etched in every feature of his face.
Kankuro shook his head. "I think we heard about him in a history thing. It's been awhile though. You remember anything else, Gaara?"
"…I think he was chronicled in the last days of the nomadic clans, before the nations were formed."
They fell silent, all absorbed in trying to recollect old information.
"This history, do you think Konoha would have it?" Naruto inquired. If it was here, he had to find it. Because the history was related to Akira, and Akira had a relation to Shigeru, who was probably some ghost that possessed Kakashi or something… he definitely had to figure this out.
Temari shrugged. "I'm sure it'd be in the archives. There probably won't be too much of it though; the nations are more concerned with their own history than with what happened before."
"If anything, it will be at home in Suna and we will relay what we can find, if you wish," Gaara supplemented.
"Thanks, guys." Naruto flashed a smile at them. Temari and Kankuro returned it. Gaara twitched the ends of his mouth for a second, and that was more than enough for Naruto.
"We'll be going now," Kankuro announced. "Gaara needs to be back by nightfall for a meeting. Iron wants to start trading with us. They finally figured out that neutrality doesn't mean they can't do business."
"Take care of yourself," Gaara said, and then they all left in single file, although Naruto chuckled a little when Gaara accidentally stepped on Kankuro's heel and the man fell over.
"Timber!" He shouted after them.
He sat back for a few long moments, relishing in the quiet. However, a thought struck Naruto, suddenly, like a flash of lightning. He inhaled deeply, stuck a hand out, and began to move his chakra around, until it was mostly demonic chakra flowing into his arm. He left enough of his own to protect himself from its more dangerous properties. Like before, it came to him easily, almost as if the Kyuubi was offering it up for Naruto to take, but that was too far-fetched. It was more like the Kyuubi was casting a blind eye, apathetic of whether the host used it or not. In any case, it was certainly a strange turn.
The orange-red chakra found its core in Naruto's palm, a bit like a flame. He focused a little harder, furrowing his eyebrows in concentration, and it sparked in all directions before forming a little star. The blond stared in awe.
"Well, that's kind of pretty," a voice from the door said.
Startled, Naruto dropped his focus and the star sunk into his hand with a hiss. He yowled and immediately tried to redistribute the chakra before it burnt a hole in his hand. He succeeded, but there was still a smoking singe on his arm. Swearing, he flicked his head up to see Shikamaru and Ino at the door. He held back the slew of insults he had mentally prepared and instead grumbled a pained, "Hey."
"Sorry!" Ino squeaked. "I didn't think you would hurt yourself!"
"Nah, it's cool. Thanks for coming, guys."
Shikamaru immediately walked to the window and snapped it shut. "Who opened the window? That's a breach of security, especially with you in here. Tch. So troublesome."
"Oh, uh, that was uh…yeah. Don't worry about it," Naruto mumbled. He had heard through the grapevine that Shikamaru and Kankuro had been on testy terms as of late, although the details had been muddled. The blond figured it had something to do with the relationship between Temari and Shikamaru, or rather, the lack thereof. No one knew exactly what was going on, whether the two had had a fight, or someone tried to ask the other out and got rejected, or if it was just speculation. In any case, Naruto had no desire to fuel the fire. "Where's Chouji?"
"He had something to do with his family," Ino responded, with a slight pink tinge gracing her face. "I mean, I'm not supposed to be here right now either—"
"He proposed, didn't he?" Naruto shouted with glee, a near-lecherous grin on his face. "That's why he said not to say anything about you two when we went out to eat! That bastard!" He would have to treat Chouji out to barbecue sometime soon. Shikamaru gave him a pointed look, and his grin gave way to cackling. The other boy shook his head and rolled his eyes.
Ino turned a darker red. "We're not here to discuss my love life…if anything, it's about yours!"
The blond boy clammed up. "What?"
"I know who it is!"
"Nu-uh!" was the immediate, childish response. "It's only been two days!"
She crossed her arms and glared at him, her gaze icy. "I'm not stupid, Naruto-kun. Just because I work with Shikamaru and he makes everyone look like a moron..." She recomposed herself and continued. "Anyway, we caught the end of your exhibition or whatever, when you collapsed and it's him! The guy who caught you!"
"Who caught me?" he asked stupidly, although he had a feeling he knew who already.
"Kakashi-sensei, right?"
"I didn't know he caught me," he muttered petulantly and knew that his cheeks were probably already the color of the Akatsuki cloaks.
She pointed an accusatory finger at him and grinned. "It is, isn't it? I knew it!"
"Shikamaru…" Naruto whined. "Do something."
The prodigy shrugged and stretched his arms over his head with a bored yawn. "There's nothing to do. Ino's just happy she knows as much as I do now."
The blond sighed. "You're helpful. But Ino-san, don't go spreading this all over the place! I don't want him to find out or anything."
She giggled. "Lucky for you, he's not only the most anti-social man on the planet, he's the second-most oblivious."
Naruto was a little assuaged by it, but…"Wait, who's number one?"
Shikamaru scoffed. "You can't be serious."
"No, really, who?"
The blonde girl glanced over at her teammate, who shook his head and rolled his eyes. "It'll happen," he said.
"What'll happen? Are you guys talking about me staying?"
At this time, there was a soft knock at the door. The same flustered man from before, his glasses set more properly on his face this time, blinked profusely before he stammered out a shaky "Uh, uh, Haruno-senpai has requested your leave, uh," and he looked down at his clipboard quickly before continuing, "Uzumaki-san!"
"You're new, aren't you?" Ino noted.
"Uh, is it that obvious?" The man said with a wince.
She nodded. "Yeah, it's 'cause you're afraid of an idiot like this." She pointed towards the hospital bed, where Naruto grinned cheekily.
"Um, uh, well, thanks. It was nice to meet you all." The man dipped his head and closed the door.
The blonde kunoichi giggled. "Poor thing. Sakura's going to demolish him."
Shikamaru shrugged. "We'll leave you to dress up and stuff. See you later."
"Let me know if you need any advice on boys!" Ino winked before she traipsed out after her teammate.
Naruto ignored her and waved them goodbye before practically leaping out of bed. Of course, still a little light-headed, he ended up wobbling a little on hitting ground. Oh well. He had to go find Kakashi. Or anyone who could tell him about the final decision.
But really, he wanted to hear it from Kakashi.
However, on getting dressed (and covering his hand burn with a bandage, finally), he realized he had no idea where to find the elusive Copy-nin of Konoha. They might still be in a meeting, or Kakashi might be sleeping in his apartment from exhaustion, or something. Oh well. It was mid-afternoon. Naruto could kill some time. Actually, he was starving, and Lee had just given him a nice box of limited edition ramen cups, so maybe he could inhale his way through that…yup, it was a plan.
As he made his way home, he caught sight of a few friends, all busy in something or other. Chouji had apparently finished with his family, and now was on the hunt to tell Ino. Naruto laughed and clapped him on the back, congratulating the pair. But it was a short-lived conversation, and they parted ways with a promise to dinner. Sai was standing curiously in front of a store with blackened windows, and inquired on its purpose as Naruto passed by. Naruto shook his head and pushed the pale boy in, shutting the door behind him. Sai would probably end up purchasing a torrent of books full of questionable content there, and the owner would probably be glad to have another customer besides Kakashi.
But with all these relationships working out around him, Naruto began to feel a little morose. Dealing with potential in-laws, preparing for a wedding, working around protective family members, discovering sex and emotions… they were such menial problems.
But they were problems Naruto would probably never get to experience.
Face it, that one kiss (and that other one, the one where he cheated and it wasn't reciprocated) was a once in a lifetime thing. Kakashi obviously had some mental things to work through, and probably had been in a state of delirium or something.
He had never shown Naruto anything other than simple affection, the friendly kind from a teammate.
Well, unless you counted that Kakashi had caught him during the chakra training. And after he had kicked Pain's ass. Or that he was kind of touchier around Naruto than around other people, or at least he let Naruto touch him more. But really, that didn't mean anything. Besides, Kakashi had done plenty of mean things! Yeah, that's right.
He taught Sasuke the Chidori and taught Naruto how to walk on a tree, pretty much. Well actually, Kakashi admittedly tried to teach Naruto the Chidori, but the blond had been too stupid, too weak, and had no affinity for lightning. So it wasn't Kakashi's fault…
Plus he was so kind, and strong too…and he was always there, in the end…
Naruto sighed. "I hate this," he muttered as he clambered up the stairs to his apartment.
"Mou, I'm insulted, Naruto-kun. I brought you takeout and everything, and you hate me?"
He snapped his head up to find Kakashi leaning against the wall by his apartment door, holding up a bag of something that smelled suspiciously like cooling ramen.
"We were going to celebrate your permanent residency," Kakashi sighed, petulant, but the way his eye crinkled and the movement of muscles under that mask suggested that he wasn't very upset at all.
Naruto couldn't help but grin, although his heart simultaneously fell, knowing dinners with Kakashi would be about as close as he got to the man. "I hate you, Kakashi-sensei."
"Why?" the jounin whined and Naruto could see that pout, even if it was covered with a mask.
"I have no idea."
o-x-o-x-o
Yo, it's the tenth chapter and still nothing's happened! xD I admit it, I'm terrible with plot progression. But look out, the next chapter's got some revelations, and hopefully a little bit more will be explained to all of us. I'm considering a third POV to work with, someone far away from Konoha, someone who's got some problems too, but we'll see. I'm having hard enough a time with just two perspectives! Anyway, there was a dip in reviews lately. Mou, I wonder why. But hey, I love each and every comment I get, even if it's one little one. So thank you all! Hope you're all doing well. I hope I can stick to my consistent schedule even as school starts.
Comments are always appreciated, thanks for reading!
Ja ne,
Vi
