Impossible solution...Sounds complicated, doesn't it?
Like a paradox.
DISCLAIMER: still-love-you of Fanfiction does NOT own Naruto or it's affiliates, but her beta (me) totally does. Just kidding. I wish.
"And there she is," says an always smiling Naruto. "And looking as young as ever."
"Lookie, here, it's the big guy himself," Tsunade said back. "Always the little charmer aren't we?"
Then she smiles her weary old smile as Naruto approaches her with arms spread wide. "Ahhh…It's been so long! Did ya miss me?" he asked.
"Cocky too. Can't say that's changed though," chuckled Tsunade, her eyes twinkling as her years started to cause wrinkles in the sweet smirk she gave him.
Naruto hissed in mock hurt, "Ouch, Tsunade that one really hurt!" Then he smiles and says, "Hm, well if it isn't my obvious charm that brought you here, may I ask what did, my sweet little miss?"
He already knew what he had coming before the last words hit his mouth. As planned, the inevitable came and a loud crashing noise was heard by anyone within a city-block of the restaurant.
"Wow Tsunade, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were a little unhinged by something." Then he smiled his old smile.
No, it wasn't the infamous Uzumaki grin from ear-to-ear smile with his eyes closed and his whiskers curved smile. It was a sad smile, being covered up by both years of practice and a never-ending variety of ideas for new food recipes blooming in his head. After the incident, Naruto looked to the only thing he knew best, cooking. He formed a restaurant. At first he named it Sakura, because he was so enveloped in his obsession with her that he let the one reason for his depression follow him and destroy his one place of sanctuary-his restaurant. He locked himself away when he returned home, disconnected his phone, and cut himself off from the rest of the world until the world left him alone. The actual Uzumaki smile had long since been gone, draining with it the life from his rare blue eyes. Those who knew him, thanked the heavens that God himself, even combined with the worst of miseries in the world, couldn't totally steal away the life and sheer will power that Naruto possessed in the pit of his heart and the depths of his soul.
Soon enough, he gained enough sense to see that decorating his courtyard with Sakura trees and having a giant Sakura sign, with an abnormally huge Sakura flower blossom next to it, was simply too much for his heart. Just like the menu-which held the name Sakura in at least 10 different places-so he changed everything. The Sakura trees were replaced (ironically), by 'Weeping Willows', the restaurant name had been changed to Uzumaki's and the menus were changed to normal, her name only mentioned but once in the tea section. As he had hoped, it did help, out of sight truly was out of mind. Well, it was when he was ready to explode from too little capacity to let his brain breathe. Soon enough he was able to deal with his depression. It still hurt of course, as all emotionally inflicted wounds do, but it wasn't as unbearable anymore.
Not to say that he wasn't unbearable.
"One of these days Naruto…you-you-you…"
"Let's go, little old ladies shouldn't stand for too long, there achy-breaky little old legs just might give out on them," he said in mock sincerity.
His friends also thanked the heavens for his never-ending and unfailing ability to be both loveable and unbearably annoying at the same time.
"Shut up Uzumaki," Tsunade growled.
At this Naruto chuckled. He always did love messing with Tsunade especially. She was just so much more fun.
"Hey, Tsunade," Naruto started questioningly.
"What is it now?" she asked.
"You never told me why you were here."
"Oh. That's right," she said to him, putting a slender finger to her lips. "Well, if you must know…" she teased.
Knowing that this would affect him, yet not knowing if it would be good or bad made her hesitate before giving him her answer. 'Naruto, I really hope this doesn't hurt you…Gods, please let this turn out okay,' she pleaded internally.
"Well?" he asks, impatient as ever.
"I'm here for my nephew's birthday." She explains
She was hoping he wouldn't probe for more information…'oh gods, what the hell was I thinking? Of course he was going to probe! For God's sake, he's Naruto Uzumaki! Think Tsunade think!'
She risked a sideways glance at him. She'd swear that if this were a movie, the walls would be melting with the way she was seeing things in slow motion. She saw it coming; the twitch of his jaw made it clear that there was no stopping him now. 'Crap' she thought.
"Who's your nephew?" he asked, still smiling down at her.
Such an innocent question, why must it be defiled by what seemed to be such a sinful answer in this case? 'Might as well just get it over with.' She
"His name is Sasuke…"
'Oh yeah! That's it, that doesn't give him any clues! Maybe I still have a chance! Yes….oh crap! Oh no! Nononononononononono! Ahhh'
"Sasuke what?"
They had been walking about 7 meters now, and 7 meters + half a step was where they stayed when she said,
"Uchiha, Uchiha Sasuke."
This time there was no sideways glance; she turned to him and looked at him straight in his rare blue eyes. She meant to explain. She wanted to genuinely apologize but the second she looked into his eyes, all those thoughts were diminished.
If only she'd looked half a second sooner, she could have heard the hatred of her voice echoing throughout his ears, she could have seen the hurt in his eyes. She could have felt, not only the physical pain, but also the emotional pain given with each slap across his face. She could have felt the pain of her betrayal through his heart, mind, and eyes. She could have felt the depression of being alone, abandoned by the one person in this whole world that was supposed to understand him and accept him.
But she didn't. She looked too late, and all she saw on his face was a crinkly-eyed smile. It brought confusion, but it also brought relief, and she'd be damned if she was going to question his motives for smiling now. She felt as if she needed his smile as much as he needed a bottle of yieger right now.
"So you brought Sa-uh, her cousin into town?" he asked.
She knew he was hurting! 'Stupid! So stupid, Tsunade! How could you think he was fine? He can't even say her damn name!' she scolded herself.
"Yes. He- he had some problems, so I was called on for my service, in which I professionally excel above all others," she replied cockily, in order to lighten the mood.
She wasn't sure if it worked or not. His eyes, they used to show his every emotion; he couldn't lie on his best day, but now…. 'Gods Naruto, what happened to you?'
"Really, now? I didn't know you could do anything but nag? Oh, whoops! Did I ruin the surprise?"
He covered his mouth politely with his hand in a mock expression of surprise, just as she had done to him all those years ago. 'He was good, he was really good now,' thought Tsunade.
"Uzumaki, you still haven't learned when to shut your mouth, have you?" she asked, partially annoyed.
"Nope," he says with a crinkly-eyed grin once again, but half a step behind her. "So where is the lucky birthday boy? I will take to preparing his food myself and yours as well." He sped out.
"Right over here, but honestly Naruto, it's not really necessary…"
"Nonsense, Tsunade! I insist!"
'Ho-ly Shit.' Who the hell is this?
"N-Naruto, I see y-you've gotten rid of your swearing habit…." Tsunade says hesitantly.
"Well, I've given some thought to it and I've come to realize that there really isn't any use for them. Just because I'm 19 years old doesn't mean I need to be so vulgar when I speak." He says calmly.
"Naruto, what happened? This…This isn't you." She said almost so low that he had barely caught it at all.
"Tsunade," he started to whisper, "people change, some for better, and some for worse. Heck, in my opinion, I'm doing pretty darn good for myself," he finished, still partially smiling.
"I know, but-"
He cut her off before she could go any further.
"No 'buts', Tsunade. This is a day for celebration. Your nephew is maturing; he's getting ready to set off into the world. Now, I'm cooking your guys' food whether you like it or not. So let's go and feed you guys."
He might have changed some things (most things), but little things remained. One of those little things was his determination. It reached his eyes, and whether he knew it or not was unknown, but once you looked into his piercing gaze, you knew right off the back that you're destined to fail. This was one of those moments. No matter what she said, she knew that she couldn't win this fight. Tsunade was both vexed and relieved by this, because now she knew that they hadn't totally lost Naruto. She sighed in defeat, but went down with at least some dignity.
"Fine." She snapped.
Naruto gave her a low chuckle and a soft smile of appreciation as she surrendered.
"I'm glad you see it my way," he replied smoothly.
This was a bad idea. Possibly the worst idea ever and both Tsunade and Naruto knew it. He could have told Tsunade that he had things to go check up on. She had offered him so many ways to escape and he had dodged them all.
One foot in front of the other, it was like this person -that he'd never even met- this kid...'Sasuke' was his own personal magnet. He didn't have control over his body anymore. 'Just one glance, just take one glance, get the order, and go,' Naruto thought. He could do it. This wasn't like her brother or anything, so he had nothing to worry about. Not at the moment at least.
"Naruto, this is our table," says Tsunade wearily.
"Hey," Naruto says trying to break the ice. "So, I hear there's a masked murderer, a psycho-path, and a super genius…oh, I think I may have missed one…oh, umm…the-" Naruto joked till he was cut off.
"Naruto!" Tsunade scolded.
"What? I was going to say 'the birthday boy.' Geez, Tsunade. Why so violent all of a sudden? You were being all sweet and mushy- Ow! Hey…" Naruto chuckled.
"Naruto Uzumaki."
Tsunade gave a death-glare straight ahead of her, but she miserably failed when she tried to direct it at Naruto. He was almost smiling his real Uzumaki smile, almost. If his annoying habit of pushing her buttons was going to bring even a little piece of the real Naruto back, then it was a price that she would gladly pay. Though she would never admit it, she missed his old self, as did everyone that ever really knew him.
There was an awkward silence filling the table.
"Okay, well, now that you all know my name, how's about you tell me all of your names?" he suggested, still rubbing the spot where Tsunade had previously connected her fist of fury.
They each chirped out their names happily, the girl, even giggling at his childish spirit, blushedat his polite smile. She kept staring at him through hopeful eyes, wanting to give him more than just her name. 'Na-ru-to…' she said inwardly. 'Fish-cake?' she wondered. She looked up when she felt stares in her direction. They were all looking at her like they expected something from her. What did they want? Before she knew it, the boy named Naruto was walking in her direction. 'N-N-Naruto, w-what a-are you doing, what did I do?', she wondered inwardly. Naruto took her hands in his delicately and smiled up at her.
"Your name was all I was asking, but if you don't feel comfortable giving it to me, that's okay too," he comforted.
Her name, that was all that he had wanted, and she still hadn't said anything! 'Pull yourself together, Hinata!' she scolded.
"H-H-H…hiccup! H-H-Hi...hiccup!"
"Are you ok? Would you like some water?" Naruto offered.
She shook her head almost violently from side to side. 'I can do this! It's just my name!'
"My name is Hinata!" she softly blurted out.
"Well Hinata, it's nice to meet you." Naruto said softly.
He walked back to the front of the table, and waited patiently for the rest of the names.
"Kiba," the one next to the girl, Hinata, answered.
"Shikamaru," mumbled the lazy one.
"Lee!" the last one blurted out almost gaily.
Finally it reached the only one whose name really mattered to him at that moment.
"Sasuke," the boy said tonelessly.
Yay, the first revised chapter is up!
Anyone who hasn't reviewed yet, probably should. Just saying. You know...It's just a suggestion...