Author's Notes: Hey Hey! I think I'm slowly getting over my writer's block. I had a little help and I did give shout outs to those people. (Trey of the rebellion: You're welcome for the shout out.) I really appreciate all of the support and whatnot that everyone's been giving me! You guys are so friggin awesome 4 it.
Special Notes: From here on out in the story, there will be some time-skipping. (Meaning that it will go from one day to several months and stuff like that.) Also, Kaede learns more about Naruto. And just because this is important to know in this chapter, this is right before the whole ordeal with Pein, just to let you know.
Warning(s): There will be some peeping going on and Naruto is a little OOC, so you've been warned. But that's enough ranting...on with the story...
Chapter 7 - Closer
(Naruto's POV)
It's been three days since we got back to the village. That 'treatment' Tsunade-baachan had for Kaede was some serious jail time after being interrogated by Ibiki. When they took her, she didn't put up any kind of fight. She just sat and took it. She really might be serious about not wanting to fight anyone anymore. But I didn't know about everything they were doing to her. I know what had to be done, but at the same time, I felt weird not having her around. We were getting so close, and now, it feels like it's all over. I just hope she's okay.
I mindlessly walk around the village when I bump into Sakura-chan.
"Oh, hey Sakura-chan!" I smile at her.
"Hey, Naruto, what're you doing wandering around like that?"
"Hmm? Oh, I just decided to take a walk."
"Are you okay? You look like you're down about something."
"Oh, it's nothing. I was just thinking."
She looked at me skeptically. "Are you sure you're okay? You really aren't acting like it."
"Yeah, Sakura-chan, you don't have to worry about me."
"Well, okay, I'll see you later. Keep your head up, okay?"
"Uh, yeah, I will. See you later," I said, waving her off and continuing with my walk. She obviously knew something was up with me, but there was no way I'd tell her what was really getting me down. From the way she acted when she saw me and Kaede at the hot springs a few days ago, she definitely would have been mad with me, and I definitely don't want to go through that whole situation again. But there's one thing I just can't understand. If I met her only a few days ago, why am I so upset that she's gone? And why was I so anxious to see her again?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~three months later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I slowly get out of bed after the sun beamed on my face. I was about to take a shower when I hear a knock on the door. I slowly crept towards the door. Soon, those knocks turned into bangs, and said bangs were giving me migraines.
"HOLD ON A MINUTE, WOULD YA?" I screamed out to the door. I angrily opened the door, just to get the surprise of my life.
"Hey, Naruto, how have you been?" Kaede asked me.
"Kaede? Are you seriously-" I ask in disbelief.
"Nope, I'm just an illusion," she said sarcastically, moving her hands around in my face.
I glare at her.
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry," she said. "But seriously, how have you been, Naruto?"
"I-I've been ok, when did you-" she cut me off.
"This morning. They were really lenient with me, I'm surprised it's only been three months since I got incarcerated. It went by faster than I thought, for sure." I let her in.
"Uh, yeah, it did." She felt the awkward tension I was giving off.
"Are you okay, Naruto?"
"Uh, yeah, it's just weird seeing you after all this time."
"O-kay. Well, did I wake you or something?"
"No, I was about to take a shower actually."
"Can I watch?"
"WHAT? YOU PERVERT!"
She bursts into laughter. "Relax, I'm just joking! I really wouldn't do that, unless you want me to."
"What? Why would I want you to-?"
"Use your imagination."
I sweatdrop and sighed. I change the subject. "So, how have you been?"
"I've been alright. Not particularly bad considering my situation."
She stops and looks at me. "Were you worried about me or something?"
"Uh, no...I mean, well-" I stop and start fidgeting and kicking around.
"You obviously don't know how dumb it is to lie to a mind-reader."
She got me on that one. I had to just be up front with it then. "Yeah, I was. I mean, I just didn't know what was going on and-" she cuts me off by lightly kissing me.
"You really don't know how cute you are when you get like that. It's really adorable."
"Hey, don't call me cute...I'm not-"
"Relax, Naruto, I'm joking. Well, anyway, I should get going. I have to report to Tsunade-sama in a little while. I'll see you around." She kisses me on the cheek. "Bye, Naruto."
With that, she gave a quick hug and walked out. It's funny, I haven't seen her in a while, and yet, she still has the same affect on me that she had when I first got to know her. I really wish I knew what she was doing to me, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~later that day~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I walked around until I found myself in front of the hot springs. Since I was here, I just decided to take a bath. When I get to the pool, I found Ero-sennin, peeping. I start wondering to myself if it was even worth trying to talk to him. I try to anyway.
I approached him, still wondering if I really should try to talk to him. "Hey, Ero-sennin."
He quickly looked at me. "Hey, Naruto." He quickly looked back to the victim of his perverted activities. Poor girl!
"You never get tired of that, do you, Ero-sennin?"
He shoots me a quick glare. "Why would I? You'd understand if you saw this babe right here. Talk about a hottie!" He stops talking and keeps cooing over his 'babe.' I sighed and sweatdropped. Only with women is Ero-sennin completely hopeless.
I start walking past him when I notice a little crack in the fence. 'Strange,' I thought. 'It's rare that happens.' I shrug it off and try to walk away when Ero-sennin's leg knocked me into the fence, my head landing right where the crack was.
"Ow! What the hell?" I scream. I lift my head away from the crack and unintentionally look through it, and see Kaede. Since Ero-sennin was right under me, I assumed that he was peeping on her. I don't know why, but I got slightly defensive.
"Ero-sennin, not cool!"
"What's your problem all of a sudden?"
I really didn't know, but I did know that I didn't like him peeping on her.
"Look, just don't peep on her. I don't care if you peep on other girls, just not her [1]."
He gives me an irritated and confused look.
"Why is she so special to you, anyway? Who is she to you?"
That, I couldn't answer either. He took my silence as an opportunity to continue what he was doing. Amazingly, that's gotta be one of the hardest questions someone asked me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~meanwhile, on the other side~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Kaede's POV)
The water felt so good. This was just what I needed. I was so focused on what I was going to do now that I was out, I hadn't even paid attention to the fact that my legs were so sore. I've never been so much pain before. But then again, I guess that's what hardcore labor in jail of all places does to a person [2]. I'm just glad I can relax now, though. Or so I thought.
I was relaxing, at first, until I heard strange noises coming from behind me. I just ignore for the time being and just continue to relax and hope the water would relax my muscles. I heard those noises again. It sounded like a man giggling. I really hope that guy was laughing at something on the boys' side because if he was peeping, then well, he'd just have to find out was going to happen to him. I hear it again. I look at in that direction. I squint and see through the fence [3]. I see an old man, peeping on me. I get out of the water and get my robe. I reach into the pocket and pull out a kunai [4]. I aim in that direction and...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~back on the boy's side~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(back to Naruto's POV)
Out of nowhere, a kunai came flying through the fence and hit Ero-sennin square in the forehead. He passes out for a minute. When he wakes up, he left, rather quickly, too. Next thing I know, I see Kaede sitting on the fence, glaring at me.
"So, you were the one peeping on me?"
"NOOO! OF COURSE NOT!"
"Well, since this is a bit of an awkward time, I'll come over later so we can talk about it, okay?"
With that, she got off the fence and left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~at Naruto's apartment~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I get home and think about what just happened at the hot spings. I start pacing around, nervous about what Kaede was going to do to me. I went through ways of how was going to explain this whole thing to her. And speaking of the devil, she came knocking.
"Hey Naruto," she said using a passive-aggressive tone.
"Uh...hey...Kaede."
"Okay, I'll just jump right into it. Wanna tell me what happened?"
"Well, you see..." I start. I, as quickly as I could, explain to her what really happened at the hot springs. I couldn't believe I was actually studdering, too, but then again, she can be quite scary when she's mad. She sighs and relaxes.
"Okay," she says. "So, you did stick up for me?"
I nod. "Yeah, I did. I didn't want him to do that to you. And I didn't want you to kick his ass for doing that."
She giggles. "I appreciate that so much, Naruto. It's been so long since someone stuck up for me. You doing that makes me happy." She comes closer to me and lightly kisses me on my cheek. "Thank you so much." Her eyes were that pretty violet color I loved to see. She hugs me. I wrap my arms around her delicate frame and hold her tightly. She pulls back a little and looks me deeply in the eyes. I couldn't really tell, but I detected some affection in her eyes. She then kisses me on the lips. Slowly but surely, the kiss deepened. I don't what came over me, but I found it hard to resist. It felt so good, I couldn't pull away. On the other hand, she did. She looked up at me with now silvery eyes.
"Kaede," I start, giving a concerned tone. "What's wrong? What's up with your eyes?"
"Hmm? Oh...uh...I-I-I just think I'm going t-too fast."
"What're you talking about?"
"I mean, let's face it. We still hardly know each other and I'm just doing that. I just think I'm really getting ahead of myself. I mean, don't you feel like this whole thing is getting a little out of control for two people who really don't know each other all that well?"
In that sense, she did have a point, but at the moment, I didn't care. All I cared about at the moment was trying to comfort her.
"Well, if it'll make you feel better, why don't we try to get to know each other? Right here, right now."
She seemed to cheer up a little bit.
"Okay, then, why don't you tell me about yourself? If I recall it correctly, you asked a lot about me, but barely told me anything about yourself."
She was right about that. I didn't even think about telling her about my background. She didn't seem to want to know anything in particular, so I just started from childhood. I tell her Kyuubi and my parents. I tell her about when I was little, how everyone treated me back then and about the Sandaime. I stop for a second. I had already got past that stuff, but I guess I get emotional thinking about it.
"Naruto," she said, snapping me out of my train of thought. "If it's hard to talk about, you don't have to tell me everything. I don't want to put that burden on you."
"It's ok, Kaede, really. I can handle it."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Can I finish?"
"Sure."
I continue with my story. I tell her about Iruka-sensei and when Team 7 was formed. I stop and smile to myself. Those were good times. She sees me smiling and smiles back at me. She seemed like she was completely interested into my story. I continue with the fight between me and Sasuke at the Valley of the End. I stop again. I really didn't like to think about that all that much. She puts a hand on my shoulder.
"Naruto," she says with a concerned tone. "You really don't have to tell me if you're not comfortable with it. I'll understand."
I couldn't argue with her this time, so I just stop. She wraps her arms around my waist and rests her head on my side. A few seconds later, I hear something weird. It sounded like someone was crying. I look around and find that the source of said crying was Kaede. Whoa! I was confused because it was a bit surprising to me that she would be crying on me, and I didn't think she would be the type to do that. But I eventually get past that and put an arm around her and try to comfort her. Before I could say anything, she decides to speak up.
She lets go of me and wipes her tears. "Naruto," she said, trying to regain her composure. "I can tell you've been through so much..." she trails off and looks up at me with the bluest eyes I've ever seen. "...and I don't..." she gets choked up, but manages to continue. "I don't want you to hurt anymore. I don't want you to have to deal with any burdens like that anymore. I-I-" she starts crying again. I didn't know exactly what to say to her, so I just try kissing her gently to calm her and comfort her. It worked the way I hoped it would.
"You don't have to cry over me," I tell her, when I finally think of something to say. "You don't have to worry about me, you know. I'll be alright. You're looking at the next Hokage, for God's sake."
"The next hokage?" she asked confusedly but with a warm smile. She laughs softly. "That's something." She laughs, but not in a mocking sort of way. "Well, then," she says in her normal voice. "I guess I shouldn't worry so much about the next hokage, now should I?" She smiles brightly and I return the gesture.
I put an arm around her. "Feel better now?" She nods. "Good." I smile again at her and she seemed to really warm up. She stops for a moment.
"What is it?" I ask her. She doesn't respond. Rather, she reaches up to me and kisses me. Moments later, her kisses get more passionate. She pulls me in closer and I wrap my arms around her waist. I unconsciously slip my tongue into her mouth and it moves around on its own. The more I explore [5], the more she seems to like it. I can hear her soft, muffled moans. I broke away and start kissing her neck. Her skin was so smooth. She seemed to like the attention. My hands start moving on their own and I start feeling around on her upper body under her shirt. She started moaning. I would have kept going if only we weren't interrupted by a visitor.
Damn Kakashi! It doesn't help that he brought Sai and Kiba with him.
Author's Notes: Naughty, naughty Kakashi! But then again, Naruto isn't all that innocent himself. Teehee. Anyway, I'm sorry the slight Naruto-OOC, but I was trying to make a point and I was trying to bring someone's idea to life. (Again, you're welcome, Trey of the rebellion.) Oh yeah, I'm sorry to disappoint, but yeah, no lemon in this chapter. The next chapter or two for sure though.
Special Notes: Since I do plan on having a lemon in the next chapter or the one after, I might need a little help with that since it would have been my first, so anyone who is good with that sort of stuff, please help me!
The Numbers:
[1] Again, sorry for mean OOC-Naruto. I broke my heart to have him argue with Jiraiya like that. I'm sorry for that.
[2] Ok, I wouldn't know what jail is like for a woman since I never been. I think it would be that bad though...?
[3] Yes, people, Kaede does, in fact, have x-ray vision. I had to think of her in a superhero matter on that one.
[4] Yes, people, Kaede stays packing. She never goes out without her weapons.
[5] Sorry to rhyme on that one.
Til next time...adios!