Getting Past his Lamentation
We're about three chapters away from the end. (Yeah. Seven chapters. Why is anime so obsessed with the number seven, huh?) I'm extending thanks to those who had good compliments and I hope to pull off this thing right! Anyway, here's the chapter and I hope the results will appease you!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Obviously he would have done the idealistic thing when Hanabi got captured if I did. I don't think I would have wanted to own the series anyway. Too much responsibility.
Chapter 5.
Naruto placed the bowl back down onto the counter with a sigh. He burped with his mouth close to suppress the sound and exhaled it, making for good table manners.
His female companion alongside him did the exact same thing. They only had one bowl each, (Naruto had really cut back on eating ramen in copious amounts.) He was enjoying his little ramen break with her. It was also his third break this week with her.
This was only Tuesday.
He could not deny that she was the best companion a guy like him could have. She was his stabilizer, his alternate polarity, all he could hope to be but could not. The same went for her.
When he was around her, the fortress that locked inside his emotions was slowly torn down, all his pent up and bottled up feelings were released and he could finally be the person everyone liked.
The Uzumaki that loved the idea of perfect peace, holder of the infallible will, the child of prophecy. His remaining friends were overjoyed. And they all owed that to one person, the one person they whom they least expected to pull him from that dark place known as loneliness.
Hanabi Hyuuga.
Said woman was seated on Naruto's right, conversing with Ayame. Ayame as well was grateful to Hanabi for 'helping' Naruto. When Naruto closed himself off entirely socially, even to her by not even coming to the stand, she took it really hard. She and her father practically watched the goofball grow up from a pint-sized brat to the man he was now. It was even more so when Teuchi had died to cancer. It took him so suddenly, he did not even suffer. It did not help much knowing that the top three medics were all deceased. The ramen maker didn't even have a ghost of a chance. (Tsunade, Shizune and Sakura.)
Now he was back. These two customers, while not even eating half as much ramen as a younger Naruto, still kept the stand afloat, (Naruto left a large tip most of the time. He did inherit the Namikaze fortune after all.) And she had to hire a teenager to help her out. She still looked forward to his visits, the pair being inseparable, even having meals together. This made for good teasing material.
"So Hanabi? When are you going to advance the relationship?" Ayame smirked slyly.
"Naruto-kun and I are just friends, Ayame-nee," the heiress insisted for the millionth time. While the thought had crossed her mind so many times, she would not cross that bridge. Not even halfway. If it were to become a more… intimate relationship, let Naruto cross it all the way to her. Err… not that she wanted to become intimate with him, she reassured herself in her mind.
"Hanabi-chan and I are just friends." Naruto butted in.
"Best friends, nothing more," Hanabi added. 'Why does it feel like we are in denial?'
Ayame smiled with her eyes closed. "Well, you know what they say about marrying your best friend!"
Both clan heirs looked to each other and blushed heavily while they tried to think of an indifferent sounding response.
"Hey! What's all this talk about marriage?" a new customer ducked into the ramen shop.
Make that…customers. They also spoke in unison so perfectly that it unnerved anyone who heard it the first couple times.
Furai, Mizurai and Karai entered the shop and they all grinned at Naruto cheekily. They were triplets.
Konohamaru and Moegi's triplets.
By some weird genetic miracle, Moegi had triplets with Konohamaru. They all had the raiton affinity and they each had a minor one to three more. (It's in the names) They were the exact look of a young Konohamaru but with orange hair. The only way to tell them apart was by their scarves which were different colors. (Furai wore light blue, Mizurai wore a dark blue and Karai wore red.) They had exceptional teamwork and were dubbed as the 'Tri-Rai'. Very aptly so.
They were a pain in the neck for Naruto.
"Hey gramps!"
"Who're you calling gramps?! I'm only twenty-eight years old!"
"Dad says to call you gramps but mom says to call you Boss. Which one would you like?" They asked in unison.
"Err… Call me whichever." Naruto decided, hoping that they'd just leave him and Hanabi alone.
"Alright. Naruto and Hanabi, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G! FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MARRIAGE! THEN COMES THE BABY IN THE BABY CARRIAGE!"
Ayame laughed hysterically but the persons being teased had steam pouring out of their ears. "Oh, THAT'S THE LAST STRAW! LET'S GET 'EM, HANABI!"
The woman was in full agreement. The triplets ran out of the shop squealing in terror, with two very dangerous people running after them.
All in all, a very comical situation.
The triplets soon ran into a dead end, they turned rapidly to exit it and take another way but they were cut off, the two chasers grinning sadistically. As they were about to pummel them, the Tri-Rai smirked. "Boom."
"Crap. Hanabi-chan, paint!" Naruto screamed.
Hanabi's eyes widened. She quickly created a counter. "Rotation!"
Naruto was no slower. "Shadow clone Jutsu!" the four clones then hugged the original on all sides.
And not a second later than absolutely necessary.
Bright colors exploded from the trio, being water bunshins created with paint and used with a low level Great Clone Explosion.
The two ninjas were covered. After the maelstrom of paint died down, they both released their respective jutsus and looked over the alleyway. It looked like a childish swirling paint art project mixed in with a Picasso. Weird.
The two ninja smiled with each other, pleased that they were able to avoid the paint when-
"Hey Gramps Naruto and his girlfriend Hanabi."
They looked up at the top of the building creating the alley. The instant they did, paint was poured all over them, covering them from head to toe.
"Aargh! Mizurai! Furai! Karai! I'm going to get you for this!" Naruto wailed comically, shaking his fist in the air. But the children had already shunshinned home to seek asylum with their parents, hoping they didn't sell them out. Their echoing laughter was all they heard.
Although Hanabi knew that they both could have avoided the paint like ninja of their caliber normally could, they let themselves get caught. Those were the unspoken rules. But you were free to offer your own justice to anyone of hem.
She smiled. While it was not as funny when it happened to her (as is normally the case), she enjoyed seeing this side to him. It made him standout to all others. His aura now seemed to be radiating pure sunshine. A truly happy phenomenon.
Naruto saw her smiling. Not knowing the reason why, he smiled as well, albeit a confused one. He suddenly remembers the paint that was currently covering their bodies and grabs Hanabi and they both disappear in a yellow flash.
That same instant they find themselves in a luxurious shower in the UzuNamikaze's house, or more specifically, the guest shower. He teleports again, but this time on his own to find his shower.
Obviously they were going to have to get the paint off before it started to dry.
But more importantly, it seems that he had the Hiraishin seals all over the place, both in places that did as well as those that did not matter.
"Hanabi-chan?!"
His voice sounded a bit muffled due to the quantity of walls he had to shout through.
"Yeah?!"
"Don't forget to wash the paint out properly this time! Remember when you accidentally missed a certain pink spot in your hair?!"
"Gah! Will you ever let me live that down?!"
She heard only his laughter in response. She took it as a no.
After half an hour of heavy showering, they stood close to one another scrutinizing each other's hard to reach spots to make sure that they got all the paint out. Not so much Hanabi as Naruto because she remembered about her byakugan so she could check herself for stray paint. She checked him all over with the dojutsu as well as herself. Yep, they were both clean.
Naruto ambled off into the kitchen and spawned two kage bunshins. "Hey, fireworks."
Hanabi's lips twitched into a very small smile. Her name's translation was something of a nickname for her over the past year. While she wouldn't admit it to him, she loved hearing him say it.
"Yeah?"
"What do you want for dinner?"
"Something light. We just had ramen after all."
"Anything special?"
"Surprise me." She regretted saying that almost as soon as she said it. The last time she told him that he cooked a huge amount of instant ramen.
And he was a staunch believer in not letting food go to waste. It was probably because he had to scrape for scraps when he was a young orphan.
At least he did cook something light. It was only some rice that was steamed to perfection. He made a mango sauce to go with some delicately fried fish and some green tea.
As they ate, she couldn't help but admire his cooking skills, as well as his ability to satisfy her appetite without overshooting the requirements for her palate.
He was full of surprises. Pleasant ones.
After they ate, they went upstairs to sit on the roof, peering at the starlit sky. There were even a few shooting ones. They sat in each other's company, just appreciating the time they spent together.
But only as friends. Very close friends.
"Hey Hanabi-chan?" He started.
"Yeah Naruto-kun?" She responded using his name, but not looking at him, but rather at the night sky.
"I've been thinking…"
"About what?"
"Three years ago."
"Oh…"
"I know. It's just that… err." He started to stumble over his words but she hushed him by placing a finger on his lips.
"I know. I don't care. In fact, I'm almost glad you did."
"Really? I would have thought you would have preferred me to fight alongside the second we saw him. It's just that I saw a way… I'm sorry. I know that it might feel like I used you-"
"You didn't. In fact, they got what they deserved. They brought it on themselves for doing such a despicable act and you even warned them."
"It just that recently I started wondering about that time because…"
Chapter 6- Flashback
Naruto smiled.
A very grim smile.
IT WAS A HARBINGER.
"Heh Heh. Time to get to work."
He jumped off the ledge into a dive, a long free fall in a short distance of 150 feet to the ground. While in the air, still diving down headfirst, he created six clones that were in the same position as him.
"You all know what to do." The seal on his arm let him know that her pulse was still rising. "She needs us! Go!"
They all nodded once and all of the Narutos disappeared in the Hiraishin.
The Original Naruto arrived in the room where Hanabi was located, adjacent to the bed. She was sitting in a position that was facing his point of arrival but C was facing Hanabi from the left.
Naruto had teleported into his blind spot. His own heart rate sped up in anger as he saw C about to kiss Hanabi, even though he knew that this mishap was probably the cause of the Hyuuga's discomfort. They were about to have sexual intercourse, or more like rape since she didn't want this. He was caught in the middle of attempting to kiss the heiress and this only caused the UzuNamikaze to see red. But not enough for him to go ballistic. A reserved kind of anger.
"Oi, C!"
The man turned around his head sharply only for Naruto to make a first impression on his face, knocking out a tooth and loosening a few more. While he was dazed from the punch, Naruto then made a seal-less kage bunshin who revealed his eyes to be the Rinnegan.
Naruto ripped off C's clothes (except his underwear), took out a paper seal that said 'Disorientation and Paralysis' on it and slapped it on. He then unsealed a cardboard sign that had its words printed in a loud red color and quickly placed it around his neck on a string. To Hanabi's eyes, his whole movement was all of his motions blurred into one action. He then grabbed the shoulders of both C and Hanabi and disappeared in the Hiraishin.
All of this happened in the space of three seconds.
The clone placed his arms in an X position over his chest in preparation of his technique.
With First set of Clones
The Raikage was sitting down in his office drinking sake and a protein shake mixed together in a large tumbler. He was deliriously happy. Going by what the nurse said, Hanabi should be having twin, or triplets or even quadruplets with the fertility enhancers that she was given. And knowing C, he was sure that he could look for the babies to start coming out in nine months.
All was good.
Or so he thought.
Two clones suddenly appeared in a hiraishin flash behind him. A sensed their presences immediately and turned around to engage them. But to his surprise, the clones moved twice as fast as him. One clone activated his Rinnegan and the other slapped a seal on the Raikage, then strapped a cardboard sign with loud red letters around his neck and teleported with him again. The guarding anbu were stumped at first but leapt towards the remaining clone to dispatch him.
All of this happened in the space of a single second.
The clone placed his arms in an X position over his chest in preparation of his technique.
With Second Set of Clones
The appeared in a Hiraishin flash in the church (Mosque, synagogue, holy building, whatever you want to call it. I'm ignorant of how Japan's main religious system works.). One grabbed the official (notary public) to the wedding was sitting in his office counting the ryo in a fat purse that the Raikage had paid him to look the other way. While Kami might sentence him to the Shinigami's hellish realm in the afterlife, he was going to live happily until death claimed him.
It may have been sooner than he thought.
The clone slapped a Disorientation seal on him and strapped a red worded sign on him and flashed away with him in tow.
All of this was in the space of a single second.
The clone placed his arms in an X position over his chest in preparation of his technique.
With Third set of Clones
Both clones suddenly appeared in the Lightening Daimyo's regality room. One spawned around thirty more clones that suddenly disappeared. To the Daimyo's horror, all of the strongest shinobi and samurai suddenly fell unconscious. The second Bunshin walked up to the man in walk akin to one of great importance but also with an edge usually found in the walking gait of stone cold killers.
The Daimyo yelled in terror. "Guards, anyone! Help me! Stop this man!"No one came. Later, he would find out that everyone, be it man, woman and child was unconscious in a two mile radius.
"No one's going to come." Naruto said threateningly. "Now listen to me. You know me, don't you?"
The Daimyo nodded his head vigorously.
"I am past the level of Madara and Obito and Pain's abilities. Did you know that?"
The frightened man not trusting his voice shook his head 'No' so hard that it was a wonder that he didn't break his own neck in doing so.
"Did you know that one of my monikers was 'The Golden One Man Amy'?"
"H-h-Hai…"
"I can create over a hundred thousand clones of myself. Did you know that?"
"N-n-n-no…"
Naruto looked up a little towards his own forehead. "In the lightening country and from lightening country, both registered and missing, there is around twenty thousand ninja. For the Samurai and special guards and forces, you have around thirty thousand." He glared back at the Daimyo and continued in his even tone. "Do you see where I'm going with this?"
The Daimyo shook his head a bit more confidently, seeing that if Naruto wanted to kill him he would have done so already.
"What I'm saying is, even if I were to fight by myself without help from the leaf, I would still outclass your army. And I am a SS class ninja, and all my clones would inherit my abilities." He grabbed the Daimyo by his collar and hoisted him up, turning the man back into a quivering mess. "Understand?" Naruto released some killing intent, the amount was just short of knocking the man unconscious.
The man nodded, the movement a bit handicapped given his situation.
"So if I hear that if even one member of the Leaf is killed, hurt, or even a single hair on their head slightly out of place and the fault was on the part of any Kumo ninja or samurai, castle guard or even a civilian, I will personally come back and raze Lightening Country to the ground." His eyes shut for a second and reopened them, revealing rippled eyes. "I know that you gave the go ahead for the Raikage himself to kidnap the Hyuuga heiress. Let it be known that if I am further displeased, I will burn all of your crops, mar the landscape with extensive techniques, kill every man, woman and child, torture and maim every one in the military services. I will save you for last, slowly cutting off your limbs and leave you a quad amputee. I will hack off what makes you a man and feed it to you. I'll cut of your eyelids and leave you to watch the sun, making your eyes roast in your skull!" he spoke the last in a feral beast voice. "I'll remove this land from everyone's memory, kill whoever mentions its name, burn all books that has it in a passing mention! Do I make myself clear?!"
The Daimyo replied by losing control of his bowels while nodding 'yes' fervently. "H-hai!" He bawled out in fear.
Naruto dropped the man onto the ground. "And if you're thinking the Raikage can stop me… my clone with only a fraction of my power was able to subdue him in a second. He's in my custody. For now, be watchful and pray. Eat and drink and be merry but be very vigilant. You know that the time will eventually come when some bumbling Lightening native makes a slip up and when they do…" Naruto trailed off, letting the threat hang in the air. He and the remaining clone flashed away, leaving the man who was supposedly royalty to stew in his own filth, a weeping mess.
With The Original Naruto
They teleported to the highest and most suitable natural ledge on one of the mountains looking down on Kumo. He arrived only to find two clones already waiting on him. Hanabi's first reaction was to be suddenly afflicted with vertigo and nearly throw up but she managed to keep it in. she was deliriously relieved to know that she nearly went second base with a man against her will. So much so that she forgot about her earlier misgivings about Naruto not intervening sooner. She suddenly noticed that the Raikage and C were next to her.
"W-what are they doing here?!" she almost yelled to Naruto. She didn't even take notice of the signs and what they said.
He did not take much notice to the yelling. "Oh, I just need to borrow him for a minute. Don't worry. He's harmless. But I'll need you to poise yourself in a certain position in a minute. But in the meantime, check it out." He snapped his fingers dramatically.
Suddenly in Kumo, she saw that the house that she was just in as well as the Raikage tower and office as well as the church that she was 'wedded' in was blown apart in some sort of explosion of a perfect transparent sphere. Nothing remained of them but the damage was localized; nothing else was destroyed beside those three places.
Naruto had used three Shinra Tensei's in perfect sync.
Her eyes widened. All of these places had something to do with her kidnapping situation. She would also find out later that the castle was destroyed, apparently by another clone. (It was by the clone who threatened the Daimyo but she didn't know or ever will know about the threat.)
He turned to her. His gaze was a bit cold and calculating. "I need you to position like so-" he started to put her in a certain position, placing her in such manner that was against her will but she didn't really have the gall to resist. She was still frightened of his abilities; so much so to create his own destruction and capture the Raikage himself. If he was mad, she didn't dare to attempt to rub him the wrong way. He dispelled his clones everywhere except for one of those next to him.
"Grab the Raikage and C. We're leaving."
The clone complied. Naruto himself placed a seal on himself and the clone to make them invisible, the matrices and Kanji creeping over them. He then grabbed his companion's shoulder and they all disappeared in a yellow flash.
In Konoha
The four way intersection was bustling with activity, Customers shopping, store keepers haggling, Ninjas traversing on roofs and such. It was a fairly ordinary day.
Suddenly, a yellow light warped in out of nowhere. In a single second, all normalcies came to an end and all eyes turned to observe the growing development.
The Raikage was the first person they took notice of. The large, burly dark skinned man with golden bangles and his kage hat hanging on his belt to the right were hard to miss. Another man with blond hair stood next to him in his underwear. The all started to laugh at the man. They almost didn't even notice the Hyuuga heiress kneeling about four feet in front of the man.
"Look at their signs!" a portly civilian yelled in horror.
Immediately, everyone tried to move to the front of the spectacle where the man was pointing. They all absently noted that the three persons weren't moving. They started to read the signs that the two men had and they all gasped.
Raikage: Kidnapped the Hyuuga heiress
C: Hired to rape and almost did
And in front of the two men, more specifically C, Hanabi was on her knees in a cowering stance.
It was really easy to figure out what this was all about.
The crowd started to grow infuriated, yelling out expletives and other insults at the two men. This spectacle finally garnered the attention of the Hokage, Konohamaru and the council members. But within a minute of their arrival, the offenders and victim (Naruto as well) flashed away. They did the same exercise in each of the Great nations, finally ending in Kumo. In each place, the reaction was the same. Not even in Kumo was the Raikage and C pitied. It was only out of loyalty of duty why several shinobi tried to see if they could help the Raikage. But each time they did, a barrier would become visible around the three people by which the offender was electrocuted till they fell unconscious.
By the time Darui arrived, the man was pissed, despite his laid back personality. Someone had played Kumo for a fool and the Raikage thoroughly embarrassed. It was an affront to their pride. He was about to try for himself when the Hyuuga disappeared in a yellow flash and a piece of paper left on the ground where she was.
Dari came as close to them as possible without inciting the barrier and peered at the note.
Barrier releases in 24 hours
He didn't know which emotion to feel.
Flashback end
"…I've been thinking about our relationship as friends. I know that our friendship started off rocky and all, you know, with you not talking to me for six months but it's just that if I had beaten them up or killed them there could have been war and all that…"
"Naruto, we've been over this already. I forgive you and I understand. You even explained why you did it in all the nations. That way, Kumo would lose a lot of face and respect. Haven't you heard? Their economy has fallen far, even Suna has more money and resources than them now. They lost a lot of contracts and mission submissions. They're destitute."
"Yeah, I know. They had it coming. I planned that when I saw the Raikage the first time. I even warned him. Have I ever told you?"
"No."
"Anyway, I digress. What I'm trying to say is, I was hoping that you and I could be more than friends… Ugh. I know that I may not be a starry eyed romantic… this isn't working out right…" He stumbled over his speech.
Hanabi smiled. This person could kill in over five dozen ways and yet he was still lost. Especially in the ways of the heart. She had read quite a few romance novels when she was younger so she may have had some kind of high standard for him to reach back then.
Fortunately, she outgrew that nature. Or she would have shut him down the first minute. She knew that those novels were all romanticized so much so that it was next to impossible to achieve in reality. But she wondered. Was it for the best that she should enter a relationship with this man?
She broke out of her assessments to look back at the man who was still trying to get his head on straight. "Naruto-kun."
"Hmm?" he looked back at her. 'Kami, she's so beautiful! Damn, how long was I stuttering?' he regarded her complexion. In the soft moonlight it seemed luminescent, her facial features likened unto a goddess herself. Everything about her was perfect. He found it hard to believe that she sometimes she had insecurities about her looks. He could get lost in her lucid pools, it drew him in, leaving him spellbound…
Hanabi looked to him as well. His clean cut features, his perfectly chiseled jaw line fitted him perfectly. His skin was always the perfect tan. Even his whisker marks that made him look cute in her opinion could also make him look feral when the timing was right. She loved that. Even in the moonlight, she could make out the cerulean orbs that were his eyes. Somehow, she felt that he was right for her. If not for her, who would he be with? If her not with him, who was right for her?
They were the perfect specimen for each other, both had suffered during the earlier parts of their lives, been betrayed, loved and lost and they had been strong in the face of it all.
Slowly they leaned towards each other, not even registering the action; their minds were on autopilot. It was like instinct. Both of them completed the journey towards each other and pressed their lips against one another's.
It started as chaste of course, but to them, it was amazing. Naruto however started to request permission with his tongue, begging for entry. She allowed him in; he breached the walls that were her soft lips and started to deepen the kiss. They started to wrestle each other in a battle of tongues, no one willing to admit defeat. But at the end of it all, the experience was like an orgasmic explosion, one that would keep them smiling afterwards for a long time.
They finally broke apart for air after five or so minutes. None of them trusted their own voices. They just smiled gently at each other, knowing what this meant.
"So, are we a thing now?" Naruto said grinning.
"Naruto-kun, I believe that we are much more than that."
If you have a Jiraiya-style shit-eating grin, take your minds out of the gutter. This is teen rated for a reason. For what Naruto did, all I have to say is that I clearly stated that one shots don't necessarily have a large plot and besides, this idea really appealed to me. Thanks for reading it and tell me what you think. Also, let me know if you have any questions, I respond to every review and if you're a guest, I'll answer at the end of the chapter.
Valete omnes,
MRAY 4TW.