DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters except Haruna. You can be thankful.
Note that there are Japanese terms in the fanfic, written in romaji and spaced out in the way it would be said so it makes sense if my Japanese teacher were to read this.
And can someone review? Like, please? I'm getting lonely here and I need my fanmail….
Once I had a Sister
Chapter 7
Revelations
"Naruto, PAY ATTENTION!" Iruka yelled for the hundredth time that morning, as he threw a chalkboard eraser at the blonde head. The object of Iruka's exasperation pouted and shoved the paper airplanes, spitballs and the kunai he was using to mark "5th Hokage = Uzumaki Naruto" on his desk into his lap. Ninja techniques just weren't ANY fun whatsoever when Iruka-sensei read thzem out.
Iruka pinched the bridge of his nose and begged Kami for patience. "Naruto, if you're going to be a ninja –"
"Not ninja, sensei – Hokage dattebayo!"
"If you're going to be a ninja," Iruka continued, ignoring the last remark whilst sending a whittling glare at his defiant student, "You should be working twice as hard to learn these now, since you constantly refuse to remember your homework assignments."
"But sensei…"
"No buts, Naruto."
"But sensei!" Naruto was adamant. "I don't get it!"
Iruka looked over at the rest of his students. The majority of them looked bored, as if the scene happened just as regularly as the lunch bell (which it actually was, if not more). There were still a few who found the whole thing as a means of entertainment – village commoner kids no doubt, following their parents in finding fault with the boy.
His brown eyes rested on the girl right in the seat opposite from Naruto. The young Hinata, heiress to the Hyuuga clan. He would always and forever be wary of her parents – on his first day when he began as a chuunin instructor he had been subjected to such a tirade of goals and expectances she must meet because her use in the clan depended on it that he could never look at the ramrod-stiff Hyuuga clan without feeling the need to kowtow and beg forgiveness. Poor girl. If not for the fact that she literally had eyes only for Naruto, who maintained his idiotic attitude in remaining entirely oblivious to it when Kiba even was starting to tease Hinata about it, he would have said she bore a big burden. With Naruto, and all the tried-and-failed attempts to strike a conversation he had seen – he had witnessed it with his own eyes!- Hinata bore a huge burden instead.
Nawww, to think the Hyuuga princess wanted to help Naruto!
Iruka didn't always fancy himself as a good matchmaker, but he did envision himself as a good teacher. A good sensei had to make sure that all his students were happy and getting the best education possible, sometimes obligated to intervene at the right time. That gaki was too much like him for to hope that a word he said actually stayed in his ear. And Kami help him, but Iruka was sick and tired of shifting the lesson to Hokages all the time just to get the kid's attention.
Naruto wouldn't learn a thing from with him –but maybe with the brat's total antithesis he could.
Naruto was still pouting, Shikamaru was drooling on his textbook peacefully, and little Ino and Sakura were deep in girly conversation. Iruka cleared his throat with importance, "Alright then. Naruto, you still don't get it? Fine. Hinata?" Pale lavender eyes accompanied by a squeak remarkably familiar to the mouse he'd cornered the other day met his.
"H-H-Hai, Sensei?"
"Can you stay in this lunchtime? Or are you busy?"
The sensei had to strain to hear the fragile answer. "I… I would be a-able to stay, Sensei."
"Good." He nodded. "Because I want you to go over this with Naruto for me."
A startled gasp, an loud "Ehhhh…. Huh?" and the attention on the exchange from rest of the class –Shikamaru included - was the reaction.
After getting over his initial shock, Naruto leapt out of his seat and on his knees before Iruka. "Sensei, you can't make me stay inside! I've got candy to buy! The new store's opening and the free stuff won't last!"
"Well, I would have let you go, but you said you didn't get it, right?" Iruka felt like he had all the power in the world at his call. Funny what having someone on their knees in front of you made you feel. "Well suit yourself. You're staying inside and going over this with Hinata. In fact," one quick glance at Hinata assured him that he was going to start something beautiful. "We''ll do that for the rest of the year. Until I think you're in good shape, you spend lunch inside the classroom. Understood?"
Naruto was about to protest this cruel, Iruka-sensei-I-thought-I-could-trust-you treatment, when the bell rang, concluding the matter.
"Well Naruto, study hard!" He paid no heed to the loud "B-but Seennnssseeeiii!" that followed. Instead giving Hinata a friendly pat on the head for the sacrfifce of her lunch hour. "You'll do fine, I'm sure," he said gently to his most delicate student. He added a wink as well. "You're in good hands with Hinata, Naruto."
The door closed, plunging the classroom into silence. With a characteristic grumble - that wasn't directed at Hinata at all, he just hated the fact that he was missing his lunchtime – Naruto moved his old textbook to the desk beside his new tutor.
Hinata hoped her cheeks weren't as red as she was sure they would be. "Let's begin then, N-Naruto-kun," she stammered. "Would you like to start with chakra points?"
iTi
Half an hour into lunch, Naruto had sunken into a deep depression and Hinata was beginning to lose hope. They hadn't even made it past the first page, much less the first paragraph - the only thing managed to do was linking the kunai to the shape of a candy cane end when you sucked it long enough.
Naruto's stomach grumbled loud enough to be heard over his groans of frustration.
Hinata stifled a giggle while Naruto laughed embarrassedly. "Nihihihi, I guess I'm hungry, dattebayo."
"Don't worry Naruto-kun, we can take a break if you want. It's always easier to think when you're full after all…"
To her surprise, Naruto-kun shook his head. "Don't worry. I'll be toootally fine. Let's just get this stuff," he pointed to the textbooks, "over with. What about you Hinata, go ahead and eat if you want. I'll just uh… stay here and, and read some more of this… yeah."
There was a pause before Hinata soberly replied, "Y-you didn't bring lunch, did you, Naruto-kun?" The silence that followed answered the question for her.
"Neechan's not here," Naruto suddenly said. "I like her lunches."
"Oh…"
"She hasn't been around for a while, you know? That's why I was gonna go to the candy store but Iruka-sensei had to make me stay in and learn this all over again."
Silently, Hinata reached under her desk for her backpack after Naruto had finished his explanation and put his head over his arms so the food his partner would definitely bring out wouldn't make him look like a half-starved dog. Without a second thought she pushed the bento box her aunties had prepared for her that morning towards Naruto. She wasn't hungry at the moment anyway, and sharing was caring.
"Here you go, Naruto-kun." she said –calmly, and without a single stutter, which she inwardly congratulated herself for- to the big blue eye that had been summoned by the smell of takoyaki. "Let's eat."
"Me? Really?"
"Hai, Naruto-kun. It's no fun if I don't share."
Tentatively, Naruto considered the offer. He was hungry, but at the same time accepting offers wasn't something that he was very experienced in. After weighing the options between his eating and trying to study, Naruto-instincts won. But not before agreeing only if Hinata had some before him.
And so the young Hyuuga munched on a cabbage onnigiri and Naruto devoured a takoyaki stick, feeling very glad for themselves as they resumed the private lesson. The former was glad because she was spending time with the highlight of her school day and the latter was glad because Iruka-sensei's threat to continue the indoor lunch lessons didn't look as bad as they had before.
Many blocks away, and many worlds apart, Sasuke was trying hard to stop himself from sinking in to a deep depression. No matter how hard he tried, Sasuke just could not make the apartment even close to home. The relief at escaping the clutches of the hospital had long since faded the moment the masked shinobi had brought him here. It was just… not home.
The windows faced the wrong way. The carpet was the wrong colour. The switches were in the wrong place. It wasn't his bed. Even the fridge was too large and all he had to eat were packaged imposters of the foods his mother would cook.
He'd never felt so alone before. The undisguised, sickening pity on the faces of everyone else wasn't helping at all either.
The Hokage had said he was lucky to have an apartment of his own and so well furnished but the boy found no comfort in that.
He wouldn't need an apartment of his own, furnished and with electricity or not, if his family was still there...
The humming and cheerful bounce in the step of the girl beside him made it clear to Neji that his cousin had had a good day.
It was day four of her tutoring program and Hinata was noticing some progress already. If they continued at the rate they were going, Naruto would be ready to make genin sometime soon. The thought of it was enough to distract her from the uncomfortable silences that usually reigned on her walks home with her silent cousin.
Almost roughly Neji broke the silence of his own accord for the first time in history. "Hinata-sama, I was wondering where you were this lunchtime. I didn't see you at your usual place today."
The humming stopped. "Oh, that's right Neji-niisan, I forgot to tell you!" A slight tilt of her companion's head informed her that he was listening. "Iruka-sensei asked me to help Naruto-kun with some work that he was behind in during lunch. We did it in the classroom."
"Ahhhh…"
"You know Naruto-kun, right, Neji-nii?"
"The loud blonde one who always gets in trouble?"
Hinata reddened as she nodded.
Neji only shrugged. "Well if your sensei asked you to then I don't think unc- your father would mind. Although I wonder whether it would be too much for you – Naruto doesn't seem to be the type easy to teach…"
"Oh but he is!" Neji lifted an eyebrow at her raised voice. "Ano," Hinata continued, "I mean, it isn't too much at all, Neji-nii. Naruto-kun works very hard when I help and… and it's actually very fun too."
HInata's cousin cleared his throat, afraid he had spoken wrongly. Arggh, he didn't like his weak cousin at all but if anything were to make her upset, her father would no doubt assume the role of his and go on a long rant at him. He hated his fate as a branch family member. "I was only curious." He replied brusquely, before turning on his heel and continuing on their way back to the Hyuuga manor at a quicker pace.
Hinata jogged to keep up with her cousin. "Ano…. Neji-nii," she started hesitantly, "Do you like Naruto-kun? I know a lot of people don't but I'm not so sure…"
. "I don't know Naruto very well," he replied indifferently, without slackening his pace. "But I don't think our clan, especially your father, likes him very much." He had heard the Uzumaki's name whispered by the servants and cousins a few times during training sessions but hadn't given it any thought since. These were matters Neji was only vaguely aware of, and so Hyuuga prodigy only shrugged conclusively.
"I think they find him a nuisance."
Naruto envied the children who brought bento boxes from home every day, packed with good things their parents or elder siblings had prepared for them. He didn't like all the food he saw – carrot sticks and salads made him shudder – but the fact that someone else had taken the time and effort to prepare food for them was something he couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy at.
With Haruna away, it was up to him to get up early enough to make a sandwich and rummage around for a piece of fruit that his sensei's wouldn't question or risk bringing money to school to spend during the lunch hour. He wondered who was making lunch for Haruna-neechan. Did ANBU shinobi have people to make lunch for them or did they have to make it themselves? Or maybe they just ate out. (They did have the money to do that.)
Nevertheless, once Naruto had begun to grasp the fine arts of sandwich-spreading that didn't involve long messes on his countertop to attract flies and ants with; it had become a little custom to leave a little bit of lunch for his neechan to munch on when she came back.
The pile of brown paper bags on his table was growing now. Naruto pushed the door of his apartment open, hoping to notice some decrease in it since he'd left for school that morning but nothing had changed. The lunch he had left for his neechan was still there.
With a sigh, the blonde slid the paper bag (he didn't have a bento-box to lend) he had packed that morning over to join the pile of others at the far end of the table. There were about nine of them now. She'd been away for about three weeks if not longer.
Well there was nothing for it; his wolf-masked neechan would come when she completed her missions. In the meantime, because he was nearly seven there would be no excuse for an untidy apartment. As he lugged the rubbish bags towards the door and arranged the shoes at the entrance Naruto's thoughts drifted excitedly to what he'd have to share with her once his neechan did return.
Just wait till he told her about Hinata!
With the last of his papers graded and piled up neatly, work had finished for the day. Iruka whistled as he did his chores, dusting down the blackboard, checking for gum under the seats, removing any spitballs or tripwires one obnoxious gaki may have left behind. Little Hinata was doing a better job than he could have expected, and as a teacher there was nothing better to see than a student beginning to grasp the subject.
Well, the Uzumaki was still relentlessly awful at reading but he could have sworn he was actually paying attention to the lecture that afternoon and taking notes. (Or doodling - but he would remain optimistic here.) As long as he didn't jinx it, Iruka thought, maybe the fates would smile on him and Naruto would actually learn something by the end of the year.
It was his grocery shopping day today. After locking the classroom door he headed straight for the brightly lit windows of the supermarket two blocks away. Maybe he'd buy Hinata something for her hard work. And something to keep on hand for Sasuke too, (a tomato maybe? somehow he'd never seen the kid actually eat any lollies. Some chocolate could work, no peanuts just to be safe) whenever he came back to class.
Iruka got himself a basket and started ticking off items in his mental shopping list as he grabbed items off the shelves. His colleagues would be out drinking or at karaoke at this time but the chuunin spent his evenings differently. Truth to be told, Iruka may have been a bit of a clutz when he was a teenager but as much as he would daydream about life-threatening missions where'd he'd save the day, he much rather preferred living life quietly. Before going to bed, he'd either cuddle up with a book, a walk around the village or plan the next week's lessons.
Some would say he was boring, but it was probably because of this that he'd become a bit of a magnet to those who wanted someone to listen. Relationship problems, colleagues dealing with loss, or the little quarrels that would break out between his tiny students - the guy had heard it all. He'd never forgotten his mother's words when she said they were cut from the same cloth. His mother had always been a good listener.
He was deep in thought as he pored over this; he never noticed the orange that came flying at him until it was too late.
"Ahhh damn! Sorry Sir, I was just putting it down and the orange flew off and – oh wait, it's Iruka!"
Too stunned to be angry, Iruka only nodded weakly. He could recognise that voice anywhere. "Well hello, Haruna."
iTi
If it wasn't for the fact that the chocolate was on sale, Haruna would have stayed at home. She'd been keeping a low profile ever since the incident as being the teammate of Uchiha Itachi wasn't particularly appreciated at the moment, but in the end she was going to go mad if she stayed inside any longer. Juggling four oranges had seemed like a good idea in keeping her mind occupied, but of course, it wouldn't be.
She gave Iruka an apologetic smile. "Gomen ne. Silly me."
"Oh no, don't worry," Iruka replied, replacing the orange at the box it came from. "Long time no see."
"Haha yeah…" Haruna didn't quite know what she wanted anymore. She didn't quite know how to explain what she even felt like – upset that her best friend was gone, angry that the superior she never liked had finally got to her, kind-of-but-not-really sure of when and how she'd meet up with Naruto again. When she tried thinking about it seriously, her mind was left blank.
Not sad, not happy either. Just… empty. She honestly didn't know.
Her voice started working before she thought about it. "Watcha doin?" She wanted to talk. She was lonely. How pathetic. "I mean, shopping, but how's life? How's Naruto?"
Iruka's face relaxed into a smile. "Still wanting to be Hokage, so he's fine." He lifted a bag of apples into the basket. "And you?"
"Same old, same old."
"ANBU life?"
"Oh yeah. Still getting bullied by the management?"
The tanned face pulled into a half-hearted grimace. The chuunin had been blessed with the skill to grade papers fairly and quickly, and it had become a running joke that whenever one head teacher went off in the need of a second coffee Iruka was called to take their place – without a raise of course. Haruna had laughed at it when Naruto first mentioned it to her. "Not today, luckily. My groceries were more important." Haruna rolled her eyes. "Would you," Iruka began as the thought came to him, "well, are you going off on a mission tonight?"
"No, I'm free. And now that I think about it, I don't need to buy anything anyway." With that she put the rest of the oranges away conclusively. The talk had been a nice change and it was getting late already. "Well I guess I'll see you around then. Make sure you find your backbone sometime soon!" she added, jokingly.
Iruka laughed. "You too. Don't let anyone bully you too, even though that'll never happen."
He didn't understand why she suddenly went pale as she walked out of the store.
"Hinata-sama! S-stay away from him!"
Naruto flinched and Hinata drew back as Ko, a young uncle her father had assigned to be her bodyguard rushed towards her and immediately began to pull her away.
"A-ano, Ko-san! What are you doing?!"
"Your father has been worried about you – how could you not tell us you were doing this?"
"A-A… Doing what, Ko-san?" Hinata asked with equal urgency, trying desperately to stop stuttering.
The tall Hyuuga stopped and dropped to his knees at eye-level with her seriously. "Spending time with the…" his voice drifted and Hinata remembered that Naruto was there as well, "not coming home straight away."
Hinata's eyes widened uncertainly. Naruto had only taken her to the candy shop twice, while she waited for Neji to come out of his afterschool judo practice with the older children and she had always been given free time anyway. "I was only going s-somewhere with N-Naruto-kun, we weren't doing anything dangerous."
"Yes you were, Hinata-sama." Her young uncle's voice was cold and Hinata shrunk back timidly, unfamiliar with this direct treatment. "Come, you're needed now."
As the man, who Naruto concluded must be her bodyguard, began to drag Hinata with him, the blonde jinchuuriki finally found his voice. "HEY WAIT!" he shouted. Naruto felt sick to the stomach. In the moment those disapproving eyes landed on his person the world was already changing around him, growing colder and sharper as his newfound friend was led away. "Hinata!"
"Ko-san, I didn't say goodbye yet-"
"No time, Hinata-sama.' Hinata's bodyguard shook his head. To think the clan heiress would be spending time with the jinchuuriki; it was a shame to the clan itself! "You're needed at home. Do you hear that, you?" he said over his shoulder to the blonde, whiskered, demon-tainted Uzumaki vehemently. "Stay away from Hinata-sama from now on."
"What did I do? Huh?" he yelled back. Hinata suddenly felt hot tears stinging her eyes. "Hinata's my friend, she didn't do anything wrong!"
"Not she. You." And with that Ko dragged the surprised Hinata away, leaving a bewildered Naruto standing alone.
The days were getting colder, frost beginning to creep into the widows when Sasuke woke up shivering and trembling from Tsukuyomi-coloured nightmares. It was the memories, the phantoms in his dreams that were beginning to take their hold on him. If anything, the lone Uchiha was exhausted. He was paler, thinner and had dark circles under his eyes now.
Aside from the lady who'd come in every morning to clean up and leave a hot dinner for him, Sasuke spent the month after the incident alone. He hadn't been allowed to set foot within 100 metres of the compound, and there hadn't been any funeral for the clan. The Hokage assumed Sasuke just wanted to alone. No one else understood that he didn't know what he wanted anymore.
The boy stopped lighting incense for his parents. The lady always left a new stick for him to burn in his room but they disappeared in the trash without being used. Okasan had never liked the smell of the smoke; she'd always sneeze whenever she walked into a room pungent with the fragrance. In the long hours alone Sasuke would wander around the lakeside instead and imagine his mother calling him back inside when it started getting darker.
He didn't look at his reflection in the water anymore. Itachi's eyes would always stare back at him, the same expressionless mask on his face. Thinking about it made his blood boil and his teeth clench. How could he miss the signs that led up to this? How could his brother have changed so quickly? No matter how much he thought about it, trying to make sense of it all enough for his seven year old mind to accept it, he just couldn't see it. He couldn't understand how Itachi could have killed his own family, much less fathom the reasons. Already he was slowly beginning to forget the Itachi of before. Thinking about him only brought back memories of the night with his brother's voice low and angry and telling him to run, and then Sasuke's hand would drift to the shuriken in his pocket and imagine flinging them at him.
Getting through the nights was the toughest part. Sasuke had never known what it was like to be alone, how utterly terrifying it was to feel that there was no one else in the world there. He had never known what hate was either, until his hands clenched reflexively into white-knuckled fists every time he was unfortunate enough to reminded of what he had lost.
And Haruna, who had seen it all before, only watched the change in Itachi's little brother sadly. The innocent smiling shadow of Itachi, always standing behind his brother; was gone. Those childish features had hardened and disappeared. She didn't know how the elders could stand it, watching the boy tear himself apart, shattering the image of a kindly brother into pieces and building up a hate-filled monster from them instead.
"You should really visit Naruto now, Haruna-san. Ask him how he's doing at school."
From behind a mouthful of dango that tasted like nothing in her mouth, Haruna answered coolly, "And is there any particular reason why you can't just tell me right here?"
"Oh no no," Iruka replied smilingly. "I want you to come and thank me later."
With a quizzical look Haruna acquiesced. It really was just about time she finally visited her little brother and was sure she would be able to keep the smile on her face as long as she needed to be. Naruto wasn't going to know a thing of the past days, and as far as she was concerned the only thing she was interested in was how her little Nawu-shama was doing.
She rather regretted buying the dango. Everything tasted the same for her nowadays, whether it was from grief or from the seal on her tongue she wasn't too sure.
She nodded in farewell to Iruka who'd come for his daily dango fix – the lady running the shop had fallen ill and the guy had made a habit of coming to the shop as a way of helping her. A nice guy, she contemplated; he would definitely make the perfect waifu for someone haha! And, before Iruka could notice the smile on her lips at that thought she exited the store.
Naruto had forgotten he was hated by the villagers. He had been so happy at finding Haruna that he stopped realising it. But now, like a douse of ice water the reality was hitting him – and it was twice as cold.
He could see it all again. The simple, frosty glares, expressions transforming perceptibly at the sight of him into ones of disdain, of hatred and dislike. The pain he felt wasn't physical; at least it didn't need to be. The looks that told him he was different, a mistake, someone to stay away from even if they never said it openly were enough to pierce through the happy bubble Haruna had since built around him.
With a sinking fear Naruto realised he had allowed himself to grow soft. Before, in the dark days before a big sister had welcomed him into her life, there was a mask, a protective wall that he could hide behind and let the cold treatment and harsh stares wash over. Somewhere down the line he had let it disappear, thinking he no longer needed it because he had neechan there.
But where was neechan now? His defence wasn't there anymore – and the old one, which took so many years to form, had been cast aside.
That was why now, as Hinata was being led away from him, Naruto began to notice with stunning clarity that the Hyuuga man was not the only one. The villagers had never stopped hating him; it was only that he had stopped noticing. The street walls seemed impossibly tall around him. He needed only to glance up to see the people hanging laundry or watering plants' faces morph into ones of scorn when they caught sight of him.
"Bakemono…"
Heart rate rising, the boy told himself to stay calm. He had never wanted his neechan back so badly, her arms around him and blocking away the rest of the world. He couldn't blame her at all – he just wanted her here with him. Now. Family was supposed to be there for you, right? They were supposed to come for you and save you when you couldn't save yourself.
The paper bag still lying on the table when he made it back to him apartment was mocking him.
Shivering, trembling, the jinchuuriki curled into a ball just beside the entrance. He didn't want to go back outside, but neither was his prison of a home any more comforting.
No one was there. Once again he was alone.
iTi
Four weeks. Four long weeks had left their mark on Haruna - she looked tired every time she glanced at a mirror. As she strolled down the street however, she didn't worry about her current physical state. She was going to visit Naruto.
It was late afternoon, and because she'd wasted her money on the dango and hotdog stall that morning Haruna had emptied the rest of her pantry into making cupcakes to bring to her little brother's. All twelve of them were safely packed in the box she was carrying carefully now. She'd tell him they were from a stall in Tanigakure. Best keep her baking decorating skills a secret.
The window was already open when she got there - perhaps he had already anticipated her coming. "Naruto?"
There wasn't any reply; the apartment it seemed was oddly absent of any form of life. She set the box on the table quietly when the quivering bundle near the entrance caught her eye. "Naruto? What are you doing there?"
Somewhere from the haze of dark thought in his head Naruto heard her voice faintly. Haruna, sensing something was wrong went closer but in that instant Naruto's head cleared and he immediately moved away, eyes blazing.
Stunned, Haruna's arms dropped to her sides. "Is something wrong?"
"Where were you?" was the stiff answer.
Hazel eyes stared blankly into an angry blue. "Huh?"
"Where were you, neechan! I needed you but you weren't there!" There were tears pooling at the edges of his eyes but he swiped them away angrily. The person he had been looking for so long was finally here but he had been wallowing too long in his thoughts and had been struck so deep that the sorrow he had been unable to comfort transformed into anger instead. "Why'd you leave me alone? You're the only one who doesn't hate me! No one else is like you and you had to leave me alone!"
He took a breath and Haruna opened her mouth to answer but he was too upset to listen to anything from her. "It's all… It's all happening again! And I don't know what to do anymore. Everyone is just gonna keep doing it and I'll go back to being alone again, and then I'll get those allergies and I…" He stopped when he felt the warm hand on his back but didn't look up.
"I suppose I did leave you alone," she admitted quietly, "Gomen ne, Naru-chan. Neechan didn't mean it."
Naruto sniffled. "But where were you," he repeated, still not letting go of his disappointment yet. "Why did it take you so long? You never take so long, you're ANBU!"
Haruna chuckled and drew her reluctant brother in. "On a long mission with lots of bad guys and I got hurt so I had to spend a little time getting better," she explained, feeling a twinge of pain at the memory. "Did you think I was having fun without you?"
"Well… yeah, kinda." was the reply, startling Haruna momentarily. Had Naruto thought she'd forgotten him? Just how long and how much had she been unable to protect him from?
She pulled back for a moment, and brushed a stray tendril of yellow hair apologetically until he was looking at her. Naruto looked so small, so vulnerable, like she could break him in two if she wanted to. It hurt, to think she'd failed as a big sister as well…
"Well I wasn't," she finally answered. "I wasn't. Maybe Neechan didn't… have it as hard as you, but Neechan's being really honest, swear-to-Kami-and-hope-to-die true when she says she didn't have fun. I couldn't have fun. I was missing out on spending time with Nawu-shama and all I wanted to do was come back home too."
Firmly, but gently, she placed both hands on his cheeks and stroked the black whiskers; bidding his baby blue eyes to meet her hazel ones. "So, no more silent treatment for Neechan okay?"
"S'okay. S'all right." he sniffled and pouted dramatically. "I was just lonely."
"You won't be anymore, I promise" She held out a pinky meaningfully.
"You can't ever break a pinky promise right Neechan?" Naruto's frown immediately dissipated as he extended his own little finger.
"Mhmm, my little fireball. Those pinky promises are serious!" Her little brother grinned as the solemn exchange was made.
Relieved that the tension between them was gone, Haruna carried her little brother to the table, ignoring his protests, and set him down beside the box she had brought. "Now, let's have a cupcake shall we?"
AUTHORS NOTES
Chapter 7
Wow, hard to believe this was written in a WEEK. As in, seven days! No. Way. Just don't expect its gonna continue. It's a once in a blue moon kinda thing, miracles like these.
There's a special one-shot I just put up the day before about Itachi, since I was kinda having trouble sorting my character priorities in this fanfic. You can read about our favourite Martyr Complex here: s/9625461/1/Martyr-Complex
My writing inspiration meter had been running pretty low for a while you see. But at least I managed to get Chapter 7 done.
Anyway, as a special celebration to mark this feat, NoeticSky has kindly agreed to write her summary of this chapter. Grammer Nazis not welcome at this summary:
Lo and behold! Iruka sails the NaruHina ship!
Shashukkee ish no happee wid his new crib
Ko.. you a hottie.. but you a mean hottie. Why you try to sink the NH ship?
Is that orange okay? Naww… why an orange Haruna? Throw a marshmallow next time. Less painful y'know?
. nnnuuu, my babehh nawuu ish shuffewingg.
Cupcakes are the cure!
NoeticSKY OUT.
...
Well, I hope you enjoyed Chapter 7. See you all in Chapter 8, if I ever get any inspiration to get down to it.
Please read and review. But mostly review. :D
Alatariele C.
-in collab. with NoeticSky