A/N: Lemme tell you, writing in a car sucks. Especially when your laptop pulls 170 watts and the car only supports 120, so you have to use your sister's, which is missing the 'H' key.
I never realized just HOW MUCH I used the letter H while typing until I had to use that. Hopefully there aren't any missing h's anywhere, I tried to catch them all. In other news, Frozen II was surprisingly good, Dragon Prince is as amazing as ever, and I ate so much at Thanksgiving dinner I thought I would puke.
But I still had room for pie. I will ALWAYS have room for pie.
Thanks for reading!
It doesn't take Inoichi long at all to realize Natsu is ignoring him, and the blond heaves an unusually loud sigh and stops speaking.
He doesn't do anything else though, and Natsu finds himself strangely disappointed.
The master would have at least whacked me with his staff! Ugh!
"Natsu-san. Would you mind explaining your behavior?"
Inoichi speaks as soon as Natsu stops ignoring him, his tone firm and emotionless. The pinkette sends him a confused look from under his blankets.
"I don't get why you gotta lecture me. We were just sparring, there can't be rules against that! We even used that public field, even though it had to be cleaned up first!"
"And I suppose you tried to use jutsu? Or perhaps made Naruto-kun do so?"
Natsu sits up suddenly. "What, no! It was just physical, nothing else! I just pushed Sakura-chan's body harder than it's used to, so I passed out…"
"Really?"
The blond's tone is entirely unbelieving, and Natsu's confusion only grows.
"I don't get it, what do ya want from me? Nuthin else happened!"
Inoichi cocks his head to the side, studying Natsu, and the Dragon Slayer fights the urge to bare his teeth.
Some tenseness slowly bleeds from the blond's shoulders as he rubs at the bridge of his nose. "I was called here shortly after Uzumaki dropped you off. When you did not respond to any traditional tests, I assumed you had returned to Sakura-chan's mindscape. However, something rather unusual happened when I tried to follow. Are you certain that neither yourself nor Naruto attempted anything unwise?"
Natsu stares, feeling like an idiot.
Of course it's Naruto-kun they're worried about. Everyone's strange behavior around him… I should have realized before.
"I dunno what you're talking about. Nothing weird happened in there, Sakura-chan and I just hung out like normal til you dragged me away!"
The pinkette speaks boldly, shoving aside thoughts of that still lake and ignoring the feeling of missing pieces, something important dancing just past his fingertips as he meets Inoichi's eyes with an even stare.
He'd like to trust them, Inoichi-san and the others, but this entire city is a yami guild and everyone is so oddly biased against Naruto, that he bites the urge between his teeth and does his best to ignore those memories.
Heh, what is there to ignore! I honestly don't know what happened!
Inoichi stares at him suspiciously, and Natsu wishes he were a better liar. He flops back into the bed, curling into the blankets before rolling to his side to face the blond.
"Look," he mutters, trying to pull off Wendy at her sleepiest, blankets tugged to his chin as he stares up at the man and taking full advantage of Sakura-chan's age, "we were really just sparring. I got a little carried away maybe, started moving on instinct even though Sakura-chan can't handle that, but Naruto didn't do anything 'cept kick me in the face. Yeah?"
Inoichi sighs, smiling slightly even as he takes on a chiding tone. "Natsu-san, you're a thousand years too young to even dream of manipulating me like that. Now, is there anything odd that happened while you were in the mindscape? If something is changing, it could help us figure out what happened and how to reverse it."
Natsu pouts, crossing his arms under the blankets. "Che."
Inoichi merely stares at him though, waiting. Natsu sits back up, swinging his legs out from under the blankets and kicking them back and forth off the edge of the bed. "Naruto didn't do anything." He says, just to be stubborn, glaring at the older blond.
Inoichi groans, pulling over a chair and sinking into it. "Is that why you tried something so ridiculous? Haa, I suppose Hatake-san doesn't have to worry how you'll work with the team if you're already so protective. Please just tell me what happened, Natsu-san."
"I don't know."
Inoichi's eyes narrow into a sharp glare. "Natsu-san-"
"I'm serious!" Natsu braces his hands on the edge of the bed, refusing to respond defensively. "I know I forgot something. The first thing I remember in the mindscape was crawling out of the lake. And I don't know why I was in the lake instead of a clearing like normal, the lake is just the first thing I remember. Cept I know something happened before the lake. But I don't know what. I literally don't remember. Sakura-chan and I talked for a little, and then you woke me up. That's it!"
Inoichi 'hmms', settling back into the chair as his eyes drift unfocused. Natsu waits for a moment, but the blond doesn't look up, and his leg still hurts. So, carefully, the pinkette slips off the bed and stands, bracing himself against it as he shifts his weight slowly.
Everything burns, his arms and back and legs from top to bottom, his feet hurt, his hands still feel like he lost a fight with a wall, and Natsu stands still for a full minute, breathing through the pain and trying very hard not to be uncharitable toward Sakura-chan.
Spirits but it all burns!
He takes a tentative step, and Inoichi's eyes drift towards him, but Natsu doesn't go far, just away from the bed so he can try and stretch - the blond goes back to thinking, clearly turning over something in his head as Natsu braces himself on the hospital nightstand to stretch out his muscles.
I can't remember the last time I had to do this! Ugh. Next time I spar, I'll have to stretch first... Sakura-chan isn't conditioned to fight any time with no warning...
How annoying!
Absolutely nothing feels better by the time Natsu finishes going through the most basic stretching routine he knows, and he finds himself falling back onto the bed panting by the end of it.
Inoichi's head enters his line of vision, looking down at him. "Could you describe the lake you came out of?" he asks, and Natsu grimaces, struggling to stabilize his breathing.
"I... dunno. Blue- black? Black then blue? Deep... endless? He...heh."
"A black lake wouldn't be all that odd... lakes and other sources of water are a mindscape's favorite way to portray the sense of sight - sometimes in possessing cases, the original host will be chained by the water, so they can see what is happening outside their body. Lakes aren't often used to symbolize the subconscious though... usually the sky, a basement, or a set of underground tunnels represent that. Lakes are deep, and murky, the sort of subconscious you don't see on mentally healthy people for the most part. But perhaps..."
The blond trails off, hands resting idly on the rail of the bed as his eyes once more stare off distantly. Natsu waits a moment, taking the time to finally even out his breathing, before looking at the older man. "You got an idea?" he asks from his sprawled position.
Inoici blinks down at him, frowning. "It could be possible that you initially woke up in your own subconscious - that's a very difficult thing to do, and sometimes dangerous if you get trapped there, but it is entirely possible. I don't know why you would forget, however. That is unusual no matter what. The events that take place in a mindscape are usually more imprinted in memory, not less. But perhaps the bridge between yourself and Sakura-chan is located in the lake of her field, so you traversed from your own subconscious through the bridge and into her mind... I couldn't say for certain but it seems possible. It will be interesting to see what happens when we go back into the mindscape together for your first lessons later this week."
Natsu shrugs, shoulders contorting awkwardly from his splayed position. "Sounds good to me. Can I go yet?"
Inoichi sighs. "I'll tell the nurse you've checked out. It's a bit past dinner, but I'm sure the Harunos will have left something out for you, if you know the way?"
Natsu pushes himself up while muttering an assent. His legs are just as displeased to hold him up as they were before, but the pain isn't unbearable. Contrary to popular belief, the dragon slayer does know what 'too far' is, and while he certainly hit it before, as long as he takes it slow he knows he can make it home without making anything worse.
Once he's certain he's steady, Natsu offers a nod to Inoichi and strides out of the room as smoothly as possible. It only takes a moment to orient himself after he leaves the hospital, that weird face-mountain -some sort of monument, I think Kakashi-san said?- making it very easy to find the way as he sets off for Sakura-chan's home.
He doesn't see any of the admittedly rather few people he knows in this world on his way back to the house, nor does anyone new hail him as he makes his way across the streets. He looks up the entire way, staring at the power lines and the rooves and the people who cross them, because one look at his still-bare feet near the beginning of his journey has made it quite clear he needs a shower and Natsu doesn't want to think about that, so he ignores it quite stubbornly.
It takes far too little time for him to actually make it to Sakura-chan's house however, and the reality that his feet aren't the only part of him quite filthy shoves itself to the forefront of his mind. He stands there on the front step for minutes, staring at the handle and trying to convince himself that showers are optional, not necessary. It doesn't work, and the pinkette reluctantly reaches out to turn the handle.
It barely turns at all, the sound and feel clearly that of a locked door, and Natsu glares at it. "Wha-? Dammit, after talking myself into all of that, you're locked?! You stupid door!" The pinkette kicks at the wood before he can think better, foot colliding with a sharp 'thunk!'.
Calf and ankle and toes all explode with pain near simultaneously, and Natsu tumbles backwards to fall in the dirt, curling his injured leg in.
"Dammit dammit dammit dammit I can't believe I did that ouch ouch crap!" mumbling under his breath, Natsu tries to massage his foot and reduce the pain, hissing curses under his breath at each new spike of agony. "'s mother was hellspawn- stupid door who made it anyway- I'm gonna punch them so hard their ancestors feel it, the bloody-nosed-"
"Natsu-kun?"
The pinkette looks up, meeting the eyes of Kizashi-san as Sakura's parents stick their heads out the now-opened door.
"Ah!" Natsu slowly lets go of his foot and stands, doing his best not to grimace at the fresh burn of stretching muscle. Kizashi looks him over and raises an eyebrow.
"Have you really been out all day without any shoes?"
Natsu shrugs, and the older man shakes his head. "You're going to track dirt through the house like that, Natsu-kun. Wait a moment." Kizashi steps out of the house as Sakura-chan's mother goes back in. "Are you quite alright?"
"'m fine." Natsu mutters inattentively as he stretches his aching foot. "Just sore."
"Well, after you scrub down, feel free to soak in the bath - I believe there are some bath solutions in the cupboards designed for sore muscles. We'll make sure to leave some dinner out on the table for you after."
"Uh- but..."
Somehow, despite coming to the conclusion that it was necessary, hearing Kizashi-san speak so frankly of it makes Natsu uncomfortable. The older man just reaches out and ruffles his hair, smiling.
"It's alright, Natsu-kun. I already said before. You have not struck me as the sort of man to take advantage of my daughter. I know her quite well. She would be far more furious at the idea of you sleeping in her bed like that than she would with the knowledge of you taking a shower to clean off. Ah." Kizashi strides forward, taking a pair of old, ratty slippers from his wife, who offers Natsu an uncertain smile before darting back inside.
"Here you go!" Dropping the slippers on the doorstep, Kizashi goes back inside, gesturing for Natsu to follow.
The younger pinkette follows, stepping into the shoes and shutting the door behind him.
"Those slippers are an old pair we've been meaning to throw out, so it doesn't matter if you use them right now. You know where the bathroom is, of course. Simply go, and I'll meet you there with clean clothes, Natsu-kun." Kizashi offers, already walking off, and Natsu finds himself following, less nervous than before.
Where the upstairs bathroom had just a shower, the downstairs one he used the first time has a showering area and a seperate bath, a divider visible that can be pulled between them. Natsu stares at them reluctantly for a moment, before pulling off his outfit piece by piece, settling the weapons pouch and hairtie on the bathroom counter and dumping everything else on the floor.
Natsu catches a glimpse in the mirror, as he turns toward the shower. Sakura-chan's face stares back, sharp bruise forming on her chin, hair tumbling down her back and around her shoulders, bangs falling over her forehead and into her eyes without anything to hold them back.
She's so skinny I can almost count her ribs!
Natsu jerks his eyes away from the mirror before his gaze can wander any further, all but marching over to the shower and messing around until he figures out how to turn it on. The water comes out cold, but Natsu ignores it as he smells the soap bottles until he finds the one that smells least like Sakura-chan's parents. Grabbing a washrag, he gets to scrubbing, watching the water drain an ugly grayish-brown color as the dirt sluices off.
Kizashi knocks and then steps in, settling the sleepclothes from before on the counter next to the rest of Sakura's stuff, and Natsu glances at the bottles still in his hands.
The man offers him a smile. "Her hair products, she usually keeps them upstairs." he strides forward, settling them on the soap shelf, expertly avoiding the water spray. He leaves just as quickly, shutting the door behind him, and Natsu takes a moment to study the... sakura-scented shampoo and conditioner.
...why, Sakura-chan?!
Silently despairing, Natsu finishes rinsing off the soap and squeezes a large squirt of the shampoo onto his palm.
She's got a lot of hair, so you need a lot of stuff, right? Right!
He pours out two more globs of shampoo before he's satisfied, rinses out the hair, and stares at the conditioner suspiciously.
Never used anything like that before... can't be too important, right? Shampoo's enough, don't need anything else.
Nodding, Natsu turns off the cold water, striding to the cupboards next to the bath and poking around until he finds what Kizashi mentioned.
"If they work..." he mutters, squinting at the instructions before deciding that's too much work. Turning on the water, Natsu makes sure it runs hot and just dumps a large amount of the bottle into the base of the tub.
The tub fills like normal for a bit, but the more full it gets the more it begins to form large amounts of bubbles, which soon start to brush against the lip of the tub. Natsu pushes them down, glaring, though it does little good.
Somehow, when he turns off the water, the bubbles rise above the lip of the tub but don't spill over into the bathroom. Natsu carefully gets into the water, staring suspiciously, but the bubbles mockingly don't shift much, right up against the edges but still inside the tub.
When he sits down, he can't even see above them.
There's no way! They should have spilled over!
Glaring again, the pinkette shifts around, but even the water doesn't splash over the tub, the bubbles moving as though sliding against an invisible wall. Natsu stares, wide-eyed. Lifting his hand, he shoves a tower of bubbles, but they do the same, acting as though Freed put a 'bubbles cannot pass' barrier around the tub.
Natsu feels his lips parting into a grin as he grabs a large helping of bubbles and throwing them. Despite the force, they don't do anything different from the others.
...!
Towling his hair dry as he watches the tub drain, Natsu deliberately avoids looking at the bubble-coated floor.
"Hehehe, in the end I don't think whoever made that tub's script was as good as Freed..." Natsu chuckles nervously as he carefully steps around the bubble mounds. "But at least Kizashi-san was right! Whatever those bubbles were made of has to be magic! I barely even feel sore now!" Laughing, the pinkette takes a moment to just stretch before poking around the clothes that were left for him.
Kizashi knocks on the door as Natsu is pulling on the shirt, so the younger pinkette just makes an affirmative noise as he pulls his arms through.
"Ah, so Natsu-kun is done," Sakura's father says while opening the door, "I just wanted to- what did you do?!"
"Eh?" Natsu pulls his head through the neck of the shirt, looking to the older man. "What do you mea- oh." Natsu follows his gaze to the bubble-streaked floor. "I was gonna... clean it up after I got dressed?"
"H-how?! That- those seals have never failed before!"
"Seals? Are they different from scripts?" Natsu asks idly, pulling his hair up from under the shirt and glaring that the still-sopping strands.
Long hair is apparently much harder to dry than short hair.
Though that could just be the lack of fire and heat.
"Different from...? I don't know! Fuinjutsu-inscribed furniture is expensive. Most of the skilled users who retire from shinobi life get recruited into R&D, so they don't mess around much with day-to-day improvements, this is actually a modification of a more shinobi-appropriate seal, I got a friend to do it for me, how did you break it?!"
Kizashi stares at the bubbles as though he still can't quite believe what he's seeing, and Natsu turns aside, scratching at the back of his head. "I... scripting is something a... friend of mine back home could do, and when I saw the bubbles didn't fall out of the tub it made me think of him, so I decided to... experiment with it? Ehehe, it turns out that if you put the bubbles on your hand and shove your hand over the edge the bubbles will slide right off, but for some reason if you put the bubbles on your head, they won't! From anywhere. So I might have fallen out of the tub and sprayed bubbles everywhere..."
Kizashi turns, staring with wide eyes at Natsu. "You... lunged out of the tub headfirst with a pile of bubbles in your hair?"
Natsu doesn't even have a chance to respond before the older man starts laughing, breaking into large guffaws as he leans against the wall. The younger pinkette cracks his own grin in response, linking his fingers behind his head.
"Well it worked didn't it?"
"Yeah, I guess it did!" Kizashi manages between chuckles. "I'll have to let my friend know, that's an interesting weakness for a seal to have. Go eat dinner, I'll clean up here." Waving idly, he crouches down and starts digging beneath the sink.
Natsu walks easily back toward the kitchen, quickly spotting the food laying out on the counter. He digs in, everything slightly warmer than room temperature as he eats it, but he's more hungry than he is caring about how cool it is.
He finishes quickly, leaving the dishes in the sink and heading upstairs. Sakura-chan's mom is already asleep, he can hear her breathing softly as he walks near her door, and while Natsu does open the window, he curls up on the bed instead of taking everything outside.
He falls asleep almost instantly.
Natsu wakes just after dawn, Sakura-chan's window angled to let the first light of day shine into the room. He blinks the sleep out of his eyes, hugging his- pillow, to his chest.
Happy...
Even in Edolas, I still had Happy and Wendy and Charla with me. It's so lonely here... like waking up with Igneel just gone and having no idea how to find him again... Why am I the only one who ended up here? Even if it was just the other dragon slayers, or just Happy, or just someone...
"Aagh!" Natsu sits up sharply, slapping his cheeks. "Can't think like that! Gotta look on the bright side, it's better like this! After all, if I'm the only one here, I don't have to worry about anyone else! I can protect myself just fine until we find a way home! Right! And to do that, I need to get Sakura-chan's body into shape so I don't die cause I ran a mile or something! Which means training! Heh!"
Bouncing out of bed, Natsu grabs a set of clothes and heads across the hall to get dressed. It still takes a couple tries to put the weapons pouch back on, but he's pretty sure he figures it out faster than last time.
Brushing out Sakura's hair, he's sure, is harder than last time. Somehow, it's twice as matted as before, and takes three times as long before he finally gets it brushed out and pulled up, out of the way of his face.
He goes downstairs after, following the smells of breakfast and the sound of light conversation between Sakura's parents. They look up as he walks in, Kizashi blinking repeatedly.
"Ah, is that what you bought yesterday? Definitely a different look!" he offers around a mouthful of food, ignoring his wife's chiding look. Natsu grins and digs in himself.
"Yeah, it's a bit more like what I'm used to, with colors anyway. Style's odd, but I can fight in it and that's all that matters, so I'll get used to it."
"You haven't looked at it at all, have you?"
"Huh?" Natsu looks up, casting a confused glance at the older man. Kizashi chuckles.
"Nevermind. Will you be out all day again?"
Natsu hesitates, not sure how to respond to small talk, before deciding to just go for it. "Probably? Kakashi said something about training in the morning and D-ranks in the afternoon? Dunno when we'd be done."
"Ah, the D-ranks! Bane of genin everywhere! Good luck with that! Do you need a bento, or will he be providing team lunch?"
Natsu grimaces, glaring at his bowl as he chews. "He didn't say anything 'bout getting us food."
Mebuki stands up at that, heading toward the kitchen. "I haven't put everything away from Kizashi's lunch, so I'll fix one up real quick." She offers, smiling slightly.
Natsu gets out a quick 'thanks' between mouthfuls of food, Kizashi chuckling in amusement as he watches his younger companion devour the meal with impressive eagerness.
"You'll be a bit early if you head over now, you know."
Natsu pauses in his quest to inhale the contents of the table, taking a moment to answer. "Yeah, I know. Probably better like that, since Sakura-chan's body is waaaaaay out of shape compared to what I'm used to! So I'm probably going to have to take a bunch of time to stretch if I don't want to end up in the hospital again..."
"Again?" Kizashi's face pales in worry, and Natsu looks up at him for a moment.
"It wasn't like that, I just sparred with one of Sakura-chan's teammates and went too hard with it and got knocked out, but I was sore pretty much forever until that bath. I don't know what those bubbles were made out of, but it's amazing!"
Kizashi laughs, relaxing into his seat. "Isn't it? It's a family recipe, actually! I keep trying to convince Sakura-chan to learn how to make it, but she always has more important things to do... I swear it saved my life a time or two back when I was in the forces. Next time though, try not to use half the bottle?"
"Ah! Eheheh, sure thing Kizashi-san." Natsu grins sheepishly, before collecting his empty dishes and heading into the kitchen.
"Here, I'll trade." Mebuki offers, handing him a wrapped box while reaching for his dishes with her free hand.
"Thanks!"
He turns around, heading straight for the front door, and takes a moment to slip on the sandals he'd left behind the last time he'd gone out.
Both of Sakura's parents offer a goodbye that he waves back to, as he turns to head over toward the bridge Kakashi lead him to before. All of the previous day's soreness is gone, not even the slightest twinge no matter how he moves, and Natsu can't understand why Sakura-chan wouldn't want to know how to make something that could do that, because he's seriously certain he'd strained something big time and yet everything feels good as new.
I might have to get that recipe myself... even if I'm not good at stuff like brewing and mixing and all that, it's amazing! Maybe I could bribe Lucy with it, she always complains about being sore after fights and stuff… hehe. Maybe I could talk her into going onto one of the fun jobs with me! All I gotta do is learn how to make some bubble bath concoction. How hard can that be?