(no subject)
Chapter three (origanal) of Twice Shy by DameWren
“Sakura! Don’t you think you should get up?”
No, as a matter of fact Sakura did not think she should get up. She was still tired and therefore she should still be in bed. She was too groggy to remember why she was so tired, but she trusted that she had a good reason.
There was more bellowing from the kitchen. Covering her head with a lilac-colored pillow she once again asked herself why she had thought it been a good idea to get an apartment with Ino. Sure, the girls had mended their friendship years ago, but she should have known that did not necessarily mean that they should room together.
Ino had always been somewhat of a queen bee growing up. Pretty, confident, and smart, she was someone most of the other girls could look up to, even if she was a bit overbearing. Placement on the team with Chouji and Shikamaru had proven to be good for the young woman, finding that the more she bossed the boys around, the more they shrugged her off. She’d calmed down considerably working with them, and the group had developed enough cohesion that they had stayed together even after Shikamaru achieved the rank of chuunin. Not many teams stayed together once ranks changed.
Still, it wasn’t until she achieved chuunin that she had been drafted into the Intelligence Corp., and it was there that Ino had truly come into her own.
Intelligence and spy training had an interesting effect on Sakura’s old rival. Ino was sneaky, and woe be it to anyone who underestimated her shrewdness. She had effectively reformed her role as queen bee to now use a combination of skillful manipulation and badgering to get people to do what she wanted. Sakura was terribly glad that Ino had started dating, and maybe was even starting to fall for, Shikamaru. Even at his laziest, he was able to see what Ino was doing. Whether or not he bothered to stop her was another matter entirely.
“Sakura! Get out of bed!”
Lifting her pillow enough to read the clock, Sakura noted the time, then lay back down. “I’ve only been asleep for five hours; let me sleep!” she yelled back.
There was stomping in the hallway before her door flew open to reveal a rather irritated blond.
“If you want to stay up until three in the morning, that’s your business, but don’t expect me to put up with you sleeping in all day, forehead girl!” Ino exclaimed, stomping over to the bed with her hands on her hips.
“I was working, stupid Ino-pig, and it’s only- Hey!” she yelled as Ino yanked blankets off the bed. “Give those back!”
“You won’t say that once you hear the news,” Ino said with an evil grin.
Realizing that there was no way Ino was going to let her sleep, Sakura sat up on the bed. “What news?”
Ino stalked to the door and looked at Sakura over her shoulder with a triumphant smirk. “Naruto and Hinata are back,” she replied, and slipped down the hallway towards the kitchen.
“WHAT!” Sakura yelped, hopping out of bed, her shoulder-length hair swinging. She bolted down the hall in her pajamas, grabbing the doorjamb to stop herself. “They’re back!”
Ino offered up another smirk as she sat down at the small dining room table with her breakfast. She was wearing a sleek fighting dress with a scooped neckline and a stand-up collar, her long hair up in an elegant twist except for her trademark one piece that fell in the front. “Shikamaru told me. Apparently they came in late last night and spent a few hours in debriefing with the Hokage. They got home almost as late as you did.”
Sakura sat down at the table across from Ino with a slight thud and pushed a couple of strands of pink hair out of her face. Shikamaru was in intelligence with Ino and generally news that came from him was accurate. News that came from Ino was either accurate or spun towards some goal. Generally that goal was matchmaking.
“You’re sure?” Sakura asked. Just the idea of seeing Naruto again was a shock. She had been assured that he was coming back, that he was safe and just off training away from the village. Still, she hadn’t been able to really let herself believe that. In so many ways the memories of those three years were painful.
Ino nodded. “Of course I’m sure. Would I tell you if I wasn’t?”
“Where is he? At his old apartment?” she demanded.
This time she shook her head. “No; apparently someone left him a house for when he turned sixteen. It’s over on the west side of the city.”
“Do you want to go?”
Ino smiled. “Thought you’d never ask.”
Sakura stood up and headed back down the hall. “Just let me get cleaned up.”
“We should bring a housewarming present!” Ino yelled down the hall after her.
Hinata finally fell asleep, albeit fitfully, and woke up late. Looking at her clock she groaned softly, then pulled herself up out of bed. It was nearly ten o’clock, and she had told Naruto that she would be over this morning. With any luck he would have slept as late as she had. Getting up in the morning had never been his strong suit.
She walked to the end of the room and slid open the doors that exposed the courtyard below. Beyond the railing she could see Hanabi and her father training, her father correcting Hanabi’s stance and then making her run through the series of strikes again. Her sister had improved quite a bit in three years. She wondered if her little sister was preparing to test for chuunin.
Remembering she was late for her meeting with Naruto, she grabbed her things and headed down to the bathhouse. She scrubbed herself and washed her hair but didn’t allow herself to soak in the tub afterward. Dressing in her standard black pants and cream-colored tunic, she performed a quick hair-drying jutsu to save time (Sora knew a ridiculous number of techniques related to hair). Running back upstairs she brushed out her hair and rolled out her hair sticks, choosing a pair of redwood sticks with a stripe of darker wood inlayed through it. Pulling her hair back into its customary bun, she slid the sticks in and patted her hair to make sure it was all secure.
She left her room and headed down the stairs, trying to figure out how she was going to find Naruto’s house, when a voice stopped her.
“Hinata-sama?” Neji said from the top of the stairs. She turned to look up at him, his opposing figure taking up much of the doorway. “Where are you headed?”
“I’m going over to Naruto’s. I told him I would be by this morning,” she said. She was determined to go, but she wanted to get out of the house before her father finished training with Hanabi simply to avoid any possible confrontation.
Neji nodded. “I’ll go with you; I know where the house is. Afterwards we can start working on your training.”
Hinata wanted to go alone, to catch a few minutes where she could just have Naruto hold her. But she didn’t know where the house was while Neji did, and somehow she got the feeling he wasn’t going to let her go alone even if she said something. So, with an inward sigh she waited for Neji to walk down the stairs and join her. They were silent as they collected their coats and put on their shoes. Neji held the door for her as she walked through, then the two of them set off through the village.
It occurred to Hinata that her already serious cousin had become even more serious in the three years she had been away. It also occurred to her that if they were going to do anything more than walk in silence, she was going to have to start the conversation.
“What have you been doing for the last three years, Neji-nii-san?” she asked.
He looked at her for a second and then offered a small shrug. “Hokage-sama saw fit to keep my genin team together, although all three of us passed the jounin exam last year. I have been going on missions with them, along with training with Hiashi-sama.”
She smiled at him. “Congratulations on making jounin. Its amazing that all three of you moved up in such a short amount of time.”
“I confess it was very difficult, but we worked hard. Plus, they look to put teams that will work well together for missions, and the three of us are so accustomed to working with each other that it outweighed our youth. We are one of the few teams that has stayed together for so long; most people have gone into specialist training. They put us with a couple of older chuunin who specialized in genjutsu and ninjutsu and we passed.”
“Do you know how the others from our chuunin test group are doing?”
“From what I know, they have all made chuunin at this point. Nara-san probably would have made jounin, but they keep him very busy in intelligence and he says it can’t be bothered. I don’t know which of them are planning on testing for jounin with you and Uzumaki-san.”
She smiled sadly. “If I take the jounin exam. Otousan seems determined to keep me from testing. I suppose my chuunin exam was embarrassing enough.”
Neji didn’t respond immediately, leaving the two of them to walk down the street silently, listening to the sounds of the village bussing around. He startled her in more ways than one when he spoke.
“Hinata-sama, I want to apologize for the way I acted towards you during the chuunin exam,” he told her.
She looked at him with a slightly confused look on her face, traces of sadness on her face from the old memory. “Why? You needed to defeat me in order to continue with the test.”
Clasping his hands behind his back, he bowed his head as they walked. “Still, I was fighting you out of anger. You fought hard and I belittled you because of my hatred for the head family. I dishonored both you and myself.”
She shook her head and looked at the ground at her feet. “Neji-nii-san, I can understand why you hated the head family. We weren’t very fair to you or your father.”
He stopped and put a hand on her arm to stop her as well. Hinata couldn’t remember at time he had ever touched her except for their one fight. Looking into his eyes, she found they gleamed with emotion and purpose that she had never seen in him before. “My father chose to give his life to protect the village and the clan. Now it is my choice to follow in his footsteps. Cursing the head family and my fate is not going to change anything. I will take what fate has given me and make a better future. That is my nindo.”
He was willing to bury the past, she realized. To undo years, generations of division between the two groups, and move forward to create one family together. She had been so frightened that she was going to arrive home to a situation similar to that in the Kaze, where the branch family was ready to overthrow the head. Instead the cousin she had been so frightened of her whole life was here offering a truce.
It brought tears to her eyes, but she did not let them fall, standing with her back straight and turning herself to face Neji more fully. “I do not intend to run the clan the same way my ancestors have, Neji-nii-san. Most likely the way I want to do things will bring me into conflict with my father. I am still finding the strength to defy him, but I will, and when I do I don’t want you to be caught in the middle. I am not quite the same girl who left three years ago, and I cannot guarantee that you are going to like what I’m going to do.”
Neji offered her a rare smile, just the barest upturning of his mouth. “I have noticed you are not the same, and while I cannot guarantee I will always agree with you, I offer my support to you nonetheless.”
She smiled brightly and nodded. “Thank you, Neji-nii-san.” she said.
He nodded, and they turned to start walking down the street again. “Tell me,” he said, “about this new style you have learned. You said you have incorporated our strikes into it?”
Hinata began to explain Shina-To-Be, the Kaze, and partner training to Neji. He asked good questions, which made it easier for her to talk. The only thing that threw her off was that he kept asking questions about her and Naruto. He had mentioned it the night before as well, but she couldn’t understand why.
She was considering asking when she heard a wild stream of barking quickly followed by a large white dog that nearly knocked her over. She jumped back letting out a shriek of surprise, only to nearly loose her footing again as the dog circled her legs, butting his head up against her.
It wasn’t until she got a good look at the dog that realization dawned upon her. “Akamaru!” she asked and the dog yelped happily. “Look at you! You’ve gotten so big!” she said, kneeling down to be at the dog’s height while she scratched behind one of his ears. The dog leaned forward and licked her cheek, making Hinata giggle.
“Akamaru!” came a deep yell from down the street. Looking up, Hinata spotted two familiar figures running towards them. One was a man in black sunglasses with a long, high-collared jacket and the other had on a big parka, which he was wearing open over a tight-fitting t-shirt.
“Akamaru, what the hell are you doing running- oh!” The man with the parka stopped to stare at the girl playing with his dog. “Hinata? Is that you?”
“Kiba-kun! Shino-kun!” she exclaimed happily, standing again with a final pat to Akamaru’s head.
Shino nodded at her and she could see the faint wrinkles of a smile around the edges of his glasses. “Hinata, it is good to see you back in Konoha again and looking well.”
“Looking well?” Kiba asked incredulously. “Shino, have you had those damn glasses of yours checked recently? Hinata’s turned into a BABE!”
Hinata suddenly found her hand grabbed and she was spun around in a circle, Kiba inspecting her as he turned her around. “Damn, what did you do to yourself? You look hot!”
Her face turned bright red, embarrassed beyond what she had previously thought possible. She couldn’t believe that Kiba was talking like this! Things only got worse as he tugged on her hand to bring her closer to him and dropped one arm over her shoulders.
“Hey, have you gotten a chance to see the village yet? A lot of things have changed in the time you’ve been away. There’s a great restaurant that opened up on the other side of town. How about I show you around and then we grab dinner?”
“Um, actually, Kiba-kun, I’m on my way to see Naruto,” Hinata said ducking out from under Kiba’s arm.
“Why? You were just forced to put up with him for three years,” he asked.
“She’s dating Uzumaki-san,” Neji said from behind her, arms crossed over his chest. Kiba had matured into a rather roguish teenager, whose combination of bad-boy charm and a cute dog had started to win him dates with many of Konoha’s young ladies. Generally the girls’ fathers objected, but generally Kiba didn’t give a damn. Neji didn’t exactly dislike Kiba, but he might as well stomp any ideas of him dating his cousin right now.
“Eh? Naruto?” He scrunched his nose in disgust and shook his head. “Hinata, whatcha doing going out with an idiot like him?”
“Kiba-kun!” Hinata said shocked. “Naruto is not an idiot!”
“Heh, he does a pretty good impression of one, running around yelling, pulling pranks, and eating ramen.”
“Naruto is a sweetheart! He’s one of the kindest, bravest, and strongest people I know!” Hinata said, with a startling ferocity.
“He also,” Neji said calmly, “beat you in the Chuunin Exam, Kiba-san.”
“Heh; it was a fluke,” Kiba responded with a dismissive wave. “I’d kick his ass now. Besides, Hinata’s been on a mission for three years with him; she probably hasn’t had a chance to see what her other options are.” He gave her what could only be described as a wolfish grin.
“I really don’t think I need to, Kiba-kun,” Hinata said, wishing she just had a little bit of Sora’s ability to tell off men. “I’m very happy with Naruto.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll see about that,” he said. “Shino and I were heading out to train, but maybe I’ll come bug the idiot with you. Could be fun.”
Much to Hinata’s disappointment, Shino nodded. “I would like to see Uzumaki-san again.”
She sighed. First Neji, and now Kiba and Shino. Things weren’t going well for her and Naruto getting some time along together.
“He’s going to kill it,” Sakura said, staring at the large leafy green thing in her arms.
Ino shrugged. “You obviously don’t understand housewarming presents,” she said with an air of infinite superiority.
Sakura scowled. “It’s you who wanted to bring this instead of something practical that we knew he could use.”
“Cup ramen is not an appropriate housewarming present,” Ino scolded Sakura.
The other girl rolled her eyes. Decision-making between the two girls always took forever. It had taken them three months of paint swatches and arguments to agree on painting the kitchen white. “But that’s what he likes. Everyone knows that that’s what he likes.”
“What if he’s grown up in the last three years and doesn’t like it anymore?”
Sakura stared at her. She couldn’t see that happening. A Naruto who didn’t eat ramen? She wasn’t sure he would still be Naruto.
They continued to gripe and grumble at each other as they walked down the street. They had spent so much time arguing over the present that it was almost eleven o’clock.
Ino glared at something Sakura said, then pulled out a slip of paper. “Okay, so according to Shikamaru his house should be right kiddy-corner for his one.”
Both girls looked up at the house and stared.
“Are you SURE?” Sakura asked, disbelieving. “Who would give a house like that away to Naruto!”
Into looked back down at the sheet in her hand. “That’s the address I was given.”
Sakura shrugged. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt to go over and knock,” she said wearily.
They crossed the street and cautiously walked up the front steps. They shifted their weight from side to side for a second, before Ino got impatient. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous! We’re ninja for heaven’s sake! What could possibly be behind that door that we can’t handle?” She made a fist and knocked loudly on the door.
They heard a thump, the sound of feet, and then the slipping of the deadlock. The door opened and a very bleary-eyed young man poked his head out.
“Hello?” he asked, clearly not yet awake.
Both girls stared. Where they had expected Naruto’s head to be was, in fact, a bare and rather well-muscled chest. Slowly their eyes moved up to his face where blond hair was hanging in his eyes. He was rubbing his eyes with one hand while he yawned.
“HOT DAMN!” Inner Sakura screamed.
“Naruto?” Sakura asked disbelieving.
“Huh,” he said as his vision cleared. “Sakura-chan? Ino-san?” he said, looking between the two of them. They continued to stare at him.
Suddenly he grinned broadly, let out a whop and both girls found themselves in a crushing hug, potted plant and all.
“Na-Naruto-kun,” Sakura managed to get out as her lungs were crushed. Well, at least it was definitely him.
Just as quickly as the girls had found themselves picked up, they were suddenly released again, gulping in air.
“It’s great to see you! Come in! Come in!” he said, holding the door wider.
Cautiously, they walked inside.
Naruto had decided that he couldn’t sleep in the bedrooms. He didn’t want to sleep where his parents had once slept, and he had shut the door to the nursery, not intending to open it up again for a very long time. That left him with the guest bedroom, but the spring-filled mattress had felt odd after years of sleeping on the ground or on a futon. Finally, he had pulled the drop-cloth off of the couch, pulled his camping blanket out of his backpack, and slept there. He had spent a number of nights on the couch at Sora’s with Hinata and Miki right after Nori’s death, since his sister wouldn’t let them sleep in each other’s bedrooms.
The sun was relatively high in the sky when he heard the banging on his front door. It only partially registered in his brain, but he swung his feet off of the couch and walked like a zombie across the living room floor to the door.
The shock of seeing Sakura and Ino at his front door had shaken him out of his slumber and gone a long way to restoring his good mood. Seeing old friends again, even if they had both been brats and even if his crush on Sakura had long since faded away, brought a tremendous sense of joy to his heart. They had come to see him as soon as he returned.
“We brought you a philodendron,” Ino told him, pointing at the plant Sakura was still holding.
Sakura waited for him to say something stupid and unintentionally rude, but instead he grinned and said. “Awesome! Thanks!” His words left Sakura standing there rather dumbly, staring at him. This was Naruto?
Ino looked at her, clearly wondering why she wasn’t talking, before turning back to Naruto. “It’s a beautiful house. Traditional and modern all at the same time.” Naruto realized it was true. Now that he was seeing the house in the daylight rather than just the small light from the jutsu, he realized that it was a nice blend of a modern layout with traditional simple lines and materials. All of the floors were done in a wood so dark it almost looked black, while the walls were in a finely grained wood that seemed to glow red in the sunlight. The single couch that was uncovered was dark green with a classic sleek look, although Naruto could attest to the fact that it was very comfortable.
“Yeah, well, I was surprised to get it, but it’s pretty cool,” he said, trying to sound nonchalant, but failing miserably. Fortunately, Ino and Sakura thought he was trying to disguise his pride, while he was actually trying to not reveal that it was his father’s house. He wasn’t ready to tell his friends everything.
“Who gave it to you?” Ino asked.
“Heh,” Naruto said, rubbing the back of his neck with a falsely bright grin. “Yondaime left it to me; don’t ask me why!” ‘Please don’t ask me why,’ he thought. ‘I don’t want to lie to you and I don’t want to explain.’
“Really? Yondaime!” Ino asked, stunned. Poor Sakura continued to stand there and stare, philodendron in hand.
“Yeah; weird, huh?” Naruto replied.
Ino’s eyes narrowed. She hadn’t been trained as a spy for nothing; she could tell that Naruto was holding something back. She had opened her mouth to grill him when there was another knock on the door.
“Hold on,” Naruto said, grateful for the interruption. He walked past the two girls to the door and pulled it open. There on the doorstep were Hinata, Neji, Shino, Kiba, and great big white dog.
Naruto’s face was instantly pulled into a grin, although he was rather surprised.
The dog bounded in and started bouncing around the room. Finally, he jumped up onto the couch, put his front paws on the back, and howled.
“Ack! Stupid dog; get off my couch!” Naruto shouted, grabbing the dog’s collar and trying to pull him off. Akamaru, however, wouldn’t budge. “Damn it, Kiba! Get your dog under control!”
Kiba just leaned against the doorjamb and smirked. “Looks like he’s doing fine on his own to me,” he replied with a shrug.
“Damn it! I hate dogs!” Naruto exclaimed, grabbing Akamaru around the waist and trying to pull him off that way.
Hinata sighed and headed over towards the couch. “You like Dango,” she said softly and reached up to scratch Akamaru behind the ear. “Akamaru, would you mind getting off the couch please?”
The dog gave a soft woof and bounded over the back to the floor, sending Naruto flying back into the fireplace. He scowled at the dog as he got up. Akamaru snorted and lay down in the doorway next to Kiba’s feet. “Yeah, but he’s the correct size for a dog; one you can pick up and move.”
“Dango?” Shino slipped past Kiba and stepped over the dog to get inside the house, followed by Neji.
Hinata smiled. “He was a dog that belonged to some of the people whom we trained under while we were away. He’s a kind of dog from the Far West called a corgi. They’re smaller than Akamaru.”
“A corgi?” Kiba asked, surprised. “I’ve seen pictures of them in books, but no one I know of has seen a real one in years. They’re funny-looking.”
“HA! That’s what I said!” Naruto exclaimed.
“They’re not funny-looking; they’re adorable!” Hinata protested. “Sora brought one back from the far west for Miki.”
“Who are they?” Sakura asked, finally shaking herself out of her stupor.
“Miki and Sora? Umm, well…” Hinata bit her bottom lip as she tried to figure out where to begin. Tsunade had declassified everything but their fights with the Akatsuki so that they could tell their friends and family what happened, but it there was still so much to tell.
Naruto decided to begin by diving into the deep end. “Sora’s my sister. She used to be part of a team that killed crazy bastards in the West. However, her and her partner Yasu dropped out of the business about six years ago. Miki is Yasu’s daughter.”
“Sister?” Sakura said. “You don’t have a sister!”
Naruto grinned and started digging through his bag. “Sure I do. Where the hell did it go?” he asked into the bag, practically diving into it. “Aha! Here it is!”
He walked over to Sakura and handed her a framed picture. Sakura blinked. Two faces, eyes covered in sunglasses, grinned twin maniacal grins out at her. They were standing close together and Naruto was making the victory sign, while the woman was apparently holding the camera. The sun glinted off their sunglasses and the large gold stud in her nose.
“That can’t be your sister, she looks nothing like you. Her hair is burgundy!” Sakura said disbelieving, handing the picture off to Ino for inspection.
“Sora’s hair color is apt to change at any moment, so that doesn’t really count for much,” Naruto said. “But I never said she we were blood related; I just said she was my sister.” He started to pull other things out of the bag, littering them on the couch.
“She’s a former student of Hokage-sama’s who took us to train for three years as a favor. In the end, Naruto and Sora adopted each other in a way,” Hinata said, hoping that would hold them from asking more details. The relationship between Naruto and Sora was simple and complicated all at the same time. The secret of who his parents were and what they had been planning on doing were all wrapped up in how Naruto and Sora came to be siblings. But it boiled down to being brother and sister in the end.
“Really, she’s Hokage-sama’s ex-student?” Sakura asked. She looked back at the picture again. Tsunade had taken on an apprentice or two before Shizune, but Sakura had gotten the impression they hadn’t stayed very long.
“Yeah, well, Nee-chan’s not all that good at medical stuff. I mean, she’s better than most, but not good enough that it made sense for her to stay apprenticed to Tsunade, so they only were together for three years,” Naruto said. “Before that she had trained with the Kaze, and after that she started traveling with Yasu.”
“And who are the Kaze?” Sakura asked.
Hinata sighed. “Maybe we should all sit down and start from the beginning.”
“Yeah,” Naruto said with a sheepish grin.
“Don’t you think you should get dressed, Uzumaki-san?” Neji asked flatly.
Naruto looked down at himself and suddenly realized that he was still wearing just his drawstring pajama bottoms. Looking up, he noticed Hinata’s face turning redder and redder. “Heh. Yeah, I probably should,” he replied, grabbing his bag and running up the stairs to change. “Be right back!” he yelled back down.
Ino gave off a ladylike snort and looked at her watch. “Hmmm, it’s almost lunchtime; we should get something to eat.”
“We could go grab something and bring it back here,” Sakura said.
“That would probably be best,” Neji said.
“Are you sure?” Shino said. “Naruto hasn’t had a chance to unpack yet, so perhaps it would be better to eat at a restaurant.”
“I’m sorry, it’s just that we got in so late last night, we haven’t really had time-” Hinata stopped talking as soon as she realized that the others were looking at her funny. She stared at them, trying to figure out what she had said that was odd.
Fortunately, Naruto chose that moment to come running full force down the stairs. “All right! So what’s up?”
“We’re going to go get something to eat,” Sakura said. “Since there’s nothing to eat here.”
“You can explain what the hell you’ve been doing for the last three years while we eat,” Kiba added.
“We should probably pick up some supplies at the grocery store for you while we’re out,” Hinata said to Naruto.
“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s see what’s in the kitchen,” Naruto said suddenly, grabbing Hinata by the wrist and pulled her into the other room.
Sakura snorted and shook her head. “Only Naruto would think there might be something worth eating in the kitchen of a house that’s been boarded up for years.”
Ino narrowed her eyes and latched onto Sakura’s arm, pulling her to the other side of the room close to the kitchen doorway. Peeking around the corner into the kitchen, she saw Naruto and Hinata standing and talking to each other in a language she didn’t know.
She turned her back on them to look at Sakura. “Ask him out,” she said.
“What?” Sakura asked, shocked.
“Forehead girl, stop being stupid and ask Naruto out! He’s definitely date worthy and he was crazy about you before he left.”
“I don’t know…” Sakura’s voice trailed off as Ino let out a howl of frustration.
“Give up on Sasuke. After all these years I would have thought that you would have grown up enough to move on!” Because Ino was Sakura’s friend, and because she knew that even after all of these years Sakura was still in love with the dark-haired, dark-hearted boy, she didn’t bash Sasuke the way so many others would have.
“Just because you gave up on him and fell in love with Shikamaru doesn’t mean I have to. Besides, I’m not in love with him anymore; it was just a schoolgirl crush and I’ve moved on. I just don’t want to date anyone right now and am tired of your incessant attempts to play matchmaker, Ino-pig!”
“But why not at least go out with Naruto!”
“Because,” Sakura said with a smirk, “he’s kissing Hinata in the kitchen.”
Ino started and looked behind her into the back corner of the kitchen. Sure enough, Naruto and Hinata were in each other’s arms and softly kissing. There was something so tender about it that all ideas of putting Sakura and Naruto together flew out of her head. There was warmth radiating from the pair and a sense of tranquility that Ino had rarely seen in anyone, let alone the loud boy and nervous girl. It made her not want to disturb the pair.
Unfortunately, it did not have the same effect on Neji. He came striding across the living room and into the kitchen. Walking up to the couple, he grabbed Naruto by the collar and forcibly pulled him away from his cousin. Naruto, caught off guard, found himself thrown up against the kitchen cabinets with Neji in between him and Hinata.
“What the hell was that for!” Naruto exclaimed.
Neji folded his arms across his chest. “What are your intentions towards my cousin?” he asked.
“What do you mean ‘what are my intentions’!” Naruto yelled back, advancing towards Neji.
Hinata quickly slipped between the pair. “Neji-nii-san, Naruto, please, stop it!” she said slightly desperately.
Both men tried to grab her at the same time. This resulted in Hinata getting pulled in two directions, then released, at which point she stumbled off to one side. Naruto managed to be a hairs-breath faster in grabbing Hinata, so in the ended she up at his side, arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders. She sighed. At least he hadn’t shoved her behind his back. She hated when he did that.
From the doorway, Sakura, Ino and Kiba boggled at the scene. Shino seemed to express mild interest from a few feet behind them.
Neji glared at the couple. “The two of you vanish for three years and suddenly come back a couple. As the one responsible for her protection, I am hardly out of line asking you what exactly you are planning to do with my cousin.”
“Planning to do with her? One responsible for her protection? I’m not the one who put her in the fucking hospital!”
The dark haired man sucked his breath in between his teeth. “That was years ago and I apologized for it!”
“He did, Naruto!” Hinata agreed quickly, turning underneath his arm to lay her hand over his heart.
He looked down at her with a scowl and she smiled back. “I think Neji has changed in the last few years,” she whispered quietly in western. “He’s been very kind to me since we returned. Give him a chance.”
The tension in his body eased slightly, and Naruto turned to face Neji again. “You apologized to her?” he asked.
Neji nodded.
“And now you want to be her protector? No more of that stupid “fate” crap?”
Again Neji nodded. Naruto snorted and looked him straight in the eye. “Well, you don’t need to protect her from me,” he said firmly.
“All right,” Neji said and both men realized that was all they needed to say on the subject.
There was another knock on the door. Sakura turned and walked across the living room. From the kitchen, they heard the sound of door opening, followed by an enthusiastic cry. “Sakura! It is good to see you looking as beautiful as ever! Is it true that our two wayward friends have returned home?”
Sakura’s voice was slightly strained as she answered. “Yes, Lee, they’re in the kitchen.”
There was the patter of feet across the floor and a large green blur slid into the room. Rock Lee had grown in the last few years and was now sporting a standard issue green vest, but the energy radiating from the young man had not changed.
“NARUTO!” Lee yelled, striding across the room to grasp Naruto’s hand and shake it vigorously. Naruto swore he could feel the bones in his hand fracturing and was grateful for his healing abilities. “It is good to see you again, my friend. The power of youth has once again prevailed and your glorious return has been much heralded throughout our group, bonded together through the brotherhood of our first chuunin exam! We are thrilled to welcome you back and eager to hear of your trials and triumphs throughout your years away!”
Naruto gave a stilted laugh as he tried to extract his hand from Lee’s grasp. “Good to see you too, Lee-san.”
There was a large sigh from the doorway. Tenten was leaning up against the doorjamb, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Lee, we don’t have time for this,” she said, clearly having gone through this situation many times before.
“Ah, that’s right! I am sorry, my friend, but we are going to have to save our catching up for a later time, as we have a mission we have to complete.”
“A mission?” Neji asked.
“Yep,” Tenten said, “we’re supposed to leave within the hour. We’re meeting Gai-sensei by the main gates in forty five minutes; estimated time away is five days.”
“Humph,” Neji said, turning to his cousin. “Hinata-sama, I’m afraid we will have to save your training for later.”
She smiled sweetly back at him. “That’s fine, Neji-nii-san. Be safe on your mission.”
He nodded at her and turned to leave with the rest of his team. Lee slapped Naruto on the back. “We will return to the village in five days. Perhaps then we can get together and train!”
Naruto smiled and nodded. Training with Lee would be challenging to say the least, and he was interested in seeing how his taijutsu matched Lee’s at this point.
Tenten waved as they left the kitchen. “Good to see you again, Naruto-san, Hinata-san.”
They offered short waves back as the three left. No one said anything as the dust from the Lee tornado settled.
“Well,” Naruto said, “are we going to go get something to eat?”
“How long have you two been together?” Ino asked, perturbed.
“Umm…about a year and a half I think,” Naruto replied. Hinata nodded.
“Why didn’t you tell us immediately!” Ino yelled.
“We were trying to be discreet!” Naruto yelled back.
Hinata put her hand up to his chest. He looked down at her and instantly calmed down.
Ino arched an eyebrow at them.
“What?” Naruto asked, laying his arm across Hinata’s shoulders.
Ino smirked. “ Nothing. Well, we can go to lunch only if I come back so that I can get a tour of this house. I want to see what the rest of this place looks like.” Ino said, crossing her arms.
He shrugged. “So we’ll go get something to eat and then come back,” Naruto said. Then his eyes began to sparkle. “Can we get ramen?” he asked.
Sakura smirked at Ino. “Lets go get ramen,” she said.
“All Right! ICHIRAKU HERE WE COME!” Naruto yelled, grabbing Hinata’s elbow and starting to pull her towards the door.
“What! But there are plenty of ramen stands closer!” Ino exclaimed.
“But they’re not Ichiraku!” Naruto shouted back, helping Hinata with her coat. Hinata turned and smiled at the group.
“He’s attached to the idea now; we’re not going to be able to sway him,” she said matter-of-factly.
Shino pushed his glasses father up his nose. “All right then, we should get started,” he said, heading towards the door. Kiba shrugged and followed him, leaving the two young women with no alternative but to follow along.
“Sakura! Don’t you think you should get up?”
No, as a matter of fact Sakura did not think she should get up. She was still tired and therefore she should still be in bed. She was too groggy to remember why she was so tired, but she trusted that she had a good reason.
There was more bellowing from the kitchen. Covering her head with a lilac-colored pillow she once again asked herself why she had thought it been a good idea to get an apartment with Ino. Sure, the girls had mended their friendship years ago, but she should have known that did not necessarily mean that they should room together.
Ino had always been somewhat of a queen bee growing up. Pretty, confident, and smart, she was someone most of the other girls could look up to, even if she was a bit overbearing. Placement on the team with Chouji and Shikamaru had proven to be good for the young woman, finding that the more she bossed the boys around, the more they shrugged her off. She’d calmed down considerably working with them, and the group had developed enough cohesion that they had stayed together even after Shikamaru achieved the rank of chuunin. Not many teams stayed together once ranks changed.
Still, it wasn’t until she achieved chuunin that she had been drafted into the Intelligence Corp., and it was there that Ino had truly come into her own.
Intelligence and spy training had an interesting effect on Sakura’s old rival. Ino was sneaky, and woe be it to anyone who underestimated her shrewdness. She had effectively reformed her role as queen bee to now use a combination of skillful manipulation and badgering to get people to do what she wanted. Sakura was terribly glad that Ino had started dating, and maybe was even starting to fall for, Shikamaru. Even at his laziest, he was able to see what Ino was doing. Whether or not he bothered to stop her was another matter entirely.
“Sakura! Get out of bed!”
Lifting her pillow enough to read the clock, Sakura noted the time, then lay back down. “I’ve only been asleep for five hours; let me sleep!” she yelled back.
There was stomping in the hallway before her door flew open to reveal a rather irritated blond.
“If you want to stay up until three in the morning, that’s your business, but don’t expect me to put up with you sleeping in all day, forehead girl!” Ino exclaimed, stomping over to the bed with her hands on her hips.
“I was working, stupid Ino-pig, and it’s only- Hey!” she yelled as Ino yanked blankets off the bed. “Give those back!”
“You won’t say that once you hear the news,” Ino said with an evil grin.
Realizing that there was no way Ino was going to let her sleep, Sakura sat up on the bed. “What news?”
Ino stalked to the door and looked at Sakura over her shoulder with a triumphant smirk. “Naruto and Hinata are back,” she replied, and slipped down the hallway towards the kitchen.
“WHAT!” Sakura yelped, hopping out of bed, her shoulder-length hair swinging. She bolted down the hall in her pajamas, grabbing the doorjamb to stop herself. “They’re back!”
Ino offered up another smirk as she sat down at the small dining room table with her breakfast. She was wearing a sleek fighting dress with a scooped neckline and a stand-up collar, her long hair up in an elegant twist except for her trademark one piece that fell in the front. “Shikamaru told me. Apparently they came in late last night and spent a few hours in debriefing with the Hokage. They got home almost as late as you did.”
Sakura sat down at the table across from Ino with a slight thud and pushed a couple of strands of pink hair out of her face. Shikamaru was in intelligence with Ino and generally news that came from him was accurate. News that came from Ino was either accurate or spun towards some goal. Generally that goal was matchmaking.
“You’re sure?” Sakura asked. Just the idea of seeing Naruto again was a shock. She had been assured that he was coming back, that he was safe and just off training away from the village. Still, she hadn’t been able to really let herself believe that. In so many ways the memories of those three years were painful.
Ino nodded. “Of course I’m sure. Would I tell you if I wasn’t?”
“Where is he? At his old apartment?” she demanded.
This time she shook her head. “No; apparently someone left him a house for when he turned sixteen. It’s over on the west side of the city.”
“Do you want to go?”
Ino smiled. “Thought you’d never ask.”
Sakura stood up and headed back down the hall. “Just let me get cleaned up.”
“We should bring a housewarming present!” Ino yelled down the hall after her.
Hinata finally fell asleep, albeit fitfully, and woke up late. Looking at her clock she groaned softly, then pulled herself up out of bed. It was nearly ten o’clock, and she had told Naruto that she would be over this morning. With any luck he would have slept as late as she had. Getting up in the morning had never been his strong suit.
She walked to the end of the room and slid open the doors that exposed the courtyard below. Beyond the railing she could see Hanabi and her father training, her father correcting Hanabi’s stance and then making her run through the series of strikes again. Her sister had improved quite a bit in three years. She wondered if her little sister was preparing to test for chuunin.
Remembering she was late for her meeting with Naruto, she grabbed her things and headed down to the bathhouse. She scrubbed herself and washed her hair but didn’t allow herself to soak in the tub afterward. Dressing in her standard black pants and cream-colored tunic, she performed a quick hair-drying jutsu to save time (Sora knew a ridiculous number of techniques related to hair). Running back upstairs she brushed out her hair and rolled out her hair sticks, choosing a pair of redwood sticks with a stripe of darker wood inlayed through it. Pulling her hair back into its customary bun, she slid the sticks in and patted her hair to make sure it was all secure.
She left her room and headed down the stairs, trying to figure out how she was going to find Naruto’s house, when a voice stopped her.
“Hinata-sama?” Neji said from the top of the stairs. She turned to look up at him, his opposing figure taking up much of the doorway. “Where are you headed?”
“I’m going over to Naruto’s. I told him I would be by this morning,” she said. She was determined to go, but she wanted to get out of the house before her father finished training with Hanabi simply to avoid any possible confrontation.
Neji nodded. “I’ll go with you; I know where the house is. Afterwards we can start working on your training.”
Hinata wanted to go alone, to catch a few minutes where she could just have Naruto hold her. But she didn’t know where the house was while Neji did, and somehow she got the feeling he wasn’t going to let her go alone even if she said something. So, with an inward sigh she waited for Neji to walk down the stairs and join her. They were silent as they collected their coats and put on their shoes. Neji held the door for her as she walked through, then the two of them set off through the village.
It occurred to Hinata that her already serious cousin had become even more serious in the three years she had been away. It also occurred to her that if they were going to do anything more than walk in silence, she was going to have to start the conversation.
“What have you been doing for the last three years, Neji-nii-san?” she asked.
He looked at her for a second and then offered a small shrug. “Hokage-sama saw fit to keep my genin team together, although all three of us passed the jounin exam last year. I have been going on missions with them, along with training with Hiashi-sama.”
She smiled at him. “Congratulations on making jounin. Its amazing that all three of you moved up in such a short amount of time.”
“I confess it was very difficult, but we worked hard. Plus, they look to put teams that will work well together for missions, and the three of us are so accustomed to working with each other that it outweighed our youth. We are one of the few teams that has stayed together for so long; most people have gone into specialist training. They put us with a couple of older chuunin who specialized in genjutsu and ninjutsu and we passed.”
“Do you know how the others from our chuunin test group are doing?”
“From what I know, they have all made chuunin at this point. Nara-san probably would have made jounin, but they keep him very busy in intelligence and he says it can’t be bothered. I don’t know which of them are planning on testing for jounin with you and Uzumaki-san.”
She smiled sadly. “If I take the jounin exam. Otousan seems determined to keep me from testing. I suppose my chuunin exam was embarrassing enough.”
Neji didn’t respond immediately, leaving the two of them to walk down the street silently, listening to the sounds of the village bussing around. He startled her in more ways than one when he spoke.
“Hinata-sama, I want to apologize for the way I acted towards you during the chuunin exam,” he told her.
She looked at him with a slightly confused look on her face, traces of sadness on her face from the old memory. “Why? You needed to defeat me in order to continue with the test.”
Clasping his hands behind his back, he bowed his head as they walked. “Still, I was fighting you out of anger. You fought hard and I belittled you because of my hatred for the head family. I dishonored both you and myself.”
She shook her head and looked at the ground at her feet. “Neji-nii-san, I can understand why you hated the head family. We weren’t very fair to you or your father.”
He stopped and put a hand on her arm to stop her as well. Hinata couldn’t remember at time he had ever touched her except for their one fight. Looking into his eyes, she found they gleamed with emotion and purpose that she had never seen in him before. “My father chose to give his life to protect the village and the clan. Now it is my choice to follow in his footsteps. Cursing the head family and my fate is not going to change anything. I will take what fate has given me and make a better future. That is my nindo.”
He was willing to bury the past, she realized. To undo years, generations of division between the two groups, and move forward to create one family together. She had been so frightened that she was going to arrive home to a situation similar to that in the Kaze, where the branch family was ready to overthrow the head. Instead the cousin she had been so frightened of her whole life was here offering a truce.
It brought tears to her eyes, but she did not let them fall, standing with her back straight and turning herself to face Neji more fully. “I do not intend to run the clan the same way my ancestors have, Neji-nii-san. Most likely the way I want to do things will bring me into conflict with my father. I am still finding the strength to defy him, but I will, and when I do I don’t want you to be caught in the middle. I am not quite the same girl who left three years ago, and I cannot guarantee that you are going to like what I’m going to do.”
Neji offered her a rare smile, just the barest upturning of his mouth. “I have noticed you are not the same, and while I cannot guarantee I will always agree with you, I offer my support to you nonetheless.”
She smiled brightly and nodded. “Thank you, Neji-nii-san.” she said.
He nodded, and they turned to start walking down the street again. “Tell me,” he said, “about this new style you have learned. You said you have incorporated our strikes into it?”
Hinata began to explain Shina-To-Be, the Kaze, and partner training to Neji. He asked good questions, which made it easier for her to talk. The only thing that threw her off was that he kept asking questions about her and Naruto. He had mentioned it the night before as well, but she couldn’t understand why.
She was considering asking when she heard a wild stream of barking quickly followed by a large white dog that nearly knocked her over. She jumped back letting out a shriek of surprise, only to nearly loose her footing again as the dog circled her legs, butting his head up against her.
It wasn’t until she got a good look at the dog that realization dawned upon her. “Akamaru!” she asked and the dog yelped happily. “Look at you! You’ve gotten so big!” she said, kneeling down to be at the dog’s height while she scratched behind one of his ears. The dog leaned forward and licked her cheek, making Hinata giggle.
“Akamaru!” came a deep yell from down the street. Looking up, Hinata spotted two familiar figures running towards them. One was a man in black sunglasses with a long, high-collared jacket and the other had on a big parka, which he was wearing open over a tight-fitting t-shirt.
“Akamaru, what the hell are you doing running- oh!” The man with the parka stopped to stare at the girl playing with his dog. “Hinata? Is that you?”
“Kiba-kun! Shino-kun!” she exclaimed happily, standing again with a final pat to Akamaru’s head.
Shino nodded at her and she could see the faint wrinkles of a smile around the edges of his glasses. “Hinata, it is good to see you back in Konoha again and looking well.”
“Looking well?” Kiba asked incredulously. “Shino, have you had those damn glasses of yours checked recently? Hinata’s turned into a BABE!”
Hinata suddenly found her hand grabbed and she was spun around in a circle, Kiba inspecting her as he turned her around. “Damn, what did you do to yourself? You look hot!”
Her face turned bright red, embarrassed beyond what she had previously thought possible. She couldn’t believe that Kiba was talking like this! Things only got worse as he tugged on her hand to bring her closer to him and dropped one arm over her shoulders.
“Hey, have you gotten a chance to see the village yet? A lot of things have changed in the time you’ve been away. There’s a great restaurant that opened up on the other side of town. How about I show you around and then we grab dinner?”
“Um, actually, Kiba-kun, I’m on my way to see Naruto,” Hinata said ducking out from under Kiba’s arm.
“Why? You were just forced to put up with him for three years,” he asked.
“She’s dating Uzumaki-san,” Neji said from behind her, arms crossed over his chest. Kiba had matured into a rather roguish teenager, whose combination of bad-boy charm and a cute dog had started to win him dates with many of Konoha’s young ladies. Generally the girls’ fathers objected, but generally Kiba didn’t give a damn. Neji didn’t exactly dislike Kiba, but he might as well stomp any ideas of him dating his cousin right now.
“Eh? Naruto?” He scrunched his nose in disgust and shook his head. “Hinata, whatcha doing going out with an idiot like him?”
“Kiba-kun!” Hinata said shocked. “Naruto is not an idiot!”
“Heh, he does a pretty good impression of one, running around yelling, pulling pranks, and eating ramen.”
“Naruto is a sweetheart! He’s one of the kindest, bravest, and strongest people I know!” Hinata said, with a startling ferocity.
“He also,” Neji said calmly, “beat you in the Chuunin Exam, Kiba-san.”
“Heh; it was a fluke,” Kiba responded with a dismissive wave. “I’d kick his ass now. Besides, Hinata’s been on a mission for three years with him; she probably hasn’t had a chance to see what her other options are.” He gave her what could only be described as a wolfish grin.
“I really don’t think I need to, Kiba-kun,” Hinata said, wishing she just had a little bit of Sora’s ability to tell off men. “I’m very happy with Naruto.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll see about that,” he said. “Shino and I were heading out to train, but maybe I’ll come bug the idiot with you. Could be fun.”
Much to Hinata’s disappointment, Shino nodded. “I would like to see Uzumaki-san again.”
She sighed. First Neji, and now Kiba and Shino. Things weren’t going well for her and Naruto getting some time along together.
“He’s going to kill it,” Sakura said, staring at the large leafy green thing in her arms.
Ino shrugged. “You obviously don’t understand housewarming presents,” she said with an air of infinite superiority.
Sakura scowled. “It’s you who wanted to bring this instead of something practical that we knew he could use.”
“Cup ramen is not an appropriate housewarming present,” Ino scolded Sakura.
The other girl rolled her eyes. Decision-making between the two girls always took forever. It had taken them three months of paint swatches and arguments to agree on painting the kitchen white. “But that’s what he likes. Everyone knows that that’s what he likes.”
“What if he’s grown up in the last three years and doesn’t like it anymore?”
Sakura stared at her. She couldn’t see that happening. A Naruto who didn’t eat ramen? She wasn’t sure he would still be Naruto.
They continued to gripe and grumble at each other as they walked down the street. They had spent so much time arguing over the present that it was almost eleven o’clock.
Ino glared at something Sakura said, then pulled out a slip of paper. “Okay, so according to Shikamaru his house should be right kiddy-corner for his one.”
Both girls looked up at the house and stared.
“Are you SURE?” Sakura asked, disbelieving. “Who would give a house like that away to Naruto!”
Into looked back down at the sheet in her hand. “That’s the address I was given.”
Sakura shrugged. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt to go over and knock,” she said wearily.
They crossed the street and cautiously walked up the front steps. They shifted their weight from side to side for a second, before Ino got impatient. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous! We’re ninja for heaven’s sake! What could possibly be behind that door that we can’t handle?” She made a fist and knocked loudly on the door.
They heard a thump, the sound of feet, and then the slipping of the deadlock. The door opened and a very bleary-eyed young man poked his head out.
“Hello?” he asked, clearly not yet awake.
Both girls stared. Where they had expected Naruto’s head to be was, in fact, a bare and rather well-muscled chest. Slowly their eyes moved up to his face where blond hair was hanging in his eyes. He was rubbing his eyes with one hand while he yawned.
“HOT DAMN!” Inner Sakura screamed.
“Naruto?” Sakura asked disbelieving.
“Huh,” he said as his vision cleared. “Sakura-chan? Ino-san?” he said, looking between the two of them. They continued to stare at him.
Suddenly he grinned broadly, let out a whop and both girls found themselves in a crushing hug, potted plant and all.
“Na-Naruto-kun,” Sakura managed to get out as her lungs were crushed. Well, at least it was definitely him.
Just as quickly as the girls had found themselves picked up, they were suddenly released again, gulping in air.
“It’s great to see you! Come in! Come in!” he said, holding the door wider.
Cautiously, they walked inside.
Naruto had decided that he couldn’t sleep in the bedrooms. He didn’t want to sleep where his parents had once slept, and he had shut the door to the nursery, not intending to open it up again for a very long time. That left him with the guest bedroom, but the spring-filled mattress had felt odd after years of sleeping on the ground or on a futon. Finally, he had pulled the drop-cloth off of the couch, pulled his camping blanket out of his backpack, and slept there. He had spent a number of nights on the couch at Sora’s with Hinata and Miki right after Nori’s death, since his sister wouldn’t let them sleep in each other’s bedrooms.
The sun was relatively high in the sky when he heard the banging on his front door. It only partially registered in his brain, but he swung his feet off of the couch and walked like a zombie across the living room floor to the door.
The shock of seeing Sakura and Ino at his front door had shaken him out of his slumber and gone a long way to restoring his good mood. Seeing old friends again, even if they had both been brats and even if his crush on Sakura had long since faded away, brought a tremendous sense of joy to his heart. They had come to see him as soon as he returned.
“We brought you a philodendron,” Ino told him, pointing at the plant Sakura was still holding.
Sakura waited for him to say something stupid and unintentionally rude, but instead he grinned and said. “Awesome! Thanks!” His words left Sakura standing there rather dumbly, staring at him. This was Naruto?
Ino looked at her, clearly wondering why she wasn’t talking, before turning back to Naruto. “It’s a beautiful house. Traditional and modern all at the same time.” Naruto realized it was true. Now that he was seeing the house in the daylight rather than just the small light from the jutsu, he realized that it was a nice blend of a modern layout with traditional simple lines and materials. All of the floors were done in a wood so dark it almost looked black, while the walls were in a finely grained wood that seemed to glow red in the sunlight. The single couch that was uncovered was dark green with a classic sleek look, although Naruto could attest to the fact that it was very comfortable.
“Yeah, well, I was surprised to get it, but it’s pretty cool,” he said, trying to sound nonchalant, but failing miserably. Fortunately, Ino and Sakura thought he was trying to disguise his pride, while he was actually trying to not reveal that it was his father’s house. He wasn’t ready to tell his friends everything.
“Who gave it to you?” Ino asked.
“Heh,” Naruto said, rubbing the back of his neck with a falsely bright grin. “Yondaime left it to me; don’t ask me why!” ‘Please don’t ask me why,’ he thought. ‘I don’t want to lie to you and I don’t want to explain.’
“Really? Yondaime!” Ino asked, stunned. Poor Sakura continued to stand there and stare, philodendron in hand.
“Yeah; weird, huh?” Naruto replied.
Ino’s eyes narrowed. She hadn’t been trained as a spy for nothing; she could tell that Naruto was holding something back. She had opened her mouth to grill him when there was another knock on the door.
“Hold on,” Naruto said, grateful for the interruption. He walked past the two girls to the door and pulled it open. There on the doorstep were Hinata, Neji, Shino, Kiba, and great big white dog.
Naruto’s face was instantly pulled into a grin, although he was rather surprised.
The dog bounded in and started bouncing around the room. Finally, he jumped up onto the couch, put his front paws on the back, and howled.
“Ack! Stupid dog; get off my couch!” Naruto shouted, grabbing the dog’s collar and trying to pull him off. Akamaru, however, wouldn’t budge. “Damn it, Kiba! Get your dog under control!”
Kiba just leaned against the doorjamb and smirked. “Looks like he’s doing fine on his own to me,” he replied with a shrug.
“Damn it! I hate dogs!” Naruto exclaimed, grabbing Akamaru around the waist and trying to pull him off that way.
Hinata sighed and headed over towards the couch. “You like Dango,” she said softly and reached up to scratch Akamaru behind the ear. “Akamaru, would you mind getting off the couch please?”
The dog gave a soft woof and bounded over the back to the floor, sending Naruto flying back into the fireplace. He scowled at the dog as he got up. Akamaru snorted and lay down in the doorway next to Kiba’s feet. “Yeah, but he’s the correct size for a dog; one you can pick up and move.”
“Dango?” Shino slipped past Kiba and stepped over the dog to get inside the house, followed by Neji.
Hinata smiled. “He was a dog that belonged to some of the people whom we trained under while we were away. He’s a kind of dog from the Far West called a corgi. They’re smaller than Akamaru.”
“A corgi?” Kiba asked, surprised. “I’ve seen pictures of them in books, but no one I know of has seen a real one in years. They’re funny-looking.”
“HA! That’s what I said!” Naruto exclaimed.
“They’re not funny-looking; they’re adorable!” Hinata protested. “Sora brought one back from the far west for Miki.”
“Who are they?” Sakura asked, finally shaking herself out of her stupor.
“Miki and Sora? Umm, well…” Hinata bit her bottom lip as she tried to figure out where to begin. Tsunade had declassified everything but their fights with the Akatsuki so that they could tell their friends and family what happened, but it there was still so much to tell.
Naruto decided to begin by diving into the deep end. “Sora’s my sister. She used to be part of a team that killed crazy bastards in the West. However, her and her partner Yasu dropped out of the business about six years ago. Miki is Yasu’s daughter.”
“Sister?” Sakura said. “You don’t have a sister!”
Naruto grinned and started digging through his bag. “Sure I do. Where the hell did it go?” he asked into the bag, practically diving into it. “Aha! Here it is!”
He walked over to Sakura and handed her a framed picture. Sakura blinked. Two faces, eyes covered in sunglasses, grinned twin maniacal grins out at her. They were standing close together and Naruto was making the victory sign, while the woman was apparently holding the camera. The sun glinted off their sunglasses and the large gold stud in her nose.
“That can’t be your sister, she looks nothing like you. Her hair is burgundy!” Sakura said disbelieving, handing the picture off to Ino for inspection.
“Sora’s hair color is apt to change at any moment, so that doesn’t really count for much,” Naruto said. “But I never said she we were blood related; I just said she was my sister.” He started to pull other things out of the bag, littering them on the couch.
“She’s a former student of Hokage-sama’s who took us to train for three years as a favor. In the end, Naruto and Sora adopted each other in a way,” Hinata said, hoping that would hold them from asking more details. The relationship between Naruto and Sora was simple and complicated all at the same time. The secret of who his parents were and what they had been planning on doing were all wrapped up in how Naruto and Sora came to be siblings. But it boiled down to being brother and sister in the end.
“Really, she’s Hokage-sama’s ex-student?” Sakura asked. She looked back at the picture again. Tsunade had taken on an apprentice or two before Shizune, but Sakura had gotten the impression they hadn’t stayed very long.
“Yeah, well, Nee-chan’s not all that good at medical stuff. I mean, she’s better than most, but not good enough that it made sense for her to stay apprenticed to Tsunade, so they only were together for three years,” Naruto said. “Before that she had trained with the Kaze, and after that she started traveling with Yasu.”
“And who are the Kaze?” Sakura asked.
Hinata sighed. “Maybe we should all sit down and start from the beginning.”
“Yeah,” Naruto said with a sheepish grin.
“Don’t you think you should get dressed, Uzumaki-san?” Neji asked flatly.
Naruto looked down at himself and suddenly realized that he was still wearing just his drawstring pajama bottoms. Looking up, he noticed Hinata’s face turning redder and redder. “Heh. Yeah, I probably should,” he replied, grabbing his bag and running up the stairs to change. “Be right back!” he yelled back down.
Ino gave off a ladylike snort and looked at her watch. “Hmmm, it’s almost lunchtime; we should get something to eat.”
“We could go grab something and bring it back here,” Sakura said.
“That would probably be best,” Neji said.
“Are you sure?” Shino said. “Naruto hasn’t had a chance to unpack yet, so perhaps it would be better to eat at a restaurant.”
“I’m sorry, it’s just that we got in so late last night, we haven’t really had time-” Hinata stopped talking as soon as she realized that the others were looking at her funny. She stared at them, trying to figure out what she had said that was odd.
Fortunately, Naruto chose that moment to come running full force down the stairs. “All right! So what’s up?”
“We’re going to go get something to eat,” Sakura said. “Since there’s nothing to eat here.”
“You can explain what the hell you’ve been doing for the last three years while we eat,” Kiba added.
“We should probably pick up some supplies at the grocery store for you while we’re out,” Hinata said to Naruto.
“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s see what’s in the kitchen,” Naruto said suddenly, grabbing Hinata by the wrist and pulled her into the other room.
Sakura snorted and shook her head. “Only Naruto would think there might be something worth eating in the kitchen of a house that’s been boarded up for years.”
Ino narrowed her eyes and latched onto Sakura’s arm, pulling her to the other side of the room close to the kitchen doorway. Peeking around the corner into the kitchen, she saw Naruto and Hinata standing and talking to each other in a language she didn’t know.
She turned her back on them to look at Sakura. “Ask him out,” she said.
“What?” Sakura asked, shocked.
“Forehead girl, stop being stupid and ask Naruto out! He’s definitely date worthy and he was crazy about you before he left.”
“I don’t know…” Sakura’s voice trailed off as Ino let out a howl of frustration.
“Give up on Sasuke. After all these years I would have thought that you would have grown up enough to move on!” Because Ino was Sakura’s friend, and because she knew that even after all of these years Sakura was still in love with the dark-haired, dark-hearted boy, she didn’t bash Sasuke the way so many others would have.
“Just because you gave up on him and fell in love with Shikamaru doesn’t mean I have to. Besides, I’m not in love with him anymore; it was just a schoolgirl crush and I’ve moved on. I just don’t want to date anyone right now and am tired of your incessant attempts to play matchmaker, Ino-pig!”
“But why not at least go out with Naruto!”
“Because,” Sakura said with a smirk, “he’s kissing Hinata in the kitchen.”
Ino started and looked behind her into the back corner of the kitchen. Sure enough, Naruto and Hinata were in each other’s arms and softly kissing. There was something so tender about it that all ideas of putting Sakura and Naruto together flew out of her head. There was warmth radiating from the pair and a sense of tranquility that Ino had rarely seen in anyone, let alone the loud boy and nervous girl. It made her not want to disturb the pair.
Unfortunately, it did not have the same effect on Neji. He came striding across the living room and into the kitchen. Walking up to the couple, he grabbed Naruto by the collar and forcibly pulled him away from his cousin. Naruto, caught off guard, found himself thrown up against the kitchen cabinets with Neji in between him and Hinata.
“What the hell was that for!” Naruto exclaimed.
Neji folded his arms across his chest. “What are your intentions towards my cousin?” he asked.
“What do you mean ‘what are my intentions’!” Naruto yelled back, advancing towards Neji.
Hinata quickly slipped between the pair. “Neji-nii-san, Naruto, please, stop it!” she said slightly desperately.
Both men tried to grab her at the same time. This resulted in Hinata getting pulled in two directions, then released, at which point she stumbled off to one side. Naruto managed to be a hairs-breath faster in grabbing Hinata, so in the ended she up at his side, arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders. She sighed. At least he hadn’t shoved her behind his back. She hated when he did that.
From the doorway, Sakura, Ino and Kiba boggled at the scene. Shino seemed to express mild interest from a few feet behind them.
Neji glared at the couple. “The two of you vanish for three years and suddenly come back a couple. As the one responsible for her protection, I am hardly out of line asking you what exactly you are planning to do with my cousin.”
“Planning to do with her? One responsible for her protection? I’m not the one who put her in the fucking hospital!”
The dark haired man sucked his breath in between his teeth. “That was years ago and I apologized for it!”
“He did, Naruto!” Hinata agreed quickly, turning underneath his arm to lay her hand over his heart.
He looked down at her with a scowl and she smiled back. “I think Neji has changed in the last few years,” she whispered quietly in western. “He’s been very kind to me since we returned. Give him a chance.”
The tension in his body eased slightly, and Naruto turned to face Neji again. “You apologized to her?” he asked.
Neji nodded.
“And now you want to be her protector? No more of that stupid “fate” crap?”
Again Neji nodded. Naruto snorted and looked him straight in the eye. “Well, you don’t need to protect her from me,” he said firmly.
“All right,” Neji said and both men realized that was all they needed to say on the subject.
There was another knock on the door. Sakura turned and walked across the living room. From the kitchen, they heard the sound of door opening, followed by an enthusiastic cry. “Sakura! It is good to see you looking as beautiful as ever! Is it true that our two wayward friends have returned home?”
Sakura’s voice was slightly strained as she answered. “Yes, Lee, they’re in the kitchen.”
There was the patter of feet across the floor and a large green blur slid into the room. Rock Lee had grown in the last few years and was now sporting a standard issue green vest, but the energy radiating from the young man had not changed.
“NARUTO!” Lee yelled, striding across the room to grasp Naruto’s hand and shake it vigorously. Naruto swore he could feel the bones in his hand fracturing and was grateful for his healing abilities. “It is good to see you again, my friend. The power of youth has once again prevailed and your glorious return has been much heralded throughout our group, bonded together through the brotherhood of our first chuunin exam! We are thrilled to welcome you back and eager to hear of your trials and triumphs throughout your years away!”
Naruto gave a stilted laugh as he tried to extract his hand from Lee’s grasp. “Good to see you too, Lee-san.”
There was a large sigh from the doorway. Tenten was leaning up against the doorjamb, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Lee, we don’t have time for this,” she said, clearly having gone through this situation many times before.
“Ah, that’s right! I am sorry, my friend, but we are going to have to save our catching up for a later time, as we have a mission we have to complete.”
“A mission?” Neji asked.
“Yep,” Tenten said, “we’re supposed to leave within the hour. We’re meeting Gai-sensei by the main gates in forty five minutes; estimated time away is five days.”
“Humph,” Neji said, turning to his cousin. “Hinata-sama, I’m afraid we will have to save your training for later.”
She smiled sweetly back at him. “That’s fine, Neji-nii-san. Be safe on your mission.”
He nodded at her and turned to leave with the rest of his team. Lee slapped Naruto on the back. “We will return to the village in five days. Perhaps then we can get together and train!”
Naruto smiled and nodded. Training with Lee would be challenging to say the least, and he was interested in seeing how his taijutsu matched Lee’s at this point.
Tenten waved as they left the kitchen. “Good to see you again, Naruto-san, Hinata-san.”
They offered short waves back as the three left. No one said anything as the dust from the Lee tornado settled.
“Well,” Naruto said, “are we going to go get something to eat?”
“How long have you two been together?” Ino asked, perturbed.
“Umm…about a year and a half I think,” Naruto replied. Hinata nodded.
“Why didn’t you tell us immediately!” Ino yelled.
“We were trying to be discreet!” Naruto yelled back.
Hinata put her hand up to his chest. He looked down at her and instantly calmed down.
Ino arched an eyebrow at them.
“What?” Naruto asked, laying his arm across Hinata’s shoulders.
Ino smirked. “ Nothing. Well, we can go to lunch only if I come back so that I can get a tour of this house. I want to see what the rest of this place looks like.” Ino said, crossing her arms.
He shrugged. “So we’ll go get something to eat and then come back,” Naruto said. Then his eyes began to sparkle. “Can we get ramen?” he asked.
Sakura smirked at Ino. “Lets go get ramen,” she said.
“All Right! ICHIRAKU HERE WE COME!” Naruto yelled, grabbing Hinata’s elbow and starting to pull her towards the door.
“What! But there are plenty of ramen stands closer!” Ino exclaimed.
“But they’re not Ichiraku!” Naruto shouted back, helping Hinata with her coat. Hinata turned and smiled at the group.
“He’s attached to the idea now; we’re not going to be able to sway him,” she said matter-of-factly.
Shino pushed his glasses father up his nose. “All right then, we should get started,” he said, heading towards the door. Kiba shrugged and followed him, leaving the two young women with no alternative but to follow along.