I think this is my favorite chapter so far.
Happy reading!
Naruto was out of the door like a shot, running as fast as he could after Hinata.
“Hina-chan, hey, wait!” he yelled, but she didn’t slow down. If anything she seemed to run faster. “Damn it!” he muttered and tried to run faster.
All Hinata could think about was that she wanted to get away. Away from him, away from Sora, away from being not enough. Her tears sparkled down her cheeks. She felt as stupid and useless as her days back in Leaf.
He didn’t trust her. He didn’t really think she was worthy of being his partner.
She had to get away, somewhere far away. Somewhere where she could sit down and cry until everything was washed out of her. Then she would be able accept the fact that she was so...useless.
And then, of all the things that could have occurred to her, her worst nightmare happened. Hinata tripped. Her feet went flying out from under her and she tumbled back and to the side to land with a loud splat on her butt in one of the rice patties. She was stuck almost to her elbows in mud.
Naruto breathed a secret sigh of relief as he watched Hinata tumble into the water. He wasn’t happy to see her fall, but if it meant that he was going to get to talk to her, he was more than willing to take the tradeoff.
However he wasn’t so sure when he realized that the price of getting to talk to her included him in the water as well. The moment he hit the spot where Hinata had tripped he went careening face first into the rice patty right next to Hinata. His legs waved frantically in the air as he tried to pull his face out of the mud. When he finally managed to do so, he looked up at Hinata sitting next to him in the water. Her cheeks were still streaked with tears and she was breathing hard although he didn’t know if it was from the crying or the running.
Shit. He had really messed this one up.
“SORA!” Yasu yelled.
Sora continued to peer out the window from her seat on the kitchen counter. “Yeah Yasu?”
“Sora what are you doing?”
She waved a vague hand towards the window. “I’m watching Naruto and Hinata. Kid’s dug himself into one hell of a deep hole.”
Yasu walked over to stand next to Sora. “I saw your eyes go purple. What are you doing to those poor kids?” She looked out the window and groaned. “Sora did you trip them?”
She never took her eyes off of the kids in the window, but she giggled a little. “Maybe.”
“Sora!”
“I’m just making sure they talk. Now are you going to watch or not?”
Yasu glared at Sora and made a little
humph-ing sound. Then she gracefully lifted herself up onto the
counter next to Sora in order to get a better view.
Naruto tried to wipe the mud off of his face with his hands, but he was mostly only successful at smearing it. He managed to get most of it away from his eyes, enough that he could look at her at least.
She was sitting on her bottom in the water, knees bent, and leaning back on her arms. She was looking down at the mess that had been made of the kimono Yasu had loaned her. It was soaked and probably covered with mud on the bottom from where she was sitting in the rice patty.
Where things had started to go wrong again, she wondered, as large silent tears began to roll down her cheeks. She wanted so badly to be the best partner she could to him, but she must have been deluding herself from the beginning. From the very first day when they had set out together and Naruto had gotten her to climb the tree. When he had asked her help with the floor cleaning jutsu. When he had carried her back to the library to study while Sora was gone. She had been deluding herself that they had been getting closer, becoming better friends. She had been deluding herself that maybe she could be a good partner for him that she could leave behind parts of the old Hinata and change into something better.
He had been nice to her, kind to her, good to her. But he didn’t trust her. He was willing to lie to her, to tell her things just to keep her in the dark. He didn’t want her to know his secrets.
Her teeth were chattering in the cold October air. The sun had just come up an hour before and had yet to warm up the sky. She was miserably cold but couldn’t seem to get herself to move. She sat in the water, shivering, teeth chattering, tears streaming down her face. Dear god she was a mess.
Naruto kept opening his mouth to say something but was finding that nothing was coming out. He reached out a hand to her but then let it drop as she sobbed again. He didn’t know what to do. “Hina-chan...”
She sniffed loudly and then pushed herself up to her feet before wading over to the raised pathway and stepped out of the water. Her bare feet curled in the grass; she had run out of the house so quickly she hadn’t bothered to put shoes on. She reached down and started to squeeze some of the water out of the hem of her kimono in quick, panicky motions, careful not to lift it over her calves. She made small dismayed noises; she was sure Yasu would be furious at her for ruining it.
Naruto pushed himself to his feet behind her. “Hina-chan...” he repeated.
She turned to look at him over her shoulder. “N-Naruto-kun, I, I’m...” She paused, pressing her lips together and tried to squeeze some of the water out of her hair. “Go.... gomen, I, I just...please just...I need...to be, to be alone.”
Something was squeezing at his heart. She hadn’t stuttered or repeated herself like this in months. “Hina-chan, I...”
She shook her head violently. “You don’t need to tell me!” she said, louder than she intended. “It’s, it’s okay, whatever... s, secret you have with Sora... it’s okay.” She bit back another flood of tears. Her voice became very soft. “I understand.”
Hope flooded Naruto’s eyes. “Really Hina-chan?”
Her heart dropped further. Was he going to be that happy to be rid of her? “Ha, hai.”
He was elated. She wasn’t going to make him tell her! She could live with him keeping his secret. It was the best thing that could have possibly happen for him!
She swallowed as she watched his happy face. His joy was obvious and it was breaking her heart. Having to be her partner, having to work with someone who was obviously below his level, someone who was useless must have been a constant worry for him.
She wiped tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand. She had to get away from him; she had to get somewhere she could calm down. “Ano, umm...I’m, I’m going to take a walk-“
“Huh? But you’re soaking wet.” She swallowed. “I know but...I need to...I’m going to take a walk and then...then we can go tell Sora.”
He looked at her, puzzled. “Go tell Sora what?”
Hinata fought to keep her face expressionless. “That we’re not going to do the partner training anymore,” she said quickly and quietly.
“NANI?!” Naruto yelled. What did she mean they weren’t going to do partner training anymore? Where the hell had that come from?
She winced at the sound of his voice and backed away a step. This was what he wanted, so why was he yelling at her? “Please, I understand why you want to...I just, I just need ... need to be alone...” She had to get away. She had to get away from him to somewhere she could get herself pulled back together. She started to back away and then turned and ran.
She made it three steps before Naruto grabbed her wrist, effectively stopping her progress. Her skin seemed to burn where he touched her. She lowered her head and refused to look at him.
Things weren’t normally still for Naruto. His mind was generally rapidly moving between thinking about different subjects, darting quickly back and forth, from topic to topic. But at that moment an unnatural calm had settled over him and all he could think about was the girl whose wrist he was holding onto and what she had said.
No. She couldn’t have meant it. She couldn’t be leaving him like everyone else.
“Hina-chan, what do you mean tell her we’re not going to do the partner training anymore?” He craned his neck and tried to look around to see her, but she just turned her head away.
She was determined not to cry. She could at least be strong enough not to cry. “I...I know I’m useless and-“
“Nani?! What makes you say that?” He pulled her gently towards him with her wrist and then reached for her opposite elbow, turning her around so that she was facing him. She kept her head bowed.
“Hina-chan, what’s going on?” He didn’t sound angry, like he was mad at her for crying. Or frustrated because she kept doing this. Or disappointed in her because she didn’t live up to expectations. He just sounded confused, like he couldn’t figure out what was going on.
“You said you didn’t want to partner with me and then I started crying and you felt sorry for me and then you said yes. I know that I’m stupid and, and useless and that you didn’t want to be my partner in the first place, but I...”
“NANI? What do you mean I didn’t want to be your partner in the first place? I said yes and then you said no and then I said no and then you said yes and then I said yes. I said yes first. And I said it twice!”
She looked up at him with eyes filled to the brim. “You don’t trust me,” she whispered. “I thought you did, but now...why would you want a partner you couldn’t...”
Naruto’s heart sank as the things she had been saying started to line up. He tightened his grip on her elbows.
“Hinata that’s not right!” She winced at the tone in his voice and looked down at the ground again.
“You don’t have to, to...lie to me. I understand...” She broke into fresh tears, berating herself mentally for her weakness.
Naruto stared at her. This was something he hadn’t considered; this was something he didn’t understand. He sighed. He hated to admit it (really, really hated to admit it) but Sora had been right: Hinata had known something was up and he should have told her sooner.
He tried again. “Hinata it’s not you I don’t trust. I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”
She was too weak to bare his secret. “I’m sorry I’m so pathetic...”
He could feel her arms tremble as she sobbed. He could hear her cries. Every sobbing sound coming from her pulled strings in his heart. She was soaked and dirty, probably freezing in the morning air. The sun was still sitting low over the hill, casting a strange glow over the rice patties. He had to get her inside, warm and calm. Then he would be able to talk to her.
He let go of her arms so he could take off his jacket, but the moment he let go she crumpled to the ground, face in her hands, sobbing. He stared at her for a moment and suddenly felt like crying himself. Instead he quickly stripped off his jacket, a hand me down from Nori, plain black with a zipper up the front. Thankfully, it hadn’t gotten too wet.
He wrapped it around her and then, as it was obvious that she wasn’t going to be going anywhere on her own, he picked her up. His arm went around her waist and he lifted her, before catching her behind her knees with the opposite arm.
Her eyes widened in shock as she felt herself be nestled against his chest. “Na, Naruto-kun?”
He didn’t look down at her. “It’s cold out here and we’re both wet. Let’s go in.”
She stared at him for a few seconds, and then
let her cheek fall against her shoulder.
“Did he just wrap her in his jacket and start carrying her towards the house?” Yasu asked, mouth hanging open.
Sora’s was open even farther. “Wow. Smooth. Where’s my camera?”
“I don’t know. But he doesn’t like her?”
“I think he’s just too dense to realize he does.”
Yasu ripped her eyes away from the scene in front of her and walked towards the kitchen door. “Nori!” she yelled. “Would you get Miki-chan bundled up please? We’re going into town.”
“What are you going to town for?” Sora asked, still watching her charges from the window.
“You wanted to bake a cake for his birthday? We need cake flour. Come on, you’re coming too.” She grabbed Sora by the arm and started dragged her out of the kitchen.
“Huh? What do you mean I’m coming too? Like I’m going to miss him trying to explain this to her!”
Yasu just took her coat off the hook by the door and handed the oversized black garment to her old partner. “Sora, if whatever he needs to tell her is so important that you won’t tell me, it is obviously deserving of some privacy. He’s going to have a hard enough time telling her without you eavesdropping.”
“But-“
Naruto pushed the door open with his shoulder, still clutching Hinata close to his chest. He blinks. “Where are you going?”
“Into town for a few things. There are blankets and towels in the closet in the hall. Also tea is in the top shelf of the cabinet next to the sink,” Yasu explained as she pulled a thick white wool shawl around her shoulders. Nori came down the stairs, a slightly sleepy Miki in his arms.
“All of you are going?” Naruto asked as Yasu took Miki and placed her on the front steps outside.
“No, not all of us. I’m staying here,” Sora said.
“No you’re not. Nori, sweetie, would you get her shoulders for me?”
“What the... Hey! Put me down!” Sora protested as Nori grabbed her underneath her arms and Yasu grabbed her feet and stared to haul her out of the house.
“Stop protesting. We can get you one of those custard thingies you like so much.”
Sora stopped wiggling and stared at Yasu. “Chocolate Espresso Crème Brule? Really?”
Yasu rolled her eyes and shut the door behind her.
Naruto stared at the closed door. She was supposed to be an adult? He was startled out of his thoughts when he realized Hinata was still shivering in his arms. He quickly turned and walked down the hall, pausing to shift Hinata in his arms so he could grab a blanket and a towel out of the closet, then on into the living room.
He put her down on the rug next to fireplace and replaced his jacket with the blanket before pushing the town into her hands. “Here I’ll be right back.”
Heading back down the hall, he grabbed another towel and started to dry his hair. In the kitchen, he put water on to boil and started searching through all of Yasu’s tea. He pulled out one container and looked at the label. Dragonwell. Was this one Hinata liked? Or was this the one that smelled like bacon? He started to go ask her and then thought better of it. He found a teapot and put the leaves in.
He dragged out a cup of ramen for himself and waited impatiently for the water to boil. He stuck in head of the door in order to look down the hall at her. She was still sitting quietly in the living room in front of the fireplace.
The kettle whistled and he quickly poured the water into the pot and his ramen cup. Holding his ramen, fork and her empty cup in one hand he grabbed the teapot in the other and carefully made his way down the hall, trying not to spill anything. He placed the food in front of her and sat down on the opposite side.
There was a long silence.
“You warm enough?” he asked.
She nodded.
“You sure? Cause there’s more blankets in there.”
“I’m fine,” she said quietly.
There was another long silence.
Naruto was at a loss: a loss for what to say, a loss for what to do, a loss for what to think. So he did what he always did when he didn’t know what to do. He pushed ahead.
“It’s not that I didn’t want to tell you the secret. I couldn’t.”
She didn’t look at him. “I know. I’m stupid and useless and-“
“NO!” he cut her off. “No you’re not. But when we get back to Leaf, you’re going to face enough trouble for being my partner as it is. As long as you don’t know this, it’s not your fault. No one will blame you.”
She looked up at him, confused. “What do you mean?”
He looked away. He still didn’t want to tell her. “You know how everyone in the village hates me? Well there’s a reason,” he said quietly.
“And this secret is the reason?”
He turned back to her, willing her to understand. “Yes. Look, as long as you don’t know, no one will hold you responsible for becoming my partner.”
Sudden realization hit her. “You’re trying to take the fall for me. You’re saying that as long as I don’t know this secret, when we go back home all of the consequences for becoming partners will land on you. Everyone will assume that you tricked me into becoming your partner.”
“It has nothing to do with whether or not I want you as a partner. It has nothing to do with how good a ninja you are. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“So you’re taking the decision out of my hands.”
“I’m protecting you.”
She was stunned. He couldn’t do that. He couldn’t take the choice out of her hands. They were partners and that, she thought, had meant that they were going to make choices together. Yes, she trusted his judgment more than her own, but that didn’t mean that she wanted to be left completely in the dark.
“Protecting me from what?”
He sighed and squished his eyes shut. The time had come; he wasn’t going to be able to avoid it any longer. He had to tell her.
He grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and pulled it off over his head. Hinata blushed and looked away, biting her lower lip.
“Hina-chan,” he said softly. She turned back to look at him shyly. He swallowed again, and she realized that he was nervous. It was an emotion she was used to seeing in herself, not in him. “Hinata, I need you to watch.” Slowly he placed his hands together and began to raise his chakra.
Hinata watched in awe and fascination as the spiral began to appear around his navel, followed by small squiggly lines. It was a pattern she recognized, but not one she had expected to see.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “Why do you have a seal?”
He reached for his t-shirt and began to put it back on. She suddenly realized that it was the old Leaf t-shirt that he used to sleep in, black with the Leaf symbol emblazoned in bright green on the front. It had been far too big for him when they had left Leaf with Sora. Now it fit him perfectly.
He stood up, restless, and went to lean against the fireplace mantle. “This is Kyubi,” he said simply. He couldn’t get anymore out.
Kyubi? What on earth could he...Then very slowly, puzzle pieces she had been collecting about him for years started falling into place. Why no one had adopted him. Why everyone disliked him so intently. The fact that he had been born on the same day the Kyubi had attacked. It had the potential to explain so much: the way he had changed when he had gotten so angry at Sora. The truly amazing, almost inhuman, amount of chakra he had.
The Kyubi must have been sealed inside him.
But it was tearing him apart, she realized. Growing up in a village where everyone thought that you were a demon, having no family, would have driven most people over the edge. But she knew better than anyone that he was no demon.
The details weren’t as important as making sure he was okay. Oh, she wanted them and she planned to get them, but right now she needed to make sure that he was all right.
She dropped the blanket and stood up to move behind him. He was facing the fireplace, leaning against it with his weight supported on his crossed arms. His whole body was stiff. Quietly she stepped behind him and wrapped her arms, still covered in muddy kimono sleeves, around him. She pressed her face into his back.
He couldn’t believe it. He thought that she would be scared, demanding to know what the hell he meant and yet...here she was, silently telling him that everything was going to be okay. Putting her arms around him and accepting.
The world had never been brighter.
He pushed away from the wall and twisted around in her arms so that he could embrace her back. He pulled her close and bent his head to burry his face in the strands of hair that had come free from her ponytail. He started crying, but he figured it was okay. After all you were allowed to cry when you were happy and he had never been happier in his life.
“The Fourth sealed him in me when I was a baby,” he said, choking on some of the words. “They couldn’t kill it, but hopefully his soul will bind with mine and leave this world when I die. All the adults know, but no one our age does. I didn’t even find out until I graduated from the academy. That’s why everyone in the village hates me. I’m a demon. One who nearly destroyed the entire village.”
“But you didn’t do that. Kyubi did.”
He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. They still look at me like I’m the demon. And in some ways I guess I am. After all, if our chakra is mingling and our souls are binding-“
“No,” she said. It was quiet but it was firm. “You’re Naruto, not the Kyubi.”
“But-“
“There is nothing demonic about you except how much chakra you have. You’ve never lost control and destroyed the village, even when they were treating you terribly.”
“I think I lost control in my first mission, in Wave Country. When my team was fighting a very strong ninja, Haku, Sasuke almost lost his life, and Kyubi came...nothing happened, but still...”
“When your friends needed help. You just used the Kyubi chakra to break out. You didn’t go on a random killing spree. And when you confronted Sora about the pictures, you regained control before you even fought anyone. You had the Kyubi chakra and you pushed it back down. Naruto,” she pulled back and took his face in her hands. “You’re stronger than the Kyubi.”
He looked at the faith in her eyes and his own started to fill with water. “But the people in Leaf, they hate me for it.”
“Because they don’t know you. No one who knows you hates you.”
“Sasuke.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know Sasuke, but I can’t imagine he hates you.”
“But when they find out? When they all find out what I am they’re not going want to have anything to do with me.” The tears started to fall again. “Everyone is going to go away again.”
She leaned forwards and wrapped her arms around him, pulling his head down to rest on her shoulder. “You have me. You’ll always have me. No matter what happens, no matter what everyone else in the village thinks of you, no matter how bad things get, I will always be here for you.”
He turned his face into her and cried. She simply held him, her cheek pressed to the top of his head, her fingers running through his hair.
“When we became partners,” she whispered. “You told me that before you became a gennin it was dark. There wasn’t anyone who cared for you. But I had cared about you for years.” She shook her head, rubbing her cheek against his hair. “I don’t care who sealed what inside of you. I’m never going to let you go back into the dark again.”
He pulled back to look into her eyes. “You mean it? You don’t care about the Kyubi?”
She shook her head. “No,” she said simply.
“And you still want to be partners?”
“Of course I do.”
“And your family?”
She sighed and looked away. “That’s a problem I have to face anyway. The more I read about politics, the less I like the way our clan is ran.” She smiled, but it was tainted with irony. “There are going to be a lot more things for my father and me to battle about than you.”
He placed his palm on her cheek and turned her face back towards him. “You don’t want to do it, do you?”
She shrugged. “Someone has to change the clan for all our sakes. And as the heir to my clan, it sort of falls to me.”
“But you hate arguing. You always end up refereeing between Sora and I, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen you actually fight with anyone.”
“I think that there might be some things that are worth fighting for. Besides, you did say to Neji that you would change the clan.” She looked across at him shyly.
He stared at her for a moment.
Then he burst into grins and hauled her against him. “Of course we’re going to change the clan! I’m Uzumaki Naruto and I’m destined to be Hokage! Not only that, but I’m going to be the best Hokage ever, so good that everyone will acknowledge how great I am and no one will care what is sealed inside me! And I can do anything, because I’m the best and I’ve got the best family and the best the best teacher and the best partner.”
He drew back just enough that he could look into her eyes. “We’ll just have to make it into the best village ever, right Hina-chan?”
She smiled at him. Not the shy, closed mouth smile she normally gave him. That one had always been contaminated by self doubt and nervousness. This smile was a grin of pure joy and warmth, a smile so large it wrinkled her nose and shut her eyes. “Hai, Naruto-kun.”
She was just like her name implied: a patch of sunlight. More than anyone else, more than Iruka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, Sasuke, Ero- Sennin, Obaa-chan or even Nee-chan, she pushed the darkness back.
He smiled back and held her close.
“Wait until you hear who my parents are.”
“Where’s my camera?” Sora whispered.
“I think you left it in your coat pocket,” Yasu whispered back. The four of them had gotten home a few hours later to discover Naruto and Hinata sitting on the floor, propped up against the couch, fast asleep. Her head was tucked in the crook of his shoulder while his arm was wrapped around her waist. His head leaned down to touch hers. They were surrounded by cups of ramen and used tea things.
Yasu smiled at the pair as Sora came back with the camera. “Whatever this revelation and emotional sorting out was, it must have worn them out. Still, sleeping this deeply when there’s no one around to watch your back can be dangerous.”
“Eh, it’ll be okay,” Sora said as she started to snap pictures. “If they were awake, there would be no way I could take these pictures.”
Yasu watched the couple sleep. Hinata turned onto her side to snuggle in closer to Naruto; He tightened his grasp on her waist.
One delicate white eyebrow went up. “Are you sure they’re not together behind your back?”
“At the moment, no.” Sora grinned. “But by the
way things are looking; I don’t think it’s going to stay that
way too much longer.” .
Author’s Notes: And now she knows. And she handled it very nicely, as we all knew she would. Originally I was going to write out his explanation of the whole thing, but I decided that her reaction to finding out he had the Kyubi inside him was really the only important part.
Quick word on updating. I know when I started this I was updating twice a week and now I am down to every other week. Basically, when I started this story I was sick and spending a lot of time in bed, giving me a lot of time to write. Now that I’m better, I have a lot more on my plate. I aim for one chapter a week, but sometimes I don’t make it. Someone suggested that I split the chapters into two so that I could post sooner, but I unfortunately write backwards a lot of the time, so it wouldn’t work. Besides, if I had cut this chapter off midway, Naruto wouldn’t have gotten a chance to tell her.
Speaking of long waits for updates, the best fanfiction I have every read finally got updated after an 18 month gap. Its called Chasing the Dragon by Madame Manga and it is truely fantastic. I highly, highly, highly recomend reading it, even if you have never read the Gunsmith Cats manga. You can find it in the favorites section on my profile or at madamemanga.50mgs.com/manga.html. WARNING: THIS STORY IS RATED R FOR A REASON.
Also Courai made my week and provided the extra push needed to finish this chapter by telling me she had drawn a picture of Sora! It will hopefully been posed soon at Kitsune no Hana (silverdragonflydreams. com).
Wren
This site is published by Samizdat Express, Orange, CT
info@seltzerbooks.com
 |
|
| Webseltzerbooks.com |