Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ After the Dream ❯ Love Makes the World Go Round ( Chapter 25 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

~b~ normal story

~B~ flashbacks

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Love Makes the World Go Round

“Wake up,” Rin shouted joyously, barging into Sakura's room. Once she was positive that the pink haired girl would get up she ran out again to wake up Naruto and Sasuke.

“Wake up, wake up, wake up,” Rin chanted, slipping into Naruto's room with Sakura and Sasuke slouching along behind her. She tapped her foot impatiently as Naruto continued to snore softly, completely ignoring her morning call. She scowled and walked over to his bed before leaning down and flipping the mattress off of its frame, knocking Naruto onto the floor. She dropped the mattress back down and watched as Naruto blearily opened his eyes and tried to figure out why he was on the floor.

“What's going on?” he mumbled, looking around his room. Rin was standing in front of him, tapping her foot impatiently. Sasuke was standing at the door attempting to rub the sleep out of his eyes, but he appeared just as bemused as Naruto. Sakura had slumped down against the wall; Naruto had the sneaking suspicion that she had fallen back asleep. “It's cold,” he muttered, reaching out to grab his blanket, fully intending to go back to sleep.

“Oh no you don't,” Rin replied, smirking down at him and snatching the blanket away from him. “All of you, up now; we have things to do,” she added happily, walking over to the curtained window. She pulled open the curtain revealing a dazzling whiteness.

Naruto blinked several times at the sudden brightness in the room before realizing what he was looking at. “It snowed last night,” Rin explained happily. “I'll be downstairs making breakfast; come down after you've gotten ready. We're going out today,” she chirped, leaving behind three slightly stunned teenagers staring out the window.

“It never snowed this much in Konoha,” Naruto finally managed to say several minutes after Rin had left.

“There has to be like two feet of snow on the ground,” Sakura claimed in awe.

“What was she thinking when she said we were going out to day?” Sasuke asked, turning to the other two.

“I don't know, but we'd better hurry up and get ready so that we can find out,” Sakura retorted, prancing out of the room.

An hour later, Rin herded them out the door with the intention of introducing them to the townsfolk. The three had only been in town three times previously: their day out with Kakashi, to get supplies with Rin, and once with Kato on the way to the manor. “On the way in we can stay atop the snow, but if we come across someone the three of you need to drop down,” she instructed them as they set off.

“Why exactly are we going into town on a day when almost everyone will be inside and everything will be closed?” Sasuke asked incredulously.

“You know the Nami family holds a festival two days after the first snow of the season. During the Snow Festival they hold a special memorial for all those in the family that died in the period between the two festivals.” she said, ignoring Sasuke's question. “They hold another one in spring after the first flowers bloom. At that festival they celebrate any new comers to the family, whether they were adopted or born into it.”

Sakura remained silent as Naruto got a pensive look on his face. Rin had been slipping in bits about the Nami family ever since he had been told of his heritage. Kato had left two days after Kakashi and the others went back to Konoha, so Rin had become his only source for information. She found it amusing to see his eyes light up whenever she caught his attention. Once she started talking about his family, Naruto hung onto her every word.

XXXXXXXX

About month after their initial visit, Kakashi and Itachi had stopped by again when Rin and Sakura were arguing over whether or not to re-dye Sakura's hair - it was the third fight of the sort that week. “You have to do it sometime,” Kakashi had finally informed Rin, attempting to end the argument.

“We're not fighting over when to dye it; we're trying to decide what color to use,” Rin informed him. Kakashi sheepishly scratched at the back of his head before sitting back down. When he heard Naruto snicker at him, he reached over and swatted the boy.

“I say blond,” Naruto snickered out, swatting right back at Kakashi.

“I am not dying my hair blond,” Sakura stated firmly. Naruto shrugged it off and turned back to eating.

“What are the options so far?” Itachi asked nonchalantly.

“Red,” Rin replied at the same time that Sakura claimed, “Brown.”

Itachi looked between the two for several moments while Naruto and Sasuke rolled their eyes. “You'd think they'd be able to come up with more than that some time during all the arguments,” Sasuke muttered.

“Hush,” Rin chided; “And we're dying your hair black,” she added.

“Why?” Sasuke griped.

“Keeping your hair closer to its natural color will throw people off. Red won't look suspicious on Sakura because her hair was already close to that color. Just like black won't look suspicious on you, and either blond or light brown won't look suspicious on Naruto,” Itachi explained.

Naruto and Sasuke turned to him with bemused expressions on their faces. Itachi sighed and rolled his eyes. “If you had been trained for espionage missions you would have eventually learned that subtle changes make more of a difference, especially if a number of them are compounded,” he explained.

“But...” Sakura muttered despairingly.

“You're not a shinobi anymore. You can't leave your hair its natural color because it will stand out. You also can't use a color as discrete as brown because someone who looks too normal catches as much attention from the trained eye. You can't afford either,” Itachi stated.

Sakura scowled at him for a moment before storming out of the room. Rin sighed and turned to the others. “Why is she fighting this so much?” she asked.

“Her mother had red hair. Her natural hair color came from her grandmother on her father's side,” Kakashi answered subtly after a moment.

Rin looked at him wide eyed for a moment before walking out of the room cursing her stupidity. She found Sakura relatively quickly; the girl was sitting out on the front walk moping. Rin sat down next to her and waited for Sakura to speak. After fifteen minutes she sighed and decided that she had waited long enough. “Do you hate your mother for some reason?” she asked bluntly.

“No,” Sakura replied harshly, turning to glare at Rin.

“So what Kakashi said about your mother having red hair has nothing to do with your adamant refusal to dye your own hair that color,” Rin said.

Sakura's glare wilted slightly and she turned away guiltily. “They chose to stay behind,” Sakura replied glumly. “They knew that if they did, they wouldn't survive. But they did it anyways. They did it knowing that I would be left alone.”

“Isn't that what you did to your friends when you and Naruto left?” Rin asked, gaining a bewildered stare from Sakura.

“No, we…” Sakura trailed off into silence and gazed desperately at Rin.

“When you decided to leave with him, why did you do it?” Rin asked.

“He was my teammate. He came first…” Sakura answered.

“It was lose him or lose everyone else, right? But in that situation you didn't see that; all you saw was that you would lose him, right?” she asked. “It probably didn't sink in that you had left everyone else behind for at least a day or two,” she claimed. Sakura slowly nodded her head.

“When your parents went up against Kisame, their first thought was probably of their teammates. Their duty was to make sure that the mission was successful. In order to do that, someone had to make it back to the Hokage. They made sure that happened. I'm sure they realized what they were doing to you, but that was probably after they had already made the decision,” Rin claimed.

“I hate to say it, but they probably would have died regardless. Kisame was in a very bad mood, and he would have pursued the group if your parents hadn't held him off. Had he pursued them, no one would have survived,” Itachi added, walking up behind them.

Rin glared lightly at Itachi before turning back to a rather stricken Sakura. “Look, sometimes shinobi have to do things because it is their duty. When it happens, they don't have the liberty to think about how it will affect anyone other than the village as a whole, which means they can't just think about their family,” Rin explained.

“Just think about it,” she said a few minutes later. Sakura nodded solemnly so Rin got up and went inside.

A week later Rin had shoved a red haired Sakura and an ebony haired Sasuke outside. On the same day that Sakura dyed her hair, Sasuke had finally consented to dying his hair as well. His main complaint was that with hair as black as Rin wanted to go, he would look even more like Itachi. He had waited to agree until after Itachi had left.

Once they were out of sight, Rin pulled Naruto back into the kitchen. “Kato sent this to me yesterday, but I didn't have a chance to give it to you. She finally got back to Anraku about a week ago and spoke to Senma. They wanted you to have this,” Rin said, handing Naruto an envelope.

Naruto looked up at her curiously before opening the envelope. He pulled out a single photograph and looked up at Rin in confusion. “That's your mother and Mitsutori,” Rin told him glancing at the photograph. “I'm not sure, but she was probably already a few months pregnant at that point,” she added.

“She looks a lot like Mitsutori does,” Naruto commented.

“They are a lot a like. Their mothers were identical twins, so it makes sense that they ended up looking a lot alike,” Rin explained.

“How are they related to Kato?” Naruto asked hesitantly.

Rin grinned down at him and ruffled his hair to assure him. “Kato married into the family about seven years ago. Senma is your mother's great aunt. Kato married one of Senma's grandsons; most of the time you'll just hear them refer to each other as cousins. The families are close anyways so it's normally pretty stupid to try and use a label any more complicated than cousin,” she explained.

After a moment Naruto looked up at her suspiciously and asked, “You're dying my hair light brown like Itachi-teme suggested, aren't you?”

He took Rin's grin as a yes.

XXXXXXXX

Not far from town, Rin turned around and walked backwards so that she could talk to them. “You three should start walking normally now; most of the town knows that I'm a shinobi so it won't look suspicious, but it would if the three of you did,” she claimed. The three exchanged a slight grimace before allowing their feet to sink into the snow. Sasuke continued to glare at Rin as she smiled back at them. “And yes I did hear your question earlier,” she finally said to him. “I realize that in a large village like Konoha, this much snow would essentially shut down the town, with the exception of those shinobi that remained on duty. Kumoma is used to large amounts of snow, so they aren't as likely to shut down when it happens,” she explained.

“I'm taking you into town because almost everyone has caught glimpses of you over the past several months, but none of them know who you are. If I didn't introduce you soon, we'd probably start getting unexpected visits from acquaintances just so that they could get a glimpse of you. This way is easier on everyone,” Rin added.

Sakura thought it over for a few moments and shrugged. Several minutes later, they realized Rin was correct when they reached the first of the houses on the way into the village. “Chiyu Rin, you've been keeping yourself scarce since you showed up here,” a middle aged woman claimed as she walked out onto her porch.

“Mimena-san, are you heading in?” Rin asked bowing in greeting.

“Of course, I need to open the store up. You're heading in rather early actually,” the woman stated.

“We have a lot to do,” Rin responded. “I don't believe you've met these three,” she added after a moment of false pondering.

“No, I've seen them once or twice though. You should hear the rumors. One claims that they're spies; I had Hikaru telling me that they were Missing Nin,” Mimena told them shaking her head.

“This is Nami Kyokki,” Rin said pulling Naruto forward. “He's Mitsutori's cousin. The grumpy black haired one is Shingao Eiki and his sister Hana is next to him,” she added nodding towards Sasuke's sulking form several feet away. Sakura was standing next to him attempting not to laugh as his scowl deepened after Rin's taunt.

“They don't look like they're very used to the weather,” Mimena commented as she descended her front steps and joined them on their way into town.

“They're from up north they don't get this much snow or these temperatures up there,” Rin informed her.

“Well come with me then. Once I get the shop opened up, I'll get you something warm to drink so that you can finish your errands without freezing,” Mimena suggested, patting Sakura on the shoulder.

“Thank you,” Sakura replied, Sasuke nodded in thanks as well but continued scowling.

“Eiki you need to lighten up,” Naruto taunted, leaning down and scooping up some snow. Rin realized what he was doing too late and was unable to stop Naruto from launching the snowball at Sasuke.

“Kyokki,” Rin chided. Her lecture was cut short when Sasuke threw himself at Naruto, tackling him back into the snow. Rin and Sakura sighed as the two began to scuffle. Mimena watched them in amusement. Sakura finally growled slightly and walked up to the two. “Stop it,” she ordered, throwing a snowball at each of them.

The two blinked when they were each clubbed in the face by cold snow. They froze and turned to Sakura in indignation as she smirked at them. After a moment Sasuke smirked and Sakura's grin slid off her face as the two slowly disentangled themselves and stood up over her. “Uh oh,” she muttered, standing up quickly and dashing off down the street. Naruto and Sasuke hesitated only long enough to scoop up a bit of snow before chasing after her.

Mimena turned to Rin laughing. “Well all of them are certainly playful under the right circumstances,” she claimed. Rin shook her head in amusement and bent down to pick up the hat that Sasuke had knocked off of Naruto. “And that one, I think you said his name was Kyokki, he is certainly playful enough to get along with the rest of his family,” Mimena commented, causing Rin to grin. “But where does he get his eyes? I've never met a Nami that had black eyes before,” she pondered.

“Kyokki gets his eyes from his father's family,” Rin muttered in response.

“Speaking of families,” Mimena said, turning to Rin with a wry grin.

Rin simply turned away in a huff. “The snow is late this year; Kumoma normally gets snow before the end of February.” she stated, attempting to change the subject.

XXXXXXXX

Not long after New Years, the house was thrown slightly topsy-turvy. During Itachi and Kakashi's third visit the week before the holiday, they had finally decided on the rest of the subtle changes that Itachi had suggested. After some arguing, Naruto had agreed to wear black contacts; he still didn't know why Rin and Kakashi found it so amusing. Sakura and Sasuke had been convinced that as siblings they should have some type distinguishing feature that made them look alike. They had finally settled on dark blue eyes. Naruto was still slightly put out that the three of them weren't acting as siblings anymore, but Rin had told him to put up with it for a while.

Naruto and Sasuke woke up on January 10 to find Sakura sitting outside the bathroom giggling slightly. “What's so funny?” Sasuke asked before Sakura's eyes widened slightly and she motioned for both to quiet down. After listening for a moment both boys could almost hear what sounded like someone throwing up in the bathroom.

“What's going on?” Naruto asked quietly, causing Sakura to laugh harder. Tears spilled out of her eyes as she tried to keep her giggles silent.

She was finally able to control her laughter enough to whisper, “Morning sickness.”

Naruto and Sasuke looked at her in confusion for a moment before they turned to each other with realization. A moment later Naruto joined Sakura on the floor in laughter and Sasuke sat back against the wall smirking.

“I can hear you,” Rin shouted from the bathroom. Naruto and Sakura only laughed harder in response and a moment later Rin was standing in the door way looking down at the three. “It isn't funny,” she responded.

“Kakashi as a father is funny,” Naruto responded.

Rin got a rather mischievous look on her face and replied innocently, “Who said Kakashi was the father?”

Sakura slapped her leg and laughed even harder but both boys looked up and studied her for a minute before Naruto responded stupidly, “Then who is?”

Rin rolled her eyes before turning back around a running into the bathroom. “You do realize that Kakashi is technically already a father, don't you?” she called out a moment later.

“It's still funny,” Naruto replied.

“The three of you could at least stop laughing,” Rin mumbled from inside the bathroom.

Naruto paused in his laughter to reply, “You're pouting aren't you.”

“No,” Rin muttered sullenly.

All three teens outside the bathroom began laughing again at her obvious displeasure with them.

“None of you would be laughing if Kakashi were here,” she yelled to them.

“What would he do beat us up?” Naruto shouted back.

When no answer came, the three looked to find Rin in the doorway smirking down at them. “He would if I asked him to,” she said innocently looking down at her nails. “After all you are laughing at the mother of his two children,” she added smirking at them.

All three looked at her for a moment before exchanging a glance. “We could take him,” Naruto responded grinning.

“Is that so?” Rin said, “You three have fairly lazy lately.”

“Yeah well Sakura and I almost beat him before we left Konoha,” Naruto responded.

“Yeah but Naruto that was only the bell test,” Sakura said with a bit of doubt in her voice.

“Well still we're his students he wouldn't hurt us… would he?” Naruto responded. The three shared another glance before all three jumped up and took off outside with Rin's laughter trailing behind them.

XXXXXXXX

A month later, Itachi arrived unexpectedly for a short visit; he assured them that Kakashi hadn't been far behind. When Kakashi finally showed up, he found Rin outside wrapped up in a blanket watching Itachi attempting to explain one of the jutsu from one of their birthday scrolls.

“Wow, what did you do to get them to train?” Kakashi asked, walking up beside her.

“I told them you'd beat them up,” Rin said nonchalantly.

“Why would I do that?” Kakashi asked looking at her in confusion.

“For making fun of the mother of your children,” she replied innocently.

“Oh come on you can take a few a jokes,” Kakashi said before turning to her with a wide eye. “Did you just say children?” he asked, causing Rin to grin up at him.

“Yeah we should probably avoid drinking too much around each other from now on,” she replied. She looked up a moment later when she heard a thud next to her. She blinked several times at the sight of Kakashi sprawled out on the ground, seemingly unconscious. When she realized a moment later, that he wasn't actually unconscious her eye twitched and she kicked him in the side to regain his attention. “You could not have honestly been surprised about that,” she deadpanned.

“Well our track record is against us,” Kakashi muttered, sitting up.

“Glad to hear you're handling it so well. When you get back to Konoha would mind informing Rishito and Mitsutori?” Rin added; she assumed that Kakashi's stunned silence meant he didn't mind relaying the message at all.

XXXXXXXX

Rin and Mimena finally caught up with the three teens not far from Mimena's small restaurant. “Come on in and have something to drink,” Mimena invited, ushering Rin and three cold and wet teens inside.

Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke immediately shed their wet coats and settled down at a table with Rin. “So is this how you're going to introduce us to everyone?” Sasuke asked.

“Yeah, that and get the three of you new clothing. Kakashi gets depressed every time he sees you, so I figure we should put a bit more color back in your wardrobes,” Rin declared. She glanced around to make sure Mimena hadn't come back yet before continuing, “Plus no one in this town sells clothing geared towards shinobi, so it'll be easier to make the three of you look like civilians.”

“Rin!” a young woman gasped walking into the small restaurant.

Rin glanced over and smiled at the shocked woman. “It's good to see you Hikaru,” Rin said nodding.

The woman that Rin identified as Hikaru smiled and walked over to the group. “So these are the mystery teens,” she said, sitting down next to Rin and taking a moment to study each of them. “Well I don't believe the rumors anymore. All three of you are too cute to have been shinobi and too innocent to be spies,” she declared triumphantly.

Rin smiled at her and Naruto and the others laughed a bit nervously. Hikaru didn't seem to sense their unease. She spent the next half hour talking about the newest gossip going around town. “So what did you all come into town for?” Hikaru finally asked once the group had finished their hot drinks.

“A few errands to run,” Rin responded.

“Well hurry and get them finished. You're all invited to dinner tonight; I expect to see you at seven,” Hikaru said as she rose to leave.

Once Hikaru had disappeared, Rin turned to them smugly. “Well you passed the most difficult test. Hikaru is one of the biggest gossips I have ever met. If she's pleased with the three of you and your stories, not only will she spread it to the town for us, but everyone else is bound to believe it as well,” she informed them.

XXXXXXXX

The rest of the shopping and the night at Hikaru's were rather uneventful. The most amusing thing that happened was Rin refusing to drink sake. All of the older women burst out laughing much to Rin's embarrassment. “You're going to have to get used to the jokes eventually,” Sakura stated while they walked home.

Rin scowled at her for the rest of the walk.

Agent's Spiel: The names Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke start using will be the aliases used for the rest of the fic. Nami Kyokki is Naruto. Shingao Eiki is Sasuke, and Sakura is Shingao Hana.