Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Road to Recovery ❯ Chapter 4

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

The atmosphere quickly became somber, and the only sounds that could be heard were the soft sobs of the villagers as Kakashi, Yamato, Chouza, and Shikaku carried Tsunade’s messily created coffin on their shoulders. Although Sakura was only a little teary eyed, it took most of her internal strength to not cry. She, instead, brought her focus to an upset Shizune, whom was sobbing uncontrollably on her shoulder. She tried her best to murmur words of comfort without breaking down herself.

Meanwhile, Naruto was walking with Hinata. Overcome with sorrow for the practical, yet always kind woman that now laid in the coffin in front of him, he kept his gaze low to the ground. All of his memories of Tsunade flooded through his mind, deepening his sorrow even further.

His shoulders stiffened involuntarily as Hinata placed a comforting hand on his arm. Trying to muster a small smile, he was surprised to find that her face was completely blurry. Wiping away the few unexpected tears, he once again averted his gaze to the ground.

“Tsunade would be pissed to know I’m wasting energy crying over her dead body, instead of thinking about the village’s future.”

“I don’t think so,” She replied quietly. “Grieving is completely natural, and Tsunade-sama wouldn’t have wanted you to bottle up your emotions. You wouldn’t be a very good leader if you were dishonest with yourself.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” He said with a genuine smile. “No, I mean, you are absolutely right, Hinata-chan.”

Returning a shy smile of her own, they continued to shuffle towards the Hokage mountain.

There was a profound silence that laid heavily in the villagers’ souls as they buried their beloved fifth Hokage. Although they all shared mixed feelings of anger, sorrow, and fear, an unbreakable sense of unity burned brightly in their weary souls. Even the smallest child in the village could understand the sense of community they all now felt at that moment. This wasn’t just the end of their village, loved ones, and hopes, but rather the inevitable, yet always surprising beginning of a new day.

After Tsunade was buried into the mountain, the villagers proceeded to bury the council elders and Danzou. The burial only took a little longer than hers did.

Unfortunately, they had to keep the memorials for their dead leaders quite brief, since they had to start rebuilding the village as soon as possible. If the village of Suna already knew about Konoha’s destruction, it would only be too easy to imagine nearby foes taking advantage of their lack of proper protection.

Naruto soon became overwhelmed by the sheer amount of demands being thrown at him by the impatient villagers. A few complained about their food allergies, while some were in the middle of a dispute, and others wanted to discuss their personal plans of how the village should be rebuilt. Just as the dispute turned into a brawl, Gaara intervened in time to hold the guilty villagers down with his sand.

“Pardon my intrusion,” He said apologetically. “But you look like you are in need of some assistance.”

With Gaara’s eternal patience and Naruto’s willingness to work, they were able to discuss through the villagers’ each and every problems. Once they convinced the villagers, who were fighting earlier, to instead negotiate peacefully with one another, things began to quiet down a bit.

“This is only the beginning,” Gaara stated with a slight hint of a smile. “Things will only get more difficult when you are forced to deal with other leaders.”

“Let me stress over the rebuilding of my village before I can get to the politics.” The other replied, half-joking and half-serious.

For the rest of the afternoon, the villagers and the Sand siblings cleaned up the massive amounts of rubble left in the village. Because of the extra helping hands, the villagers had cleared out more than half of the wreckage. While most of the villagers were busy with this, a few extra ninjas were assigned as guards.

Finally finding a moment of peace and silence, Naruto took this time to visit Hinata at the gate.

“Hello, Naruto-kun.”

“Hello, Hinata-chan.”Seeing the two converse with one another, Sai and a couple of other ninjas backed away to give them privacy.

Blushing furiously, the two nervously looked away from each other’s gazes.

A little embarrassed, Naruto studied the sunset before him. He had to admit, it was kind of pretty how the blues, purples, yellows, and reds all piled on one another. No wonder Sai was always busy painting the sky in that book of his…

“I hope Neji is okay, wherever he is right now,” Hinata whispered in a low voice. “Gai, Lee, and Tenten too.”

“They’ll be back in no time,” He promised with a wide grin. “Even if I have to drag them back here with my bare hands.”“I really appreciate your concern, Naruto-kun.”

Suddenly, the two were closer than they had ever been with one another. Not just physically, but emotionally, too. The way she gently brushed back her long, soft hair, the way her pale eyes brightened up considerably whenever she spoke with him…it only seemed natural that Naruto wanted to kiss her. As he was about to lean in a little closer, there was a low chuckle behind him.

“We’re here to relieve you from your post,” Kakashi announced, lazily jerking his thumb towards the small team of ninjas behind his shoulder.

“Thank you, Kakashi-san.” Sai said, he and the others getting up from their sitting positions and leaving.

“I-I’ll see you around, Naruto-kun.” Hinata stuttered a goodbye, quickly disappearing into the forest.

Giving Kakashi a glare that came close to rivaling Gaara’s, Kakashi merely beamed under his mask.

“You know, you should spend a little more time tending to the village’s needs, and a little less seducing poor Hinata, Naruto-sama.”

Wondering how steep the fall would be from there if Naruto “accidentally” pushed Kakashi off of the gate, he instead chose to be the more mature of the two. As Naruto was about to leave, Kakashi whispered, “She’s already tamed you, yet you two haven’t even kissed yet.”

“YOU ARE ASKING FOR IT, YOU GREY-HAIRED-”

Both Iruka and Raidou had to pin Naruto down before he could get his hands around his former mentor’s throat.

“I’m just here to lighten up the mood,” Kakashi justified. “It was getting just a little too sappy for my tastes.”

“Whatever,” Naruto grumbled, deciding it best to travel back to the forest before dark.

Already, the majority of the villagers were beginning to trust him. He didn’t want to leave the village for too long.

Muttering curses under his breath, Naruto ran swiftly through the clearing to reach the darkening forest. To his surprise, he found a shortcut through the woods he had never noticed before. As he inched closer and closer to the village, he heard a low groan from somewhere nearby.

Curious, Naruto stepped away from the tree houses and towards the groaning.

“I’m so sorry, Itachi…”
Naruto’s eyed widened in surprise; it was Sasuke sleep talking, curled up on his side in the sandy prison.

“I was too late…”

He must be having nightmares, Naruto thought, allowing himself to pity the raven just a little bit. I didn’t know he spoke in his sleep. He never did on our missions when we were genins.

“Naruto…”Naruto froze, thinking that Sasuke had caught him spying on him in his sleep.

“…stupid dobe…”

Naruto relaxed as Sasuke rolled on his back, continuing to sleep fitfully. The moonlight filtered brightly through the leaves, and a sliver of its light rested upon Sasuke’s pale face. Although there was a small frown on his face, he still looked quite peaceful in his sleep. There was an almost childlike vulnerability in his movements. It was the first time Naruto had ever seen Sasuke stripped of the cold, emotionless mask he usually wore.

“I’m sorry…” Sasuke mumbled quietly. “Naruto…”

Completely dumbstruck by Sasuke’s unexpected apology, Naruto took the time to recollect his thoughts.

What the hell? Why is he apologizing to me, even in his sleep?

Taking one more glance at the sleeping Uchiha, Naruto left.

As he tried to ignore the questions piling up in his mind, he accidentally ran into Sakura.

“Oomph!” She squealed, dizzyingly pushing the blonde away from her.

“Sorry,” He apologized, returning to reality. “I didn’t see you there.”“It’s…m’kay,” She mumbled tiredly, heading towards a tree with a wobble.

“Sakura-chan, are you okay?”“Gotta heal ‘em…”

Studying her face, he saw that she had bags under her eyes.

“You need to go and sleep,” He lightly grabbed her shoulders. “Come on, let’s go.”By the time they reached the tree houses, Sakura had fallen asleep, and landed in Naruto’s arms.

There must be a ton of sick villagers under her care…maybe I should check on them, just in case.

After going up the steps of an empty tree house and placing her on the cot, he left to search for her patients. It didn’t take him long to discover the clusters of occupied cots.

All of the patients were sleeping, and they didn’t appear to need any immediate medical help. With a relieved sigh, he left to nearly run into Sai.

“Night,”“Good night.”

Feeling exhausted himself, Naruto found his tree house and flopped onto the cot, still fully clothed.

As he stretched his hands comfortably under his head, he thought about his near kiss with Hinata, but more importantly, his encounter with Sasuke.

So, it looks like he does have emotions other than hate, after all. Weird.

He tried to conjure the look in his mind he had of Sasuke sleeping. He looked so peaceful…no wonder his fan girls went crazy over his looks.

Shooting up to a sitting position, Naruto self-consciously ran a hand through his hair.

Where did that thought come from? He wondered with a fierce blush.

Feeling a mixture of disgust and insecurity, he rolled to his side.

As much as he wanted to force Sasuke out of his mind, he simply couldn’t. Why did he feel sorry? Why was he still bent on revenge, after spending all of that time getting revenge on his innocent brother?

He gave a humph, and rolled to his other side. Figuring out Sasuke was like peeling an onion; all you could find were layers after layers. With an annoyed sigh, he instead focused on the chorus of crickets chirping outside of the tree, creating a soothing melody that lulled him into a much needed sleep.

Stupid teme…