Chapter no.28 "A Warm Hearth: Bonds Over Dinner"

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Naruto arrived at the Haruno family apartment the next day after cleaning up in the wake of the day's training and mission with a light spring in his step. No surprise really, it was the first time he'd ever been invited over to someone else's home. It wouldn't be a big deal to most, but for someone who'd been shunned by just about everyone for most of his life, it was a milestone.

Reaching the door, he gave it a knock. Soon enough, a blonde woman with green eyes a shade darker than Sakura's opened the door. "Naruto. First one here, I see."

Naruto gave the woman a wide grin. "Hi, nice to meet you! You must be Miss Haruno."

"Please, call me Mebuki." Sakura's mother replied before standing aside. "I'm just putting the finishing touches on dinner, so you shouldn't have long to wait as long as Sasuke shows up soon. Sakura's in her room; it's just at the end of the hall and you can take off those glasses in here sweety."

"Thanks and my eyes are kinda sensitive-attebayo," Naruto said, stepping inside and taking off his shoes. He followed the instructions as he got a look around. It was a lot better than his apartment. A lot bigger too, but that was no surprise. His place was on the cheap side of things and was meant for one person. You could tell this was a family home, knocked on the door.

"Come in." He heard Sakura say before he stepped inside. The pink-haired girl was lying on her bed, reading one of her books. "Hey, Naruto, glad you could make it." She said as she swung around and sat up on the bed.

"Well, not like anyone would say no to free food, right? Nice place you guys have, by the way."

"Thanks, only home I've ever had," Sakura replied as Naruto walked over to a nearby desk and pulled out the chair. He sat down backward and rested his arms and head on the back.

Naruto looked over and saw several books that had depictions of the body or flowers on them. "I see you've been working on some extra credit, huh?"

Sakura rubbed the back of her head. "Well, it's interesting stuff. Honestly, I think I've found a new hobby..."

Naruto chuckled. "Same here. Never thought I'd find burying my nose in a book fun until I took up sealing jutsu."

Sakura grinned and looked to the side. "Oh wow, Naruto's found joy in studying. I'll have to look outside; it could be raining fire..."

"Very funny..." Naruto said dryly with squinted eyes behind his glasses before his lips turned upward. "You should have seen the look on Iruka-sensei's face when he caught me in the library." That got a laugh out of Sakura. "So, what kinda things did you have in mind?"

"Well, I thought maybe we could look at each other's skills and see if we could come up with some suggestions. You know everyone has their own way of thinking; maybe we missed something." She began to tick off her other ideas on her fingers. "We could look at ways to combine our skills and work out ways to share information. Maybe give each other some advice in training..."

It was then that there was a knock on the door, drawing both of their attentions. "Door's open."

The door opened to reveal Sasuke with one hand in his pocket, the same look on his face as ever. Still, that he was actually here said a lot.

"Sasuke!" Sakura smiled widely.

"Well, look who finally decided to show up," Naruto said in greeting. The Uchiha heir just nodded and grunted in reply, stepping into the room and leaning against the wall. "Sakura and I were just talking about what she had in mind after dinner. She's got some pretty good ideas."

Seeing Sasuke's questioning look, she repeated what she'd told him. Sasuke nodded. "Yeah, I can see how we can benefit from that. Good thinking, Sakura." The pink-haired girl beamed at his praise.

"Dinner's ready!" They heard Mebuki call out.

Naruto wondered if this was what family dinners were always like. Kizashi guffawed at the many jokes he made, several of which had Naruto laughing as well as his daughter grumbled in exasperation while his wife occasionally chided him. Sasuke was quiet as usual, rarely speaking unless spoken to.

It was nice. Warm in a way he could only remember from birthday parties or his times at Ichiraku's.

The food was great too. Mebuki had cooked a full course meal: steaming bowls of vegetables, a heaping bowl of rice, nori, miso soup, and grilled fish lay spread out at the center of the table. He could count on one hand the times he'd actually seen a full course meal in front of him like this.

"Great food, Mebuki. Thanks again for having us over!" Naruto said after swallowing a mouthful.

"Thank you for the compliment... You know, it's strange." Mebuki admitted as she looked at Naruto. "It never occurred to me that you were actually a member of the Uzumaki clan..."

"Same here. Members of the Uzumaki clan are so rare these days, I guess I just assumed..." Kizashi chuckled sheepishly. "And well, you know what they say about that..."

Naruto looked at them hopefully, eager to hear more about his lost family. "Did you know anyone from my clan?"

Mebuki shook her head. "Sorry, the only ones I knew of were only by reputation." Kizashi nodded in agreement beside her, much to the blond's disappointment. He had really hoped to hear more about his mother from someone who grew up alongside her. "So, do you three have any dreams or aspirations?" Sakura's mother asked, drawing their attention. "A lot of genin just look to get by... trust me, that won't get you far."

The way she said that said she was probably speaking from experience...

Naruto smiled proudly and put his fist to his chest. "Well, my dream is to become Hokage! I want to be the guy everyone in the village looks up to."

Kizashi snorted and smiled, shaking his head. "Hokage, huh? Well, there's something to be said about dreaming big."

"Well, you've got a long road ahead of you, but nothing worth doing is easy as they say." Mebuki turned to her daughter. "Have you given any thought to your future?"

"M- My future?" Sakura's eyes darted back and forth, finally landing on Sasuke before bashfully looking away with a blush. "Well, I mean, my dream is..."

'I see that hasn't changed...' Naruto noted flatly.

"But aside from that..." Sakura then continued. "I... I don't know. I want to be a great kunoichi someday, and I think I'd like learning to be a medic-nin, but..." She shrugged. "I can't think of any real goals specifically..."

Mebuki smiled in approval. "That's fine. You're just starting your career. It's no surprise you don't know what you want to do yet. I'm sure it'll come to you once you've gone out and experienced enough." She then turned to the Uchiha survivor. "And Sasuke?"

The Uchiha looked at her for a moment before his eyes narrowed in determination.

"I've only ever had two things I wanted; to restore my clan. And avenge it."

Kizashi looked at him seriously while Mebuki nodded and closed her eyes. "I thought as much... it's understandable after what happened."

Yeah, Naruto could somewhat understand why Sasuke wanted to restore his clan. He hadn't even known his own family, but he pined for them, mourned what had been lost, and wished to make them proud; both his parents and his clan. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to have all that, to have such an enormous family and lose them.

Though he couldn't say that he agreed with how Sasuke had closed himself off from everyone. He hated being alone, and Sasuke had had so many people who wanted to be there for him... but maybe that was part of the problem? That, for all that they wanted to help him, they couldn't understand how he felt, and he knew it.

"I'm not going to say I understand or try to tell you how you should live your life, but listen," Mebuki said, regarding the Uchiha seriously. "There are a lot of ninja out there who hold grudges... and a lot of them end up dying young because they fly off the handle when they cross paths with the one they're after. I'm not telling you shouldn't want revenge or that there are more important things. That's for you to decide. Just don't go after him until you know you're ready, ok?"

Sasuke was quiet for a moment before he gave a quick 'Hn.'