7 Chapter 7

Naruto was standing before a woman with shoulder length pink hair. Her name was Mebuki and she had known the Namikazes for some years now. She had been very upbeat when Naruto had given her the gift, and they had a pleasant conversation about little things like how the trip was and how the new house was faring. The conversation had quickly gone south when she mentioned his parents.

"It was so tragic… And it was such a terrible accident, so sudden."

Naruto rubbed his scarred cheeks. "Yeah, it really was… horrible."

Mebuki nodded. "And despite your sister getting better… Things were finally looking up."

Naruto looked down at the floor. "Indeed…"

Mebuki frowned. "Are you guys alright financially? Will you be ok?"

Naruto smiled lightly. "Well, we have some things our parents left us, and we sold the apartment, so somehow…"

The pink-haired woman nodded. "I see, well if either of you need anything, feel free to ask. I owed your father quite a bit."

Naruto didn't see a girl his age with long pink hair and emerald green eyes walk through the door.

Naruto bowed respectfully. "I will thank you so much. Well, it's pretty late, so I should get-"

"Naru-chan?"

Naruto turned to the speaker. "Oh… Hi... Sakura."

Sakura took a step back. "So, you were here…"

Naruto nodded and turned to Sakura's mother with a low bow. "Thank you for having me, but I should get going. I have a lot of work in the morning. Goodnight."

Naruto nodded to Sakura who nodded back and walked out the door. When he got onto the sidewalk he pulled out his phone to check the time.

"Shoot, when did it get so late!?"

He ran home and quickly brushed his teeth and prepared his lunch for tomorrow. He laid out his school uniform, a plain white button down with black slacks. Not the most atheistically pleasing but at least it was cheap to buy. When he walked into his room he looked on the nightstand by his futon and saw a picture of his family.

It was of Naruto and Hinata's fifth birthday, one they always shared as fraternal twins. Neither Hitomi nor Minato knew how two children could so perfectly match their respective parents. Naruto inherited his father's deep blue eyes and bright blonde hair. He even had his father's face. Hinata on the other hand had their mothers pale eyes and silky midnight-blue hair. However, unlike her brother she had her mother's face.

In the picture Naruto was getting ready to blow out the candles on their shared birthday cake while Hinata was looking at her brother with a soft smile on her face while their mother was standing behind them both with her hands on her children's shoulders. Their father wasn't in the picture, so it probably meant he was the one behind the camera. They all looked very happy, and he remembered that shortly after the picture was taken Naruto had taken a piece of cake and smeared it on Hinata's face. Shortly after that the event turned into a massive food fight.

Stray tears fell from Naruto's face as he looked down at the picture. "Tou-san… Kaa-san… I miss you both so much… It's so hard being strong… I… I just wish you both were here."

Naruto clutched the picture frame to his chest as he quietly sobbed into his futon mattress, and he was blissfully unaware that there was a pair of pale eyes watching him from behind a cracked door.