Chapter 056

"Quit acting so high and mighty!"

"Yeah!"

Naruto seethed angrily and shouted at them. "SHUT UP! I SWEAR IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!"

"Ever read 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf?" Iruka asked with a chuckle before returning to his work. "You've led us along with your stories long enough. Now just stand there and take your punishment like a man."

"This isn't punishment. This is torture!" Naruto snapped back, grinding his teeth. "I'm bored to death over here."

"Then use your time wisely to contemplate on your misdeeds," Iruka replied off-handedly, keeping his eyes on his work and his pen on the paper.

He had to get through to this boy somehow, and what better way than the usual means of physical and mental torment…

OOO

That night…

"So this is your home?" Tayuya asked while looking around the corridor of the apartment she had just entered. After the long day she'd had up in the Administration Building getting all of her information sorted through the Hokage and his staff, it was a welcome change to find herself in the residence of the person she would be staying with. "It's nice."

"Thanks. Fair warning though, most of everything you're going to see in this place is brand new," Naruto chirped, kicking off his shoes and leading the way down the hall. He tapped against a wall as they passed it.

Tayuya took note of the area he had touched and saw that there was some exposed woodwork in the wall, some new and some dilapidated. She was able to guess from the new wood that the boy had yet to repaint the area from a recent household accident, which had her giggle.

"Even if you've got nothing else going for you; you sure clean up well."

"I'm a man with multiple colors on his pallet. It's… more like a habit than talent; I suck at everything I don't practice. After destroying an apartment over a hundred times and ruining the village a thousand times more, you'd be surprised how many things you soak in when you're pretty much ordered to clean up after yourself," Naruto informed while gesturing her into a room, which she then took a peek into. "This is the lounge, complete with couches, coffee table, television, window, and my snake plant." He pointed at the potted plant sitting quietly nearest to the sill. "I water it once a day and fertilize it every few months."

"How thoughtful," Tayuya exclaimed with a bright smile before moving on.

"Bathroom and toilet are back there, laundry is over here, kitchen links up to the living room and the corridor, and my bedroom is back here," Naruto informed, opening up said door to the sleeping quarters and showing her in. They stood at the entrance and took stock of its overall appearance. "Sorry if it's a bit of a mess. I haven't been here in two weeks and I had no idea I would be having someone over."

"No, no, I think it's great," the musician replied quickly, taking a few steps into the room and looking around. Of all the chambers inside of the flat Naruto's room appeared to be the most decorated. He had a desk with all his little trinkets on it, a wall of photographs chronicling many of his grand escapades, a few cupboards, closet, drawers, bedside table and of course his bed, sitting right underneath the window giving him a fantastic view of the village. If nothing else, this third-story home certainly let in a lot of natural light. The girl nodded expectantly, "It's just as I thought." She looked across at the blonde and gave him a warm smile. "I think I'm going to like it here."

"I'm glad you approve," Naruto said with a grin, slinging off the katana he had hanging from his shoulder and propping it on the nearby desk. The Third had collected it earlier that day for inspection and to verify the boy's story, which meant the blonde was unable to use it to plead his case to Iruka. That meant that he had been forced to endure the near endless hours of punishments the man had lined up for him, much to his dismay.

Yep, this was definitely going to be the prize of his personal collection, for sure. He was never letting it out of his sight.

"So uhh… where am I going to sleep?" It was obvious that there was only one bed and since it had been officially recognized that Tayuya would be staying in this place for an extended period, the sleeping arrangements were top priority.

This apparently came as little issue to the blonde host, who merely shrugged at his guest's question and nodded towards his comforter.

"On my bed of course," the jinchuriki said with barely any hesitation whatsoever, causing the girl to blush upon processing his response and the straightforwardness of his tone. Naruto blinked at her incredulous stare. "What? You thought I was gonna take it and let you sleep on my cold hard floor?" He turned and set his sights down the corridor. "I'll grab a futon from the laundry. I'm sure I have one stuffed in the overhead that I can use."

"O-Okay…" Tayuya murmured, watching the boy hurry out of sight and begin rummaging through the washroom for the item in question. He returned with it later on and laid it out on his bedroom floor, pillow and all.

After the tour was over and Tayuya was given a rundown on all the essential areas and things she needed to remember, the pair then went about business as usual. While Naruto prepared dinner for the two of them with whatever was still good, the newcomer went to take a shower. They would then later have tea around the dinner table, consisting of cups of ramen that had managed to survive in the blonde's extended absence and orange juice. Though it wasn't much, there would be plenty of time for shopping later.

Once that was all done the pair then headed off to bed.

It had been a while since Naruto had used his futon. He remembered buying it a while ago with the express purpose of using it if he had any friends sleeping over. However, with everything that had happened in his life up until now and with his popularity around the village being the way it was, he never got that chance…

Until now.

Funny thing was though, instead of a guest using his futon he was using it, while the new resident in his apartment called shotgun on the bed. True it was by his own decision, it was just good manners. Tayuya had had it rough for a while now so he had absolutely no problems in sacrificing his memory foam mattress for the floor.

After letting Tayuya take the bed first Naruto then switched the lights off and hit the hay himself. Soon enough, there they were; laying back to back, one elevated above the other with the one on the floor keeping his eyes locked on the door until the sounds of white noise filled the room. Within minutes the jinchuriki felt his brain get pulled into sleep.

However, about an hour into it, the blonde was suddenly woken instinctively by the feeling of his bed covers being moved. A few light shuffling sounds later and Naruto felt a timid figure crawl onto the futon, pulling the sheets back over them carefully before coming to lie behind him. Upon feeling a pair of gentle arms wrap around him and a warm body press up against his back, the jinchuriki's eyes blinked open and he looked behind him.

When he did, he saw Tayuya with her eyes closed and a smile on her face sleeping peacefully behind him.

Seeing her content expression and how her red locks fell gracefully over her face and the pillow brought a warm smile to Naruto's face. He then turned back around and nuzzled himself into his previous state of rest.

For some reason, he had no problems with this. None at all.

"Good night, Tayuya-chan…"

"Good night, Naruto-kun."

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