Part 15 - Slept well, fox?

Stretching her stiff limbs and feeling satisfying pops in her joints, Uzu slowly sits up, assessing her surroundings.

Her eyes widened in surprise, before she slowly remembered what happened yesterday.

Ah, right. I'm not exactly at home.

Noticing the glass of water on the table in front of her, carefully placed at the other end of it so she wouldn't be able to hit it in case she moved in her sleep.

She smiled, noticing his hidden concern and care.

Slowly getting up, she walked towards his kitchen, looking through his freezer and his several cupboards.

Ramen, ramen, ramen, ramen … and water and milk? Seems about right~.

Snickering to herself at his choice of food, she decided to drink a glass of milk, currently just being in the mood for it.

Looking at its expiration date and carefully making sure that it smells normal, she takes out a glass from one of the cupboards and pours herself half a glass of milk. She made sure not to take too much, as there wasn't much left, and she still hadn't found any place where he kept more supplies.

The cupboards were really mostly filled with instant ramen, some glasses and that was that.

His freezer held water and milk.

The breakfast we get from Mom seems almost entirely luxurious compared to this~, but it's alright. If this is what he likes to eat and drink, then I won't complain, as long as he is satisfied with that.

Moving back to the couch, she sent out a few chakra waves to find out whether he was already awake or not.

Noticing that he was just getting up, she blushed seeing his muscled and bare upper body.

I knew that he was … you know … but seeing him without his usual mesh shirt …

Coughing softly, she pulled back her chakra waves, letting them scan everything but his bedroom …

…

"Want to take a shower as well?" Naruto asked Uzu, when he stepped out of his bathroom, dressed in his new set of clothes.

Receiving a nod in return, he told her while moving towards the apartments entrance: "I'll go to the supermarket, I'll be back soon, just take your time, okay?"

Seeing her bob her head cutely, he smiled before stepping out of the apartment and letting the door fall shut behind him.

…

Taking out a spare set of clothes from her storage seal, she entered the bathroom and leisurely took a shower before pulling on her new clothes and moving back into the living area of the apartment.

Feeling curios, even though she had already sensed all that was inside the room, she decided to impulsively enter his bedroom to personally look around.

His smile seems so genuine on this photo, she thinks, looking at the photo of the former team 7 when they were just getting together and when Sasuke was still part of the team.

There's another photo of Iruka and Naruto and a photo … from his time in the orphanage, or so she guessed?

There were several rows of children on the picture, she noticed that Naruto seemed to be center of the group. An old woman with long grey hair stood to the side of the group, leaning onto a wooden walking stick. She seemed to be smiling, but Uzu saw something unsettling in her eyes. She just couldn't really grasp what it was that seemed so weird about the woman.

Hearing the door to the apartment open, she stepped out of the bedroom and moved to greet Naruto who held two plastic bags in his hands.

Raising his head to look at her, Naruto said: "I don't actually know what you like eating, but you seem to enjoy sweet things … right?"

His question portrayed a sense of unease, fearing to be wrong about it.

Well, he's not wrong~.

Nodding, she took the bags from his hands and moved towards the kitchen.

Unpacking them, she noticed that he bought a new box of milk, a few bottles of water and some more cup noodles.

The other bag held something that smelled sweetly, grabbing the package wrapped in paper, she raised it to her nose and sniffed, trying to figure out just what he had bought.

Dango … ?

A soft smile tugged at her lips.

I don't dislike sweet things at all!~ She giggled in her mind.

…

After Naruto had prepared himself a cup of instant ramen and Naruto and she had shared the dango he had bought, they readied themselves to go out. They actually had some free time today, but they decided to just visit the forest to rest for a bit before going back to the Senju compound/apartment thingy. Uzu could never really figure out what it actually was. Well, in all honesty, the thing that mattered most was that it was home.

…

Walking out of the apartment and leisurely stepping down the stairs leading to the apartment below Naruto's, she heard said apartment's door opening.

That sound … that's a walking stick, right?

Feeling a sudden chill on her spine, Uzu watched as an old woman with grey hair and a wooden walking stick stepped out, Uzu instantly recognized her to be the woman from the orphanage.

Upon meeting the gaze of the old woman, she saw the old woman frown before cursing: "Shit, that damn fox actually got himself a slut … fucking bastard. To think that it isn't dead yet …"

Uzu was totally dumbfounded, not having expected this sudden outburst.

Seconds later, after calming down from this surprise, she frowned and scanned the woman in front of her, making sure to remember her appearance.

Interested in her name, she scanned the sign near her apartment's door.

Humura Residence.

Not being able to connect it to anything, she just stored it in her memory.

Hearing Naruto come down, she carefully observed his expression.

Upon seeing the old woman stand a few meters away from Uzu, Naruto stepped in between them, his eyes holding a bit fear at first before his idiot mask totally covered his face.

Uzu frowned, totally realizing that something about the time in the orphanage must have scarred him. Naruto is not one to fear people.

Sadly, all the records from his time in the orphanage were deleted and not even her mother knew anything about it.

If not even the Hokage knows, then there is only one single person that could know …

Perhaps it is about time I go meet the one that ordered my creation, huh.

If fate follows its course, his life is scheduled to end soonish anyway, it wouldn't hurt to end it a bit sooner.

Though, who is going to clean the chaos that that is going to leave behind … who will handle the Root agents without a leader?

"Hello Mrs Humura." Naruto said, smiling.

"Hello dear, did you sleep well?" Mrs Humura asked.

Still keeping on his fake smile, but frowning a bit, Naruto said: "Yeah. How about you?"

Mrs Humura just waved her hand and nonchalantly said: "Oh, I'm fine. You really don't need to care about me at all~."

Mrs Humura turned around and entered her apartment again.

As the door snapped close, Uzu heard Naruto exhale a sharp breath.

He took a second to compose himself before giving her a shallow smile: "Ready?"

"Yeah." She answered.

Seeing him hold out his hand, she gently took it, weaving her fingers into his.

…

Arriving in the forest, they soon moved to their usual spot.

Though, today, only Uzu sat down on the blanket. While she focused on creating a new Level 2 seal, Naruto worked on his taijutsu.

Once I get home, I'll set up another wave of clones to research this storage seal tattoo … I'll need one for each arm. The more intricate, the larger the storage space.

I'll need to keep in mind to make it only react to my chakra signature, otherwise others would be able to extract the contents of it without me allowing it.

For now, she decided to create a few basic seals to stay in practice before moving on to paint a drawing of this place they so cherish.

For her, drawing pictures was easy. She had a perfect copy of this place in her mind and her hand was able to copy it onto paper, though drawing pictures was still different than drawing seals, so her art was a bit rough.

It would need practice, as all things do.

But, for her dream of being able to create seals and incorporate them into art, she would work hard.

The day where she would start truly working on that was still far away though …

…

Going back to the Senju compound after a day of resting, Uzu and Naruto held hands as they stepped through the last seal barring them out of the apartment.

Once inside, they heard the voices of Tsunade and Jiraiya talking about something, which they stopped once they felt their presences in the apartment.

Seeing their interlocked hands Jiraiya, who sat next to Tsunade on the couch, gave them a knowing smile.

Meanwhile, Tsunade just looked at them and asked: "Did you rest well?"

Seeing them nod, Tsunade seemed satisfied and opened her mouth again to ask: "What do you want for dinner?"

…

After eating a rather healthy dinner, the four people living in the apartment gradually retreated to their own rooms, preparing to do whatever.

Uzu was sure that Jiraiya and Tsunade had a lot of work to do, so they might not sleep just yet.

Uzu had thought about creating some clones to let them work throughout the night. She hadn't done that in a long time, as the sounds of their breathing usually bothered her and caused her to be unable to relax.

Deciding to just rest, she settled on having some clones work starting tomorrow morning, she shouldn't rush it anyway.

Turning around, she faced Naruto as they stood in the space between their two room doors.

Smiling at him, she saw him open his arms, waiting for her to hug him.

Moving towards him, she hugged his waist and pressed her cheek against his chest. Feeling his arms embrace her tightly, she relaxed and closed her eyes, just enjoying the warmth of his body for a while.

When they eventually let go, she watched as Naruto took her hand and kissed her knuckles, coaxing a sweet smile out of her. Giggling, she bid him good night and they entered their respective rooms to catch a good dose of sleep.

Lying in her bed, she decided that she would create a few wooden animals to gift to the one's closest to her.

Seeing Tsunade keep the rabbit in her bedroom made her think that others might really appreciate a ball of fur that actually really listened to them too.

…

A/N: Hope you liked it :3

I can't promise another chapter for today … but who knows whether I'll suddenly shit out another few thousand words 😊