The Last Chinoike [A NARUTO LOVE STORY]

Sleepover

About two weeks had come and gone since Tsunade started training Hayami. The Hokage and her new student had gotten extremely close in that time frame. Tsunade felt herself in Hayami, having lost everyone she cared about at one point in her life. However, Tsunade wanted to be there for the young girl and not let her wander down the same lonely path Tsunade once did. 

After a long and strenuous day of training, Tsunade tossed Hayami some money and told her that she couldn't make it to dinner tonight but to go enjoy herself. Tsunade also let her know that she had to cancel their training session tomorrow, effectively clearing up Hayami's day. Hayami thanked her sensei and went to go walk around the village to find somewhere to eat. Just as she was turning down a street, she heard her name being called out.

"HEY, HAYAMI! WAIT UP!" Naruto yelled out, waving his arms around. He was by himself as he lightly jogged up to Hayami to catch up with her. 

"Hey Naruto, what's up?" She turned around and smiled at the blond shinobi who was now standing right in front of her.

"Oh, I was just wondering if you wanted to get some dinner with me? You've been training like a fiend since you got to the village so I haven't seen you as much as I would've hoped." Naruto smiled down at her as he awkwardly shoves his hands in his pockets. 

"You have some pretty great timing actually. I was just thinking about getting something to eat."

"Great," Naruto perked up. "How about ramen? Let's go!" He didn't even wait for an answer before grabbing her hand and leading her off to Ichiraku's. The shop was rather close to where the two were coming from.

"Two miso ramens with pork please!" Naruto smiled as he pushed aside the curtain to enter the shop. He held it open for Hayami to duck her head in as well. He turned to Hayami, still holding her hand. "Miso ramen with pork is alright, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah, that sounds great! I'm so hungry after training I might eat as much as you normally do." The two laughed and sat down at two of the bar stools by the counter.

"So how's training going, are you learning anything from Granny Tsunade?" Naruto asked.

Hayami smiled and nodded. "Big time. She runs a tight ship for sure. My taijutsu has already gotten so much better."

"Well there wasn't anywhere to go but up for you in that department." Naruto laughed heartily at his own joke as Hayami gained an irk mark and steam started pouring out of her ears.

"HEY! I wasn't that bad!" Hayami laughed along with Naruto. "Anyways, I had pretty good chakra control before I started training with Tsunade-Sensei so adding the chakra to my taijutsu is a breeze! It's the learning the taijutsu moves part that wipes me out." She sighed and rested her cheek on her fist.

Naruto looked over at the girl sitting to his right. 'Oh man, look at her. She's already doing so well in the village. I'm so happy for her, that she's adjusting well and all. But I am a little jealous that so many other people are getting to spend some quality time with her and I'm not. Wait- JEALOUS?!' Naruto began to attempt to explain away his jealousy with any realistic explanation he could think of.

A bit of that jealousy, that Naruto was trying his best to ignore, ended up slipping out into their conversation. "Any free time you spend with Sakura, or Shikamaru, or even Neji." He sighed. "It feels like you forgot about me, the one who was supposed to protect you forever and ever." The blond shinobi mumbled the last part and let it feed off into a long sigh.

Hayami gently laughed, causing Naruto to stop his sulking momentarily and turn his head back toward his friend. "Oh, Naruto. That's because they're always at the Hokage's office. Neji is a jonin so I see him quite often, same with Shikamaru. He isn't a jonin but he is there at the office a bunch. And Sakura is also Tsunade-Sensei's disciple, so of course I'll be seeing her a bunch!" Hayami smiled that same, warm smile at Naruto.