Konoha Times {OC x Various} Naruto AU

Chapter 61

Hidan dropped Nami off at her apartment after multiple; yet, failed attempts of trying to convince her to be friends with benefits. She made her way back up to her apartment alone. When she opened the door to her studio a voice boomed.

"Where have you been?"

"Tobi..."

"What the hell, Nami?"

"What the hell, me? What hell to you! Why are you inside my apartment?"

"Look at me," Tobirama pulled her chin up to look in her eyes. He scanned for any sign of drug use.

She looked healthy. Sad, but healthy.

"You want to explain why you left the program?"

"I didn't need to be there."

"But, you do, things like this don't just... go away like that... Nami."

"They do, especially, when the man who forced me to take the pills is now dead."

Tobirama was silent. He pressed his lips together before collecting his thoughts and speaking once more, "What?"

"I was hospitalized after an overdose. I immediately wanted to quit. It was the worst pain of my life. Madara... It doesn't matter. It's done."

"Tell me."

Nami realized that perhaps Tobirama needed to hear this part. He needed a release from his own guilt.

"He convinced me to keep taking the pills... so I could keep myself together for the wedding. I told him no. He would hide it in my food or just force it down my throat."

Tobirama leaned against the desk where Nami's typewriter sat.

"I'm sorry I wasted your money. I can pay you back."

"I don't care about that," he said as he moved towards her.

Tobirama caressed Nami's cheek and pulled her into a deep kiss. It took a moment for Nami to register what was occurring before she recoiled. She pressed her palm to his chest and pushed him away from her.

"You have a girlfriend."

"How – "

"Tobi... thank you for all of your help but I think our time together has come to an end."

His face went expressionless. He pressed his lips together in a tight line and nodded. He caressed her cheek once more before seeing himself out. Nami locked the door behind him.

Alone again.

~~~

Anxiously awaiting your return.

To what would she return to? She wondered as she drifted asleep.

Madara haunted Nami's dreams that night. He beckoned and cried out for her. She woke in a sweaty panic, tangled in her sheets.

Nami kicked the blankets off of herself and went to the kitchen. She made some chamomile tea and put a healthy drop of honey into the steaming water. She stood at the counter trying to shake the horrors of the dream she just woke from. Her eyes landed on her typewriter.

Tobirama got his release earlier. Maybe this would give hers.

She typed well into the morning. The sun rose high and low before Nami looked up from her pages. Her confessional laid before her. Life with Madara Uchiha. Life with Tobirama Senju. All of it, tastefully disguised behind fictional names and a fictional town.

She couldn't stop writing. It was giving her soul more nourishment than anything else could give her in the moment. She was heaving up years of suppressed emotions.