Sunlight Casts a Shadow

7

It took a day, but soon, Naruto's house was completely empty, all his important belongings moved to the Nara's main house. The plants he kept around his house were put in a special room, with a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing a ton of natural light to reach them.

After finding out about the plans, Naruto was shocked. He didn't know what to think. He tried to reject them, but his rejections were all denied, being told that all the moving was already being done. Yoshino and Shikaku were shocked at the state of the blond's home. They couldn't believe that he lived there for so long, nor how he could've possibly felt safe there. Then they remembered that he didn't really feel safe at all, and they hurriedly gathered everything they could carry, not wanting the blond to ever return to that place. Even the location was questionable. Who lets a child live in the red light district?

With the plants all in the special room, Naruto spent several hours tending to each one, and arranging them to his desires, and also so they could receive the most amount of sunlight from the window. He even had some moon flowers, plants that only bloom at night under the moon.

With that all taken care of, Naruto and Shikamaru took the time to organize the Pineapple's drawers and closet in order to give the blond space for his own clothing and items. It was a rather easy process. Surprisingly, the Pineapple didn't complain once about it being "too troublesome" or being "such a drag" as he so often complained about many other things. Naruto was grateful for that, at least, though he didn't exactly understand why his "friend" wasn't complaining. He didn't understand that being able to spend time with the blond was enough to make the Pineapple enjoy himself, and not want to be lazy.

That night, Yoshino made a very special dinner to celebrate Naruto moving in. The blond didn't want to be a burden, but she persisted, and kept on him until he told her all of his favorite foods (and not simply ramen either).

They ended up having a dinner of curry and white rice, and mochi for dessert. There was a lot of laughter and fun had at the table that night, and no cares were given about what was going to happen in the future, or anything. It was like nobody had any worries at all for the night. It was perfect.

A few days later, with Naruto finally feeling better after the horrible injuries he endured, he and Shikamaru left the house together, parting when they reached the training grounds, Naruto going to meet his team, and Shikamaru heading to another to meet with his own.

The second he arrived, the smile he'd had on his face since days ago, fell almost instantly.

Sakura stood there in front of him, hands on her hips, looking haughty as usual, with an expression that said she was going to scold him, and he wasn't going to like it at all.

She came right up to him,  and immediately began screaming at him.

"Baka! Why were you walking here with Shikamaru? Don't you know that he's got things he has to do? Why are you bothering him? And why haven't you been to training the last few days? You missing was stopping my Sasuke-Kun from getting stronger."

"He walked here with me, Sakura-Chan. Why else would I be walking with him? Also, if he isn't complaining about me bothering him, then I don't think you need to worry about me bothering him. He'd tell me if there were a problem, so butt out, Bubblegum. And also, you haven't worried about me before, so why start now?"

Sakura was shocked. As was Sasuke. He didn't expect the blond to react that way, not at all.

There was a moment of awkward silence, before a puff of smoke appeared, and Kakashi was there when it cleared. He immediately noticed the tension in the air, and sweat dropped. His first thought was that Naruto had said something to Sasuke, causing Sakura to insult him, which in turn caused, the two to argue, and Sasuke to call them annoying. That had been the pattern for a while, anyway.