Six Years Too Long

Chapter 19

Third person pov

When his dad asks him if he'd be alright with talking with Ayumu Yamanaka everyday after school instead of just once a week, Naruto only has to consider it for a brief moment before he's saying yes. The more he meets with him, the faster he can get his mind into shape. And the faster he gets his mind into shape, the sooner Kurama can have a home that doesn't smell like literal ass. 

Kurama had been nicer. Well, 'nicer' was misleading. He'd been a little less mean and hardly ever snapped at him anymore, adopting a tired, irritated tone of voice in place of his previous rage. Now he just sort of groaned and grumbled dramatically anytime Naruto so much as breathed too loud. It didn't sound like improvement when he said it like that, but trust Naruto when he says it is.

On top of his new and kinda-improved attitude, he'd continued to teach Naruto. Did Naruto have to goad Kurama into it by inciting his rage via subtle inferences that he maybe had no clue what he was talking about? Yeah... yeah, definitely. But it was so worth it! Naruto was learning lots of (admittedly random) stuff and he was learning it fast, and Kurama had seemed more awake and lively the past few times he visited. No more pee! The water was even beginning to clear up a little more!

Kurama still insulted him a lot, but the massive creature was smart and he liked to show it. Though he probably didn't realize, he totally preened anytime Naruto complimented him. Thus, Naruto made sure to heap on the praises. And tell Kurama he loved him frequently, even when Kurama's entire rat snout scrunched up in disgust when he did. Naruto would just have to keep saying it until Kurama believed him! He helped Naruto realize what love felt like, Naruto was determined to do the same for him. 

"My dad says that your dad's leaving for Suna at the end of the week." Sasuke noted. They were standing outside for practice sparring. Naruto had just decimated a brutish girl two times his size by throwing dirt in her eyes and biting her in the shoulder. Oddly enough, Iruka-sensei had suggested maybe he needed to take a break for the next few rounds following his landslide win. "They're putting the rebuilding of the clan grounds on hold, but they're moving the police headquarters back into the center of the village before he leaves. Are you going with him?"

"He hasn't said anything yet. I don't think he wants to go. Probably because that creepy old man that sometimes lurks around the outside of our house is coming." Naruto's nose scrunched up. Sometimes he looked out the window and the guy was just there. Naruto has had to sic Bull on the guy like, four times! "I think he's conflicted. That, and if I go with him, my therapist might have to come to. Or else I'll miss all my sessions I'm supposed to have, which is apparently bad. I have some 'concerns' that need to be 'regularly addressed', which I think is just nice-people code for me being halfway around the crazy bend."

Naruto didn't see the big deal. It had been three days since his first appointment, and things were going... well enough, he guessed. No real changes in his brain, but that was hardly his therapist's fault. Naruto had to focus and really, really try to believe he was better than he'd been convinced he was. It was just so hard! No matter how many times he went over their 'good things about Naruto' list, the sewer remained dark and smelly.

Why couldn't Naruto see himself as good? Probably because he wasn't good-- but then again, no, that wasn't right. He was good. His dad and Kashi and the dogs all insisted as such. Naruto just couldn't hammer it into himself. He wondered if he ever would. The way he thought of himself was so deeply ingrained it may as well have been embedded in his bones. Naruto didn't see how undoing that was possible.

"How do you get a therapist, anyway?" Sasuke frowned, arms crossed across his chest. He was trying to look cool like his older brother, but it wasn't working because his older brother wasn't cool either. Sucks to suck. Kurama's right: the Uchiha clan is full of pompous pricks.