A Mother's Knight

Part 32

Chapter 32

The past month has certainly been different, if Naruto could say.

Things has been working differently, but he could say it had to do with the changes that have imposed themselves upon his life since the whole issue with Mikoto started. Things were not bad to say the least.

They were actually good, far much better than he would have expected.

His mother was getting along with Mikoto but most of their talk was baby this and baby that. Kushina was just excited as Mikoto was about the pregnancy. His mother had calmed down a bit, so Naruto appreciated that part.

She was even willing to leave him in a room with Mikoto without trying to eavesdrop on them.

It could be argued that she had worked out her anger issues about Mikoto's betrayal. There was no other way that she could have gone about things anyway. She had to accept it.

The only person who seemed to be struggling was Yugao. Whilst Naruto hasn't talked to her about it and didn't want to entertain the thought too much, it was apparent that she had some less beautiful thoughts about the fetus inside Mikoto. Trying to understand those emotions would complicate things for Naruto. He wasn't actively ignoring them as he would before; it was something that he needed to deal with before it became a major problem.

Ino punched Naruto on his left shoulder, seeing him lost in his thoughts once more. The two were walking within the streets of the Hidden Leaf, coming from a good restaurant that sells nice food. She often pulled Naruto into those shops to avoid eating ramen for lunch every day when she was with him.

Since Sai was away, he was sticking around her a lot to account for her training.

Ino wasn't complaining about it.

She was just happy that he was at least fulfilling his promise to train her. Even though this time around, it was for his purpose, she was still being trained. Besides, this kind of job wasn't all that bad at all. She had accepted the offer at first because she realized it would get her closer to Naruto again, just as they were before other people came into Naruto's life.

That had not happened, but she had ended up enjoying her little time with Sai and a few moments with Naruto.

"You're getting lost in your thoughts again." Ino said to Naruto with a look on her face. "Thinking about becoming daddy?" She asked with a smile–it was a somewhat bitter smile.

"Something like that." Naruto said. "I'm a bit concerned about Sai though. It has been a full month and there has been no contact at all. Well, not really, but the contact has stopped. Considering that we had already narrowed down Orochimaru's hideouts, tracking him shouldn't be all that difficult if Sai was also working with Jiraiya's people."

Really, he hadn't expected this silence from the black haired shinobi. He was thinking of going out himself to see what was really happening. He could follow Sai's trail and hunt him down. It would be a problem if he has been captured by the snake Sannin. Naruto was positive that the snake already knew that Sai worked for him and given the last encounter, the snake would probably take measures to meet him.

Well, it wasn't a problem because he wanted to see the snake. The danger was that it would be on Orochimaru's terms. Well, he just hoped that if things came up to that, Orochimaru would allow his arrogance to get the best of him. It was within reason to believe that Orochimaru would assume that he would come with Sasuke and taking into account the snake's fascination with the Uchiha, he would use that opportunity to make his move.

"Are you worried about Sai, Naruto?" Ino asked with a shocked look on her face.

Perhaps a little bit dramatic but she thought it was deserved given that the blond hardly showed he valued Sai's life to the point of worrying about his safety. If there was anything Naruto worried about concerning Sai, it was what the black haired knew about the blond's activities.