a village with(out) me ━ naruto fanfic

14.

Chapter Fourteen:

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Soft sunlight filters in through the open window, illuminating Tazuna's small kitchen in a warm, golden glow. It's the day after the fight with Zabuza and Naruto stares at the breakfast laid out before him on an old, rickety table. There's a simple broth accompanied by fried mackerel and some plain, white rice.

Beside him, Sakura stifles a yawn behind her bandaged hand, wincing momentarily after. Her pink hair is messy, sticking around her head in awkward angles and she looks exhausted, trying to blink away the sleep from her eyes.

Opposite the two, Sasuke tiredly leans his cheek into the palm of his hand. He looks rumpled, blinking soft and slow, as if he's in a daze. There's a smudge of dirt just above his left brow. Naruto wants to reach over and wipe it away, but he doesn't.

Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, peers at them in concern from where she's standing near the kitchen counter. She asks, "did you three not get enough sleep last night?''

Sakura makes a weak noise. "We took turns taking care of Kakashi-sensei," she explains quietly, looking down at the bowl of rice in front of her with a frown, "and we had to keep patrolling the village throughout the night, just in case...''

Naruto presses the line of his thigh against the girls, he isn't sure why, and Sakura furrows her thin, pink brows. "Are my eyebags okay?" She asks, glancing at him with dull green eyes. "I was too scared to look into the mirror this morning."

Naruto doesn't know how to answer her question without inflicting wrath upon himself and with the way Sasuke is avoiding making eye contact, he doesn't either.

They're, thankfully, saved by Tsunami. "Well, I know it isn't much," she says, wiping down the kitchen counter with a rag, "but some breakfast will replenish your energy. Please, eat."

Naruto doesn't dare reach for the utensils he can see are innocently placed on the edge of the table. When he was younger, around five years old, he accepted some packaged food that was left in front of his door. Thinking it was given to him by the Hokage or one of the ANBU always loitering around his territory, he ate the food without much thought. He was starving on a day to day basis and had just been relieved to fill his stomach with something warm and filling. It turned out the food was left there by one of the villagers and it was poisoned.

If Kurama hadn't used his chakra to weave the poison from within Naruto's system that day, he would have surely died.

"No, thank you," Naruto says, refusing to eat Tsunami's food. He'd honestly rather starve than be potentially poisoned. He stands from his seat and slides the wooden chair back beneath the old, rickety table. He gives Tsunami a polite smile, ignoring the confused expression on her face.

"It's my turn for the perimeter check," Naruto moves around the table and past Tsunami, towards the genkan at the side. He slips into his sandals and pauses, wondering if he should take his orange jacket from the coat hook. He doesn't, opting to stay in his nondescript black shirt and simple orange pants.

Sasuke, scowling and suspiciously eyeing Naruto, follows after him, slipping into his sandals too. When Naruto tilts his head in question at him, Sasuke doesn't bother to grace him with an answer.

Weighing out his options, Naruto wonders if Kakashi will be okay with only Sakura left to take care of him. The kunoichi is, after all, injured herself. As if sensing his thoughts, Sasuke nudges the back of his hand against Naruto's. He says, "she'll be fine," and slips out the door, holding it open for Naruto.

"Right," the blonde boy mumbles. "We're heading out," he says, just loud enough for Sakura and Tsunami to hear him from the kitchen.

"Be careful!" Sakura calls out, just as Naruto brushes past Sasuke, stepping outside. It's sunny and warm, and not the blistering kind that usually assaults Konoha either, but the soft kind ━ the kind that usually settles over Konoha during spring and autumn. Naruto breathes in the fresh air and exhales it softly, tilting his head back to soak in the soft sunshine.