Finding Light (Naruto Fanfic) //ON HOLD//

20. A Flickering Surprise

For those who haven't read my descriptions on my profile or the email update, I have edited and re-written prologue, chap 1 and 2 of Finding Light. No major edits, so no reason to re-read them. But you can always go back and check out the no error version of it?

(This would be so much easier if I had a beta) But yeah, onwards lovelies~

And please, if you could, please read the author note at the end :)

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Tsukiko POV

Soon after Hotaru and I came back to the little home and set up the food, Kakashi and Sakura entered as well and immediately began to dig into the plentiful meal which Tsunami created. I forgot about the fact that I told Kakashi that I would eat first and sipped on the flower tea instead. It was incredibly warm and heated up my numb hands immediately. Nobody asked why Hotaru was beside me and he and I didn't say a word about his presence. Kakashi looked as if he wanted to complain about his appearance, but at the last minute, decided that the conversation would wait after the food and started eating after giving Hotaru a look that said 'I'm gonna get you later.'

Hotaru was undisturbed and rocked back and forth in his wooden seat, impatient for movement and action. His stare bore a hole into the side of my head and my eye twitched non-stop. He had this habit of giving me a sick look of an abandoned pup when he wanted something, and he was sure that he was going to get it. And he probably was. Gonna get it, that is. If only he would-

"Stop looking at me like that!"

Hotaru blinked once, twice, "Like what?" He gave a shy smile and finished it off with wide, sparkly eyes.

I looked away quickly, "Like that."

"Why not?" He turned his seat so that it would face me and straddled it, pouting.

I glanced at his expression and groaned, "Nope. Nope, I can't see it. I can't see you. Can't, can't, can't..."

Hotaru leaned closer until there was only a few inches left between us and I froze. Hotaru blinked and leaned in closer in which then I grabbed his front frills and yanked his gaze up towards the ceiling.

"What do you want. You tell me this now. And then you're out. Go find another place to sleep for today."

"Isn't that rude?" Sakura asked, but Hotaru only laughed.

"Glad to see you still can't ignore my amazingly adorable face."

"Don't make me laugh." I pushed him away and he chuckled before sitting properly in his chair. I picked up the tea which I was previously sipping on and turned my gaze to Hotaru's and lifted my eyebrow.

"We should take a walk."

I was surprised at Hotaru, "Say what?"

"What?" He grinned.

It took me a while to process what just happened and I giggled.

"I mean what I said," Hotaru said after a while, "I just want to take a simple walk in the forest." Hotaru leaned back in his seat, crossed his arms behind his head and gave a lazy gesture at nowhere with his free hand.

I searched in his eyes for mischief or a trick, hidden up his sleeves. I found nothing and made a sound of confusion.

"I-I mean, I just want fresh air. And it seemed like you would need it too. And it's unsafe to leave alone and everything. I just thought we could accompany each other...?" He ended it with a question and I coughed.

Hotaru? Being nervous? That was unheard of, and quite suspicious if you ask me.

"Uh... no." I said, "Kinda scared, kinda confused, kinda both on your invitation to take a walk. A simple walk."