Enemy of Mine [Naruto Uzumaki]

Chapter 13

Emi sneezed, rubbing her nose as the dust she was banging out of the rug cleared away. The apartment had been looking rather neglected lately. Since the Chuunin couldn't wander beyond the gates he had been busy at work helping out around Konoha completing many D-Ranked missions, some C. And Emi would accompany him whenever Sakura was too busy with the hospital, which was most of the time. Still, the teen enjoyed her company. A loud bang came from inside that had the singer peeking in from the porch to see a pile of junk having tumbled out of a closet, Naruto's hand sticking out from underneath. The teen made a noise, trying to suppress a laugh and quickly hid herself behind the wall. Hand covering the mouth she was confused by the emotion that was trying to make its way to the surface. Laughter, happiness was not allowed in the Sound, unless it was over a victory in their favor.

"So you're laughing at me, huh?"

Emi jumped in fright, head snapping around to find a grinning Naruto staring at her. His hair was in disarray, clothing ruffled from being on the bottom of a pileup and there was a shoelace stuck in the blonde strands. "N-No," she stammered. Completely embarrassed her face flushed trying to hide herself behind the rug beater in hand.

"It's okay to laugh," he declared, tugging away the object. "Really, I promise!" Lips pressed tightly together she continued to struggle to hold it in. "Just let it out and it'll naturally come to you. I know I looked silly under there."

Emi couldn't help herself and laughed. She laughed and laughed so hard the singer nearly cried, holding her middle as the muscles tensed. The singer had no control of herself anymore, even if she tried to stop. And Naruto joined her, ruffling the teen's hair and taking away the beater. "Come on," he began calming down. "I made a mess and need some help."

Nodding, Emi slowly pulled herself together and entered the apartment. There was a lot of junk everywhere. How on earth Naruto managed to stuff it all into one small space she would never know. "Guess I need to get rid of some things, huh?" the young man asked, scratching the back of his head.

"You think?"

Emi had no idea how one person could accumulate so many items. The junk was thrown into plastic bags, while things he wished to keep were set off to the side. "Where do you want these?" she asked, holding up a handful of ninja weapons.

"Just put them in my room. I'll go through them later to see which ones are still useable."

Pushing open the door with a shoulder Emi glanced around before finding a safe corner to set them down so the Chuunin didn't hurt himself. Standing, her fingers moved away the stray strands of hair for her face before realizing this was the first time she had ever been in Naruto's room. It looked normal enough with a bed that was haphazardly made, a night table with a lamp, and various posters scattered on the walls. But it was the dresser that caught her attention immediately, walking over. There were picture frames of all shapes and sizes littering the top and she observed every one of them. Some were old, few new, but all had various people occupying the pictures. Many Emi could recognize, no matter how young they appeared. She smiled at the one with a happy looking Iruka and grinning Naruto, who only appeared to around twelve years old. Meaning he had only recently became a Genin. There was one though that intrigued her, delicately removing the frame and staring at the two figures. So much care, so much love could clearly been seen in one photo so effortlessly she couldn't look away.

"That's Jiraiya." The teen jumped, taking a sharp breath. She hadn't even heard him enter. Glancing over a shoulder the singer found the young man staring at the picture in hand with a soft smile on his lips. "He was a Sannin, the Toad Sage."

"I've only heard of them in stories..." Emi breathed, turning back to the photo.

"Some traveler snapped the picture when I was training with him on the road for a few years after I first tried out to become Chuunin and didn't succeed."