Tracing The Veins (Naruto fanfic AU)

4- Silence Is A Continuous Hum

~Chapter 4~

Naruto had something close to a rude awakening. His eyes suddenly snapped open and his mouth opened in a short yelp. A manly yelp (Because, yes- there were such things as manly yelps as there were manly giggles).

Pupils slightly dilated, the blonde frantically searched for the thing which had dared to awake his slumber. Eyes scrunched in irritation and mouth halfway to an annoyed shout, he spotted Sakura with an equally irate look and quickly sobered up. He took a cautious glance to her angered eyes and the stiff arms crossed across her chest -the way her nose seemed to twitch with exasperation- and Naruto shyly grinned, "I fell asleep, didn't I?"

Sakura opened her mouth as if to give him a verbal beating, but at the last second, she shut her eyes and exhaled, shaking her head, "No- No. It's fine. It's nothing to get vexed over about." She then handed a small circular mirror over to Naruto, completely disregarding the fact that there was a bigger one right in front of the two. Naruto sent an apologetic look to Sakura who looked away with a roll of her eyes.

Proceeding to look at the mirror, the vibrant, awake eyes of Naruto's slightly widened. His hair looked... Managed, for once in his life. Jack would be shocked. Turning to Sakura, he openly looked at Sakura with awe, "How'd you do it? This is great!"

Loose strands of his bangs that used to cross across Naruto's vision was neatly clipped and brushed to his left. The back of his head was trimmed close to his scalp, but not enough to make him seem bald, and the top of his head had longer hair that shadowed the trimmed part of his hair.

Bashfully, Sakura looked away from the boy, lips pursed, "I told you. I'm pretty good at this. Though, to be honest, I was having a hard time thinking of a good way to style up your hair, but then I figured you'd like it if it wasn't too short, but not too long either. So I layered the locks. Shorter at the bottom and longer at the top.

For the fringes, I swept them over to one side. Keep them there and it shouldn't be too much of a bother to you later on."

Naruto only half-listened to Sakura's explanation, still enchanted by how... clean he looked without the random locks spiking out everywhere, "Thanks." Naruto muttered again, "Really. If I'd asked my uncle to cut it like all the other times, it wouldn't have turned out as well as it did."

Smiling, Sakura graciously accepted the compliment. Staring a while longer at Naruto admiring himself, she finally deemed it enough and snatched the mirror out of Naruto's grasp, "That's enough drooling over your own reflection. I believe we had an arrangement for me to show you the way to your destination after you allowed me to cut your hair?"

Naruto's attention snapped over to Sakura as his eyes widened, "What time is it right now?"

Sakura started, looking over at the small watch on her wrist, "Well, if I remember correctly, you came in here at around ten and it's twelve now..."

"I practically slept for two hours!"

"One and a half precisely-"

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Naruto looked at Sakura incredulously.

"Oh?" Sakura's gaze narrowed at the boy before her, "I'm sorry. I didn't realize that I was your human alarm clock. I was just thought a blonde headed idiot needed some sleep and I cared enough not to wake him up for a while. You don't see me getting frustrated at you for falling asleep now, do you?"

Wincing, the said idiot settled down, "Right. Sorry. I'm just a tad grumpy cause I haven't had a bite to eat and my uncle probably doesn't even know where I am right now."

Now it was Sakura's turn to look at the boy incredulously, "You left without telling your guardian where you'd be? That doesn't seem very smart to me."