Colors of Life and Death
by Songbird21
Chapter 7
Naruto opened his eyes the next morning to find
Tsunade sleeping, sitting up, next to his bed. He smiled. He stood up and tapped
the Fifth Hokage on the shoulder. "Hey, Granny Tsunade."
Tsunade opened her eyes. "Morning, kiddo. How
are you feeling?" she asked as she stretched her arms above her head.
"Better." He paused for a moment. "Hey, Granny?"
Tsunade twitched. "Naruto? Would you please
stop calling me that?!" she said in exasperation.
Naruto simply laughed and scratched the back
of his head in an impish manner.
Tsunade sighed in defeat. "What did you want
to ask me?" she said as she got up and worked the kinks out of her joints.
Naruto's face became more serious. "What's happening
to me?"
Tsunade looked thoughtful. "Come sit down,"
she said as she walked toward the couch.
Naruto followed and took a seat across from
Tsunade on his slightly beat up, puffy armchair.
"What you told me about Kyuubi last night got
me thinking. So, after you fell asleep I had Hinata take a look at your chakra."
For reasons he was unsure of, this made Naruto
uncomfortable. He didn't want anyone looking at his insides, much less a girl.
"Your chakra has changed Naruto," Tsunade said
as leaned forward, she interlaced her fingers and rested her chin on them
"Changed?"
"Nm. It's now yellow. And the reason for that
is that the 'gift' Kyuubi gave you, was his chakra. And what happened last night
was the result of the two chakras merging."
Naruto's eyes went wide. "Will it happen again?"
he asked with a bit of fear in his voice.
"I don't think so. I think last night was the
completion of the process," Tsunade answered reassuringly.
Naruto visibly relaxed. "Thank God,"
he thought. Suddenly, understanding dawned on the blonde's face. "Does...does
that mean," A smile began to work it's way across his face, "that I'll have
that power all the time now?"
Tsunade nodded with a smile. "Yes."
Naruto jumped up from the armchair and punched
the air. "YES!"
Tsunade blinked, startled for a moment, then
laughed.
"YES! YES! YA-HAAAAAAAA!" he whooped loudly,
jumping over and over again.
Tsunade took a break from her laughter and stood
up. "Naruto," she said as she placed a firm hand on his shoulder, "Naruto, Calm
down. There's still more we have to discuss," she said with a warm smile.
Naruto resumed his former seating arrangement,
still grinning like a Cheshire cat.
Tsunade eh hemed. "Now, this also means that
you need to do some heavy training for a few weeks," Naruto happily nodded,
"under my supervision." At Naruto's sudden, kill-joy frown she added, "So that
we know what to expect with your new chakra."
"I've controlled it just fine before," Naruto
grumbled, his arms folded across his chest.
"Using someone else's chakra while they are
still alive to help you control it and having their chakra merged with your
own are two entirely different things, Naruto," Tsunade said firmly.
"Alright," Naruto said reluctantly.
"And during this training period you will be
staying at my estate," Tsunade added.
"WHAT?!" Naruto yelled incredulously.
"I thought you might react that way. But it's
an order as your superior, so go and pack your things," Tsunade replied in a
authorative tone.
Naruto made a low, irritated growl as he stood
to go to his room. After a few very noisy minutes, mostly due to the fact that
the room was an absolute disaster area after the events of the previous evening,
he reappeared with an insanely full backpack. "Ready," he grumbled under his
breath.
"Look at it this way," Tsunade said as they
headed for the door, "You get a chance to see how a Hokage lives," she said
with a wink.
Naruto brightened a bit and the two walked out
the door into the warm, morning sunshine.
Naruto just stood there, his mouth hanging open.
He could have easily been mistaken for a statue as he gaped at the massive building
that was Tsunade's home.
Tsunade watched Naruto with a bemused smile.
"If he likes this, wait till he sees the indoor hot spring," she thought
to herself. Truthfully, she could have just gone with him to the training grounds
every day. He didn't have to live with her. She was hoping that being
at her home for a few weeks might make him more susceptible to the idea of staying
there permanently.
"Naruto," Tsunade called. "Naruto!" Naruto shook
his head rapidly and looked at the fifth. "Let's go," she said as she headed
for the front entrance. Naruto hiked up his backpack and followed her.
They walked through the gardens that covered
a large portion of the front yard. A few higher level ninjas, who were walking
around carrying various reports, stopped for a moment to greet Tsunade. She
said hello and took a look at some papers they wanted her to sign. Naruto just
stood there, not saying anything. He was naturally a bit cautious of the Konoha
adults at first. Always suspicious of their inner thoughts.
"Hello, Naruto," said a female chuunin brightly,
while awaiting her turn to talk to Tsunade.
Naruto looked at the girl speaking to him. He
decided she seemed genuinely nice. "Hi," he said with a smile.
"I'm Nabiki. Nice to finally meet you."
"What do you mean?"
"Tsunade-sama's told me so much about you, that
I feel like I know you already," Nabiki said with a grin.
Naruto smiled. He loved the fact that Tsunade
seemed to care about him like family. He used to be able to count the number
of people who cared about him on one finger (Namely Iruka-sensei), but now they
just seemed to keep on coming. Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi, Hinata, Shizune, Jiriya,
Lee...so many people. They cared for him, accepted him. He had never imagined
before a year and a half ago that it was possible.
"I practically live here so you'll be seeing
me a lot," Nabiki said as the jounin who had been speaking to Tsunade left.
"Oh! My turn. I'll talk to you later," she said with a smile.
Just then Shizune came walking down the stone
path. "Ah, Shizune," Tsunade greeted. "It'll be a few minutes before I'm done
here. Would you mind showing Naruto to his room?"
Shizune bowed warmly. "Of course, Tsunade-Sama."
She turned to Naruto. "Follow me please," she requested with a smile.
As Naruto walked through the large front entrance
of the house he couldn't help but think, "I can't wait till this is mine."
Shizune led Naruto through the main foyer, down
a long hallway lined with doors and up a flight of stairs, finally ending up
at a door that had the kanji for 'Naruto' on it. The foxy ninja was confused.
"Hey, Shizune-san?"
"Yes, Naruto?" Shizune replied as she put her
hand on the doorknob.
"Why's my name on the door? I'm only staying
for two weeks," Naruto questioned.
Shizune froze for a second. "I have to come
up with an excuse...fast!" she thought. She smiled brightly. "Tsunade-Sama
just wanted you to feel at home."
Naruto smiled and followed Shinzune as she walked
inside the room. For the second time that day, he lost his ability to do anything,
but stare. The room was at least twenty by twenty five feet in diameter with
a nine foot ceiling. There was a bed twice the size of his at the end of the
room to his left. The sheets and pillowcases were a burnt orange color, just
a little darker than his jacket. The bedspread was dark blue with a yellow Konoha
symbol in the center. An area rug that matched the bedspread lay in the center
of the room. A small stereo was on the far right wall, next to the doors for
an enormous walk-in closet. There was also a T.V with a video game system near
the stereo. A phone and an alarm clock sat on a cedar nightstand next to the
bed. A large dresser was nestled in the space between the two windows and plain,
square mirror hung above that.
Naruto blinked away his trance-like state, walked
further into the room and set his bag down on the bed. "Wow," he said softly.
Shizune smiled. "I'm glad you like it."
Naruto snapped to life. "Like it?!" He ran over
to the stereo and pointed at it. "I have a stereo! And a Playtendo!" he finished
as he jabbed a finger in the direction of the game system. He then turned around,
ran in the other direction, executed an aerial flip and landed perfectly in
the middle of the bed. "And the best freaking bed EVER!"
Shizune laughed. "I'll leave you to get settled,"
she said, still giggling in amusement. She walked to the door and opened it.
She turned her head back to Naruto (Who was now sprawled on the bed, looking,
for all the world, like road kill). "If you need anything just pick up the phone,
dial five six four and I'll be right up."
Naruto nodded. "Thanks, Shizune-san."
Shizune smiled. "My pleasure," she replied.
"I'll see you later," she said as she walked out the door.
"Bye," Naruto replied. As soon as the door was
shut he closed his eyes in comfort. "I could get used to this," he thought
with a smile.
About the technology in
Naruto's room: Technology in the Naruto universe shows up pretty randomly
and because of that whether or not certain technologies exist (EX: phones,
game systems) hasn't been addressed, so I feel fairly safe adding them in.
Some things are pretty obvious that they don't exist. Planes for example.
T.Vs have been shown and so have headset microphones, so we know they are
at least at the technology level of the 1980s. Whether or not it means they'd
have a game system is something no one really knows (And yes, the name was
a joke combination of Playstation and Nintendo). I would love to be able
to ask Kishimoto-san.
Write to Songbird21
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