Title Promises Kept
Author YamiTsubasa
Summary Naruto made a painful promise to Kurenai.
He will never cry anymore. After the incident on his birthday, which deeply
scarred the blonde genin, not knowing what to do, Kurenai had offered to train
Naruto to become stronger. A Naruto and Kurenai romance story.
Author’s Notes This is sort of a sequel to Leave Me Here To Bleed. Many
readers requested that I continue the one-shot and it was hard to say no, so
here I am, delivering you the first chapter of Promises Kept. I know Leave Me
Here To Bleed did not contain much of Naruto X Kurenai romance, so I shall
compensate for writing this and explaining further. If this story updates
slowly, please do not complain. I am working to finish Carnage and rushing with
schoolwork.
If you haven’t read Leave Me Here To Bleed, you may not grasp what I’m
going to write in this story. Basically, Naruto was beaten up badly by the
villagers (without retaliating) and he ran somewhere, Kurenai discovered him,
she comforted him, they held together and cried in the rain. Yeah, basically
it’s only like that. If you want more details, you can click on my profile link
and look for my story, Leave Me Here To Bleed.
Chapter unbeta-ed, possible grammar mistakes and weird sentence
structures here and there.
Disclaimer If I own Naruto and company, then
I wouldn’t be posting this here. You will be watching this all on television.
(A cute little disclaimer that my friend, RisingSkies cooked up.)
Prologue, Promises Made
Naruto gazed absently at the piling stacks of empty ramen bowls, which
were strewn across the floor messily, collecting dust relatively. Okay… Not the
first best impression. His house was in a total mess; laundry laid untouched,
weapons such as kunai and shuriken were all over the place and the room was so
dimly lit, anyone will just trip over the random blocks of
don’t-know-what-is-it things on the floor. He shook his head vehemently,
willing himself not to think of the… horrible incident that had happened on his
birthday yesterday evening. Instead, Naruto made himself remember what Kurenai
had said yesterday, the words that had comforted him so, the assurance that the
red-eyed jounin had given him to make him feel a thousand times better than he
had felt the entire day.
Her words were priceless. The things that she had said were deeply
carved onto Naruto’s heart, leaving a memorable birthday souvenir for him.
‘ You’re a hero in my eyes, a hero that had rescued us from Kyuubi,
Naruto…’ She had cried. Naruto was unable to console her; a zillion
different kinds of emotions were raging within him, eating his soul, gouging
and scraping at his heart that night. Sadness, pain, dread; which of all these
emotions, feelings had he not experience before?
One emotion had flashed in the elite jounin’s clear, crimson orbs. Pity.
Naruto didn’t want pity. Naruto isn’t someone who is weak and deserving of
pity.
Naruto willed himself to move forward to clean up the cluttered and
chaotic state of his apartment. But his body wouldn’t move. Naruto felt numb
all over, like somebody had mercilessly dumped cold water all over the poor
kid.
Maybe it was the side effect of being in the icy, bitter rain for too
long. Naruto cursed himself inwardly for being so foolish; what if he catches a
cold now? Will his teammates suspect anything?
Most importantly, will his mask finally crumble into pieces?
Naruto decided he couldn’t keep up this smiling, never-say-die-attitude
mask in place already. It was agonizing for him to see that things still didn’t
change since he was still a child. When he made the promise to himself that he
will become the Hokage and will work hard to achieve his dream, at the same
time, he promised himself that one day, he will make everyone recognize his
abilities and to see him as a reputable person of the village.
Not the Kyuubi. Not the shadow of it either.
But the stares of distaste, the constant leering, and the insulting
remarks were still directed at him, hurting him. He didn’t want to give up;
it’s too soon to give up.
‘You’ve been strong, Naruto-kun. You’re a hero in my eyes.’
His injuries were healed during the dreamless slumber he had last night
after the encounter with Hinata’s sensei. She had been kind, maybe the only
other person who had been nice to him besides the Third Hokage, Iruka-sensei
and some other various people.
His heart ached, throbbing painfully and Naruto grasped a fistful of the
black fabric of his shirt just above his heart, trying to minimize the pain. Stop,
stop, stop! He wants to move, he wants to get something done because he
had remembered the promise he had made to Kurenai.
‘I will stop crying, Kurenai-san. I know crying doesn’t solve all the
problems I’m facing, so, I will become stronger to protect myself and those
important to me…’
Naruto’s head swam; he had this urge to fall flat on his bed and sleep
suddenly. Reality is always painful for him and he already worked so hard. He
wanted to sleep and fling everything, everything that happened in his whole,
entire life behind him and never wake up. He shall have a dreamless sleep, and
forever resting peacefully.
But if he wakes up, he will only return to reality and realize that
everything seems so real. He knew that his whole life shouldn’t continue in
this manner, considering that he still has dreams to work towards to, people to
protect.
He will honor his words he made to Kurenai yesterday. He will become the
Hokage.
“The usual, Naruto?” the owner of the ramen stand
inquired in his standard good-natured smile, waving to the blond genin slightly,
barely concealing his happiness upon seeing the boy when Naruto took his place
on the stool. “Miso ramen?”
Naruto’s so-called ‘favorite’ food stall was empty; the only customer
available was he. The genin felt a tad bit sad for the owner. Ramen had been
his greatest comfort in his entire life and the old geezer had been his talking
partner ever since he was young. However, even with the lack of customers in
the ramen stand, the stall will still open everyday, standing in the middle of
Konoha proudly to wait for Naruto’s arrival.
“Yes, thank you ojiisan!” Naruto replied with much enthusiasm, okay,
maybe too much. The ramen stand’s boss must have felt something amiss as he
looked at Naruto, concerned, his hand moved swiftly to Naruto’s forehead.
“Do you have a fever? Nasty downpour last night and Ayame didn’t get any
laundry dry!” the middle-aged man gave a bark-like laugh and turned, his back
facing Naruto while he prepared the ordered miso ramen for his regular
customer.
Naruto’s eyes were downcast. Had he found out too? Was it that obvious
that he wasn’t exactly himself at that moment? Naruto wished he could just dig
a hole and bury himself in it.
‘I will train you, Naruto; meet me at the training grounds tomorrow. Don’t
tell anyone about our little meeting. Promise me, you will get stronger.’
Kurenai’s words had made him feel much better somehow. But if he really
takes up her kind offer, will he become stronger?
“One miso ramen, coming right up,” a bowl of boiling hot ramen landed in
front of Naruto, and a tiny smile tugged at the edge of his mouth.
“Thank you, ojiisan.”
Yes, he will become stronger, for the people important to him and
himself.
Kurenai sat on the tree stump in the clearing of the
training grounds that Naruto had promised to meet her at. She could still
recall the incident last night and the crying blonde. She had never seen Naruto
cry before even if she had only met him a few times before and after she had
woken up from her beauty sleep, Kurenai had wondered if she had dreamt all this
up.
The boy looked so broken and she felt for him. What had he done to
deserve such cruel fate? The pain, the hollow look that mirrored Kurenai’s
dismay and distress were reflected upon the boy’s pale, teary face. He appeared
to be so clueless, so helpless. Kurenai wanted to just shake him awake, wake
him up from his own dream plane.
Then, after her daily morning routines which consisted of washing
herself, eating breakfast and changing clothes, she went to check her last night’s
clothing that were thrown carelessly into her laundry basket when she returned
home, dripping onto her apartment’s spotless floor. It was all covered in
bloodstains. Okay… the first evidence that showed that everything that had
happened last night proved to be real.
The second evidence were the muddy footprints that had dried overnight,
leaving nasty dark, grimy prints on her used-to-be spotless, pristine floor.
The red-eyed jounin remembered that she had embraced Naruto the night
before. And that Naruto was in a bloody state. Standing up, tossing her
scarlet-stained jounin vest aside, remembering the promise of training the
young demon vessel, Kurenai hastily rushed out of her apartment.
Will he still wait for her? Kurenai sighed, flattening her dark locks of
wavy hair subconsciously. She hoped silently that Naruto will see that
sincerity in her the previous night; the part when both of them promised each
other, one promise to fulfill another’s wish to become strong, and the other to
become strong and protect others.
After waiting for a several minutes, the raven-haired genjutsu mistress
was getting rather impatient. How can he let a lady wait for so long?-! Had he
forgotten about the promise?
A voice caught her attention, “Kurenai-san?”
Promises Made
-end.
Sorry for the really short chapter. I was half-asleep,
so tired… I had three tests this morning and my eyes are really droopy now… Oh
well. I was typing this when sending something to antiassassinguy,
haha. You better receive it! The stupid connection of
my computer loaded the page at a wondrous speed of ten minutes per page. That’s
marvelous isn’t it? Okay, I shall stop rambling… I
want to sleep… NOW! (BOOM, authoress collapsed onto her desk, snoring away.)
Oh… review please…