Inaccuracy is nothing to flame for.

Only being posted because of comments elsewhere.

Haruka, Masuyo (c) me, Zopponde, all other characters (c) Masashi Kishimoto



Decision
Chapter 4

Apparently, the river was quite swift, because, even though it wasn’t even noon yet, Haruka had to camp out with Naruto and Shino’s team—whose names she finally remembered; Hinata and Kiba, plus Kiba’s dog Akumaru—before they reached the actual village.

It was hardly comfortable. Not only was there a root where her sleepingbag was laid out, but Kiba also kept treating her like a criminal. Well, he was right to do so, but it was still uncomfortable. Equally awkward was how Naruto kept anxiously asking, “So, you didn’t do it, did you?” Haruka hated lying, but she sucked it in and told him that she didn’t.

It seemed that the team hadn’t expected to be out this long; their rations were running low, and with Haruka added in, food was scarce. Haruka had collected a few herbs and berries already, but it wasn’t enough to squelch her appetite and help her recover. She barely even managed her appetite, even after Shino offered her his share.

The next day, they all trudged back to the village. It seemed that they should have just kept going last night, because before a few hours had passed, they reached the unfortunately familiar gates.

Naruto grinned childishly and sighed, “Ah, home, sweet home.”

Haruka glared at him from a ducked head. “Ah, prison, sweet prison,” she hissed under her breath.

He turned around to face her. “What was that?”

Haruka sighed. “Nothing.”

Kiba still eyed her suspiciously and made her walk through the gates before him.

They stopped just inside the gates. “Well,” Kiba began, “I guess we all should just go home now. Later,” he finished, waving over his shoulder as he went.

“Um, yeah,” Hinata agreed, “I think I should be going home too.”

Shino nodded. “I suppose I should report to Tsunade-sama before I go home, too.” He paused for a reasonable time before he turned to go.”

Naruto stared after him. “Man, that guy’s weird. What was that pause for, anyway?”

Haruka sighed. “You wouldn’t understand. You were lucky that you weren’t invited to that party. I wish I hadn’t been.”

Naruto hesitated before saying, “Well, I’m off to the ramen stand. I guess I’ll see you around!” He turned to leave.

Haruka jumped. “Wait!” He stopped and turned back. “I-I’m really hungry after that,” she half-lied. “Um, could I come with you?”

“Uh, sure,” Naruto allowed.

Haruka nodded and followed him. She really was hungry, but there was something else that made her jump after him. She didn’t have anywhere else to go, and she decided that she would be best off following Naruto.

As they sat down at the ramen stand, Naruto asked her, “So, why did you go out that far?”

“Oh, I just thought, you know,” she lied, “Masuyo was getting really annoying, I felt like I was ready to snap and kill her or something, so I figured I’d take a day or two out in the forest.”

“Yeah, but how did you get that far out?”

“Um…you see, I went to the river, and then it rained, really hard, and I guess I got carried downstream…”

Naruto squinted at her. “We were pretty far from the river when we found you…”

Haruka shrugged. This was an easy solution to make up, because it was more or less true. “Do you seriously expect that I’d just sit there all day?”

“You didn’t have a backpack or anything, either.”

Haruka gulped. She left her backpack with her cone at the river. “I guess it didn’t get washed away with me?”

Naruto still looked a bit suspicious, but right then, the man who ran the ramen stand passed the bowls over the counter. Haruka sighed in relief and joined Naruto in saying thanks.

Both of them ate quickly, silently trying to see who could it it fastest. They finished at about the same time and chorused for seconds.

Haruka grinned. “Just like old times, eh?”

Naruto nodded. “Yup!”

Haruka sighed blissfully and leaned back as much as she could for not having a back on her chair. She was still grateful for what Naruto had done for her.

It wasn’t so long ago—Naruto had only just been put on his team, and they were out training together. Haruka had a day off, because her teammate Akio was still recovering from the injury that time that kept them out of that Chuunin exam, and she tried to train by herself. They were using her favorite spot, however, and thus she couldn’t train.

She didn’t originally know that they were there. Naruto later explained that they were doing a training exercise of a capture-the-flag style, and she had just waltzed into their defense line—theirs as in Sasuke’s and Naruto’s, who were on the team opposite of their other teammate and their sensei.

Sasuke had mistaken her for their teammate and attacked defensively. Caught entirely by surprise, Haruka wasn’t able to properly defend herself and ended up with a black eye and a few more bruises that took a bit of time to heal.

The round was over pretty quickly. Haruka had accidentally caused a diversion for the other team that they used and won with.

Sasuke, naturally, was mad at her. She had cost them the match, which apparently meant that he and Naruto—two orphans, though she hadn’t fully understood Sasuke’s situation at that point—had to pay for dinner. Since it was her fault, he decided that she should pay for it instead.

Haruka had no money. She was earning some money as a Gennin, but Masuyo, naturally, had found a way to get every penny of it, and she most certainly didn’t share. So Haruka couldn’t pay, and she appologized very much for this, but Sasuke still was not satisfied.

Naruto pointed out that Sasuke had, if minorly, injured Haruka, and thus he should be buying dinner for her.

Sasuke didn’t like the idea, but realized he couldn’t get anything better of it, so he huffed and agreed to it unwillingly, as long as Naruto paid for the rest of the team.

Haruka shrugged and accepted it, thinking that something didn’t quite line up, but not complaining that she’d get a meal out for once.

Since Naruto was paying (mostly), he, of course, chose where to eat. Where else would they go but his favorite ramen stand?

Ramen never was the best stuff to help someone recover, but Haruka took a few vitamins with the meal and was able to heal her bruises before she was done with her third serving—about the time Naruto got his third.

She opened her mouth to ask for fourths (which wasn’t as much as it seems, because she did need some energy with the vitamins to heal her bruises) when she realized what she had forgotten before: Masuyo would lock the doors to the Niroshi Estate near the village’s edge in about five minutes.

Haruka stood abrubtly, appologized and said her goodbyes as she turned and sprinted for her chance at a warm bed that night.

She was to late. The doors had been locked for the night when she got there.

She sighed, distressed, and turned to go back to the ramen stand with tears in her eyes, hoping that Sasuke was still there and she could still get a bit more warm food before the cold night settled on her.

A few blocks away, she found Naruto, apparently looking for her. He took her back to the stand, where he had apparently somehow convinced Sasuke to stay, and she had another two bowls of ramen (a total of five) before Sasuke warned her that he didn’t have a penny left on him.

Haruka blushed and appologized sincerely, still feeling the effects of a very light hunger.

He yawned and complained about how long she had kept him. She appologized again as he left.

Haruka sighed. Naruto looked up at her from his last bowl of ramen and asked what was wrong. She confessed that she had been locked out for this.

Naruto stood up fiercely and told Haruka that she should leave that house. Haruka told him that she couldn’t, because, well, they had the best supplements and treatments for her bloodline trait, and where else could she go?

Naruto’s place, of course. He immediately sighed huffily and said that she should at least stay at his house for that night. Having nowhere else to go, Haruka sighed and agreed.

The moment they arrived there, Haruka regretted it. There weren’t enough beds and there were too many cocaroaches. A lot of cocaroaches. If Haruka didn’t know better, she’d think that she was at Shino’s house. Of course, he probably had more sophisticated bugs than cocaroaches. Fortunately, she hadn’t ever actually been there and thus didn’t really know.

Naruto soon realized that his floor was too dirty to sleep on and immediately saw a problem.

After much discussion, they finally settled on sleeping arrangements: Haruka slept at the foot of the bed and Naruto kept his usual place, though shifted slightly to give Haruka a bit more room.

Naruto fell asleep almost instantly and began snoring. Haruka silently regretted letting Sasuke go without asking for a place to sleep, but she probably wouldn’t get anything much better from this and told herself to stop worrying about it as she lulled her cells into as deep a sleep as she thought possible.

The next day, she went back to the Niroshi complex as soon as the doors opened. Unfortunately, Masuyo was rather bitter at Haruka’s rebellion and decided that she couldn’t stay the night there again. This statement only lasted a week, but Haruka still was unhappy at the loss of Niroshi supplies and her sudden dependance on Naruto.

That week went on similarly, with Haruka staying out all day and spending the night at Naruto’s appartment—in a completely nonsexual manner, I would like to keep as clear as possible. He was acting as a family member would, not as a boyfriend would. By the end of the week, Haruka found herself calling him Naruto-niichan—not “Naruto-kun, my love,” but Naruto-niichan.

Also, the night that Haruka thought she killed Masuyo, the first thing she did (after appologizing to Shino for canceling the wedding) was run in the general direction of the ramen stand. At the same point she found him after being locked out, Haruka found Naruto again. He said that he’d just come back with his new teacher, one of the Legendary Sannin or something (Haruka still didn’t care about the village to really care about that), from finding the next Hokage and a lot of training.

She sighed and told him that she’d been kicked out of the Niroshi family, that they’d never accept her as their own again (which they probably wouldn’t) and that she needed a place to stay.

She tried to spend the night, but as Naruto slep innocently at the head of the bed, his feet kicking Haruka in the stomach, she made the decision to leave the village.

So she did, and she fell into the river and met Itachi and Kisame. If she hadn’t, she’d probably already be in serious trouble for murdering (or trying to murder) Masuyo.

In the present, she sighed, having already plowed through her traditional five bowls, and asked the man behind the counter for another bowl. Naruto groaned a complaint but shook his head and told her to eat as much as she wanted, because he kind of missed her over those few days.

Haruka smiled and waited for her next bowl as she planned what to do next. She was quite certain of her decision after her sixth bowl, so she turned to Naruto and asked, “So, what’s this I hear of attempted murder on Masuyo-san? Is she okay?”

Naruto smiled tiredly and said, “Yeah, she’s doing pretty well, all things considered. They’re still trying to figure out who did it, though.”

Haruka put on a worried frown. “Maybe I should go see her?”

Naruto perked up. “Yeah, that’s a great idea! Haru-chan, you’ve forgiven her for what she’s done, right?”

Haruka nodded, mentally kicking herself for having to lie. “Yeah. I know she was a jerk, and she really didn’t have much reason for it, but I think now that she’s stood on the brink of death by another’s hand, she’s probably realized that a lot od what she does makes people hate her. She’s probably at least started to realize what she did was wrong.” As if, Haruka thought, but she knew that she had to do this to get her plan done right.

Naruto brought her to the hospital that Masuyo was being kept in, and soon enough, Haruka was sitting next to her aunt’s hospital bed, playing the part of the worried niece.

Masuyo was unconscious when they came in, but the nurse said that they wouldn’t be the ones to wake her up, so they could stay there while and wait for her to wake up so they could talk to her.

She woke up within about five minutes. The first thing she did when she saw Haruka’s face was gasp and back away.

Haruka looked at her, pretending to be confused. “Masuyo-san, what’s wrong?”

“You,” Masuyo growled, “you did this to me! All I ever did was try to give you a good husband, and the thanks I get is an attempt on my life! Stay back, you monster!”

Naruto looked at Haruka, worried. “I thought you said…”

Haruka shook her head, trying to look worried and sad and afraid. “I-I did say that, and I d-didn’t do it. Masuyo-san, I’m so sorry that this happened to you…”

Masuyo curled her lip like a cat or a dog. “I won’t fall for that! I know you just came here to finish the job!”

Read like a book, Haruka thought. She sighed, pretending to be worried. “Masuyo-san, what can I do to prove to you that I have no idea what you’re talking about?”

Masuyo squinted at Haruka. “Nothing. I know what you’ve tried to do, and I will not let you have your way.”

Haruka took a deep breath, trying to control her patience. “Naruto-niichan, maybe you should go find a nurse to bring Masuyo-san some water or something. I think she could use it.”

Naruto hesitated before shaking his head. “Uh-uh. I don’t think you did it, but I don’t think I can trust you alone with her.”

Masuyo grinned at Haruka. “See? The boy believes me. You won’t find yourself alone with me any time soon. You won’t get your way.”

Haruka sighed, irritated this time. “Naruto-niichan, I didn’t want to do this, but you leave me no choice. I must. Please forgive me.”

Naruto began to stand in a defensive gesture, but before he could, Haruka disapeared and reapeared behind him, hitting him in the back of the neck just right to send him into unconsciousness.

Masuyo gasped again as Haruka turned to her. “Y-you wouldn’t dare!” Masuyo stammered.

Haruka grinned evilly. “Masuyo, I’ve thought about this, and I can’t help but notice that probably the only way for someone to recover from that would be to use that little ability of our family’s.”

Masuyo paled. “A-and if I did?”

“That means that you’re no longer in a position to be considered head of the family,” Haruka pointed out. “Your children no longer have any benefit from refraining from the use of the bloodline ability, and would be wise to begin using it, but they’re all a tad old to be learning to fight with that whole new style. Doesn’t any of this bother you?”

Masuyo faced Haruka with a lot more courage than she expected, but there was a good chance that she was faking it all. “N-not in the least.”

Haruka rolled her eyes. “Then do you regret that you’ve lost all your power within our clan?”

Masuyo paled further. “N-n-no, I d-don’t.”

Haruka glared at her. “Yes it does. I know it does. You’ve sacrificed everything just in the vain hope that you’d be able to live just a bit longer. I guess it didn’t work so well, did it?”

Masuyo swallowed. “I won’t lose my power if nobody knows what I’ve done.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone,” Haruka promised, “but that doesn’t mean you’re coming out of here alive.

~~~

Naruto woke up some time later, still on the floor of the hospital room that housed Masuyo.

Or at least, it used to.

He saw what was on the floor and immediately remembered what happened, and realized that it was probably already too late for Masuyo.

On the floor were the words, written in blood, “I only regret that this was what was necessary.”