Chapter Text
Thunk, thunk. Thunk-thunk-thunk
The unsteady rhythm coming from somewhere outside not only woke you up, but also chipped away at your mental sanity one brain cell at a time. If it didn't stop in the nearest future, you were going to get violent.
As if sensing the looming threat, the Night Thunker sneezed, halting their assault on your humanity. You even began to relax under your pillow when–
Thunk-thunk-thunk-THUNK
“That's it!” you growled, flying right out of your bed. You had just enough patience to throw on some sandals, ponder whether you were bloodthirsty enough to bring a kunai or two with you, and decide against it before you jumped out of the window.
Living right next to the Ninja Academy had its advantages, sure (you were never late for class, for one), but the disadvantages made themselves apparent a few nights ago–some lunatic stayed up chopping trees or something instead of hitting the pillow like normal people. You wrapped your arms around yourself against the cold and stomped through the darkness toward the source of the noise.
Nobody messes with your sleep routine and survives to see another day.
The Night Thunker was quickly located on the Academy training grounds. All you could make out was their short silhouette, facing away from you; student, probably. They flung something at the tree trunk, and it embedded itself with a telltale thunk. Your eye twitched.
“Hey, you!” The figure didn't react, so you marched toward them. “Yes, you. Quit… whatever it is you're doing, or I'm calling Iruka-sensei.”
Only the light from the moon that emerged from behind the cloud allowed you to narrowly avoid stepping on a shuriken; on a second look, the ground was riddled with them and kunai, as was the tree. The figure in front of it sported the spiky, blond head that finally clued you in.
Of course it was Naruto. With hair that reminded you of a yellow toilet brush, and a personality that was just as pleasant as one.
“Naruto…” you gritted out, stepping closer. No reaction. You could hear the boy breathing heavily, swaying in place. “Hey, I'm talking to you!” You yanked on his shoulder to make him face you, except… your strength met no resistance. He toppled, and then fell towards you.
You couldn't do much except trip on a shuriken, scream, and fall along.
The whole thing could have easily ended in disaster if you hadn't somehow managed to land on the only spot free of the ninja arsenal. Still, your ass wasn't happy to meet solid ground. Ouch.
Naruto, on the other hand, had the nerve to skip the pain and land on the softness of your body. He looked absolutely disheveled, swimming in sweat and panting. His eyelids fluttered open, drowsy eyes finding your hovering face–and widening comically.
“Oh man…” he rasped, rubbing his eyes. “Am I dead or something?”
“No. But you will be if you keep interrupting my sleep.”
You shoved his head off your lap, grimacing at how damp his hair was. Naruto rolled away with a groan, and pushed himself to sit upright.
He blinked slowly at your dirty pajamas, which… you completely forgot you were wearing. You cringed, suppressing the urge to cover up. He seemed to have some sort of realization, and his eyes flashed with pity. “Are you, um… homeless?”
You choked on air.
Oh boy.
“No, genius. I live over there,” You jerked a thumb at your house. ”And all I could hear all night were your stupid kunai. Cut it off.”
He scratched at his head with an apologetic smile. “Oops… sorry ‘bout that.”
Well, at least he had enough sense to look guilty.
Naruto slid the dumb goggles off his head, wiped his face in the crook of his arm, and stood up on wobbly legs. It was unusual to see this bum so exhausted.
“I just need like… thirty more minutes, and I'll be done." He pulled some kunai out of the ground, and grinned. “Promise!”
You spoke too soon. The guy had no sense at all.
“I will hurt you,” you warned.
“Listen girly,” Naruto bristled, crossing his arms. "Thanks for catching me and all, but I have to train!”
Something inside of you snapped. One moment, you were on the ground and the next, you were marching away, pulling the insufferable idiot by the hand.
“Wha– Hey! What do you think you're doing?”
“Taking you to Iruka-sensei,” you said.
Naruto immediately dug his heels into the ground. “No you're not! I didn't do anything wrong!”
“That's why I'm getting a third opinion.”
You tugged harder, putting all your weight into it. Why was his hand so damn slippery? Just as the thought crossed your mind, it slid right out of your fingers, sending you both tumbling in different directions.
Great, now your hand was covered in sweat. You sighed, glancing down on it… and gasped.
It wasn't sweat, it was–
–it was blood.
“Ew! Gross-gross-gross!” You dropped to your knees, wiping your palm on the dew-soaked grass with probably too much urgency for a self-respecting ninja. The smell of blood still clung to your nostrils even after your hand was clean.
Naruto kept a distance from you, crouching down to follow your example, but you slapped his hand away from the grass.
“Ouch! What was that for?” Naruto cradled his hand to his chest with a hostile look.
“Dirty grass isn't good for open wounds,” you scoffed, extending your palm towards him. “Let me see.”
“So you can stab me or something?” he grumbled.
What a stubborn little– You suppressed a sigh. Time for plan B.
Pointing behind him with wide eyes, you said, “Look! A squirrel!”
“Where?!”
While he was distracted, you cobra-striked, snatching his wrist. Realizing that he's been caught again, Naruto threw his head back with a groan. “No fair, that's a forbidden technique!”
“Let's go,” you said with a self-satisfied smile, tugging his limp body to his feet. “I'll get it bandaged.”
…So you hopefully won't be able to hold a damned kunai and just let me sleep.
“You won't take me alive– wait what?” He stopped his struggle at once, dumbfounded.
“I'm going to bandage your hand,” you repeated, looking at him as if he were the most dim-witted person you've ever met.
The rest of the way Naruto was blissfully silent.
When you got home, you jumped up on your windowsill, checked if the house was quiet, and then waved Naruto in. For a total troublemaker he was strangely timid, and for some reason, red as a tomato.
It was probably his first time being in a girl's room or something. Ugh.
“Wait here,” you whispered and slipped out of the room to get medical supplies and some water from the bathroom. When you returned, Naruto was perched awkwardly on the very edge of your bed, leaving a trail of grass and dirt from your window. To be fair, some of it was probably yours, too.
You plopped down next to him, not caring about the dirt getting on your sheets. They were due for a change anyway.
“Hand,” you ordered, pulling the switch-chain on your night lamp.
As if responding to your command on its own, his warm hand moved into yours without complaint. Maybe it was just your imagination, but he seemed to shiver as your hands enveloped his. The orange light of your lamp revealed the cuts and the blisters on his skin, with dirt and dried blood clinging to their edges; his hand trembled in yours from all the exertion.
“Wash it, carefully,” you said, placing the plastic basin of warm water between you.
“You really like to order around, don’tcha?” he grumbled, shoving his hand into the water. He cursed at the sting of his wounds and rubbed impatiently at the skin around them.
In the warm glow of your lamp, he looked even more tired than before, heavy eyelids drooping as if he were about to pass out any moment now. Now that you thought about it, why was he out training all night? He had the worst grades out of all Iruka's students. Maybe he was finally trying to change that? But why so radically…
“Why are you doing this?” you mused, half out loud, half in your head.
Naruto made a face. “Because you asked me to?”
You startled out your train of thought.
“No, I mean, why were you training so hard?” you said, pulling his hand out of the water and toweling it gently.
“Ah.” He tilted his head without any hesitation. “I'm just going to be a Hokage, that's all.”
Gentle breeze came through the window, licking your back, whispering in the leaves near your room, like an answer to his words. You would’ve laughed in his face–Hokage, him–but you were still holding his blistered, trembling hand with a soft towel, and suddenly any snide remark that you could've come up with had died on your tongue.
“Oh,” you said lamely. “Cool.”
His eyes were wide awake then, glowing with his dream, and for some reason you couldn't look away.
“It is, isn't it?” He laughed proudly, whiskers curving along with his grin.
Long after he left, staggering a little from the drowsiness but all patched up, even without any distractions, you couldn't get a wink of sleep. Naruto was intending to ruin your sleep even without being there, it seemed; just by appearing in your thoughts with eyes full of determination.