A Mistake Not Meant to Bear Fruit [Naruto x Hanabi]

Chapter 13: Burdens

If there was something Hanabi had recently realized, it was just how much of a burden she had become to Naruto, at least that's what she thought. She came to this conclusion when she saw Naruto early in the morning. 

As usual, she was already awake and was cooking breakfast by the time he woke up, but when Naruto came into the kitchen, she had noticed something different about him. His posture when he walked was slightly crooked and he had begun to slouch. Hanabi presumed this to be because he'd been sleeping on his couch since she'd begun living with him, and it made her feel guilty. 

It also made her think, would Naruto be better off without her living there? Sure, he was nice to her and never seemed displeased about her presence there, but maybe he was only doing that for the sake of being nice. Hanabi hoped that wasn't the case, but just in case it was, Hanabi wanted to remove the odds of her being a burden.

Her solution to that was to take on more missions. She didn't often go on missions, but she needed the money, so she kindly asked the teacher of her team to accept more missions on her behalf. Missions were rare, but she figured most Chuunin would be happy to stay in Konoha and be with family and friends. 

Hanabi needed the money because if she wasn't at Naruto's place, Naruto could sleep in his bed again and wouldn't end up with a crooked back. Naturally, the only way for this to happen would be for her to stay somewhere else, and she currently didn't have the money for that.

Most people would just swap positions with Naruto so that he could be on the bed and they would be on the couch. But from what she had learned about Naruto, he would be too stubborn to let her sleep on the couch.

When she tried asking him about the problem, he just waved it off, saying that he was fine. Immediately after saying that, he fixed his posture and had a face of displeasure for the rest of the morning. Hanabi thought that what he was doing was sweet, but it had also made her worry, thus her doing this. 

She was currently training using the training grounds located in the back of Naruto's house. It wasn't big, but it was enough for her. Nonetheless, she didn't want to be rusty just in case she got a mission that required her to be out of the village. After all, the world was a dangerous place even with peace.

About an hour or two after she had finished training, her teacher had informed her that they had gotten a mission, she was told that it would be outside of the village, which made her glad that she had trained earlier. Hanabi left to get changed and to let Naruto know, and she was happy that he would be able to sleep comfortably tonight. 

His reaction was something she hadn't expected.

Hanabi had expected Naruto to be at least accepting of the change, but his reaction surprised her. 

She found him in the living room, resting on the couch with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. He looked peaceful, but she didn't want Naruto to worry if she didn't come home tonight, so she woke him up. 

"Naruto-kun?" 

"Huh?" His eyes slowly opened, revealing light blue eyes.

"I'm going on a mission, I won't be back tonight." Hanabi informed him. His reaction was a face of uncertainty, which Hanabi didn't expect. It's not like she expected him to be happy that she was leaving, it's just that he looked as if he wanted her to stay with him. 

Nah, she was probably overthinking it.

"Alright then, good luck, and be safe." He said, his face still uncertain. 

It was only two words, but Hanabi was happy when Naruto told her to be safe. It was more than she ever got from her father, who either said "Don't fail." or didn't say anything at all. Hanabi nodded and went to meet her team, a small smile was on her face as she left.