Love Through Negotiation «COMPLETED»

Chapter 5

Naruto was jolted awake from a strike to his thigh. He was stumbling on his bed halfway through a sad excuse for a fighting stance, delirious and tired by the time he realized his attacker was a girl a few years older than him smirking at him from the doorway to his room. On the bed was a remote of some sort, and the strike he had suffered felt distinctly remote-like.

"You sleep like a rock," Kurotsuchi said in a deriding tone.

Naruto sighed and started to rub the sleep from his eyes. "Why'd ya wake me?"

"We're gonna be late for the announcement. Get your ass out of bed and downstairs."

Naruto lifted the inside of shirt a smidge and sniffed, then immediately recoiled from the smell. It was absolutely toxic. And it made sense too. He'd been wearing those clothes for two days straight, hadn't bathed for a while due to him being on the road with Jiraiya and then in a house with five other women that he didn't know, and there was also the fight with Yugito, which got out of hand in a hurry.

"Yeah, no. I need a shower."

Kurotsuchi crossed her arms over her chest, deriding smile not slacking at all. "You're damn right you do. Better make it quick, though. It's almost noon."

Naruto got up and stretched out his sore muscles once Kurotsuchi was out of his sight. 'Wait a minute,' he thought suddenly, going stiff mid-pose. 'Who put my shirt back on for me?'

He remembered taking it off to train and he remembered it was back on when he was on Yugito's back… Naruto shrugged. It's not like it mattered. He stumbled out of the room and went into the nearest bathroom, stripping off his clothes with slight consternation. The sweat had stuck them to his skin like an adhesive, and taking them off let a waft of stink to rise into the air. Without wasting another second, Naruto hopped into the shower and turned the nearest knob he could see, then let out a somewhat waifish scream as boiling hot water immediately pelted his body from above.

That wasn't how the shower worked back at his apartment.

Naruto started turning knobs whichever which way made the boiling stop. He successful made side jets spring to life, started and stopped the bath nozzle, and tinted the water with the refreshingly nose-clogging scents of lavender.

"What the hell is WRONG with this shower!?" Naruto ground out, taking a few moments to get the water levels to his liking, or more accurately to where he could put up with them. And if that meant showering himself off with the lukewarm water from side jets while cloaked in the choking scent of flowers, so be it.

He grabbed the nearest bottle with the word 'soap' on its label and rubbed its contents on his body, basking in the glory that was the feeling of odor being washed down the drain. Ever since being on the road with Jiraiya, he couldn't help but obtain a newfound appreciation for being clean, especially when he had to deal with old man stink for months on end.

Though that didn't mean he wanted to be in that clusterfuck of a shower for a second longer than he had to. He stepped out as soon as he felt he was clean enough and nearly stumbled on the ground. Although a lot the aches and pains from his 'training session' had vanished and he was less tired, there were still a lot of things that kept his physicality from being 100%. That, added with being in a boiling shower for too long, had left him woozy and unable to stand on his own. He grabbed onto the sink counter and held himself up as he stared into the mirror. Somehow, it hadn't fogged up, letting him see his face clearly.

It was in that moment, while staring at his own face, logged down with water, and almost blacking out, that things finally started to click in place, for better or for worse. He was going to have to accept the reality he was in. He was going to have to accept that he was going to be living with Kurotsuchi and the rest of them. He wasn't going to find love. If he had any kids, they'd be kids from women he didn't even know. His freedom was restricted. He didn't even know how he was going to live his life from now on. It was probably going to change a lot, but how? Was he even to take missions anymore? Was he just a tool used to advance peace throughout the nations? He didn't know how he felt about those things.