The Harsh Truth

Chapter 21

It was a light tap on the forehead that woke Naruto Senju up. The tap was insistent, and repeated throughout a couple of minutes. Slowly, the man opened one of his eyes, to look at the tiny chameleon that had managed the incredible feat of climbing the stairs, avoid to be squashed by random people passing by, open a door and enter the room to now tap against the Hokage's forehead.

It was to be said, chameleons were headstrong and, once set on something, didn't stop until they actually managed the feat.

With a small groan, Naruto manage to mutter something incomprehensible that, however, was caught by the chameleon, which relayed his own message with a set of rasps and clicks of the tongue. A second later, the Godaime Hokage was up, albeit a bit wobbling on his legs, and heading downstairs. The small chameleon then dispersed in a puff of smoke, since he had done his job.

In the kitchen, an unknown female with white eyes was actually preparing him breakfast, which, for once, was a nice change.

"Naruto-sama," the woman, belonging once to the Hyuga clan, had the usual silky smooth skin, the light brown hair in tresses, and was sporting a bare forehead like it was something to take pride on, "I hope I didn't wake you up."

"No…hum…"

"My name is Junko, Naruto-sama," the Senju woman replied, "I took the charge of preparing you breakfast, I shouldn't have?" Now, the question, if asked with a normal tone, would have earned the normal answer of there being no need to bother. The point was that said woman had asked it in the same pleading tone of a kid who wants a candy, meaning that she was probably on the verge of tears, and Naruto had always been weak against crying females.

"It's…it's fine," the clan head replied, sitting down numbly, and letting out a deep big sigh of relief.

His daughters were fine. He should have checked with the chameleons before, but he hadn't had any free time. Those two…he just hoped they both had slept somewhere warm. Were there any beds actually, at the chameleon's place? Still, they were safe, and that was more than enough to force him to sit down, before he simply fell on the ground, the tension and the dread on his shoulders already lowering.

"Please enjoy," the words were filled with hope, and at the same a mixture of dread, like someone who gets tested and is afraid of the results.

"It's good," the Senju head replied, eating with calm, "you're a good cook, Junko-san."

"Please Naruto-sama, only Junko will do…" the woman was actually trembling, reason enough for Naruto to raise an eyebrow in perplexity.

"Is…is everything alright, Junko?"

"I…I'm sorry if…" but another loud sigh and a roll of Naruto's eyes made the woman quiet down.

"Calm down Junko, take a deep breath, and tell me what's wrong. I don't bite, I don't hit, and I am not a prick…nor do I have a stick up my ass, so ask, if you don't tell me what's wrong I can't do anything about it," with that, the woman stood still for a moment, just like a deer who is about to run off, only, instead of running away, she broke down in quiet sobs.

"Hey…what's wrong?" Naruto quietly stood up, moving closer to the, now crying, woman.

"It's…just…It's too much…you're too kind to be real. You went against the clan to free us, and…what if this is a dream? I mean…I'd…" with another quiet sigh, the Senju head did the only thing he had been trained to do when he had a crying female in front of him. He gently ruffled the hair of said female. Even if the female was probably one or two years older than him, he still did it.

"Hush…it's alright. Next time, pinch your cheek if you still have doubts, okay?" the woman nodded, numbly, and with a light blush on her face. After all, she was being… petted, on the head.