A Couple Steps Back

Chapter 20

Third person pov

Naruto's luck with chakra control... well, his training wasn't going too well, nor was it as subtle as it was meant to be. Anytime he tried to focus his chakra, it would overwhelm him, loading into his feet rapidly and blowing a hole in whatever he was standing on. Most of the time, that thing was floorboards. Every morning he found himself explaining to the Hokage why there was a new hole in the floor. He was beginning to run out of excuses, and the ones he was offering were already pretty creative. 

He'd managed to not destroy the Hokage's property a few times, sticking his feet to the ground a little bit. When lifting his feet, it felt almost as though he were standing in sticky, dried up juice. However, when he tried to add more of a kick to the light coating of chakra on the bottom of his foot, his soles became some sort of chakra canons, shooting the energy wherever the bottoms of his shoes were pointed, which was usually the ground. 

Usually. 

"Naruto, come here, please." The Hokage requested to the boy in the corner, who was having quite a ball playing with the blocks in the corner. The Hokage assumed the blonde was throwing them at the wall repeatedly to try and get out some of his frustration. He was pretty far off from the reality of the situation. Naruto was actually setting them on his hand, and trying to get the colored cubes to stick to his palm. So far he hadn't made much progress, but they weren't leaving marks on the wooden paneling anymore. Naruto supposed that was a good sign.

"Alright!" Naruto scrambled up, rushing over to the older man with a cheery look on his face. Hiruzen found himself smiling down at the boy, so young, and so spry. Looking at the blonde's scars was hard for the Hokage. The old man felt he'd failed him somehow. "Your first group therapy session is tomorrow evening at five. Is that okay?" The Hokage asked carefully, watching Naruto's reaction very carefully. The five year old flinched slightly, his eyes shifting to the ground. His entire body tensed up, but he nodded nonetheless. 

"Sounds good." He murmured. At least he'd get to see Sasuke and Shikamaru again. He hadn't seen them for a few days now, not since their last play date. He was still mad at Shikamaru for destroying his sand castle. That action was definitely uncalled for. Naruto felt betrayed to some extent. He'd have to give Shikamaru the cold shoulder for a while, and maybe smash his sandcastle in the future. Then they'd see who was laughing. 

"Naruto." The Hokage said softly, gaining the boy's attention. The boy blinked his large, blue eyes up at the Third, who offered a smile. "I think we found someone for you to live with. Would you like to meet them?"

The blonde immediately tensed up, his eyes widening slightly. He looked at the Hokage, his eyes flashing with caution. The Hokage took note of this, his brown eyes searching Naruto's. Clearly, he didn't like this idea. Not in the least. He seemed almost scared, and extremely reluctant based on what the Hokage had seen displayed in the boy's body language. Hiruzen couldn't really blame him. Naruto'd been through a lot, after all. 

"B-But can't I just stay here?" Naruto said after a moment, offering a tight smile. He needed more information. What he had wasn't nearly enough. "Naruto, I'm not saying you have to go with them immediately. I just want you to meet them. It'll take five minutes at the most." The Hokage assured him, smiling. Naruto looked away, and the Hokage could see his hesitation. Again: he didn't blame the boy. The child had been through a lot, and had learned to treat everything with careful importance. 

"...Five minutes?" Naruto glanced hesitantly at the Hokage, who quickly smiled. "Only five." The Hokage assured him. The blue-eyed kid glanced down, nodding slightly. He could do five minutes, as long as that was it. Anything more would be too much, but anything less probably wouldn't be acceptable. Not that he cared. He didn't want to be adopted, or fostered by a family, or anyone for that matter! 

~

Sasuke was on house arrest until Itachi got back from his mission, and that wasn't a good thing. Cooped up in a room full of children's toys that he had no interest in, Sasuke found himself feeling rather trapped. His itch for freedom was growing ever-stronger. The boy was restless: minutes away from climbing out the window and making his grand escape from this damn compound.

Don't get him wrong, he was ecstatic to see his clan living once more. It's just... being stuck around them all day every day ever since going to the park was getting rather smothering. News of what had happened had spread, and now he couldn't go outside without getting pitying looks and at least three pats on the back. It was a tad-bit humiliating, but he had to roll with it. He didn't want anyone getting suspicious of the intricate lie he'd had to tell in order to explain the absence of one of his arms. 

He was beginning to get the hang of chakra control though, and with all his spare time, he was sure he'd have it down in no time flat. A lot of his chakra had come back with him, but not all of it. He'd had at least five times the amount he had now. Sasuke still had a lot, but it wasn't enough to do anything particularly amazing. He'd definitely work on it.