"Hey! What the fuck! Let me go you crazy bitch!" Naruto shouted as he tried to get himself loose. It didn't work as the snakes constricted, making him loose his breath and wince in pain as his ribs creaked and compressed in on themselves.
They brought Naruto back around so that he was facing a very angry Anko. "You better damn well believe you're answering to me!"
Anko's snakes brought Naruto so close that their noses were almost touching. To anyone else it probably would have almost seemed intimate. But the with the snakes crushing his ribs, Anko's eyes glaring at him in anger, and the sound of her teeth grinding, Naruto knew that was not the case.
"I may not have been friends with you for long, but we are friends, and if you don't tell me what's wrong so I can fix it, I swear Kami as my fucking witness I will beat the shit out of you!"
Naruto tried to laugh but it came out somewhere between a chuckle, a sob, and a pained groan. "I…I…" Naruto shook his head.
Sighing Anko put Naruto back on the ground and her snakes dispersed, "Gaki, I already told you I know what happened. You need to learn to move on. I get that you fell in love with this chick, I understand that. But seriously, you need to let it go and move on."
"I don't want to let it go!" Naruto growled as he looked up, his tears no longer able to contain themselves. "Haku-chan was the only person who ever showed me any love! She gave me more happiness than I thought I would ever get! Even after she learned about the damn fox in my gut!"
"So you're saying I don't care about you?" asked Anko in a mild voice.
"That's completely different and you know it!" Naruto countered.
"You're right it is different," Anko said with a shrug. "But that doesn't mean I don't care. I've accepted you, nine tailed fuzzy and all right?"
"But that's…I…" Naruto looked down at his feet as he shook his head, "I don't want to lose anyone precious to me ever again…"
"So you're going to push us away?" Anko asked in an incredulous tone. "Do you realize how stupid you sound right now! I thought you were smart!"
Naruto grit his teeth, "That's not…"
"And if you don't want to lose others who are important to you then that just means you need to get stronger," Anko continued.
"That's…"
"The question I think you really need to ask yourself is what you think Haku would want you to do." Anko said, her voice was far more quiet than normal, showing just how serious she was. "I think you're so afraid of someone replacing your memory of this Haku girl that you're trying to distance yourself from others so you don't get over her."
Naruto winced, mostly because Anko had hit the nail right on the head. While Anko was the first female to be nice to him, and Tenten was actually the first friend his age, neither of them had given him what Haku had, and he felt like he would be betraying her memory if he allowed himself to get close to either of them.
"Do you think Haku would want you to be like this? From what you told the Sandaime she would probably stick you with senbon or something," Anko said.
Naruto in spite of himself let out a small laugh, even though it was strained, "Yeah…I suppose she would."
"Now are you gonna be all Uchiha emo brooder on me?" asked Anko.
"I wasn't that bad," Naruto defended himself, only to stop at the deadpanned look Anko was giving him. "Ok so…maybe I was a little emo there…"
"Kid, I think I saw a brood of fan girls following you on your way here because they mistook you for the Uchiha," Anko said, grinning as he scowled.
His scowl gave way to a smile as he surprised Anko and gave her a hug, "Thanks Anko-nee-chan."
"Since when am I a nee-chan?" asked Anko in an embarrassed voice.
"Since now," Naruto mumbled as he gripped her tighter.
Despite her lack of moral scruples Anko blushed in embarrassment at the fact that someone was calling her nee-chan. Having been alone most of her life after Orochimaru abandoned her, she was not used to others being this close to her when it was not her messing with someone. Even more embarrassing was that Naruto had called her nee-chan, essentially stating she was close enough to be considered his family, an honor only her friend Yuuhi Kurenai ever gave her.
"Ehh, it's alright gaki," Anko patted him on the back and tried to play it cool. They stayed like that for a while until the snake mistress of Konoha began to relax, which was a few seconds before Naruto decided to ruin the moment.
"Who knew that Konoha's 'snake bitch' was such a softy," Naruto said with an unseen grin.
"Kid if you tell anyone about this I swear I'll feed you to my snakes," Anko threatened, actually feeling the blonde's mind turning.
"You're no fun," Naruto pouted as he pulled away. "I bet people would really change their opinions of you if they realized you had such a soft, ooey gooey center on the inside."
"Gaki, I'm warning you," Anko threatened.
"In fact maybe I should tell Kakashi just how 'soft' you really are."
Naruto grinned as he finally saw Anko blush. Meanwhile Anko cursed at herself for ever thinking that teaching the gaki about the birds and the bees was a good idea.
"Gaki…you better start running," Anko warned, her hair overshadowing her face. "Cuz I'm gonna feed you to my snakes!"
Feeling revitalized from his talk with Anko, Naruto just grinned as he took off, "You'll have to catch me first!"
"You fucking brat! Kuchiyose No Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!" There was a giant puff of smoke and Naruto suddenly found a very irate Anko on a very large snake chasing him. "Sick 'em Sasha! Eat the bastard alive!"
Knowing that Anko might actually have her summon eat him, he took off even faster than before, dropping his resistance seals and weights.
Without looking back he blasted through the forest, Anko hot on his heels.
(The Next Day…)
It was Saturday in the afternoon when Naruto entered the Higarashi weapons store. He noticed with some relief mixed in with disappointment that Tenten wasn't there. Disappointment because he missed her, and relief because he had no desire to get any kunai or senbon stuck in his ass. Instead her father Kaito was sitting at the register. Said man looked up as soon as the door chimed.
"Naruto!" he greeted, standing up and moving over the blond, "How have you been?"
"I've been good Kaito-san," Naruto replied with a small bow of his head.
"You know, I haven't seen you in my store for quite a while," the comment was made casually enough, but Naruto sensed an underlying meaning that made him shiver. "My daughter has been awfully worried about you for the past month."
Naruto winced, "I…I was having some personal issues that kept me from others."
Kaito looked at him for a moment before giving a nod of understanding, "I suggest you speak with her sometime soon."
"R-right," Naruto said, slightly intimidated by the man's stare.
As if summoned by their conversation Tenten walked right into the door, "Dad! I'm home from…." She trailed off as her eyes landed on Naruto.
"You!" She stomped over to him, Naruto paled and began to back up as Tenten began poking him in the chest.
"I haven't seen you for over a month! And you're just coming in here now, when I'm not working!" Naruto found himself backed up against the wall with nowhere to go as Tenten continued poking him, thankfully there were no weapons on this one or he was sure this would have been painful. "I had to find out that you had returned from some lady named Anko because she had been looking for you! Do you know how worried I was when I found out that you were essentially ignoring me!"
"T-Tenten-" Naruto tried but Tenten cut him off.
"Don't you try to talk your way out of this Uzumaki Naruto! You have a lot of making up to do for getting me so worried!" Tenten placed her hands on her hips and glared at him, "Well!"
"U-uh…" Naruto felt sweat trickle down his forehead as he stared at those angry brown eyes. He had no idea that Tenten could be even scarier than Anko at times! "W-well, what do you…uh, want me to do to make it up to you?"
Tenten frowned for a second before smiling. Naruto instantly paled as he recognized that smile from the one time he had let her use ranged weapons during a spar.
"Kami save me," Naruto mumbled, crying anime tears as Tenten began dragging him to a training ground.
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