You Saved Me

Chapter 17

"Suki?" Naruto asks, trying to catch his breath during the afterglow.

"Mhm?" She answers and rests her head on his chest.

"I like kissing and making up." He says.

"Mhm. It's definitely definitely S Class." She agrees and snuggles further into his hold.

"Yeah. I'm still going to kick his ass for that stunt." Naruto growls.

"You can smack him around a bit. Try not to start a war over it." She says.

"I'm pretty sure Onoki will let me get away with it. I mean he apologized because of what his grandson-in-law did." He points out.

"Still not sure how grandson-in-law is a thing." She mutters.

"Me neither. It's weird." He agrees.

"It's late. Try to get some sleep." Suki tells him.

"Yeah. Guess you're right." He says.

"Of course I'm right. I'm always right. You're just stubborn." Suki says and closes her eyes, pretending like she was falling asleep.

"And so modest." Naruto snickers.

"That's right." Suki says smiling and slowly drifts off to the sound of Naruto's heartbeat.

In the morning, she wakes up before Naruto. Suki takes this opportunity to observe her husband. He was still asleep. She smiles and brushes the bangs out of his eyes. Why had she ever tried to deny this? She frowns remembering her Denial Phase, otherwise known as her Sound Years.

"DAMMIT!" Suki yelled and punched one of the walls inside the hideout.

"You seem to be rather frustrated." She heard Kabuto's far too smug voice say.

Damn him. She couldn't even vent her frustrations in privacy. Suki knew she'd have to come up with some excuse for losing her temper. Kabuto was Orochimaru's little tattletale. Anything that she did, he'd find out about it, and he'd report it to the Snake.

"Seeing Naruto reminded me that three years have passed, but Itachi is still alive. I'm no closer to killing him than the day I came here." She told him.

It was true. That was incredibly frustrating. But it wasn't the current source of her frustration. Maybe though, Kabuto would buy it.

"Oh I think we both know that it's about more than that. I must say your acting skills are impressive. If I hadn't just seen you punch a wall, I would have thought you completely unaffected by their rescue attempt." He taunted her.

Team Seven had found them earlier that day. It had been three years. Naruto and Sakura had grown so much. That was to be expected. They even had a replacement for her.

Some far too skinny ninja with dark hair, dark eyes, and pale skin. If he hadn't been a man and one meal away from starvation, Suki would have thought they were purposely trying to find someone that looked like her. But she knew that wasn't the case. It infuriated her all the same though.

"Come to think of it, isn't your dream to become Hokage? You should have spent your time training instead of chasing after me. Don't you think so, Naruto?" She asked once she flitted over to his side, drawing her sword.

She had to pretend to be unaffected by his presence. Even as she reached for her sword, he still didn't make a move to defend himself. Naruto, she decided, was suicidal.

"What kind of Hokage would I be, if I can't even save my friend?" He asked.

Friend. There was that word again. Did he actually think he was doing all this out of friendship? That mere friendship described their bond? Friendship she could discard. She had been friends with Sakura and didn't miss the pink haired ninja hardly at all.