Advocated Wars

Chapter Twelve

                                                                                                              XII

When the next day came and Surge still wasn’t back, I knew he had wanted me to search for him. And, yet, even though I knew I should’ve — I didn’t. Because, every time the thought popped into my head, it would instantly be pushed away by Naruto. 

It wasn’t as if Naruto was physically telling me not to look for the boy. In fact, it was just the opposite, really. Naruto had actually encouraged me to look for him. And, every time I agreed that I should. And, still, I didn’t. 

I was scared. I told myself that Lady Tsunade had trusted me with Naruto and I shouldn’t chance things for my own problems — relationship problems. And, every time I looked at Naruto’s face I felt as if I had been making a responsible decision; told myself this was the right thing to do. 

But, I didn’t want to face Surge when he was angry. I think I told myself over and over again that he wouldn’t talk until he was ready. And, I believed that. 

Sometime during the night I thought that, maybe, I should just go look for him anyways. And, knowing he wouldn’t want to see Naruto, I would go when the blonde fell asleep. 

It wasn’t long that he did fall asleep, having givin’ up on trying to persuade me. And, it was then as I watched his peaceful, sleeping face that I tried, once again, to tell myself that I needed to look for Surge. 

And, it was when the sun came up the next morning that I realized two things: I had not looked for Surge, never seriously considering how imperative it was that I found him before he did something stupid; and, I had stayed up the entire night — watching Naruto Uzumaki sleep. 

Which wasn’t the disturbing part, not really. The worst was, the whole night, Naruto’s presence hadn’t of bothered me — neither asleep or awake. And, as peaceful as he looked when succumbed to the second, more alluring world of his dreams, I found myself content. 

I drug myself out of the bed, then, deciding it was the lack of sleep talking. 

“Hey,” I said, hitting the side of Naruto’s face, satisfied with the loud pop that resulted from my hand making contact. “Wake up, idiot.”

I smiled to myself as I saw him jolt awake, not really listening to his angered screams as I made my way to the shower, being sure to lock the door behind me. 

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The day was beginning to drag by rather slowly. And, it became evident pretty quickly how agitated Naruto had become from how ‘slow’ I had been moving, or that I was ‘moping’ about. 

“You have dark circles under your eyes,” the boy off-handedly commented, stopping in the middle of the walk-way to examine my face more closely. I frowned, pulling back a bit so that I could no longer feel his breathing on my lips. “Did you even go to sleep last night?”

“Of course I did!” I immediately bit back, my first instinct being to dent his accusation — despite the fact that that instinct had made me a liar. 

He jabbed his finger into my shoulder. “You’re lying!”

I pushed his hand away, Naruto’s persistence beginning to anger me. “And, what of it? It’s none of your business, dammit! Instead of worrying about me, why don’t you focus on the mission — so I can go home, and get away from you!” I hadn't of meant to snap, but I did. And, as the anger took ahold of me, I couldn't say that I immediately regretted it. 

Naruto growled, straightening his back so that he was at full height, towering over me. The boy glared down at me. “Don’t act like I’m fucking useless! I did most of the work on the last mission, running around while you drank tea with Mingyu all day. Well, at least I actually cared to help the villagers — all you cared about was the money,“ he snarled. 

“Did you forget who the perpetrator was?” I growled back. And, without realized it, I had grabbed the front of his jacket, roughly pulling him down to my level. “And, if you had forgotten, I got poisoned on that mission!”

He pushed me away from him, just as roughly as I had grabbed him. “I brought you flowers!”

I threw my hands out, letting out a little shriek. 

“I don’t even like flowers!”

Something flashed in the blonde’s eyes, his angry expression wiping clean from his face, Naruto’s facial features going blank. And, if I didn’t know better, I’d say he looked hurt. 

“I was just trying to be nice.”

I didn’t think there would ever come a day I regretted something I said. Not to Naruto Uzumaki, at least. It was out of spite, and even though I really did hate flowers, I had thought the ones he had gotten me where nice. They were plain, nothing fancy, and they didn’t fill my room with an overly-sweet aroma. The color had been a nice, washed out white that blended in well with my cream colored painted walls. So, yes, his flowers had been nice. 

“No, Naruto—”

He shook his head. “No, you know what? It’s not like they meant something, right? My gratitude had meant nothing to you, right? It’s just your job, right?”

“Naruto…”

“Forget it,” he sighed. “I don’t expect an apology from you — I don’t even know if you’re capable of one. Just leave me alone.”

My jaw clenched as I helplessly watched his retreating back, hunched over with his hands buried deep within his pockets. His words had hurt me, surprisingly, and I found myself wanting to run after him. 

Yet, like with Surge, I didn’t. 

Was that really what Naruto thought of me? No, is that really how I am?

!~*~*~*~*~*!

Tsk tsk tsk. Champion has some srs issues with people. I don’t know how long it has been since ive uploaded this but oh well. Im just excited for more Nozomu parts because. Nozomu. Also~ I’m leaving for church camp in about a week and will be gone for four/five days~ kill me~