章 23: Chapter 23

'Stop!' Naru-nii commands, getting his younger self to stop. 'Listen carefully, because I only have a few more minutes. I don't think you should tell Sakura-chan. And I only say that because, well, she doesn't really see us that way... at the moment. It's super easy to feel how guilty you are over what you did with Ino, even when you have someone else you're in love with, but I think telling Sakura-chan is less about her, and more about you punishing yourself. And in our experience, we both know that never solves anything. The only thing I can say is try and focus on what you can control.'

"What do you mean," he asks, clearing the corners of his eyes of budding tears.

'I mean, you'd still protect Sakura-chan and even Ino-chan if you had to, right?'

"Yeah," he lamely answers.

'Of course you would, because they're still your comrades as shinobi of the Leaf. Despite everything, at least you can say you always want them to be safe. How about their happiness? Do you want them to be happy?'

"Of course," he responds as if that's obvious.

'There you go. That's another connection you share, right? They're still people that know you, and who recognize you. That's important. It means you can also, at the very least, be a good friend to either of them, because a good friend would want them to be happy. I can't tell you what's up with Ino, since that's way beyond my expertise, but if she's not acting normally, what do you think a good friend would do?'

Thanks to years of not knowing the answer to questions asked of him in the Academy, Naruto immediately responds with his go-to answer, "I don't know." Hearing Naru-nii's sigh makes Naruto take a moment to actually ponder the honest answer asked of him. "I guess… I guess I'd ask her if she's doing okay? No, I… I'd make sure she was okay, and that I didn't do anything bad I shouldn't have."

'If that's how you truly feel, than I'm sure you'll figure it out,' Naru-nii pleasantly tells his younger counterpart.

"Aww, can't you just tell me?" Naruto asks.

'Sorry, I can honestly tell you this is way outside of my wheelhouse,' his future self admit with a bit of a chuckle. 'Maybe find someone you can trust who knows more about that kind of stuff. I mean, I still can't really believe it. You and Ino. That's insane.'

"Yeah," Naruto nods several times in agreement. "Me neither. I use Kai or pinch myself like forty times a day just to make sure I'm real and that it happened."

'No doubt,' he says, though Naruto can hear his tone is fading. 'Just remember, whatever happens, you know in your heart you'll always protect them.'

"Damn right," Naruto returns, but his future counterpart was already gone. Feeling a little better, Naruto spends nearly three hours running around the village, looking for Ino while his clones practice the first step of Rasengan in his apartment.

He spent the entire week looking for her without success. His disappointment even masked all the positives that week had produced. Sakura-chan actually came up to him… to talk! He wasn't thrilled about the topic, as she only wondered if he might be a little more forceful in his spars with Sasuke so she can treat him; any excuse to touch him apparently. He didn't know if she was progressing well, but she seemed ecstatic about her study.

Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-teme remained as distant as usual, but he was starting to surprise them with his taijutsu. Suddenly it wasn't quite as easy for Sasuke to beat him when they sparred. Hell, his high spirits couldn't be denied when he finally got a chance to talk to Iruka-sensei.

He snuck into his room after visiting hours and fortunately for the young genin, his favorite sensei was still awake. He didn't say much since he was still recuperating and very tired, but the older man made sure to tell him he didn't blame him for what happened before sleep took him. Naruto stayed in the darkroom for what felt like hours and would've stayed longer if a nurse didn't need to check the monitoring equipment.

His most vital success was finally completing the first stage of learning Rasengan. Naru-nii happily congratulated him, wishing he could be there to give him a celebratory Popsicle. Naruto didn't understand it, but he knows he would've liked that. Having only just succeeded in bursting the water balloon, he felt it was perfect timing as it would give him an uninterrupted weekend to start on the second stage of the amazing technique: Power.

It had been one of the best weeks of his life, but it always paled when his thoughts migrated to Ino-chan. Naruto had to make sure she was okay, and if possible, talk about what happened. So every day, he'd search for hours. He ran into several people multiple times, including Team 8 and their sensei, but never Ino. Despite running into the team three times, she was never with them.

He immediately wanted to ask about her, but an image of her yelling at him, angry for asking about her frustratingly kept him from taking the direct approach to learning what he wanted to know. So, he ignored the impulse to ask them directly… until the third time he ran into to them looking for her. After days with no luck, he instead—in his roundabout way of trying to learn where's she been—jokingly asks, "Ino-chan finally got tired of dealing with you two?"

Chōji immediately defends his teammate, spouting back, "no! She's just sick!"

"Oh," Naruto returns, genuinely unhappy to hear. "Sorry, I didn't know. Hey, do you guys want to train? I've been working on some killer new moves!"

They naturally turned him down, as he expected they would, and the moment he was far enough away, he raced to the Yamanaka compound. Having already explored most of Konoha as a neglected orphan, he knew exactly where he was going, and how to scout out the clan home. It wasn't as large as some of the other clan residences, like the Hyūga, Nara, Inuzuka, or Aburame. Aside from their large greenhouse, the Yamanaka didn't need quite so much space.