In the Mountains

The story is (very) vaguely based on (my memory of) a book I read a long time ago, but I can't remember it's name, or the author.
Beta for this chapter - Twinfetish


In the Mountains




I just knew I was smiling, even before I was fully awake, and definitely before I opened my eyes. Life was so good, after all. I had every reason to be happy.

Well, aside from the leg cramp. But that’s what you get for sleeping in the back seat of the car for hours.

On the other hand, I got to put my head in Sakura’s lap. It’s not like I still lived in the illusion that I’ll make her like me as anything more than a friend some day, but still. It was not something I could get away with every day.

The window I opened before I fell asleep was left like that, and the light draft was caressing my face and playing with my hair. The air smelled good, refreshing; not at all like smog in the city.

In short, I was grinning like a lunatic for no particular reason.

“Will you stop pretending you’re still sleeping so you could stay in my lap longer?” Sakura said. Her voice was teasing and full of amusement. “No one is smiling that broadly in their sleep.”

“Hmh,” I answered. My throat was not as awake as my mind was, but I managed it properly at the second try. “Depends on what they're dreaming about.”

“Naruto!” Iruka shrieked from the driver’s seat, reading my undertone correctly. Um, I kind of forgot he was there with us for a moment; I would have never said that otherwise. Some things are just bad for your health, and making sexual innuendos in front of Iruka? Worst than most. He was a bit... Overbearing.

“Ramen,” I pronounced, because for my guardian (not that I need one anymore; but Iruka was my only family now, and I would not give him up for anything) every funny thing I did or said could be explained with that weird obsession of mine. “I was dreaming about ramen!”

Sakura, and Ino on the front seat, were laughing openly at me and my discomfort. Some friends they are, huh?

I reached for the beam of sunlight that was falling through the window on the leather seat over my head with my hand. My skin was glowing as if I was the source of the light myself, soft and golden.

“Look,” Sakura told me quietly after a bit. She was showing me something out of the window.

I stretched, finally deciding to sit up to follow her eyes. All of the sudden, I very grateful she made me rise.

We were already high in the mountains. The sky was very blue, and only a few clouds here and there were breaking the monotony of the blue that was stretching over a valley. The view was something I only saw on pictures until then. The sun was almost in the middle of the sky, reaching every corner of the landscape and making the surface of the river that was flowing through the valley seem alive as it sparkled vividly.

The site was so gorgeous that I can picture it in my head clearly to this day.
I turned my head left. Along the road on that side was a forest, exactly as if someone made it there following the outer line of the trees.

I deserve this, I remember thinking. I really do deserve this.

I finally finished college that year, after so many problems, from financial ones to anything else you could possibly think of. I had to work two jobs, so Iruka wouldn’t suffer for it. I was getting up every morning at five, and I would still be on my feet until late into the night. I never had enough time to study properly. In the end, it lasted for almost two years longer than it was supposed to, but Iruka refused to allow me to give up and helped in every way he could. So I made it.

I made it.

We were on our way to this big, luxury hotel in the mountains that was starting a new entertainment program for kids that summer. They called my martial arts trainer, Kakashi, and he recommended me for helping with self-defense classes. I accepted, because it was a very luxurious place and location + plus, I got a free vacation for my family.

My family included Iruka, Sakura, and as an extension, Ino.
Two rooms, three meals and everything else the hotel had to offer; it was a good deal. Not to mention that I was to have all my classes in the afternoons, so I would be able to fulfill the promise I gave Iruka when I quit one of my jobs, and took vacation from the other - that I wouldn’t be getting out of my bed before noon for at least three months.

I needed rest, and it seemed as this mountain would be the perfect place for it. I never really had a chance to spend some time outside the city.

I couldn’t take my eyes from the view on the right. It was something you would want on your bedroom wall, to be the first thing you would see in the morning.

Wait, I can do that.

“Can we stop somewhere? I want to take some pictures around here,” I asked, taking my camera out and then looking again down on the valley. The camera will never record it as my eyes see it, but it would be enough.

Ino gestured vaguely on the road behind us, “There was a sign back there, for a café, or a restaurant or something. We could stop there. The view is breathtaking.”

“But we’re very close now,” Iruka argued. “Only a few more miles; you can walk back another day to take photos.”

In the end, we talked him into it and he stopped. While I was strolling around, trying to find a better angle of the beautiful view, the girls and Iruka sat in the garden of a little refreshment-by-the-road restaurant and waited with some cool drinks.

“Please?” Ino was asking when I was done, coming back to drink up my own lemonade. “I got my driver's license in my first try, I’m really good.”

“I don’t know,” Iruka was frowning, but I could see that he was about to give in.

“You said it yourself – it’s just a more few miles. I’ll go slowly and you’ll be right there next to me.”

He reluctantly agreed. I didn’t really care. It wasn't as if Ino was a bad driver, she just lacked experience. Sakura and I were in the back seat, but I could tell that she wasn't in a very good mood anymore. Perhaps she was fighting with Ino again, I don’t know.

Everything was fine at first. I was looking at the scenery outside and listening to Iruka fretting and lecturing Ino on every little thing; the teacher in him was always coming out when he was nervous. But then, Ino didn’t quite managed to avoid a big hole in the road, and Sakura hit her head when the car jerked.

“Ino!” she yelled. “Watch out! I hit my head!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” But ‘sorry’ was not enough; once Sakura starts, it is impossible to stop her.

“I have no idea how you passed the exam,” She said in the tone of voice she used only when she was very upset. Her head must have really hurt. “But I’m willing to bet that it had much more to do with your cleavage then with your driving.”

“It did not…”

“Ino, watch the road!” Iruka shouted, but it was already too late.

In mere seconds, we were falling down the side of the mountain and into an abyss. Iruka, always calm under pressure, yelled at us to get out of the car, I frantically opened mine, but Sakura couldn’t open her door. In front of us, both Iruka and Ino were already out, so without thinking, I jumped.

I remember clearly when I cut my leg on a stone, and then all of a sudden there was an overwhelming weight on my back, then everything went black…

IiIiI

This time, when I woke up, it was definitely not with a smile on my face. My head was pulsing with pain. I closed my eyes as soon as opened them; it was too bright to keep looking, almost blinding.

After a few moments, I tried again. It was a little bit better this time, so I glanced around trying to block the pain.

I was in what was obviously a hotel room, but extremely beautiful one. The walls were painted in soft ecru, light browns, and tans. It had two beds - for Iruka and me, I guessed - and a nightstand between them, all in dark wood, engraved with patterns of oak and aspen leaves. Pictures on the walls were abstracts; I preferred landscapes and even portraits of strangers over those, but whatever. By the looks of the nice and spacey room we had most likely arrived on our destination.

I had no recollection of how that happened.

There was someone standing next to the window, creating a silhouette against the brilliant light that was coming from the outside. It wasn’t Iruka, but it was definitely a male.

“Uh…” I groaned, not exactly in condition to think of something else. It didn’t matter – surely that mumble was enough to draw attention to the fact I was awake and would like to know who was in the room with me.

He turned his head slightly, showing the perfect profile.

“Awake? Does your head hurt?” His tone was brusque and vaguely familiar.

“A bit,” I answered. It was much easier to think when you had something to work with. “Like the army had a marching drill on it, nothing I haven't experienced before.”

The silhouette moved from the window to a little, to open the bag at the bottom of my bed. I could see his face there.

My jaw dropped so hard, I still have consequences.

In front of me – just a few steps away – Sasuke Uchiha was standing. He was older than I remembered, but it’d been almost about seven years since then, so at least that was understandable.

When a couple of minutes passed in silence I realized that no matter how much the pain in my head felt real, this was obviously a dream. I had a few of those before; any second now, Sasuke will stop asking about my headache and start beating the daylights out of me.

I braced myself, waiting for the cat-like jumps and sharp weapons that were about to come. Yes, I know what that says about my imagination, but those dreams were just the results of numerous concussions I got from him, okay? And with the condition my head was in now…

Destroying all of my expectations, Sasuke calmly said, “I’m the hotel’s doctor. You had an accident, but everyone is fine.” Yes, this really was Sasuke. Only for him, this detached and lifeless tone was a suitable replacement for politeness. “Those bandages are to be replaced tomorrow and every couple of days after that. I know your head hurts, but I’m more concerned about your leg if you’re going to…”

“Sasuke?” I said, just above a whisper. It was enough for him to glance at me sharply through the bangs. Maybe it was my imagination, but he didn’t look very surprised, even by his standards.

“Do I know you?” He asked, and continued to put back various things in his bag.

No, I was not disappointed. I wasn’t expecting for him to remember me, it’s not as we were friends or anything. But my voice was not as indifferent as I was when I spoke, “High school.”

But if that meant endless detentions for me, it probably meant a sea of people that were trying to attach themselves permanently around his neck, so I added, making it sound like a question, “Kakashi’s experimental martial arts classes?”

Sasuke looked at me again, this time narrowing his eyes.

“I remember you. The kid that everyone was beating up.”

“It was just you. Sometimes,” I said, through clenched teeth. Trust my luck that someone like Sasuke Uchiha would remember me by absolutely the worst possible thing. “I’m also the kid that brought a truck of gold from international competitions to the school, but I guess you were busy at the time taking your anatomy notes,” I added, absolutely hating that I was acting like a sixteen year old teenager, trying to prove myself to him. All over again.

“Huh,” Sasuke said. It was almost welcome, a familiar thing that didn’t make me feel like an idiot around him. “Of course.”

What was that supposed to mean? I felt the old irritation rising. I never even wanted to take those classes! Not back then! I followed Sakura, and she followed…

I sat up in the bed, horrified.

“Please tell me she hasn't seen you!”

“Who?”

“Sakura!”

“Am I supposed to know who that is?”

Yes, I wanted to yell at him. You are supposed to know someone who practically lived in your personal space for three years. But I swallowed that first wave - not sixteen any longer.

“A girl. Pink hair. Almost as tall as I am.”

“Am I supposed to know how tall you are?”

“Not really. But for anyone normal, pink hair would be too hard to miss.”

Sasuke answered after a bit, not asking for additional information, “She has.” He picked up his things, and walked out of the room without any form of goodbye.

After a few minutes of wondering if he really looked upset about something, or if that was just my bumped head thinking things up, I was reminded of my headache.

Hard thinking is obviously not healthy.

Sinking back on the bed and into sleep, I was thinking that, if Sakura started stalking Sasuke again, I couldn’t really blame her. After all these years of separation, it had transformed him from an awkward teenager into an adult; and that only earned him more compliments, as impossible as that sounded. He still looked so good…

IiIiI

The hotel was nice enough to deliver lunch to my room!

Iruka would never let me get away with eating in bed, but I always wanted to try it, just once. And now, a pretty little waitress, or maid, or whatever she was, came in pushing a huge cart loaded with food.

“Hi!” She said, beaming at me. “Are you hungry? I brought you lunch.”

I looked at the dozen of plates on the cart filled with delicious looking food.

“For me, and all the refugees from some unfortunate country?” I asked, but I was already rearranging myself to accept the tray she was offering.

She laughed, “No, just for you.”

“Yahoo! This will last me for weeks and weeks.” The chicken was delicious; I had never tasted something so succulent before in my life.

“Just don’t store it in the night stand. Ants are difficult to get rid of,” she joked in turn, taking a seat on the bed that was going to be Iruka’s. Apparently she was to wait for me to finish. Or to help me, if I needed help. Which, of course, I didn’t. “How are you feeling?”

“My head still hurts,” I answered with my mouth full, but she had no problems understanding. And I can tell you now, that comes exclusively from experience. “Where is everyone?”

“They’re eating their lunch. I’ll tell them you’re awake when you finish eating.”

Sasuke did tell me everyone was fine, but I still had to ask, “Are they hurt?”

He was probably just a fata morgana anyway, from the headache, the sun and the luxury of the place.

“Only a little. Your leg is the worst; you were all lucky you got out.” After apparently thinking it through, she added, “There is practically nothing left of your car.”

She was quiet after that, a little uncomfortable, so I felt obliged to continue conversation, “So, you’re working here?”

“Not quite. My family owns part of this hotel, so I help during the summers.” She then added, visibly proud on herself, “I designed the program for kids you are a part of.”

“Oh. There is more than martial arts in it?” Technically, I knew that - but what the hell.

“Much more!” She nodded enthusiastically. I hit the right question, and was content listening her explain. “Swimming lessons in the pool and, for more advanced kids, trips on the lake, are going to be held by my childhood friend, Lee. And then we’ll take them hiking, well, not too high or anything, but still. Biking to the nearby town, and…”

“Well,” I said, because it all sounded like fun. “If you need some extra help, feel free to call me. Kids like me.”

“I’ll take you up on that,” she answered without hesitation. Now here was the kind of girl that I liked! Uh, not like that – it’s just, I like it when people know what they want. “The more people are there helping, the safer it is for the kids. I take it you can swim?” I nodded. “Ride a bike?” Again, I nodded. “Good. I’ll give you our schedule; whenever you feel up to it, please join.”

She stood up and started gathering plates and the rest.

“Uh,” I said, remembering my manners. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Naruto.”
She held her hand out for me to shake, amused. “It’s nice to meet you, too, Naruto. I’m Tenten.”

After that she left, leaving me once again alone in the room. I decided to try to get up, to test my leg and check the view from the window.

Pain shot through my leg, as I tried testing my weight on it. It felt mildly paralyzed, or as if some nerves that went through were starched and about to break. I looked at the bandages on my thigh. Did Sasuke really put that there, or had I been hallucinating?

I know I’m repeating myself here, but I’m just trying to make you realize how impossible it seemed to me. Sasuke was a symbol of a period in my life I wasn’t particularly proud of. He had disappeared, suddenly and without telling anyone where is he going or why. It had happened just a few months before he was supposed to finish his last year of high school. There had been rumors about it that were just too creepy to even think about.

Sighing, I turned my thoughts to less depressing things.

The view from the window was magnificent, for a lack of a better word. Like a huge green carpet, the meadow was slowly descending from the hotel, all the way to the huge park that was a half a mile or so away. The sky was still very clear and very blue, not at all affected by the fact we almost became a puree just a couple of hours ago.

From a right angle, I could see a bigger part of the hotel garden. The lunch was apparently being served there, but only a few people were out. They were eating and talking with their friends or relatives, and some just thinking, without a care in the world.

The door behind me opened.

“Naruto! What are you doing out of the bed?”

I knew right away by Iruka’s tone, that I was in for a lecture, and for a lot of laying down, and resting and not moving at all. It sounded awful. I just hope he didn’t bring my restraining chains with him.

I grinned. It feels so good when someone is concerned about you, especially without a reason. It makes you feel loved, and worth it.

“Just checking the view. This place is great!”

Iruka took my hand, and literally dragged me back to bed. I was relived he was, indeed, fine.

“I’m glad you like it. This hotel has been in my family for generations.”

I looked around Sakura and Ino (who were whispering something to each other) next to the bathroom door to see who was talking. He nodded and came nearer, so I was free to sit down while scanning him.

He had long, dark hair and weird eyes. Weird, but nice. And despite politeness from earlier, he was not smiling - not in the slightest.

It’s the thing I don’t get about some people. How can they not want to smile, particularly when they were here, in this Paradise?

“Hi,” I said. He was sort of sweet. For a guy who’s not fond of smiling. Maybe he was having a bad day. “I’m Naruto, nice to meet you.”

“My name is Neji Hyuuga. Are you feeling alright?”

“Great!” I answered enthusiastically. “Tenten fed me, so now I’m good for teaching, swimming, and hiking - all of it!”

“I’m very glad you’re excited, but I must insist you spend a couple of days resting before you start your job,” Neji told me, sounding a little concerned.

“Yes, you’re not getting up from this bed for a week,” Iruka said, in a determined way I was very afraid of.

“Yes, the doctor said you should rest,” Sakura added. I was quite happy she didn’t look very goggle-eyed and hazy. Ino giggled, but it was awkward. They both looked unhurt even though very pale. And they were - more or less - acting their age. I don’t think I would survive another set of Sasuke-stalking sessions.

Or maybe they were just still upset about the accident, and not thinking about their love lives because of that. That thought made me groan aloud.

Neji had his own ideas about my reasons for doing that.

“I’m sorry about him,” he said, and I got the impression he had to do it often. “He is not very… polite, but he is a good doctor.”

“Sasuke always seemed very nice to me,” Iruka said; that poor, delusional man.

“You know him?” Neji asked, curious.

“We went to school with him,” Ino explained, and Sakura and I grinned at each other. If nothing else, all that stalking made us good friends. The girls started hanging out with me right after they found out I had a camera that could take night shots.

“The school I teach at,” Iruka added.

I felt the need to explain things properly to our host. “What they mean to say is, you don’t have to apologize for that rude bastard. We all know very well that he is a jerk with serious mental problems.”

Neji smiled at me, obviously pleased I am such good judge of character. But Iruka was not happy, not in the slightest.

“Naruto! Don’t talk like that. Even if the two of you didn’t get along well in high school, doesn’t mean you need to act like you are fourteen again.”

Teachers that say, “Why can’t you be more like (insert the name of your self-proclaimed rival or/and the person you hate the most)?” can give mental trauma and baggage that can compete with the ones of war veterans. But I decided to ignore that. It’s not like there were any chances I would be polite to Sasuke, not when he needed to strain his enormous capacity to remember me.

Um, ‘his enormous capacity’ being about his intelligence and talent, not… other things. I wouldn’t know about them; it wasn’t that kind of stalking.

“How come he works here?” I asked Neji.

“He’s not, not really. It’s a personal favor to me, because our regular doctor had retired, and I hadn't managed to find replacement in time.”

“Oh,” Sakura said, throwing me a look that said that I opened my big, fat mouth too wide once again. “So, you’re friends?”

“Not really,” Neji paused, uncertain what to tell us. “Sasuke is my brother in law.”

Okay, I didn’t expect that. Sasuke was married? Day in, day out - to the same person? Who was the poor, poor soul that had to put up with him every day? She must have been a saint, or very close.

Trying to fill in the stunned silence, Neji continued. “They’re staying here, my sister and him, just on the other side of the hotel park.”

When still no one said anything, he started to retreat.

“Would you like a tour around the hotel?” He asked Iruka. “I don’t know if I’m going to be here when Naruto gets better, so it would be good if you can show him around.”

Iruka didn’t look like he would leave my bedside without a fight, so I said, “Go, I don’t want to interrupt Mr. Hyuuga later just for directions when he’s busy. I’m going to sleep some more, anyway.”

They left after that. Sakura and Ino, too. They wanted to take a walk around and I was alone in my room.

I wasn’t sleeping, though.

In retrospect, the fact that Sasuke was married was not supposed to upset me all that much. I barely even remembered him from time to time until that day. Even that was usually when Sakura and I would have a few drinks and started remembering high school stories.

Like that one time, when we had gotten into a dumpster to take pictures of Sasuke when he was walking by, and then spent hours and hours taking baths in turn at her house, since her parents were out of town.

Or that other time when Sakura was distracting him on his front door, so I could sneak in through the open window and steal his underwear. I also took his homework to get him into trouble, but that didn’t quite work out; he apparently had the back up. The freak.

Is my reason for taking it enough to explain why I kept that paper to this day in my lowest drawer? No, I didn’t think so.

Sakura, my best friend, and I - we were just a couple of idiots, weren’t we?

...And my denial was working just fine until now, too.

Damn it.