In a Softer Light

A/N : Sorry for the short chapter guys. Next one will be nice and lenghty, I promise.

 

I'm trying to keep Naruto as in character as possible, but it may be difficult/impossible in some instances given the gender-bend. I'm doing my best.

 

Enjoy.

 

 

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“Ramen, kunai, ramen, clean clothes, ramen, gamma-chan, ramen-secret stash of Sakura pictures~”

 

Naruto never considered herself disorganized, but she had to wonder if maybe, just maybe Iruka had been onto something when he said her apartment was filthy. Because there were fifty -THREE packets of instant noodles under her bed, and she could only find fifty-TWO.

 

Damn it all. Maybe if she just stretched a little farther under the bed-

 

THWACK

 

Oops. Totally forgot about the bed frame being under...the bed frame. Yeah.

 

Tenderly rubbing her injured forehead, she manages to pry herself out from under her bed.

 

Geeze. Her room looked so empty. Didn't think she'd packed her whole life into the backpack.

 

Sighing, wondering if she should even attempt getting a goodbye kiss from Sakura, she slings the pack over her shoulder, a gleam of glass-against-sunlight catches her eye.

 

She pauses. It's their team picture, her, Kakashi sensei, Sakura, and-

 

-It's cracked inexplicably over Sasuke's face. No idea how that'd happened. She smirks. Bastard's face must've been too ugly for the frame to handle.

 

She runs her finger down the side, pausing, wondering if she should take it with her.

 

Her fingers pry slowly off the glass-sticky almost. No point in taking it. Asshole would still be where he was when she came back.

 

She bites her lip -hard-

 

“Sorry Sakura” she mumbles out loud. “I'm not even worth looking you in the face right now, let alone kissing you good bye.”

 

Maybe when she got back, after she'd gotten stronger, maybe then.

 

 

Not now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“You sure you've got everything?”

 

Bright blue eyes meet his, narrowed in frustration.

 

“For the billionth time, yes ero-sennin.” She sticks her tongue out. “Believe it or not, I don't need to carry a billion dirty magazines with me everywhere we go, like SOME people do.”

 

Jiraiya sighs, kneeling down to Naruto's level, and without warning pries open her backpack.

 

“Hey!”

 

“I'm just checking. ” he blows out a breath” You're packing pretty light this time around, considering last time you had enough to fill a caravan. Did you bring everything I told you to?”

 

“Yes,” she pouts, flicking a blonde pigtail out of her face. “Kunai, shuriken, medical supplies, all my clothes 'girly stuff' she makes quotation signs with her hands, smirking devilishly, much to Jiraiya's discomfort “extra money, scrolls-”

 

“You only have three pairs of pants in here Naruto.” The sannin frowns. “Are you SURE you've got all your clothes?”

 

She looks slightly uncomfortable. “Well, yeah, I mean, I never really needed anything else, so-”

 

She trails off, looking mildly embarrassed. “It's just what with how hard I've been training I've pretty much ruined most of my clothes, like the other jacket I had, and-”

 

And she's counting on her fingers trying to remember exactly -what- articles of clothing had been ruined and -how- and Jiraiya feels the slightest twinge of unease beneath his stomach.

 

“-and my last bra got ripped into shreds when I was fighting Sasuke, plus some other things.”

 

Oh.

Hell.

No.

 

Great. Ever shameless Naruto. She really has no sense of privacy like most girls. Jiraiya doesn't know to feel ill or not.

 

She must've noticed the color draining from his face, because a smirk distorts whisker-streaked cheeks as she leans forward ever so slightly, fingering the zipper on the collar of her jacket.

 

“What's wrong sensei?” She whines, demure pout on her lips and ohgodohgod she throws herself around his middle, which, due to the high different leaves her chest resting below his waist. Beads of sweat drip down his forehead.

 

Great. Nothing but a zipper separates her tits from his upper thigh. Sonovabitch.

 

“Do NOT get a nosebleed “he inhales slowly in an attempted to calm himself. 'That would be letting her win. Whatever you do, DO NOT-”

 

With the one arm that isn't locked around his leg, she grips the zipper, thumb and finger, and slowly, slowly pulls it down just enough to show-

 

Okay. Maybe Naruto wasn't Tsunade sized, not yet anyway, but with the jacket now falling off her shoulders and generous cleavage proudly on display, it was enough to drive any man mad.

 

And certainly enough for Jiraiya to fall backwards and desperately try to stave the flow of blood from his face. Fuck fuck FUCK.

 

All of this in public too. She's flat on her ass clutching her stomach laughing so hard she's turning red.

 

“You are SO EASY ero-sennin!” she chokes out between breathes, oblivious to the muttering crowd that's gathered around them. “Man, this trip is going to be awesome!”

 

“Maybe for you.” he sighs, wiping the excess blood from under his nose, finding himself increasingly regretful of not making that last-minute trip to Konoha's red light district

 

”God help me, Tsunade may have been right."