In the Mountains

Chapter Three

“You’re overreacting,” Sakura said, moving her hair out of her eyes with a soapy hand. She was kneeling next to Ino on the floor of the washroom, hand washing something that looked black, lacey and very interesting on her in my head.

I wanted to ask her where she was hiding it all these years but I had other things to say. Important and dramatic things that involved Sasuke the doctor and Sakura’s annoying habit of talking in riddles.

“Oh, no. You don’t know what overreacting is, do you?” I answered, shaking my head. “But no worries, - as soon as I recover from running up and down all those stairs for the last two hours, I’ll show you. You should have just told me!”

“That was a long time ago, Naruto. What was I supposed to say?”

“Oh, I don’t know. How about ‘keep your pajamas on’?”

“So you could panic while he’s there? That would've helped.”

She was right, sarcastic bitch that she was. I probably would have made an even bigger a disaster if I knew from the start. Just imagine, Sasuke trying to convince me to undress so he can examine me. I refuse. Then he looses his patience and tries to take off my pants on his own… Of course, I wouldn’t let him do that. Then we struggle and… wrestle?

In my bed.

Oh, God. I didn’t need that image in my head!

Okay, maybe it was an interesting and all sorts of hot, but having it flash before my eye somewhere far away from people would have been better.

Have you ever blushed so hard you wished you were dead? Or at least very, very far away from a specific location, with a convenient case of memory loss and a sombrero? Because right then and there, I was wishing for it fiercely.

It wasn't helping.

“I hate when the two of you are like this,” Ino said, not lifting her head. “I don’t understand a word of what are you saying.”

We ignored her. Sakura would probably explain everything to her later. Ino was not supposed to understand, it was the secret best-friends'-way-of-talking. I had mine with Sakura and Ino had her own with Sakura, the one I could never understand.

Besides, I avoided looking at her. With my luck that day, she was probably washing something black and lacy, too.

I sighed, and told Sakura, “Yeah, well, your effort didn’t help much.”

Sakura turned around to look at me. She finally realized that I really needed to talk to her, so she left the cloth soaking with Ino and gave me a sign to follow her.

“Okay,” she said when we were alone. “What did you do?”

The actual question was would have I done if Iruka hadn’t walked in. I do believe the answer for that would involve the word ‘wrestling’. A couple of times.

I couldn’t say that, right?

“Uh. I said something horrible about his marriage.”

“Naruto! Why?”

“Well he told Iruka I was crying!”

“Were you?”

“No!”

“So it was just teasing,” Sakura said, and added under her breath, “I can’t believe I said that about him.”

“I know it was. I panicked. I’m not handling this very well, am I?”

“No, you’re not.”

“What should I do?”

She sighed, “Was he angry?”

“I don’t know, he kind of just walked out.” He just walked out, not saying anything, not looking at me. “Probably.”

“Apologize. It’s all you can do.”

“And then?”

“And then what?”

“He is the hotel doctor! He’ll be around all the time! I can’t just turn around and run in the opposite direction every time I see him, people are gonna think I’m crazy!”

“I’m glad you figured that out all on your own,” Sakura said dryly, and then added, after catching the desperate hope on my face, “I don’t know, just… try not to fight with him. Or talk to him at all. Or look in his direction much. Or..”

“Yes, I get it. Just ignore him. And if he accidentally walks into the same room and heaven forbid he sneezes or do anything else to show that he’s alive and present, try not to panic.”

She sighed and used her most reasonable tone with me, “Naruto. What exactly is the problem here? Why are you panicking? I know you’re not homophobic.”

“I’m not. But this is about me! And, well, Sasuke!”

“It was about you. In high school. He’s married now.”

“Married for money.”

“Well, if he got married for money, he won’t risk losing it all by molesting you.”

“Who says that’s not exactly why I’m panicking?” I asked, before taking time to think about it.

Of course I didn’t take time to think about it. I am, after all, an idiot.

Sakura gaped at me.

“I’m kidding! I’m just kidding!” I said, but she had yet to close her mouth. I am a really, really bad lair. Her expression slowly became a smile. An inappropriate, mischievous smile then grew into a downright wicked grin, big enough to blind me. I didn’t like it one bit.

“No,” I told her. “Whatever you have in mind… No.”

She just said, “You should go back to bed, before Iruka finds you and drags you back.”

Is it just me, or was that not the ‘okay’ I was hoping to hear? Deciding to ignore whatever she said or try to make me do in the future, I turned to find my way back to my room.

She hadn’t help. I felt just as bad as I did before. Maybe even a bit worse.

Looks like there are things even Sakura can’t fix. Odd.

My leg started to hurt, so I walked slowly, this time taking my time to look around. I couldn’t really remember how to get back to my room, I had asked some maid and she told me where Sakura and Ino were.

Sakura was right, the hotel was beautiful.

Almost every piece of furniture was hand carved with different kinds of dark wood while others were painted white. Some parts were obviously older, while the rest looked brand new. There were dark hardwood floors covered with long rectangle rugs in some odd, but pleasant shade of maroon. The long hallway ended with a curved staircase on both sides, and two elevators positioned next to them. The windows in the corners were large, most were looking on the meadow and park behind it, but some looked upon the woods.

Armchairs and coffee tables were seated under the windows allowing the guests to have a breathtaking view.

When I finally found my way out that labyrinth, stepping from the staircase into the bobby on the first floor, I froze, perplexed.

It was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. An entire wall was made of glass, it looked like you could simply walk from the nice, polished floor, through the aisles of comfortable chairs and out into the woods. The trees were concentrated and obviously very old – not grown only to allow this view to the hotel guests.

In the middle of the area was a circular fireplace. It was too warm to start fire in it, but I could just imagine how it looked in the winter, snow outside, with a fire that could be seen from every corner, or where ever you decided to sit with a warm tea or cocoa in hands.

“Naruto?” Someone said from right behind me. It seemed I had been so lost in my little fantasy, that I never heard anyone coming.

When I turn around, big smile was already on my face, Neji had a voice that was not very easy to forget.

“This is beautiful!” I told him. His eyes shone with pride.

…And eyes, he had eyes that were not easy to forget. He actually reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t remember who.

“Thank you. It was redecorated last year.”

“It looks like you can just… walk out.” It looked like they were hiring only the elite to take care of this beautiful hotel. Those maids – or whoever wiped that glass – were doing a splendid job.

Neji nodded. He was so polite and serious, but I could see a little glint of pride on his face.

“It had been Sai’s idea. I’m glad I listened.”

Remembering what Sakura said about Sai’s pictures, I managed just a little, “Oh.”

Neji seemed to have known exactly what I was thinking about.

“I would never have believed it just looking at his pictures, but he actually has a very good eye. I told him myself, more then once, that he is wasting his talent."

I scanned the lobby once more and couldn’t help but agree, even if I never really saw Sai's pictures.

“Shouldn’t you be in the bed?” Neji asked, after a couple of minutes of silence.

“I’m fine. Iruka is just worrying too much.”

" And what did Sasuke say?”

I couldn’t help it, my eyes rolled on their own. They do that a lot.

“He said I don’t have a concussion, and the cut is healing nicely. So, yes, he also thinks I will not die just yet.” Although my leg kind of hurt.

“Naruto,” Neji said, all proper and official. “I really am sorry if he insulted you in any way.”

I smiled again. It was the decent, even if not entirely sincere, thing to do.

“I think that I said things much worse then he did. I actually owe him an apology.”

Neji looked a bit surprised, but he didn’t say anything else about it. He asked instead, “Did you see the rest of the hotel? I can show you around, if you want.”

“If you’re not busy.”

“I have some free time right now. What do you want to see first?”

I knew the answer to that, “Dojo.”

Neji frowned a bit.

“The place where you will be teaching the kids?” When I nodded, he shook his head. “No. I’ll show you that in the end. How about we go out in the garden? I believe breakfast is still being served.”

He turned around and started walking. I followed him, confused. Why did he waste his breath asking me at all, if he had it all planed?

The garden was nice, though. It was covered in case of sudden rain, and all the joists were wrapped in roses.

“This is our first time to be open in the summer season,” Neji was telling me. “Tenten and I have been working on it for couple of years, but this hotel is located here because there are a couple of very good ski runs nearby.”

He showed me with his hand up on the right and I saw ski tow in the distance.

“That is why there are only a few guests in the hotel. We need to make sure everything is perfect, so next year more people will want to come.”

“Did you try advertising?” I asked. Neji smiled at me, a bit patronizing.

“Of course. But it isn’t as simple as that. This is an expensive place. People want to hear from someone they trust it is worth spending their money here. Most of our guests at the moment are long term regulars – do you see those three people just rising up from the table?”

I looked. Two guys and a girl, all in their late twenties or so. The red headed guy looked to be around my age, while the other two seemed a bit older.

“The Sabaku family. Maybe you heard of them?”

I didn’t, so I shook my head.

“One of the oldest and wealthiest families in the country. Their father died last year – they were great friends with my father – and now there are only the three of them. We spent many summers together when we were young. They are here to give me friendly support. Among other things.”

I was just about to ask what other things were, but the Sabaku family was already near the door, where we were still standing.

“We've finished without you, Neji,” The girl said. “You rushed away without any explanation, and we weren’t sure if you were coming back.”

“That’s alright, Temari. Naruto, this is Temari,” I smiled at the girl. She didn’t smile back. “Kankurou,” Neji nodded on the older guy, who smirked at me. “And Gaara,” This last one just looked at me, no expression on his face at all. Creepy, I was thinking. I hoped he'd occasionally blink. Neji finished introductions, “My very old friends. This is Naruto, my newest staff member. He will be teaching the martial arts to the kids.”

“Hi,” I said and smiled again. I didn’t like them very much, but Neji was my boss, and he had been nothing but nice to me. I had to behave.

“Are you any good at it?” The redhead, Gaara, asked me.

After first perplexed ‘How can you be any good at behaving?’ brain wave, I had no idea what is he talking about, “Huh?”

“Martial arts,” he clarified without a trace of irritation. “Are you any good at it?”

Oh, that.

“Yes, I am.” It wasn’t bragging, I really was good. That’s why Kakashi offered me this opportunity. “Why?”

“There is not much to do here. We should spar sometime.”

He said spar, but it was very obvious he wanted a proper fight. That was just fine, maybe I could work out some of my frustration that way.

But I’d have rather if I could fight Sasuke.

“Okay,” I said,

Neji added, “Naruto had an accident yesterday. It will be a couple of more days before he can start classes.”

“I’m fine,” I told them all. My leg hurts but I’m just fine anyway so stop looking at me like that. “I just don’t want Iruka to worry. How long are you staying?” I asked.

“Five weeks,” Kankurou said.

“Then, if you’re still up for it, we could spar in a week or so.”

Gaara nodded, and walked through the door without another word. His brother and sister followed.

“It looks like,” I said to Neji once they were inside. “Gaara is in charge among them.”

“He took over family business.” That neither really confirmed nor denied my statement, but it sounded like it was everything I would ever want to know about that particular subject. So I decided not to ask anything about it. Just in case the family business is torturing curious people. Neji raised his eyebrows on me, “The kitchen?”

We walked through the dining room. It was big and freakishly white. The kitchen was behind the double door in the corner, and it was huge!

I don’t know if you ever saw how restaurant kitchens look like, but I most definitely have; I worked in several back home. And, well, back in the orphanage we had a schedule for helping in the kitchen. This one… it was bigger, cleaner and with every bit of equipment you could wish for.

Heaven… for people who liked kitchens.

Sort of a limbo for me. As much as I hate doing dishes, all that delicious food was coming from this place.

The chef was this huge guy, Chomaru. I think he had red hair, but I’m not sure; he had a big chef cape on, so only a few strands were showing. He was snapping at everyone in the room, if I remember correctly, four waiters and a woman.

We lingered only for a short time. Neji simply introduced me and then pulled me out.

“Chomaru is one of the top five chefs in the country.” Neji informed me. A bit of a show off, wasn't he? “He is a widower, with one child. The kid will be in your class.”

I nodded.

Neji added, “You will recognize him; he looks a lot like his father.”

I translated the fancy, polite talk and took that as ‘the fat one’ like I was meant to.

After that, I saw the gaming room and then, finally, Neji said we could go and see dojo.

“It’s just behind the swimming pool.”

We went through a hall with changing rooms and saunas to the pool first; the poolroom was full of people. In comparison with the rest of the hotel, anyway.

I saw Tenten right away. She was standing on the very edge of the water (in the most amazing little yellow bikini), bending a little and staring intently at some girl.

There were several kids in the pool, some swimming, some trying to swim with the help of a guy who had his back turned on us. Chomaru’s kid was sitting on the steps of the shallow part of the pool with a thin boy, just talking.

Tenten glanced at us when we came near and smiled brightly. A bit too brightly. I knew right away that Sakura was right, she was head over heels in love with Neji.

“Hi, Tenten!” I yelled over the sound of the splashing and chatter. She waved happily, and said something we couldn’t hear to the guy in the pool. He turned to look at us and nodded seriously. If I had to guess, I’d say she told him to watch out for kids, because as soon as he answered, Tenten came to us.

“Feeling better, Naruto?”

“If I say yes, you won’t bring breakfast in my room again. So… no. I feel awful. I’m in horrible pain all over.”

“Uh-huh,” She answered, “I’m glad.”

She’s glad I’m awful, or she’s glad I’m obviously lying and am, in fact, fine? She should have pointed it out, because I had no idea how to answer. Tenten turned to Neji, “He’s in a huff,” she said, jerking her head to the opposite corner. I followed it with my eyes. “Again.”

Sasuke was the only one sitting there. He was on a wooden chair, glaring at something in front of him.

“What’s he doing here?” I asked.

Tenten frowned a bit at me, as if she was considering if I really was that stupid or was I just having a bad day.

“He’s our doctor,” she said. Why did people feel the need to draw my attention to that fact? I got it. Sasuke is a doctor. The world was still spinning; it apparently wasn’t that big of a deal. “I would never take responsibility for the kids without a doctor around.”

Oh. When she put it that way, it made sense. But, that probably meant…

“You mean, he will be in my classes, too?”

“Will that be a problem?” Neji asked frowning, and I could hear annoyance under the concern in his voice.

I didn’t exactly need this job, but a good reputation would do me a world of good if I was ever to open my own club to teach martial arts. This was a perfect opportunity and I liked the place. So I said, determined not to allow something like this come on my way, “I won’t let it be.”

Now let’s just hope Sasuke will accept the apology I was about to offer.

I walked across the room, practically feeling Neji and Tenten watching me. It almost made me trip over my own legs.

When I stopped only few small steps from Sasuke’s chair, he was still glaring at the nonexistent something in front of himself. I followed his stare and, frankly, that spot didn’t look all that interesting to me. Except if it was the center of the Milky Way, or an invisible button for opening a portal into some other dimension, which was highly unlikely.

Very flattering, the fact that some air is more interesting then I am.

“Hey,” I said.

Sasuke didn’t even move a muscle.

Oh, it looks like he doesn’t remember me that well after all. I’m not so easy to ignore. Not when I don’t want to be.

I kicked him in the left calf. Not too hard, there were bunch of kids around, just to get his attention.

It worked. He eyed me coldly, in a very John Wayne manner, crooking his head just a little to do so. It made my toes itch with the desire to kick him again, this time hard enough to see, hear and smell the bone cracking. I restrained myself and rushed in before he could snap at me. Or rise an eyebrow, which would be almost as bad.

“I’m sorry. About what I…”

Sasuke’s eyes slightly widened, but the freezing quality stayed in them, and reflected in his voice when he interrupted me, “If your leg hurts, you should get back to bed.”

First he ignored that I exist, and then he ignored what I said? Sick and tired of repeating that, I growled, “I’m fine.”

“You were limping,” Sasuke pointed out.

“I wasn’t!”

He cocked his head on the other side.

“You were.”

Okay, maybe he was right. My leg was hurting, so it wasn’t impossible. But that doesn’t mean he can just… point it out like that.

“Whatever,” I said. “Can I tell Iruka you accepted my apology?”

“I’m sure you can.”

“Would I be telling the truth?!”

He nodded, once. Was that supposed to be an answer? If so, was it an answer to my question or was he just confirming that he knows what was I asking?

Oh, who cared? I'd just take it as a “yes, I forgive you, and it wasn’t all that bad in the first place” and get it over with.

It seemed a little stupid to just turn from him, so I said, “Well, okay then. I look forward meeting your wife.”

Sasuke let out a small sound in his throat that was somewhere between a snort and a sigh.

“You know her already, you moron.”

“I’m not a…” I started when what he said caught up with me. “I do?”

“She went to school with us. You shared classes.”

I felt as if someone pushed me under a stream of cold water.

Neji Hyuuga. Hinata.

“Hinata… Hyuuga.” I said slowly. How could have I missed that?

I remembered Hinata. She looked a lot much like Neji, down to that weird, too-pale eyes. I knew they looked familiar.

“Hinata Uchiha.” Sasuke corrected me.

I snorted, “Ha. I was right.”

“About what?”

“Only a saint would marry you.”

Maybe Hinata was not exactly a saint but she was the closest to being one from everyone I have ever met. She was sweet and shy. People had picked on her a lot in school. I liked her so I felt bad I didn’t realized that ‘Hinata, cute brunette from high school’ is same as ‘Hinata, Neji’s sister and Sasuke’s wife’.

Oh, hell. Oh, no. I had thoughts about Hinata’s husband. Naughty thoughts. That’s bad. That’s even worse then having thoughts about Sasuke.

I looked back at him. For the first time in this few days Sasuke seemed happy with me, his expression was… soft. Was it because I said Hinata was a saint? That was good, if he loved her so much, this attraction thing would be easier on me. I could ignore it. I've done harder things in my life.

But that soft, open expression looked good on him, even if he did his best to close up as soon as possible. Who knew Sasuke could look alive even when he’s not angry?

That thought made my insides cringe with guilt.

I would have to find something to keep my mind occupied. Perhaps a girlfriend…that would be nice. Or even a boyfriend, for that was obviously an option now. I couldn’t afford to be picky.

Options were limited, obviously, but even courting someone would help.

“Then, I’m looking forward seeing her again. You tell her ‘hi’ from me in the meantime, okay?”

With that, I left him to go back to glaring at that invisible spot. While walking back, I noticed those two kids, the chef’s and the other one with him, looking at me. I might as well meet them.

“Boys,” I said, halting behind them. “Why aren’t you swimming?”

The thin one looked up at me with narrowed, intelligent eyes and shrugged.

“Chouji can’t swim.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be learning, then?”

The kid murmured something.

“I didn't quite catch that,” I informed him.

Chouji glanced at the guy in the water who I assumed was Lee.

“He’s too thin. He can’t hold me on the surface.”

“He’s not the one who’s supposed to be holding you on surface, the water is,” I tried to explain.

“So, you think I should go there and try?” Chouji practically sneered at me, a challenging glint of someone who was too often pushed to do things he didn’t want to in his eyes.

“It won’t do you any good until you relax,” I shrugged, thinking that maybe he would try if Lee and I were both there. “I’m Naruto.”

“I’m Chouji, this is Shikamaru.”

“Nice to meet you, guys!” They smiled at me. I liked them.


Neji and Ten-Ten were deep in conversation when I finally got back to them. They stopped as soon as they saw me, and Neji raised an eyebrow at me.

“It looks like I know your sister,” I informed him.

“Yes, she told me. You shared some classes.”

“I’m afraid I never made the connection, and the two of you look so alike and all. I feel stupid.”

“You did have a rather awful car accident. Your head is hurt.” Neji said. It made me feel a little better. “Do you want to see…? What was the term you used? Dojo?”

“Sure. Then I’m going back, before Iruka come down looking for me.”

The entrance to the dojo was just on the left from us. It was a nice, big room with a plenty of light and an entire wall was all mirrors. Thin mattresses were covering almost the entire room, save for the space near the right wall where some chairs were lined up.

“Will this suffice? Is there anything else you need?” Neji asked.

I thought about it for a minute.

“There is just this one thing..."