#kononaru

ok he got hot???? and i love hate it. I’d like to think it happened out of nowhere like over one summer when hes like 21 or something he just grows into a man, just BECOMES HOT. Like naruto’s away on a mission for a while and when he comes back some buff handsome dude with a deep voice bear hugs him and says “Naruto-nii chan i missed you” and nart’s like who tf are you…..and then hes like OH SHIT

Oh god, why not??

“Letter for you, Tsunade-sama,” Shizunesays, practically waving the scroll in Tsunade's face. She thinks that Tsunade doesn’tsee her steal the sake bottle in the same motion, but Tsunade absolutely does. It’sclever enough that she allows her first student to get away with it, though,casting Shizune a droll look as she accepts the message.

“Shouldn’t you be with Ankoright now?” she asks rather than commenting on the theft. “I thought you had adate. One of us should be gettinglaid, at the very least.”

One glance at the jaggedhandwriting on the paper is more than enough to distract her from her splutteringapprentice, though; her heart trips in her chest, and she can't help the smilethat spreads across her face, one hand coming up to touch the spot where hergrandfather’s necklace used to hang.

“From Naruto?” Shizune asks, andshe’s still very red, but she’s smiling fondly at Tsunade even so.

Now Tsunade is the one who wantsto flush at the implications, but. Well. All of Konoha knows about herattachment to Naruto by now, and if some of the civilians still mutter aboutdemons and better off if the beast wasdead in her hearing, they learn quickly enough.

“Yes,” she confirms, sliding anail under the wax seal to break it. “Jiraiya mentioned they were headedtowards the Ame border next—“

“What?” Shizune blinks, checksher clipboard—flashing the sake bottle she has stuffed up one sleeve, not that Tsunadeis going to mention that—and says with a confused frown, “A hawk brought thisfrom Kumogakure.”

A bad feeling slides down Tsunade'sspine like ice. “Kumo,” she repeats, already pulling the scroll open with alittle more haste than necessary as she tries not to rip it. The inside iscovered in Naruto's unmistakable handwriting, but before she can catch anywords a photograph flutters down to land on her desk.

Somewhere between horror andresignation, Tsunade picks it up.

It’s Naruto, and her firstthought is that he looks happy. Certainlyhappier than she’s ever seen him, though she had admittedly only known him fora few weeks before he left with Jiraiya. His smile is wide and bright and moresettled than before, like he’s beenhappy for a while and has adjusted to it, and his hair is longer, shaggy andbright around his ears.

He’s also sprawled across thelap of an older boy, who looks about twenty, at ease there and flashing thecamera a victory sign as he grins.

Tsunade's eyes narrow. One ofthe older boy’s hands is a curled around Naruto's hip a little too far fordecorum, and there's a flush on his face as he smiles a touch sheepishly. He lookshappy too, though, and dark blue eyes are resting on Naruto, full of a warmththat makes Tsunade's chest ache just a little with memory.

It absolutely doesn’t mean thatshe isn’t going to hunt this young man down and just…make sure that he knowsexactly how precious Naruto is to her.

“Naruto's growing up,” Shizune sayswarmly, peering over Tsunade's shoulder to see the photo. “He looks good.”

He does. Unexpected beau aside,he’s suntanned and wearing new clothes, some of the baby fat gone from hisface, with the lines of muscles where before he wasn’t old enough to developthem. Tsunade hums in agreement, turning her attention to the actual letter,and lets Shizune take the photo.

A bare handful of sentences inand she can feel her blood pressure skyrocketing.

“Shizune,” she says, and onlykeeps it even by saying it through gritted teeth, “get Jiraiya back here immediately!”

“Y—yes, Tsunade-sama, rightaway!” Shizune scrambles to grab up her things and bolt for the door, clearlyrecognizing the danger in that tone.

“Wait,” Tsunade says, an instantbefore the door closes. Shizune pauses, peering back, and Tsunade gives her asmile that’s on the edge of vicious. “Don’t even imply that I'm angry. I don’t want him to see the first punchcoming.”

Shizune’s eyes widen, and shecasts a startled glance at the letter Tsunade is holding. “Of course, Tsunade-sama,”she agrees, and closes the door behind her carefully.

With a low grown, Tsunade slumpsback in her chair and levels a narrow glare at the message. “Boyfriend,” she scoffs. “Jinchuuriki training. Ha. Heading to Suna for the Chuunin Exams. Godsdamn it, that idiot pervert has a hell of a lot to answer for.”

*dumps this in front of you as a distraction/tribute*

Naruto is pretty sure he has acrush.

It is absolutely, definitely noton any of the many assorted women Jiraiya has dragged him to meet in the name ofinformation gathering, even though he’s sure they're perfectly nice ladies. Buthe’s seen Jiraiya disappear into their brothels a few too many times forcomfort, and even when the pervert tries to hint that he should take one ofthem up on their offers to make him a man Naruto just plays dumb.

It’s kind of insulting that Jiraiyaalways buys it. Naruto might think at things differently, but that doesn’t makehim stupid.

He’s also not a perv like Jiraiya,so there’s that, too.

But, the last few times Jiraiya hasbeen otherwise occupied for the night—which usually means Naruto will actuallybe left to his own devices for the next week or so, until Jiraiya has burnedthrough all of his cash and whatever he can bum off of Naruto—he’s ended uptalking to the same stranger. Never at the same place twice, but—randomly. By theriver washing clothes, or in the market buying dinner, or at a ramen stand that’salmost as good as old man Teuchi’s,or at the best camping spot along the road.

After the third time, Naruto thinksabout being suspicious. He and Jiraiya are hardly falling a set path, afterall, and to keep bumping into the same stranger—that probably means something. But—

But he’s nice.

It probably says a lot, that Narutois still so unused to people showing him any sort of kindness at all.

“You must have been trainingpretty hard,” the man says, the first time they talk. He’s eyeing Naruto's scorched,battered clothes with something that might even be respect, and he meets Naruto'sstartled look with a smile as he tugs the blue scarf from around his neck.

“Uh, I try my best!” Naruto says,offering him a smile in return even as he rubs the back of his head a bitsheepishly. His clothes are in a pretty horrible state; Naruto isn’t sure he’sgoing to be able to patch them enough to wear, though Jiraiya probably won't noticeeither way. He might even start campaigning for Naruto to switch to being agirl again so they can travel that way. It’s not that Naruto minds being a girl, but he doesn’t wantto play eye-candy for his perv of a godfather. That’s just creepy.

“I could use some practice, ifyou want to spar,” the man offers. He grins, and adds, “I'm Kono—uh. I'm Konomaru!”

Well, that was…suspicious. Narutoeyes him for a second, but when he doesn’t sprout tentacles and fangs or startmonologuing, he figures the guy is probably okay. He’s not getting any weirdvibes off of him, at least, and Naruto even gets those off Jiraiya, as fond ashe is of the pervert.

“Nice to meet you!” he answerscheerfully. “I'm Naruto!” Jiraiya’s drilled him on not offering a last name—orhis status as a jinchuuriki, but Naruto would hardly tell anyone that willingly under pain of death—whilethey're nominally laying low, so he doesn’t immediately announce his dream,either. No need to connect all the pieces for him if this guy is an enemy.

But, when he glances up, there'sno sign of villainous posturing about to start. Instead Konomaru is smiling,gentle and almost fond as he looks at Naruto, and—

It’s really not a way anyone has ever looked at Naruto before. Not even Irukalooks at him quite like that.

A little flustered, he ducks hishead, pulling his black t-shirt off and dumping it with the rest of his thingsto be washed.

Konomaru promptly makes a noiselike he’s choking on his tongue.

“You okay?” Naruto askscautiously, watching him cough and turn red.

“Yep!” the man squeaks, in apitch way higher than any Naruto has heard since Kiba hit puberty. He fans hisred face with one hand, still coughing. “Sorry, uh, water. Went down the wrong way.”

Naruto's fairly certain he wasn’tdrinking, but he just shrugs and goes back to his clothes, debating whether toget his needle and thread first or just wash them. Probably better to see ifthey can be salvaged at all first.

“Are you a ninja too, then?” heasks, digging through his pack. He’s getting low on thread, but given howripped his jacket is from the last time he experimented with the Rasengan, it’snot going to matter.

“I am!” Konomaru sounds a lotcheerier. “I even made jounin at seventeen!”

He’s probably a bit over thatnow, Naruto thinks. Nineteen, maybe? “That’s awesome,” he agrees, grinning upat the man. “I'm going to make jounin soon too, believe it!”

“I'm absolutely sure you will,”Konomaru says, giving him that smile again.

They never get that spar, since Jiraiyaends up getting kicked out of town for propositioning the headman’s wife whiledrunk, but they talk the next few times they run into each other. Each meetingis a few weeks apart, in different villages, but it’s clear they're bothtraveling and Konomaru is delighted to see him every time.

It makes something warm twist inNaruto's stomach, and…it’s not the loud-bright pay attention to me that Naruto felt about Sakura. It’s a littlequieter, a little sharper, and sometimes when it’s dark he lies awake in hisbedroll and just…thinks about Konomaru.

It’s probably definitely acrush.

“You know,” Konomaru says onenight as they're setting up camp together, Jiraiya back in the town and waterfor ramen waiting to be boiled. (It’s Konomaru’s favorite food too, and Naruto thinksthat just makes him even more awesome.) “You said you're training with amaster, but…I haven’t seen him around.”

“He’s busy,” Naruto says, andkeeps it cheerful through long practice lying about things like that. It’s not precisely a lie, because Jiraiya isbusy, and he’s definitely doing important work, but—

Naruto just wishes thatsometimes their training was more than just being told what to do before Jiraiyadisappears again.

When he glances up, Konomaru is lookingaway, scratching at his cheek with a slightly uncertain expression. He swallowsnervously, glancing at Naruto and then away again, and says abruptly, “My—myname’s actually Konohamaru. Sarutobi Konohamaru.”

Naruto blinks. He takes in thefamiliar blue scarf, the faint flush, the face stripped of its baby fat, and—

“Like—like my Konohamaru?” Naruto asks disbelievingly.

Konohamaru flushes further,ducking down to hide the bottom of his face in his scarf. “I time-traveled tosave you,” he blurts. “And—and I'm going to help you save the world and then I'mgoing to save you because—because you'reBoss and you're my rival and definitely have to make it to Hokage again so Ican beat you…” He trails off, his face as red as the Hokage's robes, and makesa noise of despair. “Oh gods, I screwed it up, that was supposed to sound cool and I totally failed, Boss, I'm sosorry but you're so cute like this!”

Naruto is still kind of stuck onthe time-travel and save the world parts.

And the cute part. Definitely that.

But—

But that’s definitely Konohamaru,loudly berating himself for being so uncool, and Naruto can't help but laugh. Konohamaruglances up at him warily, like he’s just waiting for Naruto to take offrunning, but Naruto just offers him a smile.

“So where do we start?” he askscheerfully.

Konohamaru’s face screws up likehe’s about to cry, jounin or not, and he throws himself across the spacebetween them to slam into Naruto's chest, wrapping his arms around his waistand wailing, “Boss is still definitely the coolest!”

There’s heat creeping up Naruto'scheeks, but he just swallows and ignores it, patting Konohamaru on the head. “Savingthe world?” he prompts.

Konohamaru brightens. “I have alist!” he says proudly.

He does indeed have a list. And itstarts with tracking down another jinchuuriki and learning how to make friends withthe Kyuubi.

Naruto definitely gets thefeeling that he’s not going to be bored again for a very long time.