QOTC: Let's just say I have more other things to prioritize. Jealousy is not my thing. I trust my boyfriend.

- Temari to Naruto

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Chapter 54: Dirty Little Secret

"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!"

Naruto punched the wood in front of him. He jabbed the unweakened timbre, as if purposely waiting for his fists to bleed(which is a good way of sweating his anger out). "This. Is. Not. Happening!!!"

What had happened to the blonde??

Apparently it was one common regular Tuesday when he woke up sobbing and funking with alchohol. He should have considered it first trying to drink with Ino like that, especially Tsunade has forbade them minors to consume even an ounce of Sake. Beer, alchohol, shots, whatever them teenagers refer to it it was always a bad sign.

You can never know what happen.

Going back, Naruto would usually go for a morning jog trying to mantain his routine. But he was far too drunk and a bit of sleepy perhaps, to even stretch a leg. So when the doorbell of his usual crammy apartment rang, the sound sounded more like a fire emergency siren.

☪ Thε ᏆhᎥᏒᎠ Uςhïhα ☪

YOU WERE WARNED

EARLIER

He went down from the stairs, and answered it. As he twisted the doorknob, finally getting a glimpse of his morning visitor, instantly his body collapsed and dropped dead-likely into the floor.

"I'm not surprised," Temari said, entering like a princess not bothering to shut the door. "Ino is the main bitch of this town."

Naruto widened his eyes first, and before he could be on his feet, he had to put both hands to his mouth to prevent himself from barfing like a pregnant woman.

"Close the door, foxy. I'm here for Shika. There is something you need to know." Said Temari. She was wearing her casual black dress and red belt, her scrolls already wrapped in her back like a seat belt. He heard today was her leaving.

Naruto closes the door clumsily and smiled widely. "Temari, long time no see.." She knows.

"We saw each other three days ago."

"Oh." He puffed. "I didn't recognize you."

Temari looked over his apartment for a bit, a curious girl in a museum. There was a picture of him with Iruka standing, the day he graduated of the academy. It was one of the most cherishing moments he had with his gradeschool sensei.

"What do you remember?"

"Ino.. I guess." Naruto said, though he was sniffing something atypical since the moment she arrived. "We had a drink, talked about life and stuffs--"

"What stuffs?" Temari asked curiously, staring back with brilliant teal eyes.

"Life stuffs. How she used to look up at Shika as his best friend--"

"I know that he is her best friend."

Naruto, feeling overzealous, cocked a fascinating brow. "It bothers you, doesn't it?" He asked. "That Ino's desperately in love with Shikamaru. That jackass is lucky."

"Why would you think he's lucky?" Temari asked calmly.

"That he has two beautiful girls who love him. I mean it, even how much trouble he gets he's lucky to have you two."

"What about you?" Temari asked delighted. "You have Sakura and Hinata around."

Naruto gave a glass of water to Temari and sat next to her. He blushed. "Woah woah woah, can we just cut the part with Sakura? She has way "not-too-many" feelings for me. Don't try to change the subject."

Temari stared at him. She used to believe some other time she first met him, that there was no way this kid was going to have a chance to get a girlfriend. Now it's as if they have all bossomed into different, unique kinds of beautiful healthy flowers--not to mention his scent, which Leaf men nowadays couldn't get out of their house without wearing perfume.

He couldn't even believe that she was the one saying this, but the Uzumaki boy is truly handsome. She grabbed the water she requested, drank it. "Let's just say I have more other things to prioritize. Jealousy is not my thing. I trust my boyfriend." She added, "you, you better be on your best behaviour since not only one person is going to kill you once they find out you're screwing your relationship with Hinata."

"Hey, it was only talk. Ino and I didn't do anything." Naruto said, suddenly reality was popping and it was turning their voices from being pleasant to criticalness.

"I'm not talking about Ino, Naruto."

Naruto chuckled shortly. "You think I'm cheating. You think I'm cheating on Hinata."

Temari didn't want to do this, but it was what Shikamaru had told her of how it was done. "Try to remember the last time you were with Sakura. What did you guys do? Did you have fun? Did you drink?" Earlier this morning Shikamaru headed quickly to the Hokage Tower to appoint Tsunade of the news, and not to worry her that Temari was still inside the village.

Naruto, blinked his eyes and tried to sync everything in his nuzzy head. "It was--it was TenTen's birthday." He continued, processing the very night he knew something bad, at the same time magical happened. "I don't know.. Temari, I don't want to talk about this!"

"You are." Temari clarified strictly. "Because we are going to get on the bottom of this or else someone else gets hurt. We lie, all of us are in big trouble."

This is unfair, Naruto thought. Why was she even pushing him? But she had came here very quick without texting him, and so whatever message she was about to tell him could be urgent. He tried, several times he tried to pluck out those tiny pieces of memories, but in the end the details weren't clear--he was in a puzzle.

"She was crying.. Sakura... I--I was supposed to be with Hinata so we can be there when Neji proposes to TenTen, but she called me. She told me she needed me. I couldn't leave her there, Temari. I don't even know if someone's taking her. Everyone has their partners and she's all alone... As if it was all my fault I should have gone into her in the first place."

"So you left her."

"I asked Kiba to take her for a bit. It was the only way to make things right. It's awful, isn't it? When you love someone and you make bad choices." Temari was able to smile. "I called her and told her I'll fetch her. But she came in my house crying, and she couldn't tell me why. I've realized it was my best friend right there and I was so stupid of not seeing it. We used to be happy--best friends? I'm sorry if I still have to bring this up to you--"

"It's fine. Continue." Temari said casually.

Naruto sat against the couch looking debilitated. He inhaled and exhaled. "We ate ramen, made food, I even poured powder to her. Then something happened. I was trying to clean the dirt off her face, and she told me she was okay. I told her it's not and used my finger to wipe it. She started crying. She told me no one's ever done that to her before. That I was the only person who made her see the goodness in things."

Temari was listening, her eyes glistening.

"She told me she still loves me. I was confused--terrified, even. I don't remember the words but I know she said something like that. She said she chooses me. Chooses me over anyone."

"And you believe her?"

"She's my best friend," Naruto said, truthfully that somewhere cut Temari on the inside, "I'll always believe her."

"But she lied when she said she loved you at the Land of Iron, didn't she? You can't just believe on what people ask you to."

"It was one night, okay?? I'm sorry. If you're making me feel guilty of what I've done, fine. Something happened between us. But I'm not regret the fact that it did, because that's normal. It's not called cheating if it means personally ending your relationship, pervy-sage said it was just having fun. It's normal."

Temari wanted to break the flower vase on Naruto's head. She looked at Naruto with her mouth open for the first time. "Naruto, do you know what's happened to Sakura?"

"No, we don't talk much anymore." He spoke quietly, as if someone could be on the front door listening, sipping every legendary gossips that should never, ever be gone out. "I don't want Hinata to see us together ever again. It scares the crap out of me."

"You should," Temari nodded slowly, staring with her knowingly her next words would send his life in endangerment. "Naruto, Sakura is pregnant. She's carrying your child."

NOW

"Do that again and you'll break your hand." Kakashi said, reading his blue book.

"Go away, sensei."

"You know I've noticed quite something.. Sakura said the same thing to me, which I can only develop a theory that you.. Uh.. You two truly are meant to be."

"Shut up."

"Come on, Naruto, what happened to your whole plan of asking Sakura on a date?" Kakashi asked out loud.

"That was three years ago. Three. Learn to put the past behind you, sensei, it's not gonna happen."

Kakashi got down from the tree thanks to his teleportation. He walked closely to him, the spot where Rock Lee used to train his Taijutsu. There were still red marks scribbled upon the bright wood, red marks Kakashi doubted they now turn to blood. "But you two are my favorite students. Why not give it a try, hmm? You did try to court her."

"It was a mistake."

"You don't sleep with someone and name the whole story mistake. Believe me, I've read it in books."

"I. Don't. Care!!" Naruto said, finally he put one last blow to the tree. His punch exhumed the tree's trunk giving it a huge "O". He thought of something.

Kakashi, who was obliviously preoccupied upon reading, inhaled a bad scent of massive chakra. He gazed his eyes off from his book in hunchwork. "Naruto--!!"

"RASENGAN!!!"

The birds fled away from the sky.

Kakashi remembered when Naruto was just a little boy, smartly thinking he couldn't make a whole crowd evacuate all for the sort of a ball of wind, but Kakashi got himself wrong. Naruto could take down everything he sees, an object, a person, all that training had finally paid off. He went through popping waterballoons, cutting a waterfall in half, and all of those mentally strange dingy practices he did with Tenzō. Speaking of, he missed Yamato around scaring people.

"Yamato, look after this boy." Tsunade said, no longer seated in her chair.

"I'll go after him." Kakashi said, sighing. Unlike the others he didn't hurry. He just let Naruto vanish into the forest from the window.

"I got my best friend pregnant." He sat on one of the cut lumber, a spark of brokenheartedness. Kakashi want to mess around with him, but to know that the love of your life is pregnant is one of the most miraculous things. This could be the precise moment he could grab Sakura from the edge of isolation. "I'm sixteen, we're sixteen! She still has things to look forward to and I can't let her ruin it if she becomes a mother!"

"You think this is your fault."

"It's my fault, sensei. We're still not ready. I mean look at me, I'm stupid and weak and so naïve. You said it yourself, right? We're close at war. We can't have any distractions. I don't want any of my kids to grow the same way I did."

Kakashi smiled. Such a little knucklehead, always blessed with a good heart. "Naruto, don't you think--you trying to make all those decisions, wouldn't make you a good father?"

"Wait, what? No, you see, I can't hear you!! La la la la!"

Kakashi scratched his head in provocation. During Minato's age the Namikaze had never been like this, paranoid and tipsy as a fool. He was just getting back to his twelve-year-old self again. Minato was gaily delighted when he heard Kushina was pregnant.

Not that Naruto will ever know; he hasn't seen nor met his parents in sixteen years, making Kakashi wonder if there was anyone beside him governing him. Who will teach him to mend a baby's food? Kakashi gave a dark expression. Everything was going too fast. Will Sakura even accept Naruto, knowingly lying to him could be the greatest, biggest act of selfishness she could ever do?

They can pretend all they want, as long as the Nations would not cease to know the truth, and yet everything lies on Sakura's hand. Whether she will wed Naruto to make a fast decision--pull them out of their cages free, but sooner or later the truth shall come out like a flock of birds in the sky. And it was only a matter of when and how.

Necessary evil, Kakashi kept in mind, as he went back to the current situation. "Have you calmed down now?"

"I have a condition." He said, his face serious. "If I'm gonna marry Sakura, before any of this comes out, I need to speak with Hinata. See how she is doing. I'll tell her the truth myself."

"Of course," Kakashi said in fullfillment.

"Good. I'll be a responsible father from now on," Naruto said in promise, "will you help me?"

Kakashi smiled. They left the forest to hurry along the village, though something was creeping at the back of Kakashi's mind.

She already knows.

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3.24.15

TRIVIA

-Necessary Evil - derived from Jose Rizal's "Noli Me Tangere" by Padre Damaso

-All of Naruto's confession was all just Ino's mind compulsion.

- this is the first chapter Temari & Naruto ever bonded. Neji and Ino talked in Sasuke's Last Days, part 2