A pleasant evening
They had played for hours by now. After three matches against Ichiro, Shigeo proceeded to challenge him to a game. Some matches took longer than others, while some were resolved rather quickly, and not every one of those ended with Naruto being the winner.
Just when either of the three thought they had him figured out and won one match, Naruto switched up his seemingly non-existent strategy and frustrated them once again. Personally he found it funny. He was pretty sure Jiro got some amusement out of the fact that his brother ended up losing more often than usual after he had warmed up to the blonde and didn´t see him as a bother anymore.
Completely entranced in their evening, no one minded when Naruto called for a break. Calling the nice waitress over, he paid for a round of drinks, despite Ichiro´s protests.
“You don´t have to go through the trouble, Naruto-san.” He tried to tell him for the third time in a row after Naruto already ordered the drinks, but the blonde just waved him off, not minding it. He did get a generous pay a few days ago, so he wouldn´t mind inviting them for a drink.
“It´s not a big deal, Ichiro-san. We´re enjoying the evening and I don´t mind inviting the three of you.”
“Trying to get us drunk so that we´re even more confused by your strategies, are you?” Shigeo accused, quirking an eyebrow up lazily. The smirk that played at his lips told Naruto that this was meant as teasing though, not as a serious accusation, so he played along, humming and crossing his hands behind his head, turning his gaze away like he had been caught in his act.
“I have absolutely no idea what you´re talking about.” He smirked, and Shigeo huffed out a laugh, placing his next piece down on the board in his game against Naruto. Naruto only shrugged and played his next move as well.
Soon enough, the drinks were brought to the table and they agreed to let the board game aside for now. As bizarre as it might be, they ended up having a relatively carefree and very nice conversation, which mostly just consisted of Ichiro and the other two asking questions about Naruto, that he was happy to answer, as well as Naruto retelling some stories that caused amusement in their group.
It was a nice atmosphere, filled with laughter and warmth. Maybe it was the drinks that made them ease up, maybe it was the fun games of shogi they had, or maybe even the fact that Naruto was so open towards them that allowed them to be friendly with one another, eventhough they were strangers. Either way, for Naruto it didn´t matter. He enjoyed the fact that he had people to talk to and was privately reminiscing about the old days with his friends, since this brought up many beautiful memories from his time. It brought a smile to his face, small, but soft and all the more precious to him.
“So, Naruto-san,” Jiro hummed, gaining the blonde´s attention. The man tilted his head and looked Naruto up and down, not in a judging way, but rather like he was trying to evaluate him and figure something out that puzzled him. Naruto found that all three of the Nara mastered that particular look, since they have regarded him with it the entire evening.
“You´re not from around here, are you?”
Naruto blinked, slightly confused. “What do you mean?”
He vaguely gestured a hand at him, specifically at his face, like it would make Naruto understand. “You don´t look like you´re from the land of fire. The lighting country maybe or maybe even wind. You´re features are very different.”
Naruto shrugged, scratching the back of his neck in thought. He was definitely born here, but he did know that his father originally wasn´t from Konoha, and most of his features stemmed from his father, especially his coloring. Minato was, if Naruto remembered correctly, from the land of lighting. A small clan with mostly wind as their primary nature that got separated during the second war, something along those lines.
“Well, I was born here in the land of fire, as was my mother, but my father wasn´t originally from the land of fire. I think he was from the lighting country, but I´m not sure. It never came up and I never had the chance to ask.” Not with his father having died at his birth, and surely not during the time of the fourth shinobi war where he had been reanimated and their priorities had been something way other than father and son bonding.
Understanding those implications, the topic was dropped, afraid that it might cause Naruto to relive some painful memories, even if Naruto assured them that he didn´t mind talking about his family.
“Are those whiskers on your face scars or clan markings? I haven´t ever seen those before.” Ichiro asked, leaning slightly forward to scrutinize his face better. Going by the incredulous look Shigeo shot him that question was apparently insensitive – asking about one´s clan was a sore topic during these times, but somehow Ichiro showed absolutely no shame in asking Naruto whatever came to his mind. Naruto didn´t mind either, seeing as they were mostly harmless questions, and it wasn´t like any of them would find him if they searched for his existence anywhere. He did quite literally fall out of the sky and into this time around a month ago.
Naruto shook his head, instinctively scratching his whiskered cheek. He got those marks from having been a jinchuuriki´s child, is what Kurama told him. It wasn´t because of Kurama being sealed into him at a young age, since he had them from the moment he was born even before Kurama was sealed inside of him, so he supposed they were more birthmarks than jinchuuriki possession marks.
“They´re actually birthmarks, not clan markings nor scars. No one in my family had them either so it was a little unusual at first, but I just rolled with it.” He huffed and smiled, making his whiskers scrunch up in the way they always do. “By now, I don´t think I could imagine myself without those. It would look weird, to be honest.”
Whiskers were his signature mark by now, so not having them would feel like he was a completely different person. It´s like with his yellow hair. Being Naruto wasn´t all about looks, of course it was about his personality, his guts to never give up and his goal to break the cycle of hatred, like the character in his masters story, but by now anybody who saw him – at least in his timeline – knew who he was. This was his signature look and he wouldn´t change it, ever – even if he did think that he would look very handsome with his mother´s red hair color.
“They do seem oddly fitting.” Shigeo mused, regarding him a little longer before shrugging it off and taking a sip of his drink. “I, for one, would have thought they were drawn on by hand. They´re too even to be birthmarks.” The man argued, but Jiro scoffed and cut him off.
“I doubt that. He would need a steady hand to draw them so well.” He dismissively waved a hand as if his point was obvious, causing Ichiro to snort at his little brother´s words.
Naruto blinked in surprise, before recognizing the clearly teasing tone and play mocking. He feigned hurt and dramatically gasped, putting a hand on his chest in exaggerated offense. “Are you trying to tell me something here, Jiro-san? I´ll have you know that I have very steady hands and beautiful handwriting, thank you very much.”
Jiro, slightly tipsy, waved his other hand around, the one with the drink in his hand, and made a gesture as if trying to non-verbally convey his disagreement while rolling his eyes. “Please, you seem like the type of person who would spill the ink the second you tried to write something down.”
Huffing out a badly contained laugh, Naruto grinned. “Well, I´d hope that wasn´t the case, otherwise I would have blown my arm off way sooner. Good handwriting and excellent skill in calligraphy is needed if I want to keep my limbs.”
Ichiro frowned, leaning back in his chair a little to asses that particular statement, before tilting his head to the side in a thinking manner. “What do you mean?”
Raising his arm, Naruto gently laid it down onto the table before sending a small burst of chakra through his coils, exposing the few seals on his arms that he imprinted himself. Delicate black lines started spreading out over various places, forming seals that most people were unfamiliar with. Judging by the wide eyes of the three in front of him, they were as well.
Much to the blonde´s surprise, Ichiro immediately grabbed his arm – something he probably wouldn´t have done were he completely sober and not slightly tipsy as he was now – and pulled it close, running a finger down the black lines of special sealing ink on his skin. His eyes were wide in wonder and his chakra was spiking in awe and burning curiosity, so similar to Shikamaru´s when he found something new to hyper-fixate on that Naruto had to physically restrain himself from reacting and had to rule his own chakra in as to not overwhelm them.
“Amazing,” Shigeo breathed next to Ichiro, who was still inspecting the seals. Jiro had put down his drink to lean closer without spilling it over the table and was watching now as well.
“Such delicate seal work is rare. I can´t even begin to read half of whatever array you´ve drawn on there. And on skin too? I´ve heard that that was extremely dangerous for the chakra coils.” Ichiro was more muttering than actually speaking to them, but Naruto heard him wither way, so he answered.
“It is dangerous if you´re not careful,” Naruto confirmed, drawing up the eyes of Ichiro as he answered, “Sealing is something that requires a lot of patience, delicacy, but also a hell lot of guts if you experiment with them on or by yourself. It´s a hobby of mine I´ve started working on a few years back, so I like to think I´m rather good at it.”
“Good?” Shigeo huffed, rolling his eyes in exasperation, “If this is what you call “good”, I dare you to tell a seal master that he´s slightly above average. This is highly advanced. I have read some scrolls about fuuinjutsu back in out library after a mission and I couldn´t understand most of it, no matter how long I read through the scrolls. This looks like something I´ve seen in the restricted sections.”
Impressed, Jiro let out a low whistle. “Well then, I´ll take back what I said. You just didn´t seem like the type to sit down and spend time on perfecting something as simple as writing, but if that´s what you´re using your steady hands for, then I can´t argue with that.”
Naruto couldn´t really be offended at that. Rather, he was pretty amused, since Jiro wasn´t entirely wrong about that. Before everything, Naruto had hated anything that had something to do with books or scrolls. The mere thought of having to sit down and read kanji he didn´t understand and go through books like they were riddles always ruined his day. Back when no one properly thought him how to read until Iruka, studying had been a pain. And even after that, old habits die hard. Naruto had always been more of a visual learner than someone who could sit down still for long to read a book. That was more like Sakura, not like him.
However, after he found out that sealing was his heritage as well as the only thing that would allow him to save the world, since Zetsu could not be killed, only sealed, his interest sky-rocketed and spurned him on to learn and perfect the art.
He still had a long way to go, seeing as most studies on sealing vanished the same day the Uzumaki went extinct, and how most clan secrets and sealing techniques were taken into the fiery tempered seal master´s graves, but he was good at what he did. Impressive even.
With Tobirama and his father helping him during their time as reanimated shinobi, learning had been so much easier than just reading it off of a plain scroll.
He was ripped out of his musing when he could still feel the calloused finger of Ichiro trace his sealwork, as if it would give him the answer he was searching for whatever question he might have. Naruto didn’t mind the touch, not really, but Ichiro seemed so absorbed that Naruto was beginning to worry if the man was alright.
Jiro, apparently noticing his worry as well as his brother´s odd behavior, tapped the man´s shoulder and pulled him back, effectively removing his hand from Naruto´s arm. That seemed to startle Ichiro awake from whatever trance he had been in, but before the Nara could say anything to explain himself, Jiro clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes. “Seriously brother, you accused me of not having manners but then you go ahead and latch onto the poor man´s arm. Lay off your analyzing for now before you scare Naruto-san away.”
The blonde chuckled, dismissively waving a hand to show that it was alright. “It´s fine, Jiro-san. I don’t mind. However, I do think we had enough drinks for today.” The last part was admitted a little sheepishly, since Naruto forgot that not everyone had the same tolerance for alcohol that he did. Just because he couldn´t get drunk, didn´t mean that others couldn’t, after all.
Ichiro blinked, paused for a second, and then proceeded to startle at his own actions, the tips of his ears turning red in embarrassment ever so slightly. His chakra flared in what felt like shame and regret before he quickly spoke, trying to keep his composure as well as possible. “Oh – I apologize. I hadn´t meant to be rude –“
“I already told you, it´s fine. I could tell that you had no bad intentions, so all is well.” He flashed a bright and reassuring smile at the trio and could immediately feel the relief take over and lingering shame in their chakra vanish. At the same time, he let his own chakra flow out slowly, making the dark linings on his arms disappear as if they had never existed in the first place. Ichiro watched in awe and with wide eyes as they did, but Naruto simply brushed his attention off as interest in the art of fuuinjutsu.
“So, how about we put those drinks aside and play some more shogi? The sun has set only a short while ago, and unless you have anything to do, I´m free to stay some longer this evening.” Naruto suggested, placing down his empty cup and leaning forward with a nod towards the discarded board. The pieces were neatly arranged on top of it with none being out of place.
Jiro groaned, letting his head fall on the table with a dull thud, utterly done with the blonde. “The fact that you drank more than either of us and are still completely sober is unreal. Share some of that ridiculous alcohol tolerance with us, would you?”
He chuckled in response, letting the youngest Nara groan about the unfairness of his genes, not bothering to correct him that it was the work of his dear friend.
The board was placed in the middle of the table once again and Shigeo was the first to play against him, claiming he wanted to give the other two at least some time to sober up before they had to play against his confusing strategies. Out of the three Nara, he had drunken the least, careful to be aware enough to get the two of them home safely should something occur, even if there was a slight flush in his face.
Meanwhile Ichiro was watching the two of them converse like a hawk, dark eyes trained on Naruto with his thoughts running at high speed. His mind was still stuck on the beautiful fuuinjutsu work, something that could almost be called art, on the blonde´s arms. In the end, that confirmed that he at least had a hand in shinobi business, despite the lack of callouses and scars on his skin. Ichiro had checked, after all, when his fingers had traced the black ink.
With a shake of his head, Ichiro perked up and leaned back. “As soon as you´re done, Shigeo, I want to challenge Naruto-san as well. A little alcohol won´t hold me back from solving a puzzle after all.”
Naruto turned his head in curiosity at the burning feeling in the man´s chakra, blue eyes trained on the man the feeling stemmed from. A sensation that he couldn´t quite identify as a specific emotion, but something that came dangerously close to something feral. A crackling need that constantly seemed to reach out towards Naruto in a way that made Naruto pull his chakra back in order to avoid a clash. Mixing their chakra signatures in Ichiro´s tipsy state wouldn´t do the man any good, especially not when Naruto´s chakra was so potent upon contact. It might cause him to feel disoriented.
Ichiro seemed to dislike Naruto pulling away like that, because his features twisted into something akin to disdain and his chakra lashed out again in hopes of tangling with Naruto´s, to no avail.
Shigeo, unaware of the subtle skirmish that was going on between the two, chuckled and clasped a hand onto Ichiro´s shoulder. “As you wish. I´ll win this match and leave blondie over here to you then.”
Glad that whatever short scuffle between them seemed interrupted, Naruto purposefully shifted his attention back to the green eyed man, raising a brow at the bold statement. “You seem confident, Shigeo-san. I´m pretty sure our last match ended with me as a victor.”
Scoffing, the man pinned Naruto with narrowed eyes and pointed a finger at him accusingly. “I´m telling you, that was luck. Had I seen that one move you pulled beforehand, I would have won.”
“Then prove it.”
“Oh, I will.”
.
Shigeo did, in fact, not prove it.
Naruto won.
Jiro cackled loudly at his friend´s defeated expression and agitated grumbling about unfairness, only stopping when Shigeo whacked him over the head and caused the man to lose his balance slightly, threatening to crash face first into the table.
Meanwhile Ichiro was switching places with Shigeo to have better access to the board and play the next round against Naruto.
“Actually, Naruto-san, I have been wondering for a while. You´re playing style is rather unorthodox and all over the place. Who taught you to play like that?” Dark eyes clashed with cerulean blue, the former filled with curiosity, even if it was anything but innocent.
Naruto had noticed. Whatever was going on with Ichiro, most of the man´s questions were asked with intent, as well as pretty personal. Like there was something that just itched Ichiro to find out more about Naruto. The question about his clan, the questions about his friends even before the topic of the clan markings came up, as well as the fixation on his seals. Up until now he had brushed it off, thinking it was simple Nara curiosity, however neither Jiro nor Shigeo were acting anything like that at all. This was simply coming from Ichiro, which was a little unnerving.
“I taught myself,” Naruto answered, despite his inner thoughts. After all, as he had told himself pretty often during this day, there was no harm in disclosing information like this when all the people he mentioned had never existed in the first place. Nothing that he retold or mentioned in his stories could be confirmed, since they have never happened in this timeline. No relations or family members of him would be found, for none of them have been born yet.
“My friend insisted that I learned how to play shogi and wouldn´t stop leaving me alone until I did. I´m pretty sure he regretted wanting to play against me in the end, claiming I was too much of a headache to play against.”
Ichiro hummed and moved the first piece. “The same one that said you were too unpredictable.”
Naruto blinked, confused, before remembering that he had mentioned Shikamaru once before, even if it wasn´t by name, before he had even sat down at their table. “Yes, that one. He´d carry one of these boards with him in a storage scroll most of the time, whenever we weren´t on missions. It was a nice way to kill time.”
There was no answer for a while after that. Only the background noise of the people around them dining and drinking, as well as the bickering of Jiro and Shigeo, who both seemed to be entranced in their own conversation to pay enough attention to Ichiro´s and Naruto´s game.
“You speak of him in the past.” It wasn´t a question, even if it was spoken in a tone that prompted Naruto to deny or confirm his claim. The Nara´s eyes were downcast now, not daring to meet the expressive eyes of his opponent, and Naruto could only frown sadly at the astute observation.
“Yes,” he sighed, “I do. He was a good friend, my right hand and advisor. He passed in battle not too long ago. Doing this,” he gestured to the table and the three Nara, “playing shogi again and simply spending time with someone. I haven´t done that in a long time, but it was a pleasant reminder of him.”
He smiled this time, eyes crinkled in sadness and quite grief. “So I thank you for this. This day makes me very happy.”
This time it wasn´t bright like the smiles from before, but Ichiro could still feel the heavy affection and that deep and unconditional love behind that expression. Something deep inside his stomach twisted and for some odd reason, the Nara felt – jealous? No, jealous wasn´t the right word for this sensation, but it was a sense of longing, but also happiness and relief, as well as feelings of bitterness – of whoever had managed to earn himself the unyielding affection of this man.
It was unnerving, to feel like this despite not knowing why.
Ichiro blamed it on the alcohol.
The Nara let out a measured exhale, careful as not to give too much of his weird mix of emotions away to the young adult who admitted to being able to sense emotions.
“I´m sorry for your loss.”
Naruto hummed, not gracing that with an answer. He wouldn´t say that it was fine, because it wasn´t, but Naruto had learned to live like. After all, as long as Zetsu was still out there and as long as the end of the world was still a possibility, Naruto couldn´t allow himself to let grief slow him down. Shikamaru himself would probably whack him over the head if he lost sight of his goal because of his death.
The thought amused Naruto, causing him to smile a little.
“Me too, Ichiro-san.”
Silence fell over the two once again, and this time it was more comfortable than before. The background noise was calming, as were the rhythmical clicks of the pieces being set down on the board. After broaching the topic of Shikamaru, both Naruto and Ichiro came to the silent agreement to let the rest of the game play out in silence in order to give Naruto some time to recollect himself.
Besides, with how woozy Ichiro seemed to be, the silence seemed to do him good in order to concentrate on the game better.
By now, Shigeo and Jiro had finally joined their game and abandoned whatever bickering they did before, so now Naruto enjoyed himself while listening to Jiro´s drunken commentary – turns out the youngest of the Nara was a loud and outgoing drunk, which, honestly, was absolutely hilarious – as well as Shigeo´s occasional comments on Naruto´s playing style.
Ichiro was frowning at the board in concentration, as was Naruto, as the last few pieces that had not yet been taken out of the game were moved. Currently, the ravenette seemed to be on the winning side, which Naruto personally found unacceptable.
The shogi battle was heated and both players weren´t about to let the other win, until Naruto finally found an opening to strike.
With a triumphant grin, he took the shogi piece into his hand. Seemingly at the same time, Ichiro realized that he had been baited and promptly cursed in tandem with the shogi piece being placed on the board with a loud and final click.
Naruto leaned back in his chair, all smug and smirking at his opponent, tucking his hands. “I think this round goes to me.”
The cursing had stopped, but now Jiro was loudly commenting on his brother´s failure, laughing at the pinched look on his face. “You´re amazing, Naruto-san! It was about time someone humbled brother and he lost against you more in the past few hours than against me in the last few months. Teach me your ways – ack!” Cue to Ichiro shutting his brother up with a nudge into his ribs and a snarl on his face. Judging by the force, that nudge was definitely going to bruise, making Naruto wince in sympathy.
“By now you already more than humbled our dear Ichiro, blondie.” Shigeo joked, twisting out of the way when Ichiro tried to jab him over the table as well.
That drew a chuckle out of Naruto as he watched the almost domestic and friendly scene. Jiro was whining about the jab into his side, Ichiro was closely analyzing Naruto´s last few plays and trying to figure out where exactly he had gone wrong and Shigeo was leaning back and teasing Ichiro about his loss, who promptly commented back about him losing as well.
When he finally found where he had gone wrong, Ichiro let out a long suffering sigh, rubbing his temples as if trying to get the newly acquired information ingrained in his brain, as well as to massage the oncoming headache away. “Seems like I still have a long way to go. I´m sure I would have noticed what you were doing had I drunken a little less, though.”
“Excuses, excuses,” Shigeo drawled, dismissing him with a lazy wave of the hand, “Just admit that you lost.”
“I do admit that I lost,” Ichiro argued, “But I also think that I wouldn´t have were I sober.”
“Then how about a rematch on another day? Once you´ve sobered up,” Naruto offered, tapping the board and gaining the attention of the three Nara, whose eyes immediately turned to him.
He ran a hand through his hair, pushing the blonde strands away from his face and smiled at them in an open gesture. “I wouldn´t mind a repeat of this? The three of you are good shogi players and even better company, that´s for sure.”
Ichiro huffed out a laugh at that, also sending a smile of his own at the blonde. For once, it wasn´t smug like it had been during their games, nor was it that all knowing smirk. It was a genuine smile that showed that, to a certain extent, the Nara thought the same of him.
“I do admit that I could learn a lot from how you play, so I wouldn´t mind meeting up again. What do you say, Shigeo?”
Purposefully skipping over Jiro, who was probably barely coherent enough to follow the conversation but not fully able to give a proper answer, the oldest brother turned to Shigeo, who hummed in thought. "I wouldn´t mind either. Besides, blondie over here is interesting, isn´t he?”
Naruto didn´t mind the new nickname Shigeo had for him. It wasn´t really creative, but he had worse.
That thought however quickly left his mind because of his mind latching onto the last part of that answer. That sentence was spoken in a lowered voice and Naruto wasn´t even sure if it was meant for him at all, going by the way the older leaned towards Ichiro and directed it towards him exclusively, but with his enhanced hearing, it was hard not to, really.
Not knowing what it meant exactly, Naruto tilted his head to the side in a confused and slightly curious way, letting his eyes linger on the two. He caught the reaction of Ichiro, who seemed to frown for a split second before shooting a rather exasperated look towards his comrade, chakra swirling and mirroring his expression.
The look was gone just as quickly as it came though, promptly replaced with a sigh and another rub at his temples. “Then that´s settled, we´ll meet up again, Naruto-san. For now however,” he trailed off, eyes wandering over to his little brother. Naruto´s own gaze shifted to the youngest Nara as well, taking in the state he was in.
“I think it would be best we take my little brother back to the compound, before he starts to cause more of a ruckus than he already has. He´s always so troublesome when drunk, being a lightweight.” The man groaned, but by the way his chakra twisted and turned around his younger brother, Naruto could feel the fondness and the protective feelings he had for Jiro. The feeling was heartwarming, as was the sight of Ichiro gently playing a hand on Jiro´s shoulder to get his attention.
Naruto huffed fondly at the sight and helped Shigeo pick up the pieces and store them away. There was a storage scroll lying ready next to the man, where the shogi board had been transported in, so together they put it back inside.
The three men moved to stand up together while Naruto quickly paid after continuously persisting to do so. Too tired to argue, the Nara let him.
Once outside, Naruto stood before his new shogi partners – he was hesitant to call them friends just yet, seeing as they had only met once. For Naruto, that was enough, but he wasn´t sure if the three Nara would be okay with that label, especially since they were shinobi. Simply befriending strangers, other shinobi at that, was not easy. Relationships like that were often accompanied with suspicion at first – and grinned at them brightly, whiskers scrunching up.
“Safe travels back to your compound, you three, and I´m looking forward to our next matches. I´ll be lingering around this area for a while, so I´m sure we´ll run into one another soon enough.”
Naruto held out a hand to the trio in front of him, watching them with a fond gaze. Shigeo and Ichiro were both supporting Jiro, whose face was completely flushed by now. The men on each side looked long suffering while the youngest was loudly and enthusiastically answering Naruto, saying that he also looked forward to Naruto “beating his brother´s ass again.” His words, not Naruto´s.
Ichiro scoffed, ignoring his younger brother´s comment, and reached out as well, grasping Naruto´s hand firmly in his and shaking it with a small but genuine smile on his face.
“Safe travels to you as well. You do seem sober to me, but after drinking this much with us who knows what could happen.”
Naruto laughed light heartedly, “Ah, don´t worry about that. My home isn´t all that far away, I´ll be sure to be careful.”
With that, Ichiro let go of his hand and the three Nara made their way back to their compound, each giving their goodbyes.
Naruto smiled softly. He looked forward to seeing them again, hopefully soon, but for now he had other things to prepare for.
Shaking his head, Naruto quickly turned his gaze away from their retreating back and faced into the direction of the mountain. A lot of time has passed by now and the day of the meeting with Uchiha Madara was coming closer and closer. As much as he appreciated the time with the Nara, he would have to focus on that first.
And for that, Naruto knew just the right person to turn to.