Chapter 12
Naruto was freaking out.
He’d never made a girl cry before. He’d never made anyone cry before.
She was so pretty.
That was the first thing he noticed about her.
She looked lost. Her eyes were half-open and glazed over. Her mouth hung open as if ready to spill the secrets that were hiding behind her green orbs and he had felt--
He had felt the tug.
Naruto didn’t quite understand it. What made him go over there. It was...like something familiar and whispering. The smell of ramen. The sound of the rain on the roof tiles. The way his jacket fit neatly over his shoulder blades, settling in all the right places.
She was home.
He just needed to get to her.
Her eyes had seared into him when they settled on him. He had felt something click then. A neat snick, a shutting of a door, the opening of another. Her eyes had burned into him like fire and he wanted to fall into her embrace and breathe her in, tuck her close and never let go.
The girl’s tears were like a cauldron of ice-cold water being thrown over him and he rushed, the panic in his chest uncontrollable, trying to calm her down.
“I didn’t mean to upset you!” He says, nearly in tears himself, his hands shaking as he smoothes her tears off her cheeks. He breathes a shaky sigh of relief when she stills, scorching green eyes settling on him again.
There was something ancient in those eyes. Like she had seen far too much, far too quickly. All too similar to Jiji and he wondered for a moment--just for a inkling of a second--if maybe, this girl, this girl was--
“I’m okay now.” She whispers. Her voice is raspy and low and it sounds so much like warmth, he nearly tears up again. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
“But--But--” And he can’t explain it but, “Of course I do!”