This is my first crossover story, so I'm gonna try and hard and make this work. Please enjoy and R&R at the end, Thank you! :)
'Promise'
Chapter 1: Comatose Depths
It was a bright and beautiful day in Konoha. The sun beat down on the bustled streets of the village centre, where crowds of people mingled together, dealing with their every day lives. Two Genin ninja walked through the crowds, their eyes scanning the people around them. "Where the hell is he?" Sasuke Uchiha growled. One of his eyes were crimson, with three black tomoe sitting where the iris should have been. A sign that his family's blood trait, the Sharingan, was activated. But even with the Sharingan, he still couldn't find the person he was looking for. "You know, there's one last place we could try." Walking next to him, Sakura Haruno pointed in the direction she was talking about.
Sasuke smiled. "Ichiraku's". Sakura nodded. "Exactly. The one place where he likes to pig out in the whole of Konoha." The two ninja walked off in the direction of the ramen restaurant.
"Well done. You were right Sakura." The two ninja were close enough to the restaurant to see the occupants inside. Including the one they were after, with his unique, bright yellow hair and trademark orange jumpsuit. Naruto Uzumaki was sitting on a stool, eating his fifth bowl of ramen and reading something that looked like one of those porn manga's Kakashi read. "And what are we up to, loser?" Sasuke smirked. He tried to look to see if it really was one of Kakashi's books, but Naruto jumped out of his stool, a red blush erupting over his face. "What the hell? Why are you creeping up on me like that?" Naruto yelled, trying to hide the book behind him. "It's not one of Kakashi's, Sasuke." Sakura had used Sasuke's opening line as an opportunity to sneak around Naruto, peeking at the cover of the book. "Hey!" Naruto turned around, making sure he was facing the two of them. "Come on Naruto. Show me what it is." Sakura tried to put on the sweetest voice she could muster. Naruto gulped. "Listen, Hinata said it was good, so she lent it to me..."
"Wait, so it belongs to Hinata?" She didn't expect the book to belong to Hinata. If that was the case, maybe it wasn't so bad. Even she liked some of the manga's that Hinata seemed to spend her life reading.
"So what?" Naruto was eyeing her suspiciously. "Its surprisingly good, and maybe even you..." Sakura cut in. "Hinata has got a pretty good taste, so I'm not worried. But please just let me see which one it is, its not gonna kill you!" Naruto thought about it for a second. He slowly brought the book around from behind his back and handed it to Sakura.
"About time." Sasuke took a seat on one of the stools. "A bowl of ramen please." The restaurant owner nodded. "Coming right up."
"So what is it, Sakura?" Sasuke turned to face the pink-haired kunoichi, who was still staring at the cover. "Sakura?" He prodded the girl on the shoulder. "Earth to bubblegum head?"
Sakura shook her head. She turned the cover around to show him. "Love Hina by Ken Akamatsu." He read out loud. "Wait, I've heard about that. Wasn't there a TV show, an anime thing about Love Hina? That one the girls seem to love?"
Sakura nodded. "I've got the DVD box set of it back home. As does Ino, Tenten, and Hinata. Its one of those romantic comedy type stories." Sasuke's bowl of ramen was placed in front of him. He picked up his chopsticks. "So Naruto. You into chick flicks now?"
Naruto's head was buried in his arms on the table. "Its not what it looks like. I promised Hinata I'd read it, which seemed to make her happy." Ignoring Sakura's squeals of how cute that was, Sasuke swallowed the ramen in his mouth. "But just a minute ago, you said to Sakura that it wasn't that bad." Naruto lifted his head up from the table. "Well, its not like some of them, where its all soppy and clichéd stuff. This one isn't that bad."
"Whatever you say, loser." Sasuke held out his hand to Sakura. "Let's see if there's any truth to that." Sakura handed it over, how mouth slightly open in surprise. "What? Its not like I've never read a manga before." He opened the first page and started to read. "But you read the Shonen stuff, like Bleach. The boy kind of stuff. Not Love Hina." Sakura thought wildly in her mind.
But even so, Sasuke sat there, going through another five bowls of ramen while Sakura and Naruto chatted about the story. "It seems like he's getting into it." Sakura whispered to Naruto. He nodded in agreement and watched as Sasuke turned over another page. "What have we done to our little avenger boy?" Naruto shook his head.
"And what are we up to?" Out of nowhere, their sensei, Kakashi walked into Ichiraku's restaurant, sitting down next to Sasuke. "Ooh, and what's Sasuke reading?" He said, eyeing the book that was now hidden behind Sasuke's back. "Nothing!" Sasuke sounded a little bit embarrassed. "Sasuke, I've been your sensei for a while now. You should know by now that I'm a lot quicker than you. For example." In the blink of an eye, Kakashi had grabbed the book from behind Sasuke, who gaped at his now empty hands. "Love Hina, huh?" Kakashi nodded as he looked over the front cover. "A good book." He nodded as turned it over, reading the back. "Its been a while since I read this. Who'd have thought, Sasuke Uchiha reading Love Hina? Wait until I tell the other Jonins." He chuckled merrily, handing the book to a now enraged Sasuke. "Listen, I only read it because Naruto said it wasn't that bad." Sasuke crossed his arms. "Ah, so this belongs to Naruto?" Kakashi eyed the yellow-haired ninja, who was scratching the back of his head, an embarrassed grin on his face. "Actually sensei, it belongs to Hinata. She said I should read it and that I might like it. Its not that bad actually."
"The girl's got good taste." Kakashi nodded at a cook, who smiled at him. "That'll be one spicy chicken ramen, right Kakashi?" Kakashi nodded, his eyes betraying a look of pleasure. "Hey sensei, if you've read the manga, have you seen the anime?" Sakura asked tentatively. Kakashi nodded. "A few episodes, yeah. Some of us Jonins get together sometimes, and one night the girls thought it be funny to make us all watch Love Hina. And it wasn't too bad, actually. However, reading the manga's easier because I can fit it in with my hectic agenda." He picked up his chopsticks in anticipation of his meal.
"So I guess even the Jonins like this kind of stuff too." Sakura thought. "I wonder if the Hokage's seen Love Hina?"
…
Naruto was in bed, reading the last few pages of Love Hina that Hinata had lent him. "You know, this stuff isn't bad at all. And Naru Narusegawa really reminds me of Sakura. And I guess me and Keitaro have a few things in common too, like bad school grades and stuff." He closed the last page of the book. "That was great. I wonder if Hinata would lend me anymore of them?" He put the book on his bedside cabinet, turning of the light. He laid back on his pillows and stared at his ceiling. A yawn escaped from him as he tried to imagine what it would be like to have that kind of a life. Like the one Keitaro had, instead of being a ninja.
"Like that'll ever happen." He yawned again, closing his eyes. A few moments later he was sound asleep.
Underneath the seal on his belly, the Kyuubi chuckled. "So young Naruto. Do you really want to find out what its like?" The Kyuubi growled as it began to build up chakra. "This way, I can show Naruto my other form." One of its golden eyes opened. "Maybe Naruto will even accept me..." The chakra continued to build, slowly reaching its peak. "Let me show you the worlds you want to explore, and then maybe... I can show you my true nature, Naruto Uzumaki." The Kyuubi injected the chakra into the young ninja's chakra system. The boy began to glow with a bright blue aura. Naruto fell even deeper into sleep, deep enough to be comatose. "Lets go, Naruto." The Kyuubi closed its eyes, falling within its own genjutsu sleep.
Naruto suddenly woke up, aware that his surroundings were not what they were supposed to be. He seemed to be lying within a white fog. "Where... am I?" He looked around, still lying flat on his back. He sat up, feeling the ground. It felt wooden. "Definitely not in my room anymore." He stood up, still scanning around him. "What's that smell?" He sniffed the air around him. "Minerals?" He walked forwards, trying to work his way out of the fog. After a few steps, the fog began to clear up. He could see what looked like a small town. And he could see people walking around. "Maybe I could ask one of them where I am." He began to walk over to the small town.
Suddenly, he saw bright pink hair amongst the people walking around. "Sakura?" He began running to the familiar face, but stopped when he saw her walking with a group of girls. And she was wearing an odd kind of school uniform, instead of her usual ninja outfit. "Sakura?" He murmured softly.
He decided to tail her, just to see if anything else had changed about her. Thanks to his ninja skills, he remained undetected as Sakura said good bye to a few of the school girls around her who Naruto had never seen before. "What the hell is going on?" He wondered as she said goodbye to the last girl and began walking up a steep slope with stone steps, like an old temple. There were trees lining the side of the steps. Naruto chose to use the trees so that he could spy on Sakura without being seen.
It was quiet moving up the hill. Sakura hummed quietly to herself as Naruto jumped from branch to branch, tailing her like a shadow. After a few moments, they reached the top of the hill, where a huge apartment complex was sitting. A big sign above the front door read 'Welcome to The Hinata Apartments'.
"The Hinata Apartments?" Naruto thought. "It seems familiar... although it could just be I'm thinking of Hinata." Sakura had walked through the front double doors. "Crap. She's gone inside." He sat down on the branch he was on, thinking up his next move. "I can always sneak in. I'm sure nobody's gonna spot me." He looked around the apartments, scanning for potential entryways. "Let's try the roof, and work down, floor by floor." He stood up, jumped down from the branch he was on, and raced towards the building, jumping on ledges and climbing the walls until he got to the top.
"That wasn't so hard." He puffed. He took the steps going down into the top floor of the building. Scanning the hallway, all he could see were sliding doors. He walked past the first one, but stopped when he noticed there was a name on it. "Kaolla Su's room." He read out loud. He didn't recognise the name from anyone he knew. Moving down the hall, he passed another door, with "Motoko Aoyama's Room" written on it. Getting confused, he walked to the next door. This time, the name written on it was actually somebody he knew. But it wasn't who he was expecting. "Hinata Hyuuga's Room." He read off the plaque on the door. "Hinata's here too?" He shook his head, extremely confused. "What's going on here?" He internally whined. Moving off onto the next and last door on this floor, he read the sign balefully. "Naru Narusegawa's Room."
"Naru Narusegawa?" Naruto eyed the sign, recognition flaring into his eyes. "Isn't that...?" He was cut off from his train of thought by a noise. Somebody was coming up the stairs. "Crap, gotta hide!" Naruto looked around, but he couldn't see any good hiding places. "Nothing for it." He said as he opened Naru's door and quickly moved inside, closing the door behind him. Luckily for him, nobody was inside. The room was nice and wide, with a separate sliding door which he assumed was where Naru slept. But what caught his eye was the hole in the middle of the floor. "What's this?" He walked over to the hole, peeking inside.
It was another room, which looked almost identical to Naru's room, save for different personal belongings. And it looked as though nobody was in that room either at the moment.
"Keitaro!" A voice yelled right outside of the room he was in. It was a girl's voice, albeit it sounded like a really pissed off girl's voice. "Have you been in my room again?" The voice echoed through the room as Naruto panicked. "Keitaro!" He heard a hand on the handle of the door. "Crap!" Naruto jumped through the hole in the floor, landed as quiet as a mouse. "I'm gonna get caught if I don't keep moving." He heard the door sliding open. " I swear to god Keitaro, if I catch you in here, I'm gonna rip you limb from painfully bloody limb." Naruto heard a gasp as the occupant of the room looked around. "There's no one in here." The girl upstairs was talking to herself. Naruto heard the girl move over to the hole in the floor. He ran to what looked like a sliding door closet and locked himself inside.
"Doesn't look like he's down there either." The girl sounded as though she had stuck her head through the hole to look around. "But I could've sworn I heard footsteps in here." With a small thump, it sounded as though the girl had jumped through the hole. "Crap, Crap, Crap!!" Naruto's gut had begun flying loops at a hundred miles an hour. Beads of sweat rolled down his face as he heard the girl searching around the room. He listened as the sound of her footsteps stopped outside the closet he was in. "Well maybe it wasn't him..." The girl sighed.
Another voice echoed throughout the apartments. "Naru! Were you calling me? Shinobu said she could hear you all the way from her room." A male voice sounded like it was coming from outside Naru's door. "Naru, are you in here?" The sound of the sliding door reached Naruto's ears as the guy opened the door and looked inside. "Where are you?" The boy began walking around in Naru's room.
"Crap, he's in my room." The girl standing outside the closet Naruto was hiding in murmured to herself. "I can't let him see me in his room." The girl began pacing around. "I know! I'll hide in his closet!" The girl put her hand on the handle. "She's gonna come in! I better squeeze over to the other side of this closet." Naruto tried crouching down and shuffling along. A moment later, the close door opened and the girl squeezed inside. Luckily, she didn't notice Naruto crouching at the bottom. "This must be Naru." He thought. He couldn't see too well in the dark, but he could just about make out her figure. Slim, average height with a decently sized bosom. And from the looks of it, she had long hair. "She looks nice." He thought. Another thump could be heard from outside the close door. The guy, who Naruto thought must be Keitaro, must have jumped through the hole. "Well, she's not up there." Keitaro sighed. "I wonder where she went to?"
Naruto felt Naru shuffle alongside him. He felt a strand of her long hair brush past his fingers. He held his breath, trying not to give himself away. "If only Sasuke could see this." He thought wildly, his mind in a mess. "ugh... if he doesn't move, I'm gonna be in here all night..." Naru whispered to herself. It was weird, listening to a girl talk to herself when he was sitting practically right next to her, without her knowing. He smiled grimly, he had just thought of an idea. It would get him out of this mess quicker, and would be hilarious to watch.
He clenched and unclenched his fist, moving it into position. As quickly as he could, he pinched Naru's bum, making her scream and jump out of the closet, completely destroying the doors of the closet. He almost felt like wetting himself then and there. But he had to move before he got caught. In the blink of an eye, he raced out of the room and opened the sliding door of Keitaro's room.
"PERVERT!!" Naru screamed, rubbing her bum with one hand and punching every bit of Keitaro she could reach with the other. "N-Naru... I didn't..." Keitaro tried to explain through the punches. Naru opened her eyes long enough to see a flash of orange run out of the door to Keitaro's room. "Who was that?" She pointed to the now open door. "I dunno." Keitaro looked extremely confused. "And why were you hiding in my closet?"
Naru stood up, picking Keitaro off the floor. "Now's not the time to worry about that. We have a pervert on the loose! We have to alert the Hinata Apartments!" Keitaro still looked dazed. "A pervert? I feel sorry for whoever it is. I can still remember the time I was getting beaten up for supposedly perving over the girls here."
"Well, you had that coming. You saw me naked! How could I have let you go after that?" Naru growled as they both ran towards the common area of the apartments. "Oh yeah, I should've known not to mess with Naru Narusegawa, the queen of Ice of the Hinata apartments, who's blind enough not to be able to tell a guy from a girl while taking a bath in a hot spring." Keitaro said sarcastically. "Shut up, Keitaro." Naru said as she pressed the alarm button of the apartments.
I hope you enjoyed it. :)
Please review!