Blindsight

Chapter 9

by Methinks

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It was turning out to be a long trip, though so far it hadn't been as bad as Naruto had originally feared. The heat of the desert, for once, was turning out to be an ally as her sweat diluted the scent and washed the perfume away. That she was riding on Gamakichi's back instead of his was another relief as the added distance did much to calm him down.

Neither the toad or Tayuya had taken well to the idea when Naruto had originally suggested it. Their argument had quickly degenerated into flat-out yelling as the two ignored Naruto completely and shouted insults at the other. Finally, after languishing in the desert heat for the better part of an hour, Naruto had snapped. He couldn't carry Tayuya, he explained, because as they had found out on their way to Suna, carrying her on his back put unwanted pressure on her leg. He wasn't about to let all his work, and her improvements, become undone simply for the sake of her pride.

Unfortunately, he didn't have a similarly reasonable argument for Gamakichi, so he just promised the frog the biggest meal he had ever had. The glint in the summon's eyes told Naruto that he was going to greatly regret turning him into a 'slimy wart-ridden over-sized lunch item.'

Naruto had tried to forestall any more comments by setting off but that only sparked the redhead's ire in his direction, as she demanded to know just where they were heading. Apparently she hadn't appreciated hearing he had no idea. His hasty defense explaining how he had been simply trying to decide between Konoha, Tanzaku Gai, and Wave had been drowned out by a wave of insults regarding his apparent indecision, insults the irate Gamakichi quickly began adding too.

Fortunately their tirade hadn't lasted too long before the two had realized they'd been agreeing on something and shut up. They'd begun making good time towards Konoha after that. They had slowed down as the sun reached it's zenith, the heat had become too much for them to safely continue at the same pace, but the moment the sun began to dip down behind them, Naruto had picked up the pace again and it was with no small sense of relief that they entered the borders of River Country and the desert began to give way to forest.

Naruto had set a due easterly course in order to escape the desert as quickly as possible; he didn't want the recovering Tayuya to spend any more time in the desert heat than necessary, and forced himself to move faster as their path turned to the north-west. He was determined to reach Fire Country territory before stopping for the night.

The sun had been down for several hours when they finally crossed the border into Naruto's home country, fortunately without discovery by one of Konoha's patrols. They ran for another hour before Naruto finally called a halt, much to the relief of both toad and passenger. Dropping his pack, he helped Tayuya down off Gamakichi's back. With another look of disgust, the frog tossed the rolls he had been carrying on the ground at the two human's feet before dismissing himself sullenly. Naruto sighed; he was going to be a pain in the ass to deal with for a long time. Gamakichi would get it over though – or so he hoped. He really didn't want to have to argue like Jiraiya did with Gamabunta every time he summoned Gamakichi for something.

Thoughts of the toad quickly disappeared, however, as Naruto collapsed backward onto the ground with no small relief, joining Tayuya on the leaf covered soil. Contrary to popular opinion, he was not Rock Lee and could not run for days on end without breaking a sweat - even with the fox. He just recovered from it afterward near instantaneously.

"So... have you decided yet?" asked Tayuya.

Naruto looked over at the redhead, who was now sitting up and playing nervously with a twig she'd picked up. "What do you mean?"

"Well, we're headed towards Konoha, aren't we? That's what Lunch Meat was saying at least. That we were going to make it there by tomorrow at this rate."

Naruto shook his head. "Nah. We're actually headed to Wave Country. I have friends there we can stay with while we try and figure out what you want to do. It's out of the way of both Oto and Konoha so there's very little risk of discovery. The country's rather small, but the town we're going to is a big trade hub so it should be easy for you to blend in. Plus, the weather's supposed to be beautiful there this time of year. It's about as perfect a place for you to rehabilitate as any."

"Why not Konoha? Don't you need to go back there? I..." She paused hesitantly before muttering almost too quietly to hear, "I don't want to get you into any trouble. You've already done more than enough for me."

"You mean besides everything I just said? For starters, I still have about another two weeks before I need to be back in the village. And it'd just be plain stupid to take you there anyways."

"Are you calling me stupid, fuck-head?!" she snapped.

Naruto sighed. Why did he always have to pick the touchy women? "No, Tayuya, I'm not. But just think about what you're saying for a minute. While there wouldn't be any problem getting you into the village – Temari forged some papers for you that will get you past the guards easily – what would you do after that? I suppose, if you wanted to, you could probably stay in Konoha with very little risk of discovery. Keep your head down and blend in with the civilian populace and in all likelihood no one would be the wiser."

"Then why not just do that?" She asked, her voice becoming slightly dangerous. "Why can't I stay in Konoha with you?"

Naruto dropped his head back down, his voice going uncharacteristically quiet. "Because if you do that, we can never see each other again. People would start to notice if I started seeking out some foreign civilian and then they'd start asking questions that you don't want to answer. Plus, if you stay with me, eventually you will be recognized. The other four who went on the Sasuke rescue mission with me are still good friends and they all have good memories."

Tayuya was silent for a moment. "You never told me you went on that mission..."

Naruto shrugged. "I didn't think it was all that important."

"I guess not." She paused. "Which one were you? Wait, don't answer that. You were the blonde dumbass in the bright fucking orange, weren't you?"

Naruto laughed. "That would be me."

She gave a small chuckle. "Which one of us bastards did you go up against?"

His smile fell slightly, "I fought Kimimaro for a little bit before reinforcements arrived. Once they did, they took over and I went after Sasuke."

"What happened then?" she asked quietly.

"We fought until he activated his level two... he beat me and escaped," Naruto said sadly.

"I'm sorry..."

"Forget about it. You were right, he would have left us even if you hadn't been there," Naruto said grimly. "It was his fault, not yours."

She laid back down on the ground beside him. "Tell me another story."

At that he cocked an eyebrow. "What?"

"This is getting too fucking depressing. So tell me a story."

"Let's see here..." An idea popped into his head and he smacked a fist into his palm excitedly. "How about when I finally learned how to water walk!"

"What's so interesting about that? Even the worst genin knows how to do that." He felt himself blush and she burst out laughing when he didn't jump to defend himself, "No way! You're telling me that you couldn't water walk?!"

"Shut up! I turned out all right, didn't I?" he yelled.

She scoffed playfully. "That's a matter of opinion!"

"So cruel...!" She laughed and he smiled, it sounded even nicer with her healed throat.

"So, what happened?" she asked between giggles.

"It was during the break between the second and third rounds of my first Chuunin Exam, the one you guys attacked. My normal sensei had decided to focus his attention on Sasuke and had passed me off to another Jounin teacher and a closet pervert..."

Naruto felt a lot more relaxed than he had in a long time as he told her all about playing tag with Ebisu and the antics of the Super Pervert Jiraiya. Her laughter was infectious and there were several times he had to stop because he was laughing too hard as well. The two of them stayed up well into the night talking and trying to enjoy their companionship as much as they could. Both could feel that their peaceful days together were rapidly winding to a close.

–

Naruto woke up first and stretched himself out with a big yawn. Sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he looked over to find Tayuya still sleeping, the smallest of smiles on her face as she lay turned towards him. He was pleased to note there was absolutely no comparison between how she looked now and how she had when he'd first found her two weeks ago. The sickly pallor was gone from her skin and she wasn't nearly as gaunt, though she was still a long way from losing her unnatural thinness. Even so, with her hair tidied up and the dirt and grime scrubbed from her skin she was really one of the prettier girls he had had the pleasure of meeting. He had no doubts that she'd blow them all out of the water once she was at full health.

He found himself slowly reaching out and running a thumb lightly over her cheek, immediately feeling a rush of warmth spread through him as she turned her head into his touch with a contented murmur. Reluctantly, he pulled his hand away with a sigh. He should never have let himself get this attached to her; they'd both known from the start that there was no way that they could possibly work out.

Regretfully, he shook her awake. "Hey," he said quietly as she sleepily sat up, "We need to get going."

Tayuya looked over at him blearily, obviously still half-asleep. Apparently, she'd lost the ability to come to full alertness right after waking up. No doubt it was one of the many things she had lost over the past four years that she didn't want to be reminded of.

Not that Naruto minded her like this, the look on her face was quite adorable. She yawned and stretched in a way that reminded Naruto more than a little bit of a cat. "It's time already?"

"Yeah," he said quietly. "It's time."

–

Summoning Gamakichi went only marginally better than the day before. While there were far fewer insults thrown between them, the looks both of them kept shooting him left no doubt in Naruto's mind that forgiveness was far – far – from their minds. Most of the morning passed in an awkward silence until they stopped beside a small shaded lake for a quick lunch.

As his two companions got comfortably settled, Naruto set about unsealing some of the various provisions Temari had provided him with before they'd left. With the help of a couple shadow clones, it was only a matter of minutes before he'd had a couple of sandwiches made up for him and Tayuya. A third clone was out turning over rocks and rotting logs to find insects and worms for Gamakichi.

Mid-way through lunch, the silence finally got to be too much for the blond. "Hey, have I told you about the prank I pulled on the Hokage monument?"

Tayuya looked his way before shaking her head, "This is going to be good, isn't it?" The she paused and gave a genuine laugh. "Wait, I don't even have to ask, do I? This is you we're talking about after all..."

"Nope," Naruto responded brightly before launching into the story. Tayuya couldn't stop laughing as Naruto gave quite the detailed narrative of what might have been his greatest prank of all-time. When Naruto began telling her about the merry chase he had led the Konoha ANBU on before finally getting caught by his academy teacher, she laughed so hard she began to tear up.

When he finally finished, Tayuya looked at him with a wide smile. "You just cause problems wherever you go, don't you?"

"You have no idea," cut in Gamakichi, for the first time since lunch began. "I've got so many stories I could tell you, it's not even funny."

Naruto felt a distinct chill travel up his spine as the redhead turned to face the frog with an interested look on her face. "Oh? Come on, I've got to hear some of these..."

The pair spent the next hour laughing over some of the worst mishaps of his life before Naruto called an end to lunch in a desperate attempt to get the humiliation to stop. It was obvious Gamakichi was doing this as punishment. The damn toad had sworn never to tell at least two of those stories and by the smug look on his face was having absolutely no problems breaking his word.

Unfortunately for the blonde, the damage had already been done. The two kept on talking even once they'd gotten back on the road, their previous animosity apparently forgotten. Naruto sighed and picked up the pace, trying to tune them out. He almost would have just preferred to deal with the perfume himself.

Almost.

–

Gamakichi spent the next couple of hours regaling Tayuya with story after story before suddenly slipping into silence mid-story. Naruto, who'd been trying his best not to pay attention, looked quickly back at the abrupt stop, worried something had happened. Gamakichi gave him a reassuring wave and sped up to run beside him. "Nothing's wrong, boss. She just fell asleep. Poor girl's exhausted."

Naruto gave him an incredulous look. "Poor girl? Poor girl?! What ever happened to her being a screeching banshee bitch?"

The toad shrugged. "Eh, she's not that bad once you get to know her. Besides, for whatever reason you seem to like her so I figured I should at least give her a chance. Don't want my boss's woman banning me from the house."

Naruto choked in surprise. "Your boss's wom... what?!" he yelped, once he'd ceased coughing.

The toad gave him a sly grin and a wink. "Oh, don't even try playing dumb with me. I've known you far too long to be fooled by that little act of yours, even if your other human friends still buy it. I've seen the way you look at her and I fully intend to be there to teach your little litter of red-headed, blue-eyed brats the best ways to drive you straight up the wall. I have to admit, boss, I didn't think the woman existed who could give you kids worse than yourself, but you hit the jackpot."

Naruto's coughing fit came back in full. "K- kids?!"

The toad grinned. "Yeah. You know, the snot-nosed, loud mouthed results of the birds and bees. If I had to guess..." he trailed off ominously. "Nine. That sounds about right, doesn't it? Nine kids?"

This time Naruto turned to stare incredulously at his amphibian friend before running straight into a tree. The blonde could vaguely hear the toad cracking up as he fell the thirteen feet from the tree to the ground. He laid there for several moments, trying to catch his breath, before climbing painfully to his feet to face Gamakichi, who was still chuckling even as he jumped down to land beside him. "Ha ha, you bastard. Very funny."

"What?" asked the toad, his voice laden with false innocence. "Is nine not enough? I figured Kyuubi would appreciate the honor but if you don't think nine's enough then I'm sure the fox can just deal."

"Gamakichi..."

"Of course, I bet you could console him in lots of other ways."

"I'm warning you..."

"What do you think, maybe Tayuya's a closet furry? Think she'll like your magical tails?" He waggled his eye ridges suggestively.

"Okay, now you're crossing the line, toad boy..."

"Bet you she's a fan of 'foxy' style. You said she can grow horns, right? Oh, damn... what were those things called?" He paused for a second before giving Naruto a grin worthy of the Super Pervert himself. "Handlebars! You know, 'cause you could grab hold of them when you... do the Canine Cha Cha."

A small dollop of blood dripped from Naruto's nose as his Jiraiya-fed imagination pictured it before he shook himself out of his stupor and turned on the amused amphibian and scowled. "I warned you, Gamakichi. I've never tried Thousand Years of Pain on a toad before but I'm sure I can make it work." Naruto began flashing through the seals to form a Doton clone, not particularly wanting to use shadow clones to attempt it and accidentally absorb the memory.

The toad back-pedaled quickly, recognizing the technique. "Wait, boss, wait! Can I just say one last thing? Please?"

Naruto paused, before asking cautiously. "What?"

All of the sudden, the toad's penitent expression turned crafty and Naruto cursed vehemently as the amphibian jounced the sleeping red-head on his back and shouted, "Tayuya! Naruto's fantasizing about doing you from behind!"

"Huh?" Tayuya mumbled as she sat up before the toad's statement finally registered. An impressive growl echoed from within her chest before the former Oto-nin shrieked, "Naruto!" The blonde immediately began running, not even bothering to try and defend himself, cursing the toad all the way. Gamakichi immediately began following him, pausing just long enough to allow Tayuya to grab a handful of nuts from a nearby tree to begin throwing at the fleeing ninja. Spurred on by the organic projectiles, Naruto started running faster, careful not to slow down or look back for fear of being hit, and thus missed the moment the red-head ran out of nuts and began to blush as she imagined that particular scenario herself.

–

When they finally stopped and settled down for the night, neither Naruto nor Tayuya were able to look at each other without blushing and Gamakichi could barely contain his cackling at the chaos he'd caused. Naruto shot him a nasty look as he heard the toad try and turn yet another laugh into a cough. With a disgusted look and a single hand seal, the blonde dismissed him.

The next hour passed in awkward silence as the two danced nervously around the metaphorical giant fox in the room. It was with no small relief that Naruto heard her breathing finally settle into soft snoring as exhaustion overtook her. He began performing a few breathing exercises of his own to try and release some of the tension in his muscles before he finally succumbed to sleep and several very pleasant dreams of Tayuya.

The two woke up at the same time the next morning, both determined to put the previous day's awkwardness behind them – a feat made significantly more difficult on Naruto's part by the hidden erection he was sporting that he was desperately trying to pass off as nothing more than simple morning wood. An act of deception made significantly more difficult once Tayuya began to stretch out the cramps in her muscles from sleeping on the ground all night. If he hadn't known better, he'd have sworn the redhead knew exactly what his problem was and was doing this to him deliberately.

A few seconds later his last few remaining doubts disappeared as she bent forward in a pose that had absolutely no practical stretching application at all outside of giving him a perfect view of her shapely derriere. Though any ire at her teasing disappeared when his mind registered that if she could bend that way when she wasn't at full health...

"Enjoying the show?"

Her smug voice shocked him out of his thoughts and he hastily wiped away his small nose bleed as he blushed. "I don't know what you're talking about." he asked as innocently as he could manage. Which wasn't much.

"Uh-huh, I'm sure you don't. Pervert."

This time, Naruto figured it'd be wiser to simply keep his mouth shut and began to pack up the camp, leaving Tayuya to quietly gloat over her victory. Finally, once everything had been sealed away and the camp remains carefully disguised, he summoned Gamakichi in order to get them under way. This time he was grateful once the toad began to regale Tayuya with tales of his mistakes. As humiliating as some of them were, he was man enough to admit they were funny after the fact and they did a remarkable job of putting his persistent fantasies of Tayuya on her knees out of his mind.

The day continued on much the same fashion until Naruto began to recognize many of the surrounding landmarks from his first trip to Wave all those years ago. He immediately reclaimed his position of storyteller, regaling both of his companions with several new stories as the familiar surroundings brought fresh memories to mind, until the three finally arrived at the massive bridge leading to Wave. Naruto couldn't help but groan, knowing exactly what was going to happen next.

Naruto turned to Gamakichi to find the toad wide-eyed and staring disbelievingly at the large sign over the bridge with wide eyes. The amphibian summon slowly lifted a webbed hand and pointed towards the sign. "Does that really say what I think it says?"

Before Naruto could confirm or deny, Tayuya's irritated voice rose from Gamakichi's back. "What does what say? It was obviously important enough for us to stop moving."

Gamakichi started chuckling when Naruto remained silent, chuckles that bloomed into full-blown laughter when the blonde finally sighed and reluctantly nodded. Since the toad didn't reply to her question but instead started laughing aloud, Tayuya asked again, punctuating the question with a hard punch to Gamakichi's shoulder. The pain finally helped the toad control himself long enough to gasp between laughs, "The Great Naruto Bridge. They... they named this... the Great Naruto Bridge."

Tayuya paused for just a moment before she burst out laughing as well. "They named a bridge after this idiot? Oh that's rich! For what? Defending the town from the vicious girly boy? What was his name again?"

"Hey," snapped Naruto defensively. "Haku was still a strong ninja!"

"You thought he was a girl! Bet you thought he was cute too?" When Naruto didn't respond right away, Tayuya started laughing harder. "Oh! You did, didn't you? That's too perfect!" Then she gasped and snapped her fingers in mock realization. "Oh my. That explains everything! You're gay and you're in love with the Uchiha! No wonder you wanted to get him back so much!"

Naruto scowled at her as both her and the toad burst into new laughter. "Oh, shut up. You're all just jealous you don't have a cool bridge named after you too."

–----

Author's Notes:

Ladies and Gentlemen, here it is... chapter nine of the great and magnificent 'Blindsight'. Hope ya'll enjoyed it, especially as it's been so long since my last update.

In that department, I want it known that since January I've moved cities, transferred schools, and picked up a begun working a brand new job, so my life has been a little crazy as of late. I just haven't been able to muster up either the inspiration, the creativity, or even the energy to sit down and write. Fortunately, I just quit the first job I picked up after the move and gotten a different one - one I not only enjoy but actually leaves me psyched to start writing at the end of the day. So hopefully you won't have to wait near as long this time for the next chapter.

Anyways, let me know what you thought. And on that note, let me give a big thank you to everyone who's reviewed this story so far. I usually try to individually message everyone who's reviewed, but there was just so many of you this time - and I'm so gorram tired right now - that I'm just going to settle for this.

Also, a big round of applause to my beta, Paradox Jast. I put this chapter together in a matter of hours on Tuesday - so if it seems rushed, problematic, or error-ridden, that'd be why - and yet he still found the time to not only fix all my mistakes, but give me a number of extremely good ideas to add, and then get it back to me in time for me to put it up today. So thanks again. Without your hard work, I don't know where I'd be.

Enjoy ya'll. I'm going to bed.

Update: A big thanks to Juopunumies for pointing out a number of mistakes I'd let slip past my notice last night (all my own fault, not the beta's). I really appreciate it.

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Published: 04.02.10

Updated: 04.03.10