„head aches and memory lane"

The sun shines brightly through the windows of Hanako's apartment. In the large bed of the former Shinozaki heiress, there lay the bodies of her two friends including herself. Hanako was squeezed in between of Sakura and Naruto, but that wasn't the reason why she woke up.

The poor girl woke up from a massive headache, it was much worse than the hangover she experienced from their mission. That being said, Hanako carefully changed her position where she's facing Naruto's back, trying to see if turning around would lessen her pain a little bit.

To her dismay, it didn't relieve anything. She sighs and tries to go back to sleep but Naruto suddenly moves. The sleeping blonde unconsciously changes his position, letting Hanako open her eyes once again and discover the close proximity of their faces.

She blushes furiously in sight. She trying not to move even an inch so that she wouldn't disturb the blonde by her movements or even breathing. Unfortunately, Naruto wasn't done with moving. His arms engulfs the blue-haired girl like a pillow. Hanako can smell the usual scent of ramen and cologne.

As much as she wanted to cuddle with the sleeping boy, she still needed to breath.

"Naruto-kun.", she whispers his name in order to wake him up.

"Mhm.", Naruto grunts, annoyed that his sleep was being disrupted. Hanako giggles because of his reaction.

"I can't breath anymore."

Naruto was confused, why was his pillow unusually warm and talking? He slowly opens his eyes and sees that his pillow was Hanako. His initial reaction was to let her go but did that with too much force, causing a certain pink-haired girl fall from the bed.

"Itai, Naruto-kun! That was a bit too muc—, oh no.", Hanako looks at the Haruno who has a angry aura. It was like Sakura was emitting fire all over her body.

It took a minute for Naruto to process what he had done, and when he did realize that his death was coming, he was too late.

"Oi! Stop it Sakura-chan! I just bought that plant!"

—

"Serves you both right! Just leave me out of it when you're cuddling with each other!", Sakura huffs in annoyance.

Naruto and Hanako looks at each other and blushes.

"No! We weren't—"

"It's not what you th—"

Both of the teenagers continue with their defenses. Sakura sighs and continues with her lecture.

"Ugh, forget it. I'm going to go home, I didn't ask for my parents' permission so they're probably worried.", Sakura says, "Thank you again, Hanako-chan!"

With that, Sakura walks out of Hanako's apartment, leaving the two teenagers alone.

"A-ano, what do you wanna eat?", Hanako, who was still blushing from the incident, asks the boy.

"U-uh, anything will do."

Awkwardness filled the air as Hanako cooks their breakfast. She enjoys cooking so much since it reminds her of her family spending time together. The girl has learned to not cry anymore when thinking about them. Instead, she recalls the memories with a smile rather than a heavy heart.

Meanwhile, Naruto watches her with admiration. He never had anyone cook him breakfast. He was always alone in the morning, and now he has someone to eat with him and chat with him. This makes him feel so happy.

"Naruto-kun, breakfast is ready.", Hanako tells him as she smiles widely.

The blonde stand up from the bed and proceeds to walk to the small table where the food was served. His eyes widened at the small feast Hanako prepared.

"Wow! This looks delicious!", Naruto says causing the girl to chuckle.

"This is my little brother's favorite breakfast. It's omelette with the rice inside. I hope it's good. It's been a long time since I cooked this.", she replies.

They ate breakfast in silence. Naruto devours the food as if he didn't eat in three days. The boy eats so fast that at some point he choked on his food which made Hanako laugh.

The blue-haired Shinozaki was about to eat her last spoon until her head pounded painfully. This made her stop and clutch her head in pain.

"Eh? Hanako-chan? Are you okay?", Naruto asks her with concern.

"Yeah, I think it's because of all the training. My head was aching since last night, it sucks.", she says as she finishes her meal.

"You should rest today ya'know?", Naruto tells her.

"No, I'm fine. I'll just drink some painkillers. This head ache can't kill me.", she smiles at Naruto, "Oh, are you done?", she points at his empty plate.

"Oh, yeah! Thank you Hanako-chan! You cook the best meals!", he gives her a thumbs with as he grins. Hanako smiles back before she cleans the table.

She quietly washes the dishes until she feels the presence of a certain blonde behind her. His snaked around her, reaching the girl's hands making her feel his body heat. She blushes at his actions as she stops washing the dirty plate.

"A-ano, Naruto-kun? What are you doing?", Hanako stutters.

"Thank you Hanako-chan.", he whispers as Hanako feel his head rest on her shoulder. She lets go of the plate that she was washing before turning to face him. Her breath hitches at the closeness of their faces.

What is he doing?

"I don't know why I feel like this but I always want to be close to you.", the boy continues to talk, "I'm so glad I met you, I wouldn't feel this happy."

Hanako was speechless, she didn't know what to say. His presence always made her happy and she's grateful for Naruto always being there when she was so lonely. She never had someone this honest and kind to her. Hanako didn't expect that she would ever feel the need of someone's presence just to make her feel at ease.

Sakura-chan also makes me feel happy, but why does it feel so different when it's him?

She lets go of the nervousness and without hesitation, she raises her hand and places it at the side of Naruto's cheeks.

"I'm sorry I was late, I'm beyond happy being here with you.", she smiles at him.

Naruto didn't expect her to say anything. As a matter of fact, he thought he would creep her out because of his sudden actions. He smiles in response as his muscles relax while he buries his head at the crook of her neck.

They stand there, hugging each other while ignoring the sound of running water.

—

"Hanako, are you alright? You usually just touch that necklace of yours but your head managed to get more of it.", Tsuande worriedly says as she observes her student.

"My head has been throbbing, but I'm fine don't worry about it.", Hanako says as she lands continuous punches on the dummy in front of her.

She jumps and raises her leg up to give a final blow. But before she does, her head pounds with more pain. She loses her balance and falls to the ground with a thud.

"You should rest for today, a body can only handle too much.", Tsunade instructs her.

Feeling annoyed and embarrassed, Hanako repeats her actions, ignoring what her master told her to do.

"I told you, I'm fine!", she gathers a large amount of chakra to her feet with focus and speed as she kicks the dummy from above, making it split in half. She stands up and places her hands at her hips.

"See? Perfectly fin—", before she can finish her sentence, Hanako falls to the ground.

"Hanako!", Tsunade rushes to the girl. She shouts her name but the Hokage wasn't able to get a response.

—

"Hanako, get up.", Hanako opens her eyes and notices that the room was too dim.

Where am I?

"Oi! I know you're awake.", she feels a kick to her stomach.

Her body suddenly sits up as she tosses a small blanket to the side.

"Fuck you Sasuke!", she curses the one who woke her up.

Sasuke? Isn't that Naruto-kun and Sakura-chan's teammate? Am I seeing a memory again?

"Whatever. Orochimaru's calling your lazy ass.", the Uchiha says.

Hanako sees through the eyes of herself but she wasn't the one speaking nor acting what ever she's doing. She's just spectating, like what happened with her memories of her family.

She walks through the dark corridors, heading for the man who disrupted her beauty sleep.

Hanako opens a door and steps in with an annoyed face.

"What the fuck is it this time?", she shouts at the man in front of her known as Orochimaru.

"Ahh, you're here again with that potty mouth of yours."

"I trained so much yesterday until my body couldn't handle it anymore. Now I can't even get enough sleep?"

"Silence! You're lucky enough that you're too valuable to kill. Never forget that you owe me your life.", he points at her.

"Yeah right! I'd rather die than stay here! I never asked you to save me from those fuckers! You holding me captive here and letting that emo boy keep an eye on me is a pain in the ass! I can't even go to the bathroom without being left alone."

"Yes, I would never underestimate the power of a Shinozaki.", he states as his tongue licks his lips for the nth time, "But that's not why I summoned you here. You're going up against Sasuke today to see if your skills have improved."

"Fuck."

Hanako was weak in facing genjutsus. That was suppose to be the last lesson taught by her father. Sadly, he died before teaching it to her. That's why the first time she was up against the Uchiha, she loss with shame as he discovered her weakness. She's been training how to block genjutsus and using it for weeks but for some reason, that boy is insanely talented with genjutsu.

She walks out of the room and slams the door. She hates that snake man with a passion. He managed to save her from a group of bandits that kidnapped her. The group said that her hair 'captivated' them so they wouldn't sell her off. They wanted to do things with her. And right before that happens, the snake arrived annihilating all of them.

I could've just killed them off but those little pieces of shit managed to trap me in a genjutsu. If only I was careful enough.

She sighs at her thoughts. She sees Sasuke waiting for her and flips him off.

"Don't think I'll go easy on you because you're weaker than me.", Sasuke teases her.

"I'll poke that eyes of yours and shove it up your ass if you don't shut up Uchiha.", she hisses at him.