What is Worth Protecting? -Naruto

6# Festive Night

Warmth... That was the first thing Naruto felt when he awoke...

Bliss... The feeling made him want to stay in this warmth for eternity...

Joy... When he felt the warmth stay longer after he buried himself into it even more...

Longing... The feeling when he wanted to see what was causing his joy...

The blond scrunched up his eyes and slowly opened them, ready to see what was the object of his longing...

The said longing was the red haired boy he kept on thinking about, it was early in the morning so Ryou still was asleep, so Naruto just stared at the sleeping boys face silently before he brought his hand up and slowly rested it on top of his head and froze... This wasn't a dream? he retracted his hand and slowly placed his head back down on his chest and smiled slightly... hearing a heartbeat, slow but firm..

Naruto closed his eyes in sadness and scrunched them up knowing he had to get up... He slowly but surely made his way out of his hold and got up and looked back at the boy who seemed to scrunch up at the missing body of warmth, He raised his hand towards the bed before he smiled slightly at a thought. He grabbed a piece of paper and began to write something down before he placed it next to him on the nightstand next to his bed. He smiled to himself as he slowly tipped toed away from the bed and grabbed his red jacket and went out of his apartment towards training ground 7...

...

When Naruto got there he saw Sasuke and Sakura sitting down on the bridge that they always met at. Sasuke gave him a sidelong look before he turned and looked away slightly. Sakura however watched him a little bit longer before she opened her mouth to speak, "Your later then usual." she pointed out with a small irritated sigh. Naruto smiled sheepishly and raised his hand slightly to his head. "It was hard to get out of bed today, sorry Sakura." He said closing his eyes as he did. It wasn't a lie obviously... so he should be fine, Naruto deduced.

Sakura gave him a odd look before looking back towards Sasuke who also seemed to be giving him a odd look, what kinda ninja sleeps in? After a few more minutes of waiting Kakashi appeared in a flurry of leaves and gave a lazy wave to the three. "Hokage-sama requested to meet with him today, lets hurry." Kakashi stated making Naruto give a small inward scoff, "Says the late cyclops" Naruto rolled his eyes slightly before they grabbed onto the jounin and they shushined to the Hokage's office.

Naruto blinked slightly as the leaves died down and he saw the office he always came to when he wanted to talk with the old man. Said old man was sitting at his desk while a few clones of him were walking from room to room with a scroll or pieces of papers. Naruto gave a curious look between all the clones and then looked towards the obvious original Kage. "Hokage-sama." Kakashi stated with a small cough making him look up. "Ahh team 7, just who I was waiting for ever so patiently." Hiruzen stated and looked directly at Kakashi making him whistle innocently.

Hiruzen waved away the clones into another room before he put his hands in front in a ball shape and gave a looked between the three Genin. "I have been doing this with many teams, but I decided to start early because of a little comment I got from a Anbu..." Naruto tilted his head curiously at the curious sentence. "Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura." the three tensed hearing the Kage call there name with the edge of power in the mans voice. "How do you think of your training? Be honest. Sasuke."

Sasuke frowned at the weird question and stood up straight and answered. "Kakashi-sensei has been teaching me well in controlling my chakra and spars with me every so often and improves my taijutsu. He is a good Sensei." Naruto bit his lip at the reply from Sasuke in a slight anger. Hiruzen nodded and looked towards kunoichi of the group. "Sakura?" "Sensei has helped me perfect my control on chakra and taught me a few Genjutsu to support our team, he's also been helping me by giving me a routine of physical exercise. He is a good Sensei, I agree with Sasuke-kun."