A Lily Bloom In the Land of Shinobi

Satsuki got home late. Very, very late indeed. So much so that she was certain she hadn't made it on the same day she'd taken her test. To her, it mattered little, wouldn't be the first time she slept relatively little due to her rather ridiculous training schedule. Even if, due to the exhaustion brought on from recent activities, she would feel horrible about it come morning.

She was surprised, very much so, when she climbed the apartment building's first flight of stairs and began to hear the unceasing pitter patter of small feet at a rapid and frantic rhythm. She knew very well who those feet belonged to because their owner was the only other occupant in the building. She raised an eyebrow when she climbed the second flight of stairs to find Naruko pacing back and forth relentlessly, lost to the world and biting her nails, yet not managing to cut them with her teeth.

"S-Satchan, is that you?"

Satsuki hadn't ever heard Naruko being quite like that before. In fact, she rarely saw Naruko being anything but an obviously cheerful flirty airhead. It was an absolute shock to see her expressing such obvious worry and concern. "Naruko." Satsuki greeted.

The golden haired girl immediately lit up, her face stretching into a smile. "Satchan!" She cried happily, jumping at the Uchiha. Satsuki planted herself to the floor and braced herself for impact. It wouldn't do for her to let the blonde knock her down the stairs she'd just climbed. This resulted in Naruko nuzzling against her stomach. "I was so worried!"

"…Why?" asked the confusing Uchiha. She sincerely doubted that Naruko could even imagine the episode Satsuki had just had with Hinata. The Uchiha herself couldn't even believe it and she'd been there. She was also still slightly numb and scared, but mostly she was just really angry and filled with self loathing.

It seemed that Naruko noticed the dark turn her train of thought had taken and tightened her hold on her waist, rubbing her head against the entirety of the taller girl's torso before she finally settled against the place where Satsuki's breasts would someday be. "Um, Satchan… I had a horrible nightmare…" Began the Uzumaki, smiling sheepishly. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight…" She mumbled.

Satsuki grunted. "I don't care." She said, rolling her eyes. "Just go to bed." She said.

"Don't wanna." Naruko mumbled. "I wanna sleep with Satchan!" she declared, grabbing onto one of the Uchiha's arms and pulling her along. "Plus your bed's nicer than mine!"

Satsuki rolled her eyes again. "You just want to sleep on my bed." She said. Well, it WAS a good bed. It better be, considering it was worth a small fortune. Satsuki valued her sleep very much, considering how little of it she got, and she preferred to be as comfortable as possible when she slept. A remain from getting used to her mother's choice in mattress.

Naruko grinned and rubbed the back of her neck with her free hand, before turning around and continuing onto Satsuki's bedroom.

Resigning herself to her fate, Satsuki sighed. Entering a discussion with Naruko would just prolong the inevitable, she always got what she wanted in the end, and she was too exhausted. "I need to take a bath before I go to bed…" She said, trying to pull herself free from the blonde's grasp, but failing miserably.

Naruko had a surprisingly strong grip. And she was agile enough to pull Satsuki out of her stance of resistance with a quick pull of the arm. Naruko stilled her with a hand on her waist and then she invaded Satsuki's personal space, face first, before taking a deep sniff. "Satchan smells nice." She commented.

The Uchiha could only sigh in annoyance and surrender, deciding that she'd take a bath in the morning. Even if she was reluctant to dirty her sheets (she liked to go as long as possible between washes), today was special. Then again, most people would probably call her a cleanliness freak if they knew she bathed twice per day on most occasions. Again, the opposite, she didn't like cleaning anything, so she tried not to dirty things in the first place.

Before she could even protest, her shorts were on her ankles and her shirt was over her head. Naruko worked incredibly fast and was very good at undressing people before they could tell they'd been undressed. Satsuki shivered at the thought of knowing where she had picked up that skill from. A shiver that Naruko proceeded to misinterpret.

"Ah, Satchan must be cold! Quickly, get in the bed!"

Satsuki had zoned out while thinking of her morning routine, it seemed, because Naruko herself was only wearing what could only be described as a semi-transparent pink piece of cloth on her chest that Satsuki was certain hadn't been there when she had entered the apartment that barely concealed the blonde's developing chest and a set of matching pink panties.

Oddly enough, she felt that she was being more obscene with her simple black underwear. Then again, she was an Uchiha, it was practically in her blood to wear dark colors on every piece of clothing in her body. Shrugging and choosing to shut her brain off for the day. That is, until she was settled under the covers and noticed that Naruko's body was merely inches away.

The lack of light didn't help matters, as the moonlight that filtered from the window above the bed was more than enough to illuminate Naruko's mane of golden hair and give her usually tanned skin a much paler tone than was usual. Her usually vibrant eyes were bright as ever, easily visible despite the lack of light, as Naruko looked at her with a grin on her face. "Thank you, Satchan." She murmured.

"…No problem." She replied, blushing and looking away from the stupidly bright blue eyes that somehow made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. That girl had a serious talent to make people feel weird. A shiver ran down her spine at the possible reactions that people would have if they knew that she had let the class's dead last sleep with her in her bed. Heck, she already had enough with people fearing for her sexual orientation (very important in rebuilding a clan) because she hadn't liked any of the boys at the academy.

Once again, Naruko misinterpreted the shiver and, in a move that had Satsuki's face becoming scarlet in a millisecond, she pressed her body against the young Uchiha's own, trying to have as much skin to skin contact as possible. "Satchan's still cold!" She said.

Well, it was an effective way to kill any and all thoughts of cold. Indeed, the blonde was incredibly warm. "It's not that, you dumbass…" Replied the Uchiha, clearly disgruntled by the sudden move. Still, she only made a token resistance, a product from exhaustion, both emotional and physical. "I swear that if anyone ever learns of this, I will kill you."

"Eh? Why?" Asked Naruko, clearly confused about why the thought of telling everyone she had slept with Satsuki on the same bed would be something to be avoided. Satsuki found herself incredulous, but it brought back memories of her rather violent chat with the Hyuuga heiress, which had her scowling. This, in turn, caused Naruko to wince, thinking the aggression she leaked was meant for her instead. "Okay, I won't tell anyone…" She muttered in agreement.

"Good." Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Satsuki let it go at that.

Minutes passed in absolute silence, well, almost absolute. It was broken by the sound of the girls breathing, what with being so close to each other and all. "You can't sleep either, can you?"

Satsuki found herself nodding before she could help herself.

"Well, that's not a problem…" Naruko muttered, as one of her hands came from Satsuki's waist (no longer applying force to stick the two of them closer, which the Uchiha girl was thankful for) and climbed up, tracing a line marking the place of the spine as it went, ultimately resting on her scalp for a few seconds before beginning to massage it earnestly.

Accompanying the soothing movements came a steady, low humming that had Satsuki thinking back on long gone and forgotten days, days that she couldn't even relive in her dreams. The humming grew in variety as Satsuki's arms finally removed themselves from her sides and snaked their way around the blonde girl's body against her will.

"N-Naruko, I…" Her voice was tight, she found a knot building in her throat. She desperately wanted to tell the blonde girl to stop, to quit that. She wanted to order her arms to push her away, her legs to kick her, her mouth to speak, but no command was carried through. Every muscle in her body tensed.

A burning sensation prickled at her eyes as she thought back on the day that had passed, and how it had made her feel like she hadn't moved a step from where she'd been standing on the day her life had been burned to ashes. She thought back to the days where she still hadn't awakened to the harsh reality of the world, when she'd thought that those kinds of things only happened in stories told to children to keep them in line.

"Hush little baby, don't say a word… Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird…"

A second hand began soothingly rubbing her back. A sob wracked the Uchiha girl's body.

"And if that mockingbird won't sing, Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring…"

Satsuki didn't know how long she'd spent on her perhaps only friend's embrace. Or how she'd ended up in her arms in the first place.

"And if that diamond ring turns brass, Mama's gonna buy you a looking glass…."

She didn't care that she was under her bed sheets and that she was currently wearing her negligees and nothing else in front of a known pervert. She didn't bother thinking about anything at all at that point.

"And if that looking glass gets broken, Mama's gonna buy you a billy goat…"

Another sob wracked the Uchiha's body and, perhaps for the first time in years, she allowed herself to cry openly, to forget about poise and appearances, about what's proper and what's not. She forgot about everything except the soothing voice, the comfortable warmth and the feeling of safety that they brought on.

"And if that billy goat won't pull, Mama's gonna buy you a cart and bull…"

She closed her eyes and resigned herself to the presence that made the problems in the world go away, that made the feeling of misery go away with but a few words and a kind caress or two.

"And if that cart and bull turn over, Mama's gonna buy you a dog named Rover…"

Little by little, the sobs that were tearing through her body began to calm.

"And if that dog named Rover won't bark, Mama's gonna buy you a horse and cart…"

The words had begun to become distant, now, as the tension left her body and she finally relaxed, as the tears that still ran down her cheeks and stained her mattress began to stop flowing.

"And if that horse and cart fall down…"

As she finally succumbed to sleep, a small, contented smile painted itself on her face.

"You'll still be the sweetest baby in town."

Perhaps she would claim the act was involuntary, but there was absolutely no doubt that she had immobilized the other person in her bed without mercy. Poor Naruko had found herself incapable of moving after Satsuki had decided to cling to her in her sleep.

Then again, if one were to go by the smile on the blonde's face, you'd be hard pressed to think she found this in any possible way a bad outcome. With slow and carefully calculated movements, the blonde eased herself into a more comfortable position, but not before rising slightly so that the Uchiha rested against her still flat chest.

Just before she herself succumbed to her own exhaustion, she placed an innocent kiss on the Uchiha's forehead. The black haired girl's lips curved slightly more in her sleep.