The afternoon sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows across the streets of Konoha as the unusual group made their way through the village. Naruto walked in the center of the formation, surrounded on all sides by four girls whose curves drew stares and whispers from every passerby.
But the stares were different than the ones Naruto was used to receiving.
These weren't looks of hatred or disgust. They were looks of confusion, of curiosity, of—in many cases—open appreciation for the four beautiful young women who moved through the streets like a traveling exhibition. The villagers' eyes slid over Naruto as if he wasn't even there, too distracted by his companions to notice the demon brat in their midst.
It was, Naruto noted distantly, a useful phenomenon. He filed the observation away without any particular feeling about it.
Satsuki still held his hand, her fingers intertwined with his in a grip that was gentle but secure. She walked with a bounce in her step that made certain parts of her anatomy move in ways that drew even more attention, but she seemed completely oblivious to the stares. Her dark eyes remained fixed on Naruto's face, watching him with an intensity that should have been uncomfortable.
"So!" she chirped, her voice bright and cheerful. "I was thinking we could go to Ichiraku's! I know how much you love ramen, Naruto-kun. My treat, remember? You can order as much as you want!"
"That sounds nice," Sakura agreed from Naruto's other side. She had positioned herself close enough that her arm occasionally brushed against his, each contact seemingly deliberate. "We should celebrate."
"Celebrate what?" Ino asked from behind them, her voice carrying a note of confusion. "He didn't pass. Yet," she added quickly.
"We're celebrating the fact that he's going to pass," Sakura clarified. "After Iruka-sensei talks to the Hokage, everything will be sorted out. Right, Naruto-kun?"
Naruto didn't respond. He was watching the villagers they passed, noting how their eyes tracked the group—tracked the girls—without ever settling on him. It was strange, being invisible in this way. Different from his usual invisibility, which was more about people actively choosing not to see him.
"Naruto-kun?" Hinata's soft voice came from behind him, tinged with concern. "Are you... are you alright?"
The question hung in the air for a moment. Naruto considered it, turning it over in his mind like a curious artifact. Was he alright? What did that even mean? He wasn't in pain. He wasn't in immediate danger. By most objective measures, he was fine.
But he knew that wasn't what she was asking.
"I'm fine," he said flatly.
The four girls exchanged glances over his head—a silent communication that he noted but didn't attempt to interpret. There was a brief pause in the conversation, a moment of uncertainty that seemed foreign to the confident, devoted personas they had been projecting.
Then Satsuki squeezed his hand gently.
"You know," she said, her voice softer now, less bubbly, "what happened back there... with Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei... that was for you. Because you deserve better. Because we—" she glanced at the other three girls, who nodded in agreement, "—we care about you. A lot."
Naruto continued walking, his expression unchanged.
"We're not going to let anyone treat you unfairly," Sakura added firmly. "Not anymore. You've been alone for too long, dealing with things no one should have to deal with. But that's over now. We're here."
"A-Always," Hinata whispered from behind.
"What they said," Ino agreed. "You're important, Naruto. Maybe you don't see it yet, but you are. To us, and... and to a lot of other people too, probably. They just don't know it yet."
Naruto listened to their words, processing them with the same detached observation he applied to everything. They were saying kind things. Supportive things. The kind of things he had once dreamed of hearing, back when he still had dreams.
Back when he still felt things.
The silence stretched as they walked, the girls clearly waiting for some response—some indication that their words had reached him. Naruto could sense their expectation, could recognize the pattern even if he couldn't feel the social pressure that should have accompanied it.
He should say something. Acknowledge their efforts. Express gratitude.
But what came out instead was the truth.
"I don't feel anything."
The words fell into the air like stones into still water, sending ripples of shock through his four companions. They all stopped walking at once, turning to face him with expressions of confusion and concern.
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked carefully.
Naruto stopped as well, standing motionless in the middle of the street. A few villagers had to step around the group, muttering about people blocking the road, but he paid them no attention.
"What you did back there," he said, his voice flat and even. "Defending me. Threatening the instructors. Standing up for me." He paused, searching for words to express something he didn't actually experience. "It should make me feel... something. Gratitude. Happiness. Something."
He looked down at his hand, still held in Satsuki's grip.
"But I don't. I feel nothing. Not about that. Not about failing the exam. Not about..." He trailed off, then finished quietly, "Not about anything. Not anymore."
The four girls stared at him, their expressions shifting through various stages of processing this information. Shock. Confusion. Dawning horror. And finally, settling on something that looked like heartbroken determination.
"Naruto-kun..." Hinata's voice was barely a whisper, thick with emotion. "What... what happened to you?"
It was a reasonable question. A logical thing to ask. Naruto considered whether to answer it—not because he was reluctant to share, but simply because he wasn't sure how to condense years of systematic abuse into a coherent explanation.
"The village happened," he said finally. "The hatred. The isolation. The..." He paused, remembering that night a year ago—the alley, the mob, the pain that eventually became meaningless. "Everything. It went on long enough that something inside me just... stopped. I don't know how else to explain it."
Ino's blue eyes had gone bright with unshed tears. "That's... that's not okay. That's not—you shouldn't have to—"
"It is what it is," Naruto interrupted, using the same phrase he had used earlier. "I'm not telling you this to make you feel bad. I'm telling you because you deserve to know. What you're doing—the attention, the support, the..." he gestured vaguely at them, "all of this. It won't work. Not the way you want it to. Because I can't feel what you want me to feel. I can't feel anything."
He expected anger. Frustration. Perhaps even abandonment—they would realize he was broken beyond repair and leave him alone, the way everyone always did eventually.
What he did not expect was Satsuki's reaction.
The dark-haired girl released his hand, but only so she could step directly in front of him. She was slightly shorter than him, even with her transformation, but somehow her presence seemed to fill the entire street.
Her dark eyes met his empty blue ones, and there was something in her gaze that he couldn't identify. Not pity—he knew what pity looked like. Not disappointment. Something else entirely.
"Naruto-kun," she said softly, and her voice had lost all its bubbly cheerfulness. What remained was something raw and genuine—a tone he had never heard from Sasuke, but which seemed to fit this new version of her perfectly. "I need you to listen to me very carefully. Can you do that?"
He nodded once.
"Good." She reached up and cupped his face in her hands, her palms warm against his cheeks. "What happened to you is not okay. The way this village treated you is not okay. And the fact that you've been hurt so badly that you can't feel anymore... that breaks my heart. It breaks all our hearts."
Behind her, the other three girls nodded silently, their eyes glistening.
"But here's the thing," Satsuki continued. "You not being able to feel right now? That doesn't change anything. It doesn't make us care about you less. It doesn't make you any less precious to us. It doesn't mean we're going to give up on you."
She leaned in closer, her forehead almost touching his.
"You might not be able to feel our love right now," she whispered. "But that doesn't mean it isn't there. And we're going to keep showing you, keep proving it to you, until someday—maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday—those feelings start to come back. Because they will, Naruto-kun. I promise you they will."
And then, without warning, she pressed her lips to his forehead.
The kiss was soft and gentle, lasting only a moment. Naruto felt the physical sensation—the warmth of her lips, the slight pressure against his skin—but as predicted, it evoked no emotional response. Just data. Just input.
But Satsuki wasn't finished.
In one fluid motion, she pulled him forward into an embrace, guiding his head to rest against her chest. Her arms wrapped around him, holding him securely but not restrictively. The position pressed his face directly between her generous curves, surrounding him with warmth and softness and the faint scent of something floral—her shampoo, perhaps, or some kind of perfume.
"It's okay," she murmured, her voice rumbling through her chest and into his ear. "You don't have to feel anything right now. You don't have to respond. Just let me hold you. Just let us be here for you."
One of her hands came up to stroke his hair, fingers running gently through the blonde spikes.
"You're safe now," she continued, her voice a constant, soothing stream of words. "You're not alone anymore. We're here, and we're not going anywhere. No matter what happens. No matter how long it takes."
Naruto stood motionless in her embrace, his arms hanging limply at his sides. He could hear her heartbeat, steady and strong, through the soft flesh pressed against his ears. He could feel the rise and fall of her breathing, the gentle motion rocking him slightly with each cycle.
It was... comfortable. Physically comfortable, at least. Warm. Secure.
But beyond that basic sensory input, there was still nothing. No surge of emotion. No breakthrough moment where the walls around his heart came crashing down. Just emptiness, wrapped in warmth.
"We love you, Naruto-kun," Satsuki whispered. "I know you can't feel it right now. I know you might not even understand what it means. But we do. All of us. And we're going to keep loving you until you remember how to love yourself."
Behind them, Sakura had moved closer, placing a hand gently on Naruto's back. Ino followed suit, her hand finding his shoulder. And Hinata, after a moment of hesitation, reached out to touch his arm, her fingers trembling slightly.
They stood there in the middle of the street, four girls surrounding one broken boy, pouring out affection and warmth toward someone who couldn't receive it.
Villagers walked past them, some staring curiously, others averting their eyes from the intimate scene. A few muttered comments about "inappropriate public displays," but none of the five young people paid them any attention.
Minutes passed. The sun continued its descent toward the horizon, painting the sky in shades of orange and pink.
Finally, Satsuki spoke again, her voice still soft but carrying a note of practical determination.
"Okay," she said, loosening her embrace slightly but not releasing him entirely. "Here's what we're going to do. We're going to go get ramen, because you need to eat and also ramen is delicious. Then we're going to go to your apartment, and we're going to make sure you're settled for the night. And tomorrow, we're going to the Hokage Tower together to make sure Iruka-sensei follows through on talking to the old man about your graduation."
She pulled back just enough to look at his face, her dark eyes searching his empty blue ones.
"Does that sound okay?"
Naruto considered the plan. It was logical. Practical. He did need to eat, and having company to ensure the appeal was made seemed strategically sound.
"Okay," he said.
Satsuki's face lit up with a brilliant smile—not the slightly manic enthusiasm she had displayed earlier, but something warmer, more genuine.
"Great!" She released him from the embrace but immediately reclaimed his hand, interlocking their fingers once again. "Ichiraku's it is! Come on, everyone!"
She started walking, tugging Naruto along gently. The other three girls fell into formation around them, their earlier distress now masked by determined optimism.
As they walked, Satsuki kept up a steady stream of cheerful chatter—talking about her favorite ramen flavors, about what she thought team assignments might look like, about how she was thinking of redecorating her room in the Uchiha compound. The other girls chimed in occasionally, adding their own thoughts and opinions.
Naruto listened without really hearing, letting the words wash over him like background noise. But some small part of him—a part that still functioned on a level below conscious thought—noted something.
Their hands were warm.
All of them. Satsuki's grip on his fingers. Sakura's occasional touch on his shoulder. Ino's playful nudges. Hinata's shy brushes against his arm.
Warmth.
He couldn't feel the emotion behind the gestures. Couldn't understand, on a meaningful level, why these four girls had suddenly decided he was worth caring about. Couldn't reciprocate their affection or even fully acknowledge it.
But he could feel the warmth.
And somewhere in the vast emptiness inside him, in that hollow space where his heart used to be, something flickered. Not an emotion—not yet. Just... recognition. Acknowledgment that the warmth existed.
That it was directed at him.
That, for reasons he couldn't comprehend, these four girls saw something in him worth saving.
It wasn't enough to fill the void. Wasn't enough to break through the walls. Wasn't enough to make him feel again.
But it was something.
And in a life that had been defined by nothing for so long, something was... notable.
Ichiraku Ramen was exactly as Naruto remembered it—a small stand with a handful of stools, run by old man Teuchi and his daughter Ayame. It was one of the few places in the village where he had never experienced outright hostility, where his money was accepted without sneers and his presence tolerated without glares.
The five of them crowded onto the stools, with Naruto in the middle and two girls on each side. The seating arrangement seemed to have been worked out through some silent negotiation that Naruto hadn't been privy to—Satsuki and Hinata on his left, Sakura and Ino on his right.
Teuchi's eyebrows rose significantly when he saw Naruto's companions, but to his credit, the old man didn't comment beyond a knowing smile.
"Well, well," he said genially. "Naruto! Good to see you, my boy. And you've brought friends! Pretty ones, too." He winked at the girls, who giggled in response. "What can I get for everyone?"
Orders were placed—miso ramen for Naruto, as always, along with various other flavors for the girls. As they waited for their food, Satsuki resumed her role as conversation leader, chatting animatedly about anything and everything.
"—and I was thinking, if we all end up on the same team, we should come up with a team name. Something cool. Like 'Team Awesome' or 'The Unstoppable Five' or—"
"Those are terrible names," Ino interrupted with a laugh. "How about something more elegant? Like 'The Lotus Guard' or—"
"Too flowery," Sakura objected. "We need something that sounds strong. 'Iron Fist Squad' or something like that."
"I-I think," Hinata said quietly, "the most important thing is that we're together. The name doesn't really matter."
The other three girls fell silent for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
"Hinata's right," Satsuki said softly, her hand finding Naruto's under the counter. "As long as we're together, everything else is just details."
Their food arrived, and conversation gave way to eating. Naruto consumed his ramen mechanically, noting the familiar flavors without particularly enjoying them. Beside him, the girls ate with more enthusiasm, exclaiming over the taste and quality of their various orders.
"This is so good!" Satsuki moaned, her reaction to the food almost theatrical. "I can't believe I never came here before! Naruto-kun, you've been holding out on us!"
"It's always been here," he replied flatly.
"Well, I know that now! We're definitely making this a regular thing. Team Ichiraku outings every week!"
"We're not officially a team yet," Ino pointed out.
"Technicalities," Satsuki dismissed with a wave of her hand. "We will be. I'll make sure of it."
Given her earlier demonstration with Iruka and Mizuki, Naruto didn't doubt her determination. Whether it would actually work remained to be seen, but her conviction was evident.
They finished their meal, and true to her word, Satsuki paid for everything—pulling out a wallet that seemed to contain far more money than a typical genin would have access to. The Uchiha clan's wealth, Naruto supposed, now apparently at her disposal.
"Thank you for the meal, Teuchi-san!" Satsuki called as they left, waving cheerfully. "We'll be back soon!"
The old man waved back, his smile warm and genuine. "Anytime! Take care of our boy, you hear?"
"We will!" the four girls chorused.
And somehow, despite his inability to feel the sentiment behind it, Naruto believed them.