The Konoha sun barely filters through the slats of Naruto’s blinds, casting soft golden lines across your bare shoulder as you shift beneath the crumpled sheets. The air in the small apartment smells like warmth—like laundry detergent and the faintest bit of ramen broth, and him.

You try to sit up. Big mistake.

A tanned arm snakes around your waist in an instant and pulls you right back down with a thud against his chest.

“Nooo,” Naruto groans, voice thick and raspy with sleep. “You can’t go. Stay. Say you’re sick. Lie.”

You laugh, a quiet puff against his collarbone. “Kakashi’s the one sending me. I don’t think he’ll buy that.”

“I’ll guilt trip him. Say you were coughing all night.”

“I wasn’t coughing.”

“You were in my heart,” he mumbles, tightening his hold.

You twist just enough to look at him. His blond hair’s a mess, spiky in all the wrong directions, and one blue eye cracks open lazily to peer at you, still swollen with sleep. His cheek is creased from where it was smushed into the pillow, and his lower lip juts out in a full pout.

“Naruto—”

“Baby.” He pulls the covers over both your heads like you can both hide from the duty of being ninjas and all-knowing sensei’s turned hokage. “Don’t leave me here alone with my thoughts. That’s dangerous.”

“You mean your empty fridge.”

“Exactly. I’ll starve without you.”

You press your forehead to his chest, trying not to giggle, even as his fingers find the curve of your spine and start drawing lazy circles into your skin.

“You’re being dramatic.”

“I’m nineteen and in love,” Naruto says, like it’s the greatest burden in the world. “I need you. For emotional support. And for cooking.”

There’s a beat of quiet. You can hear the slow, steady thump of his heart against your ear, feel the way his thumb traces along the dip of your lower back. His voice is smaller when he says:

“I just always miss you when you’re gone.”

And that — that always gets you. So you melt a little. Stay a little longer. Let him bury his nose in your hair and mutter things like you smell so good and Konoha missions are dumb and I should just come with you and protect you like a proper boyfriend.

Eventually, you’ll have to get up. Pull on your vest, tighten your sandals, and head to the Hokage’s office. But not yet.

Right now, you’re just a girl in bed, wrapped in the arms of the clingiest boy in the village, who happens to love you harder than anyone else in the world.