Chapter Thirty Four

  "I shouldn't be so nervous, she's my mom." Konohamaru said to Naruto as he fixed the collar of  his collared shirt. "It's normal to be nervous, you haven't seen her in over a month."

He said to try to reassure him, before playfully ruffling the boys hair. Groaning he said, "I had just got it to look perfect, you asshole." Naruto laughed as he fixed his hair in the mirror behind him. "You look fine, now hurry up, my bride is waiting."

"Am I invited to the wedding?" He asked as they walked out of Sasuke's bedroom, where Konohamaru slept since he spent his days at his girlfriend house, now that she was discharged from the hospital.

  "Of course you are." Naruto said while throwing his arm over his shoulders, as they walked out of the room. Seeing Hinata standing in front of the mirror that was in the living room, Naruto smiled at her.

"Well don't you guys look handsome." She said with a smile, before walking toward them and as Naruto leaned forward, expecting her to kiss him, Hinata gave Konohamaru a polite hug. "Are you ready for today?"

She asked the boy in a soft tone that made him smile, while her boyfriend blushed with embarrassment. "I am, just a little nervous."

"Don't worry, we'll be there the entire time." Though she tried to reassure him, she could see that he was anxious by the way he tapped his finger against his arm, as they both sat crossed around his chest. Honestly, he was nervous, because of what he wanted to talk to his mother about.

He had faith that she meant it when she said that she was sober, so when he saw her be planned on asking her if he could come home. Sure, he had practically ran away, but he missed his mother.

Since his father's passing a few years ago, he had looked up to his mother, because he had no one else. Things changed once she welcomed her abusive husband into their lives, but that hadn't changed his love for his mother, and a part of him thought that nothing ever could; even her alcoholism.

"I know, thank you guys again. You guys have enough on your plates with the wedding and stuff, so I'm sorry if I've been a burden to you." Hinata shook her head, while her heart ached for the kid.

"You're not a burden Konohamaru, you've grown to be like a brother to Naruto, and to me too." Playfully throwing his arm around his shoulders, Naruto smiled at him, "Exactly, and since you're like a brother to me, I'll always be there for you. This apartment is just as much yours as it is mine or Sasuke's, you know?"

Hinata smiled at her boyfriend, as she saw the way Konohamaru smiled at him with such gratitude. "Thank you." "You don't have to thank me." Naruto said with a smile, while grasping his fiancée's hand, as they walked out of the apartment.

On the drive over to the restaurant, Konohamaru sat in the backseat of Naruto's car, with pure anxiety from the pit of his stomach, all the way to his chest.Hinata and Naruto held a light conversation, while he drowned them out completely, trying to reassure himself that everything would turn out fine.She said that she was getting better.

Everything will be fine. He kept saying to himself, subconsciously hoping that he'd start to believe it. Glancing at the young man in the backseat, from the rear view mirror, Naruto asked, "What's on your mind, Konohamaru?"

He shrugged his shoulders, though he knew exactly what he was thinking about. "Well you don't have to worry, we'll be right there the entire time, and she promised that her husband wouldn't be there."

"No, I know. I think I'm just nervous because we haven't really talked since that night, you know?" Naruto nodded, knowing he definitely didn't want to talk about the night he was referring to.

The night that Naruto and Sasuke took him in, was the night that he had finally had enough. After Hinata dropped him off at from boxing, he had dinner with his family, and everything started off normal, which he thought was weird, considering things hadn't been, "Normal," since she remarried over two years ago.

For half an hour the three of them sat in complete silence, and right as he parted his lips to ask his mother to pass the salt, he was interrupted by his mother's excited voice.

"I'm sorry, I can't act coy anymore, Konohamaru? Levi's job is taking him to Sunagakure, and we're planning on moving out there. Once you finish this semester of course."

A part of him thought she was joking, so he asked, "What?" They both glanced at him, and she offered him a polite smile. "I knew this would be hard for you, and that's okay. We can just take this day by day."

He sighed deeply, while putting his fork down. "No, you have to be kidding me, Mom. You expect me to move over one hundred miles away, away from my friends, just so you can be with that abusive asshole? You have to be kidding me."

The look of shock that came to his mother's face, made him feel bad for a split second, before he heard his step fathers voice. "Well once you're done throwing your tantrum, we can discuss this like real men."

Slamming his fork on the table, Konohamaru stood up while angrily saying, "Oh you want to talk about what it means to be a real man? Real men don't abuse their wife and kid. You're disgusting, and the last thing you get to do is call yourself a real man."

His anger was met with anger, and the moment Levi placed his napkin on the table, before standing up from his seat, all hell broke loose. The men argued for a few minutes, broke dishes, and even shoved each other, before Konohamaru stormed off to his room that was down the hall.

While he angrily packed his duffle bag to go anywhere else for the night, he tried his best cool down while texting his girlfriend, so that she wouldn't be worried. Ever since Halloween, she had grown more worried about him, because although he was met with a scolding from Naruto and Hinata the next morning, she knew how accessible drugs were to him.

His step father struggled with his painkiller addiction, while his mother was a high functioning alcoholic, and though he tried to not let it effect him, the moment he indulged in a powdery poison at a friends house, he realized why bad things were so highly addictive.

That night turned into nights of him being high, and calling his girlfriend before passing out in his room. Though it had seemingly halted every time he stayed over Naruto's, the minute he went home he used it to escape his reality, and Hanabi knew that.

Recognizing the behavior, she tried to talk to him about it, and initially he denied that he had a problem, until it became a noticeable problem. An incident occurred one night, at a high school party that he had been invited to. Hanabi was bedridden with a cold, and tried not to worry about her boyfriend, until she got a phone call from his best friend.

There was so much commotion that she hardly heard him, and she assumed he had called her by accident. Initially she was filled with confusion, but the minute she heard Konohamaru's incredibly rushed speech, after he swore that he wouldn't do drugs anymore, she was angered.

Even through her annoyance, she went down the hall to her sisters room in the middle of the night, interrupting her and Naruto's sleep so that they could get her boyfriend from the party. Though it seemed like a minor inconvenience to them, Hanabi was obviously irritated, and it was understandable after she told her sister what had been going on. That combined with his abusive household caused Naruto to step in immediately, and since then the boy had been doing better

Ever since Sakura's problem, they all took sobriety a lot more serious, so even if Konohamaru had the urge, he never had the resources. It forced him to go cold turkey, and it was the best thing for him to do. He loved having a support system, but now as weeks had passed since he last saw his mother, he started to think that he was ready to go home.

Genuinely he missed her, and the last thing he wanted was for her husband to start using her as a punching bag. Before he knew it, they were at the restaurant, and Hinata was giving him encouraging words as they waited for his mother.

"I can see that you're excited. You don't have to be such a tough guy." She teased making him roll his eyes, with a small smile. "Yeah, whatever."

After five minutes passed, and Konohamaru constantly glanced at his watch, his mother walked toward their table. A smile came to everyone's face as she hugged her son. "My handsome boy. I've missed you." She said with her hands caressing his face. "I've missed you too, Mom."

Smiling, they both sat down in their seats. Sitting across from his mother, Konohamaru watched her closely for a moment as she spoke to Naruto and Hinata. "Thank you guys for everything you've done for him recently. I know things have been so challenging for him, and I'm just glad that he's able to rely on such amazing people."

They both nodded with smiles on their faces. "He's honestly like a brother to me, Sasuke and I love having him around." Naruto said, playfully nudging his shoulder.

Hinata saw the way that Konohamaru looked at his mother, and she knew that he knew what she had been thinking since the moment she sat down. Her pupils were dilated, and her breathe smelt like fresh spearmint, as if she had just downed a bottle of mouthwash before walking in. She didn't plan on saying anything, so as she carried a conversation with her, she tried to not bring attention to it.

"So, how's school?" She asked him with a smile."You're hammered." Konohamaru said randomly with a deep sigh leaving his lips, and a blush of embarrassment on his face.

"W-what? No I'm not, I just want to talk to you, Son." His mother pleaded with tears coming to her brown eyes, as his identical ones were filled with anger.

"God, you promised me that you'd at least be sober for today, one day! You're killing yourself, and you just don't care who's affected, do you? I-I was so excited to see you, you know that? All I wanted to do was spend time with my freaking mom, hell I even wanted to talk about finally coming home."

The way he spoke broke all of their hearts, and even though his mother was heavily intoxicated, his words still made her regret what she did. "I'm sorry, Son." She said while reaching for his hand, making him spring up from his seat. His sudden moving snagged the table cloth in the process, causing some glass to clash in the process. The sound made Hinata subconsciously jump slightly, before Naruto said, "Konohamaru."

  Looking at him, he laughed a little and shook his head. "No, I'm not doing this, Naruto. She's not sorry, she never is, and she never will be. We all know that, I don't even know why..... you know what? Forget this, I'm out. Don't call me, Mom."

With that, he stormed off from the restaurants patio. Naruto looked to his fiancée, "Can you take her home? I'll catch up to Konohamaru. If you need anything, call me, okay?"

Hinata nodded while taking his keys, before he kissed her forehead and followed after the kid. Her eyes looked at his mother as she drunkenly sobbed, and for a moment she wasn't sure what to do. With a quite sigh, she grabbed her unused napkin that sat on her lap, and walked to the other side of the table.

"Megumi, can I get you some water?" She asked softly, trying to be helpful. When she moved her hands from her face, and saw Hinata's kind lavender eyes, she hugged her tightly. Though she was slightly uncomfortable for a moment, she gradually hugged the woman back.

A sigh of content left her lips as she hugged her, and Hinata realized that she was no longer crying. They were like that for a moment, before she pulled away, and smiled at the young woman. "Thank you."

Hinata shook her head, "For what?" She asked, "For being so kind. I know I make mistakes....and I have a problem, b-but you? You remind me that I'm human. Thank you." Megumi answered, making Hinata gently grasp her hand in a comforting manner.

Though she hated the way she seemed to constantly disappointed her son, she couldn't help but be empathic towards the woman. Like her, she was in an abusive relationship, but unlike Hinata, she wasn't able to leave. Instead; she tried to escape her reality by drowning in alcohol. She recognized that not everyone had the incredible support system she did,

It wasn't right, but Hinata understood how it could happen. "Konohamaru doesn't hate you, Megumi. I promise you that." She said honestly, making her sigh deeply while asking, "Are you sure? H-he stormed out of here like he does."

Hinata nodded, "He was just angry, you know? You should've seen him, he was so excited to see you. I'm not telling you this to make you feel bad, I just want you to know that he still has hope that you'll change. We all do."

Tears fell from her eyes as she nodded, "However, that'll change one day, and I hope that you get the help you need before he loses all hope. Konohamaru has already lost his dad, the last thing he needs is to lose his mom too."

"W-well what should I do?" She asked the young adult, bringing a blush to her face from the pressure. "Have you tried support groups?"

As Hinata talked to his mother, Konohamaru sat on a bus bench with his head low, and his fists clenched. Though he didn't realize, he had walked half a mile away from the restaurant. Naruto wasn't too far behind, but he wasn't aware that he had been chasing after him, because he was disassociating the entire walk.

He couldn't stop thinking about the person his mom used to be, and it filled him with anger, because he missed her. Almost completely out of breath, and heaving, Naruto said, "Gosh you're fast, Kid." Looking up at him, Konohamaru had tears in his brown eyes as the sun beamed down on him.

"S-sorry, I just....I had to." Opening his arms, Naruto said, "Come here, Dude." The young men hugged each other, and as Konohamaru let his tears fall, Naruto allowed for him to be emotional.

"We don't have to talk about this if you don't want to, but just know that we all love you, and we'll always take care of you." He nodded, before pulling away from his hug, and wiping his tears.

Sniffling, he laughed a little, "Sorry." Shaking his head, Naruto offered him a smile. "Don't be, everyone needs to cry sometimes."Konohamaru laughed a little, "You sound like Hinata, dude."

He laughed too while ruffling his brown hair playfully, "I'm taking that as a compliment." "How about we grab a bite, then head to the gym? That sound good?" Konohamaru nodded, "Yeah, sure."

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So sorry for the wait! Ive gotten sooo busy w last minute school stuff. Thanks for all your interactions though!!!