Chapter 39 - Blooming Love

It was rather late when Naruto and Galatea got home - past 11 pm. When he entered the living room, the sight in front of him filled his eyes with warmth: cuddled together, Misaki and Barbara were sleeping soundly, leaning on each other's shoulder and covered with a puffy blanket. In contrast, Kyuubi was curled up and sleeping like a cat on the other side of the couch.

Having gotten the so-called 'green light' from the overprotective older brother, Barbara had gone ahead and confessed her real feeling to Misaki. But Naruto's sister, was a bit disturbed. Sarutobi Hiruzen had raised her and Naruto in an 'old fashioned' way. While the education she had received at school made her not discriminate against people with a different sexual orientation, Misaki never entertained the thought of becoming one of them.

Even so, she did realize that what she and Barbara had together was definitely something more than special. Because of that, she told her that while she was not ready for 'that' kind of relationship, because she truly did love her, she was willing to give it a chance, by taking things slow.

Today had been their first official date. The girls did nothing different compared to what they usually did whenever they went out together. But there was a certain something, a particular feeling that drained their energy. The girls knew that by taking that step, there could be only 2 outcomes: either their relationship would deteriorate and they would never be able to go back to how they had been before OR their love would bloom like a flower out of a fantasy.

Drained emotionally but still happy and satisfied with how their date went, the two of them ended their evening by watching a movie and cuddling together, ultimately falling asleep in each other's arms.

Watching them sleep so peacefully made Naruto nearly forget his worries for a while.

Scene break

After taking the sleeping girls and tucking them in Misaki's bed, Naruto went to what became known by then as Galatea's room. Knocking softly on the door, he asked in a subdued voice:

'Galatea, are you there?'

The girl opened the door, and invited him inside:

'Yes, come in.'

'Oh, you've already changed into your sleeping clothes.' Naruto remarked when he looked at her

'Is that a complaint? And here I thought guys would love to see a girl showing more skin.' Galatea joked and smiled in amusement.

The clothes she slept in usually consisted of a white sleeveless tank top that did very little to hide the form of her bountiful chest and a pair of shorts which let her athletic and shapely legs be seen in all their beauty.

In that moment, however, Naruto was too distracted to be able to enjoy the view in front of him. Even Galatea's joke entered through one ear and flew out through the other.

'Ah, it doesn't really matter what clothes you wear. You're always beautiful.'

Only after he finished his words, did he realize what he actually said. Distracted as he was when he replied, he ended up saying exactly what was on his mind, unfiltered.

A hint of colour appeared on the girl's white cheeks and Naruto felt his own face warming up.

'I-... that was out of line. Sorry.' Naruto said.

'No, it was...nice! Thank you.' Galatea mumbled shyly.

A poignant silence followed. They both tried to steal a glance at each other...only for their eyes to meet. A full blown blush rose on their faces and their eyes quickly averted to their feet in embarrassment.

By now, Naruto forgot completely what he had been worried about. It was only after a while of steaming in embarrassment that Galatea could no longer bear with the situation and stammered a few words:

'W-What was that you wanted?'

Her question woken him up from his reverie and his mind finally went back to the matter at hand. In an attempt to smooth the situation up and remove the awkwardness in the air, he dressed his voice and said seriously.

'I need to talk to you about tomorrow. It is very important.'

Scene break

'What was so important that we had to come all the way here?'

They were entering the Gotham Woods, a rather large forest located at the outskirts of Gotham City.

'I had to make sure no-one will see or hear what I will show you. What I will share with you, what I will teach you.'

'Ever since I heard who was the one Batman got his information from, I had a bad feeling in my gut.'

Galatea narrowed her eyes.

'Wait, you think they are planning a trap against you and me? I have superhearing - during the entire time, I did not notice any irregularities in the rhythm of Batman's heartbeats.'

'You can do even that...' he mumbled.

'Yeah, my hearing is very sensitive. After 3 years of constant training to control my abilities, I have learned to tune it out but sometimes, when I do not have a conscious control over it, it gets pretty bad. There are mornings when I wake up because of the sound of my own breathing.' Galatea said and laughed softly to herself.

'Damn, didn't know you had it that bad.' Naruto said in empathy.

'Ah, it's fine, due to my physiology, I don't really need that much sleep anyway.'

'Besides, sometimes, I get to hear some very intriguing things. I'm reeealy curious what made you whisper my name this morning...'

'It sounded so passionate!'

Naruto abruptly palmed his face with both of his hands, turned around and knelt of the snow-covered ground.

'...Kill me now! Or I'll dig a hole and bury myself in it!' Naruto said with desperation.

He felt like dying from shame. That morning, he had...relieved himself in the shower. He was a man, it was a biological need. A biological need that was multiplied 10 times over from the moment Galatea had started to live with him. While being in the shower, he had been thinking of her. And she knew it! Her uncontrollable giggling was proof enough. Even in that state, Naruto unconsciously relished in the sound of her laughter. It was so pleasing to his ears. So attractive.

Suddenly, black lightning burst from his body and he jumped up on his feet.

'That's it! It's enough!' He thought in determination. 'In my past life, for years, I have pestered Sakura to go out with me and I did everything in my power to get her attention, to make her notice me. To get the attention of someone that never did anything but insult me and smack me around...'

'She was not even that good looking... Definitely inferior when compared to others like Ino, Gaara's sister, Princess Koyuki or even more, the Mizukage or Baa-chan. I am not sure even now, why I was gunning after her when even someone as amazingly beautiful as the priestess Shion wanted to have my children...'

'In spite of all that, I've never hesitated to show Sakura my feelings for her. Yet now, when I live with the most beautiful and most powerful woman that I have ever met, I am pussying around?'

Naruto finally admitted to himself - he no longer tried to deny or to avoid thinking about what he started to feel for Galatea. That's why, when he turned around to face her, his eyes were so filled with conviction that he made the girl involuntarily step back startled.

'Naruto?' Galatea called out in an unsure voice.

'Did he finally snap?'

When she saw the aura of black lightning that was coating his body fade away, she breathed out in relief. But what he did next, made her entire body become still for a moment. He closed in and gently took one of her hands into his own. When he spoke, his words were clear in spite of the thick emotion that flooded his voice.

'No more hiding what I feel about you.'

'I'm in love with you.'

She was rendered mute with shock. She had just wanted to tease him a bit. Seeing someone as powerful as Naruto becoming embarrassed and acting shy amused her as nothing else. She was finding that part of him extremely endearing. But never did she expect that he would say that kind of words to her. That he was in love with her. The realisation of what was actually happening hit once again. She forgot how to breathe when the 'L-word' was said and her stomach twisted, almost making her feel nauseous.

Not waiting to see what her response was going to be, Naruto looked like he wanted to get everything off from his chest in one go.

'You're the most amazing girl I've ever met. I've never felt like this about anyone until now.'

'I often find myself not being able to stop think about you and I-'

Whatever he wanted to say next was left unsaid when a pair of lips pressed against his.

'I feel the same too.' Galatea said, a wide and filled with happiness smile gracing her face.

Her kiss, her words - it brought him a sense of euphoria like never before. But he didn't want to ruin the moment by acting hastily. Of the same mind, the two leaned into each other, their lips meeting in another kiss. It was longer than the previous and sweeter. Their eyes closed and she brought her arms around his neck, pushing against the back of his head to deepen the kiss. Naruto also found himself tightly embracing the girl to his chest, not being able to think of anything else.

After they parted, touching foreheads, their eyes continued to stay closed still lost in pleasure.

For Galatea, it was the most exhilarating thing that she has ever experienced in her short life. Feeling his body so tightly pressed against hers, his powerful arms wrapped around her back and his lips passionately caressing hers...it was beyond anything she had imagined.

She wanted to feel it more. She needed to feel it again.

'Kiss me... Kiss me more!' She whispered, drunk with pleasure.

The way her hot breath touched his lips and hearing her demanding to be kissed made him lose it. He meshed his lips against her hungrily and he pressed her body even more against his.

It was bliss.

Minutes later would find them in the same place, still in each others' embrace. With her head resting in the crook of his neck and with him lovingly nuzzling her soft hair, they were basking in the newfound feeling of physical intimacy, lost in a world of their own.

Naruto was happy. The happiest he had ever been in both of his lives combined. He wanted this to never end. This happiness - he decided that he would treasure it regardless of the costs. It was when he reached this conclusion that he finally remembered the reason why he had brought Galatea all the way into the forest, in the middle of the night.

Scene break

'Is this really necessary? I have a hard time getting a grasp of this energy inside my body.' Galatea said, her voice sounding almost like a whine.

Galatea never whining - Naruto had never seen her doing that before. But now she could not keep herself collected. She had just kissed someone for the first time and it was the most wonderful feeling she had experienced in her entire life. She had been passionately kissed and embraced by someone whom she admired, by someone to whom she felt an incredible attraction. What she wanted at that moment was to explore those new feelings and experience again that thrilling sensation from before.

'This isn't going anywhere...Galatea, please focus!'

An annoyed groan came from the girl.

'Do you have any idea how awkward this pose makes me feel? What's with this stupid positioning of my fingers...'

'That's called a hand-seal. It would greatly help you control and feel the flow of the chakra in your body - if you tried to at least focus that is.'

But his explanation did not make her any more willing to just go with it.

'Look Naruto, my heat beams are impossible to dodge unless you have reflexes faster than the speed of light. If he as much as tries to look me in the eyes, I'll fry his brain in an instant.'

'We both know that the trajectory of your heat beams is not hard to predict - thus not hard to dodge if someone jumps in advance.' Naruto retorted, only for her to scoff.

He sighed. Coming closer to Galatea, he took her right hand in his and kissed it. It was unexpected. It was such an innocent and gentle gesture that the girl found her face flushing without being able to control herself.

'Trust me, I understand what you feel right now. Just like you, I'd like nothing more than to spend the rest of the night holding you like this.'

'Then why don't you-'

'Because I want you to be safe!' he interrupted her.

'I'm not a damsel in distress, Naruto.' She began, only for Naruto to cut her off once more:

'I know that you are powerful. And I know that considering your strength, chakra won't really give you much more power - you can even shatter cliffs with our bare hands. As for ninjutsu, it would be kind of useless considering that your heat beams are superior in both power and speed.'

'However, this Uchiha Itachi was feared worldwide because of his ability to ensnare others with his illusions. When he reached the peak of his shinobi career, he could trap someone into an illusion in which he would torture his victim's mind for 72 hours while not even 2 seconds were passing in real life. And he could do that instantly, with just one look in their eyes.'

'This isn't about physical power.'

Naruto continued.

'I have no doubt that you could ultimately win regardless of what he would throw at you but the problem is that there will be dozens of other superheroes there. You'll be surrounded by enemies from all sides. Why not spend merely 15 minutes to eliminate what could prove to be a fatal risk?'

Normally, Naruto would have not had a second thought about the outcome of a clash between Galatea and the League of Shadows. However, ever since he heard who was the one that had provided Batman with the information concerning the Demon's next move, Naruto has not been able to shake off the feeling that something horrible was going to happen. His instincts were warning him of mortal danger in regards to the following day - which was vexing and worrying him. Just who in the world could possibly endanger his life?

'It sounds arrogant as heck for me to say it myself, but currently, there is no-one capable enough to threaten my life except for Galatea and Kyuubi. Then what about anyone acting against a team consisting of Kyuubi, Galatea and I? To attack such a team would mean suicide for anyone, regardless of their identity.'

Despite his logical thoughts on the matter, deep down, there was a sense of dread stabbing at his heart. It was because of this feeling that he decided to teach Galatea how to control her chakra - only to make her capable of dispelling genjutsus. After all, as he had just told her, anything else would be not so useful. Because all the powerful techniques from his past were either the result of years and years of hard work, or they were abilities granted by a kekkei genkai. On such short notice, there was not anything else he could do to prepare her for tomorrow. There was not enough time.

Hearing Naruto's reasoning, Galatea stopped being stubborn. With a sigh, she relented:

'Fine, have it your way!'

'Good girl.' Naruto praised as if she were a child, making her eyebrows twitch at the subtle jab he made about her age.

For the following few minutes, Galatea stood with her eyes closed and with her fingers posed in a ram seal, concentrating. But she could not sense the energy that was supposed to be dormant within her. She was, however, aware of its existence however because she had felt it coursing through her body when she had fought against Naruto on top of the ocean. Recalling that life and death battle, she finally made the connection:

'This energy, I felt it whenever Naruto's black lightning had tried to incinerate me. It acted up to protect me, nullifying the lightning's effect!'

'Naruto, try to cast your lightning on me!' Galatea suddenly said, only for him to look at her in doubt. While he knew that his lightning could no longer harm her after she was submerged in Lazarus Pit, it was still not a pleasant thing for him to use his lightning on the one for whom he held now real feelings. But he did realize what her intention was so he complied with her request despite his reluctance.

Coating only his right hand in black lightning, he came behind her.

'Here it goes.' He warned and placed his palm on her back gently.

For a few moments, they were both silent.

'I can feel it now.' she said, her voice betraying her awe.

'Good. Picture it in your mind the feeling you get when you want to sneeze. When that feeling reaches the climax and 'you' are about to burst in your mind, shout: KAI!'

Naruto was not sure how certified instructors would teach their students to make the first contact with the chakra in their body as he had never been taught how to do it. In his past life it came naturally to him because of Kyuubi (the Academy instructors never really bothered with trying to explain him anything important) while in his current life, it took him nearly a decade of training his martial arts and daily meditation sessions to get a grasp on it.

He was broken out of his musings when a shout reached his ears:

'Kai!'

A massive amount of chakra burst from Galatea's body and Naruto suddenly found himself being propelled through the air and thrown into the distance by the chakra wave, together with all the snow, the twigs and the rocks on the ground around her.

'Shit! Didn't expect her to do it from the first try. And what the heck is with that chakra?!'

Normally, after passing the age of 15, one would become unable to even interact with chakra due to his coils and meridians having reached maturity. Naruto only tried it on Galatea because her body was way above the human standard. And it was also thanks to that fact that her chakra pool was incredibly large.

'I did it!' she yelled excited.

He barely got to lift himself from the place where he had been flung to that he was thrown down again. Face radiating with happiness, Galatea had jumped into his arms and giggled at the sound he made at having the air knocked out of him. Naruto merely looked at her but inwardly, he was amazed how much Galatea changed since they first day they started living together.

Groggily, he lifted himself in a sitting position. Despite wanting initially to bash her back in retaliation, when he took in the image in front of him, his annoyance vanished.

'We've only known each other for a few weeks but...man, just how adorable can she be?!'

Probably because it was not like her to act so enthusiastic about something, at that moment, Naruto was finding her not just beautiful, but cute as hell. Being born in a military facility/laboratory and having been trained from the first week of her creation in all the forms of physical combat known to the military, Galatea's personality had taken the form of a that of a tough, powerful, no-nonsense type of woman. While she did have some small bursts of childish behaviour once in a while - like the spontaneous game of tag the two of them had played earlier that day on their way to Bruce Wayne's manor - Galatea was generally behaving like a serious, mature woman.

In front of him, however, was now a seemingly completely different person. That giddy smile on her face was so innocent and her laughter so pure that he felt his own heart melting. Her baby blue eyes were sparkling with mischief and the faintest blush adorned her face, contrasting with her normally pale white complexion.

He couldn't help himself: grabbing her by the waist, he suddenly pulled her to him. Taken by surprise, a small noise that sounded oddly similar to a squeak escaped from her lips when she found herself landing in his lap.

'Do you have any idea just how cute you are?'

Had he called her 'cute' yesterday, she would have felt offended. She was a Kryptonian, a being that had been designed by her 'father' to become the best weapon, the strongest warrior. She was not supposed to be cute! But in that, moment, she was surprised at herself when she felt her own face heating up and her stomach filling with butterflies. She could not understand her own reaction.

Naruto was not aware of it, but him confessing his feelings for her was the figurative battering ram that finally managed to break past the tough exterior she had been keeping up. The playful and beautifully smiling girl in front of him - that was the real Galatea, the one that she had never shown to anyone but her now deceased father.

To her, his confession meant much more than Naruto thought it did. It made her feel accepted. It made her feel wanted and loved. It replaced the void and the pain that the death of Orochimaru had left in her heart with a feeling of hope...with love.

Seeing the radiant blush on her face, Naruto smiled himself too. Just looking at her was enough to fill him with a strange sensation of joy. Embracing her, he gently pushed her body to lean on his chest. She hid her face once again that day in the crook of his neck to hide her embarrassment, making him chuckle lightly. When she also wrapped her arms around his back, a sigh of content came out of his mouth. Placing a loving kiss on the top of her head, he started to run his hand through her silky her hair, softly caressing her.

The cold of the winter night did nothing to bother the two of them. Laying in each other's arms, the time flew without them noticing. It was only Galatea's lack of movement and her regular breathing that made him aware that she had fallen asleep.

His first intention was to sit up and take her home, but he remembered her telling him just how sharp her sense of hearing was. The noise coming from Gotham City's traffic would definitely wake her up.

'Guess it can't be helped...'

Sitting up with her in his arms, Naruto silently went closer to a tree and let himself fall back to the ground, with his back now resting on the trunk of the tree. He could not bring himself to wake her up from her slumber. He decided that he would stay a few more hours, for her to get at least a modicum of sleep. The metamorphosis his body had gone through on the Prison Island after the heavenly tribulation made it so his body way above that of a human anyway - he could no longer get ill or sick even if he wanted to and the massive amount of chakra that his 2 charka hearts pumped every second made it sure that he was nearly immune to cold.