Howdy there. I decided to challenge myself. I don't write often, and my friends often say I have a unique writing style so, I thought I'd write more, and see what I can do and learn. THUS I am doing a 100 One-shot challenge. That's right, 100 One-shots! Now, since this is a challenge, I am giving myself a few rules to follow.
1. I have a list of words that are the theme of each one-shot. The word will be the title of each chapter.
2. They are all going to be NaruSasuNaru
3. They are all going to be AU's because those are a LOT harder for me to write than canon.
4. None of these can play off any other one-shots in this compilation. They all have to be a new story.
5. After 10 chapters, a new genre will be used. For example, 1-10 is humor, 11-20 is Supernatural, etc.
So, if you like any of the stories, and want to hear more, you are going to have to tell me. If enough people like one story, I might continue with it in an actual series. Also, if you can think of anything else to add to the challenge, let me know, I might add it to the rules list, especially since this is about challenging myself.
Anyway, without further ado, here is the first of 100! Enjoy!
Summary: Naruto doesn't always make smart decisions, and this time, he has gotten himself hospitalized for three whole days! How is he supposed to entertain himself when there isn't anyone around?
Warnings: Cursing
Genre: Humor
Injured
The sky was a brilliant shade of blue with fluffy clouds that would give a few moments of cool shade for any that were outside. The wind was gentle, with a few soft gusts that would rustle the trees for a few seconds. It truly was a beautiful day. If only Naruto could go out and enjoy it.
Instead he was stuck inside, on a hospital bed, without the ability to move. He sat in his bed with his left leg in the air in a stiff cast and his arm in wrapping and bent at an angle, and pouted. He had tried for over half an hour to cross his arms but eventually realized that it was hurting his uninjured right arm more than his injured one because of the awkward angling.
Oh he would murder Kiba. It was his dumb idea to jump into the damn lake since it was so hot on their hike in the first place...never mind that it was Naruto that found the cliff to jump off of. Really he should have listened to Gaara and just stayed in the lake and swam around. But Kiba had dared him! He couldn't just let that slide, right? He wasn't a coward.
Not to mention the fact that all Kiba did was freak out after Naruto injured himself while Gaara calmly called the ambulance. He really couldn't remember what either of them said, or the ride to the hospital, but he remembered that the morphine was awesome, and breaking ankles and wrists was awful. At least now he was able to brag that he had screws in his body.
He sighed loudly, staring out the window with longing. Just two more days and he could leave. He had only been here for less than a day and already he was going stir crazy. He was itching to go out for a jog or hang out with any of his friends. He was not built to just sit and stare. He needed activity, he needed excitement. HE NEEDED TO NOT BE SO BORED. He let out another long sigh as he changed his stare to the window, hoping that someone would just walk into his room and entertain him.
Just as he was giving up hope of keeping his sanity, he saw his door open. A bright smile started to cross his face and quickly morphed into one of confusion. A man with black hair had opened his door and started to step inside, when he also paused and stared right back. His eyes were also dark and his skin was so pale, Naruto almost wondered if he had ever been outside.
After the staring had lasted for what felt like hours to Naruto, but really was only about 10 seconds, he raised his hand and waved to the stranger that had entered his room. The stranger seemed to snap out of whatever trance had overtaken him and immediately scowled. He glared at Naruto for a few more seconds and made his way quickly out the door without even saying a word.
The confusion crossed Naruto's face yet again. What the hell was that guys problem? All Naruto did was wave. He didn't smell bad did he? He probably smelled like lake water where they didn't sanitize, but he didn't think that was a bad enough smell. Plus the nurses would have let him wash off if it was getting too bad, right? And he didn't want to brag, but he was quite decent looking! He got his fair share of bed companions and none of them ever seemed to think he was worth running away from, even after a rather awkward morning. As he was still trying to figure out what he did to make the stranger leave, his door opened again.
"Hey Gaara, look, the dumb blond is awake!" Kiba yelled as he walked into the room, followed by a calm and stoic faced Gaara. Naruto glared and opened his mouth to reply before he was interrupted.
"Good to see you lived." Gaara said, walking over to stand by Naruto's side.
Naruto glared over to Gaara and tried to cross his arms, only to scowl down at his arms as well when he remembered he couldn't. Why was everyone out to get him today?
"I am not out to get you, it really is good to see that you lived through the anesthesia." Gaara deadpanned and Naruto realized he must have said that out loud.
"Took you guys long enough to get here. I've been so bored!"
"Really? Its only eleven in the morning, dude. You've been here for like half a day."
"Its been 17 hours." Gaara looked over at Kiba, obviously offended that Kiba couldn't even do the simple math. Naruto chuckled when Kiba looked over at Gaara and stuck out his tongue.
"Why'd you look so confused when we walked in? Its not like we were angry you decided that jumping into a shallow end of a lake from a huge cliff was a good idea." Kiba scratched his cheek, sitting in a seat that was over by the window.
"Nah, it wasn't about you guys. Some guy walked into my room. All I did was wave at him and he looked at me like I just ran over his cat." He was getting a little annoyed that he couldn't gesture with both of his hands as he was talking. He glanced up at Gaara, and started scratching the back of his head with his good hand. "I don't smell bad, do I?"
Gaara rose his thin eyebrow, and Kiba made obvious noises of sniffing the air while smirking.
"Now that you mention it, you totally smell like shit. I should have left right when I got here as well. He must have been a smart guy."
"Oh shut up, asshole. You think you're so smart."
"I'm definitely smarter than you. I didn't jump, now did I?"
"I'm never going to live this down. Gaara, your not going to make fun of me are you?"
Gaara stared down at him for a few seconds before he rose his gaze to Kiba.
"Your right, Kiba. You must be smarter than him."
"Hey!"
Kiba doubled over in laughter as Naruto sunk into the bed and pouted.
~ o ~ 0 ~ o ~
The rest of the morning and into the afternoon had been spent with Kiba and Gaara, and even Ino, Sakura, and Hinata had visited him. He was so glad for the company and it warmed a little part of himself to know that his friends cared about him enough to visit. Unfortunately, it couldn't last. The girls had to leave to get back to studying, finals where only a few weeks away. Thanks to them, Kiba was reminded he had a project due on Monday, tomorrow, and had to leave as well.
Gaara stayed for another half an hour, not doing much talking but listening to Naruto talk about everything he wanted to do but couldn't. Eventually, though, he too had to leave to go to his part-time job. He parted as Naruto threw a backhanded comment about how exciting it must be to work in the school library. Gaara shook his head as he closed the door behind him, leaving Naruto in silence again.
He sat there in the silence for a few minutes and watched a bird fly through the air outside the window. He didn't feel down, but he was definitely in an introspective kind of mood. He tried to keep noise around him all the time, to distract him from having to think about the past and focus on the present. He could feel a melancholic mood starting to take over his room as the sky started to darken with grey clouds rolling in. He decided to try to stop it before it really took over the room.
He reached over to his phone and opened his Pandora to play some old rock that his dad used to play around the house. After listening to Come Sail Away for a few minutes, he found that it wasn't helping at all. He quickly typed out a few emails to his professors, explaining he wouldn't be in the lectures for a few days. The song ended and Candle in the Wind started up. He set the phone back down at his side and stared out the window again. He just couldn't shake the feeling.
He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard someone clear their throat. He turned his head to find another man with dark, long hair and dark eyes standing in front of the man that had scowled at him earlier in the day. What seemed to be the younger of the two was turned away, a deep frown on his face, and his hands in his jean's pockets. The one with long hair seemed relaxed and had a patient look on his face, his left arm in a sling.
"Hello, I'm Itachi." The long haired man gave Naruto an encouraging smile as he introduced himself. He gestured with his thumb toward the man behind him. "And this is my younger brother, Sasuke."
Naruto smiled back, a little uplifted from his previous mood with Itachi's attitude. "Hey. Naruto. It seems we have matching injuries! I jumped from the wrong ledge. Wha'd you do?"
His brother, Sasuke, made a scoffing noise behind Itachi right as he answered. "I was hit by a bus. It wasn't even going that fast, and it really was my fault. I have learned my lesson never to read my emails as I cross the street." Itachi barely turned his head to smirk towards his brother. Sasuke turned his eyes away from his brother again to stare at the door to the room, obviously not wanting to be there.
"Ah yes, buses can be tricky. They do tend to sneak up on you when you aren't paying attention."
Itachi chuckled a bit and it seemed like Sasuke's glare lightened up a little. The tension in the air seemed to raise, though, when Itachi turned back to look at Sasuke with an expectant look. The silence continued on for so long Naruto started to fidget and feel weird that two strangers were standing in his room and having a silent argument. Eventually Sasuke clicked his tongue and set his sights onto Naruto. His mouth was set in a line as he seemed to struggle with the words he wanted to say.
"I'm sorry about this morning. I was given the wrong room number and I got upset that I wasn't able to get to my brother's room as soon as possible. I shouldn't have acted the way I did."
It was obvious that Sasuke must have been practicing the speech in his head for a while, and by the way Itachi's face relaxed a little but still appeared rather put out, he had a hand in this apology.
"Well, thanks for the apology I guess. I'm just happy I apparently didn't scare you away cause I stink."
Itachi appeared amused, and Sasuke's face relaxed a little more.
"I don't know about that, I could smell something pretty...distinct." Sasuke quipped back, smirking faintly.
"Hey, distinct doesn't mean bad."
"Only if you are trying to be polite to someone you just met. I do try to have some manners."
"Yeah, because glaring at someone that just waved to you is such good manners."
"A glare from me when I'm in that bad of a mood is like a handshake."
"Ha, if that's like a handshake, an actual handshake must be pretty spectacular."
At that Itachi appeared to have an awful image in his head. "And with that lovely image running through my mind, I am starting to feel the effects of the pain killers and I am not allowed to drive myself home. How long are you staying?"
"The doctors said I would be out of here Tuesday night without any complications." Naruto could feel a bit of disappointment run through him. It would be back to boredom, especially since his friends would be on campus with classes for most of the day tomorrow and probably wouldn't be able to visit.
"Well, it was a pleasure to meet you Naruto, even if it was under odd circumstances." Itachi smirked back at his brother who shot him back with a halfhearted glare.
"It was a pleasure to meet you too. And I guess it was a nice meeting the second time around, Sasuke."
"Uh-huh. Just try not to jump off of ledges again, idiot." But Sasuke gave him a little grin to show he didn't mean anything by the insult.
Naruto waved as the two brothers left the room. Once the door closed behind them, he dropped his hand back down to his bed and looked out the window, watching as the colors changed while the sun started to set. He gave a small smile as he thought back to his previous encounter with the brothers, and hoped he would see at least one of them again soon.
~ o ~ 0 ~ o ~
He was so bored. Really, someone of his energy really wasn't made to just sit in a room and do nothing. He would have been sleeping, but a nurse had woken him up that morning for breakfast and to give him a sponge bath. He still felt his cheeks redden when he thought about it, but at least he knew he didn't smell now. He was also thankful he didn't have to wear a bed pan and was helped into the bathroom regularly. Talk about really embarrassing. He really wasn't helping his cheeks out.
He tampered down his embarrassment when he heard the door click open, excited that someone was there to visit him. He was a little shocked, though, to see that it was Sasuke that walked through the door. He really didn't expect to ever see the man again, but here he was back in his little room.
"Hey! Welcome back to Casa Naruto! We weren't expecting any guests so excuse that the bed has already been used." Naruto grinned at him, hoping his new acquaintance was in a good mood.
"Well I should have expected that since I didn't call ahead of time." Sasuke smirked back, walking over towards the chair that Kiba had sat in the morning before.
"Yes, how rude of you. It is only polite that you make sure people know you are coming. Ah, but we did find out yesterday that you are a rather rude person." Naruto chuckled a bit at his own joke, and Sasuke didn't seem offended as he just grinned right back.
"Ah yes, I suppose I never will live that down." Sasuke turned to the window and his lips thinned out. Naruto was about to make another clever remark, but once Sasuke looked away, Naruto bit his tongue. Sasuke seemed to let out a loud breathe through his nose, and turned back to Naruto. "I really do apologize for how I acted yesterday. I didn't handle being told my brother was in the hospital and was unconscious very well. I have my reasons, but that is really no excuse."
"Hey, like I said yesterday, its no big deal. I wouldn't know what its like, I was an only child, but I can imagine it was hard."
Sasuke gave him a look that seemed surprised but had very little of his face change. He pressed his lips together again and moved his eyes down to the floor. Sasuke opened his mouth, closed it, then looked back up and into Naruto's eyes. The tension in the room seemed to build until Naruto could feel it on his skin. They hadn't even had a full conversation yet, how could the tension between them be this high? Naruto tried to break it by smiling towards Sasuke, hoping to make him feel better. Sasuke continued to stare at him with that intense look for a few more seconds.
"Naruto, I know we don't know anything about each other, and that I made a horrendous first impression...and that I don't know if you are...well...would you mind going out with me sometime after you are out of the hospital? I want to properly apologize and actually get to know you."
He was taken aback by Sasuke's proposal. It was true that he knew little about Sasuke, but it was also true that there was something there as they stared at each other. A few more minutes and he would have probably asked the same question.
"Hmmmm, well, I suppose as a poor college student it wouldn't be very smart of me to pass on a free meal. And I guess if I could handle your bastard-like apology yesterday, I could handle a few hours with you."
"So that's a yes?" Sasuke smirked, looking confident.
"Only if you stay and keep me company for the day."
"I suppose I could sacrifice that time for the greater good."
Wow, even I could tell I tried to end that a little fast after the second break...well I gotta go to bed to get to work in the morning at 6:30 in the morning. I'm looking forward to this challenge, and I hope you are as well!
Ta-ta!
