Written by Freakofimagination on a whim
"Alright then, let's see who's next…oi, Uzumaki, you're up!"
"…"
"Naruto?"
"…"
"Naruto."
"…"
"…"
Whack.
"Ow! What the hell…! Kakashi-sensei, that hurt!"
Sigh.
"It wouldn't have if you hadn't been sleeping when I called you."
Lazy glare.
"Yeah yeah…so my turn to read?"
"Yes Naruto, now get up there."
Exasperation.
"Okay I'm going! I'm going!"
"…"
"Hi, my name's Uzumaki Naruto, but you all know that already. My freeform story on the topic 'Childhood Memories: Friends' is called 'Ad Infinitum'."
"…To Infinity?"
Sheepish grin.
"Yeah…I sorta wanted a symbolic, cool sounding title."
Smile.
"Carry on then."
Naruto cleared his throat and began.
"It's easy to have a friend when you're a little kid and you don't care about anything else, and those cheesy "Best Friends Forever" necklaces actually mean forever."
Two figures in the room abruptly froze, and looked at the blonde in surprise. The blonde didn't notice and kept talking.
"Back when I was a kid, I had two of those, and necklaces for each of them. One for Sasuke and another for Sakura."
At the resounding gasps, Naruto felt himself involuntarily glare into the typed papers he was holding.
Was it really that hard for those idiots to believe that he had been friends with somebody other than the other outcasts of Konoha High?
He let loose a slow, steady breath through his teeth. Of course it was that hard. Uchiha Sasuke was known as the untouchable 'Sex-God Sasuke' to the more than three-quarters of the highschool population, males included. Haruno Sakura was a deadly combination of cleverness, an angel face, and a killer body that enraptured more guys than he could count in one sitting. And he, Uzumaki Naruto, was a guy with weird whisker-like scars on his cheeks, more detention slips in a month than most kids got in a year, and supposedly had only gotten this far in highschool because the principal and two of the teachers liked him.
Shaking himself lightly, he tried to ignored the strains of disbelieving whispers and ran a hand through his shaggy golden hair, waiting as the strands in front and back shifted until they again brushed along his cheekbone and shoulders respectively. It was almost a mullet, he groused, making a mental note to ask Gaara about helping him with it later. Although it was kinda nice having it long enough to braid when class got too boring and he was forbidden from doodling on himself or his papers…
A quiet voice broke through his inner stalling. "Naruto, please continue." Naruto shot a glance at Kakashi, and gave a quick grin of apology before complying.
"It had been a spur-of-the-moment idea from Sakura-chan as we were playing together on the monkey bars, Sasuke and I situated on top of the high, Big-Kid Bars, and Sakura-chan swinging below. We were all seven years old…
"Hey, Naruto-kun! Sasuke-kun!" Sakura called up. I blinked and stared down at her in questioning, Sasuke letting himself fall backward so that he faced her upside as he hung from his knees.
"Yeah Sakura-chan?"
"What's up?"
Sakura didn't giggle like she usually did when we answered simultaneously. For some reason, her face was set in an unusual serious look.
"We're best friends right?" I grinned and laughed at the obvious question; Sasuke snickered.
"Of course Sakura-can!" I happily sang out.
"Until we die when we're old and weird!" Sasuke added in, but Sakura wasn't happy with our answers yet.
"So forever, right?" Me 'n' Sasuke traded a look. And nodded slowly to her, though Sasuke had a little trouble doing it upside down. Was something wrong with Sakura-chan…?
We answered together, firmly. "Forever!"
She nodded to herself, and swung slowly back and forth. "So if we're friends forever…" Sasuke and I gulped at the infamous line. This was the line that had preceded many of our…trials…towards swearing our friendship to eternity, some of them painful (like cutting our palms and sharing blood to be comrades-in-crime…none of our respective parents/guardians had been happy about that). "…we should get friendship bracelets!"
We both let out relieved, albeit confused breaths. That didn't sound painful!
"Ne…Sakura-chan," I questioned, swinging myself backward to mimic Sasuke, who had by then swung up to stop the blood rushing to his head. "What're friendship bracelets?" She rolled her eyes.
"Friendship bracelets are matching bracelets that show people're gonna be friends forever! Dummy!"
I pouted. Sakura-chan could be so mean! Sasuke frowned down at her.
"But Sakura, why do we need bracelets?" He asked, me nodding with a "Yeah, yeah!" in agreement. "We already know we're gonna be friends forever." Sakura scowled.
"But friendship bracelets are so we don't forget!" She argued, scrunching her large, but cute brow together. Sasuke and I copied the look.
"We won't forget!"
Sasuke steadied himself with one hand as he thrust his palm out to her, "And besides, even if we do forget, we've got our pirate scars!"
"Yeah!" I showed the identical triangle-shaped scar on my own palm, "We'll never forget something that hurt so much!"
Finally, Sakura smiled, but still she refused to relent.
"Friendship bracelets also show OTHER people you're gonna be friends 'till ya die," Sasuke and I stopped our protests. Now there was a reason! We grinned.
I swung up, and shouted enthusiastically. "Okay!"
"Let's do it!" Sasuke crowed. Sakura smiled triumphantly and let go of the bars, landing with a soft thwump on the sand. At the invitation, we jumped down next to her.
Without warning, the both of us were abruptly enveloped in a clumsy, tight hug. I grinned gawkily and hugged back, savoring the human contact. Glancing at Sasuke, my masculine pride…or whatever it was back then…was pleased to see a very slight reddening on his cheeks as well as he encircled his arms around me 'n' Sakura.
After a while, Sakura released us, beaming. "I knew you guys would do it," She said, clasping her hands together in front of her earnestly.
"So when do we get 'em?" Sasuke asked impatiently.
"Yeah, when can we gettum?" I echoed, equally as eager.
Sakura giggled cheerfully at our now-enthusiastic selves. "We can get 'em tomorrow," She paused to let us finish our cheer before carrying on, "They're at a store near my house,"
My grin faltered slightly. Going to a store required money…and I didn't have a lot of that… Slowly the smile melted entirely off my face.
Sasuke noticed first, and was silent a moment before he responded.
"Naruto," I looked up at him sadly, inwardly wondering how I was going to tell Sakura-chan that I couldn't afford a Best Friends Forever bracelet. He paused again before leaning in and saying quietly, "You can have some of my money for the bracelet." My eyebrows shot to beneath my hairline and my jaw dropped. His gaze dropped, embarrassed. "My allowance is too big anyway…" He muttered, grazing a foot along the ground.
Right then, I felt like I could just jump and hug him to death in happiness. So I did! …well not to death, but I still gave him a flying tackle of a hug.
Sputtering in surprise and unprepared for the embrace, he landed on the ground, me clutching tightly around his middle and chanting a mantra of thankyou's.
From somewhere to my right, I could hear Sakura giggling, and above my head, Sasuke yelling for me to get off, but all I could think of then was that I was the luckiest kid in the world…
The next day, the three of us were outside of the store, sitting on a bench and admiring our purchases.
"Ne, Sakura-chan, I thought you said they had to be bracelets?" I queried, lifting the necklace out of the plastic bag and watching it glint as it spin in the afternoon light.
"Bracelets, necklaces…" She shrugged and fingered her own necklace, smiling. "As long as they mean we're best friends forever, they're all the same. Besides, these were cheaper than the bracelets."
Sasuke nodded, tucking the remainder of his money back into his pocket. "I think I like necklaces better anyway," He commented and tossed the bag into the trashcan beside him. "I'd probably lose a bracelet really soon."
I grinned in agreement with a, "Me too!" before turning back to the necklace in my hands. To my seven-year-old eyes, it was wonderful. The pendant was sun shaped, the rays like curving tendrils, and was a pretty, burnt orange. Best of all were the swirling words within the pendant…'Friends Till Death'.
…Okay so it wasn't forever specifically, but as close to forever as was humanly possible.
I glanced over at the necklaces Sasuke and Sakura held and smiled again as I saw the words repeated on the moon and star.
Yep. I was definitely the luckiest kid in the world…Aside from maybe Sakura-chan and Sasuke.
"Hey Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, how do I look?" I blinked and focused back on the real world. Sakura was standing in front of us, an expectant look on her face and the star necklace around her neck. I really liked hers. Stars just looked right on her, and the seven-pointed, silvery white one with our pledge carved on it looked plain perfect.
I stood and hugged her happily, "It looks like it was made for you Sakura-chan!" Sasuke smiled, agreeing wholeheartedly. She giggled delightedly, and spun around.
"Now it's your guys' turn!" Sakura said when she stopped, extending a hand out for my necklace. Obediently, I dropped it into her waiting grasp, and turned to face Sasuke, who was still on the bench. I grinned to him. He grinned back.
A moon was perfect for him too. I could remember one of the times I had stayed over at his house, a sleepover for me, Sakura, and him, where we had slept outside on the balcony…
The moon had been full that night, just like the pendant on his necklace, "A witching night!", we had shrieked in our squeaky voices as we performed 'heathen deeds'. Really, we only smeared paint all over our faces like feral children and sacrificed the random bug that came our way to a funny little 'evil' shrine. Eventually, we grew tired of worshiping the shrine though, and decided to pick one of us to be a Witch God/Goddess.
Sasuke was nearly immediately chosen. Neither Sakura nor me would do as an evil ruler, what with my yellow hair ("Yellow's the color of happiness Naruto! Evil is NOT happy!"), and Sakura's decidedly pastel-colored head ("Ehh…sorry Sakura-chan, but pink is a different kinda evil."), we just didn't fit the part. But Sasuke was perfect.
After the sun was gone, me 'n' Sakura only looked like two regular little kids in the dark. He, however, looked cool. With the moonlight, his usually kinda pasty-pale skin seemed to glow, his black hair suddenly had a blue tint to it, and his eyes…somehow going RED, of all colors, were the very personification of a wicked, insane God of the Witches.
And ever since then, the moon's reminded me of him. Well…sometimes the moon makes me think about rabbits, or werewolves, or even cheese at times of extreme late-night hunger…but almost always it's been Sasuke.
"Aww Naruto-kun it looks so pretty!" A small part of me groaned at being used in the same sentence as 'pretty', but that small part was quickly overruled and pushed aside.
Grinning bashfully, I thanked her, stealing a glance back at Sasuke.
He was pouting at his apparent exclusion. "Sakura-chan, will you help me with mine?" He pleaded, standing and holding the necklace out to her. Cheerfully she accepted, clipping the ends of the chain holding the pale blue moon around the wide collar of his trademark shirt.
Sakura stepped back alongside me to see how it looked. She beamed. I smirked.
"We're so COOL!" I hollered, pumping my fist into the air and scaring off several roosting pigeons. Sakura unsuccessfully tried to hide a laugh under a cough and Sasuke just rolled his eyes. I rolled my eyes back at the two of them. "Yeah yeah…so friends till death?"
I opened my arms out wide, the universal Naruto invitation for a hug. Cheerfully, they accepted the invitation and repeated, "Friends till death!"
Sakura pulled back first, but then grabbed onto my right and Sasuke's left hand and tugged. "Now come on, we've gotta start walking or we'll never get to my house before it's dark!"
"Oh!"
"Oh no!"
"Yeah, so let's go! My mom bought donuts this time!"
"Donuts! Awesome! Last one there's a smelly kappa!" With that, I took off running towards Sakura's house, glancing behind me and smirking at the hollering duo behind me.
Till death by sugar overdose from chocolate-glazed donuts…
…The End."
Naruto looked up from his paper to a silent room. Most of the class had on pensive expressions. A few were dozing. Fewer still had on a slight smile. He didn't look at the two his story had included. Didn't really want to know what they were thinking, be it anger, embarrassment, or any mixture of the two.
He gave an internal shrug. The assignment had been about a childhood memory with friends. In his childhood, they had been his friends, so really, there wasn't a choice except to write about something that the three of them had done together. The necklaces had just been one of the first recalled.
Sighing, he turned to Kakashi, handing him the slightly crumpled sheets of paper.
Kakashi smiled, or at least it looked like he did from beneath the odd turtleneck he wore. "That was surprising Naruto, I didn't know you could write so well." He praised contentedly.
Naruto shrugged, smiling brightly. "I write depending on the subject." He laced his fingers together and set them against the back of his head. "This was a nice subject to write about."
From beyond Naruto's vision, Sasuke winced at the casual tone. A nice…subject…He bowed his head, and glanced sideways to where, four seats to the left of him, Sakura sat. Her face was carefully blank as she stared down at something. He followed her gaze to her right hand, which was slowing tracing out a star on her immaculately clean desk.
He wondered if she still had the original of the trace.
Sasuke let out a silent sigh through his nose as he turned away from the pink-haired girl. Eventually, he found his gaze had wandered back to the still-standing Naruto….and to the slight glint of a chain peeking out from beneath his scruffy black shirt and long golden hair.
And all of a sudden, the cold, stoic Uchiha found himself wishing he was seven years old again.
Authoress's NoteWell…that was an absolute pain to end. Methinks it be mighty awkward sounding…
And…despite my best efforts…I focused on Sasuke more than his due I guess it's just my inherent sasunaru love bleeding through. BUT I'm going to try, as in VALIANTLY make an honest-to-gawd effort not to have this be a shounen-ai/yaoi fic…because I know it bugs the hell out of me to have an ambiguous fic like this, and then from outta nowhere springs a pairing and the author/ess expects it to work and people to deal with it., THUS I shall attempt to keep this pairing-less. Unless viciously prompted to do otherwise cheesy grin
cough Sooooo anyways…don't really know if I wanna expand on this…because I do have a few ideas fluttering around the empty expanse that is my mind…BUT I kinda don't want to ruin what I've already got here…which is a nice, fluffy yet sad little drabble….now I'm sounding like Ixy damnit.
(For anyone who doesn't know…which is everyone…Ixy Short, redheaded girl whom is a friend o' mine obsessed with angst, depression, heartache, tragic pasts, and whatever else goes in that category. What's ironic is that she's one of the most cheerful and upbeat people I know…so go figure.)
Ah well. Please review! I would love it ever-so-much, and I'm desperately looking for some feedback. The one person who I normally bounce stuff off of refuses to have anything whatsoever to do with Naruto, despite my best efforts. pout Damn her.
…aw crap now my keyboard's blue…damnit. I've gotta stop drawing on myself…at least with the blue permanent marker.
Slight Explanation of Japanese Usage
Ne: Hey
Sensei: Teacher
-chan: A friendly suffix used mainly for girls, implying cuteness
-kun: A suffix used mainly for young or younger boys, implying politeness most of the time
Kappa A rather ugly Japanese water demonI decided to use these sparse Japanese terms because…well, there's really no good English equivalent to Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei, or Naruto-kun/Sasuke-kun, and plainly it just sounds weird to try and translate it. With ne….I really have no good reason for not translating it, as it does work and sounds moderately passable as good English…but I happen to like the sound of "Ne, ne!" more than "Hey, hey!". It sounds prettier.
And as for kappa…blows a raspberry I just wanted to show off my knowledge of mythological animals! Hah!