Title: Of Birthdays and Best Friends
Summary: Uchiha Sasuke has the mission of finding a perfect birthday gift for his best friend-rival-kyuubi-container-baka-person. It isn't quite simple as it sounds.
Warnings: Randomness, Unbeta'd, Cliche, Crazy Authoress (-u get the drift-)
Chapter One - Lulu - A pet?
.: Of Birthdays and Bestfriends :.
- Zephyr Blue
"Whatever with the past has gone,
The best is always yet to come."
- Lucy Larcom
October – 6
"Good morning, Sasuke-kun."
Uchiha Sasuke was not a morning person.
And he definitely did not like visitors who rudely woke him up from his peaceful sleep and gave him a long talk on what he should be doing before October 10. What the hell was special about that day, anyway? His brain realized that the visitor was pink-headed girl, who seemed quite familiar. Oh right, the girl whom he called annoying many times. Cherry Blossom was her name? Isn't that supposed to be a flower? Seeing that nothing seemed to make sense, Sasuke decided to stop thinking. His brain was dead at mornings.
So the said Uchiha just slammed the door at the darling visitor who had thoughtfully made plans for him. His brain didn't register what the plans were but he knew nothing was more important than his beauty sleep. Er, strike off the beauty.
After spending five more hours in la-la-land, Sasuke finally woke up. He tried to recollect what had interrupted him early in the morning but nope, he couldn't remember. He couldn't care less though. Whatever it was, it must have been troublesome knowing anyway. Sasuke sighed and decided that spending time with the lazy chuunin was making him lazy too.
Sasuke got dressed and had breakfast. He thought smugly about how nice and delicious the food he made tasted. The other day, Naruto had tasted Sasuke's cooking and from then he ate at Sasuke's almost every meal for a week till Sasuke refused to cook for the blond. He had a good reason not to, the amount of food that Naruto inhaled was so much that, ("I'm a growing boy," Naruto would say) Sasuke couldn't cook several servings of the food. So Naruto understandingly declared the 'Every-Sunday-Sasuke-Is-My-Cook' day.
Sasuke walked to the bridge where Team Seven would patiently wait for their teacher. As expected, their sensei wasn't there. Seriously, what business did Kakashi have? Their team was his business, dammit! Naruto wasn't there. Sasuke didn't mind and Sakura was there as usual and when she saw him she gave him a forced small smile.
Sasuke was mildly surprised at Sakura's behavior. Oh, not that he minded, of course. It was just that Sakura was always cheerful and greeted him with a huge grin. Maybe she decided to give up on him. That's it. That might explain why she forced a smile.
But he soon learnt that that wasn't the reason even if Sasuke would have preferred it.
"Sasuke-kun," Sakura said tentatively, "Are you mad at me?"
Sasuke blinked as Inner Sakura went, "Shannaro! How cute!"
"Why would I be mad at you? Or did you do something…," he narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"No no," Sakura said quickly, "Well, I just thought slamming door at people's face might refer to the fact that the person who slammed it might be angry with the person who was at the door," Sakura rambled nervously, "Of course, it might mean something else. Nothing I could think so I though Sasuke-kun might…" She stopped seeing Sasuke's deadpanned look.
"I don't understand. Please at least try to make sense. I don't care if someone slammed-" Sasuke was cut off by Sakura who looked ready to kill but was refraining herself from doing so. Her nervous demeanor vanished and she was pissed off. Her mind said that he didn't even bother to remember her visiting him! Was she that insignificant to him?
"Sasuke-kun!" she said shrilly, "You slammed the door at me, when I was over at your today morning. You did it. I was wondering if I did something to bother you. You don't even bother to remember that you kicked me out of your home! I don't expect an apology but can't you at least admit it or give me a reason? I love you so much that I expect you to pay attention to me!" The poor girl could have gone on and on but Sasuke wasn't affected by her …words.
"You came to visit me this morning?"
"You don't remember?"
Sasuke shrugged and then looked thoughtful. Then he declared smugly as if he was 3 year old who finally remembered N for ninja, "Ah-hah! You were one to disturb me from my sleep!"
Sakura sighed, "You're slow in mornings, aren't ya?"
"Uh-huh, Kakashi reckons I'm a brain-dead-zombie in mornings. Well, if that's what I get called for preferring to sleep in, I don't mind," Sasuke confessed.
"Anyway, do you remember anything I said when I came over?"
"No."
"Seriously, how come people consider you a genius?" Sakura pondered out aloud.
"Che. Stupid people."
"Well, you are really cool in other fields," Sakura began as Sasuke cut her off.
"Sakura! Don't go into your fan-girl-mode! I don't want a description of myself."
"OK," Sakura said her eyes glazing. Probably mentally picturing Sasuke.
"Oh, you said something about October 10. I remember that."
"So you did listen. Well, that's about it then. After I told you about it, you slammed the door. I came over to talk about October 10," she stated in a matter-of-fact-tone.
"What, pray tell, is on October 10?" Sasuke asked clueless.
Sakura gasped.
Sasuke titled his head in thought, "What was so important on that day anyway? There isn't any mission this week. No exams. No classes. Um, I've never celebrated any festivals for more than 6 years now. I've no idea what the villagers do," he said.
He continued, "Or is it someone's birthday? Someone as in…"
Sakura nodded enthusiastically, "Yes, yes…!"
"…..Whose birthday?"
Sakura almost hit Sasuke again, "Sasuke-kun! Don't you even remember your best friend's birthday? It's birthday on 10th dammit!"
Sasuke blinked and looked at Sakura as if she was mad, "My best friend died two years ago." He said looking sad and sighed heavily.
"Eh? Best friend who?"
"Lulu."
"He was an Uchiha?"
"Uchiha Lulu sounds nice but lulu was my puppy."
"He was your best friend?" Sakura asked curiously, her previous conversation forgotten.
"Yes, Man's best friend is his dog."
"You had a dog? How come I didn't know. I stalked you since you were ten!"
"Yes. He died when I was eleven. He was the only one I had…." Sasuke was starting to go emo, so Sakura didn't press the matter and came back to her 'October 10-let's talk'.
"OK," Sakura said, "Nevermind…"
"Don't nevermind me. You were the one who wanted to talk about best friends!" Sasuke huffed. Geez, the problem with girls…
A vein popped out on her forehead, "Sasuke-kun! I'm talking about your alive bouncing blond of a best friend! You know, the one who is obsessed with orange and…"
"Ah…the one whose name means fishcake? That usuratonkachi?" Sasuke asked, purposely adding irrelevant details.
"Yes," Sakura said, relieved.
Sasuke let out a gentle laugh, "No need to get stressed, Sakura. I was just pulling your leg."
Sakura sighed and glared. Sasuke seemed to talk with her freely when she wasn't chasing after him.
"OK, Fine. I didn't remember the dobe's birthday."
"Well, now that I reminded you. Tsunade-sama wants to throw him a surprise party," she said, with a grin.
"Hn."
"At the hokage tower exactly on 12 am of October 10. Because Naruto wants to be the hokage and all. So a party there will make"
"Hn."
"Only a people who are Naruto's friends will be there. Heck, Gaara and his siblings will be here too."
"Hn."
"So bring a gift for him. So that Naruto knows we appreciate him."
"Hn."
"Also, you are going to bring Naruto to the hokage office at 12, OK? Tell him it's a late night mission for Hokage-candidates. He'll believe you and when he comes, we'll be ready to yell "Surprise", m'kay?" Sakura sighed, "You will cooperate, wont you?"
"Hn."
"Sasuke-kun…speak with meaningful words."
"Fine. I'll cooperate."
"What exactly is Sasuke-teme gonna 'cooperate' for?" A familiar voice asked, making both Sasuke and Sakura jump.
"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed.
"Usuratonkachi," Sasuke greeted in his own way.
"How long have you been standing there?" Sakura asked.
"Oh, just when you asked teme to speak with meaningful words."
"Phew…" Sakura said and Naruto eyed them weirdly.
"Was I interrupting something?" The blond asked.
"No." Sasuke said.
"Yes." Sakura said, "I was asking him for a date."
"Oh the usual then," Naruto said nodding, "When's Kakashi-sensei going to come on time?" He huffed.
"Need you ask?" Sasuke mumbled.
Kakashi made his arrival. And Sakura said, "Speak of the devil."
Their sensei smiled at his cute team, "OK, guys, no mission or training today. Go home. Bye." With that he disappeared leaving behind a pissed off cute team.
"Sheeh!" Sakura muttered.
Naruto whined, "I want to train. Say, Teme, wanna spar?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I have better things to do."
"Like what?"
"Like getting a gift-," Sasuke blurted out what he was thinking and earned a hit from Sakura, who glared a Think-Before-You-Speak-glare aka Tell-Naruto-About-The-Party-And-Die-Glare
"Naruto, why don't we go for ramen? I'll pay. My treat?" Sakura asked.
Naruto glared from Sasuke to Sakura and Sakura to Sasuke. Sakura never hits Sasuke. Why is his team acting weirdly? He let it slip though cause Sakura just mentioned free ramen.
"OK, Sakura-chan…see ya, Teme."
As Naruto started walking humming a song, Sakura stayed behind, "Go buy a gift for him. I'll distract him."
"You bought a gift for him?"
"Yeah, a book…"
"Yeah, how wonderful, just what Naruto wants," Sasuke said sarcastically.
"...and I'm baking him some cookies. Chocolate chip. His favorite." Sakura continued ignoring her crush.
"Just make sure you don't poison them," Sasuke warned, he has had too much experience with Sakura's cooking. "We don't want him in the hospital on his birthday"
After Naruto and Sakura left, Sasuke started wandering to the shops. He wanted to buy Naruto something simple. Simple and practical. Naruto should have a use in his gift and he wanted to give the best gift there was. Why? Simply because he was competitive like that. And he was sure as hell that the usuratonkachi would like the gift only if the gift had feelings in it. Why? Simply because Naruto was an emotional dolt. As far as the gift containing feelings was concerned, Sasuke didn't understand really but he was a genius so he will now pretend he understood and try and find a gift that he bought with feelings.
He sighed. The best place to get a practical gift was the Shinkirou. It was a market place, quite famous in Konoha. Shinkirou was quite a pricy place. So, getting Naruto a pricy gift would be real practical, right? No. But Sasuke would rather waste money than time. (Think of how many seconds he could waste without hating his brother?)
Well, here he was on his way to buy a gift with feelings and money. But he didn't like the Shinkirou much. Mainly because he had been there once with his parents and brother and at that time, he had heard some random passerby in the shop say that the Uchihas get red carpet treatment in the Shinkrou. Baby Sasuke had wondered aloud to his genius of his brother, "I want blue carpet treatment."
Alas, the shop owners had heard it and found it extremely funny (Sasuke never really found it amusing in the later years) He had been five years old then. And Uchihas were their favorite customers. So whenever Sasuke went there, he'd see grinning oldies and adults asking his welfare, having flashbacks of cute little Sasuke pouting for a blue carpet and such and the younger generation would pick up blue carpet and roll it in front of him.
Sasuke sighed again. He would endure it. First, he was going to find a shop without a familiar face. So, Sasuke went shop-to-shop passing the windows. Finally, he found one. The shop owner had gone out and his son was watching the store.
It was a pet shop. Pet shop with the finest of pure-breeds of animals.
Since he liked animals, Sasuke entered the shop without much of a thought.
He knew Naruto would love a pet. At least some amount of Naruto's loneliness will disappear with a pet trotting behind him.
The boy in the shop gave him a huge smile, "Welcome to Shinkirou Pet Store, Sir!" The boy looked like he was the same age as Sasuke, maybe older, and he was blond. He had black eyes like his own and unruly hair.
Sasuke nodded in greeting and asked, "You, I want to gift my friend a pet."
"You've come to the right place! And my name's Kyou. Say, you want birds or animals?"
"Animals."
"Anything particular?"
"Dogs."
"Come this way, I'll show you wonderful absolutely nice awesome dogs."
Kyou led the Uchiha to a open secluded area. There were five dogs and Sasuke checked out every dog but didn't find any he liked. "Kyou. I don't like them. Show me more."
Kyou looked surprised. "Sir, they are the best there is." Then his eyes brightened, "We just got a new breed today, wanna see? Though its not a dog.."
"I only want a dog."
Kyou said enthusiastically, "I insist! Just see it once!" He ran to the next room and came back with something in his hand.
Sasuke smiled at the baby fox on Kyou's hands. It was sleeping and it was the most adorable thing he had ever seen, "It's so cute." Sasuke never really considered anything cute but the baby fox impressed him. He was staring at it so much that Kyou chuckled and handed him the cub.
"Are you sure it's a fox? I mean, it looks like a dog."
"Sir, Have you seen any foxes before?"
"No..but-,"
"He is a fox. Though it's a unique breed. Only around 10 of these foxes can be found in the entire world. He is so small. They don't grow much and they can change their fur colour by themselves depending on their mood. He is one of the legendary creatures, Sir."
"I'll take him."
"It will cost you a fortune, Sir." Kyou said.
"I'll take him," Sasuke repeated, his eyes glazing. Kyou laughed at the dreamy look on Sasuke's face.
"Say, are you Uchiha Sasuke?" He asked, looking at the Uchiha symbol on Sasuke's shirt.
"Uh-huh," Sasuke asked.
"Aw damn, now he tells me. Dad has a blue carpet just for you."
Sasuke's cheek dusted pink, "I see my fables has reached the next generation as well."
When Sasuke left the store, the Fox stirred awake by the loud voice of Kyou. ("Your friend will love your gift. Do visit us again, Sasuke-kun")
TBC
I know I know...You are probably like "Pet fox. How cliche is that?" Just wait for the future chapters. You'll see.
I haven't written fics for a while since I was having exams and stuff. (Now I'm back =D Welcome me back :P)
Anyway, Hope you like it. I have a couple of unfinished fics and here I start this. Yay me -_- Lol.
Review? Shameless advertising..Check out my other Naruto fics. Thanks
xx Zeph