Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and I doubt that I ever will, but, just in case, I put it on my Christmas list. I'm crossing my fingers!!! Anyway…moving on! -points forward in a dramatic way-

A/N: This story was inspired by Jack London's poem "Ashes". I was reading it in school because we are supposed to memorize it and I came up with this. I'm sorry to say that I'm very far behind on my memorizing homework for this week -scratches back of head nervously- heh heh heh…Yeah…ON WITH THE STORY!!!

A/N2: THIS IS NOT A LOVE FIC!!!!! This is just a heart-warming -(Current Author doesn't really believe in heart-warming. She believes in perverse comedy.)- story for anyone who really cares...Yeah, eventually I'm planning on getting a lemon or two in here. I'm sick of writing T material. I have it all on paper, but I haven't had a chance to type it up. Yeah, in fact, this is the first story I've posted in, like, six months. Yeah, it's kinda sad...Well, anyway, ON WITH THE FIC...AGAIN!!!! (Current Author thinks that past author says 'Yeah' too much.)

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I Would Rather Be Ashes Than Dust

By: Masked-Writer-In-Disguise

Sasuke sat there, just sat there, waiting for his team to show; Kakashi-sensei was late and that wasn't new. He was always late, but Naruto wasn't. In fact, Naruto was usually the first one there, but today was different. Sakura would not be joining Team 7 because she was training with Tsunade-sama, so, in her place was Chishiki, a rather gifted ninja. She was late, too, but that wasn't new either. No wonder Kakashi-sensei was dating her. Anyway, back to the present.

Sasuke continued to wait until, finally. Chishiki showed up muttering something under her breath.

"Sorry, didn't catch that…" Sasuke whispered as she took a seat next to him.

"Hm?" She looked over at him confusedly. She reminded Sasuke of everyone he had ever met. Her hair was blonde with pink streaks and her eyes ranged from blue, to gray, to almost black depending on her mood. She was about 5' 4" and she was average in weight, which surprised a lot of people. Her size was very deceptive.

"I didn't catch what you were just saying," Sasuke repeated.

"Oh, that. I was just quoting what I think should be the ninja modo," she replied as she took out her notebook. She was always writing, but only in the presence of Team 7. They must be special or something.

Several moments passed in a comfortably silence while Sasuke wondered what she had meant. Every ninja's modo??? What the hell could she mean by that? Ninja's don't need a modo…Do they??

"May I hear it?" he asked finally, sick of trying to figure it out.

"Hear what?" Chishiki came back to reality with a start, nicely botching up the page she had been writing on.

"What you think should be every ninja's modo," Sasuke prompted, feeling more talkative in Chishiki's presence than with anyone else. It was mostly because he was curious.

"Ok then," she closed her notebook and searched her memory for the words of the modo. Then she began,

"I would rather be ashes than dust!

I would rather my spark burn out in a brilliant blaze

Than it should be stifled by dry-rot.

I would rather be a superb meteor,

Every atom of me in a magnificent glow,

Than a sleepy and permanent planet.

The function of man is to live, not to exist.

I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.

I shall use my time,"

She finished reciting, studying Sasuke's face for a reaction. He was probably contemplating what the words meant to him because his eyes were turned inward and his mouth was fixed in a frown.

"What does it mean?" he asked after a few moments of contemplation.

"It means that life is too short to focus on one thing. You should live your life to the fullest and not hide from people. Go sky-diving, fight evil, laugh until you cry and continue, let loose, sing until your lungs give out, smile, love people, because life is not measured by how many breaths you take, but by how many moments take your breath away," she smiled at him.

So far, it had been the biggest one he had seen her give to anyone, and it made him feel all warm and fuzzily inside. Before he could stop it his lips curved upward and his teeth grated against each other. His eyes sparkled and he knew that he was smiling. Sasuke Uchiha was smiling.

"Continue smiling, Sasuke. You look better," and she let out a laugh. She laughed a clear, happy, beautiful laugh that everyone loved to hear because nobody liked to see her cry. "You should…try too-laugh, too… and I'm not…talking about an amused…chuckle. I'm talking abo…ut a full-fledged-laugh."

"I'll try," Sasuke said, still smiling. He like the feeling, and he wanted to keep it.

Kakashi and Naruto walked into the clearing just as Sasuke let out a laugh that scared Naruto into next century.

"What's Sauke-teme smoking?" Naruto whispered to Kakashi.

"He's not smoking anything. He sitting with Chishiki and she has that affect on everyone. Trust me…" Kakashi replied remembering the time when Chishiki had convinced Ibiki to go to the bar with the rest of the jonin for Hayate's birthday. He had ended up getting drunk with the rest of them and woke up the next morning with the same hangover as the rest of them. It had been truly fun.

Sasuke and Chishiki looked over to where Naruto and Kakashi were standing and laughed harder. Naruto's face was a combination of shock and horror, and you could only imagine what that looked like.

"S-sasuke? Are you feeling ok?" Naruto stuttered out with only the slightest tremor in his voice. He was rather proud of that, actually.

"I'm feeling fine, Naruto. Just fine," Sasuke wiped the tears from his eyes, but still kept the smile firmly in place. "In fact, I feel better than I have in a long time."

"Oh, Sasuke," Chishiki began, "don't use your smile as a mask because you're not fooling anyone, least of all me."

He just nodded and stood up. "Are we going to stand here or are we going to start training sometime today?"

"I think that we had better start, but first…" Naruto pulled out a camera and aimed it a Sasuke, "… I have to prove to everyone that you can smile!" and the camera flashed, fixing Sasuke's smile into a permanent remnant of their friendship.

"NARUTO!" Sasuke cried, and their fight began anew. Wow, we didn't see that one coming...Yeah...

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Masked-Writer-In-Disguise Edit: By the gods, this thing is old! I read it again after maybe two years of having it posted and I can't believe how stupid it is. This is one of my first works and if this T-rated story is this horrible, I dread to discover some of the other stuff I wrote. Well, I went through and edited it, fixed typos and the like…and the very first sentence. Somehow a section of words got cut out and it made no sense. Here is the slightly edited version and I hope you like my early writing; I sure as hell don't.