Chibishoes
"May Sasuke come out to play?"
It was scary to go over to the Uchiha's to ask his best friend to come out. The house was huuuuuge! And the butler was scaaaaaary! His serious face would stare down at the blond hair mob, glaring at his chubby face and make this scaaaaaaary wrinkly nose thing and then he would say "Hmpf!" and close the door.
Today was no exception… "Hmpf!"
A few moments later the door would open again, but it was time enough for Naruto to nearly wet himself. The door was really, really dark and the stones under his tiny shoes felt more like quicksand with every passing second.
The door opened again, creaking. How could it be else?
"Naruto." The new voice wasn't so much better as the butler's, but at least there were less 'Hmpf!'.
"Yes, Mister Itachi?"
"What do you want?"
"Can Sasuke come play?" He would say "Hn.". Like he did every time.
"Hn."
Naruto knew that meant no and in a few seconds the door would close again, ultimate this time. The door closed and the chibi blond turned around, hiding a bride grin. He had seen what Itachi had not seen because he had stared down at the disgusting blond child that was his own baby brother's best friend, unfortunately.
Naruto had seen black swoooooshing by behind the hedge; Sasuke would be waiting in the near forest.
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"Hey 'Ruto!" Sasuke greeted him laughing.
"Hey S'uke!" Naruto's smile was bride. "'Tachi doesn't like me…"
"No problem. Because I like you enough for two!" The raven cheered and sat down on the forest ground, not caring for his good trousers. He had ONLY good trousers at home, so one or two pairs less would be no problem. His parents could buy him some new if they wanted.
"And I like you back, S'uke!" Naruto jumped upon his friend and they rolled around. "You're my verybestest friend forever!"
"And you are my verybestestest friend!"
The bantering wouldn't stop that soon. At the 'verybestestestestestestestest friend' they both had lost track and headed for the next house where they would try to free a friend from his cruel parents and their boring ideas of having fun.
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"Hello mister Nara!"
"Hello Sasuke! It's nice to see you here. How can I help you?" Shikaku was glad to see the littlest Uchiha outside of the Uchiha-mansion. It wasn't often that the family let their prodigy leave the family-grounds.
"Can Shikamaru come play?"
"I'm sorry, Sasuke, but…" He was interrupted.
"Pleeeeaaaaaseeeeee?" Giant puppy dog eyes met the bored glance of the Nara.
"Sasuke, Shikamaru has some chores to do. His mother won't allow…"
And once again the chibi didn't even listen till the end. The father registered a blond and a brunet shadow hide behind the trash cans, but pretended to not see them. It would be too troublesome…
"Okay, mister Nara. Sorry for interruptering!" And the raven swooooooshed away to meet his friends. It was good that the friends were such great ninjas! They could hide everywhere and no one ever saw them.
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The next house was no problem. Shikamaru just rang the bell and Chouji already jumped through the door. "Shika! Finally! They wanted to make me eat spinach!"
His friends squinched up their faces sympathetically. Chouji may have loved food over everything, except his verybestestest friend maybe, but spinach was a green red rag to him.
"No prob, Chouji, I have some chips for you." Shika hadn't even had the time to pull them out of his bag before his verybestestest friend was already chewing happily.
"Whapf bepper!" the chubby chibi munched and they started to a small lake nearby.
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"Where is the water?" Naruto was confused.
"Yesterday it had been there!" Sasuke was equally confused.
"Hm?" Chouji was eating.
"Troublesome." Shikamaru was like his dad.
"Hey there! Sorry, had to walk the dog." Kiba was late.
"Woof!" Akamaru was the dog.
"Where are all the Gerridae?" Shino was in love with bugs. And Kiba's verybestestest friend.
"Gerri-what? I don't care for your bugs!" Naruto wanted to have fun and he already had an idea. "Let's go to the other side! When the water isn't there we can catch some fish without the yucky worm-thing on a hook!"
The chibis were definitely thrilled by the thought of greasy, scaly fish – and the opportunitinity of playing in the mud.
"I'll go first!" Kiba yelled and jumped into the muddy sink, closely followed by his white puppy. It wasn't white for long.
The other children followed suit, only Shino and Chouji stayed at the bank, one searching for Ladybugs, the other searching for some crumbled potato chips in his nearly empty bag.
Soon the most beautiful mud-wrestling entertained the chibis and the surrounding forest. Many ramblers took their moment and watched the children play in the mud, laughing at their brown-covered faces. The hair was the only hint on who was who, but the little persons worked on covering those last hints as well.
As nearly every surface of their bodies was as brown as the mud, formerly known as a small lake, they climbed out of their boy's paradise and sat down, panting, laughing and dripping. The only things that gave away their positions were the white flashing of their teeth while they were smiling.
"Oh no!" Sasuke's cry sounded desperate.
"What's wrong, 'S'uke?" Naruto's voice was concerned. He didn't want his verybestestestest friend to suffer.
"I have lost my shoes!" The chibi-raven pointed at his (now) brown socks. There were no shoes! "When I come home without shoes Mother and Father will get angry! And 'Tachi will be angry!"
The other children were concerned, too. They knew their parent's reactions when they came home from their adventure trips. They didn't listen to their stories, didn't even want to know what they had discovered. Everything that counted was: "Where are your shoes?"
A brilliant plan formed in Shika's brain. "I have a brilliant plan!" he informed his friends.
"And I have a problem." Shino's voice was low. Five pairs of big eyes set on him. "My shoes are gone, too!" He wiggled with his unshoed toes.
"I'm with you, Shino!" Kiba exclaimed and threw his shoes far away. They landed in the deepest mud, with an entertaining 'SPLASH!'. "Verybestestest friends do that together!"
"I have a brilliant plan!" Shika began once again. "We have six shoes and twelve feet, right?"
Exerted counting with the help of a lot of fingers and some toes. "Six… Yep! And elev… no… thirte… no… TWELVE feet!" Finally, every chibi had counted the same amount of feet and shoes.
"If every one of us takes one shoe, our parents can't say we have no shoes on!" Shika's plan sounded foolproof. "They will never realize we weren't at home the whole day!"
The boys were excited. "Shika, you are sooooo clever!"
The six remaining shoes were thrown in the middle of the chibi-circle.
"Ready?" Shika asked. Since he was the one with the brilliant idea, he had to be the boss of the shoe-lottery.
"READY!" The rest called. "WOOF!" Akamaru was very enthusiastic when it came to noise. And he was brown instead of white. And he had no shoes. But he needn't any, so that was okay.
"Okay. Close your eyes!" Eyes were closed.
"Grab a shoe!" Shoes were grabbed.
"Pull!" Shoes were pulled.
"Merde!" – "Ehm… What means that, Shika?" – "I don't know, but Mom says that when Dad does something she doesn't like." – "And what didn't you like now?" – "That every one grabbed the same shoe…"
They had to try four times until everyone had grabbed a single shoe. The slipped into the dirty footwear and headed for their respective homes, confident that their adventure wouldn't be caught. They HAD shoes!
"See ya 'morrow?" Kiba asked petting Akamaru.
"You bet!" Naruto wouldn't spend a single day without his bestest friends!
"Who starts tomorrow?" Shino wanted to know.
"Not 'Ruto!" Sasuke defended his verybestestestestest friend. "He's afraid of Madara, our butler."
"Well, he IS creepy!" Chouji admitted.
"Okay, I'll come over." Shikamaru stated and looked at Sasuke. "I'll let my Dad call your Dad and then they talk very long and I make Neji go to your brother so he is distracted. Then we can ninja our way out!"
The plan was as foolproof as the shoe-plan and every chibi was proud of their cleverness. And Naruto was glad he wouldn't have to look at the wrinkled nose of the butler or hear the mean 'Hn' of Itachi.
"Agreed?" Shino had to make sure everyone knew the plan. He did that every day and every day they were glad they had him, because…
"Wait, who starts?"
"KIBA!"
"What? Akamaru wanted to play fetch and I had to throw the stick and then have him give it back and… Just tell me!"
"Shika gets S'uke. They go get Naru' and then Chouji. We go together and we'll meet us here again. Maybe the water will be back tomorrow and I can show you the Gerridae!"
Oh, what a joy… Waterbeetlewatching… But with their bestest friends everything was fun!
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Just imagine the horror of the chibis as they came home, one shoe proudly on their foot, and their parents yelled at them anyway!
"Look at you, Sasuke! Where have you been? That was that Uzumaki-kid wasn't it?"
"What? I have a shoe!"
"I see that you have a shoe. But it is just ONE shoe and it isn't even YOUR shoe, either!"
"But I have a shoe…" Sasuke's voice was low from sadness and incomprehension. He had a shoe, why didn't his mother get it? "I have a shoe and we shared so that everyone has one and Kiba had even thrown his away and then we put them in the middle and then everyone had a shoe so that you wouldn't have to yell and… I have a shoe!"
Mikoto Uchiha looked down at her mud-covered son and couldn't hold back her laughter. It rang clear through the dark corridors and lightened them up a little bit.
"It's okay, my little S'uke – you have great friends!" She hugged him despite the mud and held him tight.
"They are my bestestest friends, Mommy!"
"I know, S'uke! Now let's call the Namikaze-Uzumaki-family, hm?"
"Why, Mommy?"
"I guess there was a similar situation. And I guess there is an equally dirty Naruto, isn't he?"
"Yes, 'Ruto is sooooooo dirty! Even dirtierer than me!" Sasuke pranced.
"I doubt that." Mikoto laughed, the telephone already in her hand. "Ah, Kushina. Am I right if I assume you have a one-shoed litterbug at your house? Yeah, I thought so. I'll come over, okay? The boys can bath together and we can drink a coffee. See ya in a few!"
Sasuke's eyes lit up. "We go over there?"
"Yes, little prince. Wait in the hall; I'll get you some clothes."
"Mommy, can I stay with 'Ruto tonight?" Sasuke was too cute, covered with mud, a pouty dog-eyed face firmly in place.
"Okay, S'uke. I'll bring your Konoha-cushion."
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Disclaimer/AN: Not owning Naruto or his friends. The story is mine, though; as is the summary. ;) Oh, and the memory that led to this story is mine, too. :3