A/N:
Disclaimer: DNON. I'm a young, KOREAN Girl, NOT an amazingly artistic Japanese mangaka named Kishimoto…If I DID own Naruto, Yondie (yondaime) would've been flashing his supa-hot smile/fan service every single chapter, and Sasu-chan would also show his face and get it on somewhere dark with Saku-chan…*giggles*
Warnings: Nada. Swearing? Maybe. It's like a collection of drabbles- they're choppy, they're random. Whee.
Word Count: 925
***THIS IS A LIST OF DRABBLES! THEY DO NOT ALL NECESSARILY HAVE TO CONNECT WITH EACH OTHER, AND THEY ARE NOT IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER!***
~~&~&~&~& CHASE&~&~&~&~~
Story & Idea by
Bored Konoha Kunoichi
Life.
It's so full—overflowing—with emotion.
But everything followsaccordingly to
YoUr OwN aCtIoNs.
So chase, Chase and CHASE what's beyond
YoUr ReAcH
To obtain the happy things, the LAUGHTER, the happiness—
.
.
...ONE...
Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
.
.
Naruto hurriedly engulfed his third bowl of beef ramen. One too many times late, he decided that he didn't have to wait for Kakashi every single time. Whatever cheerful comment flew out of Sai's mouth was ignored, and Sasuke stared blankly into his bowl, occasionally stirring the soup with his chopsticks. The only thing was that she wasn't there. The blonde slowed his eating pace.
"Hey bastard, she's not coming today either, you know."
"…"
"She said she had a late shift. Coincidentally on our weekly dinner date that she's missed for the fourth time in a row ever since she brought you back from the brink of death after that mission," he stuffed a mouthful, not yet sparing a glance at said bastard, "isn't that convenient?"
For her, and for YOU.
Sasuke dipped his spoon. The liquid invaded the hollow spoon, and his own reflection met his eyes. The metal dipper clanged with the bowl from the kitchen, and three commoners passed as they chatted. Time urged a response.
"…she expected too much."
"No, she didn't," Naruto sighed, "She expected you to accept her as your equal, as your friend and a subordinate that you can work with. She saved your god damn life countless times. And you pushed her away again, stupid. It's not complicated. Can't you at least be somewhat civil? A little thank you or something?"
"Dickless, what standard of civil are you asking from traitor?" Sai came to Sasuke's rescue, "technically the level of civility can vary due to certain relations shared between particular people—"
"Shut up, Sai," Naruto brushed him off. He turned to Sasuke expectantly, ready to hear an excuse-of-an explanation about this idiotic tension between his teammates.
"Hn, it's not…" Sasuke trailed off, struggling to search for the word, "simple. I can't be herfriend. I can't. I can't give her what she expects."
"She's not the one with the high expectations, you are," Naruto turned back to his ramen. Sasuke gave him an incredulous stare, eyebrows furrowed.
"What are you talking about?" he snapped.
Sakura was the problem. She was the one being childish and she was the root of this whole deal that the dobe blew out of proportions and nagged him about. He played absolutely no part in being the one at fault.
"You're pushing yourself like always," Naruto started, "like extra training, extra-clean jobs during missions, hell, you did extra work back in the academy."
"How the hell does this relate to me and Sak—"
"The point is," Naruto growled, "this isn't a fucking mission. You don't have to go that extra mile. You don't have to push yourself to care more than she asks for. What are you expecting, for her to give you a gold star if you do? 'great job, Sasuke, you care for me with an exceptional effort!'That is not how this shit works, man."
Naruto took a sip of his water, and Sasuke could not bring himself to retort. He only held his silence.
"Let me repeat to you just what she asked for: acceptance. Acknowledgement. Not love. If you can't bring yourself to love her, then don't, just be a friend. When the fuck did she even ask you love her?"
"I—"
"No, wait, she didn't," he cut off Sasuke, "It's not Sakura who's being the drama queen, you are. It's you who's expecting yourself to love her. You're sitting here, brooding and being all -who's-always-the-victim-of-all-fucking-situations, but in truth, she's the one who's suffering from your idiosyncrasy. It's always your own fault; you push yourself to do something beyond your reach and end up blaming the world or whatever you emos do."
Sasuke gripped his chopsticks harder. Naruto, Naruto for kami's sake had somewhat logically put together a half-assed lecture to waste his time. The worst part was that the rant actually didn't sound half-assed, and every word stuck in his head.
"Well? Anything you wanna say back to be pretty boy?" Naruto fished out the rest of his noodles. "Like I said, you don't have to love her. You never had to. It's just really a bastardly thing to leave her like this while you're sorting yourself out. So will you at least pull that stick out of your ass and do something so Sakura-chan doesn't avoid you like a plague?"
"I can't." Sasuke said firmly, "I said already. I can't bring myself to be her…" cringe "..friend."
Naruto sighed. Stubbornness was always hard to deal with. But he soon split out into a grin.
"Alright, so you have be Mr. Perfect. Fine. Do whatever you want. Just don't upset her too much."
Naruto added, "Her shift ends in half an hour, you know."
Before he could add anymore chastisements, Sasuke was gone from his stool with his money splayed on the counter. Naruto casually ordered another bowl of pork ramen, and Sai gave a blank stare at the now-empty stool beside the blonde, and at the monstrous number of empty bowls stacked on top of each other. As he picked up his chopsticks, Naruto decided that there was not much to worry.
Uchihas always had some method to end up achieving what they strived for.
-Stretch- "Hm, that was a long shift….Sasuke, what are you doing here?"
"…."
"Are you injured? Do you need me to take a look—"
"I was on my way home."
"Okay then." –walks- "isn't your house in the other direction?"
"…I have business somewhere."
"Okay then."
….THE END……
** Editted July 2011, courtesy of my new beta sakuraitachilover. Thank you for your work!
A/N: Hoped you enjoyed. More shall be on the way :D
-REVIEW or I'LL REVIVE DEI-CHAN BACK FROM THE DEAD AND SEND HIM AFTER YOOOOUUU! I miss Deidara. And his 'un's and 'yeah's. And all the clay explosion awesomeness. Yeah.
