KEY:
-Regular Narration
-Thoughts
-(Subconscious)
Busily cleaning the glasses and organizing the bar, Tsunade looked up from her work just in time to catch her fellow bartender, Shizune scurry inside the tavern.
"I'm back, Tsunade!" She shouted. The wet plastic bags rustled around in her grasp as she bustled into the kitchen.
Tsunade flashed a brief smile at her favorite worker before concentrating once more on her duties; her experienced fingers working a clean rag into a tall beer glass, drying the water droplets that clung inside. "Did you get everything we needed?" She mumbled, not bothering to look up. Shizune never failed to bring back all the necessary ingredients, and then some that Tsunade didn't even know they needed. If not, Shizune would return with a suitable replacement. She simply asked out of habit.
"The market was out of white pepper today, so I hope you don't mind that I bought regular black pepper instead…" A soft voice trailed off, "Damn, the nori kind of got wet. Stupid rain…"
Finished with the beer glasses, Tsunade neatly lined them up in a small cabinet under the bar. "Set them out to dry next to the heater, they'll be dry in no time," Reaching for the sake cups next, she set aside the wet rag and fetched a drier, thinner one, as sake cups were smaller and harder to clean thoroughly with thick cloths.
The rain pounded on the roof and cascaded down the glass of the window. A bright flash of lightning briefly illuminated the side of Tsunade's face, and she paused momentarily to really process the powerful forces raging outside the small tavern inn. Sighing quietly, she returned to her cleaning. "The rain seems particularly violent today, don't you think?"
"Hm?"
"Nothing, I just feel a bit sorry for you, having to walk through the storm while carrying the groceries…"
A soft laugh rang out, muffled slightly by the thin fabric of the screen separating the two work stations. "It's not like you to feel bad for someone, Tsunade. You haven't finally gone senile, have you?"
Indignant, Tsunade huffed, "Hey…." She drawled out with a playful warning tone.
Another quiet laugh.
Then suddenly, the main door way swung open and a young man stepped in, looking every bit like a wet cat: grouchy, angry and soaked to the bone.
Tsunade stifled a laugh as he plopped himself into a bar stool in front of her. "Sake," He all but demanded of her. Frowning, Tsunade poked his forehead between dark bangs.
"It's a bit early for sake, isn't it, Sasuke?" An irritated glare and a huff were his first reply.
Scoffing, he said, "Like you're in any position to lecture me, granny," This earned him a harsher poke to the same spot on his reddening forehead. "Ow," He muttered dryly, bringing up a pale hand to rub his bruising skin. She childishly stuck out her tongue, amused when he grunted with disapproval.
Glancing at his sodden clothing, she tossed him a napkin to dry his face with before sending him up to his room to change. "You're going to get yourself sick. I don't want my best guest dying of illness just yet," She told him. He mumbled something incoherent under his breath before marching upstairs.
"My sake better be on the counter when I get back," He snarled, though there was no real heat behind his words.
Exasperated with his cranky nature, she sighed sarcastically, "Yes, Master Uchiha," He rolled his eyes and disappeared from view.
Moments later, he scrolled back down, his hand lazily rubbing his hair dry with a faded blue towel. And as he had so kindly requested from her, Tsunade had the sake a ready at his usual seat. Tiredly, he slipped into the stool and took a swing of the bottle, relishing in the feel of the alcoholic burn as it passed down his throat. Tsunade made a face as she watched him drink.
"Oi, aren't you even going to use the cup? Have you no manners, Sasuke?" She mocked.
Sneering, he took another drink directly from the bottle. "You sound exactly like my mom," He said after swallowing, "Since when do you care about my table manners, granny?"
A blonde eyebrow twitched, "I keep telling you to stop calling me that," she growled, "I'm not that old…"
"You're fifty four, woman, living in denial isn't going to get you anywhere."
Grumbling under her breath, she grabbed another wet glass and proceeded to dry and polish it with the slightly damp cloth she had forgotten she was holding. Shizune swept through the screen with a broom and dust pan ready when she spotted her favorite traveler seated at the bar. "Sasuke, you're back!"
Turning to meet her gaze, he nodded his head, "Hello, Shizune."
Smiling brightly she set aside her cleaning materials and drew nearer. She giggled after spotting the red circle on his forehead. "Tsunade's been bullying your forehead again," She pointed out, amused by the fact that the expression on his face had taken a slightly crabbier turn. He didn't respond to her teasing. Calming her laughter, she fondly tussled his damp hair, "You hungry?"
The grouchy pout on his lips disappeared, "Kind of,"
Smiling knowingly, she turned towards the kitchen, "The usual?" He nodded silently, causing another giggle to bubble out from her lips, "It's a good thing for you then that I stopped by the market earlier. If you had come any sooner, there would have been no food for you to eat!"
"Hn,"
As she shuffled back inside the kitchen, Tsunade placed the last sake cup back into its designated cabinet. "So, Uchiha, how were your travels?" She asked idly. She honestly couldn't care less, and Sasuke knew that.
"Just fine," He responded, sounding just as bored.
"Where did you go?"
After another swing of sake, he sighed, "Went to visit my parents back in Tokyo. They kept pestering me about my marriage, so I left after a week."
"Oh, yeah," Tsunade mumbled, not listening intently enough to respond with interest, "To that Karin chick, right?" He ignored her question, but she could tell from the sudden tension of his shoulders and the slight twitch in his left brow that he was upset by his parents' meddling of his future. The poor young man was forced to agree to an arranged marriage when his brother ran away from home. She took pity on him and let him continue with his story.
"Then I went to see Itachi in Kyoto. He managed to buy himself a nice place with a big yard."
"How's he doing, by the way? Is he still hiding from the family?"
Pursing his lip with irritation, he grumbled, "Lucky bastard's still single and free. He's so happy to be away from father that he sometimes forgets what I had to sacrifice for his happiness… Tch…" The mood was dampened slightly by his statement, and Tsunade's idle boredom became slight guilt when she realized that she had unintentionally brought up a sour point in the conversation.
Clearing her throat in an attempt to disperse the awkward tension, she changed the subject, "So where'd you go after Kyoto?"
Sighing under his breath, he said, "I dropped by Naruto's place in Okinawa for some relaxing, but I ended up leaving more frustrated than I did when I arrived. The idiot's only concerned about ramen, manga, martial arts, and more ramen. He's convinced himself that one day, he'll become this fantastic superhero and save the world from evil. Ugh… I'm getting a headache just thinking about it…"
A sudden giggle from behind the screen interrupted his story, "Well then, some food ought to help with that!" Shizune laughed, sliding a plate of omusubi, okaka and tomatoes before him. The pleased twinkle in his dark eyes was thanks enough for her, so her wordlessly grabbed her abandoned broom and dustpan and continued with her chores.
Tsunade watched Sasuke eat in silence for sometime before she finally decided to ask the question that had been clawing around in the back of her mind, "Sasuke, how much longer are you going to run from this?"
The hand that had been reaching for another rice ball, froze mid-grab. The intense stress in his shoulders had reemerged with the issue she had, once again, decided to pursue.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Her anger began to build up, "You know exactly what I mean. How long do you think you can hide from this? I know this is a touchy subject to you, and I'll apologize in advance for anything I might say to hurt your pride, but seriously Sasuke! Be a man and accept it! Arranged marriages are terrible and vulgar and controlling, but really. It's already been done! You have a wife at home who needs to be taken care of. Fleeing to the next town isn't going to help you escape the fact that a woman, a living, breathing human being is waiting for you! You don't have to love her or slave away for her, but don't ignore her like she's just another piece of furniture. You realize that trying to run away from your marriage is only going to complicate your relationship with your parents and your family, right?"
While the expression on his face remained unchanged, the clenching of his jaw and the tightening of his knuckles gave away the fact that he was annoyed and fuming, "You can't blame it all on me! How would you like it if you woke up one morning to find that your beloved parents had sealed your future with a marriage to a complete stranger? How would you like it if they expected you to have children within a year after the wedding to a person you absolutely abhor? How would you like it if-"
The front door slammed open again, the torrent of rain instantly drenched the welcome mat before it. Holding an umbrella and dressed in a thick rain coat, the captain of the harbor rushed inside with a frantic glimmer in his wide eyes. He was stammering something incoherent in a crazed panic. The desperation in his movements had both Tsunade and Sasuke on edge.
Quickly swinging herself under the bar, Tsunade hurried over to the hysterical man, shaking his shoulders gently to get him to calm down enough to explain his sudden disturbance of her tavern.
"Damn it, calm yourself, Jiro! What's wrong?"
He panted weakly before lifting fearful eyes to her concerned face, "Tsunade, a body was found floating by the piers!"
TBC
Reviews are welcome
Constructive criticism is encouraged
But please keep any harmful/degrading comments to yourselves