Summary: Sasuke and Naruto have strange ways of showing each other they care. My own personal random word challenge. 50 words, 1 word for each chapter. SasuNaruSasu
Warnings: Yaoi, of course. You'll get lemon warnings as they come. Oh, I almost forgot, possible spoilers for the manga. Hope you've been keeping up.
Disclaimer: Trust me, if I owned Naruto, I wouldn't have to write fanfiction.
a/n: Well, I'm back already. I'm a few chapters ahead so depending on how my writers block goes, you may be seeing a few more chapters in quick succession. Loads of thank yous for the awesome reviews! I'm glad you enjoyed the first installment. This will be another Sasuke introspection. Don't worry, Naruto will get his time soon enough. I guess I should explain this one a bit...Sasuke's observing Naruto and thinking about how people have labeled Naruto over the years (the parts that are centered) and resolves it with what he sees in front of him. You'll see what I mean.
The Dobe and Teme Chronicles
Chapter 2 – Incompetent
Sasuke looked down from his perch in the tree. Keeping his chakra hidden, the raven watched his teammate. Naruto was dressed in his typical orange and black and he was warming up and stretching. He would never admit it, but one of the things that kept him sane after his return to the village and his subsequent punishment was being able to sit and watch Naruto train. Maybe it was because Naruto could do what he couldn't...use chakra, train, spar.
It was interesting to watch Naruto train because when the blond was alone, he became a completely different person. It surprised the hell out of him the first time he saw the true extent of Naruto's abilities.
At first glance Naruto looked like an incompetent idiot. It's how he earned his nickname back at the academy.
"Dobe." He whispered on the wind. Naruto didn't hear him at all. Sasuke observed him as he picked up his weapons and did some target practice. More often than not, he was either close or hit the bullseye. So different from the constant misses when around his friends.
xxx
The blond was completely unskilled...He couldn't hit the broad side of a
barn with a kunai most of the time. His taijutsu...well, could
the moves he was making even be called taijutsu?
xxx
Sasuke watched Naruto make hand signs for his signature jutsu. A good 100 clones appeared and filled the clearing.
It kind of awed him sometimes...the sheer amount of clones Naruto could make at one time was unreal. He would expend all his chakra if he attempted to make more than a few at a time. His eyes tried to keep up with the real Naruto that battled it out with his clones. His rapid movements were powerful and precise.
xxx
He was clumsy...he could hardly run without tripping over something
and falling on his face. Those limbs of his moved awkwardly...no grace
whatsoever in his movements. True ninjas had stealth. They could move
without a sound. Like a whisper in the night. Naruto wouldn't know stealth
if it hit him in the face. How the hell did he get to be a shinobi again?
xxx
The smoke from the constant dispelling of clones made visibility low, forcing Sasuke to use his sharingan to discern his teammate's movements. When the smoke cleared, Naruto was alone again, the training field falling silent. The blond figure stood completely still, something that pretty much everyone thought was an impossible feat. The wind slowly began to pick up, even Sasuke could feel it from where he sat. He could almost see the wind spinning in a controlled manner around Naruto.
xxx
He was untrained...unqualified. He was an orphan with no ninja background,
as far as they knew. He had no family jutsus or skills to speak of. He was
the fox....He had no right to want to be a ninja. No one wanted to train him.
He was a waste of time, he didn't listen, he had no talent, he was the dead last.
As if someone like him could ever be hokage.
xxx
Naruto walked away and Sasuke followed silently through the trees. The blond stopped at the lake, only long enough to take off his sandals and jacket, before stepping onto the water and walking towards the middle. Sasuke found a new perch, sat on a high branch and waited to see what the dobe would do next.
Water gently began to spin around his body. Slowly a steady line of water began to rope around Naruto. It was beautiful to watch. Soon it was not just one rope of water, it was two, then three, then four. All the streams of water roped around the blonde in an elegant sort of dance. Sasuke couldn't take his eyes off of the display. It was breathtaking.
xxx
He was incapable of the most basic academy jutsus. His chakra control was
severely lacking. He couldn't even make a bunshin correctly. It took him forever
to climb a tree with chakra. Climbing a rock face took even longer. Water walking
...well, let's just say he swam more than he walked. Without his shadow clones,
he was completely useless.
xxx
Sasuke watched with a slight smile on his face as Naruto began to direct the streams of water with his finger. The water jumped, dived, swirled and twisted as his fingers directed. A few minutes later, twin water dragons formed and moved up and down the lake before dissolving into water once again. Then twin waterspouts danced over the waters until Naruto decided to end things and calmed the surface of the water before walking back to the shore and sitting under a tree...the same tree Sasuke was sitting in.
Naruto sat perfectly still, legs crossed and hands on his knees in a relaxed sort of pose. Sasuke began to feel a stirring in the air. Instead of feeling unsettled by it, he felt completely at peace. He blinked...If he didn't know better, he would say that Naruto was glowing. And then he felt Naruto's chakra begin to rise, slowly but surely. Ten minutes later, Naruto stood up and raised his face to the sky with a grin. The eyes were distinctly different. The irises took on a golden shade and the pupils were slits. And there were dark rings around his eyes Sasuke raised a brow. He knew Naruto was the Toad Sage, but he'd never actually seen the transformation. And the sheer power he could feel, not only around Naruto but in the air itself, was staggering.
xxx
His inexperience was his downfall. At least that's what they believed. A true
ninja wouldn't freeze in battle. A true ninja wouldn't give the enemy the benefit
of the doubt. A true ninja knew that an enemy was an enemy – no questions asked.
You fought, you killed, and you moved on. Some souls should not be saved. Not
everyone wanted absolution. And certainly one should not worry about a traitorous
former teammate. He was nothing but a missing nin...nothing more, nothing less.
xxx
Uzumaki Naruto was unfit to be a ninja. He was incompetent. That's what many in the village thought of him, even many of the ninja had thought it at some point or another. Sasuke thought that way for years.
He smirked. But things had changed. He knew better. He knew the truth. The truth sat right below him harnessing the power of nature with ease.
What Naruto lacked in skill he made up for in determination. He worked hard to get better, even when the odds were against him. He never let anyone get away with telling him he couldn't do something. Words like can't only spurred him on further.
He was not the clumsy idiot people thought him to be. All one had to do was watch him train privately to see clumsy and awkward become smooth and flowing. Sure he would never have the same amount of grace as someone of the Uchiha or maybe the Hyuuga clan. It came with the genes. But Naruto was certainly, in no way, clumsy. Of course, for all his genius, Sasuke was embarrassed that it took him years away and another year back to figure out that the clumsy idiot routine was nothing but an act.
The dobe trained harder than anyone he'd ever seen, save himself. That's why they were always such great rivals, even if he sometimes hated knowing that they were so closely matched. Naruto was an orphan, so what? Being part of a clan isn't all it's cracked up to be. Look at him...hell, look at the Hyuugas. Besides, not every clan member becomes a ninja. So why did one have to be part of a clan to automatically qualify? Sasuke smirked. Naruto and Sakura both proved that theory wrong. Well, plus Naruto got the last laugh when the entire village found out exactly who his parents were.
Useless was the last thing anyone could call Naruto. While the blond would never be considered a genius, he had an uncanny ability to come up with a battle plan on the spur of the moment just when things looked bleakest. It was remarkable how he could change people just by speaking from his heart. Without one bit of diplomatic training, he had gained more allies throughout the ninja world than some of the kages.
Naruto seldom killed first and asked questions later. He was an emotional and empathetic individual. It has served him well for much of his life so far and Sasuke doubted it would fail him the rest of it. If he acted like so many of his ninja counterparts Gaara would never have changed and eventually become the Kazekage, Tsunade would've never come back to Konoha, Pein would've gone back to Akatsuki – possibly with Naruto in tow, Konan wouldn't have promised her help, Amegakure and Kumogakure wouldn't have helped Konoha to destroy Akatsuki, and he wouldn't have come back.
Naruto played the role of village idiot to a tee and no one was the wiser. Naruto was just as competent a ninja as anyone else in Konoha...maybe more. That's why Sasuke believed in him...believed in his dream to become hokage. It would happen one day. Sasuke would make sure of it.
"You gonna keep brooding in that tree or are you gonna come down and talk to me?"
Sasuke's eyes went wide before he chuckled softly and jumped down, landing next to his friend without a sound.
"How did you-"
"I could tell. Even if you mask your chakra, I can always tell when you're around."
"Hn." Sasuke glared as Naruto grinned at the idea of one-upping his teammate.
Yes, the village could keep their foolish assumptions if they wished.
Sasuke knew the truth.
--
--
a/n: Hope you enjoyed it. Please review. Oh and I wonder how many of you will figure out why I had certain words in italics. Yes, there is a definite reason for it. I'll tell you the answer next chapter. Feel free to guess though. :)