Chapter Three

Brick by Brick

Sasuke Uchiha to her was a peculiar case. She was all but used to the degrees of masculine arrogance as she was exposed to more males than females most of her life, but none, as of yet, is comparable to the aforementioned teen. He had this captivating vibe, as if he was a magnet and the rest of the world was pieces of steel, which could ensnare you if you were exposed to him too much.

Maybe that was why he was always with her brother.

She could be wrong. Maybe he was like all the other men, protecting themselves with their knowledge of how the world goes (or supposed to go in their case) and assuming they were on top of the food chain if they remained so untouchable. So she built up a barricade to keep him away, because she knows very well that her emotions were precarious, before slapping down the rules of her contract on the front, for he should know what he's getting himself into before he rams his forces on her wall. That would be a slightly less mean thing to do.

"We're leaving mom!" Naruto announced after slinging his duffel bag over his shoulder. He was already bouncing with excitement.

"What's Kushina doing?" his mother called from her room, and she grunted from underneath the many blankets she piled over her head in the living area. Naruto glanced at the moving pile wearily.

"She's uhhh...I think she died mom!"

Said woman put down her book and furrowed her eyebrows, assuming he really didn't think his sister was dead and not actually antisocial. "Naruto!"

"Yeah?!"

"Take Kushina with you!"

"WHAT!"

"I SAID TAKE KUSHINA WITH YOU!"

He groaned defeated, before glaring at the pile on the couch. Sasuke popped his head through the door with a scowl. "Can you be any slower, dead-last?"

A tick mark appeared on his forehead. He stomped over to the couch, pulled off all the blankets exposing his sister to the cold air, and threw them at Sasuke. They were the bane of his existence.

Kushina turned to him with a chilling look, suddenly his anger dissipated and a wave of fear washed over him. She slapped down her laptop and stood to her full height, though it wasn't much, he stumbled a little away and shoved Sasuke in front of him as a shield. "M-m-m-mom said y-y-you're going with u-us!" he said before ducking behind the Uchiha. Kushina stared him down, and despite remaining placid, she noticed the cold sweat trickle down his nape.

She turned and stocked away.

(Ten minutes later)

The Sun took its place in the middle of the sky, indicating it was close to noon, yet the blaring heat did little to bother the laughing beach-goers or dampen their sweet mood. She hissed under hear breath, and felt Sasuke glance at her but paid it no mind, as the three walked down a boarded path. The smell of sea salt and feigned happiness engulfed her nostrils, and for the billionth time in her life, she cursed at humans. Such primitive, hollow forms.

Naruto, on the other hand, seemed like he was about to explode like a volcano, only he would eject sunshine and rainbows instead of the actual lava. Anyone with functioning eyes could see the bounce in his stride.

"Ne, Kushina, are you going to swim?"

The girl in question grimaced darkly, and her brother sweat-dropped at her very notorious antics.

She was left to guard the bags after the two boys raced each other to the water and dropped everything in their haste, so she dragged the bags under an umbrella before plopping down unceremoniously on the sand. It was kind of hot, but she remains huddled under the shade so as to not burn her very sensitive skin. Children and adults alike blurred past her spot paying no heed to the scorching heat, but then again, she thought, they seemed to be those type of people who still go outside.

Kushina sensed someone sit next to her, and turned to scare the poor soul off before she recoiled. With furrowed eyebrows, she glanced back ahead and saw Naruto was chatting with some guy, and left his friend to fend for himself in the meantime. She made it a point to look anywhere but the side he claimed, even when he started to dig up the sand.

What in the hell is he doing?

Not long after, he reached something a little close to her knee, and for some reason she could not tear her eyes away. He placed it by the sand he dug up, before his concentrated onyx eyes searched for more pebbles. Something about the focusing look he had enticed her, and soon she found her hand clutching onto a smooth rock that was once close to her thigh.

"Is this supposed to be your sorry excuse of a trench?" she asks as she places the rock beside the sand he dug up, and he slightly wonders if she's always like this.

Accepting the surreal peace offering, Sasuke went back to his work. The dread she feels is unnatural, like his supposed rejection was affecting her, but before she could plonk a bigger rock down his head and shut him out for good, he speaks.

"And you assume you could do better?"

Kushina gets up and adjusts the umbrella closer to him before strutting off. She comes back with a pale and shovel, and ignores him when he raises his eyebrow before sitting down next to him.

"Where'd you get that from?"

"Some family by the bar," she replies after messing up his trench and shovelling some sand.

"So you stole it."

"Borrowed. It's not like I need this anyway."

"Yet you're using it right now."

"And I will return it after I'm done. Do people do that when they steal?"

"It doesn't work that way Kushina."

"What? Is the little Uchiha scared to be associating with a criminal?"

He grunts and she assumes she won, and so smiles victoriously. The little sand castle she makes looks promising, and the way Sasuke watches her only encourages her to do better. A brick falls off her barricade and he's exposed to her raw feelings, when at one point she thinks he would let her do it on her own, but he surprises her again by taking the shovel and making another trench around her sand castle. They work quietly and swiftly, and soon the tiny castle is done and a somewhat deep trench cuts it off from the rest of the sand, and they watch it withstand the sudden gust of wind with secret smiles. Sasuke gets up with the pale and jogs down to the water, while Kushina makes a circle of smooth rocks around it, and when he returns with water and fills up the trench after seating himself closer to her, they stare at their handiwork.

The pebbles are not all identical and some of the water in the trench spilled a little on the castle, making it look lopsided. It was far from perfect, and yet they sat there, side-by-side, admiring the not-so-impressive sand castle as it held it's own against the wind.

"Mommy! There they are!"

The duo turn and find a burly looking man strutting over to them, with his son and wife in tow, causing Sasuke to blanch. He watches Kushina get up placidly, as if she's blind to the danger only half-way to them, but gets on his feet as well.

"I hope you're fast, accomplice," she says while picking up her brother's duffel bag and handing him his own. He stands there without so much as a flinch, and the outraged yells get closer. Kushina is torn for a moment, between the look he's giving her to stay and atone, or run away and leave his sorry ass along with their sand castle, but he surprises her when he smirks and lifts her up in his arms.

"Don't need you to slow us down," he says when she looks a little dazed, and gives her a pointed look to hold onto him, crouching a little in a practised stance. Kushina leans in close, enough for her breath to prickle his skin and whispers, "Keep up Uchiha," before jumping off him and sprinting away.

"She's getting away!"

Sasuke's smirk widens when he dodges the man's meaty hand and follows after the redheaded girl, soon catching up to her, and together, they each pull Naruto's arm in their haste, towards his car, fuelled by the infuriated howls of the family.

"What did you two do?" Naruto gulps, as he fumbles with his seat-belt. His sister was laughing, and that was never a good sign.

"Just drive!"