Chapter 7:
"I'm telling you, Kakashi-sensei, something weird is definitely going on!" Naruto shouted up into the tree. His sensei was currently reading from one of the top branches and didn't seem to care about anything Naruto had to say. "Sasuke is acting very weird! I think it's because of the collar."
Kakashi shrugged. "That depends on what you mean by 'weird'," he said. "What's been going on?"
Naruto paced the ground, flashing back to the previous day. "Well… first of all, it looked like he was having a break down or something because the collar was shocking him so much. I found him on the floor yesterday. He was a wreck!"
"That's to be expected," Kakashi said coolly. "The collar can have that kind of effect on people, especially if they're being shocked as often as he is. I'm sure it's normal."
"Yeah, but after that is the weird part. I convinced him to say something nice to me for once and when he did, things got really weird!"
"Weird how?"
"Well…" He thought about Sasuke's bizarre reaction to the collar's new activity. "It didn't shock him. But Sasuke said that it gave him a weird feeling. He said that he liked it, but it was really creeping me out."
"Oh?"
"Yeah! First, it was mild, you know? Like he was just smiling and stuff like that. But then later, the more he was nice to me and complemented me, the stranger he became. He was… Well, he was creepy and weird! It was almost like he was drunk or something. He said that he wanted to complement me more and when he did he fell in my lap! It was too weird! He was, like, wasted or something."
"You don't say…"
Naruto was about to go on when something caught his attention. Was it just him, or did Kakashi seem more laid-back than usual? He even noted the smug way he turned the page in his book and never once glanced down at Naruto. Not even to acknowledge him. Something was up.
"Hey…" That's when it hit him. "You know something about this, don't you?"
Kakashi buried his nose in the book.
"You do, don't you?! Out with it! Tell me what's going on!"
"Why, whatever do you mean?" Kakashi asked feigning complete innocence.
He wasn't buying it. "Don't play dumb with me! What did you do to Sasuke?"
With a sigh, Kakashi knew he was caught and explained. "The collar works two different ways. When he misbehaves, the collar will give him a painful shock, as you already know. However, when he behaves properly or kindly to others, the collar will reward his good behavior by making him feel good for doing it. It's kind of like training a dog. When he does bad, he receives pain. When he does good, he gets a treat. Sasuke's reward is happiness. And happiness is addictive. Naturally, people want happiness to last as long as possible because that's our nature. We pursue happiness. That's why he feels the need to be nice to you. He wants the feeling to last. And the more he does it, the more powerful the feeling gets."
"But does he have to act so weird?! It's really creeping me out! I never thought that Sasuke would react like that when he's happy. I always thought that he'd be a little more cool about it and not so… drugged up."
"Oh, that might just be because of the tranquilizers and mood elevators he's getting from the collar."
Naruto blinked. "The… what?"
"Oops."
"What do you mean 'tranquilizers and mood elevators'? What have you been doing?"
Caught again.
"It's not me, it's the collar! The collar is releasing those into his system every time he's nice."
"So that's why he's acting so weird. He IS being drugged!"
Kakashi returned to his book. "It's harmless, I'm sure."
"But what if he gets an overdose or… or is constantly nice to people?"
Beneath his mask, Kakashi gave him a mischievous smile. "We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?"
~*~*~
If you thought that Sasuke was bad when he was mean, think again! He was even worse when he was being nice! For the next two days, Sasuke had been following Naruto around, constantly complementing him. At first it was a nice change from being called a loser every five minutes, but now it was just annoying! He was starting to miss the nasty, mean Sasuke that he had come to tolerate. He never thought he'd say this, but he really wanted him back! He'd give anything just to have Sasuke harass or insult him.
Sakura made her way over to the training grounds and sat down on a rock. The rock yelped and Sakura jumped up screaming. In a puff of chakra, Naruto appeared right where the rock had been seconds before.
"Naruto, what the Hell were you doing?!"
He brushed himself off and answered, "I was hiding from Sasuke."
"Why?"
"He won't leave me alone!" he cried. "Ever since he started being nice, he's been following me around and complementing me!"
"That's not too bad."
"Oh, yeah, it is! It's so annoying and creepy! He's scaring me!"
"I'm sure it's not that bad. You're overreacting."
Just then Sasuke came running out of nowhere and jumped on Naruto, giving him a great big bear hug. "Naruto, you're the best!" The collar buzzed and Sasuke swooned. "Oh, God, I love this!"
"Sasuke, get off of me!"
"Never!" Sasuke grabbed him in an even tighter hug, refusing to let go. "I'm never, never ever gonna let you get away!"
Sakura was stunned. Was this really Sasuke? The Sasuke she had a huge crush on? Was it really the same Sasuke who was hugging Naruto right in front of her? Now she knew what Naruto meant. This was scary.
Sasuke stared at Naruto through half-lidded eyes and said, "You're the best ninja ever!" The collar hummed. He giggled. That's right, giggled.
Naruto pushed Sasuke off of his lap and shoved him over to Sakura. "Here, go complement her for a while and leave me alone."
Sasuke pouted. "But I don't know how to be nice to her. I only practiced with you. You're the one that makes me feel good."
"No, I'm not! It's the collar!" Naruto growled. "Try and be nice to Sakura. Call her pretty or something."
Sakura's face lit up at this and stood at the ready. She puffed out her chest and brushed her hair back.
Sasuke just stared at her, unsure of what to do. "Uh…" he began. "Sakura."
"Y- yes?" she squeaked.
"Uh… you're pretty?" The collar hummed again and Sasuke melted on the spot. Wow that felt good!
Sakura was reduced to a puddle herself at the complement from her crush. When she finally came back to her senses, she realized that Sasuke was standing mere inches from her body. Her heart pounded against her chest. What now? What now?!
Sasuke locked eyes with her and said. "You're pretty. You're very pretty."
Her breath caught in her throat and she felt as if she were going to faint.
The collar hummed.
The next thing she knew, she was being squeezed by Sasuke's strong arms. She could see the blush on his face out of the corner of her eye. He was just as happy as she was. She couldn't understand why Naruto was complaining about this. This was a dream come true for her! There was nothing bad about it.
A few yards away, Naruto was doing cartwheels in the grass and cheering to celebrate his recovered freedom. Thank God Sasuke was glued to Sakura now. He couldn't stand being in Sasuke's presence for another minute. And in time, Sakura too would see why.
