Bright Orange
Chapter 11: Trials and Tribulations
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Nineteenth Days A.I (After Insertion), October 29th, a Saturday
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"Sasuke, I cannot tell you how delighted I am to see you. So delighted in fact, that I'm going to need you to leave and come back in two weeks so that I'll have the proper time to formulate the words. Don't wait up."
Let me tell you this, that would've sounded a lot more impressive if my nose hadn't been smashed to hell, making me sound all nasally and sort of French, especially when combined with Naruto's high voice.
Even as I was insulting him though, my mind was racing. Had he discovered the Great Naruto Lake? Had he followed me like some weird stalker? This was a pretty out of the way spot, one of the many reasons it was ideal.
Sasuke was leaning up against a tree a good several feet from me, and he looked utterly unimpressed by my verbose response to his sarcastic slow clapping. Dick. "Care to share what you're doing running in the forest like a maniac?" He drawled instead.
My fingers probed my nose, and I gave a hiss of pain as I poked the injured area, which was to say, all of it. Kurama's chakra would heal it, but I didn't want a crooked nose. No, with grit teeth, I grabbed my nose with one hand and wretched it back into place. Hot tears prickled in my eyes, and I wiped them away as the pain dulled.
"Yeah, that's not an answer to my question." Oh right, Sasuke was still here. At least he didn't seem to know why I was here, so he probably didn't know about the Great Naruto Lake.
"I was training. Making good use of my time." I replied icily, my voice already less thick and French. "Unlike some people I know."
Sasuke shrugged. "Well, I am in need of a new training ground after my previous one got wrecked by a little blonde menace. So, I was looking around for a new place to train."
I felt a stab of irritation at being described as a little blonde menace, even though I knew that I, or rather Naruto, was. It wasn't my fault that I had accidently overshot the Substitution Jutsu….even if I had used well over a hundred times the amount of chakra that it was supposed to be used with….
Dipping into the memories of the Clones who had spent their days exploring the forest (just in case), I pointed off to the left. "About a mile that way should be a clearing that you can rig with a similar set up." And it was a mile further away from the Lake, which was even better.
Sasuke raised a single eyebrow, and I felt oddly jealous. I couldn't do that in my original body. Fortunately for me, however, Naruto could! Score one for me!
"You know, others might find it odd that you apparently have the entire forest mapped out in your head." He said calmly, leaning against the tree nonchalantly.
Well, that wasn't totally accurate. I had a pretty good understanding of the forest surrounding the Leaf Village, but not the entire thing, and not memorized. My memory was pretty damn terrible, after all. I would say maybe 35%? Damn, what I wouldn't give for a power like the Gamer that just gave me those stats…
In lieu of answering immediately, I got up, groaning as my muscles twisted stiffly after slamming into both the tree and the ground. Just because they could heal from wear and tear didn't mean that it wasn't still uncomfortable. "I take it from your words that you don't find it odd?" I asked finally.
Sasuke shook his head. "I find myself unable to be surprised by anything you do anymore." He said flatly. He looked at me steadily, with no hint of a smirk on his face.
I used my hand to wipe the blood from my face and idly bent to wipe it on the grass near where I had spat up blood earlier. I would need something to mop up blood in the future. Maybe I should carry paper towels? "See, I want to protest that, but I really not in a position to do so given that I've threatened to pee on you in the past."
The boy still didn't smirk. "Or maybe because you suddenly became a different person overnight." He 'suggested'.
I didn't tense so much as I became suddenly and violently aware of every muscle in my body suddenly springing into a ready position. My legs were braced against the ground, ready to dash, and I was sure that I could manage enough strength to snap his neck before the Uchiha could do anything.
Dark eyes were narrowed at me, even as I was mentally gauging the distance between us, and wondering if I should summon any Clones. "See? I doubt you would've done that just a week ago." He remained relaxed, his arms crossed and not twitching towards the holster of kunai on his leg.
Just a week ago. That was a specific time frame. It was when I had decided it safe to start acting out as myself, rather than the date when I had been dropped into Naruto's body. My legs relaxed as I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't have to kill Sasuke.
The thought relieved me a surprising amount.
But now I had a different issue to face. I had concluded I could act differently because changing after a traumatic event wouldn't be suspicious to the higher ups in the village like Sarutobi. I hadn't really considered that any of the Konoha Twelve would question anything. Children changed all the time, right? It wouldn't be weird.
Clearly, I had underestimated Sasuke Uchiha. But then again, he had also changed after witnessing something terrible. But in his case, he had witnessed it, not caused it. As far as I knew, he hadn't yet killed anyone.
"Last week Sensei hadn't resigned because Mizuki had decided to betray the village." I said finally. "Last week I didn't know that even our allies can be convinced to kill us in pursuit of power."
Okay, maybe it was a dick move to say something like that knowing that Sasuke was still probably going to betray the village, but who knows? Maybe it'll plant a little psychological seed of doubt or something.
Something that was 50% smirk and 50% smile made its way onto Sasuke's face. "I knew it." He muttered to himself.
Now it was time for my eyebrows to rise. "You knew?" I asked.
Sasuke rolled his eyes at me. "Dead Last, they may have told us that Mitarashi came in to replace Iruka, but she never said anything about why Mizuki suddenly left and why any of the other teachers refuse to talk about it. You suddenly taking things seriously and changing your outfit to something more practical before any of us knew about Mitarashi? Come on." He scoffed and leaned back, keeping his eyes trained on me.
….I had clearly underestimated the boy.
For some reason, the corner of my mouth twitched into the beginning of a smirk. "Okay." I conceded. "Moderately impressive."
To my surprise, Sasuke didn't scoff or immediately tout his own superiority. Well, he did scoff (he seemed to like doing that), but it wasn't for the reason I'd suspected. "Please, I may have been the one to equate your change with Mizuki and Iruka, but people have been talking about you all week."
The silence between us stretched so long that I expected a tumbleweed to be blown across the ground. "What?" It was the dumbest response I could've given, but I couldn't help it from bubbling up.
Sasuke arched an eyebrow at me. It was the same eyebrow he had arched earlier. Specifically, his right eyebrow. I wondered if he could only do that one. "Please tell me you're joking, right? First, all of your inane challenges with me to make money, then challenging everyone to races or fights, all without being your normal aggravating self, then all of a sudden you stop wearing that obnoxious jumpsuit, start paying attention in class, and you're the only person who seems to actually like Mitarashi as a teacher."
….Huh.
I…never…really considered that. After I stopped with those contests and had started taking class seriously (now that it was more practical), I had expected to quietly fade into the background. After all, that was just the way things went, right?
But…maybe that was just my past expectations tainting things. While I was naturally dramatic and theatrical by nature, I wasn't charismatic in the least, and was used to being ignored. In fact, it was a private joke with myself that I was essentially just a coatrack; tall, wooden, occasionally useful, and best just tucked away in a corner. I wasn't somebody that others talked about.
But then again, things were quite different now, weren't they?
Then my brow furrowed, and my gaze focused on Sasuke again. "Yeah, but...what were you doing listening to them? I thought you spent all your time brooding."
Future note: when he gets more powerful it will probably be better to not antagonize him. But for now, what was he going to do about it?
Sasuke scowled. Or maybe it was a sneer. I couldn't really tell. "Just because I have better things to think about doesn't mean that I am immune to hearing what everyone is saying, especially when no one ever shuts up. Don't take it the wrong way." He looked away pointedly, as if he couldn't even deign to look at me.
"Jesus…" I muttered under my breath. "Tsundere much?" Luckily, he didn't seem to hear what I said, which was good. I didn't want to have to come up with an explanation for who Jesus was. And I was pretty sure that calling a guy a tsundere was a good way to get him to attack you. "Still, I guess there are worse things to talk about. I am a rather fascinating topic, after all."
"Yes. Although none of them mentioned anything about you being able to beat a chunin level ninja like Mizuki. I'm surprised you didn't brag about it." Sasuke said. He wasn't facing me, and his eyes were fixed on a tree in front of him. There wasn't the slightest touch of bitterness in his voice.
I raised an eyebrow as I processed the words. Sasuke's Inferiority-Superiority issue was one of the defining parts of his character, though the inferiority hadn't started flaring up until it became incredibly evident that Naruto could handle himself. Orochimaru taking an interest in him, Jiraiya taking him as an apprentice, Tsunade returning to the village for him…
Of course, things were slightly different now. Sasuke hadn't even known the tree walking exercise had existed before I had shown it to him. I had been able to resist killing intent when he hadn't. I was fully capable of taking down a trained chunin months before graduation. Were his issues flaring up earlier? Was that good or bad?
But more importantly, why was he bringing it up? The boy was displaying an odd amount of candor in admitting that I was attracting attention from others. It didn't seem like him. I actually would've expected him to challenge me to a fight or something…
…Hold on a moment. Sasuke had done just a such a thing in canon, if I had remembered correctly, and had nearly used the Chidori on Naruto. But that was after months of insecurity thanks to Rock Lee and Gaara. Even then, he would never had admitted it was because he saw Naruto as a threat. I had read more than a few fanfics where Sasuke (or whoever was being bashed) immediately challenged Naruto to a fight once he unveiled his prowess with his new bloodline/weapon/magic penis. Which was then followed by Sasuke being utterly humiliated.
But Sasuke wasn't just some rageaholic looking to lash out. It took a variety of factors including the Cursed Seal, seeing that there were a multitude of other genin that could beat him, and his brother screwing with him to bring that out in him.
So Sasuke wasn't challenging me to a fight. Maybe he was subconsciously trying to do so, but couldn't do it out of pride. Maybe the thought hadn't even occurred to him.
However, the thought had occurred to me.
An explosive breath came from my lungs. "Ah, well. It's as good a measuring stick as any." I said aloud, not really trying to keep the words secret. "Probably decent exercise as well."
Sasuke glanced over at me. "What?" He asked. The boy really had a way with words.
"Hm? Oh, I've come to a decision. You're going to fight me."
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My reasons for wanting to fight Sasuke were varied.
Firstly, while I didn't hate the kid since he hadn't done anything particularly heinous yet, he was irritating enough that punching him into the ground was an appealing thought. It was a sentiment I was sure that Naruto would've agreed with.
Secondly, I was genuinely curious whether or not I could beat him without going for the kill. Though, come to think of it, I did have quite a few advantages over Mizuki, whereas Sasuke already knew that I was more competent than I let on. Still, I was sure that I could take him out if I devoted enough Clones to the task, but not without killing him. So finding out a way to non-lethally beat him would be an interesting challenge.
Third was my biggest but also most embarrassing reason. Embarrassing because it was less a reason and more of a hope. For some reason, Sasuke was a lot more open than I had expected thanks to some combination of factors. Maybe because I wasn't jealous of him and didn't resent him . Maybe it was just because he reminded me of his little brother, and some of that leaked into how I treated him.
Anyway, open was good. Sasuke was incredibly fucked up inside, but he was good at putting up a cool front. If I could prevent him from betraying the village and going down that dark path, I would.
It just so happened that, in this case, my plan for bonding with him was by punching the shit out of him. That was something that happened in anime, right? When you fight somebody, you come to understand and respect them, right?
To Mizuki's credit, he didn't beg. He didn't plead. He didn't try to barter or threaten me. He met my eyes and spit a wad of phlegm and blood into my face.
…Right.
Anyways, suffice to say, my reasons for wanting to fight Sasuke had multiple justifications.
I wondered if Sasuke had as many reasons beyond just 'prove I can beat Naruto'. He had the determination of someone who has a straightforward goal and was eager to get to it. Kind of like a puppy.
Rather than start the fight right where we were (as we were still too close to the Great Naruto Lake for my taste), we relocated to a large clearing a few miles away. It was still weird to think of 'mile' as a unit of distance that only took a few minutes to traverse with moderate effort, but I was getting used to it. It probably would've been more interesting to fight in the trees, but there was something appealing about fighting in a forest clearing with my 'rival'.
We took up positions about a dozen feet apart, ankle high grass being the only thing between us, stirring gently in the breeze. This far from the village, it was a miracle that it wasn't higher. Sasuke actually took up a fighting stance, and there wasn't any smugness on his face.
I wasn't in any fighting stance. Both because I still didn't have any fighting style, and because I still had things to say. "So, what are the rules? Because if we do only Taijutsu then this is going to be a short match."
Sasuke didn't move from his ready position. "Anything goes is good for me. I doubt you'll be able to seriously hurt me anyway." The barest hint of a smirk formed on his face.
"Ah….you do remember the part about how I took down a chunin, right?" Oh wait, he was probably trying to trash talk me. Given the annoyed frown that had taken the place of his smirk, I was guessing it was the second one. "Fine. When one of us gets a theoretical deathblow, that person wins. Good?"
The prodigy finally moved, but it was only to give me a 'come at me' gesture. My lips pulled away from my teeth in a way that my friends have told me is socially inappropriate, but seemed fitting at the moment.
Rather than take up a fighting stance, I put my hands together in a familiar cross-shaped seal, and the battleground was promptly enveloped in smoke.
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By the time the smoke around the clearing had disappeared, I was comfortably situated in the higher recesses of a towering oak, hidden by leaves and branches. This was not cowardice…or at least I hoped it wasn't. I had a couple Clones sprinkled around the area to get every view possible of the fight, but I wouldn't actually be doing any fighting.
This was preparation for the future. Even with my regeneration, I doubted my ability to heal from a pulped heart or destroyed brain. And I was going to be fighting some very powerful people. So, this was like a trial run at fighting from a distance, moving my Clones around like pawns on a chess board.
Sasuke hadn't moved from where he had been, with the difference now being that he was surrounded by a set of ten Clones. I wonder why he didn't hide in the trees like he did when he fought Kakashi for the first time? Maybe I just wasn't enough of a test?
Well, I had made the first move, and Sasuke wasn't going to let me make another one, especially once a few of my Clones started going for their swords. The Uchiha burst into motion, swinging a high kick directly into the temple of one of the Clones and immediately spinning around to slam a fist into the next one.
Unfortunately, even that takedown was enough time for the remaining eight to pull out their weapons. Three charged with their jians drawn, while the remaining five jumped back, jians in one hand and kunai in the other, ready to throw.
I had been slightly leery about using live steel against Sasuke, but I needn't have bothered. The boy swiftly pulled out his own kunai and blocked two of the swords, maneuvering so that the third wouldn't get a good shot at anything important. However, he still took a cut across his thigh, shearing away the fabric of his pants.
Even from my distance I could see Sasuke set his jaw and moved. The two Clones whose blades were trying to force down his kunai stumbled forward as Sasuke went back and then up, bounding into the air. There was a flash of metal, and two of the backup Clones disappeared.
Privately, I was berating myself. Or rather, my Clones. That would've been the perfect time to use the Kinetic Burst! The shock value alone would've allowed them to land a hit once the kunai were deflected.
Despite my mental chastisement, the three remaining backup Clones were not idle, and let their kunai fly at the flying target. Sasuke twisted as he fell, avoiding two of the kunai but taking a glancing scrap across his arm.
The moment Sasuke was back on the ground he was moving again, keeping low to the ground as he hurtled at one of the Clones, kunai in hand. The Clone deflected the blow by using his sword like a baseball bat; Sasuke's kunai was ripped out of his grip and spun off into the forest.
Undeterred, Sasuke tucked into a roll and came up behind my Clone. A quick blow to the back of the skull, and now it was 1v5.
Then, one of the Clones stepped up, and spit directly into Sasuke's right eye.
The boy stumbled back, his hand instinctively going to his eye, and I did an internal (and external) fist bump at the success. Acid Spit required one to be able to spit the transmuted acid at an opponent, something which required the user to augment the muscles in their face with chakra. And while I wasn't having much luck with creating the acid, I had gotten very good at spitting over the past few days.
I wonder how many people would've paid good money to spit in Sasuke Uchiha's face like that…
The Clones advanced on the partially blinded Uchiha. Using a hand to wipe the spit out of his eye would mean that he would be temporarily deprived of a way to counter-attack, something we couldn't waste.
However, Sasuke didn't do that. Instead, his hands flew together, and he began to perform hand signs…and they weren't any I recognized.
My stomach dropped out, and I got the urge to yell for my Clones to get out of there, but they could see what I could just as well.
They didn't get time to gulp before Sasuke put a hand to his mouth and exhaled. Fire bloomed into existence, shooting out of his hand and engulfing the Clones. I could see their outlines as they dissolved into their component chakra and returned to me.
Okay, note to self: do not try and tank fire attacks. Burning, even for a moment, hurts.
However, we had bigger worries. Sasuke's fireball had been just large enough to envelop each of my Clones, but it's effects didn't end where the flickering red flames did, and as they died out, the grass in the clearing began to smoke and char, and in some places, spots of flame began licking the air.
Fuck. Fuck. I had no way of stopping a forest fire if it got to any of the bigger trees, short of lighting another fire and hoping they choke each other out, but I'd really rather not do that.
My Clones materialized out of the trees and ran to the rapidly expanding circle of flames and smoke where Sasuke's fireball had disappeared. Their jackets flew off as they began to snuff out the fire, which was met with limited success. Grimacing, I formed close to a hundred Clones that began to snuff out the flames with boots, jackets, even their faces. Those were some painful memories.
I didn't want to use any wind manipulation, as that would only feed oxygen to the flames, and I doubted I could produce enough spit to effectively combat the flames.
Smoke floated lazily through the air and made breathing annoying, but I didn't think it was too dangerous. Now, with that care of…
Rather than try to jump from my hiding place, I opted to drop from the tree and stalk over to the Uchiha boy, who was standing stock still where he had been when he had used the Fireball Jutsu. The spittle in his eye had dried away by this point.
"So, you want to tell me what that was about?" Disdain, outrage, and outright disappointment wrestled for dominance in that one simple sentence, and I think disdain won.
Sasuke's eyes flickered to me, then back to the circle of ash that had radiated out in the middle of the clearing. "I…didn't know that would happen."
It was a weak defense, and he clearly knew it, opening his mouth to explain further. However, his mouth clicked close when I held out my hand, palm facing him and fingers together. Though granted, I think it had less to do with the hand and more to do with my face, which felt tight and hard.
"Stop. Alright. I'll accept that you didn't know that would happen." Prodigy or not, able to take out five of my Clones in a handful of seconds or not, no one could think of everything. "Tell me what happened."
Sasuke's eyes were focused on a spot right above my shoulder, though they would occasionally move to my face and then away again, as if caught doing something he shouldn't. "I normally practice that Jutsu over a pond, or in a clearing near home. But…there isn't a lot of grass there to catch fire."
That made sense. The Uchiha probably made their kids do it over a pond specifically to stop this sort of thing, and grass was probably sparser and shorter nearer to populated areas. "Alright. What did this teach you?" Disdain had given way to a sort of enforced, neutral calm.
Sasuke looked at my face as if the answer would be written across my pupils. Apprehension in his expression smoothed away as gears began to turn. "When I'm in fighting in an unfamiliar environment…I need to pay more attention to my surroundings. I noticed the longer grass around here, but I didn't think it would mean anything."
That was better phrased than what I was going to yell at him, which had been 'use your fucking brain'. I knew that Sasuke wasn't dumb enough to use an area Jutsu like that with civilians around, but he was still a kid who was capable of overlooking things, especially when more focused on a more immediate goal.
Such as, say, barbequing your classmate. "I would also advise against using a Jutsu like that on comrades unless you've got an urn in your pouch."
Sasuke crossed his arms and gave me something that looked like a sicklier version of his normal smirk. "I figured you weren't in there. Last week you showed that you could use come sort of sentient Clone, and I figured you would make for the trees while there was enough smoke to cover you."
Well, at least he had thought that part of the way through. "How do you figure?" If he could see through it so easily, I might need to come up with a more complex strategy.
Sasuke shrugged and met my eyes again hesitantly. There was something different there. I had never been one of those people who could easily read emotions through eyes, but something seemed different.
No…it wasn't in the eyes themselves. No pupil or color difference. But his eyes weren't as narrowed, and his face didn't look as stiff. It was slight, but…
"It was what I would've done." He said finally.
Whooboy. That was a doozy right there. I knew that Sasuke thought I was better than I had been a few weeks ago, but to base his estimation of what I was going to do off of what he would do? That was probably as close to a compliment as I would get from the boy.
And I decided not to tell him that I had stolen that strategy right from the book of none other than Itachi Uchiha. Somehow I didn't think he would like being compared to his brother.
"Well," I said. "You got me out of hiding." My hand went to the hilt of my jian, making the gesture obvious. "What're you going to do about it?"
There were a good five feet between us. Was it enough time to draw my jian before he could get out a kunai and perform a deathblow?
I wasn't sure.
The crisp morning air was cool in my mouth as it pulled into a grin and Sasuke narrowed his eyes again, but this time his mouth curled in an answering smile. He unfolded his arms and his hand hovered over his pouch.
We didn't count down or yell 'go' so much as we simultaneously decided to move. Sasuke's hand darted into his pouch and I pulled out my jian with its characteristic shhhhink. We both dashed forward…
The ground fell out from underneath me, and my body jilted forward as my foot found the missing ground several inches below where it should've been, landing awkwardly and twisting violently. My arms went wide as I tried to break my fall, my left arm coming down and sending a jolt up to my shoulder.
My blade met a brief moment of resistance before skidding away, and I felt a prick on the base of my neck. Without moving the rest of my body, I could see that Sasuke was standing over me, and what was pressing into my neck was undoubtably his kunai.
"Deathblow." Sasuke said. The pain at my neck receded, and he moved back, putting the weapon back into his pouch. Then he grabbed my arm and helped me pull my foot out of the hole. Already I could feel the familiar itch of Kurama's chakra healing it.
Letting go of my arm and letting me sheath my jian, Sasuke stood back with a smirk on his face. "Looks like I'm not the only one who could benefit from being more aware of his surroundings, Dead Last." He taunted.
I shot him a warning look, doing my best to quit my mouth from twitching into a wry grin. "Don't make me spit on you again, Sasuke."
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"I can't believe that you've never been here before. This is one of the best ramen stands in the village, nay, the world!" I pushed aside the covering to let us both walk into Ichiraku Ramen. It was empty of any other customers, being a few hours away from lunch, but both of us had expended enough chakra and run around the forest enough that we had worked up an appetite. After Sasuke's win he had joined me in my forest running, though of course he didn't know about my wind sense, so he had slammed into a lot more trees than me.
And yet ten minutes later he had once again looked like a graceful brooding pretty boy. Some things just weren't fair.
"Hn. Are there any other contenders for the best ramen stand in the world?" Sasuke asked as he took a seat at the counter. I squinted at him, genuinely unsure if he was being serious in asking or if he was mocking me.
Eh, either way. "Actually, Ramen Enthusiasts Weekly has been buzzing about a new ramen shop in the Hidden Stone Village, but I can't exactly just go over there to check the claims."
Now it was Sasuke's turn to eye me skeptically, but before he could open his mouth, Ayame appeared from the back room. Her eyes lit up and she walked over to the counter, a smile on her face. "Naruto! You're early, I wasn't expecting you."
"Can't I decide to drop in on my favorite ramen stand to my favorite ramen chef?" I asked innocently, putting a hand to my chest. "Ayame, you wound me."
"Sure I do, Naruto." She reached out and pat me disparagingly on the head, then turned her eyes to Sasuke. "Are you going to introduce me to your friend?"
"Hm? Oh yeah, him. Ayame, this is my friend from school: Choji Akimichi." My smile never wavered.
"Oh, really? It's nice to meet you, Choji. I'm Ayame Ichiraku." Ayame bowed shallowly to Sasuke, who looked like he had sat on an uncomfortably loud and realistic sounding whoopee cushion.
Sasuke inclined his head as if trying to remain aloof, which didn't match his clenched jaw. "I'm not Choji Akimichi." He said stiffly. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha."
"I believe it's proper form to say 'it's nice to meet you, too', or something to that effect." I said offhandedly.
Not-Choji glared at me. I really hoped that I hadn't ruined any goodwill I'd built up with this stupid joke. I had ruined a few friendships that way before. His eyes moved back to Ayame, and I saw his mouth become set in a stubborn way. Oh right. I forgot that Sasuke wasn't polite.
Then, thank the gods above, Ayame came through. Her lower lip quivered, and her eyes became downcast. Her shoulders slumped, and her arms went behind her back. "No, it's okay…" She muttered, tracing something on the ground with her foot. "I guess it's not all that nice to meet someone like me…" She looked up with big brown eyes at the both of us, and there were prickles of moisture in them.
I was suddenly very aware of the blood tracing it's way up through my neck, circulating around my head, and pooling into my face. Jesus Christ, I knew it was an act, but if Sasuke didn't apologize within the next few seconds, I was going to punch him. Possibly through a wall or two.
However, as I looked over at Sasuke, I realized that such a thing wasn't likely to happen. The Uchiha prodigy's face was frozen, and there was a light dusting of pink across his face. I guessed that, for him, it was the equivalent of turning as red as tomato.
Seeing that he wasn't going to be of much use, I gave him a gentle nudge. Sasuke jolted, and more color came to his cheeks. His eyes were still fixed on Ayame, who was looking at us with those giant doe eyes.
"Ah, I'm sorry. I mean, it's nice to meet you, Ayame. I'm Choji."
There was a pause of several seconds as we all processed what he had said, and Ayame and I both broke down. I gripped the counter, barely able to breath in between fits of hysterical laughter.
Sasuke was not laughing. I could see the faint flush on his face making it's way down to his neck as he scrambled for words. "No, wait, my name's not Choji. It's Sasuke!" Ayame and I made eye contact over the counter and the chef let out an inelegant snort, which sent me into peals of laughter that made my chest ache.
As the minutes passed, Sasuke regained his composure and glared haughtily at us as Ayame and I slowly wound down. I had to wipe tears out of my eyes, and the aftershocks of it kept me giggling even as I tried to become serious again.
The curtain behind us shuffled as someone else entered the stall, and Ayame immediately perked up, still trying not to laugh. "Ah, welcome Lord Third!"
My head whipped around and it was indeed the Third Hokage, who looked both pleased and disgruntled at the same time. He stepped into the stall and smiled at Ayame. "Hello, young Ayame. It's good to see you. Would you mind if I chatted with Naruto for a bit?"
"Of course! I'll just get started on their orders. What would you all like?"
Sasuke, Sarutobi, and I ordered quickly, and Ayame walked away to prepare the food. Sarutobi did not take a seat, and his smile faded as he turned to me. "Naruto, my boy, why did you not show up for training today?"
His words took me off guard, and I stared stupidly at him for several seconds. "What?"
"As you likely recall, after your incident a few weeks ago, we discussed you coming to me for weekly training."
I nodded. "But thanks to all that stuff with Mizuki I thought…" I trailed off and then shrugged. "Well, I thought I just didn't really…" I trailed off again, not wanting to say 'didn't really need it'. Plus, it had pretty much completely slipped my mind. When I had been in the hospital he had told me to come to him in a week to help, but on the day before that was the Mizuki Incident, and I had slept through the subsequent day. I hadn't even thought about it since.
Sarutobi frowned. "Well, that's not what you told me." He said.
Now it was my turn to frown (which meant we were all frowning since that was Sasuke's natural state). "What are you talking about?"
The lines on Sarutobi's face deepened, and I thought I could see something moving in his eyes. "Tell me, my boy, do you remember speaking with me just a few days ago? Wednesday, I believe it was."
I tried to think back. Wednesday would've been only a few days ago, but for me it was like sorting through several months' worth of memories. It was like trying to recall what you'd had for lunch two weeks ago. Something was there, but… "Give me some context?"
Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. "I sent out an ANBU to retrieve you to discuss how you were dealing with the 'incident' and we ended up discussing your training. You and I agreed that we would push it to today and would meet early in the morning."
As he said those words, the faint tickle at the back of my mind spilled out, and I vividly recalled what he was talking about. It had been one of the Writing Clones that Sarutobi had summoned. He had contemplated writing down the appointment but had assumed we would remember it.
But I hadn't. My conversation with Sarutobi had gotten lost in the veritable sea of information that came with absorbing the dozens of Clones that were running around. I slapped my face. "I need to get an appointment book or something…" I groaned.
"I assume that you were concerned with so many other things that you forgot?" Sarutobi asked delicately. Seeing my guilty look, he nodded wisely. "Do not worry my boy, it just means we will have to make up for lost time today!"
He pulled a wad of ryo out from his robes and put them on the table. "We'll be taking our orders to go, young Ayame!" He called.
Ayame saluted him with the tongs in her hand. "Aye, aye, Lord Third!"
"Wait, what?" I asked. "You're still going to train me?"
Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. "I cleared my day expecting that's how long it would take to wear you out, my boy. I'm going to get the most out of this time. Why, are you not up to it?"
Up to it? My muscles were aching from the morning's activities, my chakra was down to a mere percentage of what it normally was, and my stomach was growling loud enough I was sure he could hear it.
On the other hand…training from the Hokage himself.
A grin grew on my face in spite of myself. "Absolutely."
Ayame placed two carry out containers on the counter, smelling heavenly. "Two 'to go's for my favorite customers!" She winked as us, and Sarutobi smirked at me. Damn old man.
I turned to get off my chair, and saw Sasuke sitting next to me. I had almost forgotten about him being there. His face was completely blank, but I was starting to understand that to understand Sasuke Uchiha, you had to look at his eyes, which were slightly narrowed as they moved between myself and the Hokage.
My mind went back to the forest, where I had internally debated the 'why' and 'how' of Sasuke's Inferiority-Superiority Complex. Part of his breakdown had been Naruto getting attention from some of the world's most powerful people when he wasn't.
Before I could overthink it, my mouth started to move. "Make that three to go." I said to Ayame. "Choji's coming with us."
Sasuke's eyes widened. Ayame's mouth twitched. Sarutobi looked between Sasuke and I with a neutral expression. Then, something twinkled in his eyes, and he turned to face Sasuke.
"I see. Well then, come along Choji! We're burning daylight."
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Hi there everyone. It's me, the guy who is writing a fictional story about himself on the internet. Not weird at all!
Got into an interesting discussion with fanfic author Zabzab (go check out their story The Naruto experiment) about various flaws in my writing, primarily not having a clear mental starting point for Arashi's desire to save the world, and got referred to several online resources to help with these issues. These are the kinds of conversations that I need to improve my writing, so thanks!
Little ministory: This chapter was stuck at six pages and was going nowhere fast, as I was working on other projects. Then I got one review from a guest asking me to update. I grumbled to myself that I had already done a lot of writing this week and didn't really want to work on it. But I pulled out my laptop and did it anyway, because I knew it was important to someone else.
One review can be a good kick to the pants, not just for me, but for others too. Y'all got power.
I'm honestly surprised that so many people dislike all of the Clone interactions. To be honest, I felt like I was rushing towards the Mizuki fight just so that Arashi wouldn't spend all of his time internally monologuing and would have someone to talk to. Especially since exploring various things about the Shadow Clone Jutsu was one of the reasons I wanted to write this fic.
For example: the thing about the memories of earlier Clones being reinforced. To me, this just seems like how it would work. One Clone disperses, and every other Clone (and the Prime) gets his memories. Then, when all those Clones get absorbed, not only is the Prime absorbing their first-hand memories, but the second-hand memories as well, which is multiplied by the number of Clones who existed when the initial Clone dispersed.
And, of course, Arashi losing track of 'smaller' things because each day is essentially several weeks for him. Will that bite him in the ass? Probably.
Also! I apologize to anyone who tried to predict what Arashi was forgetting. I meant to include that scene between Arashi's Clone and Sarutobi about training earlier. Since going back and including it would probably throw people off, this is the compromise I came to.
(Sorry for the long AN. I just like to talk. Er, type.)
Alright everyone, that's it for me, so remember to FOLLOW, FAVORITE, and REVIEW