Chapter 11 of Nightly Encounters
AN - Two updates in one night! I'm feeling pumped! After a long and mean absence, I am back. This chapter is short, and for that I apologize. I have been stuck for a long time when it comes to this story, because things are getting so serious, and the scenes are harder to write, because I have such clear images in my head for what I want it to be. Still, this one has a lot of action, which is kind of fun, right? I originally intended to write a very long update, but then I received an absolutely adorable review tonight, and I just decided to hell with it. In my guilt, I am posting what I got so far. Thank you to all my reviewers! When things get rough like this, you are what keeps me going.
Sasuke did not sleep long. A good thing really, because when he awoke, it was already late in the morning. He smacked himself mentally for being stupid like that. Never mind what it would look like if anyone found them sleeping together, the fact that they were both naked would out him as surely as if he had screamed it out at the top of his lungs. He needed to be more careful for this to work. As he sat up and gathered his things, discreetly tugging on his pants and shirt, Naruto stirred beside him. He smiled down at the blond boy sleeping soundly, marveling at how the bright hair seemed to concentrate all the sunlight around it in one shiny halo. Then he remembered who he was, and the smile quickly turned into his trademark frown.
When he was clothed, he carefully opened the tent flap and looked around to make sure no one was there, before sneaking outside and towards his tent. He threw his stuff inside the moment he reached it, and moved to crawl inside himself, when he was stopped short in his tracks by the sound of a voice.
"Glad to see you're up! At least some of us got a good nights sleep."
Sasuke turned slowly and glared suspiciously at Kakashi, who looked far too innocent.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He muttered. He did not feel like dealing with Kakashi's mindfucking shit right now.
"Oh, you know. Just that me and Sakura-chan spent the entire night cleaning up in that village, while you and Naruto were snug and comfortable here." Kakashi said with a shrug, flipping open his signature orange book, and burying his nose in it.
Sasuke had to swallow to keep down the relieved sigh that threatened to escape him. He hadn't even thought to worry about their teammates during the night. Stupid, so stupid. He had to stop making these stupid mistakes. Worried that he had revealed anything to the gray-haired teacher - he was scarily intuitive, after all - Sasuke gave Kakashi a hard stare, trying, and failing miserably, to read the masked and carefully blank face.
"Yes... I was just going to come relieve you. Naruto has calmed down, and I think he'll be wanting to help you out too. He's sleeping now, I think." Sasuke answered, trying to get the old man off his back.
"We could both need some sleep. At least Sakura-chan. She never left the injured civilians sides." Kakashi replied off-handedly.
"She's a good doctor." Sasuke did not want to talk about Sakura.
"A great one. She cares for people you see. Just instinctively. Whether they deserve it or not. I don't think she can help it. She's not the best ninja though. Someone like her, they're too easy to hurt. And she doesn't deserve that." Kakashi elaborated, hardly looking up from his book. Sasuke felt the goosebumps rise on his back. Did he know? How could he possibly know?
"No. I guess not. We'll just have to protect our teammates as best as we can, then." He spat out gruffly, eager to get away from this increasingly uncomfortable conversation.
"That's the idea Sasuke..." Kakashi replied softly, before looking up quickly. "Did you say everything is going well with Naruto?"
The fast change of subjects made Sasuke even more suspicious. What was it with Kakashi that always made him feel like a twelve year old genin? "He's sleeping."
"That's good. I came to get some medical stuff for Sakura-chan a few hours ago, and wanted to check in on him. Didn't want to disturb though."
"Is that so? How considerate of you." The blood was pumping inside Sasuke's head, and he was wildly thankful for the inherited Uchiha-stone face.
"Mhm. I went to ask you how he was instead. Only thing, I couldn't find you in your tent." The sentence was uttered lightly, but Sasuke could feel all the weight behind it.
"I was probably out taking a leak. Sorry I missed you." He answered instantly, surprised at his own easy lie.
"No problem, Sasuke-kun. I hope you let Sakura take a look at you later, you got some pretty ugly bruises, after all."
"Nothing much. Most of it is dirt from the fire." Sasuke felt relief was through him at the change of subject.
"Really? I could have sworn I saw you bleeding yesterday morning. You know, when you came to wake us up because of the fire." Sasuke cursed invardly. He should have known Kakashi would pick up on the fight between him and Naruto. "Well, you better be on your way then. Things are pretty calm now, so I think I'm going to take a little nap." Kakashi said with a masked grin and a wave.
"You do that." Sasuke ground out between gritted teeth.
"Yeah. I think we should let Naruto sleep. It's been a rough night for him, after all."
Sasuke almost shuddered at the conspicuously innocent innuendo. What did Kakashi know? What did he think he knew? He couldn't possibly have more than a hunch, but for someone like Kakashi, that was more than enough. He hadn't said anything outright though. He was probably just messing with his head. Kakashi loved pulling shit like that.
He did have to talk to Sakura though. Should have done it a long time ago, really. He'd never been that interested to begin with, and she didn't grow more interesting in time. She was getting kind of clingy actually, especially since he had been ignoring her for a while now. He didn't need her anymore. He was just beginning to see how much more than a stress outlet sex could really be, and he wouldn't let anything ruin that.
Naruto woke up disorientated and alone. The first thing he noticed was the birds chirping outside, and when he opened his eyes, and saw how light it was, he sat up with a start, immediately falling back down with a groan. Fuck! His lower back hurt like hell!
Naruto was used to sore muscles, but this was something new altogether. It took him a moment to puzzle together the pieces, but when he did, he cursed that sexy bastard to hell and back. After a little work, he managed to pull on his clothes, before crawling out of the tent on all four. He rose very slowly and started stretching, careful at first, but more roughly as he felt the tension in his muscles going slack. The soreness didn't disappear altogether, but it was more of an annoying ache now. He could live with that.
After looking around for a moment, Naruto found Kakashi snoring softly in his tent, and the camp otherwise deserted. Assuming they still had to be down by the village, Naruto headed in that direction. The guilt was a lump in his stomach. Everyone else was working so hard, and here he was lying around and sleeping.
Two days passed before the village was once again resembling something of what it had once been. All of their skills came to use in the cleanup, but more than anything, Sakura's healing helped save lives. When they finally convinced her that she needed to rest, she went to sleep and didn't wake up for fourteen hours. Finally though, they were called into a meeting with the owners of the mine. They were not pleased, to say the least. Not only had they failed to discover and asses the threat beforehand, but it had even come to a fight right there in the village. Kakashi's calm arguments about the fact that no one had counted on the threat being trained ninja, not to mention that the mission of protecting the village's silver reserves had been carried out without fail was promptly dismissed. They refused to pay the bonus that had been settled on back in Konoha.
"Lady Tsunade will hear of this." Was the last thing they heard before the door was shut in their faces.
"They are right, you know. We didn't do our job. We could have saved lives if we had only looked harder." Naruto admitted begrudgingly as they walked out of the building.
"Don't be so fucking stupid." Sasuke muttered under his breath. "These people we're being too cheap to admit to the fact that they had large groups of rouge ninja in the area. We came here expecting to protect a few rich bastards with too much money on their hands from shadows and imaginary monsters. They're lucky the team that was dispatched was even strong enough to counter the threat. They don't give a damn about any of the workers, they're just trying to get out of the deal without paying for what they recieved."
"He's right you know. We can wring our hearts out because of the lives that were lost, and work towards saving everyone the next time, but when it comes down to it, we accomplished a lot with what we had. The best thing we can do is aim towards saving everyone the next time." Kakashi said with a small smile beneath the mask. "The fact is that if we hadn't been here, the death toll would have been that much higher. Hell, if they had decided on sending anyone less experienced, a team of Konoha ninja might very well have been dead now. Don't beat yourself up about it." He added as he pushed out the door.
Sakura nodded her agreement, before grabbing Naruto's hand and squeezing it in comfort. Naruto still looked upset, but his frown smoothed out. As they walked into the sunlight, a cheer could be heard. Most of the people from the village had gathered outside, applauding them with happy faces. As they walked towards the group, a man stepped forwards, grasping Sakura's hand and shaking it fervently as he looked at the group of Konoha shinobi.
"We just wanted to see you off and thank you for all your hard work. You saved our lives, both during the battle and fire, and in healing the wounded afterwards. Especially you, miss Kunoichi. I am afraid we don't have anything to give you as payment, but you should know that you have our gratitude."
"You see, loser. This is the kind of sappy crap you care for, isn't it?" Sasuke mumbled into Naruto's ear, making the blond boy blush slightly. Despite the harsh words, he appreciated the concern behind them.
AN - This is getting harder to write. I have a new baby in Modern Hearts now, which makes switching to the lighter tone of this one difficult. All the fantastic fanfiction I've read since I started this is also becoming a problem. I started out as a Sasunaru-gal, but now I am slowly becoming more and more Narusasu. I'm having trouble being consistent with my characters because I'm so inspired by all the great authors out there! It'll work out somehow though. I have the whole story planned out, I just have yet to write it. It's hard finding the time, but if you keep on reviewing and being supportive, I'll probably be guilted into continuing, somehow.