Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.
This chapter has been beta-ed by MS3923 :D
-oXo-
Chapter 21: Bothersome
21st of September
His steps echoed through the sober looking hallway as he came closer to the right room.
Naruto entered Eri's hospital room, and found Kenji sitting next to her bed. He also noticed how he stiffened when he saw Naruto enter and the small blush on Eri's still slightly pale face, as she gripped her quilt she was making more tightly.
"Ohayo. Hope I didn't interrupt anything."
"No! We were just-"
"What should you be interrupting-?"
Naruto laughed and his students fell silent. "I was just joking." Kenji growled. "But the way you two reacted-"
Eri hit Naruto's arm. "Sensei~. We were just talking," she said seriously.
"Sorry, sorry, I'll stop." Naruto held up his hand in apology.
"Grown-ups," Kenji mumbled.
"So I heard all the poison is now officially cleared from your system."
Eri smiled. "Yep. I just need to stay a little longer to get a little stronger, so the nurse said."
"Your mom will be happy to have you back home, I think."
"Me too."
Naruto turned to Kenji. "Did you tell her about your mission already?"
"No he didn't, you know he never tells us anything." Eri shook her head.
Kenji huffed. "Why should I?" he asked with his arms crossed and his eyes closed.
"Because it's nice," Eri told him.
"It has no use."
"It does, it's called conversing."
"That's just stupid and unnecessary."
"Then what are we doing now?"
"Unnecessary talking."
"And when you talk to Sasuke-sama?"
"That's..."
"Necessary talking?"
"..."
Naruto began laughing again as he had been listening to the two. He got two angry looks once more. "Haha, you two just keep going, don't you?"
"What?" Kenji asked.
"Bickering, always bickering with each other."
"No we don't," Eri said.
"Then what?"
"Unnecessary talking?" Eri said.
It was silent for a minute before both Eri and Naruto started laughing.
"It's true," Kenji said, and the laughing only became louder.
"Hahaha, ow, my sides, my sides," Eri laughed, holding her sides.
Kenji was not amused. He stood up and wanted to walk away, but Naruto grasped his arm.
"You're not angry are you?" Eri asked, slowly calming down from laughing to giggling.
Kenji pulled his hand away from Naruto's grip. "No, I have to go."
Eri stopped giggling and looked up to him. "Thanks for coming. I really appreciated it."
"Hm." Kenji turned around and walked away.
"I should have known."
"What?" Eri asked.
"Nothing. Just glad you're feeling so much better." Eri eyed Naruto, not satisfied with his answer at all.
-x-
"Onsen, onsen, onsen, onsen," Akira sang as he, Sasuke and Naruto were on their way to the hot spring.
"You've been to an onsen before, haven't you?" Naruto asked, swaying his tail.
"Hmm," Akira thought for some time. "Last year, for the first and second time," he said as he held up his fingers. "This will be three times!"
"The third time, Akira." Sasuke corrected.
"The third time," Akira corrected himself, though Sasuke wasn't so sure. Recently Akira thought it funny or something to repeat the last words of Sasuke or Naruto; especially Sasuke's.
"There it is." Naruto pointed and Akira ran to it.
"Akira, don't go too far!"
Akira came back and reached for Sasuke's hand. Only then he was able to calmly walk beside him, though every other step he couldn't help but skip or hop. "Onsen, onsen, onsen," he sang again.
"I guess you've never been to the men's side then?" Naruto asked as he assumed Akira had gone to the onsen only with Akiharu. And since he was still young, he probably always went together with his mother to the woman's side.
"No."
"Oh, but that side is so much better," Naruto told him with an exciting voice.
"Really?"
Sasuke gave Naruto a look that said to stop it. Naruto ignored it.
"Hmhm, way better. You'll see."
Akira gasped. "They have softer towels."
"Of course."
"Really?"
Naruto nodded, and Sasuke was still giving him the stare.
They finally reached the onsen and got to the men's side.
"Is this better than the woman's side?" Akira asked, looking around while Sasuke tried to pull off his shirt.
"Way better; you haven't seen that side."
"Neither have you," Sasuke told him, but Naruto just grinned.
Akira gave the rest of his clothes to Sasuke, who put it away together with his own, and Akira put the towel around his waist.
"It is soft."
"Really? I mean, I told you so." Naruto smiled to the boy.
Sasuke was finally able to hit Naruto's head, as Akira stood in the opening of the sliding doors to peek into the onsen, while Naruto and Sasuke stood behind him.
Naruto grunted toward Sasuke, and then slid the door further open. "Welcome, to the men's side. Now you are officially a- Sasuke!" Sasuke had hit him again.
"And it was so peaceful~"
Sasuke and Naruto looked to the water as a man sat there, his arm over his eyes.
"Aa! Yamato-san!" Akira ran to him, took off his towel, and jumped into the water.
"Don't jump, Akira!"
"That's a bit too late, don't you think?" Naruto asked Sasuke as Akira emerged. They got in as well.
"Don't jump," Sasuke told Akira again.
"I thought we were allowed on the men's side."
"No." Sasuke gave Naruto another glare, and Naruto just grinned back as he pulled up his shoulders.
"So, Yamato-taicho, how are you doing, haven't seen you in a while."
"Ah, yes some missions…" ANBU missions. They knew by now that he was an ANBU as well. "How's your shoulder?" He asked as he pointed to Naruto.
"I'm managing."
"It looks quite nicely healed though."
"Yeah-"
"Akira, what are you doing?"
They all looked over to Akira as he seemed to be swimming around as if he was looking for something in the water.
Akira looked up to Sasuke. "I'm looking for the fishies."
"The fish?" Naruto asked.
Akira nodded. "Just like in our pond."
Naruto had a hard time to hold his laugh, Yamato was grinning to.
"Akira, there are no fish living in here. It's a hot water source, they can't live in here."
"But there are fish that can handle warm wa-"
"They don't live here," Sasuke told him again.
"Not here?"
"No."
"No koi fish?"
"No."
Akira seemed quite a bit disappointed at that.
"And luckily no monkeys either. I hate those things." Another angry glare was directed to Naruto. "What?" Naruto asked innocently.
"No monkeys?" Akira said, sounding very disappointed that there were no animals at all, not even on the men's side.
Sasuke sighed.
"Sometimes you really can't tell it's his son," Naruto told Yamato behind his hand. A glare.
"But there's a fox in here, isn't that enough?" Sasuke grinned.
"Eh? Sasuke~" Naruto looked around to Sasuke, surprised.
Akira smiled. "Can you swim?"
Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Of course I can swim. But I'm not a-"
"Show me, please?"
Naruto narrowed his eyes even further, and lowered his ears as he glared at Sasuke.
"Show him." This earned Sasuke a soft growl.
Yamato sniggered, pushing Naruto forward. And thus Naruto went to the deeper part where Akira was, to swim to him; though it was a bit weird to swim with one arm.
He decided to have some fun with Akira, and suddenly submerged, only keeping his ears above the water.
"Ah, Naruto, don't sink."
"He's not sinking Akira."
As Naruto swam a circle around Akira, the boy began to giggle, pointing to Naruto's 'floating ears'. Naruto moved them around, turning his ears on his head.
"You can swim."
Naruto came up again. "Told you so." He splashed some water to Akira with his tail.
"Naruto~"
Yamato shook his head and sat back, so did Sasuke, enjoying the water while Naruto and Akira played.
Akira was laughing like only kids could when they had fun, with Naruto chasing him around.
"Maa, maa and I thought to have a peaceful time at the onsen."
Sasuke didn't bother to look around, but Yamato greeted Kakashi as he sat down beside the other two men. "Kakashi-senpai."
Naruto reached forward and was able to get Akira. He pulled him closer. "Got you."
Akira giggled and tried to get loose. "Do~n't!"
"I'm going to eat you."
"Whaa, Naruto, no!"
The other three watched how Naruto and Akira kept struggling.
"Naruto~"
Naruto let go of Akira. Quickly Akira swam to Sasuke, and sat down beside him. "I don't want to be eaten."
"Naruto can't eat little children," Sasuke told him.
"But foxes can," Akira told him.
"Is he really scared?" Naruto asked as he got closer.
Akira suddenly let go of Sasuke. "Ooh, Naruto, show me your fox form again," he smiled.
"I- what?" Naruto looked confused. Akira smiled at him. "I don't have a fox form."
"You do."
"I don't."
"You d- Ooh," Akira said suddenly understandingly. "No-one knows," he whispered from behind his hand, as if Kakashi and Yamato couldn't hear it when he said it like that.
"I don-," Naruto said automatically. "Eh?"
"Why can't you transform completely into a human?" he whispered.
"Eh?"
Kakashi laughed, looking down to Akira. "Naruto can't help it, because that's what happens when kitsune transform."
"EH?" Naruto looked over to Kakashi.
"Yes, ancient folklore says that kitsune liked to trick people by transforming into humans, but they couldn't really hide their tail very well," Yamato said.
"Wha-?" Naruto was a little confused at what was going on.
"Really? So Naruto wasn't a fox that turned human, but a kitsune that transformed into a human?"
"Yes, and sadly he is stuck in his human form," Kakashi said.
"Nani?" Naruto was looking back and forth between the talking men, unable to think of anything to say. Sasuke just sat there like he didn't hear anything, his eyes closed and leaning back.
"I'm sorry Naruto, we know you like to keep that a secret, but Akira is just too smart," Kakashi said as he looked to Naruto.
"He would have found out on his own anyway," Yamato added.
"So you can't change into a fox -a kitsune- anymore?" Akira looked sadly to Naruto. "I'm sorry I asked."
"No, I-"
"It's alright Akira, we all made the same mistake."
"Kakashi-sensei~!" Naruto whined.
"Do you miss your family?" Akira asked softly.
Naruto's eye began to twitch as Kakashi and Yamato kept giving Akira false information about him.
"Why are you doing this? I didn't do anything to you?"
"I remember over a week ago," Kakashi started, laying his hand on his chin, "when you nearly killed me on the training field."
"But we made up for-"
"And before that you put some frogs in my bento box."
Naruto smirked, unable to deny that.
"And I remember last month," Yamato started, "when you stole all my kunai before-"
"Those were jokes," Naruto said.
"Is that also something kitsune like to do?" Akira asked.
"Yes, tricking people is one of their favourite hobbies."
"What? Don't keep on telling him lie-"
"That explains," Akira said as he put his own hand on his chin, copying Kakashi. Yamato laughed softly as he saw that.
"That doesn't explain anything," Naruto said stubbornly as he crossed his one arm over his chest.
"It does!"
"No, it doesn't," Naruto told Akira.
"It does," Sasuke suddenly said, his eyes still closed.
Naruto stared with an open mouth to Sasuke. "No, not you too? What did I do to you?"
"It's been too long since-" Naruto's eyes widened, and Sasuke smirked as he stopped talking. "You know."
"I don't know!" Naruto said and turned around.
Akira laughed loudly. "You are right, Naruto. The men's side is way better than the woman's side."
Naruto lowered his ears and lowered further into the water. "Sure."
"So why do I have to put them all on the floor?" Akira asked as he grasped a few statues, and placed them on the floor of his room.
"We're playing a game," Sasuke told him as he sat down on the bed.
"What game?"
"A game wherein I ask questions and you categorize the stuff according to the questions I've asked." He pointed to the knick-knacks as more and more were placed on the floor. More than Sasuke had thought there would be.
"Okay," Akira smiled. He liked to play games with his father.
"Done," he said after a while.
"File all the things okaa-san gave to you for your birthday."
Akira picked up a few things and laid them aside. Mostly toys. The boxes, statues and stones stayed behind.
"Belongings okaa-san has told you about where she got them from."
Another group was made.
"Things you or okaa-san got in the last two years."
"What about the ones in there?" he pointed to the last group he'd made.
"Divide them in two, inside the group. Make columns and rows on the ground, like this." Sasuke got on the ground and laid the stuff of the first question on top; from the second question below, to the right. And so on. The things that belonged to more questions were laid in more rows.
"That's smart of you, tou-chan," Akira said as he helped Sasuke.
"Next column; stuff okaa-san told you to not touch before she gave them to you."
Two hours later Sasuke was left with three objects that were most likely the stolen treasure. A richly decorated wooden box from about 25 by 13 by 10 centimetres, a necklace made of beautiful teal stones that were the same colour as Akira's eyes, and a statue. It was the same statue of the samurai Akira had showed him during the guessing game they had played three months ago when Naruto was missing.
Sasuke looked again at the red, old and damaged ruby statue. Could it be?
"Can you tell me anymore about these three objects?"
Akira thought long and hard, as his father had already asked a lot about the statues. He didn't want to repeat any of it, because he wanted to show his father he'd remembered all that he'd asked.
"Only that Kaa-chan told me she got the box because she liked the lilac on it, and it remembered her of the tree in the garden back home."
Sasuke picked up the box and turned it around in his hands. He then activated his Sharingan and watched more closely for any clues.
Akira looked at him very interested as Sasuke did so.
"Tou-chan?"
"Yes?" Sasuke said as he kept looking at the box. He thought he'd found some sort of faded inscription.
"What does the Sharingan do?"
Sasuke stopped rubbing his finger over the spot to get away some dirt to look up to Akira. "It shows more than what you can see with your normal eyes."
"Can you see in the dark like Naruto?"
"Not like that. I can see chakra and predict people's movements, copy things like jutsus, hand writing, etcetera."
"Really? Isn't that hard?"
"It's not hard, but it does use a lot of chakra, especially in the beginning. You have to train your eyes."
"Train your eyes?"
"Yes." Sasuke let the box drop on his lap, and laid his hand on Akira's small shoulder. "Don't worry. If you activate your Sharingan I'll help you. If you don't, it's fine too. You can fight great battles without it." He didn't want to bring Akira's hopes up too much. Maybe he would never be able to have a Sharingan. Sasuke would like if he did, but he knew it wouldn't change the boy in any way if he hadn't. It shouldn't change him.
Akira smiled carefully and fiddled with the necklace on the ground. "Okaa-san said she wouldn't like it if I would."
Sasuke looked at him. He knew she'd hated him, but how could she have said that to Akira?
"She told you about the Sharingan?"
Akira shook his head. "No she never told me. She just once said that to me, but I didn't understand her then."
"We'll see what happens, okay?"
Akira nodded, still fiddling with the jewellery.
Sasuke gripped Akira under his arms and pulled him onto his lap. Akira looked up surprised.
"I'll show you what I can do with the Sharingan, and that you can do it too."
"Really?"
"Yes. Here, take the box."
Akira took the box Sasuke handed him.
"Look closely at the box, for scratches or writing."
Akira closely examined the box, and after a while found the place Sasuke had been trying to brush the dirt off, where the inscription was.
"Can you get the dirt off carefully?"
"Hm," Akira nodded and his small finger started cleaning the box.
"You see the inscription?"
"It's very fuzzy."
"I'll show you something." Sasuke moved his hand into his pouch and took out a scroll, beginning to copy the inscription onto the paper. It became clearer to see now what was written down.
"Made for m-m…" Akira squeezed his eyes at the word. "Is that actually an 'y'?" It looked more like a 'g'.
"Yes, good. Go on," Sasuke encouraged him, making Akira happy that he was right.
"My belo-ved-"
"Beloved," Sasuke told him.
"Beloved wife – Keiko."
"And do you see the second part?"
"It's written differently."
"Yes, it's a different handwriting." Written underneath the first one.
"It says 'Akiharu' and a date. Kaa-chan?" Akira looked up to Sasuke.
"Yes, and the date is of a month before you got to Konoha, remember?"
"March… I remember. We were in a village to the south." Akira pointed in his room to what he thought was south. Sasuke steered his finger to the right; to the actual south.
"South," Akira repeated.
That meant this could not have been the object they were looking for. They had been too close to Konoha by that time that she could not have stolen it then. She had already been too ill.
So that left the necklace and the statue.
Sasuke and Akira looked at the other artefacts as well, but they found nothing interesting.
"Was that all? Is the game finished now?" Akira asked as Sasuke and he cleaned up the room.
"Yes, that was it."
Akira wanted to pick up the necklace, but Sasuke gently laid his hand on top of Akira's.
"Can I borrow those two things?"
Akira looked down and then back up. "Okay."
Sasuke smiled. "You want me to watch your shuriken practice?"
Akira's smile became so wide it would have split his face in two. "Really?" Sasuke nodded. "Yay!" he ran downstairs.
Sasuke picked up the two objects. He would bring them to Tsunade later.
-o-o-o-
Sweat was dripping down his face, and he panted as he was barely able to stand. Ryomaru looked up, seeing Kenji was in a similar state as he was in, though he tried to hide his fatigue as he stood straight.
Senbon were scattered around Kenji, and some had even hit him in his arm or had made scratches on his face. Ryomaru had some cuts as well while shuuriken covered the ground around him.
"You guys are getting better," Naruto told them as he looked at the two boys staring at each other. "But remember that even a single scratch can be fatal if some strong poison gets in your blood, or at the right place, opening an artery."
"What are we doing then, sensei?" Kenji asked Naruto a bit angry.
"Training," Naruto said, tilting his head.
"That's what I meant to say." Kenji made his point.
"Right."
"Are you ready, Ryomaru?" Kenji asked, but didn't wait for the answer as he threw more shuuriken to the taller boy.
Ryomaru shrieked, because he had been trying to heal some scratches, and quickly ducked away. He kept running from Kenji's throws.
"Don't flee, Ryomaru," Naruto told him.
"S-sorry, sensei." Ryomaru turned around and jumped into a better position, throwing some senbon towards Kenji.
Kenji nearly avoided them, as tired as he was he couldn't move that quickly anymore. However, he wasn't the only one; Ryomaru stumbled as his knee gave out.
"Gotcha!" Kenji threw a single shuuriken, aiming for Ryomaru's arm. Ryomaru's eyes grew a bit wider as he saw the pointed object coming closer. He was only saved from harm by falling backwards by accident.
"Okay, that's enough." Naruto smiled, while Kenji laughed at Ryomaru when he rubbed his sore buttocks.
"That was a funny fall."
"I-it wasn't," Ryomaru muttered. "I fell on m-my tailbone; it hurts."
"It saved him alright." Naruto knew he'd had some close calls like that himself, saving him from harm.
"Let's take a break," Kenji said and turned around, crossing his arms, and walked away.
"Looks like you want to take over as sensei?" Naruto asked, smiling as he helped Ryomaru up.
"Hmpf."
Naruto walked beside Ryomaru as they caught up with Kenji near the wooden poles. Kenji had opened up a little after their last mission. He was still a bit grumpy (in Naruto's opinion) and arrogant, but he would say more than just calling out bad things to his teammate. It was like Kenji respected Ryomaru a little more since he'd seen what use a medic ninja was to the team.
"So, Kenji," Naruto said as he looked down to the boy, both boys looking back up to him. "Your mother invited me to your house for dinner."
"She did what?" Kenji asked startled.
Naruto grinned. "I suppose she just wanted to meet me."
"Y-you never invited Naruto-sensei over to i-introduce him to your family?" Ryomaru asked. He and Eri had done so.
"Why should I? They don't need to see him," Kenji said as he pointed to Naruto.
"You're not ashamed of me, are you?" Naruto looked down in a slightly threateningly way.
Kenji huffed. "I have all the reason to be ash-"
Naruto slapped him on the back of his head. "Don't talk like that."
Kenji looked up with big eyes, being astonished. Naruto had never done something like that, as if he was telling his nephew to be more polite.
It was silent for a moment and then Ryomaru began to giggle. "Haha, t-the look on your face," he said, pointing to Kenji.
"What?" Kenji said gruffly.
Naruto smiled too. "That's a surprise," he suddenly said, making Kenji and Ryomaru look up to him again. They followed his eyes to the entrance of the training ground.
Black hair suddenly appeared, looking around, before the small boy came running to them. "Naruto! Ryomaru! Kenji!" Akira said happily, jumping up and down when he stood beside them. Sasuke slowly followed Akira onto the field, stopping a few metres away from the boy.
"Sasuke-sama," Kenji said politely.
"Hey, A-Akira-kun," Ryomaru greeted Akira first and then Sasuke.
"What are you two doing here?" Naruto asked.
"I wanted to practice shuuriken throwing here," Akira smiled. "Tou-chan thought it to be okay."
Naruto looked up to Sasuke, who didn't show if what Akira just said was true. However, Kenji had found more in those words than Akira could know. Had Sasuke liked to see them train?
"T-that's nice, Akira-kun."
"It is," Akira said brightly. Then he looked up to Kenji and Ryomaru, noticing the small cuts, and in Kenji's case holes in his leather jacket. "You are not hurt?" he asked them both.
"It's alright," Kenji said. "We can handle it."
"Really?"
"Perhaps you should watch them for a moment, Akira-kun, they are practicing with shuuriken (and senbon) too," Naruto said.
"You are?"
Ryomaru nodded.
"Can I watch?" he asked, as if he needed a confirmation from Ryomaru and Kenji.
"Of course, break time is over," Naruto said and stood up.
Akira clapped his hands out of excitement, while the two older boys walked away and took out some weaponry.
Sasuke walked up beside Naruto.
"It's nice of you to come over," Naruto said. "I think it gives them just an extra bit of motivation."
Sasuke didn't say anything while he crossed his arms. He was looking at Akira while he cheered the training boys on, jumping up and down.
After ten minutes Sasuke walked up to Akira and turned him around, trying to point out he was here for training too.
"Oh, yeah." Akira quickly got some practice shuuriken of his own, and tried to hit one of the poles he'd set as target.
Naruto smiled and walked up to his team.
"That's not throwing, don't hurl your weaponry just like that. A bit more precision, boys; Sasuke is watching." These words did wonders as they indeed tried to improve their aim, doing their best in front of the Uchiha (who was with his back to them, but they didn't notice or cared - just the idea of him being there was enough).
-x-
He yawned and stretched himself out. The ramen they had eaten after training had been heavenly. Naruto looked down to the table where Akira was making a drawing.
"What is that?" Naruto asked as he pointed to the drawing. Most of the time he still couldn't figure out what the boy was trying to draw. Naruto didn't think he could draw very well, Sasuke told him he had no imagination.
"It's caterpillar-san. Sai-san said that maybe if my drawings were better he could jutsu them," Akira told him happily.
"Really?" Naruto looked down to the drawing. It would take a while before they would be jutsu worthy, Naruto thought. "That's nice of him."
Akira nodded. "He said he would help me make my drawings better." Akira turned his attention back to the paper.
Naruto looked out of the window as it had started raining. Sasuke had gone to Tsunade, to give her the artefacts. That probably wouldn't take too long.
Naruto stood up and walked over to the front door. He opened it.
"Sensei?" Ryomaru asked startled as he had just been about to rang the bell. Kenji stood beside him and also appeared to be startled, but quickly hid it.
"Ryomaru, Kenji. What are you doing here?"
"Naruto-sensei, Eri-chan has been released from the hospital. You want to v-visit her with us?"
Kenji looked up as well.
"Of course." Naruto turned into the direction of Akira. "Are you coming too, Akira-kun? Eri-chan is going home."
Akira looked up. Naruto had asked him to come, but of course he had to come, unless Sasuke would return home now.
"You can take your drawings and pencils with you."
"Okay." Akira began collecting his pencils.
-o-o-o-
Sasuke had just been to Tsunade and had given her the two items. She was surprised he'd actually brought two items, and Sasuke had told her he was long glad it were only two.
He thought about how much time was left. Two and a half weeks till the festival. They better hurry up with a plan.
"Well, good job Uchiha." Tsunade looked the artefacts over before she put them down on her desk. She would let someone look them over for their value. Sasuke had already told her he hadn't found anything interesting about the objects, so there were no jutsus cast on them.
Tsunade looked down to her papers and began reading something. After a moment she noticed Sasuke was still standing in front of her. "You can leave, Uchiha."
Sasuke didn't move and only looked the other way.
"Sasuke, you need something else from me?"
Sasuke took a breath, looking down to Tsunade with a serious face. "I just wanted to ask you one thing."
Tsunade was interested now; what was making the Uchiha so nervous? She patiently waited for Sasuke to speak, but she didn't need waiting long.
"I was just..." he stopped; he wasn't sure if he should ask her.
Tsunade gently motioned for him to go on.
"I was just wondering-"
He took a slice of ham and put it on his bread. He took a second slice, but that still wasn't enough. His usual three didn't seem to do it either as a fourth and fifth slice followed.
Sasuke stared at Naruto as a sixth and finally seventh slice ended on his bread. He put another piece of bread on top, sandwiching the ham, though Sasuke was wondering if it wasn't more ham than bread by now.
Naruto tried to cut the bread in two pieces, but with one hand that was very hard, and since Sasuke didn't allow him to use his tail at the table while eating...
Naruto looked up to Sasuke with a smile. Sasuke knew what it meant and grabbed his plate to slice the bread.
Akira was watching this all happen as his mouth hung slightly open with his fork close to his mouth, nothing on it.
Sasuke gave the plate back, when Naruto suddenly seemed to notice the time.
"Ah, I'm a bit late." He stood up, grabbed a slice of bread, and held it up while he walked to the small hall. His tail grasped the bread, while he used his hand to get his weapons pouch, and adjusted it to his belt. When he came back into the kitchen he gulped down his milk, grasped the other slice of bread, and said, "See you later."
Sasuke watched him go, through narrowed eyes as he didn't approve of anything what Naruto had just done.
"Bye, Naruto," Akira said as he leant over the table, still looking a bit stunned when Naruto went out the door. "Seven slices?" he asked Sasuke.
Sasuke growled. Naruto had just taken seven slices of ham on his bread, had used his tail to hold it, had left while they were still eating, and to top it all off he hadn't even kissed Sasuke goodbye!
"As long as you know that what he did, was wrong," he said softly to Akira.
Akira nodded. "I do."
"Good."
-x-
Naruto arrived onto the training field as the last one, his team already leaning or standing around the wooden posts.
"You're late sensei," Eri told him. "I'm finally fit to get a mission, and you're late."
"Sorry, forgot the time. But it doesn't really matter, because I already got the mission yesterday."
"What?" Kenji and Ryomaru looked up.
"What is it?" Eri asked, looking up excitedly.
"I'm not telling yet."
"Then let's go." Kenji turned around.
"No, we have to wait for the last ninja to show up."
"S-someone is accompanying us?" Ryomaru asked.
"Yes."
"Who?" they asked all three at the same time, looking up hopefully.
"It's not Sasuke, otherwise he would have gotten me here before you guys."
"Oh," sounded the disappointment.
"But you'll like who's coming, I'm sure of it."
And so they waited, Eri telling them something her aunt had told her; Ryomaru and Naruto listening, responding every now and then, and Kenji looking away to the sky, looking bored.
"Ah, finally, our partner in mission is here," Naruto finally said as he stepped aside. Someone landed on that very spot where he had just been standing.
Team 9 looked up.
"Oooh!" Eri yelled, pointing to the person as she straightened up. "Tenten-san!"
"Ah, my second cousin. Long time no see," Tenten said kindly as she waved to the three genin.
"She's your cousin?" Kenji asked.
"Second cousin," Eri corrected him and hugged Tenten.
"So, you are all better? I heard you got wounded pretty bad last mission."
"I'm all okay now," Eri smiled.
"Well, then, let's tell them what the mission is," Naruto said.
"You haven't told them yet?" Tenten asked, raising her eyebrow.
"Nah, wanted it to be a surprise," Naruto grinned.
"What is it, sensei? What's the mission?"
"Tenten took care of it, so I'll leave the honour to her." Naruto took a step back to give Tenten some space.
"Well, I just wanted to join your team too for once. Almost everyone has taken them on a mission, or done training with them. I wanted to see you for myself," Tenten smiled.
"Then what's the mission, Tenten-san?" Eri asked, clinging to her arm. Tenten laughed.
"I asked a friend of my father if he perhaps needed some help," Tenten said, looking down to Eri.
"Oh?" Then Eri gasped as she thought she knew what might be going on. "No!" she said happily.
"Yes. He's a weapons blacksmith. He especially makes tools for ninjas," Tenten answered.
"Oh! I always wanted to meet him!" Eri was dancing in excitement. Ryomaru and Kenji just stared at her, no idea what was going on.
"Must be some great man," Kenji muttered.
"Supposedly," Ryomaru answered.
"He is! You never heard of Hama-sama?"
"Hmmm... Hama, Hama." Kenji was clearly thinking.
"I think he's the one my mom gets the senbon from," Ryomaru said.
"That's why they are of such great quality!" Eri couldn't contain her excitement one bit, as she squealed and made weird movements. Tenten and Naruto began laughing at her.
"Girls are stupid," Kenji muttered. "Let's go."
-x-
Somewhere near the border of Konoha with the forest, outside of the walls, Hama lived in a small cosy house with a big chimney on top. Smoke was coming out of it, and they saw the blacksmith and his wife standing outside, looking around at some scrap metal.
"Ah, there you are. Tenten-chan, long time no see."
"Hama-san, good to see you." Tenten gave a small nod to the blacksmith and his wife.
"Okay, kiddo's. I'm Hama Genju and this is my wife Hama Tatsuki." The blacksmith turned to the metal in front of him. "This came in today; some metal is not usable anymore, so before we can even begin to think about making some weaponry, we need to separate the usable metal from the non-usable. You understand?"
"Hai, Genju-san." The trio walked up to the big pile, and began removing big pieces of old beams, machines, lamps and other things that had once contained metal, but were now waste. Genju told them what was good metal and what not, and to which pile to take the metal. Tenten and Naruto were helping out as well.
"I told you, Genju, you should have let someone come much sooner. You are getting older, you know, and your back isn't what it once was."
"I know Tatsuki, but I can still do it myself, no need to spend money on it every week."
His wife shook her head as she stood beside him, watching the others work. "At the end of the day you will admit you might want help every week, when you will notice you have more energy left."
"We'll see."
Tenten grinned as she heard the couple squabble, like they used to do more often.
"So, what are we going to make?" Kenji asked when they had finished dividing the metal into categories.
"The categories have a purpose. For example these metal pieces are perfect for kunai," Genju said, pointing to some stack of metal. "But they are not very good for making swords and katanas."
Eri again had trouble to stand still as she kept moving her hips and arms.
"Do you have a special request as to what we shall make today?" Genju smiled at Eri's enthusiasm and the looks she got from the two boys, who seemed interested in this as well, but didn't find it necessary to squirm around like she did.
"Oh, ooh! Kunai; no wait! A katana... No!"
"Eri!" Kenji told her sternly. "Everything will be fine to you; don't make a fool out of yourself."
"But... what?" Eri looked to Kenji with a frown. Kenji smiled.
"What about you, Ryomaru-kun?" Tatsuki asked.
"I don't m-mind, everything will be fine b-by me," Ryomaru blushed, looking down to his sandals.
"And you gave me a weird just now," Eri mumbled somewhat to Ryomaru, who became even redder.
"Ryomaru at least doesn't dance when he says what he thinks," Kenji said a bit haughty.
"Hmpf. What would you like to do then?" Eri asked, her hands in her sides.
Kenji was silent for a moment and then suddenly grinned. "I would like to know how shuuriken are made."
"Shuuriken? No cool, big sword or beautiful katana?" Eri asked amazed.
"I have seen how those are made before."
Tenten, Naruto and the Hamas just stood watching the genin squabble about what to make. Then Tenten shook her head and turned to Genju, whispering something.
"Of course, that's okay," he said and walked away. "Come kids, work is waiting."
"What? What are we going to make?" Eri asked as she hurriedly followed Genju inside.
"You'll see."
"He's just taking control, because you were losing valuable time," Naruto told them. "You sometimes have this tendency."
"No, we haven't."
Naruto shook his head. Tenten giggled. "Now I know why everyone wanted to teach them something," she grinned.
Naruto narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean to say by that?" "Yes, what did you mean by that?" Kenji asked.
"Nothing," Tenten smiled.
"Like I can't teach them," Naruto huffed.
"We are great by ourselves," Kenji said. Naruto fell silent.
"You want to say you don't need a sensei at all?" He asked Kenji.
"Sasuke-sama would be okay," Kenji said, and Naruto pursed his lips. Then Kenji turned around and grinned.
"I'll get you back for that," Naruto said softly as he now knew Kenji had not meant everything he'd said.
"I meant that you are funny," Tenten told them.
"Oh."
Genju had sat down and was waiting for everyone to get inside. "We are going to make a kunai each, your very own kunai."
"A kunai?" Kenji asked, considering the idea.
"A kunai!" Eri squealed.
"Normally we make one kind of kunai type for Konoha, with different weights and seizes, but the same shape. For now we will make a personal kunai that -at request- you can order. After that we will have time to make some normal kunai, so you will have done something useful for me as well."
"Genju!" Tatsuki warned him. Genju shrugged.
"As you can see, I've got some metal bars on this table." Genju pointed to some metal bars from about 10 by 5 by 5 centimetres. He picked one up. "They have different weights. Pick one you find best suitable to your hands."
-x-
Later that afternoon, Kenji, Eri and Ryomaru had finished their own kunais and the normal ones, as they were heading back home. Tenten had one too, while Naruto had just watched. He'd come to notice this was work you needed two hands for, not one hand and a tail. So that was why Tenten had taken over from him, but since she worked at least twice as fast as the genin, having done this more often obviously, she had no trouble making two.
"Here you go, Naruto." She handed him his kunai.
"Wow, great work, Tenten." Naruto admired the kunai as he had noticed a while ago what she had been doing. The kunai held more or less the exact same shape as the kunai the Yondaime wielded.
"Let us see, Naruto-sensei?" Eri asked, standing on her toes. Naruto did so. "It seems, vaguely familiar," she said, but then went to Tenten to look at her kunai.
"She is our weapons expert, and she doesn't even recognize the kunai of such a famous ninja in Konoha," Kenji said.
"What?" Eri came back to take another look at the kunai, taking it from Naruto's hand. Ryomaru looked over her shoulder.
"I-I don't recognize it," the green haired boy said.
Eri was studying every angle of the kunai, but said nothing. After a while she sighed. "Who then?" she looked up to Kenji as he came walking next to her, looking smug.
"Ow, ow, Eri-chan." Kenji said, shaking his head, sighing.
"Don't give me that grin- Eri-chan?" she suddenly asked. Kenji looked away.
Tenten and Naruto exchanged looks, and Naruto shrugged.
Eri came back from her daze and gripped the kunai tighter. "Who? Kenji, why don't you just tell us?"
Kenji said nothing. "You do know?" Ryomaru asked.
"I do."
Eri and Ryomaru couldn't deny Kenji had the most book smarts. Even though Ryomaru could be the only one seen reading, he only read medical books. Kenji had always had great grades in History classes.
"Kenji? Please tell us?" Eri tried another approach; she was very curious.
"Shall I tell them, sensei?"
Naruto shrugged. "Why not?" Naruto was amazed by Kenji's behaviour. He was actually trying to be nicer to his team, this whole day. Could it be that he still felt guilty for what had happened to Eri, and wanted to make things up this way?
"I don't know," Kenji said. "They can't even figure it out with you as our sensei."
Naruto raised his eyebrows. Did Kenji know about Yondaime being Naruto's father?
Eri and Ryomaru looked up to Naruto.
"What about sensei?" Eri whispered. "Has it something to do with-" she looked up to Naruto again and then back to Kenji. "You know?" her eyes became wider.
Naruto suddenly burst out laughing. "You mean my ears and tail? Eri-chan, you know that wasn't very subtle."
Eri grinned. "Eheheh." She brought her hand up to her neck.
"Not really..." Kenji looked back up to Naruto. "Though..." he seemed to think about something, not having noticed this link before that he had just made in his head.
"Ah, mo, Kenji!" Eri whined.
"You sure know how to make things more interesting and mysterious," Tenten told him.
"You guys must be stupid if you hadn't noticed before." Kenji folded his arms over his chest.
"Have you been doing some research about sensei?" Eri asked amazed. The three of them had been trying to find out more about their sensei, seeing no one had tails and fox ears; but all they had come up with was a dead end. Naruto was an orphan and his parents were unknown to the books.
"You have been doing research about me?" Naruto looked down surprised, his eyebrows rising.
"Eri!" Kenji said angrily.
"I'm sorry; it slipped-"
"We're s-sorry, Naruto-sensei." Ryomaru had stopped walking and bowed.
"Er..." Naruto had no idea how to go about this.
"We were just curious, and it was kind of exciting." Eri fiddled with her braid. "It was only once! Kenji didn't want to go to find out more ever since that time."
"Um, okay? You could also just have asked."
"But you were so mysterious about it and didn't say anything." Naruto though back to when he just got his team. He hadn't been keen on explaining things to them yet, nor had they directly asked him. "Still are," Eri mumbled, eyeing him.
"I just can't image the three of you working together back then."
Kenji stiffened as he felt Naruto look at his back. "It was only once," he said.
"You were curious too," Eri told him.
"Not really."
"You so were!" Ryomaru nodded in agree with Eri.
"Was not."
"Don't lie, Kenji. I kno-"
"It doesn't matter, does it?" Naruto asked.
"Not really," Eri admitted. Then she remembered their original conversation.
"So you found anything out?" She asked Kenji again softly.
Kenji sighed. "I didn't. It was very noticeable the first time we met sensei."
Naruto now really began to wonder what had been so noticeable about him, something only Kenji had seemed to notice. Eri and Ryomaru waited for Kenji's answer, as well as Naruto and Tenten, all eyes on him.
"All right, I'll tell. You will find yourselves quite dumb when I tell you, though."
"Just say it, Kenji."
"That he looks an awful lot like-" Kenji stopped. "Nah, never mind." He walked on faster on purpose.
Eri and Ryomaru were now beyond curious, and immediately walked up to Kenji to ask him to tell them. Even Ryomaru asked him to tell.
Naruto grinned, as did Tenten, now they had an idea of what Kenji had seen what the others hadn't.
"It's really not that noticeable," Tenten told Naruto.
"Apparently."
"Only after you know," she said.
"Haha, that's stupid, Tenten."
"It's true, though. I only noticed the resemblance when Sakura told me you looked like him over a year ago."
"Really?"
Tenten shrugged.
"Who, tell us who?" Ryomaru asked Kenji
"Kenji, don't be so mean!"
Kenji sighed again, obviously enjoying all this. "All right, all right. Stop pestering me."
Eri and Ryomaru took some distance, waiting.
"It's only obvious sensei looks a lot like Yondaime Hokage-sama."
Eri and Ryomaru gaped at him, and then looked over to Naruto. After a while they looked back to Kenji, as if they waited for his confirmation that he'd meant what he'd said.
"Eh?" Their looks went back to Naruto, who was grinning now.
"No way."
"You're feeling quite stupid right now, don't you? It really is obvious."
"Apparently not," Naruto told Kenji.
"Then they are just stupid." Kenji turned around and started walking away.
The rest of the walk home Eri and Ryomaru were awfully quiet, as this new information went through their heads.
Arriving back in Konoha Tenten said goodbye. Team 9 walked on further together until they reached Eri's home first. Eri was still holding Naruto's kunai while they stood in front of her house, so Kenji pointed this out to her.
"Oh, yeah... right." She handed Naruto his kunai.
"Are you still that amazed?" Naruto asked.
Eri nodded. "I really hadn't seen the resemblance before."
"That's just stupid," Kenji said again, but he grinned.
"Well, not everyone thinks that," Naruto said as he remembered Akira's reaction.
"Just because of the ears?" Kenji shook his head. "You have to be able to look past those kinds of things."
"It's not like any other people have fox ears," Eri protested as she walked to the door where her mother was greeting her.
-x-
When Sasuke woke up it was still night as a sliver of moon was visible through the window. Naruto was lying on top of him, moaning every now and then.
Sasuke felt something pushing in his thigh and grinned. Slowly he moved his arms around Naruto, and moved them both around until Naruto was on bottom.
A moan sounding like 'ske' escaped Naruto's mouth, nothing more than that as he slept on.
Sasuke started kissing Naruto's cheek, letting one of his hands rest on top of Naruto's chest. He grinned at the thought of this little adventure in the middle of the night.
The hand on Naruto's chest moved lower, disappearing into Naruto's boxers as he found a semi-erection. Sasuke started playing with it; earning him a moan from Naruto.
He went on as his own lower region started reacting to what was going on. It was kind of exciting. However, Naruto was still not really waking up, even though the moans became somewhat more coordinated. Not that this stopped Sasuke from what he was doing.
Suddenly Sasuke gasped as he felt Naruto's hand in his own boxers and blue eyes slowly opened.
"Having some fun... on your own?" he moaned softly and gave a jerky movement at Sasuke's touch.
Sasuke just grinned, and started kissing Naruto back on the mouth as Naruto had leant his head forward. Both their moans and gasps made it harder to keep kissing, but made it all the much better.
As pleasure filled the both of them, Sasuke lay down on Naruto. Slowly removing his hand out of Naruto's underwear, Sasuke turned them around again so Naruto could sleep on top of his chest, just the way he liked it. He heard Naruto smirk at his action.
Naruto laid his hand on Sasuke shoulder, pulling himself up a little, and started licking Sasuke's cheek as if he wanted to clean him. Sasuke, however, didn't mind, Naruto's tongue was rather soft. The blond did this more often after such an adventure, and the first time he had done that, Sasuke had asked why. 'It feels good,' had been the answer, and Sasuke had never said anything about it again. He knew the fox in Naruto was doing it. He smiled as Naruto started purring.
Naruto never knew exactly why he did it, and when Sasuke had asked him so, he had just answered truthfully, for he had no other answer to explain it to him. Not once Sasuke had pushed him away, so Naruto knew he liked it.
He came close to Sasuke's closed eye, as he let this just happen, and Naruto softly licked his sleep, slowly going over to his ear. When he reached the ear, Sasuke made an involuntary movement underneath him.
He had just wanted to nibble on his ear, when he heard some movement. He didn't detach himself from Sasuke's ear, but he did stop moving.
Again something was moving.
"Akira?" Sasuke asked softly.
The door opened and indeed the small raven peered around it.
Naruto was still purring, though he was looking up now, just as Sasuke, to look at the small boy.
"What is it, Akira?" Sasuke asked calmly.
"I-I... I had a bad dream." He gripped the door tighter and looked back over his shoulder, as if he expected someone to stand behind him...
Sasuke told him to come in and sit on the bed while he went to the bathroom himself.
"Want to talk about it?" Naruto asked, his purring dying down.
Akira shuddered at the thought of the dream, and shuffled closer to Naruto. "It was scary."
Naruto had no idea what to do, and tried to remember what he'd done when he had a nightmare when he was young; but all he could come up with was crawling back under the blankets and trying not to think about it.
Sasuke came back, seeing Naruto and Akira sitting like that on the bed: Naruto with a face telling him he didn't know how to respond, and Akira needing some comfort.
Sasuke walked over to Akira and picked him up. Immediately Akira put his arms around Sasuke's neck and hugged him tightly.
The raven looked down to Naruto as he stared at him with a small 'o' coming from his mouth. "You go to the toilet," he told Naruto and Naruto looked at him questioningly. He didn't need to go and since when was Sasuke telling him when he should go?
Sasuke pointed to the bathroom again, and then Naruto understood. "No need to make up excuses," he muttered, walking away.
When Naruto walked away, Sasuke sat down on the bed, still holding Akira close to his chest. "You want to talk about it?"
Akira's lip quivered before he started telling. "You and kaa-chan were waiting for me and telling me to hurry." He looked up to Sasuke. "You said it was time to leave, and that I could only bring one toy, but I couldn't choose between Pim-kun and Pom-kun. And then..." he sniffed, "and then you left without me." He gripped Sasuke's shirt. "I was all alone, and I called for you and kaa-chan, but you didn't come back." He took in a ragged breath. "I was afraid and really scared."
"It's alright, we will not leave you alone," Sasuke told him.
Naruto slowly came back, and slipped under the blankets. "You can sleep with us tonight."
Akira slowly nodded.
"I promised you I would protect you, didn't I?" Sasuke's dark eyes looked down onto Akira, who looked up.
"You did," Akira said between two sniffs.
"And you know how Naruto is with promises."
Akira nodded. "It's his nindo." He sniffed again.
"Naruto would kick me if I wouldn't keep my word."
"I sure would."
Akira smiled carefully. "Really?"
"Of course I would. A man is no man if he can't keep his promises."
Akira was silent for a moment, and then slowly let go of Sasuke to crawl under the blankets. Sasuke followed him, and Akira smiled as he lay between Sasuke and Naruto; feeling completely safe.
-oXo-
A/N: For the Dutch readers: yes, the Pim and Pom was an intended reference to 'Jip & Janneke' ;)