By the time Sasuke's eyes flicker open, all the mist and ice on the battlefield has cleared. He's leaning between his teammates, back pressed against Sakura's side and Naruto crouched beside him, both their eyes cast riveted on the scene before them.
Silence permeates the area, thick and cloying, heavy with a meaning Sasuke has yet to grasp. Kakashi stands several meters back from Zabuza, who is heavily injured and bleeding profusely from the top of one shoulder, his sword crossed protectively in front of Haku.
"I have a question, Zabuza." Kakashi asks lowly. "Since it seems the two of us aren't so different after all."
Zabuza barks a humorless laugh. "Shoot."
"Why are you working for a common thug like Gatou?"
Zabuza flexes his hand around the hilt of his sword, eyes narrowing like the question surprises him.
"Easy money." Zabuza snaps reflexively.
Naruto stiffens. "That's a lie." he says sharply. Not an accusation, but a statement of fact.
Zabuza's eyes flit to Naruto, and then back to Kakashi.
"It's for protection, isn't it?" Kakashi states, deceptively mild. "From Kiri hunter-nin."
Zabuza huffs, and beneath the bandages Sasuke can almost swear he makes out a smile. "Well I don't suppose someone with your reputation got all this way by being an idiot." he allows. "Yes. Gatou may be a Class-A prick, but he has connections even the good old Bloody Mist wouldn't touch with a twelve story pole."
They continue talking, oddly sedate, something about a coup maybe, but Sasuke stops listening. He shifts, attempting to right himself and grunting with the effort. As soon as he does two sets of worried eyes flash immediately to him, one seafoam green, the other cerulean.
"There you are." Sakura sighs. "You scared us, you ass."
Sasuke gives her forearm a hard squeeze to reassure her, but his eyes immediately lock on Naruto. The Uzumaki flashes him a weak smile, but doesn't move towards him, keeping a careful meter of distance between them.
There's something depreciating and scared lingering behind Naruto's eyes that is unacceptable.
"Naruto–"
"Uh-oh, looks like the cavalry has arrived." Naruto chirps, so obviously false it's painful. It's also the shittiest deflection Sasuke has heard in his entire life, even if Gatou's band of thugs has managed to appear in the battlefield.
Sasuke only catches the tail end of the conversation that occurs between the Jounin and the Tycoon, since he's too busy trying to convince himself that shaking Naruto by the shoulders is not something that will help matters, but he does manage to make out the words you're fired.
That's probably one of the stupidest things he's heard come out of someone's mouth, and he lives with an idiot.
And if that isn't civilian ignorance in a nutshell– trying to fire a ninja like they're some kind of underachieving employee. Sasuke's not even the one being insulted and it rubs him the wrong way, and it's saying something that he can actually see Kakashi-sensei's hackles go up.
Kakashi and Zabuza immediately straighten out of their defensive postures. Zabuza turns and gives Gatou and his thugs a look so dry it seems to sap the excess water from the air.
The grim atmosphere breaks open when Haku honest-to-god giggles, a hand over his mouth and an arm around his chest to support his ribs as laughter spills out from between his fingers. A snort and Sakura joins in from behind him, snickering in Sasuke's ear. From there is spreads like wildfire, even breaking through Naruto's dark mood and coaxing a few low chuckles from Kakashi-sensei himself, which he presses against the backs of his knuckles.
"Funny you should say that." Zabuza drawls, taking in the threatening posture of Gatou's goons with the disdain it deserves. Even half dead, any shinobi is still worth more than a handful of poorly trained civilians.
Gatou hesitates, fat face flushing with indignation at the still rolling snickers. Sasuke sees Haku cast a long glance at Naruto, and the dynamic between them changes immediately.
"Need any help?" Kakashi offers.
Zabuza seems only mildly surprised by the offer. Without conflicting interests resting over their heads, the two Jounin are much more amicable, and seem to share some kind of unspoken understanding.
"If you've got nothing else going on." Zabuza remarks easily, lifting his sword with his mostly uninjured arm. He casts his gaze between his apprentice and team seven as Sasuke starts to stand, Naruto and Sakura rising with him. "What do you think, Haku?"
The young man is still looking at Naruto, whose stance in front of Sasuke is still slightly defensive. But Naruto shoulders seem to relax after a moment, and he flashes Haku a sharp grin.
"I think it's been a long time coming, personally." The teenager says sweetly, and ducks under Zabuza's raised arm when the Jounin turns around to face Gatou full on.
Needless to say, Gatou's men don't last very long.
Haku turns out to be all right, in Naruto's book.
Tazuna calls them all batshit that night when they camp together on the bridge, watching over the builders as they work into the night with renewed vigor, aided by heavy strobe lights. He seems to find the shift from hardened enemies to neutral parties– maybe even tentative allies– completely baffling.
Naruto wonders aloud why they should hate each other for simply trying to do their jobs, and Tazuna doesn't seem to have a response for that. He merely grumbles something that sounds like shinobi madness and goes back to work.
Haku gives Sakura the actual counter serum for his poison, which helps give Sasuke more of the feeling back in his legs, and to everyone's surprise Haku and Sakura strike up an instant and intense conversation consisting of at least sixty percent medical ninjutsu jargon. Kakashi and Zabuza hold a sedated conversation on the edges of the camp in hushed tones, leaving Naruto mostly alone with Sasuke.
There's an uncomfortable silence as neither of them speak, one that stretches long and unwelcome between them.
Naruto jumps when Sasuke reaches over without preamble and takes hold of his wrist, pulling it closer to himself so he can look over the skin on the back of Naruto's hand. He watches as Sasuke drags his thumb over his forearm, tracing the now invisible lines of his seal. "Not a Kekkei Genkai, then." Sasuke says softly, not meeting Naruto's gaze.
Naruto swallows and takes a heavy breath to steady his nerves. "No." he agrees. "I did inherit it from my mother, though."
Sasuke does look up at that, his dark eyes searching. Naruto wonders if they can sense his vulnerability, if they can see just how much of Naruto's fragile hope rests on how this conversation ends.
There's more silence as Sasuke returns his gaze to the back of Naruto's arm, absently tracing the symbols of Naruto's seal with his thumbnail from his now perfect memory.
"I told you those old men didn't know what they were talking about." Naruto murmurs quietly. "Did those old writings tell you how many Uchiha activated their whole sharingan all at once?"
"No one." Sasuke says, almost disbelievingly. "Not even my brother."
"Can you activate them any time you want now?" Naruto asks, eager to keep the topic of conversation off himself as long as he can, but also genuinely curious about Sasuke's new ability.
Sasuke's eyes swirl alive with colour in answer. The three sharply hooked tomoe are a stark black against a deep and fluctuating wine red. The irises swirl with fractal curls of sunset purple, blooming with yin chakra. Another blink and the dojutsu deactivates, and the look in his friend's eyes tells him he's not about to let Naruto change the subject. He grips Naruto's forearm like an anchor.
"What aren't you telling me, Naruto?"
Naruto sighs heavily, his pulse banging away in his throat. Oh well. Now or never.
"Do you know when my birthday is, Sasuke?"
Sasuke blinks, taken aback by the question. "October. You never told me the exact date."
There's a reason for that.
"It's October tenth." Naruto continues, before he can lose his nerve. "Do you know what else happened on that day?"
"The fourth Hokage died." Sasuke recites. It's a history lesson they all know, the day the fourth Hokage was killed defending the village from a monster.
"Doing what?" Naruto prompts, even though he doesn't really need to. Judging by the look on Sasuke's face understanding is already dawning, his eyes widening and his mouth dropping open around a sharp exhale.
"I was born on the day of my parents' death." Naruto states before Sasuke can speak, "My mother was the second Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tailed fox, and he was released when her seal broke as I was born. She was killed protecting me, her and my father both, and as they died they sealed the Kyuubi inside me, making me the third Jinchuuriki of the Nine-tails." Naruto smiles grimly, little humor in the gesture, and keeps his eyes on his knees. "I started talking to him when I was around seven. We were friends by the time I was nine. Turns out he's not the monster everyone makes him out to be, at least not to me." Naruto shrugs, casting his gaze off to the side, further away from Sasuke. He doesn't yet have the courage to look at him. "That power you saw was his– well, ours."
Dead silence. Other than his breathing, Sasuke makes no sound, not even to shift.
Another second of silence. A third. A ninth. Then finally he speaks.
"This is why, isn't it?" Sasuke says lowly. There's unmistakable fury in his voice, and it takes all of Naruto's willpower not to cringe. "This is why they all… that's it?"
There's a strange new tone to Sasuke's voice that draws Naruto's attention up, but Sasuke isn't even looking at him– he's staring into the dead space between Naruto's knee and the bridge, anger drawing the lines of his shoulders and the tendons in his knuckles taught. Suddenly Sasuke's voice bursts out of him all at once. "This is why that idiot shinobi at the supply store tries to give you defective shuriken? Why that old woman we pulled weeds for 'accidentally' dumped fertilizer over your head? Why your only friend besides Iruka-sensei until two years ago was the goddamned ramen vendor?"
Sasuke's face is turning a rather alarming shade of red very fast, his sharingan active and swirling with his rage. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Naruto hears Kurama's laughing bark of ~I told you so.~
"Uh…" Is Naruto's predictably intelligent response.
Sasuke's eyes snap up to his, tomoe spinning angrily, new sparks of purple firing off in the red. Naruto leans back instinctively, even though he knows now that Sasuke's fury isn't really directed at him.
Except maybe it is, because suddenly Sasuke's sharingan eyes narrow dangerously. "Why, exactly, am I only learning of all this now?"
Naruto flounders, at a loss for words as Sasuke leans threateningly into his personal space. "I-I don't know, I just thought…"
"You thought what? That I was going to think any less you just because you had a twenty story chakra demon stuffed inside you at birth?"
And yeah, okay, it does sound pretty stupid when he puts it like that, but old habits die hard, and until recently Naruto had no reason to think that people wouldn't care. He shrugs nervously, which is obviously the wrong response because, judging from Sasuke's expression and the spin in his eyes, he goes from dangerously upset to absolutely livid and lunges at Naruto with a snarl. "Fucking idiot!"
They dissolve into a wrestling match as Sasuke attempts to put him in a chokehold, rolling away from the camp. Something heavy and warm lodges under Naruto's ribs, and the truth hits him squarely in the gut. He doesn't care. He thinks with no small amount of astonishment. I was raised by the demon living in my chest cavity and he couldn't care less.
He can't help it. He starts to laugh.
It's warm, and bright, and bubbles up his throat like a cloudburst, clear strong and unexpected, and Sasuke freezes over him, staring down with wide, startled eyes. His arm is still barred across Naruto's collar and his other hand is still pinning down his bicep, but Naruto makes no move to get up and Sasuke makes no move to let him go.
Naruto looks up at Sasuke and sees the tomoe in his eyes spin almost in confusion. "Sorry for being an idiot." Naruto tells him, with all the honesty he can muster, his tone too soft with the meaning. Something vulnerable crosses Sasuke's eyes, evaporating the anger there and draining away the red until there's nothing left but the original ebony.
"Well." Sasuke says, voice a hair too rough to be steady. "Try not to make a habit out of it."
Naruto grins. Yeah right. Like he's ever going to doubt Sasuke again after this. "I can do that."
"You sure you're not going to get in trouble for this?" Zabuza asks, drawing Kakashi's attention away from Sasuke and Naruto, who have just started to stand. Zabuza's not so bad, Kakashi's found, when one isn't threatening what's his. The man has an air about him that Kakashi recognizes, a man hardened by a life on the run, a man that will do just about anything if it means he and his will survive just a little bit longer.
Kakashi used to have that drive. Still does maybe, somewhere. He'd once thought that particular instinct dead and buried, like so many parts of him stuffed into the poorly tended graves around his heart. But these three brats are starting to prove alarmingly proficient at raising the dead.
"Kiri and Konoha may not be at war right now, but that doesn't mean that they're friends by any stretch of the imagination." Kakashi responds. "Besides, I've gotten away with stupider things. So long as the mission was complete, my Kage won't care."
"Strange how different they can be, Kages." Zabuza murmurs, but doesn't elaborate.
"Mhm." he hums back. "You should get that taken care of." he adds, gesturing to the chuck he'd taken off the top of Zabuza's shoulder.
Zabuza shakes his head. "I'll have to wait. Haku took too many chakra pills fighting your brats. He'll be too drained for any kind of jutsu for a while."
Kakashi tilts his head, considering the wound. The one good thing about his Chidori is that it tends to cauterize the wounds it leaves, which means Zabuza hadn't lost too much blood. But the chance of infection is still high, and given the placement of the wound, there's a chance of permanent damage if it goes untended.
He turns towards his third Genin, still deep in conversation with Haku, surrounded by a good majority of Kakashi's ninken. Shiba in particular seems to have taken a particular liking to Haku, and is lying at his side with his head in the young ninja's lap. Bisuke, the spoiled pup, is tucked entirely into Sakura's arms, enjoying a very thorough head scratch.
"Sakura, how are your chakra reserves?" He asks.
The kunoichi turns and glares at him. "You're joking, right? Come on sensei, I watched a civilian the entire fight, you jerk, I practically have chakra coming out of my ears. "
That startles a sharp laugh out of Zabuza. "Where did you get these kids, Hatake?"
Kakashi doesn't answer, but he does allow himself an indulgent smile, carefully hidden behind his mask.
"Enough to give the murderous missing-nin a hand?" Kakashi asks Sakura.
Zabuza snorts. "Pot and kettle, Copy-nin."
"Only the first part." Kakashi says back cheerily.
Sakura hops to her feet, stepping carefully over Akino, and tells Haku to sit the hell down and rest when he starts to get up, making her way over through the maze of canine bodies curled around her. "Sure thing, sensei." she chirps, depositing Bisuke on Kakashi's lap as she passes.
The brown-blond ninken looks up at him through solemn hooded eyes. "She gives great scratches, boss." Bisuke informs him gravely. "Can we keep her?"
Kakashi balks at the question. "She comes in a set, you realize."
Bisuke looks over towards Sasuke and Naruto, who are having a conversation about summons with Uhei while Urushi and Guruko nap on a Genin apiece, Bull curled around them both. "That's acceptable." Bisuke says, accompanied by a tail wag that tells Kakashi it's more than just acceptable.
Bisuke then looks at up at Zabuza, looking over the various bite marks on his person as Sakura works without fear on Zabuza's shoulder, at ease enough you wouldn't guess that only hours ago they had been bitter enemies. It's such a shinobi-like sensibility that Kakashi wonders how she came from civilian parents.
"Sorry we had to bite you." Bisuke says, only mildly apologetic.
"I did start it." Zabuza rumbles, and then looks up to Sakura, who's prepping parts of Zabuza's wound for stitching, carefully stripping away the charred flesh with a low-acidity chakra flare. "You're pretty good at that for your age, Hellcat." he says. Kakashi wonders if he's talking about the medical attention or the chakra control, because both are impressive.
Sakura grins at the praise. "Thanks. I know I am." She responds easily. "Keep still please, I'm about to start stitching."
Zabuza grunts in affirmation, looking over to where Haku has migrated to sit next to Naruto. "This Konoha of yours must not be a total hellhole." he remarks to Kakashi, and he hums again, giving Bisuke a scratch behind the ears.
"Every village has its problems." Kakashi admits. "And these three know that better than most."
Zabuza's gaze turns grudgingly curious. "Orphans?"
"Naruto and Sasuke, yeah. Sakura has civilian parents she's currently not on speaking terms with."
The kunoichi growls at that. "And I won't be until my dad pulls his head out of his ass."
"You're going to stay with Naruto until then?" Kakashi asks. "That apartment is too small for all three of you."
"We'll work it out, sensei." Sakura assures, pulling tight another stitch. "Don't worry about it."
"Right, like any guardian stopped worrying about something because they were told to." Zabuza remarks sarcastically.
Sakura huffs indignantly and pulls harder than necessary on her next stitch, making the Jounin wince slightly. "Well what would you suggest?"
Bisuke digs his claws into Kakashi's thigh to draw his attention and looks up at him with big pleading puppy eyes. Kakashi feels a bad idea coming on.
Naruto really likes Kakashi-sensei's summons. They're intelligent and cool and fun to talk to, like awesome friendly ninja that have the added benefit of being fluffy. Bull is huge, so big that he doesn't even mind letting the three of them ride on his back, so long as it's only one at a time. Akino is the coolest–he wears sunglasses, so cool– and Uhei is the smartest. Guruko is sedate and easygoing, Urushi is pleasantly funny and vicious, and Shiba has some adorably intense attention span issues and goes from being perfectly calm to running in spastic circles around the whole pack. Bisuke, who hasn't left Sakura's arms in over an hour, is a sweetheart that looks sad and serious but is actually nicer than almost every human he knows. They've all seen Pakkun before– he's Kakashi-sensei's primary errand summons, and has been sent to fetch the three of them on several occasions before this one. He sits lazily on Bull's head, dozing absently as they walk.
They'd parted ways with Zabuza and Haku that morning. Naruto gets the distinct feeling this won't be the last time they meet, not by a long shot.
Naruto told Sakura what he'd told Sasuke, with less dramatics and hesitation, and gotten another smack upside the head for even entertaining the idea that she was going anywhere you moron.
Telling Kakashi-sensei is different.
They settle down away from the others on their first break of the day, and Kakashi asks him quietly just how long he's known about being a Jinchuuriki.
He doesn't speak while Naruto tells his story, he just listens intently, face unreadable. But even so Naruto can read the subtle fluxes in his emotional state. Guilt is fairly precedent, for the most part. Pain too. The old, half-healed kind. Naruto has known for a while that Kakashi knew his parents and that he, for some reason, wasn't allowed to talk about them– Naruto had recognized him, even decades older, from the picture of his parents the first day he'd walked into the academy and introduced himself.
He goes very still when Naruto talks about the fact that Kurama hadn't been aware of what he was doing when he'd attacked the village, and freezes up even more when Naruto admits that he'd left the village for Uzushio in order to protect Kurama.
"So how much trouble am I in, exactly?" Naruto asks when he's finished, eyes downcast, because Kakashi may not have been their teacher for all that long, but Naruto has respect for him that matches his respect for Iruka-sensei, and counts him among one of his precious people without a doubt.
Kakashi breaks from his silent stasis with a headshake. "You're hardly in any trouble, Naruto. At least not with me. But I think it's best you don't mention anything of what you just told me to the Hokage."
Naruto nods. He loves Jiji, he does, but the Sandaime's responsibility is to the village before all else, and he's not sure the old man will understand.
He starts a little when Kakashi's hand comes down on his head, ruffling his blond hair affectionately. "Don't worry too much about it, Naruto. Let Iruka and I figure out what to tell Sarutobi. Is it alright if I tell him what you told me? I assume he doesn't know."
"Yeah." Naruto assents, and then winces. "But if you could play down the whole 'ran off to an island over interim break without saying anything' part, that'd be awesome."
Kakashi chuckles softly, and Naruto can make out the smile beneath his mask. "I'll see what I can do, but prepare for a lecture anyway."
Naruto nods and beams. He hadn't expected Kakashi-sensei to be quite so understanding, and senses that it might have something to do with the guilt and subdued anger Naruto can feel mixing with the genuine relief and affection.
His teacher hums, contemplative. "I do have a question though, Naruto. About the Kyuubi."
"Yeah? What is it?"
"Do you trust him?"
Naruto swallows down his first and immediate answer of obviously. His sensei is obviously looking for a thought out response, so he mulls it over. "With my life, absolutely." Naruto decides. "But probably not with anyone else's."
~Accurate.~ Kurama quips. ~Though your little trio has grown on me.~
Kakashi stares at him for a long time, satisfied with his answer, if unsure what to make of it. "That's good enough for me."
The rest of the way home, he's barraged with questions about his bijuu. He tells Sasuke and Sakura about the promise he made, about Kurama's siblings and what he knows of their abilities.
"How does it feel though?" Sakura asks, walking backwards to face him, Bisuke still hanging in her arms. Sasuke walks beside him, hands in his pockets, Akino on his other side and Uhei striding carefully between them. "I mean, it's gotta be strange having another living thing inside you, even if it is made of chakra."
Naruto shrugs. "I wouldn't really know. It's been this way for as long as I can remember. I don't know what it feels like not to be a Jinchuuriki."
"The steam." Sasuke asks. "The healing. That's the Kyuubi's chakra?"
Naruto nods. "Yeah. Kurama's. All bijuu have a method they use to protect their Jinchuuriki, his is regeneration."
"Kurama? That's his name?"
"Mhm."
"What about the lines I saw?" Sasuke wonders, tapping his knuckles against Naruto's still bare shoulder.
"Oh, you mean the Lines of Transgression? They're extensions of my seal." Naruto lets a bit of Kurama's chakra flow through his system in demonstration, holding out his arm as black floods along his limbs.
"So that's what those were!" Sakura marvels, grabbing his arm by the wrist and pulling it closer to her face. "How come you can't always see them?"
"Because they only show up when he's actively channeling Kurama's chakra." Sasuke speculates. "Natural passive chakra flow doesn't set them off, or I would have seen them before now."
"They're so intricate…" Sakura muses, surveying the lines of scripted symbols that frame the bold rivers of black. "I didn't know seals could be so pretty."
Naruto flushes, half with pride and half with embarrassment. "I don't know about pretty. I mean, my handwriting has never been that good and I was kind of sleep deprived–"
"Wait, what? You put these here? These aren't part of your original seal?" Sakura squawks, looking back and forth between him and the lines on his arms.
Naruto blinks. "Uh… no. I had to add them when Kurama started going through a chakra crisis– something he calls the Sin of Regret? I don't know what it was really, all I know it that he lost almost a full third of his chakra to corruption, and I needed to figure out how the hell I was going to feed him chakra when the original seal laws wouldn't allow it. It's the real reason I went to Uzushio in the first place."
"Where is the original?" Sasuke asks, his head tilting curiously.
Naruto lifts his shirt briefly to show him, revealing the jagged swirling pattern of the center seal in stark black across his abdomen.
"Whoa now." Akino rumbles, ducking his head around Sasuke's legs to look. "That's some real complicated chakrawork."
"Indeed." Uhei remarks, lifting his head to sniff at the swirling center of the seal. "As powerful as it is complex."
"It'd have to be to seal a bijuu." Bisuke drawls, tail wagging when Sakura strokes her hand down his back.
"Seals," Sasuke wonders. "Can they be used in combat?"
Naruto tucks his undershirt back into his pants. "Oh hell ya. I haven't worked out all the theory yet, but the uses for seals are just as varied as the uses for ninjutsu, and probably have more applications."
Sasuke blinks, bemused, and then smirks. "Careful, Naruto. You almost sounded smart for a minute there."
Sakura laughs and Naruto punches him in the arm. "Whatever, jerk. Just don't be surprised when I use my cool new seals to wipe the floor with you."
"You and what army, dead last?"
"Boys!" Sakura snaps. "We're technically still on mission, morons. Spar when we get home."
The two of them grumble, but don't protest. Even though Sakura's arms are still full of dog, it's not worth the risk.
When they arrive mid morning back in Konoha, Kakashi leaves them to go report to the mission desk and tells them they have the next two days off. After they've bathed and changed, Sakura sticks her head out of the bathroom, expression despondent.
"Uh, guys?"
Sasuke and Naruto look up from where they're putting equipment away. "What is it?" Sasuke asks.
"I um, don't have a change of clothes."
Now that Sasuke looks, he sees that she's thrown her leggings and ribbed top back on, which are both still marred with road grime.
"Naruto and I have to go shopping anyway. There's nothing left in the fridge." Sasuke admits.
Naruto nods. "We'll go get your stuff for you." he assures. "Or we can just get you new stuff. It's your choice."
Sakura looks floored by the offer. "You sure you guys are okay with that?"
Sasuke sends her a dry look. "Between my inheritance and the entire Uzushio treasury, I think we can splurge and get you some new clothes."
She beams at them. "I'll make a list. Could you run to the apothecary for me too? I was going to go today, but I think I'd rather nap."
She'd had last watch, so Sasuke doesn't blame her. "I don't see why not, but we get to pick what's for dinner then."
"Deal."
Sealing scrolls are a gift from the universe, Sasuke believes this wholeheartedly. There's nothing more annoying than lugging around a dozen bags from half a dozen stores when you have a lot of shopping to do, and Sasuke is grateful that Naruto had thought to draw up a low mass transport seal on one of their blank scrolls.
They're getting all the chores out of the way now, because once they get back, Sasuke plans on passing out for at least 24 hours and not moving for anything other than food and possibly another shower. They've hit the grocery store, the weaponsmith and the rather dinky sealing supply store behind it, the open market, and the general market. That leaves the kunoichi and shinobi equipment stores, the civilian clothing shop, the apothecary, and Sakura's house.
Sasuke isn't really looking forward to that last one.
"I haaaate shopping." Naruto grumbles as they duck into Mantis– one of three kunoichi oriented equipment shops in the village. It stocks things meant for Kunoichi that specialize in ninjutsu; the other two, Viper and Tigress, are for those who specialize in genjutsu and taijutsu respectively.
"Suck it up Dobe, we're barely halfway through. And once we go home I'm not going out again until our off days are over."
Naruto huffs but doesn't protest any further, looking up when he spots Aburame Shino in the corner of the shop surveying some ballistic jackets. "Hey Shino!" he calls amicably.
Shino looks up, noting Naruto first, then Sasuke. "Hello." he replies, voice its usual unreadable tenor. "I would say good morning, but it is nearly noon. Are you two here for Sakura?"
"Yeah. You?" Naruto asks, making his way over. Sasuke follows reluctantly, looking around for whatever he could imagine Sakura wearing. Just because Naruto is friends with just about everyone doesn't mean Sasuke is by default– he and Shino have never really interacted do their shared hatred of menial small talk.
Shino doesn't seem to mind talking to Naruto at all though– but then again Naruto has always been an exception to the rule.
"I'm here for a teammate as well." Shino says, his tone almost pleasant. "Hinata's birthday isn't far off and I'm searching for a suitable gift."
Naruto blinks, "Is it December already?" His confusion is valid– Konoha, given where it's located in the heart of Fire country, doesn't have winter and summer so much as it has a wet season and a dry season.
"Not quite. But I thought I'd get it out of the way before things get too hectic." Shino turns his gaze from Naruto to Sasuke. "Did you just come from a mission?"
"Yeah. Our first C-rank." Sasuke says mildly, eyes still scanning for things that would suit Sakura's fighting style. He has several prospects for inspection.
"Already?" Shino asks, though he doesn't seem very surprised. "I'll have to ask Kurenai-sensei about stepping up our missions."
"What's Kiba getting Hinata?" Naruto asks. "Do you know?"
"A new calligraphy set, I believe, though I will no doubt have to remind him several times to actually purchase it. I hoped to get her something more practical, although I am starting to wonder if Tigress would not be a better place to find something."
Sasuke taps Naruto's arm and leaves him to talk with Shino, and Naruto nods minutely before continuing his end of the conversation. Shino watches the exchange oddly, but makes no comment on it.
Their time in Mantis reminds Sasuke that he and Naruto also need new equipment, and he doesn't even have to drag Naruto at that point– the blond is out of overshirts and what mission pants he does have are practically in threads.
He opts for a reinforced variety of limb wrap for his arms that won't dissolve so easily in Kurama's chakra, and forgoes looking for overshirts entirely, instead focusing on finding decent chakra mesh shirts and shinobi pants of the right length. Sasuke finds a few of the male equivalent of Sakura's ribbed sleeveless shirt and decides he wants ten, but Naruto, ever frugal, argues him down to three and buys a few for himself. They get themselves new thigh pouches and belts, Naruto gets a few harnesses designed for carrying scrolls of varying sizes, and Sasuke gets an array of armored gloves in different lengths meant to conceal anything from senbon to whole kunai.
The regular clothing shop is a pain, if only because it's run by civilians and Naruto has to keep him from murdering every one of them that sends Naruto a hateful glance. At least the fucking shinobi know better than to make it obvious.
In the end, the hardest part of getting their civilian clothes is finding someone crazy enough to check them out while Sasuke's stands there breathing fire. Figuratively, unfortunately. He'd love to burn the whole stupid place to the ground and every blind ignorant civilian in the area with it.
He's so pissed off he doesn't notice Naruto smiling the entire time.
"You sure this is the place?"
Naruto double checks the address and rough map scrawled on the back of Sakura's list. "Pretty damn sure, jerk."
The 'apothecary' Sakura had been talking about looks more like a witch doctor's hut, a tilted wooden building located closer to the forest of death than Naruto is entirely comfortable with. The place is painted with a reddish brown and a dark purple that reminds him of barely healed scabs and poison, dangling with charms and strange artifacts and wind chimes that look to be made of bone.
"I'm not going in there."
"Yes we are. You're out of conditioner."
"Shit."
Naruto steps forward first, lifting up the curtain that falls over the doorway. "It's supposed to be the best herbiary in the village."
"It's also where half the Jounin in Konoha get their cigarettes." Sasuke shoots back, eyeing the interior of the shop warily.
The inside of the apothecary is dim and Naruto wrinkles his nose at the strong smell of incense, smoky and thick and tangling in wisps against the ceiling. It's obviously a poor attempt to cover up the musk of tobacco ash that seems to have seeped into every crevice of the place, mixed in with the perfumes from the dried herbs and fragrant oils.
Naruto takes one step inside and steps right back out, his hand over his nose and mouth. "On second thought, fuck it. Let's go."
Sasuke shoulders him inside anyway, pushing him into the gloom of the shop despite his protests. The atmosphere is notably creepier once inside, the normally bright Konoha sunshine dimmed by heavy curtains and old yellowed windows. "Oi! Anybody home?" He calls, tucked mostly behind Naruto's back, the coward.
"Whaddya want?" The words come muffled from behind the counter at the back of the room, and Naruto makes out somebody leaning in a chair behind it, a thin book draped over their face.
Before either of them can answer, there's a rustle and a pounding and a voice sounds from somewhere in the back. "Go back to sleep you old coot. And stop being rude to the customers!"
"I'm twenty nine you little prat!"
A girl bursts through the back curtain with a rattle of beads, a younger than the two of them by a couple of years at least. Her hair is dark violet and chopped short, styled into a bob with the exception of a couple of long thin braids that drape over her shoulder. Her eyes are big and bright and butter-yellow, and she smiles up at them sweetly. "Hello. Ignore Gin, please. He gets a little cranky this early in the morning."
"It's 2:30." Sasuke states.
"Try telling him that. I'm Ayame. If you're looking for something specific, I can help you."
Naruto pulls the folded piece of notepaper from his pocket and hands it to her. She looks it over, scanning the complicated list of herbs, extracts, and concoctions. She reaches the bottom and her eyes go wide.
"Oh, I recognize this handwriting, you must be Sakura-chan's brothers!" She chirps.
Naruto and Sasuke share a glance, and Sasuke shrugs.
"Um, yeah." Naruto replies. "She's sleeping off a mission."
"Kin of the firecracker, huh?" The man behind the counter rumbles suspiciously, lifting up the book over his eyes. He has a tall, thin frame and platinum blonde hair, his pale red eyes rimmed with dark circles and angry lines. "Tell her that her poisons permit went through, but she needs to pass the Chunin exam before I even think about clearing her for neurotoxins."
Sasuke inclines his head in affirmation. "Noted."
"I think I have most of these in stock." Ayame hums thoughtfully. "Let me check. Feel free to look around in the meantime, burn salves are half off today!" She disappears around the corner and Gin puts the book back over his face.
"That was easily the most awkward twenty minutes in my entire life."
"And you walked in on Asuma and Kurenai-sensei playing tonsil hockey by the standby station."
"I thought we agreed never to talk about that."
"I remember you ordering me not to talk about it and I remember not listening." Naruto quips, pausing on the end of the street. "At least her dad wasn't home."
"Small mercies." Sasuke grumbles, a bundle of clothes tucked under his arm. "You could cut the tension in there with a kunai."
"Well if they can't get over themselves then they don't deserve her. She can stay with us, period." Naruto defends in his very Naruto-like fashion.
"Shit, we forgot to pick up another futon." Sasuke remembers.
Naruto shrugs, readjusting his own armload of Sakura's stuff so he can get out his sealing scroll. "We'll figure it out."
They'd taken more out of Sakura's room than her mother may have been strictly aware of– she'd been under the impression that they had only come to get things for a few nights at most.
Too tired to bother to use chakra, they walk together down the streets of the civilian district. The afternoon sun slants through the trees, casting soft edges of shadow across the buildings and the cobblestones. In this light Naruto's hair shines like a ten ryo coin, catching sun like it's been spun from pyrite. Sasuke reaches out to tug absently on a strand of it, which has grown almost down to his jaw.
"You need a haircut." He observes.
Naruto blinks at him, eyes catching in the strange light and flaring sapphire. "Huh? Oh, yeah." He reaches up to pull a hand through the strands. The length is choppy at the ends, evidence of Naruto's previous attempts to cut it himself. "Maybe I'll ask Sakura when we're done sleeping for a week."
Despite the words Naruto doesn't look all that tired, no more than Sasuke feels anyway. They don't need sleep so much as they need rest, a few hours to spend doing nothing at all.
As if reading his mind, something that's becoming more and more common these days, Naruto asks him if he wants to sit for a while. He nods and they find a hill off training ground five that's flooded with sunlight, gilding the grass and the edges of the trees. Sasuke sits and Naruto stretches out next to him, folding his arms behind his head, and they spend a few long moments just soaking up the warmth and enjoying the rare bliss of doing nothing for more than a few minutes at a time.
"You haven't talked about being Hokage for a while." Sasuke comments, watching the shadows shift with the swaying of the trees. "Is that still your dream? To wear the hat?"
He half expects Naruto to answer with a disgruntled 'of course it is', but Naruto is quiet, contemplative, and gives real thought to his answer.
"Being Hokage would be awesome." He says eventually, eyes fixed on the horizon despite the harsh shine of the sun. "Kages are amazing. The great shadows that protect whole villages and all that; the strongest shinobi of their kind. I respect them a hell of a lot for what they do."
Sasuke senses deeper reasoning behind the statements, senses that Naruto is saying one thing and yet another all at once. "But?" He queries, catching the soft uncertainty in the Uzumaki's voice.
"But… It's not enough." He says softly. "Not anymore." Naruto turns and looks right at Sasuke, expression intense. "It's not enough to follow in other people's footsteps anymore." he says as he sits up, leaning back on his hands. "I want to be something more than all of it, I want power enough to protect what's precious to me from anything, even the Kages and the villages." He casts his gaze back to the horizon. "Villages can go bad, like Kiri. They can fall, like Uzushio. I want to protect what I love from all that, my friends, my comrades," he glances to Sasuke again, his eyes on fire. "My family. Even if I have to protect them from the village itself. So in that case I don't really think I could ever be Hokage. I'll always put my precious people above the village. Always."
Sasuke's eyes go wide. He feels like a hole has been punched somewhere in his chest, opening up a barrier that has long walled up some deep part of him. It tears awake a sudden awareness, and despite his weariness Sasuke's perception of the world is suddenly blindingly clear. He remembers Naruto's words from Tazuna's house, his disregard for Sasuke's clan legacy and his powerful regard for Sasuke himself, all that trust and faith in him as an entity separate from his clan and his legacy and his pain.
He could be anything.
Right now, with Naruto right here, rules and legacies and clan names mean nothing, are just shackles that can be broken and moved beyond, if only they can be strong enough.
Here, with Naruto at his side, Sakura as a grounding force and Kakashi as a guiding hand, not only does he feel strong enough, he feels the potential to be even stronger.
Something shatters somewhere in the back of Sasuke's mind, echoes of a trauma now old and frail with neglect breaking apart like so much glass. The presence and pressure of Itachi's cold hateful eyes crumbles like collapsing walls. The house of hate he'd made so long ago, now fragile from abandonment, disintegrates entirely, and for the first time since before the massacre, he feels like he can see the sky.
"Sasuke?"
Naruto is looking at him with worried cobalt eyes, entirely too close, his head tilted in that animal confusion and curiosity.
Sasuke laughs once, short and disbelieving.
What did I do to deserve this idiot?
"It's just like you to want that, Dobe." Sasuke says, his voice low in attempt to conceal the warmth in it. But it's true; it's just so like him, all of it, and so Sasuke holds tight Naruto's belief in him, his convictions, and comes forward with a little faith of his own. He leans forward, keeping their eyes locked, and lightly touches their foreheads.
He's not one to be outdone, after all.
"Like none before, then." he says quietly, a promise and a challenge all wrapped up together, and Naruto's answering smile is blinding. He leans forward even more, pressing their brows together more firmly.
"Like none before." He swears.
When Sakura finds them, hours later, the sun has nearly set. They're lying side-by-side, practically asleep in the last dredges of evening light, and her expression goes straight from irritated to terribly fond.
"Come on idiots." She murmurs quietly, holding both her arms out for them take hold of, helping hand and anchor all at once. "Let's go home."