Title: Fireworks

Author: Ember

-

I never thought I'd walk away from you.

I did.

But it's a false sense of accomplishment.

Every time I quit

Anyone can see my every flaw.

It isn't hard.

Anyone can say they're above this all.

It takes my pain away.

-

Sakura frowned, her hand plastered to her forehead to shade her eyes from the sun. The fisherman's three wagons, pulled by vividly red trucks, were moving very slowly in her opinion, and her perch on the wooden side of the center wagon showed her little over the back of the foremost one. She had told them that the third haul wasn't enough to merit the three wagons, that they only needed one, but three was custom so all three came, even the one that had gotten stuck in the pothole and needed Sakura and Kakashi's assistance to get out.

"I'm ordered," the driver of Sakura's truck had said, "to make sure that three trucks leave, three trucks get to the lake, and three get back. It's the rules."

Sakura sighed and, wrapping her fingers around the narrow wooden beam she sat on leaned all the way back to look around the foremost wagon. She might have ridden in it, but it had just come in from the other side of the lake and it smelled bad. Around the wood-and-red-painted bulk, she could see the sparkle of the edge of the lake. With a soft sigh, she sat up again and traced a bit of the curving grain with her finger. She wished that she would hear footsteps, soon, familiar footsteps and running, and she would hear Sasuke's voice, yelling, "Hey, Sakura! I missed you; I had to put up with that dork Naruto for the past fifteen minutes! Kakashi said you did most of the work getting the fishermen out of their rut, great job!"

She couldn't repress another sigh. Like that would ever happen.

"Sakura?" The voice wasn't Sasuke's, it belonged to one of the drivers, in the wagon in front of her. Taking in a deep breath and holding it, she stood on the wobbling narrow beam- sticking to it with Chakra was second nature to her by now- and ran to the front of the center wagon. She lightly jumped, grabbed the back of the front wagon, and pulled herself to stand on the side beam, struggling not to inhale with the knowledge of what the air would smell like. The driver stuck his shaggy head out the window and grinned up at her with missing teeth. "Those your friends? They look familiar."

Suddenly not caring what the air smelled like or how muddy and probably smelly she was or anything but the possibility that Sasuke was coming to find her, Sakura gasped, grinned, and danced along the bar to get to the left side of the truck. Two forms- one shorter, with bright blonde hair and gaudy orange clothing, the other taller with black hair and grayscale clothes- were walking about ten feet apart down the road, the shorter one, also the one lagging behind, glaring nails into the back of the taller. Sakura's smile grew and she jumped off the beam and landed neatly on the dirt road. "Kakashi must be waiting for you guys," she called up to the drivers. "Looks like we were let off early!"

"That we all had such luck," was the predictable response as the wagons continued pulling down the road. Sakura waved to the two boys, bounced once, then waved more. Naruto looked up, saw her, and visibly brightened.

Sasuke saluted with one hand and, aside from that cursory gesture, pretty much ignored her. The tiny candle of Sakura's hopes felt like it had just gone through a monsoon.

"Sakura!" Naruto yelled, oblivious to the pink-haired girl's mood, picking up his pace. Familiar footsteps sped into a run. "Hey, Sakura! I missed you! I had to put up with that dork Sasuke for fifteen minutes!"

Sakura winced. The gods were cruel.

-

Naruto sulked. Sakura had more-or-less ignored him the whole walk home, fawning over- guess who- Sasuke, who had, being the asshole he was, completely ignored her. Naruto didn't know whether he was more angry that Sakura liked the bastard or that Sasuke didn't care. The arrogant prick could at least acknowledge Sakura, and give her a chance, instead of dismissing her out of hand like the person Naruto wanted to like him more than anyone else wasn't worth a two-hour date.

And then go around... to... Naruto, for god's sake... like... like some sort of crazy creep. That's what Sasuke was, he was creepy, and whether or not what had happened (whatever that was) was intentional, it was fully obvious that it was all Sasuke's fault, and Naruto, who felt he would not be entirely clean until he had scoured his mouth with water and soap and non-toxic tile-grout remover, could not help but stew in anger and resentment.

Fuck him, anyway, Naruto thought, going quickly at that mental image from indignant to embarrassed and decisively not pursuing that thought train. It was well enough to have to think about kissing the bastard (twice!) without having anything else on his mind. Especially not anything that gross. He's such a... He paused, not being able to think of a proper insult that didn't lead back to the avoided thoughts and refusing to go there again. This was frustrating. God dammit, he was lurking behind and thinking about this shit and that meant that Sasuke-bastard was winning again, though he didn't know quite how the two connected. He wished he could see Sasuke's face up ahead of him because he felt certain that the irises around the black-haired shinobi's pupils would be blood-red, that the other boy was putting these thoughts in his head and then reading them and laughing to himself.

Naruto's blood ran cold. Was Sasuke reading his thoughts? He thought back to what he knew of the Sharingan but, sadly, he hadn't really understood most of what the technique entailed. Did they say that the technique did or didn't read other people's minds? He couldn't remember.

It would be just like that asshole to be sitting in my head and listening to my thoughts and laughing his ass off, Naruto grumbled inside his mind, blue eyes narrowing to slits. Arrogant bastard. I bet he does it all the time, when no one's watching. There was an uncomfortable thought if Naruto had ever thought one before. He wasn't sure he liked that but on the other hand, it did open certain possibilities... maybe if he asked really nicely, Sasuke would look into Sakura's mind and tell Naruto that she really did secretly like him, as he knew she really did.

Yeah. And maybe for my next birthday, the entire population of Konoha will throw a giant party for me and buy me lots of presents. The impossibility of both prospects left him feeling unexpectedly sad, which made him more angry at Sasuke for acerbically and non-literally bringing it up.

Ahead of him, Sasuke's eyes were still dark and limited and his thoughts were entirely his own. They were also carefully directed in every direction except behind him, where ten paces away a blonde shinobi walked in complete and utter confusion, and touched upon everything but a few minutes of memory during which things happened that he refused to relive and refused to admit to.

Unfortunately for Sasuke, every direction but behind included to his left, where Sakura- once more too close, but he never let it bother him- was chattering on endlessly without pausing to let him try and take in what she was saying or get an edge in sideways or even to let the pink-haired shinobi breathe. Sasuke had decided long ago that all girls had to possess a third lung, if not more. Sakura, he knew, needed at least four- one to complain about life as a Genin, one to compliment Sasuke, one to bash Ino, and one to breathe, all in a jumbled, simultaneous maelstrom of prose. Every once in a while, one of these lungs took a break from their current employment and complained about Naruto, desperately trying to pry into Sasuke's favor by supporting him in their rivalry.

Every direction but behind.

He forced his thoughts away from his entire team- there were too many Naruto-themed tripwires, there- and ahead, to what he would do when he got home. First, he would train, then probably read something, though he didn't have many interests and he'd pretty much wiped out the selection of books on training and shinobi already, then maybe make something to eat and see if there was anything else he needed to do before training some more and going to bed. He hated housework but living in his own filth made him almost sick and there was no one else to do it. He didn't know how he would take living with someone else but he did have memories of living with his family before they had been, all but one, wiped out, and he guessed it would be better than what he had now. Which reminded him of a conversation he'd had with Sakura a long time ago- it seemed long ago, at least; it wasn't really, he guessed- and that reminded him of-

Every direction but behind.

Sasuke didn't usually think far into the future- it was pointless, really, unless the future was solid, which it really never was- but he found himself, turning away from the present, reaching for something to think about and he decided on the next mission. He didn't know what it was going to be but surely their success in the Zabuza/Haku incident had to credit them for something challenging. He'd take a C-level, could probably do a B-level if no one got in his way, which was unlikely on the same team as...

...Sakura.

Every direction but behind.

But it was impossible. Every fucking line seemed to end in some way more-or-less related to the blonde, every nerve ending touched the fox-demon, every thought seemed to be tainted by him. Not thinking about him was like trying to find dry ground right after a storm. Thinking about him was delving further into himself than Sasuke wanted to go. But why? God dammit! What the fuck was happening to him?

-

By the time they reached the village of Konoha from the outskirts and had drawn near the lines of restaurants and gaming halls that ringed the houses of the three members of Team 7, Team 10 had finished whatever they were doing and the six shinobi happened to meet in the middle.

Sakura was fully aware that Sasuke was not listening to her. She still talked, hoping to say something that would catch his attention, but he was wearing a really intense look on his face and she was perfectly aware that it was a lost cause. She was beginning to go beyond frustration with this. In fact, she had just about thrown in the towel for that day when a familiar voice shrilled out Sasuke's name and Sakura winced away from Ino's charging form. Her long hair in its whiplike ponytail fell along the curve of her shoulder as she clung happily to Sasuke, flaunting her complete and total lack of restraint.

Sasuke, for his part, gave no indication that a shrieking girl had just crashed into him with the force and velocity of a earth-bound comet except for the fact that he had stopped walking. Sakura glanced back at Naruto, wondering why he hadn't taken the opportunity, with Sasuke distracted, to run up and talk to her, but he was staring at Ino and her catch with an imperceptible expression, swiftly wiped clean of his face.

Weird.

But she had no time for Naruto and he was always acting weird, anyway. She applied herself to the problem at hand, gripping Ino's arm and, fuming with anger, pulling her from Sasuke with all the strength she could muster, while Shikamaru and Chouji walked up at a far more sedate pace than that taken by their teammate.

"Naruto," Shikamaru greeted him, holding up one hand in a wave-like salute. The idiot was too lazy to actually move his hand. "Enjoying the sights?" He seemed to take a form of amusement from ignoring the vicious struggle to his right as he sidled up next to the mound of Sasuke and Sasuke fangirl. Chouji, for his part, stared at the three with an expression of mingled exasperation and horror, while meanwhile stuffing three small donuts into his mouth- doubtlessly, the first of his many dinners.

"Get off Sasuke-kun, Ino-pig!"

"Isn't that cute, Sasuke-kun? She's jeal- ow!"

"..."

Naruto held back a number of replies he could have made and glared at the two currently-sane members of Team 10. "Actually," he said, moving past them, "I'm going home."

Shikamaru blinked. That wasn't a very Naruto-ish reply. He shrugged, moving out of the blonde's way as he quietly walked past. He didn't ever remember encountering Naruto in a situation where the blonde had ever just... quietly walked away. Or a situation where he'd said a total of four words. But he as a general rule avoided encounters with Naruto altogether- not for the reason most people did, but because he was usually indisposed to sit around and listen to the blonde talk about nothing in a drone of idiocy- so maybe it wasn't all that odd. Maybe kyuubi got PMS. How would he know? Why should he care?

"Good lord Naruto, what have you been doing?" The voice, muffled slightly by Kiba's arm drawn over his mouth and nose, was enough to herald the approach of Team 8 (in this situation, the last thing Naruto wanted). The trio was led by Akamaru, in all of his glory, and followed by Inuzuka Kiba, cradling his too-sensitive nose and glaring at the lake water-soaked , mud-slathered, and fish-stained three, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. To his left and slightly behind, looking, fixated, at the ground at Naruto's feet, came Hyuga Hinata. Naruto shifted slightly, uncomfortably, at the sight of her; not that he didn't like Hinata, but the way her eyes always drifted from one side of him, to the ground in front of him, to the other side, made him always check to make sure he was wearing clothing and she wasn't avoiding looking at him for the sake of modesty. A few strides behind both of them came the Team 8 Sasuke-replacement, Aburame Shino, but Naruto could care less at his presence; Shino being there was always rather like Shino not being there, for all he said and all he did.

Sometimes there were more bugs around when Shino was there. But that could be ignored.

"We had a mission," Naruto replied, starting to move past Kiba; then, because he couldn't resist, "A level C mission."

Kiba frowned. "So? We've had tons of level C missions, you dolt; Kurenai says she might nominate us for the Chuuin exam in a couple months..."

"When was your last A-ranked mission?"

"Naruto, you have to stop bragging about that! It was a mistake!"

"We completed it, didn't we?"

Shikamaru broke in, there; Naruto was acting a little more like himself and Shikamaru generally couldn't stand Naruto, or his stupid way of blowing things out of proportion when it fed his ego. "Only because your sensei was there to save your asses," he replied, lazily leaning against the wall of the low-budget restaurant they were near. Chouji had ducked inside to pick up his second dinner, Sakura had managed to get Ino detached physically from Sasuke and was fighting to get between one and the other, and Hinata had inched slightly closer to the three arguing shinobi, gaze still locked onto the ground.

"Kakashi would have died if-"

"Shut up, Naruto." Sasuke, who hadn't spoken to him at all since Kakashi had re-appeared back by the lake, walked between Kiba and Naruto as if daring them to include him in their argument.

Naruto ground his teeth, frustrated. If Sasuke would stand up for their Team he might be able to beat Kiba and even Shikamaru in an argument but the black-haired shinobi constantly treated all the other Genin like none of them were worth his time, their insults weren't worth comebacks and their empty bragging weren't worth his more solid replies. As someone who could both use the other Genin's support and someone fucking tired of being talked down to, Naruto was very quickly getting fed up with Sasuke's constant, "I'm better than you, darker than you, and cooler than you, so you can shut your mouth, swallow your pride and enjoy me violating your personal space" aura. "For fuck's sake, Sasuke, who stuck a stick up your ass?"

The black-haired shinobi, who had spent pretty much every step of their walk trying to shrug off half-memories of his mouth pressing lightly against Naruto's, their faces close enough that he could almost feel the air disturbed by blonde eyelashes flickering, the back of his skull pressed against bark, the mingled taste of kyuubi and ramen that filled his mouth and his lungs with every intake of breath, felt everything crash back into his mind with that one too-descriptive statement. Things rushed into him; a certain unstable mix of emotions that threatened to throw off his grounding and send him hurtling through the air.

In people like Sasuke, unstable emotions could only evolve in one direction. Teeth grinding in a flare of sudden anger at the closest semi-reasonable outlet, he whirled around and connected his fist with the side of Naruto's face.

There was a moment of quiet surprise at the sudden reaction from the stone-statue Sasuke before Naruto threw himself, growling anger, at his teammate.

Ino and Sakura, having temporarily reached a consensual hiatus in their war lunged for Naruto, trying to hold him back, but he ducked and leapt backward at the last moment before they would have caught him and heaved a kunai at Sasuke. The dart spiraled through the air, missing the dark Genin by an inch as he leapt up and left and, almost hovering in the air, stared right at the blonde, eyes suddenly flashing red. Naruto felt his blood run cold but tore forward, leaning backward again at the last second and whipping his foot around to catch the other boy in his stomach.

Sasuke saw the move and dodged backward, pulling out a shruiken and hurling it at Naruto's exposed side. He rolled over and managed to avoid it, but they were in close combat, now, and the second star grazed his arm. He'd taken much, much worse hits but it still stung like hell and he felt his own unreasonable anger surge to fore as he searched his outfit's hidey-holes for weapons. He felt his fingers close around something he knew had enough firepower for this battle and he pulled it out, held tightly in his right hand.

Then he saw Sasuke forming a familiar seal with his left hand, bringing the index and middle fingers to his mouth and taking in a breath. The blonde hesitated, staring, wondering if Sasuke actually planned on incinerating him right here, in front of Sakura and Ino and Kiba and Hinata.

Then the black-haired shinobi froze, rigid, in his tracks. His expression didn't change but his demeanor did, the anger taking on a new dimension.

Ten feet away and connected by a black strip along the road, Shikamaru slowly lowered his left hand and straightened. Without a choice, Sasuke did the same.

"Hmm. Good thing the angle was right," Shikamaru and Sasuke said in unison. "Didn't have time to make plans."

Naruto didn't know what to do until arms wrapped roughly around him and the choice was taken away by the bigger and heavier Kiba. Broader hands then his pulled his right fingers apart and slid his weapon from his grip. "An exploding kunai," the dog-nin said speculatively, glaring at the kanji tag hanging from the hilt. "Ah, the remarkable restraint of Team 7."

"Shut the fuck up," Naruto growled. Kiba, judging him calm enough to speak in coherent sentences, at least, let him go slowly; the blonde fought from the grip the second he could move and stormed a few feet away from his fellow Genin. Less slowly- Shikamaru had no intention of being reduced to charred Shikabobs in the near future- the shadow-nin stepped away from Sasuke and let his shadow retract from the other's.

Sasuke had no need for parting blows. Glaring at Naruto's back- the blonde was turned away from even Sakura, glaring back at where they'd come from- he turned and walked away. Didn't storm away, didn't stomp away, just walked. As if he hadn't been exploited, kissed, walked home, harassed, insulted, provoked, fought, and physically restrained on this lovely spring day.

"Sasuke!" Sakura started to run after him, but stopped when he looked back over his shoulder and eyes with all the warmth and love of liquid nitrogen landed on her. Ino needed help in stopping- help that Shikamaru was willing to give, his hand closing over her arm as she ran past him- but Sakura turned and came back on her own.

Naruto had already broken off and started walking in the opposite direction that Sasuke had gone off in. It made for a longer walk home but he wouldn't have to be near that insufferable creep for the next fifteen minutes and that made all the difference.

"Naru- Naruto..." But Hinata took one look at Sasuke, and another at Naruto, and re-evaluated her priorities. She didn't want Naruto mad at her. So she hung back, like Sakura and Ino had done. They wanted to be left alone. She could respect that.

Kiba nursed a bruise Naruto had left with his thrashing and frowned. "What the fuck was that all about?" he asked, bitterly.

Shino shrugged, silently; he hadn't moved except to inch sideways a little so that he wouldn't get hit by the worse effects of the fight's ninjutsu. Chouji, having wandered out of the restaurant with a slight smile and a container of fries, looked in one direction after Sasuke, the opposite after Naruto, and stuffed two fries in his mouth at once, speculatively.

Shikamaru's grin was distinctly odd and Ino clearly picked up on it. The glare she leveled at her teammate was nothing short of poisonous. "They're Naruto and Sasuke," she said, her harsh tone softening audibly on Sasuke's name. "They're always fighting."

Shikamaru shrugged minimalistically. "He overreacted," he said, simply, the "he" in question indicated with a nod at the shrinking back of the black-haired Genin.

"They both did," Kiba replied, gesturing with the kunai he'd lifted from Naruto.

Sakura shook off her unease and shrugged. "I have to be getting home," she said, turning and starting to walk, slowly, in the direction Sasuke had taken off in. With his back retreating quickly down the road, she wasn't in much danger of ticking him off and it was the fastest way home. "My parent's are getting worried, probably. They freaked out over Zabuza." Ignoring a snide comment from Ino and waving in general to all of them, she hurried down the street, trying not to think about the way Sasuke had looked at her, trying not to think about Naruto being flamed in the middle of the street until the singled ashes of what once had been tan skin and blonde hair and bright blue eyes fell as a charred lump to the dust, trying not to think about Sasuke exploding as a kunai sunk into him, fire licking out from blood and ash, red eyes fading to dark brown fading to gray, trying not to wonder why, having seen them walk a measured and continuous distance apart, lash out at each other and suddenly try and kill (at least to appearances) each other, she felt left out of something she didn't understand.

end chapter three