Okay, I know I took too long to post this chapter, but I've got some really
good excuses this time. *fumbles with cue cards* My dog ate it! Er... no.
*looks at another one* nope... grammy's still alive and kicking... *tosses
the cue cards away* I kinda had to rewrite the whole thing cause the scene
looked too... well... it was bloody shit to tell the truth. Now, of course,
it's been somewhat fixed with the help of some fine people who will remain
nameless (cause I forgot exactly who helped me... heh heh...).
Entirely un-beta-ed and everything... plus some really funny angsting with Kashiya and a Chuunin vest. ^^u I aim to please.
Chapter Title: 22. Who is Sasuke?
After Shiya got over her murderous desire, Kakashi had told her what the real reason for his visit was. He'd been sent by Tsunade to gather the whole team to do a series of missions.
"Since the smaller missions require my supervision, and you are technically a chuunin, I'll assist Sakura with them while you and Sasuke handle the single C-class mission later on in the evening, alright?" Kashiya sighed and nodded her head.
"Why can't I work with Sakura-chan?" She asked. Kakashi shrugged noncommittally.
"Boy-girl pairings?" He offered.
"Lies." The girl crossed her arms over her chest, but Kakashi never offered another excuse. "So what is our mission?"
"Meet me and Sakura-san at the hot-springs around seven and I'll let you know. There might not be any mission at all if the problem goes away by then." Kashiya frowned, but she couldn't complain. With the missions beginning to pick up again, she was glad to have any mission at all, and Sasuke wasn't so bad to work with; at least she knew she wouldn't be distracted by trying to show off to her pink-haired team mate. Kakashi nodded, and turned to the window to leave.
"Why don't you use a door like normal people?" She asked, stopping him. He turned back and flashed a victory sign.
"I've got to have SOME fun before I'm too old and incapacitated to do all this." He pointed to his silver hair. "You see all this? You three have been giving me grey hairs!" Kashiya snorted and walked away from the teacher.
"Your hair has always been that colour, sensei, so you can't try and blame everything on me. You're just weird." She turned around, expecting the man to reply, but the window sill was empty and only the open window and he billowing curtains showed anyone had even been there.
She sighed and dropped her arms back to her sides, looking around. She had a good half of the day left, and her place was a mess. Maybe she should start spring cleaning a little bit earlier this year. She was, after all, a couple of years overdue. The last time she could remember it being neat and tidy was... the last time Iruka came over and forced her into cleaning everything, and he'd stopped doing that years ago. She wrinkled her nose at the thought and bent over, picking up an empty ramen cup.
"Might as well do something to keep me occupied." She muttered to herself and set about, moving from room to room, cleaning everything from the toilet bowl to the kitchen stove, where a hundred years worth of spilt ramen stains had been left.
***
She had finally made it to her room by the time the sun set, just after six. Her back ached from bending over so much, and her fingers resembled prunes with how much dishes she'd found lying all over the apartment. Some of the things she'd found had surprised even herself (like the rope of socks she'd knotted together when she was seven). Opening the closet to look for something warm to wear for their mission, she found her chuunin vest, gathering dust.
Since Tsunade had given him the rank, Naruto had avoided the vest like the plague, and saw it, not as a symbol of pride in advancement, but one of shame and guilt. He'd never really felt he'd done much to deserve it. Not yet anyways. He was continuously vowing to do everything he could to earn the title.
But, she looked down at her body, maybe for one night she could pretend she was something she'd always dreamed of. No one knew who she was, and technically it was hers. She pulled out the hanger with the dusty vest and ran her fingers delicately over the shoulders, removing some of the dust. Lifting her hand to her face, she rolled the traces of dust between her thumb and middle finger thoughtfully. She shook her head, as though to throw off an old memory, and roughly swatted away the rest of the dust.
She rummaged around for another couple of seconds before pulling out a white and black version of his old orange and blue jacket, minus the side ornaments. It was getting colder and the vest alone wouldn't keep out enough heat. She placed both articles of clothing on the only clear space available on her bed and pulled out her hair elastics. The mirror beside her bed reflected her image in the dim light and she looked back to the cloths for a second. Tossing the elastics to the ground, she pulled out her hitai-ate and tied it across her forehead, figuring her jacket and vest would be enough to cover the seal. A sly smirk graced her features at the feel of the fabric sliding snugly into place, something she'd been missing for a while. It was good to have it back in its natural place.
She slipped into the jacket and bent over to put on the chuunin vest before a pang of guilt grabbed her at the navel. The vest wasn't rightfully hers and it shouldn't matter what body she was in. Without another thought, the green vest was chucked violently back into the closet and the door slammed shut. Luckily, she had enough time to calm her frustration by the time she reached the hot springs. Quickly, she pulled the facemask over her loose hair and ran out the door. She reflexively swung her foot out to kick it closed as she zipped up her jacket to protect her from the cold.
***
She was only a couple of minutes late, having taken the 'scenic route' to the springs, and hadn't expected Kakashi to be there waiting.
"Ohayo, Shiya-chan!" He greeted the girl. "You're late." She just shrugged, failing to notice the look she was getting from the Uchiha heir. He saw the jacket and, even in the failing darkness, could tell it was similar to, if not exactly, like the one Naruto was famous for. She did notice the boy shaking the thoughts from his head and turn to the other two for the details of their mission. The blond found a rock to sit on while Kakashi and Sakura related their own opinions of the numerous frustratingly boring and pointless missions Tsunade had forced upon the two. Kakashi, of course, was a lot less enthusiastic about his disapproval, and his words hardly even sounded that way.
When Kakashi noticed that Sasuke had begun to pace and Kashiya was starting to skip stones off the silky surface of a steaming hot spring, he realised that they didn't really care at all and only wanted to know why they were there in the first place.
"Tsunade has two reasons for this late night mission." He cleared his throat to make sure they were both paying attention to him. "The first is you two need to check out one of the filters that supplies water to the village. It seems to be a bit clogged by plants and people are starting to complain. The main reason you're here is because many people have been scared off by some odd sounds in the bushes around here, and it's ruining business for the hot springs and again villagers are complaining. Some people think it's a burglar and some think it's some vicious wild beast, but there are some that fear it's enemy ninjas from another village. Either way, the noises only seem to start after it gets dark. Do you two think you can handle this?"
"Of course." They exclaimed at the same time.
"This will be the easiest mission I've ever done!" Kashiya added. "No stupid pervert can take me down, I don't care if he's an enemy or not!" Kakashi nodded in agreement and turned towards the village, guiding Sakura back as well.
"Good luck." He called back to them just before they were out of sight.
***
Once all the sewage had been cleared away from the waterways, Sasuke and Kashiya sat down beside the river and waited for the second half of the mission to reveal itself. Secretly, they both hoped it wasn't an enemy ninja, but after hours of waiting, they didn't care who or what it was, so long as the mystery was solved soon.
"Nice jacket." Sasuke said after a while. He had been watching her fidget with it for some time. She didn't look at him, but left the zipper alone and nodded.
"Aa, Tsunade-san bought it for me." She looked down at it and frowned. "Don't tell me it's yet another thing that makes you think I'm this Naruto kid."
"Hn." The dark-haired boy replied, neither denying nor agreeing. Another tense silence fell upon them like a stifling blanket, until Kashiya couldn't take it anymore.
"You know, you didn't have to come out here with me. I could have done this mission on my own."
"I don't doubt it, but you can't be too careful." Sasuke stood to leave. "I'm not responsible if you're killed by dozens of ANBU from another country, though." The blond frowned, hearing Sasuke's footsteps take him away from the river.
"Yamete." She said, not used to that form of the word. "Chotto matte. I didn't mean I wanted you to leave." The footsteps hesitated, and she could almost sense him turning around to study her back.
"Then what did you mean?" He asked softly.
"I don't know, really. I just felt the need to prove that I'm not as weak and stupid as everyone thinks I am."
"You mean because you're a girl?" Kashiya winced, almost forgetting who she was again, but saw a glimmer of hope in what he said. She could unload some of her burdens onto Sasuke without him even knowing who she was.
"H-hai!" She exclaimed. He returned to her side and sat down in the grass to face her. "Everyone thinks I'm just some fool who can't do anything right, and I guess I just felt the need to keep reminding people I'm strong."
"So then why did you want me to come back?"
"I..." She faltered, wondering why she called him back in the first place. "I guess I was enjoying your company. Even if you act like a total jerk a lot of the time, I genuinely like being around you." She shrugged and avoided his eyes, not knowing for sure if that was the reason or not, but it sounded right to her. "Plus, I get lonely sometimes, don't you?"
"Sometimes." He muttered slowly.
"I'm always lonely, though no one would ever know it just by looking at me. Like a couple of years ago, for example, a friend of mine," she hesitated, before realising there wasn't any need for half truths while she had a mask to hide behind, "no, my BEST friend, betrayed the village, betrayed me. I was sent out to get... her back, but inside I couldn't get over her betrayal. I felt as though she was personally spitting in my face. But I held it all in and eventually everything went back to normal again."
Sasuke nodded. He hadn't planned on paying any mind to the girl's confession, but something in what she was saying made him stop and think. She seemed every bit as happy and exuberant as Naruto, but now that he was seeing her inner troubles, he noticed it was all just a mask and it reminded him of when he saw Naruto struggling with his own mask after he was rescued from Orochimaru's bed chambers. The mask had returned, and everything had gone back to normal. He wondered if even now the boy was holding in the scars of his entire life. Kashiya continued, almost as though she had been listening to his train of thought.
"And then, this man attacked our village, and... he molested me in the worst way. I thought I was going to die right there on the floor. I don't think very many people actually know the truth about what happened there, but I couldn't help feeling so dirty. When I was rescued from where the man was staying, they thought they were helping me, so I kept on my happy face and looked strong for their benefit. All I really wanted to do was collapse into my best friend's arms and cry and cry until I had no more tears left to cry. People think I'm too strong to cry, and I wish I was allowed to cry, but my sorrows are too many to even start crying. If I did, there'd be no end to it, not to mention no one would care." Her eyes had started to glaze over, deep in thought, but she shook her head and smiled again.
"You're an orphan?" Sasuke asked, deeply intrigued by the depth of this girl's pain. She reminded him a lot of himself. She nodded.
"I live by myself in a village a little bit away from here, but it's not that bad, though there are times I wish that once in a while someone would acknowledge that I even exist." Sasuke laid his palms in the grass and tilted his head back to look at the stars through the tree branches.
"And I often wish people would just leave me alone." He whispered softly. The blonde looked sharply at him, her eyes widening in surprise. Sure, she'd always known he wasn't fond of all the attention he got, but she'd always assumed he only ignored his fame as a way to flaunt his arrogance. "I'd rather have it that people had never heard of the Uchiha clan. I'm always compared to someone; I'm always pushed into some role people have laid out for me. I'll always just be the last Uchiha and not Sasuke."
"Who exactly is Sasuke?" She asked, hoping he'd expand, but he shot her a sharp glare and clammed up tightly. They sat there in silence for a few minutes, and just when Kashiya thought the conversation was over, she heard a low faint whisper sound from the boy.
"I don't know."
~~~
Okay, I didn't plan on ending there, but I guess I kind of need too, otherwise the chapter might end up being well over 3000 words long. It's actually a half decent place to stop too.
Oh, and about the chapter title from last chapter... I guess it's before your time. It was actually the line from a song by the Beatles called I'll Follow the Sun... what a freaking coinky-dink.
One day, you'll look to see I've gone/ But tomorrow may rain so/ I'll follow the sun
Yeah, it's before my time too, but I grew up listing to it... blame my mommy.
Entirely un-beta-ed and everything... plus some really funny angsting with Kashiya and a Chuunin vest. ^^u I aim to please.
Chapter Title: 22. Who is Sasuke?
After Shiya got over her murderous desire, Kakashi had told her what the real reason for his visit was. He'd been sent by Tsunade to gather the whole team to do a series of missions.
"Since the smaller missions require my supervision, and you are technically a chuunin, I'll assist Sakura with them while you and Sasuke handle the single C-class mission later on in the evening, alright?" Kashiya sighed and nodded her head.
"Why can't I work with Sakura-chan?" She asked. Kakashi shrugged noncommittally.
"Boy-girl pairings?" He offered.
"Lies." The girl crossed her arms over her chest, but Kakashi never offered another excuse. "So what is our mission?"
"Meet me and Sakura-san at the hot-springs around seven and I'll let you know. There might not be any mission at all if the problem goes away by then." Kashiya frowned, but she couldn't complain. With the missions beginning to pick up again, she was glad to have any mission at all, and Sasuke wasn't so bad to work with; at least she knew she wouldn't be distracted by trying to show off to her pink-haired team mate. Kakashi nodded, and turned to the window to leave.
"Why don't you use a door like normal people?" She asked, stopping him. He turned back and flashed a victory sign.
"I've got to have SOME fun before I'm too old and incapacitated to do all this." He pointed to his silver hair. "You see all this? You three have been giving me grey hairs!" Kashiya snorted and walked away from the teacher.
"Your hair has always been that colour, sensei, so you can't try and blame everything on me. You're just weird." She turned around, expecting the man to reply, but the window sill was empty and only the open window and he billowing curtains showed anyone had even been there.
She sighed and dropped her arms back to her sides, looking around. She had a good half of the day left, and her place was a mess. Maybe she should start spring cleaning a little bit earlier this year. She was, after all, a couple of years overdue. The last time she could remember it being neat and tidy was... the last time Iruka came over and forced her into cleaning everything, and he'd stopped doing that years ago. She wrinkled her nose at the thought and bent over, picking up an empty ramen cup.
"Might as well do something to keep me occupied." She muttered to herself and set about, moving from room to room, cleaning everything from the toilet bowl to the kitchen stove, where a hundred years worth of spilt ramen stains had been left.
***
She had finally made it to her room by the time the sun set, just after six. Her back ached from bending over so much, and her fingers resembled prunes with how much dishes she'd found lying all over the apartment. Some of the things she'd found had surprised even herself (like the rope of socks she'd knotted together when she was seven). Opening the closet to look for something warm to wear for their mission, she found her chuunin vest, gathering dust.
Since Tsunade had given him the rank, Naruto had avoided the vest like the plague, and saw it, not as a symbol of pride in advancement, but one of shame and guilt. He'd never really felt he'd done much to deserve it. Not yet anyways. He was continuously vowing to do everything he could to earn the title.
But, she looked down at her body, maybe for one night she could pretend she was something she'd always dreamed of. No one knew who she was, and technically it was hers. She pulled out the hanger with the dusty vest and ran her fingers delicately over the shoulders, removing some of the dust. Lifting her hand to her face, she rolled the traces of dust between her thumb and middle finger thoughtfully. She shook her head, as though to throw off an old memory, and roughly swatted away the rest of the dust.
She rummaged around for another couple of seconds before pulling out a white and black version of his old orange and blue jacket, minus the side ornaments. It was getting colder and the vest alone wouldn't keep out enough heat. She placed both articles of clothing on the only clear space available on her bed and pulled out her hair elastics. The mirror beside her bed reflected her image in the dim light and she looked back to the cloths for a second. Tossing the elastics to the ground, she pulled out her hitai-ate and tied it across her forehead, figuring her jacket and vest would be enough to cover the seal. A sly smirk graced her features at the feel of the fabric sliding snugly into place, something she'd been missing for a while. It was good to have it back in its natural place.
She slipped into the jacket and bent over to put on the chuunin vest before a pang of guilt grabbed her at the navel. The vest wasn't rightfully hers and it shouldn't matter what body she was in. Without another thought, the green vest was chucked violently back into the closet and the door slammed shut. Luckily, she had enough time to calm her frustration by the time she reached the hot springs. Quickly, she pulled the facemask over her loose hair and ran out the door. She reflexively swung her foot out to kick it closed as she zipped up her jacket to protect her from the cold.
***
She was only a couple of minutes late, having taken the 'scenic route' to the springs, and hadn't expected Kakashi to be there waiting.
"Ohayo, Shiya-chan!" He greeted the girl. "You're late." She just shrugged, failing to notice the look she was getting from the Uchiha heir. He saw the jacket and, even in the failing darkness, could tell it was similar to, if not exactly, like the one Naruto was famous for. She did notice the boy shaking the thoughts from his head and turn to the other two for the details of their mission. The blond found a rock to sit on while Kakashi and Sakura related their own opinions of the numerous frustratingly boring and pointless missions Tsunade had forced upon the two. Kakashi, of course, was a lot less enthusiastic about his disapproval, and his words hardly even sounded that way.
When Kakashi noticed that Sasuke had begun to pace and Kashiya was starting to skip stones off the silky surface of a steaming hot spring, he realised that they didn't really care at all and only wanted to know why they were there in the first place.
"Tsunade has two reasons for this late night mission." He cleared his throat to make sure they were both paying attention to him. "The first is you two need to check out one of the filters that supplies water to the village. It seems to be a bit clogged by plants and people are starting to complain. The main reason you're here is because many people have been scared off by some odd sounds in the bushes around here, and it's ruining business for the hot springs and again villagers are complaining. Some people think it's a burglar and some think it's some vicious wild beast, but there are some that fear it's enemy ninjas from another village. Either way, the noises only seem to start after it gets dark. Do you two think you can handle this?"
"Of course." They exclaimed at the same time.
"This will be the easiest mission I've ever done!" Kashiya added. "No stupid pervert can take me down, I don't care if he's an enemy or not!" Kakashi nodded in agreement and turned towards the village, guiding Sakura back as well.
"Good luck." He called back to them just before they were out of sight.
***
Once all the sewage had been cleared away from the waterways, Sasuke and Kashiya sat down beside the river and waited for the second half of the mission to reveal itself. Secretly, they both hoped it wasn't an enemy ninja, but after hours of waiting, they didn't care who or what it was, so long as the mystery was solved soon.
"Nice jacket." Sasuke said after a while. He had been watching her fidget with it for some time. She didn't look at him, but left the zipper alone and nodded.
"Aa, Tsunade-san bought it for me." She looked down at it and frowned. "Don't tell me it's yet another thing that makes you think I'm this Naruto kid."
"Hn." The dark-haired boy replied, neither denying nor agreeing. Another tense silence fell upon them like a stifling blanket, until Kashiya couldn't take it anymore.
"You know, you didn't have to come out here with me. I could have done this mission on my own."
"I don't doubt it, but you can't be too careful." Sasuke stood to leave. "I'm not responsible if you're killed by dozens of ANBU from another country, though." The blond frowned, hearing Sasuke's footsteps take him away from the river.
"Yamete." She said, not used to that form of the word. "Chotto matte. I didn't mean I wanted you to leave." The footsteps hesitated, and she could almost sense him turning around to study her back.
"Then what did you mean?" He asked softly.
"I don't know, really. I just felt the need to prove that I'm not as weak and stupid as everyone thinks I am."
"You mean because you're a girl?" Kashiya winced, almost forgetting who she was again, but saw a glimmer of hope in what he said. She could unload some of her burdens onto Sasuke without him even knowing who she was.
"H-hai!" She exclaimed. He returned to her side and sat down in the grass to face her. "Everyone thinks I'm just some fool who can't do anything right, and I guess I just felt the need to keep reminding people I'm strong."
"So then why did you want me to come back?"
"I..." She faltered, wondering why she called him back in the first place. "I guess I was enjoying your company. Even if you act like a total jerk a lot of the time, I genuinely like being around you." She shrugged and avoided his eyes, not knowing for sure if that was the reason or not, but it sounded right to her. "Plus, I get lonely sometimes, don't you?"
"Sometimes." He muttered slowly.
"I'm always lonely, though no one would ever know it just by looking at me. Like a couple of years ago, for example, a friend of mine," she hesitated, before realising there wasn't any need for half truths while she had a mask to hide behind, "no, my BEST friend, betrayed the village, betrayed me. I was sent out to get... her back, but inside I couldn't get over her betrayal. I felt as though she was personally spitting in my face. But I held it all in and eventually everything went back to normal again."
Sasuke nodded. He hadn't planned on paying any mind to the girl's confession, but something in what she was saying made him stop and think. She seemed every bit as happy and exuberant as Naruto, but now that he was seeing her inner troubles, he noticed it was all just a mask and it reminded him of when he saw Naruto struggling with his own mask after he was rescued from Orochimaru's bed chambers. The mask had returned, and everything had gone back to normal. He wondered if even now the boy was holding in the scars of his entire life. Kashiya continued, almost as though she had been listening to his train of thought.
"And then, this man attacked our village, and... he molested me in the worst way. I thought I was going to die right there on the floor. I don't think very many people actually know the truth about what happened there, but I couldn't help feeling so dirty. When I was rescued from where the man was staying, they thought they were helping me, so I kept on my happy face and looked strong for their benefit. All I really wanted to do was collapse into my best friend's arms and cry and cry until I had no more tears left to cry. People think I'm too strong to cry, and I wish I was allowed to cry, but my sorrows are too many to even start crying. If I did, there'd be no end to it, not to mention no one would care." Her eyes had started to glaze over, deep in thought, but she shook her head and smiled again.
"You're an orphan?" Sasuke asked, deeply intrigued by the depth of this girl's pain. She reminded him a lot of himself. She nodded.
"I live by myself in a village a little bit away from here, but it's not that bad, though there are times I wish that once in a while someone would acknowledge that I even exist." Sasuke laid his palms in the grass and tilted his head back to look at the stars through the tree branches.
"And I often wish people would just leave me alone." He whispered softly. The blonde looked sharply at him, her eyes widening in surprise. Sure, she'd always known he wasn't fond of all the attention he got, but she'd always assumed he only ignored his fame as a way to flaunt his arrogance. "I'd rather have it that people had never heard of the Uchiha clan. I'm always compared to someone; I'm always pushed into some role people have laid out for me. I'll always just be the last Uchiha and not Sasuke."
"Who exactly is Sasuke?" She asked, hoping he'd expand, but he shot her a sharp glare and clammed up tightly. They sat there in silence for a few minutes, and just when Kashiya thought the conversation was over, she heard a low faint whisper sound from the boy.
"I don't know."
~~~
Okay, I didn't plan on ending there, but I guess I kind of need too, otherwise the chapter might end up being well over 3000 words long. It's actually a half decent place to stop too.
Oh, and about the chapter title from last chapter... I guess it's before your time. It was actually the line from a song by the Beatles called I'll Follow the Sun... what a freaking coinky-dink.
One day, you'll look to see I've gone/ But tomorrow may rain so/ I'll follow the sun
Yeah, it's before my time too, but I grew up listing to it... blame my mommy.