I think I got a laugh out of Dark Mimiru-chan's review the most. I'm glad
you don't feel sorry for Sakura. I don't like what she did... but then
again, I do feel sorry for the way she's treated afterwards...
I know I haven't said much more about the room, but Naruto's hidden room is actually very important to who he is.
I was talking about the manga chapters when I said chapter 210 raw cause the anime hasn't even come close to that many episodes yet, just in case you aren't caught up to either forms of the series(manga or anime). They haven't even come close to that number.
Chapter Title: 32: Consequences
As soon as the wooden door opened, the attacker had the poor boy on the floor, a flurry of fists and teeth flying everywhere. Sasuke was completely overwhelmed, and confused as hell. He'd come running at the frantic pounding, only to be pounced upon by some orange and blonde blur. He hissed in pain as a toe connected with his shin and he tried to scrabble away from the hysterical boy to figure out what was going on. Naruto was yelling all sorts of nonsense and he was about to let his Sharingan go and fight back when he saw tears beginning to fall.
"Why do you have to have everything?" Naruto whispered when he was finally too tired to fight any longer. "You've already got everything I want. Attention, admiration, potential, respect, family, people who love you. And you don't even give a shit about any of it. You're nothing but a selfish arrogant bastard." He spat bitterly.
"I never asked for any of that." Sasuke tried defending himself. "And what family do I supposedly have? My brother took away any family I had."
"Well at least you have good memories with them. I don't even have that. No one will tell me anything about my parents, or even if they existed at all. I've got nothing. You've been forgiven for betraying the village when you were twelve, but I'm still ostracized for something someone else did in a past life. I wasn't even born. And yet Golden Boy Uchiha is forgiven for something he did on purpose."
"It doesn't seem to me that you've forgiven me." Sasuke said. Naruto laughed pathetically.
"That's the thing. I have. Why do you have to take everything from me?" He asked softly. "Especially Sakura."
"I never went anywhere near her." Sasuke exclaimed. "What the hell is going on? I thought you were happy with her."
"I was."
He seemed to find another burst of energy at the reminder of his long-time crush and leapt at the dark-haired genin growling. "She cheated on me." He yelled, trying to attack as many vital points as he could.
"And how would that involve me?!" Sasuke shouted back, trying to avoid the slightly sharper than usual nails. "If you'd forgotten, I was with you this whole time."
"Not with you, with Lee." Sasuke had to fight off a snort.
"Rock Lee? And again, I ask how the hell that would involve me?"
"She was drunk... she thought she was sleeping with you." Sasuke allowed himself to be pinned to the floor. "She didn't even think of me."
"So?" Sasuke asked. "That just means you never had her in the first place. I know it may hurt to hear this, but at least you know she didn't betray you. How could she betray someone who she was never loyal to in the first place?" He couldn't understand why he was defending the spoiled girl when he wanted nothing more than to turn his Chidori on her. Naruto winced at his words and raised a fist to punch the boy trapped beneath him.
"Fight back." He demanded through gritted teeth, ignoring the echoing sting that pierced through him.
"No. I've had enough of your temper. You've been like this since you started dating Sakura." The poised fist came down suddenly, but instead of hitting flesh, it slammed violently into the floorboards just beside the Uchiha's head.
"Why've you been so volatile towards me?" Sasuke asked, not flinching a bit.
"I don't know. It just happened. Things never seemed to feel right if I wasn't fighting with you. So I guess I forced it. Sakura was never supposed to say yes to me. I was supposed to yearn for her forever." He hesitated, taking a shaky breath, keeping Sasuke's body still beneath him.
"Fighting with you was something that felt normal. I enjoyed it so much because it took my mind off of all the questions I had. Like why she suddenly decided to give up on you and date me. I didn't want to answer that." Sasuke could feel the body above him lose its previous tension and relax.
"You're not really angry about Sakura are you?" He wondered aloud. The blonde looked into his eyes startled and pondered the answer.
"I'm humiliated that she led me on for so long. I'm pissed beyond words that I keep losing to someone like you; that you keep getting in the way of my dreams. But no, I'm not angry that she slept with someone else. Now that I had the chance to be with her as her boyfriend, I don't think I ever liked her as anything more than a friend. But how'd you know?" Sasuke smirked.
"I can read minds, dobe." He snorted sarcastically. "We're supposed to be best friends or something, right? I can read you like a book." The blond frowned at this but was too worn out to argue.
"What ever you say, Sasuke-chan. Can I sleep over tonight?"
"Sure." They both stood up slowly. Sasuke was about to lead Naruto to his bedroom when he felt a halting hand on his shoulders.
"Could you tell Sakura I'm not mad at her?" The fox-boy asked timidly, not meeting Sasuke's gaze when the boy looked over his shoulder. "I don't think I can face her for a couple of days. The whole lowered inhibitions makes it obvious she's still attached to you, so I guess it makes it easier for us to break up." Sasuke nodded, surprised when his rival collapsed into his arms, passed out from over exertion. A ghost of a smile flitted across his face and he carried the boy to his room and tucked him underneath the warm midnight blue sheets.
"I'll tell her in the morning, Kitsune." He whispered softly, wondering if he'd finally gotten the fighting out of his system. If he'd finally gotten Sakura out of his system.
***
In the morning, the sun was shining brightly, the sky was nearly cloudless (much to Shikamaru's chagrin) and nearly the entire village was suffering from a massive hangover from the previous night's activities, but still someone found it in themselves to drag their ass to Sasuke's front door step, knocking loud enough to be heard for blocks.
He pulled open the door, only mildly surprised to see Sakura at his doorstep. She smiled brightly at him, making it instantly obvious she didn't want him knowing about what she'd done.
"Ohayou Sasuke-kun." She greeted him with mock cheerfulness. "Have you seen Naruto? We had a... ano... an argument and I'd like to talk with him, but I can't find him anywhere." She flashed him a smile which he returned with a sharp piercing glare.
"I already know what happened last night. You make me sick." He spat, repeating those words to her for the third time since he'd known her. "You should be ashamed of yourself."
"I am, Sasuke-kun." She laughed nervously, trying not to lose her cool. "Kakashi-sensei gave me the same lecture. I only want to smooth things out with Naruto."
"And you think that one chat will be enough to 'smooth things out'?" He hissed, eyes narrowing slightly. He'd be lucky if he managed to keep his anger low enough not to spark the curse seal that was still present on the back of his neck. "If Kakashi already gave you this lecture then it obviously didn't sink in the first time. But don't worry your pretty little conscience. Naruto gave me a message for you. He's okay. He doesn't feel jilted or betrayed and knew all along that he never liked you. So don't feel too bad about it. That's what Naruto told me to tell you, basically." He paused and she smiled in relief.
"It's good to know that I haven't totally messed things up permanently." She sighed. "I would hate to lose you two." His eyes narrowed to slits and he continued, unheeding of what she'd just said.
"I on the other hand think you're a horrible person to have led Naruto on for so long like that when it was obvious to everyone but him that you had no romantic intentions towards him. You might have been forgiven easily by Naruto but I'm a different story. I will never forgive you for what you did to him." She looked saddened for a moment, but she nodded in understanding. Even she had to know there was no forgiveness from the avenger. Naruto was just too nice to her. Always had been.
"Is he there?" She asked softly after reflecting for a moment. Sasuke nodded sharply, his intense dislike for the girl clear in his body language.
"He's sleeping." She smiled serenely at the protective undertones in his voice.
"I'm not surprised he came to you first." She said. "You two are like best friends. Maybe even closer than that. He'd follow you to the ends of the earth without so much as a questioning glance backwards."
"That's not true. He has dreams he has to fulfill and you should know well enough that I'm nothing more than a rival to him." She frowned for a moment, before remembering something the blonde had told her a couple of years ago.
"Do you remember when we were in the forest and we met that old woman who refused to let Naruto into her hut because he was the Kitsune?" He nodded his head, letting her continue, uninterrupted. "And do you remember how I was sent to get him because I was the one he was most likely to listen to..." He nodded again, wondering what she was getting at. "Well we had a talk and he told me that one day I'd have to tell you that you would have had an easier time persuading him to return. Much easier than me. He told me so himself. That he would have rather you came after him when he ran off into the forest."
"He doesn't need me and I don't need him." Sasuke replied stubbornly, still tense from her mere presence.
"He trusts you." She flashed him a genuine smile. "He's your first friend, isn't he? The first person to stay beside you for so long."
"He's my only friend." She nodded and bowed, stepping back.
"I realise I may never be able to win back your trust or your forgiveness, but tell Naruto I said I was sorry." She turned and left.
"You don't deserve him." He muttered under his breath, watching the girl leave. When he closed the door and turned around, he nearly had a heart attack, finding Naruto standing behind him.
"How long have you been behind me?" He asked, a little peeved at being caught so off guard.
"Long enough." The blonde boy grinned and Sasuke knew he'd heard the last part. He was lucky enough that he didn't blush at that knowledge. "Thank you for standing up for me to her. I didn't have it in me to face her so soon. I really appreciate it, but you didn't have to go and tell her you hated her for hurting me."
"But I do." Sasuke replied simply. Naruto laughed nervously before realising he was serious.
"Really?" He nodded.
"You're probably the only person I've allowed myself to become friends with, and I'm not going to give that up just to please some girl."
"But that girl may be the future of your clan."
"I'll find a way around it."
Naruto smiled broadly, catching Sasuke off guard. He sorely wished he had a camera. Never before had he seen such a true smile from the hyper ninja. They were always fakes, but this one was the biggest and truest smile he could have imagined. Smiling softly to himself he walked the boy to the kitchen as he began to complain of hunger and realised he didn't need a camera. He'd remember that moment for the rest of his life and he was happy.
~~~~~~~
I can't believe I did that. Crap. Yet another fusion chapter. I can't believe I've been writing such small pathetic chapter notes. This one took the plans for both chapters 33 and 34, meaning that I'm drastically cutting the amount of chapters this will ultimately have. Even though I'm not even close to being done... I haven't written up chapter notes in a good couple of months and I'm quickly catching up to myself.
One thing to note... The whole SakuNaru 'arc' is now over... and there's only one more chapter I think until I begin the next arc, which deals with the Kyuubi again. The last chapter of this lil arc is a little filler I suppose you could call it. If I had my way I'd call it
"Morning After: Kakashi and Iruka style"
*grins* I'm sure you all can figure out what that implies. Who knows... I may just end up calling it that. KakaIru fans prepare to get your emotions thrown in an emotional blender.
Ja mata
I know I haven't said much more about the room, but Naruto's hidden room is actually very important to who he is.
I was talking about the manga chapters when I said chapter 210 raw cause the anime hasn't even come close to that many episodes yet, just in case you aren't caught up to either forms of the series(manga or anime). They haven't even come close to that number.
Chapter Title: 32: Consequences
As soon as the wooden door opened, the attacker had the poor boy on the floor, a flurry of fists and teeth flying everywhere. Sasuke was completely overwhelmed, and confused as hell. He'd come running at the frantic pounding, only to be pounced upon by some orange and blonde blur. He hissed in pain as a toe connected with his shin and he tried to scrabble away from the hysterical boy to figure out what was going on. Naruto was yelling all sorts of nonsense and he was about to let his Sharingan go and fight back when he saw tears beginning to fall.
"Why do you have to have everything?" Naruto whispered when he was finally too tired to fight any longer. "You've already got everything I want. Attention, admiration, potential, respect, family, people who love you. And you don't even give a shit about any of it. You're nothing but a selfish arrogant bastard." He spat bitterly.
"I never asked for any of that." Sasuke tried defending himself. "And what family do I supposedly have? My brother took away any family I had."
"Well at least you have good memories with them. I don't even have that. No one will tell me anything about my parents, or even if they existed at all. I've got nothing. You've been forgiven for betraying the village when you were twelve, but I'm still ostracized for something someone else did in a past life. I wasn't even born. And yet Golden Boy Uchiha is forgiven for something he did on purpose."
"It doesn't seem to me that you've forgiven me." Sasuke said. Naruto laughed pathetically.
"That's the thing. I have. Why do you have to take everything from me?" He asked softly. "Especially Sakura."
"I never went anywhere near her." Sasuke exclaimed. "What the hell is going on? I thought you were happy with her."
"I was."
He seemed to find another burst of energy at the reminder of his long-time crush and leapt at the dark-haired genin growling. "She cheated on me." He yelled, trying to attack as many vital points as he could.
"And how would that involve me?!" Sasuke shouted back, trying to avoid the slightly sharper than usual nails. "If you'd forgotten, I was with you this whole time."
"Not with you, with Lee." Sasuke had to fight off a snort.
"Rock Lee? And again, I ask how the hell that would involve me?"
"She was drunk... she thought she was sleeping with you." Sasuke allowed himself to be pinned to the floor. "She didn't even think of me."
"So?" Sasuke asked. "That just means you never had her in the first place. I know it may hurt to hear this, but at least you know she didn't betray you. How could she betray someone who she was never loyal to in the first place?" He couldn't understand why he was defending the spoiled girl when he wanted nothing more than to turn his Chidori on her. Naruto winced at his words and raised a fist to punch the boy trapped beneath him.
"Fight back." He demanded through gritted teeth, ignoring the echoing sting that pierced through him.
"No. I've had enough of your temper. You've been like this since you started dating Sakura." The poised fist came down suddenly, but instead of hitting flesh, it slammed violently into the floorboards just beside the Uchiha's head.
"Why've you been so volatile towards me?" Sasuke asked, not flinching a bit.
"I don't know. It just happened. Things never seemed to feel right if I wasn't fighting with you. So I guess I forced it. Sakura was never supposed to say yes to me. I was supposed to yearn for her forever." He hesitated, taking a shaky breath, keeping Sasuke's body still beneath him.
"Fighting with you was something that felt normal. I enjoyed it so much because it took my mind off of all the questions I had. Like why she suddenly decided to give up on you and date me. I didn't want to answer that." Sasuke could feel the body above him lose its previous tension and relax.
"You're not really angry about Sakura are you?" He wondered aloud. The blonde looked into his eyes startled and pondered the answer.
"I'm humiliated that she led me on for so long. I'm pissed beyond words that I keep losing to someone like you; that you keep getting in the way of my dreams. But no, I'm not angry that she slept with someone else. Now that I had the chance to be with her as her boyfriend, I don't think I ever liked her as anything more than a friend. But how'd you know?" Sasuke smirked.
"I can read minds, dobe." He snorted sarcastically. "We're supposed to be best friends or something, right? I can read you like a book." The blond frowned at this but was too worn out to argue.
"What ever you say, Sasuke-chan. Can I sleep over tonight?"
"Sure." They both stood up slowly. Sasuke was about to lead Naruto to his bedroom when he felt a halting hand on his shoulders.
"Could you tell Sakura I'm not mad at her?" The fox-boy asked timidly, not meeting Sasuke's gaze when the boy looked over his shoulder. "I don't think I can face her for a couple of days. The whole lowered inhibitions makes it obvious she's still attached to you, so I guess it makes it easier for us to break up." Sasuke nodded, surprised when his rival collapsed into his arms, passed out from over exertion. A ghost of a smile flitted across his face and he carried the boy to his room and tucked him underneath the warm midnight blue sheets.
"I'll tell her in the morning, Kitsune." He whispered softly, wondering if he'd finally gotten the fighting out of his system. If he'd finally gotten Sakura out of his system.
***
In the morning, the sun was shining brightly, the sky was nearly cloudless (much to Shikamaru's chagrin) and nearly the entire village was suffering from a massive hangover from the previous night's activities, but still someone found it in themselves to drag their ass to Sasuke's front door step, knocking loud enough to be heard for blocks.
He pulled open the door, only mildly surprised to see Sakura at his doorstep. She smiled brightly at him, making it instantly obvious she didn't want him knowing about what she'd done.
"Ohayou Sasuke-kun." She greeted him with mock cheerfulness. "Have you seen Naruto? We had a... ano... an argument and I'd like to talk with him, but I can't find him anywhere." She flashed him a smile which he returned with a sharp piercing glare.
"I already know what happened last night. You make me sick." He spat, repeating those words to her for the third time since he'd known her. "You should be ashamed of yourself."
"I am, Sasuke-kun." She laughed nervously, trying not to lose her cool. "Kakashi-sensei gave me the same lecture. I only want to smooth things out with Naruto."
"And you think that one chat will be enough to 'smooth things out'?" He hissed, eyes narrowing slightly. He'd be lucky if he managed to keep his anger low enough not to spark the curse seal that was still present on the back of his neck. "If Kakashi already gave you this lecture then it obviously didn't sink in the first time. But don't worry your pretty little conscience. Naruto gave me a message for you. He's okay. He doesn't feel jilted or betrayed and knew all along that he never liked you. So don't feel too bad about it. That's what Naruto told me to tell you, basically." He paused and she smiled in relief.
"It's good to know that I haven't totally messed things up permanently." She sighed. "I would hate to lose you two." His eyes narrowed to slits and he continued, unheeding of what she'd just said.
"I on the other hand think you're a horrible person to have led Naruto on for so long like that when it was obvious to everyone but him that you had no romantic intentions towards him. You might have been forgiven easily by Naruto but I'm a different story. I will never forgive you for what you did to him." She looked saddened for a moment, but she nodded in understanding. Even she had to know there was no forgiveness from the avenger. Naruto was just too nice to her. Always had been.
"Is he there?" She asked softly after reflecting for a moment. Sasuke nodded sharply, his intense dislike for the girl clear in his body language.
"He's sleeping." She smiled serenely at the protective undertones in his voice.
"I'm not surprised he came to you first." She said. "You two are like best friends. Maybe even closer than that. He'd follow you to the ends of the earth without so much as a questioning glance backwards."
"That's not true. He has dreams he has to fulfill and you should know well enough that I'm nothing more than a rival to him." She frowned for a moment, before remembering something the blonde had told her a couple of years ago.
"Do you remember when we were in the forest and we met that old woman who refused to let Naruto into her hut because he was the Kitsune?" He nodded his head, letting her continue, uninterrupted. "And do you remember how I was sent to get him because I was the one he was most likely to listen to..." He nodded again, wondering what she was getting at. "Well we had a talk and he told me that one day I'd have to tell you that you would have had an easier time persuading him to return. Much easier than me. He told me so himself. That he would have rather you came after him when he ran off into the forest."
"He doesn't need me and I don't need him." Sasuke replied stubbornly, still tense from her mere presence.
"He trusts you." She flashed him a genuine smile. "He's your first friend, isn't he? The first person to stay beside you for so long."
"He's my only friend." She nodded and bowed, stepping back.
"I realise I may never be able to win back your trust or your forgiveness, but tell Naruto I said I was sorry." She turned and left.
"You don't deserve him." He muttered under his breath, watching the girl leave. When he closed the door and turned around, he nearly had a heart attack, finding Naruto standing behind him.
"How long have you been behind me?" He asked, a little peeved at being caught so off guard.
"Long enough." The blonde boy grinned and Sasuke knew he'd heard the last part. He was lucky enough that he didn't blush at that knowledge. "Thank you for standing up for me to her. I didn't have it in me to face her so soon. I really appreciate it, but you didn't have to go and tell her you hated her for hurting me."
"But I do." Sasuke replied simply. Naruto laughed nervously before realising he was serious.
"Really?" He nodded.
"You're probably the only person I've allowed myself to become friends with, and I'm not going to give that up just to please some girl."
"But that girl may be the future of your clan."
"I'll find a way around it."
Naruto smiled broadly, catching Sasuke off guard. He sorely wished he had a camera. Never before had he seen such a true smile from the hyper ninja. They were always fakes, but this one was the biggest and truest smile he could have imagined. Smiling softly to himself he walked the boy to the kitchen as he began to complain of hunger and realised he didn't need a camera. He'd remember that moment for the rest of his life and he was happy.
~~~~~~~
I can't believe I did that. Crap. Yet another fusion chapter. I can't believe I've been writing such small pathetic chapter notes. This one took the plans for both chapters 33 and 34, meaning that I'm drastically cutting the amount of chapters this will ultimately have. Even though I'm not even close to being done... I haven't written up chapter notes in a good couple of months and I'm quickly catching up to myself.
One thing to note... The whole SakuNaru 'arc' is now over... and there's only one more chapter I think until I begin the next arc, which deals with the Kyuubi again. The last chapter of this lil arc is a little filler I suppose you could call it. If I had my way I'd call it
"Morning After: Kakashi and Iruka style"
*grins* I'm sure you all can figure out what that implies. Who knows... I may just end up calling it that. KakaIru fans prepare to get your emotions thrown in an emotional blender.
Ja mata