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Chapter 3 - 'A Bad Morning'
A/N:Azamiko - I'm glad you like my Sasuke. He's my favorite character, so that means a lot to me. And I completely agree with what you said about people protraying him from one extremity to another. Sasuke is complex, and it's hard to get him. So people need to stop generalizing his character and turning him into a total jerk/emotionally damaged psycho/sex-crazed seme. It makes me want to cry.
xXxDeadOnArrivalxXx - this fanfic has been made possible from views like YOU.
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Naruto woke up to a dry mouth, slight headache, and a small sense of disorientation. Sunlight was streaming into his room, casting its golden rays directing into his eyes as if to say get up you lazy ass . Naruto groaned, rubbed his eyes, and obliged the rude light, pushing his blanket off him.
When he stepped out of bed, his toe made hard impact with a trashcan. He did a short dance around his room, cursing trashcans from all over the world and finally made himself over to the bathroom adjacent to his bedroom. His toe throbbed as he focused on putting toothpaste on his toothbrush. His teeth felt wooly and it was the greatest relief at that moment to brush it all away. Once he was finished, he cupped his hands and splashed some of the water into his face to wake himself up. It was at that moment that memories of the night before began to make their way sluggishly back to him. He stood there, hands cupped inches from his face, and stared into the mirror at his red-rimmed eyes. Finally...
"I'm going to kill Shikamaru!" he swore fiercely.
He left the bathroom in a huff, thoughts of Sasuke drifting idly in his brain along with the faint notion of making some breakfast. He was thankfully lacking in a major hangover. Typically after such a heavy night of drinking, he doesn't want food for hours, but right then his stomach was growling and the prospect of eggs and bacon or better yet ramen began to overtake the more unpleasant ones of Sasuke.
That is, until he discovered the raven-headed jounin asleep on his couch. The murderous sound he made woke up any of his next door neighbors that might have been sleeping in. It certainly woke up Sasuke.
"You! YOOU! What are you doing here!" Naruto shouted with a dramatic finger point at Sasuke.
Sasuke, who had shot up into a sitting position with a wild look in his eye after the first shriek, sank back down once he realized who it was. "God, you're loud," he muttered. He drapped his arm over his eyes and tried to sleep again.
"Excuse me! I- You-... GET OUT OF MY APARTMENT!" Naruto commanded.
"Make me," drawled Sasuke, turning his back to Naruto.
In hindsight, that was probably a bad thing for him to say to Naruto, who always did take things too literally. After a quick shout of Kage Bunshin no Jitsu Sasuke found himself being attacked by six Naruto's who were all very determined to throw him off of the couch.
Sasuke's hand instantly found Naruto's weapon pack that was still sitting on the couch. He took out a knife and deflected four of the Naruto clones with loud 'POOFS.' Sharingan blazing, he turned to the remaining two and glared daggers from the couch cushions he was now standing on.
"I love how you repay me for helping you out last night," he said sarcastically.
"Helping out my ass! I had everything under control!"
"You could barely stand," Sasuke retorted. "If you're not going to drink responsibly, Naruto. You really shouldn't drink at all."
"Don't lecture me, asshole. What do you know about it, anyway? I bet you've never partied in your life!"
"Damnit!" Sasuke cursed. "It's too early for this!" With a flick of Sasuke's wrist, the last Naruto clone let out a shout and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The thrown shuriken went clattering to the floor next to an old ramen cup.
An uneasy silence fell between them as both boys glared at each other, too stubborn to back down. Finally Sasuke shifted his weight on the couch and jumped off it. He kicked the ramen cup out of his way. "I'm out of here!" he announced.
"Good!" Naruto said vehemently.
Sasuke scowled and stalked past Naruto to the door. He opened and slammed it shut behind him, shaking the few pictures Naruto had hung on the walls.
"Jerk," Naruto muttered to the air angrily.
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It was a bright afternoon and from where Ino sat she had a perfect view of Shikamaru and Chouji in the window of the barbeque resturant. She reasoned with herself that this was pure coincidence that Sakura and her had chosen to sit down and talk at such a strategic point and tried not to glance too often over at the window or to smirk whenever Chouji got a rise out of Shikamaru. Instead, she focused dully on Sakura's large forehead with her hand cupping her chin trying to fake interest in the new gossip about Sasuke... only it wasn't Sasuke this time she suddenly realized. Ino zoned back in with a startled blink.
"What was that about Kakashi?" she asked. Somewhere along the line Sakura's endless chatter had taken a turn to something besides for her handsome teammate.
"He's been assigned a mission with me, Sasuke, and Naruto next month," Sakura repeated excitedly. "I think it's some kind of guard work."
"Guard work? That doesn't sound too exciting," Ino commented. She had been assigned guard duty for a whole fortnight last summer to one of Konoha's towers and had found it the most boring job ever.
"But don't you see?" Sakura said. "I'll finally get to go on a mission with Sasuke and Naruto again. It's been months! What, with them being in ANBU all the time and me stuck behind my desk work with the Hokage..."
There was definite bitterness in Sakura's voice when she said this and Ino understood it all too well. Sakura was a born fighter, and she hated intensely not being equal with her teammates. Ino didn't bother trying to point out that Sasuke and Naruto i were /i after all two of the best shinobi of their age group, and it wasn't like Sakura challenging herself to succeed up to their standards was an easy quest.
It was a good thing, Ino reasoned, that Sakura wasn't proned to bouts of self-pity. She was justified, no doubt, but Ino had no patience for crybabies or "girls." Besides, Sakura was fast becoming a powerful ninja, too. She had already made it to chunnin level, and with all the training she was receiving from Shizune, Ino wouldn't be surprised to see her taking the Jounin exam soon.
"Sounds like a real opportunity, then," Ino agreed. She then remembered something. "Me and my team are going out soon, too."
"Yeah?"
Before she could complete her thought, Ino glanced back over at the barbeque restaurant and noticed someone else had joined Shikamaru and Chouji. He had familiar blonde hair and looked to be upset about something. "Geez, what is that idiot doing now?" she asked more to herself then to Sakura.
"What?" Sakura looked over to where Ino was watching. "Hey, isn't that Naruto?"
At that moment Shikamaru put up his hands in a clear sign of surrender. Naruto was hovering over him, legs locked, and fist balled with his mouth moving rapidly. Shikamaru had one eyebrow scrunched down and half his mouth turned in a lopsided frown. Meanwhile, Chouji motioned for the waiter to bring another helping of meat.
"He seems really upset about something," Sakura said with worry.
"Ah, he's probably just pissed off about something that happened last night," Ino said with a shrug. "He and Shikamaru went to the bar I heard. Probably drank himself stupid again."
"Should we maybe go in and see if we can intervene?"
"No way. It's not our fight."
Luckily, they didn't have to worry about what to do because Naruto was already storming away. He burst out the front doors of the restaurant and started down the road in front of Ino and Sakura in a fast walk. Sakura waved over at him.
"Hey, Naruto!" she called sweetly.
Naruto looked up from the ground and over at Sakura. He broke out into a reluctant smile. "Oh, hey, Sakura-chan."
"What were you talking to Shikamaru about?" Sakura asked as Naruto approached them.
Naruto looked over his shoulder and stopped smiling. "Oh, nothing. Just stuff." He kicked a stray pebble in the road and watched it bounce off the fence it hit.
"You look down," Sakura observed. "Something the matter?"
Naruto made a neutral sound in the back of his throat. His stance reminded Ino suddenly of Sasuke. That, and how silent he was being. Something really must be wrong to silence the great loud mouth Naruto.
Sakura must've sensed this too. She shot Ino an apologetic glance. "Hey, Ino. I'm going to go ahead and head home. We'll talk a bit later, okay?" She pushed herself off the ground and stood as she said that.
Ino tried not to seem too disappointed. "No problem."
Sakura looped her arm through Naruto's much to the surprise of the glum ninja and her best friend. "See you around then," she called, forcing Naruto to walk with her.
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Sakura waited until they were over a block away before asking Naruto again what was wrong. "Don't pretend that something isn't up, Naruto. I know you too well for that," she warned.
She had let go of his arm by now and he had his hands stuffed deep in his pockets.
"I'm just so pissed off right now," Naruto admitted. "It's bad enough that I have to be on missions with that egomaniac, but then he had the balls to bring me home last night after I, well..."
"Got shit-faced drunk?" Sakura ventured to guess.
Naruto sighed. "Yeah, I guess you could call it that."
"But what's wrong with that?" she asked. "I mean, I know you two aren't friends anymore as much as I'd like you to be, but you shouldn't begrudge Sasuke for taking care of you."
"You don't get it, though!" said Naruto. "Sasuke had no right to interfere. I mean, he ditches us for Orochimaru and then he just expects us to... accept him back with open arms? He knows that I don't want to be friends again."
"So you're mad for him helping you out?" Sakura didn't bother to hide her disbelief. After all, Naruto could be a bit childish sometimes.
"It's not just that! I'm mad that he treats me like an idiot. I'm mad that he calls me 'usurantonkachi' still. I'm mad at how condescending he is whenever we're on a mission. I'm mad because he talks hardly at all, except when he insults me. I'm mad that he spent the night at my apartment. I'm mad that-"
"He spent the night at your apartment?" Sakura interrupted.
Naruto reddened. "Yeah. On my couch! Which means I'm going to have to flip the cushions over now. I can only imagine how badly they must reek of him."
Sakura was tempted to comment on how immature Naruto sounded right now. "Why did he sleep on your couch?" she asked.
Naruto ruffled the back of his head. "I dunno! I guess he was too lazy to walk home or something, though it would've taking him, like, five minutes tops. The bum."
"Maybe he wanted to make sure you were alright," Sakura suggested.
This didn't help Naruto's mood. "Oh, please! This is Sasuke we're talking about. That jerk's only concerned about one person. Him. And I'm more then justified in saying that!"
"Well, if you want my opinion, I think you're over reacting. In fact, you should apologize."
"Apologize!" shouted Naruto in disbelief. "For what? You don't even know what happened!"
"I have a pretty good idea," Sakura stated dryly. "Instead of waiting for an explanation or thanking Sasuke, you yelled yourself horse at him, call him an asshole, no doubt, and made him leave. Is that about right?"
"...but he is and asshole!" Naruto protested.
Sakura sighed. "This conversation is going no where." Her voice then softened. "Listen, Naruto, you have every right to hate him, and if I had been in your shoes when he did what he did, I might not like him, too. But there's no reason for you not to act civil around him."
Naruto's shoulders slumped. "You just don't understand."
"Apparently not, but hey," Sakura slapped Naruto lightly on the back. "Maybe later this evening you and I can go grab something to eat with Ino and the gang. Get this whole thing out of your mind. Sound fun?"
Naruto brightened. "R-Really?"
"Yeah, sure. Why not?"
"Can we call it a date?"
"Mmmmmm... No."
"Awww!" Naruto made a dramatic show of disappointment that Sakura laughed at.
Meanwhile, in the trees nearby, they both of were unaware of someone watching them with a angry frown on his face.
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TBC...
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