Title- Story of my Life
Chapter 3- Dinner and Introductions
AN- In this story there are only four countries: Leaf, Sand, Mist, and Sound
(Konoha, Suna, Kiro, and Otonin. I think that's the right name for Sound. If not,
tell me, and I'll correct it right away! )
Averaye- Heh heh, wouldn't you like to know? -evil laughter-
Sinha Clan Descendent- I'll try to write long chapters, but I'm not good enough, really
Iceheart19- -pout- Naruto's chat with the ceiling was my favorite part! I have to put some insanity in him!
Yaoilover S- lol Yeah, you never know what might happen in the dark of night...just the two of them...-cackles- I can't believe you're reviewing my story! You've reviewed almost all my favorite stories!! -dies from unbelief- you're like a legend to me...
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He knew the precise psychological moment when to say nothing.
- Oscar Wilde
...You can't blame the innocent, they are always guiltless. All you can do is control them or eliminate them. Innocence is a kind of insanity.
- Graham Green
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"Like this uniform is even any different from my jacket," Naruto muttered as he tugged on the bright orange shirt. "The stupid guards probably wouldn't even notice the difference." Thinking that it was a bit too silent, he looked behind him and saw with shock that Sasuke had just opened the cell door and was gone. "H-hey! Wait up!" He scrambled out of the cell as he ran to catch up to Sasuke. "What's with this prison?" the blonde demanded. "The judge just dragged me to this place without any paper work, then I'm shoved into a cell that you just walk out of when it's dinner time, and the guard doesn't even escort us! What kind of a place is this?"
Sasuke glared at him. "Don't you ever shut up? I can't believe my utterly bad luck," he added. "The first person they put in a cell with me and it has to be some wind-up toy teenager who has tattoos of whiskers on his face. Did you scratch them on because you thought they would make you look tough?" he mocked the blonde. He knew he would regret it later, but there was something about Naruto's cheerful manner that irked him.
At Sasuke's remark about his face, Naruto immediately went from curious to hateful, and he quickly pulled his goggles down over his eyes. "It's none of your business, bastard!" he spat. 'Damn! All I did was ask about the prison and he insults me! Whatta jerk! He doesn't deserve to know how great and famous I am!' With this thought in his head he stormed ahead of his uncaring cell mate, his head held high. He followed the flow of prisoners into the cafeteria.
It was after a few seconds that Naruto realized how lost he really was.
Extremely lost.
Not only lost, but lost in a huge room full of prisoners.
Tattoo-covered, head-shaven, frighteningly buff prisoners.
His huge ego and ability to ignore anyone and everyone were the only things that kept him from running back to his cell (Everyone seemed to stop and stare, glance, or glare at the blonde who had three marks on each cheek and wore goggles over his eyes). Using these abilities of his, he carefully observed the area where he would be eating all his meals for the next ten years. There were four large banners, each one hung over a certain section of the dining hall. A green one that pronounced "Konoha" was spread over the west side, a yellow one with "Suna" on it hung from the south side, a blue one with "Kiro" on it covered the east side, and a black one that read "Otonin" was draped over the north side. 'That's probably where we have to sit,' Naruto mused as he got in the line for dinner. 'I don't see anyone I know...I guess that's a good thing, but I would like to know someone in this hell hole...'
"So you're the foxy thing everyone's talking about," a deep voice interrupted Naruto's thoughts. "Not that bad, I gotta admit."
Naruto turned around and glared at the man behind him. "What was that?"
"You heard me," the man said, a glint in his eye that Naruto immediately recognized. Around his arm was a cloth band with the sign for Sand on it. "You weren't very nice to my friend when he greeted you, you know."
"What, was he that pervert that wanted me to have sex with him?" the blonde snapped back, in his usual blunt manner. "In that case, I should've done more that just flip him off. Since he's in Max, I don't think anyone would miss him, but it is my first day, and first impressions gotta last." He began to turn back around, since it was almost his turn at the counter, but the man grabbed him by the arm and spun him around again.
"Not polite at all," he continued, as if Naruto had never spoken. "We're gonna have to fix that, won't we, boys?" A group of men sauntered over to the line, each one having an evil look on their faces.
Naruto looked around, now frantic. He didn't want to fight- not now, at least. But since he didn't know anyone, how could he... "Haku!" he exclaimed, relief in his voice.
The Sand group froze, and the man went pale. "You're bluffing," he said in a fierce voice, attempting to regain the fear he had seen in Naruto just seconds ago. But it was too late, and Naruto was grinning wildly.
"Haku!! Over here!" he said again, this time in a louder voice.
A young man with long black hair that looked remarkably like a young woman stopped serving food to the inmates. He was sweating slightly, and his hair was pulled back and held there in a hair net. Wiping his hands on his dirty apron, and stared in shock at the blonde. "Naruto?" he asked, hesitantly but delighted. "What are you doing here?"
"Just came for a visit," he told Haku cheerfully, slowly backing away from the men that were also slowly backing up.
Noticing the men that surrounded Naruto, Haku smiled softly and twirled a toothpick between his thumb and forefinger. "I bet they were just about to leave. After all, no seconds, gentlemen," he scolded gently.
"Any problems over here, ladies?" A guard walked over, and Naruto shuddered just looking at him. He was taller than all the prisoners, and had large, sinewy muscles. "You know how much fun I have breaking up fights."
"Everything is fine, Zabuza-sama," Haku said, smiling. He was still twirling his toothpick. "I was just explaining to these men about how seconds on their meals."
"W-we were just leaving," stuttered the man who had first walked up to Naruto. The others nodded energetically, and they all went back to their seats pale and nervous.
Haku looked up at Zabuza, the smile still on his face. "That was nice of you," he said absently to Zabuza as he put the toothpick down and returned to his job of serving the food, "but you know I have more sense than to harm them in public. I would have done it a much sneakier way."
The guard just shrugged. "You always have to get yourself into Seperation, don't you?"
"Only because you're the only one that works there," Haku told him sweetly.
"H-haku, you know him?!?" Naruto yelped, smacking a hand to his forehead.
His friend just sighed. "Don't act so shocked. He's the only descent guard in this prison." (He ignored Zabuza's remark of, "You only think so because I got you this job, and because we play poker in Seperation.") "And speaking of shock, how did you get in here?" Haku demanded. "You were the most careful one of our gang. How did you get caught? And why did you put your goggles on? Those men were powerful-looking, yes, but I didn't see you get angry."
"To question number one, the biggest screw-up of my life," Naruto muttered sullenly, tugging his goggles back up on top of his head. "To question number two, I have the most arrogant bastard in the entire world as a cell mate! You of all people know how I get around jerks like that."
"What did you do to get in the same cell as Uchiha Sasuke?" Haku asked absentmindedly as he scooped soup into a bowl for the blonde.
Naruto's grin returned to his face and his face lit up with excitement. "I am now the most famous jail breaker in all of Konoha," he said proudly. "And speaking of that, I don't want no one to know who I am."
Haku raised his eyebrows. "While in Demons you never had a problem telling people your accomplishments," he remarked. "What happened?"
The blonde bared his teeth. "I want to make some enemies, then have them cower at my feet when they discover how wonderful, stratigic, and powerful I am!"
Haku sweatdropped. 'Different actions, same reason.' "So what do I call you?"
"Why don't you call me Kyuubi? Y'know, my codename from Demons?" Naruto said eagerly.
Okay, time for some explinations. When we were younger, Naruto and I were in a gang that called themselves The Demons. It held kids from all over the four countries. We all had different names for each other that had to do with certian mythological creatures that matched our personalities in some way. Kyuubi was Naruto's because of his quick temper and the marks on his cheeks. Siren was mine because I was a deadly killer and I could fool my prey. I hate my real name, because it reminds me of my parents. Eventually I was caught, however, and in fear of using my Demons name and getting the gang captured I once again became Haku.
'He really likes this no-name thing...a bit too much.' Haku thought dryly, but smiled at Naruto. "Alright. I'll talk to you later- I have a job to do."
Naruto picked up his tray, which now held a bowl of soup, a plate with some kind of beef on it, a bread roll, and a glass of water. "Okay. Bye, Haku!" He strolled down past the tables, looking for a place to sit, when he heard someone yelling.
"Hey! Hey, Kid! Blondie! Short blondie! Short blondie teenager! Kid! Over here!"
Naruto looked around for the owner of the voice, and saw a man with wild brown hair and red streaks down the sides of his face waving at him. Naruto walked quickly over to the table, and the man grinned at him. "You're the new kid, right? Sit down!"
"He barely looks fifteen," remarked a lanky eighteen-year-old who currently was leaning back in his chair, put his feet on the table, and his hands behind his head. His charcoal black hair was pulled back in a tiny ponytail, and he eyed Naruto with bored, half-lidded black eyes.
"I'm almost seventeen!" Naruto protested.
A man with strangely white eyes and long hair pulled back in an extremely low ponytail glared at him, as he took a bite of beef. "Whatever your age is, you're still younger than us," he informed Naruto.
"Neji, be polite!" Naruto sweatdropped as he studied this new person's black bowl cut and huge eyebrows. "He is probably frightened and afraid for his life!" The strange man said happily, giving Naruto a thumb's up.
"You have huge eyebrows!" Naruto remarked, staring at them. "Are they alive?"
The wild man laughed. "Haha! Yeah, Lee, he's really scared! Hey kid, what's your name?"
"Will you stop calling me kid?!"
"Alright then, shorty!"
"Just because you're freakishly huge doesn't mean-"
"Freakishly huge?! You're a bit short for your age, midget!!"
"Will you two stop?" the bored person asked irritably. "Honestly, you two are such a pain in the ass. I'm Nara Shikamaru," he told Naruto. "The noisy one next to you is Inuzuka Kiba, the one with living eyebrows is Rock Lee, and that's Hyuuga Neji."
"What'd you get in for?" Neji questioned him.
'Dang, his eyes are just as blank as Sasuke's...' Naruto thought with a chill. "Robbery," he said outloud.
Kiba recovered from fights just as quickly as Naruto did, and demanded, "Wait a minute. What'd ya steal to get into a cell with the Uchiha Sasuke? Gold? Diamonds? High-tech computer programs?"
"Whadya mean?" Naruto asked him, confused.
"Here they place you in cells determined by the severity of your crime," Lee told him. He seemed to have forgotten Naruto's joke about his eyebrows. "Like me. I'm in for scamming people. I'm in a cell with Neji, who printed conterfeit money. Kiba and Shikamaru are in the same cell because Shikamaru was a major computer hacker and Kiba was a jewelery thief."
"So, what'd ya steal?" Kiba repeated.
Naruto grinned. "A cup of ramen!" Then he began on his soup, starving.
The group went silent.
SLURP.
"A cup...of ramen." Shikamaru repeated, actually looking shocked.
"Yep!" Naruto beamed at him. "That was good soup, wasn't it? That beef looks good."
Silence.
BITE
CRUNCH
CRUNCH
CRUNCH
"The beef's pretty good too," he told them.
"You've gotta be joking!" Kiba yelled, pounding his hand on the table. "You're in the same cell as Uchiha because you stole noodles?! How can that measure up to his crime?! Unless it was the king's ramen, which it probably wasn't! Do you even know what he did?!"
"No. What did the bastard do?" Naruto stared at Kiba. "I have no clue!"
Silence once more filled the air, only to be broken by the gentle sound of Shikamaru banging his head on the table repeatedly.
BANG
"You mean you've never heard about the Uchiha massacre?"
BANG
"Nope. Hey, this roll is pretty good, too! You guys got a great chef!"
BANG
"Where were you four years ago?" Neji demanded to know.
BANG
Naruto thought hard. "Um...four years ago...I was thirteen...oh! I was working on the docks."
BANG
"Um, Shikamaru, you might want to stop," Lee told him nerviously.
The young man sighed and rubbed his forehead. "You give me a headache, Kid," he told Naruto dryly.
"And that's what happens when you bang your head on the table!" Naruto announced in a tone like a show host's, waving his glass of water in the air. "See you next time on 'Stupid People and the Things They Do!'"
Neji sighed and also rubbed his temples. "How long will you be here? Five days? A week? A month?"
"Ten years."
Silence.
"You guys can get really quiet. Do you know that?" Naruto told them cheerfully. "Hey Neji, you gonna eat your soup?"
Neji's thoughts: He's already asking for food, and I barely know him. I can't believe I have to put up with ten more years of this.
Kiba's thoughts: He's in a cell with Uchiha, and he only stole a cup of ramen! I'm a way better thief than him! And I'm gonna have to spend ten more years with him?!
Shikamaru's thoughts: I ask for quiet. I beg for peace. What do I get? A loud, hyper blonde teenager. Unless he gets transferred, there's not gonna be peace around here for ten more years.
Lee's thoughts: Yes! Another person to spar with! Even if he does mock my eyebrows, I shall make him regret it! The next ten years will be wonderful!
Naruto's thoughts: This soup is really good...
