Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto (sadface).
It had taken several days to arrive at the Hidden Village of Mist. Normal protocol required ninja to sign in with their client upon arrival, but since this mission relied on stealth, the five teammates remained outside of the gates. They were deciding the best way to split up. Naruto was pushing to be put with Sasuke. Oh, the things he had planned for the Uchiha! Sakura, however, could see the evil gleam in the blond boy's eye and was not letting up.
"Naruto, don't be stupid. Sasuke and I will take the north entrance while you, Kiba and Akamaru watch the south entrance. It just makes sense, because Sasuke can use his Sharingan to notice anything strange here while I help him replenish his chakra, and you can use Kiba's hearing and smell to track on the smaller entrance!"
Not only could Naruto not argue, but Sasuke seemed to be all for this plan as well. Kiba, on the other hand, did not look pleased about being stuck with Konoha's number one noisy ninja. With his sensitive hearing, Naruto's loud voice often gave him a headache, and Akamaru always complained that the boy had a strange smell to him.
"Ok, it is settled then. Sasuke and I set up here while you two move around to the other side. It is still a day's walk at least. Oh, and don't forget to use your headsets, OK? We need to be in constant contact, so one of you needs to charge his while the other listens on his own. That way one is constantly in use and they never lose power. Naruto, Kiba, Akamaru-- get going!"
Naruto and Kiba began to walk off, Akamaru running ahead. Both were disappointed, but for completely different reasons. Naruto had planned so many things for Sasuke to do, and now he would just have to make Kiba do them. It could be fun, he guessed, just not as much as watching that egotistical jerk Sasuke answer to his every whim. Dog boy had better not get an attitude or open that big mouth of his, or Naruto would make him sorry.
Kiba was so angry. Everything was going wrong in every possible way. First, he was separated from his team. Shino and Hinata knew him, and they worked so well together, and now they weren't here to help him. Second, he was a genin, and it was all Sasuke's fault. And now, as if he hadn't been through enough, he was forced to work alone with that baka, Naruto, while Sasuke and Sakura were probably getting it on in the woods. Kiba had no real proof that Sakura and Sasuke were fucking, in fact, she had stopped seeming interested in the Uchiha, but that didn't matter—Kiba just knew that if his luck was this bad, then Sasuke would get his chuunin title back just for having sex with Sakura. What an asshole.
A month had gone by with nothing exciting to note as far as the mission went. What there was to note was Kiba's growing frustration and desperation for the mission to be over. He and Akamaru were so tired of Naruto and his whims that Kiba was beginning to wonder exactly how much trouble he would get in if he fought the other boy. He knew it would mean not getting his chuunin title back, of course, but if that was all, then attacking Naruto almost seemed worth it.
It had started with little things, like Naruto making Kiba cook all the food. Then Kiba was forced to keep everything neat, which was difficult because Naruto was such a slob. He had to make Akamaru sleep outside the tent because "the dog's smell" bothered the blond ninja. Though Aka understood, Kiba got the feeling that the dog held some resentment against his master. In fact, he and Aka had their first fight, and it had been vicious. It was raining but Naruto required firewood, even though they couldn't start a fire in all the wetness. It was just a way to make Kiba cold and wet. Kiba and Aka had been trudging through shrubbery when Kiba had slipped, accidentally hitting Aka on his way down. The normally compassionate dog had actually snapped at Kiba! Aka had never done that sort of thing before, and when Kiba had called him on it, the dog actually began to bark that the whole mission was Kiba's fault for talking back to Sasuke. Defensive, Kiba had pointed out that if Aka hadn't attacked Sasuke, none of this would have happened. Aka called Kiba weak, and had pointed out thatKiba was the one who had passed out, requiring Sasuke's help. The words had kept escalating and eventually blows were thrown.
When Kiba and Aka had actually made it back to the campsite, they were bloody, sore, wet, cold and bitter. And they had forgotten firewood, which caused Naruto to pull out that damned notebook of his and give them "demerits."
The notebook. Every time Kiba did something wrong, which really just meant that every time Kiba didn't do everything Naruto said, the notebook came out and Naruto would write something down, letting Kiba know he was heading into permanent "genin-ville, population: Kiba." Fortunately, the blond ninja did it for Sasuke as well. Several times Naruto had needed to run to the other camp, either to pick up supplies or write up a report with Sakura. Each time Naruto returned, stormy look on his face, muttering comments about the Uchiha's attitude and "hundreds of demerits." Those were Kiba's favorite days, if he could have favorites with all the misery he was in.
"Baka, I am tired, get your dog to catch us some food." Naruto's voice was irritating and condescending. Kiba knew Naruto wasn't tired—they had spent the entire day as still as possible, listening and watching the road. It was the same as everyday, and by the end of it both boys, who were naturally energetic, were so full of pent-up steam that Kiba usually needed to go run laps in the forest with Aka. Naruto just went back to camp and sat around, waiting for Kiba to cook dinner. Naruto, in all his power-glory, was forgetting to train, and Kiba took a small bit of pleasure in the fact that the other boy's orange jumpsuit was fitting a little more snug around the middle.
"We have food here, I will fix it." Kiba wanted to add, "and later, would you like me to wipe your ass for you after your nightly shit," but he didn't because he was afraid Naruto might actually make him do it. It disgusted Kiba that he had spent enough time with the other boy that he knew Naruto's shit schedule. Life couldn't get much lower.
The weeks were flying by for Sasuke. He and Sakura had settled into a quiet routine of waking, watching the road in shifts, eating and sleeping. He would watch during the busy parts of the day, and when he had exhausted his Sharingan looking for strange chakras, Sakura would use her medic skills to infuse his body with her own cool chakra, replenishing him. He liked those times in the day, when he could close his eyes and feel her energy running through him. He knew it was calming for her as well.
Sasuke was glad that Sakura had not let his kiss or their failed relationship mess up their friendship all those years ago. He had known she was in love with them since the academy and when he had finally returned to Konoha after his ordeal with Orochimaru, he had needed someone to be near. Sasuke knew he had used Sakura for his own emotional needs, and eventually the guilt had caused him to kiss her—he had felt like he needed to pay her back. But the kiss was lackluster for him, and she knew he wasn't really into it. Any other girl would have taken the heartache and used it to hate him, but Sakura had just accepted that, even then, he couldn't return her feelings of love. Since then, the two of them were friends, just friends, and it was enough for both of them.
Sakura's friendship didn't change the loneliness that Sasuke felt all them time, and the frustration that loneliness caused. He had watched for years as everyone dated, hooked up and broke-up, envious of the companionship his fellow ninjas were finding. Even Kiba, for a while, had dated several pretty girls that Sasuke knew had, at one point, had a crush on him before Kiba. Then again, Kiba had recently stopped dating,but Sasuke just assumed it was to train. Still, Sasuke was jealous of the relationships and intimacies that Kiba had shared with the girls while Sasuke hadn't.
For all his life, Sasuke had strived to be great at everything he did. With a prodigy brother like Itachi, it hadn't been easy. Itachi had always been number one, had excelled at everything. When Itachi murdered the entire Uchiha clan, Sasuke had felt he needed to be better than Itachi, be the very best, at everything he did so that one day he could kill his brother.
Relationships, however, seemed to be the one area Sasuke was far behind everyone else. It wasn't as if he hadn't tried, because he had. With so many of the village girls in love with him, it wasn't hard to find one to date. The girl had moved fast and, before he had known it, they were in her bedroom. It was his first time, sure, but he had thought he knew what he was doing after listening to Shikamaru and Naruto trade stories. However, when he finished, not only did he not feel remotely satisfied, but he could tell by the look of struggling disbelief that the girl was very, very unsatisfied at well. The embarrassment at not only not being good, but being bad at sex, something supposed to be natural for everyone, had shamed Sasuke so much that he had been unable to perform in the bedroom after. There was a rumor that he had slept with tons of girls and left them crying in the morning. Well, he had tried to sleep with some, and when he couldn't get aroused he left them in tears—and unsatisfied. So Sasuke had given up on dating. This made for life full of solitude in the village.
It was that solitude that made him even more grateful for Sakura's friendship. Out here with her now, he felt almost happy, though something was missing and he wasn't sure what it was. Well, that and the fact that every now and then Naruto showed up. Naruto would waltz into camp, noisy and rude despite the fact that the camp needed to remain secret, demanding absurd things from Sasuke. Once, he had even asked Sasuke to rub his feet, going so far as to take off his sandals and plop his smelly feet on Sasuke's lap!
Fortunately, Sakura had shown up and beat up Naruto for Sasuke. Naruto had stormed back to his camp, muttering something about "demerits."
Aside from that baka Naruto, with the way things were going, Sasuke knew this mission would be over, he would be a chuunin again and all of this would become a bad dream.