00.26
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto yet, but I'm working on Sasuke at the moment.
The next morning Sakura woke up blushing and breathing
heavily. She just had a dream... about Naruto.
'Wha... what was that about?' she thought as she sat
up, bringing her knees protectively to her chest. 'Why
did I have a dream about that goof-off? I usually have
good dreams about Ino or Sasuke-kun or my parents...'
She shook her head. 'This is silly--I should get out
of bed and clear my head up.' The pink-haired girl
rose and stripped off her night gown and took a towel
to the bathroom. Turning on the shower, she ran a
brush through her hair while she waited for the water
to heat. 'What a weird dream...' Sakura thought as
she put down the brush, 'I thought...'
She shut her eyes as she let the water run over her,
replaying the dream in her mind.
((flashback))
DREAM
((end flashback))
Sakura stepped out of the shower, wrapping her hair up
after drying off. "Naruto seemed so... so...
different in that dream," she murmured to herself as
she pulled fresh clothes on, "he was like how he was
yesterday. It was... very cool." Shaking out her
hair, she ran a brush through the wet pink strands,
and once they were knot-free, she headed downstairs.
"Mom, I'm going out for breakfast," she called as she
headed for the door.
"All right," said her mother, "take care!"
"I will, mom," Sakura replied as she opened the door.
"GOOD MORNING!"
Sakura blinked several times before realizing she had
a beaming blonde boy in her doorway. "Naruto?" she
asked curiously, tilting her head to the side, "what
are you doing outside my house?" Naruto grinned. "I
just wanted to see if Sakura-chan had eaten breakfast
already, and if she was interested in eating it with
me?"
Sakura thought about it. "Well, where were you
planning on eating?"
Naruto's eyes bulged. 'She's--she's considering it?
This could be a... a...' "...a date!" Naruto
whispered to himself, eyes turning into hearts as
Sakura looked at him funny. "Naruto?"
The blonde snapped out of it. 'That's right--date!
Can't let this get away!'
"Well, I'll have you know that I was planning on going
to Misa's Cafe this morning." Sakura's eyes widened.
"What? You mean that cute little breakfast and lunch
cafe that opened up just three months ago? I've never
been!" she exclaimed, "That's awesome Naruto! Why
don't we invite Sasuke-kun and Tohru-kun, too? And
DJ?" Naruto blushed and scratched the back of his
head.
"Eh-heh-heh... I ... I was kinda hoping that it
could just be... y'know... the two of us?"
Sakura's excitement ebbed. "Oh?" Naruto nodded.
"Yeah, because I can only afford to pay for so many
people... and with Misa's Cafe being so expensive and
all that..." He shifted on his feet, flushing a bit.
"...I'd hate to have to ask the others to pitch in
for paying."
Sakura looked at Naruto in disbelief. "You mean you'd
pay for the food?"
Naruto sweatdropped. "I'm not that bad, am I?"
Sakura smiled. "Well... most of the time," she said in
a sing-song voice, skipping down towards the corner.
Naruto stared after her blushing, and then realized he
was being left behind, and ran to catch up with her.
00.27
Sasuke was up at the time he usually rose, despite the
wounds from the day before. With a grunt, he pulled
himself out of the bed and pulled on a pair of shorts
and sandals before there was a sound at his window. He
let the window open, and Kakashi put his head in.
"Good to see you're up and looking chipper this
morning," he said happily, "I don't have anything to
do for us to day, so don't bother coming to the
bridge. You can see what the others are up to,
though." Sasuke nodded, wondering about the red
hand-shaped imprint on his teacher's face, but said
nothing about it. Kakashi beamed at his student and
disappeared, leaving Sasuke to wonder how he was going
to fill the remainder of his morning.
After grabbing two pork buns, Sasuke wandered about
the village, catching a glimpse of his other teammates
at a small cafe, eating and arguing. DJ and Tohru were
understandably absent. 'DJ's probably still sleeping,'
he thought as his feet took him wherever, 'and Tohru's
probably being flattered into making her food.' He
glanced up as he walked, wondering where he'd ended
up. To his slight surprise, Lee was coming straight at
him, possibly over 65 mph. He watched, slightly
fascinated as the boy came to a dime-halt some five
feet from his personal space.
"SASUKE-KUN! How wonderful!"
Before Sasuke could hope to discover what was
wonderful about nearly being run over by a green blur
of grins and corniness, Lee had dragged him out to the
training grounds. The Uchiha heir stared at Lee and
yanked his hand away as Gai appeared.
"Wonderful! This is truly excellent, Lee, that you
found Uchiha-kun! For now, we can evenly group off and
spar in perfect pairs!"
Before Sasuke could ask if he had a choice in the
matter, Neji Hyuuga was declared his 'glorious partner
of youth', and the stoic nin nodded, taking Sasuke by
the shoulder and dragging him away from the sparkling
grin that had blinded his unfortunate age-mate.
Once they were far enough away from the others, and
Gai's blazing grin of paralyzing/blinding doom, Neji
released Sasuke and the black-eyed gennin dropped on
his ass, eyes wide and still holding a half-eaten pork
bun. Neji eyed him curiously. "Lee pulled you off the
street, didn't he?" Sasuke could only nod, the
situation having taken place too quickly for him to
really realize what had happened. The Hyuuga buried
his face in a hand. "That idiot..." Sasuke shrugged,
thinking of Naruto.
"There's one in every crowd. You learn to love 'em."
Neji nodded absently, then sat down next to Sasuke. "I
heard about what happened yesterday."
"How?"
"Gai-sensei walked in while Kakashi was relaying it to
Hokage-sama. He's sworn us all to secrecy, but I'm
more concerned about him blabbing." Sasuke nodded,
still tense. Neji paused, looking down at his lap. "I
don't ... know much about your family," he said
softly, gaze drifting away from Sasuke, "and I don't
want to be intrusive..." The white-eyed boy paused
again, and turned back to Sasuke. "I don't want to ask
... unless it won't bother you."
"You don't want to spar?" Sasuke asked, curious. Neji
smirked. "Gai also overheard the extent of your
injuries," he replied, nodding at Sasuke's stomach
where Itachi had winded him the day before. Sasuke's
free hand went to his stomach, eyes cast on the
ground. Neji realized that he'd touched on a taboo
subject. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine," Sasuke said, looking up. "I want to get
stronger... to avenge my clan, and so I can prove to
myself that I haven't wasted the past nine years of my
life." Neji looked at him for a while in the silence
that followed. For some reason, the white eyed boy's
gaze didn't bother Sasuke as much as it should have.
"Hey," Neji said after a few minutes, "did you sustain
any other injuries?" Sasuke shook his head.
"No. Thank you." Not satisfied, Neji activated his
Byakugan. Sasuke squirmed under the all-seeing gaze as
Neji bent closer, scrutinizing the extent of the wound
and of Sasuke's words. "I'm fine," he insisted, Neji
de-activating his eyes as Sasuke's hand fell on his
shoulder. The black-haired boy paused as he realized
that Neji was well within his personal bubble. In
fact, the other boy had been beside him for more than
a few minutes. Sasuke flushed slightly as Neji moved
closer, a bandaged hand reaching out to brush along
his chin and neckline. "I'm fine, Neji. Really,"
Sasuke said softly, eyes gazing anywhere but Neji's
face. The Hyuuga didn't respond for a moment, studying
the other boy. Then, without much warning, he leaned
forwards and planted a gentle, chaste kiss on Sasuke's
lips. The pork bun dropped unceremoniously to the
ground and stayed there. Neji pulled back and looked
over Sasuke's stunned face, taking note of the slight
coloring of his cheeks, and then stood. "I'll tell
Gai-sensei you're not up to sparring," Neji said as he
walked away. Sasuke sat back, looking at nothing in
particular, a hand on his mouth and after a while he
decided to go find lunch.
The pork bun lay forgotten on the training grounds.
00.28
DJ blinked her eyes open. "I smell no food," she said
to herself as she sat up, clad in only undergarments
and a large T shirt. About to call forth the glorious
deity of the kitchen, DJ recalled the previous day's
encounter with Itachi, and decided that this would be
a good time to change the sheets on her bed and the
towels in the bathroom (a relatively simple and quiet
task). She got out of bed and pulled the pillow
covering off her own pillow and the sheets from her
bed. Kakashi tapped on the window to let her know that
he was there. He sat, perplexed, as DJ walked back and
forth in a large T shirt, totally ignoring him, and
performing what appeared to be some kind of morning
chore. He tapped again, louder. DJ didn't look up from
her job as a clone appeared silently by the window,
opening the glass. "What do you want?" she hissed
through clenched teeth. "Just checking in," Kakashi
said. "Well Tohru's trying to recover from yesterday,"
DJ hissed venomously, "ever give that a thought?"
Suddenly, from his left, Kakshi heard a rustling, and
the clone dissolved. Tohru, clad only in
undergarments, rose halfway out of bed and looked
around.
"Mmm... DJ? Up so early... G'morning,
Kakashi-sensei..."
Suddenly, Tohru tore the covers off her bed, wrapped
herself in them, and beamed the silver-haired jounin
with a book lying near her bed.
"PERVERT -- Kakashi-sensei!" DJ looked over at the
two and then made a noise of interest.
CRACK
The sound of a slap echoed for miles.
"...I also wanted to let you know that we have no
missions today," Kakashi said, nursing the red hand
print on his cheek, half covered by the face mask. DJ
looked at the carpet beneath the window.
"Oh my," she said, only slightly interested, "somehow
a small pool of blood has developed beneath the
windowsill..."
Only moments later, a silver topped blurr was ejected
from the building, a thin trail of blood in his path
as the cry of "PERVERT!" thundered from the house.
00.29
Kurai and the three sand siblings walked the streets
of Konoha in the early mornings. The brown-skinned boy
was walking behind the two older sand siblings when
the eldest pointed to a shop and Tenmari wandered off
towards it, waving. The three left continued on
together for a while, admiring Konoha's shops and
stores as they began to open for business on a rather
relaxed day. Silence reigned, but a comfortable
silence. They enjoyed each other's company, with the
occasional comment on the repetitive leaf symbol upon
every single shop, or how things seemed different from
home. Light began to fill the streets, and stores
continued to open, like flowers opening to welcome the
sun's rays. Further up the streets, Kankuro spotted a
small dark dusty magazine shop and excused himself
from the group to investigate. That left Kurai with
Gaara. The two walked on, not much else to do. The two
red heads glanced at various stores and some cafes,
enjoying their scenic morning route. Without warning
or words at all, Gaara suddenly turned and walked over
to a restaurant. In the window, one of the girls from
yesterday was sitting. Kurai walked on alone, taking
out a cigarette and lighting it. He passed several old
women with woven baskets, out to be the first at the
market that morning. He nodded at them all as he
passed, their wrinkled old faces smiling up at him in
pleasure. One of them even said how nice it was that
he was out and about. "Young people these days don't
get out much no more. It's all about money, and
missions, and small, frilly things. Oooh, what a deal
-- five for the price of three!"
The gennin eventually tore himself away from the
market area and made his way down the main streets,
heading back towards the edge of the village. A tall
jounin passed, frowning at the lit cigarette.
"You shouldn't be smoking at your age," he said. Kurai
walked past, his eyes gazing over the older man, and
then passing on, blowing a cloud of smoke between
them.
"You shouldn't be chewing on toothpicks at your age,"
he replied. The jounin just shifted the toothpick in
his lips and then sent it at the cigarette. The lit
end dropped on the pavement. Kurai turned around to
give the man a piece of his mind and thensome, but
faced an empty street.
"Well... shit."
00.30
Gaara opened the door of the restaurant, ignoring the
hostess asking how many people were in his party and
seating himself next to the window. The person across
from him was busy eating her way through what looked
like it might have attempted to be spaghetti
underneath the mountain of cheese. Next to that was a
glass of water and two plates of breadsticks. DJ ate,
and Gaara sat.
"Eat," DJ offered, pushing a bread stick in front of
the red haired boy. Gaara sat still for a moment, and
then reached out to take the bread while DJ are away
at the mountain of cheese. (and noodles)
"...where's Tohru?" DJ swallowed a spoonful. "She's
shopping. We're out of food." Gaara nodded knowingly;
the two girls had gone from feeding just themselves to
treating a party of four. As Gaara finished off the
breadstick some time later, DJ pushed the plate away
from her and stood up. She was fishing in her pockets
for change when Gaara put some bills on the table. DJ
stopped rummaging and took the other teen's arm,
dragging him out of the building. The two moved
through the streets, a few gennin staring at DJ's
audacity. They came to a small ice cream parlor. The
long-haired girl dragged her friend into a booth and
then left him, his curious gaze following her to the
counter. When she returned, she carried two spoons, a
little less money, and what appeared to be a
leaning-tower-of-ice-cream scoops. The sand nin looked
at the wobbling monstrosity and then to the kunoichi.
"How many flavors did you get?"
DJ shrugged, digging her spoon in. "Let's find out."