Chapter 3

Sasuke sat up on his bed as he scratched the back of his neck. He yawned and looked at the clock that read 10:55 A.M. He was supposed to meet Naruto and the others at the Ramen shop but he overslept. It didn't matter if he was there because all he did was glare at the others so they wouldn't have notice.

Sakura would have noticed that he was gone but other than that no one else did. He got up and stretched as he looked out his window. He shuffled his feet across the wooden floor and grabbed his blue t-shirt from the chair beside his door.

Putting his shirt on he opened the door. He heard a rope snap and a hiss on the side of his ear. As he faced the sound an explosion erupted.

Sasuke clenched his hand into a fist as angered rushed throughout his body. A burst of laughter was heard as Naruto fell on his ass laughing. Nanari just chuckled as she looked at the glaring boy. Sakura just stared at him and rapidly turned to Naruto.

"Naruto you did that didn't you?" She screamed in angered looking at him.

Sasuke was covered in blue paint and the walls were splattered with paint as well. The string that snapped triggered a small bomb that was set near a plastic bag filled with blue ink.

"No way I-I didn't do that but I wish I thought of it." He said as he fell on his back laughing as he clutch his stomach. He thought his stomach was going to burst from laughter and as the blond laughed Nanari couldn't help but just let out a laugh as well.

Sasuke stomped his way towards them as paint dripped on the floor. He pulled Naruto up by the collar of his shirt and glared at him.

"Why you little-"

"I did it Sasuke. Don't blame him I'm the one who set it up." She smirked at him as blue paint dripped from his hair.

"No way, Nanari you did that. That was awesome." The blond hollered as Sasuke let him go.

"It was your fault Sasuke for letting me take the blame for that battle we had." She crossed her arm and smirked. Sasuke just stood there and he knew she was right. Kakashi appeared in seconds and he cocked an eyebrow as he looked at the walls covered in paint.

He looked at Sasuke who was drenched in paint as well and sighed. He leaned on the wall and continued to read his book. "Okay who did this?" Kakashi asked as he read.

"Well it was-"

"I did it." The blond said as he cut off Nanari from telling the truth. He scratched the back of his head as he smiled.

"Well you know what you have to do right?"

" Clean it up." The blond said with disappointment as he let out a big sigh.

Sasuke stormed into his room and went straight in the shower. The two girls were escorted out of the corridor as Naruto was left with the clean up.

Naruto smiled as he scrubbed the wall. He would usually be glaring at the chores he had to do. The paint on the wall and floors were hard to clean up with just a bucket and rags. He hated the cleaning but the clear image of seeing Sasuke fall for a prank like that was worth it.

"Dang paint just come off already." He said in frustration as he scrubbed the floor. It took 10 minutes to get one spot out and to get it out in 10 minutes he had to scrub vigorously and scrub as hard as he could. His arms were aching from the constant right and left scrubbing for 30 minutes. Naruto felt someone watching him and quickly turned around to see Nanari.

She smiled down at the blond and knelt beside him. Grabbing a rag she began to clean the floor. Naruto stared at her as he scrubbed and for some reason she didn't talk to him. He became uncomfortable and as minutes of silence past the more harder and faster he scrubbed.

He finally heard a slight giggle and he looked up at her once again. He blushed for some reason even though she didn't look at him. Naruto looked back down on the floor and tried to avert his eyes away from her.

"Naruto." The blond jumped a mile high as she broke the silent and as he dropped the rag he fumbled to pick it back up in his hand. Nanari giggled as she continued cleaning.

"Y-Yea what is it?" He blushed furiously as he looked down and got back to cleaning.

"Sorry for everything."

"There's nothing to be sorry about I mean it was so worth getting blame on seeing that bastard like that." He tried to remain as calm and collected as possible. Amazingly he didn't stuttered.

"Well I left you cleaning for almost an hour. I was going to come back but Kakashi-Sensei wanted to talk to me."

"Talk to you again?" He said in annoyance as he looked at the floor. He didn't understand why Kakashi was always asking questions, he never did leave her alone. It was like they didn't believe what she was saying and they had to get more and more information out of her.

"He wanted to know how I was. How my life was working out for me."

"What does that supposed to mean?"

"Well he asked me if I wanted to quit traveling and stay here in the village." Out of excitement Nanari stood up and smiled.

"Than you should stay. You wouldn't need to travel anymore and you'll be with me." He spat out. The brunette smiled up at him as he finished. Redness crossed her face and she laughed.

"With you?" She questioned as she raised an eyebrow. Nanari wanted to tease him, she noticed that the more she stared at the blond the more the redness on his face darkened.

"I-I m-m-mean that… I mean I was going to say that you-you could stay with u-us." He stood there as he blushed.

"Oh well I'm not sure yet. I wouldn't want to intrude and-"

"No way you wouldn't intrude besides I wouldn't survive with Sasuke's attitude seeing that I got use to yours and I can ignore him." Naruto soon dropped down on his knees and continued to clean.

"I just have to think about." They cleaned for two hours until every single spot of blue was gone from the walls, floors, doors and the roof. Nanari swiped the sweat from her forehead and sighed.

"Man that took longer than I though. Maybe I put to much paint in the bag." She scratched the back of her head and smiled at the clean corridor. She placed her hands on her knees and laughed. "I guess Sasuke's still in his room sulking over the embarrassment. It's not like everyone saw him."

"So do we check on him to see if he's okay?" Naruto inquired as he picked up the buckets of dark blue water.

"You go on ahead he'll be a total ass if we both go there and besides it was my fault anyways so I better check on him." With a big sigh she smiled. "I hope he doesn't get to mad, it such a pain." Naruto nodded and went to put the buckets away.

Nanari looked at Sasuke's front door as she hesitated to knock on it. She then sighed and knocked. "Hey Sasuke can I talk to you?" With no reply she knocked once again. Once again no one answered and she clenched her hand into a fist. Placing a hand on the doorknob she swung the door open but saw no one. He walked through the short corridor and turned to the main room. Sasuke slept on his head with both of his hands behind his head. Nanari laughed as she walked up to his bed. He looked so angry in his sleep that it seemed like he was still awake. His scowl said everything about him. He was independent and didn't care about anyone around him.

Nanari stood beside his beside and stared at him. She extended her arm to tap his shoulder but his hand rapidly grabbed her wrist. Opening his eyes Sasuke stared up at her in confusion.

"Why are you in my room?" He glared up at her. He didn't realize he was still holding her wrist but Nanari sure did. He sat up with his hand still gripping her wrist and she just let it go until he found out although he never did. Maybe he did and just wanted to hold her arm but maybe he didn't.

"I wanted to see if you were okay. You didn't come outside for along time or well you didn't come out at all so Naruto and I were worried about you."

"Well I'm fine so get out." Nanari wanted to laugh because he was still gripping her wrist but his scowl averted her from doing so.

"Well I would but-" She stared at his hand that held hers and he immediately threw her hand and crossed his arms.

"Now get out." She sat down beside him not worried about what he was going to do for not leaving. Things ran through her mind as she thought things over. Sasuke eyed her as she sat there. "What are you doing? Didn't I tell you to get out are you hard of-"

"You don't mind if I go out with Naruto do you?"

"Why the hell should I mind? It doesn't matter to me now get out."

"Well if it didn't matter to you than why did you stop me from going on a date with him."

"Because we had to train."

"Well from what Naruto said you're not the person to ask others to train with you. And by the looks of things I know he's right."

"Shut up and leave or I'll tell Kakashi you pulled that stupid prank." He spat out trying to get her to leave.

"Why didn't you tell Kakashi that I did it in the first place?"

"Because you didn't tell him about the fight."

"Well don't you hate me? You want me out of here right? You say I'm annoying and you say you can't stand me so why don't you just blame everything on me? They'll kick me out and you don't have to see my annoying face again."

"It's always questions with you. What the hell is wrong with you? If you don't want to be here than leave, were not stopping you and for another thing if I wanted you to leave and if I hated you I would have told you that from the beginning. I'm a bastard so I say what's on my mind." Nanari stood up and walked to his window as he watched the sunset.

"You know you may scowl a lot but I know deep inside that you're a pretty nice guy and that Sakura girl. She really likes you and admires you, don't you think you owe her for putting up with your attitude." The brunette faced him as she leaned on the glass that led to the balcony.

"I don't owe her anything I didn't ask her to hit on me or put up with me." He plopped himself on his back and stared at the ceiling. "She does that of her own free will."

"Well you're a team and she can't help but like you. I don't know what she likes about you. I see that you're cute but your face isn't everything. Girls love you because how you look and I just laughed at that. I knew you were a pretty boy and at first I kinda crushed on you but after you acted like an ass to me I just wanted to give you a punch right in the jaw." She laughed as she noticed he was actually listening to her. He may have been staring at the ceiling and pouted from hearing her talk but he was still listening.

"So what you're just going to stop there, tell me some more of how I'm so much of an ass." He smirked and turned his head to look at her.

"And I did get a chance to do so on our battle. Although it was kinda short but anyway I'm saying you should change your attitude and maybe others would like you for who you are."

"This is who I am and I don't change for no one."

"So you can honestly say before your clan was murdered you were a bitchy brat of a child with a stick up his ass." He winced and looked at stared at her. "When you're a child there is a point in your life when you're happy. Although you don't want to admit it I know you weren't like this because Naruto told me." She smiled at the staring boy and she looked up at the ceiling. "You can say I have better luck than you."

"Why'd you say that? You never had a family, what makes you as lucky as me?" His words pierced her heart but it was true somewhat.

"You can say that you're lucky because you had a family and you've experienced the emotional ties of having that love from your family although I'm lucky because the same emotional ties that you had is the same thing that's crushing you inside. I'll never experience that kind of love there for I wouldn't experience such pain that you're feeling." Sasuke averted his eyes to the ceiling as he curled his hand into a fist. She glanced at his trembling hands and walked toward him. Sasuke rapidly looked at her as she put a hand on his.

"What are you-"

"You may have lost your family but you have a lot going for you right here. People care about you and they knew you ever since you were a child. They've been with you ever since you started to train to become a ninja and they'll always stick with you. Just remember that okay." She smiled down at him and walked towards the door. The boy say up as he watched her exit the room.

His mind was scrabbling through everything, his past, her words and his self. Everything she said were words that struck him and for the first time he knew that those words will stick with him forever.

As she walked through the corridor and down the stairs a shadow waited for her. She couldn't see whom it was but suspected the worse person to see. What is he going to tell me now. She walked down the stairs and a enormous sigh escaped from her as she looked upon a smile.

"Naruto you scared me." She said with another sigh.

"Scared you? If a criminal was here you would kick their ass in a second. Why would you be scared?" Naruto laughed a bit.

I would kill them. She thought as she opened her mouth to reply. "Well you just surprised me. Why are you here?"

"Well I wanted to walk you home." He said as he slightly blushed.

"Walk me home? That would be-"

"Shut up dumb ass I'm walking her." Sasuke pushed Naruto aside and grabbed Nanari's wrist.

The blond grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged him backward. "Hey, what the hells wrong with you? Why do you want to walk her home? Why don't you stomp back to your room and get the remaining paint out of your hair." Naruto looked at Sasuke's scalp that remained little spots of dried paint. He smirked but it soon disappeared as Sasuke punched the top of his head.

"Shrimp. Shut up and leave." Sasuke demanded. Nanari shook her head and sighed. Were they fighting over her or did Sasuke wanted to pick a fight with Naruto? Nanari stared at the two boys who were still going at it until she heard a bird flutter it's wings. She looked on the roof and saw a crow. The bird stared intently at her as she stared back. She soon took a step back as she swiftly disappeared.

"You're the idiot who wanted to fight her and-" Naruto took a blow to the face and he landed of his butt. Sasuke looked around and head toward the stairs. After quickly recovering from the blow he also looked around.

"Where'd she go?"

Nanari walked down the steps, darkness thickened as she went further and further down the flight of stairs. Kabuto followed from behind as they continued to walk. The air in the tight stairway was suffocating. Cement walls surrounded them and as they came up to an opening a ominous purple light filled the room. It was hard to see but as her eyes got use to it she tensed up. Kimimaru knelt down in front of Orochimaru who immediately gazed up at Kabuto and herself. Kabuto quickly knelt down on his knees as Orochimaru approached.

Nanari scowl as he stood in front of her. Kabuto grabbed her wrist and tried to pull her down to her knees but she refused as she pulled away from his grasp. Staring at her so called Master she crossed her arms and smirked.

"What is it?" She said as nicely as she could. "Kabuto said it was important."

He place his hand on her cheek as he smiled at the girl. "I need you to refrain from getting yourself attach to those boys." Nanari cornered her eye as she glanced at Kabuto who smirked slightly.

"What ever Kabuto told her it's a-" Orochimaru grabbed her neck and pulled her closer to his face. She widened her eyes as fear took over. She was millimeters from touching his face and the closeness of him near her was make her body tremble.

"Kabuto knows nothing but to tell the truth but for you in the matter of fact don't have any discipline. Now go according what I told you to do and nothing further. The only thing you do is earn their trust and from there I'll tell you what to do you understand me." As she nodded he quickly let her go. She took a step back and tried to control her breathing.

"You're not going to kill them right?" she asked as he smirked at her.

"Do you want me to kill them?" His words struck her as silence fell upon the room. She didn't know if he was testing her or if he was trying to pry something out of her. She was afraid to say something but she took a breath and looked at him.

"N-No."

"Than I won't, just do as I say." He turned around and walked to his chair. Nanari looked at his hands as he place them on the armrest. His hands were spotted with blackness and she didn't know if it was the darkness of the room. As she stared at them longer she turned around as she held her hand up to her mouth. They were rotting and as Kabuto led her back out, all she thought about was what had happen to his hands. She didn't recall seeing them like that before and she wondered. Was he dieing?