Act cool, he told himself. He wasn't supposed to know about Orochimaru. To him, he was a legendary ninja that he had the pleasure of meeting. He was not a creepy, megalomaniacal psychopath.
"You're Orochimaru," He seemed faintly surprised and irritated by the lack of honorific. He hid it well. Orochimaru smiled tightly.
"And you are?" His voice was less raucous than he remembered.
"Nobody important," Sasuke replied, refusing to give away his name so carelessly.
He almost shivered as he felt Orochimaru's eyes drag up and down Sasuke's body, analysing every single detail. Most thought it was the esteemed habits of an S-rank ninja, but Sasuke knew that the man was just a creep.
"A swordsman, I presume?" Why was Orochimaru carrying on the conversation? He was not one for small talk. There was only one answer: In their brief meeting, Sasuke had caught his interest.
It wasn't unexpected. Orochimaru begun a fascination with plenty of shinobi and children. Sasuke, in his time, intrigued him more than most. Still, to know he had caught Orochimaru's eye was unnerving.
"Correct," he kept the conversation brief.
The weaponsmith laid his change on the counter. Sasuke snatched it off, thanked the weaponsmith, and looked Orochimaru in the eye, almost victorious, with a taut smile.
"I'll be going now." He left, regaining his composure right outside the shop. He vaguely heard Orochimaru's grating laugh.
His new sword was sheathed in a leather scabbard, resting at his hip. Sasuke continued in a brisk walk to the training grounds, annoyed at how much he let Orochimaru unsettle him.
Sasuke's sword swung a full three-sixty, whooshing as it sliced through the air. It was nice to know he had not lost his edge (literally). The sword was boring. It was an ordinary sword. Sasuke hated his own frustration. He considered scrapping it already, until he got his hands on Kusanagi.
There would come a time when Orochimaru, the current owner, had to be killed, leaving his sword ownerless. If Sasuke could convince Hiruzen to let him have the sword, that'd be great - or better yet, let him kill Orochimaru, since the hapless old man certainly couldn't.
"I didn't know you were proficient with a sword," A conversational, polite voice. Sasuke dropped his sword, facing Minato. He assumed he too was here to train.
"It's you," he said. Minato laughed heartily, "Who else?" Sasuke shrugged, glaring at his fallen sword.
"Do you want to spar?" He glanced at Minato wonderingly, who wanted a spar. There was no way Sasuke would show off his ninjutsu to Minato, who was already suspicious of him. On the other hand, rejecting entirely could be perceived as weak.
"Only taijutsu." Minato seemed satisfied with this, settling into a basic stance.
Minato moved with a practised, yet unpredictable, elegance. Like Sasuke, he was considered a genius. He had a lot of feints in his style, which involved quick, small, but successive hits. Sasuke vaguely recognised the style from one of Orochimaru's textbooks. He had the slight advantage, since he knew Minato's style, and yet Minato did not know his (hint: it was yet to be invented.)
Had Minato been allowed to use his Hiraishin, or Shunshin, Sasuke would be outclassed in speed, unless he could pinpoint the exact second and location where Minato would appear. Sasuke was somewhat relieved to find that their taijutsu abilities were equal - if Minato wasn't holding back. He was glad he wasn't an enemy.
Sasuke dodged a hit to the solar plexus, which would have been vital no matter how light. He struck Minato's shoulder with his palm, nearly opening himself up for a strike in the collar bone. In a strange way, their spar was relaxing. At first, both of them fought each other intensely, trying to scope out their opponent's abilities, but soon, they relaxed, losing tenacity.
For once, this wasn't a battle to the death. It had no actual consequences. Neither of them were trying. He didn't know what Minato thought, but Sasuke thought it was nice, in spite of the pain. Finally, after three hours of non-stop sparring, they both relented, collapsing in a heap on the grass, breathing and sweating intensely.
Sasuke took off his shirt, as did Minato. It was too hot to not.
"That was fun. Let's do that again sometime." Minato glanced at Sasuke, who stared up at the sky unblinkingly. "You enjoyed that, right?" Sasuke grunted in agreement. After a few minutes, Minato stood up and put on his shirt again.
"Well, I gotta go. Can't keep my girlfriend waiting." Sasuke blinked in surprise.
"You have a girlfriend?" The idea in itself wasn't nearly as surprising as Minato having told him. Sasuke was under the impression that Minato didn't trust him, so why was he telling him that he had a girlfriend, somebody he loved?
"Kushina. Wanna meet her?" What was he playing at? Sasuke decided to be honest with him.
"You're not supposed to trust me that much." Minato laughed, offering Sasuke a hand. He took it, not that he needed it, and lifted himself up.
"I think I trust you a little bit. Obito has a good eye for things like this. Besides, Kushina can take care of herself." He said this with absolute surety.
Sasuke put his shirt back on, letting Minato lead him somewhere. The richer, central part of Konoha, where all the stronger shinobi lived. Well, except for him. He was stuck with a dingy apartment building whose residents consisted of prostitutes, gamblers and druggies.
Finally, they stopped on the porch of a house that might as well have been a mansion. Sasuke found it odd that this was the house where Naruto should've been living in, happily being raised by his two loving parents (Sasuke assumed that Kushina was Naruto's mother, since Minato had moved in with her). Instead, he got to live in a shoddy apartment like his, all by himself. Sasuke wondered if Naruto was bitter at all.
Minato unlocked the door, yelling to his girlfriend that he was home and brought a guest. Kushina thudded down the stairs in an apron with the Uzumaki spiral on it, her blood-red hair bouncing up and down. When she saw Sasuke, she stared at him blankly for several seconds too long. Minato stood still, watching. Finally, she approached him. Sasuke was expressionless.
To his surprise, she pinched his cheeks, wiggling the skin on his face. It reminded him of when his aunt would visit, she'd always pinch his cheeks, but he was a child then.
"My god. You could be Mikoto's twin!" Sasuke smiled sadly. He had inherited a great deal from his mother, including her appearance, but none of her kindness, nor her gentle nature.
Kushina let go almost instantaneously, as if just realising how rude it was to to pinch a fully-grown guest's cheeks like that. She didn't apologise. She led Minato and Sasuke to the living room, urging them to sit. They were comfortably silent until Kushina brought a plate of baked cookies. Sasuke nibbled on a cookie.
"So, Sasuke," he noted that Kushina didn't use honorifics either, "a spy, eh? Interesting. And the Uchiha don't know? Wow." He'd expect her tone to be judging and wary, but it wasn't. Kushina didn't distrust him.
"Kind of. Spies don't really have an identity anyway." Kushina changed the subject, seeming to sense that the conversation was veering into talk of tragedy.
Minato got up, stuffing a half-eaten cookie into his mouth, "Chorry, I hafta go! Pomised my cheem I'd be dere!" Kushina didn't seem to care that her boyfriend was talking with his mouth open. She waved him off, pecking him on the cheek and sitting back down. He teleported away.
"Guess that just leaves you and I. You're not really a talker, are you?" Sasuke had the sense to look slightly embarrassed, "Sorry," he mumbled. For his mother's friend, at least, he didn't want to be too rude like he normally was. Kushina shrugged.
"Hang on," she left the room to look for something. Sasuke sat on the couch patiently.
Kushina returned carrying a box. She set it down on the table and looked at him.
"Whaddya wanna play? There's lots! Chess, cards, Scrabble, carroms, Uno, Cluedo, Monopoly..." She trailed off, letting Sasuke choose. He blinked in confusion.
"Uh, Chess or Scrabble, I guess." Kushina grinned, just like how Naruto would. Strangely, Sasuke wasn't pained by it.
"Chess it is!" She set up the board, giving Sasuke white and her black. Sasuke decided that he would not hold back. Ten minutes later, he had captured her king and Kushina was groaning in frustration. "Man, you're even better than Mikoto and Minato combined!" He smiled at the compliment. Any mention of his mother - who was actually alive - could make him smile.
Before Sasuke could comment on the time, Kushina was already saying, "Alright, let's play something else! I hope you suck at carroms." She set down the board. He didn't think he sucked, but Kushina was so good that, compared to her, he did. She flicked with such an odd precision, which probably meant that she was quite a kunoichi.
"Defenestrate," Sasuke said. Kushina's face was so disappointed she looked ready to gouge out her eyes. Minato chose that moment to walk in, and stared at his girlfriend bewildered.
"What's going on? Scrabble? Oh, fun! Wow, Sasuke, you really killed her!" Kushina mock-glared at her boyfriend, muttering that she had never suffered such defeat.
Kushina recovered in record-time, glancing at the clock, "Oh, it's kinda late."
"Sorry, I've overstayed my welcome. I'll be going now." Sasuke was about to thank her for having him when she grabbed his hand and stared at him as if he had two heads.
"What? No! You can stay for dinner!" Sasuke was about to protest when he realised it wasn't really a request.
Another smile tugged at his lips, "Alright, thank you." Now it was Minato's turn to stare at the kid as if he had two heads. He never saw him smile like that.
"We'd be happy to have you, Sasuke," Minato gave him a closed-eye smile.
"At the very least, would you let me help you in the kitchen?" Kushina went wide-eyed.
"He can cook!" She pinched his cheeks again, "Oh my god, you're so sweet!" Sasuke found himself blushing, just a little bit. Nobody had called him sweet since he was eight. Well, except Sakura and Ino, but they didn't count.
"Thanks, Kushina," He liked Kushina, he decided. She was his mother's best friend, and she reminded him of Naruto, but not in a painful way. Minato looked at the scene in awe. Who knew that his girlfriend and the random Uchiha he kept running into would get along so well? Kushina got along really well with Uchihas for some reason.
"Er, what should I do?" Minato asked as she led Sasuke to the kitchen. She glanced at him as if he was just an afterthought.
"Oh, just do whatever you want. Not into the kitchen, though. I wanna see how good Sasuke is!" Great. Minato went up to his room to read. Secretly, he was a bit excited at whatever Kushina and Sasuke would cook up, mainly because he wasn't doing the cooking today.
Sasuke watched Kushina slice up chilis and onions with vigour. He couldn't match, so settled with boiling some potatoes, but Kushina swatted him aside.
"Nuh-uh! I'll do the main course, you do the dessert." By himself? Alright then. It was like Kushina was challenging him to a competition.
Sasuke mixed chocolate batter with enough energy to rival Kushina. Having poured it into a cake tin and stuffed it in the oven, he exhaled in relief. All done. Kushina finished up too, waiting for the chicken to cook. She raised her palm towards Sasuke.
"Huh?" Kushina laughed, raising his hand and meeting it with hers. Oh. He forgot how to high-five.
Minato weeped with glee, rubbing his chopsticks together and seeming to glow with happiness.
"Sasuke, you should come around more often," he remarked through handfuls of cake while Kushina told him off for eating dessert first. Sasuke found himself smiling more in this day than he normally did in a year. Today was a good day.
Of course, there just had to be something trying to ruin his good day, but Sasuke refused to let it. He picked up the black scroll left on a table in his apartment - black was the one colour that most shinobi never wanted to see. Not even the message on it could damper his good mood.
S-rank mission: Kill Orochimaru.
Details:
Fuck the details. He'd read them later, after a good night's sleep.
Note: i just wanted to say that this is not a filler chapter. it's just...the friendship genre. but tell me if y'all hated it and I'll cut down on the friendship stuff.