… I guess the week thing didn't work out.
Hey guys, I just want to give you guys a MASSIVE apology!
I'm so sorry for not uploading for so long! My computer is pretty old, and my Word would not open, and my computer keeps on crashing. But for some reason, it has decided to word (thank god!), and I am writing this chapter now! Thank you for waiting so patiently and thank you for every one of you who have followed, reviewed, and favourited this story!
Also, I mentioned in a previous chapter about the mini time skips, and I've gone through the chapters and have typed at the top of each chapter how many months or week's difference there is between the chapters. Then hopefully it will make a bit more sense!
Anyways, let's get on with Chapter 6 shall we!
(3 months later)
Mayako's Perspective:
It's around 7 in the morning, and I'm lying silently in my bed, examining the strokes of sunlight piercing through the curtains out of the corner of my eyes, my expression blank as I stare unconsciously at nothing. Normally I'd be kicking Naruto out of bed, getting ready for another day, and preparing myself for boredom, but I'm not going to the academy today. Sensei can yell at me all he wants, but nothing he says will make me leave this apartment.
Not even Ichiraku's Ramen would tempt me to move an inch out of that front door, and that's saying something.
The first reason is because I really can't be stuffed to go through another day at school since Naruto and I have been keeping sensei's promise, and have attended school every day this week. My brain has malfunctioned from the boring lectures and theory lessons we've been having, and it has left on vacation today.
The second being that today is October 10th, our 7th birthday.
The old man told me a while back that a birthday is supposed to be a happy day, where people gather together to celebrate the day you were born. I believed him back then; I thought that he was right.
But he couldn't have been more wrong. Naruto and I had found that out the hard way. We were only 4 at the time, it was horrible. That day had scarred me for the rest of my life.
Both mentally and physically.
I shift my gaze to the right, now staring at Naruto's bed on the other side of the room. His blanket sheets were scattered, half on the mattress, half on the floorboards beneath. One of the pillows left on the floor near the foot of the bed frame, the other in the upper corner of the wall, part of it scrunched into the small gap between his bed and the wall. I realised one thing was missing from the bed; Naruto. I jumped out of bed, the sheets went flying, and I went into full panic mode.
Naruto isn't stupid enough to leave this house today, is he?! The question I asked myself was the only thing that was ringing in my head as a searched the room top to bottom, my eyes frantically looking for my brother. Covers went flying, pillows were thrown, by the time I realised he wasn't in the room, the bedroom has turned into a tip. I started to breathe heavily now. He always woke me up first if he was to ever wake up before me.
"Where are you?!" I whispered to myself, trying to swallow a lump in my throat. My eyes then fixated on the bedroom door. He's got to be in the apartment! A flow of adrenaline rushed through my body as I made my way to the door. I took a hold of the doorknob, and yanked the door wide open. I ran out with a skid, placed myself, and took off towards the bathroom. I was now running. I was scared. My breathing became even faster coming to the realisation that what if he wasn't in the house. When I got to the bathroom door, I didn't even think to knock; I just swung the door with so much force, I think I made have made a hole in the wall. My eyes quickly searched the room.
He's not here.
My breath hitched for a second. I didn't even close the door. I turned on my heels, and bolted down the hallway and ran as fast as my legs would take me into the kitchen. I couldn't hear my footsteps before, but now they rang loudly in my ears. My heart was ready to thump out of my chest each anticipating second I couldn't see Naruto.
Naruto's Perspective:
Since it was our birthday, I decided it would be nice if I made breakfast, and we could eat together when she wakes up. May was fast asleep; I didn't want to disturb her. But now I wished I did. I had just finished making our favourite ramen with some sliced fruit on the side when I heard footsteps banging against the wooden floorboards - which I assumed were hers. My head turned towards the wall parallel to our bedroom, my eyes fixated on the door. A racket was made, and it sounded like things were being thrown every 5 seconds. I washed my hands in the sink, the cold water sending a shiver up my spine. Actually, I don't think it was the water.
I flicked my fingers, water spraying in random places, and then turned the faucet off; the gushing water became drips of water, then nothing. I walked over the tea towel, and dried my hands, not moving my gaze an inch. I then walked over towards the door, which slowly turned into a sprint.
My hand was on the doorknob, but just as I was about to swing it open, I was pulled forcefully forward. My legs started tripping over each other, trying to regain my balance, but before I could do that I was almost completely knocked out from a brutal blow to the stomach.
A thud on the floor later, I opened my eyes slowly, disregarding the pain in my stomach, and look up at Mayako, who was lying on top of me, wheezing. She then halts her breath, and places her hands on the ground, using her arms for support. Mayako looks at me, and a wave of relief seemed to have flowed through her system. I gave her an awkward smile. She then collapsed, and weaves her arms under my body to hug me. I am really confused, but I returned her hug none the less. He stayed in that position for a minute, lying very uncomfortably on the floor.
"You scared me." Mayako whispers, breaking the silence.
"Huh? How did I-" I stop hallway though my sentence, shutting up. I really am an idiot. I should've never gotten out of bed.
"Sorry." I hug her tighter, realising the reason she is scared. She has the right to be. That day shook her up more than me.
"Hey."
"Yeah?"
I smile. "Happy Birthday."
…
Mayako's Perspective:
"Sorry 'bout earlier."
"Don't mention it. It's just a scratch on the cheek." He paused to point to his scratch. "It kinda looks like I got another whisker mark!" He exclaims. I chuckle. We're sitting quite quietly at the kitchen table, eating the breakfast Naruto has made, which is really good. I didn't know he knew how to cook ramen without boiling it, even though all you have to do is put it in the microwave. I'm only saying that because he almost burnt the house down trying to make ramen. It was kind of funny.
"Man it's hot today, mind if I take my shirt off?" He asks, flailing his pyjama collar, interrupting my daydream.
"Nup, go ahead." I reply. He hops off of the chair he was sitting on, landing with a bit of a thud. He then unbuttons his shirt, and ties it around his waist with a knot. He then stretches his arms.
"Ah, that feels better!" He yawns, and I slurp the rest of my noodles, and gulp the rest of the delicious juice. Man, it's so good! I pat my stomach with my hand, and then reach my other hand across the table to grab the last piece of fruit.
"Geez, I'm stuffed!" I say, plopping the piece of apple into my mouth. Naruto smiles before grabbing the empty ramen containers and the dirty plate where the cut up fruit used to be. He turns around, and makes his way towards the bins. Once he is there, he forces his foot onto the peddle twice before he can get the bin lid to correspond with his actions. He then plonks the ramen cups into the bin. He then makes his way over to the sink to place the plate along with the other dishes and cutlery that need cleaning. While he does this, I get a clear view of his back. I didn't want to look at it.
"Naruto." My mood dropped a bit as he turned around to listen.
"Could you put your shirt back on?" I didn't want to see them.
"Yeah, sure." I didn't want to see those scars. At that moment, the front door knocks. He look at each other for a bit, and the door knocks again.
"Probably Iruka Sensei. You can answer it May. I'm gonna go put on a singlet. Should've worn one to begin with." He smiles, then makes his way to the bedroom, his footsteps mainly silent. My chair screeches backwards as my arms push against the edge of the table. I hop out of my seat, and walk up to the front door that is a couple of metres away from the kitchen. I place my hands against the door, and lean forward, and peep through the peep hole. Sure enough it's Iruka Sensei. I frown as I open the door slightly, and look up at sensei, who seems to be angry.
"Naruto and I aren't going to the academy today, if you have a problem with that Sensei, you can deal with it." I go to slam the door, but it would budge after a second as Iruka is holding it open with his hand.
"Do you treat everyone like this?!" He asks semi-politely as a vein pops out of the top of his head. I turn to him and stare at his eyes.
"No, just you."I tell him blankly.
"You LITTL-" He takes a deep breath, and sighs. "Look, I didn't come here to argue. I came here to drop off some gifts." I stop trying to close the door, and look at him with a confused expression. He doesn't normally get us presents. It is only then I realise one of my classmates is standing next to him. I blink.
"Shikamaru?" I ask, puzzled.
"Yo." I look down, and in his hands is a present.
"Heard it was you and Naruto's birthday from Sensei, so I got you guys a gift. And no, I actually came here voluntarily, unlike him." Shikamaru jerks his thumb, and points down the hall. I then realise Sensei is holding a rope, which he pulls towards him, and what do you know, you know what, you guys can probably guess who it is.
"That. Is the funniest thing I have seen all day." I say quite blankly, but I wasn't lying. Seeing Sasuke tied up was pretty damn funny.
"I thought you'd need the company, so I brought you classmates who were-" Sasuke muffled under the duct tape place across his mouth, and Iruka tugs on the sturdy rope. "WILLINGLY going to keep you company! Isn't that right Sasuke!" It wasn't a question, so Sasuke didn't answer.
"Hey May, whose at the-" He cuts his sentence off as he peers over my head, and gets a good look at Sasuke.
"Oh my GOD!" Naruto falls onto the floor, crippled with laughter. Sasuke scowl can be heard through the duct tape, and tries to break free of the rope holding his hands and feet captive, but to no avail. He grunts, and jerks his head backwards and smacks it against the front door opposite ours, which has no one living in it at the moment.
"Well, I'll leave you guys to decide what to do." Iruka Sensei says, and hands the rope over to me. He then disperses into thin air without a trace. Naruto has now recovered after his laughter session.
"Hey can I have the rope?" He asks.
"Knock yourself out?" I replied. Naruto grins widely, and takes the rope with both hands.
"This is gonna be fun!" He smirks, and runs inside, dragging Sasuke inside the house forcefully.
"… I think I'm just going to walk in." Shikamaru says, sweatdropping. I sweatdrop along with him.
"Yeah, sure, come in." I smile.
…
"Here's my gift." Shikamaru says, handing me a gift of his own.
"I'm guessing you haven't got a present Sasuke." Naruto say blankly.
"Sorry idiots, I was busy this morning being dragged around for an hour by Iruka because he couldn't find brainiac's house." He grunts. Shikamaru ignores the smart comment.
"The gift's for both of you."
We decided to give each other our presents now. I had given Naruto the green google headbands he had had his eyes on for a while, and he ran around the house excitedly for a couple of minutes. I didn't really want anything in particular, but Naruto's quite good with presents. He gave me some ninja gear, and a small plant which he said I can grow over time. He has a thing for plants, and even though I don't admit it, I kind of do to. I like nature.
We are all sitting on the rug in our bedroom, which I had cleaned up before Naruto and I had breakfast. Naruto was sitting next to Shikamaru, who was leaning lazily on Naruto's bed frame, me lying over my bed head first, thumping my legs on the bed And Sasuke was standing, leaning on the end of Naruto's bed with his arms crossed, not really paying attention. I'm actually surprised he stayed after Naruto wouldn't stop dragging him around like a ragdoll for 10 minutes. Shikamaru chased him, and untied him as Naruto pouted.
I held the wrapped box in front of my face. Feeling the blood rush to my head, I hoisted myself back up, and swerved around on the bed, messing up the sheets a bit, and then slid onto the rug with the present still intact. Naruto scooched up towards me, and we both sat cross-legged, and stared at the box.
"Open it." Shikamaru said, leaning forward, wanting to know if he picked the right gift. Naruto and I tear the wrapping paper apart violently. After completely destroying the paper, we were left with a white box. Be both simultaneously opened the lid, and saw what Shikamaru had gotten us, and we were both stunned.
"These are…" Naruto said, picking one up.
"These are the masks we wanted." I said, picking up the other one.
"That was the only thing that came to mind when buying you guys a gift." He said.
Flashback:
"Woah!" Naruto said,tugging at my shirt, pointing at an anbu mask replica. We went up to the stand, and looked at the masks on display. I personally liked the one that to me resembled a fox, Naruto liked the one that to me resembled a cat. I turned to the manager, who had turned his back to fix something.
"Excuse me, how much are these mask?" I asked politely. He turned around, his expression changing when he saw us. He then came up to us, and violently shoved us out of the small market space he had. He land with a thud on the dirt. I coughed.
"Stay away from my store you monsters!" He yelled. A group of people were starting to gather around us.
"We didn't even do anything!" I yelled.
"Yeah! We were just…" Naruto trailed off. The man looked at the masks we had our eyes on.
"These were the masks you wanted?! Here! Take them! And get the hell out of here!" He grabbed them off the hooks they were on, and chucked them at us. They hit us straight in the head. My anger was growing. I stood up and dusted myself off. I bent down and grabbed the mask off the floor. I looked at. I clenched my teeth.
"Hey mister!" I yelled loudly. He turned around again, ready to burst.
Before he could, I threw the mask back at his face, hitting him where he hit me. He clenched his nose as Naruto chucked his and missed. The crowd had gotten thick. I stared at the people around us.
"What?!" I had lost my temper now. The villagers made a pathway, and I grabbed Naruto's hand, and ran.
End Flashback.
"I didn't know you were there." I said, looking at Shikamaru. He shrugged.
"I didn't think you'd throw it back at him, I'd thought you'd take it actually." He said, placing his arms behind his head, leaning back onto the frame of Naruto's bed.
"Well he deserved it!" I exclaimed a bit louder than I wanted to.
"Well, thanks Shikamaru." I said after a couple of seconds of calming down. He smiled lazily back at me and Naruto.
"Don't mention it" He says, closing his eyes. "So what do you want to do know?"
"Well, I'm not so sure." I place my hands in my head, and try to think of something we could play. I gaze at the window in our bedroom by accident, but then look back at it.
"Sunset already?" I say out loud.
"Huh?" Shikamaru leans to get a better view of the outside. "Well, I guess I have to go then. I can't be late getting home." He props up on one knee, and stands up.
"It was fun." Shikamaru says. "Happy Birthday."
Sasuke exits through the door along with Shikamaru. Naruto and I got up to let them out. When we reached the door, Shikamaru waved goodbye, and Sasuke just exited the door. After waving goodbye, Naruto left to go have a shower. I was just about to close the door when I heard Sasuke's voice.
"Hey." He said.
"Yeah?" I replied, confused. He turned around slightly.
"…Happy Birthday." He turned back around, and started walking again. Then in a couple of seconds, vanished.
I close the door behind me, dumbfounded.
"That was unexpected."
And there we have it! Again, I am really sorry that I couldn't update for so long, and hopefully I'll have a new computer soon that works! Thank you so much for being patient, and I hope you guys will continue to read this story! And lets end this on a positive note with all the lovely reviews I have gotten!
Guest: Thank you for the lovely comments! I hope you will continue to read this story!
159: Thank you so much! I'm glad you like them, and I hope you can stick around and read this until the end! Thanks for the review!
TrackHer: Thank you so much for the review! I'm so happy you liked it, and I'll make sure to update as much as possible (I wish I could promise, but I can't with this computer!)!
Also, for those who don't know, I am on Deviant Art, and my name is SakukeLeaf! I have done some art on the Uzumaki Twins (some of it not very good because I did it a while ago), and I have designed Mayako as she is now and when she is older if you want to check it out be sure to check it out! Also have a poll at the moment that I need your guys help with; if you guys want Mayako and Sasuke to be paired, or not, make sure to vote!
Last and not least, don't forget to favourite and follow this story if you like it, and I'll see all of you soon!