A/N: This trip is actually based on one of the trips my school has specifically for my program's junior year students. Basically, you get to spend one weekend near a beach then you get to do all the "fun" science things the professor discussed. What's fun about the trip is that after the activities for the day are finished, students get to do whatever they want in the hotel or resort or whatever you want to call it and we're allowed to bring alcohol and all that jazz. Unlike in the story though my prof doesn't really care if the girls mix with the boys in the rooms. Funny cause my teacher wasn't surprised when two of my roommates ended up in a mild make out sesh while everyone was in the room (talk about awkward). It's not like he condones it but I guess it just doesn't surprise him anymore. But anyway, our school trip is super fun but it's a lot of haaaard work TT_TT But yeah. Totally worth it.
Sorry this chapter took a while. Motivation has really been down lately. Been in a bit of a funk. To make up, I give you a long-ish chapter. Hope you all like it.
NOTE:As some of you may have noticed, updates aren't as frequent as they used to be. Again, motivation has been down and also I've recently just gone back to school. I'll try to write in my spare time but I just wanted to give a heads up that slower and sporadic updates are ahead of us. Gomen, everyone-san! Please cheer me on as I enter another gruelling cycle of school for this academic year.
*DISCLAIMER APPLIES*
BEFORE THE WORST
Dental Floss, A Dentist's and Uchiha Sasuke's Best Friend
Maybe he shouldn't have fought tooth and nail with Sai about who got to sit next to Naruto on the bus. He was honestly regretting that he ever did. Because shit. He loved the girl to death but she was just so god damn annoying! Like oh my god! He could just kill himself and die happy right about now!
"Five bottles of beer in the wall! Five bottles of beer! Take one down, pass it around, four bottles of beer on the wall!"
Sasuke massaged the bridge of his nose, clearly at the end of his tether. Naruto had been singing that atrocious song for the last couple of hours now (he gave up monitoring the time once he reached the three hour mark). To think that she didn't even start the bottle count at ninety-nine! She began with the ridiculous number of nine hundred and ninety-nine for fuck's sake! How was she even capable of finishing the whole song without getting exhausted or irritated with herself?!
"Two bottles of beer in the wall! Two bottles of beer! Take one down, pass it around, one bottle of beer on the wall!" Naruto happily swayed in her seat, completely unaware of the utter aggravation she was causing Sasuke.
The boy gratefully sighed at the fact that the song was about to reach its end. My God. The end was in sight! He could finally finally relax! He could have peace!
"... One bottle of beer! Take one down, pass it around, no more bottles of beer on the wall!" Naruto chirped whilst Sasuke groaned in complete and absolute satisfaction that all those fucking beers on the wall were finally gone. Funny thing that Sasuke didn't know about the highly infuriating song was the fact that the song...
"No more bottles of beer on the wall! No more bottles of beer! Go to the store and buy some more, nine hundred and ninety-nine bottles of beer!"
Was on an infinite loop.
"GOD DAMN IT, NARUTO! SHUT THE HELL UP!" And the Uchiha exploded. Much to his great surprise, Naruto took no offense to his outburst but instead outright snickered.
"I was wondering when you'd cave. Honestly, I got tired of the damn song a million hours ago but you weren't caving in." The blonde smirked at the irate Uchiha at her side. She'd been waiting for the boy to blow a gasket and yet he never did, so on and on the song went until she actually finished the tune cycling back to near a thousand bottles.
"I want to strangle you so much right now. I want to reach into my bag, grab my dental floss, and strangle you with it." Sasuke rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. He wouldn't be surprised if his hair started to fall out due to the stress Naruto was causing him on a daily basis. Her antics were endearing in moderation but these were the rare times when he could just yank her pretty little pigtails off her head... with love of course.
The apparent exasperation on the Uchiha's features brought a smile on Naruto's face. In an almost unconscious gesture, she quickly kissed his cheek and nuzzled the spot with her button nose. "Suuuure you do, babe. Sure." She giggled before taking a more comfortable position on her seat as she watched the view from outside her window.
Sasuke smirked as he dotingly looked at his best friend with faux irritation. "Told you to stop calling me babe, idiot." He muttered; to which Naruto responded by shrugging her shoulders as she continued to look at the scenery outside.
"You can call me babe anytime, dickless. I won't mind, unlike hardass over here." Sai, who was kneeling on his seat so he could easily look at the couple (actually only at Naruto) just behind him, proclaimed confidently.
Naruto rolled her beautiful blue eyes and chose to ignore Sai's comment. Sasuke on the other hand began rummaging through his bag. He was fairly sure his dental floss was in the bag somewhere. He distinctly remembered packing the thing. Sasuke figured Sai could use some of his dental floss. After all, the odds were in the Uchiha's favour as he and Sai were seated more towards the back of the bus. Kurenai would not be able to interfere as she was at the front where all teachers always seated themselves on school trips. Uchiha Sasuke had more than enough time to murder Sai and bask in the glory of the kill before the homeroom teacher could put a stop to it.
The bus was abruptly put to a halt which sent all the occupants of the vehicle to reel forward. Kurenai was up on her feet once she was sure that the bus was at a complete stop then she proceeded to address her students. "Alright kids! We're here! Please take all your belongings and exit the bus in an orderly fashion!" She announced happily. "Let's all have fun, everyone!" The woman added and made official that their school trip had begun.
The school trip was an anticipated event by all students since it mixed education and socials into one awesome and unforgettable weekend. Students were to follow the itinerary of activities discussed during the briefing and they were tasked to make a final report which encompassed all the performed activities. When there were no planned activities and/or if said activities were finished by all members of the class, then and only then can the students slack off. Luckily for the class, they'd arrived the destination just a little bit before sunset so it was already deemed too late to conduct any type of work. All students were therefore instructed to group themselves and proceed to their pre-assigned rooms to settle in. Shortly after, students were to congregate in the mess hall for dinner.
Conveniently, there weren't any casualties during settling in and in all throughout the duration of the meal. Well, that's if no one counted Sasuke killing Sai in a hundred million ways in his head then that would be a different story; but reality-wise, no one appeared pranked or hurt in any sort of way.
"Try not to stress over Sai so much. I've learned to ignore the bastard and look how much happier I am now." Naruto somewhat scolded Sasuke as they both went up the staircase to their respective rooms. She couldn't help but chuckle at the overall frazzled vibe Sasuke was emitting. Hell, even his hair seemed to respond to Sai and the spikes at the back of his head stood rigid very much akin to how cat's fur rises when under pressure. The poor boy looked exhausted just from having to interact with the Baikan boy for a couple of hours; to think that he'd have to tolerate Sai for the whole weekend brought about a foreboding shiver down his spine.
Naruto presented her best friend with a look of sympathy. "You want to come hang in our room for a bit? Sakura, Ino and Hinata brought a bunch of food with them. Knowing Sakura, she probably even has cherry tomatoes with her just so she can please the almighty Uchiha Sasuke." She snickered. "Unless of course you want to head back to your room where Kiba, Sai, and Shino are just anticipating your return, babe." The blonde teasingly leered at Sasuke to incur further exasperation from the boy.
The raven sneered at the laid out facts. The second option was in no way inviting to him. However the first option was not viable. "I can't stay in a room full of girls after dinner time, loser. If Kurenai catches us, that's a sure way to get two letter grades down in the reports. " It truly was a shame. Cherry tomatoes sounded really splendid at the moment.
The blond teen simply shrugged at Sasuke's reply. "You're such a nerd. Mkay. Go back to your room then. I just know you'll have fun there, especially since Sai and Kiba are there. It'll totally be a peaceful night for everyone." The words we're dripping with sarcasm to which Sasuke rolled his eyes at while he walked the girl the few paces to her room.
"Good night, bastard." She winked and simultaneously pinched Sasuke's cheek.
"Hn. Night." He pulled on one of her pigtails in retaliation.
Suffice to say that a couple of minutes after Kurenai did her rounds to call lights out, Naruto slept well-fed and comfortably in her room whilst Sasuke... well. He finished his newly opened pack of dental floss during the course of the night.
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"Okay guys. Remember what we discussed. We'll be doing sampling and animal identification so try and get as much samples as you can. Get to your groups and you may proceed with the activity. Remember to keep an eye out for your groupmates. We leave the location at noon for lunch." Kurenai, who was standing at the beach shore, announced to her students. The class all seemed to be absorbed in the work mostly because they wanted to finish early so they could let loose early. The activity was simple enough. A few measurements here and there, catching a couple of insects and/or animals basically. It wasn't all that complicated. What was tiring about the whole thing was the fact that the students were under the heat of the sun, doing relatively boring stuff in the water and also braving through the nearby dense forestry. Despite what one may think, the exertions were very time-consuming. Who knew catching bugs would be such a pain in the ass?
An eternity later, the kids were all pleased to find out that it was noon. "Let's trek back, guys! We'll continue work in a new location after lunch!" The homeroom teacher called out and led the groups back to their temporary residence. At this point, everyone was completely exhausted. Mingling was at an all time low and each person seemed only to be concerned with themselves due to the general fatigue. By the time they reached the mess hall, lunch was ready to be served and the students nothing but pounced at the chance to eat and regain their strength.
Sasuke, upon falling in line for his food, noticed quite a significant detail that he failed to realize in the minutes prior. He did a quick onceover at the mass of people that was his class and frowned. What once started as a minute prickle of worry that he physically felt at the back of his neck exponentially grew into grand proportions as he steadily began a frantic search over the crowd.
"Sasuke? Something bothering you?" Sakura, who was in line behind Sasuke, asked when she noticed that the lad neglected to move forward with the line. The girl prompted those behind her to move ahead as Sasuke continued to anxiously stand in place.
"Where's Naruto?" Sasuke's onyx depths glazed over in perceptible concern when he recalled not having seen the flaxen-haired teen during their trek back. The pinkette tilted her head to the side as she attempted to recollect where she had last seen the unpredictable blonde. If she recalled correctly, the last time she had seen Naruto was when the tan, blue-eyed wonder announced her departure to commence sampling in the forest; that had been hours upon hours ago. Surely someone, particularly Naruto's groupmates, would have noticed if she had gone missing for an extended period of time. Sakura then too vexingly started to eye the mass of students in the hopes of seeing a familiar set of messy pigtails.
Noiselessly, Sakura and Sasuke dispersed, internally chanting a singular name. As the duo become noticeably more panicked as the seconds ticked by, Sai decided to intervene by approaching the lesser evil of the two. "What's going on, Sakura?" He asked as he picked at the bits and pieces of fruit on his plate.
"We can't find Naruto." Once she had said those words, the force of the situation crashed upon her tenfold. With a crazed look on her face, she shouted in a desperate effort to locate her close friend. "NARUTO! Has anyone seen Naruto?!" But alas, the responses she'd acquired were in the negative, with a couple of nonchalant shrugs. Apart from the worried glances she received from their group of friends, the general answer of her fellow students enraged her immensely. What was wrong with these people?! A missing person was nothing to be unconcerned about!
Just as she was about to shout abuse at the class, Sai suddenly took hold of her wrist and led her to where Sasuke was talking to a group of giggling girls (obviously unaware of the weight of the situation, much to Sasuke's great infuriation).
"Sasuke, take Sakura and head back to the site. I'll alert Kurenai about the situation and double-check whether or not Naruto is here. She could be in the rooms. Kiba has Akamaru with him so I'll send them to you once we've searched this place." This was a side to Sai that none of them had seen before. If they weren't under extreme stress at that moment, Sakura would have admitted how hot Sai actually looked when he was dead serious. Sasuke, on the other hand, was appalled by the nerve of the other lad to boss him – Uchiha Sasuke – around; but Sasuke would restrain his pride for now. Naruto took priority in this matter. After all, he'd promised someone not too long ago that he would not let pride win over against a relationship so important and precious to him. And so, with a nod of his head, Sasuke agreed to follow Sai's arrangement. That one sign of approval had Sai running for Kurenai in a heartbeat.
"Yo! Sasuke, Sakura! Talk to us. What's really happening here?" Kiba exclaimed as he and the rest of their group approached the two.
"Naruto is missing. Sai ran to alert Kurenai about the situation. Kiba, go fetch Akamaru and help Sai search the area. Inform them about the members of the search party. Sakura and I will be heading back to the forest site. Shino and Hinata, Shikamaru and Ino, come with us. Follow the pair system, guys. Chouji stay with Sai and Kiba. Head to the forest once you're absolutely sure Naruto isn't here." The authority in Sasuke's voice left no room for any sort of defiance from the group. Immediately after stating his instructions, everyone went into action, no questions asked. Time was of the essence here. As long as they had the sunlight, chances of finding Naruto were significantly high. They had to find her before nightfall or else... well, frankly, Sasuke didn't want to think about that.
Now, they had to focus on finding Naruto, and finding her as quick as possible while they still had the sun on their side.
"Sasuke, she might be injured." Sakura articulated the concern. The notion had already crossed Sasuke's mind moments ago and having Sakura speak the same apprehension intensified his anxiety to which affected his travel pace. This meant bad news for Sakura's stamina. A sprinting football athlete was in no way a proper speed for a cheerleader to keep up with.
"Sasuke! Slow down! We don't want you getting lost too!" Although Sasuke was undoubtedly quite the genius, Sakura's request fell on deaf ears. Despite Sakura's valiant effort to keep up, Sasuke was easily ahead of her and soon out of eyeshot. The Haruno girl tsked in annoyance and panted from her great exertions. She would have to form a three-man group with one of the search pairs. She could only hope that Sasuke's mental functioning remained stable in these trying times. While she waited for their group of friends to get to her position, she silently prayed to whichever god or deity that would listen that her two best friends remained unharmed and would soon return safe to their hotel.
If by some chance the both of those idiots got lost in the process of the search, a thorough beating would be their just reward from Haruno Sakura when she found them. She would indubitably make certain of that.
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"Oi! Loser! Where the hell are you?!"The fatigue was already showing in his voice as three and a half hours had passed since he'd noticed that his blonde idiot was missing. He hadn't stopped to catch a break in that time since flashes of horrifying possibilities came to mind when even the very notion of a break surfaced in his thoughts. He growled as he went deeper into the wilderness. Why would anyone go this far into the forest for a flipping high school experiment?! Considering that this was Naruto made the thought even more absurd. Naruto was one of the laziest persons he knew!
Minutes went by and the dread was starting to take a toll on the dark-haired teenager. Darker images, try as he might to reject them, were making themselves known. Realistically speaking, Naruto might even be...
No.
He refused to believe it.
He refused to believe that he lost yet another precious person in his life.
He refused to lose Naruto without a god damn fight!
"UZUMAKI! YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE ME UNTIL I SAY SO! YOU HEAR ME, DUMBASS!" With a burst of energy provided by his second wind, he heroically sped up his search by hastily moving deeper into the wild, jumping over protruding tree trunks, skillfully ducking under stray branches, and even sliding down uneven grounds. What he hadn't anticipated on was, after a particular leap over exceptionally thorny shrubbery, there appeared a sudden steep incline. Had he not swiftly reacted to the situation, he would have been a goner. As he skilfully landed on his side, he grabbed hold of the shrub root to be able to control his inevitable fall down the slope. Thankfully, the root provided enough anchorage for him to look down and plan the safest method and area to fall to. The sight below gave him a myriad of emotions coming all in at the same instant.
Naruto was down there, resting on quite a rocky surface, and appeared to be cupping something in her hands. She was unconscious but judging by the rise and fall of her chest Sasuke was happy to know that she was alive. The degree of relief Sasuke was experiencing was near overwhelming, but the emotion died quick when he noticed that her ankle was twisted in an awkward angle, various scrapes and bruises down her body, and a particular nasty gash on her temple.
"Naruto! Wake up!" Sasuke screamed from where he was, hoping to stir his best friend awake. To his horror, there came no response from her, however his loud voice seemed to have alerted the thing Naruto was gently holding in her palms. The sound of chirping thus began to originate from the girl. Naruto began to stir somewhat from the little noise coming from her hands. To Sasuke's chagrin, the twittering of the animal was not enough to fully awaken the blonde as she soon resumed to drift off once more.
Sasuke frantically looked for a safer spot to land on. Just a little to his left, there seemed to be an area that was soft enough fall on and not incur threatening wounds to his person. He then attempted to gain a bit of footing in order to jump towards the safe zone. With a grunt, he launched himself and not soon after, landed securely on his feet and rolled to the ground to ensure that his knees were not damaged upon his feet making impact to the ground. After hurriedly dusting himself off, he ran to his girlfriend's side and gently shook her awake.
"Hey. Idiot. Open your eyes." When gently shaking her awake proved to be ineffective, he chose to go with the more normal approach. "God damn it, Sunshine! If you don't wake up, I'm gonna make sure Teuchi doesn't serve you ramen for the rest of your life! Wake up, Naruto!" He screamed in her ear as he pinched her undamaged cheek.
His shouting unfortunately scared the poor thing in Naruto's hands judging from its rapid and louder chirps. Fortunately though, his threat (added with the loud tweets from what Sasuke knew to be a baby bird) woke Naruto from her passed out state. She groaned and slowly opened one eye.
"Sasuke?"
The Uchiha audibly sighed in relief at the sound of her voice. "Who else, lug nut." The insult lacked bite as it was said while Sasuke was looking blissful over the fact that Naruto was okay. He cupped her cheek when a pained expression crossed Naruto's features.
"Come on. Let's get you to the nearest hospital. You're hurt and you might even have a concussion." Sasuke winced as he imagined the pain Naruto's twisted ankle brought to her.
"Bastard, go help Piyo first." Naruto groaned out the words while she tried to get herself up off the floor.
Sasuke was about to ask her who the hell Piyo was when Naruto opened her cupped hands to reveal a small brown chick. Figures Naruto would have named the small thing.
"The little guy fell from its nest, probably trying to learn how to fly. I was lucky enough to be in the area when he was falling. I jumped to catch him in time but I didn't know there'd be this deep a slope here. Good thing he wasn't hurt when we landed on the ground." She gently pet the chick's head using her index finger.
"Stupid! Look at you! You're a complete mess and all because of a damn bird!" It wasn't as if Sasuke was a heartless bastard but the thought that Naruto would put herself in harm's way like this to save a bird infuriated him. Death was a part of nature. If you couldn't cut it in nature, then death would be waiting. Survival was for the fittest, and loss came to the weak. Naruto's injuries and saving the bird would be all for naught; it didn't change that the chick was weak and would die nonetheless.
"Sasuke, please? Get Piyo back into his nest?" She pouted for extra measure yet Sasuke remained unyielding. "Do it for me?" Naruto said in a most sincere tone. She was happy to hear a sigh of defeat come from Sasuke, signalling that he agreed to do the favour for her. "He fell from that nest over there. See? At the top of that tree." The gaze of her blue eyes pointed Sasuke to direction of Piyo's home. The nest was situated on one of the higher branches of a nearby tree. Sasuke frowned over the idea of having to climb a relatively high location for saving a bird that would have no merits for him whatsoever. Hn. If this would make Naruto agree to leave with him faster then so be it.
Naruto watched Sasuke scoop the animal into his own palms then expertly climb up the tree while making sure Piyo was unharmed. Not long after, Sasuke placed the fallen bird back to its nest, silently thanking that the mother wasn't around to attack him for the breach of shelter. Climbing down the tree proved to be much faster without the little bird to mind over. The thump of Sasuke's feet hitting soft soil alerted Naruto that it was time to try to get up from her spot. The blonde was able to lift herself up to some extent. Sasuke was quick to assist her once he made it to her side. Difficulty hit with the task of getting Naruto up the ground when the girl howled in pain when she put a bit of weight on her twisted ankle. She would have dropped to the ground had Sasuke not been there to support her.
"Shit." He cursed out of worry for the girl. It was obvious Naruto wouldn't be able to climb up on her own. Hell, she couldn't even walk on her own. So, to solve the dilemma, Sasuke crouched low to the ground and poised himself in a way that it seemed he was about to carry a huge weight. Naruto looked at the boy with perplexity for a few seconds before it dawned on her.
"No way! I am not gonna be some damsel in distress and let you carry me, bastard!"
"No choice, idiot. You're getting on whether you like it or not."
"Nuh-uh! Ain't gonna happen!"
"Naruto, just let me help you. Every second we're out here in your state is fucking getting me paranoid. I don't like it when you're hurt, stupid." Naruto appreciated the sweet words. It would have been significantly more heartwarming if Sasuke hadn't cursed or growled out some parts of the sentences, but Naruto wasn't complaining. She yielded and got on Sasuke's back.
"Let me set the record straight that I am in no way weak, asshole. If you ever mention this again, I am gonna break up with your ass, ya hear." She warned the boy as she tightened the hold around Sasuke's neck more than necessarily.
Sasuke snickered as he positioned himself to start climb up the incline. "Whatever. Just don't puke on me while we're like this if you do have a concussion, numbskull."
"Not making any promises, jerk." The hateful words were contradictory to her actions since she nuzzled the unscathed portion of her head to Sasuke's cheek.
Naruto was safe in his arms and Sasuke was finally able to breathe easy. Once he was successful in getting the both of them up the steep slope, the boy texted Sakura to let her know that their unpredictable and exceedingly annoying girl was found.
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Sasuke made sure to give Naruto's groupmates a thorough and terrifying scolding for not bothering to keep an eye on her. He'd make sure to give them more hell in school once they got back. By the looks of it, Sasuke telling those teens of were more effective than Kurenai's method. Speaking of Kurenai, she made sure to apologize to Sasuke's group for not having picked up on Naruto sooner. Being the teacher, she should have double-checked her student count, she explained to Sasuke and made sure that she would reiterate the same thing to Naruto's guardian and the school's authority figures. That was a lesson she learned the hard way.
Because of the unfortunate incident, Naruto was excused for the rest of the activity. She'd spent the majority of their time inside the hotel clinic. Thankfully, her gash to the head did not lead to a concussion and the sprain on her ankle was the only matter of concern. Now, if they could only solve her excessive loudness then maybe Sasuke's body wasn't at risk of premature aging.
"Nine hundred and ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, Nine-hundred and ninety-nine bottles of beer!"
Sucks for Sasuke because he had already finished all his dental floss. Sigh. Maybe Sasuke should have just left her down that ditch...
While gazing out of the window of the travelling bus, the Uchiha boy sighed as he thought back on the events of the previous days. Naruto would be the death of him. He really couldn't understand why Naruto had been compelled to act the way she did. The fright she caused undoubtedly shortened his life by at least five years, he believed.
At some point during Naruto's remarkably annoying rendition of the famous travel tune, she had grown tired and fell asleep with her head comfortable place on Sasuke's right shoulder. Basking in the peace that the silence and the moment brought him, he too was lulled into a deep state of sleep. He ended up resting his cheek at the top of Naruto's head thus creating an aura of adorableness about them.
Sakura, who was seated at the row in front of the couple, chose the perfect moment to look back at the both of them. The second she saw Sasuke and Naruto's picturesque scene, she quickly rummaged for her camera and took a photo of the two. She reviewed the photo on her digital camera and sweetly smiled at the shot. Modesty aside, it was truly a gorgeous photo that blatantly showed how much Sasuke and Naruto were made for each other. The light of the sunset created the perfect ambient glow for the both of them and there was a feeling of overall contentment radiating from their forms.
That was another one for the albums. She'd make sure to give those two a copy when they got back.
She looked at the actual scene itself rather than the one on the photo. No photo could beat the real thing, she always believed. She'd make sure to keep the memory of the event locked in a special part of her heart. To have captured it on camera was really just an added bonus.
She couldn't wait to show the photo to her two favourite people!