11. In the Rain

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about dancing in the rain."
Sai read the last line of his book, and smiled genuinely.
Ever since he'd hit an artist's block, he'd taken up reading.
And he'd read pretty much anything.
He'd pick up different books that lay on Sakura shelves and peruse through them, finishing some before the end of the day. But the one he held now was his favorite.
He'd read it at least 15 times.
A few years ago, back when he was in Root, he never would have seen himself doing things like this, reading frivolous books at his leisure.
His only mission in life was to complete he mission, nothing more and nothing less.
But being assigned to Team 7 changed everything about his life, and that's why he read this book a lot.
It reminded him of them.
Especially this quote about "dancing in the rain".
Naruto made a special effort to teach everyone he met how to dance in the rain.
But Sasuke, he guessed, just had two left feet.

12. Color

"Okay, okay! I spy something…green."
"Grass!"
"No."
"Leaves!"
"No."
Kakashi's jounin vest!"
"No."
"Your eyes!"
"Dumbass! How can I spy my own eyes?!"
"Well, you know what color they are!"
"Yeah but if I don't have a mirror on me, I can't spy them!"
"Okay, FINE! Is it…my necklace?"
"Nope."
"That frog?"
"No…"
"…That snake over there?"
"No…EEEK!! WHERE?!"
Naruto burst into a fit of laughter as Sakura jumped backward and clung onto Sasuke. Once she realized the joke, Sakura promptly tackled Naruto to the ground.
"You stupid idiot! How many times do I have to tell you to stop doing that?! I'm scared to death of snakes! How dare you! This is why I don't play games with you anymore!"
Naruto tried his hardest to escape the wrath of the pinkette, but to no avail. She had hold of his blond locks and continuously slammed his face into the dirt.
Kakashi and Sasuke just walked past them, minding their own business. Naruto and Sakura would catch up eventually.
"You know it was his necklace, right?" Kakashi stated once they were out of earshot.
"Yeah, she just didn't expect Naruto to guess right."
Suddenly, Naruto came flying overhead and crash landed into the lake nearby.
"Dobe." Sasuke muttered, continuing ahead.
"Ah, young love."

13. Suffering

"You enjoy suffering, don't you?"
Naruto just smiled sheepishly as he walked into his apartment. Shikamaru, Temari, Sai, and Yamato, who had all accompanied him on his last mission, greeted him when he came home from the hospital.
"Did you just now get out of the hospital?" Yamato asked, surprised.
"Yeah," Naruto limped over with a crutch under one arm, and sat on the couch beside Sai. "But I took a turn for the worst at the last minute."
"He just tried copped a feel on Sakura whenever she was turned around and so she broke his wrist." Sai finished, moving his shogi piece into place.
"Dumbass…" Shikamaru muttered, cigarette dangling from between his lips as he pondered his next move.
"Hey, it's not my fault!" Naruto said.
Temari shot Naruto a glare, but then just smirked and shook her head.
"I suppose that groping is something that's encoded into male DNA." She quipped as she glanced over at Shikamaru. "Even when we beat the shit outta you men, you still try again the next day."
"What can we say?" Naruto said, leaning back and putting his hands behind his head.
"It's our favorite kind of suffering."

14. Happiness

Naruto swore that this time would be the last.
But as he lie in the dark next to Sasuke, he knew that it wouldn't be.
After sex, Sasuke would always roll over onto his side and draw into himself.
Like, being with Naruto was the only time he'd ever come out of his shell.
The only time he'd let himself indulge in something human.
And Naruto would let him.
Against Sakura-chan's warnings, he'd become a sex buddy with Sasuke.
And that's all he was to him. Just a means to an end.
It should make Naruto sad, but it doesn't. It doesn't even make him depressed.
Because at least he is home now. At least Sasuke isn't alone.
At least he'd kept his promise to Sakura-chan.
His blue eyes glance over at the body next to him, and a smile plays on his lips.
"Can't you see, I'm just happy to have you here?" he whispers aloud.
He gets no response. Only the sound of the wind and two heartbeats.
"Sasuke…why can't you forgive yourself and be happy?" Naruto reaches out and caresses his hair.
'Let me be your happiness…'

15. Art

Sasuke was a work of art.
From his strong facial structure and piercing black eyes, right down to his unbridled talent and pure raw power, Sasuke was a masterpiece.
It's too bad that he didn't see it, though.
That's why he let himself go to Orochimaru. He just saw himself as clay to be molded and not the sparkling marbled pillars that stood in foreign palaces.
He would let himself go be shown off in Orochimaru's gallery.
Didn't he see that Orochimaru couldn't appreciate his true beauty? That the snake bastard was just a collector who would only cheapen his true and ferociously pure breathtaking beauty?
No.
And that's a shame. Because Sasuke was a one of a kind.
And Naruto would pay any price to have him back.

16. Bonds

Kakashi wondered how he should feel as the pink-haired medic nin took a seat in front of him at one of the fanciest restaurants in Konoha.
Surely he hadn't done anything recently to piss her off.
Surely she had no intention of destroying his reputation in front of Konoha's elite.
Perhaps it was her teacher who had the intention of exacting revenge.
Was this some ploy? Some twisted scheme to prove the point that Tsunade hated losing her betting games?
Or maybe it was Naruto.
Dear, mother of god. Why did he say yes when Sakura cornered him in the supermarket and asked him to have dinner with her? Why, why WHY?
"Good evening, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura greeted, a pleasant grin on her face.
"Evening." Kakashi answered.
"Thanks for agreeing to have dinner with me. It's been a long time since we talked last."
He couldn't help it when his eyes wandered down to her cleavage. 'Bad!' He mentally slapped himself. 'Focus! You're NOT a pedophile. She's your STUDENT for Christ's sake…'
"Yeah. I've been…busy."
"I know. That's why I checked Tsunade's files to see if she had you going on any missions this week. I guess that's the downside to being a jounin of your caliber. Everybody wants you." She batted her emerald green eyes at him, and then raised her water glass to her lips.
'Dear god. Is she hitting on me? Naw, she wouldn't…would she?'
Kakashi promptly raised his glass as well, to try and bide him some time to think, if anything.
4 tail Naruto? He could handle it.
Orochimaru attacks the village with gigantic snakes? No problem.
Itachi traps you in Tsukiyomi no Jutsu? Walk in the park.
But when your only female pupil starts hitting on you and she also happens to be your boss's apprentice…then it's time to throw in the towel.
"Sakura," he started, trying to sound casual. "Is something on your mind?"
"Yeah, kinda." She replied nonchalantly. " Y'know…I just thought it had been awhile since we talked last and maybe we could use some time to bond and...get to know each other again."
'Shit. What the hell is that supposed to mean?'

Stay tuned for part II of Kakashi and Sakura's "date"!

17. Conversation

Yuuna had been a gift from god.
With her bright blue eyes and gorgeous red hair, it was hard to see her otherwise.
Naruto doted on her constantly, Sai would draw her and for her non-stop and Sasuke was the only one who could get her stop crying in the middle of the night.
They were the perfect family.
But sometimes, just sometimes, the conversation on her paternity would come up.
Even though they talked about this many times before Yuuna was born.
Yuuna was EVERYONE'S daughter.
No one person was responsible for her.
Even though, on a conscious level, Sakura knew that to be pure bullshit.
And so did they.
But, for Yuuna's sake, they agreed to let it go.
Even though sometimes Naruto would say things like:
"Aw, look at her blue eyes! She gets that from me, y'know!"
And Sai would subtly comment:
"She's really knows her way around a canvas."
The only one who wouldn't say anything was Sasuke. But, she just assumed that Sasuke was waiting to train her to see if she had the Sharingan.
It wasn't until around age 4, when Yuuna was diagnosed with autism, did everyone completely stop the conversation surrounding her paternity.

18. Blood

When Sasuke dreams, it's always about Itachi.
He would see himself, standing over his brother's corpse and smiling.
His goal finally achieved.
Itachi's blood smeared his flesh and clothes, and he breathed it in like a fire.
Yes.
When he was alone, he thought of Itachi still.
Thinking of the way his blood would cover him. How he would watch the crimson color fade from his menacing dark eyes.
And Itachi's fucking blood.
It was almost an aphrodisiac.
And he thought of Itachi as he stood over another useless human who had tried a failed assassination attempt. He had given him a slow death. He deserved worse.
Sasuke knelt down and dipped his hand into the pool of blood that surrounded the man's throat.
He closed his eyes, and imagined that it was Itachi's.
He smeared some onto his cheek and ran his tongue into the coppery warmth and imagined Itachi.
"Fuck…" he growled.
But it wasn't Itachi's.
Not yet.

19. Showdown

Strip poker was the dumbest game ever.
How in the HELL had Ino talked her into this?
She hated cards. She hated betting. She hated games in general.
So why was she here?
The only good thing about this night was that Sai had brought the sake'.
Across the table sat Naruto, Sai, and Ino.
The only one still clothed was Naruto.
She was convinced that he was cheating.
Ino was having a hell of a time "accidentally" groping Sai in inappropriate places.
Naruto would eye them, then look at Sakura, and raise his eyebrows devilishly.
She'd only flipped him off.
"Well, Sakura, looks like you lose again." Naruto said, a cat-like grin on his tan features. "Time to lose the bra."
"Screw you guys!" she threw her cards onto the table. "I'm done playing!"
"Aw, c'mon!" Naruto said unconvincingly. "Don't be such a sore loser, Sakura-chan!"
"That's easy for YOU to say, Naruto! You are still clothed!"
"It's okay, Naruto." Ino piped up. "She doesn't have anything to see up there anyway. Just imagine flesh covered eggs, and there you go!"
"Ino, you freaking whore! Go die in a ditch!"
"If it makes you feel any better, I'll take off my shirt."
"No, Naruto, that WON'T make me feel better."
"It'll make me feel better!" Ino chimed.
"Goodnight, everyone!" Sakura called.
Sakura grabbed her wallet and purse, and stumbled into the living room, trying to find her shirt.
Poker night was so stupid.
"Oh my GOD, INO!" she heard from the kitchen. "YOU WEAR A WATERBRA?!"
"HA!" Sakura wasted no time rushing in. " I KNEW IT!!!!"
Ino, waterbra completely exposed, indignantly flew toward her rival.
"It's just to enhance my features!" she protested, then promptly took a kunai and ripped off Sakura's bra.
"Better than being flat-chested, forehead!"
"Ino-pig you BITCH!"
Sakura tackled her rival to the floor.
Naruto just popped some chips into his mouth as he watched the girls brawl it out. It was even more interesting when Sakura popped Ino's waterbra.
"I love poker night."
"It's more like a whore showdown, isn't it?" Sai said, gathering the cards from the table.
"That's why I love it. Now where the hell is my camera?"

20. Pain

He fell kneeling into the malicious waves of the ocean and tried hard not to feel.

Why pretend?

Naruto growled, shut his eyes, and dug the sharp points of his teeth deeper and deeper into his forearm until the only thing he could taste was the mixture of boiling blood and hot tears. Both endlessly gushed from within him.

He needed to be numb. Anything was better than being alive.

He screamed as his bare feet, ripped and torn from his rampage, burned heatedly in the salty waves. But he did not move, instead letting the stormy sea lick and acerbate his wounds.

That very feeling of being alive.

He hated it now.

Of having a heartbeat and warm blood course through your veins. Of speaking, maturing, loving, knowing. Of being ignorant and the best kept secret in Konoha. Of being the product of something greater than you are, and yet, to have no meaning at all.

The noises of guttural cries and torturous moans of agony resonated all around him, and he covered his ears and screamed to block the noise. It wasn't until the first wave drowned his lungs did he even realize that the noises were his own.

So Naruto screamed again, so loud and long, until he was sure that his parents could hear him from within the confines of heaven.

And all at once he wanted so badly to be with them.