Verisimilitude
By gure
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Comments: I am alive. Yeah, I realize it's been a while. Sorry for the delay.
I know this story really doesn't apply anymore, as the original story has branched off into unmentioned territory. I've decided to post this chapter anyway since it was sitting in my hard drive for a long time. So here it is. Not sure if I will continue the story, though. That, and I'm sure everyone who's been following this story has already given up on it ever being finished. :X
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Chapter 5: Gratification
The next two weeks went by in slow motion for Sasuke. His thoughts kept on going back to Naruto's close-eyed smile, and every time he looked back on it, that smile disturbed him even more.
Now that he thought about the past when Team Seven had just formed, he realized that Naruto would often use that smile.
The fox smile, with his eyes squinted shut in an arch and his mouth curved into the most ridiculously large grin that Sasuke had ever seen. That smile did not belong on the Naruto's delicate boyish face.
And he was such an idiot that he didn't realize sooner what that smile meant. It was Naruto's mask, that fox-like grin that prevented people from looking into his eyes and giving himself away. Whenever the blonde boy wanted to hide something, he used that smile.
And to think that no one ever paid attention to that grin, not knowing why he did that, and just shoving it aside as something weird. Something to separate the fox-like boy from themselves.
His grin's weird, he's weird, and he's not one of us. He's just a loser that likes to goof of, they had whispered among themselves.
Sasuke's thoughts were interrupted as he heard sounds coming toward his direction. He was currently sitting underneath the shade of a large tree, waiting for the rest of his team mates and Kakashi to show up. But the sounds only turned out to be a family of squirrels scurrying off to the protection of their tree.
Not surprisingly, after that day when he found Naruto unconscious, the boy had once more taken the role of the team goof-ball. Apparently he had taken Sasuke's words about taking care of himself seriously, and the pallor of his skin had improved. Kakashi had looked a bit concerned at first, but had pretty much left things alone. Sakura was relieved that the blond was acting more like his usual self, and had even good-naturedly declined the blonde's invitation to go on a date without her usual snide remarks.
And the boy had just grinned at Sasuke with 'that' grin and called him the usual asshole.
Everything was the way it was before, with several miniscule exceptions that only Sasuke noticed. Although Naruto had attempted to rile him up like he always did, Sasuke no longer found those actions irritating. As much as Naruto tried to start arguments or fights with him, it no longer seemed appealing for him to fight with the blonde. After several days of attempts, the blonde had gotten the point and had just left him alone, still calling him an asshole and a jerk when talking to Kakashi or Sakura.
But there was a rift that was threatening to grow larger between them. For the most part, the blonde had started to ignore him indirectly. He still addressed Sasuke when he needed to, but his attention was always on anything or anyone other than Sasuke. He would chatter nonsense to Sakura and Kakashi, make a fool of himself with everyone else, but he never tried to get Sasuke's attention.
That was something Sasuke found disheartening. He missed the blonde's need for attention, especially when the blonde tried to get him to acknowledge him. But it seemed like Naruto no longer cared about what he thought of him, or anyone else for that matter. And that seemed wrong somehow, because didn't Naruto always make a big deal about people paying attention to him? All those times he tried to get everyone to acknowledge him, to see him, to look at him. Didn't he care anymore?
But after that hospital debacle, there seemed to be a lack of passion and drive in the blonde's recent actions. He fooled around and goofed off, but it seemed half-hearted. More like it seemed like he was trying too hard. And it was driving Sasuke crazy that no one else but him noticed it at all.
Couldn't anyone else see that Naruto was not himself? This was not Naruto. Naruto was more real than that.
But of course, wasn't it because no one ever knew the real Naruto in the first place?
---
"Sasuke-kun! Ohayou! You're early as usual!" cried Sakura as she hurried to sit beside Sasuke under their tree.
Sasuke just grunted and closed his eyes as he laid his head back against the rough trunk.
But the girl just kept on chattering, trying to fill in the silence of the dawn. "Mou! Naruto's always the last one. But you know Sasuke-kun, secretly I'm a little glad that Naruto's back to normal. He was a little odd those couple of weeks, but I can see that it was just a phase."
Sasuke frowned as he took in Sakura's words. Something flitted across his mind and clawed on his brain, but he couldn't for the life of him think of what it was.
Just then, a large shout was heard coming their way, once again breaking Sasuke's concentration.
"Sakura-chan! Ohayou! I managed to wake up just in time today! But then I couldn't find any milk in the fridge, and I had to make do with just water. So boring!" Naruto grinned and scratched the back of his head as he made his way to the pink-haired girl's spot underneath the tree.
"Oi, bastard, morning to you too!" Naruto quipped when he realized that the dark-haired boy was, as usual, sulking underneath the tree. Not expecting a reply from the Uchiha, Naruto continued to chatter mindlessly to Sakura.
"Ne ne Sakura-chan, I read my horoscope in today's newspaper, and it said that the person of my dreams will accept me if I confessed to them. Ehehe… so what about it? Will you accept me, Sakura-chan?"
Sakura just stuck her tongue out in an unladylike fashion at the blonde boy.
"Baaaaka! Dream on! That horoscope needs to be corrected."
Naruto just pouted and laid himself a little ways off from the rest of his team mates. Instead of the shade, he preferred the early morning sun to be shining down on him directly. He curled up just like a cat and yawned as the sun's warm rays bathed him in its glow. His grin left his lips as he made sure to turn carefully away from his team mates. I'll be stronger today than I was yesterday, he thought as he dozed off.
The silence made Sasuke open his eyes. To his right sat Sakura, eyes off-focus. She seemed to be doing her share of daydreaming for that day. His eyes then darted to Naruto, whose back was turned towards them as he lay on the green grass near the bridge, right under the sun.
Sasuke frowned lightly as he stared at Naruto's back while he tried to fish around for his thoughts. He was thinking about something earlier, but he had forgotten what it was. Of course it had something to do with Naruto, but it just wouldn't come to him.
---
"Ahaha… sorry I'm late. I got deterred on my way here this morning when someone tried to steal my book from out of my hands."
"Who would want to steal your perverted book, Kakashi-sensei?! You liar!"
"Mou Kakashi-sensei! You're the worst!"
"…"
Kakashi just chuckled at his students' lively responses.
"We have a more serious mission today. It seems like there have been some gang activity happening around the borders near the forest. It's the Hokage's orders that we take a look at this problem and capture anyone suspicious. However, it is also orders that we have to work together. We are not to let each other out of sight; we are to make ourselves as scarce as possible, and if any of us find anything suspicious, we are to let the rest of the team know before recklessly throwing ourselves into the situation. Understand?"
Kakashi-sensei's voice had taken on a more serious tone, and Team Seven knew that this was indeed a more serious mission than normal. They nodded their heads in acknowledgement as they followed their sensei to the borders of the forest surrounding West Konoha.
"Ah, before we go, Naruto, Sakura, you need to change into something more durable and less conspicuous. You must also bring the rest of your weapons with you as well a small satchel of food. We may have to sleep out tonight. We'll meet here again in exactly half an hour. Oh yah, and Naruto, if you don't have any clothes that aren't orange, you might want to borrow some clothes from Sasuke. Ja!"
And with those words, Kakashi smiled and disappeared. Sighing, Naruto began to head back to his apartment, wondering what he had to wear that was less distinguishable. He did not even want to think about borrowing clothes from Sasuke. However, a hand stopped the blonde boy from going further. He whirled around at the interruption and glared at Sasuke's hand.
"What do you want? I need to go get my stuff…" he mumbled somberly.
"Idiot, you don't have any clothes that aren't orange, do you?"
There was a silent pause, and Sasuke could almost hear the gears clicking in the dobe's head. He stared at the blonde boy's face and almost smiled (almost!) at his pouting face.
"Yes I do…" muttered Naruto. "Now just leave me alone."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed and a frown settled on his face as he tightened his grip on the other boy's arm.
"Stop being stubborn, dobe. I already know you don't have any suitable clothes for stuff like this. Now just stop being pigheaded and come with me already." Turning around, Sasuke started dragging Naruto in the opposite direction, only to stop abruptly when the irate blonde swirled around to swipe at his stomach.
Sasuke dodged at the last minute and pulled his arm out, twirling Naruto around and trapping the smaller boy against his chest. Growling in pain, Naruto tried to force his way out of Sasuke's arm with no luck as he was just hurting himself. Sasuke's death grip ensured that a victim could not escape without injuring themselves first.
The blonde stubbornly tried to remove himself from Sasuke's grip, his face contorted slightly in pain. There had to be a way out of his grasp without causing further injury to himself.
Sasuke sighed. "Stop, dobe." The boy was obviously hurting himself, and as much as Sasuke was glad to see the dobe being back to his stubborn self, he didn't want him to end up hurt for the mission.
"No! Let me go! Sasuke-bastard! Idiot! Asshole! Octopus! Rotten creep!" The boy continued to spit out a long list of creative insults, some that made Sasuke raise an eyebrow in surprise.
But things were getting a little out of hand, and Sasuke decided to end it. "Naruto."
His voice allowed no questions, firm and extremely serious. And apparently, its effect on Naruto was immediate. The other boy deflated, slumping into arms, his legs giving way. Sasuke had to clutch the boy tighter to stop them both from tumbling to the ground.
"…you bastard…" Naruto whispered hatefully, energy depleted. He turned his face away to hide his shame when Sasuke tried to peer into his face.
The dark-haired boy frowned. There was obviously something wrong with Naruto, and it frustrated Sasuke that he didn't know the reason. He thought back to the thoughtless words he had blurted out at the hospital and then closed his eyes in resignation. It couldn't be helped. Naruto was upset at him, and he couldn't interrogate the blonde if he was unwilling.
As difficult as this was for him to do, Sasuke pushed his stubborn pride down and opened his mouth to apologize.
"Naruto… I'm sorry… for that time at the hospital. Those words, I was just frustrated because I never noticed anything. I know you can take care of yourself if you wanted to. So won't you get up and come with me?" Those were the hardest words Sasuke ever had to say, and he looked down hopefully at Naruto's face.
It seemed Naruto had gone into slight shock at his solemn apology. Then those blue eyes looked sharply up at him, narrowed and weary, as if Sasuke were going to take back his words.
When he found Sasuke's eyes to be serious and even slightly wistful, he slowly got up to his feet with the help of Sasuke's grip still around him. "Fine. Let's go then."
Sasuke silently sighed in relief at Naruto's acquiescence and withdrew his arms from the blond boy's waist. The lost of warmth and the emptiness he felt surprised him, but he ignored it. The blonde had already walked on ahead of him, face turned backwards to stare impatiently at him.
"Come on, hurry up, slowpoke! And I want to eat some ramen before we go too! And you better treat me!"
Sasuke smirked slightly at Naruto's demands. Trust the blonde to forgive him after he ate his wallet away first.
"Che- with the amount you eat, we'll never get to the mission until tomorrow," Sasuke quipped in response. "Dobe," he added quietly as an afterthought. The blonde fumed indignantly at his response and stomped on ahead, cheeks puffed out in a cute pout.
Things finally seemed to look up from the weeks of tension between him and Naruto. But new questions had already been awakened in his brain, questions that had been lying dormant in his head until now.
But for now, he decided to humor Naruto's appetite and try to prevent the blonde from eating him out of his house.
A soft barely noticeable smile graced Sasuke's pale lips.