(fore notes: I am so sorry!! I kept forgetting about this story and I have absolutely no sense of time, so I was thinking it's only been about a week since I last posted, but it's been over a month...I feel so horrible...I promise to try to update once a week...that's my goal from now on...on with story...)
Chapter seven: Three Musketers
Naruto and Sasuke slowly approached the bridge, still bickering, though this time about who was going to get a bigger butt whipping, only stopping when Sakura caught Naruto's attention and he happily bounded off to great her.
Seeing the lover of her life and his rival coming form the same house together, having just slept with each other, at least in her mind, was just a bit too much for her to take, and her face clearly showed it. The usually stoic Uchiha almost bust out laughing at the expression on the pink haired kunoichi's face.
"What's wrong, Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto, sincerely concerned as his teammates face paled to almost Sasuke's shade.
"I-I think I need to sit down. Yeah. That sounds good..." she said, tottering away and sitting down on on the bridge, though it looked more like she fell down, and she leaned back against the railing, closing her eyes and muttering inaudibly something that might have sounded like 'Sasuke-kkun and Naruto are gay...' had the two boys now exchanging questioning glances heard her.
Kakashi-sensei decided to show up then and announce that they had a few d-ranked missions, and, upon seeing Sakura's condition decided that the two boys should start their first mission while he escorted her home.
And so, this is how the Uchiha prodigy and his sidekick Naruto ended up pulling weeds in a villagers garden for an hour, complaining under their breath so the old man whose garden it was wouldn't hear, with no sign of their sensei.
Conveniently, Kakashi didn't show up until they had completed the task, claiming Mrs. Haruno had forced his to stay for a piece of pie as a reward for bringing her "little princess" home safely when she wasn't feeling well. To say the least, he got an earful from the two irked and slightly tired boys.
"Well," their sensei started merrily, having just finished a cheery conversation with the elderly gentleman, "off we go to the next mission!"
Both boys groaned, though Sasuke only complained mentally, as they trudged wearily after their sensei. "What do we hae to do now?" whined Naruto.
"You remember that cat?" asked Kakashi.
"Not that thing again..." Naruto started complaining.
"You get to wear the cool earphone things again." bribed the white haired jounin.
The blonde's face perked up. "Really? That is awesome!!!" he punched the air.
Sasuke rolled his eyes in annoyance at the blonde's simple mind while Kakashi smirked underneath his mask at the small victory.
And this is how the two boys ended up chasing a cat around the woods surrounding Konohagakure until they finally caught it just in time for lunch. They hurriedly brought the frightened cat to the Hokage Tower where the pets owner was waiting. Nruto couldn't help but notice just how sexy the older boy looked with a tight black collar around his neck.(1)
Sasuke felt someone's gaze on hims and couldn't fight the urge to look around to see who it was, though it was probably just some random stupid fangirl as usual. He turned to where he thought the person was and was surprised to see a blushing Naruto staring at him. The ravonette cocked an almost unnaturally this eyebrow at the younger boy. "What are you staring at, dobe?" he asked under his breath, intending it to be a rhetorical question.
"None of your business, teme!" Naruto retorted, making a bug show of turning his head away from the older boy, his blush only deepening, though he wasn't entirely sure why as he hadn't really done anything wrong.
"Next time you feel like being a space cadet at least stare more discretely, you bring enough attention to yourself, and unfortunately me as well, as it is."
Naruto growled under his breath, glaring at the taller boy, walking nest to him, though he refused to fully look at the 'stupid teme.'
Sasuke smirked, returning the glare evenly before loosing interest and focusing on not getting scratched to bits and pieces by the unhappy cat in his arms. He might have been a genius, but animals just weren't his thing.
After several minutes of an unusually long, angry silence, they returned the grumpy cat to it's owner who was overjoyed to have her beloved cat back, they met up with their lazy sensei. "We're going to take a quick lunch break before tackling the rest of our missions. So meet back here in an hour."
"So we'll see you in an hour and a half?" asked Sasuke dryly, but their sensei was already gone in a small puff of smoke.
"Hey, teme, I'm going to Iciraku." said Naruto in a way that was more like an invitation to accompany him than just a simple statement.
"hey, dobe, I'm not." Sasuke said mockingly, turning away from the younger boy, missing the sullen look that fell over the usually happy blonde's face.
"See you later, then..." he said, lolling ogg towards the ramen stand, putting a smile on his tan face.
Sasuke turned to look at his friend, worried about him, though he couldn't exactly tell why he cared, but knowing something was up with the usually chipper boy. So that new Chinese restaurant would have to wait as he followed after the blonde.
And this is why the Uchiha prodigy could be found at Ichiraku's, slowly eating a fattening bowl of the godly food, known to the rest of the world as Ramen, talking to the villages number one hyperactive knuckle head ninja, who had already guzzled down three bowls to Sasuke half.
"How can you eat like that?" Sasuke asked disgustedly, picking up a chopstick full of noodles.(?)
The blonde noisily slurped down the fourth bowl. "I don't know what you're talking about, teme, this is the only way to ear ramen. If you don't slurp, it means you don't like it.(2)"
Sasuke glance around the booth, and was surprised to see other people slurping their bowls of ramen. Add that to his list of reasons he didn't like ramen: it's noisy.
He had to admit, though, the actual ramen wasn't bad at all, and if it wasn't so bad for you he'd probably eat it on a regular basis, not that he'd ever admit this verbally. That would just be un-Uchiha like.
While the older boy had been spacing out, Naruto had finished his fifth and sixth bowls, and was now eyeing Sasuke's as he had run out of cash for the moment.
Sasuke rolled his eyes and pushed the bowl towards the blonde.
"Thanks, Sasuke-teme!" Naruto said happily before slurping down the half eaten bowl.
Sasuke payed for the bowl and got up from his seat at the counter, the blonde quickly trailing after him, having just written 'buys other boys ramen.' "We have about thirty minutes until our hour's up." Sasuke commented to no one in particular, "Did you have anything in mind?" he questioned, turning his head to look at the blonde.
Naruto felt a blush slowly dreeping up hsi cheeks as he thought 'You.' He quickly forced the blonde down. "No."
Sasuke cocked a thin eyebrow at his friend, pondering momentarily on his odd behavior before shrugging it off. "Well, I wanted to head over to the book store really quickly, if you wanted to come..." he more stated than asked the question.
Naruto beamed, "Yeah!!" A wide smile grew on his tan face.
Sasuke seemed slightly taken aback at the blonde's eagerness to accompany him, but he covered ti up with his trademark smirk. "A little eager there, huh, dobe?" he joked.
The younger boy glowered at the ravonette, but followed him anyways. Sasuke led the way into the store with as much confidence and dignity as if he owned the place. Naruto followed behind him, shyly, timidly looking everywhere in an amazement, trying to look everywhere at once and take in as much as he possibly could in as little time as he could manage.
"What's the matter, dobe?" Sasuke asked with mild interest at his friends bewilderment, "You've never been in a book store before?"
"Teme." Naruto replied, more out of habit from hearing 'dobe', still staring wide eyes at all the crisp new books just waiting to be read as he tagged along behind his friend. "No, I never had any need to come in here before. If I wanted to read a book, I'd go to the library...if they'd let me in."
Sasuke turned down an isle, turning his head more than necessary so his friend could see his questioning look.
"Well, only some of the librarians like me, so I'd only be allowed in when they were working..." he let his voice fade, pausing for a few seconds before making a sort of soft squeaking noise as he bumped into the older boy.
"Watch where you're going, dobe." Sasuke chastised, running his finger along the back of the books in the section he was looking at.
Naruto growled lowly.
Sasuke opted to ignore the blonde and picked up one of the books and headed towards the counter. During the time they had left the store and arrived at the Hokage Tower, the blonde had cooled off.
"I'll be right back." said Sasuke, "Tell Kakashi-sensei I had to go home for a sec if he shows up before I get back. As if he'd ever show up on time." he scoffed under his breath. He quickly turned and hurried in the direction of his house, leaving the blonde all alone.
Naruto was not very happy about being left alone in the middle of town, alone. Did he mention he was alone? He mumbled grumpily under his breath, kicking angrily at a weed in the middle of the walk way, figuring it wasn't supposed to be there anyway, so he wouldn't get scorned. But, it wasn't that he couldn't be left alone, he reasoned, no, it was just that he preferred not to be alone when he had the choice, even if it was with that stupid, sexy teme...He turned a bright shade of red and abandoned the mutilated weed. Sasuke would pay tonight, of that he was sure.
- - -
Sasuke ambled into his kitchen, Naruto was currently at his apartment getting a blanket. He walked over to the stove to get a head start on dinner. Maybe, he figured, he'd be nice to Naruto and make him something healthy for dinner for once.
The blond had taken an extremely long time to get his blanket and arrived home just as Sasuke finished setting the table. He looked questioningly at the Uchiha, dropping the backpack that his blanket was in, pulling out his note book. 'Likes to cook dinner for other boys' he muttered as th wrote, sitting down next to the raven haired boy, stuffing the notebook in his backpack.
Sasuke rolled his eyes, not feeling the need to explain himself, thinking the blonde would probably write something else down in is quickly filling notebook of misinterpreted things.
"Itadakimasu!" he said, helping himself to the food.
It was rather late by the time they finished dinner, as the missions had taken longer than usual without the help of Sakura, even if she only contributed a little. 'Who knew such a simple task at pulling weeds could tire you out...' thought Sasuke tiredly, stumbling ulp to his room, directing the blonde from behind as the younger boy insisted on leading the way, but having no clue as to where to go.
He burst into the room, "I dibs the bed!!" he exclaimed happily, touching his nose and pouncing on the comfy bed, smiling into the soft pillow.
"You can't dibs my bed. It's mine, so, obviously, I get it."
"Uh-uh!" Naruto disagreed, sticking his tongue out at the boy in the door frame who was glaring heatedly at him.
Sasuke rolled his eyes for what felt like the umpteenth time that day at the blonde childish actions. "Whatever. I'm going to go take a shower, and when I get back, I better have my bed to myself, or you'll get some serious butt whooping."
"Yeah right!"
- - -
Sasuke walked into his room, still drying his dripping wet hair with a small white fluffy towel. Seeing the blonde still lying on his bed, mouth slightly open, and snoring quietly, he sighed, dropping the towel in his hand onto the floor. He quickly changed into his pajamas and crawled into his bed beside the blonde, stroking a few of his blonde locks into place, "Just this once..."
(1) I believe Sasuke did actually wear something like this in one of the books (most likely the second) and he looked really cute -heart-
(2) I think (and hope) that this is true in Japan, if not, it's in some other Asian country .
(okay, first off, i'd like to say that i absolutely hate this chapter and i am going to rewrite it immediately, because i don't like how it's written and what not so, yeah, i'll fix it and then write the next chapter. however, i've run into a slight problem, i live under a rock in the middle of the woods, and this is about the extent of my knowledge of chocolaty candies, so if anyone would like to help me out, i would greatly appreciate it. as i said before, i am going to try to update every weekend, but i apologize in advance if i don't meat this goal. and sorry for any typos. review if you like, i probably don't deserve it, and wouldn't really blame you)