I suppose I should explain, since chapter 2 can get a bit disorienting. What I've done, basically, is to write the first chapter 1 as a sneak preview, a flash forward, if you will, of what's to come. Say, five to ten years down the road, after Naruto's undergone the proper development. This is not a series of one-shots, though it may feel so at first. So bear with me, here, as I try to put plot to paper.
Chapter 2: Another Day
A hand gripped a smaller one.
The boy marveled at the feeling.
It felt precariously balanced between a clench and a grasp, lingering on firm poise but shying from constriction. Something that spoke of attitude, and control. You couldn't fuck with this hand. The boy would never try either, as that image was simply wrong.
Thick mud grew at some point into slippery tile, and the boy stumbled. He shot up again with a snap of the wrist.
He felt the rain pass out of his hair, its pervasive drumming left outside of the neat veranda circling the house and shielding the deck from water damage. The potted miniature shrubs left on the deck looked greener somehow than the boy instinctively felt they should be.
The hand bade him stop. It squeezed. Not hard.
Then it left him. The boy stiffened, his entire body reacting to the loss of tactile input by seizing up his stomach muscles and leaving him contracted. His breath hitched, he stumbled back.
Something soft fluffed across his hair, dusting away the rainwater and leaving his spikes jutting out.
"Dirty"
The towel came away streaked in browns.
His mother blinked at his tense posture. Kiba ducked down sheepishly.
"I thought you were gonna hit me."
Tsume shrugged. "It was a close thing. I decided to wait on it, give you a chance to explain." She paused significantly for a few moments, taking in his now dogged look. "I can smell it on you, Kiba. All I really want is for you own up to it like a man."
Tsume's approach had a twofold effect. With the smell card, it first established that, yes, Tsume knew everything there could possibly be to know about the situation. This came from exploiting Kiba's legitimate knowledge of her powerful olfactory sense and his instinctive fear reinforced from simpler conflicts.
Like,
"Now, Kiba, who tookie the cookies from the co-ok-ie jar? Hmm?"
"I din do it ma—"
"Goddamit Kiba, don't lie to me, I smell the fucking cookies on you. Go wash yourself off, and try be convincing next time."
With the second, she called to question Kiba's manhood, which was a sore point with any little boy hovering on the threshold of puberty, and was tantamount to a ruthless knee between the legs in the strictly hierarchal Inuzuka clan. Kiba's honor was at stake. There was no backing down.
"We were slumming, 's all"
Kiba felt compelled explain as the strokes of the towel began yanking at his hair.
"It's like, when you get yourself all dirty and hang out in dirty places, like a bar or something."
"A bar."
"We didn' touch nothing! It's just that, you know, Kenshin's always around there… Kenshin, he used to be a shinobi, but he got his arm got cut off in the Third Secret War, and he couldn't use jutsu anymore or hold a kunai right, so now he kinda just sits around in the pub." Kiba trailed off.
"We."
Kiba's mouth clamped shut. Then fluttered open.
"Who's we? Who said we? I meant— "
Tsume sighed. "I get what you guys are doing. So how do you go from listening to Kenshin in a bar to stealing beer from the tap?"
"Well… he got to that good part where he cut down a squadron of Cloud nin, right? And, and he's got his hands in a fist-full of the Raikage's hair, so the only reasonable thing to do is to get a tankard to wet his lips before he goes on, right? And, and, none of us had any money, so Naruto— "
He worked his mouth a few times, knowing he missed something but trying hard to work it out by repeating what he'd just said. His lips traced the words, ultimately pursing in an 'o'
"Oh."
Tsume grinned.
"So where is Naruto? Haven't seen the brat in ages."
Kiba ducked his head down, this time in defeat. "He—shit!"
He was out the door with a chunk of his hair left behind in the towel.
It wasn't Tsume's fault.
Really.
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A hand clamped down on his shoulder.
"So where is Naruto, seriously?"
Kiba peered frantically around the dimly lit bar, muttering to himself and clawing his hands through the air as if to snatch Naruto out of the gray smoke somehow.
"I forgot about him, ohshitshit—" He rounded on his mother. "It's your fault! For grabbing me, I panicked! He's probably still in that barrel" He clutched at his head, took in breath to scream, slowed, paused a bit. He felt around.
"Oi, this feels weird."
Tsume slapped his probing hands away from his scalp. "What's this with the barrel?"
Eyes widened again. "Oh, oh, he was hiding the barrel from the mean man with the crossbow, and, and, I was suppos to look out for when the man was gone, but you came, ann I." He took off out the door again.
Kenshin snorted from the corner, back to the wall and legs sprawled out. "Kis huh."
Tsume shot him a look, noted briefly the tankard tucked into the crook of his elbow. Very deliberately slapped it out of his grip.
"Weak" She noted.
Then she went out to find Kiba.
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The barrel was empty. Kiba peered forlornly inside. Tsume noticed that he didn't have to raise himself on the tip of his toes, and a warm pride washed through her. Uncanny, motherhood.
"He's not here." He was on the verge of tears.
Tsume sighed, ran a hand through Kiba's hair. Winced a bit.
"Follow his scent, Kiba. Use your nose."
His face lit up, and he threw himself halfway into the barrel, legs dangling off the ground.
There was the sound of energetic sniffing.
Tsume looked around. Not a bad place to hide, really. Off on a side street, tucked up behind a laundry shop. Made a hell of a racket, and the steam wisping around had the effect of closing in upon the vision. Probably a favorite spot then. She turned back to Kiba making his way dejectedly out of the barrel.
"Can't smell nothing."
Tsume started to lecture but thought better of it. Not because the scene of her son pouting his lips and rubbing furiously at the bald spot touched a soft spot in her. No sirree. The off red smear on the side of the barrel had caught her eye. It was blood.
Even through the stuffy laundry room air, she could taste the sour odor.
This changed things.
She hacked up a bit of spit as warm chakra coursed through her throat. Her head tilted up, and she opened her mouth.
Kiba winced.
She closed it, absently making popping sounds with her lips.
Then she slung Kiba over her shoulder, and was off across the rooftops.
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It was dark, and dank, and the grunting really didn't help.
Well.
It took his mind off the pain coursing through his body, at least.
Naruto glared.
"Do you have to keep mumbling like that?"
The man glared back, through there wasn't much malice to it anymore.
"Hey, you wanna bandage yerself or what? There's a method here, see. Gotta cover up the wound evenly and leave a half-strip at the end, so's there's something to tie it up with. "
"If you hadn't shot me in the first place, I woun't be bleeding now, would I?" Naruto kept up his gaze evenly, and waited for the other man to back down from his impeccable logic.
The man sighed. "Thought we agreed, I didn't shoot you, shoot you. I shot near you and the wood splintered an' got all over the place. If I'd shot you, I'd have to be bandaging a lot more than just an arm."
"What would you be bandaging then?" Naruto asked cautiously, lessening his fierce glower at this obvious sign of surrender.
"Figer of speech. I had my crossbow wid me, boy. A bandage like this doesn't do much good against crossbows." He absently gestured at the grungy cloth he was wrapping around the injured arm. A small pile of splinters rested near the side of the crate Naruto was sitting on, trailing red from the wound.
"So… a bigger bandage then?"
The man snorted and cuffed him across the back of the head.
"Get that wise ass removed before I put something up it, hea-?"
The man stiffened. Naruto looked up curiously, before he too heard the growl.
A slow voice trailed down the alley. The canine rumble grew thicker, deeper from the throat.
"Just what. Exactly. will you be putting up his ass?"
Takeshi could barely curse his luck for ever meeting the child before the back of his head cracked against the wall, and his vision filled with splotches of black and red.
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"I'm sorry, Jii-san."
His words seemed to echo into the silence, and Naruto could barely continue what he started out to say.
"It wasn't Takeshi-san's fault. Or Kiba's. I mean," He ran through Kiba's protests as the other boy's head shot up. "I shouldn't have taken the cup, and I shouldn't have run. I shouldn't have run. Now Takeshi-san is hurt, and he won't wake up now." Tears started to squeeze through his eyes, but he wouldn't let it. Not now, not until he finished.
"I-"
"The civilian will be fine, sir. Korumaru never touched him, the concussion came from a mild blow on his head as he went down dodging. No need to make it a bigger deal out of it than needs be."
The Hokage sat comfortably behind the desk, hands set spaced out easily against the grainy dark wood. His hat was off on one of the shelves, the robes a simple cut, but of an excellent quality of material. It was hard not to be impressed at the sight, Tsume noted.
It was something in the posture that spoke of steel. The hands, for example, were faintly lined with age, and curled in a relaxed half circle on the desk. But they looked… more solid somehow than the faded sleeves or the dark wood.
Ready.
Tsume couldn't put a finger on what exactly it was ready for, couldn't see tense muscles or smell the gathering adrenaline. She could understand reflex. But reflex is a reaction. A coiled spring may release energy, but it too must be compressed, be first acted upon.
Sarutobi was only the actor. There could be nothing reactive about him.
Then he sighed.
"I'm glad you're taking this seriously, Naruto. I'm also glad this didn't turn out worse." He gave an appreciative nod to Tsume, and a hot pride settled in her. She unconsciously straightened out of her slight slouch. "But I need more than an apology this time."
Naruto's mouth was set into a stiff line. His hands stayed bowed and clenched at his side.
"I need someone to look after you."
His eyes clenched shut and the tears that were dammed against th—he blinked. His head came up slowly to meet Sarutobi's gaze and a tiny smile.
"Hey! I got Naruto's back! I can take 'em on, the Takeshi thing was a one out of a hundred chances thing," Kiba protested, "As soon as Mom lets me have a puppy, er, nin-dog, I'm set, really!"
The smile dissolved into a full blown grin. "This has absolutely no reflection on your skill, Kiba. I'm impressed you kept a level head through it all and managed to brief Tsume on the situation."
Eyes widened, Kiba stood up ram-rod straight, head tilted higher at a military angle, hot tears brimming on the corner of his eyes.
Tsume grinned at his ridiculous posture, then stiffened.
Incidentally, mother and son were now bearing very similar postures before the gentle gaze of the Hokage. Tsume scowled, and resumed her slouch.
Naruto hadn't managed to work his mouth shut yet.
"I'll be glad to take care of the kid for awhile, sir. It won't be too much trouble."
Sarutobi shook his head. "That won't be necessary. Takeshi has offered his hospitality to Naruto for the time being."
"Takeshi-san's awake?" came out, conflicting with, "You're letting Naruto stay with some bar drunk who shot him?"
"For a while now. The injury was hardly life- threatening." His level gaze turned to Tsume. "We've established that the incident came from a little miscommunication. Nothing more."
Sarutobi was silent for a moment. Then he chuckled. "Honestly though, I've been hoping for something like this to happen."
Naruto cocked his head to one side. Kiba cocked his head to the other. It looked adorable, really.
Two grimy faced brats cocking away on his carpet.
Ugh. Bad thought.
Tsume voiced the collective question.
"Waiting for someone to fake-shoot Naruto?"
"Waiting for years to hear from Takeshi. And the first thing he does after showing up is to take charge of my ward. Damn convenient. Damn useful man, Takeshi."
Sarutobi was positively beaming.
AN/
;/ -- Scowly face.
Been Awhile. Yeah, I prolly should've fleshed that scene out with Takeshi, since it's obvious now that he's gonna be a recurring character.
Um, couldn't make it any longer though. Tried. Really hard.
I like short scenes. They're really easy to write, and I can churn out half a dozen in an hour or so.
Yep Yep.
Leave a review, please ;/ -- End Scowly Face.