So this is chapter 2. Thanks to all those who reviewed::hugs::
If you don't like BL or Yaoi or Shounen-ai, please click that green back button.
Disclaimer: I searched up K. Masashi's soul on Google to see if any pieces of it were still lying around and got 13860976 results. So I gave up, and moved onto finding a piece of Naruto or Sasuke or Sai. Unfortunately, I got 237620675398 results for that one...If anyone is kind enough to give me one, I want Naruto's soul for Christmas.
It was noisy in the soldier's bunk. Although lights out had been administered an hour ago, the thirty-some Privates talked amongst each other. Some were arguing about the humanity of the imprisonment camps while others were debating over which bed was more comfortable than the other. Truth be told, the thin plush of the sleeping bags offered little comfort from the hard wood floors. Chouji's loud snoring wasn't helping anyone else fall asleep soon, either.
"God, Chouji, shut up and let me sleep!" An unfortunate Kiba was stuck next to said snoring culprit. Tired and feeling sick from dinner, the brunette had become more volatile than usual, and was very impatient with everybody.
Chouji's response to Kiba's complaints was more snoring. Once the guy was sleeping, he was dead to the world. Naruto watched with impending doom as the muscles rippled irately in Kiba's jaw. Reaching over to pull on Chouji's nightshirt, Naruto helped shake the man awake and warn him of Kiba's precariousness at the moment towards his loud snoring. Being only half awake, Chouji merely nodded back to his noisy sleep.
"I'm gonna kill this fucker…" Muttering more obscenities under his breath, Kiba buried himself under his sleeping bag, hoping to drown out all the racket.
Sighing, Naruto forced himself to roll out of his sleeping bag and stand up. It was obvious no one was going to get much sleep besides Chouji and a few very tolerant others. He made his way through the small foot space between each soldier, making sure not to squash anybody's poor toe or leg in the process. When he reached the door, he felt like he had accomplished something greater than anything he had done in his entire life. But before Naruto could get out into the open, a concerned voice stopped him.
"Where are you going so late at night?"
"Hm? Don't worry about me, Neji. I'm just going to use the bathroom." Naruto looked at the white-eyed man sitting cross-legged on top of the makeshift indigo comforter sleeping bag. Then, with a cocky smile, continued: "I'm not going to be eaten by space monsters like last time. I promise, mother."
"Shut up and go."
He laughed as the door shut behind him.
The wind was much stronger outside than Naruto ever thought it would be. Who knew the desert felt like Antarctica at night? Clutching his own arms to keep some of his body warmth from escaping, Naruto tried to think that he was taking a midnight walk to get his mind off the cold. He had been trained in conditions like these before so he should've been able to withstand it.
"I'm gonna die!" Naruto whined, but still refused to turn back. Of course, the last time he had a training in polar conditions was over a year ago.
There was another familiar grumble nearby. "Where the hell are the bathrooms? A man can't even satisfy his natural needs without running a mile."
"Eh?" Naruto turned to glance at the shadow behind him. "Hey! It's you! The total prick guy!"
"I wouldn't be talking. You're a total moron."
For the first time, Naruto realized that the Japanese man towered over him by at least five inches. Damn. He never noticed at tall a Japanese guy could be. Or maybe it was the man's hair that made him appear taller. Naruto contemplated this for a moment before returning to starting an argument. An insult could not go ignored.
"I'm not a moron! Show some respect for a soldier protecting your life!" Naruto yelled, hands crossed tightly across his chest.
"You called me a prick first." the dark-haired man shot back. Cheeks flushed slightly from the cold and the rest of his skin paled to an almost translucent white, Naruto thought Sasuke looked like one of those porcelain dolls the little girls in his neighborhood always played with.
Embarrassed by his vague defeat, Naruto changed the subject. "Do you know where the bathrooms are? 'Cause I'm really beginning to feel the pressure down there."
"There?"
Naruto couldn't tell if he was being made fun of in this situation or not. "Yea. There."
"No, I meant I think the bathrooms are over there. What did you think I meant?"
"Nothing." He was glad it was dark, or else his mistake would've been caught red-handed. Flushing at his misinterpretation, the blonde slapped a pout onto his full lips and headed in the direction the other man was pointing at. Indeed, there was a small hut-like outhouse in the distance.
As Naruto relieved himself, Sasuke did the same on the other side of the bathroom. The place stank even though it had not been used for over a day. Thin wood kept the wind out as well as paper would've, and if not for privacy purposes, Naruto was pretty sure that there would've been no walls surrounding the toilet areas. Everything seemed to have been made with thin wood boards, right down to the urinals that the two were using. Tanforan reminded Naruto a lot of the British novels about cities in poverty, small and poor.
Icy water spilled out of the faucets into the sink. Naruto swore he could feel small pieces of ice slide over his fingers as he scrubbed his hands clean with the rough, sand-like soap placed underneath the miniscule mirror. He glanced over at the Japanese man, wondering how he was faring. Looking repulsed at the gritty soap, Naruto could only guess that the intern had come from a rich family.
"It's just soap." Naruto stated.
"The water's too cold." was the immediate reply.
"I bet you're colder than that. You look like your body temperature is at least ten degrees below everyone else's." Without warning, Naruto grabbed Sasuke's hands and dropped them in surprise. "That's pretty warm."
"They make a nice fireplace." Sasuke shrugged.
"Did you just attempt a crack at a joke?" Incredulous, Naruto tentatively took Sasuke's hands again and forced them under the running water.
"You're putting out the fire I need."
"It's better than having dirty hands. If I don't wash my hands, I feel like I'm covered in a layer of slime. I bet that's how you feel about it, too." Naruto repented, dodging an accidental spray of water from a leak in the cracked wood. "You sound like you've had everything all your life, complete with maids that clean your house all the time and butlers who serve you to your heart's content. I wish I lived like that."
"I don't really like people." The moment the blonde let go, the raven-haired man recoiled quickly from the grasp, shaking the water off.
"I'd say! You wouldn't even tell me your name because you thought I'd tattle on you for something that never happened. Like I said before, you're a prick." Wiping his hands on his plaid pajama pants, Naruto followed the other man out of the bathroom back into the howling cold.
"Like I said, you're a moron." Cocking an eyebrow haughtily, he held the door open for the blonde.
"Don't copy my lines! Bastard."
"Prick was better."
"Is your name Prick?" Naruto was eager to squeeze an answer out of the stoic man.
"No, and I'm not telling for sufficient reasons you already know."
"C'mon,"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Not even with a cherry on top?
"Don't like cherries."
"Fine. Be that way. Your mother obviously didn't teach you much about good manners." Naruto huffed, eying Sasuke. "Aren't you cold? You're not even shivering in the least."
"It's not cold. Why? You're cold?" Tucking his hands into the pockets of his cloak, Sasuke smirked at the blonde. In thin pajamas, it was evidently going to be cold. Besides, didn't he know that this wasn't a desert, but rather a small seaside place? A soldier should've been taught such before.
"Why is the desert like the North Pole??" Wailing, Naruto hugged himself tighter.
"You're such a wimp."
"Why aren't you cold, too? Are you some sort of alien from outer space?" Swinging his fists randomly around, the blonde scrunched up his face and wound his arms back around in a hug to protect himself from the sudden gust.
Sighing, Sasuke slung his cloak around the soldier's small shoulders. "Payback for the sleeping bag. Give it back when you don't need it anymore."
"Thank you!" A clear, silver bell laugh rang through the empty, dark camp. Sasuke closed his eyes, immersing himself in the natural sound, hoping to burn it permanently into his brain like a song. Naruto's voice sounded like a girl's when he whined, complained, and laughed. It was … cute. The blonde turned, in much higher spirits now that he was warm, and smiled. "Won't you tell me your name so I can thank you properly?"
The words slipped out of the raven's mouth: "Uchiha Sasuke."
"Thank you so much, Sasuke!" Naruto grabbed Sasuke's hands in his own and pulled the Uchiha in to kiss him on the cheek. Confused. Sasuke slapped a hand to his reddening cheek, letting out a noise of surprise. "That's how you say thank you in Japan, I think!"
Quite flustered and trying to keep the heat from rising to his face, Sasuke nearly screamed: "No, it's not."
"Really? Maybe it was in France or something. I'm sorry then! But thank you! Arigato gozaimasu, Uchiha-san? Is that how you say it in Japanese?" The blonde continued to ramble on about his deep thanks.
Sasuke merely thought that Naruto smelled a lot like strawberries and pine.
So that's the end. Fluff as promised. ::laughs:: Next chapter will be much longer, I promise!
Please review. I will love you infinitely::heart::