Chapter 4: Catalyst (part 1)

The sunlight beamed through the gap in the curtains, and right as Sasuke rolled over, brutally stung his eyes right through the lids. He sat up and rubbed them, and held his stomach as a sharp pang of pain hit his gut. He was worried about the days events, and he looked at his clock to see that it was already almost noon. With no reason to wake up in the morning, well, there was no reason to wake up.

Through a shower and a change of clothes the stomach pains continued, doing flipflops and somersaults and every upsetting thing a stomach could do. He ran a comb through his wet hair and wondered what was making him so nervous, or scared, or whatever the reason his stomach felt so light. Sasuke was never very good at tapping into his own feelings. He studied and poked at the wrinkles of his face in the bathroom mirror, wiping a calloused hand over his mouth then reaching back to scratch at the base of his hairline. Finally, after a few minutes of stalling, he rested his head aganist the mirror and gave out a long sigh.

"Dear Diary, today I'm being a fucktard."

"You're always a fucktard."

Sasuke jumped back and instinctively slammed the door shut, to shield himself against whatever invader had entered his house. Then once he got his senses back, he'd go out there and kick whoever-it-was' ass. After a deep breath, he clenched his fist and swung the door open, only to have his arm grabbed and be flung onto the floor. Then Sasuke heard a distinctive laugh, followed by the word "FACEPLANT!", and then even more obnoxious laughter.

Naruto.

The livid boy kicked out his leg and knocked Naruto down to the floor with him, dove on top of the blonde and hooked his arms around to his back.

"What the fuck are you doing in my house?"

"Waifinf for fou to fafe upf." Was his answer, through a mouthful of carpet.

"...huh?"

Naruto craned his neck rather painfully so Sasuke could hear him. "Waiting for you to wake up, dumbass."

"Couldn't you have waited outside? Or downstairs at least?!"

Naruto threw Sasuke off of his back and the raven haired boy fell against the bed, rubbing his back from the impact. A curse be put on wood bedframes! Since when did Naruto get that strong, anyway? He cracked an eye open at Naruto who was sitting cross-legged, patiently awaiting Sasuke to get a grip on himself.

"With all the touching and staring at yourself you do I would have frozen if I waited outside!" With a signature fox grin, Naruto purposely dodged the second half of the other boy's proposition.

Holy. Shit. Act calm Sasuke, act calm.

Sasuke face-vaulted, but shook it off and slowly started to stand up. He gave the blonde fox a punch to the head, which deserved him much whining and annoyances and promises to kick his ass, as usual. But Sasuke knew he would never be able to live that down. As much as Naruto acts dumb and stupid he has a pretty good memory, and if it's something he can use to make fun of or possibly even blackmail Sasuke, he was going to remember it. Luckily he wasn't doing anything perverted at the time. He didn't really care if Naruto spread the word that he likes to study himself oddly in the mirror.

In the midst of these thoughts, Sasuke remembered his stomach hadn't been agreeing with him earlier. He slipped a hand slightly underneath his shirt and rubbed at his belly, but it didn't seem to be upset anymore. Maybe it was something he ate? He turned to look at Naruto just in time to see him stand and give him a punch in the arm. Sasuke couldn't supress a scowl, either because of the returned punch or if he was just silently accusing the sunshine boy of causing him his tummy aches.

"Yo, what the fuck is up with you? You get stabbed or something?"

He grabbed a fistful of Sasuke's shirt where he had been rubbing at his belly, and pulled it up savagely towards the chest. Naruto only got a glance at Sasuke's torso when he was violently pushed off to leave Sasuke to smooth down his clothing.

"Seriously Sasuke, are you alright? You're acting funny. I've seen you without a shirt dozens of times. Does your stomach hurt or something? Are you sick?"

"I'm fine, idiot! Now let's get this over with before I change my mind."

I ran downstairs as fast as I could, hoping that Naruto would understand that it meant "let's not talk about me anymore". Unfortunately, Naruto being the way he is, he slid down the banister to cut me off. He was certainly a persistent little bugger, wasn't he? I pushed him out of the way and headed out the door to Ichiraku's, assuming Naruto wanted to eat what he ate every other day of his life. I heard him yelling for me to wait up, and I glanced over my shoulder to see how far behind he was. I skidded to a stop when I didn't see him, so I turned around with a dumb grin on my face and was about to take a step when I was tackled to the ground by the same boy I was trying to escape. As if trying to get revenge, he pinned me into the same position I had had him in before, only this time I got sand in my mouth instead of carpet. Either way, I was extremely pissed.

"Get OFF!"

He leant down close to my ear and spoke as calmly and quietly as he could. It wasn't like Naruto to try not to make a scene.

"I don't know what's wrong with you, Sasuke, but when I get up, you'd better start acting normally. I don't smell that bad for you to be running away from me so much."

I rolled my eyes at him as he got up, which earned me another punch to the shoulder. Naruto is such a fucking tool, I don't know why I agreed to do this shit. I dusted the sand off my clothers and followed him for the rest of the two-minute walk to Ichiraku's, and when we sat down he took the liberty of ordering for both of us. It had been a silent walk, albeit a short one, with evident tenacity in Naruto's steps. I could see his muscles tensing in his arms because of his short-sleeved shirt, and the way he stuffed his hands in his pockets reminded me of... me. After we sat down I crossed my arms and put on a blank expression. I guess I gotta do what I gotta do.

Naruto, for the first time in his life, actually felt kind of uncomfortable. He hadn't been able to take one bite without Sasuke staring at his every move. But then again, he guessed that could just be Sasuke's way of saying "hey, hurry the fuck up so I can get out of here".

He didn't understand what was up with Sasuke. He knew that there were issues of his that had to be worked out, but there was never a time he'd acted so... strange. There have been days where he'd run away if Sakura sent her army after him, but Naruto and Sasuke have been best friends as long as he could remember. Maybe Naruto showed it a little bit more, but that's what he, and everyone else in the village saw them as. He knew that he'd have Sasuke's back in any situation, and he was pretty confident he'd recieve the same treatment. Whatever it was that Sasuke wasn't talking about, it was certainly affecting their relationship.

Whenever there were problems between them, it was never put on the other's shoulders. Which is why Naruto, and even Sakura, thought the behavior of their friend was pretty odd. Naruto looked up from his bowl and met the eyes of his companion, whose eyes were already on him, and said something he had meant to say earlier.

"I'm glad that you took our advice and started writing in a journal."

For the first time since they sat, Sasuke tore his eyes away from the blonde and studied his untouched bowl of chicken ramen. He paused for a little bit, Naruto's eyes burning into the side of his skull. Which I guess he deserved for all the staring he had been doing before. He picked up his chopsticks and gently began to stir.

"Who said I was doing that shit?"

"And I quote: 'Dear Diary, today I'm being a fucktard.' I can assume that means you've at least written something."

He hung his head low and muttered 'maybe', which Naruto smirked about as he put a hand on the other boy's shoulder. If he was acting strange now, maybe putting his thoughts on paper would help.

That feeling again. Fuck. Sasuke held his breath for a few seconds before dropping his chopsticks onto the table and moving both hands to clutch at his abdomen. The shoulder that Naruto was touching felt hot. He felt the hand shake him lightly as he wrapped his arms around his stomach and hiccuped. Sasuke heard Naruto calling to him, but all he could do was wonder why the hell his body was doing this to him. Sasuke leaned forward as if he was going to vomit, and Naruto instinctively pulled his hand away as not to get in the way of anything.

But then it went away.

The flip flops and somersaults went away and Sasuke's stomach had that light feeling again, and he looked down at his hands as if they were going to give him answers. Sasuke shrugged, thinking he probably was coming down with something. He looked over at his friend who wore a confused look on his face. He seemed to have loosened up since the walk, although he was irritated at Sasuke's demeanor.

"Hellooooooooooooooo, earth to dickhead... you in there?"

Naruto obnoxiously knocked on Sasuke's skull.

Another turn in his stomach.

Sasuke was confused. He hadn't eaten anything out of the ordinary, hadn't even touched his ramen, so what was with this? Cancer? An ulcer? Little gnomes swimming around in his stomach acid? Whatever it was, Naruto wasn't helping in the least. Not that Sasuke expected him to pull Pepto-Bismol out of his back pocket or anything, but the least he could've done was to stop hitting him every ten minutes. As if on cue, he felt another few knocks to his head through his raven hair.

More uneasy feelings.

"Naruto, stop fucking touching me."

Naruto characteristically got up and put his hands behind his head, but not before letting out a long yawn.

"Well, I'm leaving."

"..What?"

"I'm leaving. I'm not struggling with you all day. When you feel better, let me know. You still owe me a favor."

Yet another slap to Sasuke's back and a cheshire grin later, Naruto was merrily on his way to do his own business. Sasuke rubbed his shoulderblade, silently cursing Naruto for his annoyances, and making a mental note of getting revenge at another time. He reluctantly picked up his chopsticks, wary about taking a bite of his ramen for fear of either vomiting or getting diarreah all over the place. But he was rather hungry, so he slowly lifted some noodles into his mouth, making faces at the fact that his food was now luke-warm. But his stomach was growling, and a few mouthfuls later, the bowl was empty before he could realize it. He licked his lips thankfully and set his chopsticks inside the bowl, looking down at his evil, evil belly.

But there was nothing. Not one turn, somersault, or flip-flop. His stomach was contently full, and that was it.

Eh. What the fuck ever. Fucking Naruto and his stupid... blah.

There it was again. He was about to vomit. He looked around for nothing in particular, like somebody was around that knew everything that was going on. But there was only one thing he could think of.

knock knock knock

I wanted to leave, because I knew this was a bad idea and I was only getting myself into trouble. But I already heard the footsteps coming towards the door, so I had to suck it up. It didn't matter - I wasn't going to let anybody else piss me off for the day. This was the only idea I had, knowing they might have the information I was after. I stiffened as the door slid open, and I immediately slammed my hand against the doorframe and stared them straight in the face.

"Sakura, I need you to do something for me."