A/n: I know that the last chapter seemed a little weird with the way that Sasuke and Naruto were freaking out over Sasuke NOT going to jail. But I want to clear that up. It is sort of like being in a relationship that you are unsure about and then finding out that you're going to move. You use the excuse that you're moving in order to break up with that person. But at the last minute you find out that you're staying so you have to own up to your feelings even if you're not ready to.
I hope that makes more sense now, thanks for pointing that out to me Hink! I would have kept going on with no elaboration because I thought that everyone would get it. They really do need help with their priorities, but those were screwed up long before I wrote this fic. -nod nod- So I'm going to write an intro. to this chapter that should help you guys see what Naruto is seeing right now.
Disclaimer: Must I say it? ...-sigh- Okay I don't own Naruto...but I did read the most recent chapter of it and I now have developed a spazz attack everytime a flashback involving Itachi comes up -spazzes- -runs into wall-
The Story so Far: After a kiss in Hokage Tower, Sasuke and Naruto are not on what you would define as 'good terms' with each other. But that's got to be the least of their worries as Kakashi has announced that they are to do the bell exercise again...
Warnings: Confusing Sasuke thoughts, mentions of blood, swearing ninjas (because I like them when they swear) and Ramen Theory...
Chapter 7
Never in a million years would Naruto allow Sasuke to be put in jail. He would not and could not accept it. But if this were true then why had he been so willing to kiss Sasuke when he thought that unavoidable incarceration was in his future? Maybe it was a promise of a kiss. He was telling Sasuke that he was going to get him out of jail as soon as he possibly could without actually having to say a word to him.
Talk about counting your chickens before they hatched. Now he had to face the fact that he had kissed Sasuke. It was too weird. They had always been "best" friends. Did this mean that they had taken a step too far? Or were they still "best" friends who happened to share a kiss?
Naruto's head felt like he was underwater with very little oxygen left. It spun with confusion, ached with the pain of going in too deep, and felt like it would be better to just stab himself in the temple then deal with this a second more. It was much easier when they were at the hospital, at least then they weren't kissing each other because of the prospect of not seeing each other. Maybe he'd overacted, Naruto could admit that, but he couldn't admit that kissing Sasuke had royally fucked all that they had worked for years to obtain.
Now it's not to say that Naruto wasn't in fact elated to hear that Sasuke wasn't going to jail but now living with him (and the rest of his team) was something he hadn't counted on. It was something that, in theory, would be great. Living with a house full of people meant never having to be alone. But on the other side of living in a house full of people meant never being able to be alone. Naruto rolled over onto his side for the millionth plus time that night.
It was a lot harder to sleep than he had anticipated. Then again he hadn't anticipated rolling over and seeing Sasuke's lithe frame sitting perfectly still. He closed his eyes tightly to try to force sleep upon himself but that was just about as useful as rolling around on the bed. Naruto lifted the top part of his body up off the bed to survey the room for a moment. There was nothing to distract his racing mind.
"Just go to sleep, Naruto," Sasuke practically growled.
Naruto jumped slightly, he didn't think Sasuke would still be awake. He stuck his tongue out at him to satisfy his petty side.
"Why aren't you asleep?" Naruto asked in a snippy tone.
Sasuke blew an agitated breath out, "Because you keep moving around, how could I get to sleep?"
"Of course you'd blame it on me," Naruto pointed out scowling heavily at the boy.
"When it's your fault you deserve the blame," Sasuke returned as his shoulders visibly went tense.
"Why you…" Naruto half insulted shaking his fist at Sasuke.
"Just get to sleep, we need to get those bells tomorrow," The boy stated but his shoulders were still tightly pulled.
"Well too bad for you, me and Sakura already got the bells!" Naruto bragged enjoying his small victory over Sasuke.
"Just go to sleep," Sasuke ordered as he shut his eyes once more in an attempt to find sleep.
There was no possible way that it was already time to get up! Naruto felt some one shaking him and telling him to get up in a sing-song voice. So he crossed Sasuke off of the list of who it could be, and he was pretty sure that Sakura's voice wasn't that deep.
"Go away…" he grumbled turning over to get away from the horrible voice.
"Wake up Naruto," the blond could practically see the music notes in his mind coming from that voice.
"Don't wanna," he stated as he burrowed into the warmth of whatever he was holding.
"Come on it's a lovely day for a bell exercise!" Okay now the voice reminded him of Gai. That was not a good sign for whoever was still shaking him.
Naruto rubbed his face along the surface of his huggable object the second before it pinched him. The blond jumped away and nearly fell off the bed. A rather disgruntled Sasuke sat up, his magnificent hair in disarray, intending to kill Naruto with a single Uchiha Death Glare. Naruto looked behind him and saw Kakashi-sensei smiling beneath his mask, he had already gotten all of his ninja gear gathered up and was hiding it in various places on his person.
"Good to see you're both awake now!" Kakashi-sensei closed his visible eye. "We're going to go soon so hurry up."
With that detailed time schedule Kakashi-sensei left the two boys to get ready. Naruto twisted his body back to look at Sasuke. Though there was no reason behind this it still took up time and that was all that was important to Naruto. Sasuke put his hand on his head and then ran his fingers through his knotted hair, pulling a few strands out along the way.
"Come on," Naruto said with a dramatic sigh. "We'd better get ready before Mr. Musical there drags us to the training grounds."
Sasuke stared at Naruto for a moment but only stood up to acknowledge that the boy had said anything at all. The cold silver brushed against Naruto's scalp as he brushed his hair half way with his hands and he instantly remembered the distance rule. He got up and followed Sasuke to the bureaus that held all of their clothes in them. Well in Sasuke's case it was a bunch of new clothes since Kakashi had practically burned his sound uniform when they got into the house.
"Gonna be weird wearing clothes that actually fit you," Naruto pointed out with a smug grin on his face.
"Shut up," Sasuke simply said as he pulled out a black t-shirt, looked ordinary enough.
"Hey I'm not the one who wore a robe," Naruto pointed out as he rummaged through his own bureau. He tugged at the usual orange jacket, tore the pants from their confines and tossed a sleeveless black shirt onto the floor behind him.
"Shut up," Sasuke repeated, his brain rarely functioning higher than a 7 year old's thought process in the morning.
Naruto scowled at him, Shoulda known he'd be a jerk in the mornings…he thought as he pulled his pajama shirt over his head and replaced it with the black shirt he threw behind himself.
Sasuke noticed Naruto's mumbling, even if the other wasn't totally aware of the fact that he was doing it, and turned around to tell him to shut the hell up (have to add a new twist every now and again) when he was greeted with the sight of a shirtless Naruto. Two and a half years training really did do him some good. All of those scrawny limbs Naruto used to call muscle, were actually muscle now. He was toned, fit and just not the kid that Sasuke left at the Valley of The End. His childhood insecurities kicked into overdrive as he felt a flare of anger swirl under his skin.
Naruto pulled his shirt over his chest and deepened his frown. He was obviously not pleased about something. But what it was was anybody's guess. Sasuke jerked his head away and began to get dressed as well.
It was easy to tell when Kakashi was ready (and slightly excited) for the exercise. He was discussing his tactics with Iruka, which was very odd to Naruto, considering the only time he shared tactics was when he was on missions. Other than that he kept tight lipped about his strategy. Iruka would nod and smile, throw in a laugh or two, every few minutes as the Jounin laid his plan out to him. What was odder still was that Iruka was all geared up as well, Naruto thought for a second on this.
He hit his loosely balled fist to his palm; Iruka must have a mission to go to! Naruto smiled in his foolish way as he and Sasuke continued to walk towards the living room.
"Good morning Iruka-sensei!" Naruto chimed plopping down onto the loveseat across from his teachers.
"Good morning Naruto. I hope you are rested enough for this exercise," Iruka replied smiling brightly at the boy.
"I would have slept well but Sasuke kept talking," Naruto reported before he got a hard thwap in the back of his head.
Naruto turned to regard Sasuke but the boy was only sitting there in his usual arrogant silence, acting as if he'd done no wrong. He held his head where there was minimal pain from the abuse but he still wanted Sasuke to feel bad for hitting him. Unfortunately for Naruto, Sasuke showed no sympathy for his display.
"It's true," Naruto stated scowling at the boy. "You talk in your sleep."
Sasuke fought the argument that rose in his throat, still unsure of how to speak in front of anyone who wasn't loud, brash, blond and covered in orange ninty-nine point nine percent of the time. The boy looked across the way at Kakashi, who was smiling as if he was the cat that ate the canary. Sasuke's eyebrow lifted a little but that was his only sign of expression beyond the quiver of his lips.
"Morning everyone," Sakura greeted with a sleepy hand that waved slightly as she made her way to the kitchen.
Iruka waved his greeting and went back to talking to Kakashi. Naruto looked at Sasuke out of the corner of his eye. Sasuke glared at Naruto slightly out of the corner of his eye. The blue ones stared harder, trying to break the Uchiha's concentration. Sasuke reached out, slowly, and flicked Naruto's nose.
"What was that for?!" Naruto demanded as he reeled his head back and shielded his nose from any further abuse.
Sasuke smirked in that way that made you feel as if you were ten times smaller than you really were. He smirked in that way that blatantly showed victory on his pale features. This infuriated Naruto to no end. He pounced at Sasuke to attempt to retrieve the victory from his face. He cheated!
Or so Naruto reasoned as he took Sasuke down with him over the edge of the couch. He pulled his fist back to deliver a hard punch to the bastard's deserving face. Sasuke brought his knee up to hit Naruto's spine painfully before his foot was intercepted along with Naruto's perfectly positioned fist.
"If you guys have energy enough to fight, put it towards getting the bells from Kakashi and I," Iruka commanded as he felt Naruto's fist loosen between his strong fingers.
Sasuke's leg took longer to relax than Naruto's punch but it did and as soon as it did Iruka removed his foot from Sasuke's thigh (that's how he stopped the would-be knee in the back). Naruto got up and off of Sasuke, who dusted his tee shirt and tan shorts off as if he were going to a job interview rather than a juvenile exercise, with a confused look on his face. He turned to face Iruka to ask him just what he meant by 'Kakashi and I.'
"I will helping Kakashi with this exercise, since I live here too," Iruka replied to the question that was still forming in Naruto's mind.
"But why?" Naruto asked forgetting completely about the staring contest tussle. "I thought it was only for Team Seven."
Kakashi-sensei leaned forward, tucking his trashy orange book beneath his leg, "Because, Naruto, we are all going to be living under this roof until Sasuke's," he motioned to the boy behind Naruto who was situating himself on the soft cushions of the couch. "Rehabilitation is complete."
The blond nodded but still showed signs of confusion, "And we need to get along as well as we can while living together. It will make things much easier if we know how to work together."
Now the hopeless boy understood, "Ahhh I get it. Is that why you and Iruka have to share a room?"
Iruka's face reddened a little bit but Kakashi-sensei merely closed the only eye of his that could see the light of day and inclined his head slightly, "I guess you could say that."
Sasuke rolled his eyes, he could guess at what was going on between his former teachers just from the fact that they sat closer than they needed to, Iruka laughed when he was around Kakashi, and the absence of honorifics was obvious. He thought that Naruto would have caught on by now, but he was the biggest idiot he'd ever met (besides one of the sound nin in Orochimaru's village that reminded him so very much of Naruto).
"If nothing else needs to be done then we should get to the training grounds," Kakashi suggested standing up while Sakura reappeared from the kitchen to join her team on their journey to the nostalgic training grounds of their childhood.
As if the first time they re-did the bell exercise wasn't enough of a blast from the past, this one was ten times worse. When Sakura looked beside her and saw Naruto, and beside him, just barely in her eye line, Sasuke stood, ready to leap into action, she thought she was going to feint from the way her head spun with the feeling of the past.
"Before we begin," Iruka broke the kunoichi's inner confusion with his caring and firm voice. "Sasuke, Naruto, come here."
He beckoned for them and they did as they were ordered. It seemed as though everyone wanted to give them something. When they stood before Iruka the chunin produced a long line of red thread from his vest. He put one hand in front of him and waited for one of the boys to put their hand in his.
"Erm…what are you doing Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked putting his hand in his teacher's, albeit slow.
The teacher swiftly tied a knot around Naruto's ring finger without so much as a breath of explanation. He let Naruto's hand go and repeated the process with Sasuke's hand. After getting a skeptical look from the Uchiha he smiled his kindly teacher/father smile.
"This," he moved his hand to encompass the string that connected Sasuke to Naruto. "Is to make sure you two don't get more than three feet away from each other."
"So it's kind of like a leash?" Naruto was trying to comprehend what Iruka was trying to do. Sasuke head snapped up to glare at Naruto, he knew that Naruto was thinking that he was the one who was controlling the 'leash'.
"I guess so," Iruka replied shrugging. "If you wanna think about it that way. I just don't want those rings to go off while we're training. It would be a stupid reason for Sasuke to go to prison."
The teacher shooed the two back to the line where the students stood previously. When Kakashi saw that all of his ex-students were in place he put his book back into the pouch at his hip. He was prepared to give the same advice he always gave, but this time there had to be an adjustment to that to accommodate his partner in crime.
"In order to get the bells from us," he jutted his hip slightly to hear the jingle of a single bell tied around his belt loop. Iruka just hit his lightly with his index finger. "You have to come at the two of us as if you mean to kill us…"
Being tied (both figuratively and literally) to Naruto was a hard task in itself, but Sasuke managed to cover their tracks each time the idiot decided a full frontal assault was needed. Usually the cover up consisted of slapping his hand over Naruto's mouth and then dragging him into the bushes or taking him into the trees where they would be concealed by the dying foliage around them.
"You need to be quieter!" Sasuke demanded in a hiss that came quiet and low between his teeth.
"Nooooo we need to attack," Naruto pointed out pushing Sasuke's hand away from his mouth. "Who cares if I'm quiet or not?"
Sasuke let out an exasperated sigh, "I do! You're going to give away our position!"
Naruto still marveled at the fact that Sasuke's voice could be so low but so powerful at the same time. But as soon as the awe was there it was gone and he was arguing his point once again, "I know what I'm doing here Sasuke. You forget that me and Sakura already got our bells from him before."
Okay now he was gloating. Sasuke opened his mouth to tell Naruto that they needed to be stealthy and observe Iruka, who posed the biggest threat due to the ambiguity of his caliber as a ninja, but he heard a footfall in the trees around them. His jaw locked and the key was gone. A soft panting was heard from the west of their position and Sasuke had a kunai poised between his index and middle finger of his untied hand.
Sakura came to a halt to the side of Naruto, "Did you guys see that?!" She sounded as if she were in absolute shock of the event that had taken place on the ground.
"No! What happened?!" Naruto asked getting all sorts of excited over the ninja-like gossip.
Sakura put one hand on her chest to help catch her breath, "Iruka! He's a fucking powerhouse!" To hear Sakura curse meant something. She rarely stepped outside of her 'what is acceptable' box and when she did, boy did it blow you away.
"What do you mean?" Naruto wondered noting her use of swearing in that sentence.
"I mean that I tried to get a bell from him," She added sitting down next to Naruto and Sasuke, forming a triangle so familiar to their genin days. "And he nearly knocked me across Konoha with the kick he had!"
Naruto's eyes widened at the information he received, "How did you get out of that?!"
"I got the hell outta there! When I looked back the tree he had me backed up against was falling down!" Sakura finished with a little rise in her voice.
"Good god…" Naruto gasped at the wonderment that was his teacher. Sasuke listened in amazement as well but did not display any sort of emotion like that.
"How are we going to get bells from a team like that?" Sakura asked as she tried to strategize in her mind.
One had power still unknown to the three of them, though Sakura got the barest taste of it. The other was famous in the village for his skills, and they knew that was for good reason. But they couldn't seem to wrap their minds around them working together, and complimenting the strengths and weaknesses of the other. It seemed as though they were a machine functioning in perfect order. It was too perfect, how were they supposed to beat something like that?!
"We need to figure something out otherwise we're going to be here all night trying to evade them," Sakura pointed out pulling a scroll from her pouch along with a pencil to help brainstorm some attacks.
"Well we could use the same trick we used last time…" Naruto suggested as he pretended to flip through a book.
"But that won't work on Iruka, I don't think he'd come within fifty feet of that garbage," Sakura pointed out as she chewed on the end of her pencil.
"Maybe we can tell him that you're having sex!" Naruto joked hitting the tree that the three of them sat on. "That'll get him distracted!" Sasuke shot him a look that said that he was a complete and utter idiot.
Sakura playfully punched his arm, "Why do I have to be the slut? You're the one sharing a bed with Sasuke!" Needless to say Sasuke's head had nearly broken the sound barrier to turn and glare at Sakura.
Who was she to say things like that?! Naruto let his laughter from Sakura's comment subside to look over at the fuming Uchiha. He studied Sasuke's face for a little bit, scrunched up his face and then turned to his comrade.
"He says you're wrong," Naruto relayed the message.
Sakura looked between the two boys, "Whoa you can tell that from just the way he looks?!" She inquired way too excitedly.
"Eh, I guess so," Naruto shrugged. He honestly thought it was normal. "I guess its 'cause I'm the only person he'll talk to." Sasuke tugged his hand with the thread on it and pulled Naruto off balance in doing so.
"Cool…" She added. "Can you teach me?!"
Naruto regained his somewhat balance and nodded, "Sure! It's really easy."
He pulled the thread closer to him and tugged Sasuke nearly onto his lap, "Look, the way his eyebrow is all tensed up there," Naruto circled the air around Sasuke's left eyebrow. "Shows that he's aggravated. So that's something along the lines of 'Let go of me idiot'."
Sakura nodded, taking the information, "What about this?" She pointed to the way the corner of his mouth was twitching visibly.
"Oh, that," Naruto confirmed. "He's trying not to talk. That could mean 'I'm going to kill you,' or something along those lines."
Sasuke was so close to snapping it wasn't healthy. He wanted to push Naruto out of the tree, but he knew that he would go along with the idiotic boy on their short trip to the hard ground below. He clenched his teeth and balled his fist to keep his cool but it was hard to remain patient when Naruto and Sakura were discussing his facial expressions.
"And this," Naruto began as he reached for Sasuke's fist. "Means he wants to beat me into a bloody pulp!" His voice didn't sound as if he were talking about his ultimate demise. It was more like he was talking to Sakura over the importance of sunshine.
Sakura nodded again and let out a light laughter laced with youth. It really was like they were just kids again but the feeling of time running backwards didn't keep Sasuke from pushing his weight into Naruto's chest to send them toppling to the earth that spun so fast below. Naruto let out a loud yell as they fell and attempted to situate the two of them so that they took equal amounts of the pain upon impact. Sasuke grappled with Naruto to make him take the brunt of the fall but their awkward movement only caused them to land on their sides, hard. It was only Sasuke's luck that a particularly sharp rock was sticking out of the ground exactly where he landed.
"SHIT!" he exclaimed loudly from the pain that seared and crawled up his arm from his shoulder. He hadn't meant to call out so suddenly (or at all) but after not having to be forced to school his emotions since he came back made it hard to keep from doing such things.
Naruto sat up slightly from his laying position and tried to look at Sasuke's wound. But Sasuke, being the proud bastard he was just put his hand over the gash to keep it from Naruto's eyes and to stop the bleeding.
"Let me look at it dammit!" Naruto demanded as he pealed away at Sasuke's long fingers.
"No! It's your fault this happened!" Sasuke blamed through clenched teeth, trying to keep his voice low so no one heard him.
Sakura jumped down to join the scene. She quickly rushed to her teammate's side to be of assistance but Sasuke's stubborn streak shown bright enough to blind her.
"Sasuke your wound is going to get infected if I don't heal it!" She urged as Naruto and her worked to peal away his fingers.
Naruto bent his neck to see Sasuke's face, "He says he doesn't care."
Sakura rolled her emerald eyes and bent one of Sasuke's fingers backwards to make him give into her request. His eyes widened from the shock of pain in his middle finger and his hand bent to the will of the medical nin. She got to work by ripping the fabric of the shirt that blocked her chakra charged hands from the infection. Once her path was cleared Sakura's hand hovered over the marred skin and hummed healing chakra into the opening.
"See, it's not so bad," Naruto cooed sarcastically as if he were talking to a small child. Sasuke just smacked him with his threaded hand and his frown increased.
"There," Sakura announced wiping away a sheen of sweat from her brow. "The infection is gone and your skin is sealed."
Naruto had smacked Sasuke back for his abuse but took a look at the handiwork of his friend and whistled, "Soon you won't be able to tell that he was hurt at all! Good job Sakura-Chan!"
The pink haired girl smiled and stood up, "Come on, we need to get back into a secluded area before Kakashi and Iruka come along."
"Yeah, gotta strategize!" Naruto added as he helped Sasuke stand up. Sasuke only accepted help because the thread would tear if he didn't.
Once all three of the students were upright and about ready to walk a low rumble came from the ground below them. This was their only warning before they were all easily pulled below the surface of the rocky ground as if they were pulled under by the tide out at sea.
Iruka stood up in the setting sun next to Kakashi, both obviously pleased with the outcome of the exercise because of the petty inner competition with their students. They had won, but both of them knew it was because the team wasn't operating on all levels of cooperation right now. Though it was a small victory because of this fact it was still a victory to validate their years of work as shinobis.
"So it looks like we win this time Iruka," Kakashi pointed out tossing two bells in the air and catching them in his hand before repeating the motions.
"So it seems, Kakashi," he replied rolling his around in his closed fist.
"Should we make them work for us or something as a reward for winning?" Kakashi wondered tapping his chin with his finger.
Naruto glared at Sasuke, Sasuke glared at Naruto and Sakura glared at the both of them. If the two hadn't been fighting then they might have had a shot at getting the bells. Naruto squirmed a little from the discomfort of being in the ground like a common plant or weed. His neck itched from the random pieces of grass that tickled his exposed skin. How uncomfortable!
"Nah, I think this is enough torture for them," Iruka commented folding his arms over his chest.
"Good point Iruka," Kakashi said looking down at his students. He squatted down to get semi-level with them. "You do understand that this level of teamwork is unacceptable, correct?"
All three charges nodded, "You do know that I did not spend my time teaching you guys to make stupid slip ups like this, right?"
Again three nods from his students, "I expect much more from you three. I had never encountered a more dysfunctional yet coherent team before I was assigned to you three."
Naruto and Sakura felt guilt swell up in their throats, if they hadn't been so caught up on making fun of Sasuke's lack of talking and abundance in facial ticks they could have gotten the bells. Sasuke felt shame for letting his sensitivity to his flaws get to him. How could any of them make good shinobis at this rate?
"We will do this exercise again when you three approach me with the request," Kakashi outlined the way things were going to be. "If you fail the next time we will make you three do something. It can be anything of our choice, so remember that we won't go easy if another disappointing display like this happens again," he told them as he tapped the ground slightly to allow its hallow below to cave in to let them climb out.
"Come on," Iruka said. "Time to go home and get something to eat."
After hanging out with Naruto for most of your life you'd think you'd be used to hearing "Ramen Philosophy", or the "Benefits of eating Ramen Regularly" enough to get used to it. Well too bad that nearly three years away from the blond boy had ebbed away all of those sorts of speeches from Sasuke's mind. Now it was like he was hearing it for the first time. The back of Sasuke's eyes hurt with the promise of a pounding head ache as Naruto dove into "Ramen Theory". He kept yakking about how he was going to thoroughly enjoy the last packet of ramen, that it was the best because you know that you have to cherish it because you will not have anymore until you go shopping again (or until you open another case of the crap-o-la).
Sakura was walking silently, (how Sasuke wished Naruto would do the same), still submersed in the way Kakashi-sensei had spoken to them. He didn't talk to them as if they were children playing at being ninjas. He spoke to them like they were adults as if at one point they were his pride and joy as a team. While this may be true he was disappointed in them right now, and Sakura had made it her personal mission to make him proud of his Team Seven again. She knew that it would be hard, all things considered, but it would be worth it since she knew that the feeling of Team pride had existed at one point in Kakashi.
Naruto and Sasuke walked side by side, perfectly contrasting the other. Naruto, though he was just scolded by his sensei, was smiling and blabbering on about the stupid noodles he held near and dear to his heart. Sasuke, on the other hand, was sullen and sulking from the feeling of doubt seated deep inside his chest.
"I'm going to make dinner tonight," Iruka informed everyone. "So you guys just focus on getting cleaned up and ready."
Naruto smiled brightly at the fatherly affection that poured out of Iruka. It was almost like they were a real family, no matter how unbalanced and out there it seemed. They cared for one another and watched out for everyone. Even if certain members weren't willing to talk.
Kakashi pushed the door open gracefully after unlocking it and allowed his house mates to enter before him. Naruto and Sasuke took off their shoes and the smaller boy was racing to the kitchen with a rather reluctant Sasuke tailing him.
"Gah! I can almost smell the Ramen now!" he exclaimed as he flipped on the kitchen light on to bathe a girl who sat cross legged on the counter in light.
Her long blonde hair grazed the counter, "Hello Naruto, Sasuke," she greeted as she slurped up a half cooked ramen noodle from a Styrofoam cup.
Naruto gaped at her. She had the nerve to eat his very last cup of ramen?! Ino hopped off of the counter as she finished chewing a sort of crunchy noodle in her mouth.
"How can you eat this shit all the time, Naruto?" Ino asked making a face of utter disgust at the cup as if it were its fault it tasted nasty.
She shrugged and pushed the pedal to the trash can down and threw the barely touched cup of ramen into the can as Naruto's face showed complete and total devastation at the scene played out before him…
End of Lessons Unlearned
Preview of the Next Chapter: How did Naruto have so much energy?! He hadn't even had Ramen yet and he was thrashing and kicking like he'd eaten every last bit of food to absorb energy. It must have been the lack of Ramen that caused it. Energy from lack of Ramen, odd but then again Naruto was about as odd as you could get. Sasuke pulled a little harder at Naruto to drag him into their bedroom to try to talk some sense into the immature idiot...
A/N: Okay so I am well aware that my last 'Preview' was nowhere to be found in this chapter, but that's mostly because I'm rewiting the original plot line and going with it as it comes. There are still similarities between my new chapters and my handwritten ones (which are nowhere in sight...) but for the most part they are all switched around. My little sister hates Ino in this chapter for wasting ramen. Anyway, I will have the next chapter up soonly, I hope. Sorry this took so long btw! Leave me love, it seriously motivates me.