Chapter 8
"Oi! Sasuke-teme!"
Sasuke looked sharply behind him. Several days had gone by (with no correspondence from the two Rice-bound ninjas) and he was getting impatient. Racing toward the village entrance, towards him, was a blonde haired ninja, clad in an orange tracksuit, and a wild expression in his blue eyes. Sasuke let the ninja crash into him in a hug, then felt a strong force impact with his stomach. Stifling a wince, Sasuke punched Naruto right back, both of them leaping away from each other.
"It's good to see you, too," Naruto muttered with a good natured scowl. Hinata was now behind the blonde ninja, smiling shyly at him. Then she noticed Sasuke, cast her gaze down, then back to Naruto after nodded respectfully towards Sasuke. Sasuke returned her greeting with a like nod.
"HEY? What's up with the commotion? Oh. HEY, Naruto! You're back! HOW WAS IT?"
Naruto whipped around to see a tall, thin frame, a girl with long light blonde hair.
"Oh, hey, Ino!" Naruto said. "Yeah, I just got back from my mission! It was great! I—"
"I'm sure you're dying to tell us all about it," Ino grinned madly (a few streetlights could have been powered with that smile). "and I'll get everyone to meet and we can listen your story!"
"YAY! RAMEN!" Naruto yelled, pumping his fist into the air. He turned to Hinata, and with a much toned-down voice, said, "Come on, Hinata! Fancy a little ramen right now?"
Hinata's eyes glowed. "Sure," she replied with a soft grin.
Something in Naruto's voice irked Sasuke to a great extent. Did that dobe pick up a new accent while in that Nowhere Village? Sasuke didn't really want to be in the company of so many weirdoes and bakas (Kiba, Shino, Sakura…the list went on) but he did find that he was curious about Naruto's adventure. Why he cared, he wasn't so sure…Well he couldn't have devised his plan for nothing. He would have to follow through with it. Plus…Sakura would be there, right? She was on the A-List (meaning, annoying list) so he would see the premiere of his plan in action.
"Grab a few minutes to get freshened up," Ino suggested, looking at Naruto and Hinata, then her eyes resting on Naruto. "You put up quite a stink."
Naruto turned his nose up in indifference.
"We'll meet in an hour," Ino said. "At Ichiraku's Ramen. We'll get a big booth for everyone. It will be so fun! See you there, Naruto, Hinata, Sasuke." Ino skipped away, and Naruto and Hinata disappeared too.
Sasuke noticed his gaze trailing after Ino, her long blonde ponytail swinging wildly. He was glad she wasn't desperately chasing him like she had when she was a genin. She and Sakura both seemed to have thrown away their crushed on him. He was glad. Sasuke swung by his and Naruto's training clearing, deciding to just hang out there. Some days, Sasuke felt like just sitting and looking around it, feeling nostalgic and sad, sometimes fiery anger. Other days he avoided it, to avoid those feelings. Finally, Naruto was back to train. They would go back to their old schedule and everything would be as it was. Sasuke hoped his words a few days earlier had stayed in Sakura's mind, growing, infecting, invading her mind like a virus. He hoped they clouded her vision, disabled her to see clearly. He knew that without him, Sakura would have stayed to her perfectly good senses and stuck with her decision. He had used his manipulative abilities to their maximum power (without using any chakra, of course, only his fine tuned wits) to twist Sakura around Naruto's little finger. He would see how well his planned worked out. Usually Sasuke would know the outcome ahead of time (if he was making the plan, why shouldn't he know the outcome? Only bakas like Naruto make plans that turn out so unpredictable, the complete opposite of Naruto.)
Sasuke decided to start walking back, slowly, wasting enough precious time, to the Ramen House, and join Naruto's friends. His friends, too, he turned the thought over and over in his mind begrudgingly. No matter. Time to enjoy some of Naruto's favorite ramen.
Naruto walked into the Ramen House, to be greeted by Naruto's loud, harsh voice spinning an exciting tale of his and Hinata's mission. It hadn't been top secret, or anything stupid like that (why would a mission so useless be top secret? And what could that Nowhere Village do about it, if they decided to discuss it?) Sasuke pulled up a chair to the booth the group had chosen, sitting on the side opposite of Naruto. On Naruto's side, were (from the farthest to nearest) Hinata, Naruto, and Ino. On the opposite side, were Neji, Shino, and Kiba.
Naruto appeared to have just noticed his training partner arrive. "Oh, hey, Sasuke. Glad you could come," he said, in a plain voice.
"Go on!" Ino said. "Then what?"
Naruto looked at her with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Where was I?" he asked, tilting his head.
"You were surrounded by a bunch of unknown ninja," Ino supplied, her green eyes excited.
Naruto nodded surely, and began waving his hands everywhere (most dangerously) as he yelled out his words (some of them rather exaggerated, as Sasuke could guess).
"Then, Hinata came in, and man, it was amazing!" Naruto said, eyes blazing (and Hinata blushing). "She was just all ka-pow! NO MERCY! HI-YAH!" and it was SO COOL!"
Somehow, Sasuke could not imagine Hinata "going all" "KA-POW! HI-YAH!", as he eyed her critically. She was gazing at Naruto with the upmost admiration. Then, Naruto noticed Sakura and Lee coming through the door, and making their way to the table.
"HI, LEE!" Naruto greeted him with gusto. Then he nodded politely to Sakura. "Hey, Sakura-chan, what's up? How did you fare without me?" Sasuke noticed the joke was thrown in at the last minute, and not at all heart-felt. He knew his friends mannerisms pretty well. Could Naruto have added the last sentence in as a way of making it seem like a normal greeting? Would Naruto even go as far as to think that? Sasuke wondered if Hinata's influence was making him smarter. Then, Naruto continued the story, knocking over glasses of water onto Kiba and Neji. They glared at him, and if it had been anyone else, they would have gone up in flames on the spot.
"Watch it, idiot!" Kiba snarled fiercely at Naruto.
Hinata handed them napkins, with quivering apologies. Kiba took the paper from her greatfully, gazing at her.
"Why are you apologizing?" he asked, his voice gentle. "It was Naruto's fault!" it went back to its usual gruffness as he turned to glare at Naruto.
"Hey, hey, sorry," Naruto muttered. "Don't get all offended about it."
"How long have you guys been here?" Sakura asked. Her voice was drowned out by Lee's wholehearted apologies.
"I AM SO SORRY THAT I WAS NOT HERE ON TIME! MY YOUTHFUL TRAINING KEPT ME AWAY AND HAD I NOT SEEN THE MOST YOUTHFUL SAKURA PASSING BY I WOULD NOT HAVE KNOWN ABOUT YOUR YOUTHFUL MEETING! PLEASE FORGIVE MY YOUTHFUL SELF!"
"Kay, okay, calm down," Naruto muttered, and Sasuke held back a smirk. Naruto telling Lee to calm down?"
"We've been here for quite a while, sweetie," Ino said to Sakura, with a pointed politeness in her voice. "You missed the fashionably late mark."
Sakura obviously picked up on it (she was good at that kind of stuff) and shot her blonde friend a warning smile."
"Sit down, nonetheless," Ino invited her, unnecessarily because both she was already brining up a chair to sit beside opposite of Sasuke. Lee was jogging in place.
Naruto finished his stories, and by that time, the sun had gone down, and Teuchi had turned on the artificial lights. Shino could have been asleep (no one would know, since his high collar hid his mouth, and his small dark sunglasses hid his eyes.) Lee was still jogging, though Sasuke guessed he was as good as asleep on his feet. Ino had even toned down a little, a sure sign of either boredom, or weariness.
Naruto's stories could be boring (how exciting could even one such as Naruto make rice farmers?) but they had partaken in a few battles. Those bits were entertaining. Sasuke was surprised at the amount of trouble two Konoha ninjas could have gotten into, just dealing with Rice farmers. Sasuke returned to his home at the end of the day, anticipating the morning, when Naruto and he would train.