Chapter 9

Sasuke was up bright and early, as usual, and after a quick protein filled breakfast, he got ready to head over to his and Naruto's "personal" training corner in the forest. He stopped by Naruto's really sorry excuse for an apartment, and was anticipating the daily morning routine of waking up Naruto, and forcing him to get ready. Naruto was not a "morning person". Sasuke wasn't either. But he wasn't an "any-kind-of-day" person. He just went along, trying to ignore the things that irked him to great extents—though it didn't always work. That's why training with Naruto to almost death situations helped distract him enough for a while. Then they had to stop, because Naruto became hungry, or it was physically impossible to continue (and they would have actually died). Dying would have been very inconvenient. How can you train if you are dead? If you were dead, you wouldn't have a reason to train. Then Sasuke would kill himself all over again. So, during breaks from trainings, which were very few, Sasuke had to get back to reality again, and loathed every second of it. Or looked like he did, anyway.

Sasuke almost yelled in surprise at the sight he saw in Naruto's house. No, he usually did not have these moments. The very first time he had come to Naruto's house, he had been that surprised. You couldn't even see the floor under all the crap (not literally, thank goodness) and mold. Luckily, Naruto knew where the bathroom was, and how to use it. Unluckily, he didn't understand the concept of taking out the trash. Or doing laundry. If pigs thought they lived cleanly, they would think Naruto lived in a pig sty! So, of course, by now he was used to it. Sasuke didn't breathe the air in Naruto's room. Who knows what kind of unknown viruses were hanging out in Naruto's dump of a room. The reason Sasuke was surprised was not because of the mess (hello, was anyone paying attention? He was used to it by now). It wasn't even because it was remote, distantly related, fifty second cousin of clean. No. There is no word to describe the abnormality of Naruto in a clean room. If Naruto had a clean room, no one would be there to admire it, because the world would have already exploded.

No. Sasuke was surprised because Naruto was already awake and alert, blue eyes bright and laughing, and he didn't smell like yesterday's ramen. If there was one other thing to know about Naruto aside from his living conditions, was his physical hygiene conditions. Naturally, someone with such abysmal cleanliness habits would not have any better self hygiene habits. Of course, Sasuke was sure Naruto took showers once in a while. He had to. But to be so fresh in the morning was something to be astounded at.

"Decided to come a bit closer to normal, eh, dobe?" Sasuke asked with one of his signature smirks. This one said, wow, you are so lame that I'm hanging out with you for entertainment.

"What?" Naruto rolled his eyes. "I've done nothing special."

Sasuke snorted, and returned Naruto's eye roll with one of his own. "Sure…."

"Well, anyway, why did you stop by?" Naurto asked with a bounce. "It's not like you're here to give me a present."

"Are you really so stupid?" Sasuke asked in disparagement. "Have you not been here for the past several months?"

"Well, now that you mention it, I have gone for a few weeks," Naruto said, with a thoughtful expression, completely with blue eyes looking upward to a corner, and an index finger on his chin. "I think I've been in the Rice Village."

OH, MY GOSH! Sasuke thought, aghast that he wasn't even a tad bit surprised. Yeah, Naruto was scatter-brained. He was the very essence of empty-headedness. But that remark just now was kind of amusing.

"Well, anyway, I was just kidding by the way," Naruto interrupted himself, then continued in a flurry of words, "about the going away and stuff. Anyway, I'll see you later, Sasuke-teme, I have to go train with Hinata. Did you know I'm going work more on how to defeat the Byakugan? How cool is that? Well, gotta go, see ya!" With that Naruto leaped away ninja-style, leaving Sasuke staring dumbly through Naruto's window. A few seconds went by with Sasuke feeling the calming serenity of Naruto's red-hot energy leaking away from the air around him. Then a new red-hot feeling began rising inside Sasuke, till it boiled in his blood, and he could feel it pulsing through his veins. No one—and that meant no one—left Sasuke doing anything dumbly. In fact, no one left Sasuke unless he had dismissed him, internally to himself, or vocally to them. Sasuke never did anything dumb, on accident or because of someone trying to make him. It just didn't happen. And now somehow Naruto was blowing him off to train with some second rate Byakugan loser. What the CRAP?

Sasuke's face turned into a violent scowl. It would have shocked even a lion to death. What was this world coming to? Sasuke wasn't a very forgiving person. In fact he wasn't a very kind person either. He was solitary, silent, and indifferent. Some people might say he was heartless. But anyone who saw Sasuke with Naruto would see a whole new Sasuke. The differences were subtle yet obvious. Sasuke smirked more, rather than a set-in-stone scowl. He talked to Naruto, even if it was to say how much of a dobe he was. He allowed emotion into his heart, feeling the heat of battling a worthy opponent. So it wasn't to guess that maybe Sasuke would be kind to Naruto and forgive him if the blonde ninja trained with him that afternoon. To make up for the morning.

I don't even need training. Sasuke told himself. I was just helping Naruto. If he's going to be ungrateful, then just let him see if I ever waste my time again! No matter what Sasuke told himself, he still couldn't punch out the clawing feeling inside of him. He struggled against admitting what it was. It was similar to a feeling he'd had before. He recognized it. It was like different strains of viruses. Once you created a vaccine for the virus, it just mutated itself and you had to start all over again. His feeling was like a virus. It started out tiny, then multiplied itself till it took over Sasuke's entire body. Sasuke was vengefully abhorrent to this particular strain of virus. It was the virus of rejection. Is this what losers feel like all the time? I never want to be a loser ever again.

Sakura found herself walking home from work alone again. Usually she would have been with Ino, or any of her other co-apprentices. Whenever she was alone, unwanted thoughts crammed into her head. Thoughts about a certain blonde ninja who was now fraternizing with someone else…

"Hey, Sakura."

Sakura gasped in surprise. She whipped around, to see Kiba jump down from a tree.

"What's up, Sakura?"

"Oh, Kiba," she laughed nervously. "Nothing much. What about you? Where's your team?" What Sakura really wanted to ask was, Where is HInata?

"Huh? You mean Shino and Hinata? Well, for both of them, I don't know," Kiba scowled, kicking an imaginary stone on the ground. "Not that they ditched me. It was the other way around, make sure you know!" he broke off into incoherent muttering, then shook his head. Sakura was ready to say her goodbyes and get back to her house, but Kiba prolonged the conversation with an equally angering question. He asked her, "Where is your team—Sasuke and Naruto?"

Sakura met Kiba's slit black gaze with her own large green one. She craved the once-familiar spark that would rush through her veins every time she saw 'him'. Her spark for Sasuke had died down a while ago. She still thought of him as a friend, and she hoped he thought that of her too, but nothing more. Now, in the moment, she knew that she could never feel anything more for Kiba then a polite friendship between comrades. She was sure he felt the same way.

"Sasuke's probably training alone somewhere," Sakura said coolly. "Naruto's probably training with Hinata. They seem to train together a lot these days."

"Figures," Kiba said with a soft growl.

Sakura hoped he wasn't too angry. She didn't want the fun-loving Kiba to be brought down. Why would he care what Hinata did, anyway? Yeah, she knew she would be offended if Ino ditched her (hmm, maybe, like right now?). Maybe Kiba was feeling the same way towards Shino.

"Well, I'm sure Shino will turn up soon," Sakura said, hoping she didn't sound annoying—please forbid—motherly. "Maybe you can check his favorite hang-out places."

"I guess that's better than waiting for the two of them to show their faces to me, huh?" Kiba asked quietly, with a smirk.

Sakura laughed, but it sounded hollow. She was painfully aware that the laugh could have been genuine. Then she would be able to think, "Wow, I haven't laughed in such a logn time! This feels good! Maybe I can forget about all those other things and start laughing again! Maybe I've been way to stressed out by things beyond my control." But of course it wasn't a genuine laugh, and now she was wallowing in her own distress. Had she offended Kiba further? Would he have even noticed the difference between a real laugh and a fake one? Were all these thoughts just useless and minuscule in importance?

"Yeah!"

Sakura whirled around, her heart speeding up again. Was she always going to be snuck up on because she was buried deep within her own thoughts, totally unaware of her surroundings? And who had the nerve to tell her that her own thoughts were useless? Why, she was going to pulverize that person….

Then her mind finally registered the voice. Raspy, loud, obnoxious….

"Naruto?" she called out, her voice not even sounding like her own. Did she even remember what her own voice sounded like? Or was she living in a constant state of detachment and reserve?

"You got that right!"

Anger kicked in Sakura's chest. Who was that idiot talking to? Not her she hoped. Then he would get another thing coming! He wouldn't know what hit him! Actually, he better know what hit him. It's the only thing that would hit him!

Then she saw Naruto walking out of the forest, looking the opposite way, down to his shoulder. She couldn't see who it was at first, but when Naruto threw back his head to let out a cackle of laughter, she saw that it was a girl. The maiden had flowing thick glossy black hair shining in the evening sun, eyes the shade of lavender, as vacant and beautiful as the twilight sky, and skin softer and paler than falling snow. Was Sakura delighted or in awe at the sight? Was she proud, joyful, or amused? No. She felt a dull, sullen anger rising up in her. She felt her face turn into a snarl. She could have heard Ino's voice in her head saying, "Now, darling, you know never to frown like that! It ruins your face forever! Wrinkles!" But right now her eyes zeroed in on a different girl, with a look of joyful innocence on her face, which Sakura was palpably determined to prove wrong. She wondered why her indomitable spirit wasn't completely slamming into them, knocking them down, with the force of a hurricane. She was sure they could feel it, from those several yards away. See you soon, lovebirds.