Well THIS was too long coming. x.x I've had it done for over a month, but, I've had editing I needed to get done... and let me tell you, working with some of these characters is a challenge for me. I think you can guess which ones.
I'm excited to say Nikko's been drawing me some new fanart, so that'll be posted up soon. So much love for him for that. And plenty of love too to my beta Kizoku Seishin, as always. Without you two, this story would still be on chapter 2... Thanks for un-lazy-ing me, guys.
This also officially marks the longest I've kept going on a story... well, ever. I only have one story now with more chapters, and the word count was considerably less. So I guess I'm "dedicated" now, eh?
Burning Leaves - 10
Naruto wasn't sure where to race. He heard no official plans, but there were some places in town where one could find cars ready to roll. His neon orange DNX was flashy enough to catch the attention of anyone who might be interested—whether they were looking or not. He headed on up the Boulevard, past the clubs and the bars where the pros spent their nights off, grinning at anyone who cared to look at a stoplight.
It was as Sakura had said; his car was his baby, his pride and joy, second only to Hinata, and that was only because he knew his car could be replaced with a better model.
There seemed to be little competition that night; only a couple teenagers who he quickly outdid within a few blocks, and who ran off around the next corner with their tails between their legs. There was certainly no one who could outrun him on a straightaway, and he'd been racing this part of town longer than some of these kids had had licenses... There were no serious challengers here.
He stopped for a fresh tank of gas and a Mountain Dew, then turned down the freeway for the 'burbs. He hoped there'd be some action towards the outskirts of town, where the ritzier people – like Hinata's family – lived. Even if they didn't have the best driving skill, most had the cash to make their car fast enough to keep up with the demon for a while.
He took a promising exit, one where he'd had a few races before, and slid his car to a stop at the light at the base of the off ramp. The perpendicular light turned yellow, and a fancy silver car lazed up to it, its blinker pointed at the on-ramp opposing Naruto.
The windshield of the Spyder was too dark for the blond to discern more about the figure inside other than he was looking in his direction. That, coupled with the way the blinker suddenly turned off was enough to know that he'd caught his attention. While his windows weren't quite as dark, Naruto doubted the driver could see his face either. Instead of signaling with his hands or trying to use words, he used the universal signal right before he turned to drive slowly towards the stoplight on the other side of the overpass.
He flashed his lights twice at the driver.
In his rear view mirror, two twin sets of lights pulsed back at him, and the car pulled through the intersection long before the light could turn green.
They both eased to a stop at the line, waiting despite the light already being green; this was to be a fair race from an even start. Both drivers knew what they were doing; the Spyder's driver was obviously not some kid like all those that had challenged Naruto so far this night.
----
From his seat, Sasuke's heart was pounding. His eyes glancing over towards the brightly colored Acura beside him, then back up at the now-red light repeatedly, quickly enough that the light and its reflection off the car began to blur together quickly. He couldn't see the driver, but he didn't need to either. He never saw a DNX in person before, and he'd heard of only one car like it in town, one that looked like just half a car, made of fire, burning through the night, from the way it was painted. He never believed the rumors, but here it was. Either it was the car he'd heard of for years, or a good imitation.
This was the test he'd been waiting for. The sign that he must continue racing. That someday, he could surpass his brother.
That night was tonight.
Not on the mountain as he'd expected it to be, but here, just blocks from home, with a chance encounter.
The cross light turned to yellow, then red.
Both engines flared as their light turned green, sending them shooting down the pavement.
The road was desolate; nothing but four lanes of asphalt far off into the distance, marred only where the streets split and made their way towards the sparse neighborhoods of the scarcely populated area. The road was theirs and theirs alone, allowing the two drivers to let their vehicles tear up the avenue.
Sasuke was under no dissolution over the presumable gap in quality between their cars. While his would have been better straight off the dealership with raw horsepower, it would be foolish to believe his opponent had not spent just as much time tweaking his car as he had his. Otherwise, the "demon of Konoha" would never have enough notoriety for word to reach this far towards the edge of town.
His foot was not even to the floor while they stayed mostly neck and neck, both cars challenging the other with each octave and gear their engines rose. Each sped up just enough to start to pass the other, only to be passed an instant later.
Both drivers seemed resistant to put their full effort in the race; perhaps they were used to easy matches where their needles barely made the orange zone, let alone red?
But this was real, and they knew both cars take more.
----
"Damn... this is as fast as I usually have to go," Naruto muttered, his glances over his shoulder growing increasingly short as speed made it more and more dangerous to take his eyes off the road. "If he's from this area, he's got the advantage. I have no idea what the roads are like."
Sasuke's familiarity with the territory was only a minor advantage. The relative length of his opponent's car gave him worse handling, but it also allowed him to take turns faster and hold more of his speed there than Sasuke's Spyder could.
-********-
The passenger door slammed and Tenten glanced up at Shikamaru, who was frowning at his phone. "Something wrong?"
He blinked, then shook his head. "Just got a message from a friend."
"Must've been a pretty bad one, you had a hella sour look on your face."
He chuckled, turning his blackberry off and sliding it into his pocket. "Nothing important. Just a lot of whining."
It was less than a second later when Tenten's own phone trilled, causing the two to glance between each other. She pulled it out and looked the message over. "Whining, hmm? So you two know each other?" she smirked, giving him an accusatory glance. "Naruto's just bored. Maybe we should invite him to join us here."
"...Naruto? I didn't get anything from him." Shikamaru blinked and reached into his pocket, nearly pulling back out his phone. "Otherwise, I would have said something. I introduced him to your garage, so of course I'd know you knew him." His eyebrows furrowed deeper as he ran his thumb across the Blackberry for a moment before retracting his hand; if he had a message from his hyper friend, it was bound to be identical to Tenten's. "Let's see how crowded things are, and how the scene is. No use inviting him if it's just going to be for half an hour; that would bore him."
Tenten nodded, strolling towards the curb and clicking the lock on her keychain, her car beeping behind them. "Fair enough. I could use a little relaxation anyway."
-********-
"That bastard!"
Chouji winced at the volume of Ino's screech, hesitating outside his door and listening carefully for any more noise to come from hers next door. His hand clenched, considering reaching for her doorknob to go in and check on her, but just then her shouting started again.
"It's all his fucking fault and he won't even answer the phone! Insensitive prick!" Inside her room there was a flurry of beeping noises from both her cell and the house phone. "What the hell is with Shikamaru," she growled, slamming what was probably the phone down yet again. "The nerve of him, really, sending that stupid bitch to the restaurant on my shift, then jabbering with her the whole time, and now he won't answer the phone for me?!"
He recognized her exasperated half sigh, half scream, followed by a heavy flop of her splaying out on her bed. "She's the one he hates, so why is he ignoring me?! I am never doing him a favor again!!"
Chouji sighed quietly from his place outside her door, pulling his ear away from it slowly; her screams were getting painful even through the door. How their friend's injury had become a personal affront to her was beyond him, but it was best to comfort her anyway, otherwise this tirade wouldn't go away any time soon. He opened his mouth to call her name, reaching up to knock on the door at the same time.
Her phone rang before his knuckles actually reached the door, so he paused in place, guiltily eavesdropping for a moment more to see if their friend had finally responded to Ino's insistent pestering.
"Finally! It's about - oh, Sai! ...No, no, don't worry, I was expecting a call from someone else. Yeah, it's alright, I can talk. I wanted to talk to someone about my day anyway..." Her words were suddenly much tamer, with a melodic coo about them.
'Good...' Chouji thought to himself, lowering his arm and retreating back to his own room, a smile now on his face. 'She's got someone to talk to. She needs that right now.'
-********-
Inside her room, Ino had been frantically dialing every few seconds on the house phone, ranting as she went. All the while her thumbs were tapping away on her cell phone, pausing only when Shikamaru's drolling voice mailbox started every few seconds, sending a series of nasty text messages to all those involved, particularly said "insensitive prick".
What was wrong with him, anyway? She and Chouji had been his friends forever – since long, long before that bitch had ever even looked at him. She had no right to him, no right to do that to him, and definitely no right to be in her – okay, Chouza-papa's, but while she was there is was hers too – restaurant, no matter who her brother was. Fancy-pants yakuza bitch. "Who... do... you... think... you... are..." she hissed under her breath as she typed each word, hitting send and letting out another frustrated screach.
Flopping back on her bed she growled at the ceiling, hanging up the house phone and dropping it on the floor. "She's the one he hates, so why is he ignoring me?! I am never doing him a favor again!!"
For a moment gnawed at her lip ring, playing with it and the stud on her tongue as she tried not to cry. The tears were welling, though, and she knew she'd let him get to her again – she was just too easy for him to get to. Sakura, too... any of her friends could make her cry easily. On one hand, she knew she needed to get thicker skin... but on the other, they didn't have to be such jerks all the time, either.
'Cause if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it, if you like it then you shoulda put a-'
She sat up abruptly and grabbed her phone, flipping it open and pulling it to her ear without even checking the caller ID. Obviously it was Shikamaru finally getting around to calling her back. "Finally! It's about - oh, Sai! ...No, no, don't worry, I was expecting a call from someone else." ...Except it, well, wasn't him. It was Sai. And that... made everything better, definitely. She grinned widely, laying back down and stretching out. "Yeah, it's alright, I can talk. I wanted to talk to someone about my day anyway..." she made sure to sound as bored as possible – no need for him to know she was so stressed out over some other guy, especially when he wasn't important like her Beau.
"I really can't understand the nerve of some girls, you know?" she whined at him. "There's this bitch I know, and she just... ugh! I don't even want to go into what she did to me this week..."
-********-
Finally Sasuke was gaining ground - the way it was supposed to be. His car was more expensive and powerful, there was no reason he should have been losing to this random punk loser. That's exactly what he'd decided his opponent had to be, too. The "demon" nickname must have come from a bunch of pathetic teenagers with no real skill - this guy didn't stand a chance against him.
Both cars were in high gear, and Sasuke's hand twitched over the clutch, considering switching to sixth gear. He glanced from the road ahead to the lights growing smaller in his rear view mirror. He smirked and started to let up on the gas, eyes trailing back to the dotted line ahead.
It was just a glance of blue across the corner of his vision at first, but it took him less than a second to realize there was now a set of rollers going in his mirrors.
"Shit," he growled, throwing on his brakes as quickly as was safe, glancing around for an exit as the cop pulled onto the road behind him, between him and his opponent. The patroller hadn't gotten up to speed, though, so the "demon" was quickly catching up with him.
----
Naruto felt his heart jump as the cop car popped out a couple blocks in front of him, braking just a little too quickly, his car grinding for an instant before he managed to shift down in gear. "Tenten's gonna kill me," he grumbled, eyes skimming for a way out; if he was lucky, his place in back would mean he could get away while the copper went after his faster opponent.
He took the first hard left he spotted, killing his lights as soon as he saw that there was a decent amount of straightaway in front of him, and nothing for him to slam into between the corner and the next stoplight. "Sorry bud, have a good night!" he hollered with a chuckle, although he knew the driver of the Spyder couldn't hear him.
Sure, he felt somewhat sorry for the guy, as he was looking at one hell of a fine, and that was assuming he didn't get his car impounded right away. That was the risk with the sport - be fast or smart enough to keep away from the cops, or rich enough to pay them off.