A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY
ACT V
~ SOUL-SEARCHING ~
"Do you think he'll ever show up on time?" Naruto asked.
They were waiting for the resident scarecrow to show up for their usual mission. Ino was seated on the pavement, head leant against the railings as she caught up on lost sleep from the night before; apparently she and her brother had been given a training session with Shikamaru and Choji. Naruto wondered what kind of training they'd been put through; while Ino didn't have anywhere near as much stamina as she did, she easily had enough to rival her two cousins. Naruto hadn't seen her friend this exhausted in a while.
Several weeks had passed since the mission to wave, and they had been taking D-Ranks again (much to their irritation), and were supposed to be taking a C-Rank today. Kakashi had been oddly wary about taking the higher ranked missions.
"Will there ever be a meal fit for human consumption in my house?" Sasuke asked rhetorically.
"When Itachi finally gets around to hiring a housekeeper; he's been grumbling about it for weeks now" Naruto answered anyway.
Sasuke glared. Naruto snickered before resuming a tense silence between them.
Naruto (not that she would ever admit it) was confused; before the little encounter on Tazuna's roof, she had been steadily growing aware of Sasuke; in particular, his attitude around her. He had been talking more, and had been easier to convince into doing things. He had been much more flustered than he should have been after the meddling of a certain pair (oh yes, she knew that kiss at the dinner before their test had been Ino's - and Itachi's - doing).
Strangely enough, she had found herself becoming much more aware of his presence. She had been so preoccupied with his changing attitude, she hadn't noticed herself being more and more interested in Sasuke as a whole - in short, she was discovering what his fan girls found so appealing. She hidden it well (though not well enough to avoid Ino's notice), but it had unnerved her.
She was no sappy fan girl thank you very much. Her inability to stand flower arrangement in any scenario other than helping out at the Yamanaka flower shop proved that, as well as her dislike of make up, the disgusting frilly underwear the shops seemed insistent on selling (thank god for under-shorts), and other such girly activities. It was safe to say any concept of romance had failed to reach her notice unless it came in the form of a Porn book.
She had looked through her sub-standard collection of smut for some sort of idea on how to proceed (Ino would never let her live it down if she asked for help), but had found the novels suitably unhelpful. That meant she was venturing into dreadfully uncharted waters. She had almost died from shock and… eagerness of all the things… when Sasuke had bought up the need to change her bandages the first night they'd spent at Tazuna's house!
Then had come their little make out session on the roof! What was she supposed to do about that? Was there supposed to be this long, annoying, awkward lack of interaction between them? The porn books always had the heroine happily jumping on the man's the next day, or simply blushing when he hugged her. There was never such a lack of communication!
Naruto assumed this meant Sasuke felt no concern over the matter, or was just as baffled as she was. She believed the former to be an incorrect hypothesis as he had pushed her out of the way of some falling scaffolding and broken his arm doing so a few D-Ranks back. So that left bafflement; Naruto found this much more likely seeing he interacted with very few people.
Besides herself, Ino, Kakashi, and his family, the only people he had something of a relationship were the officials in charge of mission hand-outs and a strange paranoid-rivalry with the other boys from their graduating class, particularly Shikamaru. He completely ignored everyone else. This allowed her to make a safe assumption that Sasuke had absolutely no clue as how to proceed.
Naruto screamed curses behind her silent façade.
Ino yawned, starching her arms, before falling back to sleep, leaving her two team-mates to wait for their lazy teacher to show up in a frustrating stalemate.
Fugaku stared at his wife's grave marker intently. He wished she was still here to tell him what he was supposed to do; but if she was still here he wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.
Kakashi's report had confirmed what he had suspected for years, but ignored it every time things seemed as if they were to suddenly turn topsy-turvy.
Well, now they were definitely topsy-turvy and he had no-one to blame for his situation but himself. He should have made things clear from the beginning, but factors in play at the time had meant Naruto's lineage be hidden form everyone, even the Hokage.
He had never expected the girl to awaken the Sharingan; yes, her mother had carried the bloodline, but it was passed on through the male line. He had never prepared any sort of explanation for this scenario; he wasn't quite sure why he was in this scenario to begin with.
He'd noticed the obvious signs of the cursed Uchiha eyes in the girl; the improvement in memory was a dead giveaway to he who knew whose DNA had formed her own.
He'd had the gall to remain oblivious until Kakashi had carefully, yet bluntly asked why two, not one, of his pupils had manifested the swirling red irises. He'd had to tell Kakashi the whole truth then, despite his wishes to take the truth to his grave.
After the man had left (after swearing to secrecy even from the Hokage) he'd taken the time to look for those tell-tale globs of thick chakra behind the irises. Only a Sharingan user could possess those bubbles of chakra - waiting for activation - and only another Uchiha could see them. It left him in no doubt as to her possession of the bloodline, and he wished he knew why.
But more worrying than her inheritance was the rapidly progressing relationship his youngest son insisted on pursuing with her.
That was another scenario that had not figured into his calculations; he had encouraged the friendship between them, of course he would - they were closer than they were aware of, but not for it to become a romantic one.
He supposed he could have just told the three of their exact relation ship in the beginning, but the dogs of Iwa and Kumo had been sniffing around, far to interested in Naruto's resemblance to her father to allow her second DNA input to be considered (let alone identified) .
They had been taken care of quickly, and none but the Hokage had noticed their presence (and of course, the third lord was far more concerned they should discover her jinchuriki status).
In any case, revealing everything would have been far too risky, and he didn't particularly believe the villagers would react well to the news. Danzou alone would have a field day with the information; he could hear him talking of how useful a Sharingan-wielding jinchuriki of Hokage descent could be to the village now…
So he stayed silent as he was known to be, taking her on as his ward; a gesture of kindness to those who had known his closest friend, and a gesture of duty to the villagers. It had been perfect, he could keep a close eye on her, and she was given the opportunity to unwittingly get to know here family.
And now, thanks to those infuriating biological tendencies known as hormones, it was falling around his ears faster than he could keep up with. He could not come out and directly forbid the two from pursuing a relationship; unwanted questions would be raised.
The best he could do was warn them of possible heartbreak and broken friendship (well, Sasuke he could warn - Naruto wouldn't even let him start those sort of conversations), and try to keep Itachi (and his blond cohort) from meddling when possible. Quite frankly, he had no idea what course of action he was supposed to take from now on.
"I've turned things into a right and proper mess, haven't I Mikoto?" he asked the stone memorial in front of him.
He received no reply from his wife, already eleven years gone. The sound of footsteps behind him diverted his attention to the priest.
"It's good to see you again Mr. Uchiha" he greeted, a smile on his pruneish face.
Fugaku greeted the man with an incline of his head.
"As to you Hoshi-Sama."
"Worries about your young ward again?" the wizened man asked.
Fugaku gave the man a puzzled look.
"I doubt you realize it, but every time something over Naruto concerns you, you come visiting your wife" he explained in his kind manner.
Fugaku was shocked that the man had picked up on what he was stressing over, but even more concerned by the fact this seemed a regular occurrence. He scolded himself; the priest had always been very observant of the going on amongst his shrines. There was no need to worry.
"It's almost as if you seek her approval instead of guidance over the matters concerning that child" the old man continued, lighting an incense stick and clasping his wrinkled hands together in prayer.
"Pardon?"
Fugaku was stunned; he had known of the priest's observant nature, but he was beginning to wonder how much the ancient, hobbling, holy man could see.
"An old mans rambling Mr. Uchiha, think nothing of it" the man smiled
He finished his small prayer before hobbling away to do the same thing on, how ironically, Kushina's grave. Fugaku could think of nothing else as he walked the short route back to his home, his thoughts no clearer than when he arrived.
Sasuke stomped through the streets of Konoha, scaring small academy students and civilians from his path.
He had never been in as foul a mood as he had today.
He had gone to the meeting point with every intention of confessing to Naruto properly and ending this stupid stalemate, only for Ino to arrive early. Ino had no place in overhearing him doing so un-Sasuke-ish as confessing to a not-a-girl.
True she had been sleeping for most of the time, but Ino has some sort of crazy match-makers radar that would have immediately woken her, and Ino was far at masking the state of her chakra (which would have fluctuated on waking) than he was at detecting it. So he had been forced to endure yet another awkward silence in Naruto's company.
He would not delude himself into believing Naruto would have any clue as to how to proceed; maybe she'd know they weren't supposed to be ignoring each other, but she wouldn't know how to fix that. Her experience with romance was worse than his own, only present in he books of smut. Her few fan boys had been too scared of being castrated during confession they'd avoided it altogether, choosing to admire her from a distance.
At least his fan girls had been brave enough to approach him, so he had some sort of idea of how confessions were supposed to go. Then again, he had never been the one to do the actual confessing before. Was it supposed to be so nerve-wracking? What is rejected him?! He felt a brief (very brief) miniscule smidgen of pity for all the girls' he'd bluntly to 'buzz off' during his days at the academy. They had made it look easy, but he was beginning to admire their idiotic courage.
Even worse: as soon as Kakashi had turned up (well past four hours late!) to tell them they wouldn't be getting any missions for the rest of the week for their recent hard work, Naruto had darted off to god knows where faster than a criminal from a crime scene.
As he contemplated all this, a warning of sorts from his father floated to the forefront of his thoughts. He had been surprised when his father had stopped him before heading to the teams usual meeting point; just because Kakashi was late, his father saw no reason as to why he should adopt the same habit.
'This relationship of yours with Naruto… Tread carefully with it. If it doesn't turn out how you envision it to, you'll loose more than her friendship'
Talk about being cryptic. If he had wanted to give him the 'break-my-daughter's-heart-and-suffer-painfully'speech in place of her biological father (whoever he may be), he should have just said so! It would have been a whole lot easier to understand than his cryptic crap about loosing envisions or whatever.
He was walked past the entrance to the cemetery, feeling too out of sorts to visit his mother for once, but halted his steps when a loud familiar voice rang over the breeze.
"Argh! Your son is stupid Mrs. U! Why cant he just talk to me and be done with it! He knows I don't get this sort of girly crap!"
Sasuke twitched once before turning on his heel and darting towards the cemetery entrance with full speed.
Naruto had all but leaf-flickered away from the meeting point; such was her speed to get away. She was half along the street leading to the cemetery before she had realized what she was actually doing; what on earth was she thinking?! She was supposed to be confronting the stupid, duck-ass haired, idiotic, stubborn, brother complex-d, pride drenched-
In any case, she was not supposed to be running away! Naruto Uzumaki did not run away! Ever! It was a completely foreign concept to her; Sasuke had been forced to intervene more than once when she had picked fights with that stupid white-eyed boy from the senior year in the academy because of this trait. So why was she running away like some frightened girl?!
Sasuke would probably snort and tell her because she was a girl; this thought only severed to irritate her further. Her agitation and confusion found her in the cemetery. She had decided to visit her mother, hoping the act would do something towards clearing her jumbled thoughts, when another grave caught her sight; Mikoto Uchiha.
Her brain chose that moment to remind her that she had never properly introduced herself to Sasuke's mother - she simply lit an incense stick and wished her well in whatever she was doing in the afterlife or reincarnation or whatever dead people did after they died.
For some reason, that sharply stung at her heartstrings.
After obtaining permission form the Priest (who had seemed unusually happily saddened by her request), she had hurried to light the incense, cursing herself for not bringing any sort of offering other than the leftover tomatoes from her lunch. Feeling a need to offer something as a form of apology, she fished them from her lunch pack and laid them on the small memorial before slapping her hands together in prayer.
Naruto then found herself presented with the problem of what to actually say to this woman she had never met.
'Err, hi… aw crud this is awkward…Urgh… I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I've been making random offerings and stuff even though I've never met you or anything with Sasuke for… well, since… Urgh, I don't know alright?! I can't remember anymore! Stupid Kyuubi messing with my brain or whatever. I left tomatoes! And… err… '
Naruto frowned, trying to come up with something to make the years-late introduction less insulting; Naruto was ashamed for not doing so sooner. It was only polite to introduce to your best-friend-kind-of-person's mother, even if they were a marble sticky-uppy pillar.
'Oh for the love of… I don't even know why I'm talking to you! I don't even know what you look like!' she wailed internally; it was true that she had never seen a proper photo of Sasuke's mother.
She had seen the family photo in the living room - Itachi looking irritated by his one-year-old brother tugging painfully on his ponytail from his mothers arms (the name perma-frown didn't even begin to cover Mr. U's gloomy expression). She appeared to be smiling, but the photo was blurred from Sasuke's animated tugging and Itachi's aggravated reaction. Making out the woman's exact features was somewhat difficult, and Naruto had never seen another picture of Mikoto Uchiha.
Itachi had told both she and Sasuke (when questioned, he too had been puzzled) that their father had been on the verge of suicide after their mother died; he had been devoted to her more so than he had been to the clan, which had been of a greater level than his loyalty to the Hokage at the time. He had removed most of the pictures so as to avoid triggering painful memories.
She had never questioned it, but now that she was actually holding a one-way conversation with Sasuke's mother she wished she knew what she looked like.
'Well, not that it matters I guess, I just figured I'd actually introduce myself since I leave you weird food with Sasuke so often; stupid idiot's still terrified of ghosts, I know he is. He won't set a foot inside without someone else. Stupid scardey stubborn git! He's such a wimp sometimes! Who kisses someone like that and just ignores them afterwards?! Who freaking does that? Why are guys such wimps?! Stupid Duck-Ass-Haired stubborn- never mind… You're a woman, or were, whatever! You understand me right?'
Mikoto Uchiha remained silent. Naruto maintained a similar silence before grabbing hold of her blonde hair and yanking hard pigtails in frustration.
"Argh! Your son is stupid Mrs. U! Why can't he just talk to me and be done with it! He knows I don't get this sort of girly crap!" she complained loudly, gaining a chuckle from the Priest several rows over.
"I mean it! If he doesn't say something soon I'll explode! Icha Icha is no use to me right now! I have no clue how to handle this, and I'd rather do something really… not fun than ask the matchmaking piggy for help! That Stupid scardey-"
"Finish that sentence, and I swear to god I really will hit you" a familiar voice threatened jokingly.
Naruto shrieked and whirled round to find a breathless Sasuke standing behind her, hands on knees as he bent over taking in deep gulps of air. Unfazed that he had more than likely overhear her one-sided conversation, she made an attempt at a normal greeting.
"You're out of breath, you slacking your training duck-butt?" she snickered, earning a weary glare from Sasuke.
"Are you ever going to stop calling me that? I have a name y'know"
"Maybe…" she replied vaguely.
'…Depends if you're going to grow a backbone and tell me what the hell that make-out was all about!'
Sasuke seemed to find this confusing if the silence once again generating itself between them was anything to go by. Naruto finished the rest of her prayer in silence, ignoring Sasuke's curious gaze towards the tomatoes on his mother's headstone. She finished the prayer with a bow of her head, and turned to leave once again.
She had pondered the idea of confronting herself, but the idea terrified far worse than her lodger ever could. Besides, he was the one who kissed her! Sure, she'd gone along with it and had some fun of her own, but he was the original instigator. It was, therefore, his responsibility to clear the air.
"Where are you going?" he asked startled, seemingly aware she was leaving.
"Got to tell the Priest I'm all done before I head home don't I?" she replied in a blasé manner.
Naruto couldn't help but wonder if she should just forget the whole thing; she would be amazed if he actually buried his pride and explained his actions for once. Usually she knew him well enough to accurately guess, but not this time.
She ad Sasuke were similar in many ways: they both liked tomatoes, they were both stubborn, neither of them had their mothers in their lives, both were romantically stunted, and neither liked to loose. The key difference was pride, Naruto may have had as much pride as he had, but she was willing to put it aside when the situation desperately counted for it.
But this time was different - besides being more than their usual challenges or arguments, she had a feeling getting involved with each other would cause problems further down the line.
Naruto had never ignored her instincts before, except when it came to Sasuke. Something about him set them haywire, at first with familiarity, and now something crush-like had joined the mix and her instincts were screaming at her that it was wrong. She had no idea why, but Sasuke's personality aside this was one of her main reservations. Her instincts had not often let her down, and thus she paid attention to them.
Except when it came to Sasuke.
She would be more than willing to ignore them for that stupid scardey Sasuke; if only he would grow a backbone and explain things to her!
"Oi idiot, wait!" he yelled, his footsteps thudding and crunching on the gravel path as he sprinted to catch up with her.
"What?" Naruto asked when he turned her around by the shoulder.
"Why are you avoiding me?" he asked, voice lacking its usual cocky air.
If Naruto had been what Sasuke considered a 'Girl-like Girl' she would have bowed down instantly, providing she had not fainted. But Naruto was not a 'girl-like girl', she was a 'Not-A-Girl'; and so she remained perplexed. Whether it was genuine or false was open to debate.
"I'm not-"
"Yes you are! You run of to god-knows where after the team meetings and you've barley spoken to me since the wave mission!"
Alright, so she probably was sort-of avoiding him. Without the sort of.
But it was his fault in the first place!
"We made-out on a roof and you expect me to be acting normally? You know I don't understand the girly stuff like that! And what good are porn books for romance? Useless! Absolutely useless!" she vented, finally having someone to vent this to without worry of probable-blackmail.
Plus she could actually get a reply (Sasuke's mother was probably a very nice lady, but she was kind of dead. That didn't work out so well for the advice-giving scenario).
"I had no idea what I was supposed to do and like hell I was going to tell Ino, unless you wanted Itachi teasing you to hell and back, and you were going back to the cave-man days with the grunting and ignoring yourself mister! So tell me now; can you blame for freaking out just a tiny little bit?!"
Sasuke stared wide eyed at the shorter girl who was now taking several deep breaths of air.
"You could have asked Ayame…" he ventured delicately, in a non-patronizing tone.
She stared at him before grumbling what sounded like some of her more vibrant swear words to herself. The ramen girl would have been happy to offer advice, and gave it whether it was needed or not; Sasuke suspected he had Ino and Itachi to thank for that since Ayame was always stating that he would be perfect for the blonde, and that had 'match-maker'written all over it.
He wasn't complaining, but honestly!
Did no one think they could work this out by themselves?
Speaking of working things out…
"It's not... Well… I don't talk to girls half the time Naruto! And don't beat on me for the makeing-out, you were straddling me!" he retorted after some mumbling.
Wait, he wasn't supposed to be trying to place the blame here was he? That sounded wrong somehow. He was supposed to doing something confession-ish wasn't he? He didn't talk to girls, but didn't they get mad when you yelled at them with this sort of stuff?
He'd seen Kiba trying to ask Sakura on a date from one end of the park to the other and things hadn't turned out so well…
That punch had looked painful.
Oh dear god, was he using Kiba as a Dating-Role Model? No!
Don't think about anything Kiba would do! That was just asking for trouble!
"…oh yeah, guess I forgot that part" Naruto noted by surprise.
Then again, Naruto wasn't exactly a girl…
Maybe the Kiba approach would work with her?
No, he wouldn't risk it.
Besides being to risky, he refused to have Kiba as a dating role model!
"Naruto I-"
He froze. Why were no words coming out of his mouth? There were supposed to be two more words to his sentence! Had awakening the Sharingan caused his brain to malfunction? He had a second cousin who'd blown their brain up activating it - too distant a relative for his brain to handle it…
It was almost as if his body was trying to stop him. 'Stupid hypocrite body! Aren't your hormones causing this mess in the first place? Filthy hypocrite!'
Sasuke was vaguely aware he was gawping like a gawping fish and Naruto was beginning to be slightly weirded out. That wasn't part of his plan! God where were his fan girls when they may actually be useful for once? All he'd have to do was smirk and they'd gladly share notes! Stupid useless fan girls!
"I… err, I think, no, I do…"
Naruto was shuffling nervously as if stuck between a rock and a hard place; he was obviously worrying her with the gawping, but said gawping was likely scaring the creeps out of her.
"Screw it" he stated to himself.
He took a step towards the blonde girl and placing a hand behind the back of her head, pulled her lips towards his own with a fair amount of enthusiasm. He made no further moves to deepen it; this was supposed to be a translation of Sasuke's-stunted-social-ability into the more commonly used 'I like you, please go out with me'.
He released her and did his best to give a pointed look that asked for an answer. Naruto seemed somewhat dazed for a few moments but the haze was soon shaken from her mind when she slapped her hands to her flaming cheeks.
"If you even dare to go soft on me during training I will kick your ass to Kumogakure and back" she stated pointedly.
Sasuke took this as a yes and snorted (as if to say 'what kind of idiot do you take me for? Kiba?'), before taking her hand and leading her from the cemetery at a brisk pace.
"Oi, Sasuke, where are we going?" she asked as she was dragged into the main streets of Konoha.
"Ichiraku's" he stated.
"Really? Score!"
Itachi twitched as he watched the exchange between his brother and Naruto from the privacy of the main shrine. He could hear the old preist chuckling to himself, but Ino seemed just as frustrated as he.
"Itachi, you need to have serious word with Sasuke on how to confess to a girl!" She hissed.
"It appears that way doesn't it?"
"But you know what this means right?"
Itachi gave the blond girl crouched down beside him a perplexed look.
"It means awesome blackmail!"
As the two talked between themselves as to how they could bribe and blackmail their best-friend and brother respectively, an old wrinkled man gave the two youngsters (as long as he was around, almost everyone would be a youngster) a small sad smile as they left for the main hub of the village.
The old Priest had seen many things in his time as the shrines trusted custodian (it was a respected position in the village that had it's own privileges if you could take time enough to look for them), and that young girl was no exception to his observations.
She was an easy-going child, and far more trusting than he would have expected of one shunned so much by the ones her father, he had watched firsthand, had sacrificed his life and hers for their protection. It had been in the shrine, the ritual.
It was thanks to this firsthand experience that he knew of the knotted web the man's energetic daughter was entangling herself in. he hoped that when the web began to untangle itself, she and boy she was so draw to would withstand the tribulations that awaited them.
The truth can be painful when it is an unwanted one.
"…then again, she may already know the truth" he voiced to himself quietly, gazing across to grave that had just been visited, incense still smoking.
He showed no surprise as he turned to the eyes of the boy half conversing with the pale blonde Yamanaka, and smiled reassuringly.
"What do you think?" he asked the dark haired boy quietly as he passed him by to start his rounds.
"…then again she may already know the truth" the old man mumbled to himself.
Itachi watched the old-mans gaze as it drifted from his mothers memorial to his own presence.
"What do you think?" the man breathed as he passed Itachi by and plodded down the steps of the shrine.
Itachi remained confused by his words for a few moments before several things rapidly clicked into place.
That night, Sasuke did not return until the hours had ticked beyond ten' o'clock; a rarity for the boy. When questioned, he maintained the smirk on his face and closed-lips before retreating to his bedroom.
After going over the Priest's words, Itachi had found several things beginning to make a lot more sense. The reason for his fathers original sponsorship of Naruto, his familial-like fondness for the girl, his insistence on he and Sasuke getting along with the girl, and most recently his reaction towards Naruto and Sasuke's budding relationship (though Itachi guessed that, if Sasuke's smirk was anything to go by, it had passed the opening stages fairly quickly).
It explained the problems she was having with her memory and how she had come to have the Sharingan at a stretch too (Itachi still wasn't sure how that had been passed on; the Sharingan was not a matriarchal trait but he would be damned if he didn't find out).
This still did not erase the shock and horror of his realization.
Not only did he have a younger sister, but he had unwittingly set the unsuspecting girl up into a relationship with his younger brother (wouldn't that be a story to tell his grandkids?). While it was true that Naruto was not his full-blooded sibling, she clearly had a different father, the relation through the maternal side made the familial relationships seem that much stronger.
Itachi couldn't help but wonder if the feeling of hopelessness as to how to handle this situation he aided in causing was how his father felt at this moment. He considered going straight top the two of them and informing them they were unsuspicious engaging in what most would refer to as incest, and then completely abandoned the idea.
Not only would Sasuke be likely to leave the family for being lied to, but Naruto would not be able to handle the information all at once: going from having no family and what had the makings of a stable relationship to having a family, but also having said relationship with a member of said family would be too much even for Naruto. It would be seen as the worst of betrayals.
And somehow Itachi had the suspicion that, after a lot of consideration on their part, neither of his younger …siblings… would give two flying fucks.
All this being said, Itachi decided it would be best to have a conversation with his father. Going by Naruto's age, their mother had been alive till around the girls second birthday (putting Sasuke at age three, and himself at age eight). Itachi, in all his genius, had failed to come with a plausible reason for their parents to seemingly abandon the girl when they were perfectly capable of raising her.
And more to the point, where had the relationship with his parents gone so wrong that his mother would have sought another?
He had always been under the impression that they had been madly in love.
Itachi was beginning to wonder just how many skeletons his father had hidden in his overly-large closet.
"You think, just once, we'd learn our lesson and not bother to turn up on time" Naruto complained, yawning as she leaned her head on Sasuke's shoulder, falling asleep almost instantly
The boy said nothing, too dazed to reply. Like the rest of his team, Sasuke was not a morning person. Ino, who had seated herself beside a nearby tree, appeared to be sleeping but the aura of hell that radiated from her told Sasuke otherwise. She was likely plotting Kakashi's downfall for waking them at such a young hour.
After three more hours of waiting, their teacher finally made an appearance.
"Sorry I'm late, I was discussing something with Mr. Uchiha" Kakashi stated, once the swirl of leaves had disappeared.
"Liar!" Ino yelled, giving the man her best glare.
Sasuke gave him a suspicious look from the corner of his own glare; for all his fathers own dislike of the mornings, he and Kakashi had been talking a lot lately. It was entirely possible he was telling a half-truth at least.
Naruto continued to drool on his shoulder, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like a certain book she had as yet failed to acquire.
"Oi, Naruto, wake up" Sasuke poked her shoulder a few times.
When this failed he whispered something in her ear neither Ino nor Kakashi could hear, and received an instantaneous effect.
"Nooooo! I can't wait that long! I want it now!" she wailed, before looking around and noticing the presence of their team leader.
"Oops, sorry, your own fault for taking so long though scarecrow!" she grinned.
"What did you tell her?" Ino asked Sasuke in a hushed voice.
"I told her that the rating on Icha Icha was going up from eighteen to twenty-one" he replied in an equally quiet voice.
Ino gave him a horrified look.
"Don't say stuff like that Sasuke; you'll jinx it!" she hissed in a panicked tone.
Sasuke said nothing but couldn't help but sympathize; it would be something to complain about, he decided after some thought.
After a few more telling-offs from his Trolls, Kakashi finally got to the original reason for the team meetings.
"I've signed you up for the Chunin exams" he stated, smiling through his mask.
There was a very long silence before Naruto exploded with rage.
"You have us wake up at five AM and that's all you have to tell us?! Ino, you know what this means don't you?"
"Oh, don't worry. I have a very good idea Naruto… Sasuke, you have enough chakra for a fireball?"
"Just get on with it!"
Kakashi gulped as his students threw their best combination technique in his direction.
"...if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd have you admitted to the permanent residency ward in the hospital for Bloodline Insanity" Itachi stated.
His father sighed but made no other indication of complaint; he seemed to realize firsthand just how farfetched his explanation had been. Itachi was beginning to wonder of maybe he wasn't suffering form Bloodline Insanity. This was all so absurd that it would be a much more realistic explanation than the one his father had just given him.
"One thing I don't understand is how Naruto has the Sharingan in the first place" Itachi stated, after a long silence. His father's frown furrowed further.
"I've been trying to figure that out myself…" he grumbled.
"I have several theories, but they are even more far-fetched than the explanation I've just given you"
Itachi wondered if that was possible but kept his opinions to himself.
"Have you thought of an explanation for when Naruto finally realizes she has our Bloodline?" he asked instead.
It was an obvious problem that was bound to occur at some point in some form or another after all. In fact, several of the unwanted scenarios his father had unwittingly tangled them in were bound to occur; it was just a matter of which ones were to transpire and when.
His father's uncomfortable silence told him the answer to that question.
"I can't believe that stupid old Jonin!" Ino raged as her team-mates devoured bowl after bowl of ramen.
"Let it go already; at least he gave us an excuse that was somewhat believable for once" Sasuke said soothingly in-between mouthfuls of noodles; he was determined not to be outdone by the blonde girl sitting between him and the paler-haired girl. That was something easier said than done however.
Ino huffed angrily as she viciously poked at her own noodles with her chopsticks, splashing the broth over the edges of the bowl.
"Still, the Chunin exams sound like fun! Chunins have the same age restrictions as regular eighteen-year-olds, so if we pass…" Naruto trailed off, an eager grin forming across her scarred face. Ino seemed to pick up her trail of thought, and squealed loudly.
"If we pass we can buy Icha Icha Paradise without worrying about the age-restrictions! I take it back! That scarecrow is the best teacher ever!" she bounced up and down on her stool gleefully.
Whilst secretly relishing the idea, Sasuke was unsure that she should be bouncing around so much. His worries were proven to be well founded when Ino's actions sent the wobbly countertop crashing towards the floor.
The countertop was easily dodged by the three customers, but the ramen bowls were not. One was sent crashing onto Naruto's face, still filled with the steaming soup. There was a howl of pain from the girl and she pulled the bowl from her face yelling for a washcloth.
One was quickly handed by Ayame; who was scolding her father for not fixing the countertop earlier. Naruto all but snatched the cold wet rag from Sasuke's hands and scrubbed her face with such ferocity Sasuke worried she could pull her skin off with the action.
The soupy mixture was soon removed, but Naruto was still furiously scrubbing her eyes with the cloth.
"Did it get in your eyes?" Ino asked in a suitably concerned voice (it had been predominantly her fault after all).
Naruto seemed not to hear her, and instead continued rubbing the cloth over her eyelids intensely. Seeing the raw scrubbed skin from her efforts, Sasuke snatched the cloth from her hands. Had he not grabbed her hands, he was sure she would have attacked with her finger nails instead.
"Naruto, what the hell are you trying to do claw your eyes out?" he asked, slightly irritated by her rashness.
"I can't help it!" she groaned, trying to wrench her wrists from his grasp - unsuccessfully.
"It feels like they're burning from the inside out!" she hissed, face further contorting.
Those words struck a sickly familiar chord within him, reminding him of his own musings years before:
If Sasuke didn't know better, he'd say she was prematurely developing the Sharingan.
He remembered Itachi being on the verge of gouging his eyes out when he went through the process.
He didn't believe it for an instant but… so many things would click into place if it were true. But if it was true then…
Deciding to go out on a limb, he spoke four words that would alter his morals permanently.
"Naruto… O-Open your eyes…"
Naruto's face remained scrunched from the pain for a few moments before her eyelids were raised with considerable effort. He briefly heard Ino breathing something along the lines of 'holy shit!'as he stared at a pair of hauntingly familiar black and red swirls. Sasuke wondered if his current emotions were a good example of the phrase 'the rug being ripped from under your feet'.
"It stopped… the burning's gone!" Naruto stated in shock.
She became aware of her best friend and boyfriend-like-person staring at her in equal amounts of shock. Ino was gawping like a fish for some reason, and Sasuke… She didn't really know which emotional category she was supposed to place that expression in.
He didn't look angry at her, but…
"Why are you staring at me like I have broccoli sprouting out of my ears?" she asked in confusion.
Sasuke said nothing as he untied his Hitae-ate protector from around his head, and handed it to her with a shaking hand. She gave him another look of perplexity.
"T-Take a look…" he instructed, shock still evident on his face.
Naruto raised an eyebrow, but raised the shiny metal rectangle to her eye-level. She stared at the spinning black commas and red irises for several moments before adding her own comment.
"Well that's a new one…" she stated.
The Hitae-ate in her hand fell to the ground as her new eyes rolled back in her head and she fell to the ground with a resounding thud.
So Danzou has Edward Elric's arm, hiding a gazillion and twenty one Sharingan's, and Gaara is giving out advice, Mandarin is just going along for the ride in his Mandarin-Way, and Naruto... Well he's basically lost it. My question is this; What kind of drugs are you smoking Kishi?! and where can I get some?!
For the record, Hoshi is not the Priest's name, it's a name for Buddhist priest in Japan...
I think. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Hope you enjoyed.
Nat.
xxx