Chapter 3: On the pirate ship! A kiss?

Urgghhh . . .

Light appeared fuzzily and began to turn into indistinct blobs of colour. Naruto rubbed his eyes.

Ahh . . . He saw a cotton hammock hanging above him. He was in a very very small room, made smaller by the fact that the walls were lined with crates and barrels and . . . legs? Legs in tight pants?

Naruto looked up. Sasuke glanced down, a scowl on his face.

'You're finally awake, dobe?'

Naruto frowned in sleepy confusion. Where am I?

'You snore. And you drool. Get up, we're late.'

Naruto tried to sit, but lay down again, grabbing his head. 'Ano, ano, my head huuuurts.'

'Your head should be in two separate pieces, baka. But thanks to your thick skull, you're still alive.' He looked down again, 'Now get up.'

Where the hell am I? Naruto made no move to get up. He stared at his surroundings - surroundings which suddenly turned into wooden floor-boards as the hammock swung out from underneath him.

'Teme! What the hell was that for?!!' Naruto bellowed, now quite awake.

Sasuke responded with a 'hn,' a smirk plastered on his fine features. 'You weren't getting up. You were too slow.' He headed through the door.

'I am not slow!'

Naruto ran after him, fists clenched in anger, and saw the boy just disappear around a corner. Naruto increased his pace, 'I am not slow!'

Picking up that he recognized nothing around him, Naruto slowed down. 'Where the hell are we?' he asked.

Up ahead, Sasuke poked his head out from behind another corner, 'A pirate ship.'

Naruto's eyes widened in shock. Sasuke smirked. His head disappeared again.

By the time he caught up, Sasuke was stepping out into blinding sunlight. The boy stopped in his tracks, his blue eyes wide and reflecting colour, movement, busyness.

Nothing on the deck was still. Nothing was quiet.

People were everywhere.

White sails billowed in the wind, as pirates climbed up net-like ropes. On the prow stood four magic-wielding Wind Changers. Faces contorted in concentration, their hands forming seals at a rapid pace, they were obviously dealing with difficult conditions today.

The blond-haired boy stared at their hands, his brow contracted in deep thought. Where have I seen that recently . . . ?

He saw Sasuke walk off to the left and followed.

Naruto wished he had more than two eyes – he wanted to look everywhere at once. Deck-hands steadied the sails. Curses and laughter reached his ears in a jumble. Each pirate wore the same ridiculous insignia with seeming pride. Other than that, their clothes were completely different: from all over the two empires – Uchiren and even Kuhkuy.

He saw cargo being lowered into the hold through colossal trapdoors. An intricate pulley system had been set up to lift and drop the large wooden crates used by most ships.

Naruto frowned and watched a crate being lowered. 'That's from the navy ship.' His gaze swung over to the high stack of crates still on the deck. 'They're all from the Goat's Feather.'

'Yo!' They heard a shout from high above. He looked up to see brown hair whipped around, bright eyes and a lopsided grin revealing strangely sharp teeth.

Kiba jumped over the railing of the crow's nest, swung down from rope to rope and landed with amazing agility.

'Finally decided to join us? God, you sleep late.' He crossed his arms with a grin, 'Cap'n wants to see you.'

'The captain?' Naruto pinched his own arm.

He didn't wake up.

He turned to Sasuke. 'Wait, we're really on a pirate ship?'

Kiba looked at insignia-wearing, sword-bearing, experienced people all around them, running a ship that obviously had cargo from all over the world and frowned at Naruto, 'Where did you honestly think you were?'

Sasuke cut in, 'Where's the captain?' with obvious disdain in his deep voice.

'Which captain!? Who is it?!'

Sasuke rolled his eyes as Kiba launched into a practiced description. 'A captain who has boarded and raided countless navy vessels and empire cargo ships, who has amassed a haul so colossal that he has greater wealth than Emperor Uchiha himself'- Sasuke snorted softly – 'who has almost the greatest pirate fleet in the known world, second only to figures of legend – the Sannin! A pirate so dangerous that enemies have been known abandon their entire ships to him, a pirate who is a legend in his own time – who has stolen even from the Kuhkuy demon-holding kings to the West!'

Kiba paused and looked a bit sheepish, 'And . . . he is possibly the only person alive to . . .'

'To what?' Naruto almost yelled, unable to stand the suspense.

'To own almost the entire set of the Icha Icha Paradise collection. First editions.'

Sasuke snorted again and Naruto scratched his head in confusion, 'Icha Icha . . .?'

'And once you get to know him,' Kiba continued, 'you find out that he's one of the most lazy, perverted, annoying, stingy, unreasonable, unpunctual bastards to be flying the skies.'

'Well that's not true,' three heads shot up – black, brown and blond – at the sound of a bored voice from above. Naruto saw a strange, tall, silver-haired man, reclining casually on one of the many mast-poles, an orange book in hand. 'As of last night,' the man jumped down off the pole and landed without a sound. 'I have the whole collection.'

He looked at each of them with his one visible eye, raised a hand and said, 'Yo.'

The man looked Naruto up and down, 'I haven't met you properly.'

Sasuke cut in impatiently, 'Kakashi, this is Naruto. Dobe, this is Hatake Kakashi.'

Naruto's jaw dropped. 'This is the captain? This captain is Hatake Kakashi? Sugoi!'

Kakashi pointed behind him to buckets and mops, the book open again. 'Time to get to work, cabin boys, you're late as it is.'

Kiba folded his arms, muttering 'You're one to say that,' under his breath.

Naruto looked to Sasuke is disbelief, 'Mopping?'

Kakashi stood there patiently, pointing, leaving only when all three of them had mops in hand. They started on the deck where they stood – a deck which, Naruto now noticed, was very very large.

'This is exactly what I did on the navy ship!' the boy muttered loudly.

'Anyone who doesn't feel like doing this,' the three heads shot up again – how the hell had the man got back up there? – 'can run the sauna for the day.' Kakashi chuckled to himself as his eyes rested on Naruto, 'Especially, you.'

Naruto almost put the mop down. The steam bath certainly sounded better than mopping - not much work, what was there to do in sauna after all?: hand people towels, put water on the hot stones, sweat a lot . . . - but before he could say anything he was hit over the head with a mop by Sasuke, 'No. Dobe.'

Kakashi chuckled again, 'You're no fun, Sasu-kun.' He looked down at the black-haired boy, 'I suppose upbringing has something to do with it.'

Sasuke shot a glance up at the man, his eyes wary and almost threatening.

'Don't slack, now. Bye-bye.' He disappeared.

By the end of the day, Naruto was starving. He could no longer see the pirate ship for the visions of noodles that floated in front of his eyes.

'Where are you going? Dobe!' Sasuke pulled him away from walking into the wall. Naruto fell back against him – the length of his body pressing against Sasuke's for an instant. The black-haired boy tensed, almost stopped, but Naruto pushed off again, oblivious to any effect he was having.

His blue eyes glazed over. 'Nooooodles . . .'

Sasuke closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. 'Shut up,' he said eventually, 'We're going to the galley.'

Suddenly Naruto's vision cleared and walked with such energy that no-one would think he'd been working the whole day. Sasuke shook his head and sighed behind him.

The blonde's nostrils flared as he walked, 'Vegetables stewing . . . beef, hmmm, beef.'

Sasuke closed his eyes again. The blond boy began to get odd looks from the pirates he walked past. Naruto turned around and shouted back, 'Come on Sasuke-teme! We're getting noodles!'

Naruto sat on a bench at the long galley table. His knees bounced up and down under the table in excitement.

'Mmm… beef and noodles… beef and noodles!'

Sasuke gave him a level look from across the table, 'Be quiet.'

Naruto's grin broadened and he almost sang, 'Mmmm… beef and noodles on a pirate ship!'

A bowl was plonked onto the table in front of him.

A bowl without any visible noodles.

Naruto examined it with a questioning look. Slowly he lifted his chopsticks and swirled the contents of the supposed supper bowl.

It was indeed a bowl without noodles.

Naruto slammed his palms down on the wooden table as he stood up. Without a word he stalked the chef and followed him into the kitchen. None of the pirates took notice of the blonde-haired boy's fury as he left, but a certain person's dark eyes followed the trembling figure.

After a second's thought, Sasuke stood and went after him.

There was something suddenly different about the boy.

The scene before Sasuke grew stranger and stranger. Naruto's stance was different: assertive, threatening and confident. Sasuke - trained in the art of fighting since infancy – grew wary instantly. He wouldn't have believed the change if it weren't in front of his eyes.

'Are you the cook?' Naruto's voice was uncharacteristically deep, serious. It had a resonance which struck a cord within Sasuke, making him feel not exactly comfortable standing in the kitchen, standing in public.

The man before Naruto drew himself up to an impressive height, as he pushed his chest out, his wild, plentiful beard rose with it. Dark beady eyes peered at Naruto, from beneath hooded, colossal, overhanging eyebrows. His voice boomed. 'I be Mookie, yes. '

The man was nearly twice as tall as the boy, yet Naruto still flung his soup bowl onto the table between them. Liquid splashed out as it spun to a halt.

Mookie breathed in. As he exhaled he uttered the word 'Oif.'

Sasuke frowned.

'There be a problem?' the big man continued.

'I smelt noodles. I want noodles.'

'Yes?'

'Where are they?'

'The captain be having a different menu to the crew.'

'Where is the captain?'

Mookie moved in front of a doorway, 'Don't disturb the cap'n while he be eatin'. Oif.'

The hairs on the back of Sasuke's neck stood on end, 'Naruto?' he asked questioningly.

The blond-haired boy looked over his shoulder; his eyes were red, hard and emotionless.

Shit.

Sasuke turned to cook, 'I'm sure, dear sir, that a chef of your capabilities would have no difficulty in preparing a small bowl for the boy here.' he bowed his head formally, 'The effort would be much appreciated.'

Mookie puffed his chest out even further, clearly pleased the formal address. 'Well, I suppose I could.' he turned to glare at Naruto, and pointed a sausage-like finger at Sasuke, 'That cabin boy be gentleman.'

'So, you'll make a noodle dish?' the dark-haired boy insisted.

'Yes.'

Only then did the red fade from Naruto's eyes and the uneasiness in the air disappeared.

Naruto, easy-going again after being momentarily confused, cocked his head to the side as he smiled at the dark-haired boy before him, 'Why are you so serious, Sasuke? You're always so serious.'

The blond sniffed the air and spun around, exclaiming, 'Noodles!'

Sasuke's expression remained solemn. This was something to be wary of.

A black flag bearing the insignia of the Captain Hatake Kakashi flared out in the last breath of wind before collapsing in the silent night. A tall, dark figure dropped to the deck next to the mast, before descending the staircase to the crew's quarters. At the very end of a narrow corridor, he opened a door and slipped inside without a sound.

A masked man glanced at the two sleeping boys in the small room. He walked over to a hammock, a calculating eye peering at the tanned face of the blond-haired boy below. Very slowly he lifted the boy's shirt, his one visible eye widening.

A black jagged spiral tattoo spun out from the boy's navel.

Kakashi chuckled as he moved away from the boy, You've finally been found.

His gaze moved up.

Does the Uchiha know?

The man turned away, Either way this will be interesting.

Sasuke woke with a start, his eyes flickering over the door that had just closed silently. He sat up and looked down below to see Naruto asleep.

The dark-haired boy swung out of his hammock, opened the door and looked down the corridor, seeing no-one. As he turned around, Naruto rolled onto his side, curling in on himself slightly. He sighed contently, a small, innocent smile playing on his lips.

Sasuke's shoulders slumped. He walked up to him.

The dobe looked so peaceful. His shirt had been pulled up in his sleep, revealing his stomach, revealing his chest, which moved up and down with each breath. Sasuke leaned forward, his face now a breath away from the other's.

Even his eyelashes were blond - well at least the ends were. Black eyes followed the slow descent of a yellow strand of hair. It rested across the boy's eyes, and without a thought Sasuke brought his hand up to brush it away.

Two pale fingertips lingered on other boy's skin. Softly, gently, he moved them down a tanned cheek - his fingers hovered over soft, slightly parted lips. As Naruto breathed out, his lips rose - skin met skin.

Before he knew it, Sasuke's face was close to the other boy's again. But after a moment, he stopped himself from what he was on the verge on doing. He drew back slowly.

With Naruto's next intake of breath, the boy snorted so loudly he woke himself up.

'Sasuke?' he asked blearily, 'Why're you awake?'

'I went to the toilet, baka,' Sasuke said irritably, swinging up onto his hammock without looking at Naruto.

'What have I done now? Why do you always call me an idiot?'

'Go to sleep.'

After a while, with not even a snore to be heard, Sasuke became worried. He peered over at the other boy below, to find Naruto's face contorted uncomfortably in thought.

Sasuke pulled a face, 'Naruto, its obvious thinking too much is not good for you. Maybe you should stop.'

To his surprise, Naruto grinned.

'What?' Sasuke asked, suspicious again.

'At least you didn't call me dobe.'

Naruto rolled onto his back, 'Sasuke?'

'Hn?'

'Why did you get me onto this ship?'

Above him in the upper hammock, staring at the ceiling, Sasuke pulled another face.

'I saved your life and got you onto a pirate ship. You have a debt. On one hand I expect you to repay it, but on the other I don't want you to pester me with stupid questions while I'm trying to sleep. Good night.'

Though the Sasuke couldn't see it, Naruto grinned beneath him, before closing his eyes.