Chapter 5: REMOVE! THE! CHAIN!

The blond boy sat on the deck. His eyes moved around without much enthusiasm. (1) He was bored. He looked up – at the sails. They were still billowing in the soft wind. The white flowing movements were almost interesting. He looked to his right – to the horizon over the deck railing. The edge of the world was far below him – as was the world – hazy autumn through low cloud. Hmmmpf.

He looked down. At the floorboards. Um… Not interesting at all. Just brown. With bits in.

He was trying to avoid looking to his left. (2)

He bit his lower lip. He looked to his left. (3)

Sasuke looked frustrated. Sasuke's dark, intense eyes, looked frustrated. They narrowed in annoyance.

Now, this… this is interesting.

The blond's blue eyes slowly trailed the length of the other boy's lean body. They took in the relaxed sitting position – which was somehow still alert.

Why is he more interesting than clouds and floorboards? Naruto shrugged, supposing that he just was. Naruto was hungry.

Bloody cook…

Naruto looked around again.

Sasuke's wearing those boots again. Mmm. Nice.

He looked the other way – just as Sasuke's head moved, sharply upwards to stare at a masked face.

'You're late!' the blond haired boy shouted the minute he saw the captain.

'The cook wouldn't give us food and the dobe was this,' Sasuke held his thumb and index finger slightly apart in front of his eye – his eyebrow twitched, 'this, close to eating me. And I'm chained to him! Because of you!' The young Uchiha shook his fist at the silver-haired man, 'Remove this at once!'

The chain clinked at the rapid movement.

Kakashi chuckled. 'Sorry. I got lost in the sauna. Very misty.' (4) He winked at Naruto. Or blinked. It was difficult to tell.

Naruto frowned at the man – eyes narrowed in thought. He'd just imagined Sasuke in a white towel. (5) A very small, white towel. Dripping with sweat - 'I'm hungry.'

'Remove. The chain.'

'I'm hungry.'

'But…' Kakashi said lazily.

The Uchiha's eyebrow twitched again.

'… you'll need it for your new training.' The captain finished

Sasuke lifted his chin. 'Why are we required to train?'

'And I'm having these strange thoughts,' Naruto commented. Both (6) Sasuke and Kakashi glanced at him. So that finally got their attention. I wonder why? 'And, . . .' their looks became more expectant, 'I'm hungry.'

Sasuke sighed.

'Never mind that,' Kakashi said with a hint of disappointment, 'can both of you see the very top of the mast?'

Surprised, they tilted their heads back. They squinted. Naruto said, 'Barely.' Sasuke nodded.

'All right. Can either of you see what's tied to the top?'

Naruto squinted. 'Ummm….'

'A bell,' said Sasuke eventually.

The blond's jaw dropped. 'How far can you see?'

Sasuke smirked, 'Isn't it obvious? Further than you, baka.'

Naruto scowled.

'Get the bell.'

Sasuke snorted, looking down, 'Why?'

'If you don't, your right of passage is revoked.'

The black-haired boy's head shot up in alarm, 'What?'

Naruto realised this was the first time he had ever seen the boy perturbed.

'We struck a deal.' The boy's back straightened. 'Are you going back on your word, pirate?'

'I agreed to take cabin boys, not disturbances who destroy my ship on a regular basis.' His one eye glanced at the boys, then returned to the book in his hand.

Naruto felt a strong and unexpected wave of guilt. He looked at Sasuke – who had fixed him with a calculating glare. (8)

The blond boy felt especially guilty because he was going to get that bell, not Sasuke.

Naruto grinned, challenge shining in his wide blue eyes. 'See you at the top, ja ne!' he said.

It was when he jumped that he realised his mistake. But by then he was already in the air – flying upwards – but only for a very short time. The chain was taut for a second, then he shot back down and landed right on top of the boy he had forgotten he was chained to.

Sasuke's eyes were wide for a second. He pushed the boy off quickly, a hint of a blush on his cheeks. 'Bakabakabakabakabaka!' He sat up. 'Dobe!' He stood.

The boy scratched the back of his head, smiling sheepishly. 'Gomen, I forgot.'

'Idiot! You forgot?!' He jingled the chain in front of Naruto's face. 'You forgot?!'

'Hehe,' Naruto chuckled nervously.

'How?!'

Kakashi looked over his book again. 'You have ten hours from now. I suggest you get moving, boys. Oh, and you might find it's better not to work against each other.' The man disappeared.

Sasuke was still looking at Naruto. 'No, seriously. How?' His face was full of indignation.

Naruto looked up and sighed.

The other boy shook his head, saying, 'Let's get this over and done with.' He shook his arm for good measure, 'And remember this thing.'

'Okay… okay, dattebayo.'

There was a moment of silence as Sasuke followed Naruto's gaze. It was a long way up the central mast to the crow's nest – a way obscured by many sails, ropes, beams and…. pirates?

The two looked at each other.

Shit.

xXxXxXx

The two boys jumped onto the closest beam. Naruto tugged the chain toward himself. 'Come on, Sasuke! We gotta go to the right – up the secondary mast!'

'No, we are going up here.' Sasuke moved his head up to indicate his chosen direction. His tone said all was decided. He jumped, forcing Naruto to jump with him. The blond was wary of the chain now.

'Why do we have to go your way? I don't wanna.' They landed on a higher beam, one with a sail hanging off it.

'It's logical, baka. There are less people to fight this way.'

Naruto crossed his arms and peered at Sasuke, 'I don't believe you!'

'Shut up.'

'No.'

'Do you want me to shut you up myself?'

'Just try, teme. You will not catch the great Uzumaki Narut-!' Naruto was silenced by Sasuke's fist – he flew back off the beam. Sasuke smirked. Then his eyes widened. The chain flew after Naruto. He tried to counter-balance the boy's fall, but was pulled down with the blond.

The two hit the sail beneath them and rolled down it, the world becoming a spinning haze in which they continuously hit each other as they fell.

Between one second and the next, the small sail disappeared from beneath them. There was a moment when they felt suspended in the air.

Then gravity kicked into action.

Sasuke watched Naruto fall at the same speed he was. A wooden beam crossed his vision, and then – YANK!

They both felt the chain pull painfully on their wrists – Sasuke suppressed a gasp - and then they fell into each other, dangling from their wrists and from the chain which had hooked over the end of the beam.

His world spun and he felt ill. He hated being dizzy. There was a yellow-ish haze in front of him. He hit it, hoping it was Naruto.

He felt a pain on the side of his head and realised the baka had probably done the same.

He heard a 'Teme!' Which confirmed that it had been the baka.

Sasuke hit in the direction of the sound – he missed, but he just tried again and again and again.

'You call me a dobe!'

'Dobe!'

'Teme!'

'Baka!'

Sasuke's vision started to clear and he heard a chuckle above them. They looked up.

'You guys want to go for another tumble?' Kiba's grin was evil. Too evil. He started to edge the chain off the end of the beam with his toes. Ever so slowly.

Naruto glared. 'Kiba, you bas – taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrdddddddddddd!'

xXxXxXx

They went flying into a lower sail and Sasuke knew the deck was approaching fast. He grabbed onto Naruto with one arm as they rolled and tried to dig his fingers into the sail – into anything to stop their fall.

He only got enough grip to latch onto the edge of a torn piece of white cloth – but he could not hold Naruto's weight with one arm. The blond was too heavy. Probably all the food he ate, Sasuke added as an afterthought.

The black-haired boy felt the chain wrapped around his waist and back – and around Naruto's body – holding them tightly together.

Shit.

The fall's going to be a bastard. He looked down.

I refuse to use magic here. I'm not that useless. The blond was very close. Very comfortably close. Sasuke breathed in.

He heard the ominous sound of tearing sail above them. One of the crew, Genma – Sasuke remembered him as one who found the teasing particularly amusing – held a sword to the cloth. He cut through it.

They fell. Sasuke concluded that life was cruel.

xXxXxXx

Sasuke did not like Hatake Kakashi when he first met him. Now looking up at him while lying on his side on the deck, he absolutely hated the man.

The black-haired boy's shoulder was agony. Naruto was clenching his teeth from the pain. They rolled away from each other, unwinding the chain with much difficulty, and sat up.

The captain sighed and snapped his book closed. He sat up off the railing and faced the two boys. He chuckled at the sight of them nursing their injured arms. He crouched down. 'You're chained together, you have to work together – the route to Kinsgora is dangerous – every member of my crew has to be able to fight and has to be able to fight with the rest of us. You two brats included. All right?'

Silence.

'Live with it. Get the bells, just cause you've fallen doesn't mean you can stop.' He stood.

Naruto tried to kick Kakashi's legs out from under him – to no apparent effect. The silver-haired captain merely stepped to the side.

Sasuke paid this no attention. His black eyes searched the ship. He wasn't used to dealing with tricky situations entirely without magic. He was also not used to having to think fast when something very distracting, very constantly close and very blond was around.

He shook his head. The idiocy would end now, he decided.

The narrowed eyes locked on a pirate high up the mast. Locked onto a shining object sticking out of his belt.

Trust Kakashi to have something so rare carried by a common member of the crew. His eyes narrowed further. He needed that object. He would get it.

He wouldn't let some blond idiot stop him.

xXxXxXx

Authors' notes:

Although both remarkably knowledgeable and in tune with the amazing language we know as English, there are occasionally one or maybe twelve mistakes – ahem – in things we type:

(1) Little Pirate 'It's without much enthusiasm, not with much enthusiasm'

Big Pirate 'Hey, you couldn't spell 'the' a second ago.'

Little Pirate scowl 'We need spell check.'

Big Pirate 'We have spell check. We need a typy dictophone . . .'

(2) Little Pirate 'Yes, especially now that we have avoifd, instead of avoid.'

Big Pirate 'Hehe – my typing's as illegible as my handwriting . . .'

(3) Little Pirate 'Just get it right – and it's looked, not looooooked. Or lock. Or lokk. You fool.'

Big Pirate. 'Shh. What does that say about you if I'm the one in charge of grammar?'

Little Pirate 'Hmmof, um . . . hmmpf.' (note –bp actually, actually, spelt hmmpf, as hmmof, the first time round. Tut tut.)

(4) Little Pirate: 'sigh, and it's very, not vary. Are you dyslexic?'

Big Pirate: 'on' um, no wait, 'no.' (admittedly our worst joke, but it had to be in there – too much chocolate too much sugaaaaar urgh…)

(5) Little Pirate: 'twel's a new one. Sasuke's wearing a twel? How does he do that?'

Big Pirate: 'shut up. He just does. Sexily. Just like he does everything else . . .'

Little Pirate: 'damn straight. Or not.' (snort snort - another bad joke – too much suuggaaarr arg)

(6) Little Pirate: (sigh) – 'it's both, nit bith.' (7)

(7) Little Pirate: sigh (shakes head) 'and it's not, not nit'

Big Pirate: 'yes yes, I'm typing you lazy bastard. Where's the tea?'

(8) Little Pirate and Big Pirate start practicing 'Sasuke-calculating-glares'

oooer – the tension in the air – the tea begins to boil again

Little Pirate and Big Pirate: 'We'd like to thank wlkos – who suggested we should add our authors' notes and record the madness! We love your loooonnnnng reviews too!'

(glomps wlkos)

anyway, plz review

Chapter 6:

tem-ah-wok-ah begins! –thumbs up-

Haku? Who is this strange boy with a purpose?

Will they get the bells? Or will they fail?