DISCLAIMER:
Not mine, 'cause seriously who would pay for such amateurish crap?
Credit to: MayIFall – my forgetful beta :) (spot errors? Let me know loves , though blame it all on her :P)You only want three wishes:
One to fly the heavens
One to swim like fishes
You want never bitter
And all delicious
And a clean conscience
And all it's blisses
You want one true lover with a thousand kisses
You want soft and gentle and never vicious
And then one you're saving for a rainy day
If your lover ever takes her love away
"Three Wishes" by The Pierces
Disenchanted
By
JD01 (Emerald Lies)
CHAPTER THREE:
Of Burning
One. Month. Previous. (Still)
Dry.
Everything was so dry. His skin was so dry; it felt like a thousand little needles were prickling his epidermis, flaking off his dehydrated skin cells little by little until only bones remained. Dry sand claimed his mouth as home. He tried coughing up the sand, but no saliva was left in his acrid mouth to do the deed. He closed his eyes, but the sun was scorching his lids, like a magnesium flash piercing through his lids, burning his retina to a crisp. His brain throbbed against his skull in a steady rhythm, the screeching of the grainy air filling his empty head. Dry. So dry, that no amount of water could quench his thirst. No amount of water could fill his starving heart. And oh, it was burning! Everything was burning, as though he was floundering in a pool of scalding lava.
Suddenly, hushed and frantic whispers were heard. They seemed so far way, yet paradoxically very near; so near that he could almost…almost…grasp them. He wasn't here, but he wasn't quite there either. Though, he didn't know what or where there was exactly. His consciousness was lingering somewhere amid the land of saccharine dreams and harsh reality, dozing in and out of consciousness and conjuring up some puzzled sense of reality.
"I stopped him," whispered a voice, somewhat reassuringly.
"Yeah? He has to learn to have a fucking ounce of control," boomed a familiar voice…a very familiar voice.
"I'm sure he wouldn't have-"
"What? Brain-damaged him? Gave him a concussion? Murdered him? He beat him to a bloody pulp for fuck's sake!" ground out a voice; the fury oozing from every timber.
"And Naruto is very well capable of defending himself. Especially since Uchiha was only punching. No jutsus involved," remarked the male voice in deathly seriousness. Naruto. Naruto… It sounded…It was almost at the tip of his tongue. Narut…Naru-to…
"What are you implying?" hissed the feminine voice, in an intimidating calmness.
"I am saying that perhaps Naruto let him-"
"Why on Earth would he do that?" Incredulity and…something else…something like… fear. Yes, she was afraid. He could hear it; the shadow rooted in her voice, the product of fear. For such a powerful woman, she was so very afraid. Afraid of…what?
"Why else? Guilt. The only thing capable of eating you from the inside. Did you not see how he was obsessing over Sakura?" the wise man replied casually, a hint of profound insight hidden in his strong voice.
"Not see? Not see? Damn it, Kakashi! For the past few days it has been all I have been thinking about!" the woman admitted, her voice cracking ever so slightly. There it was again, the fear; the pain as though…she was inches away from losing someone close to her heart. Yes, the shadow in her voice that rendered her into a broken little girl. "For a captain to-"
There was a sudden hot flash that blinded him-like a magnesium flash piercing through his lids, burning his retina to a crisp. Why…why was it so hot?
"I know. Uchiha has been warned, Hokage-sama. His behavior will not be taken lightly. It was uncalled for, but the boy withheld important, consequential information. One of his squad is in critical condition. I understand Sasuke's rage," the calm man replied in an assuaging manner. Slowly, the twirls of torridity churning in his stomach mollified, the waves of pain smoothing down. Uchiha…Sasuke…he knew that name. Naru…Naruto… he knew him. Yes, yes, he was certain. Nar…
The whispers abruptly died down. He could feel it, the presence of another lading the air with tension.
"Hokage-sama, Kakashi-san, I don't mean to interrupt, but can you guys take this elsewhere? I wish to be alone to…" the voice trailed off.
He could decipher feet shuffling, clothes ruffling and somewhere about the time the burning ceased, it all started to make sense.
"Oh, and Sai?" called out a gruff voice.
"Mhmm?" came the casual reply.
"If there is any change, let me know A.S.A.P." It was the woman, the one who feared.
"Of course, Hokage-sama," the male voice replied dutifully.
As the door shut, he could almost sense the change in atmosphere. The man or was it a woman sighed…The air decompressed and then…
"Hey, sleeping beauty, I know you're awake so you might as well open you eyes."
Naruto groggily cracked one eye open, almost as though the simple action of waking up required all the effort in the world. In the midst of disorientation, Naruto rubbed the sleep from his bloodshot eyes as Sai snickered amusedly at his predicament.
"You're in deep shit, dickless," declared his ever so tactless friend.
Naruto tried to glare, but the task was a miserable failure, what with the overbearing fatigue threatening to drown him into a blissful catatonic sleep.
"I'm dying, can't you even try to be nice," his voice rasped out painfully, biting his lip as a mild scorching birthed in his guts, slowly ebbing his willpower, slowly grinding his sanity.
"You're not dying. You wish you were dying because you don't have the balls to face Sensei's wrath… or anything else for that matter," sniggered his friend, leaning against the wall for support in a poised fashion, one leg gracefully toppling over the other.
"The penis jokes are becoming real old," Naruto muttered softly, his eyes drooping shut at the promise of oblivion.
Sai simply stared at his teammate for a good moment, an indecipherable look plastered on his face. His dark eyes swallowed the sight of his limp friend sprawled on sheets of immaculate whites, calculating, evaluating and slowly plotting out his next move. He took a deep breath, bracing himself for what was to come.
"She's awake."
There. Done. He said with as much nonchalance as he could pull off, and watched with dreading sense of foreboding as big blue eyes widened. The sleep evanesced from sight in a heartbeat as Naruto clumsily sprang off of bed at once. With trembling steps, he walked towards the door, the sickly determination blazing in his eyes.
"Whoa, calm down there," Sai said, forcibly pushing his stubborn friend towards the rigid mattress. "Let her rest, the last thing she needs is waking up to you fawning over her like some overbearing mother hen," he added with a touch of sarcasm, as Naruto weakly collapsed onto the bed. Bright cerulean eyes promised death and Sai carelessly shrugged it off.
"Look, she's healing ok? This whole shit is undeniably your fault. No point in lying about it. You made a mistake, a stupid one, but you're human, so shut up about it. You make me want to puke," he added, smiling for some inexplicable reason at the end as he threw the covers on Naruto's seemingly vegetative body.
Bright cerulean eyes softened momentarily, a stupid smile playing on purpled lips.
"A-are you trying to…console me?"
Sai looked away, stuffing his hands in his pockets, looking generally bored of this entire situation as Naruto was left puzzled. He didn't know it he should be outraged by Sai's characteristic uncensored bluntness or flattered by the ninja's awkward attempt at friendly reassurance.
"I want to see her," Naruto said adamantly after a moment laden with silence fluttered away. He clutched the snowy sheets in tight fists, a blind and earnest determination burning through him.
The black-haired ninja sighed, admittedly confused about his teammate's quirky antics.
"And what? Apologize profusely for your stupidity? So you can breathe better? What happened, happened. What's the point in dwelling?" he asked, clearly not seeing the point in re-hatching what he considered old news.
"The point? What's the point?" Naruto repeated, incredulity washing over him like a tsunami. "The point is Sakura-chan almost died," he said, stressing on the last word as if it held the key to the universe. How could Sai not see the gravity of the situation? How the world stopped revolving? How they were inches away from a bottomless cliff? How the flirted so dangerously with death?
"Will words really change that?" Sai asked, boring his eyes, dark meeting bright sapphires. The concept of apology was foreign to him. "She needs to recuperate and so do you. Leave her be."
Yet the sapphire eyes continued their silent tirade, their quiet revolution, which exasperated Sai to no end.
"Have you forgotten? We're ANBU. We're trained to die."
Just like that, the words died at the tip of his tongue. There was so much he wanted to say, needed to say to stop his heart from imploding. There were so many emotions churning in the pit of his stomach and the burning tinge didn't help his situation one bit. He couldn't even identify the cluster of desultory thoughts claiming his mind as home. One thing was undeniably and irrefutably true. Kakashi-sensei was right. Guilt really did eat you from the inside. He could feel the venom disintegrate his insides slowly, painfully.
Silence was quite uncanny for Naruto, Sai mused. He didn't like it and for some foolish reason he suddenly urged to fill it with something, anything. Be it mundane, frivolous things…maybe another jibe at his penis. He couldn't stand seeing Naruto, normally such a boisterous and lively young man, deplete to such a disheartened state. Sai quickly realized though that in situations such as these, he was completely bewildered. So the seconds passes as Sai struggled to awkwardly liven up the mood. It was something that he never had struggled with before because he was never really sensitive to what kind of mood was thickening the atmosphere. Usually, he was immune to insignificant things like tension, so where such thoughts plaguing him now? Amidst his internal debate, Naruto's hoarse voice broke the silence, resonating in the room.
"Sai, listen, I-I want- I just need to rest, ok?" he said, mustering up a weak smile.
"Right," Sai murmured, slightly relieved to flee from this mental dilemma.
"Sai," Naruto said, almost longingly.
"Mhmm?" Sai inquired, at the threshold of the door.
"I'd appreciate it if, well, if the old hag asks just-"
"Yeah, I won't tell her you're up."
As odd as it was, somehow it was reassuring that Sai- of all people, the one without an iota of common social skills, understood him, to a certain degree at least.
"Thanks," he whispered, staring at the ashen ceiling. No, he wasn't tired and in different circumstances he might have felt a bit guilty for getting rid of his friend, but today was peculiar. There was a different type of guilt humming inside his chest, clawing for attention.
XXX
It took quite a bit of maneuvering, but he wasn't dubbed Konoha's number one unpredictable ninja for no reason. It had taken a lot of effort, a lot of spur-in-the-moment decisions and a little bit of luck, but he finally made it.
When the genin assigned as his guard came to check up on him, he tapped into his Uzumaki acting skills and proceeded to fake a coughing spell. The show might have been halfway convincing, if he didn't crack an eye open to evaluate the genin's reaction every five coughs. Either the boy was an idiot or just scared shitless of the Hokage, who might inflict bodily harm if her orders were not followed, but the poor sap ran to find a nurse or a medic-nin. This, of course, gave Naruto the perfect opportunity to slip out of his room. Except he didn't quite realize exactly how many guards were patrolling the neighboring corridors.
'Stupid paranoid baa-chan,' he muttered bitterly, as he squeaked when a certain poor sap of a genin found him and started chasing after him. Naruto had just gained consciousness a few hours ago for the love of holy ramen. Why the hell was this genin trying to tackle him? And so, Naruto hauled ass, after all, he was a supernaturally fast healer. He spent the next hour befriending soggy mops in the very narrow janitor's closet as he evaluated when it might be safe to get out and tried not to think about how the walls seemed to be closing in on him and stealing his very meager supply of air. He wondered how long it would be before they discovered his asphyxiated pale pathetic ass in this death trap. Eventually, he got out only to walk into a frail old lady. Said frail old lady proceeded to shrill out obscenities about the 'careless youth' and 'disrespect for elders'.
'Frail, my ass,' Naruto thought caustically, as a certain genin seemed overly relieved to see him.
So, Naruto hauled ass. Again.
The little dance continued for about an hour, when finally Naruto decided to turn his heels and grin charmingly. The little genin broke into a sweat at the uncharacteristic niceness from the previously very hostile Naruto.
"My, my, you're such a fast little genin. You're so… fast. I am…impressed with you're… speed?" Naruto flirted hesitantly, his bright smile never once faltering
Now, finally as he stood here, contemplating the wooden door that somehow seemed much more imposing now more than ever, his mouth tasted like ass, probably from all the ass kissing that ensued. Just as the number one, unpredictable ninja was contemplating running away, an authoritative voice piped through the door.
"Are you going to stand outside all day like some creepy stalker or are you going to come inside?"
Naruto gulped and mustered up every last once of courage, preparing for his precocious death as he entered the forsaken room, blanching.
"H-how?" he asked weakly, staring at the white uniform tiled pattern on the floor.
"I have special powers," she smiled weakly.
Naruto looked up, shock marring his features as he mentally tried to conjure up a list of what bloodline limit Sakura could possibly have…
"It was a joke, stupid. I could see your feet shuffling nervously and your shadow from the bottom slit in the door," she told him, rolling her eyes.
"Oh, ha, I knew that," Naruto mumbled, the words somehow lacking much sincerity as he stared at his best friend.
She looked fragile, as though she was made of glass and at any moment she could shatter in a thousand little pieces. There were purple bags of fatigue underneath her eyes, aging her to at least half a century. Her skin was so livid, that her prominent veins gave her a bluish sickly hue. And it was his fault. It was all his fault. He didn't want to bring it up and break the serene enchantment that had settled amongst the buzzing of the machines. Naruto would have never deemed himself as a coward, but at this very moment he wanted nothing better than to crawl into a hole in a ground and never come out.
"What's wrong, Naruto?" the pink-haired kunoichi asked, probing gently.
Green eyes were filled with concern and Naruto couldn't hold it any longer.
"I-I'm sorry," Naruto spluttered pathetically, not able to hold her gaze. "I-"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Sakura cut him curtly, her tone was harsh and unforgiving, yet her eyes seemed almost like they were pleas ding, begging him not to tread into enemy territory. Words dying on his lips, Naruto willed himself to clamp his mouth shut.
"H-how are you feeling?" he asked, after a moment of insecure silence.
Sakura smiled weakly, playing with her lean porcelain fingers.
"Oh, you know, like I've just woken from a coma," she flashed a curious smile and the bile rose at the back of Naruto's throat. He didn't know whether he should be laughing or really bawling like a pathetic, little, school girl.
"How about you? Oh," the pink-haired medic-nin frowned slightly, her eyes devouring the sight of a bruised Naruto. "What happened?" she demanded with the coldness of an unforgiving mother reprimanding her troublesome son.
"It'll heal," Naruto answered, lazily swatting the air uncaringly.
"That is not what I asked," she said frigidly, the embers of anger sparking.
Frankly, Naruto didn't really care much to supply her an answer. If there were unspoken forbidden territories for Sakura, then the same rules applied to him.
"I have no manners. I should have brought you some cherry blossoms! I can't believe I showed up empty-handed!" the young ninja exclaimed, brows furrowed in deep thought.
"I don't get why everything is a secret with you," she whispered softly, so softly, too softly. It wasn't meant to be heard. Perhaps, Naruto didn't even hear her soft plea, because he began boisterously talking about finally being back home. Sakura wasn't even listening, only catching snippets of "the food just isn't the same and". While her glazed eyes followed his rapid lip movement, she concluded that Naruto probably hadn't heard her, but why did his eyes betray some sadness?
That is when the door flew open, revealing the taut face of Tsunade-sama and an apologetic Shizune at her heels.
"Brat, why aren't you in bed?" she hissed, looking murderous.
Naruto gulped audibly. Apparently, the old had didn't have a modicum of empathy for her bedridden patients.
"I-I just-" the flaxen-haired ninja began miserably.
"I wanted to see him. It's my fault," Sakura supplied, an easy smile splayed on her amethyst lips.
Sakura inwardly shivered as amber eyes swiveled to study her underling. Their uncanny ability to pierce through the treacherous human heart always did scare her. If Tsunade did in fact see through the girl's clumsy lie, she didn't say anything and went back to glaring at Naruto who was throwing Sakura a suspiciously, grateful smile.
"Follow me," she commanded, seething. No pet names. No juvenile insults. Just a simple command from a Hokage to her subordinate. She whisked around, assuming the young man would be at her heels.
Naruto spluttered, dread kneading knots in his stomach as Shizune threw him a half-hearted reassuring smile, the type a dental hygienist would offer a patient moments before the endodontist came in to perform a root canal.
They marched wordlessly among the labyrinth of pristine white corridors, Tsunade's five inch heels mercilessly assaulting the glossy floor, it was like a sinister omen. Naruto followed reluctantly, his mind conjuring up at least a half a dozen self preservation plans, one crazier than the next, before quickly dismissing them. Maybe if he jumped through the window, his brains won't splatter on the concrete? It was only the 29th floor. Or perhaps he could take a kunai and make a small slit in his arm to insert a morphine drip into his veins and feign an overdose? What if he went up against Tsunade? Sure, he couldn't match her in brute strength, but if he had enough shadow clones and summoned Gamabunta he could surely defeat the Hokage…right? The young ninja hung his head in defeat. It was certain. If Akatsuki and Sasuke failed to off him, great lady Tsunade will undeniably finish the job in all her wicked sadism.
A door was forcefully yanked open- it was a wonder that it was still hinged. The temperature in the room plummeted as Naruto walked in, nervously scratching the back of his head. Sapphire blue locked into dark ebony. Oh shit! I'mgonnadie! I'mgonnadie! I'mgonnadie! I'mgonnadie! I'mgonnadie! I'mgonnadie!gonnadiediediediedie.
Indifference was quickly replaced with unadulterated fury; Uchiha-sensei was a wild, untamable, voracious animal on the verge of jumping his student, and not in the erotic, sexual manner that would have perverts swooning and hemorrhaging. No, it was more akin to a lion jumping an impala and shredding it to crimson pieces of dislodged flesh, stuck in between its honed canines. Naruto was going to die.
Kakashi-sensei sat in the far corner of the room, crouched on the window ledge, and over-eager smile camouflaged by his mask crinkling his features.
"Now Naruto-kun, no need to worry. No on here wants to blame you."
Cue for Uchiha to growl viciously and Naruto to choke down a very girlish yelp.
I am a ninja. I am NOT weak. So not, not weak.
"Do don't worry Naruto-kun, you're not on trial. Have a seat," he gestured towards the empty seat at the long dilapidated squeaking table. "No one will hurt you, ne, Sasuke-kun?" he added good-humoredly, throwing him a knowing glance.
Sasuke simple gave Naruto a soul-withering glare, which caused the blonde ninja to shudder.
Fuck this. I am weak! I accept it. Now, I must run! Run! Run!
As Naruto's cowardly mind urged him to save his pretty posterior while he still can, his legs slowly, but steadily made their way to the assigned chair. He gulped, the dreaded cloud of doom lingering over him.
"I would like to state that any abuse amongst ninjas of any ranking," Tsunade bellowed coldly, murdering the captain of ANBU with her fiery amber eyes, "will not be tolerated."
"Does that mean you will no longer hit me?" Naruto piped up, hope flooding his being.
"Do not speak unless you want to be beheaded, boy," she supplied in pseudo–calmness, gnawing her teeth together in badly suppressed rage.
"Am I clear, captain?" she asked in a tone that promised homicide.
"Why of course, Hokage-sama," Sasuke said, the venom dripping in his voice as he pressed his lips in a thin line.
Naruto watched with mute fascination as the duo continued to glare at each other in some form of quiet struggle for dominance, while Kakashi's eye lit up with delight.
"Well?" the blonde-haired woman asked through gritted teeth, her arms crossed around her massive bust.
"Well, what?" the captain asked dumbly, his ebony eyes blazing. At this point, he began to see a prominent vein on Tsunade's delicate forehead begin to throb.
"She is expecting you to apologize, Sasuke-kun," Kakashi informed encouragingly him, his eye twinkling.
"Apologize to who?" the ebony-haired young man asked with disinterest, insisting on playing coy. The little green vein on the Hokage's forehead was playing castanets with her skull.
"To Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun. You know, for trying to murder him?" the grey-haired ninja replied, motioning to the slightly agitated Naruto.
"Oh, well I was only returning the favor," Sasuke calmly answered, which only seemed to fuel Naruto's ire.
No longer was the young blond ninja afraid. He jumped on the table in one sweep and pointed an accusing finger at his unreasonable teacher.
"I wasn't trying to kill you, you bastard!" he howled angrily.
"Really? That could have fooled me, what with planning an Akatsuki ambush on us," Sasuke spoke in all serenity, yet his dark eyes ignited with rage.
"What are you retarded? I didn't plan the fucking ambush!" yelled Naruto, resisting the urge to bash his sensei's head in the old moldy table over and over again.
"Of course you didn't. You don't have enough brain cells in that puny little head to plan such a thing, but you knew about it. Same thing," the Uchiha answered astringently.
"How is that even remotely the same?" Naruto bellowed, scrunching up his face as he tried and failed miserably to understand the pig-head's logic. " I only knew that there might be a chance of an attack!"
"And yet you failed to notify me. It's the same as treason. Hokage-sama, behead the boy," Sasuke commanded easily with much arrogance and from the corner of his eye, he could distinguish the vein pulsating violently.
"I was under fucking oath! Gaara-"
"The Kazekage has no authority on you," the Uchiha retorted curtly.
"I know, you fucking bastard! Can you stop reminding me every second of my fucking life! You think I don't know what I did? You think I don't know the consequences of my inaction? You think that it isn't haunting me every fucking second of my life?" Naruto ground out in agony, his eyes pleading desperately to be understood. In moments like these, Naruto seemed older, almost like the weight of the world was slowly killing him.
"Great, the boy is suffering. Give him a fucking medal," Sasuke replied caustically, rolling his eyes.
"You are such a dick. I fucking hate you," Naruto seethed through gritted teeth, the hatred oozing from his every pore.
"The feeling is more than mutual," Sasuke hissed, clenching his fists until his knuckles blanched.
"Now kiddies, play nice," Kakashi interjected, trying and most likely failing to assuage the duo's ire for they threw him a murderous glare.
"I don't recall hearing a proper apology," the Hokage cut in bitterly, the vein on her delicate forehead only seeming to increase in size.
Naruto was silently fuming in his corner, with his arms crossed petulantly and pouting in a very childish manner.
"He can take it and shove i-"
"What did I say about you and talking?" the blonde-haired medic-nin hissed impatiently, her vein on the verge of exploding.
This reprimand of course caused Sasuke to smile smugly as Naruto huffed indignantly at being chastised in front of the bastard.
"Uchiha!" Tsunade growled out ferociously, increasingly finding it difficult to come up with good reasons why not to kill her captain.
"What?" Sasuke asked dryly, which earned him a soul-withering glare from the Hokage. Sasuke flinched and exhaled deeply, the unwholesome feeling that he was selling his soul to the devil himself plaguing his mind.
"Dobe I'm s…" Sasuke contorted his face, as he swallowed something vile coming up his larynx. "I'msorry," he murmured in a rushed manner.
"Naruto accepts the apology," Tsunade declared in all seriousness, causing the incredulous blond ninja to splutter disbelievingly. "Now that that's settled you are both deprived of missions. For a month."
"Eh?" Naruto squeaked, eyes bulging out of his orbs.
"I refuse," Sasuke calmly, but firmly replied.
"Well that's too bad because it's Hokage's order," she said, smiling smugly at the seething Uchiha.
"And pray tell me, dearest Hokage-sama, what am I supposed to do for a whole month?" Sasuke inquired, gnawing his teeth and his nails dug into the old, musty table.
"Training. A captain's squad should be tightly bonded. Work on your teamwork," Kakashi clarified, all mirth disappearing from his dark eye.
Naruto glowered at his once sensei with all the wrath he could muster. Stupid Kakashi-sensei preaching about stupid teamwork…
"Now, brat, what exactly did the Kazekage tell you?" the medic-nin probed, effectively switching subjects.
When she was only met with silence, her relaxed blood vessel resumed its previous activity, her patience wearing thin.
"Well?" she yelled in exasperation.
"Oh, I can speak now?" Naruto answered, a hint of mischief in his voice.
Sasuke silently sniggered as Tsunade's face morphed from exasperation to homicide.
"Must not pulverize future Hokage. Must not pulverize future Hokage," she muttered underneath her breath, the litany proving to be of little help. It would be a miracle if by the end of the day she could return home, aneurysm-free.
"Nothing really. He just told me to hold on to the scroll and that Akatsuki were after-"
"Kyuubi," Kakashi finished, giving Tsunade a knowing look. "I figured as much."
"What was in the scroll?" Naruto asked, his curiosity piqued.
"Nothing that concerns any of you eggheads," the Sannin quipped, an eerie smile on her plush pink lips.
Naruto glared, but it seemed the old hag was immune to his clumsy efforts.
"Now, Uchiha, brat leave the premises before I decide to-"
"Yes, yes, somehow inflict horrendous pain on us. Sadistic old hag that feels pleasure by kicking dogs," Naruto muttered bitterly, as he got up and made his way to the door.
"What was that, gaki?" Tsunade inquired, flaring amber eyes promising death.
"N-nothing," Naruto stuttered, promptly slipping out of the room.
"He called you a sadistic old hag that feels pleasure by kicking dogs," Sasuke offered as response, smirking wickedly and speaking louder than necessary so that Naruto could hear him.
"Now, now Sasuke-kun. See? Teammates aren't supposed to tattletale," Kakashi reprimanded playfully.
"Too bad that Uzumaki isn't my teammate, but my subordinate," Sasuke countered haughtily.
"Two months," Kakashi declared with his crinkled, crescent eye gleaming with glee and Sasuke, if it was even possible, blanched further.
XXX
"Oi, Sai," Naruto greeted half-heartedly when he reached his room.
"Why are you up?" he asked disinterestedly, getting up from his poised position against the wall.
"I need a drink. Now. You coming?" Naruto asked, not bothering to answer his friend, nor even look in his direction as he walked past him and towards the exit.
"Mhmm, you're paying," Sai said, happily following a now irate Naruto through the revolving doors.
XXX
"Maaahhh! Saaakkke!" boomed the middle-aged man in greedy appreciation as the bartender placed his order before him. Appraising the drink with the eye of a true connoisseur, a goofy puerile smile washed over his face. "Ohhh, so good," he breathed out to no one in particular, roughly nudging his companion who was secretly roasting him with his homicidal eyes.
"Kakashi," gritted out the young man, seconds away from fingering his kunai and slitting the older man's scrotum in all sadistic gory.
"Mhmm?" Kakashi asked in feigned innocence that made Sasuke futilely try to repress his violent surges.
"I don't know how you ever convinced me to come here," he mumbled to himself, rolling his eyes and hitting his head against the island.
"Well, with Tsunade threatening your job, of course! Have some sake! Loosen up, Sasuke! You have two months of nothingness awaiting you," the grey-haired man rambunctiously babbled, chugging his drink.
"Swell," the Uchiha quipped acerbically, contemplating how on Earth had he gone from being the prodigious captain of ANBU to some about-to-be drunkard in a dingy bar.
"Oh, barrrtteeendeeeer!" Kakashi piped in a shrilly-singsong voice. "Some scotch for my prissy, uptight friend here," he said, wrapping a lazy arm around Sasuke's shoulder.
"We're not friends," the raven-haired man said in annoyance, his eyes twitching as he peeled off the unwanted appendage from him.
"Oh? Really? But friends buy each other drinks, and you were so generous to pay for the night," Kakashi continued to spiel mirthfully.
"I never agreed to-"
"I get it," Kakashi cut him brusquely, the joy dying in his eye.
Sasuke had to stare at the man for a good minute and a half as though he had grown a second head. He had always found Kakashi's ability to suddenly, and without warning, jump moods a bit unwholesome. So Sasuke waited patiently for Kakashi to continue so he could perhaps understand the reason for this bout of bipolarity.
"I get it. Why you're so hard on him. On them all, but on him especially," he said seriously, dark eye scrutinizing the younger male.
"You don't know what you're talking about," Sasuke muttered when his scotch arrived and quickly took a burning swig.
"Oh, but I do, Sasuke. He made a mistake. He is only human. The kid is entitled to make mistakes," he spoke with a timber of authority in his voice, reminding Sasuke that he was older and far wiser than the captain. Sasuke hated the way he was looking at him, like a father reasoning his stubborn child.
"Not when human lives are involved! Not when he's next in line as our fucking leader! Every little mistake, every puny mishap, every minute overlooked detail is lethal! You should know that, Kakashi. You would all know that if you weren't so dazed by his so-called charm and so absorbed with dubbing him your Golden Boy," Sasuke ran a frustrated hand through his hair, as the rage mounted inside his chest, incensing his heart rapidly.
"What are you insinuating?" Kakashi asked slowly in a cold, harsh tone.
"I am insinuating nothing. I am saying it clearly and bluntly. The moron somehow manage to charm Hokage-sama with his blundering idiocies about dreams and suddenly he's her favorite," Sasuke retorted bitterly, taking another swig of his scotch to drown the numbing in his chest.
"Sasuke, for such a prodigy, you sure are an idiot," Kakashi said simply, his dark eye mollifying.
"What are you insinuating?" Sasuke countered indignantly.
"When did you become so blind? When did your stupid childish envy get in the way of your reasoning? You of all people should know, should have seen his growth. He didn't become the Captain's subordinate due to charm. And I highly doubt you would have agreed to have a blundering idiot on your team," the grey-haired ninja spoke gently, his dark eyes piercing through Sasuke's façade. It was annoying how well Kakashi could see read him so carelessly, so easily. Sasuke's left eye started to twitch as his elder's word sunk into him. He hated it when the loon started making sense.
"He wasn't born a prodigy, Sasuke. The kid worked hard. Sweat, blood and tears. Honing his skills with painstaking agony. Every achievement, the kid merited. He deserves to be next in line. That is not to say that he is not flawed. Mistakes are human, and it is unfair for you to hold such unrealistic standards for him. He made a mistake. He learned from it, but even as a future leader, he is just a man," Kakashi continued solemnly and Sasuke refused to fill the silence. He simply stared at the amber liquid, lost in thought. Something inside his chest constricted painfully. He felt like a child, lost and confused in the big scary world. Where had his control gone? Why were mere words having such a numbing effect on him? It must be the alcohol…
"I know, Sasuke, deep down inside you have high hopes for the boy, which is why you reign over your squad with an iron fist. You want them to succeed. You want them to be prepared and so you go about it as a cold-hearted prick. I get it. But, damn it, Sasuke, punching him senseless isn't going to help him grow as a ninja, as a leader."
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Sasuke considered numbly saying something, denying such accusations, but he was too transfixed with the way the dim light was reflecting in his drink.
"I know you see it too.," Kakashi said slowly, weighing his words. Sasuke flinched under the harsh scrutiny. He wanted him to stop. He didn't want him to keep going, to keep speaking for a part of him was unreasonably afraid that he might be speaking the truth.
"That light in him. You see it too."
XXX
IMPORTANT:
Kudos to the totality of three people who read the first three words at the beginning of last chapter. One Month Previous? Chapter two along with this one are both set a month before, meaning Naruto isn't pregnant yet. It also means that Sasuke can abuse him as much as he want without endangering the nonexistent baby :)
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, you darlings brighten my days.
Thanks to nudd for the constructive criticism. I'll try my best to improve.
Also, I would like to give a big shout out to Nine1991, a terribly sweet darling who always loves to spoil me with big lengthy full of praises reviews that I do not deserve. You should all go check out her story "The Art of Fabrication"- her writing flows and she never fails to depict an utterly beautiful portrait. She also respects the characterizations so perfectly, you would think it's straight out of the manga; the girl deserves a medal. She is a sweetheart, now go pester her to update. It's been soooooooooo long!
Ah hem… Feedback? Maybe?