A/N: Well, finally back again after my break last week for Pokemon hunting (I DID CATCH TWO SHINY TOTODILES I AM SO HAPPY WITH MY LIFE YOU GUYS YOU HAVE NO IDEA), there will be either an interlude or an actual chapter posted over Christmas, I haven't decided yet. Partially to make up for skipping like that, partially cause I won't have any family over for Christmas so I'm just gonna write for want of something to do and you guys just get to benefit from it.
To BG90: Ugh, Zeref. I haven't even caught up enough with Fairy Tail to know much about him, and he's STILL my favorite character. Like, when he first showed up in Tenrojima, I literally paused the show, and googled 'FT characters on Tenrojima' and scrolled through until I found out who that guy was BECAUSE HE WAS SO DAMN CUTE HE HIT ALL MY FANGIRL BUTTONS I LITERALLY SPOILED MYSELF FOR THE SHOW LEARNING EVERYTHING I COULD ABOUT HIM. Zeref will NOT be appearing in this story in any way though, mostly cause I can't trust myself to write him well, partially cause he'd take over Natsu's spot as Main Character cause I'm biased and I know it. As far as other-character POVs go, I blame you for the Naruto POV at the end. I couldn't figure out how to write the first D-rank from Natsu's perspective, and Naruto just jumped up and down with his hand in the air saying "pick me pick me!" so… enjoy! In the future, I know for a fact that at the end of this book Sasuke's gonna get a POV turn too, though he's funnily enough the only character who's had a POV chapter planned nearly from the beginning, and it takes place at the literal end. Hopefully he'll have another before that. Book 2 of this series, tentatively titled The Webs We Weave, is gonna be ALL outsider POV with no Natsu whatsoever. Including a villain perspective, to sort of set up the final book. As far as your other questions regarding Natsu's magic, that's hitting into spoiler territory, so I'm not gonna put it in a public AN – suffice to say I have ideas, and I hope everyone will enjoy them when they come into play!
Thanks again to everyone who reviews, I literally just squee every time I see one come in, you guys are amazing. I know I don't respond a lot, but I usually try to answer questions if they're asked. Anyway, sorry for the long AN, but thanks again for reading!
Kakashi-san comes to a stop once the edge of the treeline can't be seen anymore, spinning around to face them with a cheery eye-smile.
"So!" the sensei claps his hands together, as his visible eye cracks open to look down at them. Natsu's bad feeling intensifies at the innocence on the man's face. "I was going to just have you practice team combat drills, but then I thought, well, that might be too fun and my precious students certainly haven't earned the right to fun yet-" Tilting his head, Kakashi eyes them while slowly reaching behind to pull something out of a pouch. "And so, I thought up something a bit more… hmm, how shall we say… amusing?"
Natsu gets the feeling it's not going to be amusing to them, especially since he can hear the soft clink of metal from whatever Kakashi-san is hiding behind his back as he watches them. Sasuke starts looking properly apprehensive, but Naruto still looks eager and Natsu almost finds himself wanting to protect the kid's innocence from whatever hell they're about to experience.
Kakashi-san's innocent smile turns malicious in an instant, as he bends forward to look them in the eye. "We're going to play tag!"
"Wha- how is tag a teamwork thing?!" Naruto points dramatically, looking insulted, and Kakashi moves-
Quicker than Natsu can track, the sensei blurs around them, coming to a stop to lean against a tree off to the side.
"You have five minutes headstart, you can't leave the forest, every time I tag you you'll be given two minutes to change location before I come for you again, there will be a penalty for how many times I tag you by the end of this. Your time starts now~!"
He finishes brightly, and Sasuke takes off without hesitation. The force of his dash nearly rips Natsu's arm from its socket, the pinkette letting loose a sharp yelp as he stumbles in Sasuke's direction. Two feet of loose chain connect Natsu's right arm to Sasuke's left, and both of them follow the second chain to where it connects Naruto's right to Natsu's left.
The Dragon Slayer can't help but wonder why he has to be the one in the middle, staring in horror at the two boys he's trapped between.
"Four minutes~!" Kakashi offers cheerily, and Sasuke starts, glancing towards their sensei before immediately taking off again.
Natsu curses, grabbing Naruto's hand and trying to keep up with the worst teammate he's ever had to deal with as Sasuke continues to run, uncaring of whether his companions can follow the path he's taking.
The Uchiha glances up, considering a leap, and Natsu snarls. Twisting his hand to wrap his fingers around the chain, the pinkette plants his feet and refuses to budge, just as Sasuke jumps. The force of it nearly unseats Natsu's footing, he lurches forward but manages to tuck his arm back in as Sasuke crashes back to the ground.
Natsu lets go of Naruto's hand, the blond rubbing at his fingers with a weird look on his face which the Dragon Slayer ignores as he takes the few steps necessary to bring him to Sasuke's side.
"Are you stupid?" He stares down, blatantly making eye contact with Sasuke and rather wishing he could cross his arms.
"What part of 'teamwork exercise' involves you running off wherever you want while dragging us behind you, without any rhyme or reason? As though Kakashi isn't good enough to track us with laughable ease, and if you just run fast enough he won't find us?"
The blackette shoves himself to his feet, turning around to unravel the chain before glaring. "You're the ones holding me back."
"Teme! What sorta crap is that?!" Naruto explodes, jumping forward and making a grab for Sasuke's arm. The Uchiha dodges aside, jerking the chain, and Natsu grimaces. "This isn't a race! We're not seeing who's the fastest!"
"We have to avoid Kakashi. I'm avoiding Kakashi." Sasuke crosses his arms, and Natsu finds himself distinctly jealous for a moment.
Shoulda put Sasuke in the middle dammit!
"He's faster than any of us on our own, nevermind chained together like this." Natsu points out, holding out his arms in emphasis. "We'd be better off coming up with ideas on how to avoid him than just wasting our time running whatever direction you find prettiest."
The blackette glares again, turning around and walking. Natsu refuses to move, and he gets a couple of steps before the chain pulls taut again. He turns his head, snarling.
"We can't just sit around." He hisses, and Natsu sighs.
Kakashi ghosts out of the shadows and pats the Uchiha's head, offering a bright, "Two minutes~" as Sasuke jerks around to stare.
It doesn't improve from there.
Kakashi-san takes turns on which person he actually tags, sometimes approaching obviously so they see him coming, Naruto and Sasuke consistently leaping in opposite directions to avoid him, and other times sneaking up to touch one of them unexpectedly. Sometimes he cheerily reminds them how many times they've been tagged as he gives the two minute warning, Sasuke's temper spiking higher with each mocking word.
Natsu is not used to being the voice of reason on a team, he has no idea how to make the bas- Sasuke listen to him, no idea how to get everyone to shut up and cooperate. Sasuke ignores him every time he opens his mouth, and the one (and only) time he asks Naruto to help, the blond starts a fistfight with Sasuke that drags Natsu in as they tangle the chains around himself and each other.
Kakashi tags all three of them that time, brightly informing them it counts as a triple penalty before detangling them and sending them on their way. He calls time on the exercise two rounds later, to Natsu's great relief.
Both his wrists are bleeding by then, his right arm literally dripping with blood, his left only lightly cut when Kakashi whisks them back to the clearing and takes the cuffs off.
Naruto's wrist is completely fine, Sasuke's only red and sore-looking, and the pinkette can't keep a glare off his face as he watches blood drip drip drip off his arm and onto the grass.
Above them, Kakashi sighs.
"That was… a lot worse than I expected. I mean, I expected you all to suck, but congratulations, you've surprised me." His voice is mild, but the censure in it is unmistakable. "Did either of you take even a second to care about what being in the middle was doing to Natsu-kun?"
"Eh?" Naruto turns, confused, right up until his eyes land on Natsu's mangled wrists. "Wha- Natsu-kun! Why didn't you say something?! Are you okay, that's bleeding a lot, do you need the hospital, sensei where are the bandages-"
"Honestly," Kakashi cuts across Naruto's panicked rambling, one hand gently stopping the blond from grabbing Natsu, "ten minutes in, Natsu-kun started bleeding enough that even the worst tracker in the world could have followed your trail. I actually had to cut this shorter than I planned because if I'd kept going, Sasuke-kun's constant violent jerking could well have cut open something dangerous. I don't believe I've ever heard of a genin teamwork exercise having to be cancelled to protect one of the childrens' lives before."
"Tch." Sasuke scoffs, raising his chin. "He should have been using chakra to pad his wrists, that's so basic even Naruto can do it."
Kakashi's deadpan stare somehow manages to convey the complete and utter idiocy of the one he's looking at. Sasuke puffs up in affront, but Kakashi speaks across whatever defence he might have tried to utter.
"Were you not listening, this morning, when it was rather blatantly stated that Natsu-kun is unfamiliar with using Sakura-chan's chakra? Perhaps, if you'd given him a few minutes to concentrate, he could have managed. Did you even bother to look, and make sure your teammates could keep up, make sure they were alright? There would be nothing wrong with Sasuke-kun taking point in such a situation. Uchiha, with or without their Sharingan, tend to have superior eyesight. In a situation like that, where you can't split up or take a proper formation, Sasuke-kun being in front and deciding the course is not a bad idea, as he might see something his companions would not. However, that's not why you did that. You never once looked back, nor did you consider them at all in the paths you chose. Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is just another way of saying you did the wrong thing, Sasuke-kun."
Grabbing the blackette's arm, Kakashi turns the boy around until he's facing Natsu. "This won't be the last time I have you run that sort of exercise. And if this ever happens again, Sasuke-kun," Kakashi pauses for effect, grabbing Natsu's right hand and holding it up, the pinkette grimacing uncomfortably as the blood slides down his forearm, "I will be writing an official censure against you. Are we clear?"
Sasuke's eyes track the blood as it starts to pool in the crease of Natsu's elbow, gaze unreadable, before he finally nods.
"Hmm. Naruto, Sasuke, go wait by the posts for a few minutes while I take care of these."
Sasuke turns and walks away immediately, Naruto hesitating and dragging his feet as Kakashi slowly settles into a crouch and pulls out a med kit.
"Take a seat, Natsu-kun."
Natsu watches the man work, as he quickly cleans the left wrist and bandages it, before turning to the more heavily-injured right. It stings as he cleans away the blood with a wipe, fingers glowing green for a few moments as he runs them over the wounds. Natsu watches, feeling as Kakashi's chakra flows into his arm, coaxing his own to meet it and heal the wound. It's weird, feeling how Sakura-chan's chakra reacts under his skin as it follows Kakashi-san's directions, nothing and everything like Wendy's healing magic as his wrist slowly knits from the inside out. Similar in how it feels as the healing chakra mingles with Sakura's, but moving so differently from what he expects… A faint pink line traces around his wrist by the time Kakashi pulls back his hand, slightly sore to the touch but undeniably healed.
"Hmm." Kakashi quickly ties off another short bandage, standing up and ignoring Natsu's confused "What?" as he walks back to the others.
"Come on now, chop chop!"
Grumbling, Natsu pushes himself to his feet and follows after the man.
"Now!" Kakashi claps his hands as soon as Natsu steps into the dirt. "Just in case you all got the wrong idea, I don't want you to think your failure was entirely Sasuke-kun's fault. After all, there were enough problems in that performance to go around, no need to let him hog them all." Naruto winces as Kakashi turns his bright grin onto the blond.
"Naruto-kun! Tell me, did you think at all before you started a fight with Sasuke-kun? You've already more than proven you weren't paying attention to Natsu-kun at all, considering your surprise at how much you were hurting him. But surely it must have crossed your mind, even for a second, that perhaps starting a fistfight was a bad idea? Hmm? No?"
Kakashi straightens his posture, looming over Naruto and causing the blond to tremble as he stares up at the sensei. "Sasuke-kun was under the impression that the two of you were holding him back, and that he didn't need you, and so he didn't care to keep track of how you were doing. Naruto-kun… Naruto-kun was ignorant. And that's almost worse. Shinobi live and die by information. For someone who wants to be Hokage, the man who must never be ignorant, must be continuously aware of the conditions of his shinobi, Naruto… well. If this is the best you can do, you'll never hold that seat. And Konoha will be better for it."
Kakashi's entire countenance softens then, and he reaches out to pat Naruto's head as the blond's eyes tear up. "Maa. You can learn to be better, Naruto-kun. But you aren't a good Hokage just by wanting to be Hokage. You have to work for it. Right now, I don't see much working. So you'll have to change that, won't you?"
"R-right!" Naruto grins, hurriedly wiping away the last traces of tears.
Kakashi turns to Natsu then, and the pinkette revels in crossing his arms as he meets the sensei's eye. Kakashi snorts in amusement. "Natsu-kun… did not try at all. Natsu-kun didn't inform his teammates of his injury, nor did he attempt to assert control and get the others to listen to him. Considering Natsu-kun's previous behavior, I rather expected you to get quickly annoyed with Sasuke-kun's actions and start a fight yourself until he chose to listen to you. Instead, you seemed to just wait for something to happen. I wonder why?"
Natsu glances away, shifting his arms to rub at the back of his neck. "I didn't really notice how bad it was until you took off the cuffs… And since this was supposed to be a teamwork exercise, starting a fight felt like the opposite of what I should be doing! And then Naruto-kun started a fight and you were annoyed enough that I thought that meant I was right and we shouldn't be fighting with each other, but I didn't know what else to do."
"It wasn't the fight between Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun that was the problem. It was the result. If this had been anything approaching an actual mission, all three of you would have been dead because of that. Admittedly, the circumstances aren't very realistic. But even so, letting the fight not only injure everyone, but also tangle you so thoroughly that you were all sitting ducks for anyone who came by… a hungry wolf was more than a match for the three of you in that condition, and when a shinobi is reduced to being unable to protect himself from wild beasts he is truly at his most pathetic. I would have been disappointed with you if you'd resorted to fighting without even trying anything else, but Natsu-kun didn't even try to reign in either of his teammates after that first attempt. All three of you have a long way to go." Sighing, Kakashi sags his shoulders and stares up at the sky. "Now, go eat lunch. I'll be back shortly with a selection of D-ranks that you'll be performing the rest of the day."
Natsu goes straight to his bento after Kakashi disappears, plopping into the dirt as he digs in. Sasuke walks away, not looking at anyone, leaving Naruto to shift his weight awkwardly before siddling close to the pinkette and sitting.
"Is… Natsu-kun really okay?" he asks, staring at the bandages, and Natsu shrugs casually, mouth full of food.
"'S'kay" he slurs around his meal, shoveling more food in quick succession. Naruto nods a bit uncomfortably, like he wants to argue, but eventually settles down and leans against the other post.
He doesn't move, playing with a twig that found itself stuck in his spiky hair, and Natsu slowly stops eating to look more closely at his companion.
"You're not getting lunch?"
"Huh? Ahaha, actually I'm not hungry!" Naruto scratches at his head, grinning nervously, and Natsu narrows his eyes.
"Really? Naruto-kun seems to eat a lot though…"
The blond's shoulders droop, and he looks away, refusing to make eye contact.
"I, uh… blew all my money at Ichiraku's yesterday… And since I'm a genin now I don't get the orphan's stipend, so I gotta wait til our first mission pay before I can buy more groceries… but it's okay! I've gone way longer before, I can definitely wait til tomorrow for the pay to go through, it's no big deal!"
Natsu hesitates, staring at the last portion of his bento, before closing his eyes and shoving it over. Naruto splutters, trying to push it back. "I'm fine, I'm fine, I already said that!"
"I'll have dinner tonight, it's no big deal if I cut my lunch a little short. But if mission pay won't be given til tomorrow, that means Naruto isn't going to even eat that much. So finish it. I'm gonna go stretch."
Natsu drops the bento lightly onto the ground and turns to walk away, before Naruto can complain. He still tries anyway, hollering after the pinkette, but Natsu ignores him and goes through a series of basic stretches, carefully waiting until he hears the sounds of scraping chopsticks and chewing.
Kakashi comes back before Sasuke does, a brace of scrolls tucked under his arm as Natsu tries to explain the benefits of stretching to a very confused Naruto.
"But I've never felt anything like that before! Who pulls muscles, that's ridiculous, muscles exist to work so why'd they get hurt if you're just doin' what you're supposed to do?"
Natsu sighs. "I don't know how else to explain it! If you don't take time to stretch you can hurt yourself!"
"But you can't stretch before a fight, so why's it even matter?"
"Well," Kakashi interjects, causing Natsu's face to turn to grateful relief, "you don't actually have to stretch."
"What?" Natsu deadpans, eyebrow twitching.
"Maa maa, let me finish. Chakra flows through our bodies, and it helps to take the strain off our muscles so that we can explode into action at any moment without serious risk of injuring ourselves. For genin, stretching is actually completely unnecessary. Usually not even for chunin. Chakra's natural flow through your body keeps muscles from strain. It's only once you advance beyond chunin that the strain you put on your body begins to exceed what chakra can naturally protect against, and start needing to run through stretching routines more regularly. Even then, it's more preventative care and is considered optional right up until you're either ANBU or start going on regular S-Rank jobs. It's not a bad idea to get into the habit early though, if you're aiming for Hokage." He says the last with a bright smile toward Naruto, who sits back with a thoughtful look on his face.
"So… how do you do it?" He asks, but Kakashi turns away.
"Well! Now that everyone's here, we can get started on missions!" He says brightly, ignoring Naruto's question as Sasuke comes to a stop a few feet away.
"For our first job…" his voice trails off dramatically, as he pulls out a scroll from under his arm with a flourish, "You all will be~ painting Hasai-san's fences!"
"Wha-what?! That's even worse than I thought!" Natsu leaps to his feet, pointing in horror at the scroll as Kakashi waves it teasingly through the air.
"Maa, is that so? Well, that's the job! Now move, chop chop, the faster you three finish this the faster we can move on to the next one!"
Kakashi makes waving motions with his hands, scroll fluttering back and forth. Natsu glares at it, trying to light it on fire with his eyes.
"Where even is this Hasai guy anyway?" Naruto retorts, causing Kakashi to bounce his way toward the street.
"This way, my precious students~!"
Natsu turns his glare towards trying to light Kakashi on fire, with equally effective results.
Sakura-cha… Natsu-kun attacks D-ranks like they're bad guys. The teme makes painting fences look like an insult against him personally, but Natsu-kun wields the paintbrush like a weapon, and the fence the enemy to be stabbed. It sucks, painting fences is nowhere near as cool as rescuing princesses, but Natsu's aggression is way too much!
Naruto bites his tongue, trying to keep the paint even. It's not as fun as graffitiing the monument, it's just boring white, but he's not about to give that grumpy old guy who's supposed to be their client an excuse to cheat their pay just cause of him! He double-checks Naruto's work way more than Sakura-chan's or the teme's, and the blond won't let him find anything wrong with it!
Finishing the last touches on the post, Naruto carefully siddles sideways, moving to get a better angle for the next section.
It's the most boring paint job he's ever done, and Naruto swears to himself he'll be tye-dying the Hokage Monument to make up for it later. Or maybe the shop of that lady who sold him the bad milk? Hmm, choices choices…
His stomach grumbles, and Naruto glares at it.
Shut up!
Sakura-chan- Natsu-kun? GAH IT'S SO CONFUSING!
Went out of their way to give him the rest of their lunch, and no one's ever done something like that for Naruto before, so his stomach should just be happy and stop complaining what if Sakura-chan hears, she'll be so annoyed she'll bop my head again!
It's so confusing. Sakura-chan's so pretty, and she's the awesomest person ever, and she'll definitely go on a date with him when she realizes how much Sasuke sucks, but… but Natsu-kun's Sakura-chan, or Sakura-chan's Natsu-kun, and he's as pretty as Sakura-chan because he is Sakura-chan, but he's not, because he's really strong - not that Sakura-chan isn't strong, she's the best, but Natsu-kun isn't like that, but he's still so nice, just like Sakura-chan, and Naruto doesn't know what to do. Is it betraying Sakura-chan if he likes Natsu-kun too, cause Sakura-chan definitely doesn't want anyone in her body so he shouldn't like Natsu-kun, but then that's not fair, cause Natsu-kun didn't want to be here and is just stuck until that Inoichi guy finds a way to get him home, so it's not bad to like Natsu-kun, right?
"Argh!" Naruto thumps his head into the railing, cause his thoughts are going in circles, and-
"What are you doing over there?!"
"Wha-!" Naruto leaps back, and the old client is swooping down, glaring. "You're supposed to be painting these fences, not making them dirtier! You filthy-!"
"Maa maa, I'm sure it was an accident."
Kakashi-sensei smoothly interrupts the old guy before he can start yelling even more, giving that totally-not-innocent eye smile as he leads the guy away.
Kakashi-sensei is the best. Even when Naruto screwed up so bad during the teamwork test, he just told him what he did wrong and then told him to get better, that he could get better, and that he couldn't be Hokage unless he did get better, which is practically saying that he believes Naruto can do it! And even though Iruka-sensei believes in him, it's different, because Kakashi-sensei told him how.
Naruto peeks a glance at Sakura-cha- Natsu-kun under his bangs, at the bandages on h-his wrists, and one of those is my fault, but it won't happen again! I won't be the reason my teammates get hurt like that again! Dattebayo!
Only, he realizes after a moment, that Natsu-kun is looking back at him.
"E-eh? Ahaha, sorry! Do you need more paint?" Naruto offers, because he remembers every second of that time at Ichiraku's yesterday - how could he forget, it was almost like a date! - and Natsu-kun said he wanted to figure out what Naruto's secret was… But then Natsu-kun would just hate him like everyone else, and Naruto would really rather he just forget! So he holds out the bucket of paint with a bright grin, and Natsu huffs a bit, a weird look on his face before he dips the brush in and goes back to painting.
Only now he's looking like he's thinking, and Naruto would really really like it if he stopped. Dipping more paint onto his own brush, he quickly smooths out the place his head impacted, and starts talking.
"So! What's Natsu-kun's favorite color!"
"What?" Natsu blinks, hand frozen as he turns to stare, and Naruto grins.
That's right! Can't try an figure me out if you're busy answering questions! I'm a genius, dattebayo!
"Well, I mean I know Sakura-chan's is pink! And mine is orange, and the teme over there doesn't talk about stuff like that, but Ino-chan said she thought it was blue, and she usually is right with stuff like that! So, what's Natsu's?"
Really Naruto only overheard Ino telling some of her other friends that, it's not like she'd ever talk to him, but it's probably right regardless, if the way the teme's glaring even more at his post now is any indication.
Natsu-kun shifts a little from how he's sitting, and shrugs. "I guess red's pretty cool. Mostly I just like fire! Which is really a lot of colors, but it's the best so they can all be my favorite I guess!"
"Oh yeaaaaaaaah you cried earlier when Sasuke did that fire jutsu huh?"
Natsu-kun squawks like a bird, dropping the paintbrush as he waves his hands a whole lot.
"W-when you say it like that, somehow it sounds really bad!"
Naruto laughs, handing over his own paintbrush. It's only fair if he made Natsu-kun drop it then he should clean it up, and Natsu gives him a reallyyyyyy suspicious look, but he takes it anyway.
The teme grunts in a way that Naruto is pretty sure means, 'what do you mean, Sakura-chan cried? Did I do something wrong?'
Okay. Maybe Naruto's just projecting a bit, but the teme didn't even act like Sakura-chan's wrists were hurt at all and dammit he should apologize, dattebayo!
Naruto makes sure to stick his tongue out when Sasuke looks over, just so he knows he doesn't get any answers, before going back to cleaning off the brush so he can get back to painting. Even Kakashi-sensei can't distract their client forever after all, so he'd better be working when they get back or Naruto just knows the man's gonna cheat em of their pay!
"So!" Bouncing back to his post, Naruto glances over at his teammate. "What's your favorite food? Mine's ramen! Specially Ichiraku Ramen, cause they're the best of the best! Even Sakura-chan has to agree, because I've never seen you eat so much!"
Ah! Naruto winces. "Ehe, sorry, Natsu-kun. But I guess it's still Sakura-chan's body, which I never knew could hold so much food…" Naruto stares at Natsu-kun's stomach, as though it'd tell him the secrets of why it's suddenly eating so much more than normal.
Natsu laughs a bit, and it's so pretty, Sakura-chan doesn't laugh much cause she yells more with Ino or she does that creepy giggle when she looks at Sasuke, but when she laughs it's the best, and it annoys Naruto cause he only hears Sakura-chan laugh now that it's not Sakura-chan who's there, and that's not right, but it's still pretty-
"It's okay, really! It's only been a day after all." Natsu waves his hand, like he's brushing aside Naruto's mistake, like it doesn't matter that he screwed up, and Naruto's so torn. "But food… aaaaah I like any food! But free food is definitely my favorite, no matter what sort it is! That ramen was really really good though, it's definitely the best ramen I ever had! But I don't know how I'd compare it to other food… haaaaaaaaa…"
Natsu-kun taps his finger against his lip, and he looks so pretty and Naruto's a little confused, cause Sakura-chan's a girl and Natsu-kun's a boy but Naruto kinda wishes Sakura-chan would pull her hair into a tail more often cause it brings out her forehead which is totally cool and makes her look really mature, but it's not Sakura-chan and-
Naruto barely stops himself from thunking his head into the post again. But really, everything Natsu-kun did to try and make him look different from Sakura-chan just makes Sakura-chan look even prettier and Naruto is just really really confused.
At least Natsu-kun smells different than Sakura-chan usually does, cause otherwise he'd never be able to remember that Natsu-kun is someone else and not Sakura-chan. No matter how many different clothes he tries to wear…
"So… what sort of stuff do you do for fun?"
"Eh?" Naruto looks up, then laughs a bit. Natsu-kun isn't even looking at him, just… talking more while doing the mission, and Naruto turns back to his own paint job while he answers. "I like pranks! Specially when I can get away without anyone catching me, like nyeh nyeh take that!" He punches his hand in the air, and feels paint drip onto his hair from the brush. "Ack!"
Jumping up, he runs his other hand through his hair rapidly, trying to get it out. Natsu laughs again, still so soft and pretty and amazing and Naruto's face heats up.
"Wh-what about you?" He asks desperately, sticking the handle of his paintbrush in the dirt and scrubbing his hair more thoroughly.
Natsu laughs a bit more evilly, a smirk that somehow suits Sakura-chan on his face. "I like fighting! Fighting is definitely the best thing to do for fun! But I also like breaking into Lucy's house and laying on everything, cause she gets so annoyed and red in the face and she yells a lot and it's hilarious, I tried doing it to Erza-san once, but…" Natsu shudders so bad Naruto almost asks if he's okay, cause it looks awful, but Kakashi-sensei comes back just then and totally ruins the moment!
"Hmm, I think you missed a spot, Natsu-kun."
The paintbrush shatters in Natsu-kun's grip as he spins around to glare up at Kakashi-sensei.
"Where?!"
...that's gonna come out of their pay, isn't it?
Well, at least Kakashi-sensei grabbed lots of scrolls. Even if they're all boring, he should get enough money to not have to worry about stuff for a while…
His stomach grumbles again at the thought of money, and Naruto tells it to shut up as he moves to the next part of the fence. It can have all it wants to eat tomorrow, dattebayo!
Maybe we can have lunch together tomorrow? And I can give Natsu my extras, to pay him back! Yeah!
Plan set, Naruto attacks the fence with renewed vigor, eyes narrowed in concentration so he can be super duper sure he doesn't miss anything or leave any mistakes for their client to yell about.
Painting sucks. It's mindless, and boring, and he can't even blow anything up with it, since he doesn't have any of Reedus' special mixtures, which is unfair. The old guy doesn't help, Natsu's dealt with seedy clients before - when you're as famous as Fairy Tail you can't avoid it, but Harasaha-whatever-his-name-is puts some of Fairy Tail's worst to shame. Kakashi-san's interceded to distract the man three times, and they still have at least six posts left to go. Natsu might bang his own head against the wood, if Naruto didn't still have a smear of white clinging under his bangs.
Even Fairy Tail's worst D-Rank jobs are more interesting than this… who uses mages to paint stuff?! It's not even magic paint or anything special like that! Why'd anyone decide to go along with this?
"Problem, Natsu-kun?" Kakashi asks brightly, and the pinkette bites back a snarl. He didn't miss a spot, no matter what Kakashi'd said earlier, and he knows the sensei's just messing with him cause he complained about having to do D-Ranks again.
"Don't you have some old guy to kiss up to?" he mutters under his breath, waving his brush in an attempt to spatter paint on the man.
Kakashi dodges casually, chuckling. "Oh, he's behaving for now. Hurry up and finish, we have a cat to catch next!"
Natsu's arm freezes mid-motion, and he turns to glance at Kakashi-san. Catching cats is a bit more like the D-Ranks he's familiar with, but something about the way the silver-haired man said it gives him a bad feeling…
Kakashi offers a bright smile and turns to talk to Sasuke, blatantly ignoring his look. Natsu turns back to his paint job after a moment, shrugging that feeling off.
It's just a cat-catch! How hard can it be?