A/N: I am embarrassed.
I don't even want to admit how long this chapter has been completed.
I keep meaning to post it and I keep NOT and at this point it's been so long I feel like I'm actually humiliating myself.
I know part of it is that I wanted to have the next chapter finished before I posted this, because this chapter is slightly filler-y in that all the actual plot progression happens off-screen with Jiraiya and can't actually be seen until next chapter or the one after and I didn't want to give you guys basically fluff without something else to back it up but UGH.
My brain just keeps writing OTHER fics and even some original short stories instead of this fic, so I'm hoping that by posting this chapter regardless it will help my brain refocus. I don't know how to post onto ff dot net without uploading a word doc though, and (as per my tumblr) I haven't really been able to use my computer with Word on it, so I guess I'm gonna have to figure that out so I can cross-post this...
-UPDATE! I FIGURED IT OUT! It actually took only a minute or so of poking around.
...all this time I never knew this site had a copy-paste option. It did even WEIRDER things to my formatting than normal posting, but thankfully that wasn't hard to fix.
Anyway, I'm sorry for going basically two months without an update, AND giving you fluff instead of plot, but these kids needed a break and honestly I still think it's very cute even though I wrote it like a month ago...
*sweatdrop*
(shame)
As always, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy!
Wish me luck on getting the next chapter out at a reasonable time, because my brain fuckin needs it, how is it so hard to STAY ON TRACK AAAAAAA-
Sasuke stares at Natsu's back, watching him chat casually with Naruto.
Poison lingers in his mind and he recalls the way Natsu froze and stared at that enemy shinobi until Sasuke crashed his way in.
Natsu's not the type to freeze. Sasuke would like to think he knows the guy well enough to be certain of that, regardless of the situation. But poison can do a lot more than leave someone frothing at the mouth, and everyone knows that poisons will often react differently on civilians than shinobi.
Natsu tilts his head to the side, a tell he's started to develop whenever he listens to Sakura, and Sasuke looks away sharply.
He's not sure how he feels about Sakura, really. A useless fangirl, chasing after him without ever once asking if that's what he wants, barely talking to him at all except to demand his opinion on Yamanaka.
Except that's not how she is at all, anymore.
The dobe eats up Sakura's words, quickly jumping into a conversation with her, Natsu an uncomfortable mouthpiece between them.
Sasuke's pretty sure Natsu's twitching eyebrow signals him rapidly paraphrasing Sakura's words - she never had patience for the dobe before and that, at least, seems to have stayed the same.
To an extent.
It's easy to forget about her, almost, when Natsu isn't acknowledging her. He wears different clothes, speaks in a different manner, words rougher and occasionally slurred together, the casual speech of someone who doesn't really care about being polite.
He doesn't hesitate to get dirty, or throw himself into fights, and doesn't follow Sasuke around with wide eyes.
He's loud, really, and Sakura was so quiet.
And yet, somehow, all those annoying aspects of Sakura, that made him wonder if his team was some sort of joke, if he'd be better off trying to figure things out on his own, were covering up something else. Something he'd realized before, in the safe house, but never quite took the time to acknowledge.
She's smart.
Without her stalking and stuttering and absolutely pathetic and nearly civilian behavior, she's really intelligent. Hearing Natsu parrot her words and ideas, her input and advice, it's something Sasuke can't deny.
They work well together, Natsu and Sakura.
Their team works well together, the four of them balancing each other out in a way Sasuke hadn't realized teams could do.
Ita-
He left his team behind so quickly, and everyone barely even spoke about them. Sasuke doesn't even remember his teammates' names, and-
All this time, on some level, Sasuke's been thinking that a team would only hold him back, that he needed to leave them behind to reach his own potential. To catch up to that man.
Now, he wonders.
He's not sure if he'll get the chance to learn. He's not deliberately blinding himself like the dobe. The idiot clearly goes out of his way to forget, but Natsu's not quiet about wanting to go home.
He'll leave, eventually, just as soon as he finds a way, back to his friends and family.
It burns, somehow, like a betrayal, something tight and angry clenching in his chest at the idea that Natsu could just come into their lives and then leave.
It's not fair, Sasuke thinks, but life's already taught him that fairness is for other people.
All he can do is hope that, at the end of everything, Sakura will still be a half-decent teammate even after the moron leaves.
It takes three long days for Mii-chan to heal Takara-san. Luckily, Jiraiya thinks, she chose a good town to visit. Their hot springs are easily visible with just a little bit of effort, and Jiraiya's muses are absolutely inspired here. His clone was a tad reluctant to miss out on the sights, but tragically, Jiraiya's learned what happens when he leaves the brats alone unsupervised.
In the distant corners of his mind, he recalls that he still needs to dedicate some time to Orochimaru's messed-up seal.
Well, no one said he couldn't combine business and pleasure.
And who knows what sort of genius ideas might spawn?
So Jiraiya pulls out his sealing notebook, alternating between research and Research.
And they really are such beautiful ladies, he can already feel his productivity going up!
He gets so engrossed in both parts of his work, that he misses the ominous creaking of the branch he's decided to use as a perch.
Oops. As the ladies of the hotsprings descend upon him in a vengeful fury, Jiraiya takes the opportunity to appreciate them at a whole new angle - most women, after all, don't bother to do more than throw on a towel before rushing over to beat him up, so he doesn't try too hard to get away.
And if a token protest here or there has some… advantageous outcomes, well.
That's hardly his fault.
The moment Takara-san is well enough to not need constant medical attention, Jiraiya hustles everyone out of the village. He's got a few ideas for how to handle Orochimaru's seal and no time to test them out, because they've already lost so much time and he can only hope their targets haven't already been killed by the shinobi who hunted his clone.
Or anyone else who might be working with them.
They run through the night, making it to Ryokan only a few hours past sunrise.
"Alright." Jiraiya looks at the kids, as Takara-san cleans up in the inn's bathing room. "I'm going to go with Takara-san and see what we can find. You kids are going to stay here. Maybe get some sleep. You have enough money to get something to eat, but let me reiterate: you're going to stay in the inn. Got me?"
"Hn."
"Sure thing Ero-sennin!"
"What if we get attacked?"
Jiraiya bites back a groan. Half for Natsu's bright-eyed enthusiasm for battle, and half for Naruto's new… nickname.
Of all the people who could have found him grop- uh, escaping some beautiful, buxom ladies, why did it have to be the kid?!
"You're not going to get attacked," Jiraiya starts, and then realizes who he's talking to. The ridiculous team who has the luck to accidentally trip over an enemy squad's main base. He quickly corrects himself. "You're not likely to be attacked - either we got here way before the other teams, or we're too late and they'll have already moved on. But if, by some miracle, your terrible luck manifests in this completely normal inn being attacked, your orders are to run."
"But-"
"No buts," Jiraiya cuts across Natsu and Naruto's simultaneous protest, "absolutely not. I already made one exception for you brats, and your chakra, I'm not making another. I've got some ideas for how to fix your problem, but you can't make it worse before I get a chance to try them. So if you get attacked, you stick together, and run away. And if, for some inexplicable reason, you can't get away, just- ugh. Try not to make everything worse. Or light half the village on fire. Or dump the Kyuubi's chakra everywhere. Or whatever brand of destructive crazy you've been hiding from me, Uchiha. Alright?"
Sasuke scoffs, and Jiraiya could swear he almost rolled his eyes. Hah! Progress!
The other two mumble their agreements, and, well. That's just going to have to be good enough, honestly.
...somehow, Jiraiya gets the feeling this isn't going to end the way he wants it to.
"Nah, you should definitely go out the window. Sakura-chan says the innkeeper will probably tattle on us otherwise."
"Really?" Sasuke raises an eyebrow, expression otherwise deadpan, and Natsu chuckles a bit as he waves away the question.
"Okay so it was more like, 'Natsu, don't you dare disobey Jiraiya-sama! He probably has the innkeeper watching out for you anyway so you'll just get in trouble!', but really that just means we can't use the door!" he offers an upside down grin to his teammates, as Sakura-chan despairs loudly from the mindscape.
"Besides, it's not like we'll go far! Just someplace open enough for a bit of sparring, yeah? I don't wanna be cooped up in here, when all we've been doing is running all over the place…"
"You're going to get in so much trouble, don't say I didn't warn you!" Sakura-chan shouts.
"Hn." Sasuke sounds mostly uninterested, but he turns from the door to look at the window anyway, so Natsu's pretty sure he's convinced.
Naruto hesitates. "We're already in a lotta trouble with Ero-sennin though, right? What if they lock you and Sasuke in the rooms again when we get back to the village or something?"
Natsu flips back to his feet and shrugs. "Eh, we'll deal with it when it happens. B'sides, you can henge your clones right? Just make em look like us and the innkeeper will never know we're gone! And then all we gotta worry about is getting back before Jiraiya does! It's just a little bit of sparring!"
Naruto grins, nervousness dispelled, and brings his hands together to summon his clones. A quick henge later, and they slip out of the window and up onto the rooftops.
Sasuke takes the lead as Natsu keeps pace with Naruto, offering the blond a wide grin. "Even if we do get in trouble, I don't think Jiraiya would let 'em separate us. Specially not after he promised you and Sasuke those pictures, y'know? We'll probably just be stuck doing boring D-Ranks for forever or something." Natsu wouldn't call himself too great at the whole 'encouragement' thing, at least outside of a fight, but Naruto brightens up anyway so he's pretty sure he didn't do too badly.
Sasuke leads them to a clearing just outside of town, and Natsu slams his fists together with a grin. "So, rules?" he asks eagerly.
It's been over five days since he had even a basic spar.
So sue him.
Luckily, the rest of his team is just as eager.
It devolves from there.
Somehow, nothing goes wrong. They sneak back into the inn sweaty and exhausted - or at least, Natsu amends to himself, he and Sasuke are exhausted. Naruto's energy seems as limitless as ever and even when he does collapse from exhaustion, a five-minute break seems to be all he needs to hop right back into it, as energetic as ever.
The clones offer a cheeky wave at their sprawled-out forms before dispelling, and Naruto groans.
"Oh Kami-sama they messed with my bag." Natsu nearly looks, but really he'd just rather lay here...
"You guys should take a bath." Sakura-chan grouches, and Natsu rolls over with a huff. Did she not hear him? If he gets in a bathtub he'll probably fall asleep and drown in it, and he's pretty sure they don't stink that bad-
"No seriously. If Jiraiya-san comes back and sees you all like this, he's gonna know you snuck out. If you planned on doing this again you need to take a bath. Now."
Natsu snaps up. "Oh no, you're right- y'guys, get up, c'mon, let's go to the baths."
"Wha- why do we gotta do that?" Naruto asks, elbows deep in his pack.
"Cause Sakura-chan says Jiraiya will know we snuck out if we don't. C'mon Sasuke, get up."
That gets them both moving, Naruto shifting around his bag with a purpose to pull out clothes as Sasuke rolls to his feet.
Natsu grabs the first qipao he finds and the three of them hustle to the bath hall.
"This inn's a lot bigger than the other one huh?" Naruto muses as they cross the building and find an attached onsen on the other side.
"Y'think Jiraiya picked this one on purpose?" Natsu asks, sniffing suspiciously to make sure Jiraiya's not lurking around for… research.
"Ugh, Ero-sennin would wouldn't he?" Naruto groans.
"I can't believe how pathetically he got beat up," Is Sasuke's only contribution to the topic.
Natsu snorts. "Sorry I missed it - woulda been funny to see."
Naruto laughs as they head in.
"Natsu… you can't go with Naruto and Sasuke! I'm a girl!"
"Wha?" Natsu tilts his head. "But there's some people in the girls' side, it'd be weird to be in there when I'm a guy, right? Erza always said I'm not supposed to so-"
"It's alright Sakura-chan! If any gross perverts try to check you out, we'll beat 'em up!" Naruto offers brightly.
Natsu doesn't cover his ears at Sakura's responding shouts, but it's a very near thing.
"I could probably wait til those girls leave, I guess…" Natsu grumbles, a bit annoyed. "I mean, you're not like Lu-chan at all! So it's not like anyone would know you were a girl the moment they looked at you…"
"What was that?!" Sakura yells, and Natsu shrugs in response.
"You're really flat, Sakura-chan. That's a good thing-!" he hastily tacks on as he feels her building ire, "'cause it's way easier to fight without all that extra stuff getting in the way-"
"SHANNARO!"
Natsu swears he hears something crack as he gets the vague impression of Sakura-chan punching the window.
"...uh, Sakura-chan…?"
"Let's just hurry up before we get caught." Sasuke says, grabbing Naruto's arm.
"The dobe and I won't look, just wrap up in a towel before coming to the bath if it's a big deal."
"Why is it a big deal?" Naruto asks as he follows the Uchiha.
"Civilian stuff. K...aa-san said once that the Uchiha used to have an onsen on our private property that was open to anyone in the clan regardless of gender, before we moved to the new compound. I think it was cousin Shisui who asked. I don't really know why civilians don't like it."
Their voices get a bit muffled from the sounds of water splashing.
"Sakura-chan?"
"I- I know- historically, shinobi always used- but it's- I mean- Sasuke-kun…"
"Well, I don't really get it. But you have that weird rivalry with Inoichi-san's kid right? We could always brag a-"
"SHANNARO! YES! TAKE THAT INO-PIG! LET'S GO!"
Natsu rubs at his head. "Sheesh, not so loud!" he complains with a grin as he heads in.
What a change of pace.
I really don't understand girls at all!
Somehow though, once they've all cleaned and they relax into the still-empty onsen, Sakura-chan's confidence evaporates. She gets stuttery and nervous and if Natsu even looks at Sasuke she freaks out and he can practically feel her flail through the mindscape.
"Aren't you supposed to pull your hair up in a bath?" Naruto asks, paddling over.
Sakura-chan freaks out some more, as Natsu groans.
"Probably. It took me ages to learn how to put it in a ponytail though, I dunno how to do that weird bun-thing for baths…"
"Oi, teme!" Naruto turns around and splashes some water in Sasuke's direction. "You've had your cheat-eyes active a lot - can you copy hairstyles with 'em?"
"They're not cheats- a-and just because I know what it looks like doesn't mean I know how to do it!" Sasuke crosses his arms, glaring, and Naruto grins.
"You stuttered! You totally stuttered! You know how! Heh, are there baby pictures of you with girl-hair, teme?"
"There are not!" Sasuke snaps back, genuinely angry.
"It's okay, really!" Natsu waves his hands in front of his face. "It's not like it'll take long for me to dry it I can just-"
Sasuke sighs. "Annoy Jiriaya by using chakra to do it?"
Natsu wilts. "Oh yeah…"
"I-" Sasuke cuts himself off, gritting his teeth. Then he takes a deep breath and scoots over. "I can't do anything complicated. So just- stay still."
Then he reaches over and grabs Natsu's hair without any additional warning, twisting and pulling it at random.
Sakura-chan devolves into a stuttering mess, so Natsu can't even ask her if she knows how Sasuke's doing it.
"Oi, where's your hair tie?" Sasuke asks eventually, one hand resting on Natsu's head and the other extending into his line of sight.
"Uh, I left it in the cupboard?"
Sasuke groans. "Dobe, go get it."
"Wha- why me?!" Naruto immediately protests.
Natsu can't see Sasuke's responding glare, but he's pretty sure he feels it.
"Because if I let go this is falling down, and I am not doing it again."
"Fiiiiiiiiiine." Naruto grumbles in return, pulling himself out and darting into the washing room.
He returns in a rush, jumping into the bath and then immediately yelping as he bobs to the surface.
"That's way too shallow!" he complains, one hand rubbing at his back as the other holds out the hair tie for Sasuke.
The Uchiha scoffs as he snatches it from Naruto's hand and starts twisting it around Natsu's hair.
"There. Tch. All this time, the only reason you were wearing a ponytail was because you couldn't be bothered to learn anything more complicated?"
"Hey!" Natsu crosses his arms. "I'll have you know I can braid too!"
The deadpan look Sasuke gives in response to that is totally uncalled for.
"I think it looks kinda cute! Who knew teme could do it so well!" Naruto offers cheerily, hands miming a picture frame.
Sakura-chan snaps so quickly from fantasizing to violence that Natsu swears he gets whiplash from it.
"Beat 'im up, shannaro! Pound him into the dirt!" she demands with vigor - Natsu compromises, splashing water in Naruto's direction.
...somehow, Natsu gets the feeling he shouldn't be surprised that it ends in a splash fight.
"Wha- I- why did I expect anything else?"
Natsu looks up, still in the process of giving Naruto a knuckle-sandwich as Sasuke tries to strangle him from behind, at the sound of Jiraiya's exasperation.
"Oh! You're back!" Naruto chirps, letting go of Sasuke's leg.
They take a moment to detangle themselves as Jiraiya pinches the bridge of his nose.
"I came back to six complaints - did you brats even notice the other bathers coming by?"
"There were other bathers?" Natsu squints, trying to remember.
He gets the sensation of Sakura-chan violently banging her head into a wall, chanting "Baka, baka," under her breath.
"Well there would have been, if they hadn't been chased off by a bunch of rough-housing scamps. The innkeeper is fining me! Me! I thought I told you to behave!"
"Nooooooooo," Natsu starts, and Naruto picks up with a flourish.
"You just told us not to leave the inn!"
"There's not a lot to do here." Sasuke levels a challenging stare at Jiraiya, and the man scowls.
"Alright, you lot. Get out of the baths, c'mon. I'll give you some scrolls to study tomorrow, dear Kami-sama."
He walks off, muttering under his breath, as Naruto and Sasuke climb out of the onsen.
Natsu looks around.
"Huh. Did you guys see where the towel went?"
Sakura-chan screeches and- and practically faints and that shouldn't even be possible she doesn't have a body-?!
"O-oi, Sakura-chan, what's wrong?"
He gets a concerning gurgle in response, and he's nearly ready to toss out all Inoichi's requests and dive in to make sure she's alright when Naruto triumphantly fishes the towel out of the water.
"Found it! Hurry up, let's go, I'm hungry!"
"I don't think Jiriaya offered any food dobe." Sasuke rolls his eyes as Natsu pulls himself out and wraps the towel quickly.
Naruto wails as they head back into the washroom, and Natsu realizes a couple guys really were in there.
"Finally," one of them scoffs, marching through them with an impatient huff.
Natsu exchanges his soaking wet towel for a dry one and heads toward the cupboard he put his stuff in.
He's half-way through getting dressed when Naruto snaps.
"What do you think you're lookin' at, ya creeps?!"
Natsu spins around just in time to watch Naruto sucker punch a guy who'd been-
Watching him?
In the time it takes Natsu to realize what, exactly, that meant, the guy's friend moves to pull Naruto off as Sasuke moves in with a kunai and the first guy runs in from the onsen, and Natsu's just kind of dumbfounded.
"Dude. Were you seriously checking out a twelve-year-old?" he asks, just as Jiraiya barges into the room.
Predictably, the inn-keeper charges them more fines.
A/N II: as far as Sasuke actually knowing hairstyles is concerned, I like to headcanon that he had a phase as a little kid where he'd always mess around with Itachi's hair.
Itachi once sat him down and explained shinobi hairstyles for keeping it out of your face in combat and stuff, and while most of it went over little!Sasuke's head, he still learned how to do a couple simple things.
Itachi absolutely went to some sort of meeting or mission with his hair in a very messy bun courtesy of Sasuke wanting to do his big brother's hair before a mission.