18

"This fucking blows." Naruto, just not feeling like himself right then, summed up the entirety of the last couple of days in the shortest way possible; Sakura had gotten cut in half (WHAT THE FUCK). His teacher had fainted after going over his badass limit for the day, leaving Sasuke and him to put Sakura back together.

Literally.

That had sucked. More than sucked. He didn't think he'd have the words to describe how much that had sucked.

Naruto didn't think that cracking open a dictionary would help for once either. The suck of yesterday had been an entirely new experience that needed entirely new words.

…And then he'd been kicked in the head after the fight, and his guard had been down. And not just a little kick. Oh, no. It had been a kick.

Naruto had gone flying. Did a flip, four flips. Hit the grass and dirt on his back and slid until he'd almost hit the treeline, his jacket now more grass stain and sword cuts than beautiful, wonderful orange.

Once he'd shaken off the concussion, he'd been pretty pissed.

"I apologize, young Uzumaki. But after feeling that chakra, and seeing that my rival was unable to tell me otherwise, I couldn't take the chance that you weren't yourself."

…He was still pretty pissed, but not as pissed.

Naruto knew when he was beat.

Like…he got it. Oh, hell, did he get where Gai-sensei was coming from. He wasn't stupid. He might have had some trouble following along with the boring stuff in school, but this wasn't hard; the Fox having shown its stupid fucking face made Naruto's already shit mood even shittier, it having helped him kick Zabuza's ass or not; he'd have probably kicked himself too, just in case he was losing it.

But why the head!?

He needed that! Sometimes.

Naruto didn't know much about being a mednin, but he knew that!

And, worst of all, he'd be regrowing his ramen-eating teeth for at least a week!

Again!

Naruto scowled. Then he stopped doing that with a hiss as that pulled at the bruises, the hand that had been reaching for it stopping to flap around uselessly. Uselessly, and away from his goddamn head; the cut on his chest had healed faster than the bruise on his cheek, which said something to Naruto.

It sounded like green jumpsuits turning pink in the wash. And itching powder.

Naruto shifted on the branch he shared with a silent Sasuke, both watching over the house… So that they could 'recuperate' after the absolute shitshow of the day before while everyone else went to attack Gato's house.

Loot it. Burn it down. Clean up what Team Seven had started… Everything Naruto would like to be doing right now, but couldn't, seeing as someone had to be responsible and keep their fellow ninja safe.

Lucky bastards.

Sasuke kicked his single dangling leg, the left one, every other part of skin on his body not covered by clothes wrapped up in bandages and plasters. Coughed. Grumbled, the corners of his eyes wrinkling in a pained wince when he pulled something too. Hah. "Yeah."

"I mean…" Naruto waved his not-face-grabbing hand around. Just - around. When Sasuke didn't say anything, Naruto took that as the invitation to keep going that definitely was. "You know?"

Of course, he knew. Sasuke, that is. He'd been there too.

Sasuke sighed and shrugged, Tazuna's daughter hanging up the wash below them both, oblivious to their presence in the canopy. "We almost died, Naruto."

Naruto blew out a breath, missing his ruined jacket already... Chilly all of a sudden. "Getting right into it, huh?"

He was going to try and lead up to it, to the heavy stuff, but fine. Right to the meat of it.

Right.

"If we waited for you to say it, we'd be waiting till noon," Sasuke continued dryly as he picked at their branch. Dick. "It happened. But we're still here. I'm going to try not to think about that too hard."

He shrugged again, this time to the backdrop of Tsunami's humming as she pinned a sheet to the line… Nice lady. Sucked that her kid was such a shithead (heroes did too exist, even if that looked much more complicated than Naruto had thought it was), but what could you do? "We just won't do that again."

Short. Simple. Something that Naruto could get behind.

"We gotta take this ninja stuff more seriously," Naruto agreed. And not even in a grudging way this time. Even if he hated Sasuke's guts (when he was being an ass, which was most of the time), there was some stuff that didn't need to be fought about. Not dying on the side of the road to rot and get eaten by wild animals was pretty easy to agree on. "Right."

It was a hard pill to swallow. Harder than those worm pills had been. But he swallowed it anyway.

He'd thought that he had been taking it seriously! He'd been training for years, busting his ass doing situps and pushups and kata until he got so tired he collapsed. He read. He learned. Fuck, he'd even done leaf exercises!

And he fucking hated leaf exercises! They weren't cool or fun and he had to sit and focus. It was bullshit, but it was bullshit that he did.

Because he had to. And because Sakura expected him to do them. Or had just told him it would be a good idea.

They were the same thing, sorta.

Sakura knew what she was talking about. And she'd said that it could help. So that was that.

Even if he didn't do it as often as he should… In his defense, leaf exercises were really boring.

The blond's face twitched painfully as he felt that weird itch that was his teeth coming back in start up. And, again, he had to force himself not to touch his face with a swear as bone started to stick out of the holes where the old teeth used to be.

…Naruto had thought he'd been doing alright. He could see that look in Sasuke's eyes too. That look. The uncomfortable one where you realized you'd been doing 'good enough' and not 'as good as you could be'.

And, no, that both of them were now red and had little spinny black things in them sometimes didn't change that Sasuke had realized that he was in the same goddamn boat that Naruto was, the huffy fuck.

Naruto suddenly stood up and patted himself down as a heat filled his chest, having been still for way too damn long for his liking. "Screw this."

Sasuke gave him the side-eye and picked at the bark, ready to go back to ignoring Naruto so he could brood like the pouty asshole he was.

"We aren't going to get better sitting on our asses." Naruto cracked his knuckles and rolled his neck; Tsunami's whistling became a warble as she looked around, startled. "Let's fucking go."

Sasuke glared at him and didn't make to move, even in the face of Naruto's resolve to not be totally bitch made. "We're on duty, dumbass."

Naruto's face quickly scrunched in discontent. Then it went back to normal, faster, as he regretted his life twice in less than half of a second. "Fffu-" His jaw cracked when some of it slapped back into place; it was a relief to have a mostly whole jaw again. "We can do two things at once!"

Were they nin, or were they nin?

"No," Sasuke drawled, "we can't."

Sasuke was nin then. The lame one.

Naruto should have fucking known.

"Bullshit!" Naruto persisted as Tsunami, after looking up at them with some shock thanks to Naruto breaking their cover (for a good cause), patted her chest with a 'phew' and got back to putting up the clothes. "You're talking and breathing, aren't ya?"

Between one blink and the next, Sasuke's eyes went from black to red. Oooh, scary. "That isn't the same fucking thing."

Naruto crossed his fingers. "Fuck you it isn't."

Sasuke's super special eyes widened, just in time to catch more smoke than most smoke bombs gave out, directly to both of them.

Especially.

"Dick!"

"What? You've seen me do this before!" Weren't those eyes of his supposed to give him the power to see the future or some crap like that? Sounded like more bullshit to Naruto if you asked him. "I couldn't have telegraphed that any harder!"

Waving a hand in front of his face, his eyes closed as a tide of orange vanished from the upper reaches of the tree and into the surrounding woods, Sasuke stood. Back to the trunk, feet pushing up under him while his other hand was busy flipping Naruto off.

The bird hand was working at it too. If the tendons in it popped any harder, Sasuke'd hurt himself.

"There," Naruto smugly dusted off his hand, "we've got a hundred ninja watching the house and on patrol. Two things at once. Easy."

Point to Naruto. The real nin.

Sasuke peered back at him from anger-narrowed eyes, his mouth set in a pissy-squiggly line as the smoke cleared and Tsunami finished up like they weren't even there… Again. Nice lady. "Still not the same fucking thing."

"Yeah. Cause I did it better."

Naruto held his snickering and the urge to rub his hands together in glee at his results for what he'd just said. At Sasuke getting pale. More pale. Then red as he balled his fists up and locked his jaw, those black things in his eyes spinning slightly faster as he did so.

Naruto had scored big points.

That had been a good one. But that was no reason to gloat any further than he already had. He was a real nin, after all. And someone here had to be the responsible, sensible one…or so Sakura kept saying.

She normally meant herself. But seeing as she wasn't here (right in the heart, fuck), Naruto got that spot by default. And he was going to milk it. Milk it until he never accidentally drank bad milk again.

…The metaphor had run away from him. And fast.

The point here was that it was funnier to watch Sasuke try to find a rebuttal to a hundred clones wearing tank tops and orange pants and fail, covering that up by rearranging his hair. Stretching… Then by jumping from the tree and to the ground when those stretches - stretched (ha) - on for too long.

"Spar?" Naruto floated as he joined Sasuke at a lower elevation, the other boy hustling towards a clearing they'd scouted out earlier. One with a small stream that cut through it, only as deep as Naruto's ankles at best. "A spar sounds good..."

Sasuke held up a bandage-wrapped arm and pointed at it. With a bandaged-wrapped hand.

…Sometimes, Naruto forgot that people didn't heal as fast as he did. Knowing that it was because of a bloodline after that talk with Sakura last month was…neat. Sorta bitter. But it was good to know that it wasn't because of the monster in his gut.

Especially after yesterday.

"Ah, come on. It's not like we're trying to kill each other…" Naruto groused, his own arms up behind his head as he forced that last thought down… And then his teeth twinged and he changed his mind.

Not on the fox thing. On the fight thing; he'd be waiting for a couple of days to get those teeth back as is. Dragging it out for longer, and his lack of prime ramen that didn't taste like blood, just wasn't worth it. "But, fine, if you want to be lame about it."

Naruto was on a roll today.

"Go fuck yourself. Now, listen." Sasuke broke his long silence by turning on his heel, walking toward the water, and pushing Naruto back to considering violence. The usual response. "We both learned how to climb trees."

It had taken a couple of days, but they had. "Yeah? So?"

"Do you know what comes after the trees?" Sasuke asked. "Do you?"

What was left of Naruto's good mood started to sink. "No."

No goddamn way.

Sasuke stepped out onto the water with the smuggest fucking look on his face.

And didn't sink.

Gods damn it!

"Motherfucker!" Naruto went back to the house, resolve renewed.

He had packs to look through.

Where did they put the towels!?

==========

Once, there was nothing.

There was a storm. A field. A bench.

Me. Myself. I.

Blood and grass.

Nothing at all.

I took a breath.

'Nothing' quickly wore out its welcome. Me. Myself. I.

I could be - difficult - when I had come to a decision. Stubborn. Recalcitrant, even; Unwilling to budge or change unless something extreme came to pass.

A hum left me as I moved my fingers. Strings came to life, poking and prodding at my stitches and mostly healed flesh.

Something extreme had come to pass. And I had been forced to change. To reconsider my stance and bend, lest I break. Simple as that.

I had bent. I did not break.

And all was well.

I was well.

Never better.

What was life without risk? What was the point of survival if I refused to enjoy the fruits of my labor?

There was nothing wrong with letting my hair down, every once in a while. Not everything wanted to hurt me. Plenty did, yes. I wasn't a fool. People. Animals. World-eating monsters from beyond the stars.

But not everything. And I shouldn't have to act like that wasn't the case.

I had people that loved me. And I should be able to love in return. Friends. Teammates.

Ino.

Oh, Ino…

Another hum left me, the slightest touch musical as I soothed and banished whatever aches were left, in and out; reinforcing the cutting point in my spine while considering how to keep fifty pounds of sharp metal from ever doing that again.

Or from having to explain what had happened to me when the news eventually reached the blonde. As it would. Eventually.

The village leaked news and gossip like a sieve…if you knew how to listen. Ino did, in ways I'd never been able to quite grasp.

Because that meant I'd have to interact with people.

… That revelation was going to be the opposite of fun when that came around. And damn me for getting me in that situation in the first place.

I know what I said.

My next breath left me in a hiss, sensation returning to the greater part of my body as I reattached several nerves being - uncomfortable. And necessary as I, finally, sat up for the first time in…

As I looked around the room I was in, I found that I wasn't sure.

About much of anything.

What day was it? How long had I been in a coma? Had there been more attacks?

Was breakfast already over?

… Hmm.

Once again, I looked at the room: Packs in the corners, sleeping bags included. The smell of oiled steel, sickness, and teenage boy.

Breakfast, hours passed.

With a snap of the fingers at a missed meal, I moved on… Metaphorically, as what felt like a fire lit itself in my lower back.

There wasn't much moving being done then.

Momentarily.

Only momentarily as yet more feeling returned.

Kakashi was still asleep, his chakra levels still low from what I could feel. High enough that he'd be awake soon though. So not long at all… Whoever had called me a prodigy had cleared out before I could correct them. So long enough.

A day or two of coma sounded about right.

Shame. That meant I was going to have to look for them. Whoever they were. Surprisingly, hearing and understanding entire conversations while asleep wasn't a precise art. It was more impressions and interpretations.

And repetition.

… I was sure that skill would come in handy for something other than recognizing the word 'prodigy' so that I could get mad while sleeping one day. But, until then, other things.

Such as getting out of this futon.

I put my hands under me, my jaw cracking with a yawn. One hand. Two hand… My hair coiling up, free of its braid for that tiniest bit of extra leverage that would peel me out of the bed. Then, my feet.

Or so was the plan.

The plan.

Feet.

My left finger twitched instead. No.

My feet.

My right thigh flexed, and I become concerned.

That was wrong.

Foot.

I bit my tongue, outside my control…and laughed.

Even as I healed my tongue, I laughed.

I may have giggled, even.

I couldn't help it.

It was honestly funny. Annoying. But funny.

I snorted as the strings came out once more, this time for even more delicate work.

Such as remapping parts of my nervous system. Very delicate…

Very.

Kabuto had been something there, hadn't he? When he'd been forced to do just that while in a fight against the greatest mednin the world had ever seen.

Not that surviving a chop across the back of the neck from an angry Tsunade hadn't said as much already… But he was something, wasn't he?

Would be something.

With one last jolt of what felt like lightning coursing through my legs and another laugh from my lips, my work was done; Clockwise. Counterclockwise. My feet moved as I willed them; The rest of me didn't, under those same rules.

As it should be…and I'd just have to do better then. Even better than I currently was. No choice but to do otherwise.

My feet held as I stood on them.

I would always be behind...but that was no excuse to be lazy. Or to let life get me down.

Naruto barged into the room… Moved the sliding door far too quickly for someone that was assumedly a guest in another person's home, his face a bruised and somewhat lumpy mask of determination.

Then, shock. Surprise as he slid to a stop, just at the cusp of running into me as he put some wear and tear on his heels… He did care, didn't he? "Sakura!?"

"Yes. Sakura." I took a step back as he moved his arms about, doing his best not to fall...and succeeding. Then he started blubbering, and things got - strange. "That's me."

Me. Myself. I.

"Hey. Stop that. I'm fine. You're fine." Putting fingers to either side of my mouth, I pulled them up. "Smile."

Some things never changed.

Naruto grabbing onto me in a full-body hug was just one of those things. "I'm not - crying! You're crying!"

"There, there."

"It's dusty! And dry outside!"

"Of course it is," I hushed while patting him on the back, the wet spots building on my collar putting paid to what he said…and making me grateful that someone had been nice enough to keep me dressed while I was asleep. "It is summer, after all. All that pollen…"

"Y-yeah! Pollen! That tooooooo!"